Speaker 1: M hmmm, what's up, everybody. Welcome to the State of
Speaker 1: the Lakers post game so on dash Radio after probably
Speaker 1: this has got to be in the top two or
Speaker 1: three worst losses of the Lebrono di era. What do
Speaker 1: you think? Yeah, I would, I would say so. Uh
Speaker 1: in our like season preview when we went through all
Speaker 1: the teams and the start, I think I said that
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City isn't fielding a real basketball team, and I
Speaker 1: still and I still kind of feel that way even
Speaker 1: with how the game went. But yeah, this is definitely
Speaker 1: up there in the worst losses that we've had in
Speaker 1: the Lebron and A d era, and Lebron didn't play tonight,
Speaker 1: which shouldn't really matter. When you're up thirty, you should
Speaker 1: be able to keep lead you I feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: to try really hard to blow a thirty point lead
Speaker 1: to a team like this who is deliberately losing thought,
Speaker 1: they're trying to process I'll let you, I'll let you go.
Speaker 1: So there trying to process what just happened. So the
Speaker 1: way that I look at it is this loss doesn't
Speaker 1: say anything about the larger vision of what this Laker
Speaker 1: team is in terms of the way the pieces fit
Speaker 1: in terms of the talent level. But what it does,
Speaker 1: due to me is it reveals a certain missing you
Speaker 1: know metal, you know what I mean? Like that just
Speaker 1: that what one of the things that you noticed about
Speaker 1: that Lakers team, the one that won the title, was
Speaker 1: they just brought it in a certain way every night
Speaker 1: that this team has not. And it extended into that season,
Speaker 1: as evidenced by their defense and how well they defended
Speaker 1: despite losing Lebron and Navy for massive to the season.
Speaker 1: But you're primarily looking at a game like tonight as
Speaker 1: just like the kind of game that championship teams find
Speaker 1: a way to win. That doesn't mean that they can't,
Speaker 1: you know, overcome this over the course of the season
Speaker 1: and find that championship medal. However, if you look at
Speaker 1: this as a little bit of a checkpoint, it's not
Speaker 1: a good start because of course there was limitations. You've
Speaker 1: got three centers, six cards and Carmelo Anthony that's what
Speaker 1: you got to work with because of injuries, and a
Speaker 1: lot of your best defensive players are all wearing suits.
Speaker 1: But you're you have a you have way more talent
Speaker 1: than you need to win this game. And uh, and
Speaker 1: to put it lightly they completely let their foot off
Speaker 1: the gas after getting that point lead, and then we're
Speaker 1: never able to regain control, and it's it's embarrassing, and
Speaker 1: it's to me, just a an example of the kind
Speaker 1: of you know, mental hurdle that this team is gonna
Speaker 1: have to get over at some Yeah. I mean, like
Speaker 1: before we do these I always try to take notes,
Speaker 1: and in that first half, you know, it was pretty
Speaker 1: notes about like, yeah, Russ is starting to kind of
Speaker 1: find his groove as a bad attack in the rim
Speaker 1: and all that stuff and finding some chemistry with a D.
Speaker 1: And I kind of not to throw that all out,
Speaker 1: I guess just with how the game went, I thought
Speaker 1: that second half was awful for us, Like that was
Speaker 1: the epitome of bad rust and just thinking about it,
Speaker 1: like the Lakers kind of maybe induced those bad habits
Speaker 1: with the way the a D played. He started settling.
Speaker 1: He saw the defense absolutely drop off. Oklahoma City got
Speaker 1: whatever they wanted. I think they had thirty seven in
Speaker 1: the second quarter, forty one in the third quarter. And
Speaker 1: this is not a team with like super offensive firepower,
Speaker 1: but like Josh Katy was coming off pick and rolls,
Speaker 1: doing whatever you wanted, and you let a team kind
Speaker 1: of get hot in that way. It's really hot, really
Speaker 1: tough to turn off the fire, right Garius Basley. I
Speaker 1: think he was shooting like ten or twelve percent from three.
Speaker 1: He got cooking as well. He made a few shots,
Speaker 1: so the steamroll kind of came through. But I don't
Speaker 1: want to say this is nothing though, Like I feel
Speaker 1: like when you blow a thirty point lead to a team,
Speaker 1: um like that can stick with you now. So I'm
Speaker 1: really interested in how they come out Friday and look
Speaker 1: like this maybe nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 1: I still think though, like this can't happen. I guess
Speaker 1: like when you have Russ and a D on the floor,
Speaker 1: your offense should not go through the lolls that it does.
Speaker 1: And I was just looking at the shock quality that
Speaker 1: both of these teams were getting. Oklahoma City was running
Speaker 1: things through Shay who I tweeted this tonight, like Shay
Speaker 1: is good enough to where you have to give at
Speaker 1: least somewhat of a crap, right, Like Shay is that
Speaker 1: level of talent. Like Oklahoma City is a bad team.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of really young players. I said,
Speaker 1: they're not feeling a real basketball team. All that's true.
Speaker 1: Shape is the real dude though. He's the real deal,
Speaker 1: and you have to give a crap to a baseline
Speaker 1: level where the Lakers just didn't, and that kind of
Speaker 1: steam rolled Shay got cooking. We were they started picking
Speaker 1: on Mellow. I thought there was too much Mellow tonight.
Speaker 1: We can get into that as well. Um, they really
Speaker 1: picked on him. Uh, Shay, every time Melow was on
Speaker 1: the floor, it's a quick bring Mellow up to the screen,
Speaker 1: you know, and Mellow goes under and uh, it's just
Speaker 1: a quick step back three that they were just giving him,
Speaker 1: and that's his shot. Like, that's what Shaye likes to
Speaker 1: get to, a step back three, and he got cooking.
Speaker 1: And once that happened, and then our offense fell off
Speaker 1: a cliff um, and then the turnovers came from Russ.
Speaker 1: It's just this is just a really awful game, and
Speaker 1: like two and three is not at the end of
Speaker 1: the world. It just feels like that win in San
Speaker 1: San Antonio should have been something to build off of,
Speaker 1: and now they have to kind of regain that momentum again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny because at the end of that game,
Speaker 1: I thought both Russ and Anthony Davis got exposed as
Speaker 1: players that have a form of offensive limitation. That is
Speaker 1: something that's going to come back to haunt this team,
Speaker 1: in particular on nights like tonight when Lebron can't go um.
Speaker 1: Russ is a god awful jump shooter, just an awful, awful, awful,
Speaker 1: awful jump shooter. And so when you put a guy
Speaker 1: like Lucan's doors on him, a guy who can go
Speaker 1: underneath screens and Russ cannot physically bully a guy that's
Speaker 1: gonna beat him to the spot half the time and
Speaker 1: take away the ring him and he just playing off
Speaker 1: in baiting Russ into taking jump shots. It severely limits
Speaker 1: what he's capable of doing offensively. And then I tweeted
Speaker 1: about this earlier. You know Anthony Davis. He uses the
Speaker 1: shot that the type of shot that all the best
Speaker 1: players in the league used to rescue bad possessions, you know,
Speaker 1: the contested fadeaway jump shot. A d uses that as
Speaker 1: bread and butter, which is just bad process. And he
Speaker 1: and and it's something that that it's it's been hidden
Speaker 1: and masked by the fact that this team has arguably
Speaker 1: the best player in the world on it. And it's
Speaker 1: something that it's something that is eventually going to have
Speaker 1: to be a point of emphasis for Anthony Davis because
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, ironically, offense became the issue, not
Speaker 1: because the Laker, like the Laker defensive lineup that they
Speaker 1: played was horrid. I I didn't understand going with so
Speaker 1: much mellow. I would have used as San Antonio type
Speaker 1: approach him last night, where you go big and you
Speaker 1: just count on this really young team to just pointlessly
Speaker 1: drive into your size and struggle to finish around the rim.
Speaker 1: That's what I would have done, but he went with mellow. Ironically, though,
Speaker 1: because of how limited Oklahoma City is down that stretch
Speaker 1: of that game, the Lakers did get a lot of stops,
Speaker 1: but they just could not score because every time they
Speaker 1: threw it to their best player, he was content to
Speaker 1: jab step and take a step back jump shot, which,
Speaker 1: again for the best players in the world, is a
Speaker 1: low percentage shot, you know, like im Katie's Katie's hitting
Speaker 1: step back jump shots with hands in his face at
Speaker 1: like he's not like Anthony Davis is trying to use
Speaker 1: that as bread and butter, and it's bad process, and
Speaker 1: and and it was one of those things where at
Speaker 1: the end of that game, you almost feel to yourself, like,
Speaker 1: how are they going to get good looks? They're going
Speaker 1: under everything on Russ and Russ can't beat door to
Speaker 1: the basket, and if we go to Anthony Davis, he's
Speaker 1: taking a jump shot and it's probably not going in.
Speaker 1: That was that, that was what it came down to.
Speaker 1: And so at the end of the game, your last
Speaker 1: few offensive possessions, they're trying to run something for Mellow
Speaker 1: or Monk to try to get somebody else to look
Speaker 1: because it's like the A D. Russ action just was
Speaker 1: not working because of the fact that Russ can't shoot
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis was too quick to settle for the
Speaker 1: jump shot. It was. It was definitely an extremely frustrating game.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, there's no point
Speaker 1: in evaluating a team that's that has Lebron James on
Speaker 1: the bench because they're not winning the title anyway without Lebron.
Speaker 1: So it's it's just one of those things where from
Speaker 1: like as a as a fan of this team over
Speaker 1: the last several years, they had a certain they had
Speaker 1: a certain characteristic about them that gave a ship more
Speaker 1: than the other teams in the league, and it led
Speaker 1: to those good habits that carried them in bad nights
Speaker 1: and helped them win a lot of basketball games. And
Speaker 1: so far, and it's early, but so far that appears
Speaker 1: to be missing. And so the next thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to you about before we get into our
Speaker 1: collars and everybody gets your question, because for the rest
Speaker 1: of the show tonight, we're just gonna be taking callers
Speaker 1: after Roger and I dig into this one little thing.
Speaker 1: But I this to me is part of the downside
Speaker 1: of a of a team that feels like it can
Speaker 1: just outscore its opponent. And this was one of the
Speaker 1: things that we were worried about coming into the season,
Speaker 1: as an identity change that would come from the moves
Speaker 1: that they made. And I'm wondering what your opinion is
Speaker 1: on this on the Lakers lacks of daisical approach to
Speaker 1: defense so far this season, because I don't think it's
Speaker 1: all about personnel. This appears to be an identity thing
Speaker 1: early on, because there are enough good defenders in these
Speaker 1: lineups that they shouldn't be as bad as they have been.
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City has scored over a hundred points one time
Speaker 1: this season before tonight, Like this is not a personnel issue.
Speaker 1: This is an effort and focus issue in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering what your thoughts are. Yeah, Well, before
Speaker 1: like I get to that, I just want to speak
Speaker 1: on your point that you said, like you can analyize
Speaker 1: this team without without Lebron in You're right, this seems
Speaker 1: not winning a title with Lebron. But Leron is not
Speaker 1: gonna play forty eight minutes a game, like they have
Speaker 1: to find units that are successful without him, and like
Speaker 1: these and this is a perfect This was a perfect
Speaker 1: game to get like a practice run where Russ and
Speaker 1: a D can kind of figure things out right while
Speaker 1: winning the game comfortably. At least that's what it should
Speaker 1: have turned into. It should not have turned into this
Speaker 1: rock fight. And it's interesting watching a D try to
Speaker 1: re rev up his engine, right. You could tell he
Speaker 1: kind of gave his all on that first quarter and
Speaker 1: said I'm done like that. That's what I'm giving you tonight.
Speaker 1: That was the first quarter, and then from there it
Speaker 1: was just a trickle down effect. And this kind of
Speaker 1: leads to your next question there with your identity thing,
Speaker 1: I think it is some of both. I think a
Speaker 1: D has to be the defensive leader of this team,
Speaker 1: like just the way it works. And I've been saying before,
Speaker 1: like we've traded in these defensive guards, like you can
Speaker 1: joke about Crusoe, k CP all this stuff. We traded
Speaker 1: in defense for offense. That's what you did here, likes
Speaker 1: what we did this summer, like there was no qualms
Speaker 1: about it. It's it's true you're catering to russ as well,
Speaker 1: this super fast paced style at least to this kind
Speaker 1: of back and forth where and we have these blow
Speaker 1: average defenders were running this coverage where these guards are
Speaker 1: absolutely giving no pressure. And I talked about it last
Speaker 1: night how I said it was no coincidence Jaw had
Speaker 1: forty on us. I didn't even look at the box
Speaker 1: car yet, and I'm not sure what she had on us,
Speaker 1: But I don't think those are like coincidental. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's an accident. This is going to keep happening
Speaker 1: until we kind of get healthy here. Um And again,
Speaker 1: pinning all this on th HD or reason Kendrick Nunn
Speaker 1: is probably an unfair way to look at it as well.
Speaker 1: And these lineups are not really efficient defensively either. These
Speaker 1: ROHNDO Westbrook lineups like those are all in it. I
Speaker 1: think your identity question is correct to this all. Then
Speaker 1: a d like he has to be the defensive anchor
Speaker 1: every single night. This should be a night where you
Speaker 1: can shut down the Oklohoma is gonna be thunder. There's
Speaker 1: no reason they should be getting lay up after lay up.
Speaker 1: But just our guards aren't those kind of players. You
Speaker 1: see that Russ and Malik Monk and all these other
Speaker 1: guys are trying to tag the rollman. It's like layups
Speaker 1: for Dereck Favors, Derek Blue Doors getting right to the basket.
Speaker 1: They're picking our Carmelo. It's just a lot of bad
Speaker 1: defense and when our offense guys just go cold, which
Speaker 1: they did. We had seventy two points is that right
Speaker 1: at halftime or something like that, and then we had
Speaker 1: like thirty We had like a hundred and five with
Speaker 1: like three minutes left in the fourth, So like we
Speaker 1: have like thirty points in the second half or something.
Speaker 1: Just like I agree with your identity point, but I
Speaker 1: also think like these are bad defenders like that, and
Speaker 1: they're trying to fit into the scheme with Vogel. We're
Speaker 1: running this like drop coverage kind of scheme, but the
Speaker 1: guards are getting whatever they want, these mid range kind
Speaker 1: of guards. So I don't really this is a frustrating
Speaker 1: loss like this. I don't think it's nothing like. I
Speaker 1: don't think you can throw this out if if that
Speaker 1: makes sense, like I don't. I don't think it's like
Speaker 1: hampering to the season. I just I don't think you
Speaker 1: can throw this type of game out. Russ A D plus.
Speaker 1: You know, competent players should be able to take down
Speaker 1: an Oklahoma City team that's literally trying to lose. No, agree,
Speaker 1: I mean, look at Golden State last Yeah, they ran
Speaker 1: into the same problem the Lakers said today. They went
Speaker 1: down to Oklahoma City to play basketball game against the
Speaker 1: team that is going to play a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot harder than them, and they nailed it in for
Speaker 1: almost three quarters. And then they hit the Jets like
Speaker 1: all those teams that have that type of character do,
Speaker 1: and they got the job done. They took care of
Speaker 1: business because all they needed was to turn it on
Speaker 1: for a little stretch of this game, and they were
Speaker 1: able to pull it out, especially on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: If you look at their offense or their defensive rating
Speaker 1: in the first half compared to the second half last night,
Speaker 1: it looked like a team that was like, hey, we
Speaker 1: need to take care of business and beat Oklahoma City tonight,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's it's just you're right. It's not
Speaker 1: something that can be discounted as far as the identity
Speaker 1: thing goes. This is this is the way I look
Speaker 1: at it. It absolutely is Anthony Davis's fault. Absolutely is
Speaker 1: because the way the way that I look at it,
Speaker 1: and this is and for the record, when Lebron comes back,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely his responsibility as well, and the same goes
Speaker 1: for us. You know, You're right. The Lakers traded out
Speaker 1: some personnel for guys that have a history of not
Speaker 1: giving a ship on that end of the floor, and
Speaker 1: so there was no universe where they were going to
Speaker 1: come in to start the season and care that that
Speaker 1: that was not gonna happen. It was gonna have to
Speaker 1: be a slow building fire that builds in those guys
Speaker 1: to start giving a ship about defending. And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, with exception of a handful of stretches of
Speaker 1: these games, has been mailing it in defensively this year
Speaker 1: for for significant chunks of these games. And like the
Speaker 1: a d at the five lineups last night were horrible.
Speaker 1: They were horrible compared to the when they went big defensively.
Speaker 1: I think it was like something crazy like a hundred.
Speaker 1: They gave up over a hundred thirty points for one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions with just a D on the floor last night.
Speaker 1: There's this is one of those things where and the
Speaker 1: way you gotta look at it, Anthony, is these guys
Speaker 1: aren't going to care unless you do. You know, like
Speaker 1: in in the past, you know, Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: could Wax and Wayne on that end of the floor
Speaker 1: a little bit because everyone else kind of organically through
Speaker 1: their identity as a basketball player was the kind of
Speaker 1: person who would give give that level of effort. But
Speaker 1: it's not going to happen with this group. If you
Speaker 1: want Mellow and Malik Monk and and all of all
Speaker 1: of these you know, limited you know, offensive oriented guards
Speaker 1: and offensive oriented players to start giving that extra effort
Speaker 1: on that end of the floor, it's gonna be because
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and Lebron James and Russell Westbrook are selling
Speaker 1: their souls on that end of the floor to get stops.
Speaker 1: And in the reality of the situation is both of
Speaker 1: these games ended up being incredibly close tough, physical games
Speaker 1: at the end, and these are the kinds of games
Speaker 1: that you need to avoid. You need to take care
Speaker 1: of business against these teams and beat him by ten
Speaker 1: fifteen points so that Anthony Davis isn't doubled over on
Speaker 1: the baseline clutching at his knee because on a critical
Speaker 1: rebound at the end of the game, somebody on the
Speaker 1: other team just jammed his knee into the side of
Speaker 1: his knee. That's what happens in these super physical, crunch
Speaker 1: time games. You need to take care of business. It
Speaker 1: will it will come back to you physically. Yes, you'll
Speaker 1: have to give more effort, but it's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that allows you to sit the fourth quarter tonight
Speaker 1: so that you get rest. And so all I'm saying
Speaker 1: is like, yes, these guys are limited, but we we
Speaker 1: need to put a good percentage of this blame on
Speaker 1: the three Stars for coasting on that end of the
Speaker 1: floor because that inherently is going to trickle down to
Speaker 1: all the other players. And it's just it's just it's
Speaker 1: it's frustrating for me because again, like, do you understand
Speaker 1: how bad you have to be to let Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: score that many points? Man Josh Giddy looked like I
Speaker 1: don't even know, like a mix of like Dame and
Speaker 1: step Step or whatever tonight, like just coming off picking rolls,
Speaker 1: like we had no answer and he was just picking
Speaker 1: on our defense. I'm gonna get like eighty I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like maybe he was just load managing through the game,
Speaker 1: but it was definitely frustrating. And it's not like he's
Speaker 1: in super defensive, like great defensive lineups either. I guess
Speaker 1: like these lineups aren't great defensively, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: the line I'm trying to cross here between like we
Speaker 1: have a bunch of really bad defensives, we also have
Speaker 1: our guys not buying in as well. Like I thought
Speaker 1: like that second, that second and third quarter from Russ
Speaker 1: it was just super erratic, right, Like I feel like
Speaker 1: he was trying to play hard, but like he got
Speaker 1: into this mode and you could tell he was kind
Speaker 1: of feeling it Oklahoma City and just got kind of
Speaker 1: crazy on both ends on defense as well. I thought
Speaker 1: he was going really hard, but it just led to
Speaker 1: these like really easy shots for Okay Se So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a really terrible loss. We're about to go
Speaker 1: through this stretch though, where we play all these bad teams,
Speaker 1: so like this is just the really first one. I
Speaker 1: guess San Antonio is a bad team as well. I
Speaker 1: just think they play at a baseline level enough to
Speaker 1: where they're not going to get blown out every game.
Speaker 1: But Home City is a bad game, bad team. Cleveland
Speaker 1: we play next, which is actually Cleveland's a good team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Moble exactly. Moble is legit, Like he's a legit player.
Speaker 1: He's been playing great, So like that's the team you
Speaker 1: have to you have to come with your a game
Speaker 1: for like you just and that's what they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to do. So hopefully this is just one that they
Speaker 1: get out of the way. This is really frustrating though,
Speaker 1: and it can stay with you though, Like if this
Speaker 1: is something that you can stay with, you can become
Speaker 1: a team that blows, like blows leads, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like if you let it. So hopefully on
Speaker 1: they kind of picked this up and and and it
Speaker 1: just takes one to to kind of reverse the end,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: in those things getting in the back of your head,
Speaker 1: you know, like really cold, really cold shooting was something
Speaker 1: that got in the back of the heads of the
Speaker 1: Lakers last year and it became an issue or uh,
Speaker 1: you know the you know the Clippers. The Clippers used
Speaker 1: to have like a little bit of a weird mental edge,
Speaker 1: like that Christmas Day game that they blew in that
Speaker 1: first season, you know. But you just have to take
Speaker 1: care of business once to change that. It all all
Speaker 1: it takes is like you beat Cleveland on Friday in
Speaker 1: a in a in a game that's gonna probably be
Speaker 1: pretty tough, although I hope Lebron comes back because they
Speaker 1: need they this team needs him. And then and then
Speaker 1: you're gonna go back and play Oklahoma City again and
Speaker 1: play Houston twice, and if you roll those three games
Speaker 1: by points, that can reverse the psyche of something like
Speaker 1: what happened tonight. It's just you're always looking for these
Speaker 1: specific hurdles and check boxes along that championship pathway, and
Speaker 1: there are a bunch of them that I'm looking for
Speaker 1: with this team, like chemistry, like consistent effort, like caring
Speaker 1: about the defensive end of the floor. And it's been
Speaker 1: rough so far. And again it's only been five games,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to take too much stock in it.
Speaker 1: But if you're asking me to evaluate the character, the
Speaker 1: championship character of this team through five games, even with
Speaker 1: the injuries. It's not pretty so far. Doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: it's the end of the world, just means it needs
Speaker 1: to be addressed. And I'm hoping. I'm hoping. And I
Speaker 1: you know, one of my favorite things about Lebron for
Speaker 1: all of his weaknesses as a leader in when things
Speaker 1: are bad, because he has a tendency to, you know,
Speaker 1: pout and be passive, aggressive and do those kinds of
Speaker 1: things when when he's on teams that don't really have
Speaker 1: a chance to win. When Lebron is on a team
Speaker 1: that has legitimate championship opportunity, he's the best guy you
Speaker 1: could have in the locker room. He gets it. He
Speaker 1: knows what the journey is like, he understands what can
Speaker 1: undercut a team like that. He gets And so I'm
Speaker 1: hopeful that Lebron's reading the tea leads here and identifies
Speaker 1: what needs to change for this group to start to
Speaker 1: hit those hurdles and to start to check those boxes.
Speaker 1: So I am optimistic, But Roy, do you want to
Speaker 1: get our first collar up there? Yeah? Let me see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully Lebron can play Friday. You got to two games
Speaker 1: off here and hopefully the ankles rested up and he's
Speaker 1: able to go. But I agree with you, like they
Speaker 1: can fix this. It's just that this this one's gonna
Speaker 1: leave a bad taste in the mouth for a little while.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Alright, says it's connecting. I'm still trying to
Speaker 1: get used to the Twitter faces. Remember, guys, when they
Speaker 1: bring you up as some mut it's you gotta mute
Speaker 1: yourself before you start talking. Alright, I got two people
Speaker 1: here to who connects first, and we'll go with them.
Speaker 1: Appreciate everyone kind of coming out on this uh terrible loss.
Speaker 1: Joe are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me? Hey,
Speaker 1: how's it going? Guys? I caught like the fourth quarter?
Speaker 1: But man um, I just got a question for you all.
Speaker 1: Uh So we're year three or eighty in Lebron. This
Speaker 1: should be the shift where eight is actually the one
Speaker 1: who's kind of leading the charge. But unfortunately Fellas, I
Speaker 1: just I just this guy. I just I'm fearful for
Speaker 1: the organization once Lebron leaves because this guy has not
Speaker 1: shown any type of He hadn't shown me anything that
Speaker 1: that says that he's gonna be the one that's gonna
Speaker 1: lead this franchise. I just I am just perplexed by
Speaker 1: this guy. I don't wanna, you know, think long term
Speaker 1: because I know we're in the season, but man, I
Speaker 1: just I just don't see it. Guys, and it's got
Speaker 1: me turn. You know, It's tough because I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't want to start trying to paint a picture
Speaker 1: about a guy's hole, uh persona and in what he's
Speaker 1: capable of based on one specific circumstance. That said, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm more worried about Anthony Davis as a future centerpiece
Speaker 1: in the sense that he has shown that he needs
Speaker 1: to be set up like he is not a primary
Speaker 1: initiator in a league where all of the best players
Speaker 1: are primary initiators, and so that becomes a significant shortfall.
Speaker 1: So from that standpoint, inevitably Rob Point and Jeannie Buss
Speaker 1: are going to keep him surrounded by really cerebral basketball
Speaker 1: players who can get him set up for success, and
Speaker 1: inevitably the team is going to take on a certain
Speaker 1: amount of the persona of that person whoever that primary
Speaker 1: initiator is. However, the one thing that I would be
Speaker 1: concerned with a d is like, this is a guy
Speaker 1: that Laker fans have consistently preached is the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the league. Right, Raji and I both believe that.
Speaker 1: We think we think Anthony Davis is the best defender
Speaker 1: in the league. We think he's capable of winning multiple
Speaker 1: Defensive Players of the Year. But his peers, the Mbiads
Speaker 1: of the world, the honest Is of the world, the
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons of the world. They every single night go
Speaker 1: out there and put their physical imprint on the game
Speaker 1: as a defender. And Anthony Davis does it when he
Speaker 1: feels like it. And so from that standpoint, like, I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about any of the uh like anything outside
Speaker 1: of that, the Lakers will be fine as soon as
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis identifies and understands his responsibility as the defensive
Speaker 1: lynchpin of this team. And and once he gets that
Speaker 1: year in and year out, then I mean, he's twenty
Speaker 1: eight years old, and this guy's a limit. You can
Speaker 1: have seven straight years of this team being right in
Speaker 1: the thicker things, but he just needs to understand the
Speaker 1: power and the response ability that comes with being who
Speaker 1: he is and and what he's capable of when he
Speaker 1: actually tries to put his physical imprints on the game.
Speaker 1: And I've heard this question a lot, and I really
Speaker 1: don't even want to think about, like life after Lebron already,
Speaker 1: like Lebron has shown really no signs of it really
Speaker 1: slowing down at all, like any signs of dropping as
Speaker 1: a player to me, So I don't really want to
Speaker 1: go with that thinking about a D as number one option,
Speaker 1: like he's always gonna need to be set up. He's
Speaker 1: not Nicola Yokits right where you can just give him
Speaker 1: the ball at the top of the key and have
Speaker 1: your offense kind of run through him with players running around,
Speaker 1: Like that's just not the player he is. But you
Speaker 1: can build a team around a D. You you just
Speaker 1: find another shock creator, and you're not gonna find another
Speaker 1: one as good as Lebron. Probably there's only one Lebron ever,
Speaker 1: But you can still build a team around him and
Speaker 1: his defensive skills. And like in when when the A
Speaker 1: D came here his first year, he was that defensive
Speaker 1: monster every night though, like this wasn't some every other
Speaker 1: night kind of thing. And maybe that's just the way
Speaker 1: this season has started, or how the defenders are this year.
Speaker 1: But the whole point again of bringing Russ, if you
Speaker 1: remember one of our talking points of positives upbringing Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook guy of his type of tenacity every night was
Speaker 1: to push a D. Right, that was the whole kind
Speaker 1: of point of this, Like was like Russ's every night
Speaker 1: energy is supposed to kind of transfer over to a D.
Speaker 1: And we've seen that in spurts in here and there.
Speaker 1: But that should be sudding that's every night. And maybe
Speaker 1: that's another thing that takes time as well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like thinking about a D as the best player on
Speaker 1: the team, like that's just not where we are yet,
Speaker 1: Like it's just not Lebron still the best player, which
Speaker 1: is crazy in year nineteen, but is it is what
Speaker 1: it is. I really don't want to think about that
Speaker 1: dropping off. But yeah, but a D has to be
Speaker 1: better for sure, Like he needs to. This needs to
Speaker 1: be an every night defensive thing. This team doesn't have
Speaker 1: enough defensive talent to make up if he's not every nine.
Speaker 1: And you saw what happened tonight. There's teams a million
Speaker 1: times better than Okay, see that will run you out
Speaker 1: of the gym if he doesn't appreciate Yeah, Joe, thank
Speaker 1: you so much propping appreciate it, and just to piggyback
Speaker 1: on what Rogers just saying like that that it was
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's pier, the one that we all measure him against,
Speaker 1: your honest right, that's the guy, you know, Lebron, we
Speaker 1: measure against, maybe Janice and Kevin Durant, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: even Staff depending on who you ask, and uh Kauai,
Speaker 1: but you know the guy that everybody measures Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: against his nice And there are two factors with the
Speaker 1: two of them that are massive differentiators. Janice has put
Speaker 1: the time in to become gifted enough with his ball
Speaker 1: handling ability in his floor vision to bring the ball
Speaker 1: up the floor and to initiate offense. He can run
Speaker 1: a pick and roll. As the ball handler, he can
Speaker 1: break the guy down consistently ten fifteen times a game
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. Anthony Davis is far more gifted as
Speaker 1: a ball handler than most centers, but if you watch
Speaker 1: him compared to Janice, he just doesn't have that level
Speaker 1: of comfort to stare a guy in the face, hit
Speaker 1: him with the move ten fifteen times in a game,
Speaker 1: and and get and and create stuff from the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and then Secondly, it's that consistent night in the night
Speaker 1: out effort. Honest is just it binds me of young
Speaker 1: Lebron in the in the way that he just every
Speaker 1: single night, regardless of who he's playing, is going to
Speaker 1: make his physicality felt by everybody on the floor and
Speaker 1: leave that imprint. And so what's disappointing is coming off
Speaker 1: of last year where everybody could make the excuses that
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, you know, had a rough, had a rough
Speaker 1: quick turnaround from the bubble, and he needed to kind
Speaker 1: of ease his way into the season. Well that's not
Speaker 1: the case this year. Get plenty of time off, you're healthy,
Speaker 1: you're you're the guy everybody measures you against. Just drop
Speaker 1: fifty in Game six and now he has the finals
Speaker 1: MPP Trophy, Like, what's your move? Man? Show me what
Speaker 1: you got? Like, I think it's okay to ask him that,
Speaker 1: especially as someone who fancies himself as one of the
Speaker 1: top tier stars in the league. You know, yeah, I
Speaker 1: agree with And for the most far, I think A
Speaker 1: d has been pretty good to start this season. Like
Speaker 1: I think tonight was a slow one, but like for
Speaker 1: the most right thought he's he's played well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it has to be every night because his team just can't.
Speaker 1: I can't survive without him. And when he came out
Speaker 1: of the game tonight, like I guess my, well, I'll
Speaker 1: let Dom kind of speak. What's up, Don? But like
Speaker 1: we've seen, we've seen like a D play the five
Speaker 1: a lot tonight, but it's all next to Carmelo, which
Speaker 1: is just a really strange lineup thing that I guess
Speaker 1: we can get into a little later. But Don, what's up?
Speaker 1: Man's up? Broach what's going on? Don't? Man? I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Man, I feel I think this was
Speaker 1: the first game where I felt really frustrated. But like
Speaker 1: trying to put it into perspective, all right, second night
Speaker 1: of back to back we had like what nine available players?
Speaker 1: Three centers sick, so we had ten. Not bad. I
Speaker 1: think it was frustrating because you could just explicitly like
Speaker 1: towards the last three minutes of the second quarter, they
Speaker 1: just like took you know, they just lost focused. They
Speaker 1: just stopped playing, and it's it seemed like they were
Speaker 1: kind of like expecting, like, you know, what this is done,
Speaker 1: Like we were up seventy forty four. They would they're
Speaker 1: young things, they would just like kind of like go
Speaker 1: through the motions as you know, like like us, and
Speaker 1: like part of me is like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: kind of like a deserving loss with them, kind of
Speaker 1: like it's like a humbling loss, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But like, I think part of my frustration is like
Speaker 1: I did not expect a team full of veterans, full
Speaker 1: of future Hall of famers that needs to be by
Speaker 1: the basketball gods, you know. And I think Jason made
Speaker 1: a really good point about a d was like, all right,
Speaker 1: you were affected by the fact that people were, like
Speaker 1: you see all the slander, you know, through the going
Speaker 1: on this summer. You see people putting the honest above
Speaker 1: you even though you just literally want a championship and argue,
Speaker 1: but we could have been the finals M v P.
Speaker 1: And you know, even though he looked good physically, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, given to night, maybe he was tired, I
Speaker 1: mean understandably so second night of the back to back,
Speaker 1: coming off an overtime game against the Spurs where he
Speaker 1: played forty minutes. But I don't know how I tweeted this.
Speaker 1: I was like, the defense smiles every time he takes
Speaker 1: like a low percentage jump shot, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: because I just didn't get like why he just went
Speaker 1: away from attacking the rim where he had so much
Speaker 1: success the entire first half. And the thing is, he
Speaker 1: wasn't even doing so much the entire first half. When
Speaker 1: he was attacking the rim. He would literally just you know,
Speaker 1: step through, spin, moved, dribble a couple of times, hook shot.
Speaker 1: He was making all of them, catching lobs, catching easy
Speaker 1: dump offs. So I was like, like, what happened? You know,
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I think long term it should
Speaker 1: kind of like I guess, humbled him or sharpened them
Speaker 1: a little bit. But yeah, that's just where my head
Speaker 1: is at right now. I agree with everything you're saying.
Speaker 1: I mean, you need to have something that um that
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a wake up call that that
Speaker 1: that establishes the need to fix your problems. Right, Like
Speaker 1: you know, there's if you play six or seven good
Speaker 1: teams in a row, you're just gonna lose a lot
Speaker 1: if you have bad habits, and so inherently you're going
Speaker 1: to find a way to get something going to help
Speaker 1: you win games. Well with uh, with a game like tonight,
Speaker 1: if anything, if there's one silver lining, it's so bad
Speaker 1: that it's kind of like a slap in the face
Speaker 1: and something that you can't look yourself in the mirror
Speaker 1: and pretend like there's not a problem anymore. And so
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that that's kind of turns into a galvanizing
Speaker 1: it turns into a galvanizing force for this team too.
Speaker 1: It's like because like some of those games, like the
Speaker 1: Warriors and Suns, like those are games that you can
Speaker 1: learn from, you know, because like obviously Warriors and Sons
Speaker 1: to have been connality. They've been running their system for
Speaker 1: god that was how many years now, But this is
Speaker 1: like a game where you're just like you just throw
Speaker 1: away because like you you basically just lost it. And
Speaker 1: I feel like rather than like watching film and I
Speaker 1: think it's like what you said, it's more like a
Speaker 1: self reflection, all right, like for all of them, even
Speaker 1: even the coaches, because I really like what Jason tweeted,
Speaker 1: like I think we were we we we were down
Speaker 1: one and then um Okaye had the ball and we
Speaker 1: were looking for things like one minute left or less
Speaker 1: than a minute left, and we were looking for a
Speaker 1: stop and then they took a time out, and I
Speaker 1: was really surprised that Mellow as poor as he was
Speaker 1: shooting the entire game, and he was being hunted. And
Speaker 1: then somebody even said that Josh Giddy was giddy every
Speaker 1: time he sees Mellow in front of him. So I
Speaker 1: was surprised Vogel he had Bradley Reeves and even Dwight.
Speaker 1: I think I thought Dwight or brad or Reeves would
Speaker 1: have been a better choice, but he stuck with Mellow
Speaker 1: on there. But what we're trying to get stopped, and
Speaker 1: so I was just like why, like, you know, there's
Speaker 1: so many I don't know if you know there is,
Speaker 1: there so many mistakes both from the players, and I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I said it for where it's a lot of Mellow
Speaker 1: and Vogel really doesn't have a choice though we don't
Speaker 1: really have any other power forwards, and again it's like
Speaker 1: it's why you see a D play the five and
Speaker 1: it's really just Mellow at the four next to him,
Speaker 1: even when it's Lebron out there, it's Lebron Mellow and
Speaker 1: and a D. So yeah, really really rough. Now, I
Speaker 1: think you said a bunch of correct things on your
Speaker 1: point about eighties, like settling for jump shots. I think
Speaker 1: part of that is also playing like with Bigs, like
Speaker 1: the paint is packed um and it gets he gets
Speaker 1: induced and gets baited into taking jumpers. Russ has a
Speaker 1: very similar issue. I feel like Russ took every single
Speaker 1: bait tonight that the Oklahoma City gave him, every single
Speaker 1: three that that they went under the screen. He decided
Speaker 1: to take it. That won late in the game, that three,
Speaker 1: I don't remember, I fills in the corner or something,
Speaker 1: but they're just flying under his screens. And he took
Speaker 1: every bait tonight. Second half I feel like was all
Speaker 1: the total bad rust that you're gonna get right. I
Speaker 1: thought the first quarter he was pretty okay, getting assists
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, and the second half you saw
Speaker 1: kind of the totality of what can happen when it
Speaker 1: goes wrong. I meanbe that's just when the team is
Speaker 1: doing all these bad habits. It kind of induces Russ
Speaker 1: into his bad game as well. I'm not sure, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna learn more as as the season goes. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this was a this was a rough night. Like you know,
Speaker 1: Don Doum, you're calling out that play. It was interesting that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, when you have a shortage of time outs,
Speaker 1: you can't do offense defense subs because you need to
Speaker 1: make sure that you're properly equipped for the following possession.
Speaker 1: But on that play, with less than a minute left
Speaker 1: down by one, absolutely positively need to stop. Two timeouts remaining.
Speaker 1: I literally can't think of a single reason why Frank
Speaker 1: didn't do an offensive defensive sub. It was confusing to me.
Speaker 1: And I mean part about that too is before that play,
Speaker 1: Okaye was the want to call it time out, so
Speaker 1: which means we still had a time out. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. We had two time outs. We had
Speaker 1: two time outs out there, and there were fifty seconds left.
Speaker 1: So in theory, you could have you could have gotten
Speaker 1: to stop retained possessions somewhere around thirty thirty five seconds,
Speaker 1: called the time out, made a substitution to get Melo
Speaker 1: back on the floor, and then inevitably you have that
Speaker 1: one last time out remaining should you not be able
Speaker 1: to get a stop and have to intentionally foul so
Speaker 1: that you can use it to advance the ball, you know,
Speaker 1: with ten eight seconds left, whatever it just it was.
Speaker 1: It was really confusing for me, and and you know,
Speaker 1: you can it's really easy with every coach in the
Speaker 1: NBA to nitpick the two or three things every night
Speaker 1: that are confusing. So I'm not you guys know, I'm
Speaker 1: one of the biggest Frank fans out there, but I
Speaker 1: was just confused that that, to me was a golden
Speaker 1: opportunity because that little pick and role play they ran, uh,
Speaker 1: trying to tag Favors on the backside. If that's Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard guarding the action and Anthony Davis tagging the roller,
Speaker 1: it's just not gonna work like you're gonna get a stop.
Speaker 1: So I just I just thought it was that was
Speaker 1: one mistake ache that might have given the Lakers a
Speaker 1: better chance to win the game. But even if even
Speaker 1: if they would have stolen this game, I mean, come on, guys,
Speaker 1: these are all still problems, you know what I mean
Speaker 1: that it would have been fools gold and just you know,
Speaker 1: if they would have managed to pull that game out,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, there was two and a
Speaker 1: half quarters a bad process there to end that one.
Speaker 1: And then just I just want to say, I'm not
Speaker 1: like I don't want to sound like an anti eighty
Speaker 1: or like, you know, like I'm not here. I just
Speaker 1: want to know he's just like a really frustrating. I
Speaker 1: think this this uh tonight, I think eighties playing specifically
Speaker 1: second half. It just made me feel bad for calling
Speaker 1: pals offt like back in Oh wait, that was a
Speaker 1: hot shoot, Like I gotta take that back. No, but
Speaker 1: like I'm pretty sure, like like has like how a
Speaker 1: d I've done before. I'm pretty sure this Friday you're
Speaker 1: gonna you know, he's gonna have a bounce back game.
Speaker 1: And a lot of things are enough, are you Like
Speaker 1: what you said there, Like more of this is self reflection,
Speaker 1: you know, like because I game don't even throw that
Speaker 1: tape for sure, and you know, and Anthony Davis look
Speaker 1: man like, first of all, you gotta understand what our
Speaker 1: job is, right, like, not just as fans, but as
Speaker 1: analysts and people who watch the game, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're no one's paying us to post bail for people,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, there's no reason for
Speaker 1: us to not tell it the way we see it.
Speaker 1: At the same time, we have to have a certain
Speaker 1: amount of understanding and and you know, empathy for what
Speaker 1: these guys have to put up with on a day
Speaker 1: and day out basis. But here's the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis you are considered a top tier superstar by
Speaker 1: the vast majority of people. So there's a certain level
Speaker 1: of you know, standard that comes with that. You know,
Speaker 1: and like if you want to be the guy that
Speaker 1: gets cut a ton of slack every time he goes
Speaker 1: out and has a rough night against a bad team
Speaker 1: and loses, then you can go hang out with the
Speaker 1: dudes that are in the fifteen twenty range in the NBA.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like this is this is
Speaker 1: what comes with being the guy on a team that
Speaker 1: has shaped being ship aspirations. Like if you mail it
Speaker 1: in and against the team that literally hasn't scored over
Speaker 1: a hundred points but once all season, and you mail
Speaker 1: it in, like some criticism is gonna come away. That's
Speaker 1: part of being Anthony freaking Davis, the guy that can
Speaker 1: go give forty and twenty anytime he wants. You know
Speaker 1: what I want? You know what I mean, like to me,
Speaker 1: to me, it's fair criticism, pretty sure, And we've seen
Speaker 1: him do it like it was again last year. I
Speaker 1: kind of throw away as this anomally year, but likewy
Speaker 1: it was every night and that's the kind of a
Speaker 1: DA expected this season, and I thought he started the
Speaker 1: season actually pretty well. Tonight was just a really a
Speaker 1: really bad game for pretty much the whole team was
Speaker 1: a well, I don't want to throw it all onto
Speaker 1: a d as well. I thought Russ was just really
Speaker 1: awful in the second half. But it's on him. You're
Speaker 1: right to play defense that way and he can't. He
Speaker 1: should be in the running for Defensive Player of the
Speaker 1: Year every year, and that's that's the talent he has.
Speaker 1: I say, he's the top five player, top five talent
Speaker 1: when he's right, when he's on, and that's that's what
Speaker 1: they need from especially with Lebron out, Like this was
Speaker 1: a game where they needed him to kind of put
Speaker 1: his foot on the gas and he really just didn't.
Speaker 1: It was step back jumper. Someone went in, but you
Speaker 1: just tell it was just there was no aggression there
Speaker 1: and that's it led to this this loss. M thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on. It was good to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Let's see try to go through these a little quicker here.
Speaker 1: Carmelo Actually, just while we're waiting for it to connect,
Speaker 1: Carmelo has one for twelve from three the last two games.
Speaker 1: By the way he left that you could have that
Speaker 1: was about two ft short on that game. Like he
Speaker 1: completely alogate Algate armed. That was rough. Yeah, that's Carmelo.
Speaker 1: You have him out there, He's gonna shoot like it's
Speaker 1: going to be himself, unapologizical, unapologetically. Um, what's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: I think? Is it Lebron twenty three? Yeah? What's up?
Speaker 1: What's going on? So? I mean, I just want to
Speaker 1: talk about more about Frank Vogel more than the players themselves,
Speaker 1: because certain decisions he's made this season just don't make
Speaker 1: much sense to me. Um and and it goes with
Speaker 1: like even you know, even though we gave up twenty
Speaker 1: six point lead at the end of the game, we
Speaker 1: had multiple timeouts to draw something up to get a
Speaker 1: better shot, and it ended up being Russ taking a
Speaker 1: long free or um Monk having in isolation at the
Speaker 1: top at the top of the three point line and
Speaker 1: then jacking up for free. These these are not like
Speaker 1: good plays that are drawn up. And then also, defensively,
Speaker 1: I feel like the rosters took a step back. And then,
Speaker 1: you know, I get what you guys are saying about
Speaker 1: a d defensively maybe not being as locked in as
Speaker 1: he was or has been the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: But I feel the personnel, and this roster to suit
Speaker 1: what Frank lies to do defensively because prem to all
Speaker 1: the guards are getting crushed on screens and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you're leaving the big weatherest White or a
Speaker 1: D or DJ in a situation where he has to
Speaker 1: guard a guy that's coming up, probably to pull up
Speaker 1: for a jump shop or god the big and we
Speaker 1: saw yesterday the Spurs center went off for like twenty
Speaker 1: four points or twenty seven points, and I think that
Speaker 1: was his career high like stuff like that. I don't
Speaker 1: think it was gonna was happening the last season or
Speaker 1: even in the first season with A D and l A.
Speaker 1: So I just want to know, get you guys foughts
Speaker 1: on Frank Vogel more, because I think he's doing a
Speaker 1: really bad job as a coach so far this year.
Speaker 1: And obviously it's just five games, but I think he
Speaker 1: really needs to improve what he's doing on both ends,
Speaker 1: because also running lineups with Ross and Rondo in the
Speaker 1: back court is not a good offensive line up in
Speaker 1: So I just want to get you guys fauts or not.
Speaker 1: So I want I want to defend Frank a little
Speaker 1: bit here for a minute, Uh, First of all, it
Speaker 1: has not been perfect. I mentioned I'm mentioned them state
Speaker 1: that he made tonight in my opinion, and then I
Speaker 1: thought some of his lineup decisions, particularly against Golden State,
Speaker 1: we're we're genuinely confusing. But he's kind of in between
Speaker 1: a rock and hard place here. The when you look
Speaker 1: at who's healthy on this roster, it's not really, Uh,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be able to run traditional basketball lineups,
Speaker 1: you know, the way that especially in the modern NBA,
Speaker 1: the way that they're supposed to be put together. He's
Speaker 1: kind of just sticking stuff together with duct tape, trying
Speaker 1: to survive until th HD and Kenny mcnun and Lebron
Speaker 1: James can come back. So I do want to constance
Speaker 1: slack on that side of things. As far as offense
Speaker 1: goes in terms of like play design, that's never been
Speaker 1: his specific strength relative to his peers. He's never gonna
Speaker 1: be Brad Stevens. That's not who he is. But what
Speaker 1: he is, in my opinion, is by far the best
Speaker 1: defensive coach and basketball he That's what he brings to
Speaker 1: the table, and the way that this whole Laker formula
Speaker 1: is designed to work is like, Hey, like Strength, you're
Speaker 1: running things on the defensive end, and Braun you're running
Speaker 1: things on the offensive. And that's how it works. Now
Speaker 1: when you when we look at actions and and really
Speaker 1: complex you know, UH, play design, that kind of thing
Speaker 1: has a certain amount of value. It does. I don't
Speaker 1: want to undercut that. However, when it comes to the
Speaker 1: postseason at the highest level of basketball, when you're playing
Speaker 1: the very best defenses that are most likely going to
Speaker 1: be switching everything little cute actions here and there and
Speaker 1: baseline out of bound play designs and stuff coming out
Speaker 1: of time out, the value of those kinds of things
Speaker 1: falls off a cliff because of uh, any discipline defense
Speaker 1: at that point in the season is going to take
Speaker 1: away the type of easy shots that those are supposed
Speaker 1: to develop. And that's where a guy like Lebron becomes
Speaker 1: immensely valuable and a guy like Anthony Davis becomes immensely
Speaker 1: valuable because it becomes about matchups and it becomes about
Speaker 1: gaining advantages in one on one or two on two
Speaker 1: situations so that you can try to claw out some
Speaker 1: easy shots against a really good defense. And so, from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, if this is not this is not the
Speaker 1: setting where you're gonna see Frank bring his value. Frank's
Speaker 1: value comes from bringing the very best out of this
Speaker 1: roster defensive belie when they actually have their pieces, and
Speaker 1: carrying them to the point where Lebron can out execute
Speaker 1: teams in the half court in the playoffs, when the
Speaker 1: trophies on the line. And so in that standpoint, like,
Speaker 1: I just don't think it's fair to measure Frank uh
Speaker 1: you know, for not for what he's not brought here for,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. And Frank Frank has always had
Speaker 1: like really confusing lineups. So if we remember that first
Speaker 1: year he played uh Rondo with Lebron a bunch and
Speaker 1: it kind of made our head scratch. And I said,
Speaker 1: over the summer, we were definitely gonna get Rondo Westbroog lineups.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's just a situation that had to come
Speaker 1: from injuries, but it's what we're getting right now. And
Speaker 1: I don't think he's gonna switch up his defense like
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's gonna play this style. He's playing the
Speaker 1: two bigs, And again, maybe that's the right decision, maybe
Speaker 1: it's not, but he's gonna be himself. You want a
Speaker 1: title kind of doing that and Yeah, these guards aren't
Speaker 1: great for his system for sure, but he's gonna stick
Speaker 1: with it. This is the system, the defensive system that
Speaker 1: he wants to run. He's gonna have his players adjust
Speaker 1: to that, not adjust, I guess to the personnel. And
Speaker 1: I think if you wait for the guys to get
Speaker 1: healthy t t um a reason, even like Kendrick Nunne,
Speaker 1: those guys kind of fit better. But again, right now,
Speaker 1: those like our guards, like you said, are dying on
Speaker 1: these screens, and these guards are these offensive guards are
Speaker 1: getting whatever they want. But I just can't blame Frank
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel for a team losing a three d point
Speaker 1: lead like that's to me, that's on your superstars, Like
Speaker 1: that's on like the guys on the floor um killing
Speaker 1: the momentum of the other team. Like I just can't
Speaker 1: go and blame like Frank Vogel for that. I guess
Speaker 1: he had questionable lineups. I agree with you that last
Speaker 1: play where we needed the three and we just literally
Speaker 1: gave it to Mike Monk at the top of the
Speaker 1: key and said do something like I was shocked that
Speaker 1: was the play we ran. But but I like, to me,
Speaker 1: I I can't put too much of this on Vogel,
Speaker 1: I agree with like what a lot of what you
Speaker 1: guys are saying, But I think this year is it's
Speaker 1: a bit different than the last two years because the
Speaker 1: roster is so different because before we had you know,
Speaker 1: Danny Green, KCP Crusoe. Then it's shrewd. These guys are
Speaker 1: defensive guards that are going to stay in front of
Speaker 1: them and every time. And obviously we don't have all
Speaker 1: our guys back, and there's only five games into the season,
Speaker 1: so you can't really make too many conclusions at this point.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, I'm just a bit worried that
Speaker 1: he's kind of not really the coach for this specific roster.
Speaker 1: And that's not to say that he won't be successful
Speaker 1: or anything, but I just think, like, you know, we
Speaker 1: we brought in a lot more offense and lost a
Speaker 1: lot of defense, especially on the perimeter um compared to
Speaker 1: last season and even comparing the roster to the first
Speaker 1: season of Vogel in l A. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm just a bit worried that he's not really the
Speaker 1: coach for this team specifically. But it's just five games
Speaker 1: and obviously we're gonna get some guys back. Um, so
Speaker 1: hopefully I'll just be like ironed out for our the season.
Speaker 1: But I'm also is a bit worried about the fit
Speaker 1: of Ross as well, because especially today, some of the
Speaker 1: turnouvers and some of the salt that you were taking,
Speaker 1: these are things that I didn't think he you know,
Speaker 1: what happened playing alongside two stars. But I guess we'll
Speaker 1: have to see how that goes as well from season
Speaker 1: when we end up in a big playoff series and
Speaker 1: it's Lebron at the top of the keep breaking down
Speaker 1: the defense, and you've got advanced close out attackers like
Speaker 1: Malik Monk, like Kendrick Nunn like you know, uh th
Speaker 1: ht making plays off of the advantages that they're creating
Speaker 1: through getting double teams and getting a head of scene
Speaker 1: towards the rim. This is all going to make a
Speaker 1: lot more sense right now. I get why you can
Speaker 1: get discouraging. All I'm saying is like this, this roster
Speaker 1: and this coaching staff, this is all built in a
Speaker 1: way that is more advantageous in the playoffs. And so
Speaker 1: I do I do wanna. I'm not discounting everything that
Speaker 1: you're saying, to be clear, I'm just saying that I disagree,
Speaker 1: but we got we got five more minutes, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna get two more quick ones and they call it
Speaker 1: a night. Thanks for hopping on, man, We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Thank you. Uh Yellow, are you there? Yep? Yep? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's going on? I'm good, I'm good. Look. I was
Speaker 1: kind of flipping back and forth between the Hawks game,
Speaker 1: um and the Lakers game, and I will have to
Speaker 1: say this man, and kind of responded to what he
Speaker 1: was saying about Frank Vogel. Look, I feel like the offense.
Speaker 1: His offensive schemes are really not good. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: way too many times I see a Lakers game and
Speaker 1: it's literally just throw the ball into the post to
Speaker 1: a d and have him do a fade away shot,
Speaker 1: or throw it into the post to Lebron and he
Speaker 1: does a fade away shot when everybody else is just
Speaker 1: kind of standing there and looking, and then you know
Speaker 1: when the shooters end up going cold and they're not.
Speaker 1: But we lost your first s. Yeah are you there?
Speaker 1: But Diallo, we did kind of discussed this earlier in
Speaker 1: the pod. This uh, this whole show will be on
Speaker 1: our podcast feed shortly after. But yeah, we talked. We
Speaker 1: just talked a little bit ago about you know, Frank
Speaker 1: and what his offensive strengths are and what his defensive
Speaker 1: strengths are. And he's just not gonna be Brad Stevens.
Speaker 1: It's just not. It's not you know what he does
Speaker 1: for this specific group, but he is. He does bring
Speaker 1: strengths and I actually think it's a good fit. And
Speaker 1: I think I think Raj agrees. But let's get let's
Speaker 1: get one more caller and calling a night. YEP, I agree.
Speaker 1: Frank Vocal was never gonna be this super crazy offensive,
Speaker 1: uh minded coach. He's gonna rely on his defense. And
Speaker 1: that's that's one in the titles. That's what he's gonna stay.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see Hayden, are you there? Yeah? Hello,
Speaker 1: what's gonna what's up in? Uh? You know I'm doing alright,
Speaker 1: I'm doing all right. That was That was a miserable
Speaker 1: second quarter. Well s third quarter on really the second
Speaker 1: quarter was all right, But I don't know, Um, I
Speaker 1: kind of like y'all said, at some point, you gotta
Speaker 1: put the blame on a D. Kind of like Raw said,
Speaker 1: you gotta put the blame on a D. And Russ
Speaker 1: as superstars. When you're up thirty, team is starting to
Speaker 1: claw back into the game, especially one that's not that great.
Speaker 1: You gotta you gotta, you gotta put the game away.
Speaker 1: And I just defensively, Russ is never going to be
Speaker 1: lockdown obviously. Um, he'll get those random steals where he
Speaker 1: jumps a pass lane and gets a dunk, but that
Speaker 1: falls on a d is being more consistent full time
Speaker 1: on that end. Um. I don't know if it's because
Speaker 1: he's saving himself for offense while Lebron is out, but
Speaker 1: at a certain point, I just felt like he needed
Speaker 1: to take over, and like you guys said, he kind
Speaker 1: of settled for jump shots and didn't really attack, you know,
Speaker 1: Darius Baisley and all these guys that he should have
Speaker 1: a pretty easy field day getting to the rim, being aggressive,
Speaker 1: and I felt like he didn't really do that. So
Speaker 1: I guess just kind of bouncing off of what they
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier. Yeah, I agree, we agree, man,
Speaker 1: we're on the we're on the same page. I mean,
Speaker 1: one of the beautiful things about the Lebron a d
Speaker 1: fit is the fact that Lebron kind of makes up
Speaker 1: for some of Anthony Davis's shortcomings. You know, they compliment
Speaker 1: each other, right, and and obviously Lebron, Lebron is complimented
Speaker 1: very well by Anthony Davis, him being a stretched the floor,
Speaker 1: him being a guy that can hold down a lot
Speaker 1: of the defensive responsibilities. Like they're the two of them
Speaker 1: fit extremely well. And one of the things that I
Speaker 1: noticed a lot in the championship season, if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: especially in the playoff run, you'd have these games where
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis would mail in the first half in the
Speaker 1: playoff game. You know, you'd be you'd look up and
Speaker 1: if you'd middle of the second quarter and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis would have like, you know, six points
Speaker 1: and four rebounds and and two turnovers, and you're like,
Speaker 1: what in the world's going on? And and all he's
Speaker 1: doing is taking jumpshots when he gets the ball. But
Speaker 1: what would happen is he became the guy who would
Speaker 1: always bounce back and have a monstrous second half because
Speaker 1: in those first halfs when things were sloppy, Lebron seemed
Speaker 1: to read the tea leaves and put his foot on
Speaker 1: the gas and carry the team. And and so the
Speaker 1: two of that, you know, it almost became like one
Speaker 1: of those things where Anthony Davis would snap out of
Speaker 1: his funk because he knew his partner in crime was
Speaker 1: laying it on the line to win the game. And
Speaker 1: and then there were games where Lebron would go cold
Speaker 1: in the second half and Anthony Davis would finally snap
Speaker 1: in and make some big plays. And so they compliment
Speaker 1: each other well. But I think I think that in
Speaker 1: the setting like this, when Lebron's out there with him,
Speaker 1: it's just tough for Anthony Davis to to get the
Speaker 1: motor to try to to win the game consistently compared
Speaker 1: to some of his peers. His motor, his motor is
Speaker 1: not going to turn on by itself. Like him, he's
Speaker 1: not going to turn on his motor if he's the
Speaker 1: only one that has. Do you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: he's not a self starter. He's not a self starter?
Speaker 1: Is the expression? Yeah, Yeah, there you go. Who do
Speaker 1: you think? Yeah, for sure? I mean, like I thought tonight,
Speaker 1: Like I thought in the first quarter, he had like
Speaker 1: what I think twelve points um, but then in the
Speaker 1: first quarter or something, yeah, and he was getting to
Speaker 1: the basket, but then the Lakers went up like twenty.
Speaker 1: You could see him kind of just put the foot
Speaker 1: off the gas right and try to go in and
Speaker 1: lift this little chill mode and load manager in the game.
Speaker 1: And he saw on that third him trying to re
Speaker 1: reread that engine up, like re try to get at it.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't there. And maybe it was because of
Speaker 1: the second night to back to back, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: but he tried to and it just wasn't wasn't there
Speaker 1: for him, and Russ try to do his own his
Speaker 1: own thing, and that kind of led to the erratic
Speaker 1: plate him and all the turnovers and the bad shots
Speaker 1: and the jump shots that you know he shouldn't be taking,
Speaker 1: or just like a when it rains, it pours kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And then the thunder started to get hot, right,
Speaker 1: they started to make everything. I think they went like
Speaker 1: seven for ten or something from three in that quarter.
Speaker 1: So just the avalanche that they kind of hid. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, you kind of have to stop that bleeding
Speaker 1: before like the blood just goes everywhere, right, like you
Speaker 1: kind of have to cut that off, and and they
Speaker 1: just didn't tonight. But um, they have another chance on Friday,
Speaker 1: and and well we'll see if they get a win.
Speaker 1: Heyden we're gonna call it a night, but thank you
Speaker 1: so much for hopping on there. We're gon We're gonna
Speaker 1: go again on Friday night. Come come bring your thoughts again. Everybody.
Speaker 1: Thanks you guys so much for your support. This will
Speaker 1: be on our podcast feed here in about a half hour.
Speaker 1: It will also air on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at
Speaker 1: seven am, and the game on Friday. I believe it
Speaker 1: is the seven thirty Starts star playing on right around
Speaker 1: ten o'clock Pacific Standard time for our next show. Roger
Speaker 1: and I against sincerely appreciate you guys for being on
Speaker 1: this journey with us and we'll see you then. Appreciate
Speaker 1: him and thank you. Yeah,