Speaker 1: Mmmm. Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast with Raj.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for all of the suggestions
Speaker 1: for the name of the pod. But Roger and I
Speaker 1: were talking last night and we have decided to stick
Speaker 1: with State of the Lakers. But I do appreciate all
Speaker 1: the suggestions. Roch, how you doing, Man doing well? Man
Speaker 1: doing well? Excited to do this weekly. I think that's
Speaker 1: it's kind of cool. I did see a suggestion yesterday
Speaker 1: that was funny. He said, like up tempo rules, but
Speaker 1: I thought it was like pretty funny and creative. I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of late, but I thought that was
Speaker 1: not thought that was pretty dope. But yeah, I'm excited
Speaker 1: to do this man. I think I think we both
Speaker 1: give a cool perspective on it and kind of can
Speaker 1: go back and forth. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: And then consistency always helps. Uh, it's it's it's Podcasting
Speaker 1: is really really challenging, especially given the distance between most
Speaker 1: of us, and so finding some consistency I think is
Speaker 1: is gonna be fun. So today, you know, more or less,
Speaker 1: nothing has changed with the Lakers since Roger and I
Speaker 1: last talked on Friday. We kind of predicted everything that
Speaker 1: happened this last week. Um, but one of the we
Speaker 1: were talking about ideas for the show today and what
Speaker 1: we decided we would do is we would each give
Speaker 1: our three silver linings of what we've noticed out of
Speaker 1: the Lakers during this bad losing streak, because you know,
Speaker 1: we've all seen a lot of negativity. There's good reason
Speaker 1: for a lot of that negativity, but there is some
Speaker 1: good that's kind of hidden in all of this, and
Speaker 1: that's what Roger and I are gonna do. We're gonna
Speaker 1: give our three silver linings. But I do want a
Speaker 1: quick start with just reiterating something that we talked about
Speaker 1: last Friday, just having to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: it doesn't really make a ton of sense to evaluate
Speaker 1: the long term, you know, success of this team based
Speaker 1: on what we've seen in the last week. And the
Speaker 1: example that I keep using is these role players. You know,
Speaker 1: if the Lakers very easily could make a couple of
Speaker 1: trades in the next few days for players of similar
Speaker 1: value that are more conducive to success without a d
Speaker 1: and Dennis Shrewder right, like you could trade Alex Caruso
Speaker 1: for a better, you know, playmaking guard that might not
Speaker 1: be anywhere near as gifted defensively. You know, you could
Speaker 1: make a series of moves to try to to help
Speaker 1: win with that group, but there's no point because the
Speaker 1: ceiling with a D and Dennis Shrewder would shrink massively
Speaker 1: if you got rid of these guys. They make a
Speaker 1: ton of sense with the core guys. But as we saw,
Speaker 1: you're watching Alex Caruso running extensive you know, pick and
Speaker 1: roll actions, and there were even isolation place for Alex
Speaker 1: Caruso which was never happening. Markkif Morris post ups where
Speaker 1: he's they're clearing aside and let Markis Morris goes go
Speaker 1: to work like, yeah, I got news for you. If
Speaker 1: that's what they're doing, they're gonna lose. But they're not
Speaker 1: going to be doing that when they have their guys back.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I just want to keep reiterating the
Speaker 1: fact there's really no point in over evaluating what's happening
Speaker 1: right now because all of these guys are being asked
Speaker 1: to do things on the court that they were never
Speaker 1: asked to do with the way that that team was
Speaker 1: originally constructed, right Like you wouldn't asked youre like Gardener
Speaker 1: to be a chef, right, like your gardener could probably cook,
Speaker 1: Like he probably goes home and has to cook, but
Speaker 1: like you wouldn't hire your gardener to be a chef.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what's going on right now. You
Speaker 1: have guys up a role that in some up two
Speaker 1: roles right like you said with Alex Cruzo, he should
Speaker 1: not be doing ball handling or anything like that, but
Speaker 1: that's what he's fit into right now, running a ton
Speaker 1: of post ups like you saw that last night. Marky
Speaker 1: Morris got a bunch of post ups that I wouldn't
Speaker 1: happened in regular games. So yeah, these role players are
Speaker 1: specifically put in a specifically signed to play a specific role,
Speaker 1: and when that doesn't happen, you get you get nights
Speaker 1: like we've been having the last few where the offense
Speaker 1: has just been created. I mean it was it wasn't
Speaker 1: great before as well, but I think right now we're
Speaker 1: in the bottom like twenty of shooting and we have
Speaker 1: all these guys going through slums. It's just tough to
Speaker 1: really evaluate anything that's gonna matter when the playoffs start
Speaker 1: or something like that, for sure, And like you know,
Speaker 1: there there's a certain uh demeanor that surrounds the team
Speaker 1: right now that I think is interesting, Like, uh, my
Speaker 1: guy Vine was talking about this the other day. There's
Speaker 1: like a you can tell they know they can't win
Speaker 1: with this group at least not against good teams. But
Speaker 1: and that sucks because that's that's bad for morale. But uh,
Speaker 1: you could tell, like even last night or in the
Speaker 1: in the in the Jazz game, there was just this
Speaker 1: thing hanging over the team where you could tell they
Speaker 1: just knew they couldn't compete now for good reason with
Speaker 1: the way that they're structured at like in that way,
Speaker 1: but you could just see it. You could see it.
Speaker 1: Now that the one thing that I think is important
Speaker 1: to understand, like there's a lot of people that are
Speaker 1: that that are using this as ammunition to start taking
Speaker 1: shots at Lebron and to start taking shots at some
Speaker 1: of these role players and and talk about you know,
Speaker 1: uh Rob Pablinka and the signings that he's made and
Speaker 1: all this stuff. And I would just continue to maintain that,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a game within the game here, which
Speaker 1: is that all of these guys are just trying to
Speaker 1: hold down the Ford until the real identity of the
Speaker 1: team comes back. Because you have to understand if Dennis
Speaker 1: had a season ending injury or if Anthony Davis had
Speaker 1: a season ending injury, then you go about the process
Speaker 1: of trying to find a new identity for the team.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, Okay, this is gonna be us
Speaker 1: for a while. What's our new identity. Do we need
Speaker 1: to run more in transition? Do we need to you know,
Speaker 1: experiment with specific lineups, Do we need to make a trade?
Speaker 1: But there's no reason to tinker with the identity because
Speaker 1: guys are coming back, so that that that's like the
Speaker 1: important detail of their strategy moving forward. There's just no
Speaker 1: point in kind of overthinking it in that regard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was checking that the Lakers have still had
Speaker 1: the fourth best defense in the last fifteen games, which
Speaker 1: is funny because Anthony Davis has missed the last six. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, their identity still has changed. They just can't score.
Speaker 1: And you have every single person going through the same slump.
Speaker 1: And you can see, like I know you're talking about
Speaker 1: the body lane, which you can see Lebron like he
Speaker 1: would pass it in the guy would miss. He like, man,
Speaker 1: I work so hard to get that open look right
Speaker 1: because he has to create every single shot. He's going
Speaker 1: in isolation. He's driving, he's kicking, and guys are just missing.
Speaker 1: And then when Kuzman missed that one, I think it
Speaker 1: was before halftime or didn't take it. Sorry, he swung
Speaker 1: it to THHD and he could tell like he was
Speaker 1: just really upset about that. So I don't blame him.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a tough stretch. He obviously is
Speaker 1: frustrated and he wants to win, and he's playing every night,
Speaker 1: so they'll be fine. I feel like when once, as
Speaker 1: you said, a D and sure to get back, they'll
Speaker 1: they'll get back into the rhythm and uh, we'll get
Speaker 1: Shureter back tonight. So he'll be a big boost for
Speaker 1: for the offense going forward. Ye, and let me use
Speaker 1: this real quick as an example to as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to defend Lebron because so many people are criticizing his
Speaker 1: offensive ability, so many people are criticizing his how how
Speaker 1: his struggles have have heard his m v P case
Speaker 1: Like I put it out this number yesterday. Did you
Speaker 1: guys know that literally the Lakers have generated more uh
Speaker 1: more wide open meaning defender closest fenders six plus feet
Speaker 1: away then all but four teams in the league during
Speaker 1: the stretch without Anthony Davis, they're generating wide open shots.
Speaker 1: They're just hitting those wide open shots at a rate
Speaker 1: of which would rank twenty nine in the league over
Speaker 1: that span. So they're just they're generating wide open shots.
Speaker 1: Lebron's doing his job. I mean, he's definitely let go
Speaker 1: of the defensive rope a little bit, but he has
Speaker 1: to because he's got to create everything on the offensive end.
Speaker 1: Like there's just this, these are throwaway games. And and
Speaker 1: and by the way, the laate like it's not like
Speaker 1: any other m VP candidate is like taking the rope
Speaker 1: and just and grabbing it and running with it. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: everyone's struggling. This is just gonna be the low point
Speaker 1: in the Laker season as a result of Anthony Davis's
Speaker 1: injury and as a result of Dennis retters COVID suspension.
Speaker 1: Like that's literally all they're all there is to it.
Speaker 1: They're doing the best they can. It doesn't make any
Speaker 1: sense to evaluate them either. And and there and like
Speaker 1: you know, Crusoe, for instance, hasn't been defending as well,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's like what do you expect? Like this,
Speaker 1: the guy was literally shot out out of a canon
Speaker 1: as like a defensive wrecking ball for seventeen minutes a
Speaker 1: night before this, and now he's being leaned on for
Speaker 1: half a game as like a primary ball handler. Like
Speaker 1: his entire focus and roll on the on, the on,
Speaker 1: the team has shifted, which is a perfect segue to
Speaker 1: my first silver lining, which is there was a lot
Speaker 1: of talk before the season and in the first month
Speaker 1: of the season about how Alex Caruso's play and talent
Speaker 1: Horton Tucker's play was going to complicate things next summer
Speaker 1: for the Lakers as far as trying to resign them.
Speaker 1: And ironically, both players have struggled in this stretch under
Speaker 1: larger roles, and I don't want to like applaud struggles,
Speaker 1: but like, if there's a silver lining here, it's I
Speaker 1: think both players have significantly limited their value in the
Speaker 1: off season. Over the last week, Alex Crusoe has shown
Speaker 1: that he's a different player when he's leaned on in
Speaker 1: a bigger role, which will affect what teams are willing
Speaker 1: to pay him, and talent Hornon Tucker has shown that
Speaker 1: he's still a few years away from really being able
Speaker 1: to be leaned on. His defensive focus has gone off
Speaker 1: of a cliff as of late. And so if there's
Speaker 1: one silver lining, it's that all of these guys have
Speaker 1: particularly talent, Hornon Tucker and Alex Cruzo have diminished some
Speaker 1: of their value, which may make it easier for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to resign. The more you think, yeah, that that's
Speaker 1: a really fascinating way to think about it. I never
Speaker 1: even thought about that. I remember, like people, well, th
Speaker 1: HD was on just a crazy curve right, like he
Speaker 1: was not playing at all. Then he was like getting
Speaker 1: in and just having insane moments every single night. People
Speaker 1: are like, oh, someone offer him four years eighty, you know,
Speaker 1: just to to mess it up, and that's not gonna
Speaker 1: happen anymore. You could tell the league kind of figure
Speaker 1: him out. Um, and again he's in a role that
Speaker 1: is even more than he was. Right, Like, his role
Speaker 1: is pushed up another level because of No a D
Speaker 1: no shooter. He's the second best ball handler, Like that's
Speaker 1: even at twenty years old, the second best ball hand
Speaker 1: on the team, and they're asking him to run you know,
Speaker 1: units with Lebron off the floor, which is crazy for
Speaker 1: a twenty year old. Right, he's driving pick and roll,
Speaker 1: driving it to go bear and be like, oh shoot,
Speaker 1: I'm like at the rim now, like by myself, so
Speaker 1: I think she'll be find Cruso. I feel like there
Speaker 1: was a little bit of like even myself, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, play him thirty minutes, let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: And obviously we see what happens. I think I would
Speaker 1: like him in a larger I guess more minutes in
Speaker 1: the same role, if that makes sense, like same defensive
Speaker 1: exactly yeah, and he did like he got better as
Speaker 1: a shooter. I don't think he's this bad and I
Speaker 1: don't think he's as good as that he started. Right,
Speaker 1: he was shooting fifty percent from three. That was never sustainable.
Speaker 1: That was not gonna happen. He wasn't gonna be Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson from three point range. But I feel like he
Speaker 1: is a better shooter than he showed. It just sucks
Speaker 1: that everyone's in the slump at the same time. So
Speaker 1: even like exactly an exasperates the issue, right because now
Speaker 1: no one's hitting and Cruso already doesn't get respected as
Speaker 1: a shooter. Even when he was shooting fifty, they were
Speaker 1: still coming off him. So I think you're right. I
Speaker 1: hope they keep both of them, but yeah, I want
Speaker 1: I would like cruising a more minutes still, but the
Speaker 1: same role. He shouldn't be running screen role actions, um
Speaker 1: uh come and going forward? Yeah, and you know, I
Speaker 1: want to really quickly like this, just as a little tangent,
Speaker 1: when we're voting for all defense, why don't we factor
Speaker 1: this kind of thing in? Because like, for like, I'll
Speaker 1: use Anthony Davis as an example. You know, I think
Speaker 1: he's a better defensive player than Rudy Gobert anyway, although
Speaker 1: he floats sometimes through the regular season as of late.
Speaker 1: But like like Alex Crusoe looked like an all defense
Speaker 1: level player when he was strictly defending, and then suddenly
Speaker 1: he gets you know, he gets thrust all these offensive
Speaker 1: responsibilities on him and his defense kind of like like
Speaker 1: he's been hardly as effective on that end. Uh, And
Speaker 1: so you know, why don't we factor that in? That
Speaker 1: Always it blows my mind, Like, you know, you'll listen
Speaker 1: to some of these uh you know, like the Hoop
Speaker 1: Collective or the Low Post or something, and they'll talk
Speaker 1: about how, oh, you know, well, this defensive players has
Speaker 1: been better this year than you know, than Lebron or
Speaker 1: than a d or than you know, Kauai or some
Speaker 1: other defensive player, and it's like, yeah, but that guy
Speaker 1: doesn't have nearly as much else to work on and
Speaker 1: it's on his plate. And really, you know, if if
Speaker 1: you if you strictly went up to somebody like Lebron
Speaker 1: or choir Anthony Davis and you said I never need
Speaker 1: you to take a shot, I just need you to
Speaker 1: walk up on the other end, they would be devastating defense.
Speaker 1: They would be devastating. And I just I really really
Speaker 1: think that that's something that needs to get factored in
Speaker 1: moving forward. Yeah, that's a good point. And Davis's averaging
Speaker 1: one like twenty five a game right along with the defense.
Speaker 1: Rudy Goobert is at like what Tan eleven, Um, he
Speaker 1: just screens and rolls, so you can kind of that's
Speaker 1: wide open times. Yeah, so yeah, that's an interesting way
Speaker 1: to look at I never really thought about it that way,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they should probably factor that in, h like
Speaker 1: into the defensive award. So what's your what's your first
Speaker 1: silver lining? My first sim reliance is that I think
Speaker 1: I feel like Tread's got really comfortable. Um, I feel
Speaker 1: like he wasn't comfortable in the offense and even on
Speaker 1: defense before, and I think Davis went out and I
Speaker 1: just see him a lot more in the offense, in
Speaker 1: the flow. UM. He's obviously now getting his touches, but
Speaker 1: I just love how he's played the UM. He didn't
Speaker 1: close a few games, even though I thought like he
Speaker 1: should have, but I feel like his just game has
Speaker 1: really opened up with down Anthony Davis the last three
Speaker 1: games sixteen against Utah, twenty six against the Washington eighteen
Speaker 1: against the Heat UM, he's rebounding as well, UM over
Speaker 1: over seven plus rebounds in each of those UM. I
Speaker 1: liked how he's switched. I thought he's defended fine, and uh,
Speaker 1: he seems he's really comfortable now. Like you could see
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the season, he would just stay
Speaker 1: at the dunker spot waiting for the ball, begging for
Speaker 1: the ball, UM, but now he's kind of moving around.
Speaker 1: He somehow added a mid range jumper UM this offseason,
Speaker 1: so I guess that's that's going in right now. But
Speaker 1: and he's their offense. I mean, when when Lebron's not creating,
Speaker 1: they give it a tress and say here, get a bucket,
Speaker 1: And for the most part he did. UM. He still
Speaker 1: has his like defensive kind of issues that sometimes, but
Speaker 1: I really like how this I hope he plays this
Speaker 1: kind of same aggressiveness when a d comes back. Um,
Speaker 1: I think they need him as a shot creator in
Speaker 1: that second unit. We'll see as far as his aggression goes.
Speaker 1: Because I talked about this u with Tommy in the
Speaker 1: Pot on Wednesday. But like, that's part of the role expansions,
Speaker 1: that that that that have been happening to role players
Speaker 1: is all of a sudden, Trees is like a twenty
Speaker 1: point a game like high usage guy, which you know,
Speaker 1: ideally he probably shouldn't be. But what what I do
Speaker 1: agree with you in the sense that, like, you know,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of talk after what happened in
Speaker 1: the series against the Nuggets, which was an embarrassing moment
Speaker 1: for Mantrez, even though there's a lot of context there.
Speaker 1: But there was a lot of talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: whether or not the Lakers would be able to find
Speaker 1: a way to make him useful on a content, and
Speaker 1: I believe the Lakers have. And the answer is really simple.
Speaker 1: He's absolutely deadly in offensive mismatches. So if you can
Speaker 1: get him switched on to a smaller guy, he's as
Speaker 1: much of a sure thing as possible, as much as
Speaker 1: far as like getting a lamp or getting fouled. And
Speaker 1: then on defense, we figured out, now the Lakers have
Speaker 1: through trial and error that he cannot be floating around
Speaker 1: is like as someone who's in drop coverage or any
Speaker 1: sort of uh like loose coverage where he's kind of
Speaker 1: floating in space because he just doesn't he doesn't anticipate
Speaker 1: things well enough, and he's not big enough around the
Speaker 1: rim as a primary defensive player. But the Lakers have
Speaker 1: figured out that he can thrive in the chaos when
Speaker 1: he's because he's so quick, because he's so athletic, and
Speaker 1: he's so long, and his motor is so good. If
Speaker 1: you get him defending in space or he's chasing guys
Speaker 1: off the line and he's flying around in rotations, he's
Speaker 1: actually an extremely valuable defensive big, even more so than
Speaker 1: you know, Dwight and Javail were in similar roles. So
Speaker 1: I think that I agree in the sense that, like,
Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense to me that the
Speaker 1: Lakers have figured out, you know, ways to make Montrez
Speaker 1: into somebody that was successful in a way that he
Speaker 1: couldn't be with the Clippers. Yeah, he's much betterly, he's
Speaker 1: in like a defensive stance right when he's coming off.
Speaker 1: I hate when like he can't be the back line
Speaker 1: of your defense. He just like those minutes with him
Speaker 1: and Mark kith Morris, it's just bleeding points, like there's
Speaker 1: just no there's no point of that because they're both
Speaker 1: not rim protectors. They're both undersized as well, even for
Speaker 1: the positions, and when Treads is coming off and a
Speaker 1: drop coverage, it's pretty much he's not he's not stopping
Speaker 1: the ball handled from me in the rim, or he's
Speaker 1: not covering the big that's getting a love and man
Speaker 1: against Utah. I felt like they were just walking through.
Speaker 1: Man it that's what annoyed me about the Utah game.
Speaker 1: I understand we were like not talented at all. I
Speaker 1: don't know your point about this, but I was getting
Speaker 1: upset because it felt like they were in a walkthrough,
Speaker 1: like in a like you know, a morning shoot around.
Speaker 1: Like it was literally Connley screen roll. They know exactly
Speaker 1: where the help is coming past to the corner shooter
Speaker 1: wide open three. I'm like, what what are you even
Speaker 1: doing here? What's the point even getting on this plane
Speaker 1: and come to Utah If you're gonna play it that
Speaker 1: way because they're just gonna destroy you. Some of those
Speaker 1: shots though, Man, they didn't even he I've never seen
Speaker 1: like Mike Conley. I don't think he shot hit rim
Speaker 1: last night Like that night, it was just swishing through.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but yeah, I'm glad Tread's get a little
Speaker 1: more comfortable comfortable here. Yeah. With with Utah, like it
Speaker 1: was a textbook case of like the Lakers kind of
Speaker 1: came in and let him get comfortable early and then like,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is any decent sized shooter, Like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm six ft six and I've got about a six
Speaker 1: ten wingspan. If you let me get a rhythm, there's
Speaker 1: just no one that can stop me shooting the basketball
Speaker 1: because I'm too tall. Well, like when you've got Joe
Speaker 1: Ingles who's six seven, and Eve Royce O'Neil is the
Speaker 1: short one. It was like six five or whatever it
Speaker 1: is that he is, and and uh Bogdanovitch I think
Speaker 1: is six eight, and you know, Donovan Mitchell can jump
Speaker 1: out of the gym. So like with these all these
Speaker 1: big tall shooters, when you let them get their confidence
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it doesn't matter how much you
Speaker 1: defend and that that's what happened in that game, is
Speaker 1: they let him get comfortable early and they made some
Speaker 1: shots and then it became like they're showing off. They're
Speaker 1: just they're they're just they're just riding that confidence wave,
Speaker 1: hitting a tough shot after tough shot after tough shot.
Speaker 1: Like that's why it's so important early in a game
Speaker 1: to make a team feel uncomfortable. Now, as far as
Speaker 1: Frank's scheme, I agree with you. I don't really like, uh,
Speaker 1: the way they've been doing their pick and roll coverage
Speaker 1: this year because to me, it's too much of an
Speaker 1: in between thing, where last year they were in a
Speaker 1: full drop coverage and this year there and then the
Speaker 1: play offs they did like a trapping scheme, and then
Speaker 1: this year they've been in kind of more of like
Speaker 1: an in between scheme. Uh. They call it a catch
Speaker 1: heead it's uh something that that guy Crane just is
Speaker 1: always talking about on Twitter. But like it's kind of
Speaker 1: like an in between thing, and I don't really like it,
Speaker 1: and I think it's part of the reason they've had
Speaker 1: some struggles. But this team, we know can thrive in
Speaker 1: rotations and sprinting around the floor and you could just
Speaker 1: tell to start that game that they just weren't really
Speaker 1: all the way dialed in uh in that respect, and
Speaker 1: then once you talk aout their confidence, they ran off
Speaker 1: with it. As far as Tray's go real quick before
Speaker 1: we move on to the next one. You know the
Speaker 1: reason why, like rim protectors are usually so tall and
Speaker 1: a guy like a guy like Montrese struggles and like
Speaker 1: head up rim protection because Tray's as good as like
Speaker 1: a secondary rim protector, meaning like if if a guy
Speaker 1: is driving to the basket and a guy's on his
Speaker 1: hip and he's changing the shot, and then Tread's can
Speaker 1: really load up and come flying in and block it.
Speaker 1: He can get some block shots at the rim. But
Speaker 1: when you when you're a primary rim protector, meaning like
Speaker 1: the guy's coming at you like he's already beat his
Speaker 1: defender and you're the only thing standing between him and
Speaker 1: the rim, it's not as simple as just jumping as
Speaker 1: high as you can because the usually most offensive players
Speaker 1: are gonna find a way to get into your body.
Speaker 1: So that's where these like really big guys like Marc Asol.
Speaker 1: It was the reason why foot Vogo went with him
Speaker 1: at the end of that game against Washington the other night.
Speaker 1: But like Marc Asol, or like a Dwight Howard or
Speaker 1: or like a Rudy Gobert is there so they can
Speaker 1: actually defend while standing up. So essentially, like a guy
Speaker 1: jumps into their chest and kind of takes away their jump,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter because they just kind of staying there
Speaker 1: with their arms up and extend over the top, and
Speaker 1: they can they can get block shots, and they can
Speaker 1: change shots. That's why it doesn't make sense to use
Speaker 1: treads and any sort of drop coverage or anything that
Speaker 1: has him kind of waiting for guys around the basket.
Speaker 1: It's just a waste. And you know, the Draymond is
Speaker 1: an anomaly in that sense, and I think it has
Speaker 1: to do with because he's so strong that when guys
Speaker 1: actually run into his body they lose all their lift,
Speaker 1: but treads doesn't have that that kind of strength. Defense.
Speaker 1: Defense also is a communication thing, right, Like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of lineups that just do not play together, and
Speaker 1: treads is a lot of like when someone scores, he goes, oh,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be there, right, Like, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of that I see that after someone scores, and just
Speaker 1: a communication thing. That's going on. Him and Kuzuma have
Speaker 1: a weird defensive chemistry, where like he always thinks who's
Speaker 1: supposed to be helping or Kuzma things, treads is supposed
Speaker 1: to be helping, and those two really you could tell
Speaker 1: kind of go at it um on the court that way.
Speaker 1: So I feel like when the lineups kind of get
Speaker 1: more stuck um, they'll be fine. Th HD over helps
Speaker 1: a lot. He could tell that annoys his teammates. He'll lose,
Speaker 1: like the guy that's hit six straight threes, it's just hilarious.
Speaker 1: He'll be in the pain. Well, like Joe Ingles who
Speaker 1: just hit two in a row, is wide open. You're like, ow,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? You can see it gets frustrating
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, like last night after after they got
Speaker 1: down by like fifteen, that game was over. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't want trust to be the back line.
Speaker 1: For sure, he should be playing with a d or
Speaker 1: you know, I don't see him playing a lot with Mark,
Speaker 1: But they know how to use and Vogo knows what
Speaker 1: he has has in trust. The th HT thing with
Speaker 1: with over helping has been a problem with him all season,
Speaker 1: and that's gonna be something he's got to figure out
Speaker 1: because there's a balance there. And this is something that
Speaker 1: Crusoe does so well, uh early from time to time.
Speaker 1: He last year he was kind of bad and help defense,
Speaker 1: but he's been better this year. But like a KCP
Speaker 1: is actually a better example. And Dennis is really good
Speaker 1: at this too, where it's like they're they're in uh
Speaker 1: kind of like a shell drill type of position where
Speaker 1: the halfway halfway to the ball, but their weight is
Speaker 1: on their inside legs, so they're prepared to quit close out.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like he's only there to discourage the
Speaker 1: drive and he's already planning on closing out on the
Speaker 1: on the shooter, and that's something he has to get
Speaker 1: better at. But the biggest thing that bothered me with
Speaker 1: th h T and so the best, the best comp
Speaker 1: that I could use for somebody like him with his
Speaker 1: body type is like an Eric Gordon as far as
Speaker 1: like really strong in his shoulders, not overly tall, but
Speaker 1: has really long arms. Eric Gordon does an amazing job
Speaker 1: fighting over the top of screens using his strength. And
Speaker 1: what was still frustrating with th HT in that game
Speaker 1: is you know, he got matched up on Connolly and
Speaker 1: and Clarkson a lot in that game, and he just
Speaker 1: did he just did a really poor job fighting over
Speaker 1: the top of screens. And like it's one yeah, it's
Speaker 1: one thing if you're a skinny guy and you struggle,
Speaker 1: but like you're strong and you've got a really wide base,
Speaker 1: you can fight over the top of these screens with
Speaker 1: your strength and then you use your length to bother
Speaker 1: the shooter from behind and that and that's what you know,
Speaker 1: like Tony Allen used to do so well in his career,
Speaker 1: and it's just I think there's he has defensive potential.
Speaker 1: Uh that goes on for days, and it's gonna be
Speaker 1: really exciting to see what he turns into. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was not a pretty night. It was
Speaker 1: not a pretty night for him for sure. Um. But
Speaker 1: so my second silver lining is was that ironically, um
Speaker 1: and this is just part of the Laker experience with
Speaker 1: how you know, you know, how uh you know polarizing
Speaker 1: they are, h And part of this has to do with,
Speaker 1: you know, being a fan of any team, you have
Speaker 1: a tendency to kind of get stuck in the fish
Speaker 1: bowl and only pay attention to what's happening to you.
Speaker 1: But every everyone's struggling. And I talked about this with
Speaker 1: with Tommy the other day. But I mean, the Clippers
Speaker 1: went into uh Memphis last night and got worked, like
Speaker 1: got beat like handily with all their guys, you know,
Speaker 1: like it, you know, Philly, Uh Philly gotta win last night.
Speaker 1: But they've dropped I think five games in their last
Speaker 1: twelve if I remember correctly, or something like that. I
Speaker 1: can't remember exactly for sure. Denver lost again last night
Speaker 1: to Washington, who, by the way, is beating everybody. Ironically,
Speaker 1: the Clippers are the only team it was able to
Speaker 1: kind of handle them the other day. Um, but everyone's struggling,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers after all of this like probably the
Speaker 1: worst stretch they've had in the last two seasons, absolutely
Speaker 1: the worst stretch they've had in the last two seasons.
Speaker 1: They're half game back a second place in the West,
Speaker 1: in second place, the second place in the whole league.
Speaker 1: Their half came back, and so I think if one
Speaker 1: silver lining I would say is that, like you know,
Speaker 1: with with everything that's happened, everything is still on the
Speaker 1: table for the Lakers. Now there's six losses back of Utah,
Speaker 1: so the one seed might be a little bit tough,
Speaker 1: but they're they're they're right there in the thick of things.
Speaker 1: They're still in a position where if they do beat Utah,
Speaker 1: they could have home court advantage in the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: because they have a better record than all the teams
Speaker 1: out East. So it's one of those things where for
Speaker 1: as bad as things have been, uh, there's still a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunity here to salvage this regular season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy because it's weird when I see like the
Speaker 1: Clippers lose, I feel like it puts less pressure on
Speaker 1: the Lakers again on their next game. Like every single
Speaker 1: time they lose, some of the Clippers just lose again,
Speaker 1: or the Sun's lose. I think the Sun's lost to
Speaker 1: who they just lost to in a close game. But yeah,
Speaker 1: when you when you see the standing man, it's crazy
Speaker 1: the Hornets. Yes, yes, LaMelo went, LaMelo went insane, But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of crazy looking at the standings that they're
Speaker 1: still tied and the Clippers have had all other guys.
Speaker 1: I think back for a little while now, and yeah,
Speaker 1: that that just shows how they started the season right,
Speaker 1: it felt like doomsday. But the Lakers still have like
Speaker 1: a four game lead. I think they've lost that, but um,
Speaker 1: it's tied second place. What's great about this? Because I
Speaker 1: feel like you watched the rest of the league a
Speaker 1: lot more than I do. I kind of watch the
Speaker 1: Lakers um a lot more than other teams. So do
Speaker 1: you see like the same similarness or is it just
Speaker 1: like is everyone tired? Or is it like I catch
Speaker 1: like the highlights a lot. I don't really watch the
Speaker 1: full games of other teams, but at least from what
Speaker 1: I saw, because I watched the whole Clippers Memphis game,
Speaker 1: and I feel like the Clippers issues kind of just
Speaker 1: tumbled on them. So they're big time jump shooting team.
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about them a lot, but
Speaker 1: I feel like Zach Close said, they're like twenty nine
Speaker 1: in the room scoring, And I know this is like
Speaker 1: a thing that you really hold true to believe that
Speaker 1: the teams in the playoffs get to the room right,
Speaker 1: they score at the rim, and they can draw free
Speaker 1: throws and they get easy shots like that, and the
Speaker 1: Cliples are like their perimeter attempts from putting PRESSU around
Speaker 1: the room correct, correct, and then PG and Quiet take
Speaker 1: a lot of those mid range twos when they go
Speaker 1: in it looks absolutely beautiful, but like there again, twenty
Speaker 1: nine scoring at the room is a really low number
Speaker 1: for a team that's that good champions at level, So
Speaker 1: that was interesting. When I was watching in Memphis game,
Speaker 1: they were just breaking and then Memphis got out and
Speaker 1: ran um. They actually picked on the drop coverage of
Speaker 1: Zobach and us. I think Surge was like five of
Speaker 1: his last twenty eight from three or something. I saw.
Speaker 1: He's really gone cold as well. So the whole league
Speaker 1: um is kind of going. Yeah. My question you was like,
Speaker 1: do you see a similar thing that's going on, because
Speaker 1: the Lakers it's some more of like who they're out
Speaker 1: right and then you could see them starting to sleepwalk?
Speaker 1: Is that what's going on the rest of the league.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing these close games, seeing Washington run down Denver.
Speaker 1: That was just an awful last play. I feel like
Speaker 1: that was that was like that four on one I
Speaker 1: don't know if you got if you kind of it's
Speaker 1: one of the one of the most crazy things I've
Speaker 1: ever seen in my life. And the basketball like you
Speaker 1: of Michael Porter Jr. On that plate that literally have
Speaker 1: a dunk. Like the only explanation I can think of
Speaker 1: is they didn't no time in score. Yeah, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: like that's his transition principles though, right, Like, obviously that's
Speaker 1: you gotta know time and score, you gotta go to
Speaker 1: the rim. But I feel like in a regular transition,
Speaker 1: his job is to get to that that week, that
Speaker 1: week side corners, so then the rim run comes. But
Speaker 1: he just forgot that, you know, it's two seconds left.
Speaker 1: That's a bone had play for him. That's what I
Speaker 1: was just thinking. That's my idea of They they train
Speaker 1: you from high school on any form of organized basketball,
Speaker 1: that you fill lanes and transition. So the first guy
Speaker 1: up the floor always runs to the basket, the next
Speaker 1: two guys were on the wings, and then the last
Speaker 1: guy always trails. That's been the same at every level,
Speaker 1: at every basketball team I've ever played on ever, and
Speaker 1: I would imagine they still teach that in the league.
Speaker 1: The only time you'd run to the wing if you
Speaker 1: were the first guy down the floor is if the
Speaker 1: guy had of you as the ball handler and you
Speaker 1: were trailing the play. It just didn't make any sense
Speaker 1: to me. That's why I thought maybe time and score
Speaker 1: but or or just literally the biggest brain fart in
Speaker 1: the history of basketball. But that was that was bizarre.
Speaker 1: But as far as what you're saying, and real quickly
Speaker 1: about the Clipper, real quickly about the Clippers, the uh,
Speaker 1: this is what worries me about them with the nets
Speaker 1: is like you know, isolation is stag nation when it's
Speaker 1: leading to strictly contested jump shots. However, and like you said,
Speaker 1: the Clippers are twenty nine in the league or whatever
Speaker 1: in rim attempts, So that's something that's a real problem
Speaker 1: for them is they have a tendency to strictly lean
Speaker 1: on jump shooting. So what I like about the Lakers
Speaker 1: or the Sixers in a matchup with Brooklyn is when
Speaker 1: they would get into isolation, it would be Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: doing ripped through's going all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: on like a Kyrie Irving and a switch or a
Speaker 1: Joe Harris and a switch, Or it would be Lebron
Speaker 1: James doing the same thing as a post up player,
Speaker 1: or the Anthony Davis getting a mismatch on the glass
Speaker 1: while Lebron's got a center on him and getting an
Speaker 1: offensive rebound putback, which is something he did an amazing
Speaker 1: job of in the playoffs last year if you remember,
Speaker 1: especially against Miami, and that was where he had his
Speaker 1: biggest offensive impact. So like that's where I think, uh, like,
Speaker 1: you can beat a team that gets heavy into switching
Speaker 1: because isolation score isolation as a defense of trying to
Speaker 1: force isolations as a defense is great if you can
Speaker 1: force them into taking jump shots, but it can be
Speaker 1: a huge problem if you're just getting beat up around
Speaker 1: the basket. Um, as far as the the the schedule goes, Like,
Speaker 1: let's be clear, what's happening to the Lakers is not
Speaker 1: what's happening to some of these other teams because they
Speaker 1: literally can't win, Like they were going into that game
Speaker 1: against Utah, like we can't beat these guys. They would
Speaker 1: lose to Portland's tonight if Dennis wasn't playing. That's how
Speaker 1: that's how poorly constructed this roster is without Dennis and
Speaker 1: a d I truly believe that, Um, what's happening to
Speaker 1: all these other teams is more a product of just
Speaker 1: ridiculous death around the league. Like Charlotte's good. You can
Speaker 1: lose to Charlotte, Washington's good. Like Washington's beaten everybody. They
Speaker 1: beat the I just I've listed it the other day,
Speaker 1: Like they beat the Nuggets, they beat uh. I think
Speaker 1: they beat the Nuggets twice actually at the double check.
Speaker 1: But they beat Boston, they beat the Lakers, like the
Speaker 1: Clippers are literally the only team they've lost to in
Speaker 1: the last like two and a half weeks. Like all
Speaker 1: of these teams that you're playing are so good that
Speaker 1: if you bring lackadaisical effort, you're gonna get beat. And
Speaker 1: and I think in every regular season, every team goes
Speaker 1: through bouts of lackadaisical effort. And so with the depth
Speaker 1: of the league now that's just more likely to get
Speaker 1: you beat. And that's what's been so interesting about Utah
Speaker 1: is like it doesn't make sense for them to be
Speaker 1: trying as hard as they are. They're trying harder than
Speaker 1: every team in the league, like by a pretty significant margin.
Speaker 1: When's the last time you saw them come out and
Speaker 1: lay a negg like they got something to prove And
Speaker 1: when the wait you have every shot going into I
Speaker 1: feel like it's tough. But like I think, like you
Speaker 1: said that, we're like what five games down right now
Speaker 1: in the standings. UM. I remember last year, Milwaukee I
Speaker 1: think had like a six game lead. Um. I think
Speaker 1: by the All Star break as well, and then then
Speaker 1: before you know, the COVID ended the season. I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers were one game back. They caught Milwaukee because
Speaker 1: I think every team does go through a cold. Utah
Speaker 1: is gonna lose. Like it's They're not gonna play like
Speaker 1: the seventy three win Bulls. I feel like they're I
Speaker 1: just don't see them that kind of roster, that kind
Speaker 1: of team on the shooting is gonna go cold eventually.
Speaker 1: But they just have a ton of guys who just
Speaker 1: who have no conscience from three and when you do that,
Speaker 1: and then they obviously are feeling good. Mitchell and go
Speaker 1: Bart are young enough. They don't They're not like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have to save myself at the playoffs, so they're
Speaker 1: gonna go hard every night. I think I want to
Speaker 1: compare them to like Hawks. I feel like Mitchell's better
Speaker 1: than whoever's on that team. But it kind of feels
Speaker 1: that way. It feels like a team that's running to
Speaker 1: the regular season. Um, you as watching the Calves a lot.
Speaker 1: He saw those Raptor teams that would really kill in
Speaker 1: the regular season two right, and then and the playoff
Speaker 1: comes in games change. That space that you get is
Speaker 1: like a little tighter. Um, I'm watching like DeRozan, his
Speaker 1: mid range pull ups just don't go in as much
Speaker 1: when when the game's tightened up. So that that's kind
Speaker 1: of kind of feel about them. But they're a good team.
Speaker 1: They're they're gonna go hard every night. I don't think
Speaker 1: they're they're gonna let up at all, but I do
Speaker 1: think they'll start they'll go through a losing stretch. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that would be enough for the Lakers
Speaker 1: to catch them, um, but we'll we'll see. So I
Speaker 1: I do think it's like what they're doing is impressive,
Speaker 1: Like I I never wanna you know, undercut winning. But
Speaker 1: I still think the Milwaukee Bucks are the best example
Speaker 1: of them in the sense that, like you know, I
Speaker 1: saw the stat that got thrown around on Twitter a
Speaker 1: couple It was like a week ago as when they
Speaker 1: were at the Bucks wereing that losing streak, like going
Speaker 1: back to like February of last year, the Bucks were
Speaker 1: below five hundred. They might have creeved back up a
Speaker 1: five hundred with this recent winning streak that they're on. Um,
Speaker 1: But they like they've been more or less of average
Speaker 1: basketball team for a long time. And I think I
Speaker 1: think it has to do with scouting. Like when you
Speaker 1: when you watch a team, like when you watch Brooklyn
Speaker 1: for instance, like you can really see why they're winning.
Speaker 1: They just have this huge talent advantage and their defense
Speaker 1: is bothering people because it forces them into isolation and
Speaker 1: causes stagnation and blah blah blah. But when you watch
Speaker 1: like Utah, it's like it's kind of gimmicky. That's this
Speaker 1: defense where Rudy gobarts camping around the paint and no
Speaker 1: one has really explored the ways to get him out
Speaker 1: of the paint, and they just put relentless uh pressure
Speaker 1: on you from the three point line, which causes you know,
Speaker 1: this kind of cascading effect of driving lanes where it's
Speaker 1: like driving kick and driving kick and driving kick, and
Speaker 1: then somebody gets open and then once they get a
Speaker 1: little bit of confidence, they just start bombing away and
Speaker 1: they can they can blow people out. But over time,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see scouting player role. Uh. This growing schedule
Speaker 1: in the in the second half of the season might
Speaker 1: get them all. It takes like kind of like what
Speaker 1: happened with the Lakers who were shooting so well to
Speaker 1: start the year and then suddenly went into the slump.
Speaker 1: All it takes is like a little tough break with
Speaker 1: your schedule, and you could go into a slump yourself.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know the in the Jazz by the way,
Speaker 1: where you know they've been winning anyway because of injury luck.
Speaker 1: They keep playing all these teams without their best players,
Speaker 1: Like like they played Philly without embad. You know, they
Speaker 1: lost the Clippers with their guys, and then beat the
Speaker 1: Clippers when Kawiet Paul George didn't play. You know, they
Speaker 1: played the Bucks without Drew Holiday, they played the Lakers
Speaker 1: without Anthony Davison Denner shooter. Like, I don't really know
Speaker 1: what to make of them, but they're gonna end up
Speaker 1: going on some Eastern Conference road trip where they're gonna
Speaker 1: play like Philly, Boston and Brooklyn back to back to
Speaker 1: back in one week and they're gonna get their ass
Speaker 1: kicked and it's and and that's gonna be kind of
Speaker 1: brings them down to earth. I they're a good team.
Speaker 1: I just I I refuse to believe that that either
Speaker 1: or that the Lakers would losing them in the Planters.
Speaker 1: I just refused to believe. What was your second Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's funny. I didn't I didn't know you were
Speaker 1: gonna go with the cruise, so and th h t
Speaker 1: um kind of uh. And I want to say lowering
Speaker 1: their value, but I guess showing like what they are
Speaker 1: in the league kind of thing. I kind of wrote
Speaker 1: down the opposite. I think this gives like shrewder a
Speaker 1: real like, hey, so I am the ball Hannah, like
Speaker 1: I am the secondary offense. I need to be aggressive.
Speaker 1: I hope this. I don't think I think this will
Speaker 1: do that. I think this shows his importance to the team,
Speaker 1: not just for fans, but like to the coaching to
Speaker 1: him to like know that he's he's like a big
Speaker 1: part of what they do on offense. UM. And I
Speaker 1: hope this kind of gives him the confidence to be
Speaker 1: more aggressive. I feel like this is this open and
Speaker 1: open things up for him. I'm not sure he'll get
Speaker 1: the extension right away um that he's looking for, but
Speaker 1: I think this show was like, yeah, I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: big part of this offense and when I'm not there
Speaker 1: that the team really struggles. And yeah, I think he'll
Speaker 1: give him a big boost here UM going forward because
Speaker 1: you can see his role like he would be aggressive
Speaker 1: some games and he'll have some like four for eight
Speaker 1: shot games, which should not happen. He should not be
Speaker 1: taking less than eight shots a game. Um go, So
Speaker 1: I hope this kind of makes him aggressive. I think
Speaker 1: he might have some rust tonight. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you think, like, you know, being off for like four
Speaker 1: games because he's not even allowed into the facility, I
Speaker 1: don't think right, So I think he's gonna be a
Speaker 1: big boost. I think he helps. He helps just normalize
Speaker 1: the offense, uh in a big way. So that that's
Speaker 1: my other silver lining here is that like hopefully Shrewder
Speaker 1: really realized like, oh yeah, I'm a big part of
Speaker 1: this team like this, this is why they signed me
Speaker 1: to be a big offensive hub here. So you actually
Speaker 1: make an interesting counterpoint any money that they save with
Speaker 1: Crusoe THHD, Like, if I'm Dennis, I'm like, give me
Speaker 1: the money, man, because like and that would be the
Speaker 1: time to ask for more than ever. It kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me, I'm a Cowboy fan. It kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me of what's happening with Dak Prescott. But uh, anyway,
Speaker 1: like yeah, I agree, like there there's there. Uh, It's
Speaker 1: never been more apparent how important he is to that team,
Speaker 1: and it goes to show you how like even with
Speaker 1: as bad as Rondo was last year, and you and
Speaker 1: I think are both Rondo truthers in the sense that
Speaker 1: we don't think he's very good, but it's just so
Speaker 1: it's so important to have coherent ball handling on the floor,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's what it kind of like slides
Speaker 1: down a food chain, right, So like everybody on the
Speaker 1: Lakers is like one or two levels too high on
Speaker 1: the food chain, and by putting Dennis Shrewder in there,
Speaker 1: it just slides everybody down the food chain. It gets
Speaker 1: back into a position where Lebron can be a role
Speaker 1: man where he's had a lot of success. There's been
Speaker 1: a Zach Low actually talked about this on his podcast
Speaker 1: the other day, But it's something that I've been seeing
Speaker 1: all year, which is, you know, and Lebron used to
Speaker 1: do this with George Hill in Cleveland in particular, used
Speaker 1: to do with uh with Kyrie as well. When you
Speaker 1: put Lebron as a pick and roll man, as the
Speaker 1: as the screener, uh, he's deadly and he does that
Speaker 1: a lot with Shrewder and has had a lot of success.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I know, I'm excited to have him back.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think people are going to
Speaker 1: be stunned at how quickly the Lakers start playing better
Speaker 1: with Dennis Shooter. I cannot possibly overstate how his loss was.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a classic example of how when we
Speaker 1: are evaluating basketball teams, we get so caught up and
Speaker 1: and just factoring an overall talent. And we and you
Speaker 1: and I beat this drum NonStop last year with the Clippers,
Speaker 1: But like how much we forget that, like this is
Speaker 1: a team sport. It's like there's a reason why we
Speaker 1: sit there and go like, oh, well, the all forwards
Speaker 1: lineup is getting killed. And you know this lineup that
Speaker 1: has Crusoe, k CP and and you know West Matthews
Speaker 1: or whatever and Labar and they they're killing everybody. It's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: because it's never a one on one sport, it's a
Speaker 1: it is a five man unit that kind of moves
Speaker 1: in unison with everything that they do. I talked about
Speaker 1: this yesterday a little bit about like defensive metrics and
Speaker 1: like still if things like oh, like you know, so
Speaker 1: and so our offensive players are shooting this percentage when
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is guarding them, or like you know Lebron
Speaker 1: is when he's guarded by Steph in the finals, shot
Speaker 1: this percentage or Kauhi or whatever it is. And it's like,
Speaker 1: there is no such thing in a five on five
Speaker 1: basketball game as a one on one play. If I'm
Speaker 1: posting up and I have a a player that that's
Speaker 1: one pass away, that is a dead eye shooter, and
Speaker 1: I have a stretch big who's in the opposite corner
Speaker 1: that's keeping help out of the paint, the defenders at
Speaker 1: a huge disadvantage. But if I'm playing in there's one
Speaker 1: bad shooter on the floor or a non floor spacing
Speaker 1: big or one guy in help is like a little
Speaker 1: bit more shaded to my side, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I can only drive right now. The defender can sit
Speaker 1: on my right hand or be mentally prepared for me
Speaker 1: to make a move right and now he's been put
Speaker 1: in a big advantage. And I just hate when we
Speaker 1: oversimplify things and shrewders just a perfect example of that. Really,
Speaker 1: what like maybe a top seventy player in the league,
Speaker 1: like top sixty player in the league, like he's no
Speaker 1: one is even considering him as even close to an
Speaker 1: All Star, but he is immensely valuable to what the
Speaker 1: five man units do for the Lakers immensely valuable. And
Speaker 1: and and what we talked about two like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't I think Lebron hung a minus twenty against Utah,
Speaker 1: So I don't think he's still is a positive, but
Speaker 1: he's been. He was actually a net positive without Shrewder
Speaker 1: and a D all season before last night's game. I
Speaker 1: would imagine he's kind of close to zero or slightly
Speaker 1: below zero. But that's that's the thing too, Like just
Speaker 1: having it so that you can stagger those guys as
Speaker 1: well will go a long way towards helping them win
Speaker 1: games overall as well. Yeah, and they were like five
Speaker 1: and one without a D I think, and then when
Speaker 1: Shrewder went out. Now they're like five and four without
Speaker 1: both of them. Um, he's a really big part. And
Speaker 1: I feel like they've been defending like Sam's Utah because
Speaker 1: that was just that was gone before they landed. But
Speaker 1: like they've defended well enough. I mean against Washington they
Speaker 1: got up seventeen and then just completely again that's that
Speaker 1: phrase that we use, like they don't put their foot
Speaker 1: off the gas, they just get out of the Car
Speaker 1: and they're like, we're done here, We've got we've gotten
Speaker 1: to where we need to go, and Washington got going.
Speaker 1: But I feel like they defended well enough. Um obviously
Speaker 1: aid helps a defense a lot, but they've still been
Speaker 1: wet fourth and defense. Like I said earlier, Um, they
Speaker 1: depend on they just can't get any buckets. I mean,
Speaker 1: Bradley Bale was just taking getting to the ram, scoring
Speaker 1: at will on KCP and when you can't score back,
Speaker 1: Lebron's taking step back threes to try to help the offense.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Shooter is a big Partum. I thought he
Speaker 1: was like all star level to start the year. He
Speaker 1: was like seventeen and like six. I think he's not
Speaker 1: gonna make the All Star team, but I thought he
Speaker 1: was playing like a star level for this for this squad.
Speaker 1: I hope you can get back to kind of get
Speaker 1: back to that and his just aggressiveness, his like flow,
Speaker 1: his swag, like that really helps the team. Like you
Speaker 1: could tell when he gets a switch, he gets all
Speaker 1: excited and he scored. When he scores on the big
Speaker 1: it's a team going. Things like that really help them
Speaker 1: when they just have nothing, teams can just load up
Speaker 1: on Lebron and but there's when there's no shooting around,
Speaker 1: you have guys that just aren't aggressive, um going to
Speaker 1: the basket who can't attack the rim. So yeah, he's exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And his point of attack defense um is is huge.
Speaker 1: Um he's he has a lot of good chemistry on
Speaker 1: defense with with a d as well. So yeah, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be missing. They're gonna need him against Dame tonight.
Speaker 1: I mean Dame has been I think the Blazer Blazers
Speaker 1: have lost three in a row, four in a row
Speaker 1: or something, but um, Dame Dame is gonna come in.
Speaker 1: He always cooks at Stable Center. He takes a personal
Speaker 1: for some reason, I don't know why that he just
Speaker 1: loves attacking us. So him and yes, yeah, Portland beat us.
Speaker 1: I mean we were a big I think on Portland
Speaker 1: as well, and I think, uh, they came back and
Speaker 1: uh and beat us. So and he's gonna be really
Speaker 1: needed tonight. Yeah. One of my favorite Dennis Shrewder memories
Speaker 1: from the season was the Oklahoma City game, the first
Speaker 1: one where Shakl just Alexander was just barbecuing him all right,
Speaker 1: and then he got the two biggest stops of the game.
Speaker 1: On him that sent the game to overtime. That that
Speaker 1: the post up play where he forced him into that
Speaker 1: really tough floater, and then the play where he got
Speaker 1: beat off the dribble, and then just had this absurd
Speaker 1: recovery play where he was like way behind and then
Speaker 1: just like did a one two step, took off his
Speaker 1: left foot and just like blocked him from behind. Uh.
Speaker 1: He just has this competitive energy to him. And then
Speaker 1: kind of similar to that food chain thing we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier, having him as your primary point of attack
Speaker 1: defender against the Dame or against like really any point
Speaker 1: of attack guard like Mike Conley, it just slides all
Speaker 1: of the other Laker defensive players down the food chain
Speaker 1: guarding inferior players and allows them to be more successful.
Speaker 1: Um So, my third, uh silver lining is that Lebron
Speaker 1: looks great physically and he you know, he's still slumping
Speaker 1: with his jump shot, which I think is a product
Speaker 1: of a lot of things that has to do with
Speaker 1: overall workload. Uh and just said how that wears down
Speaker 1: his legs. One thing that I've really noticed is one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why Lebron has had a lot of
Speaker 1: success in his career as a jump shooter, even though
Speaker 1: he's not the most skilled player in the world, is
Speaker 1: that defenses have to play off of him a little
Speaker 1: bit um as a as a result of him just
Speaker 1: being a freight trained to the basket. But one thing
Speaker 1: I've noticed, which I think is actually really interesting is
Speaker 1: after the a d and Shrewder injuries, the defense has
Speaker 1: have been able to pack the paint a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And as a result of that, when you've got help
Speaker 1: defense behind you, the primary defender can get a little
Speaker 1: bit up into Lebron space. And you notice this a
Speaker 1: lot with Hochi Mura and uh even against Utah as well. Um,
Speaker 1: when you can actually ball pressure any guard and and
Speaker 1: there's there's a ton of help behind you, it's hard
Speaker 1: to shoot because now you're like you have to do
Speaker 1: some move to get separation, like a step back or
Speaker 1: a side step or some sort of other move. Whereas
Speaker 1: like a lot of what Lebron was doing successfully as
Speaker 1: a jump shooter when the team was at full strength
Speaker 1: was there's such offensive firepower on the floor that the
Speaker 1: there's not as much help, and now that primary defensive
Speaker 1: player has to go underneath the screen. The primary defensive
Speaker 1: player has to give a little bit more space to
Speaker 1: to to deal with Lebron's driving lane. He's just a
Speaker 1: little more comfortable with his jump shot, so that's something
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. However, physically he looks great.
Speaker 1: My guy Maples has been absolutely shredded for this that
Speaker 1: tweet that keeps getting brought up about uh. And we
Speaker 1: all have our moments, so I'm not talking trash. But
Speaker 1: he had that tweet where he's like all Rich Paul
Speaker 1: gave us the Bentley with five thousand miles. There was
Speaker 1: some concern. There was concern, I mean into that signing
Speaker 1: like like Lebron's old like this goes south. This could
Speaker 1: be the guy we pay a million dollars to to
Speaker 1: just have the late Kobe years kind of thing, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And he looks more athletic now
Speaker 1: then he did uh in any of the previous two
Speaker 1: seasons he had. He had that one transition dunk against
Speaker 1: Denver before halftime that literally looked like he was prime
Speaker 1: Cleveland Labron. He had another dunk against Utah coming down
Speaker 1: the lane the other nine where it was just like jeez,
Speaker 1: when the world is going on with this guy? So
Speaker 1: the one there is a sense of optimism that I
Speaker 1: would take from all of these losses, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron struggled with try to score with this very limited
Speaker 1: offensive group. Although he's still, as we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: is generating a lot of really high quality shots. But
Speaker 1: their Lebron looks great and and when this team is
Speaker 1: at full strength, if I said this, I tweeted this
Speaker 1: the other day, did you guys know that Lebron in
Speaker 1: you're a team? He's shooting a higher percentage right now
Speaker 1: from every area of the floor than he did last year.
Speaker 1: He's shooting a higher percentage at the rim, he's shooting
Speaker 1: a higher percentage from mid range, he's shooting a higher
Speaker 1: percentage from three, even after this ridiculous slump. And he
Speaker 1: looks more athletic than he did in your seventeen when
Speaker 1: he was second m VP voting and I, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: should have won. So, like, this guy is better then
Speaker 1: he has been. I mean, the last week has been weird,
Speaker 1: but like, I think that's something to derive a lot
Speaker 1: of confidence from. If you're a Laker fan, Yeah, he
Speaker 1: looks awesome. Do you remember like he was early in
Speaker 1: the season, he was getting like cornered three attempts, and
Speaker 1: we're like Lebron getting corner three attempts, Like he's getting
Speaker 1: a catch shoe, look at the look at the laces
Speaker 1: on the ball, and then take the shot. He's even
Speaker 1: betting with his teammates in the corner. He's gonna make it.
Speaker 1: He's not getting those anymore. There's no no one else
Speaker 1: driving and kicking allowing him to do that. Like that's
Speaker 1: why his shots kind of go down. He's taking a
Speaker 1: lot of like step back threes against switches. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: he looks awesome. He can get to the rim whenever
Speaker 1: he wants. I remember after the Brooklyn game, Um, someone
Speaker 1: asked him, like, oh, did you have trouble with their switching.
Speaker 1: He's like, what are you are you talking about? Like
Speaker 1: I know exactly how to beat that, like when it matters,
Speaker 1: Like he's like, I got whatever I wanted. Like I
Speaker 1: think he shot like eighteen for thirties and he's like,
Speaker 1: I got whatever I wanted. I can get to the
Speaker 1: rim when I want. So no, it's no problem for
Speaker 1: me and against Utah too, Like I have no worry
Speaker 1: about him. He got to the room when he wanted.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm really really good is good defender.
Speaker 1: I just don't think he stopped Lebron for doing what
Speaker 1: he wanted to do. He got to the basket, he's
Speaker 1: still finished. He got and once when he wanted to.
Speaker 1: Obviously he didn't have his foot on the gas the
Speaker 1: whole time. I think his defense is kind of stepped
Speaker 1: back a little bit. But yeah, he looks like he
Speaker 1: needed this thing. This thing I want to ask you
Speaker 1: because people are talking about his minutes right, Like every
Speaker 1: single broadcast is like, um oh, he's now number one
Speaker 1: in the league in minutes since uh since a d
Speaker 1: went down. I just like, and people are comparing this
Speaker 1: like the Kobe year, right where like Kobe played a
Speaker 1: bunch of minutes and then Tours Achilles. I've watched that
Speaker 1: full season. I watched, I'm watching this whole season. These
Speaker 1: minutes aren't the same that, Like, I'm watching Lebron and
Speaker 1: he is not. He's playing forty minutes, but he is
Speaker 1: not going for forty minutes that he's he's taking his time,
Speaker 1: he's you know, he's he's taking breaks on defense, taking
Speaker 1: breaks on offense. Like I I have no concern, like
Speaker 1: if he wants to play the full seventy two. I
Speaker 1: don't have like an issue with it. Um, I would
Speaker 1: like him to rest if you but I don't misue.
Speaker 1: Do you, like, do you have a problem with this minutes?
Speaker 1: I feel like he's fine. I don't think these minutes
Speaker 1: are too heavy on him. Maybe the over times I
Speaker 1: would like to, like, you know, keep down. I don't
Speaker 1: think we need to be in overtime every night. I
Speaker 1: don't think you should be going into overtime trying to
Speaker 1: trying to win every night. But what do you think
Speaker 1: about the minutes that are that are going on for
Speaker 1: him that he's appat. I don't care at all. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I may have said this to you at
Speaker 1: some point in the past as well. But like I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer, and you just listen to your body,
Speaker 1: like you know, uh, we are a time obsessed society.
Speaker 1: It's actually a conversation I was happening with my my
Speaker 1: wife last night. We were talking about something completely unrelated,
Speaker 1: but like like like so many like old fashioned business
Speaker 1: people are obsessed with like butts and seats, like this
Speaker 1: idea that's like how many hours did you put in?
Speaker 1: How many hours did you put in? And it's funny
Speaker 1: because I run my own business, and like everything that
Speaker 1: I do is not based on an hourly basis. It's
Speaker 1: based on what I accomplish, Like what did I actually
Speaker 1: get done today? Because that's the only thing that's paying
Speaker 1: me at the end. And it's funny because that's that's
Speaker 1: a hundred percent how I feel about physical activity. Like
Speaker 1: you know, uh, it's not about how many minutes you
Speaker 1: work out or how many calories you might burn through
Speaker 1: whatever it is you're doing. It's about like what are
Speaker 1: you accomplishing while you're doing it? And and that's the
Speaker 1: thing with Lebron it's like, you know, he knows how
Speaker 1: much energy he's expended, how much impact his joints have taken,
Speaker 1: how what kind of recovery he needs, Like he he
Speaker 1: actually had a comment that he said, I think it
Speaker 1: was two games ago against Washington where he's like, uh,
Speaker 1: he said something. I can't remember the exact words, but
Speaker 1: it's something along the lines of like my advisors have
Speaker 1: told me what I'm doing is okay, I can't remember
Speaker 1: exactly what it was, something along those lines, And I
Speaker 1: believe I think, you know, when people talk about Lebron, no,
Speaker 1: he invests a million dollars into his body every year.
Speaker 1: You know, you realize, but all that money is going
Speaker 1: to it's going to like nutrition, and it's going to recovery,
Speaker 1: and it's going to advisors, and it's going to medical
Speaker 1: professionals that are giving him opinions on what he's doing.
Speaker 1: And you know, I just think, like, like I I
Speaker 1: do think that, like if he pushes himself to the
Speaker 1: point where he's got kind of a bang up type
Speaker 1: of injury and he's still going that that's done, but
Speaker 1: he hasn't led us to believe anything like that's going
Speaker 1: on where I would sit him as like especially in
Speaker 1: his grueling where they have eight back to backs or
Speaker 1: something like that, nine back to backs in the next
Speaker 1: in the next half. So if he tweaks his ankle,
Speaker 1: then you see him go down and tighten up his
Speaker 1: shoe and then he says after the game like all
Speaker 1: on playing tomorrow night in Memphis. I'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that doesn't seem smart. But the as far as what
Speaker 1: he's doing now, as long as he's not banged up,
Speaker 1: he's fine. It's just he needs to listen to his body.
Speaker 1: And like, dude, you know, I've had a couple of
Speaker 1: stress reactions. One in my knee and one of my foot.
Speaker 1: One one when I was in college. One was after college,
Speaker 1: like your body tells you like you're like when I
Speaker 1: actually had the bad foot. One like my foot was
Speaker 1: feeling a little funky for a while. I just didn't
Speaker 1: listen to it, you know, like your body communicates with
Speaker 1: you and tells you when you're experiencing wear and tear injuries,
Speaker 1: you know, did whether it's tendonitis or a little bit
Speaker 1: of pain in one in one spot or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And so as long as he's listening to those things,
Speaker 1: I I trust him, and I'm not worried about it,
Speaker 1: like I I. You know, a lot of people were
Speaker 1: saying he should take the game against Utah off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I would have said, okay, fine, in the sense
Speaker 1: that I had thought they had no chance to win.
Speaker 1: But like, he likes playing basketball, and he probably saw
Speaker 1: it as an opportunity to keep his body in shape
Speaker 1: or whatever it is, you know, he takes he takes
Speaker 1: pride in it too, right, Like he's taking obviously some
Speaker 1: kind of pride um. I don't know if it's the
Speaker 1: m v P chase or whatever, but he wants to
Speaker 1: play all the games, and who am I to say, like, no,
Speaker 1: you need to rest this one game, you know, and
Speaker 1: take these thirty minutes off, And he's like, what difference
Speaker 1: does that make in the whole season. So, um, he's
Speaker 1: gonna get the All Star break too coming up, or
Speaker 1: some kind of break. He's gonna play in the game obviously,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm fine with his minutes. I just don't like,
Speaker 1: I see a lot of uproar, and I feel like
Speaker 1: the minutes kind of don't tell the whole story obviously,
Speaker 1: like you always say you need to always take context
Speaker 1: into it, and uh, he's playing forty minutes, but I
Speaker 1: feel like twenty of those are kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna help right here because you don't want to,
Speaker 1: or yeah, I'm not closing out on a guy that
Speaker 1: I just don't respect as a shooter, and you know,
Speaker 1: things like that he does all game, which I totally
Speaker 1: find with he's Lebron James. He shouldn't be going full
Speaker 1: force the whole night. So yeah, I'm not I have
Speaker 1: no problem with his minutes. He's number one and minutes
Speaker 1: right now. I think that will level out when a
Speaker 1: d comes back. Shrewder obviously be able to play with himself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's still I think, at a career low in minutes,
Speaker 1: even with all the like, even with the craziness that's
Speaker 1: happened now. So I think he's fine. What was your
Speaker 1: third silver lining? So my third silver lining is that
Speaker 1: the shooting can't get any worse like this. There's no
Speaker 1: way that it can get anywhere so that at all.
Speaker 1: So in the last six games, which is really what
Speaker 1: a d has missed, Um, we're one in five right,
Speaker 1: the only uh, the only win was against Minnesota, I believe. Um.
Speaker 1: And so the Lakers are shooting twenty nine from three now, Like,
Speaker 1: I know that that seems bad. What makes it worse?
Speaker 1: It's like most of these are catch and shoot like
Speaker 1: as you said, Lebron's creating the most open looks um
Speaker 1: that the Lakers have had. UM, and they're just breaking threes.
Speaker 1: West Matthews had a bunch last night where they just
Speaker 1: went in and out. KCP is starting to get a
Speaker 1: little bit on track, but again he went cold I
Speaker 1: think last last night. And then UM, yes, I don't
Speaker 1: think this can get any worse. We saw this. I
Speaker 1: think you bring up the bubble shooting a lot with
Speaker 1: the Lakers went really cold. Um. I saw someone tweet
Speaker 1: I forgot who it was. They're like, oh, Utah has
Speaker 1: the third through ten best players if you ranked, if
Speaker 1: you rank the teams, And obviously that's not how basketball works,
Speaker 1: but that's just a product of the shooting. The Lakers
Speaker 1: make a couple more shots, that tweet doesn't go up,
Speaker 1: so uh yeah, it's just it's just funny looking at
Speaker 1: so I don't think you can get anywhere. It's like
Speaker 1: they're just shooting all awf of from everywhere, especially from
Speaker 1: three point line, and that just clogs everything up. There's
Speaker 1: nothing open. Uh, these guys they're running, I think I
Speaker 1: see people like, although Well needs to switch up the
Speaker 1: offensive scheme. I'm like, these dudes are coming off curls
Speaker 1: and they just don't respect. And no one's gonna No
Speaker 1: one's running to Chase West, mat West, Matthews off the line.
Speaker 1: No one's running to Chase Crusoe k CP right now,
Speaker 1: and you have guys just clogging the paint. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know what different scheme is gonna do anything.
Speaker 1: I don't know what kind of like uh, different flares
Speaker 1: or anything's gonna work. So that's why I stillver lining here.
Speaker 1: It can't get anywhere is maybe it will, maybe they
Speaker 1: shoot one for twenty tonight from three, but I just
Speaker 1: I just don't think, uh, you can any worse than
Speaker 1: it is right now. So nowhere to go but up
Speaker 1: for the shooting. I agree with you, and and to me,
Speaker 1: there's a whole other element to this, Like the reason
Speaker 1: why I compared to the bubble is, you know, in
Speaker 1: the bubble seating games there were massive effort problems for
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and the reason why I think things turned
Speaker 1: around and like in every pivotal game if that playoff run,
Speaker 1: the Lakers shot really well. And I think one of
Speaker 1: the biggest reasons why is again it's a cascading effect.
Speaker 1: Like when things got you know, when it got to
Speaker 1: nut nutcrunching time, Lebron and a d put immense pressure
Speaker 1: on the rim by virtue of just them like being
Speaker 1: super engaged on the offensive end. When when when it
Speaker 1: gets really get down to the really important moments of
Speaker 1: these playoffs series, and when you put immense pressure on
Speaker 1: the rim, the defense reacts and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: your shot quality is just amazing. And you know, I
Speaker 1: always talk about the law of diminishing returns when I
Speaker 1: talked about teams like Brooklyn, you know, Kyrie Irving is
Speaker 1: fifty times better than Wesley Matthews at creating three point
Speaker 1: shots for himself. However, if Wesley Matthews is wide open
Speaker 1: in the corner, he's going to hit it at a
Speaker 1: much closer rate to Kyrie uh than he would as
Speaker 1: like some crazy step back shot. And so what you know,
Speaker 1: people worry about the quality of the shooters on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but when you get into these you know, really intense
Speaker 1: playoffs series in Lebron and a D and Dennis Shrewd
Speaker 1: really dial up the offensive intensity and put a ton
Speaker 1: of pressure are on the rim, the Lakers are just
Speaker 1: gonna get insanely good shot quality. And that's why, like,
Speaker 1: you know, they go into the Miami Heat series and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, you know, after the top two players,
Speaker 1: you know, Miami has the next seven best guys, and
Speaker 1: it's like and then all of a sudden, everybody on
Speaker 1: the Lakers just shoots their lights out that entire series.
Speaker 1: It's because they're all wide open looks, because Lebron and
Speaker 1: A D physically dominated that series around the paint to
Speaker 1: create wide open shots. And this goes back to what
Speaker 1: we were talking about with the Clippers. The Clippers take
Speaker 1: too many jump shots, and they their entire philosophies outside
Speaker 1: in the Lakers. And you know, this is something that
Speaker 1: I think you taught as a really good job of
Speaker 1: as well. And Russell Westbrook of Late with Washington is
Speaker 1: doing a really good job of this. When you create
Speaker 1: three point shots that are a result of pressure on
Speaker 1: the rim, they just go in at a higher rate.
Speaker 1: It's just a simple reality of basketball. Yeah, definitely. And
Speaker 1: it's funny because right now the Lakers, the only one
Speaker 1: putting press on the rim is Lebron, right, so like,
Speaker 1: these these shots are open, but it's tiring him out,
Speaker 1: and his threes have gone down, and he's part of
Speaker 1: this bad percentage. So I feel like we're just watching
Speaker 1: the same movie again. We heard this all last year.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have enough shooting. They have a d Lebron
Speaker 1: and an awesome defense, which I think is even better
Speaker 1: than might even be better than last year. They need
Speaker 1: a baseline level of shooting, right, They need enough shooting
Speaker 1: where teams have to respect and enough to where like
Speaker 1: they can't send that help on a d driving to
Speaker 1: the rim just as much where they can't help on
Speaker 1: Lebron getting to the rim just as much. And then
Speaker 1: when you have they need one guy hot a game.
Speaker 1: And it's funny seeing all these dudes go cold at
Speaker 1: the same time, because like if they if this was
Speaker 1: spread out a little more like West Matthew was cold,
Speaker 1: but KCP has it going, you can kind of work
Speaker 1: it out a bit more. But they have everyone cold,
Speaker 1: so it's and they're losing them. That just makes them
Speaker 1: lose the math game every night. Um and I think
Speaker 1: I think Utah had eight threes in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: Um made made eight threes in the first quarter, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers I think took like eleven for the half
Speaker 1: or just some crazy you know math question that And
Speaker 1: it was crazy to see that they were only down.
Speaker 1: Someone said, I can't believe they're down sixteen, only because
Speaker 1: they were just losing the math game, like crazy, So yeah,
Speaker 1: that should that's just turn back. But chasing guys off
Speaker 1: the three point line, that's kind of their defense principle,
Speaker 1: which by the way, the Lakers do the same thing.
Speaker 1: But that that tells me just logically that their help
Speaker 1: defenders are a little more keen to chase people off
Speaker 1: the line instead of over help and it works because
Speaker 1: Rudy go bears in the paint um. But if you notice,
Speaker 1: Marcusol was just shooting wide open threes in that game
Speaker 1: because Rudy didn't respect him. When they go five at
Speaker 1: the five, you're gonna have to respect out there. And
Speaker 1: and guess what, You've got a team that over helps
Speaker 1: on the three point line. It's gonna be Dennis shooter
Speaker 1: and Lebron to the rim all the time. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be something. Yeah, I was freshakes Market, like two threes
Speaker 1: in a row, and I'm like, you have that every
Speaker 1: single time, Like it was the same place he needs to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Lebron comes off the pick, does that little behind the
Speaker 1: back back past him. Mark at the top of the three,
Speaker 1: he hit one, they'd run the exact same play. He
Speaker 1: had another, and then the next play Lebron did the
Speaker 1: same thing. He decided to like fake swing and I'm like, Mark,
Speaker 1: just take the shot. You just hit two in a row, right,
Speaker 1: Just I know you're an unselfish you know, a pastor.
Speaker 1: I know this, but like, just shoot it again. Rudy's
Speaker 1: not going to defend you. And again eight is gonna
Speaker 1: you know, pump fake drive to the room, step back whatever,
Speaker 1: he's gonna do all this stuff when when that matters,
Speaker 1: and he takes that matchup personally as well for some reason.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I'm glad he does. I'm glad he does.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Mark needs to take those man, especially right now,
Speaker 1: Lebron needs any kind of helping get in Marks. Mark's
Speaker 1: good enough shooter in my opinion, Like he's not the
Speaker 1: shooter he's shown so far, like he's not this I
Speaker 1: think he is. Yeah, And he's taking more too, and
Speaker 1: he's taking like I think he Like you always say,
Speaker 1: it's tough to like take one when it's like the
Speaker 1: third quarter, when you haven't shot all game, you know,
Speaker 1: like you're not in any kind of rhythm. So I'm
Speaker 1: glad he's taking. Yeah, I'm glad he's taking more. He's
Speaker 1: even like posting up a little bit. She shot like
Speaker 1: a fade away over Rudy Gobert which didn't go in.
Speaker 1: But I just like him taking shots. I have no
Speaker 1: problem with him being aggressive anytime. He's so unselfish that
Speaker 1: he's never gonna ballhog or or you know, be a
Speaker 1: black hole on offense. So I like him to be
Speaker 1: more aggressive, especially with what uh especially with what they're
Speaker 1: working with offensively right now. So Marcus Oliver's last ten
Speaker 1: games is forty from three on four attempts a game,
Speaker 1: So that's something that's something too to be to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. That's positive. So we have one question
Speaker 1: in our comments. You and I actually already touched on this,
Speaker 1: but I want to just quick reiterate so that we
Speaker 1: can make sure that we get to our listeners. Um.
Speaker 1: I think this is from Joe Um question. Does Lebron's
Speaker 1: age have have anything to do with it being tougher
Speaker 1: for him to create shots now? Just seems to be
Speaker 1: a little tougher for him this year or am I
Speaker 1: way off? So you and I talked about this earlier.
Speaker 1: My take on it is just uh, kind of that
Speaker 1: cascading effect of their limited offensive personnel right now allowing
Speaker 1: the primary defender to be a little bit up into
Speaker 1: Lebron's grill in a way that normally they can't and
Speaker 1: just a lot of help. Lebron's overall shot quality that
Speaker 1: he's getting right now is lower than it normally is,
Speaker 1: and that's gonna just naturally manifest in him having to
Speaker 1: to take tougher shots, and he's gonna and he's gonna
Speaker 1: what do you think? Yeah, I agree with that. He's
Speaker 1: taking like he really took out that. You know, he
Speaker 1: had that like people would laugh at it. It became
Speaker 1: like a meme or whatever. He would stare at the
Speaker 1: ball before he takes that. Yeah, before that step aactor.
Speaker 1: He really took that out for the most part this year. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of seeing that come back a little bit
Speaker 1: because it's just no space. He's every time he drives
Speaker 1: to the rim, there's three bodies and then when he
Speaker 1: kicks it out, no one's making a shot or people
Speaker 1: are holding um, and so he's having to go to
Speaker 1: that more. Um, that shot is coming back. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he's taking a lot of tough ones. He's like getting
Speaker 1: to the mid range. Um, teams are switching in and
Speaker 1: he's just having to take tough step step back mid
Speaker 1: range ones. So I think he's fine. He's taking tougher
Speaker 1: shots right now. But um, but like you said, he's
Speaker 1: in the best physical shape that I've maybe seen him
Speaker 1: as a laker. He's he's still getting yeah, and he's
Speaker 1: still getting to the rim when he wants. UM, I
Speaker 1: don't think, like I said before, Rudy Gilbert really changed much.
Speaker 1: I thought that Washington as well. Um, the Lakers went
Speaker 1: down four and he just decided I'm gonna get to
Speaker 1: the rim and got like an ones and sent the
Speaker 1: game into overtime. I think so, yeah, that I think
Speaker 1: he's fine. Yeah. So. And the thing too, is like
Speaker 1: he's he's over here. I just looked up fift since
Speaker 1: a D went down, So it's not like he's missing
Speaker 1: a ton of shots. I mean he's he's shooting poorly
Speaker 1: from the perimeter, but he's still getting quality shots from
Speaker 1: the post and in the in and around the basket.
Speaker 1: His scoring numbers are down, He's at twenty six points
Speaker 1: per game since the a D injury. But that that
Speaker 1: tells you all you need to know, because if they
Speaker 1: were guarding him straight up by virtue of the limitations
Speaker 1: of the other personnel, he'd be taking a lot more
Speaker 1: shots and he'd have a lot more points. And that
Speaker 1: just that shows you that he's he's being guarded heavily
Speaker 1: as a result of the lack of talent. Now the
Speaker 1: um the reality. The one thing that I would nit
Speaker 1: pick him on is I think he needs to do
Speaker 1: better job take care of the ball. Um. But but
Speaker 1: I do think part of that is just like he's
Speaker 1: playing with limited offensive players and he's trying to make
Speaker 1: something into nothing. And I really thinks, Um, another question.
Speaker 1: Let's see the Lakers are obviously going to take a
Speaker 1: look at that buyout trade market. Who should be on
Speaker 1: the list? What do you think? Yeah, it's see they
Speaker 1: just wave when Quinn Cook right shout out Quinn Cook. Uh,
Speaker 1: who's an awesome Laker here? But yeah, they waved him.
Speaker 1: So they have two spots available. Um, A lot of
Speaker 1: people said, you know, Boogie Cousins. I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: like you would be like the last option. I feel
Speaker 1: like they need one more shooter maybe and then maybe
Speaker 1: another like a wing defender would be nice. I don't
Speaker 1: really know who's on the market. Um. I saw gun Robinson,
Speaker 1: the third I think just got released. I think he'd
Speaker 1: be like, okay, pick up. I really don't know who
Speaker 1: else would really help, because what we're talking about here
Speaker 1: is playoffs, right like you you don't want to get
Speaker 1: You don't want to get players for like the A
Speaker 1: D injury that's coming out right now. You don't want
Speaker 1: to sign a guy because of this little stretch um
Speaker 1: that they've been missing. So any guys who are going
Speaker 1: to play in the playoffs, and I really don't know
Speaker 1: who's available for that. I think they're gonna wait, um
Speaker 1: for the full buy out market and see who gets available. UM.
Speaker 1: I like a guy like Trevor Reason, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: mad at that. UM. I don't have a problem with
Speaker 1: Boogie if like he's if they don't sign anyone and
Speaker 1: they just want to keep him on UM and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like that would be my choice. How about you?
Speaker 1: So okay. A couple of quick questions came through Chris
Speaker 1: Taps and Hassan Whiteside. I don't First of all, as
Speaker 1: far as Kris STAPs goes, no one know the Lakers
Speaker 1: aren't getting any major key piece. That's not happening. I
Speaker 1: would not touch us on Whiteside with the tent football. UM,
Speaker 1: I don't think they need it big either. And this
Speaker 1: kind of goes to my answer the question, which is, like,
Speaker 1: I you know, first of all, NBA history tells us
Speaker 1: that buy out guys primarily choose based on minutes because
Speaker 1: the basketball players and they like to play basketball. Like
Speaker 1: there's so many examples as of late where teams that
Speaker 1: are where player player would come available in the buy
Speaker 1: out market, you'd be like, oh, I bet you he
Speaker 1: goes to the Lakers, or I bet you he goes
Speaker 1: to sign with the Calves in Cleveland or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: and they end up going to like Milwaukee or some
Speaker 1: random team that truly needs that piece to play big minutes.
Speaker 1: And so when I look at the biot market, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, the Laker rotation is eleven deep now, and
Speaker 1: and they're gonna rink that when when when all the
Speaker 1: guys get back? So are in the playoffs, So when
Speaker 1: you look at it, it's gonna be the guards, Like
Speaker 1: it's gonna be kcp Wes, Caruso Dennis, and then it's
Speaker 1: gonna be that's four, and then it's gonna be Lebron Kuzma,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and Tre's that's eight, and then Marcusol is
Speaker 1: probably gonna play that's nine guys. So it's like, who
Speaker 1: are you kicking out of the rotation? And so from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, it's like, I doubt they'll be able to
Speaker 1: get any really quality buy out pieces by virtue of
Speaker 1: just the limited minutes that are available. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: it's like you don't you don't necessarily need them. Um,
Speaker 1: if if I, if I had to gun to my
Speaker 1: head think of something that they could get would be
Speaker 1: a shooter. The idea there is like you're having issues
Speaker 1: of spacing. You know, some of your other guards are cold,
Speaker 1: and your ideas is like, Okay, if I have Anthony Davis, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Dennis Shooter and KCP out there, uh and those who
Speaker 1: are so good defensively, then maybe I can fit in,
Speaker 1: you know, a limited defensive defensive player that can knock
Speaker 1: down shot and we could just cover for him and
Speaker 1: hopefully it just opens things up. Uh, you know at
Speaker 1: certain stretches of the game. But I just you know,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are in good shape with their roster. They
Speaker 1: really are. I know it's hard to see that. It's
Speaker 1: hard to see the forest for the trees right now,
Speaker 1: but I really do think they're in good shape. Uh,
Speaker 1: we'll take one more. Let's see, do we need to
Speaker 1: focus on getting a big or three and d wing
Speaker 1: if given a choice. So we just we just talked
Speaker 1: about that's basically, you know, more or less we think
Speaker 1: they need shooting. I don't. I don't think they need
Speaker 1: a big because in the playoffs they use their bigs
Speaker 1: less anyway, and Mark and Trez and a d are enough,
Speaker 1: especially since Lebron plays the four you know really well
Speaker 1: when it comes to that point, you got anything else? Man?
Speaker 1: I think that said. This was fun, This was exciting.
Speaker 1: It was good to go to go through this and
Speaker 1: do this, do this weekly. So thank you to everyone
Speaker 1: who who tuned in as well, Like, yeah, we got
Speaker 1: the podcast version will be up here and I'll do
Speaker 1: it right away, so give me like fifteen minutes, Roger.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you, man, I'm really looking forward to
Speaker 1: doing this. I'm glad we found a time in our
Speaker 1: schedules at work. Everybody else'll you next week? Awesome