Speaker 1: Hmmm, al right, everybody, welcome to the State of the
Speaker 1: Lakers podcast, this time in our old fashioned formats where
Speaker 1: you could see our pretty faces as we talk some
Speaker 1: hoops and we have fancy microphones and all of the
Speaker 1: things that we gave up for the last couple of
Speaker 1: months to do our our spaces, which are still Eventually,
Speaker 1: I think that that's gonna be our bread and butter
Speaker 1: next year. I would imagine us as we go work
Speaker 1: through the season. But it does keep us late up
Speaker 1: late at night. So during these non Lakers games, I
Speaker 1: think it's nice for you how to take a break
Speaker 1: and do some some stuff more naturally in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day. Rog. How you doing, man, how's your
Speaker 1: trip to Vegas? Did you have fun? Yeah? It was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Man. That was my second trip
Speaker 1: to Vegas in like three weeks, I think. So that's
Speaker 1: I think that's enough Vegas for me for at least
Speaker 1: a month. Um, that's more than enough, more than enough
Speaker 1: time living in hotels with casinos and smoke smell and
Speaker 1: all those all those great things. Yeah, how was your
Speaker 1: trip to Mexico? I think that's cool. The hotter, the
Speaker 1: hot as you can imagine, everything's really cheap down there,
Speaker 1: which is nice. So it's a it's a fun place
Speaker 1: to take a cheap vacation. Did you bet on any
Speaker 1: of the games while you were in Vegas? I didn't know,
Speaker 1: because like the last time I was in Vegas, I
Speaker 1: bet on the Warriors Memphis UM playing game and I
Speaker 1: threw money on the Warriors and I said never, I
Speaker 1: said never again. I'm done. I'm done. I'm not doing
Speaker 1: that again. Yeah, so that I'm good on that. I
Speaker 1: did a little bit of gambling over there, but that
Speaker 1: was it, um. And it couldn't been hotter than it
Speaker 1: was in Vegas. In Mexico, it's like hundred and ten
Speaker 1: in Vegas. Oh yeah, I'm not. It's it's the humidity
Speaker 1: is what gets you down there. But Vegas is at
Speaker 1: least you're inside most of the time. I mean, except
Speaker 1: when you're walking around on the trip. But anyway, so, uh,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get started. So, guys, the game
Speaker 1: plan for today is we're gonna talk about last night's
Speaker 1: game a little bit um And then we had Roger
Speaker 1: and I had talked about how one of the main
Speaker 1: conversations that surrounded Lakers Twitter over the last few weeks
Speaker 1: has been this concept of, you know, the guys that
Speaker 1: are already on the roster from last year, guys like
Speaker 1: Andrew Drumming, guys like Dennis Schroder, guys like Alex Cruso
Speaker 1: and so on. We picked five names, um, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna do a little game of will they stay or
Speaker 1: will they go and kind of give our thoughts as
Speaker 1: to why they might go one way or the other. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and we're not gonna talk about potential guys to
Speaker 1: add to the roster, just whether or not those guys
Speaker 1: will be coming back or not. But let's talk about
Speaker 1: last night. So you know, for the record, in the
Speaker 1: answers to full disclosure, I I I bet that Phoenix
Speaker 1: would win against the spread, mainly just because I have
Speaker 1: a couple of philosophies with the NBA Finals that I've
Speaker 1: noticed over the years. Veteran players, older guys tend to
Speaker 1: play better, uh in the finals. And even though the
Speaker 1: Sons are a younger team, their leader Chris Paul is
Speaker 1: an older player, so I had a feeling he would
Speaker 1: play really well, and I thought Milwaukee was gonna be
Speaker 1: a little shell shocked by their defense just how good
Speaker 1: Phoenix is defensively, because Phoenix is a much much better
Speaker 1: defensive team than Atlanta. In Brooklyn, Um, I actually thought
Speaker 1: Milwaukee fared a little better offensively than I thought they would,
Speaker 1: although they still I haven't looked at their defensive rating
Speaker 1: or offensive rating, but I don't think they did uh terrifically.
Speaker 1: But it was a lot of the usual stuff we
Speaker 1: see with the Bucks. A lot of budden Holes are
Speaker 1: being stubborn with his coverage, is a lot of kind
Speaker 1: of kind of just tricking off a game through his
Speaker 1: stubborn you know, philosophies, and and I thought that. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, if there was a
Speaker 1: game to do that, it was Game one, because I
Speaker 1: thought Phoenix was gonna get that one no matter what,
Speaker 1: what what what was your what was your like kind
Speaker 1: of overarching you macro takeaway from that game. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: on all the like shows that I've kind of talked
Speaker 1: on and stuff, they were asking like who would you pick?
Speaker 1: And I picked Phoenix in this series, and I picked
Speaker 1: them also in Game one. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a long series. But just the way budo Holes are
Speaker 1: kind of he reacts right, he doesn't he doesn't punch
Speaker 1: first he's similar to Vogel in that way. Um kind
Speaker 1: of even more than an extreme. Um. He he just
Speaker 1: watched as Trey Young drop forty eight in Game one
Speaker 1: and just said, we're gonna keep this going until until
Speaker 1: game two. And we saw that tonight. I thought, like
Speaker 1: switching broke Lopez just so easily. Just giving up that
Speaker 1: switched so easily, Um was was going to be their downfall.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, Chris Paul Um Devin Booker got real
Speaker 1: comfortable early on, and later on they eventually went small
Speaker 1: with Portis. But at that time, like you know when
Speaker 1: a basketball player, once you get comfortable, like it's over.
Speaker 1: Chris Paul started hitting step back threes, started hitting contested,
Speaker 1: super contested jumpers like I just thought that the Suns
Speaker 1: would win tonight. And that's that's the thing that I
Speaker 1: was kind of worried with Budenholzer. I don't think you
Speaker 1: can go down to this Sun's team. I think they're
Speaker 1: too well coached. I think they're too good. Um, I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that the best team left. Obviously that
Speaker 1: that can be debated. But just like the way they
Speaker 1: play that they have a really high floor, like they're
Speaker 1: not gonna make mistakes. They're really good defensively in transition, Um,
Speaker 1: they threw eight and on the honest, which I thought
Speaker 1: they would do. I thought that was interesting. So I
Speaker 1: like them overall in this series. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is a huge disaster for the Bucks. But like we
Speaker 1: talked about it with all the Lakers things, you can't
Speaker 1: give away games in the playoffs, and I feel like
Speaker 1: they gave this one. They didn't give themselves a chance.
Speaker 1: You let Chris Paul do exactly what he wanted. He
Speaker 1: was comfortable. What's the point of having Drew Holiday if
Speaker 1: you just let Brook Lopez switch every time? I just
Speaker 1: I don't understand the coverage there. So that was kind
Speaker 1: of my main my main takeaway from from a game one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm pro trying stuff to see what happens, but
Speaker 1: I think everything should have a game plan. Like, for instance,
Speaker 1: if you're the Lakers, Yeah, you're gonna default to going
Speaker 1: back to Davis at the five, but you're gonna try
Speaker 1: drum And at the five. You're gonna try Marcus All
Speaker 1: at the five because the idea is, hey, maybe we'll
Speaker 1: be able to physically bully. Then the problem with the
Speaker 1: Bucks is like you knew that if you did a
Speaker 1: drop coverage with brook Lopez like they did kind of
Speaker 1: in the second half last night, or if you did
Speaker 1: a switching coverage with brook Lopez, you would be inviting
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and Devin Booker to get high quality shots.
Speaker 1: So the entire game plan from the beginning was doomed
Speaker 1: to fail. Uh you know it, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, if you're gonna try something, at least have
Speaker 1: a a semblance of an understanding of how it might work.
Speaker 1: And and and that's the thing, Like I I have
Speaker 1: always been against the drop coverage against elite guards and
Speaker 1: in favor of switching. But if you're gonna switch, you
Speaker 1: need to have players on the floor that can switch.
Speaker 1: And both Booker and Chris Paul were getting whatever they
Speaker 1: wanted against brook Lopez. In those switches, you're inviting them
Speaker 1: into a comfort zone. And then you know, late in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, it's hard to say really whether or
Speaker 1: not it worked because at that point the Sons had
Speaker 1: gone into full game management mode. Just try to run
Speaker 1: the shot clock, you know, all that good stuff. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you need to run uh,
Speaker 1: Janice at the five if you're gonna do that switching stuff.
Speaker 1: Portis was more physically aggressive like Portis was when in
Speaker 1: those switches with ball pressure more. But any good ball
Speaker 1: handler is gonna inevitably get a big guy who's off
Speaker 1: balance reaching in. He's eventually going to get him off balance.
Speaker 1: And there was that textbook kind of sequence there in
Speaker 1: the third quarter where Chris Paul, you know, on a
Speaker 1: switch super you know, over zealous. Here comes Bobby Portas
Speaker 1: ball pressure and like crazy, and he just got him
Speaker 1: off balance and beat him to the basket for the
Speaker 1: finger roll. And then you know he got he got
Speaker 1: Brooke Lopez on a step back three into a foul.
Speaker 1: And then so then they started trapping the pick and roll.
Speaker 1: And this is something you and I know from watching
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They're one of the few teams we've seen
Speaker 1: that can really trap pick and roll and cover on
Speaker 1: the back end really well. The Chris Paul started picking
Speaker 1: him apart there late third quarter when they started trapping
Speaker 1: him on pick and roll. So it's like I think,
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, when you
Speaker 1: play someone like Brooke Lopez or or Bobby Portis against
Speaker 1: really really good guards, you're just asking for them to fail.
Speaker 1: And and even in the Atlanta series, I think at
Speaker 1: Trey Young's foot has to be kind of factored in
Speaker 1: as part of the reason Brookes succeeded later in the
Speaker 1: later in the series was Trey wasn't really a hundred percent,
Speaker 1: but I I just as as a strategy, I feel
Speaker 1: like that's doomed against really good guards. Yeah, Like that
Speaker 1: was my biggest key to the series because I thought
Speaker 1: eventually Brooke would get played off like he's just there's
Speaker 1: no way he's gonna be able to contain. Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and Devin Book are different than Trey Young. They'll snake
Speaker 1: a pick and roll. They don't just go into that flooriter.
Speaker 1: They have the mid range game. They'll attack you at
Speaker 1: the ram, get contact stuff like that. That was the
Speaker 1: biggest key here. Conportis and content play like as a
Speaker 1: small ball five, I thought they kind of picked on
Speaker 1: Britain Forbes as well. He's another guy that they really
Speaker 1: rely on. Um and that's mallball and can they do that?
Speaker 1: This is not a hobble Tray Young, hobbled Bogdanovich. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't even know Lou Williams, I guess is the
Speaker 1: others the other Atlanta guard. This is a different, uh
Speaker 1: kind of tier Chris Paul Jeffin Booker a level, different
Speaker 1: level of guards um than those three as they're as
Speaker 1: they were injured. And also Campaign, I thought Campaign really
Speaker 1: attacked the basket. He gets to the rim, his speed,
Speaker 1: his man, his speed is a problem. He's hitting his
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes as well, which I feel like
Speaker 1: it's just a cherry on the top. Those are just
Speaker 1: really issues for me for Milwaukee going into UM game,
Speaker 1: going into Game two. I guess a positive for them
Speaker 1: is that it's like honest, at least looks like okay, right,
Speaker 1: he didn't look um. He didn't look like he was
Speaker 1: favoring his his foot at all kind of in game one.
Speaker 1: So I thought that was a positive for him for Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's gonna be tough. I feel like you
Speaker 1: just can't give games away, and this is a team
Speaker 1: that's gonna be hard really to go back from UM.
Speaker 1: So what like, So I guess if you're covering the
Speaker 1: Sun's like, what would what would your coverage b I
Speaker 1: guess with this Milwaukee roster, would you just go completely
Speaker 1: small and kind to try to trap and give up threes?
Speaker 1: To Jay Crowder and Michael Bridges, because I feel like
Speaker 1: that's kind of your option there. I saw people saying
Speaker 1: should hedge and kind of recover? That kind of opens
Speaker 1: the role for eight and right, and I think eight
Speaker 1: and also was like six for eight from the field
Speaker 1: or something like that. So I'm wonder, like, what what
Speaker 1: what kind of poison would you pick? I guess if
Speaker 1: you're Milwaukee defending, or is it just play honest of
Speaker 1: the five and switch everything. I guess is that is
Speaker 1: that's your option. So similar to what you would see
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, where we would always say that when
Speaker 1: the chips are down, you go to a d at
Speaker 1: the five. At the end end of the day, the
Speaker 1: best coverage is to put your honest at the five
Speaker 1: and switch everything. Because for the record, the switching worked
Speaker 1: in the sense that they the Sun's lived in isolation
Speaker 1: most of the night. Most of the action that they
Speaker 1: ran involved long, drawn out isolations with their guards, which
Speaker 1: is a win in a lot of ways because it's
Speaker 1: stagnsion like that game looks different if Chris Paul doesn't
Speaker 1: have as good of a game. And for the record,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker wasn't exactly his most efficient self in that game. Uh,
Speaker 1: the trick is, you can't do that all forty eight minutes.
Speaker 1: So there are a couple of things that I would do.
Speaker 1: First of all, I thought Devin Booker's isolations against Brook
Speaker 1: Lopez were less successful than Chris Paul's. I though Chris
Speaker 1: Paul did better in that matchup. I thought Booker took
Speaker 1: some tougher shots in that matchup. He he had a
Speaker 1: couple that he made, but I thought Lopez actually didn't
Speaker 1: hold his own. But he was more of a of
Speaker 1: an impediment to too Booker in those matchups. So in
Speaker 1: the minutes where Booker is on the floor without Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: that's probably where I'd play a little bit more Lopez.
Speaker 1: You know, Bobby Portis, at the very least, if he's
Speaker 1: ball pressuring and forcing a drive, it's a little easier
Speaker 1: to react with on the on the defensive end, because
Speaker 1: at least it's predictable, Like predictability is everything. If you
Speaker 1: if you can at least get to Bobby Portis and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, ball pressure on these switches forced him
Speaker 1: to his left, then at least everything else on the
Speaker 1: back end with them rotate with their rotations are gonna
Speaker 1: are gonna be a little bit easier to to to
Speaker 1: kind of like everybody to kind of be connected and
Speaker 1: in the same on the same wavelength, you know, as
Speaker 1: far is a pick and roll coverage, I don't think
Speaker 1: any form of traditional hedge and hedge and recover makes
Speaker 1: any sense anymore that I mean, you don't really even
Speaker 1: see much of that at all in the league these days. Uh.
Speaker 1: And one of the main reasons is like they're just
Speaker 1: setting the screen so far from the basket. If you've
Speaker 1: got a lumbering, big hedging at twenty seven feet, he's
Speaker 1: effectively out of the play when he starts trying to
Speaker 1: run back. So at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: would do I would try to eventually learn how to
Speaker 1: do some kind of trap uh and recover on the
Speaker 1: back end. It's a it's the most complicated and labor
Speaker 1: intensive defense, but if you can get it down, it
Speaker 1: can work, especially if you've got the athleticism they have,
Speaker 1: which the Bucks do have a good amount of of
Speaker 1: defensive athleticism. But at the end of the day, when
Speaker 1: the chips are down, it's gonna come down to Janice
Speaker 1: at the five and switching rather than doubling and just
Speaker 1: making them isolate and hoping that over the course of
Speaker 1: the series, your bigger, more physical stars Middleton six eight,
Speaker 1: Janice x nine, you know, Drew Holiday a big, strong guard.
Speaker 1: You just hope that over the course of the series,
Speaker 1: those guys will physically look better and that guys like
Speaker 1: Booker and Chris Paul will start to miss shots. I
Speaker 1: think you noticed that a lot in the Phoenix Clippers series,
Speaker 1: that the physicality of the Clippers and the as that
Speaker 1: series dragged on, Booker became kind of an inefficient score
Speaker 1: and part of the reason some people were saying the mask. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, the mask bothers him. But physicality
Speaker 1: does wear on teams, and so I think that that
Speaker 1: would be their their their long term best benefit. What so, uh,
Speaker 1: let's let's switch to the other end with with with
Speaker 1: the Bucks on offense. So, as I said before the game,
Speaker 1: I thought that the Phoenix Suns were a significantly better
Speaker 1: defense than anybody the Bucks had faced. And for the record,
Speaker 1: I looked at the numbers. Uh, Milwaukee was at one
Speaker 1: sixteen points per one hundre possessions in the regular season,
Speaker 1: the one four last night, which is kind of what
Speaker 1: I expected. I typically speaking, elite offense, even the best
Speaker 1: offenses will struggle when they go up a level in
Speaker 1: terms of their defensive competition, not because they're not capable
Speaker 1: of scoring, but it's just an adjustment period. Like every
Speaker 1: pass that you made that was open, all of a
Speaker 1: sudden is a little less open. There's more ball pressure
Speaker 1: got Michael Bridges and Jay Crowder and Kim Johnson. There
Speaker 1: just bigger, more athletic wings than they faced in these
Speaker 1: other rounds, And so from that and from that regard,
Speaker 1: I just think I thought there was gonna be an
Speaker 1: adjustment period. What was your takeaway from Milwaukee offensively? What
Speaker 1: do they need to do better in order to kind
Speaker 1: of uh put up a little bit more than a
Speaker 1: hundred four points per one hunder possessions. I think like
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday has to be better, and I feel like
Speaker 1: him and Middleton are so like beast or famine. It
Speaker 1: feels like from game to game there's no like middle ground.
Speaker 1: It's either they play really well they play really poorly,
Speaker 1: and it's really tough to win that way. It's why
Speaker 1: these Milwaukee series I feel like, go so long. I thought,
Speaker 1: be honest, you're getting kind of consistent numbers throughout your
Speaker 1: getting as thirty as fifteen last night, I think he
Speaker 1: played like thirty six minutes or something. But Drew, like
Speaker 1: his jumper is so up and down as well, and
Speaker 1: he loses confidence in it as well, like he'll catch
Speaker 1: it and like Pumpake, try to drive and he does.
Speaker 1: He's weird try to finish layups. I feel like he's
Speaker 1: better in the post. He should be like in the
Speaker 1: post a little bit more if they have Chris Paul
Speaker 1: on him and the Middleton I thought played a really
Speaker 1: good game last night, right, he had like twenty nine points.
Speaker 1: I think Chris Middleton kind of kept them in the
Speaker 1: game with his jumper, but like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: much you can rely on that. That's kind of another
Speaker 1: reason why I kind of picked Peenis in this series.
Speaker 1: I trust their offense as well a little bit more.
Speaker 1: I just think Drew and Milton you're gonna get what
Speaker 1: they get from them. Their shots aren't changing. Drew's gonna
Speaker 1: get his catch and shoot threes. It cuttherly makes him.
Speaker 1: He's gonna have one or two good games in the series.
Speaker 1: I think Middleton had one already. Midlton again as a guy,
Speaker 1: he'll have a good game and then he'll shoot like
Speaker 1: three for eleven the next night. So it's it's really
Speaker 1: tough to know. I think Drew Holiday was like two
Speaker 1: for eight um at halftime for like four points, and
Speaker 1: that's just not enough. They need his offense, especially with
Speaker 1: no de Vincenzo. They have like six to seven playable dudes. Um,
Speaker 1: it's really tough, Brook Lopez, I thought it had a
Speaker 1: really good night scoring. But to me, I tweeted out,
Speaker 1: I feel like his scoring is such fool's gold because
Speaker 1: it just keeps him on the floor and it keeps
Speaker 1: it keeps those cards in rhythm. So he was, like
Speaker 1: I said, he had seventeen points. He was their leading
Speaker 1: score I think in the middle of the third quarter,
Speaker 1: and he was a minus seventeen. They're leading their worst
Speaker 1: plus minus however you want to say that, um, So
Speaker 1: I feel like that's where they're kind of either offen.
Speaker 1: Then he Drew Holiday to have eighteen or twenty points
Speaker 1: at least to keep them afloat. Um. It's just too
Speaker 1: it's just too tough when they're really packing the pain
Speaker 1: on you. Honest Um, They're putting eighting on him and
Speaker 1: he got a couple where he just bullied him. He
Speaker 1: bullied you, honest, right at the rim. I mean he
Speaker 1: bullied eight and right at the rim. Um. He got
Speaker 1: a few foul shots, but I thought their overall coverage
Speaker 1: was on him was good. He had a few turnaround
Speaker 1: jumpers as well. But yeah, I think it's mostly just
Speaker 1: I mean, sometimes basketball it's kind of simplified in that way.
Speaker 1: But Drew Holiday has to kind of shoot better with
Speaker 1: what did you see from Milwaukee on offense, So going
Speaker 1: down the line, Middleton reminds me a lot of Paul
Speaker 1: George in the sense that he gets his rhythm by
Speaker 1: taking joe shots, which is one of the main reasons
Speaker 1: why both of them have been inconsistent in their playoff careers.
Speaker 1: They've had really good games and they've had really bad games. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the main reasons why Paul George had such
Speaker 1: a good postseason this year was because he made a
Speaker 1: commitment to get to the basket more, which is something
Speaker 1: that's kind of missing from Chris Middleton's game. He's he's
Speaker 1: he has a tendency to actively seek out jump shots
Speaker 1: and then take driving lanes when they're there, as opposed
Speaker 1: to actively attacking the basket. And using your jump shot
Speaker 1: as a counter and uh, you know, and that that
Speaker 1: that'll be one of the big indicators of whether or
Speaker 1: not Paul George's kind of leveled up, as if in
Speaker 1: the future he continues to to to kind of have
Speaker 1: that priority. Well, Middleton got hot in the second half,
Speaker 1: but the game was kind of already out of reach
Speaker 1: at that point, which is one of the downsides of
Speaker 1: building your rhythm by taking jump shots. If he gets
Speaker 1: his rhythm earlier in the game, by being more aggressive
Speaker 1: to the basket, he's more likely to make more shots
Speaker 1: early in the game, keep the keep them in the game.
Speaker 1: As far as Drew Holiday goes, like we've always known
Speaker 1: the same thing about Drew Holiday. His value comes in
Speaker 1: what he brings defensively. In terms of offense, he's not
Speaker 1: even a top you know what, probably not a top
Speaker 1: twenty guard in the league. Like he's just he's just
Speaker 1: not a very good offensive player. And one of the
Speaker 1: problems is is really elite high end defense exposes flaws
Speaker 1: and offensive games. And you know, you know, the Lebron
Speaker 1: kind of tricks us in postseason history with his efficiency.
Speaker 1: It starts Kevin Ray at Kyrie Irving, the vast majority
Speaker 1: of offensive players take a dip in offensive efficiency in
Speaker 1: the postseason just because of the amount of of physicality
Speaker 1: that's allowed, and because of how good the defensive defenses are,
Speaker 1: and because they have a tendency to ignore bad offensive
Speaker 1: players and devote more attention to you. So a guy
Speaker 1: like Drew Holiday against a really good defense like Phoenix
Speaker 1: is going to be exposed as a guy who's not
Speaker 1: a knockdown shooter, who doesn't have a great mid range game,
Speaker 1: and who doesn't finish super well around the basket and traffic.
Speaker 1: That's just what's gonna happen, or or doesn't pass the
Speaker 1: ball super well or any of those, any of those
Speaker 1: limitations in his game. He's very average at all of
Speaker 1: those things. In a really good Phoenix defense is gonna
Speaker 1: put him in a in a position where he's gonna struggle. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know that you're going to hear a lot
Speaker 1: from Drew Holiday in this series, to be honest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's a problem Milwaukee because they
Speaker 1: need his offense, Like he doesn't have to be some
Speaker 1: crazy score, but he has to hit his open threes.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, he has his open shots or he
Speaker 1: has to at least have some kind of post game,
Speaker 1: some kind of put pressure on the rim. It can't
Speaker 1: just be honest putting pressure on the rim. You talked
Speaker 1: about Chris Milton does not put pusher on the rim.
Speaker 1: I thought he got a couple of drives where he
Speaker 1: thought he got fouled and all that stuff, got some contact,
Speaker 1: didn't get the call. But but still he's a guy,
Speaker 1: you're right, relies on his little mid range game, relies
Speaker 1: on the step back three. I think Drew Holiday relies
Speaker 1: on his jumper a little too much for like the
Speaker 1: level of shooter he is. Um, he takes a lot
Speaker 1: of like he'll be in transition and take like a
Speaker 1: transition three, and I just feel like that's not his game.
Speaker 1: But it's just supported in this kind of Milwaukee ecosystem
Speaker 1: of how everyone takes threes except be honest, So I
Speaker 1: think they'll need is scoring. But you talked about his
Speaker 1: value being on defense. I mean, again, I just don't
Speaker 1: see the point of that. When they're switching everything anyway,
Speaker 1: so then they can just get Drew off and whenever
Speaker 1: they want. And again, I feel like he should be
Speaker 1: going over the top, should be fighting whatever. I put
Speaker 1: some kind of back pressure. But again on offense, like
Speaker 1: it's gonna be tough for them to kind of keep
Speaker 1: up kemp kempat Connaton, Can Brent Forbes have some kind
Speaker 1: of really good game. Um, I feel like their their
Speaker 1: their light is a little too green for me. Like
Speaker 1: Pat Connaton and Brint Forbes. Those dudes take terrible shots
Speaker 1: where they're not even close to open. They'll get hot
Speaker 1: from time to time. It's just like Milwaukee's on a
Speaker 1: huge run last night. I remember they cut it too seven.
Speaker 1: Brent Forbes got it in transition twenty seconds left on
Speaker 1: the shot clock, wonderable one leg fade away hit hit
Speaker 1: almost the side of the backboard. I'm like, man, it's
Speaker 1: just there's no there's no offensive kind of rule here,
Speaker 1: and it's your honest as well. Cutting to the room
Speaker 1: made it worse. So that's what I'm worried about with
Speaker 1: them on offense. I think they'll kind of figure it out.
Speaker 1: I think you honest will play better, even more aggressively
Speaker 1: as the series goes on. But I think that's where
Speaker 1: that's where he that's where Monkey has to go. The
Speaker 1: role not role players, but Drew Holiday and Chris milton't
Speaker 1: have to play better. Did you like what Phoenix did
Speaker 1: with the Honest, like putting eighton on him, um, and
Speaker 1: then kind of swarming him with Jake Crowden mckel bridges
Speaker 1: and then a kind of daring I guess Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: to beat them. I feel like they kind of left
Speaker 1: him open a little bit more. That's been the coverage
Speaker 1: that most teams have used against the Honest this year.
Speaker 1: Has put a center on him, had the center kind
Speaker 1: of beat him to the spot, force him to spin back,
Speaker 1: and then send help from his weeks side because he
Speaker 1: doesn't see the floor super well. Um. In general, I
Speaker 1: do like that one of the ways that Milwaukee's counter
Speaker 1: debt is like really clearing the side, kind of overloading
Speaker 1: the weak side with shooting from the where where what
Speaker 1: works there is if you want to abandon a shooter.
Speaker 1: It's so like kind of unorthodox to go that far
Speaker 1: away from your matchup that it kind of throws defenses off.
Speaker 1: And they had a lot of success against Brooklyn posting
Speaker 1: him up on that you know, left block and then
Speaker 1: overloading that side and where at least if he spun
Speaker 1: back there just wasn't as much help. Um. I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be their primary uh thing that they go
Speaker 1: to is the honest kind of gets his legs back
Speaker 1: underneath them. I thought he was just kind of a
Speaker 1: little rusty too in general. Um, really quickly, one of
Speaker 1: the things that you had mentioned a minute ago that
Speaker 1: I thought was interesting. You know, what's the point of
Speaker 1: having a guy with the defensive value of Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: if if you can just kind of switch him off
Speaker 1: using a screening action and now he's standing you know,
Speaker 1: in a in a shell drill elsewhere on the floor. Well,
Speaker 1: this is gonna go into you know, after the season's over,
Speaker 1: you and I are gonna do a variety of podcasts.
Speaker 1: One of them will probably be some sort of player
Speaker 1: ranking type of deal, and you know, similar to what
Speaker 1: I did last summer. Like I've always said that, you know,
Speaker 1: super elite high end offense carries a great deal more
Speaker 1: value than super elite high end defense. Not to say
Speaker 1: that the defensive end isn't important, because it is, but
Speaker 1: when it comes down to these types of games, that
Speaker 1: individual offensive talent brings more value because you can get
Speaker 1: a defender off the play. Like I'll never for the
Speaker 1: best example ever, several years ago, James Harden uh uh,
Speaker 1: lit up the Spurs in game one of a playoff
Speaker 1: series because Kauai was guarding his matchup, which was Ryan Anderson,
Speaker 1: and they just had Ryan Anderson stand ft from the
Speaker 1: basket on the week side, like because he took so
Speaker 1: many deep threes, and Kauai spent the entire game standing
Speaker 1: at the three point line and and they were able
Speaker 1: to kind of scheme him out. Now, over the course
Speaker 1: of the series, the Spurs figured them out and they
Speaker 1: ended up winning. But that's kind of an example of
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: defense is much more of a five on five type
Speaker 1: of sport than than the offensive end is. On the
Speaker 1: offensive end, it's it's so much more about what an
Speaker 1: individual can do. And I think that's what makes that difference.
Speaker 1: And and guys like you know, uh, you know, when
Speaker 1: you look at Chris Middleton, you might think he does
Speaker 1: all the stuff Kobe does, right, Like, you think, oh,
Speaker 1: he does all these turnaround jump shots. He's got all
Speaker 1: the off the dribble moves from the perimeter. He's a
Speaker 1: tough shot maker, he's a contested shot maker. That's great.
Speaker 1: But Kobe, at the end of the day, was a
Speaker 1: relentless rim attacker and everything was built off of that.
Speaker 1: And that is the difference for him. And that's what
Speaker 1: everyone always asks, Like I see it on the timeline
Speaker 1: every time Middleton's going off, is Middleton the best player
Speaker 1: on the Bucks? Is Middleton the Alpha? And and you know, uh,
Speaker 1: the honest is the Robin? But then when he's playing bad,
Speaker 1: everyone's like, what's up with Middleton? I don't know why?
Speaker 1: Why is he so inconsistent? It's literally that simple. He
Speaker 1: is a he is a jump shooter that when he's
Speaker 1: in rhythm, he looks like one of the best players
Speaker 1: in the world. And when he's not, he looks like
Speaker 1: a guy who's crumbling under the pressure. That that's literally
Speaker 1: all that. That's the the that huge chasm between him
Speaker 1: and the top you know wings that we see in
Speaker 1: the league has to do with their their willingness to
Speaker 1: attack the rim. Yeah, and I think that also that
Speaker 1: opens everything else up to right, like when you drive
Speaker 1: to the rim, you can become a playmaker, you can
Speaker 1: get to the you can get to the line. Like
Speaker 1: he impacts the game pretty much. One way. It's with
Speaker 1: his scoring, right is I'm shooting. Basically, he doesn't get
Speaker 1: to the line, doesn't doesn't play make for others. So basically,
Speaker 1: if you stop if he's not shooting, well, he's not
Speaker 1: impacting the game. And I think that's what the difference
Speaker 1: between it. People were asking last night, Um, how much
Speaker 1: better is Middleton than Devin Booker, Like are they on
Speaker 1: the same tier kind of thing? In my opinion, no,
Speaker 1: I think Devin Booker impacts the game a variety of ways.
Speaker 1: Even if his jump shots not going, He's still get
Speaker 1: into the line. His playmaking has gone so much better.
Speaker 1: The way Phoenix relies on him is just so different
Speaker 1: than just with his scoring. So I think I think
Speaker 1: that's that's true. One really quick thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: say because like I feel like people think, like I'm
Speaker 1: not saying you say this, but like most people think
Speaker 1: you honest at the five just answers everything right. And
Speaker 1: I feel like there are some downsides to it, especially
Speaker 1: when you have Eaten out there. I feel like it
Speaker 1: really hurts your offensive rebounding, um, and they can really
Speaker 1: get I thought Eaton got a bunch of offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: as well. And on thing like, it's funny you compared
Speaker 1: him to a d I feel like Milwaukee doesn't want
Speaker 1: him on like the other star kind of perimeter players
Speaker 1: like you saw that. They didn't want him on k D.
Speaker 1: I don't think he switched on Trey Young very much.
Speaker 1: They like him as the help defend. That's why I
Speaker 1: don't think they go to Jannice at the five as
Speaker 1: much best A. Oh yeah, for sure, But I feel
Speaker 1: like in this kind of series, you need him to
Speaker 1: be on Chris Paul and Devin Booker like I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can win this series of Bobby
Speaker 1: Reporters and and Brook Lopez defending these cards as much
Speaker 1: as they're going to, like, I feel like you have
Speaker 1: to have be honest at least to slow down whichever
Speaker 1: one is hot at times. But they love him as
Speaker 1: a health defender and that's understandable. He's really great at that.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, I just think that there are some
Speaker 1: weaknesses to going honest at the five, But I do
Speaker 1: agree with you that that that's probably the best option here.
Speaker 1: One of the things that's triky with that is I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think you honest is that great of an
Speaker 1: individual defender, especially against shifty guys like you saw this
Speaker 1: spot in the Milwaukee series and just in general over
Speaker 1: the last few years when Durant and Uh and Uh
Speaker 1: you honest would get matched up, he's susceptible to shiftiness
Speaker 1: and he's susceptible to speed. Um that that's not to
Speaker 1: say that he's not a bad individual defender, because he's not.
Speaker 1: His length and athleticism makes up a gap in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. But you know, you know, we all
Speaker 1: see we all remember like the All Star Game a
Speaker 1: few years back, where he had some success as an
Speaker 1: individual defender against Lebron Um. But part of the reason
Speaker 1: for that is Lebron at this age is he's never
Speaker 1: been that shift e of a guy, and at this
Speaker 1: age he's a little bit more of a bullieball type
Speaker 1: of guy. So yeah, he's gonna be good in those
Speaker 1: types of matchups. But the reality is is against guys
Speaker 1: like Kevin Durant who are super shifty, and guards like
Speaker 1: Booker and and Chris Paul, he's just not super laterally quick.
Speaker 1: And then anticipation is a big part of it. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons why Lebron is such a good perimeter
Speaker 1: defender at every position is he's got great anticipation. He's
Speaker 1: good at just kind of guessing which direction the guy
Speaker 1: is gonna go, and Lebron is very laterally quick. It
Speaker 1: was actually his big point of emphasis before the season
Speaker 1: that they won the title, and he said so in
Speaker 1: in uh in an interview, and then there's a lot
Speaker 1: of footage out there of him working with his trainer
Speaker 1: on lateral quickness, a lot of big slide steps and
Speaker 1: jumps and things along those lines. That kind of thing takes.
Speaker 1: It's it's not just a natural ability. It is partially
Speaker 1: to some extent, but a lot of it is, you know,
Speaker 1: a dedication in that regard. And I think one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why they want you on us off the
Speaker 1: ball is that's actually where his value is at its best.
Speaker 1: Like p J. Tucker is, this is a significantly better
Speaker 1: perimeter defender as a laterally quick guy taking slide steps
Speaker 1: and guessing and and being physical without foiling than you,
Speaker 1: honest is I think that's why they go that route. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, And and just your point with p J. Tucker,
Speaker 1: I think it kind of goes to your like where
Speaker 1: offense matters more than defense, because I feel like p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker is almost um player. He's probably he's a better
Speaker 1: defender than Brent Forbes than pat content, but he just
Speaker 1: can't shoot right now. He just can't make a corner three,
Speaker 1: and it's making him almost unplayable. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: interesting when you look at it. I feel like you
Speaker 1: have to be able at least hit an open shot. Nowadays,
Speaker 1: we'll get into this more and like the summer, I
Speaker 1: guess the real summer, but like, I feel like defensive
Speaker 1: players now have to at least hit a corner three,
Speaker 1: and if you can do more than that, like Michael Bridges,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get paid like a low tiers star, like
Speaker 1: in my opinion, he's about to get paid. So it's
Speaker 1: just interesting the way the NBA kind of moves because
Speaker 1: I fee guys like Andre Robertson who couldn't hit outside
Speaker 1: of the two feet, got four years eighty three, like
Speaker 1: four years ago, but now those players are being more
Speaker 1: and more extinct where he's not. He's I think, back healthy,
Speaker 1: but he still can't really get a role on the
Speaker 1: team because he can't shoot at all, even if his
Speaker 1: defense is at a top tier levels. I think it's
Speaker 1: interesting to kind of look at that, well, Michael, this
Speaker 1: is so out of left field, But Michael Bridges, like
Speaker 1: the it kind of reminds me of football when when
Speaker 1: you have a really talented roster and uh and you
Speaker 1: draft a really good quarterback and for the for that
Speaker 1: three year four year window, you have this inexpensive quarterback
Speaker 1: that's carrying a whole lot of weight relative to the roster,
Speaker 1: and so you can devote more money to the position
Speaker 1: players and then you're really good in that in that stretch.
Speaker 1: But then you pay the quarterback big money, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you have to uh to to you know,
Speaker 1: cut back on what you pay the skill positions, and
Speaker 1: you end up suffering talent wise. Well, that's what kind
Speaker 1: of reminds me with the Sun situation right now. They're
Speaker 1: they got Michael Bridges on a rookie contract. That dudes
Speaker 1: a twenty million dollar a year player, like he's that good.
Speaker 1: And the reality is is like when they signed Michael Bridges,
Speaker 1: it's either gonna cap strap them everywhere else or they're
Speaker 1: gonna end up having to let him go because he
Speaker 1: signed some gigantic offer sheet from some other team. It's
Speaker 1: just the harsh reality of the way that you know,
Speaker 1: like when we're when we're in the off season, there's
Speaker 1: actually a good chance to to transfer. Uh here in
Speaker 1: a minute. But like, the reality is is in the
Speaker 1: off season, it's it's easy to be like, you know,
Speaker 1: for guys like me to complain and be like, the
Speaker 1: Lakers need more skill, but really, the best way to
Speaker 1: have skill when you're cap strapped is to have a
Speaker 1: young prospect like a talent Horton Tucker, who unfortunately is
Speaker 1: gonna get paid this summer but unfortunately for him, but
Speaker 1: unfortunately for the Lakers cap situation. But the reality is
Speaker 1: is you need young players on rookie contracts making you know,
Speaker 1: jack shit nothing relative to what their talent is in
Speaker 1: order to kind of feel the fill those gaps, which
Speaker 1: is why there is some value to draft picks, you know,
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. Really quickly, before we move
Speaker 1: on to the Lakers, just give me your pick for
Speaker 1: how the series is going to end, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: in a few sentences based on what you saw last night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and really quickly. Eight And also it's not a rookie deal,
Speaker 1: so like exactly just think about this going. But I
Speaker 1: have I have the sun. I picked the Sons in
Speaker 1: six even with the honest healthy So that's I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna stick to that. I think Milwaukee probably wins Game two,
Speaker 1: but from there I trust money to kind of pick
Speaker 1: and choose the lineups a little better than a coach bud.
Speaker 1: And that's where I see this going. How about you.
Speaker 1: I think the Bucks win Game three and that's all
Speaker 1: I win. I think Phoenix is significantly better on both
Speaker 1: ends of the ball. I think they're better defensive team
Speaker 1: and a better offensive team. I think that uh game
Speaker 1: five back in Phoenix, the close out game will be
Speaker 1: an opportunity for the Suns to remember the way they
Speaker 1: kind of tricked that game off against the Clippers, and
Speaker 1: I think they'll attack it. And also it's a little
Speaker 1: bit different in those close out games with the home crowd.
Speaker 1: If if the true if he's at steak, like the
Speaker 1: Lakers tricked off Game five against the against the heat Um.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason, in my opinion, was because of
Speaker 1: the lack of a crowd. If that's a Game five
Speaker 1: in Staples Center to close out the heat people Larry
Speaker 1: ob sitting in the tunnel, I think they win that game.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a difference in your effort there, So
Speaker 1: I expect I expect the Suns to play better. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna try to get Ros out of here in
Speaker 1: the next ten minutes. So we're gonna do a little
Speaker 1: bit of a rapid fire type of deal here. Um,
Speaker 1: we're gonna name the player. I'm gonna have you tell
Speaker 1: me whether or not you think they're gonna stay or
Speaker 1: they're gonna go. And why our first player is Alex Crusoe.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna stay. Um, I just feel like
Speaker 1: the market isn't gonna like He's gonna get probably like
Speaker 1: a ten million dollar deal, and I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: are going to keep him for that. He's going to
Speaker 1: be their priority number one in my opinion, Um, in
Speaker 1: this in this offseason, he's a guy that they've developed
Speaker 1: like themselves. Like he played in the G League for
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and then he got called up and then
Speaker 1: slowly by sure he became a starter in the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals game. Just a guy that you can't lose for
Speaker 1: nothing in my opinion, even if he's just kept a trade,
Speaker 1: which I don't think he is. Um, Laker fans, don't
Speaker 1: kill me, but like he's I think he's kept. I
Speaker 1: think he's kept on the team. What about you, You
Speaker 1: think he's back. I think he's back as well. I
Speaker 1: think uh. I think he wants to play with lebron Um.
Speaker 1: I think he understands. I think I think he genuinely
Speaker 1: has no interest in playing for any other team. I
Speaker 1: think it would take a gigantic financial chasm between what
Speaker 1: he would get elsewhere, which, for the record, based on
Speaker 1: how he played when everybody went down with injury this year,
Speaker 1: not that he was bad by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't look like a fifteen million dollar a
Speaker 1: year guard. So I think the I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: will be able to offer him a slight discount over
Speaker 1: what he would get somewhere else. And I think he'll
Speaker 1: end up signing with the Lakers, And I think it's
Speaker 1: a good partnership. And and I think that when healthy,
Speaker 1: he's one of the most valuable role players in the league,
Speaker 1: when he's surrounded by guys who can do the heavy
Speaker 1: lifting for him offensively, Um, Calent, Horton, Tucker. I also
Speaker 1: think he's back. I'm nervous on the number he kind
Speaker 1: of gets Um, but I feel like it's going to
Speaker 1: be tough for a team to just throw ten fifteen
Speaker 1: million dollars a year at him. But he's a clutch guy.
Speaker 1: He's a guy, another guy that they've put a lot
Speaker 1: of time into developing. We talked about it. I think
Speaker 1: he was like the second the third most important part
Speaker 1: of the season, just like the way that the season went,
Speaker 1: they got developed battle minutes for him. I think he'll
Speaker 1: be back. Um, he's a restricted free agent, so those
Speaker 1: are a little bit more tricky for other teams to
Speaker 1: throw money at because it kind of caps you for
Speaker 1: like three or four days. I think he'll be back.
Speaker 1: I think they'll they'll come at to a number that
Speaker 1: that makes sense for me. Yeah, I think he'll be
Speaker 1: back as well, if nothing else, out of pride, because
Speaker 1: they clung to him as a trade during the trade
Speaker 1: at that point, like if you let him walk over
Speaker 1: a few million bucks, speak after you after you refuse
Speaker 1: the d l M. I think I think that that
Speaker 1: that starts to raise questions from the ownership, and that
Speaker 1: starts to range raise questions from the fan base. Uh,
Speaker 1: the questions that I don't think Rob wants to deal with.
Speaker 1: So I think he'll be back based purely on that. Also,
Speaker 1: I'm you know you and I had a difference of
Speaker 1: opinion with talent Norton Tucker this year just in his
Speaker 1: value within this season, But I think you and I
Speaker 1: are on the same page long term with him. I
Speaker 1: really do see him as a as a as a
Speaker 1: player that has a very high ceiling. I believe in
Speaker 1: his work ethic and once again, every single game he
Speaker 1: gave you this taste of this superstar type of talent.
Speaker 1: In in the close out game against Phoenix, it was
Speaker 1: that you know, uh fourth quarter tip slam that was
Speaker 1: just absurd, you know, for for like for a guy
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, in that environment. And and so
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I think I think
Speaker 1: he's back, regardless of the number. At this point, you're
Speaker 1: just praying that there's not some stupid GM out there.
Speaker 1: You know. Was that rumor that came out a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago that of some Eastern Conference GM who said
Speaker 1: that they would offer talent Norton Tucker the max. I think,
Speaker 1: I think anytime these gm start talking to reporters anonymously,
Speaker 1: I take it with a grain of salt. There's also
Speaker 1: god knows what kind of leverage campaign that is. It
Speaker 1: could be Rich Paul literally just you know, b Essen
Speaker 1: to try to to try to raise his value, give
Speaker 1: the impression of some sort of of competitive market for him.
Speaker 1: But I think I think they'll they'll they'll let him
Speaker 1: go out there, and my guesses he'll go out there
Speaker 1: and and sign some offer sheet and then the Lakers
Speaker 1: will match match it and hopefully no more than fifteen
Speaker 1: million a year. But we'll see that's high. That would
Speaker 1: be the high. That would be the high end. Where like,
Speaker 1: but here's here's the thing, man, Like, between you and me,
Speaker 1: Let's say it's a four year, sixty million dollar deal.
Speaker 1: Chances are in that third and fourth year, he's probably
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna be worth more than fifteen millions. Guy,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's got elite two way off guard written
Speaker 1: all over him as as as his uh ceiling um.
Speaker 1: Next one is Dennis Shooter. So Dennis is the one
Speaker 1: where I'm so confused on what his market is because
Speaker 1: I think we talked about it. I think he had
Speaker 1: a good year. Um, but then you know, those six
Speaker 1: games are hard to get out of your head. Even though,
Speaker 1: like I feel like Game two, Game three are forgotten
Speaker 1: in the ABYSS because the Lakers won those games and
Speaker 1: he played really well. It's just when you go, oh,
Speaker 1: for not in a playoff game, it really sticks on you.
Speaker 1: I don't know where he's going. Like I feel like
Speaker 1: the Lakers should bring them back because they can't replace
Speaker 1: his money. Like you don't. You don't lose Dennis Shooter.
Speaker 1: I think you can spend on you know what you
Speaker 1: lose is for I think he'll be back. But he's
Speaker 1: one of the ones where I'm really questionable. If some if,
Speaker 1: like some bad team was like, hey, we got a
Speaker 1: starting point guard for the next few years that's above average.
Speaker 1: Maybe he gets that this one. I'm not sure. What
Speaker 1: do you what do you think? So at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, some team out there is going to
Speaker 1: talk themselves into the fact that Dennis can help them
Speaker 1: and uh, and they're gonna know to get in the
Speaker 1: bidding war, they're gonna have to pay an amount of money.
Speaker 1: Dennis at his best this year was good. He was
Speaker 1: good defensively as a ball pressure, point of attack guard. Um.
Speaker 1: He was good as a passer in a way that
Speaker 1: I didn't even think he could be coming into that season.
Speaker 1: He clearly learned from his role and time spent around
Speaker 1: lebron Um. And then you know, he had big moments
Speaker 1: in the playoffs too. He had terrible moments in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but in the two wins that they had, he was
Speaker 1: really good. Um, someone's gonna talk themselves into it. I
Speaker 1: think that there will probably be a walk away from
Speaker 1: the table number for the Lakers. If you're what you
Speaker 1: have to hope for as a Lakers fan is that
Speaker 1: that shell shock from what happened in two thousands sixteen
Speaker 1: where so many players got overpaid. We'll just get people
Speaker 1: to be a little bit more frugal, and that he
Speaker 1: ends up coming back to the Lakers hoping, you know,
Speaker 1: for something in that you know, four years a d
Speaker 1: type of range. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if it's four years eighty gets Dennis, you gotta take
Speaker 1: him at Lakers because it's it's it's a talent exchange
Speaker 1: that you can't afford to lose. It's a tradeable contract
Speaker 1: at that number. And even if talent, like one of
Speaker 1: our comments in the in the in the stream says,
Speaker 1: what if we pay Dennis all this money only to
Speaker 1: realize talent Horn Tucker is better midway through next season,
Speaker 1: that's a good problem. You can as your trade your
Speaker 1: trade dennists and you play t h D. It's not
Speaker 1: that's a good problem. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you got you gotta bring him on as a trade
Speaker 1: asid the only thing that gets tricky is all the
Speaker 1: intel out there that the Bus family doesn't technically have
Speaker 1: all that much money, and that when you get into
Speaker 1: correlative to other owners, and that when you get into
Speaker 1: a situation where when you get into a situation where
Speaker 1: you're paying luxury tax, which is something that the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna be dealing with in future seasons, it's a
Speaker 1: lot easier for a Bomber to just cut the check
Speaker 1: than it is for for Genie Buss. And and that
Speaker 1: I would be interested to know what kind of conversations
Speaker 1: are taking place behind the scenes between Rob and UH
Speaker 1: and Genie about what their budget is, because if they're
Speaker 1: willing to overpay, then you gotta you gotta overpay, especially
Speaker 1: I think the two year window with Lebron. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think they will. I mean, when you have Lebron
Speaker 1: on your team, that's just you know, that kind of changes.
Speaker 1: You're kind of spending not just from what you're earning,
Speaker 1: but also you're spending power. Like It's just that's what
Speaker 1: Lebron does to a team when he comes there. Cleveland
Speaker 1: a luxury tax exactly Cleveland. Al he almost took Cleveland's
Speaker 1: business with him, you know when he walked out the door,
Speaker 1: like that's how that's how much he kind of interacts it.
Speaker 1: And although also like, when you have this type of
Speaker 1: star power, you have to spend. And I think they will.
Speaker 1: They were in the luxury taxs, I think when they
Speaker 1: were putting out lineups warning like twenty games a year
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, I'm sure. I'm sure they will. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to think about he was asking. I think
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers offered him four years eighty four
Speaker 1: or something in the middle of the season. He didn't
Speaker 1: take it. I kind I think that's where they'll end
Speaker 1: up at some number around there, and I can live
Speaker 1: with that. I'll be good with that. Um. Two more alright,
Speaker 1: next one is Andre Drummond and I think you and
Speaker 1: I probably yeah. I think he's done his time in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, like I think, and I think the way
Speaker 1: he's talking as well, it kind of sounds that way
Speaker 1: as well, just what he's been tweeting lately. He wouldn't
Speaker 1: come back on the minimum is what he said, But
Speaker 1: I feel like that's his market anyway. Um, I think
Speaker 1: that experiment was tried, and I feel like you can
Speaker 1: find other minimum bigs to be out there. I said
Speaker 1: it before. I'm higher. I think on what he could
Speaker 1: have brought to a healthy Laker team, Like I don't
Speaker 1: think this team was ever healthy enough. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I'm done with the Drummond experience and I
Speaker 1: feel like every game was just a conversation on Andre Drummond.
Speaker 1: All the spaces we did, all anyone wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about was why is Andre Drummond playing? Why is he
Speaker 1: Why is he in the game? But what is he doing?
Speaker 1: Why is he missing layups? I just think his his
Speaker 1: time has kind of come to it, and I think,
Speaker 1: uh mean that's good for both sides. What do you think?
Speaker 1: So I agree, I think he's gone. I think it
Speaker 1: comes down to the cap situation. Um, the reality is
Speaker 1: is the Lakers can't offer anything other than the tax
Speaker 1: paaramid level exception or the veteran minimum contract. Uh, He's
Speaker 1: not going to take a minimum contract. I don't think
Speaker 1: I would say that there's a near one percent chance
Speaker 1: that somebody out there in the thirty teams will offer
Speaker 1: him their mid level mid level exception. So the only
Speaker 1: way the Lakers could get him is by offering in
Speaker 1: the mid level exception and no team offering more than that,
Speaker 1: because I do think he would chase the money. The
Speaker 1: question becomes, and this is something that Pete from Laker
Speaker 1: Film Rooms kept talking about, do you take Drummond at
Speaker 1: the mid level exception in place of a like an
Speaker 1: inferior wing, meaning like, do you is it worth letting
Speaker 1: drum and go to chase a guy who can allegedly
Speaker 1: shoot because they need shooting, but he's actually not that
Speaker 1: good of of a of a wing, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And and there's there's a there's cases to
Speaker 1: be made on both sides that, but my guess is
Speaker 1: that the Lakers will have the pick of the best
Speaker 1: mid level exception type of guys and they'll end up
Speaker 1: actually signing a quality wing shooter. That's my guests And
Speaker 1: so from that regard, I think Drummond will end up
Speaker 1: taking the middle level exception elsewhere. But if things shake out,
Speaker 1: the one scenario where he returns is all he gets
Speaker 1: is the m l E from the rest of the league,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers can't find a good shooter, so they
Speaker 1: take Drummond as just like a fallback plan. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the way I see it. But his attitude is
Speaker 1: so trash to me. And you know, this is something
Speaker 1: Naples has been on the past few weeks and and
Speaker 1: our friend Damon has been on as well. Like the Lakers,
Speaker 1: you know, their whole brand is this like blue collar
Speaker 1: type of hard working type of team where Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: just tells the truth to his players. Hey you're playing
Speaker 1: to that, Hey you're not blah blah blah blah. The
Speaker 1: whole thing with Rob Blinkl promising him a starting job
Speaker 1: was weird. It's it's something that had no business doing,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to I hope they never go
Speaker 1: down that route again. And Drummond seems like the kind
Speaker 1: of guy who's more interested in that than he is
Speaker 1: and and kind of melding in with the locker room,
Speaker 1: so I don't necessarily think it's worth keeping him unless
Speaker 1: the cards really break, right. Yeah, I agree with all that.
Speaker 1: And also it's like a use of your resource, allocation
Speaker 1: of your resources, right, Like I thought this year was
Speaker 1: a special year because of a short off season. I
Speaker 1: was fine giving the mid level to like Montres Harrold,
Speaker 1: who was a regular season player. It was kind of
Speaker 1: known he was a regular season player. He would fill innings.
Speaker 1: Um next season is back to a normal season. I
Speaker 1: would like us use that on a player that can
Speaker 1: play in the playoffs, you know, I feel like that.
Speaker 1: I think that's more important than using that on you know,
Speaker 1: like Andre Drummond, who even if he came back at
Speaker 1: some deal, he'd be you know, he's like the third
Speaker 1: string center you have, I think Davis Who's gonna play
Speaker 1: center in the playoffs. So what's the point of using
Speaker 1: that much of your Your really only thing you can
Speaker 1: leverage to a free agent is that offer that tax
Speaker 1: player m L e um and use that Andre Drummond
Speaker 1: would just be an awful use of resources in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, good luck to Andre Drummond. So our
Speaker 1: last name on the list is Kyle Kuzma. I think
Speaker 1: ka Kuzma will be thrown in every single trade conversation
Speaker 1: the Lakers are in. He's really there only like him
Speaker 1: and KCP I guess are there like making mid money
Speaker 1: that they can offer. Since THHD is a free agent,
Speaker 1: as Custer free agent, that's the only guys that you
Speaker 1: can really offer. So I feel like he played so
Speaker 1: bad in the playoffs, that like he's going to be
Speaker 1: back because it's gonna be hard to move him. Him
Speaker 1: in the first round pick is really their only offers. Uh,
Speaker 1: I think he'll be back, though it's just my gut feeling.
Speaker 1: I think he'll be on the team next year. What
Speaker 1: do you think. I think it's possible that he's on
Speaker 1: the team next year. This one, i'm more kind of
Speaker 1: my guests going to my head if I had to pick,
Speaker 1: is that he'll be traded in the off season. A
Speaker 1: couple of a couple of reasons why. First of all,
Speaker 1: he's got a perfect tradeable contract. He plays in a
Speaker 1: role where some GM out there is going to convince
Speaker 1: themselves that he can be better in a bigger role. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a team out there that could probably
Speaker 1: use a wing score type of bench, kind of like
Speaker 1: microwave type of dude. Um, it's important for both of
Speaker 1: us because I know you and I are on the
Speaker 1: same page here to say that Kuzma had a good
Speaker 1: season in terms of the way he played in the
Speaker 1: regular season. However, he had a horrible series against Phoenix,
Speaker 1: and if he plays even remotely capable or close to
Speaker 1: what he played in the regular season. That's probably a
Speaker 1: more competitive series than it was there at the end. Um,
Speaker 1: I think it's worth acknowledging that Kyle Kuzma has limitations
Speaker 1: in his game. He's similar to a uh Middleton Paul
Speaker 1: George type of dude that he actively seeks to build
Speaker 1: his rhythm by taking jump shots. Um, He's got a
Speaker 1: little bit of a low offensive basketball, a queue that
Speaker 1: causes him to take tough jump shots to build his
Speaker 1: rhythm instead of building his rhythm with easy jump shots,
Speaker 1: which is what makes him inconsistent and what makes him
Speaker 1: capable of going into long slumps. You know, more more
Speaker 1: than likely, I think the Lakers will be active in
Speaker 1: the trade market this year to try to bring in
Speaker 1: a high level shot maker, and they can't do it
Speaker 1: through a sign and trade, which means they're gonna need
Speaker 1: to use a mid level contract because I assigned trade
Speaker 1: with hardcap the Lakers, which would be at a suicide
Speaker 1: mission this year because it limits what they can do
Speaker 1: around him. UM. So, from that standpoint, I think that
Speaker 1: more than likely he gets thrown into a trade as
Speaker 1: a like kind of like a salary filler type. I
Speaker 1: think he is an asset for the record, I think
Speaker 1: I think that the I would probably bet that the
Speaker 1: vast majority of NBA GM's view him as a positive
Speaker 1: asset at the number that he's at, and he was
Speaker 1: on an extremely deep team that didn't have a ton
Speaker 1: of minutes or opportunity for him. Other teams out there
Speaker 1: are going to have more, um So I think I
Speaker 1: think that he'll get thrown into a trade. Someone will
Speaker 1: value him. I I'm in another pod you and I
Speaker 1: will dive into what those trades might look like. But
Speaker 1: my gun, in my head, my guess is that he
Speaker 1: gets traded. Yeah, definitely. I feel like he could be.
Speaker 1: I feel like he might be a guy that's probably
Speaker 1: easier trade at the trade deadline. I'm thinking, just easier
Speaker 1: to kind of move when when team are kind of
Speaker 1: decided on whether this season has gone. You know, at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the year, everybody thinks they have a
Speaker 1: chance to win, and then once the season goes on,
Speaker 1: you can kind of It's kind of like the Lou
Speaker 1: Williams deal. He reminds me of that Lou was making
Speaker 1: like eight million dollars a year. KU's I think it's
Speaker 1: like twelve point six or something like that. He's like
Speaker 1: I never would have thought Lou Williams would be like
Speaker 1: a primary ball handler in the conference finals after that
Speaker 1: trade what he almost retired remember, Yeah, and and again
Speaker 1: it's like to your point where offense is is is
Speaker 1: that such a high premium that like Lou Williams, even
Speaker 1: though I think this is part of the problem with Philly,
Speaker 1: and I guess you can get into that another time.
Speaker 1: But like, also Philly not beyond to take advantage of
Speaker 1: Lou Williams. But again, an offense is such a premium.
Speaker 1: He became so important and he won them. He was
Speaker 1: part of the reason they beat Philly, like, he had
Speaker 1: huge games. So it's interesting to look at that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think Kuzma's Kuzma can be talked into. Um. I
Speaker 1: think he's a good player. I think you know that
Speaker 1: I'm hiring on him than most people. Um. But it's
Speaker 1: just an awful series and that's hard to get out
Speaker 1: of people's heads. So we'll see. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it was a short It was a short series two
Speaker 1: like in terms like like I shouldn't even say short
Speaker 1: story short, playoff run. He didn't have a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunity really quickly before we get you out of here
Speaker 1: because I know you need to go. We had a
Speaker 1: question from the comments, would you prefer a more traditional
Speaker 1: wing player over Kuzman, like PJ. Tucker or Robert Covington'
Speaker 1: That's that's hard on this. I'm interested to see what
Speaker 1: you think. I don't know, Like, what do you mean
Speaker 1: by traditional, Like just a guy who just shoots the
Speaker 1: traditional veteran wing like a p J. Tucker Robert guy
Speaker 1: who defends and knocks down open shots some of the time,
Speaker 1: like a thirty open three point shooter who's a pretty good,
Speaker 1: too above average defensive player. Yeah, I mean I feel
Speaker 1: like that's what Kuzma is supposed to be though, right
Speaker 1: in this role. That is right now, I think right now,
Speaker 1: and you're not getting those guys for the money that
Speaker 1: I think Kuzma is making either. I mean, maybe you
Speaker 1: can get p J. Tucker, but he's like thirty five.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's hard to really rely on him as
Speaker 1: well in that I don't rather just keep Kuzma, to
Speaker 1: be honest, Robert Covington went for two first round picks
Speaker 1: last last year. I mean, so it's any makes I
Speaker 1: think like sixteen seventy million dollars a year so it's
Speaker 1: gonna be it's gonna be tough to get him get
Speaker 1: him on there, So you I'd rather just keep Kuzma honestly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: me too. The one of the things that I think
Speaker 1: people don't realize is like it's really easy after a
Speaker 1: series like that to be like, oh, Kuzma sucks. Kuzma sucks. Uh,
Speaker 1: guess what, man like I get. P J. Tucker and
Speaker 1: Robert Covington both have many playoff series on their record
Speaker 1: that we're worse than what Kyle Kuzma did. Okay, Like
Speaker 1: the point is is like, when you are a role player, uh,
Speaker 1: and you have limited opportunity offensively, and you've played enough
Speaker 1: playoff series in your career, you're gonna have stinkers. So
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think that's a problem. I think
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers when it comes to these trade targets,
Speaker 1: need to be more aggressive for a shot maker, high
Speaker 1: end offensive skill player type of deal, like in the
Speaker 1: mold of a Spencer Dinwoodie. And we'll get more into
Speaker 1: that later. And I don't think Spencer is going to
Speaker 1: be available for the Lakers, but that's the type of
Speaker 1: player that the Lakers need to be looking at a
Speaker 1: c J mccollumn, Like if the Blazers end up blowing
Speaker 1: it up, anybody that's in that here that's not really
Speaker 1: considered a star, but that's a high end shot making
Speaker 1: offensive player. Those are the kinds of guys that you
Speaker 1: need to be thrown a Kyle Kuzma type of dude at,
Speaker 1: because the reality is is that the PJ. Tucker, Robert Covington,
Speaker 1: you get that from Wesley Matthews, and Wesley Matthews is
Speaker 1: available at three million a year. So you know, like
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you you have to
Speaker 1: understand that that the value for what Kuzma brings, it
Speaker 1: needs to be directed. And I agree with you. I
Speaker 1: think right now, if I had to choose strictly for
Speaker 1: defending and knocking down open shots, I think I'd probably
Speaker 1: take Kyle Kuzma over Covington, or at least in the
Speaker 1: same tier as a Covington and p JA Tucking player.
Speaker 1: You know, he's not as good defensively as a p J. Tucker,
Speaker 1: but he's close and and I would argue that Kuzma
Speaker 1: is a better help defender than both of those guys,
Speaker 1: or maybe not not as good as Covington, better than PJ,
Speaker 1: So I'm with you. I think I would keep Kuzma
Speaker 1: in that regard, but we gotta get you out of here.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you taking uh an hour out of
Speaker 1: your morning. Roger and I are back from vacation, so
Speaker 1: we'll try to get back into a good rhythm of
Speaker 1: doing two or three DS a week. Actually, I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna do one after every game of this series.
Speaker 1: In that case, Friday morning. Yeah, yeah, Friday morning. Let's
Speaker 1: do it cool. All right, Thank you everyone. I'll have
Speaker 1: the recording of this on our podcast speed shortly. Rogs.
Speaker 1: Have a gooday at work, man, I'll see you later.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you guys. Thanks