Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast. Good morning everybody,
Speaker 1: coming from a new destination where hopefully Rog and I
Speaker 1: won't have ridiculous cutouts. Uh. I was super super impressed
Speaker 1: because even though it was a total ship show of
Speaker 1: a podcast where we had a half dozen dropouts and
Speaker 1: I was like visibly upset the entire time, over two
Speaker 1: hundred of you went back and downloaded the podcast, in
Speaker 1: addition to everybody who watched it live or watched the replay.
Speaker 1: And that just means that you guys are loyal and
Speaker 1: you're supporting us through what was chaotic. But I think
Speaker 1: we haven't figured out now. Knock on wood, and I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to talk some Lakers uninterrupted with Roger Rog.
Speaker 1: How you doing this morning, man, I'm doing well. Manitsy
Speaker 1: nice Friday morning here in California. It's beautiful outside. I
Speaker 1: have all my toes, like, all my toes are on
Speaker 1: my feet, so I can't complain. Um, yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: doing well. I'm doing well. That's the crazy part with
Speaker 1: these injuries that have happened to uh, Drummond and Lebron
Speaker 1: is their their impact injuries. They're like bad luck. Someone
Speaker 1: else physically is injuring uh them as opposed to the
Speaker 1: stuff that kind of feels more associated with their durability,
Speaker 1: like non contact injuries and whear and tear injuries. You're
Speaker 1: always like associating that with how well someone takes care
Speaker 1: of their body and their genetics and stuff. But man,
Speaker 1: like you, you've gotta be kidding me. Literally stomp someone's
Speaker 1: big toe off, And as someone who's played a lot
Speaker 1: of basketball, I can't think of a single time anything
Speaker 1: close to that has happened to me. But then again,
Speaker 1: Brooke Loope has has to weigh brook Loop has has
Speaker 1: to weigh three pounds are close like probably like two
Speaker 1: seventy two eighty, So I don't encounter many humans that big.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's just the differentiating factor there. Yeah maybe,
Speaker 1: But I mean, like you look, look at your toe.
Speaker 1: How difficult would it be to like get your toe off?
Speaker 1: Like that's a super painful process that I feel like
Speaker 1: I would know is happening right in the moment he
Speaker 1: kept playing for like two more minutes on that. I
Speaker 1: just don't Maybe NBA athletes are just different, they're built different,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would I would not be able to
Speaker 1: walk after my tonail came off this tonel just floating
Speaker 1: around and just like scratching. I have no idea that
Speaker 1: that is not a level of pain that I want
Speaker 1: any part of, any time, anytime soon. So hopefully he's okay.
Speaker 1: Now it's ridiculous, all right, So today today we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about about drummonds debut, and we're just gonna talk
Speaker 1: about what we liked, what we disliked, what we could
Speaker 1: see that look like moving forward. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: Marcus Ault and his uh current status with the team
Speaker 1: and just the way his attitude is and and uh
Speaker 1: and his place in the rotation, and then uh, we're
Speaker 1: going to discuss dinner Shooter's contract negotiations. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about Wes Matthews and Mark Keith Morris and how they
Speaker 1: seemed to be coming into their role. Uh, and then
Speaker 1: we're going to finish up with some league wide stuff
Speaker 1: I want to talk about J J. Reddick. I talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about it on Wednesday, but when I
Speaker 1: get Roger's take, and then there's a couple other things
Speaker 1: that have come out about it that I think are interesting.
Speaker 1: But let's let's start with Drummond. So just really plain
Speaker 1: and simple you probably went back and watched the film
Speaker 1: a couple of times. I've I've watched it twice myself.
Speaker 1: What did you think about Andre Drummond's debut? What did
Speaker 1: you like? What did you dislike? Yeah, it's funny. We we
Speaker 1: we are the state of the Lakers. So I think
Speaker 1: part of that is knowing like the pulse of like
Speaker 1: Lakers Twitter and what they were, what they were kind
Speaker 1: of thinking. And it was pretty much a panic right
Speaker 1: during the live like watching it, watching with everyone. When
Speaker 1: you go back and watch like that first, uh said
Speaker 1: that he had the first five minutes or seven minutes,
Speaker 1: he was great. He was exactly what they brought him
Speaker 1: to do. Um, he was defending, he was in a
Speaker 1: defensive stance. He was able to um deterr you honest
Speaker 1: from getting to the rim um he was getting. He
Speaker 1: was making people second s. Middleton throw a layout that
Speaker 1: went way off the backboard because Drummond was right there.
Speaker 1: I thought he played well. Um, but but this team,
Speaker 1: especially when he got hurt, it can really bring out
Speaker 1: his like bad tendencies right, Like he's a guy that
Speaker 1: really wants to attack is so he was pulling out
Speaker 1: Kyrie dribbles for no reason. At all Kyrie package dribbles
Speaker 1: against brook Lopez. But again, with this team that has
Speaker 1: so low shock creation, it's just gonna bring out those
Speaker 1: kind of plays because there's no one else, Like the
Speaker 1: if shooter in his pick and roll doesn't work, it
Speaker 1: just becomes a swing thrown to the post. And then like,
Speaker 1: can you really blame Drummond for trying to score? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's seven sexs on the shot clock. What he's gonna do?
Speaker 1: So I thought he was fine. Um, there are parts
Speaker 1: of his games that aren't great, but that's why he
Speaker 1: got him on the biout market. I mean, you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get a star player at this level. But I
Speaker 1: thought he was fine until he broke his toe. Like
Speaker 1: I thought he was perfectly what he was expected to be.
Speaker 1: He had like two points, four rebounds, a steel and
Speaker 1: a block like in like four or five minutes, which
Speaker 1: is great. And then after that he obviously was really impacted.
Speaker 1: So hopefully he's okay now. But that's what I saw.
Speaker 1: What did you see, um going back and watching? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, you and I very clearly predicted this
Speaker 1: on our pot on on on Monday. We said it
Speaker 1: will be ugly to start, Uh, not necessarily a percent ugly,
Speaker 1: but there that there would be some ugliness associated with
Speaker 1: Drummonds debuts that that wouldn't necessarily be problems when Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d came back just out of necessity like
Speaker 1: they were. They were throwing down to Drummond in the
Speaker 1: post against brook Lopez, which is just not a matchup
Speaker 1: that they would attack in any other situation. And for
Speaker 1: the record, he actually got decent separation a couple of times.
Speaker 1: There was a move that he made on Janice where
Speaker 1: he got pretty good separation where he did like a
Speaker 1: fake dribble handoff and then attacked. And Janice is just
Speaker 1: a freak and like I've seen you honest block shots
Speaker 1: that no other human being would block. So that's not
Speaker 1: on Drummond, and that's gonna work in every other matchup.
Speaker 1: He had a play where he kind of beat brook
Speaker 1: Lopez to the spot and drew a blocking foul, and
Speaker 1: then he had another one where he got across the
Speaker 1: lane and shot like a little sweeping hook, like he
Speaker 1: can get separation on that stuff. The reason why he's not,
Speaker 1: you know, a top tier center is he just doesn't
Speaker 1: have any touch in those sorts of situations. That's what
Speaker 1: affects him the most. Um. But we expected that that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff to happen, that kind of you know,
Speaker 1: out of out of rhythm, kind of weird offensive decision making,
Speaker 1: just out of virtue of their lack of talent. But
Speaker 1: you know, the biggest thing that stood out to me
Speaker 1: as just a potential positive for the Lakers is I
Speaker 1: think that Drummond very clearly brings what we lost with
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard in particular. So one of the things with
Speaker 1: White that was so was so amazing is he had
Speaker 1: a really high defensive i Q. He had good defensive instincts,
Speaker 1: and he had the uh, the ability to be disruptive
Speaker 1: with his hands in the paint, you know, with the
Speaker 1: little passes and drop off passes and everything. Uh that
Speaker 1: everything that was loose around the pain he had an
Speaker 1: ability to get a hand on. Uh. Now, they're totally
Speaker 1: different mentalities, Like Dwight Howard is this like kind of
Speaker 1: crazy hothead who picks up technicals and picks up fouls,
Speaker 1: and whereas Drummonds like kind of the exact opposite, Like
Speaker 1: he has a tendency to almost be too passive and
Speaker 1: and and and like and it can disappear and they
Speaker 1: will be Like in that opening stretch, he was really
Speaker 1: disruptive on defense, but then he had a play where
Speaker 1: he kind of lost your honest's body and your honestly
Speaker 1: dumped on him with an alley oop. And on that play,
Speaker 1: Drummond almost looked like he was completely upright, not even
Speaker 1: in a defensive stance, and just just zero resistance. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of the opposite version of the Dwight experience. However,
Speaker 1: the actual skill set that disruptive hand stuff in the paint,
Speaker 1: his size around the basket, his defensive instincts, his ability
Speaker 1: to move his feet on a guy like Joannest who
Speaker 1: tries to play bullyball, all of that stuff he does
Speaker 1: really well. And to me, that's a clean fit because
Speaker 1: that's something they straight up lost when they lost Dwight.
Speaker 1: And and you and I I think we're the biggest
Speaker 1: proponents in in Lake or Twitter for for keeping Dwight.
Speaker 1: Uh And so I'm excited in the sense that I
Speaker 1: think Drummond brings that back right and we but we
Speaker 1: talked about it last week like we should temper expectations
Speaker 1: before um Lebron and a d got got back. But
Speaker 1: the Lakers did not do that. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a team and a fan base that you know, there's
Speaker 1: not much positive going on, Like without Lebron a d
Speaker 1: it's been tough. So all the quotes that came out,
Speaker 1: you know, Drummond said, uh, you know, I've been working
Speaker 1: out for the last three months. I'm in the best
Speaker 1: shape of my life. And then Frank Vogel said he
Speaker 1: had an amazing practice. He was getting steals all over
Speaker 1: the place. You know, some people just came into that
Speaker 1: with the expectations that Drummond was gonna come out and
Speaker 1: get like ten steels in the first quarter or whatever.
Speaker 1: But you're right, you could see his hands. He had
Speaker 1: a strip on Drew Holiday that he almost got, but
Speaker 1: I think it went to the corner for three. Um
Speaker 1: he tried to. I think he got a strip almost
Speaker 1: on the honest as well. So yeah, I think like
Speaker 1: he showed what he does. And again, like I love
Speaker 1: that first block that he got that double jump where
Speaker 1: he jumped to a contest I think the rim and
Speaker 1: then he also got the block on de Vincenzo. Like
Speaker 1: that him and a d with the double jumping ability
Speaker 1: is gonna be awesome. But yeah, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think you can really judge him until uh, the two
Speaker 1: Stars get back and he's gonna look like this. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be tough, Um, but he's gonna eat possessions. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's better that he gets a flip shot at the
Speaker 1: rim than a turnover, which has been happening a lot
Speaker 1: like there's have been really high and turnover is the
Speaker 1: last few games. And he's a guy you can give
Speaker 1: it to and you at least get a possession out
Speaker 1: of it. Um, he might not score, but you know,
Speaker 1: he might get his own rebound. He only had one
Speaker 1: rebound like last night, which is just way off base
Speaker 1: from who he is, right, But I think some of that,
Speaker 1: again was how he was feeling. Um, brook Lopez is
Speaker 1: a guy that also stays out to the three point line,
Speaker 1: so he was guarding brook Lopez so he couldn't really
Speaker 1: come and crash the boards as he wanted to. So
Speaker 1: hopefully when he plays the next game he can kind
Speaker 1: of play on a more traditional center. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like he was. He was fine. And again people
Speaker 1: expected like a twenty point fifteen rebound game or something
Speaker 1: that expectations that I saw. It was just it's just
Speaker 1: not gonna happen right now. Maybe going forward against bad teams,
Speaker 1: but Milwaukee's not the team too that's gonna let you
Speaker 1: get to the basket or you know, get a bunch
Speaker 1: of offensive rebounds. It'll be matching up oriented like he's
Speaker 1: gonna have matchups where he's gonna have fifteen And you're right,
Speaker 1: like he ended up on the ball a lot, or
Speaker 1: he ended up like they attacked him and switches and
Speaker 1: he'd end up in picking roll coverage against like Chris Middleton,
Speaker 1: or he'd end up in uh isolation coverage against the
Speaker 1: honest or you're right, like Brook Lopez and be in
Speaker 1: the corner and he'd be sprinting out on a shooter.
Speaker 1: So it was just a strange defensive matchup for for
Speaker 1: his rebounding and like, you know, this is the just
Speaker 1: the natural order of Twitter. But like there were a
Speaker 1: lot of people making fun of that sequence where he
Speaker 1: had that opening lob and and get lift and like
Speaker 1: and then I saw people comparing it to like a
Speaker 1: play where uh, Damian Damian Jones had like a dunk
Speaker 1: and on the plate like like like Damian Jones got
Speaker 1: had a really good set up. He had a straight
Speaker 1: line drive. There's no bump or anything, and he really
Speaker 1: loaded up into his jump, whereas on on the Drummond play,
Speaker 1: you could tell his momentum was taking him away from
Speaker 1: the basket. He didn't get foul or anything, but just
Speaker 1: with the speed of the play and he didn't quite
Speaker 1: get all the way turned around to where he could
Speaker 1: load up towards the basket. So when he jumped, his
Speaker 1: momentum was going in the wrong direction. He just and
Speaker 1: get great lift and everyone's like, oh, look, Drummond. It's like,
Speaker 1: I guess what Drummond is gonna be a totally viable
Speaker 1: vertical spacing threat. It just was a bad play, and
Speaker 1: just by virtue of the white Twitter works, It's like
Speaker 1: I was checking in on Andre Drummond. Actually he was
Speaker 1: awesome in his first stint. And and I mean that
Speaker 1: that I'm not worried about the toe thing at all.
Speaker 1: It sounds like the m r I thing is is fine.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have you ever lost a fingernail or
Speaker 1: a toneo before, not like the whole nail, Like I've
Speaker 1: had a nail kind of break, but I mean I've
Speaker 1: never lost the whole tone. And I don't even know
Speaker 1: what that must be the most painful thing in the world.
Speaker 1: I have no clue how that would even happen. So
Speaker 1: now I've never lost a tone. No, So I slammed
Speaker 1: my finger in a door, a car door when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, and a fingernail came off, and like
Speaker 1: the whole thing came off and and basically like it
Speaker 1: was tender for a few days, but then it was fine.
Speaker 1: And so my thing is like, uh like because it's
Speaker 1: it's basically like open flesh and then like you're the
Speaker 1: whole thing basically scabs over and then the new mail
Speaker 1: like slowly grows across. And so my guess is, like
Speaker 1: he might miss tonight's game, but then after that, my
Speaker 1: guess is that they'll be able to, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know, put some sort of vassoline or something on
Speaker 1: it and then tape it and then he'll be able
Speaker 1: to play. Because it's just gonna be a pain management
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So I think that'll be fine, which
Speaker 1: brings us to the Marcus Alt thing, because I think
Speaker 1: this will be uh, this has been a super interesting
Speaker 1: uh topic, and like, you know, I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: be great tonight. I expect him to play twenty five
Speaker 1: to thirty minutes. And you know the biggest thing, you know,
Speaker 1: when when they got Drummond, what did I tell you?
Speaker 1: I said that I thought that he would be an
Speaker 1: infusion of talent that would give them a better chance
Speaker 1: of stealing some of these fringe games. And tonight's one
Speaker 1: of those fringe games. And it sucks that Drummonds out.
Speaker 1: I prefer to him be in there because then your
Speaker 1: entire center rotation for the whole day is huge. And Sacramento,
Speaker 1: for the record, is a smaller team and and having
Speaker 1: those two centers gives you a better chance. But you know, Marcusol,
Speaker 1: like is a perfectly awesome alternative option to the to
Speaker 1: the Andre Drummond experience. Like he's different. He's not as athletic,
Speaker 1: he's not as quick, but he's way smarter. He's a
Speaker 1: much much better passer, and he's a much much better shooter,
Speaker 1: and he's got a much better soft touch around the rim.
Speaker 1: If you get him into a position where you can
Speaker 1: catch and finish, it's going in every time. And so
Speaker 1: I always said that Marcosol brings versatility, and as the
Speaker 1: Lakers showed at length in last year's playoffs, they would
Speaker 1: go with the best matchup. You know, against Denver, it
Speaker 1: was a lot of Dwight Howard. You know, against Houston,
Speaker 1: it was a lot of Markis Morris. They went with
Speaker 1: the matchup that made the most sense. And so having
Speaker 1: Marcusol on the roster is what gives you the flexibility
Speaker 1: to go a different route when it's clearly not working
Speaker 1: with Andre Drummond, or when it's clearly not working with
Speaker 1: Mark Kith Morris, because they're gonna be or excuse me,
Speaker 1: Marki Morris or Montrese Hair. There are going to be
Speaker 1: matchups where they need to go huge and they need
Speaker 1: the physicality of Drummond, and then there are gonna be
Speaker 1: matchups where they need the shooting or they need the
Speaker 1: skill in the in the versatility of a montresor Marquis.
Speaker 1: So I I even want to I think that you know,
Speaker 1: Marcusol might pout for a little while. You know, he's
Speaker 1: gonna have this phase where he has his issues, but
Speaker 1: I think you gotta keep him on board and just
Speaker 1: keep hammering home with him that you're going to win
Speaker 1: us a playoff game. We're going to need you at
Speaker 1: some point. Right. I never bought into the Marcusol was
Speaker 1: gonna buy Rumors like that was all from rival executives, right,
Speaker 1: that was never sourced into the in the team. And
Speaker 1: I don't even know why that even reaches Frank Bogol.
Speaker 1: I was disappointed that, you know, Frank Bogol had to
Speaker 1: even address that. He said, we are not buying out Marcusol. Um.
Speaker 1: And the whole point that we were excited about Andre
Speaker 1: Drummond was because we can get him for free. Right,
Speaker 1: we don't have to give up anything. People acting like
Speaker 1: we traded marcusol yesterday. It was just a really strange reaction. Um,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be fine. He's gonna start a lot of games,
Speaker 1: even in the playoffs. Maybe Drummond will start for now.
Speaker 1: But you know, the guy's thirty six. I think he
Speaker 1: understands his role right now in the league. Even when
Speaker 1: he was playing, he was playing like when the whole
Speaker 1: team was healthy. He was playing twenty minutes a game
Speaker 1: sometimes because Tress was taking his minutes. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not like a huge shift here, and he can still
Speaker 1: close games. Um, I don't know, Like, yeah, he's he
Speaker 1: refused to speak to the media for like a few days,
Speaker 1: I think, or something like that, and the whole point
Speaker 1: is that you know, you have a team with Lebron
Speaker 1: James on it, and h these kind of issues can
Speaker 1: be you know, exasperated on other teams, on bad teams,
Speaker 1: on teams without that kind of leadership. But Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: seems to have been pretty transparent with him on his role,
Speaker 1: right and what's going on. But yeah, like the thing
Speaker 1: with Marcosol starting, like just looking at it from a
Speaker 1: basketball sins like in that starting lineup, shooter is the
Speaker 1: only guy that puts pressure on the basket. So that
Speaker 1: was my thing. That's why I liked the drum and starting.
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, they can steal some games that
Speaker 1: we thought Marcosol. You know, he's a great playmaker, great passer.
Speaker 1: I just think like right now we need people to
Speaker 1: put pressure on the rim and he just doesn't do that.
Speaker 1: He's popping mostly every time. And it's just really tough
Speaker 1: to core because it's just Shrewder really the only one
Speaker 1: that's getting any kind of dribble penetration. So that's why
Speaker 1: I like Drummond starting for now. Um, but ye have
Speaker 1: Marcus At. I mean, he's a professional, he understands how
Speaker 1: this league works, and I don't think he was shocked
Speaker 1: by any of this, So maybe he's a little upset
Speaker 1: for now. I understand he's a pro, you know, but uh,
Speaker 1: I think he'll be fine and he's gonna be big
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. I don't know, Like, I don't think
Speaker 1: Drummond starting yesterday means he's gonna start every game going forward. Now,
Speaker 1: that's just just what they're going for now until the
Speaker 1: Stars get back, and then we'll see what happens. Well, Like,
Speaker 1: we have an example of this with the with the
Speaker 1: Markief Morris situation when they pulled him and and uh
Speaker 1: and West from the rotation early in the season, and
Speaker 1: and then Markief goes into a press conference and goes like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand how I could have literally been, you like,
Speaker 1: playing in the NBA Finals in the closing group, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly I'm out of the rotation. And you and
Speaker 1: I both were like, well, that's not ideal. We'd prefer
Speaker 1: he didn't say something, you know, but he wasn't playing
Speaker 1: well at the time, and and and so at that
Speaker 1: point in time he was viewed as outside of the rotation.
Speaker 1: And then by playing really, really well, he has worked
Speaker 1: his way to being arguably one of the most valuable
Speaker 1: role players right now because he's one of the few
Speaker 1: guys he's making shots. And so from from from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: like you know, the people, you can't you've got to
Speaker 1: manage people's emotions, but at the same time, you can't,
Speaker 1: you know, make decisions based on people's emotions. I said
Speaker 1: this last year about JaVale McGhee, like, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of there was a lot of talk in the locker
Speaker 1: room about this idea that like, you know, they needed
Speaker 1: to have JaVale McGee in the starting lineup for the
Speaker 1: sake of his like ego, you know, and I would
Speaker 1: frequently tell you and others on my podcast, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't understand why they're they're catering so much to
Speaker 1: to to Javail But and they did for a while.
Speaker 1: But then when it came when push came to shove
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, they were like, yeah, it's time for
Speaker 1: you to sit down. So my thing is like, you
Speaker 1: have to understand that guys are going to react, but
Speaker 1: as long as you're very transparent honest with them, it'll
Speaker 1: all come back around. And that's kind of what I
Speaker 1: expect to happen here. Is like, you know, you look
Speaker 1: at Mark and you say, we're gonna need you, and
Speaker 1: if you play great, you're gonna keep playing. So you know,
Speaker 1: he might pout for a little while, but eventually I'll
Speaker 1: understand you know, the predicament here, which is like, you know,
Speaker 1: if you've been really good, because he's been playing really
Speaker 1: well lately, and and there's there's an argument to be
Speaker 1: made that had a D been healthy all season, that
Speaker 1: Drummond doesn't even get signed. You know, maybe they go
Speaker 1: for a shooter or something along those lines. Like part
Speaker 1: of the reason why Drummond was such an obvious move
Speaker 1: is like they are have a really thin front court
Speaker 1: right now because of Lebron and a D being out.
Speaker 1: So from that standpoint, like the the uh, they need
Speaker 1: Drummond right now and in the future, the rotation is
Speaker 1: going to sink and the guys that are gonna play
Speaker 1: every single every single person in the road that we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about West Matthews here in a second, Like
Speaker 1: even k c P who was arguably their third best
Speaker 1: player in last year's play off run, he he might
Speaker 1: not play in some of these playoff matchups because he's
Speaker 1: been so bad. So you know, you gotta think of
Speaker 1: it like outside a shrewder Lebron and a d everyone
Speaker 1: else is fighting for minutes the way that I see it,
Speaker 1: and k cps a starter, and he might still fall
Speaker 1: out of the rotation, so are not all entirely but
Speaker 1: he his minutes might be cut. So you know, everyone
Speaker 1: everyone's kind of in the same boat. Like you. You
Speaker 1: can't go back to the locker room and and be
Speaker 1: all pissy about the fact that you're minutes have been
Speaker 1: cut when every single player in there outside of the
Speaker 1: core three is technically under the same steaks. So I
Speaker 1: think he'll I think it'll end up being fine, But
Speaker 1: I just I hope, I hope you and I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think, you know. Frank straight up came out
Speaker 1: and said we have no plans to buy out Marcusol
Speaker 1: And then he also said before that game against Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: he said, uh, with the way that the this all
Speaker 1: is shaping up with the UH, with the matchup against Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: we're expecting not to play Mark tonight, but we still
Speaker 1: think that in our bench lineups that we can play
Speaker 1: Mark and Treads together. He said that. So then so
Speaker 1: then the game comes and he doesn't play and you
Speaker 1: know a lot of lak er Twitter starts freaking out,
Speaker 1: like I can't believe Marcusol is not playing until crunch
Speaker 1: time or until garbage time. And it's like Frank literally
Speaker 1: told us, and he told us earlier this season. Hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, I'm not playing West and I'm not
Speaker 1: playing Mark Keith tonight, Like this is super super transparent
Speaker 1: coaching staff and uh AN organization and so like I
Speaker 1: trust that you know they can at least figure it out.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talking about this more with JJ Reddick later.
Speaker 1: Like guys are way better at dealing with bad news
Speaker 1: when it's honest and for three then they are when
Speaker 1: they get blindsided, Like that's the key difference here, and
Speaker 1: and the Lakers handle that well. So I I'm not
Speaker 1: too worried about Mark, right, And you brought up the
Speaker 1: Mark and Treads kind of line ups at Frankfurt lots
Speaker 1: talked about those two have not played a minute together
Speaker 1: this season before that Bucks game. I think they played.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play a little bit against the Bucks, but
Speaker 1: they have not played a minute together before that, So
Speaker 1: that's one thing I want to see. And again, Mark's
Speaker 1: gonna get his minutes. I mean he's I mean, he's
Speaker 1: at the stage of his career. I don't think starting
Speaker 1: is Maybe it's a huge deal still to him, but like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't feel like starting should be
Speaker 1: that big of a point here that should be, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think he'd be that upset about that for
Speaker 1: right now. So Drummond's gonna start for now. But again,
Speaker 1: all these matchup dependent. We just saw it in the
Speaker 1: last playoffs. Frank Bogo has no problem benching someone who's
Speaker 1: not gonna play. You talked about KCP. I mean all
Speaker 1: those players are pretty much a revolving door right around
Speaker 1: Lebron in a d Whoever is playing well, it's gonna start.
Speaker 1: West could start. I think West started the season if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, but he couldn't hit a shot, so
Speaker 1: he got moved to the bench. M Markief got moved
Speaker 1: to the bench because th HD was playing so well. Right,
Speaker 1: they need to find minutes for THHD, and they just
Speaker 1: the minutes that got cut where West and Markief. So
Speaker 1: that's how it's gonna go. Whoever is playing well, it's
Speaker 1: gonna play. Um, we're in the place right now where
Speaker 1: like wins are just whatever. When you can get you
Speaker 1: get um. So whoever's playing well is going to play,
Speaker 1: whether it's Mark, whether it's Drummond, whether it's Harold, that's killing.
Speaker 1: I mean that that's how it's going to go. And
Speaker 1: I think Mark is going to be fine. He's a professional.
Speaker 1: He understands. He's been the league eighteen like fifteen years
Speaker 1: or something like that, so he understands the game, and
Speaker 1: he'll be He'll be fine. Yeah. So the Marcusol, Mantrese
Speaker 1: Harold lineups are going to be interesting. So the way
Speaker 1: that the way that Frank framed it, as he said,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, you correct me if I'm reversing this,
Speaker 1: but he basically said, we'll put uh Marcussol at the
Speaker 1: at the five on defense and Montres at the four
Speaker 1: on defense, and then on offense, will run Marcusol as
Speaker 1: the four and Montres at the five. Now that works,
Speaker 1: and I actually like that idea mainly because we have
Speaker 1: all the ways agreed that Montrez is better defensively almost
Speaker 1: as a wing um, flying around using his length, using
Speaker 1: his motor, using uh putting him in space as opposed
Speaker 1: to put him around the basket. And Marcusol is actually
Speaker 1: a great drop coverage center because he's just like really
Speaker 1: good at positioning his body between the the offensive player
Speaker 1: in the rim, not fouling. You know, he's not as
Speaker 1: vertically athletic, he's not a great shot blocker, but he's
Speaker 1: so just savvy around the basket as a defensive player.
Speaker 1: And and we saw him do a great job with
Speaker 1: that against Ben Simmons, and we saw him again in
Speaker 1: that in that fourth quarter doing a good job against
Speaker 1: the Bucks and sou From that same point, that lineup
Speaker 1: I actually think can work. And the only reason it
Speaker 1: hasn't played is because of the fact that they were
Speaker 1: kind of playing Montrese and and Mark as the two fives.
Speaker 1: But I but I do, I do think it would
Speaker 1: work because you know they always talk about with these
Speaker 1: line ups it's just about who you can guard. And
Speaker 1: we know Marcusol can play defensively as the five, and
Speaker 1: I would argue that Montress every bit as mobile and
Speaker 1: good on the perimeter as as a Marquis for instance.
Speaker 1: And so I absolutely think that that that it can work. Um,
Speaker 1: and so it'll be interest thing to say. And then
Speaker 1: offensively on the other end, uh, you have Montraz who
Speaker 1: has been absolutely amazing offensively in the last you know
Speaker 1: month or so, I think he's averaging over twenty points
Speaker 1: a game, shooting like sixties six percent from the field.
Speaker 1: He's piling in in mismatches in the post, he's got
Speaker 1: it all going. He made some mid rain shots the
Speaker 1: other night. He's still got that little floater thing going.
Speaker 1: And then uh, and then marcusol is starting to be
Speaker 1: really aggressive from the three point line out on top
Speaker 1: of the key. Missed a couple of shots there in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, but like he's every bit as good
Speaker 1: as Shooter out there as any of the guards are. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so like it all makes sense to me that
Speaker 1: Marcus l still has a role here. And then when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis comes back, everyone in the rotation gets squeezed
Speaker 1: because eighties playing thirty six minutes. Now, Lebron's playing forty minutes. Now,
Speaker 1: Shooter is gonna play thirty five minutes or whatever. And
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, it's gonna be we got you know,
Speaker 1: these you know, five or six big roles to fill,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be based on who's going. Um, and
Speaker 1: I think this is a good opportunity to transition into
Speaker 1: West because you know you and I talked at length
Speaker 1: earlier this year when West was struggling about how we
Speaker 1: thought West would probably end up being one of their
Speaker 1: most dependable playoff guards, and it was based on the
Speaker 1: fact that his role, what he's good at, makes the
Speaker 1: most sense when Lebron, Lebron and a d are playing
Speaker 1: really well, because they do attract so much attention to
Speaker 1: do put so much pressure on the rim, and West
Speaker 1: Matthews can knock down the open shot, and he can
Speaker 1: defend these bigger wings and things along those lines. And
Speaker 1: so ironically, and this is something I did not expect.
Speaker 1: He actually appears to have kind of got it going. Uh,
Speaker 1: in a situation where it'd be really hard for him
Speaker 1: to get it going. What do you think is going
Speaker 1: on with him that's caused him to start to start
Speaker 1: playing better. He just looks in a rhythm now, Like
Speaker 1: his shot looks good. Um, he's getting open looks, he's
Speaker 1: coming off us, he's coming off pinned downs. Um, he's
Speaker 1: curling like he just he just looks in a rhythm.
Speaker 1: And I always say like he was a better he's
Speaker 1: a better movement shooter. He's our best like movement shooter
Speaker 1: that we have on the team. Um, that's the difference
Speaker 1: between him and like Danny Green. To me, like he
Speaker 1: can come off curl and get right into a shot
Speaker 1: and it looks it looks really good. In his defense
Speaker 1: has been consistent throughout the year. Um, he can't guard
Speaker 1: like the super big wings, right, but he's done a
Speaker 1: good job. Like last down on Milton, he did, he
Speaker 1: did a really nice job. He had some switches on
Speaker 1: the honest that he played well. And again, West is
Speaker 1: a professional. He's been the league for a bunch of years,
Speaker 1: and he's well. I think he's like the leader and
Speaker 1: three point three pointers made for an undrafted player or
Speaker 1: something like that, and a guy like that is just
Speaker 1: not going to forget how to shoot. So um, yeah,
Speaker 1: he he looks a lot better and he's our best
Speaker 1: shooter right now. He's shooting thirty from three on almost
Speaker 1: five attempts the last five games. Um, I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers only one like two of those. But you know,
Speaker 1: he's he's playing well and uh man a KCP is
Speaker 1: really struggling. So it's it's nice to have at least
Speaker 1: one shooter going because our margin forever is just so low.
Speaker 1: If we can't hit open shots, is gonna be tough,
Speaker 1: so he's the only guy really hitting them right now.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's nice to see he's even tacking the
Speaker 1: basket a little bit, trying to create off the dribble um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Kevin, a guy that can make shots right
Speaker 1: now is what we need, and whoever's making shots has
Speaker 1: to play. And he's played well. He's gonna be big
Speaker 1: in the playoffs as well, especially matchup dependent. He can
Speaker 1: guard those wings and trace him off screens. He's all.
Speaker 1: He's a lot quicker than some guards that we have,
Speaker 1: and he's a little bit both here as well, can
Speaker 1: stay in front. So he's been playing well, and I'm
Speaker 1: really happy for him that he's he's gotten out that
Speaker 1: stretch because he looked like he was really frustrated because
Speaker 1: he was missing wide open shots, especially passes from Lebron.
Speaker 1: They'd be wide open in the corner and he'd be
Speaker 1: he'd be clanking them. So yeah, I'm happy for him.
Speaker 1: I'm happy he's he got his shot going, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's can't come at a better time because the Lakers
Speaker 1: needed right now. He was one of dozens and dozens
Speaker 1: of players around the league who really struggled with getting
Speaker 1: his legs underneath him at the start of the season.
Speaker 1: And so you know, especially as like one of the
Speaker 1: older guys around the league. Uh, and you know, he's
Speaker 1: not as old as some of the oldest guys in
Speaker 1: the league, but when you actually factor in the injuries
Speaker 1: that he suffered in his career, like he he is
Speaker 1: an older guy, and and so it kind of makes
Speaker 1: the most sense and that that he would peek later
Speaker 1: in the year. And I agree. Like the interesting part
Speaker 1: about him getting it going is I talked about how
Speaker 1: I thought him and most of the shooters would get
Speaker 1: going as Lebron and a d came back because their
Speaker 1: shot quality would massively improve, and then just by virtue
Speaker 1: of getting constant great looks, they would they would get
Speaker 1: their rhythm going. And uh, ironically, it appears to be
Speaker 1: that even in this crappy situation, offensively, he's got a
Speaker 1: going because he's got his legs back and already looks
Speaker 1: great off the move. He's he's uh, their best off
Speaker 1: the move shooter in large part, in my opinion, because
Speaker 1: he's so strong in his lower body and his ability
Speaker 1: to get a strong base because off the move shooting
Speaker 1: is all about your legs. It's it's every bit as
Speaker 1: athletic a move as a dunk, because what you're doing
Speaker 1: is you're trying to regain balance when your momentum is
Speaker 1: carrying yourself away from the basket. It's all about leg strength,
Speaker 1: and so he's naturally good at that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: you know. Defensively, at the beginning ing of the year,
Speaker 1: he was so bad against quick guards, and I just,
Speaker 1: you know, was clinging to the fact that I loved
Speaker 1: him for specific matchups, like he's just a great guy
Speaker 1: to throw out of Chris Middleton or Kauai or Paul George,
Speaker 1: any bigger wing score who doesn't necessarily use like lightning
Speaker 1: athleticism to get by you, but rather uses shiftiness in
Speaker 1: size and strength to get an advantage against you. West
Speaker 1: is like such a weapon to throw against that type
Speaker 1: of guy. He used to do amazing work against Lebron
Speaker 1: and against Kauai in previous seasons, and I was most
Speaker 1: excited about that. But the truth is that he's very,
Speaker 1: very laterally quick, and he should be able to guard
Speaker 1: the quicker guards at least as well as any of
Speaker 1: the other defensive guards in the league. He just didn't
Speaker 1: have his legs underneath him and to see that all
Speaker 1: kind of coming together now, and with Drummond and his
Speaker 1: ability to put pressure on the rim, although he's not
Speaker 1: gonna be playing tonight, I don't think. Um, but when
Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis comes back, which I think we're I
Speaker 1: think he's probably gonna come back next week. I mean,
Speaker 1: according to what Sham's had said at the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: like theoretically late next week. Maybe. I don't know. Um,
Speaker 1: but with a d coming, all that shot quality stuff
Speaker 1: is just gonna keep going up and up, and I
Speaker 1: think all these all these guys are gonna get going.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's interesting. This is the advantage of
Speaker 1: depth because when you've got you know, because the Lakers.
Speaker 1: We were talking about this in my Wednesday podcast when
Speaker 1: one of the people in the comments asked like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what buyout guys should the Lakers go to?
Speaker 1: And of course, if an auto border comes up, you
Speaker 1: snatch him. If you know who's the flamethrower Blake in
Speaker 1: his name, yeah, the flamethrower shooter. If he comes up, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course you take it. But look at the Lakers rotation.
Speaker 1: They got five guards, like good rotation guards, you know,
Speaker 1: th ht Crusoe, Wes Matthews, h k CP and Dennis
Speaker 1: and then they've got two really good wings and Kuzman
Speaker 1: Labron Uh and then in the front court they've got
Speaker 1: you know, Markie Morris, mon Tres marcusol uh Um and
Speaker 1: Uh Andre Drummond. So they're deep. So the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is is like like it's impossible for all
Speaker 1: of them to be cold forever, and so somebody was
Speaker 1: going to get it going, and here come Mark Keith
Speaker 1: and Wes Matthews. Just by virtue of of of like
Speaker 1: banging your head against the wall, somebody started making shots.
Speaker 1: And it's been the two of them, and I think
Speaker 1: that you know, it's it's we always talk about how
Speaker 1: it's a waterfall effect, like the two of them making
Speaker 1: shots is going to open things up for uh, for
Speaker 1: Dennis shooter and for Andre Drummond around the basket, which
Speaker 1: is going to continue to increase the shot quality for
Speaker 1: the other shooters. And then everybody's gonna start getting it going.
Speaker 1: And so I'm super super excited about that. Are you
Speaker 1: Are you yet concerned about KCP because I'm getting close. Yeah, Like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tie this back to West because West talked
Speaker 1: about a lot we forget that. West started last year
Speaker 1: on a Bucks team that was rolling through the league.
Speaker 1: He was out, he was playing like twenty thirty minutes
Speaker 1: a game, getting a bunch of shots up. He came
Speaker 1: to the Lakers and what he started to come out
Speaker 1: of the bench. He was taking like two threes a game,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. He was just there's just
Speaker 1: no way for him to get in rhythm. I think
Speaker 1: he's talked about this, like he's used to touching the ball,
Speaker 1: you know, going through, having the ball in his hands,
Speaker 1: kind of feeling for the game, and um, just sitting
Speaker 1: there and spotting up. I think it was tough for him.
Speaker 1: I feel this way the way with KCP because I'm
Speaker 1: watching him and he's passing up shots. Now. He's driving
Speaker 1: very recklessly. He gets to the basket with no intention
Speaker 1: of scoring or doing anything. He got blocked twice last
Speaker 1: night in an absolute terrible fashion. He just threw up
Speaker 1: some layups that you know had no chance or anything. Um,
Speaker 1: but he's got to get his shots up like this.
Speaker 1: He's not going to get his shot back by just
Speaker 1: passing up taking these taking two threes a game, three
Speaker 1: threes a game, It's just not gonna work and his jumper,
Speaker 1: he has no confidence right now his jump shot. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know if a week off would help him, Like,
Speaker 1: I really don't know. Again, his benefit of the doubt
Speaker 1: was very long, Like it's still pretty long. You win
Speaker 1: a title and you you get that long benef of
Speaker 1: the doubt. It's starting to run up a little bit though. Um,
Speaker 1: the Lakers need him to uh, like you just need
Speaker 1: him to play, man. This is this is the time.
Speaker 1: This is where you earn your money. You got the contract, Like,
Speaker 1: this is time you like like we're not asking you
Speaker 1: to you know, run pick and roll and not asking
Speaker 1: you to playmate. Just hit open shots, Um, hit your
Speaker 1: mid range jumper. He just I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: I think he'll be fine again when the playoffs start.
Speaker 1: But it's been almost a full season long of just
Speaker 1: a real struggle. He had a really hot start. Um,
Speaker 1: he played well ins Philly, and then from there it's
Speaker 1: just really tough. Maybe the shock creation is the problem.
Speaker 1: No one else really puts pressure on the rim for him,
Speaker 1: so he's not getting the looks the same. We all
Speaker 1: we talked about it. Every open shots not the same.
Speaker 1: But my issue is his defense has really fallen off
Speaker 1: as well. It's not where it used to be. Um,
Speaker 1: he's getting beat a lot more. He gets lost. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that Andre Drummond lab play you you talked
Speaker 1: about it. I think that was a backscreen on KCP
Speaker 1: or Drummond or something like that which got him to
Speaker 1: lob There's just a lot of plays like that that's
Speaker 1: been happening. So it's like his engagement level isn't where
Speaker 1: it used to be. Like he's really disengaged from the
Speaker 1: game for long stretches, way longer than it's been. Again,
Speaker 1: this may be a mental thing that you know, because
Speaker 1: of the bubble. I look at It's funny you look
Speaker 1: at the Miami Heat are five hundred there, twenty five
Speaker 1: and twenty four against same they went to the finals
Speaker 1: like the Lakers did their five hundred. Yet they're comfortably
Speaker 1: in the four. They're gonna be comfortably in the four
Speaker 1: seed pretty soon, like they have eight more losses in
Speaker 1: the Lakers. So I just look at that and that
Speaker 1: that might be a factor still for KCP, But I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's time for him to start playing well,
Speaker 1: hopefully against like more bad teams like the Kings tonight
Speaker 1: in Toronto, coming up. He can kind of get a rhythm.
Speaker 1: But I think this is all in his head. Like
Speaker 1: most things, when he's confident, he looks like Clay Thompson,
Speaker 1: and when he's not, he looks like whatever. This version
Speaker 1: is so hopefully hofully he picks it up. But I
Speaker 1: think you'll be fine. But right now it's a it's
Speaker 1: a big time struggle. Well, you just made a great
Speaker 1: point the Latin You and I have talked about this
Speaker 1: several times on the podcast, Like the last four teams
Speaker 1: in the league have all struggle. The Miami Heat have
Speaker 1: basically been a five hunder basketball team. The Box and
Speaker 1: Celtics have been like catastrophic below options. And I predicted
Speaker 1: that I predicted the Celtics would get off to a
Speaker 1: slow start because I really thought their lack of playmaking
Speaker 1: would be a problem, just because Tatum and Brown, as
Speaker 1: talented as they are, they're just not developed as playmakers yet.
Speaker 1: And I and Dave and like I said, catastrophically below expectations,
Speaker 1: and the Nuggets are basically just now getting it going.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets and Lakers are basically right next to each
Speaker 1: other in the standings, in the middle of the pack,
Speaker 1: so they've both been bad for them. It hasn't been
Speaker 1: health related, it was more just, uh, Jamal Murray really
Speaker 1: took a while to get going, although now he's having
Speaker 1: like a career season, so it's it's kind of funny
Speaker 1: how that all worked out. But anyway, like the thing
Speaker 1: with KCP that I think everyone has to remember is
Speaker 1: what it looks like when it's good, and then remember
Speaker 1: and try to understand why it's been hard for him
Speaker 1: to do that this season. So for instance, like when
Speaker 1: you watch a good KCP game, what do you usually see?
Speaker 1: He usually gets out, he gets going in transition. That's
Speaker 1: where he gets his game going. He gets these because
Speaker 1: he's got such great speed and he's got such great
Speaker 1: single leg bounce, Like that's his advance, Like his athletic
Speaker 1: strength strength is single leg bounce, which is the best
Speaker 1: bounce to have in transition because it allows you to
Speaker 1: extend and actually it's like it allows you to to
Speaker 1: stop from slowing your body down before going to the basket.
Speaker 1: And so what will happen is is like every single
Speaker 1: game he'll lock up on defense and run out and
Speaker 1: Lebron will hit him in transition to three times he'll
Speaker 1: get some and ones or some dunks, and that kind
Speaker 1: of feeds into his confidence, and then the rest of
Speaker 1: his offensive game is built around attacking closeouts and and
Speaker 1: just by virtue of like you know, Marcosol playing limited
Speaker 1: minutes and being out with COVID for a while, and
Speaker 1: then Lebron being out, he's been playing without that that
Speaker 1: outlet passer, that guy who can get him the ball
Speaker 1: in transition, because those transition openings are open open for
Speaker 1: a split second before the defense gets back, and you
Speaker 1: need someone like Lebron or Marcusol who can grab the
Speaker 1: rebound but already knows what's happening down the floor and
Speaker 1: it can hit KCP and stride so that he can
Speaker 1: get that going. And then it's all just part of
Speaker 1: his waterfall effect of his rhythm. He builds all of
Speaker 1: that together into this finished package, which is him being
Speaker 1: a great defensive player who can hurt you in transition,
Speaker 1: and then he can hurt you in transition as a
Speaker 1: shooter too. There's one of the biggest plays of the
Speaker 1: Finals last year was in Game four when the when
Speaker 1: the Lakers won, and he had a play where where
Speaker 1: Lebron drove in transition to hit him in the corner
Speaker 1: he had sprinted the floor and got to the corner.
Speaker 1: That's all part of his game that's kind of going
Speaker 1: untapped right now. And so and hopefully Marcusol playing a
Speaker 1: bigger role tonight, we'll help him get get that going again.
Speaker 1: But I I'm with you, he deserves the longest bit
Speaker 1: of leash. And uh, I kind of think of it
Speaker 1: the same way I think about with Lebron. Like with Lebron,
Speaker 1: this is like he deserves all of the the the
Speaker 1: positive outlook in the world because of his history of
Speaker 1: taking such good care of his body. But it's important,
Speaker 1: it's important to point out like this is the first
Speaker 1: like impact physical injury he suffered in his later life
Speaker 1: lower leg late in the season. There's something weird about
Speaker 1: this with KCP as long as his leashes. This is
Speaker 1: the worst he's been for an extended stretch. And so
Speaker 1: I think it's okay to acknowledge like this doesn't look great,
Speaker 1: but I think we I think he'll still be fine.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not like he's going anywhere. It's not
Speaker 1: like the Lakers have to worry about trading him anymore.
Speaker 1: It's it's just a question of him getting it going.
Speaker 1: So like in the beginning of the party, you talked
Speaker 1: about how you were excited about Drumming because he kind
Speaker 1: of gives with Dwight missed right what we lost with
Speaker 1: Dwight last year k c P and Dwight. Because Ksey
Speaker 1: came off the bench last year. People for Gabe Bradley
Speaker 1: has actually started. So him and Dwight used to have
Speaker 1: this play where they would run this double drag handoff right,
Speaker 1: so Casey would come off two screens. He was starting
Speaker 1: the corner, and then Dwight would roll ole, so Casey
Speaker 1: we would basically have three choices. He particularly attacked the basket,
Speaker 1: take his mid range, pull up fine Dwight, or kick
Speaker 1: it into the corner. That's what I was excited about
Speaker 1: Drumming coming because he gives him another role threat to
Speaker 1: kind of play with. Um. He seems very just designated
Speaker 1: into spot up shooting. Lakers aren't defending as well right now.
Speaker 1: They are defending well, but they aren't getting into a
Speaker 1: transition as well as much, and he's not spreading the
Speaker 1: way he used to. So I'd like to see them
Speaker 1: kind of go back to that run some actions for him,
Speaker 1: run some handoffs um, just to get him going, get
Speaker 1: him feeling the basketball. It's he just he's just waiting
Speaker 1: for the ball to come to him and he's just
Speaker 1: getting into no rhythm. So I would hope maybe they'll
Speaker 1: run a few more sets for him to get going. Um.
Speaker 1: But but again, yeah, his benefit the doab is pretty long. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not Lebron level. He's not He's not Lebron James.
Speaker 1: So we can't just expect him to turn on some
Speaker 1: players they have a good postseason, that's pretty much what happens.
Speaker 1: So we'll hopefully he plays well. But yeah, his role
Speaker 1: kind of he's one of the he's the player that
Speaker 1: probably misses the two stars the most. Um, he's the
Speaker 1: guy that plays off them the most. So again, he's
Speaker 1: not a movement shooter. He's a guy that likes the
Speaker 1: spot up. He can sprint to a spot, but he's
Speaker 1: not like a curl and uh, you know gets set
Speaker 1: through that way. So hopefully he plays better. And again
Speaker 1: we talked about We're going to talk about Markueffe as well. Right,
Speaker 1: Markeefe has played really well. Again, he's a guy to
Speaker 1: me that's in a rhythm. He's getting touches, he's getting
Speaker 1: a lot of post touches. He's getting a lot of
Speaker 1: isolations right, and he's able to feel the ball kind
Speaker 1: of you know, get his get his mid range pull
Speaker 1: up in and that kind of uh works to his
Speaker 1: three pointer that's starting to go in. He's starting to
Speaker 1: hit his corner threes. And again it's all because to me,
Speaker 1: he's a rhythm guy who likes to have the ball
Speaker 1: kind of feel the defender, fade away jumper. Um can
Speaker 1: score that way. So again, both of those guys I
Speaker 1: feel like are playing well and I don't think it's
Speaker 1: an accident because they're getting more shots, they're able to
Speaker 1: get in a rhythm into games, and they're starting to
Speaker 1: hit their jumpers. So both of them have been a
Speaker 1: positive surprise and I hope Case gets it going gets
Speaker 1: going here. Markis Morris is the most interesting like rotation
Speaker 1: conundrum that they have because you know, he was really
Speaker 1: good in the season last year because he was flat
Speaker 1: out a knockdown shooter. And for the record, he's been
Speaker 1: a knockdown shooter for the last month or so this season,
Speaker 1: and he was a knockdown shooter in the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: so you know, the question becomes, you know, and again
Speaker 1: it goes back to what we were talking about with
Speaker 1: Marcus Ool. It's about versatility. I think Mark I think
Speaker 1: Mark Keith Morris is going to get run even with
Speaker 1: as crazy deep as the front court is, I think
Speaker 1: Mark Kief Morris is going to get run. Like in
Speaker 1: games where Kuzma is a little sloppy, I think they'll
Speaker 1: go to Markief. In games where the centers aren't really
Speaker 1: working for matchups like a Brooklyn series, I think you
Speaker 1: might see a lot of Mark Kive Morris. They might.
Speaker 1: They'll they'll try to go big to try to bully
Speaker 1: the nets. But if it's not working, if Drummond and
Speaker 1: Gassol and Treads are aren't getting enough offensive rebounds and
Speaker 1: beating them up inside, they're gonna have to audible for
Speaker 1: that switching attack to get UH to put Markis on
Speaker 1: the floor. So I think he's going to continue to
Speaker 1: be UH involved. But the thing is is, like you said,
Speaker 1: the reason why he's succeeding is because he's getting a
Speaker 1: lot of run. And he did get a lot of
Speaker 1: run in the playoffs, and so it'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: see in the coming weeks when Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: come back, if if Mark Kith gets out of rhythm
Speaker 1: just by virtue of them, uh playing the centers a lot,
Speaker 1: so it'll be he but he just he provides, He provides.
Speaker 1: He was another guy kind of like Wes Matthews who's
Speaker 1: to start the season physically didn't look great and his
Speaker 1: legs are clearly underneath him. Now now he's shooting the
Speaker 1: ball really well. He's a very good post offender. He's
Speaker 1: just good at holding his position and forcing guys to
Speaker 1: shoot over the top. He's a very good shooter when
Speaker 1: he's wide open, and he just doesn't make mistakes. And
Speaker 1: so I he's an interesting uh, he's I was really
Speaker 1: psyched about the Markis Moore signing from the beginning, and
Speaker 1: he's exceeded expectations even above that, and it'll just be
Speaker 1: really interesting to see if he stays involved throughout the process. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And he played a lot of minutes next
Speaker 1: to Harold right to start, and I think that really
Speaker 1: struggled with him because he basically played the backup five
Speaker 1: in that situation. Both him and Harold aren't room protector
Speaker 1: and m protectors like that at all, and it was
Speaker 1: tough to watch him kind of try to defend that
Speaker 1: way right now to the Lakers have him playing some five,
Speaker 1: but you could just see how much more comfortable he
Speaker 1: is playing next to a good big, like playing next
Speaker 1: to Drummond, playing next to Marcusol, even playing next to
Speaker 1: Damien Jones. He's been starting right, So yeah, I think
Speaker 1: he's looked really good as as that kind of role.
Speaker 1: And he's the He's when you look when you think
Speaker 1: of versatility on this team, you think of him. He's
Speaker 1: the He's the reason that Houston really got shut down.
Speaker 1: That was their adjustment, right, Their adjustment was starting Markis
Speaker 1: Morris against the Rockets. So the Rockets couldn't you know,
Speaker 1: small ball them. Um, they just play a D at
Speaker 1: the five and from there that series was over by
Speaker 1: that time. So yeah, he's gonna be big going into
Speaker 1: the playoffs. And again another matchup dependent guy. But if
Speaker 1: he hasn't going, you're gonna play him a guy you
Speaker 1: can throw the ball into eat possessions, like we always say, um,
Speaker 1: if if you have nothing going. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: is really helping the team right now. His mid range
Speaker 1: pull up is it's not super efficient, but again it's
Speaker 1: better than having a turnover, you know, having a bad pass.
Speaker 1: So I'm happy he's got it going and he's he's
Speaker 1: a rhythm guy. That's he looks happy getting all the
Speaker 1: shots he's getting. So hopefully, hopefully we get some wins
Speaker 1: out of it. That's the funny part about watching this
Speaker 1: team as of late is so many Laker fans are
Speaker 1: incessantly complaining about them looking like they have a massive
Speaker 1: talent disadvantage. And they do, but you know, throwing Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D in the mix, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: that talent disadvantage becomes a massive depth of role players
Speaker 1: and it just gives you more options to go to
Speaker 1: and uh and more potential, uh, you know, for guys
Speaker 1: to get hot. Like you know, if you you can
Speaker 1: go to so many games last year in the playoffs
Speaker 1: where like Cruso, Like, for instance, Cruiso shot. You know,
Speaker 1: I tweeted it out the other day because that guy
Speaker 1: from Clippers Twitter right last year, right, So yeah, he
Speaker 1: was in the twenties in the in the playoffs last
Speaker 1: year for the Lakers. But he had games where he
Speaker 1: made shots. And there I think I think game one
Speaker 1: and Game six of the NBA Final. I don't know
Speaker 1: off top of my head, but I think in those
Speaker 1: two games he made a bunch of shots and then
Speaker 1: you know, Mark Kieth had that game where he made
Speaker 1: five threes. Like you know, KCP had huge games even
Speaker 1: though his three point percentage was was I think hover
Speaker 1: just under for the entire playoff front. But the point
Speaker 1: is is, like you know, Frank had did a really
Speaker 1: good job of kind of giving them all chances, and
Speaker 1: they all had moments and and so you know, that's
Speaker 1: the thing is you just kind of have to read
Speaker 1: the room, see who's feeling confidency, who's not, and go
Speaker 1: with those guys. And they have so many options and
Speaker 1: that that's what's really cool about the way that team
Speaker 1: is built is just the depth of options. Um. So
Speaker 1: really quickly before we get to the the JJ Reddick stuff. Uh,
Speaker 1: the so, we don't know exactly what the offer was.
Speaker 1: We know that it was somewhere in the neighborhood of
Speaker 1: four years and eighty million dollars for Dennis Shorter. We
Speaker 1: have no idea whether or not it was guaranteed. We
Speaker 1: have no idea whether or not there was a player
Speaker 1: option involved. But Dennis turned it down. Um So you know,
Speaker 1: as is the case with all this stuff, it's all
Speaker 1: conjecture because you know, no one wants to show their
Speaker 1: hand and they try to handle this stuff behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: But what what is your what's your early impressions takeaways
Speaker 1: from the dentist shooter contract negotiation. Yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: always like three sides to every kind of story, right
Speaker 1: one side, one side, and the truth and these kind
Speaker 1: of things. I always look at who kind of benefits
Speaker 1: from who benefits from this kind of information leaking? Really,
Speaker 1: and I can't really decide who. I mean, the shrewder
Speaker 1: benefit by showing that he turned down an eight four
Speaker 1: million dollar extension. I mean, I'm not sure that the
Speaker 1: Lakers benefit by showing that, you know, hey, we offered
Speaker 1: this and he just didn't take it. Um, to me,
Speaker 1: this is just a bet, Like I'm I'm betting that
Speaker 1: they did offer it and he declined it. I think
Speaker 1: that's the main facts in the story. Everything else is
Speaker 1: just conjecture like you talked about. But um, I think
Speaker 1: this is just a bet on himself, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: the Shooters a smart guy. He knows this offer will
Speaker 1: be there in the summer. I mean, the Lakers can't
Speaker 1: just Lakers don't if he doesn't take it. Lakers just
Speaker 1: can't offer this to someone else. They can sign and
Speaker 1: trade him, do other things. But he probably knows that
Speaker 1: this offer is there um to me for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: like shooters betting on himself. If he plays well and
Speaker 1: the Lakers win the title, the happily give him this money.
Speaker 1: They can even offer him a little more, I think,
Speaker 1: because this is the max he can offer him right now.
Speaker 1: But going to the summer, we'll see. And again, sure,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm my comfortable paying Dennis million dollar year.
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure to be honest on that, But again,
Speaker 1: that's not a decision I think the Lakers can really
Speaker 1: have right now. So I think the point is that
Speaker 1: he's betting on himself. He thinks he's gonna play well
Speaker 1: the Lakers on the title, he's gonna get even more
Speaker 1: money if not, If he doesn't play well, then maybe
Speaker 1: that gives, you know, more leverage the other way. But
Speaker 1: I respect him for betting on himself. Um, I think
Speaker 1: teams are gonna be out there with cap space. I
Speaker 1: just don't see a team offering him more than that
Speaker 1: million dollars that's there. But if he thinks he can
Speaker 1: get more than great, But again, right now we're watching him.
Speaker 1: He's a nice point guard. Again, I don't think he's
Speaker 1: gonna lead this team to very many wins right now.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that's how his game is built,
Speaker 1: and his team is not built around Dennis Shrewder. So
Speaker 1: um again looking at that he's played well next to
Speaker 1: the stars. I talked about all the time that him,
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are killing teams when they're on
Speaker 1: the floor together. And that's the main point of this.
Speaker 1: That's what Denni shrewders here for easier to play next
Speaker 1: to Lebron and a D and everything else. Um, he
Speaker 1: can earn his money in other ways, but that's the
Speaker 1: main ways. That's how That's how I take it. How
Speaker 1: about you, Yeah, so I really thought it was simple.
Speaker 1: I think I think just like a lot of guys
Speaker 1: in his position. Um, A great example of this is
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, uh last summer. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: guys just would rather at least keep their options open
Speaker 1: till the summer, like I'm sure Shrewder in his mind,
Speaker 1: and I would. I would be relatively certain that Shrewder
Speaker 1: behind the scenes has been telling Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and you know, colloquial conversations like I'm staying but you know,
Speaker 1: of forward facing It's like, why why would I sign
Speaker 1: this deal now when I know it's going to be
Speaker 1: available in the summer. I like, my I don't think
Speaker 1: Rob lobald him. I would imagine that he offered him
Speaker 1: a straight up you know, four years eighty probably a
Speaker 1: player option, like who knows, I just I think honestly,
Speaker 1: it was just a matter of uh of shrewder having
Speaker 1: no incent have to sign that deal right now. The
Speaker 1: only incentive would be if you, you know, were to
Speaker 1: tear as Achilles tomorrow. You know, but that you can't
Speaker 1: live life and fear of that sort of thing, because
Speaker 1: that's just a terrible way to make decisions. Um. But
Speaker 1: you know, as far as his his actual dollar amount goes,
Speaker 1: I don't want to dive too far into because you
Speaker 1: and I have talked at length about this before. But
Speaker 1: you know, there is a premium to keeping talent on
Speaker 1: your roster as a contender, because a player's value is
Speaker 1: not what you're willing to pay, it's what a crappy
Speaker 1: team is willing to pay. Somebody out there is gonna
Speaker 1: pay Dinner Shooter twenty million a year, So guess what,
Speaker 1: if you want him to stay on the Lakers, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to come somewhat close to that. Uh. That's
Speaker 1: the nature of the business. You have to overpay those
Speaker 1: kinds of guys. Give you an example for the Warriors.
Speaker 1: You know, Draymond's argue was arguably their third most important player,
Speaker 1: maybe the second most important, but their third best player
Speaker 1: because Clay Thompson was just playing so well there at
Speaker 1: the end of two thousand nineteen, and so you're looking
Speaker 1: at it and you're like, Okay, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: love the idea of paying Draymond Green million a year.
Speaker 1: He can barely score ten points, and he's you know,
Speaker 1: he's more or less like a you know, uh, he's
Speaker 1: just a guy that isn't necessarily good enough to dictate
Speaker 1: that kind of kind of dollar value. But the Warriors
Speaker 1: were in a predicament. If they let Draymond go to
Speaker 1: unrestricted free agency, somebody who was gonna pay him five
Speaker 1: million or maybe even a few million more. So they
Speaker 1: were in a predicament where they had no choice but
Speaker 1: to either sign Draymond Green million to keep their team
Speaker 1: near their ceiling, or let him go save the money
Speaker 1: and look in the mirror and go like, oh, I
Speaker 1: didn't overpay Draymond, but now your team is way worse
Speaker 1: and so you have nothing to show for it. It's
Speaker 1: just that it's just part of the business, and so
Speaker 1: you know, yes, Shoot is not worth the money, but
Speaker 1: they need him to remain competitive moving forward, especially with
Speaker 1: Lebron aging, and he fits so cleanly into their identity.
Speaker 1: Is just a defensive point of attack guard and a
Speaker 1: guy that can create some offense that like, they're in
Speaker 1: the predicament where it's like we can either overpay Dennis
Speaker 1: and get into the luxury tax is just part of
Speaker 1: what this experience is going to be like, or we
Speaker 1: can let him go and be the worst basketball team
Speaker 1: in the strongest era in NBA history where you need
Speaker 1: to be really, really really good to win. So I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think it's over the complicated. My guess
Speaker 1: is he'll come to a deal this summer. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you brought up Draymond. I mean I feel like
Speaker 1: Draymond was a little bit more of a no brainer.
Speaker 1: I mean, they just they won what three titles or
Speaker 1: something like then four years he was the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in basketball in my opinion, like I feel like
Speaker 1: there was no brainer. Um. I compared this more to
Speaker 1: like Malcolm Brogning with the Bucks, right, um shooter, I
Speaker 1: mean he might not people whether you think shooters better
Speaker 1: than Brogden or not, they're pretty comparable in terms of
Speaker 1: their uh just their play style and who's who impacts
Speaker 1: the game or whatever. Malcolm Browden can't probably be your
Speaker 1: best player on the title team, but he's very good.
Speaker 1: The Bucks decided to not you know, resign him, uh
Speaker 1: and he went to Indiana and he flourished, and then
Speaker 1: the Bucks end up having to probably overpay for a
Speaker 1: Drew holiday and Drew Holidays awesome. But again, this is
Speaker 1: the kind of situation you get to when you're a
Speaker 1: contending team. You can't just let talent walk out the door,
Speaker 1: and they did with Malcolm Browden, right. They didn't match
Speaker 1: his offer and they ended up having to the fall
Speaker 1: allowing year after losing in the playoffs, they ended up
Speaker 1: having to uh rectify that with other moves. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of the way I would compared to is Malcolm
Speaker 1: Broden probably worth four years ninety I don't know, but
Speaker 1: I think he was worth that to the Bucks. Like
Speaker 1: the Bucks needed a shock creader. He was the second
Speaker 1: best player in that playoff, so, um, I thought that
Speaker 1: was a mistake on their part. But yeah, that that's
Speaker 1: kind of how I see it. I feel like you
Speaker 1: have to resign Denis Shooter and whatever that comes to
Speaker 1: if you want to move him later. He understands how
Speaker 1: the business goes. But that's you just have to keep talent.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of where I would compare it to.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Malcolm Broaden was really good. He's again
Speaker 1: he's not like your superstar, but he's a really good talent.
Speaker 1: So that's how I compared to just yeah, and the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five million number or not even whatever the
Speaker 1: Lakers can offer from twenty two. To me, that's the
Speaker 1: respect number. To me, that's the number where it's like
Speaker 1: he like in Dennis has said this in quotes. He's like,
Speaker 1: I just want to feel like I'm valued like I
Speaker 1: want to be, you know, fairly compensated. The truth, the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is is the Lakers would get
Speaker 1: out bit this summer. In my opinion, Let's say like
Speaker 1: let's say for instance, that you know, he has a
Speaker 1: great playoff run and the Lakers win the championship, Like
Speaker 1: somebody out there is going to offer him close to
Speaker 1: the max, not the max, but they'll offer him twenty
Speaker 1: six million, seven millions something along those lines. Like there's
Speaker 1: gonna be someone out there, Like I'll give you a
Speaker 1: random example, like let's say Kyle Lowry doesn't go to
Speaker 1: Miami and stays in Toronto or whatever, and then Miami
Speaker 1: ends up sitting there like, hey, we got this cap space,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe we don't like Victor Oladipo and
Speaker 1: we just saw, you know, Dennis Shooter have a fantastic
Speaker 1: playoff run with the Lakers where he did everything on
Speaker 1: both ends, and they just throw a big offer at
Speaker 1: you know, Dennis Shooter because they feel like he's their
Speaker 1: best option to fill that spot and to compete the
Speaker 1: next season. And I'm not saying that's gonna hapen. It's
Speaker 1: just a random example. Like there is the Lakers casche
Speaker 1: in the ability to play with Lebron to build his profile,
Speaker 1: the ability to play with this franchise to build his
Speaker 1: his fame, and his ability to make money in other aspects,
Speaker 1: that's absolutely gonna bridge whatever gap. I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: would automatically win if they hit that max number that
Speaker 1: they can pay, which is twenty two million a year
Speaker 1: or whatever. It's just that it's just that they'd have
Speaker 1: to hit that number for Dennis to feel respected in
Speaker 1: my in my opinion, But if there's a gap of
Speaker 1: five million a year between what someone else offers him
Speaker 1: and what the Lakers can offer him, I think he'd
Speaker 1: stay in l A. I don't think he's going to
Speaker 1: free agency for the UH for to to consider other teams.
Speaker 1: I think it's literally just no reason to sign right now.
Speaker 1: You know, might as well keep your options open. Who
Speaker 1: knows what's going to happen in this playoff run. Let's
Speaker 1: you know, let's just see how it goes, right, And
Speaker 1: this is the first time being a free agent as well,
Speaker 1: Like I think he got dropped to Atlanta and he
Speaker 1: got traded to the Thunder, so this's his first time
Speaker 1: kind of he wants to be wanted dining as I say,
Speaker 1: you know, free agents want to be recorded, um and
Speaker 1: all that. So I think this is what that is.
Speaker 1: He just gonna you know, test the market and then
Speaker 1: probably come back as most most free agents do. So
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything to worry about again right now,
Speaker 1: working for focus about the playoffs. I mean, that's what
Speaker 1: this matters. I mean, if he doesn't play the one
Speaker 1: to play well in the playoffs, then then this is
Speaker 1: a whole different conversation anyway. But I think both of
Speaker 1: us expect him to show up when it matters, So
Speaker 1: I don't think this will be much of a problem
Speaker 1: in the in the off season anyway. Yep, I agree. Um,
Speaker 1: So before we get out here, I want to get
Speaker 1: your take on the JJ Reddick situation. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: just super fast breakdown here for those of you haven't
Speaker 1: seen it. JJ Reddick goes on his podcast and undresses
Speaker 1: the New Orleans front office, basically saying that he a
Speaker 1: very explicitly requested a trade and that he was promised
Speaker 1: a trade or a buy out, a trade to a
Speaker 1: destination in the northeast or a buy out, and that
Speaker 1: the Pelicans basically you know, Reneck down that that promise
Speaker 1: and send him to Dallas. So, first of all, before
Speaker 1: before I add the new wrinkle, I just want to
Speaker 1: hear your overall take on that situation from the start. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I went and did you go and listen to
Speaker 1: J J reddix podcast as well? How did you go
Speaker 1: listen to Yeah I listened. Yeah, So how I see
Speaker 1: like basketball again, like we always talked about, it's not
Speaker 1: played on an Excel sheet. And then these players are
Speaker 1: you know, robots on two K as well. So basketball
Speaker 1: is a people business. It is a relationship business as well. Um,
Speaker 1: these managers and teams are only there to focus on
Speaker 1: their team right there, They're supposed to do the best
Speaker 1: right by their team. Now, the problem with this is
Speaker 1: that it is a relationship business. So like if JJ
Speaker 1: read it, got promised that he was getting a buyout,
Speaker 1: then I feel like you should fulfill your promise, like
Speaker 1: as a as a word, I understand he's signed to
Speaker 1: a contract. But again, this is why is Lebron a Laker? Right, Like,
Speaker 1: just just think about why Lebron is lak. He's because
Speaker 1: you know, the Lakers signed KCP and they got a
Speaker 1: relationship with Clutch and they got a relationship with Rich Paul.
Speaker 1: There's no qualms about this. This isn't this isn't uh,
Speaker 1: this isn't like a new information, right, we we knew
Speaker 1: about this. Rich Paul and the Lakers and Lebron all
Speaker 1: wanted to build a relationship. The Lakers build themselves on
Speaker 1: family right, their whole thing. If you see any Laker game,
Speaker 1: it's all about family. Jennie Buzz talks about this a
Speaker 1: lot um. The players aren't just play as their family,
Speaker 1: and what do plan families do? They you know, respect
Speaker 1: each other's promises and word that they've given. So um,
Speaker 1: I think JJ Reddy does. I mean if he was
Speaker 1: specifically promised by David Griffin. I mean there might be
Speaker 1: some telephone going on here, some you know. Again, I
Speaker 1: always say there's three sides to every story, one side,
Speaker 1: one side, and the truth. We don't know what David
Speaker 1: Griffin and Javid J. J Reddick talked about. We have
Speaker 1: no idea. We're not in those rooms. We have his side.
Speaker 1: Griffin's gonna come out and say whatever. I think he
Speaker 1: did say something. I'm not sure, But JAVIERD. Grizz's gonna
Speaker 1: come out and say, you know, I feel bad that
Speaker 1: j J feels that way. And it's not like he
Speaker 1: sent JJ to like, you know, some Minnesota or to
Speaker 1: some horrible team in the bottom. He sent him Dallas.
Speaker 1: It's a good basketball situation. But again, I understand J. J.
Speaker 1: Reddick's part as well. He wanted to be close to
Speaker 1: his family. And let's let's not mix words. He wanted
Speaker 1: to play for the Nets like that's it was pretty
Speaker 1: clear that's where he wanted to go, whether Nets wanted
Speaker 1: him or not. I don't know. Like those again, those
Speaker 1: are conversations I'm sure Griffin called the Nets are like
Speaker 1: you know, and they're like, why would we give up
Speaker 1: anything for him if you're gonna buy him out eventually?
Speaker 1: So I mean, you don't know. I think it's really tough. Now.
Speaker 1: My thing is like, was it worth a second round
Speaker 1: pick and west of Wondo to just absolutely destroy relationship
Speaker 1: between you know, JJ Reddick and his agent Aaron Mints,
Speaker 1: who's a very huge agency a represents a lot of players.
Speaker 1: I don't know that's a calculated risk. I'm sure David
Speaker 1: Griffin took and if he feels that way. But again,
Speaker 1: there's only thirty NBA team So it's not like a player,
Speaker 1: can you know black ball a team. There's only thirty teams.
Speaker 1: If an NBA team wants to sign you, it's it's
Speaker 1: like people aren't going to go to the Pelicans, now,
Speaker 1: you know. That's how I think. That's how I feel
Speaker 1: about situation. I don't know, it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: a tough line to kind of walk. So I was there.
Speaker 1: This to me is so simple, Like people keep talking
Speaker 1: about how this has to do with the business. People
Speaker 1: keep talking about how this has to do with like
Speaker 1: the harsh realities of what a front office is supposed
Speaker 1: to do and what their responsibilities are. To me, one
Speaker 1: thousand percent is just about honesty. That's literally all it's about.
Speaker 1: And and we don't you will never know who's actually
Speaker 1: telling the truth because my guess is if David Griffin
Speaker 1: came out and made a comment, because David Griffin did
Speaker 1: have a comment where he came out, but it was
Speaker 1: before the JJ Reddick podcast. It was in his like
Speaker 1: post trade deadline press conference, and basically he goes, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we we feel like we did what was
Speaker 1: best for JJ and his family. That was the actual
Speaker 1: quote at the end. And when I saw that, I
Speaker 1: was like, whoa dude, well, because he very clearly disagrees,
Speaker 1: so like that that comment was like to me, that
Speaker 1: comment was like rationalization, like like, Oh, I'm doing something
Speaker 1: really shitty, but I'm going to tell myself that I
Speaker 1: actually did something good so that I can feel good
Speaker 1: about myself. That was like my whole read on the situation.
Speaker 1: I thought it was. It was really weird. But there's
Speaker 1: so But there's a couple of angles to this that
Speaker 1: are that are fascinating. First of all, yes, all they
Speaker 1: got is the second round pick. Second of all, as
Speaker 1: Bobby Marks explained, uh and wind Horse was talking about
Speaker 1: in his pod yesterday, Uh, this actually puts the Pelicans
Speaker 1: into the luxury tax, and the only way they can
Speaker 1: avoid it is by like I think it was some
Speaker 1: sort of crazy thing where they have to like wave
Speaker 1: a player and then sign a guy for a ten
Speaker 1: day and then like wait until the end of season
Speaker 1: and sign a guy for another ten day or something
Speaker 1: along those lines. I can't remember the exact thing, but
Speaker 1: they have to do like crazy gymnastics now to avoid
Speaker 1: the luxury at tax, which is a problem they didn't
Speaker 1: have with j J. So the point was just like
Speaker 1: a whole lot of trouble for nothing, basically, or if anything,
Speaker 1: is something that doesn't make sense. So, you know, Bobby
Speaker 1: Marx is basically saying, like I really truly don't understand
Speaker 1: why they did this, especially for like a middling a
Speaker 1: second round pick. You know that wasn't really gonna pretty
Speaker 1: much value But the bottom line is, just like like
Speaker 1: I said, are our front office is obligated to do
Speaker 1: it's best for the team. Absolutely, there's no doubt. Is
Speaker 1: this a tough business, Absolutely, there's no doubt. But to me,
Speaker 1: that's irrelevant. All this is is about honesty and we
Speaker 1: can try to pretend like that doesn't matter, but it does.
Speaker 1: And hey, guess what, bows I and Williamson and J. J.
Speaker 1: Reddick are represented by c A A. So that like
Speaker 1: that made me nothing, but it certainly doesn't help. And
Speaker 1: so if you're if you're David Griffin, why the hell
Speaker 1: would you even risk this if that's the case, And like,
Speaker 1: you know, just one little phone call from from j
Speaker 1: J to Zion complaining and telling what happened, you know,
Speaker 1: it's probably not going to push Zion out the floor.
Speaker 1: But if Zion is trying to make that decision one
Speaker 1: day and he's got a list of he's got like
Speaker 1: a list of reasons why he should leave on one hand,
Speaker 1: and a list of reasons why I should stay on
Speaker 1: the other hand. This goes on the list of reasons
Speaker 1: why he should leave. You know, David Griffin hurt one
Speaker 1: of my friends, you know, and J J. Redickins and
Speaker 1: Zion were pretty close. But like at the at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like you know, people are the
Speaker 1: people are so quick to be like j J doesn't
Speaker 1: deserve this type of leeway, you know. J J is
Speaker 1: is a victim of what all these other players deal
Speaker 1: with all the time. You're right, I can't remember the
Speaker 1: exact player, but I remember there was a time a
Speaker 1: couple years ago where like a guy was in his
Speaker 1: new press conference with a new team and I think
Speaker 1: it was a middling role player and and they were
Speaker 1: like what happened with the old front office? And he
Speaker 1: was like it was weird. I was literally, uh, sitting
Speaker 1: on a shoot around in the in the general manager
Speaker 1: came up to me and like put his arm around
Speaker 1: me and said you're here to stay. I think it
Speaker 1: was Rob Polinka, and I think it was into I
Speaker 1: think it was in nineteen, the season before I d came,
Speaker 1: and it was like, yeah, Rob Polinka put his arm
Speaker 1: around mean and basically was like you're not getting traded.
Speaker 1: And then I got traded. So it was like like
Speaker 1: this this. But my thing is is like I'm okay
Speaker 1: with people like saying I would not want to do
Speaker 1: business with someone who's dishonest with me. Now, there are
Speaker 1: varying degrees of that. Like my father in law will
Speaker 1: never ever own an Apple product again because of a
Speaker 1: bad experience he had with Apple back in like two
Speaker 1: thousand four. I think that's ridiculous. But you know, I
Speaker 1: do think people at least way these things when they're
Speaker 1: deciding who to do business with. I think that's absolutely
Speaker 1: been like part of the equation. Yeah, it's all about
Speaker 1: being transparent, right, and being honest, And I think that's
Speaker 1: what j J. Reddick's big problem here is. The funny
Speaker 1: thing is that both j J and Griffin are very
Speaker 1: media savvy. They know how to spin a thing like
Speaker 1: they're they're not new to this media game, right. Griffin
Speaker 1: went out all last summer and really boasted. Right, He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm ahead of the game. He had that Lebron quo
Speaker 1: Toby not be Lebron might not be as much of
Speaker 1: an animal about winning anymore. You know. He did all
Speaker 1: these things to pump the Pelicans up, who eventually you know,
Speaker 1: won like thirty games. But again, he's really good at
Speaker 1: the media, and it's another thing that he spun right.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know I'm not in those rooms,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't doubt Griffin has loved in the media.
Speaker 1: He has a lot of friends in there, and you know,
Speaker 1: no one's really gonna call him out on this, and
Speaker 1: it was funny and see JJ Reddick absolutely just burned
Speaker 1: the house down and what he was saying, and uh,
Speaker 1: he was saying that he wasn't the first player to
Speaker 1: kind of deal with this. But again, it's all about transparency.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Lakers have a few clutch guys, you know,
Speaker 1: on their on their roster. I mean, would it be
Speaker 1: worth trading. I mean you could probably trade Montrose, Harold
Speaker 1: or something. Would you do it? I mean probably not right.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just like looking at those situations. This
Speaker 1: is a people business as much as a especially in
Speaker 1: the league where stars are the main thing. Right, stars
Speaker 1: impact everything. You get two stars and you are absolutely
Speaker 1: vaulted into the top. I mean, this is a star
Speaker 1: relationship business. And again I don't I don't know if
Speaker 1: this impacts you know, Zion and all that stuff, but
Speaker 1: you're right, maybe maybe he thinks about it, but I
Speaker 1: think it's tough to say right now. But again, like
Speaker 1: David Griffin, wasn't worth it for a second round pick.
Speaker 1: James Johnson and west Wind do probably not. I mean
Speaker 1: it's probably good from Like again, the Celtics are dealing
Speaker 1: with this exact same thing. The Celtics traded Isaiah Thomas
Speaker 1: again for again, everyone does that deal for Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: But Isaiah Thomas found out, you know, the day of
Speaker 1: and he talks about this a lot and that that
Speaker 1: broke a lot of goodwill around the league. And it's
Speaker 1: it's been well documented people don't want to do business
Speaker 1: with Danny Ainge because he tries to first of all,
Speaker 1: attack you in the trade. He tries to win the
Speaker 1: trade by some you know, a huge amount, and then
Speaker 1: he also is pretty dishonest is about how he trades.
Speaker 1: And that's just how it's been. So again, the Celtics
Speaker 1: are dealing with this a lot of teams now, Like
Speaker 1: I remember when Lebron left Cleveland or whatever, and they
Speaker 1: kind of attacked him. Now every team when a player leaves,
Speaker 1: they give him like a tribute video coming back because
Speaker 1: they saw how that impacts everything. So and again, like
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon asked for a trade from the Magic. You know,
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon got a trade request from the Magic to
Speaker 1: a team, to a winning team. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: that's a league is right now. His relationship building if
Speaker 1: if you don't build good relationships is going to be
Speaker 1: a struggle. And I think I don't think this will
Speaker 1: be the enzion is going to be there for a
Speaker 1: long time because that's how these contracts work. But again,
Speaker 1: it was it worth it for James Johnson? Who knows,
Speaker 1: But that's probably not as that's what the league is showing.
Speaker 1: And you said earlier you mentioned, uh, like the truth
Speaker 1: of the matter is is Sally Pelicans aren't gonna be
Speaker 1: able to sign guys. I mean, even the Celtics, who
Speaker 1: have burnt every bridge in the league, still got Tristan
Speaker 1: Thompson last summer because it was the best offer that
Speaker 1: was available and that was with that was with the
Speaker 1: one agency that you probably expect never to send a
Speaker 1: guy to the Celtics. So at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like if the option is just so much better that
Speaker 1: they'll still get guys, I don't. I don't doubt the
Speaker 1: fact that, uh, you know, like teams are just gonna
Speaker 1: like refuse to do business. But my thing is, like
Speaker 1: if all other circumstances are the same, you're I think
Speaker 1: you will see guys way that um. And then you know,
Speaker 1: there's the David Griffith thing is an interesting uh topic
Speaker 1: because like you know, he is a very arrogant guy
Speaker 1: in his story is interesting. And so I've I've read
Speaker 1: a book, um that where David Griffin was involved and
Speaker 1: I learned a little bit about him. It was the
Speaker 1: book about the two thousand sixteen Calves. And so David
Speaker 1: Griffin is a cancer survivor. So there's that. Um. So
Speaker 1: then David Griffin uh comes into the to the front
Speaker 1: office role. The way he sees it, he was super
Speaker 1: super like uh, integral to their success. Now, I think
Speaker 1: most of us would probably argue that he's a little
Speaker 1: bit full of himself there, um, But like the way
Speaker 1: he sees it, like the firing of time of David Blatt,
Speaker 1: the trades for j R. Smith and him on Schumpert,
Speaker 1: the way that he sees it, he played an integral
Speaker 1: role in that team success. And here's an example. After
Speaker 1: Game five against or after Game four against the Warriors
Speaker 1: when they went down three to one. You know, David
Speaker 1: Griffin sends out an email and the email goes to
Speaker 1: everyone in the Calves organization, including the players, and it
Speaker 1: basically it was like a pep talk. Now, I guarantee
Speaker 1: you that if I got Lebron drunk and I asked him, Hey,
Speaker 1: do you think David Griffin's email had any impact on
Speaker 1: you guys winning the title? I bet you. Lebron says no.
Speaker 1: But but David Griffin has if you listen to him
Speaker 1: tell that story, like he feels like he galvanized the team,
Speaker 1: you know, like he in the email, he's like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're built for this, Like we've we've dealt with adversary,
Speaker 1: We're we're at our best when our backs are against
Speaker 1: the wall, all this stuff, so like, and and then
Speaker 1: you you get into the fact that he couldn't come
Speaker 1: to contract terms with with Dan Gilbert, who Dan Gilbert
Speaker 1: was probably like, you're one of the least valuable people
Speaker 1: in this organization. Why do I need to pay you,
Speaker 1: you know, president of basketball operations type of money? You know? Uh?
Speaker 1: And then he comes to New Orleans starts talking reckless
Speaker 1: about Lebron like he does have And then and then
Speaker 1: this JJ read anything happens and it's like, look, even
Speaker 1: if JJ is telling lies here, even if JJ is
Speaker 1: making this whole thing up. You coming out and saying
Speaker 1: we feel like we did the best thing for JJ
Speaker 1: and his family is utter bullshit. So like so like
Speaker 1: the the dude without a doubt is arrogant and definitely
Speaker 1: lacks some self awareness. And so I think that that's
Speaker 1: an angle here. But then again, I guarantee you if
Speaker 1: I got to personally know most of the front office
Speaker 1: people in the NBA, I'm sure I'd meet a few
Speaker 1: jerks along the way. But like, it's just I think
Speaker 1: I think that that's a relevant part of this story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure a lot of them. That's how
Speaker 1: you get to that point, right, You get that you
Speaker 1: have some arrogance in you and you have to be
Speaker 1: confident in all that. U But most players don't have
Speaker 1: a podcast that they can go in and share this on, right,
Speaker 1: Like most people aren't JJ Reddick, who have you know
Speaker 1: a podcast they go and share and uncomfortable and media
Speaker 1: savvy and know how to spend their their story the
Speaker 1: way they want to to make it feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: he was the he was the victim and all of this.
Speaker 1: So again, I think I think if David Griffin promised
Speaker 1: him that he was gonna you know, do right by him.
Speaker 1: Then I think he should have kept that promise. I
Speaker 1: think that's just how life works. Um. But and like
Speaker 1: his contract has nothing to do with that. Like you said,
Speaker 1: this is a humanitarian kind of human human issue, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's a man to man kind of conversation
Speaker 1: that they think they had. So and it's a tough
Speaker 1: line of Walga, David Griffin works for the owner of
Speaker 1: the Norman Repelicans, Like that's who he works for, and
Speaker 1: that's who he thinks he's gonna do things that way.
Speaker 1: So he's trying to win and that's that's all that
Speaker 1: he's trying to do. And I feel like JJ Reddick
Speaker 1: feels the type of way he has the right to.
Speaker 1: It's it's not right that he was promised something he
Speaker 1: didn't get it. But again, that's the business. You signed
Speaker 1: a million eighteen million dollar contract, whatever it was that
Speaker 1: he signed for, then you gotta go with this. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a tough situation, but it's funny seeing two
Speaker 1: dudes who are really media savvy, who knew how to
Speaker 1: spend their way, like you said, with David Griffin saying, uh,
Speaker 1: this was the best for JJ Reddick and his family, Like,
Speaker 1: that's hilarious. That's obviously not what that's obviously not with
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick things. So it's funny seeing two dudes kind
Speaker 1: of go at it that way in the media. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like and and I saw someone tweet out two
Speaker 1: days ago just the perfect, you know, succinct explanation of
Speaker 1: the situation, like, uh, JJ Reddick doesn't deserve special treatment,
Speaker 1: but if he was lied to, he has every reason
Speaker 1: to be upset it. Really, it really is that simple
Speaker 1: to me, Like I I don't think it's it's any
Speaker 1: more complicated than that. Um, And it was super interesting.
Speaker 1: I thought to see a long form, you know, explanation
Speaker 1: from somebody about why, uh they felt like they were wronged.
Speaker 1: And that is the interesting part about the podcast format.
Speaker 1: And j J said in his thing, he's like, he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not ignoring the Mavericks. He's like, I just don't
Speaker 1: have media availability until this other day. And then he said, uh,
Speaker 1: He's like, I didn't want to tweet something out, you
Speaker 1: know that had no context and had no uh, you know,
Speaker 1: any sort of in depth perspective. He's like, so I
Speaker 1: wanted to wait till my podcast and I thought, I
Speaker 1: thought that that was cool really quickly before I get
Speaker 1: you out of here. Last night I pointed out yet
Speaker 1: again that I think that there is starting to build
Speaker 1: this incontrovertible set of evidence that the Brooklyn Nets are
Speaker 1: way better than everybody. And you know, like, even when
Speaker 1: the Lakers are at full strength, they basically had one
Speaker 1: dominant stretch like this, and it was to start last
Speaker 1: season when they went twenty four and three. So if
Speaker 1: there's something to lean back on, you could say the
Speaker 1: Lakers have been as dominant as this next team. The
Speaker 1: differences though, is Lebron and a d were healthy for
Speaker 1: that stretch this next team. I'm gonna run the numbers
Speaker 1: later today because I've been meaning to, But my guess
Speaker 1: is they've been averaging playing one point five one point
Speaker 1: seven of their three stars per game, meaning like of
Speaker 1: the available games for their stars in this in this
Speaker 1: twenty three game stretch, Katie has been out for basically
Speaker 1: all of them. Harden's missed a few, and Kyrie's missed
Speaker 1: a bunch. So like for them to be this dominant
Speaker 1: missing core pieces, like, oh, there's a lot of precedent
Speaker 1: outside of the defense stuff where their defense isn't there
Speaker 1: that's that doesn't usually have a precedent of success in
Speaker 1: the NBA. However, there is a precedent for teams dominating
Speaker 1: the regular season and having some success. And so I
Speaker 1: am I am I crazy for thinking that they should
Speaker 1: be the favorite at this point, even if the Lakers
Speaker 1: are healthy. No, I don't think you're crazy. Like, look,
Speaker 1: their margin forever is so large. I mean when you
Speaker 1: have Harden, Kyrie and then Kevin Durant has played seven
Speaker 1: games together with that trio and they're absolutely killing the league.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to run through the East in
Speaker 1: a way that we haven't seen before. Um but again,
Speaker 1: I think Lebron and d d posed like a like
Speaker 1: a certain type of matchup issue for them. When you
Speaker 1: just break it down, I thought you thought. I think
Speaker 1: it was you that said something similar to this. You
Speaker 1: were talking about how Drew Holiday is a really interesting
Speaker 1: matchup problem for the Nets as well. Right, It's kind
Speaker 1: of like a tough big guard that they have to defend.
Speaker 1: And yeah, like their team where you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: be able to switch, You're gonna have to be able
Speaker 1: to just live with these contested jumpers. Um but ayay
Speaker 1: we saw what happens to Harden the playoffs. It's a
Speaker 1: different kind of guy who's to step back. Three is
Speaker 1: not as uh, it's not able to go to as well.
Speaker 1: Kyrie kind of goes up and down as well. The
Speaker 1: guy Katie is the guy that I feel like you
Speaker 1: have to live with get thirty. I mean, there's nothing
Speaker 1: really you can do about that. But again, like just
Speaker 1: looking at the match of dependent um things, I feel
Speaker 1: like if you go down the roster other than the
Speaker 1: three stars and the two stars, everything else is kind
Speaker 1: of uh, kind of even playing field from there. So
Speaker 1: I'm kind of taking the team with the better defense.
Speaker 1: But no, you're not crazy for saying the Nets are.
Speaker 1: The Nets are probably the favorite of the favorite in Vegas.
Speaker 1: I believe they've also played more games together continuity wise,
Speaker 1: even than the Lakers did, even though they've had all
Speaker 1: those players out, and Katie is just an easy guy
Speaker 1: to fit in there. But man, they are scary. Nick Claxton,
Speaker 1: somehows like the best big on their team. I mean,
Speaker 1: if LaMarcus Soldiers and Blake Griffin gets minutes, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: glad DeAndre Jordan's get all those minutes because Nick Laxson
Speaker 1: is a serious dude. Joe Harris is shooting shoot around
Speaker 1: threes every game. I mean, it's just ridiculous. He's wide open,
Speaker 1: able to look at the palm, looking, able to test
Speaker 1: the win and take sies. Um. So they're gonna be
Speaker 1: a really tough out. Again, that hard and trade is
Speaker 1: malpracticed to me. But that's that's another issue for another day.
Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, they're they're scary team. And I don't
Speaker 1: think your cage was saying the favorites. I still I
Speaker 1: give the benefit of the doubt to the champs, to
Speaker 1: the defending champs, but yeah, that they're almost likely the favorite.
Speaker 1: They're going to get to the finals pretty easily, in
Speaker 1: my opinion. Just look at the West risk of the
Speaker 1: east Man. They're gonna play like some under five hundred,
Speaker 1: way under five hundred team in the first round. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just a ridiculous conference difference right now. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I got some I got some crap the other day
Speaker 1: for for tweeting out that I thought that they were
Speaker 1: similar to the two thousand seventeen Warriors, and I overreacted
Speaker 1: and I took that back and and it was just
Speaker 1: it was just based on how dominant they've been. Um.
Speaker 1: The key difference between them and the two thousand and
Speaker 1: seventeen Warriors is the fact that, like the two thousand
Speaker 1: seventeen Warriors, were literally better at everything than everybody. Like
Speaker 1: they were an elite defensive team that was every bit
Speaker 1: as good defensively, if not better than every defensive team
Speaker 1: in the league. They were the best offense in the
Speaker 1: league that had one of the top two players and
Speaker 1: to two of the top three players in the league
Speaker 1: playing at the absolute peak of their game, so you
Speaker 1: had no angle. There was no advantage you could gain
Speaker 1: against them at That's why they basically went undefeated in
Speaker 1: the playoffs until they tricked off Game four in the
Speaker 1: in the finals. The differences is the But the Nets
Speaker 1: are going to face a lot of teams that have
Speaker 1: a clear advantage over them, whether it's a physicality advantage
Speaker 1: or it's a defensive advantage, and so that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the interesting wrinkle. If they play the Milwaukee Bucks. The
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks have the ability to put some physical pressure
Speaker 1: on them that will cause them some problems. I don't
Speaker 1: think Milwaukee has the scoring chops to beat them, though.
Speaker 1: The interesting team is is Philly to me because the
Speaker 1: Joel MB presents such a scoring uh mismatch for the Nets.
Speaker 1: But again, that's a team that has a legitimate size
Speaker 1: and physicality advantage, and they have the ability to UH
Speaker 1: to defend at such a high level and gain an
Speaker 1: advantage against Brooklyn that way, and then the Lakers do
Speaker 1: as well. The Lakers are the best of those three
Speaker 1: teams because the Lakers have the star power to match
Speaker 1: the top two guys in Brooklyn, and they have the
Speaker 1: physicality to beat you up, and they have the defense
Speaker 1: too to gain an advantage there. So I absolutely think
Speaker 1: the Lakers can beat them. I'd didn't think anybody could
Speaker 1: beat the two thousand seventeen Warriors the so that's the
Speaker 1: clear difference. However, I do think like the it's it's
Speaker 1: okay to admit the fact that Brooklyn has just appeared
Speaker 1: to be better than everybody to this point, and it's
Speaker 1: all really gonna come down to whether or not teams
Speaker 1: can attach attack their switching defensive scheme in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: because in in the regular season it's been catching people
Speaker 1: off guard and teams don't know how to attack it
Speaker 1: uh and there are certain teams that have no chance
Speaker 1: like as someone said the other day, I said, this morning,
Speaker 1: I saw someone said they thought the Clippers could push
Speaker 1: the Nets to six. I totally disagree. I think the
Speaker 1: Clippers will get swept by the Nets because they their
Speaker 1: offensive style plays directly into Brooklyn's defensive schemes, So they
Speaker 1: would be the worst possible matchup for that type of team.
Speaker 1: You need a team that attacks their switches at the rim.
Speaker 1: Uh And the best team to do that is going
Speaker 1: to be a Philly with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiide
Speaker 1: or a Lakers with Lebron and Anthony Davis and and
Speaker 1: and Milwaukee outside chance if Janice just goes absolutely berserk
Speaker 1: and and Drew Holiday does a nice job defensively on
Speaker 1: James Harden or Kyrie Irving, and if Chris Middleton just
Speaker 1: plays to his absolute peaks. So those are the teams
Speaker 1: that I think have a chance. But again that's the
Speaker 1: clear cut difference between this Brooklyn Nets team in the
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen Warriors is as dominant as they
Speaker 1: have been. They're doing it by being super super super
Speaker 1: good at specific things and not having a ton of versatility. Uh,
Speaker 1: And so that there will they will be in playoff
Speaker 1: series where the other team will be clearly better than
Speaker 1: them at a couple of things, and so that's gonna
Speaker 1: be what allows them to potentially get beat in the
Speaker 1: second round, you know, if they end up against like
Speaker 1: a Milwaukee in the second round, or just run through
Speaker 1: the league and beat everybody. And then that's my thing,
Speaker 1: is I wonder if, well, I wonder if you and
Speaker 1: I'll be doing a pop this off season. We're to
Speaker 1: be like, why didn't we just realize the Nets were
Speaker 1: better than everybody? You know that That's that's where that's
Speaker 1: that's the range of outcomes that I see with them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember there was like a Clippers Nets game, which
Speaker 1: was really good. It was an exciting game, right I
Speaker 1: think I think it was in Brooklyn, and they had
Speaker 1: like a bunch of big shots. But once I saw
Speaker 1: that they were playing one on one, I just knew
Speaker 1: the Nets. You're not beating the Nets at their own game, right,
Speaker 1: if you want to go into is so heavy park
Speaker 1: one on one style basketball, you're not beating them. You're
Speaker 1: not beating Kyrie, Katie and Harden in a switch heavy
Speaker 1: offense type of basketball. So like, I feel like you
Speaker 1: gotta beat them with you know, schemes, and we'll see
Speaker 1: up the Bucks and Buddooles. It can kind of come
Speaker 1: up with something. You honest needs some kind of mid
Speaker 1: mid range game to get it going. Their shooters have
Speaker 1: to have it going. And I don't know, I just
Speaker 1: think you can't beat the Nets with a blow average
Speaker 1: like defense or a blow average you know, shock creation offense.
Speaker 1: And they're they're gonna be scary. I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: run through the East like we haven't seen before. UM
Speaker 1: and the Warriors, like they won what seventy three games before,
Speaker 1: and then they just fit Katie into their system right,
Speaker 1: so they basically put him where Harrison Barnes was and
Speaker 1: then up for him to there. This is a brand
Speaker 1: new kind of system team that we haven't seen before.
Speaker 1: Kind of this is like one on one, very pick
Speaker 1: and roll heavy, a lot of rolling to the basketball.
Speaker 1: Kyrie gets like a whole quarter of game where he
Speaker 1: gets to just play on one on one and it's
Speaker 1: just a really tough cover. And Harden's become their point guard.
Speaker 1: Katie is gonna come right in and fill in for
Speaker 1: I don't know who's starting for Bruce Brown. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just gonna be just ridiculous level of talent. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they're the favorite right now. But again, the
Speaker 1: playoffs are a different matchup. We'll see what happens. Philly
Speaker 1: and Milwaukee are gonna be I don't know, like people
Speaker 1: say Joel and Beat. I mean, even if Joel and
Speaker 1: Beat I were just forty, I'm verre you comfortable with
Speaker 1: the with Philly being the nets probably not so well,
Speaker 1: we'll see how that works out. I just don't think
Speaker 1: anyone's beating them until the finals. I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be the Lakers can get there. I think they can
Speaker 1: beat them. Uh, they have the chance, right, Like you said,
Speaker 1: they have a chance. Other than that, they're most likely
Speaker 1: are gonna walk away with the ring here in this season.
Speaker 1: So the last thing I want to say about this
Speaker 1: is just the you know you just brought it up
Speaker 1: having to do with attacking the switches, like and I'll
Speaker 1: give you an example. I think there's a different us
Speaker 1: between attacking a switch for what's a high quality look
Speaker 1: and attacking a switch for what is a extremely extremely
Speaker 1: like high quality looks. So, for instance, like Kawai Leonard
Speaker 1: is gonna be able to get switches and get kyrie
Speaker 1: on him and you know, bounce him a couple of
Speaker 1: times and get to one of his turnarounds that he's
Speaker 1: gonna make fifty of the time, you know, and that's
Speaker 1: a really good shape. But that it's a stagnant form
Speaker 1: of offense. And and as we've seen so many times,
Speaker 1: like over the course of a series, that if you
Speaker 1: force him to do that a lot, his efficiency will dip,
Speaker 1: maybe from fifty two to forty eight, and then you
Speaker 1: just are scoring at a higher clip on the other end.
Speaker 1: The difference is like when you attack a switch with
Speaker 1: size and physicality at the rim, it is a shot.
Speaker 1: So for instance, late in the game yesterday against the Clippers,
Speaker 1: there was a chaotic stretch where, uh, who's the small
Speaker 1: guard for the Clippers that got switched on the Yo
Speaker 1: kich I'm trying to remember who it was, Umge Jackson.
Speaker 1: It was either Reggie Jackson or tear Man one of
Speaker 1: the one of their smaller players got switched on to
Speaker 1: Yoki in a roll and and so they were isolating
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray on the outside of Jamal Murray just was
Speaker 1: force fed. You know, kitchen yokis is getting foul like
Speaker 1: the dudes like hanging on his left arm. He's being
Speaker 1: held to the ground, but they just throw the ball
Speaker 1: up to the over the top and Yoki's just kind
Speaker 1: of catches it with one hand and just kind of
Speaker 1: guides them to the basket. It was a one percent shot,
Speaker 1: like when you have that size and physicality and they
Speaker 1: switched the smaller guy onto you, it is a one
Speaker 1: percent shot, or they're doubling and you're getting wide open
Speaker 1: shots on the other end. So that's the key difference there,
Speaker 1: and that to me is what makes a Lebron in
Speaker 1: a d or you know, uh, you know, if you
Speaker 1: put like Lebron, if you put Drew Holiday, the best
Speaker 1: little guy defender in the league, on him, it's bucket
Speaker 1: every time down the floor, like he just it's a
Speaker 1: one percent shot, like he's just getting onto the rim.
Speaker 1: And there are famous clips of him last year just
Speaker 1: ripping through Holiday a new one in isolation and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis like, you put you know, PJ. Tucker on him
Speaker 1: and you attack him, and you attack p J. Tucker.
Speaker 1: He's just getting such high quality shots that it's not
Speaker 1: a fifty Kauai turnaround, which is a really nice look.
Speaker 1: It's this incredibly like hard dribble rights, spin back over.
Speaker 1: He's shooting that little you know, five foot kind of
Speaker 1: leaner with his right hand that he's gonna make sevent
Speaker 1: of the time. And that's the key difference in the
Speaker 1: way that those team attack. Teams attack those switches, and
Speaker 1: that's how you have to beat Brooklyn where they of
Speaker 1: them giving up a switch literally gives up a basket.
Speaker 1: That that that's the that's where where you beat them.
Speaker 1: And that's why I think the bigger, more physical teams
Speaker 1: have a better chance. And the Clippers, for the record,
Speaker 1: what do they do well. They don't close games well,
Speaker 1: they don't defend well. The only thing they do well
Speaker 1: to score. But they can't score at the end of
Speaker 1: games because they get too stagnant. They're they're like as
Speaker 1: sure a bet to lose and in the first two
Speaker 1: rounds of the playoffs as any really really talented team
Speaker 1: that I can remember in the last few years. Man,
Speaker 1: they already hate you, but they have a real they
Speaker 1: have a real like athletic disadvantage, right Their whole starting
Speaker 1: lineup really doesn't push other than Zooboch and like Terence Man,
Speaker 1: like that's why Terence Man pops off the screen. For
Speaker 1: them because he's such an athletic dude. He gives them
Speaker 1: some pop, but other than that, the whole team kind
Speaker 1: of is really lethargic. Like Paul George doesn't really put
Speaker 1: pressure on the rim, and he's not really he's not
Speaker 1: beating you with any kind of athleticism. Kauai as well,
Speaker 1: gets a few dunks here and there, but he's really
Speaker 1: going to his midrange pull ups and fade away jumpers,
Speaker 1: which again you talked about probably most likely those kind
Speaker 1: of shots, so they put no pressure on the basket.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of when I watch a team like Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: like you have to beat them with force. Right, That's
Speaker 1: the same thing with Houston. It's why Houston was so
Speaker 1: successful in my opinion, in the regular season last year.
Speaker 1: Um No, teams really came at him with a lot
Speaker 1: of fours and they again that switch heavy kind of
Speaker 1: defense really um perpetuates that. So like when you when
Speaker 1: you look at it, the Lakers really beat Houston because
Speaker 1: they had no one to guard Anthony Davis, right, they
Speaker 1: were switching Daniel House, um guys like that on to
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, and he really put them in the basket.
Speaker 1: Hit his midrange jumpers as well. And I think that's
Speaker 1: what you have to do with Brooklyn. You have to
Speaker 1: um back them down, get a d kind of the
Speaker 1: switches he wants, get doubles from there, put pressure on
Speaker 1: the rim, offensive rebound, and beat them up that way
Speaker 1: to where their offense can't get out of transition. Katie's
Speaker 1: not flying around off screens like. You have to make
Speaker 1: it a slow grind game for them, because if you
Speaker 1: get into a scoring match with them, you're gonna lose.
Speaker 1: You're not outscoring Brooklyn, You're not gonna You're not getting
Speaker 1: into You're not gonna win a hundred and thirty game
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. To me, like that, they're gonna they're
Speaker 1: gonna win that type of game. You need to get
Speaker 1: them slow down, play your pace kind of and uh,
Speaker 1: that's why that's why I love about Denver. This Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon addition for them just gives them this athletic advantage
Speaker 1: that they just didn't have. He saw it last night
Speaker 1: against the Clippers. They beat up on them, They got
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds whenever they wanted. Your kids got on the post.
Speaker 1: Your kidch had zero free throws last night. By the way,
Speaker 1: did you know that you did not shot a single
Speaker 1: free throw and they still want by like what double digits.
Speaker 1: So I like their team and that's how you have
Speaker 1: to be Brooklyn. To me, that was a weird game
Speaker 1: because he Yokis wasn't super aggressive. Um, you know, he
Speaker 1: made key plays. Jamal Murray wasn't super aggresive until late
Speaker 1: in the game. Uh. To me, the interesting thing there
Speaker 1: in Gordon is like like, you know Jeremy Grant, like
Speaker 1: the we joke about how you know the Nuggets needed
Speaker 1: him as like this wing defender, Lebron destroyed Jeremy Grant,
Speaker 1: Like he didn't do that good of a job on him.
Speaker 1: Like he did a lot of flopping when every single
Speaker 1: time you picked up a blocking foul and Lebron Lebron
Speaker 1: really ate his launch, especially like in that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of Game five, Like Aaron Gordon is he's been stuck
Speaker 1: in basketball, you know, purgatory down there in Orlando. He's
Speaker 1: one of the better perimeter defensive players in the league
Speaker 1: because he's super strong and super athletic, and there's a
Speaker 1: strength that he has that that Jeremy Grant didn't have,
Speaker 1: and there's an athleticism that that he has that Tory
Speaker 1: Craig didn't have and so he's a massive massive improvement
Speaker 1: over what they've made that position, and and and you know,
Speaker 1: he's such a natural off ball fit offensively next to
Speaker 1: to Yokich. I'm super I definitely view them now as
Speaker 1: the second best team in the East or West, behind
Speaker 1: the Lakers. But we've gone for eighty six minutes, so
Speaker 1: I gotta get you out of here because we both
Speaker 1: have to get do some work. But the stream state steadies,
Speaker 1: so that's awesome. I really appreciate all of you guys
Speaker 1: for hanging out and listening. Roger, you have a good
Speaker 1: rest of your weekend, man, and I'll see you next
Speaker 1: week YouTube. Man, have a going