Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by
Speaker 1: The Volume. I am Jason Tip. I am very excited
Speaker 1: to be joining the team here at the Volume, and
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to build this show with them. For
Speaker 1: those of you guys who don't know me, I live
Speaker 1: in Tucson, Arizona. I used to play in college back
Speaker 1: in the day. I coach high school kids now I
Speaker 1: also do some individual training. I live and breathe the
Speaker 1: game of basketball every day, but at the core, I'm
Speaker 1: a fan just like you guys. I've been covering the
Speaker 1: Lakers for about four years on the podcasting front for
Speaker 1: about two years. We're gonna be taking a lot of
Speaker 1: what we were doing with State of the Lakers into
Speaker 1: this show. My goal is for it to basically be
Speaker 1: like that type of postgame Lakers reaction, but with just
Speaker 1: a touch of coverage from the rest of the league
Speaker 1: and hitting the big stories from all of the other
Speaker 1: big teams around the league. So I'm very, very excited
Speaker 1: to get started. Let's get to the basketball's So that
Speaker 1: was a much more entertaining basketball game than what we
Speaker 1: got last night, which was one of the ugliest basketball
Speaker 1: games I've ever seen. And very difficult to take anything
Speaker 1: from because it was kind of that Jekyl and Hide
Speaker 1: type of character that we've been getting from the Lakers
Speaker 1: all season. The biggest issue with them is they have
Speaker 1: been an inconsistent effort and focus team. You know, the
Speaker 1: Clippers were favored tonight and they should have been. The
Speaker 1: reason why is because they're a better basketball team than us,
Speaker 1: and I mean that sincerely. Yes, I know we have
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, but they are a better basketball team than us.
Speaker 1: And it's because everything has to do with fitting that
Speaker 1: talent that you have with a specific scheme, playing to
Speaker 1: your strengths. And the Clippers are, as I've said many
Speaker 1: times on the show in the past, the best example
Speaker 1: in the league of a team that maximizes their talent
Speaker 1: by leaning into their strengths. They have a boatload of
Speaker 1: guys that are between six five and six eight, that
Speaker 1: can defend multiple positions, that can shoot the basketball, and
Speaker 1: that can put the basketball on the floor and make
Speaker 1: plays for others, either getting all the way to the
Speaker 1: rim or you know, your classic driving kick type of basketball.
Speaker 1: That's why they won tonight, That's why they're one have
Speaker 1: won more often this season than we have despite the
Speaker 1: fact that we have Lebron James and Anthony Davis on
Speaker 1: the team. You know when it comes. First of all,
Speaker 1: I want to give the Lakers some credit. They showed
Speaker 1: a lot of fight there in that second half. It
Speaker 1: got The story of this week so far has been
Speaker 1: second quarter, third quarter malaise, just getting getting out to
Speaker 1: a hot start, playing hard on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: then getting out of that groove, getting really sloppy and
Speaker 1: very pick up game esque on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, and then the other team going on a
Speaker 1: run and it leading to that bad body language and
Speaker 1: that lacks of days ago getting up and down the
Speaker 1: floor type of nature that has plagued this team. Oh
Speaker 1: you're long, But they showed some fight towards the end
Speaker 1: of the game. I gotta get credit where credit is due.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, who has been one of the worst late
Speaker 1: game decision makers I have ever seen this season, was
Speaker 1: awesome down the stretch of this game and made a
Speaker 1: lot of big shots and made smart passes, avoided the
Speaker 1: catastrophic turnover. There was a play late in the game
Speaker 1: where he got that head his team and started headed
Speaker 1: up the floor and Russ many times this season has
Speaker 1: just tried to be a bowl in a china shop
Speaker 1: and run everybody over. But no, he pulled it back.
Speaker 1: He ran offense and it resulted in a basket for
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Anthony Davis dominant on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: I thought he was gonna make that running floater into
Speaker 1: the lane. That's a high quality shot for him. And
Speaker 1: you know what, the Clippers just made more shots. That
Speaker 1: was a really, really tough three that Marcus Morris made
Speaker 1: in the corner. They're defended perfectly. Pump fake guy contesting
Speaker 1: from behind, he's leaning to the side. That's a tough shot.
Speaker 1: When you put yourself in a close game, it becomes
Speaker 1: about who makes the big shots at the end, and
Speaker 1: both teams made lots of big shots. The differences is
Speaker 1: the Lakers went into that stretch down by six, you know,
Speaker 1: with a few minutes left, and the Clippers had a
Speaker 1: little bit more margin for error. So even though they
Speaker 1: didn't play as well as the Lakers did down the stretch,
Speaker 1: it wasn't enough. Malik Monk made some big shots down
Speaker 1: the stretch. I thought it was interesting that they went
Speaker 1: to Trevor Reason to try to go bigger. Lots of
Speaker 1: good from the Lakers in that fourth quarter. But here
Speaker 1: we are again and the Lakers are one in four
Speaker 1: in there in this five game stretch without Lebron. And
Speaker 1: it's funny because you see a lot of people try
Speaker 1: to blame one specific thing for this team struggling. You know,
Speaker 1: you hear a lot. You have this camp people that think.
Speaker 1: You have this camp of people that think Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: is to blame for everything that has happened with the roster.
Speaker 1: You have this camp of people that think that Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel is to blame for everything that has happened on
Speaker 1: the roster. You have people that blame the veteran minimum
Speaker 1: contracts and now they haven't panned out, or the injuries
Speaker 1: and guys. The reality is is if you have Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis on your roster and your three
Speaker 1: game below five hundred, just about everything has to go wrong. Now.
Speaker 1: For me, personally, I attribute it down to three key
Speaker 1: identity changes that the Lakers went this offseason, all of
Speaker 1: which backfired. The first one has to do with the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. If you look at the
Speaker 1: team that won the title, the Laker team that won,
Speaker 1: they were a bad offensive team. Now going into the bubble,
Speaker 1: they were a top ten offense, but it was primarily
Speaker 1: fueled by what they did in transition. If you dug
Speaker 1: into the numbers, they were one of the worst half
Speaker 1: court offenses in the league, but they were incredible on
Speaker 1: the defensive end. They were third in the league in defense.
Speaker 1: I thought they were the best defense in the league
Speaker 1: because the two teams in front of them were in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. In the Eastern Conference was historically weak
Speaker 1: that year, but offense has been an issue throughout that
Speaker 1: stretch of the of the Lakers. That year they won
Speaker 1: the title, and the year after when they were the
Speaker 1: best defense in the league, it just didn't matter because
Speaker 1: it all kind of fit right. They leaned into their strengths.
Speaker 1: They had tons of defensively focused players, great size and
Speaker 1: athleticism on the perimeter to contain guys trying to dribble
Speaker 1: the basketball. And they had Lebron and Anthony Davis, who
Speaker 1: when they turn it up on the defensive end, nobody
Speaker 1: can hang with them from a size and athleticism standpoint,
Speaker 1: But on the offensive end they struggled. Ironic, I always
Speaker 1: referred to that offense as a brute force offense. There
Speaker 1: wasn't a ton of organization. It was just like, here's Lebron,
Speaker 1: here's Anthony Davis. You can't do anything with these guys
Speaker 1: even if we're if we're running shotty offense, we're gonna
Speaker 1: score well. After last season, after that really ugly loss
Speaker 1: to the Sons, which again was primarily because Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: got hurt, not because of anything else other than Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis getting hurt, but they overreacted to that by shifting
Speaker 1: heavily towards the offensive end of the floor. So you
Speaker 1: replace KCP, a guy who is a really good two
Speaker 1: way shooting guard in the NBA, with a guy like
Speaker 1: Malik Monk who is far more dynamic on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, but nowhere near as capable of
Speaker 1: doing the defensive things that k c P does. You
Speaker 1: swap out a guy like Kyle Kuzma, who was really
Speaker 1: frustrating on the offensive end of the floor over the
Speaker 1: course of his years in l A, but towards the
Speaker 1: end that second half of the title season and that
Speaker 1: entire year, he became a really good defensive player. He
Speaker 1: became a really good rebounder, and he's huge. And that
Speaker 1: shift in identity going towards that offensive end of the ball.
Speaker 1: That was in a reaction to what happened against Phoenix.
Speaker 1: But the irony there is it played away from what
Speaker 1: they were good at. The reason why is because Frank Vogel,
Speaker 1: who was one of the best defensive coaches that I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. His game planning in the playoff run was
Speaker 1: a large part of what allowed them to shut down
Speaker 1: the stars they encountered along the way. He was one
Speaker 1: of the best coaches in the league in those two
Speaker 1: years because he was a defensive coach, coaching defensive personnel.
Speaker 1: He was leaning into the strengths of that roster. But
Speaker 1: the problem is the Lakers switched out all these guys
Speaker 1: for offensive minded players and they come into the game
Speaker 1: tonight as the twenty three ranked offense in the league.
Speaker 1: Think about how difficult that is could be. The twenty
Speaker 1: three ranked offense in the league with Lebron James, with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, with Russell Westbrook, with all the shooting that
Speaker 1: they add with Carmelo, Anthony, Malague, Monk. These guys they
Speaker 1: leaned heavily in the offense into the offensive event and
Speaker 1: they can't score. And the key the main reason behind
Speaker 1: that is Frank Vogel is not a good offensive coach.
Speaker 1: For as much as he is one of the best
Speaker 1: defensive coaches in the league, he's one of the very
Speaker 1: worst offensive coaches in the league. If you watch the
Speaker 1: Lakers play offense, they look like they're playing pick up basketball.
Speaker 1: They look like a group of guys that you see
Speaker 1: at l a fitness You know, I always talk about
Speaker 1: the idea of actions running actions on the ball or
Speaker 1: off the ball, and action on the ball is designed
Speaker 1: to give one of your best players an advantage. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, a screening role, which is what you see
Speaker 1: everybody do, but like something silly, like someone coming off
Speaker 1: of a pin down starting the guys sets a downscreen.
Speaker 1: You come up and you catch and you attack. Now
Speaker 1: you don't have to attack a set defense or a
Speaker 1: set defender. You're attacking with an advantage that helps you
Speaker 1: get started at the point of attack. Then off the ball,
Speaker 1: if everyone stands around their defenders sit in the paint
Speaker 1: they have because that's just classic defense that every coach
Speaker 1: at every level of basketball teaches. If your man doesn't
Speaker 1: have the ball and you're a couple passes away, you
Speaker 1: have a foot in the paint, and so one of
Speaker 1: the problems with what the Lakers do is it's a
Speaker 1: lot of guys just standing around and watching the Leak
Speaker 1: Monk try to score, standing around watching Anthony Davis try
Speaker 1: to score, standing around watching watching Russell Westbrook try to score.
Speaker 1: While all of the smart teams in the league, at
Speaker 1: least all the offensively smart teams in the league, constantly
Speaker 1: have guys moving around. If you have a guy coming
Speaker 1: off of an action to start to play and off
Speaker 1: the ball, and you have guys running in action to
Speaker 1: try to get open, that occupies defenders and makes things easier.
Speaker 1: So that was the big backfiring mistake that they made
Speaker 1: their going towards offense with personnel and not understanding that
Speaker 1: they didn't have a coach staff actually equipped to put
Speaker 1: those guys in position to score. So that's how you
Speaker 1: have all these offensive talented players who can't score the basketball.
Speaker 1: And even against a team, you know, against the teams
Speaker 1: like Portland that they've faced recently, against teams like Atlanta
Speaker 1: they faced recently, they haven't been able to especially in
Speaker 1: the big moments towards the end of the game, they
Speaker 1: haven't been able to create as much offense as they
Speaker 1: need to. That's that's that's something that backfired. The second
Speaker 1: big thing that they backfired with is size. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone thinks of the Lakers is a huge basketball team,
Speaker 1: right because they played a center next to the Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis. So you'd have Dwight Howard and JaVale
Speaker 1: McGee and Anthony Davis and Lebron James, and you think, man,
Speaker 1: that team is huge, and they were. But the dirty
Speaker 1: little secret about that team is they were also huge
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. They started KCP at like six four
Speaker 1: or six five as a point guard. They started Danny
Speaker 1: Green at six six, six seven at the two guard.
Speaker 1: You know, they had Kyle Kuzma playing on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: huge player Mark Keith Morris, another big guy playing on
Speaker 1: the wing. They had all of these big guys alongside
Speaker 1: their big guys. And now you come into this year
Speaker 1: and you still have that size in the front court. Right,
Speaker 1: You've got Lebron James, you got Anthony Davis, you've got
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan, you've got Dwight Howard, but everyone else is small.
Speaker 1: And constantly throughout this season they've been playing guys like
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley, Malik Monk and Russell Westbrook together. And so
Speaker 1: now you're trying to compete with NBA teams that have
Speaker 1: big NBA athletes all over the floor. And you've got
Speaker 1: a six three point guard on the floor and a
Speaker 1: six ft tall to guard on the floor and a
Speaker 1: six ft three really skinny Malik Monk at at playing
Speaker 1: at small forward. So then you run into teams like
Speaker 1: the Clippers who are going to spread you out an attack.
Speaker 1: And what did you see all night today today? Guys,
Speaker 1: you'd see some really small Laker defender wrapping up Sergebaca
Speaker 1: around the rim, or wrapping up Isaiah Hartenstein around the rim.
Speaker 1: And it's because the aggregate size of the lineup is
Speaker 1: too small and it was way too easy for the
Speaker 1: Clippers to run basic actions or hell, just run in
Speaker 1: the floor. If Dwight Howard or Anthony Davis were on
Speaker 1: the offensive end crashing the glass, missing a shot around
Speaker 1: the rim, guys would just sprint down the floor. Next
Speaker 1: thing you know, you've got a center for the Clippers
Speaker 1: going up against one of your tiny guards. It was
Speaker 1: something that plagued them throughout the game, especially towards the beginning. Now,
Speaker 1: the Lakers countered that towards the end by playing towards
Speaker 1: their size, and that's the easy way for them to
Speaker 1: remedy that there are some bigger players on this roster. Mr.
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel just has to lean more into that. Trevories,
Speaker 1: I get it that he's slower. I get it that
Speaker 1: he's not what he used to be, but he's six
Speaker 1: ft eight, and just by having a six ft eight
Speaker 1: guy that can move around a little bit out there,
Speaker 1: it gives you a better chance of hanging physically with
Speaker 1: some of these teams. He closes Stanley Johnson tonight. That
Speaker 1: needs to happen every single night. You can get away
Speaker 1: with having Russ and lak Monk out there. You just
Speaker 1: can't get away with having three of those guys out there.
Speaker 1: But that was one of the big things that the
Speaker 1: Lakers did this summer that backfired on them. They went
Speaker 1: too small. And it's funny because you know, uh, we
Speaker 1: were all waiting during free agency. We're like, Okay, they
Speaker 1: signed Trevor Reason, they signed Carmelo Anthony, where's the next
Speaker 1: where's the next small forward? Are you think a start
Speaker 1: West and Matthews? I think it's not really gay, Like
Speaker 1: who's coming? Is there? Gonna be some other small forward
Speaker 1: and it just never materialized. And so all season long
Speaker 1: that has been a shortcoming, and they've had to go
Speaker 1: to literal guys on the street, an undrafted free agent
Speaker 1: and a guy in Stanley Johnson, a former lottery pick
Speaker 1: who's out of the league. They had to dip into
Speaker 1: that pool of players to try to fill that obvious need.
Speaker 1: When anybody who's been watching the league this year, just
Speaker 1: by looking around at the landscape knew that you needed
Speaker 1: to have that size and athleticism on the perimeter, the
Speaker 1: same size and athleticism on the perimeter that carried them
Speaker 1: in years past. And then the last thing that backfired
Speaker 1: on them this year is the Russell Westbrook move. Now,
Speaker 1: Russ is playing better of late, and I want to
Speaker 1: be clear, like he played great tonight, throw it down
Speaker 1: the stretch of the game. He did a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that I've been critical of him not doing,
Speaker 1: taking care of the basketball, defending, taking smarter shots, all
Speaker 1: that stuff. You know. But the it was the concept
Speaker 1: of star player star power versus role players, right, So
Speaker 1: you know, the idea in theory is you swap out
Speaker 1: three role players guys like Kyle Kuzma, guys like k CP, Montres, Harrold,
Speaker 1: and you get back a superstar. That's a formula that
Speaker 1: has worked a lot in NBA history, especially for Lebron.
Speaker 1: That is a formula that he's leaned on to win
Speaker 1: championships at many points in his career. So I don't
Speaker 1: fault the man for thinking in that direction. But one
Speaker 1: of the problems that's happened this year is, as I've
Speaker 1: described earlier, the Lakers have a shortage of good, solid
Speaker 1: NBA players on the perimeter that can play roles, because
Speaker 1: that's the kind of stuff that carries you in the
Speaker 1: in the dregs of the regular season. These things are
Speaker 1: imperative to winning basketball games. It's like trying to run
Speaker 1: a football team without an offensive line. I'm a Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys fan. It was really frustrating watching him this year
Speaker 1: because they had a good quarterback, two headed running back monster,
Speaker 1: great wide receivers, a great pass rush of one of
Speaker 1: the best corners in the league, good young linebacking corps,
Speaker 1: but their offensive line was falling apart throughout the year,
Speaker 1: and anytime they faced a good pass rush, they lost.
Speaker 1: And it's because, yes, yes, the flash is important, but
Speaker 1: you have to have guys that are willing to do
Speaker 1: the dirty work in order to win basketball games. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers had a lot of guys that weren't Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis that used to do that dirty work,
Speaker 1: and they shipped a bunch of them out to bring
Speaker 1: back Russa Westbrook. Now, if Russa Westbrook can play like
Speaker 1: he did in that fourth quarter and bring that type
Speaker 1: of matchup attacking, making big plays defending at his position,
Speaker 1: if he can do that kind of stuff, then the
Speaker 1: trade is worth it. But the problem is is more
Speaker 1: often than not this year that hasn't been the case,
Speaker 1: and guys like it's not hating Westbrook. Westbrook fans are
Speaker 1: absolutely crazy. I'm not hating Westbrook. I am analyzing basketball games.
Speaker 1: So when Russell Westbrook goes out and he plays a
Speaker 1: brand of basketball that isn't helping the team, I have
Speaker 1: to call that out because that's what I'm doing by
Speaker 1: breaking down basketball games. When he plays really well like
Speaker 1: he did tonight, I will give him credit for that.
Speaker 1: I have no intention of going out of my way
Speaker 1: to hate on the man. That's not the way that
Speaker 1: I cover the game. But again, in order for that
Speaker 1: trade to be worth it, Russell Westbrook has to be
Speaker 1: a huge net positive, and the way he does that
Speaker 1: is by focusing on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: getting stops at his position, attacking mismatches on the other end,
Speaker 1: and not turning the ball over. If he can do that,
Speaker 1: this can work. But more often than not, he hasn't
Speaker 1: been able to do that this year, and that's why
Speaker 1: I think it that's why that trade has been, at
Speaker 1: least to this point, somewhat of a backfire. So it'll
Speaker 1: be really interesting to see in the long run whether
Speaker 1: or not they can remedy that. And at least they
Speaker 1: need they need to find somebody out there that can
Speaker 1: feel some of the responsibilities that Kyle Kuzmer was filling.
Speaker 1: I can feel some of the responsibilities that k CP
Speaker 1: was feeling. Those jobs have to be filled. Now it's
Speaker 1: been Stanley Johnson, it's been Austin Reaves, but you need
Speaker 1: like three more of those guys. You need at least
Speaker 1: two or three more of those guys to get in
Speaker 1: there so that when you go to the bench and
Speaker 1: it's th Ht who's been way too inconsistent this year,
Speaker 1: or it's kept Baysmore who has been really bad most
Speaker 1: of the year, or it's been Trevor Reaves who's been
Speaker 1: mostly bad this year. You can swap those guys out
Speaker 1: for other guys who have been doing it well now
Speaker 1: moving on. So this Lebron injury is weird because, like
Speaker 1: I said earlier, he throughout this season has taken time
Speaker 1: off to try to avoid You'll be better prepared for
Speaker 1: the long haul, right. You know, Lebron, the guy falls
Speaker 1: into his ankle. He finishes the game, but then he
Speaker 1: decides to take a couple of weeks off or a
Speaker 1: week off because he just wants to make sure that
Speaker 1: heels all the way. Same thing goes with his UH,
Speaker 1: with his UH, the other injury he had later in
Speaker 1: the season. I'm blanking on what it is now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, But this most recent injury, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a little more serious, right because these are really
Speaker 1: meaningful basketball games that he's missing. But I think Lebron
Speaker 1: has accepted the reality that they're going to be a
Speaker 1: playing team, and I think he understands that the most
Speaker 1: important thing is for him to be healthy because they're
Speaker 1: going to have an incredibly grueling playoff run. They're gonna
Speaker 1: have to play a really good basketball team in a
Speaker 1: playing game to get into the playoffs, and then from
Speaker 1: there they're going to have to beat one of the
Speaker 1: two best records in the NBA in the first round,
Speaker 1: going into a second round series against the team probably
Speaker 1: like Memphis going into the conference finals against the other
Speaker 1: one of the Golden State Phoenix team that they go play.
Speaker 1: He's got a long playoff run ahead of him, so
Speaker 1: he's got to get rested up. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: funny because I think that this knee injury to Lebron
Speaker 1: is exactly why it's so important for the Lakers to
Speaker 1: go all in this season and to do whatever it
Speaker 1: takes at this deadline next Thursday to send out whatever
Speaker 1: they can to try to maximize this window. And the
Speaker 1: reason why is really simple. First of all, you win
Speaker 1: titles in NBA history by having the best player on
Speaker 1: the floor. You win titles in NBA history by having
Speaker 1: a super duperstar. Let's go back in time. It was
Speaker 1: Johanna Santana Coopo last year. The year before that, it
Speaker 1: was Lebron James. The year before that, it was Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: The year before that it was Stephan k d. Then
Speaker 1: it was Lebron. If you go back, you might find
Speaker 1: a handful of teams like the two thousand fourteen Spurs,
Speaker 1: the two thousand eighteen Celtics. But even those teams, it's like,
Speaker 1: that's Tim Duncan towards the tail end of his prime.
Speaker 1: That's Kevin Garnett towards the tail end of his prime.
Speaker 1: And those teams had tons of talent. I mean, Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard literally won the Finals MVP that year and he
Speaker 1: might have been their fourth best player. So the reality
Speaker 1: is you need to have that super duper star in
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Do they have that guy? Before this knee injury,
Speaker 1: Lebron was probably the best player in the league. That's
Speaker 1: how well he was playing. He was having these stretches
Speaker 1: of Draymond Green esque defensive impact on the back line
Speaker 1: for the Lakers, and then on the other end, he
Speaker 1: was having one of the best and most efficient scoring
Speaker 1: seasons of his career. That's exactly why this is so urgent.
Speaker 1: When I look at Lebron signing with the Lakers back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eighteen, you would have been thrilled.
Speaker 1: If you've got two good years out of him. We're
Speaker 1: on year four and he still looks like that guy. Now,
Speaker 1: his knee just randomly blew up today or the other day,
Speaker 1: just started swelling. There may or may not be some
Speaker 1: weird fluid stack on the back of his knee. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys saw that video that went
Speaker 1: viral the other day, was really weird, but his knee
Speaker 1: randomly got big, because that's what happens with old guys.
Speaker 1: It's like Carmelo Anthony tonight, Carmelo Anthony did a pup
Speaker 1: fake Wonder will pull up to the left a shot
Speaker 1: he's taken a thousand times in his career, thousands of
Speaker 1: times in his career, and you know what, his hamstring ripped,
Speaker 1: because that's what happens with older guys. So the reality
Speaker 1: is is Lebron is probably getting close to to the
Speaker 1: end of that window, but right now he's still there.
Speaker 1: And the second reason why they have to go all
Speaker 1: in is because there is an opportunity here. You know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about title lots here in a minute,
Speaker 1: but if you look around the league, it's like you
Speaker 1: look at Brooklyn and Brooklyn's falling apart there. They've lost
Speaker 1: seven of their last nine games. You look at Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: they already have over twenty losses. They're not where, not
Speaker 1: anywhere near as dominant as they've been in years past.
Speaker 1: The Heat don't have that super superstar, you know. Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: Joel Embide looks incredible, but they don't have a second
Speaker 1: star for him. The Phoenix Suns look incredible, but they
Speaker 1: don't have a superstar. The Golden State Warriors are breaking
Speaker 1: apart with their health. You know, this back thing with
Speaker 1: Draymond Green is weird. And the Memphis Grizzlies are probably
Speaker 1: too young. There is no juggernaut team in here that
Speaker 1: is very clearly going to be any rendition of the Lakers.
Speaker 1: There is a window of opportunity here. There's a window
Speaker 1: of opportunity. If some things can go right for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they can go on a run. And so there's no
Speaker 1: point in clinging to assets or anything along those lines,
Speaker 1: thinking of having one foot in the moment and one
Speaker 1: ft later on, when the reality is that there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity here to go try and win a championship. And
Speaker 1: so even though Lebronze knee is hurt, even though it
Speaker 1: seems like the windows closing, that's all the more reason
Speaker 1: to go all and not to mention, there's a playbook
Speaker 1: in the NBA, a very easy way for you to
Speaker 1: go and replenish assets. We've seen so many teams do
Speaker 1: it over the years. All you gotta do is eat
Speaker 1: salary for a year and take some picks back in return.
Speaker 1: It's when every does when things start to go south
Speaker 1: the lake. It's what the Golden State Warriors did in
Speaker 1: a very short period of time here recently. It's easy
Speaker 1: to recoup assets in the NBA. You can do that
Speaker 1: down the line. You don't get Lebron James though forever.
Speaker 1: You get him for this year, you might get him
Speaker 1: for one more pretty good year, and you're gonna get
Speaker 1: it a lesser version of him from there. And as
Speaker 1: we've seen with Anthony Davis, he's not really up to
Speaker 1: the task of being that alpha dog superstar. So the
Speaker 1: reality is this is the chance, this is the chance,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers have to go for it. I think
Speaker 1: you have to ship t H T out. I think
Speaker 1: you have to ship the first out and you have
Speaker 1: to find three or four able bodied wings that can
Speaker 1: fill those roles that I talked about earlier in the show.
Speaker 1: That's what has to happen in this last week, and
Speaker 1: I'm really curious to see if they get to that point.
Speaker 1: So let's move on to uh, the the title lots,
Speaker 1: because I thought this was really interesting. So the Lakers
Speaker 1: right now have, according to fand will, have the seventh
Speaker 1: highest odds to win the championship this year. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because Brooklyn is still leading the league in title
Speaker 1: odds on FanDuel. They are the title favor right now,
Speaker 1: and they're falling apart even more so than the Lakers are.
Speaker 1: I Doke did about this last night a little bit.
Speaker 1: They are like Lakers East. The differences is Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: was very healthy at the beginning of the year in
Speaker 1: playing m VP basketball and carried them to a good
Speaker 1: record to this point. The difference is for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they had all sorts of injury concerns early in the
Speaker 1: season and then when Lebron Lebron had his little healthy
Speaker 1: stretch where he dragged him along in the standings. Recently
Speaker 1: they've had a little bit worse luck on that front.
Speaker 1: But the truth is is the bet the reason why
Speaker 1: you bet on the Nets to win the title is
Speaker 1: you're thinking, hey, like, what if James Harden recovers some
Speaker 1: of his old form, because James Harden is having one
Speaker 1: of the worst seasons of his career, certainly his worst
Speaker 1: season by a mile in terms of what he's been
Speaker 1: like as the James Harden that we know, not the
Speaker 1: guy who came off the bench for okay see, but
Speaker 1: you're you're you bet on the nets because you think, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe James Harden recovers his form. You bet on the
Speaker 1: nets because you think, hey, maybe Kyrie Irving can be
Speaker 1: productive in a uh in road games in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's enough. You bet on the nets because
Speaker 1: you think, hey, Kevin Durand is Kevin freakin Durant. He's
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the league, so he
Speaker 1: can carry as a certain extent. You're betting on things
Speaker 1: kind of coming together. They haven't really materialized. And I
Speaker 1: think that's really interesting because that's the same case for
Speaker 1: the Lakers to make their run to the title. You're
Speaker 1: betting on Lebron James being one of the best two
Speaker 1: or three players in the world. You're betting on Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis kind of like with James hard And becoming one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the world. You're betting on
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook hopefully becoming a player that can contribute more
Speaker 1: often than not in this Now for Kyrie, it's different
Speaker 1: reasons because he literally can't play in home games, but
Speaker 1: it's the same type of thing, and you're hoping that
Speaker 1: maybe at the deadline, just like Brooklyn needs to trade
Speaker 1: out some older legs for some younger legs, you're hoping
Speaker 1: that at the deadline they can come up with enough
Speaker 1: pieces to go on a run. H But I think
Speaker 1: that makes the Lakers an interesting betting opportunity at the
Speaker 1: seven highest odds in the league because they have the
Speaker 1: same case, the same pathway to make it to the
Speaker 1: finals and to win a championship that the Brooklyn Nets do,
Speaker 1: and it's every bit is achievable. And especially you guys
Speaker 1: saw today Joe Harris, there's a report coming out that
Speaker 1: says he's probably gonna have to get a second surgery
Speaker 1: on that ankle, So even more reason to see like
Speaker 1: kind of what I'm talking about here, A lot of
Speaker 1: things can go wrong for certain teams. There is a
Speaker 1: window of opportunity here, and I think the I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers have a legitimate chance. Even with all the craziness,
Speaker 1: the Lakers have a legitimate chance to win. But before
Speaker 1: we get out of here tonight, we're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the Phoenix Suns. So the Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: lost tonight um in Atlanta, and I didn't really take
Speaker 1: too much from it. They that was a classic shooting
Speaker 1: variance type of game. Phoenix went nine for thirty two
Speaker 1: from three. Atlanta made twenty three point shots. And sometimes
Speaker 1: during the NBA regular season, you have a night, especially
Speaker 1: on the road, where guys you know, are really comfortable
Speaker 1: on one side and knocking shots down and your guys
Speaker 1: aren't really comfortable and they're not making shots. But before that,
Speaker 1: the Suns had won eleven games in a row, and
Speaker 1: to this point they have the best record in the NBA.
Speaker 1: So the question becomes, are the Phoenix Suns a really
Speaker 1: legitimate title contender or are they just an exciting regular
Speaker 1: season type of story. And I think this is one
Speaker 1: of the most interesting, like kind of pathways for us
Speaker 1: to watch as basketball fans this year, because Phoenix represents
Speaker 1: kind of a direction that basketball is heading where role
Speaker 1: players are more valuable than ever and star players are
Speaker 1: easier to counter than they've ever been. Kind Of like
Speaker 1: what we've been talking about with the Lakers, you swap
Speaker 1: out some role players, all of a sudden, a bona
Speaker 1: fide championship contender becomes a dumpster fire. That's how valuable
Speaker 1: role players are in the NBA today, and the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns have the greatest depth of talent than anybody in
Speaker 1: the league. Casts there are three things that I look
Speaker 1: at with teams in terms of their ability to win
Speaker 1: the NBA Championship. Are they defensively versatile? Yes, the Sons
Speaker 1: have great defensive versatility. They have three really good athletic
Speaker 1: wings that can guard multiple positions, and Jay Crowder and
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson and Michael Bridges. They have a dominant center
Speaker 1: and DeAndre and who can guard some of the best
Speaker 1: centers in the league. And a great body to throw at,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, a great body to throw at. Joanna's Antana Coompo.
Speaker 1: He's a really solid defensive player. And then Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is really good at defending at his position, and Devin
Speaker 1: Booker has made a lot of progress in that regard
Speaker 1: over the years. They crossed that defensive versatility box solid.
Speaker 1: Then I always look at camp guys create their own shots,
Speaker 1: and can guys create shots for others, and Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is one of the best in the league at creating
Speaker 1: shots for others, and Devin Booker is one of the
Speaker 1: best in the league at creating shots for himself. So
Speaker 1: in theory, they check all the boxes for a team
Speaker 1: that can win a title except from one, and that's
Speaker 1: that supreme alpha dog, the guy that can look anybody
Speaker 1: in the face and reach a level on the basketball
Speaker 1: floor that no one else can reach or just a
Speaker 1: handful of guys can reach. That happened last year. Phoenix
Speaker 1: looked really good on their way to the finals. They
Speaker 1: looked really good in their first two games of the finals,
Speaker 1: but then what happened. Janis antennacoom but basically murdered them
Speaker 1: for the world to see because he was able to
Speaker 1: reach a level as a basketball player that nobody else
Speaker 1: on the floor could reach, and both of the stars
Speaker 1: on the Suns were massively marginalized. So Devin Booker had
Speaker 1: some good games in the finals. He had some stretches
Speaker 1: of great shot making, but he's a shotmaker, so when
Speaker 1: shots are going in, it looks great, but when they're
Speaker 1: not going in, he doesn't have a ton of other
Speaker 1: impact on the game. Same thing goes with Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: Chris Paul is a great playmaker, but you know when
Speaker 1: defenses are keying in on him, and the problem for
Speaker 1: him is he's a little bit older, and so Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday is just such a better athlete he was able
Speaker 1: to really kind of swallow him up and shut him down.
Speaker 1: And so the thing is is, you you see these
Speaker 1: two guys who in the regular season carrying this team
Speaker 1: look like legitimate weapons, but then when they get in
Speaker 1: the postseason, they just run into the better guy. And
Speaker 1: that's why, as we go back to NBA history, you
Speaker 1: see a superstar holding the trophy every year. But again,
Speaker 1: we are trending in the direction that maybe that might
Speaker 1: not matter as much as it used to. And a
Speaker 1: lot of this has to do with just the evolution
Speaker 1: of basketball towards five out principles. Right. So in this
Speaker 1: in this league's right now, it is so much more
Speaker 1: important to have multiple guys that can beat somebody from
Speaker 1: the from the perimeter and create shots for your teammates.
Speaker 1: It's so much more important to have multiple guys that
Speaker 1: can spot up in various parts of the floor and
Speaker 1: be effective. It's not like the old days. It's not
Speaker 1: like when you had Shane Battier in the corner, or
Speaker 1: Kyle Korver in the corner, or Booby Gibson in the corner.
Speaker 1: You don't have specialists as often in the NBA anymore.
Speaker 1: They're not as successful as they used to be because
Speaker 1: as the league has gone towards five out, it's been
Speaker 1: about having five real basketball players on the floor, guys
Speaker 1: who can create their own shot. And if you don't
Speaker 1: have those guys, teams are so good now at taking
Speaker 1: away what your stars like to do and forcing those
Speaker 1: other guys to put the ball on the floor in
Speaker 1: if they can't, if they can't do those close out,
Speaker 1: attack ee type of things, then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: your offense can get shut down. That's what happened to
Speaker 1: the Lakers in the playoffs last year when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: went down. They just loaded the pain on Dennis Rotor,
Speaker 1: loaded the pain on Lebron James, and nobody else on
Speaker 1: the team could make a play. And so that's the
Speaker 1: angle here for the Suns. The angle for the Suns is,
Speaker 1: if you send a lot of bodies at Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: if you send a lot of bodies at Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and you're able to shut them down. That's great. But
Speaker 1: Michail Bridges is an incredible basketball player. Him and Kim
Speaker 1: Johnson are both shooting from three, and both of them
Speaker 1: can put the ball on the floor and get all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim and finish about the rim
Speaker 1: or make interesting shots in the mid range, and they
Speaker 1: can drive and kick to their teammates. Campaign is a
Speaker 1: devastating matchup attacker because he's so incredibly fast at the
Speaker 1: point of attack, and he can get into the lane
Speaker 1: and cause all sorts of having having DeAndre Ayton. If
Speaker 1: you switch a small guy onto him, he can bury
Speaker 1: him down deep and make a jump book. The Suns
Speaker 1: have a ton of different options that they can go
Speaker 1: to offensively, and so the whole thing flows, and so
Speaker 1: it'll be really interesting to see what direction are we
Speaker 1: going as a league. Are we going in the direction
Speaker 1: where things are gonna stay the way they are and
Speaker 1: the super duperstars are gonna win, Like is Steph Curry
Speaker 1: or Lebron James just gonna go nuclear through the playoffs
Speaker 1: and beat everybody, or Kevin Durant or Janis Antenna Kumpo,
Speaker 1: Or are we going to see a team like the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat come out who don't have that supreme alpha
Speaker 1: dog talent, but they have a depth of talent down
Speaker 1: the roster because maybe Tyler Harrows their fourth best player,
Speaker 1: but he's way better than your fourth best player, and
Speaker 1: their fifth best players way better than your fifth best player,
Speaker 1: and that ends up being what swings things. Memphis is
Speaker 1: another example like this. But Memphis, Phoenix, Miami, these are
Speaker 1: the teams that we're gonna look at, and it it will
Speaker 1: be really interesting to see whether or not one of
Speaker 1: those teams rises to be the first team in a
Speaker 1: very long time to beat all the superstars. And I
Speaker 1: don't know. I honestly don't know which one's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: It'll be really interesting to see. If I had to
Speaker 1: if you, if I had guess, I'd say bet with
Speaker 1: the superstars, because more often than not, when we get
Speaker 1: to these big moments, the rest swallow their whistles. Everyone's
Speaker 1: allowed to foul, nobody's open, and it's hey, can your
Speaker 1: best guy make a shot? And last year in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul was rendered ineffective and Janice went for fifty
Speaker 1: in Game six of the NBA Finals, and there's nothing
Speaker 1: Phoenix could do about it, and so maybe that's the
Speaker 1: direction it's gonna stay. It'll be really interesting to see.
Speaker 1: All Right, that's all I happened to night, guys. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much for coming to hang out. This
Speaker 1: was a fun first show. I'm really excited to see
Speaker 1: what we can build here. This is gonna be released
Speaker 1: in podcast form later on. I appreciate your guys support,
Speaker 1: and we will be back for Saturday Night after the
Speaker 1: later stay the volume