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Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of Lakers on DASH Radio. I

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Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoyed that first part of the letter

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Speaker 1: grade pod that I did on the Big Three today.

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Speaker 1: I'm hating on all of the role players, which I'm

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Speaker 1: really really excited to do because I have really grown

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Speaker 1: to like each and every one of these guys as

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Speaker 1: basketball players and what they bring to the table. Um.

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Speaker 1: This is going to post on Tuesday night at midnight,

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Speaker 1: so you guys should be able to listen to it

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Speaker 1: on the day of the game. And then I am

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Speaker 1: out of town still for my grandfather's funeral. So Roj

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Speaker 1: is going to be hosting our postgame show on Wednesday night,

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Speaker 1: so I hope you guys all go check that out

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Speaker 1: with him and continue to support the show as always.

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Speaker 1: I'm super thankful for you guys rocking with us so

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Speaker 1: far this season. It's been really excited to see this

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Speaker 1: whole thing, bro. But let's go ahead and get started.

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Speaker 1: So again, for the as you who missed the last one,

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Speaker 1: these letter grades are all relative to what the expectations

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Speaker 1: were for these players coming into the season. I don't

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Speaker 1: think it's fair to grade, you know. Dwight Howard on

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Speaker 1: the same scale that we grade Lebron James or Anthony Davis.

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Speaker 1: That's just not the way that we should evaluate these guys. Um.

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Speaker 1: But let's start with Milik Monk. So I give Leak

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Speaker 1: Monk and a minus. He is a veteran minimum guy.

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Speaker 1: I actually think, if I'm not mistaken, he's on a

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Speaker 1: smaller form of the minimum contract of don't quote me

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Speaker 1: on that, but I think I saw that when I

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Speaker 1: was researching over the off season. So again, when you

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Speaker 1: when you actually talk about what we're getting for the

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Speaker 1: money out of Malik Monk, he is knocking it out

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Speaker 1: of the park. We're getting spot creation. He can run

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Speaker 1: second side. Actually, he can run a pick and roll.

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Speaker 1: He can beat guys off the dribble and spray out

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Speaker 1: too shooters in transition. He's flashed a lot of high

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Speaker 1: level playmaking. He had that awesome blob. I believe that

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Speaker 1: he threw to DeAndre Jordan's the other night against the Magic.

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Speaker 1: He's shown spot creation, He's shown high level clothes out attacking.

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Speaker 1: This is something that has always been a very important

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Speaker 1: skill to me because I think in the postseason, these

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Speaker 1: really really elite, high end defenses are they're just really

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Speaker 1: really good at chasing guys off the line and funneling

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Speaker 1: you into a guy at the rim who can who

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Speaker 1: can defend the room. So if you can make floaters,

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Speaker 1: if you can make one or two grivel pull ups,

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Speaker 1: if you can make creative finishes around the rim, when

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Speaker 1: there's already a shot blocker there, that brings a ton

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Speaker 1: of value. And Malik Monk brings that to this team. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, it hasn't been all good. He's he's turned

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Speaker 1: into somewhat of a good play bad play guy, which

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Speaker 1: is typical for a young player. I do think we're

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Speaker 1: trending in the right direction there though. For example, what

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about is like I'll see him, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: come flying in and make a huge defensive rebounding play

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Speaker 1: to to to you know, close out a defensive possession,

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Speaker 1: but then on the very next possession he'll miss a

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Speaker 1: box out, you know, and that that is a habit

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Speaker 1: that you have to instill, and it's a habit that's

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Speaker 1: been bad down the roster for the Lakers. So I

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Speaker 1: want to cut Malik a little bit of slack there.

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Speaker 1: The whole team is literally the worst box out team

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Speaker 1: in the entire league. So I don't want to put

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Speaker 1: that all on the league Monk, but he's one of

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Speaker 1: the guys who struggled with that, and so over the

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Speaker 1: course of the season, it'll just be important for him

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Speaker 1: to continue to establish those habits so that in the

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Speaker 1: long run, in the playoffs, you can count on him

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Speaker 1: to not make those kinds of mistakes. The irony is

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Speaker 1: he hasn't shot the ball that great I can. I

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Speaker 1: think over the course of the season he'll continue to

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Speaker 1: shoot better. Unlike Mellow and Wayne Ellington are both shooting

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Speaker 1: over wide open threes, Malik Monk is shooting below wide

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Speaker 1: open three. So he's got another level that he can

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Speaker 1: get to as a shooter that I think is in

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Speaker 1: there that I just don't think he's tapped into yet.

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Speaker 1: That could It could be a bunch of different things.

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Speaker 1: Could be more defensive responsibilities than usual. Uh, it could

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Speaker 1: be just him finding his role on the team and

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Speaker 1: trying to determine where his shots will come from. But

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Speaker 1: I think he'll eventually shoot better, but when he establishes

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Speaker 1: those good defensive habits, when he establishes those good rebounding

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Speaker 1: habits in contu oction with what he's already doing well,

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Speaker 1: which is creating in second side actions and his high

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Speaker 1: level close out attacking. I think we're gonna see a

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Speaker 1: player who's going to be a solid role player for

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Speaker 1: this team down the line. So a minus firmlik mug.

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Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's uh the one that I'm in most trouble

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Speaker 1: with with people on Twitter. So I give DeAndre Jordan

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Speaker 1: a b um that's gonna sound insane, but I'm not

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Speaker 1: evaluating him based on, you know, his contractor even the

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Speaker 1: way Frank was using him to start the season, which

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Speaker 1: I thought was outrageous. I always thought of DeAndre Jordan's

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Speaker 1: as a guy that would play strictly when either Dwight

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Speaker 1: or Anthony Davis had to sit for whatever reason, so

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Speaker 1: that the Lakers could have scheme consistency in those games.

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Speaker 1: And you saw that literally for the first time in

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Speaker 1: this last little stretch of games here. He was awesome

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Speaker 1: by his standards. He was awesome against the Magic the

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Speaker 1: other night, just as a guy who came in for

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Speaker 1: a few minutes as a break glass in case of emergency,

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Speaker 1: end of the bench big He had a couple of

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Speaker 1: big block shots. He had that awesome dunk in transition

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Speaker 1: off the leak monk Pass. He was just a lot

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Speaker 1: more active, and the main reason why, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: is he's finally in the right role again. I gave

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Speaker 1: him a B because I'm evaluating him relative to an

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Speaker 1: end of the bench veteran minimum center, and in that

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Speaker 1: role in recent days, he's actually been what you expect

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Speaker 1: or would hope for from an end of the bench

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Speaker 1: veteran minimum center. So a B for DeAndre. Moving on

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Speaker 1: to Dwight, I also gave him a beat. Now, Dwight

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Speaker 1: has been clearly better than DeAndre this season, but I

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Speaker 1: also expected more out of Dwight than DeAndre this season.

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Speaker 1: I actually think Dwight is a rotation level center. He

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Speaker 1: is actually, in my opinion, one of the better backup

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Speaker 1: centers that you can get in this league. And really

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Speaker 1: in this last two three weeks, he's finally starting to

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Speaker 1: play the consistent role that he should have been playing

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Speaker 1: all season. That he was kind of in and out

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Speaker 1: of the lineup as Frank was trying to get herman.

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Speaker 1: You know the Frank. You know, he's Frank has been

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Speaker 1: a lot better lately, so I want to cut him

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Speaker 1: some slack, But it was completely ridiculous for him at

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Speaker 1: one point to go to a one traditional center rotation

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Speaker 1: and for DeAndre to be the guy he went to

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Speaker 1: their Dwight definitely caught the short end of the stick

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Speaker 1: in some of those areas, but he's finally getting his

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Speaker 1: opportunity and he's doing a good job. You know, I

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Speaker 1: don't even really need to dive into the Dwight thing.

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Speaker 1: He does exactly what you expect him to do. He

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Speaker 1: screens and he rolls hard to the rim on defense.

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Speaker 1: He's active, he does the He's I think our best

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Speaker 1: drop coverage big in terms, you know, uh, Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: and in his ceiling should theoretically be that, but a

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Speaker 1: d has been kind of lacks of daisical in that

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Speaker 1: role this season. Dwight is our best drop coverage big

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Speaker 1: at bothering the ball handler and dissuading the lab. I

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Speaker 1: think that that's a great weapon to have in Frank system.

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Speaker 1: He is really the perfect big to have in Frank system.

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Speaker 1: Still same Dwight stuff, like lost his cool a couple

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Speaker 1: of times. He's had some technicals. He commits stupid fouls.

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Speaker 1: He's a tendency to wrap guys up. He's always a

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Speaker 1: flagrant foul waiting to happen. So that's all part of

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Speaker 1: the Dwight experience. But relative to what my expectations were

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Speaker 1: for him this season, he's done fine. Reeves, I gave

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Speaker 1: an a plus. So anytime you're an undrafted free agent

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Speaker 1: andrew a rookie and you come into the league and

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Speaker 1: you're playing minutes for a team that has legitimate championship aspirations,

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Speaker 1: I think that automatically gives you an A plus. That

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Speaker 1: means that relative to what you were expected to do

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Speaker 1: this season, which would be a two way player, maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe not even be a two way player, maybe just

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Speaker 1: end up on the G league roster, for him to

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Speaker 1: be in the situation that he's in is a huge

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Speaker 1: win for the team. Now, what was really interesting is

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Speaker 1: they signed him to a real NBA contract immediately after

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Speaker 1: Lebron's minicamp, which tells you that Lebron picked up on

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Speaker 1: Austin reason what he could do right away. And I

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Speaker 1: think Lebron has always had a soft spot in his

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Speaker 1: basketball heart for guys that have basketball i Q. And

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Speaker 1: that's Austin Reaves is biggest strength. He understands how to

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Speaker 1: win basketball games within a team concept. He's a great

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Speaker 1: connective tissue player. He is the kind of guy that

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Speaker 1: has way more value playing alongside top tier talent than

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Speaker 1: he does playing for a bad team, and so he's

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Speaker 1: been a perfect fit he I've talked a lot about

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Speaker 1: how he errors on the side of making the extra

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Speaker 1: pass and how that's contagious, and how that really really

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Speaker 1: helps the culture of making the extra pass with for

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Speaker 1: the rest of the team. He's very, very good attacking

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Speaker 1: closeouts methodically and slowly, making reads and making plays for

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Speaker 1: his teammates. And then defensively, he's the only Laker this

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Speaker 1: season that has consistently shown a willingness to put his

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Speaker 1: body on the line to make plays. You can't possibly

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Speaker 1: be any happier with the player given where they found him.

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Speaker 1: A plus for Austin Reeves can't wait to see what

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Speaker 1: he turns into as a Laker. Moving on to th

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Speaker 1: h T, So I give t h T a b um.

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Speaker 1: The only reason I have him that low was because

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Speaker 1: his offensive struggles lately, which have been borderline problematic and

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Speaker 1: really really hurt their spacing. However, the reason why the

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Speaker 1: grade is still so high, as again we're talking about

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Speaker 1: a twenty one year old here. You can't expect the

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Speaker 1: twenty one year old to be consistent. You can't expect

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Speaker 1: the twenty and one year old to not go through

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Speaker 1: offensive slumps. This is all kind of part of the deal.

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Speaker 1: The reality is that he's defending at a much higher

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Speaker 1: level now than he was over the course of the

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Speaker 1: last two seasons. You're seeing way fewer off ball mistakes,

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Speaker 1: and you're starting to see some of that on bald disruption,

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Speaker 1: that Kauai esque on bald disruption that makes me so

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Speaker 1: excited about his ceiling. You know, if you guys remember

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Speaker 1: last year when Roger and I were talking, I was

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Speaker 1: one of the guys who was pretty down on th

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Speaker 1: h T. I. I thought that he needed to be traded.

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Speaker 1: I I thought that he was way, way way away

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Speaker 1: from being able to contribute to this team. And he's

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Speaker 1: proven me wrong. He's so far ahead of where he

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Speaker 1: needs to be offensively or excuse me, defensively, that he's

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Speaker 1: already contributing and you're seeing him start to trend in

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Speaker 1: the right direction offensively. And the main thing is the

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Speaker 1: main reason why he's starting to have some offenses successes

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Speaker 1: here in the last week is we're getting out of

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Speaker 1: using him as an on ball creator. And starting to

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Speaker 1: use him as a guy who's attacking with an advantage.

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Speaker 1: We did a ton of this against the Magic the

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Speaker 1: other day, where we would have him started the weak

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Speaker 1: side corner and curl off of a pin down and

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Speaker 1: now the defenders on his hip, and he's just too

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Speaker 1: strong and too long an athletic to not finish when

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Speaker 1: he has that advantage, when there's not a big guy

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Speaker 1: in the lane clogging things up. He's had a lot

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Speaker 1: of success with that. He's had a lot of success

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Speaker 1: attacking closeouts, you know, you know, having he's made enough threes,

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Speaker 1: or he's at least he convinces people that he's dangerous

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Speaker 1: enough as a three point shooter that they will close

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Speaker 1: out on him. And he's ripping through getting into soft

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Speaker 1: spots in the defense, and he's either you know, going

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Speaker 1: to one of his finishing moves around the rim, or

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Speaker 1: he's making plays for his teammates. He had a lot

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Speaker 1: of plays against Orlando where he was reading the defense

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Speaker 1: on the backside, finding out where that low man was

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Speaker 1: coming over to help, and picking them upon art on

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Speaker 1: the backside, hitting guys for threes. That's way ahead of

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Speaker 1: what you would expect to see from a twenty one

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Speaker 1: year old. You know, I want to say it was

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Speaker 1: Jordan's Schultz, who I think is with bleacher Report. I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure who reported today that seven teams have inquired

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Speaker 1: with the Lakers about trading for th HD. That doesn't

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Speaker 1: surprise me at all. Everyone thought I was crazy. I

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Speaker 1: absolutely think that th h T is a bona fide

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Speaker 1: trade asset and that teams should want to have him

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Speaker 1: on their team. He doesn't fit great with the Lakers timeline,

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Speaker 1: but I think he's going to be either an All

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Speaker 1: Star or something very close to that, because he trends.

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Speaker 1: He projects to be a guy who will make all

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Speaker 1: defense teams and will have a season where the averages

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Speaker 1: twenty points a game or maybe more so to me, inherently,

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Speaker 1: that's that's Drew Holiday, and Drew Holiday is an All

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Speaker 1: Star in my opinion, So I think you have to

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Speaker 1: place a certain amount of value on that with th HT. Now, again,

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Speaker 1: a lot of it has to do with how the

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Speaker 1: Lakers look around the trade deadline. If the Lakers look

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Speaker 1: really of good and th HD is a big contributor

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Speaker 1: to that, then you can't trade him because he's helping

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Speaker 1: you now and he projects to be you know, an

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Speaker 1: all star level player in the future. But if he

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Speaker 1: is still showing the young guy in consistency and Trevor

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Speaker 1: Reas is playing now, so he's getting fewer minutes and

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Speaker 1: it's not really coming together, that's where you need to

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Speaker 1: capitalize on the fact that his value is higher elsewhere

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Speaker 1: in the league than it is here with the Lakers.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to Avery Bradley, I give him a B plus. Again,

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Speaker 1: any time you're a non guaranteed contract, veteran minimum claimed

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Speaker 1: offf of waivers and you're being relied on as much

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Speaker 1: as he is, I would call that a win. In

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Speaker 1: terms of his performance, his huge workload. He's basically Frank's

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Speaker 1: go to perimeter, the team's top perimeter initiator. He's the

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Speaker 1: guy who's ball pressuring him up, up and down the floor.

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Speaker 1: He's been guarding bigger forwards, he's been guarding small quick guards.

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Speaker 1: He's been he's been doing everything. Now. He frustrates me

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Speaker 1: in a lot of ways because he can be overly

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Speaker 1: aggressive at the point of attack and give up a

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Speaker 1: lot of straight line dry His offensive shot selection still

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Speaker 1: is mind boggling to me because he just just is

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Speaker 1: so trigger happy with that midrange pull up jump shot,

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Speaker 1: and it's never been a high percentage shot for him,

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Speaker 1: and it's never been a good shot in any offense ever,

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Speaker 1: especially early in the clock, and he keeps going to it.

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Speaker 1: I'd like to see him cut that out eventually, but

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Speaker 1: he's shooting from three. That's one of the top guys

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Speaker 1: on the team, so I can't get too upset with him. Offensively.

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Speaker 1: He is turned into a quality rotation piece for this team,

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Speaker 1: and they basically got him for the NBA's version of

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Speaker 1: free so you can't complain too much. I think he

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Speaker 1: fits well in the long run of this team too.

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Speaker 1: It'll be interesting to see if they cut him because

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Speaker 1: of his contract year and t date to try to

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Speaker 1: save money on the luxury tax I hope they don't.

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Speaker 1: I think he's important for guard depth. I think he's

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Speaker 1: a guy that is a good fifth starter, a good

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Speaker 1: fifth guy in the lineup who knocks down enough shots

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Speaker 1: and does enough of the dirty work that he's another

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Speaker 1: one of those like connective tissue guys that I was

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Speaker 1: talking about. So I hope they don't cut him. Um

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Speaker 1: but and he fits into the long run, long long

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Speaker 1: run plan in my opinion. But it'll be interesting to

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Speaker 1: see what the Laker front office decides to do with him.

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Speaker 1: All right, Carmelo Anthony, I gave Carmelo an a. He

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Speaker 1: brings what I call aggressive spot up shooting. What makes

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Speaker 1: aggressive spot up shooting so important is in a playoff setting,

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Speaker 1: there's not really as many wide open shots as you

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Speaker 1: would think, and I'm talking like wide open feet set

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Speaker 1: take a second to think about it type of threes.

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Speaker 1: Usually these really really high level defense is the only

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Speaker 1: thing they're willing to concede is a contest, lightly contested

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Speaker 1: three off of several rotations. So when you have short guys,

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Speaker 1: guys like Avery Bradley who are uh, you know, not

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to get his three point shot off

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Speaker 1: unless he's wide open, or your Austin Reeves who's not

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Speaker 1: really very aggressive as a spot up shooter, or Wayne

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Speaker 1: Ellington who was a little bit shorter, those guys are

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Speaker 1: gonna have a harder time in a playoff setting getting

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Speaker 1: high qualit at the three point shots off. But mellow

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Speaker 1: at six ft eight as a as a flat out

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Speaker 1: gunner who has a does a really good job of

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Speaker 1: using weird body language cues to tempt guys after a

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Speaker 1: close out to still give him a little bit of

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Speaker 1: space and he'll just rise up and then he has

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Speaker 1: a lightning quick release. So that type of aggressive spot

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Speaker 1: up shooting is so valuable, especially in a playoff setting,

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Speaker 1: because a mellow three that's mildly contested kind of has

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Speaker 1: the same effect as a wide open three, and so

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Speaker 1: that gives you a great deal of a value in

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Speaker 1: a playoff setting. He's another one of the guys, two

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Speaker 1: of them this season, him and Wayne Ellington who were him,

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Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington and Lebron who are over a wide open

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Speaker 1: threes this year, which is incredible. He's you know, moving

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Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the ball with Mellow. He

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Speaker 1: his his season has kind of looked like a Bell curve.

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Speaker 1: He was terrible to start the season, the anyone on

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Speaker 1: this run there in the middle where he was defending

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Speaker 1: at a high level, you know, compared to what you

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Speaker 1: expect from Mellow, and then in recent weeks he's kind

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Speaker 1: of started to trend back back down. Um, I'm hopeful

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Speaker 1: that similar to a guy like Malik Monk and what

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Speaker 1: I'm hoping for with Wayne Ellington, that over the course

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Speaker 1: of the season, especially as this team really gets rolling,

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Speaker 1: that he will feel a sense of accountability, build good habits,

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Speaker 1: and become just a passable defender. They just need him

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Speaker 1: to be a passible defender. And in the long run,

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Speaker 1: and this the same thing goes for Wayne Ellington. I

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Speaker 1: think the Lakers are going to play a lot of

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Speaker 1: wings at some point with Trevor Reason coming back, and

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Speaker 1: if they decided to make a trade or a buyout

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Speaker 1: move for a wing, and I think you're gonna see,

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Speaker 1: especially in the A D at the five lineups, a

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Speaker 1: lot more wings out there. That will make it so

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Speaker 1: that having just a passible defender in that fifth spot

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Speaker 1: or in that fourth spot is enough for the defense

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Speaker 1: to function. And I just need mellow to get to

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Speaker 1: that point. Last, but not least, I have Wayne Ellington.

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Speaker 1: I gave a B plus. The only reason I put

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Speaker 1: him a little bit below Mellows. He was a little

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Speaker 1: bit slow to get started this year, dealt with some

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Speaker 1: injury stuff. So obviously that's an fortunate when you sign

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Speaker 1: a guy to a contract hoping for him to start,

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Speaker 1: which was the original plan. If you guys remember this offseason,

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Speaker 1: as was reported by the Athletic and for it might

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Speaker 1: have been Chris Haynes. I'm not sure but either way,

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Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington was expected a certain that he was hurt,

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Speaker 1: and then when he came in he was a cold

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Speaker 1: shooter for a while. Now he's really humming. That's the

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Speaker 1: only reason I have him as a B plus instead

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Speaker 1: of an A like Mellow. But he brings that movement

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Speaker 1: shooting element which is so incredibly valuable to this team.

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Speaker 1: When you have guys like Anthony Davis, like Lebron and

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Speaker 1: like Austin Reeves and Phdre setting off ball screens. When

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Speaker 1: you have a guy who can come off of those

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Speaker 1: actions and is a real threat, it warps the defense

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Speaker 1: in a way that is hard to associate with the value.

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Speaker 1: You know, he's actually talking with Rage about this on

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Speaker 1: a pod the other day and he's like, oh, you know,

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Speaker 1: Ellington has only taken four or five six shots a game.

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Speaker 1: I'd like to see him take more shots. You know.

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Speaker 1: The thing with Wayne Ellington is teams around the league

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Speaker 1: scout for him as a deadly shooter. So it's not

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Speaker 1: really necessarily about his shot attempts. To me, it's about

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Speaker 1: his minutes. I want to see him get more minutes

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Speaker 1: because while he's on the floor, you know, if he

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Speaker 1: goes a five minutes stretch without shooting. That just means

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Speaker 1: guys were sitting in his lap the whole time. Guys

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Speaker 1: were glued to him. That directly will relate to spacing

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Speaker 1: and opportunities for the Laker Stars to get into the paint.

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Speaker 1: That's a huge value add there. And then one of

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Speaker 1: the things I think Ellington has actually been pretty okay defensively,

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Speaker 1: even better than Mellow. He because he is a shooter.

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Speaker 1: He knows how to guard shooters. He's really really good

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Speaker 1: at getting low and in a lock and trail position

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Speaker 1: and not getting hit by screens and staying attached to shooters.

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Speaker 1: He has shown that he's another one of those guys

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Speaker 1: that I think, especially in the long run, when the

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Speaker 1: team has better habits and when they start playing some

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Speaker 1: more wings, when wings get healthy, and when they inevitably

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Speaker 1: add one in the trade deadline or in the buyout market,

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Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be a serviceable fifth defender. So

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Speaker 1: I have him as as a B plus. Al Right, guys,

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Speaker 1: that's all I have for today. I raje. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: we'll be covering the postgame show h tonight against on

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Speaker 1: the road in Dallas. I hope you guys will tune

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Speaker 1: in for that one right after the final buzzer, and

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Speaker 1: then I will be back for a pod on Thursday.

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Speaker 1: Thank you guys as always for supporting the show, and

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Speaker 1: i'll see you in a couple of days