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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. Yeah, all right, welcome to tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Vandel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I
Speaker 1: hope all of you guys are having a great week
Speaker 1: so far. We are going to dive into that embarrassing
Speaker 1: effort in the second half from the Lakers, particularly from
Speaker 1: their stars Lebron James and Anthony Davis in Denver getting
Speaker 1: above five up to three and two um. Also, for
Speaker 1: those of you guys who missed it earlier tonight, we
Speaker 1: did do a video breakdown of the Brooklyn Nets in
Speaker 1: their game in Milwaukee. You can find that on our
Speaker 1: YouTube feed. You guys know the drill before we get started.
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Speaker 1: Jason lt S. You guys don't miss show announcements as
Speaker 1: well as the footage breakdowns that I do. And the
Speaker 1: last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss
Speaker 1: one of these shows and you can't get over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish him. You can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, so big one for Denver,
Speaker 1: Big second half. Um, this game was one in fast
Speaker 1: break and there's a lot of good uh nuggets there
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of bad lakers there. I wanted
Speaker 1: to focus on Nicola Yogis for a minute here because
Speaker 1: you know, one of the themes for this particular show
Speaker 1: in tonight is how deceiving box score numbers can be. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I can't tell you how often I get
Speaker 1: frustrated with an Anthony Davis game, for instance, and he
Speaker 1: will have a eight, and you almost feel bad because
Speaker 1: you're like, why are you You can't be like he
Speaker 1: sucked or he didn't play well because he had and eight? Right,
Speaker 1: But then you when when you really back away from
Speaker 1: the game and you think most NBA games are ending
Speaker 1: somewhere around one ten to one oh five. Is something
Speaker 1: along those lines, like twenty five points isn't changing a
Speaker 1: basketball game necessarily? Eight rebounds isn't changing a basketball game
Speaker 1: necessarily if both teams are getting rebounds. Right. The reality
Speaker 1: is is there's all of these different elements in the
Speaker 1: game of basketball that impact winning. And that's something that
Speaker 1: we talked about a ton on this show. And Nikola
Speaker 1: Yokich is one of those guys that his impact goes
Speaker 1: so far beyond what he does on the box score
Speaker 1: um In in the Bubble, Anthony Davis was a better
Speaker 1: basketball player then Nikola Yokich. He outplayed him in that
Speaker 1: series in the Western Conference Finals. Yes, Lebron James closed
Speaker 1: the deal with an epic fourth quarter in Game five,
Speaker 1: but Anthony Davis was the best player in that series.
Speaker 1: And everything that he did on defense and knocking down
Speaker 1: jump shots in isolation, knocking down jump shots from the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and just in general what he has in terms of
Speaker 1: chemistry rolling to the basket with Lebron on amounted to
Speaker 1: a player that was more impactful than Yoki's was at
Speaker 1: that point. Two things have happened since then. Nikolai Nikola
Speaker 1: Yoki has gotten better, which we'll talk about more here
Speaker 1: in a second, but also Anthony Davis has completely nos dived.
Speaker 1: He lifted up the trophy. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's just too cool for school now, or if it's
Speaker 1: been about the injuries, or if it's been he's put
Speaker 1: on too much weight or whatever it is. He told
Speaker 1: everybody he couldn't shoot because he heard his wrist last year,
Speaker 1: and then his wrist is fine now and then guess what,
Speaker 1: he still can't shoot. So there's been a weird diversion
Speaker 1: of paths there between those two players. And one of
Speaker 1: the big reasons why is everything that Yokich does that
Speaker 1: goes beyond the box score. And I mean, I've been
Speaker 1: critical of Yokich in the past for being a bad
Speaker 1: transition defender and struggling to defend on the perimeter and
Speaker 1: five out situations when teams really space them out and
Speaker 1: try to make them make them pay for their lack
Speaker 1: of quickness and all game long. I was blown away
Speaker 1: with the effort that Nicola Yokos put in running the
Speaker 1: floor on both ends, and I tweeted out several clips
Speaker 1: that kind of demonstrate this that you can find on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed, and it's like the shot goes up
Speaker 1: and Yokich will just turn and sprint the other way
Speaker 1: as fast as he possibly can. And his fastest sprint
Speaker 1: is not nearly as fast as most perimitive players, which
Speaker 1: is what will get him into some issues and specific
Speaker 1: matchups as we've talked about, but it will absolutely outrun
Speaker 1: lazy bigs, and there are a lot of them in
Speaker 1: the league, and Anthony Davis has been one of them
Speaker 1: in terms of his sprinting up and down the floor
Speaker 1: in transition and then offensively in transition. Yokich I've talked
Speaker 1: so much about what he's done passing the basketball and transition.
Speaker 1: That's one of the most underrated parts of his game,
Speaker 1: getting the rebound and starting the break with a live
Speaker 1: dribble or throwing outlet passes to get people open down
Speaker 1: the floor. That's always been an underrated element of his game.
Speaker 1: But in this particular game, he was killing Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: just running the floor, not even with the basketball. So
Speaker 1: much of their great transition offenses, Yokich initiating things. He
Speaker 1: was finishing transition plays tonight and with it was the
Speaker 1: same old story that you'd see every time Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: or uh misses a layup or went for a rebound
Speaker 1: and thought he got pushed a little bit and tried
Speaker 1: to exaggerate the content contact. Yoki sprints down the floor,
Speaker 1: a D jogs back, a D points at another laker
Speaker 1: and says, hey, pick up, pick up Yoki. Yoki gets
Speaker 1: the ball on the block against a smaller permitter defender,
Speaker 1: and it's a bucket or it's a foul, and those
Speaker 1: are like little things that don't or it's a bucket,
Speaker 1: or excuse me, it's a double team and a kick
Speaker 1: out to a shooter or something along those lines. Those
Speaker 1: are all these little details that don't necessarily show up
Speaker 1: in a box score that go that deeply impact winning.
Speaker 1: And when those details aren't tight and all you're giving
Speaker 1: is twenty five points on you know, ob dunks or
Speaker 1: finishes in the role, or the handful of occasional ISOs
Speaker 1: and the handful of contested rebounds that you grab, it
Speaker 1: just doesn't have as much impact as a player that
Speaker 1: on a possession by possession basis does the things that
Speaker 1: the position needs. And one of the things that is
Speaker 1: vitally important from a big man in today's NBA is
Speaker 1: that he runs the floor. Um, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: give a bunch of credit to Anthony Davis there because
Speaker 1: or excuse me, to Nicola Yokes there, because this this
Speaker 1: is a weakness that I have been really hard on
Speaker 1: him about, and you can actively see him attempting to
Speaker 1: address that weakness just simply by turning and running his
Speaker 1: ass off every time he has an opportunity to in transition,
Speaker 1: Like look at what Joel embiad has been doing this year,
Speaker 1: Like this is a weakness that I've been complaining about
Speaker 1: with all these bigs. And you've got Joel Embiid complaining
Speaker 1: to refs and falling down and not getting back, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis complaining to refs and falling down and not getting back.
Speaker 1: And Yokich, who's a worse athlete in any of them,
Speaker 1: just sprinting his ass off every single time and helping
Speaker 1: his team as a result. Um, I was really impressed
Speaker 1: by hand tonight. He's he's so much better than Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Now it's it's honestly embarrassing for a D. How much
Speaker 1: better he is than a uh than a D at
Speaker 1: this point. A couple other specific nuggets that I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about for Denver Bruce Brown. I sung his
Speaker 1: praise as a bunch after he lit up the Warriors
Speaker 1: the other night. You know, this is a textbook like
Speaker 1: connective tissue type of player. When you're playing alongside his superstar.
Speaker 1: Like I've always said, they're like these lists of responsibilities
Speaker 1: that need to be fulfilled, whether that's spotting up, not
Speaker 1: just as a shooter, but attacking closeouts, running the Florida transition,
Speaker 1: guarding on the ball, guarding off the ball, boxing out
Speaker 1: when you get a switch against a bigger a bigger
Speaker 1: offensive player and you need to keep him away from
Speaker 1: the rim. Okay, now you're not in a box out,
Speaker 1: but you have to crash from the perimeter to help
Speaker 1: secure a readown one of your teammates is engaged in
Speaker 1: a box out. There's all these different things, and Bruce Brown,
Speaker 1: it's just great at all of them, and he's improving.
Speaker 1: He started this season shooting from three, and then he
Speaker 1: went forward from four for six again tonight. That was
Speaker 1: like his one big weakness was that he couldn't consistently
Speaker 1: hit the three point shot, and now he's hitting that.
Speaker 1: He was such I told you guys coming into the season,
Speaker 1: k C. P and Bruce Brown were such obvious seamless
Speaker 1: fits with Yokis, with the way that their games compliment
Speaker 1: what he does on both ends of the floor. He
Speaker 1: runs the floor and transition. He can run invited inverted
Speaker 1: pick and roll with Nicola Yo Kitchen, operate out of
Speaker 1: the short roll. Now he can knock down threees. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he's a great defensive player, plays with a great deal
Speaker 1: of fire. He was talking trash to Lebron James tonight,
Speaker 1: and you know, my like I've always had, I've always
Speaker 1: been confused as to why players would celebrate knocking down
Speaker 1: spot up threes when like you're defender went to go
Speaker 1: help on another person because you're basically just a cog
Speaker 1: in a play at that point, you know. But I
Speaker 1: admire the fire, and it's fire that that team needs,
Speaker 1: and fire that the Lakers could use a little bit
Speaker 1: more of. Um Jamal Murray, he hasn't really shown his
Speaker 1: scoring pop yet. Um the pull up jumper in particulars
Speaker 1: what's not falling for him right now, But that will
Speaker 1: come back. And that's the one thing that you just
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about with Jamal Murray. He's an
Speaker 1: incredibly skilled player. He's going to get to the point
Speaker 1: where he has his rhythm back and he's knocking down
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shot. He's getting finishes at the rim,
Speaker 1: which is what I would really want to see from
Speaker 1: the guard coming back from a c l A at
Speaker 1: Two really nice dunks in this game, one on a
Speaker 1: backcut and half court set, another one in transition where
Speaker 1: he kind of went up and actually pump baked and
Speaker 1: pulled the ball back down to wait for a defender
Speaker 1: to go by, and then went up and dunked it.
Speaker 1: So you're getting plenty of of athletic pop out of him.
Speaker 1: He's finishing at the rim. The stuff with the jump
Speaker 1: shots gonna come along in time, and most importantly, that
Speaker 1: natural chemistry that he has with Nicola Yokich is there.
Speaker 1: He had a really fun play there and the I
Speaker 1: believe it was in the third quarter where he kind
Speaker 1: of drove and got way too deep behind the backboard,
Speaker 1: and he just knew that he had drawn Anthony Davison help,
Speaker 1: so he knew that with how small the Lakers are
Speaker 1: elsewhere on the floor, if he could just elevate and
Speaker 1: get a pass over a d then it would be
Speaker 1: a bucket, and he kind of like jumped off of
Speaker 1: one leg, turned in midair and just threw it up
Speaker 1: in the air over Anthony Davis's arms, knowing Yokis would
Speaker 1: be waiting, and Yokis like caught it at ten feet
Speaker 1: and made like a little floater. They just have like
Speaker 1: their their skill sets complement each other so well that
Speaker 1: as he gets his scoring pop back, things are going
Speaker 1: to get even better for Denver as things go along.
Speaker 1: I'd like to say that that their defense took a
Speaker 1: step tonight because their defense has been an issue, but
Speaker 1: the Laker offense is so horrific and they still can't
Speaker 1: hit a three that I don't necessarily think that that's
Speaker 1: the best way to gauge that, especially with how poorly
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis are playing, Which is where
Speaker 1: we're gonna go next with the Lakers. They had good
Speaker 1: stretches of basketball in this game. They're a really nice
Speaker 1: run at the end of the second quarter where there
Speaker 1: are stops and getting out in transition. Lebron comes out
Speaker 1: to start the fourth quarter and just puts his head
Speaker 1: down and goes to the rim for back to back
Speaker 1: and once and then hits the three. All of both
Speaker 1: of those runs, the run that they had at the
Speaker 1: start of the fourth that got the game back to seven,
Speaker 1: and the run they had at the end of the
Speaker 1: second that got the game back to tied before halftime,
Speaker 1: including a flurry of a six oh run right before
Speaker 1: the buzzer. Both of those were fueled by Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis hitting the Jets. Because everything in the
Speaker 1: about the way this team was structured depends on those
Speaker 1: two guys being top ten players, specifically Anthony Davis being
Speaker 1: a top ten player and Lebron James being a top
Speaker 1: five player one of the best perimeter initiators in basketball.
Speaker 1: That's how the resources have been allocated. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: Their personnel is not very good right now, and that
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with the RUSS situation, which
Speaker 1: we'll get to in a minute, But lab On James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis also are not holding up their end
Speaker 1: of the back and their end of the bargain. Neither
Speaker 1: of them has played like a top ten player to
Speaker 1: this point. Um A. D has been super inconsistent defensively.
Speaker 1: He's like lights out, just erasing everything in that second
Speaker 1: half the other day against Portland, and then jogging up
Speaker 1: and down the floor against Denver, and then there will
Speaker 1: be like these two little spurts like end of the
Speaker 1: second quarter, start of the fourth where he's making plays
Speaker 1: going out of his area. We talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about out of area plays earlier tonight with Brook Lopez.
Speaker 1: That's such an important detail for the dominant defensive big,
Speaker 1: not just the standard traditional defensive big that we have
Speaker 1: around this league. He's not running the Lakers came into
Speaker 1: this game, according to Cleaning Glass, with transition defense in
Speaker 1: the league. That to me is largely on Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: not running up and down the floor, and a little
Speaker 1: bit of Lebron James as well, because he can go
Speaker 1: through these stretches or he doesn't run either, but he
Speaker 1: hasn't been able. Lebron in particular hasn't been able to
Speaker 1: make his pull up jumper. I think he was two
Speaker 1: for eight again from three tonight um specifically off the dribble.
Speaker 1: It's so important for him because defenses will start to
Speaker 1: treat him like Russell Westbrook. If he doesn't, that'll be fine.
Speaker 1: I have no doubt that Lebron's jumper will eventually come around,
Speaker 1: but even he hasn't been great because he goes through
Speaker 1: these stretches where he just isn't putting his imprint on
Speaker 1: the game. This game was winnable. It was fifty fifty
Speaker 1: four at halftime, and then to start the third quarter,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis hits a short turnaround jumper to put them
Speaker 1: up fifty six fifty four, and then Denver immediately goes
Speaker 1: on a seven oh run, and in the seven oh run,
Speaker 1: Lebron James through a pocket pass at Anthony Davis's foot
Speaker 1: and then literally did not even attempt to enter the
Speaker 1: frame in transition defense as Jamal Murray ran out for
Speaker 1: a dunk. Then he drives to the basket and smokes
Speaker 1: a lamp right at the rim. Then he gets lazy
Speaker 1: with the entry pass two at Davis on the short
Speaker 1: roll and turns it over again to Aaron Gordon and
Speaker 1: they run out the other way. He's on this particular play.
Speaker 1: He jogs back on defense to start, makes no attempt
Speaker 1: to get back into the frame, and then the last
Speaker 1: second he offers like a lazy contest on a corner
Speaker 1: three that goes in like like there was a seven
Speaker 1: oh run with three turnovers, a miss lay up into
Speaker 1: awful transition defense possessions that was literally almost entirely Lebron's fault.
Speaker 1: And so you're in a winnable game on the road
Speaker 1: and you just tricked off a seven oh run to
Speaker 1: start a quarter, not because your shot wasn't falling, not
Speaker 1: because your teammates didn't do their jobs, not because it's
Speaker 1: Troy Brown Jr. Instead of Gordon Hayward or Troy Brown Jr.
Speaker 1: Instead of Buddy Healed. You went on a seven oh.
Speaker 1: The Denver went on a seven oh run because you
Speaker 1: Lebron James, We're bullshitting for a two minute stretch to
Speaker 1: start the third quarter of a winnable game. And so
Speaker 1: then you go the rest of the third quarter, things
Speaker 1: get ugly. But then you come out in that fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and you play like Lebron and you go on
Speaker 1: a run and you get it back to seven, and
Speaker 1: then immediately Denver pulls away again because you're having to
Speaker 1: exert enormous amounts of energy to make up for your
Speaker 1: own sloppiness. So, like we're gonna spend some time here
Speaker 1: in a minute talking about Russell Westbrook and whether or
Speaker 1: not I think he's gonna come back on Friday in
Speaker 1: some details about the trade and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: None of that matters if Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: don't start playing like top ten players. It's just, it's
Speaker 1: just it doesn't matter. I've talked a lot about, you know, Lebron,
Speaker 1: excuse me, Rob and Geenie investing in this era, and
Speaker 1: look at like like there's a whole bunch of topics
Speaker 1: that we can get into on that front. But there's
Speaker 1: no point in investing in this era if Lebron ja
Speaker 1: Is and Anthony Davis aren't gonna consistently give solid effort.
Speaker 1: If Lebron James and Anthony Davis are going to figure
Speaker 1: out what the hell is going on with their jump
Speaker 1: shots and start knocking down the same shots that every
Speaker 1: one of the great superstars in the league's making right now,
Speaker 1: what if I What have I told you, guys, are
Speaker 1: the two most important skills in the league. On defense,
Speaker 1: it's perimeter defense. On offense, it's pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: If you can't as a primary ball handler knocked down
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot, which is literally the shot
Speaker 1: that almost every single defensive scheme is designed to give up,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna win any games. And right now, Lebron
Speaker 1: isn't good enough, Anthony Davis is not good enough. It's
Speaker 1: just not fair to point fingers at the supporting cast
Speaker 1: when the top guys are not holding up their end
Speaker 1: of the bargain. And yes they're there are going to
Speaker 1: be teams out there that have better role players, but
Speaker 1: they didn't trade the house for Anthony Davis expecting a
Speaker 1: top five player they like. They the Lakers let Alias
Speaker 1: Randall go hoping that they'd have room to sign Lebron
Speaker 1: James and another stock. The Lakers have allocated their resources
Speaker 1: in a way, and yes, Russ should bring back a
Speaker 1: couple of quality role players, but they have. They have
Speaker 1: allocated their resources in a way that depends on Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis playing great, and they simply have it. Now.
Speaker 1: It's only been four games, So let's move forward under
Speaker 1: the assumption that Lebron James and Anthony Davis are going
Speaker 1: to figure things out and that the Lakers will eventually
Speaker 1: invest in that, because if they're not, then we need
Speaker 1: to have an entirely separate conversation about trading everybody, because
Speaker 1: if Lebron James and Anthony Davis aren't that good, then
Speaker 1: what's the point of any of this. But let's move
Speaker 1: forward under the assumption that Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: are gonna figure things out. So would Russell Westbrook have
Speaker 1: helped the Lakers on either end of the floor tonight?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, he hasn't been good
Speaker 1: as a primary initiator. In fact, he's been bad. He's
Speaker 1: been bad and off ball offense, and what he's done
Speaker 1: on the defensive end is better than what he did
Speaker 1: next year, but it's not up to the standard of
Speaker 1: what you're getting from Troy Brown Jr. Or Juantaskano Anderson
Speaker 1: or even Lonnie Walker. Right, So at this point, Russ
Speaker 1: wasn't the magic fix Tonight, I tweeted out before the game.
Speaker 1: I said, there's gonna be a lot of people on
Speaker 1: Twitter tonight or just in general sports talk. They're gonna
Speaker 1: say things like the Lakers made Russ the scapegoat. He
Speaker 1: wasn't what was wrong with their Lakers. A lot of
Speaker 1: people are gonna take victory lapse on that front tonight.
Speaker 1: I saw it coming a mile away. Russ was never
Speaker 1: the issue with the Lakers. Yes, he's a bad basketball fit. Yes,
Speaker 1: there are a half dozen reasons why it's clunky, and
Speaker 1: we all saw those things before the trade was made.
Speaker 1: That I remember vividly the vast majority of Laker fans
Speaker 1: being like, why did they do this? This is obviously
Speaker 1: not going to work. We all knew that was going
Speaker 1: to happen. But that wasn't what caused this ship to
Speaker 1: sink the way that it's been sinking. It was the
Speaker 1: players that they sent out in the deal. They lost
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma and excellent wing in this league, and they
Speaker 1: lost contagious called what Pope, an excellent wing in this league.
Speaker 1: And then in the ensuing salary carnch because of how
Speaker 1: much money they took back, they lost Alex Crusoe, an
Speaker 1: excellent wing in this league. That's why. That that's the why.
Speaker 1: That's the real scapegoat here. If there's one thing that
Speaker 1: I hope happens at the end of all of this,
Speaker 1: it's that the proper amount of blame falls at the
Speaker 1: feet of Rob Polinka and Genie Buss because they did this.
Speaker 1: You know, yes, Lebron James and Anthony Davis pushed for us,
Speaker 1: but any basketball mind would have did. JJ Redick said
Speaker 1: it again tonight. J J. Reddick was like, did anybody
Speaker 1: out here think this was gonna be a good fit?
Speaker 1: Did anybody see this? Like before the trade? Did anybody
Speaker 1: see that happening? There was kind of like an outrage
Speaker 1: when the trade was done. Rob Polinka, professional basketball talent assembler,
Speaker 1: should have been able to look at that and been like, Lebron, look,
Speaker 1: you're my guy. I respect the input. Russ isn't gonna
Speaker 1: work here, man. Any good GM in the league would
Speaker 1: have done that. In the ensuing trade, they hemorrhaged three
Speaker 1: of their best defensive wings that all had great offensive
Speaker 1: fit and continuity with Lebron, and they sent him out
Speaker 1: the door and replaced him with Russell Westbrook, who literally
Speaker 1: is the worst player out of those four players. So
Speaker 1: and as a result the loss of those good players
Speaker 1: the influx of the lesser player, you end up with
Speaker 1: a team that doesn't have nearly enough talent. So in
Speaker 1: this in this specific case, I expect the Lakers to
Speaker 1: play Russ on Friday, and I think that's a bad idea.
Speaker 1: Russ isn't gonna be able to fix this particular mess.
Speaker 1: The reality is at this point the team is being
Speaker 1: actively set up to fail. They sent him out there
Speaker 1: tonight against Denver with a roster that wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1: Now we talked about Lebron and Nady have to be better,
Speaker 1: but the rosters so not good enough. And what's so
Speaker 1: so ironic about it is all the Lakers have done
Speaker 1: has made themselves look incredibly desperate, which actively sabotages their
Speaker 1: trade leverage. You know, I joked on Twitter earlier today,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are gonna end up picking from the same
Speaker 1: set of deals, if not worse than the ones they
Speaker 1: turned down this summer. The ones they were looking at
Speaker 1: this summer was, you know, San Antonio, we're looking at
Speaker 1: you know, Doug McDermott, maybe right and um and maybe
Speaker 1: a traded player exception out of it and maybe you
Speaker 1: save a first round pick. Or we're going to Charlotte
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be Gordon Hayward and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Terry Rosier or Kelly U Brad Jr. And Gordon Hayward
Speaker 1: like some combination of players from Charlotte. Or it's gonna
Speaker 1: be Buddy hild and Miles Turner, or it's gonna be
Speaker 1: boy and Magdanovich and a couple other role players from
Speaker 1: the Jazz. Those are the players that were available this summer.
Speaker 1: They turned them down because they wanted something better or
Speaker 1: the ability to negotiate a better position for the picks,
Speaker 1: because they convinced themselves, despite a year of evidence, that
Speaker 1: the rust thing would work, and it didn't. And now
Speaker 1: they're in this position where when they're calling these teams
Speaker 1: are gonna be like, you know, I would ask for more.
Speaker 1: I'd be like theyrowing a second round pick to place
Speaker 1: like I mean, like the Lakers are desperate. They've undercut
Speaker 1: their own position. Now, let's let's try to end this
Speaker 1: on a on a positive note. So Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d have to be better. I believe they will. I
Speaker 1: don't think Lebron James forgot how to shoot. I think he.
Speaker 1: I think the entire Laker team is in their head
Speaker 1: with the jump shots. I've seen this happen before. Many
Speaker 1: of you guys who have played basketball at any level
Speaker 1: have probably seen this before. Shooting is contagious because a
Speaker 1: lot of players struggle to distance themselves from shot result,
Speaker 1: even from within their team. And so when the team
Speaker 1: is five for five from three and you're shooting on
Speaker 1: the wing a wide open three. In the back of
Speaker 1: your head, you're like, are we gonna be five for
Speaker 1: twenty six? You know, it gets in your head, And
Speaker 1: I believe that's affecting Lebron as well. I believe it's
Speaker 1: affecting Anthony Davis as well. Anthony Davis had a three
Speaker 1: pointer in the first half where he caught the ball
Speaker 1: completely unguarded at the top of the key, like completely unguarded,
Speaker 1: and he like hesitated and like lurched and like pump
Speaker 1: faked and then shot even though he was completely unguarded
Speaker 1: and ended up hitting the backboard before it hit the rim.
Speaker 1: Like they're they're all in their heads right now. So
Speaker 1: let's pretend that Lebron James and Anthony Davis figure things out,
Speaker 1: they start playing at there at the higher level, if
Speaker 1: you make a trade, what ends up happening is you
Speaker 1: start to slot players better, so instead of Lonnie Walker
Speaker 1: being your third best player. And by the way, Lonny
Speaker 1: Walker has been a rare bright spot. Can't hit the
Speaker 1: three to save his life, but he's been much better
Speaker 1: defensively than he was at any point in San Antonio.
Speaker 1: He's getting into the restricted area five times per game
Speaker 1: and making sixty five percent of him. So he's been
Speaker 1: all the downhill stuff they wanted from Russ but never got.
Speaker 1: So he's probably been their third best player. Austin Reaves
Speaker 1: is fine, but he's probably your fourth best player. You know,
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley is fine, he's your fifth best player. But
Speaker 1: all those guys are playing above what their ability is
Speaker 1: if you bring in let's just say, for the sake
Speaker 1: of argument, Buddy yielded Miles Turner just because it makes
Speaker 1: it easy. Now, all of a sudden, Buddy healds your
Speaker 1: third best player instead of being, you know, when he
Speaker 1: was in Sacramento, maybe their second best player. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: he's slotted properly a lot more off ball wraps off
Speaker 1: of Lebron in a d when he's running picking rolls
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis. Now you slop Miles Turner in at
Speaker 1: number four. Now, all of a sudden, Lonnie Walker is
Speaker 1: your fifth best player. And some of his limitations like
Speaker 1: being a little undersized, struggling to handle the basketball, sometimes
Speaker 1: struggling to shoot the basketball, Suddenly those limitations matter a
Speaker 1: little less because he's your fifth best player instead of
Speaker 1: your third best player. You know, Austin Reeves, I really
Speaker 1: like as a role player, he's better on a team
Speaker 1: when he's the seventh best player than one of your
Speaker 1: five most important players. That's just the reality as you
Speaker 1: slot players. You know, we talked all the time, there's
Speaker 1: all these responsibilities have to be filled on the court.
Speaker 1: The stars come in and they take huge chunks of responsibility,
Speaker 1: but then there are these significant roles that need to
Speaker 1: be filled. And when you have guys that should be
Speaker 1: playing smaller roles working more significant roles, they're underqualified. They struggle.
Speaker 1: But then when you take Buddy Heald has been in
Speaker 1: a bigger role in the last couple of years in
Speaker 1: Sacramento before he got traded, and he slot him into
Speaker 1: one of those smaller roles, he does well. Now I'm
Speaker 1: slotting Austin Reason, Patrick Beverley into even smaller roles they
Speaker 1: can they can succeed better. I think everything starts to
Speaker 1: slot better. And then this is the final part of it.
Speaker 1: A lot of Lebron James and Anthony Davis's issues are
Speaker 1: effort related. That seven oh run that Lebron gave up
Speaker 1: to start the third quarter was literally him not caring.
Speaker 1: It was not a skill thing, It was not a
Speaker 1: basketball thing. He didn't care enough to come out and
Speaker 1: attack the game in the third quarter. Maybe if you
Speaker 1: give them a legitimate basketball roster, he'll care enough to
Speaker 1: try to impact the game. I've talked a lot of
Speaker 1: Lebron's career. He's one of the uh most like up
Speaker 1: and down type of leaders that you could have because
Speaker 1: put him on the Lakers and he's like the best
Speaker 1: dude you could possibly have in that spot. He's going
Speaker 1: to help you through the ups and downs of the
Speaker 1: regular season. He's going to completely invest in the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. He's gonna have a firm understanding
Speaker 1: of how to navigate a playoff run. You know, he
Speaker 1: trailed in a couple of those series. He knows how
Speaker 1: to look those guys in the face and be like,
Speaker 1: I've been here before. He knows how to navigate the
Speaker 1: chess match when you get into the games of the
Speaker 1: series five, six, and seven. Lebron is such a good
Speaker 1: guy for those spots. But then when you put him
Speaker 1: in a situation where he doesn't believe he can be
Speaker 1: a bad leader. You can have sloppy stretches of basketball.
Speaker 1: He can be passive aggressive, you know. You know it's
Speaker 1: funny because Lebron was like, Oh, I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: what you want to say about Russ. Well, what did
Speaker 1: he say after the first game? Oh, we don't have
Speaker 1: a bunch of snipers on this team. That's kind of
Speaker 1: passive aggressive. That's kind of the kind of stuff that
Speaker 1: he'll do. So maybe, just maybe, if you surround them
Speaker 1: with better talent, Lebron James re engages Anthony Davis, starts
Speaker 1: to to get in shape and start to figure some
Speaker 1: things out, and then you start to look like a
Speaker 1: better basketball team. But if you're not going to if
Speaker 1: you're not going to make the deal, they're just gonna
Speaker 1: continue to lose basketball games. They're gonna get more and
Speaker 1: more behind where they need to be in the standings
Speaker 1: to survive in the West. And then by the time
Speaker 1: you do anything, it'll be too late. Like like if
Speaker 1: they if they wait another week, that's that's completely inexcusable.
Speaker 1: This deal needs to be made yesterday, or trade trade
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. And you can't trade Lebron this year, but
Speaker 1: trade him next year. Like if if you don't, if
Speaker 1: you're not going to invest in this core, then it's
Speaker 1: time to blow things up. That's kind of where I'm
Speaker 1: at at this point live on AMP. For those of
Speaker 1: you guys who are listening on YouTube or in the
Speaker 1: podcast feed, remember that on amp is where we are
Speaker 1: going to be live first. That is the first place
Speaker 1: you can get our post game breakdowns. For those of
Speaker 1: guys who don't know how to track that down, I
Speaker 1: have all the information on my Twitter feed. You can
Speaker 1: find the links there and follow the show. We're going
Speaker 1: to be breaking down Bucks Nets a tough game. You know,
Speaker 1: the league is unforgiving. If you're playing bad basketball. You
Speaker 1: don't get to have a two or three game stretch
Speaker 1: of cupcakes to fix all of your problems. The Sixers
Speaker 1: and we're not gonna get to them tonight because I
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to watch that game. Will get
Speaker 1: to them later. Um. But like the with with the Sixers,
Speaker 1: it's like they're playing bad basketball. They're bad in transition,
Speaker 1: they're struggling with some things. It's like you get the
Speaker 1: Raptors and you get your butt kicked. Oh wait, now
Speaker 1: you have them again on Friday. So if you play
Speaker 1: the same type of basketball, you're just gonna get your
Speaker 1: butt kicked again. The Brooklyn Nets not playing good basketball.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot about this on yesterday's show. You know,
Speaker 1: in defense, in defensive rebounding percentages, one of the dead
Speaker 1: last in in uh transition defense off of turnovers, they're
Speaker 1: they're really really bad, and a bunch of different areas
Speaker 1: of the game. And it's like he hit the Bucks
Speaker 1: tonight and you lose this game and guess what's waiting
Speaker 1: for you tomorrow. You got Luka don Chits coming to town.
Speaker 1: This is just the reality of the NBA in this era.
Speaker 1: There are no easy games. So okay, the Detroit Pistons
Speaker 1: are coming to town. You're getting Kaid Cunningham, You're getting
Speaker 1: Jade and Ivy, You're getting Boy and Vigdanovitch. You're getting
Speaker 1: a lot of talent everywhere around the league. And if
Speaker 1: you play bad basketball, you were going to lose games.
Speaker 1: This particularly, We're gonna spend plenty of time on Broolyn
Speaker 1: here in just a second. I wanted to talk. I
Speaker 1: wanted to start with Milwaukee. You guys know my rule.
Speaker 1: We talked about the winner first. Uh. This was it
Speaker 1: was a weird game because it was the probably the
Speaker 1: strangest first half of basketball that I've ever seen Janice play,
Speaker 1: mainly just because you know, Janice's thing is like Janice
Speaker 1: doesn't He will have blowboys and he will beat people
Speaker 1: off the dribble from time to time, especially when defenders
Speaker 1: start to get fatigued. But you don't see him, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just go around people. Usually goes through people,
Speaker 1: and so it's not so much about seeing a wall
Speaker 1: and then that being enough to stop you honest, you
Speaker 1: just hope that over the course of the game you
Speaker 1: might be able to cause him to miss some layups
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. But usually he's constantly trying
Speaker 1: to plow through that wall. And in that first half,
Speaker 1: it was like he'd kind of look at Claxton or
Speaker 1: he'd look at Ben Simmons and then he would just
Speaker 1: dribble over the wing and do a dribble handoff Withdrew Holiday.
Speaker 1: He was very intentional about trying to get Milwaukee's offense running.
Speaker 1: And you know what was funny is, uh Brooklyn also
Speaker 1: played a good half of basketball. They out rebounded the
Speaker 1: Bucks in the first half. You know, Kyrie Irving had
Speaker 1: put in a great effort on the glass. He had
Speaker 1: nine defensive rebounds. I think in the first half. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of good things. They made some threes
Speaker 1: everything was looking good for Brooklyn, but then there was
Speaker 1: this kind of weird cloud hanging over the whole thing
Speaker 1: that was, like, where when is Janice gonna try to
Speaker 1: Janice his way through this game? And man, he hit
Speaker 1: the Jets there to start that third quarter, and Brooklyn
Speaker 1: just had absolutely nothing they could do with him, and
Speaker 1: kind of all of you Celtics fans out there who
Speaker 1: were watching that game probably had some PTSD watching him
Speaker 1: just bulldozed through every single Brooklyn Net getting foul calls,
Speaker 1: dunking the basketball, finishing at the rim NonStop, and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, Brooklyn's ten point lead is gone. You
Speaker 1: end up losing, and Janice walks out of the arena
Speaker 1: with the smooth forty three, four and five. The best
Speaker 1: player in the world by a significant margin, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: tried for all of ten minutes in this game and
Speaker 1: executed a Brooklyn Nets team that still has a lot
Speaker 1: of problems. But we're gonna get to that in a second.
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez, um, I believe he had six blocks when
Speaker 1: I checked. I'm not sure if you got another one
Speaker 1: before the end of the game. Didn't shoot the ball well,
Speaker 1: Brooken Brooke and Drew Holiday in particular, are having bad
Speaker 1: offensive starts to the season and it's really causing some
Speaker 1: issues for the Bucks in spot up shooting. Um. You
Speaker 1: know that they have they finished below again from three
Speaker 1: in this particular game, that could not a shot to
Speaker 1: save their life in the first half, and that that
Speaker 1: was my biggest weakness for Milwaukee coming into this season,
Speaker 1: and it's definitely something that they're going to have to
Speaker 1: address over the course of the season. I think that
Speaker 1: once Joe Ingles can get out onto the court, and
Speaker 1: once Chris Middleton is back out onto the court, that
Speaker 1: will go a long way to helping with that particular problem.
Speaker 1: But here in the early portion of the season it's
Speaker 1: going to be an issue for them. But if you're
Speaker 1: if you have weaknesses in certain areas of the game,
Speaker 1: you can make up for that by having strengths elsewhere.
Speaker 1: And both Drew holiday in brook Lopez had excellent defensive games.
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez particularly, you don't get six blocks by camping
Speaker 1: underneath the basket. You get six blocks by making what
Speaker 1: I call out of area plays. It's the it's the
Speaker 1: you have a defensive responsibility on your team, and that
Speaker 1: defensive responsibility might require you to do you know this
Speaker 1: particular rotation or that particular rotation, but Brooke in many
Speaker 1: cases was going out of his area and outside of
Speaker 1: his responsibility to make plays. And that that's how you
Speaker 1: end up with six blocks from people aren't even expecting
Speaker 1: you to be there. And again, you can make up
Speaker 1: for a lot of spot up shooting issues and problems
Speaker 1: on that front. If you are blocking shots at the rim,
Speaker 1: they give it like this, six blocks, three offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: That's six shots you took away at the rim on
Speaker 1: one end, and three extra possessions you generated for your
Speaker 1: team on the offensive end of the flour. That's the
Speaker 1: nine possession swing. So over nine possessions, that's that that
Speaker 1: that is the difference in this game based on a
Speaker 1: you know, a one point per possession type of offense,
Speaker 1: and the Bucks are probably gonna do a little bit
Speaker 1: better than even that. And so again, those are those
Speaker 1: little things that this team is committed to that will
Speaker 1: carry them through poor shooting, you know, because Brooklyn shot
Speaker 1: poorly as well. But this is a Brooklyn team that
Speaker 1: shot poorly and doesn't have those fundamentals to fall back
Speaker 1: on that can carry them through games like this. So
Speaker 1: I want to give Brooklyn some credit. They they did
Speaker 1: have a much better defensive effort in the first half.
Speaker 1: I had a feeling coming into this aim that they
Speaker 1: would look good to start by. My biggest concern for
Speaker 1: them would be the length of the game and whether
Speaker 1: or not that can maintain that effort. We talked a
Speaker 1: lot about this in last night's show The when it
Speaker 1: comes to or two nights ago, it might have been
Speaker 1: last night. It was the last night we were talking
Speaker 1: about the Warriors. When it comes to defensive effort, it does.
Speaker 1: It's not something you fix overnight because you're building habits.
Speaker 1: You're building connective tissue between you and your teammates in
Speaker 1: terms of communication and understanding when to rotate and where
Speaker 1: to rotate. Things along those lines, and most importantly, conditioning.
Speaker 1: It is really hard to do those things. The box
Speaker 1: out so sprinting back in transition defense, the extra defensive rotations,
Speaker 1: the I don't have a man to box out, but
Speaker 1: I'm going to crash from the perimeter to secure this rebound.
Speaker 1: All of those things are not fun, so you have
Speaker 1: to convince yourself to do them. But then there's the
Speaker 1: next phase, which is the conditioning element of it. Being
Speaker 1: capable of doing that for an entire thirty two minute
Speaker 1: game for you if you're a starter or maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit less of your role player, but in addition
Speaker 1: to having the energy to do all those things that
Speaker 1: you love to do. On offense, both Kyrie Irving and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant missed a bunch of shots that they normally
Speaker 1: make in this game, particularly in that fourth quarter. Kadi
Speaker 1: had a really good look coming off a pick and roll,
Speaker 1: wide open pull up three that he missed. Kyrie had
Speaker 1: kind of a jab step on Grayson Allen on the
Speaker 1: right wing that he makes frequently, especially when he's in
Speaker 1: a groove like he was in. Royce O'Neil missed a
Speaker 1: wide open three. There was a Katie post up on
Speaker 1: the right block where he had drew and he elevated,
Speaker 1: he was wide open and he just missed the shot.
Speaker 1: You know, fatigue will inevitably play a role until Brooklyn
Speaker 1: builds a consistent effort on that end of the floor
Speaker 1: over games and games and games to where they build
Speaker 1: the conditioning and then it just gets baked into who
Speaker 1: you are, just like it is for Milwaukee, it's baked
Speaker 1: into their basketball identity. We do all these little things
Speaker 1: and so we can shoot twenty from three and win
Speaker 1: a basketball team against Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving because we
Speaker 1: have all these little details in our game that are
Speaker 1: completely baked it. You know. I thought there was a
Speaker 1: really really interesting, uh, kind of like soliloquy from from
Speaker 1: Jeff Van Gundhy that you guys might have heard if
Speaker 1: you were listening to the ESPN broadcast where Joannice ripped
Speaker 1: through Roy sonny Old Kevin Dury for an and one
Speaker 1: transition lay up. I believe it was in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and and he basically just said, like like, if you're
Speaker 1: going to beat the Bucks, you absolutely have to put
Speaker 1: your body on the line. It is a non negotiable.
Speaker 1: You cannot possibly beat that guy, Johannice Antenna Coombo unless
Speaker 1: you were willing to for forty eight minutes in a
Speaker 1: regular season game or for seven games in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: Every time he's barreling down the lane towards you, you
Speaker 1: have to chest him up and take the contact. As
Speaker 1: soon as you start to get out of the way
Speaker 1: and start reaching at the basketball, he's going to beat
Speaker 1: you every single time. He's too big, he's too strong,
Speaker 1: he's too athletic. He makes every damn lay up, he
Speaker 1: shoots free throws. Well enough. Now, you can't beat that
Speaker 1: unless you're willing to do that. And I thought it
Speaker 1: was really interesting that Jeff Van Gundy laid that out
Speaker 1: because Brooklyn was willing to do it for a half,
Speaker 1: and I would argue a half that Janice wasn't being
Speaker 1: very physically aggressive. But then over the course of that
Speaker 1: game they fell apart because they weren't willing to do
Speaker 1: it for forty eight minutes. And it might not even
Speaker 1: have been about will It might have been about conditioning.
Speaker 1: But they have a long way to go on that front.
Speaker 1: The Nets out rebounded the Bucks in the first half,
Speaker 1: and they finished the game down fifty four to thirty
Speaker 1: seven and rebounds, which is absolutely insane. So that that's
Speaker 1: how quickly when they let go of the rope it
Speaker 1: was over for them. And and this is this is
Speaker 1: the last thing I'll say about it. This is not
Speaker 1: the Lakers. The Lakers have legitimate talent deficiencies. After Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis, they have a lot of players
Speaker 1: that wouldn't even make rotations for good teams around the league.
Speaker 1: They to try hard even to compete in these games.
Speaker 1: Brooklyn is very talented. Yes, Jeff and Gunny pointed out
Speaker 1: they have some thin players. That's true. Kyrie Irvingston, Kevin Duranston,
Speaker 1: Nick Claxton is than they have some thin players on
Speaker 1: the roster, but they also have a lot of length
Speaker 1: and athleticism and a lot of talent. They have more
Speaker 1: than enough to construct a damn good basketball team. Alright,
Speaker 1: So here's the plan for the rest of the week. Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: Brooklyn hosts I Believe Dallas Um. We're gonna be going
Speaker 1: live on AMP immediately after that game. That's the only
Speaker 1: show tomorrow. So if you want to see tomorrow's show,
Speaker 1: make sure that you get on AMP. It will be
Speaker 1: re released on YouTube later in the evening. Then on
Speaker 1: Friday morning, we're gonna be breaking down the Warriors game
Speaker 1: from Thursday night. Okay. Then we're taking Saturday and Sunday
Speaker 1: off and getting back into things on Monday morning. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys support, and I will see
Speaker 1: you tomorrow night and day. By the volume