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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the stay in the Lake that

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Speaker 1: thank you guys for coming to hang out. What is today?

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Speaker 1: It's a Thursday? Right, Yeah, I'm losing track of time.

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Speaker 1: I'm on vacation. I'm up in Colorado at Copper Mountain.

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Speaker 1: We had a super interesting, uh situation yesterday. We showed

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Speaker 1: up to the mountain with eight people. It's a family

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Speaker 1: ski trip that we take with my wife's family every year,

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Speaker 1: and literally, I'm not kidding, we got lift tickets for

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Speaker 1: the wrong resort. So we got all our gear on

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Speaker 1: yesterday and we walked up to the lifts and tried

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Speaker 1: to get on the lift and our lift tickets didn't work.

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Speaker 1: And then we literally had to go to the the

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Speaker 1: guest services counter and buy a whole trips worth the

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Speaker 1: lift tickets on the day of, which was a total nightmare.

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Speaker 1: Shout out to the staff though they did give us

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Speaker 1: some good pricing that made it hurt a little bit less.

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Speaker 1: But it was definitely an interesting start to the trip.

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Speaker 1: I'm taking a break from some skin though, because I

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Speaker 1: wanted to watch the Laker game and I got to

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Speaker 1: the film this morning and we're going to talk about

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Speaker 1: it for just about five minutes here at the start,

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Speaker 1: and then my guy Rush out of Houston is gonna

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Speaker 1: come up and him and I are going to talk

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Speaker 1: some some Westbrook definitely have some thoughts in that department. Um,

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Speaker 1: as far as the game goes, you know, we're a

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Speaker 1: bad basketball team in a lot of ways right now.

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Speaker 1: We had a little stretch there where again some bad

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Speaker 1: teams we were able to put together some good habits.

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Speaker 1: But you know, as as well, as much as I'd

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Speaker 1: love to give the King's credit for the run they

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Speaker 1: went on and at their border last night, when I

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Speaker 1: really dove into the film, it was a lot of

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Speaker 1: bad process. There was a lot of Lebron taking silly

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Speaker 1: early shot clock threes. There was a lot of Malik

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Speaker 1: Monk and Taylor Norton, Tucker and Avery Bradley making ill advise. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, uh, pocket passes and swing passes and post

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Speaker 1: entries that led to turnovers. And we spent a lot

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Speaker 1: of that third quarter on our heels. And a team

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Speaker 1: like Sacramento that's so athletic, especially with the ball in

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Speaker 1: their hands, they do such a good job of attacking

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Speaker 1: defenders on their heels and getting into the paint, and

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Speaker 1: they were just getting straight line drives. Every time down

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Speaker 1: the floor. You would see often we'd have a turnover,

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Speaker 1: guys will be on their heels, you have a couple

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Speaker 1: of guys jogging back. It's that semi transition phase that

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Speaker 1: is so dangerous. There's not really any crowd because you

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Speaker 1: have to understand, like, especially when you're guarding guys like

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Speaker 1: Deer and Fox, guys that are really really athletic at

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Speaker 1: the point of attack, you're not going to keep them

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Speaker 1: from beating guys at the right at the start of

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Speaker 1: the possession. That's That's what their ultimate elite NBA skill is.

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Speaker 1: That's why Deer and Fox is in the league is

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Speaker 1: because nobody can keep him in front. So as a team,

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Speaker 1: you have to do a better job of making them

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Speaker 1: play in a crowd. And throughout the entire second half,

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Speaker 1: we just did a really bad job of that. You'd

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Speaker 1: see and a lot of this blame I gotta throw

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Speaker 1: at Lebron because even when we would get set in

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Speaker 1: the half court, there were a lot of possessions where

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Speaker 1: he's you know, guarding Marvin Bagley kind of in the

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Speaker 1: dunker spot, and you know, someone like Trevor Rees or

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Speaker 1: Malik Monk would be giving up a straight line drive

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Speaker 1: and rather than offering any help, he would just kind

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Speaker 1: of stand there and let it happen. And that, you know,

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Speaker 1: that kind of thing snowballs and it turns into now

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Speaker 1: you're trying to score against their set defense every time.

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Speaker 1: Now you're making mistakes offensively, and you're back on your

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Speaker 1: heels again, and it becomes a problem. And so I

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Speaker 1: you know, Lebron he had really good energy there for

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Speaker 1: about you know, five or six games after the Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis injury. But his his energy has has dropped off

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Speaker 1: of a cliff in the last week and a half

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Speaker 1: and that's been somewhat frustrating because they need more out

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Speaker 1: of him. And you know, I've seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: people complain about fatigue and talk about how at the

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Speaker 1: center position, he just has so much on his plate

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Speaker 1: and it's too much to ask of him. And I

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Speaker 1: would agree when we're in a stretch like we were

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, when you're playing, you know,

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Speaker 1: five games in eight days, but he's getting multiple days off.

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Speaker 1: Now we're in a stretch of the schedule here where

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Speaker 1: we're just not playing that often. I think this is

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Speaker 1: the second time in the last week where we've had

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Speaker 1: two complete full days off between games, and we have

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Speaker 1: another set of two full days off before the next game.

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Speaker 1: Lebron should be, in theory well rested enough to give

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Speaker 1: more energy than he's giving. Now that begs the question.

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Speaker 1: Is he frustrated with the roster? Probably, and he does

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Speaker 1: have a history of of pouting and making a scene

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Speaker 1: out of those sorts of things, so that very well

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Speaker 1: could be what's happening. But he just has to be better. Um.

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Speaker 1: But in general, you know, I've seen a lot of

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Speaker 1: people talk about defensive personnel with the Lakers, and don't

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Speaker 1: get me wrong, you know, guys like Malik Monk had

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Speaker 1: a really rough time last night. Malik was getting cooked

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Speaker 1: all over the floor, Guys like Trevor Ariza. I want

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Speaker 1: to give him some more time to get his legs

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Speaker 1: underneath him, but he doesn't look very good right now. However,

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Speaker 1: we have lineups where we have guys like th Hd,

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Speaker 1: guys like Austin Reeves, guys like Lebron on the floor

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Speaker 1: and we're still not getting stops, which goes to show

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Speaker 1: you that for whatever reason right now, and this may

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Speaker 1: be trickling down from Lebron, it's just we're just not

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Speaker 1: getting enough out of this team defensively right now, even

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Speaker 1: if you factor in the personnel issues. Um, but the real,

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Speaker 1: you know, the real focus here is Russ and it's

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Speaker 1: the reason why I'm gonna bring my guy Rousch on

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Speaker 1: here in a second. And you know, I think you're

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Speaker 1: seeing this, these two camps that are forming, and among

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Speaker 1: Laker fans, those who are hyper focused on Russ for

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Speaker 1: one reason or another, and I probably am in that

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Speaker 1: camp myself. And then there's the hyper defensive of us.

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Speaker 1: And it's funny because I think what the hyper defensive

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Speaker 1: people of Russ are missing in this situation is it's

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Speaker 1: possible to be mad not at Russ of Westbrook in

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Speaker 1: a vacuum, but at the situation. Because the situation here

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Speaker 1: is the Lakers, a team that had a clear, concrete

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Speaker 1: identity that was a championship winning type of identity, chipped

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Speaker 1: off three players that were core elements of that identity,

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Speaker 1: two of them in the trade, one of them through

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Speaker 1: the financial crunch up the trade, and Alex Caruso, and

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Speaker 1: as a result, we're not winning anymore. So it's not

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Speaker 1: just looking at Russ and his struggles, which we're about

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Speaker 1: to talk about. It's the fact that as a Laker fan,

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Speaker 1: you're probably looking at the situation going it's not just

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Speaker 1: that Russ is terrible, it's that Russ is playing bad

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Speaker 1: basketball right now and we are sorely missing the types

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Speaker 1: of players that we shipped out in the trade. So

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Speaker 1: I don't blame Laker fans for getting upset. And I'm

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Speaker 1: confused as to why there's so much pushback on the

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Speaker 1: anti Russ sentiment, because it's not anti Russ sentiment in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, it's anti Russ raid sentiment. People are frustrated

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Speaker 1: at the situation, as they should, and like I talked

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Speaker 1: about in the podcast the other day, it's just so

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Speaker 1: important for the Lakers to identify that they let go

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Speaker 1: of what made them good and make the shift. Now.

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Speaker 1: There is no bonus points for the pride of going

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Speaker 1: down with the ship. There's nothing to be gained there now.

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Speaker 1: I I spent the entire morning canvassing UH teams around

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Speaker 1: the league because I am at the point now officially

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Speaker 1: where I don't think this can work. I think that

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Speaker 1: the Lakers have to find a way to get off

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Speaker 1: of Russell Westbrook. I held back trying to get to

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Speaker 1: this point for as long as I possibly could. But

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Speaker 1: the reality is, even if Russ, even if what Frank

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Speaker 1: Vogel said is true and Russ is in a slump,

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Speaker 1: the reality of the situation is, even if he gets

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Speaker 1: out of his slump, the best idealized version of him

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Speaker 1: right now doesn't work against good teams. He might be

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Speaker 1: able to play better against the Sacramentos of the league,

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Speaker 1: against the Houstons of the league, against the Orlando Magics

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Speaker 1: of the league. But is there really anything that Rust

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Speaker 1: brings to the table that generates positive basketball impact against

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Speaker 1: the good teams in the league right now. I racked

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Speaker 1: my brain for it this morning, and I came up

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Speaker 1: with rebound rebounding. He's a very good rebounder that absolutely helps,

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Speaker 1: and he does generate rim pressure. But as I've laid

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Speaker 1: out in the pod, often I'm worried about his rim

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Speaker 1: pressure only functioning against bad teams because the good teams

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Speaker 1: are now really really well prepared for the Rust. Put

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Speaker 1: my head down, barrel into the lane. All they have

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Speaker 1: to do is take away the corners. He has no

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Speaker 1: passing angles, and then he ends up picking his dribble

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Speaker 1: up around the block, and he's so small down there

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Speaker 1: that he's unable to find openings even when he is

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Speaker 1: in the crowd down there. You know when I had

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Speaker 1: someone specifically reach out and they said, what happened to

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Speaker 1: the Lebron Russ pick and roll? Why isn't Russ being

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Speaker 1: the screener. And the truth of the matter is is

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Speaker 1: teams are starting to put bigger defenders on Russ. Why

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Speaker 1: because he doesn't move as quickly as he used to,

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Speaker 1: so he's not toasting people into the lane, and so

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Speaker 1: they just put a bigger defender on him and play

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Speaker 1: way off. And so as a result, that Lebron Russ

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Speaker 1: screening roll is now a like size screen and roll.

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Speaker 1: Even if they switch it, you're getting another big guy

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Speaker 1: on the Lebron, So you're not even getting the same

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Speaker 1: advantage from a big, small pick and roll that you

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Speaker 1: want from that situation. That's why they're not using it

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Speaker 1: as much. That's why they're going to Bleak Monk because

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Speaker 1: Malik Monk is still so good as an offensive player,

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Speaker 1: they have to put a smaller, quicker player on him,

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Speaker 1: and so the Lebron Monk pick and roll is getting

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Speaker 1: you better stuff. But what Russ is a basketball player

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Speaker 1: right now just doesn't bring enough to the table good

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Speaker 1: to make him worthwhile. And I'm of the opinion now

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Speaker 1: that a change needs to be made sooner than later.

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Speaker 1: I know that's gonna get me a lot of flak.

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Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna have a lot of people saying

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Speaker 1: I'm crazy, and I know that that trade is an

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Speaker 1: absolute catastrophe. I looked through the payrolls of the lower league,

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Speaker 1: the lower teams in the league. There is not a

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Speaker 1: really good option out there. But at this point, if

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Speaker 1: there's a team out there at the deadline who's willing

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Speaker 1: to take on a first round pick to take on

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Speaker 1: some sort of asset from the Lakers in exchange for

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Speaker 1: eating Russ's salary, they need to look in that direction

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Speaker 1: because come playoff time, this guy is gonna be a problem.

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Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna get rush up here

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Speaker 1: and let's uh, let's see what he has to say. Heybody,

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Speaker 1: can hear me? Rug can hear me? I'm getting back

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Speaker 1: up here in one second. Sorry about the technical difficulties, guys.

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Speaker 1: I'll get rush up here and then we'll get going.

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Speaker 1: Anybody can hear me? Can you hear me? Jason? Can

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Speaker 1: you hear me? Say hey there you are all right? Cool? Sorry,

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Speaker 1: can you hear me? Yeah? I can't. Um, yeah, thanks

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Speaker 1: for having me. Man, I always love words talking about

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Speaker 1: rust like some people might be sick of it, but uh,

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Speaker 1: it just is what it is, you know. I want

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Speaker 1: to start by saying that because I've seen this across

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Speaker 1: like Lakers Twitter. We had the same thing with Rockets

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Speaker 1: Twitter when when Russ was on the Rockets. Uh, there's

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Speaker 1: just two camps, like you said, right, there's the people

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Speaker 1: that criticize him and then there's the people that like

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Speaker 1: fervently defend him. And by the way, it feel free

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Speaker 1: to cut me off and jump in if you have

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Speaker 1: any like questions or comments or whatever. But I just

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Speaker 1: want to start by saying that from a basketball perspective, man,

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Speaker 1: we just gotta call a spade a spade, right, we

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Speaker 1: gotta call it what it is. When someone's not playing well,

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Speaker 1: there shouldn't be this like weird blowback or this cheerleader

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Speaker 1: mentality where you can't just call it what it is.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I watched James Harden in Houston for eight years,

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Speaker 1: second best player in franchise history. One an MVP almost

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Speaker 1: took us to the to the ship but when he

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Speaker 1: played bad, you know, I criticized him accordingly because he

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Speaker 1: deserved it. You know, there were times where he faded

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Speaker 1: and he still gets criticized for those moments. So so

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Speaker 1: I think Russ deserves all the criticism coming his way.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to point point some things out, and obviously

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Speaker 1: I agree it's not all on him. There are bigger

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Speaker 1: issues than him, but clearly I'm you know, focusing on

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Speaker 1: him right now. So I wanted to bring up some numbers. Man.

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Speaker 1: First of all, his usage, which if you don't know,

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Speaker 1: it's basically usage percent is the amount of sessions that

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Speaker 1: end with the ball, either you're shooting or a play

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Speaker 1: being made off of you, you know, passing the ball

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Speaker 1: or whatever. So basically it measures how often you're using

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Speaker 1: the basketball when you have it. Uh, it's for us,

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Speaker 1: which is the lowest of his career since he was

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Speaker 1: one years old in Oklahoma City and in like two

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Speaker 1: thousand ten. Okay, that being said, he's still averaging four

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Speaker 1: and a half turnovers per game, which is right around

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Speaker 1: you know, his career averages four point one, so it's

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Speaker 1: above his career average of turnovers, but it's it's just

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Speaker 1: about where he's been for turnovers since the two thousand

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Speaker 1: fourteen two thousand fifteen season. And it's kind of interesting

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Speaker 1: because in the two thousand four fifteen season he led

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Speaker 1: the league in usage at thirty eight percent and had

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Speaker 1: the exact same amount of turnovers he has right now

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Speaker 1: at four point four. Um So, I think that's number

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Speaker 1: one that's alarming. Like you saw at the end of

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Speaker 1: the third quarter last night, right, he comes down, takes

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Speaker 1: that three bricks it, it goes the other way for

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Speaker 1: a transition bucket because he doesn't get bad. Then he

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Speaker 1: comes right back down, drives to the middle, jumps, passes

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Speaker 1: it like deflects off of one of the defender's bodies,

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Speaker 1: gets stolen, goes down. Buddy Healed catches at three, and

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden the Lakers are down eleven entering

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Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Right, um So, it's like those back

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Speaker 1: breaking turnovers because he gets he gets to the rim,

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Speaker 1: he gets all the way in there, but he can't

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Speaker 1: finish anymore and he can't elevate the way he used to,

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Speaker 1: so it generally results in a turnover or a missshot.

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Speaker 1: And you know a lot of times he just kind

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Speaker 1: of hangs his head, right, and so he didn't get back,

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Speaker 1: and then it results in just the other team fast

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Speaker 1: breaking the other way. In addition to that, his two

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Speaker 1: point percentage, well, his field goal percentage is um, you know,

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Speaker 1: towards the bottom half of his career. His two point

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Speaker 1: percentage is toward the middle of his career from from

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Speaker 1: two UM. But the Lakers have gone small, right, And

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Speaker 1: when the Rockets went small, he actually was optimized because

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Speaker 1: he still had some of his bursts. He had I

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Speaker 1: think the best two point percentage of his career, and

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Speaker 1: that's why things were able to work. But obviously, as

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Speaker 1: you saw, when when the Rockets ran into a good

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Speaker 1: team and a team that was able to kind of

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Speaker 1: corral him, um, it just didn't work anymore. And it's

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Speaker 1: interesting because the Lakers have Lebron and hopefully for you,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, whereas the Rockets were just running with like

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Speaker 1: Harden and Robert Covington as center quote unquote center. UM.

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Speaker 1: But the Rockets had shooters, and obviously Russ isn't able,

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Speaker 1: you know, to shoot the way that people would hope

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Speaker 1: he can from three Almost a quarter of his attempts

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Speaker 1: are coming from three UM. And so all of that

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Speaker 1: I think kind of Oh, and then the biggest point,

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Speaker 1: right is that I don't think he gets talked about enough.

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Speaker 1: But he can't compensate for any of this by getting

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Speaker 1: to the free throw line. I noticed in Houston. I

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Speaker 1: honestly I thought in Houston he got a bad whistle

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Speaker 1: because I kind of noticed, like I thought, Hey, he

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Speaker 1: gets fouled a lot at the rim and it doesn't

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Speaker 1: get called. Um, And that resulted a lot of times

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Speaker 1: kind of in what I just talked about, right, he

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Speaker 1: gets to the rim, gets fouled, doesn't finish, falls, and

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Speaker 1: then all of a sudden it's a five on four

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Speaker 1: are going the other way, which is which functions basically

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Speaker 1: as a turnover. Right in my opinion, Um, But in

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Speaker 1: in l a Man, he is getting to the line

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Speaker 1: five point four times per game. That is again in

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Speaker 1: line with his turnovers and usage, or with his usage.

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Speaker 1: It's the third lowest of his career since he was

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Speaker 1: years old in two thousand eight to nine and two

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Speaker 1: thousand nine to ten, and his free throw percentage is

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Speaker 1: tied for the worst in his career at sixty five

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Speaker 1: point six percent, So he's not compensating for the lack

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Speaker 1: of ability to shoot and the lack of ability to

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Speaker 1: convert by actually getting to the line, and then when

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Speaker 1: he does get to the line, he's not catching it

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Speaker 1: in He's shooting a career career worst from the free

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Speaker 1: throw line. So when you put that together with the

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Speaker 1: amount of turnovers that he has, despite the fact that

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Speaker 1: his usage is the lowest has been in a decade,

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Speaker 1: honestly twelve years, and you combine that with the fact

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Speaker 1: that he doesn't he doesn't compensate for any of that

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Speaker 1: with just pure hustle. Right his hustle is focused on

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Speaker 1: like you know, jumping a passing lane or gambling for

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Speaker 1: a steal. It's not focused on, hey, I just break

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Speaker 1: this three in a momentum situation, let me sprint back

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Speaker 1: and make sure that my guy doesn't beat me for

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Speaker 1: a layup. Or you know, hey, the balls on the

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Speaker 1: weak side right now and I'm just ball watching and

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Speaker 1: my guy in the corner is either wide open and

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna close out in time, or he's gonna

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Speaker 1: sneak behind me to the rim for a basket. When

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Speaker 1: you combine all of that together, and then obviously you

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Speaker 1: add it to the high profile that he has, which

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Speaker 1: is former m v P, former superstar forty four million

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Speaker 1: a year. That that is why I think you have

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Speaker 1: this this kind of storm. And then of course you

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Speaker 1: add in what you mentioned, which is the people you

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Speaker 1: lost in the trade, right Quintessential three and d Wing

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Speaker 1: k CP Kuzma for all his flaws, could rebound, defend,

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Speaker 1: worked well with Lebron, seemed to come up big in

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Speaker 1: moments where he was needed to come up big. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: Carusoe walked um, which you can blame the Lakers management. Four.

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Speaker 1: So when you when you factor in all those players

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Speaker 1: that were lost and how their chemistry worked with Lebron

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Speaker 1: and a D and then you bring in Russ and

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Speaker 1: how the fit's not working, plus the fact that he's

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Speaker 1: got all these weaknesses that he's just unfortunately doesn't compensate

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Speaker 1: for in any way unless you count trouble doubles. I

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Speaker 1: think that's the perfect storm for what's happening. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: know again, we have to First of all, I loved

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Speaker 1: your description of Hustle. That was so that was super,

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Speaker 1: super interesting. I'm glad that's a conversation that needs to

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Speaker 1: happen more often, Like Hustle is not grabbing an offensive

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Speaker 1: rebound and screaming and yelling or diving on the floor.

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Speaker 1: The hustle is never missing a responsibility that's laid out

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Speaker 1: in your job description. That's what hustle is. Hustle is

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Speaker 1: I have these six responsibilities on any given defensive possession,

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Speaker 1: and I never miss one, or if I do miss one,

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Speaker 1: it was something that's out of my control because maybe

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Speaker 1: an elite offensive player was able to make a move

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Speaker 1: to get past me, but even at that point, I

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Speaker 1: stepped into my next responsibility. Like that, to me is hustle,

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Speaker 1: Like Austin Reeves is the perfect example of hustle in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, in terms of like do making sure that

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Speaker 1: your job is completed, but against clips before of him,

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Speaker 1: like just switching, you know, knowing the personnel, knowing who

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Speaker 1: the shooter is, closing out on them, and then scramming

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Speaker 1: right back to whoever he was guarding before that. Like

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Speaker 1: that that is what you need to see from Russ,

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Speaker 1: that type of hustle. Yeah, exactly. But again like and

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Speaker 1: this is the again I have to add, this is

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Speaker 1: important context. Like when I'm discussing the way Russ is playing,

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Speaker 1: I'm discussing it relative to what he needed to be

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Speaker 1: in order for this trade to have made any sense,

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Speaker 1: because you're right, in a vacuum examining the situation, the

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Speaker 1: team has a lot of problems that are not associated

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Speaker 1: with Russell Westbrook, So putting that all on Russ's plate

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Speaker 1: is unfair and in a vacuum that should not happen. However,

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Speaker 1: Laker fans are looking at this through the lens of

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Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook trade, which involved shipping off a bunch

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Speaker 1: of core players that fit directly into a championship identity.

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Speaker 1: So that has to be factored in here. If you're

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Speaker 1: wondering why people are looking at Russ, it's because of

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Speaker 1: the trade. Okay. In order for the trade to have

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Speaker 1: made any sense, Russ needed to hit a certain baseline

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Speaker 1: of his contribution to the game. Now, what you'll see

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Speaker 1: a lot of Russ's apologists bring up is the good

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Speaker 1: things he does on the basketball court. To be clear,

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Speaker 1: Russ has always made mistakes. That's always been the case, right.

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Speaker 1: He's always been reckless, He's always been loose with the basketball.

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Speaker 1: He's always barreled into the lane when he shouldn't, or

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Speaker 1: taken a bad shot here there. That's always been a

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Speaker 1: part of his game. The difference is these negative things

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Speaker 1: that he does become exacerbated when the good things he

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Speaker 1: does become more limited as he ages, Right, Like you

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Speaker 1: have guys like CP three, who you look at their

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Speaker 1: numbers and you go, oh, he's averaging fourteen points in tennis.

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Speaker 1: It's doesn't seem like a ton of production, right, but

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Speaker 1: the guy makes damn near zero mistakes. So when you're

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Speaker 1: looking at Chris Paul's impact, it's like fourteen and ten,

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Speaker 1: but it's like fourteen and and net. Right, So when

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Speaker 1: you look at Russ and you go, okay, he's averaging eight,

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Speaker 1: or you look at any particular game and you go, oh,

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Speaker 1: my goodness, he had thirty twelve and twelve this this game,

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Speaker 1: it's never a thirty twelve and twelve net because there's

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00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:17,720
Speaker 1: a lot of reckless rust that comes with that, a

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00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,120
Speaker 1: lot of mistakes that come with that on the defensive

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Speaker 1: end and on the offensive end. That limit is impact right, Well,

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Speaker 1: as he's aged, it's gotten to the point now where

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Speaker 1: that scale has tipped a little too far in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: Can I can I elaborate on that? Yeah? Go ahead, so,

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Speaker 1: because I think that's a great point. So the we

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Speaker 1: measure turnovers, right, and like I said, he's averaging four

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Speaker 1: and a half turnovers per game. But we don't measure

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Speaker 1: wasted possessions like that, right where like you can't measure

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Speaker 1: the hustle or where you know, like I said, he

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Speaker 1: just makes a stupid plane, crashes to the rim and

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Speaker 1: throws it up, doesn't get the call, and then effectively

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00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,119
Speaker 1: that's a turnover, but it doesn't count as one in

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Speaker 1: the box in the box score. Or you know, a

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Speaker 1: play where he falls asleep on defense and it's just

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Speaker 1: an easy backdoor bucket. Like you you don't count those

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Speaker 1: as turnovers. We just count, you know, obviously what they

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Speaker 1: count as turnovers. But in the game where possessions mean everything,

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Speaker 1: he is very casual with possessions. You with him, you

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00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,640
Speaker 1: waste a lot of possessions, and then you get into

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Speaker 1: this game where you gotta start winning possessions back. But

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Speaker 1: because he can't convert threes and because he's not really

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Speaker 1: getting hand ones, you're not winning those possessions at the

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Speaker 1: rate that you need to win them at. Like in

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Speaker 1: Houston when the Rockets traded a Capella. Okay, Russ played

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Speaker 1: in fifteen regular season games, including the bubble, after that trade.

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Speaker 1: His numbers after that trade were astronomical, Right, if you

429
00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,280
Speaker 1: just looked at the numbers purely, you think, wow, oh

430
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:40,359
Speaker 1: my god, that that's incredible. The average thirty a game, uh,

431
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 1: seven and a half rebound, six assists, a steal and

432
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,120
Speaker 1: a half five turnovers. Did all of this on from

433
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: the field twenty three attempts and thirty seven percent from

434
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 1: three on two and a half attempts, and he even

435
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 1: got to the line seven times a game. So those

436
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: are pretty pretty incredible numbers. But you can't quantify how

437
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 1: many defensive possessions he wastes wasted and the Rockets are

438
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,119
Speaker 1: only nine and six in these games, by the way,

439
00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: And you can't quantify how many possessions on offense get

440
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:08,679
Speaker 1: wasted with stupid decisions like the ones last night, like

441
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 1: I just described, where he, you know, in a momentum

442
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:13,119
Speaker 1: situation where the Lakers are kind of cutting into the

443
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,240
Speaker 1: lead and they need to finish the quarter strong, he

444
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,159
Speaker 1: just takes a pull up three or aten with the

445
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,640
Speaker 1: minute left in the game, he takes a pull up three.

446
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:23,199
Speaker 1: Like those are wasted possessions, but they will not reflect

447
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 1: on the box score as a wasted possession. So well,

448
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:29,159
Speaker 1: what's super interesting about it? Too, is is like you

449
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:32,960
Speaker 1: can see the team starting to try to pull back

450
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,879
Speaker 1: from Russ offensively, right, Like you can actively see that

451
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,359
Speaker 1: happening with all of the emphasis on Malik Monk and

452
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: Lebron James actions. And you can actually see this starting

453
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,159
Speaker 1: to manifest in Russ's demeanor as we saw in that

454
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:50,639
Speaker 1: really awkward postgame presser against Memphis where he started to

455
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,920
Speaker 1: super passive aggressively address how he's being used in the offense.

456
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:57,920
Speaker 1: And that's the crazy part about all of this, right, So,

457
00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: like you make this trade right in theory, like, let's

458
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 1: let's pretend instead of Russ it was Dane. Why would

459
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 1: you make that trade. You'd make the trade of all

460
00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 1: of those role players for Dane because what you're thinking is, hey,

461
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,800
Speaker 1: I might be able to replicate some of those players

462
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 1: impact as role players through the veteran minimum market. And

463
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:23,440
Speaker 1: Dame is such an amazing ceiling raiser that in the

464
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 1: big playoff series is against the best teams, he's going

465
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 1: to bring so much to the table that the tradeoff

466
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 1: is worthwhile. Right, That's the way we look at that.

467
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:34,639
Speaker 1: That's the way you look at that trade. This is

468
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 1: where the Lakers got caught with their pants down. Russ

469
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 1: is at his least effectiveness this year against the good teams.

470
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:47,399
Speaker 1: So and he's shown an inability to to win the

471
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,160
Speaker 1: minutes without Lebron, which was one of the main reasons

472
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: why we've gone in this direction to begin with. So

473
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,760
Speaker 1: now it's this awkward situation where we've downgraded the guys

474
00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: in the role player positions and now we're trying to

475
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 1: rep urpis. Russ is like this off ball player. You know,

476
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 1: there was another key possession last night where Lebron hit

477
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 1: him in the weeks side corner and he missed the three,

478
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: you know, but it's like a lot of him just

479
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:11,480
Speaker 1: standing around off the ball and then you know, maybe

480
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,160
Speaker 1: we'll toss him a possession here or there. So even

481
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 1: with whatever the idealized version is of us, even if

482
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 1: even if for us was peak Russ, we're not actually

483
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: using him like that anymore because we know he can't

484
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 1: do that. So now he's being you know, basically demoted

485
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 1: to an off ball player where his where there's a

486
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: massive diminishing return because if he's going to be off

487
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 1: ball all the time at that point, it might as

488
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: well be Wayne Ellington, right, you know, we're gonna get

489
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 1: more off ball out of Wayne Ellington than we would

490
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 1: out of Russ standing in the weeks side corner. So

491
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:46,920
Speaker 1: that's where this is such a conundrum, And like that's why,

492
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:51,760
Speaker 1: like guys like I know, there's there's no universe to

493
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 1: where you could make a trade of Russell Westbrook now

494
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:59,400
Speaker 1: and it's some idealized impact. I get that. But what

495
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,520
Speaker 1: you're seeing, especially against the good teams in the league

496
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 1: right now, is that when he's on the floor, he's ineffective.

497
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,919
Speaker 1: And the reason why he's ineffective against good teams is

498
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,959
Speaker 1: because he's easy to guard. And the reason why he's

499
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: easy to guard is because he can't shoot. And you

500
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:19,360
Speaker 1: know what he's gonna do. He's gonna put his head

501
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:21,400
Speaker 1: down and try to force his way into a ton

502
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 1: of traffic and against big athletic defenses that rotate well

503
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 1: and take away what Russ likes to do, he gets caught,

504
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,560
Speaker 1: he turns the ball over a lot, he misses a

505
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:36,439
Speaker 1: ton of shots. He's very ineffective. And so you know,

506
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 1: the even when when we're talking about what this team

507
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,920
Speaker 1: is going to look like projecting forward, so a D

508
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 1: comes back, maybe you make a great trade. Maybe you

509
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:51,159
Speaker 1: bring in Jeremy Grant and you have all that talent. Still,

510
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: when we get to these situations against the good teams

511
00:26:55,560 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 1: at the end of the season, he's ineffective. He's going

512
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: to be relegated to a guy who can grab the

513
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 1: occasional offensive rebound, make the occasional play and transition. You know,

514
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,919
Speaker 1: he's gonna have some positive plays, but with all of

515
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,160
Speaker 1: the negative that comes with it, with him getting lost

516
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: off the ball, with him making poor decisions from time

517
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: to time, all of that's gonna come with it. And

518
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 1: so then that's why I ask you guys, like, do

519
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: you think against the Warriors, against the Suns that Russ

520
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 1: is going to be a huge positive player in a

521
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,400
Speaker 1: playoff series against those teams. I don't, And like I

522
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: I'm trying my hardest to try to see the other

523
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 1: side of it and to expose myself to dissenting opinion

524
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 1: and to try to see I I really struggle as

525
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:48,120
Speaker 1: a basketball mind, and I'm I'm I'm not always right,

526
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 1: I'm not even right a lot of the time. But

527
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:53,639
Speaker 1: in my view of the game, I really struggle to

528
00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:57,680
Speaker 1: see what other people are seeing there. Well, I really struggle.

529
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 1: Let me let me interject to things that I think

530
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,920
Speaker 1: could be positive. Um, they're both obviously gonna center around

531
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis coming back, and and I will say, don't

532
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 1: don't lose sight of the fact that a d is

533
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: out right. One of the big problems I think for

534
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:13,399
Speaker 1: the Lakers right now is the defense, and Anthony Davis

535
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 1: fixes a lot of those problems simply by being on

536
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:19,520
Speaker 1: the court. So that's that's part one, right. Um, Offensively,

537
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 1: the Lakers have been getting by. They're just gonna need

538
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 1: to be better defensively, so Anthony Davis can shore up

539
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 1: some of those weaknesses, especially some of the weaknesses that

540
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,160
Speaker 1: that Russ gets exposed to. In addition, on the other

541
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 1: end of the floor, I think having a D out

542
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: there will help us have a bailout partner, right someone

543
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:37,920
Speaker 1: he can throw lobs to, someone he can run a

544
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: pick and roll with that he can trust to get

545
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 1: the ball to and finish. He's still gonna be Russ,

546
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 1: He's still gonna have his issues, but I do think

547
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 1: it gives him another dimension of effectiveness because he you know,

548
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: you can actually run action with him just to pick

549
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,960
Speaker 1: and roll. Like I said, Um, if he if he's

550
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: able to penetrate into the defense. He's got a d

551
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot, dish it off, throw it up, whatever,

552
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: so you will have those options available. Um. But I

553
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: do agree against the better teams, right, you know, against

554
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: Golden State, you cannot waste possessions, and if you do

555
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: waste possessions, they will stump you. Against Phoenix, they're gonna

556
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 1: have DeAndre Ayton, and they're gonna have smart, tough defenders.

557
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 1: You know, Jay Crowder mcaal Bridges, Chris Paul, so on

558
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 1: and so forth, and everyone's big, everyone's big. When you

559
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: get to that point it's Drew Holiday that's guarding him,

560
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 1: you think he's gonna get an advantage on Drew Holiday.

561
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: I do not know. I do not, but yeah, I

562
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: mean it's like it's almost like like a football offense

563
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 1: that's predicated solely on going five out. Like you know

564
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:33,360
Speaker 1: they're not going to run it. You know, when you

565
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: have Russ out there, you know there's no catch and

566
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: shoot threat and if they try it, you're just daring

567
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 1: them to do that. Um. And and I also wanted

568
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: to say the unfortunate thing about him his mentality wise, Jason,

569
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 1: I don't know if you were listening to the epic

570
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: spaces from last night where you know, his brother and

571
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: Kendrick Perkins hopped in there. But if you listen to

572
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: his brother, it kind of gave me some I mean, look,

573
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 1: I don't know them personally whatsoever, so maybe I'm just

574
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: off here, but his brother's insight was like he was

575
00:29:57,960 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: just bringing up the triple doubles. It was almost like

576
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 1: a carret conture of itself, right. He was arguing against

577
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:04,479
Speaker 1: what the other people were saying by by bringing up

578
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:06,600
Speaker 1: the triple doubles as if that mattered. And it gives

579
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 1: you the sense that that stuff really does matter to Rus.

580
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 1: And the only reason I bring that up is because

581
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: he seems to have this this kind of theme of

582
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: everything being internalized through himself, right, Like you remember against

583
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: against Utah in the first round a couple of years

584
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 1: ago when he was with Okay. See, he took that

585
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: Rubio matchup personally, like that one on one matchup personally,

586
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 1: to the point where he was trying so hard to

587
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: like steal the ball from Rubio or shut Rubio down

588
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 1: that he would either over gamble and shoot a gap

589
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 1: and give up a bucket, or he would foul him,

590
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: or he would kill the flow of the team offense

591
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: by just trying to rock the baby on Rubio or

592
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,720
Speaker 1: shoot one of those like bank shots, you know, and

593
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,240
Speaker 1: and and everything starts running in his mind through him

594
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: because he's grappling with the fact that he used to

595
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 1: be the man and he's you know, no longer the man, right,

596
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,479
Speaker 1: And that's why I think he even like last night,

597
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: he took that big shot, right because he wanted to

598
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: be like, no, I'm Russ, I still hit these and

599
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 1: he took it, and obviously the game was over after

600
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: he bricked it, so I wanted to add that as well. Yeah,

601
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's funny because I was I

602
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 1: talked about this in a podcast like three or four

603
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 1: days ago. But you know, the Lakers this experiment. I know,

604
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 1: it's hard to properly evaluate it with all of the

605
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 1: injuries that have happened. However, this season, even in minutes

606
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:24,160
Speaker 1: where Lebron Russ and Anthony Davis are on the floor

607
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 1: with no center, they are less effective than they were

608
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 1: with Schroeder last year with the center, they were you know,

609
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:33,680
Speaker 1: plus I think they were plus twelve per one hunder

610
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: possessions last year with Schroeder. And so for whatever reason

611
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 1: this season, even the idealized situation hasn't been as impactful

612
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,160
Speaker 1: as we were in previous iterations of this team, which

613
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 1: takes me to the Golden State situation. Golden State was

614
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: a team that thrived off of the attention that Steph

615
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:57,600
Speaker 1: Curry draws from the defense and guys playing four on

616
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: three on the back end, and had so many smart

617
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 1: players that they executed that four on three so well

618
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: all the time that it worked. And then last season

619
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 1: they got away from that and they wait young, and

620
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: they signed guys like Kelly u Brad Jr. Who would

621
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,640
Speaker 1: instead of taking that extra dribble for the dribble handoff

622
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 1: to Steph running through after he gave up the gave

623
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 1: up the ball, he jack of three or run into

624
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,719
Speaker 1: the lane and take a one dribble pull up. And

625
00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:27,800
Speaker 1: as a team they were too young. They didn't have

626
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 1: i Guadala that year either. You know, they had the

627
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 1: same Steph and Draymond, the same incredible Steph and Draymond

628
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 1: that you have this year, but it wasn't working because

629
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: they got away from what made them good. And then

630
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: this year they brought in all these smart players, you know,

631
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:46,719
Speaker 1: Auto Porter Jr. And Andrea Guadala and Nemanja bi Elicia

632
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 1: and and they're just all of a sudden vaulting back

633
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: into contention, even with Steph not playing nearly as well

634
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: as he did last year. And to me, that is

635
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,080
Speaker 1: the decision that the Lakers have to make, because what

636
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 1: you have to ask yourself now is is this not

637
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 1: working because of an A D injury? Is this not

638
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 1: working because of Kendrick Nunn? Or is it just not working?

639
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 1: Because if it's just not working, I know of a

640
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 1: method of winning basketball that occurs with Lebron and Anthony

641
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: Davis on the floor, and that's finding guys that like

642
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 1: to do the dirty work. And I know that works.

643
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 1: And I know that they can make that change at

644
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 1: this deadline and get it together in time for the playoffs.

645
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: I know they can. It'd be difficult, it'd be hard

646
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: to find trade partners. But this is where the the

647
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: Lakers have a little bit of a decision to make,

648
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: because they can either go down with the ship and

649
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,560
Speaker 1: just say, oh, well, it never worked out because we

650
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: never got fully healthy, or call a spade a spade

651
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:55,480
Speaker 1: when we traded off Westbrook. When we traded for Westbrook,

652
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 1: the fit wasn't great. He doesn't bring the upside that

653
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 1: was needed the trade to make any sense. We need

654
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:05,479
Speaker 1: to go find guys that fit or old identity, an

655
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 1: identity that worked. And I'm I'm really curious to see

656
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 1: if they go that route because I think if they

657
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 1: go down with the ship, this team is gonna lose,

658
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 1: and they're gonna lose early, I think. So first of all,

659
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,880
Speaker 1: to to talk about Dennis Schroder, right again, it's like

660
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: that trade off of possessions that I was talking about earlier.

661
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 1: You have to look at their production, how much they

662
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:29,719
Speaker 1: occupy the ball, how much they make up for their weaknesses,

663
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,480
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth, right Schroder, I mean

664
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: for starters, he shot thirty three and a half percent

665
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 1: from three Russ shooting under That makes a huge difference.

666
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 1: He turned it over half as much as Russ is

667
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: right now, his usage compared to Russ is um so right,

668
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 1: more efficient, less usage like that off the bat that's

669
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,520
Speaker 1: saving you possessions. And then he you know, he gave

670
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 1: you what three less points per game, but he took

671
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:58,120
Speaker 1: three and a half four shots less per game than Russ.

672
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,439
Speaker 1: So like that's the other thing with Russ. His field

673
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 1: goal attempts are usually proportional to how many points he's scoring.

674
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: And if you're scoring about as many points as shots taken,

675
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,839
Speaker 1: that's typically not good. Right Like if if you can't

676
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 1: make up for it, like I said, by getting extra

677
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:15,439
Speaker 1: points from the three point line, or by getting extra

678
00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 1: points from going to the free throw line and converting those,

679
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:19,920
Speaker 1: then your efficiency just drops. And I don't mean the

680
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 1: nerd out. I'm sure there's some people listening that think

681
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,120
Speaker 1: I'm nerd ing out. But if you really just look

682
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 1: at it on a possession by possession basis and then

683
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 1: you factor in the turnovers, that's kind of where you

684
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: get in my opinion. Now, the question is I agree

685
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: with you, because look in Houston, we a lot of

686
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:36,360
Speaker 1: people have the same thought. At certain points in times,

687
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:39,279
Speaker 1: we were thinking, look, let's just bench him and just

688
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: go hardening for shooters and just see what we can do,

689
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 1: because at least we know that the turnovers will be limited,

690
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:47,879
Speaker 1: the efficiency will be there, and we can at least,

691
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: you know, have an advantage from the three point line

692
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,720
Speaker 1: instead of relying on just a drive in a bucket

693
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: and a drive in a bucket. And people also forget

694
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:57,799
Speaker 1: that ship is taxing, like, it's not easy to just

695
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,560
Speaker 1: drive every single plane and finish at rey single play.

696
00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:02,719
Speaker 1: Lebron makes it looks easy, makes it look easy, but

697
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 1: it's not easy, especially when you lose your lift like

698
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:07,319
Speaker 1: russ Is, and especially when you're thirty three years old

699
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: and getting older like russ It. So that was his game,

700
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 1: was just bullying and bolting to the to the hoop.

701
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,719
Speaker 1: But doing that over and over gets taxing. So we

702
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 1: had the same idea, man, just go five out running

703
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 1: through Harden, try to win from the three point line,

704
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 1: and try to go small, switch everything and just corral

705
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:24,799
Speaker 1: everything you can and and make up for what you

706
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 1: lose with Capella with Covington's weak side shot blocking. Again,

707
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,839
Speaker 1: fortunately the Lakers have Anthony Davis, so I think they're

708
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,319
Speaker 1: better equipped to run that type of game. And you're

709
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,640
Speaker 1: already seeing Lebron can play center when he needs to. Defensively,

710
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,200
Speaker 1: it hasn't really worked out, but offensively, there's absolutely no

711
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 1: drop off if if not a fucking improvement. So you

712
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:44,840
Speaker 1: run a D back, you run Lebron back. But the

713
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: question becomes do you have those appropriate three and D guys?

714
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:49,880
Speaker 1: I think in a vacuum in a seven game series,

715
00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 1: the Lakers can definitely compete with like Wayne Ellington, Austin Reeves,

716
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: get th Ht some run. You know, maybe if if

717
00:36:57,120 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: you get the ghost of a Reza back and you

718
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 1: can get him useful that type of approach. But the

719
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:04,319
Speaker 1: issue is you still got half a regular season to go,

720
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 1: and the reason Russ was brought in obviously was to

721
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,239
Speaker 1: carry the load so that Lebron could chill and to

722
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: shore up some weaknesses for if and when Anthony Davis

723
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 1: was going to be hurt, which he is, So now

724
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,720
Speaker 1: you got to go all in and exhaust your resources early,

725
00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:19,720
Speaker 1: uh and ask for a lot more from those vets.

726
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,800
Speaker 1: Then then you may or may not get Malik Monks

727
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 1: stepped up. So I think Malik Monk is like definitely

728
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 1: a worthy kind of third fourth candidate for the Lakers

729
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 1: if they get that a d Lebron line up, A

730
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:32,640
Speaker 1: guy that can just go out there and towards you

731
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:34,960
Speaker 1: give you twenty a night just catching and shooting and

732
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,879
Speaker 1: playing off of Lebron um. But I'm a little worried

733
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: about Malik defensively, but yeah, his his offensive fit with

734
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: Lebron has been a really nice you know, cherry from

735
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:48,760
Speaker 1: this season it just he he was really bad defensively

736
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:51,319
Speaker 1: against Sacramento last night. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing

737
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,399
Speaker 1: we talked about this preseason, or maybe I've talked about

738
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: it with rage, but the Lakers never got that, like

739
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:58,879
Speaker 1: like the best three and D option they got. I think,

740
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:01,520
Speaker 1: unless I'm missing somebody, he was Wayne Ellington, and you know,

741
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington's cool. But if that's your best, just kind

742
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 1: of tough, you're going You're still there. But yeah, can

743
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:40,280
Speaker 1: you hear him? Yeah? I watched you for a second,

744
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 1: but I think we're good. Yeah, Now, I was just

745
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: saying that. I finished by saying that the list of

746
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: three D players starts with Wayne Ellington, and then I

747
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 1: think it goes to like a reason who I was,

748
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,239
Speaker 1: you know, describing I think he's fallen off. And then

749
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,360
Speaker 1: after that it just becomes like a crapshoot of of

750
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:57,239
Speaker 1: who's who. You know, there's really no three in D.

751
00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:01,000
Speaker 1: There's no size, um, there's no like all the guys

752
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 1: that you have are reliable on one end of the

753
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:05,760
Speaker 1: floor but not necessarily both, you know, like that identity.

754
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:09,879
Speaker 1: Even even markis Morris, right, who I never really thought

755
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,399
Speaker 1: was that good, he became a really reliable, dependable three

756
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 1: and D guy for the Lakers in the Bubble Championship run.

757
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 1: Obviously we already talked other guys. I just don't think

758
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 1: they have those pieces right now. Yeah, so the the

759
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:27,279
Speaker 1: moving forward with the regardless of whether or not they

760
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 1: decided to dump br Us Outside of that specific equation,

761
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 1: the Lakers, in my opinion, need to acknowledge the fact

762
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 1: that their vision for shifting the identity towards offense was

763
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 1: a mistake. And the sooner they acknowledged that, the sooner

764
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 1: they have you know, if they if they address that

765
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: need at the trade deadline, I believe this team can

766
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,440
Speaker 1: get back on track now. The Warriors are such a

767
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:58,320
Speaker 1: perfect example because they did so with literally veteran minimum

768
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:02,440
Speaker 1: contracts like all up order the elites Andre Gudalad, these

769
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:07,279
Speaker 1: are all guys that um that costs the veteran minimum,

770
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: and simply because they actually fit into their identity, they

771
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 1: were able to immediately make an impact and help that

772
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: team vault from fringe playoff contender too probably the favorite

773
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 1: to win the championship. And I think that's the situation

774
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 1: that the Lakers are in because with as great as

775
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 1: Lebron looks and he's really declined defensively in the last week,

776
00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 1: But like we said, we think that's more maybe associated

777
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 1: with his demeanor and his attitude as more so than

778
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 1: fatigue because the Lakers have had a lot of days

779
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:43,840
Speaker 1: off lately, so his defense is inexcusable in my opinion.

780
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 1: Um that said, we know that there's an engaged version

781
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 1: of Lebron in there. That's still a devastating to a player.

782
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:55,160
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis coming back, Let's say he gets back to

783
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:59,040
Speaker 1: a reasonable fact similar of what he was in. If

784
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,160
Speaker 1: those two guys are on the war and they're engaged,

785
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:03,279
Speaker 1: which they weren't really to start this season, which is

786
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:05,120
Speaker 1: a big part of why they struggled even when they

787
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 1: were healthy. If those two are back together and engaged,

788
00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:12,920
Speaker 1: everyone becomes slotted properly that they achieved. They all are

789
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,840
Speaker 1: assigned then a very achievable role. Their jobs on offense

790
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:21,720
Speaker 1: and defense are simplified down to a point where even

791
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 1: veteran minimum quality players can succeed. So from that standpoint,

792
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 1: the goal at the trade deadline and in the buyout

793
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:33,719
Speaker 1: market has to be to locate any and all options

794
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: to try to recreate the types of role players that

795
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:44,840
Speaker 1: we had in season season because again the shift didn't work. Now,

796
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:50,759
Speaker 1: maybe you can get lucky and build a coherent enough defense,

797
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:54,839
Speaker 1: are competent enough defense around those guys that Malik Monk

798
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 1: can stay around and still be you know, the weapon

799
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:02,680
Speaker 1: that he is. But outside of him, I think every

800
00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 1: other person not named Lebron in a D that's in

801
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,839
Speaker 1: the lineup has to love the dirty work and has

802
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:10,799
Speaker 1: to be willing to do what Frank Vogel asks them

803
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:14,440
Speaker 1: to do in their defensive assignments, in the rebounding assignments,

804
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: so on and so forth, because again, there is no

805
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:21,760
Speaker 1: bonus points gained for being prideful. There is no bonus

806
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 1: points gained in going down with the ship. Okay, like

807
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,759
Speaker 1: I what I really am not interested in hearing is

808
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:32,960
Speaker 1: a postseason press conference after they get eliminated, where Lebron

809
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 1: sitting at the press are going, you know, we just

810
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:37,920
Speaker 1: never had our full team this year, because as we know,

811
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:39,719
Speaker 1: that's just not how it works. No one ever has

812
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:43,280
Speaker 1: their full team the whole year. Even in the season,

813
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: a bunch of role players were in and out of

814
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:48,760
Speaker 1: the lineup with injury frequently, you know, except for Lebron

815
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,319
Speaker 1: in a D thankfully. But the point is is like,

816
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 1: at a certain point, a lot of these teams around

817
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:57,120
Speaker 1: the league, even when they've had guys drop out with COVID,

818
00:42:57,520 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 1: even when they've had guys drop out with injuries, they

819
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 1: been able to succeed because from the top down to

820
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 1: the roster there's a certain amount of an identity that

821
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:07,799
Speaker 1: they can lean back on even when guys are out.

822
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 1: This team doesn't have that. That's entirely missing, but we

823
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: also know it's there. It's a proven method of success.

824
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:20,720
Speaker 1: And even beyond that, it's about matchups. The Lakers size

825
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 1: when Lebron and n D are healthy is a real

826
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 1: problem for the Warriors. It's a real problem in that

827
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:31,080
Speaker 1: matchup Phoenix. Same thing we saw last year. A D

828
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:33,920
Speaker 1: just back from injury, Lebron just back from injury, neither

829
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,239
Speaker 1: player really in their rhythm. Their physicality on the front

830
00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:41,759
Speaker 1: line is a real problem for Phoenix. So this is salvageable.

831
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 1: It just it needs to be salvaged and it needs

832
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,880
Speaker 1: to not involve Okay, well we just never had Kendrick Nunne,

833
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 1: so we just had bad luck. It needs to be

834
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:55,839
Speaker 1: acknowledging the reality that's slapping you in the face. So

835
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:58,479
Speaker 1: one last thing and then I'll let you talk version

836
00:43:58,480 --> 00:43:59,759
Speaker 1: and we'll get out of here. Just a should probably

837
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: goes game. But the h the thing with Russ if

838
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,800
Speaker 1: he is gonna stay, which is the most likely scenario

839
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:10,040
Speaker 1: because it's going to be extremely difficult to find a

840
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:13,000
Speaker 1: trade partner in the middle of the season, Russ needs

841
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,120
Speaker 1: to wake the hell up. What we've seen out of

842
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:19,920
Speaker 1: him in press conferences recently demonstrates a person who lacks

843
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,479
Speaker 1: any self awareness in terms of what the team needs

844
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:26,960
Speaker 1: from him. The fact that he thinks, you know, it's

845
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: about him not putting up fourteen and fourteen the way

846
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:32,720
Speaker 1: he used to the fact that he thinks it's about

847
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,719
Speaker 1: the way he's being utilized in the offense. You know,

848
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:37,560
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of people bring up the Mellow

849
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:42,320
Speaker 1: comparison and Mellow learning through his departure from the league

850
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:45,759
Speaker 1: to change some parts of his game that needed to

851
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 1: be changed. Well, Russ needs to do the same thing

852
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:51,920
Speaker 1: within the confines of this season. He needs to understand

853
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:55,319
Speaker 1: that he is not the same offensive player he was

854
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:57,960
Speaker 1: in his prime, and so he's going to be utilized

855
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:01,439
Speaker 1: different offensively, which just the thing he's been complaining about

856
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 1: in the pressers recently. He needs to embrace that and

857
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 1: understand that the team needs him to contribute everywhere else.

858
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:12,360
Speaker 1: We always talk about Russ being Russ, and one of

859
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:15,759
Speaker 1: my consistent themes with the season is Russ cannot be Russ.

860
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:19,759
Speaker 1: Russ being Russ is bad for this team because in

861
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 1: his role, especially with Lebron and Ad be healthy, it's

862
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 1: about him confining his mistakes and limiting his mistakes. So

863
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:32,439
Speaker 1: the Russ brand of bowling a china shop, I'm gonna

864
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 1: make ten mistakes but make fifteen good plays doesn't work

865
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:39,480
Speaker 1: anymore because offensively, he's not going to be utilized enough

866
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:43,480
Speaker 1: to make fifteen good plays on this team, especially when

867
00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:47,440
Speaker 1: they're healthy. So if Russ is gonna stay, the only

868
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:50,279
Speaker 1: way this is gonna work is if he has a

869
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:55,200
Speaker 1: wake up call individually and understands that he needs to

870
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:58,760
Speaker 1: adapt to the same way that everybody else in NBA

871
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:02,400
Speaker 1: history who when they reach the second the middle of

872
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:05,880
Speaker 1: the second decade in the league, where they've got to

873
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:10,200
Speaker 1: adjust the way they play. And if he can figure

874
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:12,760
Speaker 1: that out and get to the point where he cuts

875
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:17,240
Speaker 1: back on mistakes, cuts back on the things he used

876
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:20,359
Speaker 1: to do, and try to because even at this point

877
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,040
Speaker 1: in his career. Even with his diminished athleticism, he's still

878
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:26,000
Speaker 1: a good NBA athlete at the point guard position with

879
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: great size. So if he can find a way two

880
00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:35,800
Speaker 1: adjust and adapt his game to his age, there's a

881
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:39,239
Speaker 1: version of this where it could work. But that what

882
00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:42,359
Speaker 1: I what I worry about, and the reason why I've

883
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 1: advocated for trading him today for the first time this

884
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:48,359
Speaker 1: season is because I don't think he's going to learn

885
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 1: that lesson, and everything that I hear from him impressors

886
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 1: everything I see from him in his demeanor tells me

887
00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:57,040
Speaker 1: this is a guy who thinks he's not getting enough touches.

888
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,040
Speaker 1: Tells me this is a guy who thinks it's and

889
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: everybody else problem, and not a hymn problem. It's it's

890
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:09,359
Speaker 1: a guy who's defiantly going down and and that's that's discouraging.

891
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:11,759
Speaker 1: But I mean, if he's gonna stay, the only way

892
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:13,680
Speaker 1: this is gonna work is if he makes some changes.

893
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:16,840
Speaker 1: Russ can't be Russ anymore for the same reason that

894
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:20,480
Speaker 1: Mellow couldn't be Mellow when he was with Okay. See,

895
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 1: Mellow had to become spot up shooter Mellow in order

896
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:27,399
Speaker 1: to maintain his spot in the league. That's where Russ

897
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:30,280
Speaker 1: is at. Russ needs to be more like Drew Holiday,

898
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 1: a player who devotes the vast majority of his energy

899
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:37,400
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the floor and offensively finds

900
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:41,000
Speaker 1: a place to fit in alongside two superior offensive players

901
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:46,040
Speaker 1: through limiting mistakes and taking advantage of his size as

902
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:48,560
Speaker 1: a power guard when he has the opportunity. That's the

903
00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: way that I see this thing working. But I'm just

904
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 1: being honest with you, guys, I don't see it. I

905
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:59,879
Speaker 1: I that is such an idealistic vision. How Like if

906
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,759
Speaker 1: you had to ask yourself if Russ is gonna make

907
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:05,520
Speaker 1: a significant change in the way that he approaches the game,

908
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 1: do you think that's going to happen? Like I don't.

909
00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 1: But anyway that that's where I'm at. And like again,

910
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 1: it's it's hard because there is a This team is

911
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:17,480
Speaker 1: not as bad as they look. When you tie up

912
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:19,880
Speaker 1: all of your talent and Lebron and Anthony Davis and

913
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:22,680
Speaker 1: one of them goes down, it's gonna be ugly. This

914
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:25,919
Speaker 1: isn't like the Sun's You don't have tons of death,

915
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,759
Speaker 1: but lack that top tier star power so that when

916
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:30,799
Speaker 1: Devin Booker goes out, you're still pretty good. That's not

917
00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 1: how it works, because if you make a trade for

918
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:36,279
Speaker 1: someone like Anthony Davis, you understand you're top heavy, and

919
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:38,680
Speaker 1: when you're top heavy and someone gets hurt, this is

920
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 1: part of the problem. So I understand all of that. However,

921
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:48,320
Speaker 1: even acknowledging that this isn't working, and I struggle to

922
00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 1: see how anybody thinks it could be. But that's just

923
00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:55,440
Speaker 1: my opinion. Yeah, man, I'll end by saying, um, I

924
00:48:55,520 --> 00:48:58,120
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think the making ten mistakes but

925
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:00,160
Speaker 1: making fifteen good plays to make up for it is

926
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 1: kind of what I was trying to talk about when

927
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:04,640
Speaker 1: I was mentioning wasting possessions. And he's at a point

928
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:06,680
Speaker 1: where he's not making ten mistakes but making up for

929
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 1: it fifteen times. It's like more ten to ten or

930
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:12,759
Speaker 1: even you know, ten mistakes to like seven plays they

931
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:15,680
Speaker 1: make up for it or whatever. So exactly, I think

932
00:49:15,719 --> 00:49:18,919
Speaker 1: that you know, and I told you all this before

933
00:49:18,960 --> 00:49:22,120
Speaker 1: before or during the off season, before the season, but man,

934
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:24,640
Speaker 1: he is focused. His game is centered around where the

935
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 1: basketball is, and that's on both ends of the floor.

936
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 1: Right He's not making reads off the ball, he's not

937
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:33,200
Speaker 1: seeing the play developed two plays ahead, he's not considering

938
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:35,239
Speaker 1: what's going to happen on the defensive end. You know,

939
00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:37,359
Speaker 1: when penetration happens and the ball gets kicked and then

940
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:39,800
Speaker 1: the ball starts moving around the perimeter, he's not looking

941
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:41,960
Speaker 1: for the skip pass like, he's just looking at where

942
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:44,279
Speaker 1: the ball is. And on offense, when he's got the ball,

943
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:46,359
Speaker 1: he's just thinking about, Okay, I have the ball, and

944
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 1: so Arena bring that up. Is because when you get older,

945
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 1: you adjust by seeing the plays developed ahead of time,

946
00:49:53,640 --> 00:49:55,839
Speaker 1: because that's how you're able to compensate for the lack

947
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:58,880
Speaker 1: of athleticism or the loss of athleticism, and then you

948
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:02,040
Speaker 1: can use i Q and skill. Skill. He's not really

949
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:05,040
Speaker 1: a skill guy, right, he doesn't have touch both at

950
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:08,440
Speaker 1: the rim, jump, shooting, whatever. He's just always been like,

951
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:10,640
Speaker 1: if he wasn't a supreme athlete, he probably would not

952
00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: have made the NBA. He made the NBA and and

953
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:16,759
Speaker 1: had success because he's an incredible phenomenal athlete um and

954
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:19,960
Speaker 1: we're seeing what he's become with without that. But I

955
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:22,400
Speaker 1: know for a fact when he was in Houston, I

956
00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:25,080
Speaker 1: will give him credit for trying to adjust his game,

957
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:27,360
Speaker 1: because in Houston, he tried to adjust his game and

958
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 1: it worked in in l A. Right now he's trying

959
00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 1: to adjust his game, but it's not working. But the

960
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:34,919
Speaker 1: flip side of that is that adjusting it's no matter

961
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:37,600
Speaker 1: how you slice it, it's all about him. It always

962
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: comes down to him. It has like everything revolves around him.

963
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:43,240
Speaker 1: It has to be changed for him to feel comfortable,

964
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:46,320
Speaker 1: for him to operate optimally. Right, the Rockets fucking traded

965
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:50,160
Speaker 1: Clint Capella so that he could rust could get his numbers. Um,

966
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,560
Speaker 1: the Lakers are obviously made the trade they did, and

967
00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:55,600
Speaker 1: they're now trying to go small and they've moved and

968
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:57,960
Speaker 1: shifted the lineup around, just trying to accommodate. Nothing is

969
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,560
Speaker 1: really working. But I know for a fact in Houston,

970
00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:03,000
Speaker 1: once ship hit the fan and Harden was getting out

971
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 1: of there, that he had a conversation with the Rockets

972
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:09,040
Speaker 1: brass that basically the message he sent was, Hey, I

973
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:12,200
Speaker 1: don't care about being on a winning team. I don't

974
00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:14,759
Speaker 1: care about playing Rockets basketball. I want the ball back

975
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:16,960
Speaker 1: in my hands, So do what you gotta do get

976
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:19,279
Speaker 1: me out of here. And they did. Um, And I

977
00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:22,520
Speaker 1: think that he viewed so crazy to me. Yeah, And

978
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:25,719
Speaker 1: I think he viewed that that season at Washington as

979
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:28,680
Speaker 1: a huge victory and like vindication for him, you know, like, hey,

980
00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:31,960
Speaker 1: russ ball works. Like I told y'all, I still got it.

981
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:34,080
Speaker 1: I'm back watch me work. You know, I just took

982
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:35,960
Speaker 1: the Wizards to the play in to the playoff whatever

983
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 1: and so and if again, if you listen to that

984
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 1: space last night where his brother was talking, people were

985
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:44,359
Speaker 1: bringing up, you know, statistics, how he finishes at the rim,

986
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:46,759
Speaker 1: where he ranks against other other guards in terms of

987
00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:49,480
Speaker 1: finishing at the rim, all these things, and their responses

988
00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:52,600
Speaker 1: to that. I remember one was, yeah, but who's counting

989
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:54,719
Speaker 1: all the layups that you know, rim in and out?

990
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:57,520
Speaker 1: That was one response, and then the second response from

991
00:51:57,520 --> 00:51:59,600
Speaker 1: his brother was, yeah, do you know who leads the

992
00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:02,240
Speaker 1: NBA and play off triple doubles for the last ten years?

993
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:04,880
Speaker 1: And that was the retort, right, Like, that's how they

994
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:07,800
Speaker 1: processed and viewed his contributions to the game. And I

995
00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:10,280
Speaker 1: think it only makes sense that those are the voices

996
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:13,360
Speaker 1: most likely around him, and they're probably echoing his sentiments

997
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:16,719
Speaker 1: and how he thinks. Right, so the whole if he

998
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 1: can just do X y Z, I think you got

999
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:21,560
Speaker 1: to throw that out the window. The only caveat is

1000
00:52:21,600 --> 00:52:24,399
Speaker 1: that if he magically becomes like a thirty five three

1001
00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:28,320
Speaker 1: point shooter on high volume, then you're working with something. Otherwise,

1002
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 1: I think you're just gonna have to, Like I said

1003
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:32,200
Speaker 1: before the season started, you're just gonna have to shore

1004
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:35,400
Speaker 1: up his mistakes as best as you can, because he

1005
00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: does ball watch right, you can't. There's no way you

1006
00:52:38,239 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 1: can make up for him for his defensive lapses. There's

1007
00:52:41,239 --> 00:52:42,879
Speaker 1: no way you can make up for his lack of

1008
00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:45,520
Speaker 1: what he does off the ball. Um when he when

1009
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:47,240
Speaker 1: he has the ball in his hands, man, he moves

1010
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 1: first and thinks second. I think Roger said this last night.

1011
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 1: He passes to he passes the ball two spaces on

1012
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:56,800
Speaker 1: the court, not to people, and that's because he's moving

1013
00:52:56,840 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 1: first and expecting the help. And then yeah, that's for

1014
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 1: the record, that's not making a read. That that is

1015
00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:03,719
Speaker 1: not making a You're not making a read if you

1016
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:05,759
Speaker 1: pass to an open to pass to a spot on

1017
00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:09,560
Speaker 1: the floor and most most importantly there, any good team

1018
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:12,239
Speaker 1: is going to take that away. Any good team, right,

1019
00:53:12,239 --> 00:53:13,640
Speaker 1: And they do. And that's why you see some of

1020
00:53:13,640 --> 00:53:15,719
Speaker 1: those like Garrant passes that just like float out of

1021
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:18,920
Speaker 1: bounds to nobody or whatever, right because he's expecting someone

1022
00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 1: to be there without actually making the read. But but

1023
00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:22,920
Speaker 1: he moves first and he thinks second, and that has

1024
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:25,040
Speaker 1: always been his m O. And now that his body

1025
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:28,000
Speaker 1: is not what it used to be, he's not adjusting

1026
00:53:28,040 --> 00:53:31,080
Speaker 1: to that well. So I really don't see I just

1027
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:33,160
Speaker 1: don't see the middle ground for him, you know. I mean,

1028
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:35,400
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna keep seeing what you're seeing. Hopefully

1029
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:38,319
Speaker 1: Ad shows it up, maybe a roster, you know, maybe

1030
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:40,879
Speaker 1: a trade or a reason comes back healthy or something

1031
00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:44,279
Speaker 1: like that shores it all up, or eventually hands up

1032
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:45,839
Speaker 1: on another team where they just give him the ball

1033
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:47,520
Speaker 1: and he can play Russ Ball and kind of do

1034
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:49,520
Speaker 1: what he did with the Wizards. I think it's it's

1035
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:53,040
Speaker 1: literally one of those two. There's really knowing between. But yeah,

1036
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:55,560
Speaker 1: it'll be really interesting to see Um Russ. I appreciate

1037
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:58,759
Speaker 1: you coming to hang out, man, Um, Yeah, thank you

1038
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:01,359
Speaker 1: guys for coming to hang out. I'm to get back

1039
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:03,720
Speaker 1: out with the family and do some skiing. This was interesting.

1040
00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:06,280
Speaker 1: It was like recording a podcast at ten thousand feats,

1041
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:08,680
Speaker 1: like recording a podcast power walking. I swear I was

1042
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:11,600
Speaker 1: like out of breath half the time. But anyway, I

1043
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:13,959
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys coming to hang out. I'm gonna post

1044
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:17,480
Speaker 1: this one on our podcast feed, probably at midnight tonight

1045
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:20,799
Speaker 1: since we have rash Raja's out from last night. This

1046
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:23,680
Speaker 1: will also air on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven

1047
00:54:23,719 --> 00:54:26,359
Speaker 1: am Pacific Standard time. As always, I appreciate you guys

1048
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:28,520
Speaker 1: the support. We will be back for the postgame show

1049
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:32,040
Speaker 1: on Saturday. Thanks Ruce, We'll see you next time, Buddy yep,

1050
00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 1: And if I could plug real quick, Ball is Life

1051
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:37,560
Speaker 1: the podcast, the number one podcast on Ball is Life.

1052
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:39,600
Speaker 1: We just did an episode with Nikola Vukovich of the

1053
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:42,319
Speaker 1: Chicago Bulls that I put out today, So check my

1054
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:44,000
Speaker 1: feed and give that a listen. And thanks Jason, I

1055
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:45,759
Speaker 1: appreciate it. All right, guys, have a going