Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the stay in the Lake that
Speaker 1: thank you guys for coming to hang out. What is today?
Speaker 1: It's a Thursday? Right, Yeah, I'm losing track of time.
Speaker 1: I'm on vacation. I'm up in Colorado at Copper Mountain.
Speaker 1: We had a super interesting, uh situation yesterday. We showed
Speaker 1: up to the mountain with eight people. It's a family
Speaker 1: ski trip that we take with my wife's family every year,
Speaker 1: and literally, I'm not kidding, we got lift tickets for
Speaker 1: the wrong resort. So we got all our gear on
Speaker 1: yesterday and we walked up to the lifts and tried
Speaker 1: to get on the lift and our lift tickets didn't work.
Speaker 1: And then we literally had to go to the the
Speaker 1: guest services counter and buy a whole trips worth the
Speaker 1: lift tickets on the day of, which was a total nightmare.
Speaker 1: Shout out to the staff though they did give us
Speaker 1: some good pricing that made it hurt a little bit less.
Speaker 1: But it was definitely an interesting start to the trip.
Speaker 1: I'm taking a break from some skin though, because I
Speaker 1: wanted to watch the Laker game and I got to
Speaker 1: the film this morning and we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: it for just about five minutes here at the start,
Speaker 1: and then my guy Rush out of Houston is gonna
Speaker 1: come up and him and I are going to talk
Speaker 1: some some Westbrook definitely have some thoughts in that department. Um,
Speaker 1: as far as the game goes, you know, we're a
Speaker 1: bad basketball team in a lot of ways right now.
Speaker 1: We had a little stretch there where again some bad
Speaker 1: teams we were able to put together some good habits.
Speaker 1: But you know, as as well, as much as I'd
Speaker 1: love to give the King's credit for the run they
Speaker 1: went on and at their border last night, when I
Speaker 1: really dove into the film, it was a lot of
Speaker 1: bad process. There was a lot of Lebron taking silly
Speaker 1: early shot clock threes. There was a lot of Malik
Speaker 1: Monk and Taylor Norton, Tucker and Avery Bradley making ill advise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, pocket passes and swing passes and post
Speaker 1: entries that led to turnovers. And we spent a lot
Speaker 1: of that third quarter on our heels. And a team
Speaker 1: like Sacramento that's so athletic, especially with the ball in
Speaker 1: their hands, they do such a good job of attacking
Speaker 1: defenders on their heels and getting into the paint, and
Speaker 1: they were just getting straight line drives. Every time down
Speaker 1: the floor. You would see often we'd have a turnover,
Speaker 1: guys will be on their heels, you have a couple
Speaker 1: of guys jogging back. It's that semi transition phase that
Speaker 1: is so dangerous. There's not really any crowd because you
Speaker 1: have to understand, like, especially when you're guarding guys like
Speaker 1: Deer and Fox, guys that are really really athletic at
Speaker 1: the point of attack, you're not going to keep them
Speaker 1: from beating guys at the right at the start of
Speaker 1: the possession. That's That's what their ultimate elite NBA skill is.
Speaker 1: That's why Deer and Fox is in the league is
Speaker 1: because nobody can keep him in front. So as a team,
Speaker 1: you have to do a better job of making them
Speaker 1: play in a crowd. And throughout the entire second half,
Speaker 1: we just did a really bad job of that. You'd
Speaker 1: see and a lot of this blame I gotta throw
Speaker 1: at Lebron because even when we would get set in
Speaker 1: the half court, there were a lot of possessions where
Speaker 1: he's you know, guarding Marvin Bagley kind of in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot, and you know, someone like Trevor Rees or
Speaker 1: Malik Monk would be giving up a straight line drive
Speaker 1: and rather than offering any help, he would just kind
Speaker 1: of stand there and let it happen. And that, you know,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing snowballs and it turns into now
Speaker 1: you're trying to score against their set defense every time.
Speaker 1: Now you're making mistakes offensively, and you're back on your
Speaker 1: heels again, and it becomes a problem. And so I
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron he had really good energy there for
Speaker 1: about you know, five or six games after the Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis injury. But his his energy has has dropped off
Speaker 1: of a cliff in the last week and a half
Speaker 1: and that's been somewhat frustrating because they need more out
Speaker 1: of him. And you know, I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: people complain about fatigue and talk about how at the
Speaker 1: center position, he just has so much on his plate
Speaker 1: and it's too much to ask of him. And I
Speaker 1: would agree when we're in a stretch like we were
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, when you're playing, you know,
Speaker 1: five games in eight days, but he's getting multiple days off.
Speaker 1: Now we're in a stretch of the schedule here where
Speaker 1: we're just not playing that often. I think this is
Speaker 1: the second time in the last week where we've had
Speaker 1: two complete full days off between games, and we have
Speaker 1: another set of two full days off before the next game.
Speaker 1: Lebron should be, in theory well rested enough to give
Speaker 1: more energy than he's giving. Now that begs the question.
Speaker 1: Is he frustrated with the roster? Probably, and he does
Speaker 1: have a history of of pouting and making a scene
Speaker 1: out of those sorts of things, so that very well
Speaker 1: could be what's happening. But he just has to be better. Um.
Speaker 1: But in general, you know, I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: people talk about defensive personnel with the Lakers, and don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, you know, guys like Malik Monk had
Speaker 1: a really rough time last night. Malik was getting cooked
Speaker 1: all over the floor, Guys like Trevor Ariza. I want
Speaker 1: to give him some more time to get his legs
Speaker 1: underneath him, but he doesn't look very good right now. However,
Speaker 1: we have lineups where we have guys like th Hd,
Speaker 1: guys like Austin Reeves, guys like Lebron on the floor
Speaker 1: and we're still not getting stops, which goes to show
Speaker 1: you that for whatever reason right now, and this may
Speaker 1: be trickling down from Lebron, it's just we're just not
Speaker 1: getting enough out of this team defensively right now, even
Speaker 1: if you factor in the personnel issues. Um, but the real,
Speaker 1: you know, the real focus here is Russ and it's
Speaker 1: the reason why I'm gonna bring my guy Rousch on
Speaker 1: here in a second. And you know, I think you're
Speaker 1: seeing this, these two camps that are forming, and among
Speaker 1: Laker fans, those who are hyper focused on Russ for
Speaker 1: one reason or another, and I probably am in that
Speaker 1: camp myself. And then there's the hyper defensive of us.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because I think what the hyper defensive
Speaker 1: people of Russ are missing in this situation is it's
Speaker 1: possible to be mad not at Russ of Westbrook in
Speaker 1: a vacuum, but at the situation. Because the situation here
Speaker 1: is the Lakers, a team that had a clear, concrete
Speaker 1: identity that was a championship winning type of identity, chipped
Speaker 1: off three players that were core elements of that identity,
Speaker 1: two of them in the trade, one of them through
Speaker 1: the financial crunch up the trade, and Alex Caruso, and
Speaker 1: as a result, we're not winning anymore. So it's not
Speaker 1: just looking at Russ and his struggles, which we're about
Speaker 1: to talk about. It's the fact that as a Laker fan,
Speaker 1: you're probably looking at the situation going it's not just
Speaker 1: that Russ is terrible, it's that Russ is playing bad
Speaker 1: basketball right now and we are sorely missing the types
Speaker 1: of players that we shipped out in the trade. So
Speaker 1: I don't blame Laker fans for getting upset. And I'm
Speaker 1: confused as to why there's so much pushback on the
Speaker 1: anti Russ sentiment, because it's not anti Russ sentiment in
Speaker 1: my opinion, it's anti Russ raid sentiment. People are frustrated
Speaker 1: at the situation, as they should, and like I talked
Speaker 1: about in the podcast the other day, it's just so
Speaker 1: important for the Lakers to identify that they let go
Speaker 1: of what made them good and make the shift. Now.
Speaker 1: There is no bonus points for the pride of going
Speaker 1: down with the ship. There's nothing to be gained there now.
Speaker 1: I I spent the entire morning canvassing UH teams around
Speaker 1: the league because I am at the point now officially
Speaker 1: where I don't think this can work. I think that
Speaker 1: the Lakers have to find a way to get off
Speaker 1: of Russell Westbrook. I held back trying to get to
Speaker 1: this point for as long as I possibly could. But
Speaker 1: the reality is, even if Russ, even if what Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel said is true and Russ is in a slump,
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation is, even if he gets
Speaker 1: out of his slump, the best idealized version of him
Speaker 1: right now doesn't work against good teams. He might be
Speaker 1: able to play better against the Sacramentos of the league,
Speaker 1: against the Houstons of the league, against the Orlando Magics
Speaker 1: of the league. But is there really anything that Rust
Speaker 1: brings to the table that generates positive basketball impact against
Speaker 1: the good teams in the league right now. I racked
Speaker 1: my brain for it this morning, and I came up
Speaker 1: with rebound rebounding. He's a very good rebounder that absolutely helps,
Speaker 1: and he does generate rim pressure. But as I've laid
Speaker 1: out in the pod, often I'm worried about his rim
Speaker 1: pressure only functioning against bad teams because the good teams
Speaker 1: are now really really well prepared for the Rust. Put
Speaker 1: my head down, barrel into the lane. All they have
Speaker 1: to do is take away the corners. He has no
Speaker 1: passing angles, and then he ends up picking his dribble
Speaker 1: up around the block, and he's so small down there
Speaker 1: that he's unable to find openings even when he is
Speaker 1: in the crowd down there. You know when I had
Speaker 1: someone specifically reach out and they said, what happened to
Speaker 1: the Lebron Russ pick and roll? Why isn't Russ being
Speaker 1: the screener. And the truth of the matter is is
Speaker 1: teams are starting to put bigger defenders on Russ. Why
Speaker 1: because he doesn't move as quickly as he used to,
Speaker 1: so he's not toasting people into the lane, and so
Speaker 1: they just put a bigger defender on him and play
Speaker 1: way off. And so as a result, that Lebron Russ
Speaker 1: screening roll is now a like size screen and roll.
Speaker 1: Even if they switch it, you're getting another big guy
Speaker 1: on the Lebron, So you're not even getting the same
Speaker 1: advantage from a big, small pick and roll that you
Speaker 1: want from that situation. That's why they're not using it
Speaker 1: as much. That's why they're going to Bleak Monk because
Speaker 1: Malik Monk is still so good as an offensive player,
Speaker 1: they have to put a smaller, quicker player on him,
Speaker 1: and so the Lebron Monk pick and roll is getting
Speaker 1: you better stuff. But what Russ is a basketball player
Speaker 1: right now just doesn't bring enough to the table good
Speaker 1: to make him worthwhile. And I'm of the opinion now
Speaker 1: that a change needs to be made sooner than later.
Speaker 1: I know that's gonna get me a lot of flak.
Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna have a lot of people saying
Speaker 1: I'm crazy, and I know that that trade is an
Speaker 1: absolute catastrophe. I looked through the payrolls of the lower league,
Speaker 1: the lower teams in the league. There is not a
Speaker 1: really good option out there. But at this point, if
Speaker 1: there's a team out there at the deadline who's willing
Speaker 1: to take on a first round pick to take on
Speaker 1: some sort of asset from the Lakers in exchange for
Speaker 1: eating Russ's salary, they need to look in that direction
Speaker 1: because come playoff time, this guy is gonna be a problem.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna get rush up here
Speaker 1: and let's uh, let's see what he has to say. Heybody,
Speaker 1: can hear me? Rug can hear me? I'm getting back
Speaker 1: up here in one second. Sorry about the technical difficulties, guys.
Speaker 1: I'll get rush up here and then we'll get going.
Speaker 1: Anybody can hear me? Can you hear me? Jason? Can
Speaker 1: you hear me? Say hey there you are all right? Cool? Sorry,
Speaker 1: can you hear me? Yeah? I can't. Um, yeah, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. Man, I always love words talking about
Speaker 1: rust like some people might be sick of it, but uh,
Speaker 1: it just is what it is, you know. I want
Speaker 1: to start by saying that because I've seen this across
Speaker 1: like Lakers Twitter. We had the same thing with Rockets
Speaker 1: Twitter when when Russ was on the Rockets. Uh, there's
Speaker 1: just two camps, like you said, right, there's the people
Speaker 1: that criticize him and then there's the people that like
Speaker 1: fervently defend him. And by the way, it feel free
Speaker 1: to cut me off and jump in if you have
Speaker 1: any like questions or comments or whatever. But I just
Speaker 1: want to start by saying that from a basketball perspective, man,
Speaker 1: we just gotta call a spade a spade, right, we
Speaker 1: gotta call it what it is. When someone's not playing well,
Speaker 1: there shouldn't be this like weird blowback or this cheerleader
Speaker 1: mentality where you can't just call it what it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, I watched James Harden in Houston for eight years,
Speaker 1: second best player in franchise history. One an MVP almost
Speaker 1: took us to the to the ship but when he
Speaker 1: played bad, you know, I criticized him accordingly because he
Speaker 1: deserved it. You know, there were times where he faded
Speaker 1: and he still gets criticized for those moments. So so
Speaker 1: I think Russ deserves all the criticism coming his way.
Speaker 1: I wanted to point point some things out, and obviously
Speaker 1: I agree it's not all on him. There are bigger
Speaker 1: issues than him, but clearly I'm you know, focusing on
Speaker 1: him right now. So I wanted to bring up some numbers. Man.
Speaker 1: First of all, his usage, which if you don't know,
Speaker 1: it's basically usage percent is the amount of sessions that
Speaker 1: end with the ball, either you're shooting or a play
Speaker 1: being made off of you, you know, passing the ball
Speaker 1: or whatever. So basically it measures how often you're using
Speaker 1: the basketball when you have it. Uh, it's for us,
Speaker 1: which is the lowest of his career since he was
Speaker 1: one years old in Oklahoma City and in like two
Speaker 1: thousand ten. Okay, that being said, he's still averaging four
Speaker 1: and a half turnovers per game, which is right around
Speaker 1: you know, his career averages four point one, so it's
Speaker 1: above his career average of turnovers, but it's it's just
Speaker 1: about where he's been for turnovers since the two thousand
Speaker 1: fourteen two thousand fifteen season. And it's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: because in the two thousand four fifteen season he led
Speaker 1: the league in usage at thirty eight percent and had
Speaker 1: the exact same amount of turnovers he has right now
Speaker 1: at four point four. Um So, I think that's number
Speaker 1: one that's alarming. Like you saw at the end of
Speaker 1: the third quarter last night, right, he comes down, takes
Speaker 1: that three bricks it, it goes the other way for
Speaker 1: a transition bucket because he doesn't get bad. Then he
Speaker 1: comes right back down, drives to the middle, jumps, passes
Speaker 1: it like deflects off of one of the defender's bodies,
Speaker 1: gets stolen, goes down. Buddy Healed catches at three, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden the Lakers are down eleven entering
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Right, um So, it's like those back
Speaker 1: breaking turnovers because he gets he gets to the rim,
Speaker 1: he gets all the way in there, but he can't
Speaker 1: finish anymore and he can't elevate the way he used to,
Speaker 1: so it generally results in a turnover or a missshot.
Speaker 1: And you know a lot of times he just kind
Speaker 1: of hangs his head, right, and so he didn't get back,
Speaker 1: and then it results in just the other team fast
Speaker 1: breaking the other way. In addition to that, his two
Speaker 1: point percentage, well, his field goal percentage is um, you know,
Speaker 1: towards the bottom half of his career. His two point
Speaker 1: percentage is toward the middle of his career from from
Speaker 1: two UM. But the Lakers have gone small, right, And
Speaker 1: when the Rockets went small, he actually was optimized because
Speaker 1: he still had some of his bursts. He had I
Speaker 1: think the best two point percentage of his career, and
Speaker 1: that's why things were able to work. But obviously, as
Speaker 1: you saw, when when the Rockets ran into a good
Speaker 1: team and a team that was able to kind of
Speaker 1: corral him, um, it just didn't work anymore. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting because the Lakers have Lebron and hopefully for you,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, whereas the Rockets were just running with like
Speaker 1: Harden and Robert Covington as center quote unquote center. UM.
Speaker 1: But the Rockets had shooters, and obviously Russ isn't able,
Speaker 1: you know, to shoot the way that people would hope
Speaker 1: he can from three Almost a quarter of his attempts
Speaker 1: are coming from three UM. And so all of that
Speaker 1: I think kind of Oh, and then the biggest point,
Speaker 1: right is that I don't think he gets talked about enough.
Speaker 1: But he can't compensate for any of this by getting
Speaker 1: to the free throw line. I noticed in Houston. I
Speaker 1: honestly I thought in Houston he got a bad whistle
Speaker 1: because I kind of noticed, like I thought, Hey, he
Speaker 1: gets fouled a lot at the rim and it doesn't
Speaker 1: get called. Um, And that resulted a lot of times
Speaker 1: kind of in what I just talked about, right, he
Speaker 1: gets to the rim, gets fouled, doesn't finish, falls, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden it's a five on four
Speaker 1: are going the other way, which is which functions basically
Speaker 1: as a turnover. Right in my opinion, Um, But in
Speaker 1: in l a Man, he is getting to the line
Speaker 1: five point four times per game. That is again in
Speaker 1: line with his turnovers and usage, or with his usage.
Speaker 1: It's the third lowest of his career since he was
Speaker 1: years old in two thousand eight to nine and two
Speaker 1: thousand nine to ten, and his free throw percentage is
Speaker 1: tied for the worst in his career at sixty five
Speaker 1: point six percent, So he's not compensating for the lack
Speaker 1: of ability to shoot and the lack of ability to
Speaker 1: convert by actually getting to the line, and then when
Speaker 1: he does get to the line, he's not catching it
Speaker 1: in He's shooting a career career worst from the free
Speaker 1: throw line. So when you put that together with the
Speaker 1: amount of turnovers that he has, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: his usage is the lowest has been in a decade,
Speaker 1: honestly twelve years, and you combine that with the fact
Speaker 1: that he doesn't he doesn't compensate for any of that
Speaker 1: with just pure hustle. Right his hustle is focused on
Speaker 1: like you know, jumping a passing lane or gambling for
Speaker 1: a steal. It's not focused on, hey, I just break
Speaker 1: this three in a momentum situation, let me sprint back
Speaker 1: and make sure that my guy doesn't beat me for
Speaker 1: a layup. Or you know, hey, the balls on the
Speaker 1: weak side right now and I'm just ball watching and
Speaker 1: my guy in the corner is either wide open and
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna close out in time, or he's gonna
Speaker 1: sneak behind me to the rim for a basket. When
Speaker 1: you combine all of that together, and then obviously you
Speaker 1: add it to the high profile that he has, which
Speaker 1: is former m v P, former superstar forty four million
Speaker 1: a year. That that is why I think you have
Speaker 1: this this kind of storm. And then of course you
Speaker 1: add in what you mentioned, which is the people you
Speaker 1: lost in the trade, right Quintessential three and d Wing
Speaker 1: k CP Kuzma for all his flaws, could rebound, defend,
Speaker 1: worked well with Lebron, seemed to come up big in
Speaker 1: moments where he was needed to come up big. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Carusoe walked um, which you can blame the Lakers management. Four.
Speaker 1: So when you when you factor in all those players
Speaker 1: that were lost and how their chemistry worked with Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D and then you bring in Russ and
Speaker 1: how the fit's not working, plus the fact that he's
Speaker 1: got all these weaknesses that he's just unfortunately doesn't compensate
Speaker 1: for in any way unless you count trouble doubles. I
Speaker 1: think that's the perfect storm for what's happening. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know again, we have to First of all, I loved
Speaker 1: your description of Hustle. That was so that was super,
Speaker 1: super interesting. I'm glad that's a conversation that needs to
Speaker 1: happen more often, Like Hustle is not grabbing an offensive
Speaker 1: rebound and screaming and yelling or diving on the floor.
Speaker 1: The hustle is never missing a responsibility that's laid out
Speaker 1: in your job description. That's what hustle is. Hustle is
Speaker 1: I have these six responsibilities on any given defensive possession,
Speaker 1: and I never miss one, or if I do miss one,
Speaker 1: it was something that's out of my control because maybe
Speaker 1: an elite offensive player was able to make a move
Speaker 1: to get past me, but even at that point, I
Speaker 1: stepped into my next responsibility. Like that, to me is hustle,
Speaker 1: Like Austin Reeves is the perfect example of hustle in
Speaker 1: my opinion, in terms of like do making sure that
Speaker 1: your job is completed, but against clips before of him,
Speaker 1: like just switching, you know, knowing the personnel, knowing who
Speaker 1: the shooter is, closing out on them, and then scramming
Speaker 1: right back to whoever he was guarding before that. Like
Speaker 1: that that is what you need to see from Russ,
Speaker 1: that type of hustle. Yeah, exactly. But again like and
Speaker 1: this is the again I have to add, this is
Speaker 1: important context. Like when I'm discussing the way Russ is playing,
Speaker 1: I'm discussing it relative to what he needed to be
Speaker 1: in order for this trade to have made any sense,
Speaker 1: because you're right, in a vacuum examining the situation, the
Speaker 1: team has a lot of problems that are not associated
Speaker 1: with Russell Westbrook, So putting that all on Russ's plate
Speaker 1: is unfair and in a vacuum that should not happen. However,
Speaker 1: Laker fans are looking at this through the lens of
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook trade, which involved shipping off a bunch
Speaker 1: of core players that fit directly into a championship identity.
Speaker 1: So that has to be factored in here. If you're
Speaker 1: wondering why people are looking at Russ, it's because of
Speaker 1: the trade. Okay. In order for the trade to have
Speaker 1: made any sense, Russ needed to hit a certain baseline
Speaker 1: of his contribution to the game. Now, what you'll see
Speaker 1: a lot of Russ's apologists bring up is the good
Speaker 1: things he does on the basketball court. To be clear,
Speaker 1: Russ has always made mistakes. That's always been the case, right.
Speaker 1: He's always been reckless, He's always been loose with the basketball.
Speaker 1: He's always barreled into the lane when he shouldn't, or
Speaker 1: taken a bad shot here there. That's always been a
Speaker 1: part of his game. The difference is these negative things
Speaker 1: that he does become exacerbated when the good things he
Speaker 1: does become more limited as he ages, Right, Like you
Speaker 1: have guys like CP three, who you look at their
Speaker 1: numbers and you go, oh, he's averaging fourteen points in tennis.
Speaker 1: It's doesn't seem like a ton of production, right, but
Speaker 1: the guy makes damn near zero mistakes. So when you're
Speaker 1: looking at Chris Paul's impact, it's like fourteen and ten,
Speaker 1: but it's like fourteen and and net. Right, So when
Speaker 1: you look at Russ and you go, okay, he's averaging eight,
Speaker 1: or you look at any particular game and you go, oh,
Speaker 1: my goodness, he had thirty twelve and twelve this this game,
Speaker 1: it's never a thirty twelve and twelve net because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of reckless rust that comes with that, a
Speaker 1: lot of mistakes that come with that on the defensive
Speaker 1: end and on the offensive end. That limit is impact right, Well,
Speaker 1: as he's aged, it's gotten to the point now where
Speaker 1: that scale has tipped a little too far in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Can I can I elaborate on that? Yeah? Go ahead, so,
Speaker 1: because I think that's a great point. So the we
Speaker 1: measure turnovers, right, and like I said, he's averaging four
Speaker 1: and a half turnovers per game. But we don't measure
Speaker 1: wasted possessions like that, right where like you can't measure
Speaker 1: the hustle or where you know, like I said, he
Speaker 1: just makes a stupid plane, crashes to the rim and
Speaker 1: throws it up, doesn't get the call, and then effectively
Speaker 1: that's a turnover, but it doesn't count as one in
Speaker 1: the box in the box score. Or you know, a
Speaker 1: play where he falls asleep on defense and it's just
Speaker 1: an easy backdoor bucket. Like you you don't count those
Speaker 1: as turnovers. We just count, you know, obviously what they
Speaker 1: count as turnovers. But in the game where possessions mean everything,
Speaker 1: he is very casual with possessions. You with him, you
Speaker 1: waste a lot of possessions, and then you get into
Speaker 1: this game where you gotta start winning possessions back. But
Speaker 1: because he can't convert threes and because he's not really
Speaker 1: getting hand ones, you're not winning those possessions at the
Speaker 1: rate that you need to win them at. Like in
Speaker 1: Houston when the Rockets traded a Capella. Okay, Russ played
Speaker 1: in fifteen regular season games, including the bubble, after that trade.
Speaker 1: His numbers after that trade were astronomical, Right, if you
Speaker 1: just looked at the numbers purely, you think, wow, oh
Speaker 1: my god, that that's incredible. The average thirty a game, uh,
Speaker 1: seven and a half rebound, six assists, a steal and
Speaker 1: a half five turnovers. Did all of this on from
Speaker 1: the field twenty three attempts and thirty seven percent from
Speaker 1: three on two and a half attempts, and he even
Speaker 1: got to the line seven times a game. So those
Speaker 1: are pretty pretty incredible numbers. But you can't quantify how
Speaker 1: many defensive possessions he wastes wasted and the Rockets are
Speaker 1: only nine and six in these games, by the way,
Speaker 1: And you can't quantify how many possessions on offense get
Speaker 1: wasted with stupid decisions like the ones last night, like
Speaker 1: I just described, where he, you know, in a momentum
Speaker 1: situation where the Lakers are kind of cutting into the
Speaker 1: lead and they need to finish the quarter strong, he
Speaker 1: just takes a pull up three or aten with the
Speaker 1: minute left in the game, he takes a pull up three.
Speaker 1: Like those are wasted possessions, but they will not reflect
Speaker 1: on the box score as a wasted possession. So well,
Speaker 1: what's super interesting about it? Too, is is like you
Speaker 1: can see the team starting to try to pull back
Speaker 1: from Russ offensively, right, Like you can actively see that
Speaker 1: happening with all of the emphasis on Malik Monk and
Speaker 1: Lebron James actions. And you can actually see this starting
Speaker 1: to manifest in Russ's demeanor as we saw in that
Speaker 1: really awkward postgame presser against Memphis where he started to
Speaker 1: super passive aggressively address how he's being used in the offense.
Speaker 1: And that's the crazy part about all of this, right, So,
Speaker 1: like you make this trade right in theory, like, let's
Speaker 1: let's pretend instead of Russ it was Dane. Why would
Speaker 1: you make that trade. You'd make the trade of all
Speaker 1: of those role players for Dane because what you're thinking is, hey,
Speaker 1: I might be able to replicate some of those players
Speaker 1: impact as role players through the veteran minimum market. And
Speaker 1: Dame is such an amazing ceiling raiser that in the
Speaker 1: big playoff series is against the best teams, he's going
Speaker 1: to bring so much to the table that the tradeoff
Speaker 1: is worthwhile. Right, That's the way we look at that.
Speaker 1: That's the way you look at that trade. This is
Speaker 1: where the Lakers got caught with their pants down. Russ
Speaker 1: is at his least effectiveness this year against the good teams.
Speaker 1: So and he's shown an inability to to win the
Speaker 1: minutes without Lebron, which was one of the main reasons
Speaker 1: why we've gone in this direction to begin with. So
Speaker 1: now it's this awkward situation where we've downgraded the guys
Speaker 1: in the role player positions and now we're trying to
Speaker 1: rep urpis. Russ is like this off ball player. You know,
Speaker 1: there was another key possession last night where Lebron hit
Speaker 1: him in the weeks side corner and he missed the three,
Speaker 1: you know, but it's like a lot of him just
Speaker 1: standing around off the ball and then you know, maybe
Speaker 1: we'll toss him a possession here or there. So even
Speaker 1: with whatever the idealized version is of us, even if
Speaker 1: even if for us was peak Russ, we're not actually
Speaker 1: using him like that anymore because we know he can't
Speaker 1: do that. So now he's being you know, basically demoted
Speaker 1: to an off ball player where his where there's a
Speaker 1: massive diminishing return because if he's going to be off
Speaker 1: ball all the time at that point, it might as
Speaker 1: well be Wayne Ellington, right, you know, we're gonna get
Speaker 1: more off ball out of Wayne Ellington than we would
Speaker 1: out of Russ standing in the weeks side corner. So
Speaker 1: that's where this is such a conundrum, And like that's why,
Speaker 1: like guys like I know, there's there's no universe to
Speaker 1: where you could make a trade of Russell Westbrook now
Speaker 1: and it's some idealized impact. I get that. But what
Speaker 1: you're seeing, especially against the good teams in the league
Speaker 1: right now, is that when he's on the floor, he's ineffective.
Speaker 1: And the reason why he's ineffective against good teams is
Speaker 1: because he's easy to guard. And the reason why he's
Speaker 1: easy to guard is because he can't shoot. And you
Speaker 1: know what he's gonna do. He's gonna put his head
Speaker 1: down and try to force his way into a ton
Speaker 1: of traffic and against big athletic defenses that rotate well
Speaker 1: and take away what Russ likes to do, he gets caught,
Speaker 1: he turns the ball over a lot, he misses a
Speaker 1: ton of shots. He's very ineffective. And so you know,
Speaker 1: the even when when we're talking about what this team
Speaker 1: is going to look like projecting forward, so a D
Speaker 1: comes back, maybe you make a great trade. Maybe you
Speaker 1: bring in Jeremy Grant and you have all that talent. Still,
Speaker 1: when we get to these situations against the good teams
Speaker 1: at the end of the season, he's ineffective. He's going
Speaker 1: to be relegated to a guy who can grab the
Speaker 1: occasional offensive rebound, make the occasional play and transition. You know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have some positive plays, but with all of
Speaker 1: the negative that comes with it, with him getting lost
Speaker 1: off the ball, with him making poor decisions from time
Speaker 1: to time, all of that's gonna come with it. And
Speaker 1: so then that's why I ask you guys, like, do
Speaker 1: you think against the Warriors, against the Suns that Russ
Speaker 1: is going to be a huge positive player in a
Speaker 1: playoff series against those teams. I don't, And like I
Speaker 1: I'm trying my hardest to try to see the other
Speaker 1: side of it and to expose myself to dissenting opinion
Speaker 1: and to try to see I I really struggle as
Speaker 1: a basketball mind, and I'm I'm I'm not always right,
Speaker 1: I'm not even right a lot of the time. But
Speaker 1: in my view of the game, I really struggle to
Speaker 1: see what other people are seeing there. Well, I really struggle.
Speaker 1: Let me let me interject to things that I think
Speaker 1: could be positive. Um, they're both obviously gonna center around
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis coming back, and and I will say, don't
Speaker 1: don't lose sight of the fact that a d is
Speaker 1: out right. One of the big problems I think for
Speaker 1: the Lakers right now is the defense, and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: fixes a lot of those problems simply by being on
Speaker 1: the court. So that's that's part one, right. Um, Offensively,
Speaker 1: the Lakers have been getting by. They're just gonna need
Speaker 1: to be better defensively, so Anthony Davis can shore up
Speaker 1: some of those weaknesses, especially some of the weaknesses that
Speaker 1: that Russ gets exposed to. In addition, on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, I think having a D out
Speaker 1: there will help us have a bailout partner, right someone
Speaker 1: he can throw lobs to, someone he can run a
Speaker 1: pick and roll with that he can trust to get
Speaker 1: the ball to and finish. He's still gonna be Russ,
Speaker 1: He's still gonna have his issues, but I do think
Speaker 1: it gives him another dimension of effectiveness because he you know,
Speaker 1: you can actually run action with him just to pick
Speaker 1: and roll. Like I said, Um, if he if he's
Speaker 1: able to penetrate into the defense. He's got a d
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot, dish it off, throw it up, whatever,
Speaker 1: so you will have those options available. Um. But I
Speaker 1: do agree against the better teams, right, you know, against
Speaker 1: Golden State, you cannot waste possessions, and if you do
Speaker 1: waste possessions, they will stump you. Against Phoenix, they're gonna
Speaker 1: have DeAndre Ayton, and they're gonna have smart, tough defenders.
Speaker 1: You know, Jay Crowder mcaal Bridges, Chris Paul, so on
Speaker 1: and so forth, and everyone's big, everyone's big. When you
Speaker 1: get to that point it's Drew Holiday that's guarding him,
Speaker 1: you think he's gonna get an advantage on Drew Holiday.
Speaker 1: I do not know. I do not, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's like it's almost like like a football offense
Speaker 1: that's predicated solely on going five out. Like you know
Speaker 1: they're not going to run it. You know, when you
Speaker 1: have Russ out there, you know there's no catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threat and if they try it, you're just daring
Speaker 1: them to do that. Um. And and I also wanted
Speaker 1: to say the unfortunate thing about him his mentality wise, Jason,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you were listening to the epic
Speaker 1: spaces from last night where you know, his brother and
Speaker 1: Kendrick Perkins hopped in there. But if you listen to
Speaker 1: his brother, it kind of gave me some I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I don't know them personally whatsoever, so maybe I'm just
Speaker 1: off here, but his brother's insight was like he was
Speaker 1: just bringing up the triple doubles. It was almost like
Speaker 1: a carret conture of itself, right. He was arguing against
Speaker 1: what the other people were saying by by bringing up
Speaker 1: the triple doubles as if that mattered. And it gives
Speaker 1: you the sense that that stuff really does matter to Rus.
Speaker 1: And the only reason I bring that up is because
Speaker 1: he seems to have this this kind of theme of
Speaker 1: everything being internalized through himself, right, Like you remember against
Speaker 1: against Utah in the first round a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago when he was with Okay. See, he took that
Speaker 1: Rubio matchup personally, like that one on one matchup personally,
Speaker 1: to the point where he was trying so hard to
Speaker 1: like steal the ball from Rubio or shut Rubio down
Speaker 1: that he would either over gamble and shoot a gap
Speaker 1: and give up a bucket, or he would foul him,
Speaker 1: or he would kill the flow of the team offense
Speaker 1: by just trying to rock the baby on Rubio or
Speaker 1: shoot one of those like bank shots, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and everything starts running in his mind through him
Speaker 1: because he's grappling with the fact that he used to
Speaker 1: be the man and he's you know, no longer the man, right,
Speaker 1: And that's why I think he even like last night,
Speaker 1: he took that big shot, right because he wanted to
Speaker 1: be like, no, I'm Russ, I still hit these and
Speaker 1: he took it, and obviously the game was over after
Speaker 1: he bricked it, so I wanted to add that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's funny because I was I
Speaker 1: talked about this in a podcast like three or four
Speaker 1: days ago. But you know, the Lakers this experiment. I know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to properly evaluate it with all of the
Speaker 1: injuries that have happened. However, this season, even in minutes
Speaker 1: where Lebron Russ and Anthony Davis are on the floor
Speaker 1: with no center, they are less effective than they were
Speaker 1: with Schroeder last year with the center, they were you know,
Speaker 1: plus I think they were plus twelve per one hunder
Speaker 1: possessions last year with Schroeder. And so for whatever reason
Speaker 1: this season, even the idealized situation hasn't been as impactful
Speaker 1: as we were in previous iterations of this team, which
Speaker 1: takes me to the Golden State situation. Golden State was
Speaker 1: a team that thrived off of the attention that Steph
Speaker 1: Curry draws from the defense and guys playing four on
Speaker 1: three on the back end, and had so many smart
Speaker 1: players that they executed that four on three so well
Speaker 1: all the time that it worked. And then last season
Speaker 1: they got away from that and they wait young, and
Speaker 1: they signed guys like Kelly u Brad Jr. Who would
Speaker 1: instead of taking that extra dribble for the dribble handoff
Speaker 1: to Steph running through after he gave up the gave
Speaker 1: up the ball, he jack of three or run into
Speaker 1: the lane and take a one dribble pull up. And
Speaker 1: as a team they were too young. They didn't have
Speaker 1: i Guadala that year either. You know, they had the
Speaker 1: same Steph and Draymond, the same incredible Steph and Draymond
Speaker 1: that you have this year, but it wasn't working because
Speaker 1: they got away from what made them good. And then
Speaker 1: this year they brought in all these smart players, you know,
Speaker 1: Auto Porter Jr. And Andrea Guadala and Nemanja bi Elicia
Speaker 1: and and they're just all of a sudden vaulting back
Speaker 1: into contention, even with Steph not playing nearly as well
Speaker 1: as he did last year. And to me, that is
Speaker 1: the decision that the Lakers have to make, because what
Speaker 1: you have to ask yourself now is is this not
Speaker 1: working because of an A D injury? Is this not
Speaker 1: working because of Kendrick Nunn? Or is it just not working?
Speaker 1: Because if it's just not working, I know of a
Speaker 1: method of winning basketball that occurs with Lebron and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the floor, and that's finding guys that like
Speaker 1: to do the dirty work. And I know that works.
Speaker 1: And I know that they can make that change at
Speaker 1: this deadline and get it together in time for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I know they can. It'd be difficult, it'd be hard
Speaker 1: to find trade partners. But this is where the the
Speaker 1: Lakers have a little bit of a decision to make,
Speaker 1: because they can either go down with the ship and
Speaker 1: just say, oh, well, it never worked out because we
Speaker 1: never got fully healthy, or call a spade a spade
Speaker 1: when we traded off Westbrook. When we traded for Westbrook,
Speaker 1: the fit wasn't great. He doesn't bring the upside that
Speaker 1: was needed the trade to make any sense. We need
Speaker 1: to go find guys that fit or old identity, an
Speaker 1: identity that worked. And I'm I'm really curious to see
Speaker 1: if they go that route because I think if they
Speaker 1: go down with the ship, this team is gonna lose,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna lose early, I think. So first of all,
Speaker 1: to to talk about Dennis Schroder, right again, it's like
Speaker 1: that trade off of possessions that I was talking about earlier.
Speaker 1: You have to look at their production, how much they
Speaker 1: occupy the ball, how much they make up for their weaknesses,
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth, right Schroder, I mean
Speaker 1: for starters, he shot thirty three and a half percent
Speaker 1: from three Russ shooting under That makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1: He turned it over half as much as Russ is
Speaker 1: right now, his usage compared to Russ is um so right,
Speaker 1: more efficient, less usage like that off the bat that's
Speaker 1: saving you possessions. And then he you know, he gave
Speaker 1: you what three less points per game, but he took
Speaker 1: three and a half four shots less per game than Russ.
Speaker 1: So like that's the other thing with Russ. His field
Speaker 1: goal attempts are usually proportional to how many points he's scoring.
Speaker 1: And if you're scoring about as many points as shots taken,
Speaker 1: that's typically not good. Right Like if if you can't
Speaker 1: make up for it, like I said, by getting extra
Speaker 1: points from the three point line, or by getting extra
Speaker 1: points from going to the free throw line and converting those,
Speaker 1: then your efficiency just drops. And I don't mean the
Speaker 1: nerd out. I'm sure there's some people listening that think
Speaker 1: I'm nerd ing out. But if you really just look
Speaker 1: at it on a possession by possession basis and then
Speaker 1: you factor in the turnovers, that's kind of where you
Speaker 1: get in my opinion. Now, the question is I agree
Speaker 1: with you, because look in Houston, we a lot of
Speaker 1: people have the same thought. At certain points in times,
Speaker 1: we were thinking, look, let's just bench him and just
Speaker 1: go hardening for shooters and just see what we can do,
Speaker 1: because at least we know that the turnovers will be limited,
Speaker 1: the efficiency will be there, and we can at least,
Speaker 1: you know, have an advantage from the three point line
Speaker 1: instead of relying on just a drive in a bucket
Speaker 1: and a drive in a bucket. And people also forget
Speaker 1: that ship is taxing, like, it's not easy to just
Speaker 1: drive every single plane and finish at rey single play.
Speaker 1: Lebron makes it looks easy, makes it look easy, but
Speaker 1: it's not easy, especially when you lose your lift like
Speaker 1: russ Is, and especially when you're thirty three years old
Speaker 1: and getting older like russ It. So that was his game,
Speaker 1: was just bullying and bolting to the to the hoop.
Speaker 1: But doing that over and over gets taxing. So we
Speaker 1: had the same idea, man, just go five out running
Speaker 1: through Harden, try to win from the three point line,
Speaker 1: and try to go small, switch everything and just corral
Speaker 1: everything you can and and make up for what you
Speaker 1: lose with Capella with Covington's weak side shot blocking. Again,
Speaker 1: fortunately the Lakers have Anthony Davis, so I think they're
Speaker 1: better equipped to run that type of game. And you're
Speaker 1: already seeing Lebron can play center when he needs to. Defensively,
Speaker 1: it hasn't really worked out, but offensively, there's absolutely no
Speaker 1: drop off if if not a fucking improvement. So you
Speaker 1: run a D back, you run Lebron back. But the
Speaker 1: question becomes do you have those appropriate three and D guys?
Speaker 1: I think in a vacuum in a seven game series,
Speaker 1: the Lakers can definitely compete with like Wayne Ellington, Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: get th Ht some run. You know, maybe if if
Speaker 1: you get the ghost of a Reza back and you
Speaker 1: can get him useful that type of approach. But the
Speaker 1: issue is you still got half a regular season to go,
Speaker 1: and the reason Russ was brought in obviously was to
Speaker 1: carry the load so that Lebron could chill and to
Speaker 1: shore up some weaknesses for if and when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was going to be hurt, which he is, So now
Speaker 1: you got to go all in and exhaust your resources early,
Speaker 1: uh and ask for a lot more from those vets.
Speaker 1: Then then you may or may not get Malik Monks
Speaker 1: stepped up. So I think Malik Monk is like definitely
Speaker 1: a worthy kind of third fourth candidate for the Lakers
Speaker 1: if they get that a d Lebron line up, A
Speaker 1: guy that can just go out there and towards you
Speaker 1: give you twenty a night just catching and shooting and
Speaker 1: playing off of Lebron um. But I'm a little worried
Speaker 1: about Malik defensively, but yeah, his his offensive fit with
Speaker 1: Lebron has been a really nice you know, cherry from
Speaker 1: this season it just he he was really bad defensively
Speaker 1: against Sacramento last night. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing
Speaker 1: we talked about this preseason, or maybe I've talked about
Speaker 1: it with rage, but the Lakers never got that, like
Speaker 1: like the best three and D option they got. I think,
Speaker 1: unless I'm missing somebody, he was Wayne Ellington, and you know,
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington's cool. But if that's your best, just kind
Speaker 1: of tough, you're going You're still there. But yeah, can
Speaker 1: you hear him? Yeah? I watched you for a second,
Speaker 1: but I think we're good. Yeah, Now, I was just
Speaker 1: saying that. I finished by saying that the list of
Speaker 1: three D players starts with Wayne Ellington, and then I
Speaker 1: think it goes to like a reason who I was,
Speaker 1: you know, describing I think he's fallen off. And then
Speaker 1: after that it just becomes like a crapshoot of of
Speaker 1: who's who. You know, there's really no three in D.
Speaker 1: There's no size, um, there's no like all the guys
Speaker 1: that you have are reliable on one end of the
Speaker 1: floor but not necessarily both, you know, like that identity.
Speaker 1: Even even markis Morris, right, who I never really thought
Speaker 1: was that good, he became a really reliable, dependable three
Speaker 1: and D guy for the Lakers in the Bubble Championship run.
Speaker 1: Obviously we already talked other guys. I just don't think
Speaker 1: they have those pieces right now. Yeah, so the the
Speaker 1: moving forward with the regardless of whether or not they
Speaker 1: decided to dump br Us Outside of that specific equation,
Speaker 1: the Lakers, in my opinion, need to acknowledge the fact
Speaker 1: that their vision for shifting the identity towards offense was
Speaker 1: a mistake. And the sooner they acknowledged that, the sooner
Speaker 1: they have you know, if they if they address that
Speaker 1: need at the trade deadline, I believe this team can
Speaker 1: get back on track now. The Warriors are such a
Speaker 1: perfect example because they did so with literally veteran minimum
Speaker 1: contracts like all up order the elites Andre Gudalad, these
Speaker 1: are all guys that um that costs the veteran minimum,
Speaker 1: and simply because they actually fit into their identity, they
Speaker 1: were able to immediately make an impact and help that
Speaker 1: team vault from fringe playoff contender too probably the favorite
Speaker 1: to win the championship. And I think that's the situation
Speaker 1: that the Lakers are in because with as great as
Speaker 1: Lebron looks and he's really declined defensively in the last week,
Speaker 1: But like we said, we think that's more maybe associated
Speaker 1: with his demeanor and his attitude as more so than
Speaker 1: fatigue because the Lakers have had a lot of days
Speaker 1: off lately, so his defense is inexcusable in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Um that said, we know that there's an engaged version
Speaker 1: of Lebron in there. That's still a devastating to a player.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis coming back, Let's say he gets back to
Speaker 1: a reasonable fact similar of what he was in. If
Speaker 1: those two guys are on the war and they're engaged,
Speaker 1: which they weren't really to start this season, which is
Speaker 1: a big part of why they struggled even when they
Speaker 1: were healthy. If those two are back together and engaged,
Speaker 1: everyone becomes slotted properly that they achieved. They all are
Speaker 1: assigned then a very achievable role. Their jobs on offense
Speaker 1: and defense are simplified down to a point where even
Speaker 1: veteran minimum quality players can succeed. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: the goal at the trade deadline and in the buyout
Speaker 1: market has to be to locate any and all options
Speaker 1: to try to recreate the types of role players that
Speaker 1: we had in season season because again the shift didn't work. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe you can get lucky and build a coherent enough defense,
Speaker 1: are competent enough defense around those guys that Malik Monk
Speaker 1: can stay around and still be you know, the weapon
Speaker 1: that he is. But outside of him, I think every
Speaker 1: other person not named Lebron in a D that's in
Speaker 1: the lineup has to love the dirty work and has
Speaker 1: to be willing to do what Frank Vogel asks them
Speaker 1: to do in their defensive assignments, in the rebounding assignments,
Speaker 1: so on and so forth, because again, there is no
Speaker 1: bonus points gained for being prideful. There is no bonus
Speaker 1: points gained in going down with the ship. Okay, like
Speaker 1: I what I really am not interested in hearing is
Speaker 1: a postseason press conference after they get eliminated, where Lebron
Speaker 1: sitting at the press are going, you know, we just
Speaker 1: never had our full team this year, because as we know,
Speaker 1: that's just not how it works. No one ever has
Speaker 1: their full team the whole year. Even in the season,
Speaker 1: a bunch of role players were in and out of
Speaker 1: the lineup with injury frequently, you know, except for Lebron
Speaker 1: in a D thankfully. But the point is is like,
Speaker 1: at a certain point, a lot of these teams around
Speaker 1: the league, even when they've had guys drop out with COVID,
Speaker 1: even when they've had guys drop out with injuries, they
Speaker 1: been able to succeed because from the top down to
Speaker 1: the roster there's a certain amount of an identity that
Speaker 1: they can lean back on even when guys are out.
Speaker 1: This team doesn't have that. That's entirely missing, but we
Speaker 1: also know it's there. It's a proven method of success.
Speaker 1: And even beyond that, it's about matchups. The Lakers size
Speaker 1: when Lebron and n D are healthy is a real
Speaker 1: problem for the Warriors. It's a real problem in that
Speaker 1: matchup Phoenix. Same thing we saw last year. A D
Speaker 1: just back from injury, Lebron just back from injury, neither
Speaker 1: player really in their rhythm. Their physicality on the front
Speaker 1: line is a real problem for Phoenix. So this is salvageable.
Speaker 1: It just it needs to be salvaged and it needs
Speaker 1: to not involve Okay, well we just never had Kendrick Nunne,
Speaker 1: so we just had bad luck. It needs to be
Speaker 1: acknowledging the reality that's slapping you in the face. So
Speaker 1: one last thing and then I'll let you talk version
Speaker 1: and we'll get out of here. Just a should probably
Speaker 1: goes game. But the h the thing with Russ if
Speaker 1: he is gonna stay, which is the most likely scenario
Speaker 1: because it's going to be extremely difficult to find a
Speaker 1: trade partner in the middle of the season, Russ needs
Speaker 1: to wake the hell up. What we've seen out of
Speaker 1: him in press conferences recently demonstrates a person who lacks
Speaker 1: any self awareness in terms of what the team needs
Speaker 1: from him. The fact that he thinks, you know, it's
Speaker 1: about him not putting up fourteen and fourteen the way
Speaker 1: he used to the fact that he thinks it's about
Speaker 1: the way he's being utilized in the offense. You know,
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of people bring up the Mellow
Speaker 1: comparison and Mellow learning through his departure from the league
Speaker 1: to change some parts of his game that needed to
Speaker 1: be changed. Well, Russ needs to do the same thing
Speaker 1: within the confines of this season. He needs to understand
Speaker 1: that he is not the same offensive player he was
Speaker 1: in his prime, and so he's going to be utilized
Speaker 1: different offensively, which just the thing he's been complaining about
Speaker 1: in the pressers recently. He needs to embrace that and
Speaker 1: understand that the team needs him to contribute everywhere else.
Speaker 1: We always talk about Russ being Russ, and one of
Speaker 1: my consistent themes with the season is Russ cannot be Russ.
Speaker 1: Russ being Russ is bad for this team because in
Speaker 1: his role, especially with Lebron and Ad be healthy, it's
Speaker 1: about him confining his mistakes and limiting his mistakes. So
Speaker 1: the Russ brand of bowling a china shop, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make ten mistakes but make fifteen good plays doesn't work
Speaker 1: anymore because offensively, he's not going to be utilized enough
Speaker 1: to make fifteen good plays on this team, especially when
Speaker 1: they're healthy. So if Russ is gonna stay, the only
Speaker 1: way this is gonna work is if he has a
Speaker 1: wake up call individually and understands that he needs to
Speaker 1: adapt to the same way that everybody else in NBA
Speaker 1: history who when they reach the second the middle of
Speaker 1: the second decade in the league, where they've got to
Speaker 1: adjust the way they play. And if he can figure
Speaker 1: that out and get to the point where he cuts
Speaker 1: back on mistakes, cuts back on the things he used
Speaker 1: to do, and try to because even at this point
Speaker 1: in his career. Even with his diminished athleticism, he's still
Speaker 1: a good NBA athlete at the point guard position with
Speaker 1: great size. So if he can find a way two
Speaker 1: adjust and adapt his game to his age, there's a
Speaker 1: version of this where it could work. But that what
Speaker 1: I what I worry about, and the reason why I've
Speaker 1: advocated for trading him today for the first time this
Speaker 1: season is because I don't think he's going to learn
Speaker 1: that lesson, and everything that I hear from him impressors
Speaker 1: everything I see from him in his demeanor tells me
Speaker 1: this is a guy who thinks he's not getting enough touches.
Speaker 1: Tells me this is a guy who thinks it's and
Speaker 1: everybody else problem, and not a hymn problem. It's it's
Speaker 1: a guy who's defiantly going down and and that's that's discouraging.
Speaker 1: But I mean, if he's gonna stay, the only way
Speaker 1: this is gonna work is if he makes some changes.
Speaker 1: Russ can't be Russ anymore for the same reason that
Speaker 1: Mellow couldn't be Mellow when he was with Okay. See,
Speaker 1: Mellow had to become spot up shooter Mellow in order
Speaker 1: to maintain his spot in the league. That's where Russ
Speaker 1: is at. Russ needs to be more like Drew Holiday,
Speaker 1: a player who devotes the vast majority of his energy
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the floor and offensively finds
Speaker 1: a place to fit in alongside two superior offensive players
Speaker 1: through limiting mistakes and taking advantage of his size as
Speaker 1: a power guard when he has the opportunity. That's the
Speaker 1: way that I see this thing working. But I'm just
Speaker 1: being honest with you, guys, I don't see it. I
Speaker 1: I that is such an idealistic vision. How Like if
Speaker 1: you had to ask yourself if Russ is gonna make
Speaker 1: a significant change in the way that he approaches the game,
Speaker 1: do you think that's going to happen? Like I don't.
Speaker 1: But anyway that that's where I'm at. And like again,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard because there is a This team is
Speaker 1: not as bad as they look. When you tie up
Speaker 1: all of your talent and Lebron and Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: one of them goes down, it's gonna be ugly. This
Speaker 1: isn't like the Sun's You don't have tons of death,
Speaker 1: but lack that top tier star power so that when
Speaker 1: Devin Booker goes out, you're still pretty good. That's not
Speaker 1: how it works, because if you make a trade for
Speaker 1: someone like Anthony Davis, you understand you're top heavy, and
Speaker 1: when you're top heavy and someone gets hurt, this is
Speaker 1: part of the problem. So I understand all of that. However,
Speaker 1: even acknowledging that this isn't working, and I struggle to
Speaker 1: see how anybody thinks it could be. But that's just
Speaker 1: my opinion. Yeah, man, I'll end by saying, um, I
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think the making ten mistakes but
Speaker 1: making fifteen good plays to make up for it is
Speaker 1: kind of what I was trying to talk about when
Speaker 1: I was mentioning wasting possessions. And he's at a point
Speaker 1: where he's not making ten mistakes but making up for
Speaker 1: it fifteen times. It's like more ten to ten or
Speaker 1: even you know, ten mistakes to like seven plays they
Speaker 1: make up for it or whatever. So exactly, I think
Speaker 1: that you know, and I told you all this before
Speaker 1: before or during the off season, before the season, but man,
Speaker 1: he is focused. His game is centered around where the
Speaker 1: basketball is, and that's on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: Right He's not making reads off the ball, he's not
Speaker 1: seeing the play developed two plays ahead, he's not considering
Speaker 1: what's going to happen on the defensive end. You know,
Speaker 1: when penetration happens and the ball gets kicked and then
Speaker 1: the ball starts moving around the perimeter, he's not looking
Speaker 1: for the skip pass like, he's just looking at where
Speaker 1: the ball is. And on offense, when he's got the ball,
Speaker 1: he's just thinking about, Okay, I have the ball, and
Speaker 1: so Arena bring that up. Is because when you get older,
Speaker 1: you adjust by seeing the plays developed ahead of time,
Speaker 1: because that's how you're able to compensate for the lack
Speaker 1: of athleticism or the loss of athleticism, and then you
Speaker 1: can use i Q and skill. Skill. He's not really
Speaker 1: a skill guy, right, he doesn't have touch both at
Speaker 1: the rim, jump, shooting, whatever. He's just always been like,
Speaker 1: if he wasn't a supreme athlete, he probably would not
Speaker 1: have made the NBA. He made the NBA and and
Speaker 1: had success because he's an incredible phenomenal athlete um and
Speaker 1: we're seeing what he's become with without that. But I
Speaker 1: know for a fact when he was in Houston, I
Speaker 1: will give him credit for trying to adjust his game,
Speaker 1: because in Houston, he tried to adjust his game and
Speaker 1: it worked in in l A. Right now he's trying
Speaker 1: to adjust his game, but it's not working. But the
Speaker 1: flip side of that is that adjusting it's no matter
Speaker 1: how you slice it, it's all about him. It always
Speaker 1: comes down to him. It has like everything revolves around him.
Speaker 1: It has to be changed for him to feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: for him to operate optimally. Right, the Rockets fucking traded
Speaker 1: Clint Capella so that he could rust could get his numbers. Um,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are obviously made the trade they did, and
Speaker 1: they're now trying to go small and they've moved and
Speaker 1: shifted the lineup around, just trying to accommodate. Nothing is
Speaker 1: really working. But I know for a fact in Houston,
Speaker 1: once ship hit the fan and Harden was getting out
Speaker 1: of there, that he had a conversation with the Rockets
Speaker 1: brass that basically the message he sent was, Hey, I
Speaker 1: don't care about being on a winning team. I don't
Speaker 1: care about playing Rockets basketball. I want the ball back
Speaker 1: in my hands, So do what you gotta do get
Speaker 1: me out of here. And they did. Um, And I
Speaker 1: think that he viewed so crazy to me. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I think he viewed that that season at Washington as
Speaker 1: a huge victory and like vindication for him, you know, like, hey,
Speaker 1: russ ball works. Like I told y'all, I still got it.
Speaker 1: I'm back watch me work. You know, I just took
Speaker 1: the Wizards to the play in to the playoff whatever
Speaker 1: and so and if again, if you listen to that
Speaker 1: space last night where his brother was talking, people were
Speaker 1: bringing up, you know, statistics, how he finishes at the rim,
Speaker 1: where he ranks against other other guards in terms of
Speaker 1: finishing at the rim, all these things, and their responses
Speaker 1: to that. I remember one was, yeah, but who's counting
Speaker 1: all the layups that you know, rim in and out?
Speaker 1: That was one response, and then the second response from
Speaker 1: his brother was, yeah, do you know who leads the
Speaker 1: NBA and play off triple doubles for the last ten years?
Speaker 1: And that was the retort, right, Like, that's how they
Speaker 1: processed and viewed his contributions to the game. And I
Speaker 1: think it only makes sense that those are the voices
Speaker 1: most likely around him, and they're probably echoing his sentiments
Speaker 1: and how he thinks. Right, so the whole if he
Speaker 1: can just do X y Z, I think you got
Speaker 1: to throw that out the window. The only caveat is
Speaker 1: that if he magically becomes like a thirty five three
Speaker 1: point shooter on high volume, then you're working with something. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: I think you're just gonna have to, Like I said
Speaker 1: before the season started, you're just gonna have to shore
Speaker 1: up his mistakes as best as you can, because he
Speaker 1: does ball watch right, you can't. There's no way you
Speaker 1: can make up for him for his defensive lapses. There's
Speaker 1: no way you can make up for his lack of
Speaker 1: what he does off the ball. Um when he when
Speaker 1: he has the ball in his hands, man, he moves
Speaker 1: first and thinks second. I think Roger said this last night.
Speaker 1: He passes to he passes the ball two spaces on
Speaker 1: the court, not to people, and that's because he's moving
Speaker 1: first and expecting the help. And then yeah, that's for
Speaker 1: the record, that's not making a read. That that is
Speaker 1: not making a You're not making a read if you
Speaker 1: pass to an open to pass to a spot on
Speaker 1: the floor and most most importantly there, any good team
Speaker 1: is going to take that away. Any good team, right,
Speaker 1: And they do. And that's why you see some of
Speaker 1: those like Garrant passes that just like float out of
Speaker 1: bounds to nobody or whatever, right because he's expecting someone
Speaker 1: to be there without actually making the read. But but
Speaker 1: he moves first and he thinks second, and that has
Speaker 1: always been his m O. And now that his body
Speaker 1: is not what it used to be, he's not adjusting
Speaker 1: to that well. So I really don't see I just
Speaker 1: don't see the middle ground for him, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna keep seeing what you're seeing. Hopefully
Speaker 1: Ad shows it up, maybe a roster, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: a trade or a reason comes back healthy or something
Speaker 1: like that shores it all up, or eventually hands up
Speaker 1: on another team where they just give him the ball
Speaker 1: and he can play Russ Ball and kind of do
Speaker 1: what he did with the Wizards. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: literally one of those two. There's really knowing between. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll be really interesting to see Um Russ. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you coming to hang out, man, Um, Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: guys for coming to hang out. I'm to get back
Speaker 1: out with the family and do some skiing. This was interesting.
Speaker 1: It was like recording a podcast at ten thousand feats,
Speaker 1: like recording a podcast power walking. I swear I was
Speaker 1: like out of breath half the time. But anyway, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys coming to hang out. I'm gonna post
Speaker 1: this one on our podcast feed, probably at midnight tonight
Speaker 1: since we have rash Raja's out from last night. This
Speaker 1: will also air on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven
Speaker 1: am Pacific Standard time. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: the support. We will be back for the postgame show
Speaker 1: on Saturday. Thanks Ruce, We'll see you next time, Buddy yep,
Speaker 1: And if I could plug real quick, Ball is Life
Speaker 1: the podcast, the number one podcast on Ball is Life.
Speaker 1: We just did an episode with Nikola Vukovich of the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bulls that I put out today, So check my
Speaker 1: feed and give that a listen. And thanks Jason, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. All right, guys, have a going