Speaker 1: Mmmm, Welcome to the State of the Lakers post game
Speaker 1: show from our season opener against the Warriors and incredibly
Speaker 1: frustrating games, probably one of the top two or three
Speaker 1: most frustrating games that I can remember watching in this
Speaker 1: Lebron era with the Lakers. So I'm a little annoyed
Speaker 1: right now, but I'm sure most of you are too.
Speaker 1: And Roger and I are going to talk about the
Speaker 1: game for five minutes or so, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: get you guys up here to vent um roj We're
Speaker 1: we're what's your headspace like right now? Where you at? Mentally?
Speaker 1: So this is I predicted them to lose tonight, and like,
Speaker 1: I guess my first just overall look at this is
Speaker 1: they gave zero crap about the preseason I mean all
Speaker 1: that stuff we were talking about trying to break down
Speaker 1: preseason games, and then you look at tonight, if of
Speaker 1: like they were just playing a completely different sport and
Speaker 1: just like that competitiveness was there in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: and I predicted that the Warriors would win. I just
Speaker 1: thought they looked a lot more comfortable, a lot more ready.
Speaker 1: This team looks like it fits what Kerr wants to
Speaker 1: do on offense. So I guess that's my first look
Speaker 1: is that the Warriors look good. They look legit even
Speaker 1: without Clay Thompson, and then the fit with us is
Speaker 1: still not there, right, And I guess that's the place
Speaker 1: we can go to. But for me, I want to
Speaker 1: start with the good. So where do you want to start?
Speaker 1: Do you want to start with Lebron or do you
Speaker 1: want to start with a D. I think those are
Speaker 1: the two, I guess bright spots that you can say
Speaker 1: about this game. So yeah, we will we will start
Speaker 1: with the positive. I will try my hart ist I.
Speaker 1: I also predicted the Lakers would lose this game, but
Speaker 1: I predicted they would lose the game because I thought
Speaker 1: they were playing bad basketball in general in the preseason.
Speaker 1: Just with their effort level and their focus and their
Speaker 1: attention to detail. They seemed like a team to me
Speaker 1: that hadn't really hit that gear yet. And one of
Speaker 1: my consistent basketball philosophies is that you can't do that overnight.
Speaker 1: Like you that is something that is a ball that
Speaker 1: has to get rolling, and usually if you run into
Speaker 1: a team who's playing at that level and you are not,
Speaker 1: you will lose. And that's what I expected to happen.
Speaker 1: But today I also tweeted out that the one case
Speaker 1: here would be what Lebron was talking about, the fact
Speaker 1: that they've been having good practices, and that appears to
Speaker 1: be true. It appears that they've been having good practices
Speaker 1: and that has led to the defensive intensity that we
Speaker 1: saw basically through the first two and a half quarters. Um,
Speaker 1: obviously that's not what happened. We're going to get into that.
Speaker 1: The positives though, and this to me is actually a
Speaker 1: little concerning. Is Lebron and a d look like two
Speaker 1: of the top five players in the world something On
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor, they look fantastic. Lebron looks
Speaker 1: every good as good as he has in his time
Speaker 1: as a Laker, both athletically getting where he needs to
Speaker 1: on the floor with his with his uh, you know,
Speaker 1: his mobility, and also with his touch and his feel
Speaker 1: and his passing and all stuff. He looks great. Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: My main concern with him in the preseason was not
Speaker 1: how he looks physically, because he looks great. I was
Speaker 1: just worried about his jumper because he seems to be
Speaker 1: in a pretty extended jump shooting slop, and he shopped
Speaker 1: the ball pretty well today, but think with exception of
Speaker 1: the free throw line, so there was so much good
Speaker 1: on that side of things, and I I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that we point that out. However, that's what
Speaker 1: scares me, is like the whole point of this formula
Speaker 1: is that when Lebron and a D look good, you
Speaker 1: lose the other team. I mean, and in this case,
Speaker 1: like the Lakers really didn't even have a chance to
Speaker 1: win with how bad it was there at the end,
Speaker 1: and so that that has to be concerning, I think,
Speaker 1: I think, and that's unfortunate. But anyway, what was your
Speaker 1: opinion first look at the Lebron in a d uh
Speaker 1: situation to start those seasons. Yeah, so obviously it was
Speaker 1: a little bit concerning. Like I wasn't worried about him
Speaker 1: in preseason, but they just didn't look in rhythm. So
Speaker 1: we talked about it all the time, like that is
Speaker 1: the most important thing of the season. And we can
Speaker 1: break down the other guys, you know, Russell Westbrooks Fair,
Speaker 1: we can break down the xs and knows how ugly
Speaker 1: the spacing is, but those two guys are on. That's
Speaker 1: the core you built around this, right, This is a
Speaker 1: whole new, revamped team a bunch of you guys, him,
Speaker 1: A D, Lebron, THHD Rondo, right, and do I that's
Speaker 1: the core. But your core is Lebron and a D.
Speaker 1: Those two have to show up or you don't have
Speaker 1: a chance to win anyway, right, So those two being
Speaker 1: your ground floor and you can build around that. And
Speaker 1: I thought they looked great. I thought a D his
Speaker 1: jumper was going by. I don't even want to kind
Speaker 1: of consider that because that looks like it's going to
Speaker 1: be up and down as the season goes. But he
Speaker 1: was attacking the rim, right, he had Wantascano Anderson on him,
Speaker 1: and it was just you know, spin moved right to
Speaker 1: the basket, get foul or and Rondo and him had
Speaker 1: a connection on laws as well. It's good to see
Speaker 1: him being a vertical threat being up in the air, Um,
Speaker 1: not just everything has a jumped out. His three pointer
Speaker 1: wasn't there either, but just seeing attacking the rim, Lebron
Speaker 1: was hitting his jumper and like he wasn't really going
Speaker 1: to the basket because he didn't have to. His jumper
Speaker 1: looked on and you could tell he felt it. Um.
Speaker 1: He was hitting for mid range and it was kind
Speaker 1: of masking and all the ugly Lakers offense right, um,
Speaker 1: because because his jumper was going, but he looked good
Speaker 1: physically as well. He was getting down the court and
Speaker 1: defensively man. So so I want to ask you about this,
Speaker 1: because they trapped Steff pretty much all game right until
Speaker 1: like the end of the third or fourth, or they
Speaker 1: trapped Steff all game, and seeing Lebron defend that way,
Speaker 1: it is just something I haven't seen even last season.
Speaker 1: You saw it in bits and parts, but just him
Speaker 1: as his help defender, man, because when you trapped Steff,
Speaker 1: you need a guy people to rotate, and I thought
Speaker 1: he was awesome on that. Anthony David's as well. Covered
Speaker 1: up for a million defensive mistakes man, especially those Carmelo
Speaker 1: Rondo Westbrook lineups next to a D and a D.
Speaker 1: Pretty much had to clean up everything, and he was
Speaker 1: doing a pretty nice job of it. And I thought
Speaker 1: the Warriors would eventually take the lead. Their three point
Speaker 1: shooting would eventually come up. They took fourteen threes in
Speaker 1: the first half, which is way below what they usually
Speaker 1: go to, so I knew that would kind of pick up.
Speaker 1: And plus it's tough to play a trapping scheme as
Speaker 1: long as they did, that's just really tiring for defense,
Speaker 1: and I thought that would kind of catch up to him.
Speaker 1: So that was my kind of takeaways. I thought, ad
Speaker 1: Lebron looked great, and then from there, I guess we
Speaker 1: can kind of iv into everything else. But it's good
Speaker 1: to have that foundation. I guess that gives me a
Speaker 1: little bit of a about the fresh air from from
Speaker 1: seeing this tonight. Yeah, let me give that as the
Speaker 1: silver lining here is that with Lebron and A D
Speaker 1: looking this good, Frank should be able to find a way,
Speaker 1: um to to make this work. And and for the record,
Speaker 1: most of the Lebron, especially the Lebron A D lineups
Speaker 1: looks great in this game. And to your point, with
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis being able to clean things up
Speaker 1: on the back end, it makes the job so much
Speaker 1: easier for the other guys on the floor. And this
Speaker 1: is kind of where I think Frank lost me in
Speaker 1: terms of the tactical approach to this game. You know,
Speaker 1: you and I have talked throughout the preseason about like,
Speaker 1: you know, a base like a base floor level of
Speaker 1: talent that you have to have on the floor on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor in order for things to
Speaker 1: function right, Like if you have too little shooting, once
Speaker 1: you cross a certain threshold, then Lebron and they d
Speaker 1: won't be able to do their job. Abobs, if you
Speaker 1: have two little defensive talent on the floor, then people
Speaker 1: won't be able to do their jobs. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's the thing that was frustrating for me, is like,
Speaker 1: how can you possibly I think it's a good idea
Speaker 1: to play Mellow and Rondo at the same time. Like that,
Speaker 1: that to me is asking for those guys to fail
Speaker 1: because on their best day they can maybe feel a
Speaker 1: very small role next to elite defensive players. You know, Mellow,
Speaker 1: you had some stretches there early in the game where
Speaker 1: he looked okay defensively when he was with the better players,
Speaker 1: but they're in the in the middle of the third quarter,
Speaker 1: it was one of the worst stretches of defense that
Speaker 1: I've seen from him, and then he obviously made some
Speaker 1: mistakes in the fourth quarter as well. That to me
Speaker 1: is that the you know, Frank understands that he does.
Speaker 1: I know he does, especially with his defensive approach to
Speaker 1: the game. So I just genuinely didn't understand. And I
Speaker 1: know people have talked about injuries and I get that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Rondo's minutes, they're going to go to Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nunn at some point, you know, like some of these
Speaker 1: wing minutes, probably all of DeAndre Jordan's minutes are going
Speaker 1: to go to Trevor Reza at some point. Like there
Speaker 1: is going to be you know, a greener pastor on
Speaker 1: the other side of this that injury luck they've had
Speaker 1: to start the season. However, right now he still has
Speaker 1: better options than what he's putting out there, and just
Speaker 1: the way he's mixing this up and and I was,
Speaker 1: I was, it was frustrating to watch that because it
Speaker 1: just seemed to me like, like, as a coach, how
Speaker 1: do you not see that when you play Westbrook Rondo,
Speaker 1: Molik Monk, Carmelo Anthony, and Anthony Davis, that that lineup
Speaker 1: is not gonna be able to guard, especially against a
Speaker 1: team that has at any given moment two or three
Speaker 1: guys that can put the ball on the floor and
Speaker 1: get to the basket and shoot off the dribble like
Speaker 1: that's your It's just it just was annoying and frustrating
Speaker 1: for me as a fan to watch that when my
Speaker 1: inferior or basketball mines compared to Frank Vogel could put
Speaker 1: two and two together and realized that wasn't gonna work,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Right, look, this is year
Speaker 1: three of Frank Vogel, Like like we're not new to this.
Speaker 1: Frank Vogeo is not new to this. He plays vets, right,
Speaker 1: He's gonna play his vets. And I always thought, you know,
Speaker 1: Rondo came in and said he would play Jerry Dudley Rowland.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's true when the team is healthy, but right now,
Speaker 1: who's our backup guard? Like you talked about Kendrick Dunn
Speaker 1: is out? I feel like those minutes would go to
Speaker 1: th h T as well. Carmelo is getting the reason
Speaker 1: minutes probably right um leik Monica as well. Isn't I
Speaker 1: think fully healthy? But but we'll see. But it's funny
Speaker 1: seeing the kind of timeline go crazy on Carmelo, saying
Speaker 1: like you should just stand in the corner and to me,
Speaker 1: to me, twenty six minutes to night for Carmelo was
Speaker 1: too high, Like I've always said, always said that, Like
Speaker 1: I thought ten to fifteen minutes to night was fine
Speaker 1: for him. And look, he did his job tonight. Like
Speaker 1: if you're expecting Melo to go and you know read
Speaker 1: these splits, uh, these split post actions that the warriors
Speaker 1: run and able to come out on Steph and able
Speaker 1: to hedge high like his job is to kind of
Speaker 1: trap and he I thought he did his job fairly
Speaker 1: well in that and to cook for a little while.
Speaker 1: He he did push an offensive run right, and then
Speaker 1: he got, you know, a little happy with his post
Speaker 1: ups and stuff. So I don't know, like blaming Carmela
Speaker 1: for that. It's tough to me. And I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, what do you He made a critical, critical
Speaker 1: defensive error when the game was I think it was
Speaker 1: back to two and he was guarding a step a
Speaker 1: Steph Curry pick and roll and didn't even come out
Speaker 1: above the top of the key and I and I
Speaker 1: literally was just like that, the game is in the balance,
Speaker 1: and you need to have guys on the floor who
Speaker 1: understand the way that that Steph Curry pick and roll
Speaker 1: can change the complexion of the game and understand the
Speaker 1: job that you have there in that pick and role,
Speaker 1: and that that to me is mellow. Throughout his career,
Speaker 1: for better or worse, has not had to worry about
Speaker 1: that stuff because of the role that he's had on
Speaker 1: those teams when he was in his prime, and and
Speaker 1: that that to me is just like it to me
Speaker 1: was the kind of the epitome of what we've been
Speaker 1: worried about coming into this is just you know, these
Speaker 1: particular guys, you can count on them for small stretches,
Speaker 1: like you're saying, for small roles. But when it's middle
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter and Steph just checks in at
Speaker 1: the six minute mark and that's Carmelo Anthony defending the
Speaker 1: screener and a pick and roll, Steph Curry is salivating
Speaker 1: at them. That's what he wants to see. And I
Speaker 1: just feel like there were better options, but that I
Speaker 1: digress anywhere. Yeah, and they picked on him a lot
Speaker 1: all night, right, They brought up whoever Carmelo was guarding
Speaker 1: and made him the screener. And again that's going to happen,
Speaker 1: like I and I just don't I feel like you
Speaker 1: can get away with one bad defender like we talked about,
Speaker 1: But just the Rondo Westbrook mellow lineups, and I think
Speaker 1: Malik Monk also out there next to a D. That's
Speaker 1: just a lot for a D to cover. And the
Speaker 1: Warriors are one of the best ball movement motion offense
Speaker 1: teams in the league, and that's just really tough to stop.
Speaker 1: They drive and kick really well, and they got us
Speaker 1: in the rotation a bunch. And again I thought in
Speaker 1: the first half our defense was okay, But those those
Speaker 1: end of the quarter kind of runs, I think we
Speaker 1: gave up a bunch of runs just to end the quarter. Right.
Speaker 1: Whenever lebron would come out or a d will come
Speaker 1: out and just get a little break before the end
Speaker 1: of quarters, the Warriors will go on a run, whether
Speaker 1: Steff was on the floor or nine. I thought that
Speaker 1: was pretty much what decided the game. And in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter when they went on that run without Steph
Speaker 1: even on the floor, I thought that was a pretty
Speaker 1: bad moment. But I want to ask you about DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's because I see a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: people upset at him, and I have my thoughts. I
Speaker 1: guess it's funny like I gave the Javail comps and
Speaker 1: the first play of the game we ran was when
Speaker 1: we won the tip and he immediately ran to the rim.
Speaker 1: I got a lot dunk, which is exactly the play
Speaker 1: that they would run with Javel every single time that
Speaker 1: you want to want to tip. But I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, like, what do you think of Javelle? Sorry
Speaker 1: not Javelle, excuse me. DeAndre Jordan's uh tonight was a
Speaker 1: plus two on the night and he only played twelve minutes,
Speaker 1: you know, so it's tough for me to blame the
Speaker 1: game on him when he only played twelve minutes to night,
Speaker 1: But what do you think of DeAndre Jordan's at center? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna vent here again for a second, so I
Speaker 1: apologize in advance for people because I'm gonna sound very annoyed.
Speaker 1: You know, of course he was plushed. He was playing
Speaker 1: alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davison, Russell Westbrook. They made
Speaker 1: his job and you know, and and what what's what
Speaker 1: was frustrating for me is again you have to look
Speaker 1: at the bigger picture here, and they play DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: to look at the bigger picture. Their thought process is
Speaker 1: we need to keep our centers engaged, because apparently DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan isn't enough of a professional to realize that if
Speaker 1: he's not in the rotation for you know, ten games,
Speaker 1: but then Dwight takes a break, but that's his time
Speaker 1: to play. Like, for whatever reason, they can't kind of
Speaker 1: figure that concept out because they used to do the
Speaker 1: same thing with Javail McGee for whatever reason. But the
Speaker 1: point is, they didn't score for the first three minutes
Speaker 1: of the second half, and uh, when they finally did,
Speaker 1: I think the Warriors were on a eight to two
Speaker 1: run or something like that at that point, blowing whatever
Speaker 1: progress you had established in the first half. Why did
Speaker 1: they not score in the first three minutes of the
Speaker 1: second half? You tell me? Was it a lack of space?
Speaker 1: Was it the fact that you had essentially useless offensive
Speaker 1: body on the floor like that? That That's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that I look at here is as far
Speaker 1: as I'm concerned, Yes, you're gonna win those minutes because
Speaker 1: of how good or stars are. But if instead of
Speaker 1: being plus two with your starters, maybe your plus twelve
Speaker 1: with your starters, because that's what should happen when you
Speaker 1: have Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the court at
Speaker 1: the same time and you're you're willingly sacrificing points for
Speaker 1: the sake of of catering to this person's emotions, and
Speaker 1: you know, and I get it. Some people have pointed
Speaker 1: out to me today, Hey, you had injuries. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: two guards and wings. That puts you in the position
Speaker 1: where DeAndre Jordan has to play. I call absolute horship
Speaker 1: on that part of my language. And the reason why
Speaker 1: is because when you actually look at the way Um
Speaker 1: Lebron and A D defend on the back line, they
Speaker 1: when the two of them are on the court together,
Speaker 1: size is not an issue. It's absolutely not an issue.
Speaker 1: And when you get into other lineups, when Lebron or
Speaker 1: a D on the floor by themselves, that's when you
Speaker 1: need to have somebody like a a Dwight Howard on
Speaker 1: the floor to help with the overall size of the lineup,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense, or you know, like I've always preached,
Speaker 1: like if you're gonna play Carmelo playing with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: that well, like you discussed, so that Anthony Davis can
Speaker 1: help clean up some of his mistakes. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, they had options, Austin reeves when
Speaker 1: you actually look at what they need from that role,
Speaker 1: because you know what, and Carmelo's post ups aren't actually
Speaker 1: moving the needle. They might help you rescue the occasional
Speaker 1: possession here or there, but they aren't actually moving in
Speaker 1: the needle. When you look at what you need from
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves to do while he's on the floor, guard,
Speaker 1: get over the top of screens, help but with box outs, help,
Speaker 1: crash the glass, run the floor, and transition, you know,
Speaker 1: defend like crazy, all that stuff. When you look at
Speaker 1: what you're asking him to do, he can succeed in
Speaker 1: that role. And that was where I got was frustrated
Speaker 1: with it is you had the ability to make sure
Speaker 1: that your baseline size and baseline physicality was still there
Speaker 1: without playing DeAndre Jordan's. And I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that the Lakers couldn't score to start the second half.
Speaker 1: I absolutely think that was because of DeAndre Jordan's but
Speaker 1: that's for sure. And I kind of disagree with you
Speaker 1: that it's only to what's called cater to DeAndre Jordan's right,
Speaker 1: because I think this is Vogel again to me with
Speaker 1: this is our third year with him. He's a counterpuncher, right,
Speaker 1: so he's gonna go with what he likes. He likes
Speaker 1: that two big lineup. I think that's no secret. I
Speaker 1: think he said that as well. And I think he
Speaker 1: likes Dwight Howard in the in that kind of backup role.
Speaker 1: And to me, again, six minutes every half, I don't
Speaker 1: think that's why they lost his lost his game. And
Speaker 1: again it is a trade off between offensive defense and
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan is not going to be able to come
Speaker 1: out onto Step. But I thought there were a few
Speaker 1: players where, like you saw, kind of the structure of
Speaker 1: the defense they well, even if DeAndre Jordan is not
Speaker 1: the correct guy to place in it, where like bays
Speaker 1: Moore would you know, fight fight over step Chase Steph
Speaker 1: and then give him back pressure while DJ is kind
Speaker 1: of waiting in the lane and you have a D
Speaker 1: and Lebron kind of roaming trying to trying to guard
Speaker 1: three on two and stuff like that on the on
Speaker 1: the back side. Like, I think that's kind of the
Speaker 1: structure they want. And again it was just six minutes
Speaker 1: in each half. And I don't think he decided this game.
Speaker 1: I don't think he helped the game either. I think
Speaker 1: it's just some thing that a D obviously likes. And
Speaker 1: again maybe injuries is the excuse why he can start
Speaker 1: right now, but I just think that's where it is
Speaker 1: with DeAndre Jordan. So that's kind of my take on DJ.
Speaker 1: But again, like to be clear, I thought he was
Speaker 1: a little I thought he was. I thought he had
Speaker 1: stretches in the preseason where he where he was a
Speaker 1: little bit more you know, driven with his motor and
Speaker 1: he was moving and actually getting down in the defensive
Speaker 1: stance and trying to be mobile and trying to be
Speaker 1: impactful defensively. Like I thought he was really good against
Speaker 1: the Kings the other night, but but tonight in particular,
Speaker 1: he just wasn't good. He did like when when when
Speaker 1: Namanza b Elites or not or Kevin Looney, I should say,
Speaker 1: when Kevin Looney catches the ball on the block and
Speaker 1: he can very easily just pump fake you out of
Speaker 1: your shoes and just go to the other side and finish,
Speaker 1: Like that's the one that we need you to shut down,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, That's an easy job. You're
Speaker 1: seven ft or your sixpen and you're relatively mobile. You
Speaker 1: should be able to keep Keevan Looney from scoring if
Speaker 1: he doesn't have an obvious advantage against you. And and
Speaker 1: those are the kinds of things where I thought that
Speaker 1: like he he wasn't as good as he could have been.
Speaker 1: But also I think depending on him in that starter role,
Speaker 1: I think it's a mistake. I think that's I called it.
Speaker 1: Point shaving today is a joke, and to be clear,
Speaker 1: I was joking. But to be clear, I think for
Speaker 1: the for whatever the size, whatever it is that he
Speaker 1: is obsessed with with having size on the floor, I
Speaker 1: think the trade off on the other end is actually
Speaker 1: negatively impacting the team. Yeah, And like my biggest issue
Speaker 1: where I was going with this with the like starting lineup,
Speaker 1: and again I've talked about it. I don't mind the
Speaker 1: six minutes to start each half because he's not going
Speaker 1: to play when it matters. But my biggest issue is
Speaker 1: that we're seeing a D only play the five next
Speaker 1: to Carmelo, right, so we're not seeing any Lebron in
Speaker 1: a D at the four or five, which is where
Speaker 1: you get that advantage, right where Lebron kind of moves
Speaker 1: down a vision and he's able to play the four
Speaker 1: and still and they still be this physical monster. When
Speaker 1: you put Carmelo at that spot, I just feel like
Speaker 1: it makes it a lot different, especially with the struggles
Speaker 1: that Russ is having as well. It's it's really weird,
Speaker 1: like we ran our offense through Avery Bradley to close
Speaker 1: the game, like it was like Harmelo Avery Bradley, Lebron
Speaker 1: a D I believe to close the game and we're
Speaker 1: running our offense through Bradley. And just a quick funny
Speaker 1: thing on Avery Bradley. He wasn't here last season, but
Speaker 1: it's funny how they just went right back to running
Speaker 1: actions they ran with him in nineteen. It was like
Speaker 1: dribble handoff that he likes to do, kind of come
Speaker 1: off and you saw him feed a D and he
Speaker 1: hit his corner three is just funny um to kind
Speaker 1: of see him get minutes. But yeah, that's my biggest
Speaker 1: issue with that is that we don't get enough Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D at the four or five with Russ
Speaker 1: actually as well. I think that would help us as well,
Speaker 1: just in terms of spacing and stuff. We see Russ
Speaker 1: like playing next to Melow and again Melo counts space,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of times he goes into the
Speaker 1: post um. But I guess we can kind of move
Speaker 1: on from that. Let's talk about the big thing that's
Speaker 1: going to be. I guess the storyline every single night.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is going away the last you first, like,
Speaker 1: what what do you think of Russ tonight? This is
Speaker 1: day one. I want people to remember that this is
Speaker 1: day number one of Russell Westbrook, a regular season Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: What do you see from us and night and in totality.
Speaker 1: So I talked about this with you and Mr Jason
Speaker 1: Maples in the UH the other day, and so I'm
Speaker 1: to be clear and I have to disclose this up front.
Speaker 1: I I have a preconceived notion of this move. I
Speaker 1: didn't like the trade when it happened. I thought it
Speaker 1: would negatively impact the team. So that's probably gonna color
Speaker 1: my analysis to some extent. So I want to disclose
Speaker 1: that up front. That's set right now. Russ is a
Speaker 1: bad basketball player. He cannot shoot. He has poor shots selection,
Speaker 1: he has poor drive selection. He's looks like a bowl
Speaker 1: in a china shop. He there were several possessions in
Speaker 1: the second half where when he had absolutely no angle
Speaker 1: or spacing or even any real, you know, vision of
Speaker 1: what the defense was doing and what his advantage was.
Speaker 1: He would just put his head down and go into
Speaker 1: the lane and either throw some stupid thing up at
Speaker 1: the room that had no chance of going in or
Speaker 1: turn it over get an offensive foul. And then on defense,
Speaker 1: he was actually pretty good to start the game, but
Speaker 1: I thought as the game progressed, he got sloppier and
Speaker 1: sloppier on that end, and a lot of this I
Speaker 1: need to watch the film. I need to go back
Speaker 1: tomorrow and get a really good clear look at uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the totality of his impact on the game.
Speaker 1: There was a couple of stretches there at the second
Speaker 1: in the second half where like he started crashing the
Speaker 1: boards really hard. He actually salvaged a couple of possessions
Speaker 1: with his athleticism, But right now he's not a good
Speaker 1: basketball player. Will that change? Probably? Everyone who ever has
Speaker 1: talked about Russ tells us that he struggles to start
Speaker 1: the season as he figures out what his fit is,
Speaker 1: and then he kind of kicks it into gear at
Speaker 1: some point along the way. I thoroughly expect him to
Speaker 1: have nights with the Lakers where he looks good, but
Speaker 1: this kind of thing to me, like he he If
Speaker 1: you had to assign a blame Pie for this loss,
Speaker 1: I think he deserves the biggest chunk because of the
Speaker 1: amount of of possessions he hemorrhaged and the way that
Speaker 1: that ended up costing the team during the two pivotal runs,
Speaker 1: which was at the end of the third quarter and
Speaker 1: then they're in the in the fourth quarter. So like
Speaker 1: from that perspective, again, I'm biased. I didn't think this
Speaker 1: would work really great. So throughout the year, I'm probably
Speaker 1: gonna sound frustrated. You guys should be prepared for that.
Speaker 1: That said, I thought today was kind of your textbook
Speaker 1: example of bad Russ and the way that it can
Speaker 1: hurt a basketball team. And that's going to be really
Speaker 1: annoying for me this year, And honestly, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to like work on my work on my patients. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, so when we did when they did the
Speaker 1: space on about preseason and we talked about how it's
Speaker 1: like process over results, right, and I even though this
Speaker 1: is the regular season, you still kind of have to
Speaker 1: look at it that way because I feel like Russ
Speaker 1: is looking at it that way, and I can only
Speaker 1: go by what my expectation was of him and what
Speaker 1: we can see now, right, And I'm shocked how and
Speaker 1: again this is day one, so it's not some huge
Speaker 1: take care, but I'm shocked how much he's trying to
Speaker 1: guess a us to the team. Like if you remember
Speaker 1: when Russ came to the Lakers, it was more like, hey,
Speaker 1: we have to try to calm Russ down right or
Speaker 1: try to make him fit in. And it feels like
Speaker 1: this is the opposite problem, which I don't know is
Speaker 1: a good thing or a bad thing, Like I want
Speaker 1: him more aggressive. I guess like it's too much of this,
Speaker 1: like standing trying to feed a d trying to feed
Speaker 1: Lebron and then try to attack, and then there's three
Speaker 1: people in the pain. Right, It's a lot of that,
Speaker 1: and I feel like he'd be better off just being aggressive,
Speaker 1: and I think that just take time. And again it's
Speaker 1: it's a process of a result thing. And I saw
Speaker 1: some good process tonight, and look, there's bad shots and
Speaker 1: you have to kind of get used to that. I
Speaker 1: guess like the shot selection with Russ is what it is.
Speaker 1: He's been in the league, however long he's been in
Speaker 1: over a decade in the league, Like the shot selection
Speaker 1: isn't changing by that much. He's still gonna come down
Speaker 1: take a contest in mid range to try to bank
Speaker 1: it off the glass, right, And I'd love to see
Speaker 1: the numbers on what he is when he tries to
Speaker 1: bank it off the glass. I think he's actually better
Speaker 1: when he tries to do that, but you know the
Speaker 1: hold it wait for the defender to come up to
Speaker 1: kind of back up a little bit and then take
Speaker 1: that contested three. Like those are shots they're gonna see.
Speaker 1: But I thought I saw a few good things, like
Speaker 1: he is pushing the pace like he was one of
Speaker 1: the reasons and his boss score. Tonight he was a
Speaker 1: minus twenty three and you'll see that number all the
Speaker 1: way until Friday, I feel like when they play their
Speaker 1: next game against against Phoenix. But there were a few
Speaker 1: good things I saw, like where you would give a
Speaker 1: post entry to Lebron and then they would they would
Speaker 1: double one pass away, which you're really not supposed to do,
Speaker 1: but since his rust, they do. And he did a
Speaker 1: hard cut cut to the lane and found Baysmore in
Speaker 1: the corner. Like I saw some of that. I saw
Speaker 1: him get a little bit more comfortable. He missed a
Speaker 1: dunk like a layup dunk tonight. He missed a lot
Speaker 1: at the rim where he thought he got fouled. But
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna be an adjustment. Like again, I'm shocked.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, Jason, but I'm shocked at
Speaker 1: how much he's I guess trying to like not step
Speaker 1: on Lebron and eighties toes, you know, or even like
Speaker 1: playing like when Rondo and him share the floor, it's
Speaker 1: almost like Rondo's the de facto point guard instead of
Speaker 1: like Rusp being the on guard on ball guard and
Speaker 1: trying to have Rondo is actually the better spacing three
Speaker 1: point shooter play off the ball, like because a lot
Speaker 1: of playing through Rondo, a lot of playing through a
Speaker 1: lot of passiveness that I just didn't expect that ask,
Speaker 1: which again I'm not sure that's a good thing. He's
Speaker 1: trying to adjust or but to me, I think he
Speaker 1: should be himself, Like what do you think about that?
Speaker 1: Because I'm shocked at how much he's trying to adjust
Speaker 1: the team rather than damn trying to him be himself
Speaker 1: and play his game. You brought up so much interesting
Speaker 1: stuff right there. I'm gonna try and try to hit
Speaker 1: it all you. The Rondo stuff was was so incredibly
Speaker 1: confusing to me putting him on the ball um not
Speaker 1: not only because it moved both Russ and Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: who in the preseason showed a lot as a ball
Speaker 1: handler in pick and roll um and as somebody who
Speaker 1: was quite frankly dangerous in taking role, especially with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the floor, because when you when you pair
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis as a screener with a shooter who can
Speaker 1: with a ball handler who can shoot off the dribble effectively,
Speaker 1: it's a deadly combo because it forces the guy to
Speaker 1: chase over the top, which basically gives you automatic dribble
Speaker 1: separation as a ball handler or is going to bring
Speaker 1: the big over, which is going to allow a d
Speaker 1: to get open in the pocket past. So like that
Speaker 1: should work. And Molik Monk was relegated to way corner
Speaker 1: shooter because of Rondo. I was so genuinely confused by that.
Speaker 1: I thought that was the point of bringing in the
Speaker 1: leak Bunk, like you brought in Malik Monk. You didn't
Speaker 1: bring in the leak Monk to be Ben mcilmore. You
Speaker 1: brought it. You brought in Milik Monk to be a
Speaker 1: lottery pick, a guy who can make things happen off
Speaker 1: the dribble. I was so confused by that. Um. But
Speaker 1: moving back to the to the Westbrook element of it,
Speaker 1: you talked about how you want him to be aggressive,
Speaker 1: and I agree. I think, like just in general with
Speaker 1: Russ indecisiveness is going to be a problem. But that
Speaker 1: was what was so strange about the rust effect, Like
Speaker 1: you have to think when you're when you're one of
Speaker 1: these stars that has the ability to get by somebody
Speaker 1: off the dribble, it's not about the ability to get
Speaker 1: someone off to buy someone off the dribble. Lebron knows
Speaker 1: he can beat his man all the time. Of course
Speaker 1: he knows that, so does Anthony Davis. The trick is
Speaker 1: reading what's happening behind your defender and and that to
Speaker 1: me is just basic basketball, like you stuff with Russ
Speaker 1: that he's been lacking throughout his career. This like I
Speaker 1: know I can beat my man, but I have and
Speaker 1: but like I kind of haven't touched the ball in
Speaker 1: a little while, or I haven't taken a shot in
Speaker 1: a little while. So I'm just gonna put my head
Speaker 1: down and go. And he doesn't realize that because of
Speaker 1: the circumstances happening around him in the five on five
Speaker 1: basketball game, that the Warriors have the paint packed because
Speaker 1: your guys aren't even down the floor yet, because you're
Speaker 1: kind of pushing in transition, and the Warriors have done
Speaker 1: a good job of getting back probably because they've been
Speaker 1: coached up on it all week prepping for the fast
Speaker 1: breaking Lakers. That's basic basketball IQ stuff that where he's
Speaker 1: he's making it low percentage. It's aggression that has a
Speaker 1: very small chance of succeeding because of the circumstances. What
Speaker 1: I would like to see is Russ being more aggressive
Speaker 1: in the flow of the offense in the half court.
Speaker 1: Do get him in a situation where there isn't help
Speaker 1: under the rim, because maybe he's without another center on
Speaker 1: the floor and maybe Lebron On setting a ball screen
Speaker 1: or Anthony Davis is setting a ball screen, and and
Speaker 1: they're shooting surrounding him, and he's got space where he
Speaker 1: can beat that man off the dribble and not have
Speaker 1: to make decisions but rather just go all the way
Speaker 1: up to the room and score. And that that to me,
Speaker 1: it would be the version of this that could work.
Speaker 1: I thought he was indecisive tonight, and when he was
Speaker 1: in the flow of the offense and you're right force
Speaker 1: feeding a d constantly making post entry passes and then
Speaker 1: cutting through to the other side, that's what he was
Speaker 1: doing when things were in the half court. But then
Speaker 1: what he would do is just randomly break off script
Speaker 1: and make a really low aggress a low chance of success. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, random burst of aggression that didn't make sense
Speaker 1: with what they were doing. Or to your point, I'd
Speaker 1: like to see him be aggressive in the flow of
Speaker 1: the offense. I think he'll get better looks that way.
Speaker 1: Does any of what I just said make Yeah, for sure?
Speaker 1: I mean and again, like you see, the timing is
Speaker 1: off as well as well, right, So a lot of
Speaker 1: times again this is tough to kind of judge with
Speaker 1: the spacing, I guess with DJ's in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times when Russ is off the ball,
Speaker 1: he'll move to the dunker spot. So like when Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D or run a screen and roll, he'll
Speaker 1: move there. But when he's on the ball, they'll set
Speaker 1: they said a lot of like step up screens, will
Speaker 1: do a little bit of action and then he'll catch
Speaker 1: it and he won't have his dribble yet, DJ or
Speaker 1: a D will come up and said the screen and
Speaker 1: a D will like roll into his driving space. Do
Speaker 1: you see that as well? A lot like I see
Speaker 1: like a D rolling and they'll like running he run
Speaker 1: into each other. I think a D drew a foul
Speaker 1: on that, and again, these are just timing stuff. Again,
Speaker 1: when you listen to people who watched us a bunch
Speaker 1: of times throughout his career, they say that he does
Speaker 1: start slow. But I guess again, I didn't expect this
Speaker 1: type of lack of aggression. Now I'm not just talking
Speaker 1: about shots taking shots as well. I just mean like
Speaker 1: when he's coming up, it's just like it's very passive.
Speaker 1: It's not with the mindset to get to the basket
Speaker 1: or to score like he can and he can't blow
Speaker 1: by guys, and he is trying to find but it's
Speaker 1: like over he's like making the decision of what he
Speaker 1: wants to do before he does it. I guess if
Speaker 1: that makes sense, Like he's driving, he's driving two pass right,
Speaker 1: and then the Warriors are kind of playing for that,
Speaker 1: and then he'll try to shoot at the annual miss
Speaker 1: a layup or something like that, and I feel like
Speaker 1: the rest got in his head as well tonight. I
Speaker 1: think he got a tech and he thought he was
Speaker 1: getting fouled the rim and those of stuff that happens.
Speaker 1: And again, I think he'll get used to it. This
Speaker 1: is day one, but that's my overall I guess Russ takes.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do these overall over arching kind
Speaker 1: of takes early. Everyone's saying, like trade Russ, I mean,
Speaker 1: we got slow down. It's it's it's it's day one.
Speaker 1: It's gonna it's gonna take time. And I think Vogel,
Speaker 1: I'm just reading the quotes. He said that Russ has
Speaker 1: the biggest adjustment to make, which makes sense. Right, you
Speaker 1: have a lot of the Lebron and eighties, the core
Speaker 1: and rust are trying to fit around that. But I
Speaker 1: still I still like him to be more himself and
Speaker 1: I think he can. Yeah. So I just in general
Speaker 1: with Russ, I do want to be preach patients to
Speaker 1: some extent because he's here for better or worse. If
Speaker 1: he if he absolutely bombs out like it looks absolutely
Speaker 1: horrible for twenty games, he becomes effectively untradeable. So from
Speaker 1: that stand because of his contracts side, So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: like he's with the Lakers for better or worse, they
Speaker 1: have to find a way to make this work. And
Speaker 1: I'm with you about avoiding the grand scheme type of
Speaker 1: of overarching analysis with the Lakers. However, the one thing
Speaker 1: I'll say is it is hard to lose a basketball
Speaker 1: game when Lebron and a D played this well on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. You and I preached extensively
Speaker 1: in previous seasons. When Lebron and a D are playing
Speaker 1: on the on the floor together and look like themselves
Speaker 1: and are healthy, if your role players play great, you
Speaker 1: beat the hell out of the other team. If your
Speaker 1: role players play okay, you win by fifteen and if
Speaker 1: your role players suck, you still win by two or
Speaker 1: three points. That's that was our joke that we had
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. And the reality is
Speaker 1: is tonight they lost by double digits with Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D playing great, and so that has to be
Speaker 1: at least a little bit concerned. Now, I don't see
Speaker 1: the point in getting overly wrapped up in it, because
Speaker 1: they do have reinforced it's coming that are much better
Speaker 1: defensive players. Kendrick Thht and Trevor Resa are all massive
Speaker 1: defensive upgrades over some of the guys they've had to
Speaker 1: play tonight, So there obviously are greener pastors on the
Speaker 1: other side. Like I said, however, I I can't remember
Speaker 1: a time watching Lebron and maybe he played this wall
Speaker 1: on both ends and loose that in the last two years.
Speaker 1: So that has to at least that has to at
Speaker 1: least make you scratch your head a little bit, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. And on your
Speaker 1: point about role players, like they didn't bring in Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook to be a role player, I guess you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like looking at looking at it from
Speaker 1: that point of view, like I saw a lot of
Speaker 1: people saying, like I wish we had you know, KCP
Speaker 1: or something like tep back, But this is just totally different.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about when we talked about the preseason,
Speaker 1: when you asked add Russ to a team, it's almost
Speaker 1: like adding two to three players, right, just in terms
Speaker 1: of like what he does and his you shage and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. When you add that to it, it's
Speaker 1: cann't take time. And I know, like it's tough to
Speaker 1: preach patients, Like if the Lakers are like I know,
Speaker 1: you predicted them to in a lot of games and
Speaker 1: so we so did I. But if they're like five
Speaker 1: and ten or something, that the world's gonna crash or
Speaker 1: all that stuff is gonna come out. But you know,
Speaker 1: they have an easy schedule to start. They play Phoenix next,
Speaker 1: and look, they could lose the Phoenix as well. Phoenix
Speaker 1: has kicked our butt for the last four or five times.
Speaker 1: I think even if you good preseason and the last
Speaker 1: few playoff games without a D, they're confident. They're a
Speaker 1: good team. I'm not sure if Devin Book is playing
Speaker 1: or not, but that we can lose them and then
Speaker 1: we have some easy games after that and Russ will
Speaker 1: get comfortable. And but again, like I think looking at
Speaker 1: it from like comparing him to like guys like a
Speaker 1: three and D player, it's just not what he's brought
Speaker 1: in the year too. He's brought in to be like
Speaker 1: a usage player, like the whole point. And again, losing
Speaker 1: these non Lebron minutes are are really tough because the
Speaker 1: whole point of bringing Russ in what's so that you
Speaker 1: can have Russ a D man these you know, non
Speaker 1: Lebron minutes. And we just got cooked defensively tonight. And
Speaker 1: the Warriors are a tough team. The Guarden anyway, Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool abstolutely cooked. I thought it was unfair to throw
Speaker 1: Malik Monk onto Jordan Pool and just try to tell
Speaker 1: him to stop from Jordan Pool got cooking. But but
Speaker 1: that's when we lost the game, in my opinion, was
Speaker 1: those second units when Lebron went off the floor. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna take time with time with Russ and we'll
Speaker 1: see on Friday. But it wasn't a great start. And
Speaker 1: like I guess my silver lining, this is probably like
Speaker 1: what the worst game of US would look like. And
Speaker 1: I don't think it will be the last game, but
Speaker 1: I think this is kind of what you'll see. This
Speaker 1: is the floor. I guess would you agree with that
Speaker 1: this would kind of be the floor? I mean, he finished,
Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, this is this is It's hard
Speaker 1: to be worse than he was tonight on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. It's hard to be worse than right.
Speaker 1: And I don't really like the box score plus minus that,
Speaker 1: you know, but minus twenty three kind of fits, you know,
Speaker 1: even if you just look at it from the eye
Speaker 1: test and the film, it does kind of fit. It
Speaker 1: felt like it was ugly and you could see him
Speaker 1: trying to not step on toes and I would kind
Speaker 1: of like him to just be kind of aggressive. I
Speaker 1: think the style of play fits him, this transition, fast
Speaker 1: paced play, and he's just trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: his teammates, but I just like him to be a
Speaker 1: little bit more aggressive than them, and I think he will. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and you know, you can actually go ahead and
Speaker 1: start everybody. If you have anything you want to say,
Speaker 1: or if you have any thing you want to vent about,
Speaker 1: or if you have any questions, get your request in now.
Speaker 1: Roger's gonna get first guest up there. Um Uh, what
Speaker 1: I was gonna say is that, you know, I always
Speaker 1: want to be careful with my analysis immediately after a game,
Speaker 1: obviously because there's some emotion and obviously I've been obviously
Speaker 1: I've been deeply annoyed tonight. We will have uh something
Speaker 1: come out in the next couple of days that is
Speaker 1: more measured in responding to the tape, because you and
Speaker 1: I are both going to rewatch the game in its
Speaker 1: entirety and try to get more to the bottom of
Speaker 1: of what actually happened. Um. The last little random shout
Speaker 1: out I wanted to put in there was Avery Bradley. Um.
Speaker 1: I was a huge fan of the signing for a
Speaker 1: bunch of reasons. He was great with the Lakers. I
Speaker 1: think Laker fan base can be pretty ravenous, and when
Speaker 1: he decided not to go to the bubble, most of
Speaker 1: the fans turned on him, which I think is pretty
Speaker 1: messed up just because of the totality of the pandemic
Speaker 1: and all the crap that was going on there. I mean,
Speaker 1: even Trevor Reza decided not to go with the Blazers,
Speaker 1: Like it just was a complicated decision for a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys to leave their families for as long
Speaker 1: as they had to. Um that said, I thought he
Speaker 1: was really good with the Lakers in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways, and I and I really liked the signing,
Speaker 1: and it just just to toss him a compliment here.
Speaker 1: What a professional to basically have no practice time or
Speaker 1: game reps with the team and to step in in
Speaker 1: what amounted to a pretty intense game for a regular
Speaker 1: season game, and to do your job and to be
Speaker 1: a net positive in my opinion in terms of his
Speaker 1: individual impact in those minutes and knock down some big shots,
Speaker 1: chase guys over screens, and make some plays like you said,
Speaker 1: get back to running an action that he used to
Speaker 1: run like over a year ago. I just thought it
Speaker 1: was really impressive of him, and I wanted to give
Speaker 1: him a shout out. Ye and we have an Eric
Speaker 1: up here, and I'll just a little shout out to Basemore.
Speaker 1: We'll get into him a little bit deeper later, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: But I thought he played really well tonight. His point
Speaker 1: of attack, defense is great. He hit his threes, I belie.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he shot, but it seemed like
Speaker 1: he had timely three. So what I thought he a
Speaker 1: good game. But Eric, can you hear us? Yep, I
Speaker 1: can hear. You can hear me? What's going on? Guys?
Speaker 1: Um uh? Okay? So there's a lot of positives, right,
Speaker 1: um Bran and a D looked amazing, right, and that's
Speaker 1: always positive. The problem, and I'm praying this isn't a
Speaker 1: season long thing, is you know, Vogel has this thing
Speaker 1: where he's very stubborn with his lineups, and it drives
Speaker 1: me through the roof. Right, Russ was terrible, let's be clear.
Speaker 1: But we've got ten years of film on Russ, so
Speaker 1: you know who Russ is and you know what lineups
Speaker 1: will work with him. Why you're starting DeAndre Jordan with him?
Speaker 1: I have no idea because now, all right, he's already
Speaker 1: trying to fit in, and then when he does drive,
Speaker 1: he's driving into a clock team. Well, that's not gonna work, right,
Speaker 1: So now he's settling for jumpers that he can't hit. Well,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna work either. And then Jordan's comes out
Speaker 1: and you pair him with Rondo. So I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: if Rust had to feel like he was in heaven, right,
Speaker 1: So yes, we're gonna pile on Rust. But I actually
Speaker 1: felt horrible for him because Vogel did him absolutely zero
Speaker 1: favors tonight, none, Like those lineups were the worst lineups
Speaker 1: you could possibly imagine. For rest of Westbrooks. He works
Speaker 1: and then uh, finally he got two minutes of a
Speaker 1: d Right, he makes two layups, so I'm like, okay, good.
Speaker 1: Then Dwight comes in. I was like, yeah, like why
Speaker 1: are you doing this to this man? Like where are you? Like?
Speaker 1: Why are you doing this? Then he had to feel
Speaker 1: like he was in hell and he's gonna get slammed,
Speaker 1: and he said he wasn't good. But Vogel has to
Speaker 1: do a better job of of of maximizing the lineups.
Speaker 1: You can't have Rest with Cloude paints for for his
Speaker 1: whole thirty five minutes. Then that's what us, Right, he
Speaker 1: can't shoot. We know this, but there are things that
Speaker 1: Russ can do. He should have been able to take
Speaker 1: more pressure off of Brian a D with you know,
Speaker 1: his assaults on the rim, if the rim was open
Speaker 1: for him to do so. I watched there was three
Speaker 1: times and I said it on Twitter where he drove
Speaker 1: down the lane and DeAndre just stood there. Hey man,
Speaker 1: if you see him driving, move but don't just stand
Speaker 1: like stuff like that was driving me nuts. His little things.
Speaker 1: But that's if Russ gets it going, if he makes
Speaker 1: a few of those laps. Now, Russ is unguardable, right,
Speaker 1: and he's playing with confidence and he's doing Russ stuff.
Speaker 1: But when he's missing layups and missing jumpers and he's unsure,
Speaker 1: that translates to his energy on the defensive end, and
Speaker 1: it was it was just bad. So I Vogel. Vogal
Speaker 1: frustrated me with the Rondo Westbrook lineups. He frustrated me
Speaker 1: with the the Westbrook Jordans lineups, the Westbrook White lineups.
Speaker 1: And I don't think he got a lot of Westbrook
Speaker 1: A D lines, like maybe at the tail end of
Speaker 1: the game, but I think that's the lineup that you like.
Speaker 1: Put him at the five, Let let him do more
Speaker 1: of that. That's my opinion. I don't know what you
Speaker 1: guys think, but that was my opinion. So I think
Speaker 1: you hit on something super interesting having to do with
Speaker 1: like the totality of the picture of the game, because
Speaker 1: in my opinion, even if you win the DeAndre Jordan's minutes,
Speaker 1: which they did, they were plus two, um, you have
Speaker 1: to look at the totality of the impact of the
Speaker 1: players on the floor and their rhythm. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: let's say that instead of starting DeAndre Jordan's, you start
Speaker 1: any other guard and you slide Lebron in a D
Speaker 1: to the four and five. Maybe Russ gets one or
Speaker 1: two easy layups in his first shift as opposed to
Speaker 1: not having those opportunities at the rim, and maybe that
Speaker 1: changes the complexion of the game for him in terms
Speaker 1: of his confidence in the in his rhythm. Those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that I look at. You know,
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are so good. We are kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, spoiled into thinking that these players can you know,
Speaker 1: just organically find a way to impact the game even
Speaker 1: if they are forced to play in crowded space. But
Speaker 1: Russ isn't at that level. Russ is going to be
Speaker 1: a player that is going to be more inconsistent, which
Speaker 1: means he's going to lean more on his confidence in
Speaker 1: his rhythm. And so those are the things that I
Speaker 1: look at. Would I I would rather lose the starters
Speaker 1: minutes by two points, trade four points on the scoreboard
Speaker 1: for Russ's rhythm, for Russ's comfort and confidence. And so
Speaker 1: I agree with you in that regard. As far as
Speaker 1: the Anthony Davis part, same thing. I I would rather
Speaker 1: give Lebron the challenge, make Lebron play with Dwight, make
Speaker 1: Lebron play with the other role players, let Russ in
Speaker 1: a d get all the non Lebron names together. Not
Speaker 1: not only does that give you your best opportunity to
Speaker 1: win the non Lebron minutes, but it gives Russ his
Speaker 1: best opportunity to try to find a rhythm. Now I
Speaker 1: need to dig more into the film to see exactly
Speaker 1: how he split the rotation. So I don't want to
Speaker 1: offer too much criticism until I had a little bit more,
Speaker 1: you know, education on it. That said, I agree with
Speaker 1: you in principle, like you have to find a way
Speaker 1: to set us up to succeed in the way you
Speaker 1: do that is the same way Darryl More he did
Speaker 1: it by giving him space, and you happen to have
Speaker 1: the world's biggest cheat code and Andy Davis that can
Speaker 1: offer that can offer space while simultaneously giving you the
Speaker 1: physical impact of the bigger One last thing I thought,
Speaker 1: uh Ros was starting to touch on it. I thought
Speaker 1: Bayes was incredible. Honestly, Um, it's funny because a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, the the announcers we're talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: all stuffs just off. No, he wasn't just off. Bays
Speaker 1: was in his shorts like he played him about as
Speaker 1: well as you're going to play Steph Curry. He was physical,
Speaker 1: he was on now obviously practical together four years, so
Speaker 1: you know, shouldn't help. But nonetheless, he played stuff as
Speaker 1: well as one person is going to play him. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: they trapped a little bit, but sakers didn't trap as
Speaker 1: much as I thought they were going to because he
Speaker 1: fought through a lot of those screens. He played step
Speaker 1: really well, like if Steph hits those shots, you just
Speaker 1: gotta talk. Okay, he's deaf, but those were hard shots
Speaker 1: he was taking. He had a couple open ones, but
Speaker 1: he was so out of rhythm because most of the
Speaker 1: shots were tough that you know, it's almost like, all right,
Speaker 1: I mean, Steph is human. He's gonna miss some shots,
Speaker 1: and so kudos the stuff for doing a bunch of
Speaker 1: other things and making a lot of other winning plays.
Speaker 1: But I think Baysmore had a lot to do with
Speaker 1: you know, with his his struggles tonight right, the length,
Speaker 1: the strength, the foot movement, and and Bayes did hit
Speaker 1: some some timely shots, So I was encouraged by what
Speaker 1: I saw with him. Um, I'm not as critical of
Speaker 1: the mellow minutes as maybe some other I did agree
Speaker 1: with Rise did. He probably played maybe six to seven
Speaker 1: minutes too many. But I liked the fact that he
Speaker 1: was a bucket when he got on the court and
Speaker 1: he was a threat, and that kind of opened opened
Speaker 1: it up a little bit. And if he didn't play
Speaker 1: so many minutes with Dwight, I think I would have
Speaker 1: been better. I think if he'd have played more minutes
Speaker 1: with you know, I don't know, I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: with a d but I think if he'd played more
Speaker 1: in in scoring minutes, I think he would have it
Speaker 1: wouldn't have looked so bad. But the fact was, you know,
Speaker 1: he's trying to post up Dwights right there, so it
Speaker 1: looks it all looks clutter. I think Vocal just has
Speaker 1: to find a better balance with these big a d
Speaker 1: at the five minutes. He's got to figure that out
Speaker 1: because this team is not a phenomenal three point shooting team,
Speaker 1: so clogging the paint just doesn't help. Brown was phenomenal tonight.
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's gonna shoot from three for
Speaker 1: the season, Like that's unrealistic, right, So I think I
Speaker 1: think he's got to do a better job of managing
Speaker 1: these lineups because, to Jason's point, you can't have Brian
Speaker 1: and a D playing this well and lose. But I
Speaker 1: think he did everyone. And I know there's some injuries
Speaker 1: and and you know, when the lineup is healthy, and
Speaker 1: I'll be better on know that. You know, none will
Speaker 1: make a big difference because that will cut it into
Speaker 1: some of those Rhondo manants and you know, all that
Speaker 1: good stuff. But I think Vocal could have done literally
Speaker 1: to three lineup tweaks to change this result tonight. Um,
Speaker 1: he watched Monk get cooked for a whole third quarter.
Speaker 1: All right, listen, man, I only need to see two
Speaker 1: three minutes of that to say, all right, you gotta
Speaker 1: get out go just go guardend. We'll figure out your office,
Speaker 1: but just go guardend. Like I don't need to watch
Speaker 1: eight minutes of Pool cooking him to realize again gardens.
Speaker 1: But it was a little stuff like that, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, just pull the trigger, quicker, Eric, that
Speaker 1: was a textbook event session. I was so het a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. You had a lot of stuff. But
Speaker 1: I'll just speak on your base mark point and you're
Speaker 1: totally right. Basemar was awesome, like STEP's gonna hit those
Speaker 1: shots sometimes, like he missed a few that he would
Speaker 1: usually hit, but that's how base Board did as well
Speaker 1: as he could. He was physical with him. Um. I
Speaker 1: didn't like that Vogo pulled him out after those two
Speaker 1: quick ones. I would like him to stay on him.
Speaker 1: I think that next possession stuff got fouled by Carmelo,
Speaker 1: I believe on the three right after, right after Basemark
Speaker 1: came out. But he was right with him. He was
Speaker 1: going around him on screen. I've said before, he's our
Speaker 1: best point of attack defender right now. Maybe Avery badly
Speaker 1: kind of takes that, takes that uh from him, but
Speaker 1: for right now, Basement is our best and he had
Speaker 1: his corner threes. He was good he fits our like
Speaker 1: transition game that we want to play. He makes some
Speaker 1: questionable decisions sometimes, but like he's fast, he runs the floor,
Speaker 1: he runs, he fills the wing, and he knows how
Speaker 1: to rotate to the corners like he's a he's a
Speaker 1: nice two guard to start for right now. So I
Speaker 1: think he was great and we'll we'll see, we'll see. Uh,
Speaker 1: we'll see next game. But I thought he was good
Speaker 1: on staff. I agree with you. Yeah, thanks guys, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it, thanks, Harry. All right, I think we have
Speaker 1: Nick coming up, Nix. I think space has gone better
Speaker 1: with connecting, at least from what I see or maybe not.
Speaker 1: There you go, Nick, what's going on? Man? What's up? Nick?
Speaker 1: And he went back down, so maybe it wasn't ready.
Speaker 1: Let's see so chosen one. Yeah, can you hear us? Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe not, I see him up here, but let's get
Speaker 1: someone else. Yeah, can you hear us? Let live in
Speaker 1: live in? Oh yeah, I can hear you all my bad,
Speaker 1: I don't know you did. What's going on? Manh yeahs
Speaker 1: oh man? Uh? Yeah? So so to me, like starting
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's like I get it, Okay, I don't get it,
Speaker 1: but I'll say this, like, to be honest, it really
Speaker 1: messes up the rhythm I think offensively for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: So I really don't like DeAndre Jordan started because it
Speaker 1: really drives me crazy because I don't know, you don't
Speaker 1: bring nothing productive to the table. So I'm like, why
Speaker 1: is like why is DJ especially a team like the
Speaker 1: Warriors where Kavan Looney starting like like like I'm not,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I was wondering like this prank bogle thing
Speaker 1: Cavan Loony is gonna have some I don't know, some
Speaker 1: huge impact to the point where like we're gonna need
Speaker 1: a big and like, to me honestly, like I know
Speaker 1: this has been talked about so long or summer, but
Speaker 1: I feel like a D should a really should be
Speaker 1: starting at the five because I don't see any like
Speaker 1: there's no bruisers in the NBA that at the five
Speaker 1: that are gonna make me go, oh my god. Um
Speaker 1: if a D starts at the five, like he's gonna
Speaker 1: get hurt and stuff, I don't. I don't understand that.
Speaker 1: But I say, we are missing a lot of rotation
Speaker 1: guys today, so I really won't I'm not gonna overreact.
Speaker 1: I mean when we get you know, th ht um
Speaker 1: a reason none. When we get those guys in the mix,
Speaker 1: I feel like it'll look a lot better than I
Speaker 1: did tonight. Um, but I feel like the only way
Speaker 1: for like, for Russ to be successful on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: as if if is oh my god, is is f eight.
Speaker 1: He plays the five more in my opinion, And I
Speaker 1: feel like, when you know, when those guys get back
Speaker 1: like a reason and stuff, I feel like, um Mella
Speaker 1: won't have to play as much minutes and I don't.
Speaker 1: And also like playing Rondo Rondo bringing up the ball
Speaker 1: with Russa on the wing, like Russ is some remarkable
Speaker 1: three point shooter. I don't know those those line ups
Speaker 1: don't make sense to me either. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: game one, it's game money. You're gonna be patient. We'll
Speaker 1: see what goes on for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: So really quickly on the Kimon Looney thing, like that's
Speaker 1: the type of big Yanni Jordan can start against, right,
Speaker 1: Like you don't want him starting against these like spaking
Speaker 1: out fives, like when you have these traditional fives, like
Speaker 1: he can kind of start with them. And again, like
Speaker 1: it's crazy to me, we kind of focus on this
Speaker 1: he played twelve minutes like he played six minutes eats
Speaker 1: half and I see all this rust like can't be
Speaker 1: successful unless he's next to eight at the five, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's not conductive to him, Like it doesn't
Speaker 1: help him that the spacing isn't great, it's not exactly
Speaker 1: fit his game. But I think that lets Russ off
Speaker 1: too easy, Like it doesn't give enough credit to where
Speaker 1: Russ can still be. Like even if even if the
Speaker 1: spacing isn't great, like it's not going to be Like
Speaker 1: if Lebron and Russ are sharing the floor, they're gonna
Speaker 1: live with Lebron and Russ kind of shooting jumpers. And
Speaker 1: even though Lebron is going tonight, that's kind of a
Speaker 1: win for the defense of Lebron is taking jumpers if
Speaker 1: a D is taking jumpers, right, So even if a
Speaker 1: D is out the five, you're still going to have
Speaker 1: a packed paint a lot of the time, unless you
Speaker 1: have like Wayne Ellerton or something out there. But like,
Speaker 1: still pain's gonna be packed. Doesn't mean Russ can't play
Speaker 1: his game at all, Like he can. He still has
Speaker 1: to be able to attack in some way forms be
Speaker 1: a threat. And I feel like he just hasn't been
Speaker 1: a threat as much as he can be from last
Speaker 1: year and again maybe it's just him starting slow, but
Speaker 1: there's like this line between what he is right now,
Speaker 1: which is just like we can we can preach paisans,
Speaker 1: I'll preach patients, I'll say process of a results, but
Speaker 1: we can be honest as well. He hasn't been great,
Speaker 1: and that's true, like we can tell the truth. He
Speaker 1: hasn't been great, But there's this line between what he
Speaker 1: was and what he is right now that's not just
Speaker 1: answered by putting a D as the five, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And even though we're getting eighty at
Speaker 1: the five and some points here, like if they can't
Speaker 1: defend at a baseline level to where Vogel sees they can,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna get much a D at the five
Speaker 1: minutes either, right If we have all these guards that
Speaker 1: are getting killed, Monk couldn't stay on any screens with
Speaker 1: with with Jordan Pool, Roger Rondo dying on screens. Westbrook
Speaker 1: isn't that type of defender where he chases guys off,
Speaker 1: chases around screens, you know what I mean. He's a
Speaker 1: guy that likes to crash offensive board, which is great,
Speaker 1: But what happens when you die on the screen and
Speaker 1: try to box that, Like those are all kind of
Speaker 1: things that happen. And if a d is the only
Speaker 1: guy down, they're getting rebounds, Like that's something that Vogel
Speaker 1: will look at as well. But I just feel like this,
Speaker 1: like answer to Russ is eighty at the five is
Speaker 1: is too simple fied to me, Like it doesn't give
Speaker 1: Russ less Russ off too easy, Like he's better than
Speaker 1: this and he can be better and maybe the spacing
Speaker 1: isn't conductive to it, but it doesn't mean he has
Speaker 1: to be disineffective. That makes sense, Jason, does that make sense?
Speaker 1: So it makes sense. I just I just disagree with respectfully,
Speaker 1: like the the the So when when you watch prime
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, Like I was joking on the pot the
Speaker 1: other day about watching the two thousand fourteen Western Conference finals,
Speaker 1: he was so he was such a nuclear athlete that
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's kind of jarring to watch in
Speaker 1: retrospect looking back now because of just how incredible he
Speaker 1: is even in tight space, even next to Kendrick Perkins
Speaker 1: and Sergebaka at beating guys off the dribble and floating
Speaker 1: by shot blockers to finish. The truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is that at this phase of his career, you know,
Speaker 1: he's kind of like he's more of that you know,
Speaker 1: third fourth fifth tier type of star and third fourth
Speaker 1: fifth tier type of athletes. So the truth is is, like,
Speaker 1: the reason why you need to give him the space
Speaker 1: is because he's a non shooting dribble drive guard who
Speaker 1: isn't a you know, earth shattering superstar. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: if you allow teams to pack the paint on him,
Speaker 1: it immediately makes him more limited. It's it's really that
Speaker 1: simple to me. So you know, there's a reason why
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he exploded playing with the Houston
Speaker 1: Rockets after they traded Clint Capella. It's because, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, he didn't have to navigate a packed paint.
Speaker 1: It was all I gotta do is beat my man
Speaker 1: off the dribble with which at this phase in his career,
Speaker 1: because of his strength and size, and because he still
Speaker 1: is an above average athlete, he is capable of beating
Speaker 1: that point of attack defender. But it's that it's the
Speaker 1: next layer of the defense at this phase in his
Speaker 1: career that he's going to struggle with. And so I
Speaker 1: don't think it's coincidence that he had some success in
Speaker 1: Washington when they were able to, you know, play with
Speaker 1: guys like Burton's and get a little bit more pick
Speaker 1: and pop where he was able to have a little
Speaker 1: bit more space to operat around the rim. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, with this group of guys,
Speaker 1: because of what because like you always talk about this rodge,
Speaker 1: the difference between a shooter and a guy that like
Speaker 1: the defense, that can make shots, but that the defense
Speaker 1: doesn't really guard. And and that's where it gets difficult
Speaker 1: because Anthony Davis, for all of his strengths, he's not
Speaker 1: a guy that teams are going to be blitzing off
Speaker 1: the three point line. I could you could even really
Speaker 1: say the same thing about Lebron to be honest, Like,
Speaker 1: there were several possessions today, There are several possessions today
Speaker 1: where Lebron's defender was heavily sagging into the paint to
Speaker 1: help off on guys. Honestly, I thought there was an
Speaker 1: opportunity where Anthony Davis needed to be a little bit
Speaker 1: quicker to pass out. The point is is that with
Speaker 1: that group, when you've got Lebron and Lady on the floor,
Speaker 1: guys who can make shots but that aren't really having
Speaker 1: guys glued to them. And then you add in the
Speaker 1: the DeAndre Jordan element of his man sitting basically directly
Speaker 1: under the basket. That just makes it so that Russ
Speaker 1: now has to navigate a thicket of bodies that he's
Speaker 1: just not capable of navigating at this point in his career.
Speaker 1: And so I do I do think that specifically for him,
Speaker 1: it is a factor um that remains to be seen
Speaker 1: if over the course of the season, if he proves
Speaker 1: me wrong that with lineups that have some non shooting
Speaker 1: that he's able to eventually figure it out. But I
Speaker 1: tend to think that when he looks his best this year,
Speaker 1: it will be in lineups where he doesn't have to
Speaker 1: deal with the big park under the room right waiting
Speaker 1: for him. Yeah, I agree with you on that. I
Speaker 1: just think like he shouldn't look I guess this that
Speaker 1: not having that, Like, obviously I think he'll look great
Speaker 1: with with a D at the five, and obviously Adi
Speaker 1: looks best when he's at the five as well, Right,
Speaker 1: But when Ad plays the four, he can't just be
Speaker 1: this non effective player, Just like I think when Russ
Speaker 1: plays with these two big lineups, which I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna see a lot in the regular season, it's pretty clear.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much DeAndre is going to be
Speaker 1: in the rotation when we get healthy, but Dwight's going
Speaker 1: to be in the rotation. They like him. They're like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna see that. He's gonna have to get used
Speaker 1: to it in some at some point. I do think
Speaker 1: there's ways he can get to it. I think there's
Speaker 1: ways that you can run actions to where he's he's
Speaker 1: getting he's getting downhill, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: I feel I saw a lot of that tonight as well.
Speaker 1: He missed a lot at the rim to which again
Speaker 1: like has nothing to do with it has something to
Speaker 1: do with the spacing, but some of the layups you
Speaker 1: missed our point blank as well. Just like I feel
Speaker 1: like he's hitting his head a lot with these games.
Speaker 1: But but you're right, it look best when it's to
Speaker 1: have the five. I just think that he has to
Speaker 1: spind a way to also be effective with these two
Speaker 1: big lines because I think we're gonna see it. I agree, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say that in terms of the
Speaker 1: reason why I have a problem with DeAndre Jordan's starting,
Speaker 1: it's because, like I'll say, like even if Russ, like
Speaker 1: I know, he's not as athletic as he used to
Speaker 1: be back in the day, but even then, so like
Speaker 1: even if like a man commits to him and he's
Speaker 1: passing about to DeAndre Jordan's, they're just gonna file the
Speaker 1: shot out DeAndre Jordan. And you know how you know
Speaker 1: how likely it is for DeAndre two three throws. So
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just saying like they don't make a
Speaker 1: lot of sense to me, But you know what, we'll
Speaker 1: see here, man, I love, I appreciate you hopping on
Speaker 1: and talking with this man. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get onto a couple more colors and a
Speaker 1: d S read those two. I think he was like,
Speaker 1: what two for six tonight or something two for seven.
Speaker 1: The most bizarre thing with his shooting slump is because
Speaker 1: he just he just wasn't knocked down free through shooter
Speaker 1: in the past. That is what it is. He's got
Speaker 1: to work his way through that. And I would say
Speaker 1: him making some of these pull up jump shots is
Speaker 1: a good spot. Was going what's going on Jill, Hey,
Speaker 1: what's up, fellas? Um, just real quick, do you guys think, uh,
Speaker 1: Austin Austar Reads will be able to get into the
Speaker 1: Let's say, like, you know, when the game's gout a
Speaker 1: hand or whatever, and you know we've got these injuries,
Speaker 1: you guys think he will get a look in the game,
Speaker 1: or maybe they just don't think he's ready for this
Speaker 1: this type of action. Right now. I think he's absolutely ready. However,
Speaker 1: I don't think you'll see him play. And the answer
Speaker 1: is really simple. With that specific concoction of egos in
Speaker 1: that locker room, playing Austin Reeves twenty minutes and leaving
Speaker 1: some of these other veteran players off the floor, I
Speaker 1: don't think would sit well, uh, in the totality of
Speaker 1: the locker room vibe. It really shouldn't work that way.
Speaker 1: It really shouldn't. But unfortunately that's just the reality of
Speaker 1: the way this business works. And if I'm frank, the
Speaker 1: way I'm looking at it is, I'm not gonna have
Speaker 1: to play some of these guys anyway in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks when everyone gets healthy. So rather than playing
Speaker 1: Reeves now and getting a better outcome now and having
Speaker 1: potentially some negative impacts on the culture in the locker room,
Speaker 1: maybe you ride it out with the vets and then
Speaker 1: because you know, if Rondo's sitting for Kendrick Nunn, he's
Speaker 1: not going to argue because Kendrick Nunn is their mid
Speaker 1: level exception player. He's a He's a player that it
Speaker 1: makes perfect sense to play over Rondo. But if you
Speaker 1: play Reeves over Rondo, maybe there's some chatter, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, And so I think that's the angle there.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you in the sense that I absolutely
Speaker 1: think Reeves could have helped tonight. He's gonna get his shot, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's definitely gonna get his shot. Like it's funny. In
Speaker 1: the preseason, he was the first sub for most of
Speaker 1: the games. Austin Reason was the first guy subbed in.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna push back, like there's politics in every locker room,
Speaker 1: and obviously the guys who's play in the league a
Speaker 1: long time, we're going to get the shot. But I mean,
Speaker 1: we saw the kind of THHD take, you know, Wes
Speaker 1: Matthews Min's last year. I mean, Vogel, I think we'll
Speaker 1: play him eventually. He's gonna get a shot here, especially
Speaker 1: if the defense continues to look like this, And we've
Speaker 1: said before he looks ready and preseason is what it is,
Speaker 1: though we do have to see it in the regular games.
Speaker 1: But just from like a basketball que point and knowing
Speaker 1: where how to play next to superstars, he looks really
Speaker 1: ready for that. But we'll see. Uh. I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be be a while, especially if our guys start
Speaker 1: to get healthy as well. But he's gonna he's gonna
Speaker 1: get his shot to play. He looked good in the preseason,
Speaker 1: and I don't see a reason why Vogel at least
Speaker 1: wouldn't try it. I mean, he went to Avery Bradley tonight,
Speaker 1: who was signed less than twenty four hours ago, and
Speaker 1: almost closed the game, And you could tell Vogel is
Speaker 1: kind of search for these places where he can find defense, right,
Speaker 1: And I think if Austin Reeves shows he can get
Speaker 1: he'll play. Yeah, and and too. I I look specifically
Speaker 1: at Lebron and I saw where, you know, in the
Speaker 1: midst of that uh, that run that the Warriors made,
Speaker 1: I saw where he got a little bit frustrated, you know,
Speaker 1: whether it was with Russ or whoever. I saw that,
Speaker 1: So I know it's going to be a process for him,
Speaker 1: but I still trusting the guy. He looked out standing
Speaker 1: and uh man, I just think it's going to be
Speaker 1: a process and to see how this team goes. But
Speaker 1: just looking forward to participating with you guys after each
Speaker 1: Lakers game. Man, appreciate y'all, We appreciate. We'll see you
Speaker 1: hopefully on Friday, and absolutely, man, alright, we're gonna try
Speaker 1: to run through these ones a little quicker. Uh DCS,
Speaker 1: can you hear us? Okay, Yo, what up? What up?
Speaker 1: What's going on? Man? Okay, thanks for having me on
Speaker 1: the show, guys, But quickly want to talk about Lebron's
Speaker 1: jump shot tonight, guys, and his shot selection overall, like
Speaker 1: with guests with DeAndre and Dwight, even though they only
Speaker 1: both played thirteen minutes each, so maybe our spacing wasn't
Speaker 1: really as bad as we're going on about. But what
Speaker 1: do you guys think about Lebron's jumper overall and shot
Speaker 1: selection tonight? Looks like he's being more aggressive. But Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: I thought Lebron were fantastic. Obviously. I didn't have a
Speaker 1: problem with his shot selection at all. I thought most
Speaker 1: of his jump shots, especially from three kind of felt
Speaker 1: like the right read out of pick and roll or
Speaker 1: out of a catching shoot situation with a defender closing out.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel like a guy who was settling because
Speaker 1: he didn't feel like driving to the basket. It felt
Speaker 1: like solid shot selection. Just in general with Lebron, I
Speaker 1: think one of the things that people have underestimated with
Speaker 1: his extended prime here is, you know, they compare him
Speaker 1: to Johannese in a lot of ways as a guy
Speaker 1: who leaned heavily on his physical tools, and he certainly
Speaker 1: did early in his career, but for basically the last
Speaker 1: six or seven years, he's been a guy who's leaned
Speaker 1: heavily on his i Q and his passing ability and
Speaker 1: his ability to knock down the jump shot and his
Speaker 1: ability to scuare of the midrange, and those are things
Speaker 1: that we're always going to stay with him through this
Speaker 1: phase of his career. And I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that even though he's about to turn thirty seven,
Speaker 1: which side point here, I love Lebron, big Lebron fan.
Speaker 1: It's kind of driving me nuts how often the broadcast
Speaker 1: brings up it's his nineteenth season. It's like, we get
Speaker 1: it man, Okay, let's just watch the but but but
Speaker 1: the point, the point is is like I'm not surprised
Speaker 1: at all that he looks this good still, and the
Speaker 1: reason why, in my opinion, is his game was built
Speaker 1: to age well, and I absolutely think that you'll look
Speaker 1: more or less like this throughout the season. I think
Speaker 1: his jumper looked a little smoother too, like in the
Speaker 1: way he was shooting, and he was shooting it off
Speaker 1: the dribble hand, like the guy was right in front
Speaker 1: of him, like it was. It seemed like a lot
Speaker 1: he had a lot more confident tonight. Normally you see
Speaker 1: Lebrons have like a more feel of style game when
Speaker 1: it's like the first game of the season or he
Speaker 1: eases into things, but he seemed like he was on
Speaker 1: go mode. M hm. He's been shooting consistently pretty damn
Speaker 1: good since two thousand and seventeen, and this is definitely
Speaker 1: an extended trend. Yeah, in my opinion that you could
Speaker 1: tell he was feeling it tonight though, right with his jumper,
Speaker 1: he had that one in transition I think where like
Speaker 1: he did a running fade away jumper over he missed
Speaker 1: that one, but you could just tell he was feeling
Speaker 1: good with a jumper, and again that one was online too,
Speaker 1: that one happened, and again I thought his jumper kind
Speaker 1: of masked a lot of the ugly offense as well.
Speaker 1: He did take a couple of tough ones that went in.
Speaker 1: He had some fade away ones that were just beautiful
Speaker 1: to watch. I think it was I think another one
Speaker 1: over Wiggins as well that didn't barely touch the net.
Speaker 1: But yeah, his jumper looked good man and Lebron looks good,
Speaker 1: and we talked about it all the time. That's him
Speaker 1: and a d looking like themselves is the most important thing.
Speaker 1: We can banter about Russ and Lake Monk and Roger
Speaker 1: and Rondo and Carmelo Anthony, but those two on the
Speaker 1: floor thirty eight minutes to night in the playoff series.
Speaker 1: I'll take it again. This is day one. But that's
Speaker 1: the most important thing. We got that ground floor level
Speaker 1: there right now. We can build on top of that.
Speaker 1: We can build on top of that. But if you
Speaker 1: don't have that, it doesn't matter what's on top of it. Right,
Speaker 1: If you don't have a ground floor, you don't have
Speaker 1: it out. So that's the main thing. And you're right,
Speaker 1: Lebron looked Lebron looked incredible year ninety. Did you Jason,
Speaker 1: did you know it's year nineteen? I wasn't sure, you know.
Speaker 1: I kept I was watching the game and my wife
Speaker 1: and I just kept looking over. I'm like, do you know,
Speaker 1: could you could you tell me what it's getting out
Speaker 1: of control? Like if I can totally see how Lebron
Speaker 1: haters are like this this guy, what did you guys
Speaker 1: think about a d S shot selection tonight and how
Speaker 1: he was being used in the offense, how he was
Speaker 1: getting his shots and so forth. I thought he was great.
Speaker 1: I mean I so I actually Terry picked the clip
Speaker 1: um after the King's game where early in the game
Speaker 1: where he had I think it was Mohark was on
Speaker 1: him on the right block and the paint was pretty
Speaker 1: much clear. I think there was a guard waiting for
Speaker 1: him underneath the paint, but not somebody who would have
Speaker 1: deterred him from getting all the way to the rim,
Speaker 1: and he kind of took a crazy like fade away,
Speaker 1: looking like m J kind of curling into the lane
Speaker 1: and he bricked it and it was what started a
Speaker 1: five for nineteen night for him. And I was critical
Speaker 1: because it just looked like because mohark was was only
Speaker 1: six eight and relatively thin, it looked like an opportunity
Speaker 1: for a D to start the game off with a
Speaker 1: more physically aggressive move. You know, Anthony Davis all night tonight,
Speaker 1: even though he did take some tough jump shots mixed
Speaker 1: in there all night tonight, he had really good balance
Speaker 1: between the tougher jump shots and the physical aggressive was
Speaker 1: into the lane, and he had several plays that were
Speaker 1: just like the Moharkless one where he had a smaller
Speaker 1: wing on him and instead of really crazy fading away,
Speaker 1: he created some contact, got closer to the rim, took
Speaker 1: you know, something more like a straight up jump shot
Speaker 1: or a hook that is a significantly higher percentage shot,
Speaker 1: and made it work. And then this is something Mr
Speaker 1: Darius Oriana from like her film room is gonna preach
Speaker 1: about a lot, and he's right about it is you know,
Speaker 1: last season a D did not screen and dive to
Speaker 1: the rim at all, even just screen and pop. And
Speaker 1: there were several plays tonight where he took on the challenge,
Speaker 1: the physical challenge of setting the screen and rolling into
Speaker 1: the pain, understanding you're gonna be banging into bodies and
Speaker 1: understanding you're gonna have to regain your bearings after catching
Speaker 1: a tough pass and try to finish. But you did
Speaker 1: all of that tonight. I was absolutely blown away impressed
Speaker 1: by both a D and Lebron tonight. I thought they
Speaker 1: were both fantastic. Yeah, but I thought it's good process. Right.
Speaker 1: We talked about like we don't mind a jumpers, it
Speaker 1: just it should come through his aggression attacking the rim.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna trying to chart this as much as
Speaker 1: I can, but I believe like his first touch was
Speaker 1: like he went at he attacked the basket against Traymond Green.
Speaker 1: I think he got free throws and something like that,
Speaker 1: and it's just that's the mindset he should have. And
Speaker 1: again the fade away jumpers will come from that. Right.
Speaker 1: He was kind of bullying on Connor Anderson and then
Speaker 1: he got another post up on him and hit this
Speaker 1: like fade away jumper on him. And again that's through
Speaker 1: him being aggressive attacking the rim. So I thought he
Speaker 1: was great. He looks he looks so much better than
Speaker 1: he did to start last season. If you go start,
Speaker 1: if you go watch those games, just it's just a
Speaker 1: huge difference from what he is now. And I think
Speaker 1: he was better on defense tonight than he was on offense,
Speaker 1: and he had a pretty good game on offense as
Speaker 1: well tonight. So I thought was himself like, he needs
Speaker 1: to be this, by the way for this team. So yeah,
Speaker 1: those those two guys were great. They were great. Thanks
Speaker 1: for happening on him, man, We appreciate you, and we'll
Speaker 1: be back Friday night if you want to come back
Speaker 1: Convince again. Nice one, Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciated man,
Speaker 1: Thank you. M I think we have two more. We'll
Speaker 1: close this out. Nick, Can you can hear us? Ere? Nick? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Can you guys hear me? We can hear you? What's
Speaker 1: going on in Uh? Yeah, I was just I was
Speaker 1: watching Russ today and you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: overreact to one game, but I was trying to contextualize
Speaker 1: it in the course of a full season and what
Speaker 1: you're gonna need from him, And I'm really it's really
Speaker 1: hard for me to understand what you're what you're going
Speaker 1: to use him for in the five minutes of winning time, Like,
Speaker 1: who is he when the game is tied a hundred
Speaker 1: a hundred five minutes left? Is he initiating the offense?
Speaker 1: Is he standing in the corner. I mean, he's not
Speaker 1: really a defensive stopper and he's not really a three
Speaker 1: point threat. So what is he doing in those five
Speaker 1: minutes that really helps you win? I think this is
Speaker 1: a I think this is a great point, and I
Speaker 1: think this is the ninety However, games they have a
Speaker 1: D two game question, right is like this is what
Speaker 1: they need to figure out, Like what does he do?
Speaker 1: Because let's be honest, like Lebron can talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: giving up some ball handling responsibilities and all that, but
Speaker 1: those are in games that don't matter, right, Like in
Speaker 1: the last five minutes, last ten minutes of games, Lebron
Speaker 1: James is gonna have the basketball. A D is likely
Speaker 1: the screener or he's gonna be involved in some way
Speaker 1: unless Lebron wants to attack the switch or whatever. But
Speaker 1: last five times, he's gonna have the ball. And I
Speaker 1: think there are some things you can do. And Jason
Speaker 1: can speak on this as well, but I think Russ
Speaker 1: has a screen or something. He's gonna have to get
Speaker 1: more used to. You see it a little bit, but
Speaker 1: you could also see him. It's just not something he
Speaker 1: does on a consistent basin. Right, He's not a guy
Speaker 1: who screens really hard and then rolls really hard, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's just comfortable doing that, and that's something
Speaker 1: that he's gonna have to for them to to kind
Speaker 1: of work together. Jason, what do you see from there,
Speaker 1: because I think this is a really great point. That's
Speaker 1: something they're gonna have to figure out for sure first starters.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the first thing is the staggering. So I
Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting that Lebrawn typically is the
Speaker 1: first sud in in a Laker game, usually will come out,
Speaker 1: you know, shortly after the first media time out, and
Speaker 1: last season they would let Shrewder and Anthony Davis run
Speaker 1: the end of the second quarter or end of the
Speaker 1: first quarter, excuse me, and then Lebron would come in
Speaker 1: with like one minute left in the first quarter and
Speaker 1: then he'd run the bench to start the second quarter. Well,
Speaker 1: tonight they took Russ out first, I think right around
Speaker 1: the seven minute mark. Out to watch the tape to
Speaker 1: be sure. But the point is is that was clearly
Speaker 1: done in my opinion, to to help stagger Lebron and
Speaker 1: h and Russ. Because Lebron actually stayed in longer than
Speaker 1: usually think. He came out right around the four minute
Speaker 1: mark in the first quarter, and they ran uh and
Speaker 1: they brought Russ back at that point. So staggering is
Speaker 1: the first way. But we always are going to come
Speaker 1: back to the closing lineups, right, What are you gonna
Speaker 1: do when Russ is on the floor and Lebron is
Speaker 1: on the floor, but you're having Russ Lebron run the actions?
Speaker 1: And this is a legitimate question because you're gonna see
Speaker 1: it a lot. You throw a post throw to throw
Speaker 1: the ball to the post with Anthony Davis, and Russ's
Speaker 1: man is is just when Russ cuts through. You'll literally
Speaker 1: see Russ's man stay on the strong side of the floor,
Speaker 1: Like Russ will cut through and he just will stop
Speaker 1: at the block and just stay, you know, literally, it's
Speaker 1: almost like a shift in baseball, just like all the
Speaker 1: way over to to to shut the play down, you
Speaker 1: have to find some way to counter that. And so
Speaker 1: the two big ones that I look at are are
Speaker 1: one using him as a screener, basically turning him into Draymond.
Speaker 1: Try to draw a trap and put Russ in a
Speaker 1: position where you can play four on three, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: off of a little looping pass or pocket pass, and
Speaker 1: then two is just using his athleticism to wreck habit
Speaker 1: that can be either as a cutter or an offensive
Speaker 1: rebounder or one of the other big ones that I'd
Speaker 1: I'd like to see some more experimentation with is have
Speaker 1: Russ take on a traditional spot up position on the
Speaker 1: floor and preferably where he can actually get the ball.
Speaker 1: So if you run him to the week side corner,
Speaker 1: it's just difficult get it to him there. But if
Speaker 1: he's gonna be ignored, have him catch and just go Like,
Speaker 1: have him catch and just barrel into the lane. And
Speaker 1: just by the natural way that basketball works, I think
Speaker 1: it will collapse the defense in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: and and open up some things. But those are the
Speaker 1: things that, like, like Rod said, that's that that's the
Speaker 1: game question, that's the that's what they have to work
Speaker 1: out throughout this part of the season. Unfortunately, because how
Speaker 1: easy the schedule is, Like I think the Lakers will
Speaker 1: win the next eight games with how easy their schedule is.
Speaker 1: They they have an opportunity here to kind of work
Speaker 1: through some of this stuff. Yeah, I agree with that,
Speaker 1: and like they did some things where like that they
Speaker 1: when Russell's off the ball, like he said, like a
Speaker 1: pin screen for like since he since no one's guarding
Speaker 1: him as well, he screens for the guy who's trying
Speaker 1: to shoot in the corner, like did little things like that.
Speaker 1: But they have to figure it out because, let me
Speaker 1: tell you, like we talked about this over the summer,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be on the floor when it matters, Like
Speaker 1: there's none of this to Russ is gonna be on
Speaker 1: the bench or no, that's not happening. Russ is gonna
Speaker 1: be on the floor when these games matter in the
Speaker 1: final five minutes, and they have to figure out how
Speaker 1: to do it. There's things to do. I think they
Speaker 1: can figure it out. Lebron Vogel, you know Rondo, all
Speaker 1: those brain trust I think you can figure out. But
Speaker 1: you talked about him as a screener, him attacking the
Speaker 1: offensive boards. I think you can kind of flip it
Speaker 1: where he's the center, right. I think Houston did this
Speaker 1: a lot where they'd have p J. Tucker at the
Speaker 1: five and so then Russ would kind of be your
Speaker 1: center de facto center, where p J. Tucker's kind of
Speaker 1: spaceman and him and Harden can kind of run screen
Speaker 1: role actions. I see similar things in that where a
Speaker 1: D is p J. Tucker in this kind of scenario,
Speaker 1: And obviously they're not the same type of player, but
Speaker 1: just in terms of the spacing on the floor, those
Speaker 1: are the kind of things I would like to see.
Speaker 1: And I want to watch this game to kind of
Speaker 1: rewatch this game to kind of see what he did.
Speaker 1: It was kind of tough to watch it while watching
Speaker 1: live action also with all the emotion in the game.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's a that's a great point, though. They
Speaker 1: have to figure it out. That's the a two game question,
Speaker 1: that's the chairmanship question because you're not you're not winning
Speaker 1: the title of those three. Don't figure out what Russ is? Uh?
Speaker 1: In those last in one games matter? Diep I agree, Hey, Roger,
Speaker 1: I think we got time. Yeah, let's do one more
Speaker 1: and then we'll call it tonight, I think. And if
Speaker 1: we missed anybody, guys, we will be doing these after
Speaker 1: every game of the regular season, So I promise we'll
Speaker 1: get to you eventually, all right, Sean, And Sean has
Speaker 1: been waiting a while, so like making the last one, Sean,
Speaker 1: can you hear us? Yeah you're there? Yeah, what's going
Speaker 1: on there? Man? I just wanted to talk about every
Speaker 1: every Bradly real quick, yeah, because it was crazy to me,
Speaker 1: like he I feel like he was the most effective
Speaker 1: overall guard on the floor tonight, and uh, I don't
Speaker 1: know if that was like something that's like carrying over
Speaker 1: from last year or whatever, but like to me, he
Speaker 1: looks super effective as far as like overall defense and
Speaker 1: offense goes and that kind of go ahead. So our
Speaker 1: guards really struggled tonight, So for sure, you know, it
Speaker 1: kind of reminds it kind of reminds me of Boston
Speaker 1: Reeves in the preseason, like he was the best guard
Speaker 1: in the preseason, but that was a really low bar
Speaker 1: he was trying to hit with how bad everybody was.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of the way tonight was. Like Rondo
Speaker 1: was really really bad, Russell was really really bad. Like
Speaker 1: Molik Monk had hit a couple of threes, but you know,
Speaker 1: struggled defensively. Actually, I think he might only have one
Speaker 1: three anyway. But Beigemore did good on on on on staff,
Speaker 1: like we disc gotted earlier. But part of it is
Speaker 1: is like it's you know, this is a frustrating part
Speaker 1: in all of this, Like if you really look at
Speaker 1: what Avery Bradley did when he came in the game,
Speaker 1: he'd applied ball pressure on defense and chased guys off
Speaker 1: the three point line. He actually gave up some separation
Speaker 1: quite a bit. He just gave up the right kind
Speaker 1: of separation. And this is the important kind of thing
Speaker 1: we're going to harp on a lot this year. It's
Speaker 1: chasing guys off the three point so you can funnel
Speaker 1: them into your health defense and then putting in the
Speaker 1: additional effort after the factor rotate out to the next shooter.
Speaker 1: That's all you're asking him to do defensively, and that's
Speaker 1: what he did offensively. He I think made two out
Speaker 1: of three from three if I remember correctly, so obviously
Speaker 1: it's gonna look good in that regard. And then they
Speaker 1: ran a really basic action when they used to run
Speaker 1: a lot when he was a Laker in his first distinct,
Speaker 1: where you know, he kind of curled off that a
Speaker 1: d dribble handoff and just made a read either I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pull up from fifteen feet or floated up to
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, and I think he connected with a D
Speaker 1: on one of those for a layup. But the point
Speaker 1: is is like he did well, so I don't want
Speaker 1: to undercut it by any stretch of the imagination. But
Speaker 1: it kind of preaches there kind of comes back to
Speaker 1: what Roger and I have been talking about, like, it's
Speaker 1: not a hard job. What what these guards are asked
Speaker 1: to do in this system alongside the better players is
Speaker 1: not that hard of a job. What happened tonight, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, was the job became difficult because of some
Speaker 1: lineup decisions from Frank. You know, playing Mellow and Molik,
Speaker 1: Monk and Russ and Rondo at the same time. You're
Speaker 1: making it so that that job is extremely complicated for
Speaker 1: those guys, and so I think that that that's my
Speaker 1: theory on it is is just you know, keep things
Speaker 1: simple and these guys will knock it out of the park.
Speaker 1: But you've got to disperse your defensive minutes. You're the
Speaker 1: players you have that are good defensive players. You have
Speaker 1: to disperse them in a manner that makes it easier
Speaker 1: for the players who have, you know, some challenges with
Speaker 1: that throughout their career. It did appear that he was
Speaker 1: somewhat like he understood what his role was and he agree, yeah, sure, Bradley,
Speaker 1: I mean bin League a while now, I was I
Speaker 1: hope that they resigned him actually that summer when I
Speaker 1: think he into Miami or whatever. But again, like eighties
Speaker 1: high on him. They called it, they called their defense
Speaker 1: to Avery challenge. I mean, that's pretty high regards to
Speaker 1: put his name in there, and like he's a good
Speaker 1: point of attack defender. I thought like it wasn't fair
Speaker 1: for him to be put in that position where he
Speaker 1: had to come in and be the on ball guy
Speaker 1: on steph. Right after STEP's been resting, Step comes back,
Speaker 1: Step comes back to a lead. You know he was
Speaker 1: They were down when he went out. Step comes back
Speaker 1: to teams up six you get Step, he's on him,
Speaker 1: and I thought he did a fine job. And again
Speaker 1: he they ran the actions that they do a little
Speaker 1: little dribble handoff off the little horns and he makes
Speaker 1: that Like you said, Jason, it's a really quick read. Right,
Speaker 1: it's either take the mid range pull up or you know,
Speaker 1: hit a d on the roll or hit the week
Speaker 1: side shoot or whatever. I thought he was fine, but again,
Speaker 1: it wasn't really fair for me to put him in
Speaker 1: that situation and give the Warriors some credit. Like to me,
Speaker 1: they're a very unique team in terms of the way
Speaker 1: that they run their actions and all the screening that
Speaker 1: they do, and you know, all the decisions they make
Speaker 1: you do off of steps, just off ball movement stuff.
Speaker 1: That's a really tough thing. And when you combine that
Speaker 1: with the bad defenders that we had out there, like
Speaker 1: you're talking about Jason Bronto, Mellow, all those dudes, like,
Speaker 1: it's not a recipe for success. And I thought the
Speaker 1: lead wasn't really sustainable. Lebron and Adi were amazing, but
Speaker 1: I thought the Warriors would eventually kind of take it,
Speaker 1: and they did. So we'll see on Friday, but try.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming out man, appreciate guys, Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. All Right, guys, that's all we have for tonight.
Speaker 1: I will be posting this on our podcast feed here
Speaker 1: within the next fifteen minutes, hopefully if I don't fall asleep,
Speaker 1: and then we will. UM. This will be airing on
Speaker 1: DASH Radio tomorrow at seven am Pacific Standard time on
Speaker 1: the Nothing but Net channel. As always, we sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys support, thanks for listening to Roger and I
Speaker 1: venting our way through that UM long season. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot of good I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: reasons for us to be excited. Um but good, A
Speaker 1: good interesting way to start the season, which you say,
Speaker 1: very interesting. And remember this is a day one, so
Speaker 1: don't not exhaust yourself. This day one of a very
Speaker 1: long process, so we're just at the beginning of it. It
Speaker 1: It should be a fun season. Appreciate everyone that came
Speaker 1: and listened and and stayed this long, honestly till eleven
Speaker 1: listening to us.