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Speaker 1: Mmmmm all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers,

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Speaker 1: brought to you by Dash Radio. Thank you guys so

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Speaker 1: much for coming to hang out on a Tuesday. A

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Speaker 1: lot of Laker basketball to talk over the next I

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Speaker 1: think we're playing four times in the next six days

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Speaker 1: counting tonight, so a lot of a lot of a

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Speaker 1: lot of game days, a lot of opportunities for the

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Speaker 1: Lakers to undo some of the nasty taste that we

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Speaker 1: have in our mouth from this five game losing streak.

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Speaker 1: Looked like it was gonna go south a few times tonight,

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Speaker 1: but Lebron didn't let that happen. Um, So I'm glad

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Speaker 1: that for the first time in a long time, Rose,

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Speaker 1: you and I can talk about a Laker win. How

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Speaker 1: are you doing, Buddy? I am doing well, man. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The last Laker win was the Austin Reeves game winner,

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Speaker 1: which feels like two years ago. Um. But yeah, a

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Speaker 1: lot of Laker games coming up here tomorrow again one

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Speaker 1: against Memphis. But how are you, man? How is your

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Speaker 1: week going? It is going good. I'm prepping for my

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Speaker 1: first ski trip of the year, and I looking at

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Speaker 1: the weather and seeing all this snow drop in on

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Speaker 1: the mountain I'm going to so I'm pretty stoked about that.

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Speaker 1: But hey man, let's let's dive right into it. So

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Speaker 1: I thought I thought the story of tonight's game was

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Speaker 1: the Lakers finally kind of leaning into their identity. And

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Speaker 1: I think we saw that right away with the starters.

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Speaker 1: Something that we've been preaching for this entire season, this

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Speaker 1: idea that this could be one of the best driving

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Speaker 1: kick basketball teams that we've ever seen, because you see

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Speaker 1: so many guys on the floor that are capable of

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Speaker 1: beating a guy at the point of attack, in making

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Speaker 1: reads and passes out of that for high quality offense.

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Speaker 1: It's something that I thought the Clippers had nailed down

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Speaker 1: to his science last year in the playoffs, and they

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Speaker 1: were doing it with lesser players. They were doing it

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Speaker 1: with Paul George as their best player, with Reggie Jackson

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Speaker 1: doing a lot of that driving kick work. They didn't

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Speaker 1: have anywhere near the personnel in terms of that specific

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Speaker 1: skill set that the Lakers had, And it was so

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Speaker 1: infuriating for me and for you as well, rog to

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Speaker 1: watch this team try to actively sabotage that specific skill set.

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Speaker 1: You know, they're so good at driving the ball to

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Speaker 1: the basket, but we would play multiple bigs. We'd play

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Speaker 1: a bunch of non shooters. We'd be in a situation

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Speaker 1: where we had our driving kick guys taking off the dribble,

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Speaker 1: pull up jump shots just about every time down the

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Speaker 1: floor at the start of these games, and obviously there's

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Speaker 1: a lot still to work through. I don't understand why

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Speaker 1: they didn't play Dwight at all tonight. I would have

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Speaker 1: played him. Staggered with Lebron that said, I loved what

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Speaker 1: we saw from the starting lineup. I thought you saw

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Speaker 1: everyone look comfortable. Russ had a lot of bad rust

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Speaker 1: moments tonight, but he also had a lot of good

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Speaker 1: rust moments, and I thought he looked comfortable driving and kicking.

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Speaker 1: Lebron looked comfortable getting to the basket. Malik Monk looked comfortable,

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Speaker 1: even mellow, operating in his little isolation sets, just the

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Speaker 1: space that he had to oper He just looks so comfortable.

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Speaker 1: And with that team operating with confidence, especially as their

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Speaker 1: two best defensive forwards come back, a Resa and reeves

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Speaker 1: this team will get enough stops to where if they

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Speaker 1: can replicate this offense, they're gonna be a tough team

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Speaker 1: to beat. And then you plug Anthony Davis into that

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Speaker 1: and it gets even more exciting. But that was that

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Speaker 1: was I thought the story of the game. Rod starting

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Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson and dropping Dwight Howard, leaning into a five

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Speaker 1: out offense, driving kick, driving kick, driving kick, and just

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Speaker 1: all of our offensive players feeling comfortable. What did you think? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And it wasn't just Stanley Johnson, right, it was putting

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Speaker 1: Malik Monke in for th h T And I thought

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Speaker 1: that was very important. It looked like the offense flowed

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Speaker 1: a lot better. And this feels like we've really just

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Speaker 1: lean into and I've been on this from like I

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Speaker 1: think the fifth, the sixth game of the season. To me,

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Speaker 1: this season is about maximizing Russ. It's about making sure

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Speaker 1: lineups are kind of induced to help him play better,

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Speaker 1: kind of fit around his skill sets. You know, we

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Speaker 1: have the miss dunks and stuff like that, but there's

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Speaker 1: still a good player in where in Russ. There's still

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Speaker 1: a effective player, there's still a winning player there. And

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Speaker 1: I think that starting lineup kind of pushes those correct

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Speaker 1: buttons I put in my notes here. Our first or

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Speaker 1: second basket was a Russ, you know, left or right,

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Speaker 1: drive right to the rim and he got to the

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Speaker 1: rim a lot tonight. There was a lot of miss

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Speaker 1: miss layup still at the basket, but he's getting to

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Speaker 1: the basket. And I thought, that's kind of what we

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Speaker 1: saw with the spacing. With that new starting lineup, Malik

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Speaker 1: Monk and Lebron have had an instant chemistry. I thought,

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Speaker 1: just you know, from the beginning of the season, I

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Speaker 1: think when he was out, we missed his offense. He

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Speaker 1: has a punch to him where like he can he

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Speaker 1: can drive to the basket or shoot. I feel like

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Speaker 1: every time he gets into the dip of his jumper,

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Speaker 1: I think it's going in like that's how clean it

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Speaker 1: looks when he's spawning up. But he's just been Him

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Speaker 1: and Lebron have a nice chemistry, man, and that that

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Speaker 1: stands out. But yeah, I thought the starting lineup really

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Speaker 1: helped russ Um get going. And still there's some bad passes,

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Speaker 1: some awful turnovers that Russ does, and those kind of

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Speaker 1: glare out more when you don't have Anthony Davis to

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Speaker 1: kind of take some of those possessions away, so you

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Speaker 1: see more when you you know up Russ is you

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Speaker 1: said you get you up the turn over? Is he

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Speaker 1: also up the numbers right, and I think he got

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Speaker 1: another triple double tonight. But yeah, that's what I think

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Speaker 1: the starting lineup did. Man, there's still a lot of

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Speaker 1: defensive concerns. To me, we gave up a lot of points,

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Speaker 1: especially the backup you know, center position booches Carmelo right now.

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Speaker 1: But Stanley Johnson looks good again. Him and Lebron are

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Speaker 1: able to switch actions. And that isn't me or just

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Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson just look huge and that like in any

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Speaker 1: lineup peace and he just but he just looks like

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Speaker 1: like massive, Like he's like he was dropped out of

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Speaker 1: another era and just dropped in, you know, like he

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Speaker 1: just looks absolutely like he doesn't fit with the players

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Speaker 1: are on the floor. It's like Darren Coulson and then

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Speaker 1: you know also every Bradley and then it's like Stanley Johnson.

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Speaker 1: Him and Lebron looked almost same size sometimes and they're

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Speaker 1: able to switch. And I thought, you know, that looked good.

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Speaker 1: He's still not hitting his jumper, he's still not scoring,

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Speaker 1: you know, at any kind of rate, but he looked good, man,

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Speaker 1: and it looked like this lineup is inducive to us.

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Speaker 1: We've leaned fully into the Lebron small ball. Lebron is

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Speaker 1: playing exclusively at center now, which is crazy kind of

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Speaker 1: the switch we've done. Yeah, Stanley's dude, I uh he

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Speaker 1: when he came through Tucson to go to the University

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Speaker 1: of Arizona, and I was fortunates get to play basketball

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Speaker 1: against him a lot over the year that he was there,

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Speaker 1: and I can speak from personal experience that he's just

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Speaker 1: a massive human And what's funny is he was massive

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Speaker 1: like that coming right out of high school. That's a

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Speaker 1: little similarity between him and Lebron is that they both

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Speaker 1: they both had their grown man body when they were

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Speaker 1: like sevent teens. Who the heck knows how that happens,

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Speaker 1: you know. So, Malik Monk, you're starting to see a

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Speaker 1: little bit of his cutting chemistry with Lebron, which is

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Speaker 1: something that we we've all we've seen throughout Lebron's career.

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Speaker 1: Players as they learn how to operate off the ball

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Speaker 1: with Lebron, they kind of, over the course of time

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Speaker 1: playing with him, they figure out where their opportunities were.

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Speaker 1: And we saw a lot of backdoor cuts from Malik

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Speaker 1: Monk today, which is interesting because that's why Avery Bradley

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Speaker 1: has had so much success, uh playing with Lebron cutting

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Speaker 1: on the backside, just kind of sneaking around and staying

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Speaker 1: a threat even when he's not at the three point line.

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Speaker 1: And so that's the instant chemistry with Malie Can. Lebron

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Speaker 1: comes from three things. His ability to cut off the

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Speaker 1: ball to his ability to attack closeouts in a more

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Speaker 1: complicating way, meaning a complicated way, excuse me, Like he

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Speaker 1: can make complicated finishes around shot blockers at the basket,

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Speaker 1: he can make floaters, you can make pull up jump shots.

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Speaker 1: He can also do the next level reads out of

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Speaker 1: those clothesouts. And then lastly, he's a shooter. He can

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Speaker 1: knock down shots at a high rate. So when you

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Speaker 1: put those three things together, that's like your ideal off

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Speaker 1: ball Lebron teammate. Now. Defensively, he was all over the

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Speaker 1: place tonight, and that's the next thing, um that this

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Speaker 1: team's got to figure out is how to get more

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Speaker 1: stops with these smaller lineups. And I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of it will just be you know, taking you know,

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Speaker 1: because the Lakers only play eight guys tonight, which is

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Speaker 1: that was really interesting for a couple of different reasons.

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Speaker 1: First of all, they're on the front end of the

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Speaker 1: back to back, you know, so ideally you'd want to

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Speaker 1: play a deeper rotation, but again it's the COVID circumstances

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Speaker 1: at play here as well. The part that I got

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Speaker 1: confused with is Dwight should have played like Dwight. Dwight

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Speaker 1: is a quality backup NBA center. He has to be

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Speaker 1: in the lineup unless he's hurt or dealing with conditioning problems,

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Speaker 1: which that very well may be the case. We don't know,

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Speaker 1: but he was playing the other day, so I don't

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Speaker 1: really understand. But it was interesting that they kept the

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Speaker 1: rotation super short under the circumstances. But when you get

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Speaker 1: guys back in there like Reeves like a reason, now

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Speaker 1: that becomes a ten man small ball rotation. And now

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Speaker 1: we now we can kind of ask for more out

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Speaker 1: of those guys defensively, because in an eight man rotation

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Speaker 1: like that, you just end up with guys playing big minutes.

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Speaker 1: And when they played big minutes, that's when they start

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Speaker 1: paying really close attention to their own personal fatigue, like

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Speaker 1: how much how much longer can they hold down the

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Speaker 1: turbo like we have. Stanley played thirty two minutes tonight,

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Speaker 1: which I'm fine with. I want him to play big minutes.

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Speaker 1: But Avery Bradley thirty one minutes, that's a lot, Carmelo

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Speaker 1: Anthony twenty eight minutes, that's a lot. Like you're asking

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Speaker 1: guys that are going to experience a drop off in

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Speaker 1: their defensive effort as their minutes increase. As guys get

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Speaker 1: back from the COVID protocols, they should be able to

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Speaker 1: be in a more traditional you know, here's your two

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Speaker 1: shifts or here's your one shift. You play your ass

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Speaker 1: off while you're in there, and then you know, well,

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Speaker 1: we can actually expect more from you defensively. So they've

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Speaker 1: got to figure out how to get more stops to

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Speaker 1: that group. But I just think it's really cool because

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Speaker 1: this is the identity of basketball that I've been pining

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Speaker 1: for this entire past eighteen months. This is modern basketball.

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Speaker 1: Modern basketball is five outs. That's what we did. That's

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Speaker 1: that that's the best way to maximize offensive talent in

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Speaker 1: today's NBA. And again, it's just about how can you

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Speaker 1: get stops with these smaller, primarily offensive minded players, And

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Speaker 1: I think they can. They're just gonna have to kind

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Speaker 1: of figure that part out. But this is this is

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Speaker 1: kind of my idealized version of the way this team

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Speaker 1: would play offense. Yeah, and with like with Russ playing,

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Speaker 1: you're almost never always five outright, because he's going to

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Speaker 1: be the one kind of that's that's inside. But tonight,

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Speaker 1: like Lebron played, you brought up the minutes that all

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Speaker 1: these guys are playing. You know, we played the eight

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Speaker 1: man rotation broadcade thirty nine minutes tonight. But it didn't

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Speaker 1: look like it was too much for him. It didn't

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Speaker 1: look like it was too much of a heavy kind

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Speaker 1: of load for him. A lot of his offense was just,

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Speaker 1: you know, throw it into the post and let him

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Speaker 1: playmake out of that. Jason, I think our offense is

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Speaker 1: getting better. It looks like we've added a lot of

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Speaker 1: kind of actions and stuff, a lot of off ball stuff, right.

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Speaker 1: We're getting a lot of baskets, off cuts, um, We're

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Speaker 1: running like a lot more split actions on week sides

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Speaker 1: and stuff that are involving on shooters like Malik Monk

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Speaker 1: and Carmelo run a lot of offside actions and it's

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Speaker 1: cool to kind of see that. We also spam like

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Speaker 1: the guard screen roles that are that are doing and

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Speaker 1: Lebron's Lebron's playing center, but he's still playing a lot

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Speaker 1: of point guard. A lot of his stuff is just playmaking.

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Speaker 1: Yet Yeah, so he's still doing a lot of playmaking,

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Speaker 1: which I think is easier for him. His playmaking again

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Speaker 1: is coming out of the post or just you know,

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Speaker 1: guard screens and try to make decisions out of that

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Speaker 1: didn't look too difficult. Houston is not a great team, right,

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Speaker 1: They don't have, you know, a really great They don't

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Speaker 1: play defense that well. I think they're one of the

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Speaker 1: worst defensive teams in the league. But it was nice

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Speaker 1: to just to see that. And again it's we can't

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Speaker 1: really be picking right now with Winds six five losses

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Speaker 1: in a row, so it's nice to just kind of

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Speaker 1: put the script there. But yeah, I think we're getting

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Speaker 1: better on offense, man, if we can fill these wings in.

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Speaker 1: And both of us would like Dwight to play, but

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Speaker 1: I think we'd much rather have this be the have

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Speaker 1: this be the place where they lean into, right, You'd

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Speaker 1: rather them lead into the small ball identity um, rather

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Speaker 1: than you know, lean into the two bigs and then

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Speaker 1: go with the small ball here and there. They lean

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Speaker 1: in all the way and I don't like how rigid

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Speaker 1: it is. I do think Dwight can play a few

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Speaker 1: minutes here and there. I still think he's a serviceable

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Speaker 1: backup center, especially those Mellow at the five minutes, those

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Speaker 1: are really a struggle. Although you know, Stanley Johnson next

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Speaker 1: to him makes it a little bit better look at

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Speaker 1: it in terms of the athleticism, Yeah, exactly, And he

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Speaker 1: definitely makes those lines a little bit better. It still

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Speaker 1: feels like a layup line a lot because you know,

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Speaker 1: Stanley is usually still on the perimeter. Mellow likes to

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Speaker 1: stay in the paint, which makes sense, can't really move

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Speaker 1: his feet um and again that's where I think Dwight

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Speaker 1: can come in. But you know, Russ in those second

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Speaker 1: units gets to the basket a little bit more. I

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Speaker 1: do think the finishing should get a little bit better

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Speaker 1: at the ask, you right, people to usually shoot at

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Speaker 1: the rim. But he's getting there and that and that's

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Speaker 1: a good thing. But yeah, they lean all the way

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Speaker 1: into this super small ball, which makes it fascinating when

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Speaker 1: you know Reeves a Resa all those guys get back

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Speaker 1: because they are kind of built to play in this

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Speaker 1: kind of this kind of system. We'll see if Lebron

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Speaker 1: can kind of continue to hold up at center. But

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Speaker 1: it's nice that they've leaven into it, uh and it

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Speaker 1: took what games to get to get there, but it's

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Speaker 1: good that we're here, and hopefully eighty can kind of

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Speaker 1: come back and fill those spots. But it's it was

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Speaker 1: fun to kind of watch tonight at least the offense right,

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Speaker 1: And I think this really does help Russ be able

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Speaker 1: to pick his game up too. So my argument for

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Speaker 1: playing Dhite is the fact that he's a good NBA player.

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Speaker 1: I know that he didn't look good coming out of

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Speaker 1: the locker room, but like I've said to you so

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Speaker 1: many times, when you've walked the guy in the locker room,

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Speaker 1: when you walk the guy in the hotel room for

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Speaker 1: ten days, he's going to struggle to quickly adapt back

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Speaker 1: to playing NBA basketball. That's just kind of part of

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Speaker 1: the deal there, and that I would imagine that's even

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Speaker 1: exaggerated for big guys, you know, because so much of

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Speaker 1: what they do is based on their motor and they're conditioning.

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Speaker 1: My reasoning for playing Dwight is the exact same reason

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Speaker 1: why you don't play DeAndre Jordan's. You know, you're playing

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Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan because you feel like you need a center.

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Speaker 1: But he's actually like one of the worst players in

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Speaker 1: the NBA. So actually, what you're doing is you're just

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Speaker 1: putting one of the worst players in the NBA out there.

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Speaker 1: Well with Dwight, we're having issues with talent, especially with

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis out. We're bringing in guys off the street.

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Speaker 1: We got guys like Darren Collison, who we might talk

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Speaker 1: about later may or may not still be an NBA player.

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Speaker 1: But the point is that Dwight is very much a

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Speaker 1: completely passable, maybe even good backup NBA center. He just

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Speaker 1: has to be he has to be out there. And

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Speaker 1: then the flip side of that is like kind of

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Speaker 1: bringing this to Lebron because I do want to go

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Speaker 1: in the direction of Lebron here. You know, Lebron at

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Speaker 1: center is easy on his body against most of the

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Speaker 1: teams in the league. Like a night like tonight, Lebron

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Speaker 1: had no issues playing center against Houston. There thin Christian

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Speaker 1: Wood wants to take him out on the perimeter and

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Speaker 1: take jump shots anyway, there's it's just not labor intensive.

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Speaker 1: And you saw that literally at the end of the game,

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Speaker 1: after playing all those minutes he dunked all over Christian

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Speaker 1: would like he wasn't even there. So the point is

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Speaker 1: is like physically he's fine there. But let's say Carl

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Speaker 1: Anthony Towns tomorrow. Let's say you know Nicola Yokis down

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Speaker 1: the line, Let's say you know these Joe olmpide when

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Speaker 1: you're playing against these bigger centers. I think that's where

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Speaker 1: you're starting to talk about, Okay, can Lebron do this

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Speaker 1: physically for thirty nine minutes a night? Is that a

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Speaker 1: good idea? That's why I would keep Dwight in there

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Speaker 1: as your backup center, have him play a couple of

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Speaker 1: shifts every night, you know, in the minutes where you'd

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Speaker 1: normally had Mellow at center, and essentially just keep him

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Speaker 1: engaged and in shape and prepared to then have the

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Speaker 1: bigger role against the bigger centers. And then what I

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Speaker 1: would do, like like tomorrow night against uh Karl Anthon.

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Speaker 1: Excuse me, they play Memphis, so they play uh Steven Adams.

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Speaker 1: So it's wrong about that, but oh, I think we

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Speaker 1: played Minnesota a couple of games from now, if I'm

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Speaker 1: not mistaken, maybe later this week, but anyway, against Steven Adams, Like,

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Speaker 1: rather than go big and put d White on Steven Adams,

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Speaker 1: what I would do is I just say, like Lebron's

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Speaker 1: starting at center, run them off the floor. Like with

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Speaker 1: that lineup, just run, run, run, run, run. Maybe Steven

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Speaker 1: gets a couple offensive rebounds here there, but over the

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Speaker 1: course of the that stretch of basketball, you have the advantage.

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Speaker 1: And then I'd bring Ed White in and have him

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Speaker 1: spell in the in the non Lebron minutes. But I

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Speaker 1: wanted to talk about Lebron for a minute because I

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Speaker 1: think what you're seeing here is kind of an idealized

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Speaker 1: version of him. And I don't think it's coincidental because

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Speaker 1: you know, he did dunk on Christian Wood tonight, but

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Speaker 1: this hasn't been a year for him as a high flyer,

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Speaker 1: so you can kind of we can all kind of

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Speaker 1: admit to the fact that physically he's not the same

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Speaker 1: guy that he was, you know, back in two thousand eighteen.

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Speaker 1: That goes without saying. However, his efficiency is up across

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Speaker 1: the board. I tweeted about this earlier today. He right

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Speaker 1: now is shooting a higher percentage in the restricted area

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Speaker 1: then he hasn't any of his years since he left Miami.

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Speaker 1: That's a that's an awesome number, especially when you factor

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Speaker 1: in how many of his minutes at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: the season, we're alongside DeAndre Jordan's. But he's also shooting

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Speaker 1: near the top of his career highst for shots in

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Speaker 1: the mid range and his overall true shooting percentage. He's

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Speaker 1: just he's just having an extremely efficient scoring season. And

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Speaker 1: I think a big part of that is this recent

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Speaker 1: move into this modern idea of what basketball should be,

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Speaker 1: this five out basketball. And to your point about Lebron

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Speaker 1: playing the point, his assist numbers are down this year

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Speaker 1: because he's been so deferential to Russ and he's done

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Speaker 1: so much work as a screener and off the ball.

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Speaker 1: But what you saw tonight is what the team needs

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Speaker 1: to be. Lebrons to defer to Russ only when he's

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Speaker 1: fatigued or when he out of the game, and when

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Speaker 1: he's on the floor, he needs to play that role.

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Speaker 1: This team has always been at their breast when Lebron's

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Speaker 1: a tennisi ist guy and not a five assist guy,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like when Lebron's at the

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Speaker 1: top of the key, surrounded by shooters, or at the

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Speaker 1: elbow surrounded by shooters and cutters, just picking you apart

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Speaker 1: with his brain. That's when he's at his best, and

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Speaker 1: then which what inevitably ends up happening is guys all

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Speaker 1: glue up to their man and now he's playing one

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Speaker 1: on one basketball, and that's how he ends up with

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Speaker 1: these super efficient shooting numbers. But again, what you saw

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Speaker 1: tonight is a little bit different than what we've seen

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Speaker 1: from Lebron for a lot of this season because he's

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Speaker 1: been deferring to Russ so much, and I think we

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Speaker 1: need to kind of try to bottle that up a

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Speaker 1: little bit and repeat it moving forward. Have Lebron make

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Speaker 1: more of the decisions. Have Russ when Lebron's on the floor,

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Speaker 1: be more of an off ball guy, because what you

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Speaker 1: saw there is peak Lebron ball, top of the key,

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Speaker 1: elbow extended one of those two spots either with a

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Speaker 1: live dribble or out of your threat. That's where's that

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Speaker 1: his best? Yeah, and we're starting to playing with Billie

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Speaker 1: nice cutters, right, I think again, going back into Leak Monk,

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Speaker 1: I think that's a big part of it as well,

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Speaker 1: playing with guys who move off the ball. Every Bradley

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Speaker 1: is not a shooter, but he is a nice cutter,

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Speaker 1: and I thought he got a lot of baskets off that,

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Speaker 1: and again it looks like we're getting into second and

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Speaker 1: third kind of production of our offense as well, like

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Speaker 1: we're getting into more movement, a lot more cutting, and

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Speaker 1: Lebron is able to just find guys. It's it's interesting

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Speaker 1: the Russ you know Lebron dynamic there because I think

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Speaker 1: the starting lineup is all intertwined into that as well,

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Speaker 1: like the r late game offense, and I was just

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Speaker 1: Lebron in the post or it was also Rust Lebron

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Speaker 1: screen and roll right like Russ was able to attack

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Speaker 1: the basket. I think he got a lay up off

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Speaker 1: the uh he found Lebron twice cutting and you're getting

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Speaker 1: to see Lebron as a cutter with which I think

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Speaker 1: is great when when he's at the center position. That's

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Speaker 1: just a really tough cover. You have Rust Lebron running

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Speaker 1: a screen role, Lebron rolls and him as a roller.

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Speaker 1: It just creates a whole bunch of havoc. If you

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Speaker 1: don't help on that, he's able to dunk on you. Still.

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Speaker 1: You talked about the dunk on. I think Christian would

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Speaker 1: he had to lay up at the end as well.

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Speaker 1: You're seeing just a full of transformation, and he's been

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Speaker 1: just incredible. I think it's what thirty thirty and like

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Speaker 1: thirteen games this year, which is tied for I believe

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Speaker 1: Trey Young. I think pick Up Whop tweeted that out.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, he's just been incredible of this season man

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Speaker 1: and his jumper to every time he shoots. I think

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Speaker 1: it's it's pretty much going in now and becoming just

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Speaker 1: a great jab step, pull up jump shooter this year.

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Speaker 1: Um and then just as a cutter. But he's been awesome.

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Speaker 1: The team hasn't you know, matched his play, which has

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Speaker 1: been sad, but it's been great to at least see

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Speaker 1: him still be at that level. He's still had a

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Speaker 1: top three, you know, producing player in this league, and

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Speaker 1: I think that's the most important thing for the season.

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Speaker 1: And we're starting to put players around him that kind

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Speaker 1: of make things easier for him, which was the whole

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Speaker 1: point of putting an offensive, you know, laated team around him.

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Speaker 1: And you're seeing the kind of advantage of that again

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Speaker 1: tonight thirty nine minutes. I just didn't think it was

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Speaker 1: too difficult. Houston's defense is part of that. They're not great.

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Speaker 1: They lose guys off ball time all the time. But

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Speaker 1: this is just the role I think he'll be in

428
00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:58,720
Speaker 1: and I think it will be fascinating. Also when a

429
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:01,040
Speaker 1: d comes back how he kind of fits around it too.

430
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:03,280
Speaker 1: But yeah, Lebron was great, man. It was just throwing it,

431
00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:05,600
Speaker 1: throwing it to him in the post. If they trapped,

432
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:07,680
Speaker 1: he finds the cutter. If not, it's a fadal Way jumper.

433
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:10,359
Speaker 1: It's a bullyball to the basket. I think only like

434
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:12,720
Speaker 1: three free those with like three minutes left or something.

435
00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:15,040
Speaker 1: Still not getting to the line as much as you

436
00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:17,640
Speaker 1: would think. But he's just been awesome. He's been getting

437
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,720
Speaker 1: to the basket. You have no complaints about Lebron these

438
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:24,160
Speaker 1: last six games, Yes, six games, so five of them

439
00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:26,159
Speaker 1: had been losses. But I think he's played well and

440
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:28,320
Speaker 1: all of them, which is which is great. Well, people

441
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:31,119
Speaker 1: need to adjust our expectations, like we given the personnel

442
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:33,280
Speaker 1: that we've had at our disposal over the course of

443
00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,359
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, winning NBA basketball games is

444
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: damn near impossible. That's just the reality of the situation.

445
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,760
Speaker 1: We're trying to project forward here, and that's that's what's

446
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:47,840
Speaker 1: kind of exciting about this is it's not like where

447
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,800
Speaker 1: Lebron's groin injury was completely devastating to any chance of

448
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,960
Speaker 1: making the playoffs because of the fact that the West

449
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 1: was so deep that you had to be significantly over

450
00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:00,840
Speaker 1: five to get in. Like like said in a couple

451
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,560
Speaker 1: of pods ago, the Lakers could hover around five hundred

452
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,720
Speaker 1: this whole time that Anthony Davis is out and still

453
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:08,720
Speaker 1: easily end up with the four or five seeds, Like

454
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:11,840
Speaker 1: that's very much on the table because of the fact

455
00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 1: that the West is is pretty weak. And then obviously,

456
00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:18,360
Speaker 1: like the most exciting part about it is Anthony Davis

457
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:20,760
Speaker 1: I think is an awesome plug and play guy into

458
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,359
Speaker 1: a five out system, I think he could be. I

459
00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:25,960
Speaker 1: think he could be devastating in a five out system

460
00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:28,800
Speaker 1: attacking close outs, just because of his outrageous size and

461
00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 1: ability to handle the basketball, and especially if he's not

462
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 1: that first guy when you're not depending on him to

463
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:38,200
Speaker 1: beat somebody out of a standstill, but rather attacking closeouts.

464
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:40,720
Speaker 1: I think he could be so so so good at that.

465
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 1: But you know, looking forward at the style like this

466
00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 1: is because you had mentioned, you know, Houston's bad defense,

467
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: and that's true that needs to be acknowledged here. However,

468
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:55,080
Speaker 1: the reality is is five out basketball is extremely difficult

469
00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:58,640
Speaker 1: to guard because everyone's in space, and as we know,

470
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,040
Speaker 1: it's just really dive the colt from the basket to

471
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:04,040
Speaker 1: keep somebody in front of you, no matter how good

472
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:08,359
Speaker 1: you are. That's that, especially when you've got players the

473
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:11,720
Speaker 1: caliber of Lebron and the caliber of Russ, which say

474
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:13,600
Speaker 1: what you want about Russ, and he's had a boatloaded

475
00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:15,439
Speaker 1: issues this year. God knows, I've been one of the

476
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 1: guys pointing those out. But he does not have problems,

477
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,040
Speaker 1: have a problem beating guys off the dribble, you know

478
00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:23,200
Speaker 1: what I mean, That's not his issue. So the point

479
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 1: is is like that, in general, this style gets very

480
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:29,160
Speaker 1: difficult to guard. For instance, Utah last year, I think

481
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 1: they were the number three defense in the entire league.

482
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:35,040
Speaker 1: They had a scheme that worked for them in the

483
00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:37,119
Speaker 1: day in and day out system in the In the

484
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:41,080
Speaker 1: regular season, however, they ran into the Clippers. The Clippers

485
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 1: spaced them out, and suddenly they had a one thirty

486
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:50,440
Speaker 1: defensive rating in that series. One thirty. Can you can

487
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,760
Speaker 1: you imagine how like that is atrocious. They could not

488
00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 1: get a stop against the Clippers, and the Clippers didn't

489
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: even really have that much talent relative to some of

490
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:03,879
Speaker 1: the other teams they would have had to face to

491
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:06,280
Speaker 1: make it to the championship, which is exactly why I've

492
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,639
Speaker 1: been preaching about this so much. Guys like this is

493
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:12,120
Speaker 1: how basketball works these days if you need to get

494
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:15,639
Speaker 1: guys out in space, because it's just extremely difficult to

495
00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 1: cover them, no matter how good you are at a

496
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 1: specific position Defensively. Rudy Gobert was useless in that series,

497
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,640
Speaker 1: and it wasn't his fault. It's just that they spaced

498
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:28,960
Speaker 1: him out. He was out of the play. He would

499
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,640
Speaker 1: step over and rotate to help. On a drive, they

500
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: kick it out to the corner and the next guy

501
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 1: would get beat and it'd be over, or the next

502
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 1: guy wouldn't even make the rotation and he'd make it three.

503
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,399
Speaker 1: It's just difficult to to to even attempt to stop

504
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: people when they're in this kind of system, which is

505
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,640
Speaker 1: takes me to what excites me about this team, because

506
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 1: not only are they capable of it offensively, but in theory.

507
00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,639
Speaker 1: There are lineups that exist on this roster. Line ups,

508
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: especially now that Stanley Johnson is on the roster, but

509
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,119
Speaker 1: you could go with Lebron, Anthony Davis, Trevor Rees is

510
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:08,120
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson and someone like Russ And now it's like,

511
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 1: take your pick, which guy are you gonna try to

512
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:14,399
Speaker 1: drive by? Okay, so you've decided it's Austin Reeves or

513
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,080
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson or Russell Westbrook. Cool. Well, the other four

514
00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 1: guys on the floor are all six eight and can

515
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,439
Speaker 1: run and and can cover ground. So it's like, you

516
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 1: know that the Lakers were always built to play this

517
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 1: modern style of basketball, and this has been one of

518
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,639
Speaker 1: the things that I've been so frustrated about with Frank.

519
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:36,040
Speaker 1: He just was really slow to accept that. And I

520
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: thought tonight when I saw that starting lineup come out,

521
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: I immediately got excited because I was like, you don't

522
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 1: put that starting line up out there unless you finally

523
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 1: understand that this is the strength of your team. So

524
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:49,080
Speaker 1: it definitely is exciting. Yeah, And I think, you know,

525
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: th HD has had a really rough you know, a

526
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,640
Speaker 1: few games, and you had a comparison to th HD

527
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 1: as well, uh today that that a lot of people

528
00:24:57,119 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 1: jumped on for. But he's a good defender to me,

529
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 1: And I thought, you know, tonight, that's why I was

530
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 1: kind of frustrated. I wish they switched more actions and

531
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: I thought, that's kind of the team that will eventually

532
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:09,080
Speaker 1: see um they were still doing like trapping and try

533
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: to get back, And I thought, you know, any screen

534
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,440
Speaker 1: action that Lebron that involves Lebron, THHD and Stanley Johnson,

535
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:16,640
Speaker 1: I would have loved to see them just switch any

536
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:18,639
Speaker 1: of that. It's kind of interesting how the season has

537
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 1: kind of gone right because again I keep talking about

538
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,120
Speaker 1: how we were sold this starting lineup to start the year,

539
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,959
Speaker 1: and obviously a reason being hurt was kind of the

540
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 1: excuse I guess, or the reason or however you want

541
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,960
Speaker 1: to call it for them going into the other two

542
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:32,679
Speaker 1: leaning into the other way of that right, And now

543
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting you could have you could think

544
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:36,480
Speaker 1: of like there was two ways to go with that.

545
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 1: You could have found like a fact similar of reason,

546
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,479
Speaker 1: or you could or they went right back into this

547
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:44,160
Speaker 1: too big lineup, And I think I would have loved

548
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,280
Speaker 1: to see what that looked like like if Bays could

549
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 1: have just filled in for a reason during that time.

550
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:50,480
Speaker 1: How different does this team look? Do they gell a

551
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:53,119
Speaker 1: little bit earlier? Like those are questions that probably we

552
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,120
Speaker 1: can't answer anymore, but that stuff that's really interesting interesting

553
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:57,920
Speaker 1: to me. But that's kind of where this team is going.

554
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 1: You talked about, you know, Stanley Johnson playing a bunch

555
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 1: of minutes. Now we'll see if he stays. We'll see

556
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: if he stays, right. I hope he does. It looks

557
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 1: like he's shown enough. But they stuff I think cuts

558
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 1: someone to kind of keep him. But that's just that

559
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: player kind of archetype him aresa next to Lebron Like

560
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: that's a really interesting five and it's like we're just

561
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,400
Speaker 1: gonna go with the super small ball lineups. I think

562
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:19,880
Speaker 1: it's I think it's really telling that DeAndre Jordan can't

563
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 1: get a you know, a single minute, or even Dwight

564
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:23,919
Speaker 1: Howard to a lesser extent. I think Dwight will eventually

565
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 1: again the rotation, but DeAndre Jordan cannot get off the

566
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 1: floor when we're playing, like you said, a guys in

567
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:31,880
Speaker 1: the first of a back to back, Like that's really

568
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 1: telling to me, Like that's kind of showing where the

569
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: team is and where it's going. And uh, I think

570
00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: it shows for positive, positive positivity going forward. I would

571
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: I want to see still Kendrick Nunn get some time.

572
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,760
Speaker 1: I think Darren Caulson is interesting, right, He's still he

573
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:47,959
Speaker 1: looks like he's still trying to, you know, catch up

574
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 1: to being caught up. Like he's like two weeks he's

575
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 1: like a week away from being a week away U,

576
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: which is the way I would see it. Like he's

577
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 1: like a step slower than everybody, which makes sense. He

578
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,160
Speaker 1: had a nice drive on the baseline tonight to get

579
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: a basket, but you can tell he's just not in

580
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: any kind of basketball conditioning. It doesn't matter how much

581
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: how much in shape you stay. But again, I think

582
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: he's just a fill in until Kendrick Nunn gets back.

583
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 1: And I think those are just player archetypes. So you

584
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: can kind of see and see the vision here a

585
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm still on the like I need to

586
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:18,479
Speaker 1: see more wins, I guess, because this is gonna be

587
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: a really big stretch here. I think we play we

588
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 1: play Memphis Tomorrow's. He's been killing everyone that they play.

589
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,679
Speaker 1: They got John rampec Um. It's gonna be interesting. They

590
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 1: can kind of hover around five hundred. You said, the

591
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 1: standings have kind of leveled off to where the middle

592
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,360
Speaker 1: of the pack is all still kind of bunched up

593
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:37,239
Speaker 1: and you can kind of catch up. But it's interesting, man,

594
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: it looks like, we really lean into this though, this

595
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,360
Speaker 1: super small ball and this is the way you want

596
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 1: to lean I like it. It's a little too rigid

597
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:45,360
Speaker 1: for both of us. We want to see dhy I play,

598
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: but we're kind of happy right with with them leaning

599
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:50,120
Speaker 1: into this because I think it's just it just makes

600
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: everyone else on the on the team look better. It

601
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,680
Speaker 1: allows them to run actions that makes sense. You're having,

602
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 1: you know, Malik Munk coming off two pin downs and

603
00:27:57,800 --> 00:27:59,639
Speaker 1: then you have like Carmelo cutting off of that, like

604
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 1: just put you off into players. I think it's a

605
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: better positions. Oh, absolutely, And then it just gives them more,

606
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 1: you know, desire to even attempt to do the job defensively,

607
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:11,640
Speaker 1: which is something you and I have been preaching about

608
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: all your The Callison thing is hilarious if you think

609
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: about it, because we saw a report that came out

610
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 1: today actually wasn't report. I think it was a straight

611
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: up interview from Steve Nash with him saying, yeah, we're

612
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: not gonna play Kyrie until the conditions for two weeks,

613
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:27,879
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, meanwhile, Darren Collison, I'm I'm pretty

614
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: sure it was like some sort of youth minister before

615
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,639
Speaker 1: he before he showed up in the in the Lakers jersey,

616
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: so like, and he just stepped out there and started playing.

617
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,040
Speaker 1: And so I mean, it's just that just goes to

618
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 1: show you just how complicated this is. I mean, it's

619
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 1: just there's stepping into NBA basketball from not playing NBA

620
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: basketball for an extended stretch is really difficult. It's one

621
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 1: of It's been one of the big reasons why I've

622
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 1: been trying to get everybody to lighten up on th

623
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: HD a little bit. And everyone everyone jumped on me

624
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 1: about the th HD Drew Holiday in comparisons today, But guys,

625
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 1: guess what Drew Holiday um didn't make an All Defense

626
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 1: team until two thousand eighteen. Like like Drew Holiday was

627
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 1: was basically a guard who bounced around from team to

628
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: team because everyone decided he wasn't really good enough to

629
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: justify the money and uh and and he was a

630
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:21,360
Speaker 1: good player. He made an All Star team once in

631
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: a week Eastern Conference in two thousand and twelve. But

632
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 1: what you saw with Drew is over the course of

633
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: the last few years of his career, he finally kind

634
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: of found his idealized role, which is, hey, if I'm

635
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 1: the third best player on the team and there's not

636
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 1: a ton asked for me offensively, I can devote all

637
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:40,600
Speaker 1: my energy to the defensive end of the floor and

638
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: I can be a flat out impact player there. And

639
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 1: that's what he's been for the Bucks. And that's all

640
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: I was saying, is like, look, man like th ht

641
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: he he has the potential to be a guy who

642
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: averages between fifteen and twenty points per game and makes

643
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: all defense teams. To me at the guard position, that's

644
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,320
Speaker 1: very similar to a Drew Holiday type. And I think

645
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 1: I think the hilarious part about it is if I

646
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 1: have said that exact same thing exactly one year ago

647
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 1: before Drew won a title, everyone would probably be like, oh, yeah,

648
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 1: it's a good cop. I like it, you know. But

649
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 1: that's just it just goes to show you the way

650
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:17,200
Speaker 1: that perceptions change when when someone wins a trophy. But again,

651
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: like my thing with t HD is is like, just

652
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 1: like I was saying, with those quarantine situations, it's hard

653
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 1: to come off the street and play basketball. And he

654
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: went from an extensive injury that knocked him out for

655
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 1: um the start of the season to coming into the

656
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:35,880
Speaker 1: lineup and every night it's a different game or like

657
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: one night he's starting, one night he's playing with Lebron,

658
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 1: the next night Lebron's out. This time is going to

659
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 1: the bench. Now Anthony Davis is out, Like his role

660
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: is just constantly changing. It's been influx and then he

661
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,480
Speaker 1: goes into COVID. You know, this is just it's just

662
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: really difficult. Like you mentioned, uh Camp Baysmore, that guy

663
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 1: deserves a freaking do over for this whole season because

664
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 1: he had to play all his minutes with DeAndre Jordan

665
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,640
Speaker 1: to start. Poor guy, Like, come on, like that's like

666
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: like he he could in theory be just fine in

667
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 1: a five out system, especially since he's such a good,

668
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 1: you know, single leg leaper with that rip through going

669
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 1: to his left, Like he could be devastating in that

670
00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:17,160
Speaker 1: close out attacking chain if he's the third or fourth

671
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: guy attacking a close out like Baysmore deserves another shot now,

672
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna get it when he gets

673
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:25,080
Speaker 1: back from COVID and gets back in shape. But the

674
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 1: point is is like we're basically a different team now

675
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: then we were at the beginning, and and as we

676
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 1: you know, this is a new style, and yeah, guys

677
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: like Lebron have a lot of experience running this style

678
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 1: because he basically ran a five out type of system

679
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 1: in Cleveland where he'd be at the four with Kevin Love.

680
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:48,120
Speaker 1: So it's not a foreign concept to him, but it

681
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 1: is a foreign concept to a lot of the guys

682
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 1: on this team, and it's gonna take time for them

683
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,239
Speaker 1: to get used to it, especially on the defensive end

684
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: of the floor. And I mean, you even saw that

685
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:57,720
Speaker 1: a couple of times on the offensive, and you saw

686
00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: it Stanley, like Stanley cut back door late of the

687
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: middle fourth quarter. Lebron throws him a pocket pass and Stanley,

688
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: Stanley kind of gives up on the cut, and it's like,

689
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: that's something that he's gonna learn he can't do with Lebron.

690
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 1: Like when you're with Lebron, you start to cut, you

691
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: have to finish it because he's gonna pass it to you.

692
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: You know, you're gonna see all of these different And

693
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: we just talked about that with the Leak Monk earlier,

694
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: the Leak Monk getting better at understanding how to play

695
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: off ball with Lebron. But that's the point. It's like,

696
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:27,360
Speaker 1: what's exciting now is over the course of this next month,

697
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: they're going to lean heavily into this style, and you're

698
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:32,479
Speaker 1: gonna get to see them get better and better at

699
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:35,240
Speaker 1: it every day because it's new to them, while also

700
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: getting reinforcements in the form of quality defensive forwards like

701
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: Arizona and Reeves, who both will succeed in this system.

702
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: Ariza was awesome in two thousand and eighteen with the

703
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 1: Rockets and their heavy switching system, and there are five

704
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 1: out system, so you're gonna see a lot of familiarity

705
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 1: with the reason there. And then here comes Anthony Davis,

706
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: who hopefully at this point will have shed a few

707
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:01,320
Speaker 1: pounds and and be moving pretty ll and be able

708
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 1: to fulfill that role as that big, versatile forward that

709
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: that kind of covers up a lot of the mistakes

710
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 1: for the other guys. But I I think you're going

711
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,400
Speaker 1: to see as long as COVID doesn't maintain its you know,

712
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:17,080
Speaker 1: strangle hold on the roster, and as long as the

713
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: other guys don't get hurt, I think you're going to

714
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: see this team start trending in the right direction. I

715
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 1: truly believe that. Yeah, me too, And I hope Taylor

716
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 1: can also find a role in that right and I

717
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 1: think if he becomes through holiday. That's amazing. That's a

718
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 1: guy that I wouldn't I guess trade in some of

719
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 1: the trade offers I'm seeing I just don't agree with.

720
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:35,560
Speaker 1: I mean, the Jeremy Grant stuff, I guess kind of

721
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: makes sense. I speak a little bit about the Russ

722
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 1: miss dunk though, because I think that's interesting. Like, you know,

723
00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of US miss dunks this season.

724
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 1: I think, you know, watching players like him face, I

725
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: guess their mortality is is a like really fascinating thing

726
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,040
Speaker 1: to watch, and you know, it's something been that's been

727
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 1: happening with him. I think throughout his career. Just watching

728
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:58,240
Speaker 1: night Tonight is interesting because their miss dunks are what

729
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 1: get on the you know, get on the House of

730
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: Highlights or House of low Lights, whatever you wanna call it.

731
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:04,480
Speaker 1: But like that's where like you see all like the

732
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 1: miss dunks and stuff like that. But that kind of

733
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 1: stuff is just to me, the missdunk is like the

734
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: backdrop for the other parts of the game. I think

735
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 1: his athleticism or lack of it now, or the dropping

736
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 1: athleticism that he has it kind of impacts not getting

737
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 1: lift at the rim anymore. Right. Also, like I think

738
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 1: a lot of turnovers as well, doesn't get as much

739
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:22,880
Speaker 1: lift trying to go up and see over the defense.

740
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:24,839
Speaker 1: Stuff like that that I see. And I think the

741
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:27,839
Speaker 1: miss dunks are kind of just become the representation of that.

742
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 1: But you see that as well, because I think the

743
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:31,160
Speaker 1: miss dunks are what kind of get highlighted. But I

744
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 1: think that just that is what kind of impacts the

745
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: rest of his game. You see, like the miss dunks

746
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 1: are just people highlight out. But I think it's fascinating

747
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:41,239
Speaker 1: to see, like him trying to fix his finishing at

748
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 1: the rim, and he saw tonight like he got the

749
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 1: left hand lay up. I think he wanted to go

750
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: for another like big dunk. We decided let me just

751
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 1: go to the left hand lay up. But I think

752
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:49,880
Speaker 1: it's just interesting to watch him because like it's the

753
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: guy that you've seen being able to jump over moons,

754
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:54,319
Speaker 1: you know, throughout his old career, and you see it

755
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 1: now like you see it every night, And this is

756
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 1: stuff was probably happening in Houston and Washington, but weren't

757
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:01,480
Speaker 1: just seeing it every night. And I still think he's

758
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: playing well. He's played a lot better. Um, I think

759
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 1: he's gonna continue to play better as we go into

760
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 1: these lineups. But I think it's just fascining that, you know,

761
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,320
Speaker 1: the miss dunks are what's going to get plastered everywhere.

762
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,080
Speaker 1: But that's kind of the backdrop to me because it

763
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:14,759
Speaker 1: kind of impacts the rest of his game. Do you

764
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 1: see that as well? With you see what I'm trying

765
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: to go with there? Yeah, the missdunk thing is an

766
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:21,839
Speaker 1: interesting phenomenon. It doesn't It's not overly complicated you think

767
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:23,920
Speaker 1: about it. Because if you if I gave you a

768
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:27,319
Speaker 1: ladder and you stared, uh, you know, and you were

769
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 1: your eyeballs were two inches above the ring and you

770
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 1: were looking, you wouldn't see a circle. You'd see a

771
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 1: very very thin oval. But if you were a foot

772
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: above the rim and you were looking down, you'd see

773
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:40,480
Speaker 1: the better part of the circle. And it's the same

774
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:44,440
Speaker 1: concept with dunking. When you're up there, it's easy because

775
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:46,880
Speaker 1: it's hard to miss when you're throwing it down into

776
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: the ring. But when you're in that weird gray area

777
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:53,439
Speaker 1: where your hands and fingertips are barely above the rim,

778
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:56,359
Speaker 1: like a lot has to go right for that dunk

779
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: to finish. You've got to be able to fit it

780
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: into a much tight your window there, and what you're

781
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:06,160
Speaker 1: seeing is like Russ is operating as an athlete in

782
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:10,839
Speaker 1: that very very small area right above the rim where

783
00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: the margin for era error is extremely small. And the

784
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: problem is is like he because even the one he

785
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 1: missed tonight, the one he missed against the nets, he

786
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,279
Speaker 1: wasn't even above the rim. That was just that was

787
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 1: just embarrassing. But the one tonight he actually was a

788
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,959
Speaker 1: little bit above the rim, He just like I said,

789
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:31,000
Speaker 1: was operating in that area where it had to be

790
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:33,760
Speaker 1: perfect because it was kind of just barely his wrist

791
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 1: above the rim and if you don't throw it just right,

792
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:39,400
Speaker 1: it'll come off the background. But to your point, he

793
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 1: just has to accept reality. That's all it is is,

794
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:47,040
Speaker 1: you know, embracing a change in your body and understanding

795
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 1: you have to play differently like Russ. You know, this

796
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:52,879
Speaker 1: is something I thought trying to remember who brought this up.

797
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,319
Speaker 1: It might have been my Trudell on the La fire Pod.

798
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:59,080
Speaker 1: But finishing at the rim is so much about slowing

799
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 1: yourself down. It's so much about because you need these

800
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:06,480
Speaker 1: changes of pace to beat people off the dribble, like

801
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,239
Speaker 1: you need to hit the gas to beat people off

802
00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: the dribble. But when you actually get to the basket,

803
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 1: there's such a finesse element to it. And I think

804
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:17,920
Speaker 1: that's been one of the big problems with Russ throughout

805
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:20,760
Speaker 1: his career, even even when he was a better athlete.

806
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:23,400
Speaker 1: Is he just it's always full speed at the rim,

807
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:25,680
Speaker 1: so if there's somebody who steps over to stop him,

808
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 1: unless he's dunking over the top of him. He just

809
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 1: struggles with the touch on those types of finishes. But

810
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 1: what you can hope for is that hopefully as he

811
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,800
Speaker 1: embraces and understands that dunking is not in the picture

812
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,919
Speaker 1: for him anymore, or at least not very frequently, then

813
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:44,080
Speaker 1: maybe he can train himself to slow himself, to slow

814
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:46,359
Speaker 1: down on those finishes. It's just this could be all

815
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:49,759
Speaker 1: pie in this guy thinking though, because he's not exactly

816
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 1: a guy who you know is willing to accept criticism

817
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 1: or or kind of ster reality in the face. Actually,

818
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 1: I meant to ask you this, so this will be

819
00:37:57,080 --> 00:37:58,800
Speaker 1: the last thing it's tonight, and we'll call it since

820
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 1: we have another show to morrow. But what did you

821
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: think of the Russ interview yesterday? Because I thought I

822
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 1: thought it was a pretty shocking lack of self awareness

823
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:09,759
Speaker 1: but I wanted to hear I wanted to hear your

824
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:13,279
Speaker 1: two cents on it. Yeah, it was interesting the way

825
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: it was kind of framed, right. I think it was

826
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: Dave mcmenimum who asked him about it, about the criticisms,

827
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:20,880
Speaker 1: and you know, it was kind of weird because he

828
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 1: mentioned I think Frank Vogel and he mentioned Fizdale I believe,

829
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:25,879
Speaker 1: and then he went into a lot of people are

830
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 1: telling me what to do, and I kind of know

831
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:30,760
Speaker 1: who I am. I was thinking he was more speaking

832
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 1: on like just media and fans in general, Like that's

833
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:36,880
Speaker 1: because that's usually who he speaks on. But like, you know,

834
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: we spoke about this when Russ came here and was

835
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: traded here, like there was there was no qualms about

836
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 1: what was going to happen, like Russ is gonna be Russ,

837
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: Like there was no changing him, and there was an

838
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: adjustment period for sure. And I think we I think

839
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: it's been kind of unfair because we haven't really seen

840
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:55,439
Speaker 1: the version of Russ that we kind of predicted, which

841
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 1: is the third you know, the third option, third star

842
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:02,279
Speaker 1: over want to put it where two other guys are

843
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,920
Speaker 1: taking up a bunch of possessions. But again when you

844
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,319
Speaker 1: have a RUSS into the first or second option, like,

845
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:09,359
Speaker 1: this is what it's gonna look like. There's gonna be

846
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:12,000
Speaker 1: bad games for for twenty games. We particuled that before

847
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,840
Speaker 1: the season, and that's what the other night was against

848
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:18,240
Speaker 1: I forgot who they played already, but against Brooklyn on Christmas.

849
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:19,960
Speaker 1: So those are kind of games we're gonna happen. But

850
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:21,279
Speaker 1: I thought that's what it was. I thought it was

851
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: him going after you know, the media and the fans

852
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,920
Speaker 1: and you know in general, that's usually who he's talking

853
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 1: to in those kind of moments. He's always been kind of,

854
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:33,279
Speaker 1: you know, I guess against media, and like the last

855
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:35,399
Speaker 1: few seasons, like in ways that he talked to them

856
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. That's kind of how I saw

857
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 1: How did you see it? So, you know, to me

858
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:44,760
Speaker 1: it was darring in the sense that I thought he,

859
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 1: like you, you would just like to see some sort

860
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 1: of reflection, right. So for instance, like as frustrated as

861
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,799
Speaker 1: we were with Frank Vogel to start the season, he

862
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:58,200
Speaker 1: at least was saying some of the right things, like

863
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: he would mention space sing in an interview or before

864
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:04,279
Speaker 1: before he got hired, right after you get hired in

865
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 1: this first press conference, He's like, we're going to take

866
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 1: an outside in analytical approach, which Laker fans were dying

867
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: to hear because we just went through that Magic Johnson fiasco.

868
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,360
Speaker 1: But you you just like to hear like at least

869
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:20,839
Speaker 1: that he's aware of the important matters at hand. And

870
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: to me, like him bringing up fifteen thing was just

871
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: such a classic Russ like your head's kind of in

872
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 1: the wrong place, buddy kind of thing, because like, would

873
00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 1: you ever hear would you ever hear Lebron like come

874
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 1: after a game and be like, you know, like I'm

875
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 1: averaging thirty eleven and seven during the stretch, so I'm

876
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:42,960
Speaker 1: doing everything I can. Like No, it's just like like

877
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:46,239
Speaker 1: Lebron will be hyper focused on like a like I

878
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:49,279
Speaker 1: had these two turnovers in the fourth quarter that were

879
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,040
Speaker 1: very avoidable, or oh, like I missed some shots I

880
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,719
Speaker 1: normally make today, or you know, I missed some reads,

881
00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:57,560
Speaker 1: I made some defensive mistakes. Like that's the kind of

882
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: thing that you would prefer to see. Russ folk us

883
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:03,960
Speaker 1: On is like, actually, on this specific team, they don't

884
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:06,920
Speaker 1: need you to score fifteen and fifteen. If you were

885
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:10,399
Speaker 1: to average ten ten and ten or held ten five

886
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 1: and five, But embrace everything that this team needs out

887
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: of you defensively, it would go a long way towards

888
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:19,479
Speaker 1: raising this team ceiling. Like we've talked a lot about

889
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 1: how Russ has shopped the ball better than we hoped.

890
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:25,560
Speaker 1: That's true, but he also hasn't been good enough yet

891
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:29,320
Speaker 1: and some of the finer details, like tonight was another

892
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: one of the many games this season where he hasn't

893
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:33,520
Speaker 1: taken care of the basketball. He's also had stretches where

894
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,000
Speaker 1: he's taken care of it well. But the point is

895
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:38,760
Speaker 1: is Russ, like when we get to the late moments

896
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 1: and the postseason against a really good team, like, we

897
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,359
Speaker 1: can't afford any of those games from you, So that

898
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 1: needs to be a detailed focus for you moving forward.

899
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:51,640
Speaker 1: Like critical possession late in the game today, Jalen Green,

900
00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:55,319
Speaker 1: it's another step back three Um there he's on a

901
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 1: little personal six oh run, Everything's going Houston's way. He

902
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 1: just dribbled it up the sideline, Molik Monk slipped the

903
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:04,400
Speaker 1: pick and roll wasn't open and rush just through it

904
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:06,400
Speaker 1: right to the other team. And it's like that's the

905
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,080
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that like, that's that is what's going

906
00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 1: to actually hurt this team, not how well did you

907
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,719
Speaker 1: shoot from the field, not did you get twenty five

908
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,080
Speaker 1: points instead of twenty points, like your defensive focus off

909
00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:21,680
Speaker 1: the ball, like what happened on the Patty Mills play,

910
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:25,759
Speaker 1: and you're making solid basketball decisions, especially at the end

911
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 1: of games. Those are the things that are gonna make

912
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,439
Speaker 1: or break this team. And so I I wouldn't take

913
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:33,560
Speaker 1: too much from the interview. I I don't think Russ

914
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 1: is going anywhere. I don't think there's any sort of

915
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,359
Speaker 1: larger theme. They're all I'm saying is just as a

916
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:42,120
Speaker 1: fan of his and as a fan of this team,

917
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:44,359
Speaker 1: I would like to have seen a little more self

918
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:46,759
Speaker 1: awareness from him there, just a little bit more of

919
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 1: like a my team needs me to not to make

920
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,480
Speaker 1: fewer mistakes defensively and to take better care of the

921
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 1: basketball if that's going to be my focus moving forward.

922
00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:56,680
Speaker 1: I don't care what the box score says. That's what

923
00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:59,080
Speaker 1: you'd like to hear. But that said, like you can't,

924
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 1: I mean, a guy's person all these guys personality. I'm

925
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 1: not going to police that by any stretch. Just as

926
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 1: a fan, for me watching that, I was disappointed because

927
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 1: it just showed to me that he didn't seem to

928
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,319
Speaker 1: get it, And the only way we'll find out if

929
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,600
Speaker 1: he ever actually gets it is when the moment comes,

930
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:17,160
Speaker 1: when we end up in a pivotal late playoff series

931
00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 1: moment and it's a really good team. He's either gonna

932
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 1: pay attention to those things or he won't. And if

933
00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 1: he doesn't, I'm going to be thinking about moments like

934
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,960
Speaker 1: that when he was more concerned about, you know, what

935
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 1: Lakers fans might want out of a box out of

936
00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:36,719
Speaker 1: a box score, rather than the obvious, clear, tangible basketball

937
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:39,759
Speaker 1: things that we need from him, if that makes sense. Yeah,

938
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 1: And you know, as long as they're having those conversations inside,

939
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:44,719
Speaker 1: which I'm sure they are, I'm sure they watch you know,

940
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:46,520
Speaker 1: it should time a film and you know, go over

941
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:48,879
Speaker 1: what he needs to do in those situations. To me though,

942
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 1: like it's the last thing. I guess I'll stay on

943
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:54,440
Speaker 1: it this season. Like I don't want to temper rush, right,

944
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,120
Speaker 1: Like I think that's the wrong way to kind of

945
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 1: go about this, Like do you try to calm I

946
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:02,880
Speaker 1: guess his play down. I'd rather just limit those possessions,

947
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:05,480
Speaker 1: like let let him kind of attack and spots, And

948
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 1: that's kind of where we've seen where this team is best,

949
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 1: right where we can kind of channel that energy into

950
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:12,719
Speaker 1: spots in the game and then you know, laid down

951
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:14,560
Speaker 1: the stretch. It can be Lebron, you know, you know

952
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: Lebron staple offense basketball or is just you know what

953
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 1: he likes to do, which is guard screens or post

954
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:21,360
Speaker 1: ups or whatever that is in late game. But I

955
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:23,320
Speaker 1: think during the game, like I think, try to temper

956
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 1: him down, you know, because you're never gonna get low

957
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:28,919
Speaker 1: turnover Russ with high usage, Like that's just never gonna

958
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 1: be him. He's going to attack the paint relentlessly, and

959
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 1: a lot of that comes with you know, out of

960
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,879
Speaker 1: control drives, out of control passes, which you know, some

961
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:38,600
Speaker 1: some of them lead to really great shots, like some

962
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 1: of them do lead to open looks, some of them

963
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,319
Speaker 1: do lead to layups. But I think that's where you

964
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:44,879
Speaker 1: have to go with us kind of don't temper him down,

965
00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:46,880
Speaker 1: just you know, you limit the possessions, I guess, and

966
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:48,600
Speaker 1: I think that will work out when everyone's healthy, but

967
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:50,239
Speaker 1: we just haven't seen it. So right now we're gonna

968
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:53,399
Speaker 1: get a bunch of eight turnover game, seven turnover games, um,

969
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:55,520
Speaker 1: but you just hope that the shooting is well enough

970
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 1: to that and they can kind of survive and the

971
00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: defense is able to keep up with that. And I

972
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,359
Speaker 1: think the small line up as part of it. But yeah,

973
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take too much from the interview as long

974
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,440
Speaker 1: as you know people as they're saying the right things,

975
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 1: you know, inside the locker room and stuff. But it was,

976
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:11,200
Speaker 1: it was it was fascinating to see him kind of

977
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:15,319
Speaker 1: bringing up fifteen and stuff like that. I'm not I

978
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:17,279
Speaker 1: want to be clear, I'm not trying to be over

979
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 1: the critical there, like I I And again it's it's

980
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:22,239
Speaker 1: kind of it makes me feel little uncomfortable because you

981
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 1: feel like you're policing personality. Is like, I also didn't

982
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 1: like that. Lebron over the course of his last few

983
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:31,520
Speaker 1: press conferences has been kind of like heavily hammering home

984
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:34,120
Speaker 1: the point that we're missing a lot of bodies. It's like, yeah, no,

985
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: but like you know, at a certain point we have

986
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:41,280
Speaker 1: to just kind of, you know, take it. He's not wrong,

987
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 1: but he's not want to hear it. Yeah, for exactly.

988
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:47,440
Speaker 1: It's like we all want to hear it exactly. But um, anyway,

989
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:49,560
Speaker 1: that's all we have for tonight, guys, This is gonna

990
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:52,480
Speaker 1: air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific

991
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 1: Standard time, and we'll be on our podcast feed here

992
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:57,120
Speaker 1: in about twenty minutes. Roger and I will be back

993
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:00,720
Speaker 1: for a postgame show tomorrow, and then another one on Friday,

994
00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:02,880
Speaker 1: and then another one on Sunday. Lots of Laker basketball

995
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:07,000
Speaker 1: coming up, but we appreciate you guys support H