Speaker 1: Mmmmm all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Dash Radio. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for coming to hang out on a Tuesday. A
Speaker 1: lot of Laker basketball to talk over the next I
Speaker 1: think we're playing four times in the next six days
Speaker 1: counting tonight, so a lot of a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of game days, a lot of opportunities for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to undo some of the nasty taste that we
Speaker 1: have in our mouth from this five game losing streak.
Speaker 1: Looked like it was gonna go south a few times tonight,
Speaker 1: but Lebron didn't let that happen. Um, So I'm glad
Speaker 1: that for the first time in a long time, Rose,
Speaker 1: you and I can talk about a Laker win. How
Speaker 1: are you doing, Buddy? I am doing well, man. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The last Laker win was the Austin Reeves game winner,
Speaker 1: which feels like two years ago. Um. But yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot of Laker games coming up here tomorrow again one
Speaker 1: against Memphis. But how are you, man? How is your
Speaker 1: week going? It is going good. I'm prepping for my
Speaker 1: first ski trip of the year, and I looking at
Speaker 1: the weather and seeing all this snow drop in on
Speaker 1: the mountain I'm going to so I'm pretty stoked about that.
Speaker 1: But hey man, let's let's dive right into it. So
Speaker 1: I thought I thought the story of tonight's game was
Speaker 1: the Lakers finally kind of leaning into their identity. And
Speaker 1: I think we saw that right away with the starters.
Speaker 1: Something that we've been preaching for this entire season, this
Speaker 1: idea that this could be one of the best driving
Speaker 1: kick basketball teams that we've ever seen, because you see
Speaker 1: so many guys on the floor that are capable of
Speaker 1: beating a guy at the point of attack, in making
Speaker 1: reads and passes out of that for high quality offense.
Speaker 1: It's something that I thought the Clippers had nailed down
Speaker 1: to his science last year in the playoffs, and they
Speaker 1: were doing it with lesser players. They were doing it
Speaker 1: with Paul George as their best player, with Reggie Jackson
Speaker 1: doing a lot of that driving kick work. They didn't
Speaker 1: have anywhere near the personnel in terms of that specific
Speaker 1: skill set that the Lakers had, And it was so
Speaker 1: infuriating for me and for you as well, rog to
Speaker 1: watch this team try to actively sabotage that specific skill set.
Speaker 1: You know, they're so good at driving the ball to
Speaker 1: the basket, but we would play multiple bigs. We'd play
Speaker 1: a bunch of non shooters. We'd be in a situation
Speaker 1: where we had our driving kick guys taking off the dribble,
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots just about every time down the
Speaker 1: floor at the start of these games, and obviously there's
Speaker 1: a lot still to work through. I don't understand why
Speaker 1: they didn't play Dwight at all tonight. I would have
Speaker 1: played him. Staggered with Lebron that said, I loved what
Speaker 1: we saw from the starting lineup. I thought you saw
Speaker 1: everyone look comfortable. Russ had a lot of bad rust
Speaker 1: moments tonight, but he also had a lot of good
Speaker 1: rust moments, and I thought he looked comfortable driving and kicking.
Speaker 1: Lebron looked comfortable getting to the basket. Malik Monk looked comfortable,
Speaker 1: even mellow, operating in his little isolation sets, just the
Speaker 1: space that he had to oper He just looks so comfortable.
Speaker 1: And with that team operating with confidence, especially as their
Speaker 1: two best defensive forwards come back, a Resa and reeves
Speaker 1: this team will get enough stops to where if they
Speaker 1: can replicate this offense, they're gonna be a tough team
Speaker 1: to beat. And then you plug Anthony Davis into that
Speaker 1: and it gets even more exciting. But that was that
Speaker 1: was I thought the story of the game. Rod starting
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson and dropping Dwight Howard, leaning into a five
Speaker 1: out offense, driving kick, driving kick, driving kick, and just
Speaker 1: all of our offensive players feeling comfortable. What did you think? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just Stanley Johnson, right, it was putting
Speaker 1: Malik Monke in for th h T And I thought
Speaker 1: that was very important. It looked like the offense flowed
Speaker 1: a lot better. And this feels like we've really just
Speaker 1: lean into and I've been on this from like I
Speaker 1: think the fifth, the sixth game of the season. To me,
Speaker 1: this season is about maximizing Russ. It's about making sure
Speaker 1: lineups are kind of induced to help him play better,
Speaker 1: kind of fit around his skill sets. You know, we
Speaker 1: have the miss dunks and stuff like that, but there's
Speaker 1: still a good player in where in Russ. There's still
Speaker 1: a effective player, there's still a winning player there. And
Speaker 1: I think that starting lineup kind of pushes those correct
Speaker 1: buttons I put in my notes here. Our first or
Speaker 1: second basket was a Russ, you know, left or right,
Speaker 1: drive right to the rim and he got to the
Speaker 1: rim a lot tonight. There was a lot of miss
Speaker 1: miss layup still at the basket, but he's getting to
Speaker 1: the basket. And I thought, that's kind of what we
Speaker 1: saw with the spacing. With that new starting lineup, Malik
Speaker 1: Monk and Lebron have had an instant chemistry. I thought,
Speaker 1: just you know, from the beginning of the season, I
Speaker 1: think when he was out, we missed his offense. He
Speaker 1: has a punch to him where like he can he
Speaker 1: can drive to the basket or shoot. I feel like
Speaker 1: every time he gets into the dip of his jumper,
Speaker 1: I think it's going in like that's how clean it
Speaker 1: looks when he's spawning up. But he's just been Him
Speaker 1: and Lebron have a nice chemistry, man, and that that
Speaker 1: stands out. But yeah, I thought the starting lineup really
Speaker 1: helped russ Um get going. And still there's some bad passes,
Speaker 1: some awful turnovers that Russ does, and those kind of
Speaker 1: glare out more when you don't have Anthony Davis to
Speaker 1: kind of take some of those possessions away, so you
Speaker 1: see more when you you know up Russ is you
Speaker 1: said you get you up the turn over? Is he
Speaker 1: also up the numbers right, and I think he got
Speaker 1: another triple double tonight. But yeah, that's what I think
Speaker 1: the starting lineup did. Man, there's still a lot of
Speaker 1: defensive concerns. To me, we gave up a lot of points,
Speaker 1: especially the backup you know, center position booches Carmelo right now.
Speaker 1: But Stanley Johnson looks good again. Him and Lebron are
Speaker 1: able to switch actions. And that isn't me or just
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson just look huge and that like in any
Speaker 1: lineup peace and he just but he just looks like
Speaker 1: like massive, Like he's like he was dropped out of
Speaker 1: another era and just dropped in, you know, like he
Speaker 1: just looks absolutely like he doesn't fit with the players
Speaker 1: are on the floor. It's like Darren Coulson and then
Speaker 1: you know also every Bradley and then it's like Stanley Johnson.
Speaker 1: Him and Lebron looked almost same size sometimes and they're
Speaker 1: able to switch. And I thought, you know, that looked good.
Speaker 1: He's still not hitting his jumper, he's still not scoring,
Speaker 1: you know, at any kind of rate, but he looked good, man,
Speaker 1: and it looked like this lineup is inducive to us.
Speaker 1: We've leaned fully into the Lebron small ball. Lebron is
Speaker 1: playing exclusively at center now, which is crazy kind of
Speaker 1: the switch we've done. Yeah, Stanley's dude, I uh he
Speaker 1: when he came through Tucson to go to the University
Speaker 1: of Arizona, and I was fortunates get to play basketball
Speaker 1: against him a lot over the year that he was there,
Speaker 1: and I can speak from personal experience that he's just
Speaker 1: a massive human And what's funny is he was massive
Speaker 1: like that coming right out of high school. That's a
Speaker 1: little similarity between him and Lebron is that they both
Speaker 1: they both had their grown man body when they were
Speaker 1: like sevent teens. Who the heck knows how that happens,
Speaker 1: you know. So, Malik Monk, you're starting to see a
Speaker 1: little bit of his cutting chemistry with Lebron, which is
Speaker 1: something that we we've all we've seen throughout Lebron's career.
Speaker 1: Players as they learn how to operate off the ball
Speaker 1: with Lebron, they kind of, over the course of time
Speaker 1: playing with him, they figure out where their opportunities were.
Speaker 1: And we saw a lot of backdoor cuts from Malik
Speaker 1: Monk today, which is interesting because that's why Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: has had so much success, uh playing with Lebron cutting
Speaker 1: on the backside, just kind of sneaking around and staying
Speaker 1: a threat even when he's not at the three point line.
Speaker 1: And so that's the instant chemistry with Malie Can. Lebron
Speaker 1: comes from three things. His ability to cut off the
Speaker 1: ball to his ability to attack closeouts in a more
Speaker 1: complicating way, meaning a complicated way, excuse me, Like he
Speaker 1: can make complicated finishes around shot blockers at the basket,
Speaker 1: he can make floaters, you can make pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: He can also do the next level reads out of
Speaker 1: those clothesouts. And then lastly, he's a shooter. He can
Speaker 1: knock down shots at a high rate. So when you
Speaker 1: put those three things together, that's like your ideal off
Speaker 1: ball Lebron teammate. Now. Defensively, he was all over the
Speaker 1: place tonight, and that's the next thing, um that this
Speaker 1: team's got to figure out is how to get more
Speaker 1: stops with these smaller lineups. And I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it will just be you know, taking you know,
Speaker 1: because the Lakers only play eight guys tonight, which is
Speaker 1: that was really interesting for a couple of different reasons.
Speaker 1: First of all, they're on the front end of the
Speaker 1: back to back, you know, so ideally you'd want to
Speaker 1: play a deeper rotation, but again it's the COVID circumstances
Speaker 1: at play here as well. The part that I got
Speaker 1: confused with is Dwight should have played like Dwight. Dwight
Speaker 1: is a quality backup NBA center. He has to be
Speaker 1: in the lineup unless he's hurt or dealing with conditioning problems,
Speaker 1: which that very well may be the case. We don't know,
Speaker 1: but he was playing the other day, so I don't
Speaker 1: really understand. But it was interesting that they kept the
Speaker 1: rotation super short under the circumstances. But when you get
Speaker 1: guys back in there like Reeves like a reason, now
Speaker 1: that becomes a ten man small ball rotation. And now
Speaker 1: we now we can kind of ask for more out
Speaker 1: of those guys defensively, because in an eight man rotation
Speaker 1: like that, you just end up with guys playing big minutes.
Speaker 1: And when they played big minutes, that's when they start
Speaker 1: paying really close attention to their own personal fatigue, like
Speaker 1: how much how much longer can they hold down the
Speaker 1: turbo like we have. Stanley played thirty two minutes tonight,
Speaker 1: which I'm fine with. I want him to play big minutes.
Speaker 1: But Avery Bradley thirty one minutes, that's a lot, Carmelo
Speaker 1: Anthony twenty eight minutes, that's a lot. Like you're asking
Speaker 1: guys that are going to experience a drop off in
Speaker 1: their defensive effort as their minutes increase. As guys get
Speaker 1: back from the COVID protocols, they should be able to
Speaker 1: be in a more traditional you know, here's your two
Speaker 1: shifts or here's your one shift. You play your ass
Speaker 1: off while you're in there, and then you know, well,
Speaker 1: we can actually expect more from you defensively. So they've
Speaker 1: got to figure out how to get more stops to
Speaker 1: that group. But I just think it's really cool because
Speaker 1: this is the identity of basketball that I've been pining
Speaker 1: for this entire past eighteen months. This is modern basketball.
Speaker 1: Modern basketball is five outs. That's what we did. That's
Speaker 1: that that's the best way to maximize offensive talent in
Speaker 1: today's NBA. And again, it's just about how can you
Speaker 1: get stops with these smaller, primarily offensive minded players, And
Speaker 1: I think they can. They're just gonna have to kind
Speaker 1: of figure that part out. But this is this is
Speaker 1: kind of my idealized version of the way this team
Speaker 1: would play offense. Yeah, and with like with Russ playing,
Speaker 1: you're almost never always five outright, because he's going to
Speaker 1: be the one kind of that's that's inside. But tonight,
Speaker 1: like Lebron played, you brought up the minutes that all
Speaker 1: these guys are playing. You know, we played the eight
Speaker 1: man rotation broadcade thirty nine minutes tonight. But it didn't
Speaker 1: look like it was too much for him. It didn't
Speaker 1: look like it was too much of a heavy kind
Speaker 1: of load for him. A lot of his offense was just,
Speaker 1: you know, throw it into the post and let him
Speaker 1: playmake out of that. Jason, I think our offense is
Speaker 1: getting better. It looks like we've added a lot of
Speaker 1: kind of actions and stuff, a lot of off ball stuff, right.
Speaker 1: We're getting a lot of baskets, off cuts, um, We're
Speaker 1: running like a lot more split actions on week sides
Speaker 1: and stuff that are involving on shooters like Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and Carmelo run a lot of offside actions and it's
Speaker 1: cool to kind of see that. We also spam like
Speaker 1: the guard screen roles that are that are doing and
Speaker 1: Lebron's Lebron's playing center, but he's still playing a lot
Speaker 1: of point guard. A lot of his stuff is just playmaking.
Speaker 1: Yet Yeah, so he's still doing a lot of playmaking,
Speaker 1: which I think is easier for him. His playmaking again
Speaker 1: is coming out of the post or just you know,
Speaker 1: guard screens and try to make decisions out of that
Speaker 1: didn't look too difficult. Houston is not a great team, right,
Speaker 1: They don't have, you know, a really great They don't
Speaker 1: play defense that well. I think they're one of the
Speaker 1: worst defensive teams in the league. But it was nice
Speaker 1: to just to see that. And again it's we can't
Speaker 1: really be picking right now with Winds six five losses
Speaker 1: in a row, so it's nice to just kind of
Speaker 1: put the script there. But yeah, I think we're getting
Speaker 1: better on offense, man, if we can fill these wings in.
Speaker 1: And both of us would like Dwight to play, but
Speaker 1: I think we'd much rather have this be the have
Speaker 1: this be the place where they lean into, right, You'd
Speaker 1: rather them lead into the small ball identity um, rather
Speaker 1: than you know, lean into the two bigs and then
Speaker 1: go with the small ball here and there. They lean
Speaker 1: in all the way and I don't like how rigid
Speaker 1: it is. I do think Dwight can play a few
Speaker 1: minutes here and there. I still think he's a serviceable
Speaker 1: backup center, especially those Mellow at the five minutes, those
Speaker 1: are really a struggle. Although you know, Stanley Johnson next
Speaker 1: to him makes it a little bit better look at
Speaker 1: it in terms of the athleticism, Yeah, exactly, And he
Speaker 1: definitely makes those lines a little bit better. It still
Speaker 1: feels like a layup line a lot because you know,
Speaker 1: Stanley is usually still on the perimeter. Mellow likes to
Speaker 1: stay in the paint, which makes sense, can't really move
Speaker 1: his feet um and again that's where I think Dwight
Speaker 1: can come in. But you know, Russ in those second
Speaker 1: units gets to the basket a little bit more. I
Speaker 1: do think the finishing should get a little bit better
Speaker 1: at the ask, you right, people to usually shoot at
Speaker 1: the rim. But he's getting there and that and that's
Speaker 1: a good thing. But yeah, they lean all the way
Speaker 1: into this super small ball, which makes it fascinating when
Speaker 1: you know Reeves a Resa all those guys get back
Speaker 1: because they are kind of built to play in this
Speaker 1: kind of this kind of system. We'll see if Lebron
Speaker 1: can kind of continue to hold up at center. But
Speaker 1: it's nice that they've leaven into it, uh and it
Speaker 1: took what games to get to get there, but it's
Speaker 1: good that we're here, and hopefully eighty can kind of
Speaker 1: come back and fill those spots. But it's it was
Speaker 1: fun to kind of watch tonight at least the offense right,
Speaker 1: And I think this really does help Russ be able
Speaker 1: to pick his game up too. So my argument for
Speaker 1: playing Dhite is the fact that he's a good NBA player.
Speaker 1: I know that he didn't look good coming out of
Speaker 1: the locker room, but like I've said to you so
Speaker 1: many times, when you've walked the guy in the locker room,
Speaker 1: when you walk the guy in the hotel room for
Speaker 1: ten days, he's going to struggle to quickly adapt back
Speaker 1: to playing NBA basketball. That's just kind of part of
Speaker 1: the deal there, and that I would imagine that's even
Speaker 1: exaggerated for big guys, you know, because so much of
Speaker 1: what they do is based on their motor and they're conditioning.
Speaker 1: My reasoning for playing Dwight is the exact same reason
Speaker 1: why you don't play DeAndre Jordan's. You know, you're playing
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan because you feel like you need a center.
Speaker 1: But he's actually like one of the worst players in
Speaker 1: the NBA. So actually, what you're doing is you're just
Speaker 1: putting one of the worst players in the NBA out there.
Speaker 1: Well with Dwight, we're having issues with talent, especially with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis out. We're bringing in guys off the street.
Speaker 1: We got guys like Darren Collison, who we might talk
Speaker 1: about later may or may not still be an NBA player.
Speaker 1: But the point is that Dwight is very much a
Speaker 1: completely passable, maybe even good backup NBA center. He just
Speaker 1: has to be he has to be out there. And
Speaker 1: then the flip side of that is like kind of
Speaker 1: bringing this to Lebron because I do want to go
Speaker 1: in the direction of Lebron here. You know, Lebron at
Speaker 1: center is easy on his body against most of the
Speaker 1: teams in the league. Like a night like tonight, Lebron
Speaker 1: had no issues playing center against Houston. There thin Christian
Speaker 1: Wood wants to take him out on the perimeter and
Speaker 1: take jump shots anyway, there's it's just not labor intensive.
Speaker 1: And you saw that literally at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: after playing all those minutes he dunked all over Christian
Speaker 1: would like he wasn't even there. So the point is
Speaker 1: is like physically he's fine there. But let's say Carl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns tomorrow. Let's say you know Nicola Yokis down
Speaker 1: the line, Let's say you know these Joe olmpide when
Speaker 1: you're playing against these bigger centers. I think that's where
Speaker 1: you're starting to talk about, Okay, can Lebron do this
Speaker 1: physically for thirty nine minutes a night? Is that a
Speaker 1: good idea? That's why I would keep Dwight in there
Speaker 1: as your backup center, have him play a couple of
Speaker 1: shifts every night, you know, in the minutes where you'd
Speaker 1: normally had Mellow at center, and essentially just keep him
Speaker 1: engaged and in shape and prepared to then have the
Speaker 1: bigger role against the bigger centers. And then what I
Speaker 1: would do, like like tomorrow night against uh Karl Anthon.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, they play Memphis, so they play uh Steven Adams.
Speaker 1: So it's wrong about that, but oh, I think we
Speaker 1: played Minnesota a couple of games from now, if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, maybe later this week, but anyway, against Steven Adams, Like,
Speaker 1: rather than go big and put d White on Steven Adams,
Speaker 1: what I would do is I just say, like Lebron's
Speaker 1: starting at center, run them off the floor. Like with
Speaker 1: that lineup, just run, run, run, run, run. Maybe Steven
Speaker 1: gets a couple offensive rebounds here there, but over the
Speaker 1: course of the that stretch of basketball, you have the advantage.
Speaker 1: And then I'd bring Ed White in and have him
Speaker 1: spell in the in the non Lebron minutes. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about Lebron for a minute because I
Speaker 1: think what you're seeing here is kind of an idealized
Speaker 1: version of him. And I don't think it's coincidental because
Speaker 1: you know, he did dunk on Christian Wood tonight, but
Speaker 1: this hasn't been a year for him as a high flyer,
Speaker 1: so you can kind of we can all kind of
Speaker 1: admit to the fact that physically he's not the same
Speaker 1: guy that he was, you know, back in two thousand eighteen.
Speaker 1: That goes without saying. However, his efficiency is up across
Speaker 1: the board. I tweeted about this earlier today. He right
Speaker 1: now is shooting a higher percentage in the restricted area
Speaker 1: then he hasn't any of his years since he left Miami.
Speaker 1: That's a that's an awesome number, especially when you factor
Speaker 1: in how many of his minutes at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season, we're alongside DeAndre Jordan's. But he's also shooting
Speaker 1: near the top of his career highst for shots in
Speaker 1: the mid range and his overall true shooting percentage. He's
Speaker 1: just he's just having an extremely efficient scoring season. And
Speaker 1: I think a big part of that is this recent
Speaker 1: move into this modern idea of what basketball should be,
Speaker 1: this five out basketball. And to your point about Lebron
Speaker 1: playing the point, his assist numbers are down this year
Speaker 1: because he's been so deferential to Russ and he's done
Speaker 1: so much work as a screener and off the ball.
Speaker 1: But what you saw tonight is what the team needs
Speaker 1: to be. Lebrons to defer to Russ only when he's
Speaker 1: fatigued or when he out of the game, and when
Speaker 1: he's on the floor, he needs to play that role.
Speaker 1: This team has always been at their breast when Lebron's
Speaker 1: a tennisi ist guy and not a five assist guy,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like when Lebron's at the
Speaker 1: top of the key, surrounded by shooters, or at the
Speaker 1: elbow surrounded by shooters and cutters, just picking you apart
Speaker 1: with his brain. That's when he's at his best, and
Speaker 1: then which what inevitably ends up happening is guys all
Speaker 1: glue up to their man and now he's playing one
Speaker 1: on one basketball, and that's how he ends up with
Speaker 1: these super efficient shooting numbers. But again, what you saw
Speaker 1: tonight is a little bit different than what we've seen
Speaker 1: from Lebron for a lot of this season because he's
Speaker 1: been deferring to Russ so much, and I think we
Speaker 1: need to kind of try to bottle that up a
Speaker 1: little bit and repeat it moving forward. Have Lebron make
Speaker 1: more of the decisions. Have Russ when Lebron's on the floor,
Speaker 1: be more of an off ball guy, because what you
Speaker 1: saw there is peak Lebron ball, top of the key,
Speaker 1: elbow extended one of those two spots either with a
Speaker 1: live dribble or out of your threat. That's where's that
Speaker 1: his best? Yeah, and we're starting to playing with Billie
Speaker 1: nice cutters, right, I think again, going back into Leak Monk,
Speaker 1: I think that's a big part of it as well,
Speaker 1: playing with guys who move off the ball. Every Bradley
Speaker 1: is not a shooter, but he is a nice cutter,
Speaker 1: and I thought he got a lot of baskets off that,
Speaker 1: and again it looks like we're getting into second and
Speaker 1: third kind of production of our offense as well, like
Speaker 1: we're getting into more movement, a lot more cutting, and
Speaker 1: Lebron is able to just find guys. It's it's interesting
Speaker 1: the Russ you know Lebron dynamic there because I think
Speaker 1: the starting lineup is all intertwined into that as well,
Speaker 1: like the r late game offense, and I was just
Speaker 1: Lebron in the post or it was also Rust Lebron
Speaker 1: screen and roll right like Russ was able to attack
Speaker 1: the basket. I think he got a lay up off
Speaker 1: the uh he found Lebron twice cutting and you're getting
Speaker 1: to see Lebron as a cutter with which I think
Speaker 1: is great when when he's at the center position. That's
Speaker 1: just a really tough cover. You have Rust Lebron running
Speaker 1: a screen role, Lebron rolls and him as a roller.
Speaker 1: It just creates a whole bunch of havoc. If you
Speaker 1: don't help on that, he's able to dunk on you. Still.
Speaker 1: You talked about the dunk on. I think Christian would
Speaker 1: he had to lay up at the end as well.
Speaker 1: You're seeing just a full of transformation, and he's been
Speaker 1: just incredible. I think it's what thirty thirty and like
Speaker 1: thirteen games this year, which is tied for I believe
Speaker 1: Trey Young. I think pick Up Whop tweeted that out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's just been incredible of this season man
Speaker 1: and his jumper to every time he shoots. I think
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty much going in now and becoming just
Speaker 1: a great jab step, pull up jump shooter this year.
Speaker 1: Um and then just as a cutter. But he's been awesome.
Speaker 1: The team hasn't you know, matched his play, which has
Speaker 1: been sad, but it's been great to at least see
Speaker 1: him still be at that level. He's still had a
Speaker 1: top three, you know, producing player in this league, and
Speaker 1: I think that's the most important thing for the season.
Speaker 1: And we're starting to put players around him that kind
Speaker 1: of make things easier for him, which was the whole
Speaker 1: point of putting an offensive, you know, laated team around him.
Speaker 1: And you're seeing the kind of advantage of that again
Speaker 1: tonight thirty nine minutes. I just didn't think it was
Speaker 1: too difficult. Houston's defense is part of that. They're not great.
Speaker 1: They lose guys off ball time all the time. But
Speaker 1: this is just the role I think he'll be in
Speaker 1: and I think it will be fascinating. Also when a
Speaker 1: d comes back how he kind of fits around it too.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Lebron was great, man. It was just throwing it,
Speaker 1: throwing it to him in the post. If they trapped,
Speaker 1: he finds the cutter. If not, it's a fadal Way jumper.
Speaker 1: It's a bullyball to the basket. I think only like
Speaker 1: three free those with like three minutes left or something.
Speaker 1: Still not getting to the line as much as you
Speaker 1: would think. But he's just been awesome. He's been getting
Speaker 1: to the basket. You have no complaints about Lebron these
Speaker 1: last six games, Yes, six games, so five of them
Speaker 1: had been losses. But I think he's played well and
Speaker 1: all of them, which is which is great. Well, people
Speaker 1: need to adjust our expectations, like we given the personnel
Speaker 1: that we've had at our disposal over the course of
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, winning NBA basketball games is
Speaker 1: damn near impossible. That's just the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1: We're trying to project forward here, and that's that's what's
Speaker 1: kind of exciting about this is it's not like where
Speaker 1: Lebron's groin injury was completely devastating to any chance of
Speaker 1: making the playoffs because of the fact that the West
Speaker 1: was so deep that you had to be significantly over
Speaker 1: five to get in. Like like said in a couple
Speaker 1: of pods ago, the Lakers could hover around five hundred
Speaker 1: this whole time that Anthony Davis is out and still
Speaker 1: easily end up with the four or five seeds, Like
Speaker 1: that's very much on the table because of the fact
Speaker 1: that the West is is pretty weak. And then obviously,
Speaker 1: like the most exciting part about it is Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: I think is an awesome plug and play guy into
Speaker 1: a five out system, I think he could be. I
Speaker 1: think he could be devastating in a five out system
Speaker 1: attacking close outs, just because of his outrageous size and
Speaker 1: ability to handle the basketball, and especially if he's not
Speaker 1: that first guy when you're not depending on him to
Speaker 1: beat somebody out of a standstill, but rather attacking closeouts.
Speaker 1: I think he could be so so so good at that.
Speaker 1: But you know, looking forward at the style like this
Speaker 1: is because you had mentioned, you know, Houston's bad defense,
Speaker 1: and that's true that needs to be acknowledged here. However,
Speaker 1: the reality is is five out basketball is extremely difficult
Speaker 1: to guard because everyone's in space, and as we know,
Speaker 1: it's just really dive the colt from the basket to
Speaker 1: keep somebody in front of you, no matter how good
Speaker 1: you are. That's that, especially when you've got players the
Speaker 1: caliber of Lebron and the caliber of Russ, which say
Speaker 1: what you want about Russ, and he's had a boatloaded
Speaker 1: issues this year. God knows, I've been one of the
Speaker 1: guys pointing those out. But he does not have problems,
Speaker 1: have a problem beating guys off the dribble, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, That's not his issue. So the point
Speaker 1: is is like that, in general, this style gets very
Speaker 1: difficult to guard. For instance, Utah last year, I think
Speaker 1: they were the number three defense in the entire league.
Speaker 1: They had a scheme that worked for them in the
Speaker 1: day in and day out system in the In the
Speaker 1: regular season, however, they ran into the Clippers. The Clippers
Speaker 1: spaced them out, and suddenly they had a one thirty
Speaker 1: defensive rating in that series. One thirty. Can you can
Speaker 1: you imagine how like that is atrocious. They could not
Speaker 1: get a stop against the Clippers, and the Clippers didn't
Speaker 1: even really have that much talent relative to some of
Speaker 1: the other teams they would have had to face to
Speaker 1: make it to the championship, which is exactly why I've
Speaker 1: been preaching about this so much. Guys like this is
Speaker 1: how basketball works these days if you need to get
Speaker 1: guys out in space, because it's just extremely difficult to
Speaker 1: cover them, no matter how good you are at a
Speaker 1: specific position Defensively. Rudy Gobert was useless in that series,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't his fault. It's just that they spaced
Speaker 1: him out. He was out of the play. He would
Speaker 1: step over and rotate to help. On a drive, they
Speaker 1: kick it out to the corner and the next guy
Speaker 1: would get beat and it'd be over, or the next
Speaker 1: guy wouldn't even make the rotation and he'd make it three.
Speaker 1: It's just difficult to to to even attempt to stop
Speaker 1: people when they're in this kind of system, which is
Speaker 1: takes me to what excites me about this team, because
Speaker 1: not only are they capable of it offensively, but in theory.
Speaker 1: There are lineups that exist on this roster. Line ups,
Speaker 1: especially now that Stanley Johnson is on the roster, but
Speaker 1: you could go with Lebron, Anthony Davis, Trevor Rees is
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson and someone like Russ And now it's like,
Speaker 1: take your pick, which guy are you gonna try to
Speaker 1: drive by? Okay, so you've decided it's Austin Reeves or
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson or Russell Westbrook. Cool. Well, the other four
Speaker 1: guys on the floor are all six eight and can
Speaker 1: run and and can cover ground. So it's like, you
Speaker 1: know that the Lakers were always built to play this
Speaker 1: modern style of basketball, and this has been one of
Speaker 1: the things that I've been so frustrated about with Frank.
Speaker 1: He just was really slow to accept that. And I
Speaker 1: thought tonight when I saw that starting lineup come out,
Speaker 1: I immediately got excited because I was like, you don't
Speaker 1: put that starting line up out there unless you finally
Speaker 1: understand that this is the strength of your team. So
Speaker 1: it definitely is exciting. Yeah, And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: th HD has had a really rough you know, a
Speaker 1: few games, and you had a comparison to th HD
Speaker 1: as well, uh today that that a lot of people
Speaker 1: jumped on for. But he's a good defender to me,
Speaker 1: And I thought, you know, tonight, that's why I was
Speaker 1: kind of frustrated. I wish they switched more actions and
Speaker 1: I thought, that's kind of the team that will eventually
Speaker 1: see um they were still doing like trapping and try
Speaker 1: to get back, And I thought, you know, any screen
Speaker 1: action that Lebron that involves Lebron, THHD and Stanley Johnson,
Speaker 1: I would have loved to see them just switch any
Speaker 1: of that. It's kind of interesting how the season has
Speaker 1: kind of gone right because again I keep talking about
Speaker 1: how we were sold this starting lineup to start the year,
Speaker 1: and obviously a reason being hurt was kind of the
Speaker 1: excuse I guess, or the reason or however you want
Speaker 1: to call it for them going into the other two
Speaker 1: leaning into the other way of that right, And now
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting you could have you could think
Speaker 1: of like there was two ways to go with that.
Speaker 1: You could have found like a fact similar of reason,
Speaker 1: or you could or they went right back into this
Speaker 1: too big lineup, And I think I would have loved
Speaker 1: to see what that looked like like if Bays could
Speaker 1: have just filled in for a reason during that time.
Speaker 1: How different does this team look? Do they gell a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier? Like those are questions that probably we
Speaker 1: can't answer anymore, but that stuff that's really interesting interesting
Speaker 1: to me. But that's kind of where this team is going.
Speaker 1: You talked about, you know, Stanley Johnson playing a bunch
Speaker 1: of minutes. Now we'll see if he stays. We'll see
Speaker 1: if he stays, right. I hope he does. It looks
Speaker 1: like he's shown enough. But they stuff I think cuts
Speaker 1: someone to kind of keep him. But that's just that
Speaker 1: player kind of archetype him aresa next to Lebron Like
Speaker 1: that's a really interesting five and it's like we're just
Speaker 1: gonna go with the super small ball lineups. I think
Speaker 1: it's I think it's really telling that DeAndre Jordan can't
Speaker 1: get a you know, a single minute, or even Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard to a lesser extent. I think Dwight will eventually
Speaker 1: again the rotation, but DeAndre Jordan cannot get off the
Speaker 1: floor when we're playing, like you said, a guys in
Speaker 1: the first of a back to back, Like that's really
Speaker 1: telling to me, Like that's kind of showing where the
Speaker 1: team is and where it's going. And uh, I think
Speaker 1: it shows for positive, positive positivity going forward. I would
Speaker 1: I want to see still Kendrick Nunn get some time.
Speaker 1: I think Darren Caulson is interesting, right, He's still he
Speaker 1: looks like he's still trying to, you know, catch up
Speaker 1: to being caught up. Like he's like two weeks he's
Speaker 1: like a week away from being a week away U,
Speaker 1: which is the way I would see it. Like he's
Speaker 1: like a step slower than everybody, which makes sense. He
Speaker 1: had a nice drive on the baseline tonight to get
Speaker 1: a basket, but you can tell he's just not in
Speaker 1: any kind of basketball conditioning. It doesn't matter how much
Speaker 1: how much in shape you stay. But again, I think
Speaker 1: he's just a fill in until Kendrick Nunn gets back.
Speaker 1: And I think those are just player archetypes. So you
Speaker 1: can kind of see and see the vision here a
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm still on the like I need to
Speaker 1: see more wins, I guess, because this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a really big stretch here. I think we play we
Speaker 1: play Memphis Tomorrow's. He's been killing everyone that they play.
Speaker 1: They got John rampec Um. It's gonna be interesting. They
Speaker 1: can kind of hover around five hundred. You said, the
Speaker 1: standings have kind of leveled off to where the middle
Speaker 1: of the pack is all still kind of bunched up
Speaker 1: and you can kind of catch up. But it's interesting, man,
Speaker 1: it looks like, we really lean into this though, this
Speaker 1: super small ball and this is the way you want
Speaker 1: to lean I like it. It's a little too rigid
Speaker 1: for both of us. We want to see dhy I play,
Speaker 1: but we're kind of happy right with with them leaning
Speaker 1: into this because I think it's just it just makes
Speaker 1: everyone else on the on the team look better. It
Speaker 1: allows them to run actions that makes sense. You're having,
Speaker 1: you know, Malik Munk coming off two pin downs and
Speaker 1: then you have like Carmelo cutting off of that, like
Speaker 1: just put you off into players. I think it's a
Speaker 1: better positions. Oh, absolutely, And then it just gives them more,
Speaker 1: you know, desire to even attempt to do the job defensively,
Speaker 1: which is something you and I have been preaching about
Speaker 1: all your The Callison thing is hilarious if you think
Speaker 1: about it, because we saw a report that came out
Speaker 1: today actually wasn't report. I think it was a straight
Speaker 1: up interview from Steve Nash with him saying, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna play Kyrie until the conditions for two weeks,
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, meanwhile, Darren Collison, I'm I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure it was like some sort of youth minister before
Speaker 1: he before he showed up in the in the Lakers jersey,
Speaker 1: so like, and he just stepped out there and started playing.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, it's just that just goes to
Speaker 1: show you just how complicated this is. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just there's stepping into NBA basketball from not playing NBA
Speaker 1: basketball for an extended stretch is really difficult. It's one
Speaker 1: of It's been one of the big reasons why I've
Speaker 1: been trying to get everybody to lighten up on th
Speaker 1: HD a little bit. And everyone everyone jumped on me
Speaker 1: about the th HD Drew Holiday in comparisons today, But guys,
Speaker 1: guess what Drew Holiday um didn't make an All Defense
Speaker 1: team until two thousand eighteen. Like like Drew Holiday was
Speaker 1: was basically a guard who bounced around from team to
Speaker 1: team because everyone decided he wasn't really good enough to
Speaker 1: justify the money and uh and and he was a
Speaker 1: good player. He made an All Star team once in
Speaker 1: a week Eastern Conference in two thousand and twelve. But
Speaker 1: what you saw with Drew is over the course of
Speaker 1: the last few years of his career, he finally kind
Speaker 1: of found his idealized role, which is, hey, if I'm
Speaker 1: the third best player on the team and there's not
Speaker 1: a ton asked for me offensively, I can devote all
Speaker 1: my energy to the defensive end of the floor and
Speaker 1: I can be a flat out impact player there. And
Speaker 1: that's what he's been for the Bucks. And that's all
Speaker 1: I was saying, is like, look, man like th ht
Speaker 1: he he has the potential to be a guy who
Speaker 1: averages between fifteen and twenty points per game and makes
Speaker 1: all defense teams. To me at the guard position, that's
Speaker 1: very similar to a Drew Holiday type. And I think
Speaker 1: I think the hilarious part about it is if I
Speaker 1: have said that exact same thing exactly one year ago
Speaker 1: before Drew won a title, everyone would probably be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a good cop. I like it, you know. But
Speaker 1: that's just it just goes to show you the way
Speaker 1: that perceptions change when when someone wins a trophy. But again,
Speaker 1: like my thing with t HD is is like, just
Speaker 1: like I was saying, with those quarantine situations, it's hard
Speaker 1: to come off the street and play basketball. And he
Speaker 1: went from an extensive injury that knocked him out for
Speaker 1: um the start of the season to coming into the
Speaker 1: lineup and every night it's a different game or like
Speaker 1: one night he's starting, one night he's playing with Lebron,
Speaker 1: the next night Lebron's out. This time is going to
Speaker 1: the bench. Now Anthony Davis is out, Like his role
Speaker 1: is just constantly changing. It's been influx and then he
Speaker 1: goes into COVID. You know, this is just it's just
Speaker 1: really difficult. Like you mentioned, uh Camp Baysmore, that guy
Speaker 1: deserves a freaking do over for this whole season because
Speaker 1: he had to play all his minutes with DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: to start. Poor guy, Like, come on, like that's like
Speaker 1: like he he could in theory be just fine in
Speaker 1: a five out system, especially since he's such a good,
Speaker 1: you know, single leg leaper with that rip through going
Speaker 1: to his left, Like he could be devastating in that
Speaker 1: close out attacking chain if he's the third or fourth
Speaker 1: guy attacking a close out like Baysmore deserves another shot now,
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna get it when he gets
Speaker 1: back from COVID and gets back in shape. But the
Speaker 1: point is is like we're basically a different team now
Speaker 1: then we were at the beginning, and and as we
Speaker 1: you know, this is a new style, and yeah, guys
Speaker 1: like Lebron have a lot of experience running this style
Speaker 1: because he basically ran a five out type of system
Speaker 1: in Cleveland where he'd be at the four with Kevin Love.
Speaker 1: So it's not a foreign concept to him, but it
Speaker 1: is a foreign concept to a lot of the guys
Speaker 1: on this team, and it's gonna take time for them
Speaker 1: to get used to it, especially on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. And I mean, you even saw that
Speaker 1: a couple of times on the offensive, and you saw
Speaker 1: it Stanley, like Stanley cut back door late of the
Speaker 1: middle fourth quarter. Lebron throws him a pocket pass and Stanley,
Speaker 1: Stanley kind of gives up on the cut, and it's like,
Speaker 1: that's something that he's gonna learn he can't do with Lebron.
Speaker 1: Like when you're with Lebron, you start to cut, you
Speaker 1: have to finish it because he's gonna pass it to you.
Speaker 1: You know, you're gonna see all of these different And
Speaker 1: we just talked about that with the Leak Monk earlier,
Speaker 1: the Leak Monk getting better at understanding how to play
Speaker 1: off ball with Lebron. But that's the point. It's like,
Speaker 1: what's exciting now is over the course of this next month,
Speaker 1: they're going to lean heavily into this style, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna get to see them get better and better at
Speaker 1: it every day because it's new to them, while also
Speaker 1: getting reinforcements in the form of quality defensive forwards like
Speaker 1: Arizona and Reeves, who both will succeed in this system.
Speaker 1: Ariza was awesome in two thousand and eighteen with the
Speaker 1: Rockets and their heavy switching system, and there are five
Speaker 1: out system, so you're gonna see a lot of familiarity
Speaker 1: with the reason there. And then here comes Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: who hopefully at this point will have shed a few
Speaker 1: pounds and and be moving pretty ll and be able
Speaker 1: to fulfill that role as that big, versatile forward that
Speaker 1: that kind of covers up a lot of the mistakes
Speaker 1: for the other guys. But I I think you're going
Speaker 1: to see as long as COVID doesn't maintain its you know,
Speaker 1: strangle hold on the roster, and as long as the
Speaker 1: other guys don't get hurt, I think you're going to
Speaker 1: see this team start trending in the right direction. I
Speaker 1: truly believe that. Yeah, me too, And I hope Taylor
Speaker 1: can also find a role in that right and I
Speaker 1: think if he becomes through holiday. That's amazing. That's a
Speaker 1: guy that I wouldn't I guess trade in some of
Speaker 1: the trade offers I'm seeing I just don't agree with.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Jeremy Grant stuff, I guess kind of
Speaker 1: makes sense. I speak a little bit about the Russ
Speaker 1: miss dunk though, because I think that's interesting. Like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of US miss dunks this season.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, watching players like him face, I
Speaker 1: guess their mortality is is a like really fascinating thing
Speaker 1: to watch, and you know, it's something been that's been
Speaker 1: happening with him. I think throughout his career. Just watching
Speaker 1: night Tonight is interesting because their miss dunks are what
Speaker 1: get on the you know, get on the House of
Speaker 1: Highlights or House of low Lights, whatever you wanna call it.
Speaker 1: But like that's where like you see all like the
Speaker 1: miss dunks and stuff like that. But that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff is just to me, the missdunk is like the
Speaker 1: backdrop for the other parts of the game. I think
Speaker 1: his athleticism or lack of it now, or the dropping
Speaker 1: athleticism that he has it kind of impacts not getting
Speaker 1: lift at the rim anymore. Right. Also, like I think
Speaker 1: a lot of turnovers as well, doesn't get as much
Speaker 1: lift trying to go up and see over the defense.
Speaker 1: Stuff like that that I see. And I think the
Speaker 1: miss dunks are kind of just become the representation of that.
Speaker 1: But you see that as well, because I think the
Speaker 1: miss dunks are what kind of get highlighted. But I
Speaker 1: think that just that is what kind of impacts the
Speaker 1: rest of his game. You see, like the miss dunks
Speaker 1: are just people highlight out. But I think it's fascinating
Speaker 1: to see, like him trying to fix his finishing at
Speaker 1: the rim, and he saw tonight like he got the
Speaker 1: left hand lay up. I think he wanted to go
Speaker 1: for another like big dunk. We decided let me just
Speaker 1: go to the left hand lay up. But I think
Speaker 1: it's just interesting to watch him because like it's the
Speaker 1: guy that you've seen being able to jump over moons,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout his old career, and you see it
Speaker 1: now like you see it every night, And this is
Speaker 1: stuff was probably happening in Houston and Washington, but weren't
Speaker 1: just seeing it every night. And I still think he's
Speaker 1: playing well. He's played a lot better. Um, I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna continue to play better as we go into
Speaker 1: these lineups. But I think it's just fascining that, you know,
Speaker 1: the miss dunks are what's going to get plastered everywhere.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of the backdrop to me because it
Speaker 1: kind of impacts the rest of his game. Do you
Speaker 1: see that as well? With you see what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to go with there? Yeah, the missdunk thing is an
Speaker 1: interesting phenomenon. It doesn't It's not overly complicated you think
Speaker 1: about it. Because if you if I gave you a
Speaker 1: ladder and you stared, uh, you know, and you were
Speaker 1: your eyeballs were two inches above the ring and you
Speaker 1: were looking, you wouldn't see a circle. You'd see a
Speaker 1: very very thin oval. But if you were a foot
Speaker 1: above the rim and you were looking down, you'd see
Speaker 1: the better part of the circle. And it's the same
Speaker 1: concept with dunking. When you're up there, it's easy because
Speaker 1: it's hard to miss when you're throwing it down into
Speaker 1: the ring. But when you're in that weird gray area
Speaker 1: where your hands and fingertips are barely above the rim,
Speaker 1: like a lot has to go right for that dunk
Speaker 1: to finish. You've got to be able to fit it
Speaker 1: into a much tight your window there, and what you're
Speaker 1: seeing is like Russ is operating as an athlete in
Speaker 1: that very very small area right above the rim where
Speaker 1: the margin for era error is extremely small. And the
Speaker 1: problem is is like he because even the one he
Speaker 1: missed tonight, the one he missed against the nets, he
Speaker 1: wasn't even above the rim. That was just that was
Speaker 1: just embarrassing. But the one tonight he actually was a
Speaker 1: little bit above the rim, He just like I said,
Speaker 1: was operating in that area where it had to be
Speaker 1: perfect because it was kind of just barely his wrist
Speaker 1: above the rim and if you don't throw it just right,
Speaker 1: it'll come off the background. But to your point, he
Speaker 1: just has to accept reality. That's all it is is,
Speaker 1: you know, embracing a change in your body and understanding
Speaker 1: you have to play differently like Russ. You know, this
Speaker 1: is something I thought trying to remember who brought this up.
Speaker 1: It might have been my Trudell on the La fire Pod.
Speaker 1: But finishing at the rim is so much about slowing
Speaker 1: yourself down. It's so much about because you need these
Speaker 1: changes of pace to beat people off the dribble, like
Speaker 1: you need to hit the gas to beat people off
Speaker 1: the dribble. But when you actually get to the basket,
Speaker 1: there's such a finesse element to it. And I think
Speaker 1: that's been one of the big problems with Russ throughout
Speaker 1: his career, even even when he was a better athlete.
Speaker 1: Is he just it's always full speed at the rim,
Speaker 1: so if there's somebody who steps over to stop him,
Speaker 1: unless he's dunking over the top of him. He just
Speaker 1: struggles with the touch on those types of finishes. But
Speaker 1: what you can hope for is that hopefully as he
Speaker 1: embraces and understands that dunking is not in the picture
Speaker 1: for him anymore, or at least not very frequently, then
Speaker 1: maybe he can train himself to slow himself, to slow
Speaker 1: down on those finishes. It's just this could be all
Speaker 1: pie in this guy thinking though, because he's not exactly
Speaker 1: a guy who you know is willing to accept criticism
Speaker 1: or or kind of ster reality in the face. Actually,
Speaker 1: I meant to ask you this, so this will be
Speaker 1: the last thing it's tonight, and we'll call it since
Speaker 1: we have another show to morrow. But what did you
Speaker 1: think of the Russ interview yesterday? Because I thought I
Speaker 1: thought it was a pretty shocking lack of self awareness
Speaker 1: but I wanted to hear I wanted to hear your
Speaker 1: two cents on it. Yeah, it was interesting the way
Speaker 1: it was kind of framed, right. I think it was
Speaker 1: Dave mcmenimum who asked him about it, about the criticisms,
Speaker 1: and you know, it was kind of weird because he
Speaker 1: mentioned I think Frank Vogel and he mentioned Fizdale I believe,
Speaker 1: and then he went into a lot of people are
Speaker 1: telling me what to do, and I kind of know
Speaker 1: who I am. I was thinking he was more speaking
Speaker 1: on like just media and fans in general, Like that's
Speaker 1: because that's usually who he speaks on. But like, you know,
Speaker 1: we spoke about this when Russ came here and was
Speaker 1: traded here, like there was there was no qualms about
Speaker 1: what was going to happen, like Russ is gonna be Russ,
Speaker 1: Like there was no changing him, and there was an
Speaker 1: adjustment period for sure. And I think we I think
Speaker 1: it's been kind of unfair because we haven't really seen
Speaker 1: the version of Russ that we kind of predicted, which
Speaker 1: is the third you know, the third option, third star
Speaker 1: over want to put it where two other guys are
Speaker 1: taking up a bunch of possessions. But again when you
Speaker 1: have a RUSS into the first or second option, like,
Speaker 1: this is what it's gonna look like. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: bad games for for twenty games. We particuled that before
Speaker 1: the season, and that's what the other night was against
Speaker 1: I forgot who they played already, but against Brooklyn on Christmas.
Speaker 1: So those are kind of games we're gonna happen. But
Speaker 1: I thought that's what it was. I thought it was
Speaker 1: him going after you know, the media and the fans
Speaker 1: and you know in general, that's usually who he's talking
Speaker 1: to in those kind of moments. He's always been kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess against media, and like the last
Speaker 1: few seasons, like in ways that he talked to them
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. That's kind of how I saw
Speaker 1: How did you see it? So, you know, to me
Speaker 1: it was darring in the sense that I thought he,
Speaker 1: like you, you would just like to see some sort
Speaker 1: of reflection, right. So for instance, like as frustrated as
Speaker 1: we were with Frank Vogel to start the season, he
Speaker 1: at least was saying some of the right things, like
Speaker 1: he would mention space sing in an interview or before
Speaker 1: before he got hired, right after you get hired in
Speaker 1: this first press conference, He's like, we're going to take
Speaker 1: an outside in analytical approach, which Laker fans were dying
Speaker 1: to hear because we just went through that Magic Johnson fiasco.
Speaker 1: But you you just like to hear like at least
Speaker 1: that he's aware of the important matters at hand. And
Speaker 1: to me, like him bringing up fifteen thing was just
Speaker 1: such a classic Russ like your head's kind of in
Speaker 1: the wrong place, buddy kind of thing, because like, would
Speaker 1: you ever hear would you ever hear Lebron like come
Speaker 1: after a game and be like, you know, like I'm
Speaker 1: averaging thirty eleven and seven during the stretch, so I'm
Speaker 1: doing everything I can. Like No, it's just like like
Speaker 1: Lebron will be hyper focused on like a like I
Speaker 1: had these two turnovers in the fourth quarter that were
Speaker 1: very avoidable, or oh, like I missed some shots I
Speaker 1: normally make today, or you know, I missed some reads,
Speaker 1: I made some defensive mistakes. Like that's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that you would prefer to see. Russ folk us
Speaker 1: On is like, actually, on this specific team, they don't
Speaker 1: need you to score fifteen and fifteen. If you were
Speaker 1: to average ten ten and ten or held ten five
Speaker 1: and five, But embrace everything that this team needs out
Speaker 1: of you defensively, it would go a long way towards
Speaker 1: raising this team ceiling. Like we've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: how Russ has shopped the ball better than we hoped.
Speaker 1: That's true, but he also hasn't been good enough yet
Speaker 1: and some of the finer details, like tonight was another
Speaker 1: one of the many games this season where he hasn't
Speaker 1: taken care of the basketball. He's also had stretches where
Speaker 1: he's taken care of it well. But the point is
Speaker 1: is Russ, like when we get to the late moments
Speaker 1: and the postseason against a really good team, like, we
Speaker 1: can't afford any of those games from you, So that
Speaker 1: needs to be a detailed focus for you moving forward.
Speaker 1: Like critical possession late in the game today, Jalen Green,
Speaker 1: it's another step back three Um there he's on a
Speaker 1: little personal six oh run, Everything's going Houston's way. He
Speaker 1: just dribbled it up the sideline, Molik Monk slipped the
Speaker 1: pick and roll wasn't open and rush just through it
Speaker 1: right to the other team. And it's like that's the
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that like, that's that is what's going
Speaker 1: to actually hurt this team, not how well did you
Speaker 1: shoot from the field, not did you get twenty five
Speaker 1: points instead of twenty points, like your defensive focus off
Speaker 1: the ball, like what happened on the Patty Mills play,
Speaker 1: and you're making solid basketball decisions, especially at the end
Speaker 1: of games. Those are the things that are gonna make
Speaker 1: or break this team. And so I I wouldn't take
Speaker 1: too much from the interview. I I don't think Russ
Speaker 1: is going anywhere. I don't think there's any sort of
Speaker 1: larger theme. They're all I'm saying is just as a
Speaker 1: fan of his and as a fan of this team,
Speaker 1: I would like to have seen a little more self
Speaker 1: awareness from him there, just a little bit more of
Speaker 1: like a my team needs me to not to make
Speaker 1: fewer mistakes defensively and to take better care of the
Speaker 1: basketball if that's going to be my focus moving forward.
Speaker 1: I don't care what the box score says. That's what
Speaker 1: you'd like to hear. But that said, like you can't,
Speaker 1: I mean, a guy's person all these guys personality. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to police that by any stretch. Just as
Speaker 1: a fan, for me watching that, I was disappointed because
Speaker 1: it just showed to me that he didn't seem to
Speaker 1: get it, And the only way we'll find out if
Speaker 1: he ever actually gets it is when the moment comes,
Speaker 1: when we end up in a pivotal late playoff series
Speaker 1: moment and it's a really good team. He's either gonna
Speaker 1: pay attention to those things or he won't. And if
Speaker 1: he doesn't, I'm going to be thinking about moments like
Speaker 1: that when he was more concerned about, you know, what
Speaker 1: Lakers fans might want out of a box out of
Speaker 1: a box score, rather than the obvious, clear, tangible basketball
Speaker 1: things that we need from him, if that makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you know, as long as they're having those conversations inside,
Speaker 1: which I'm sure they are, I'm sure they watch you know,
Speaker 1: it should time a film and you know, go over
Speaker 1: what he needs to do in those situations. To me though,
Speaker 1: like it's the last thing. I guess I'll stay on
Speaker 1: it this season. Like I don't want to temper rush, right,
Speaker 1: Like I think that's the wrong way to kind of
Speaker 1: go about this, Like do you try to calm I
Speaker 1: guess his play down. I'd rather just limit those possessions,
Speaker 1: like let let him kind of attack and spots, And
Speaker 1: that's kind of where we've seen where this team is best,
Speaker 1: right where we can kind of channel that energy into
Speaker 1: spots in the game and then you know, laid down
Speaker 1: the stretch. It can be Lebron, you know, you know
Speaker 1: Lebron staple offense basketball or is just you know what
Speaker 1: he likes to do, which is guard screens or post
Speaker 1: ups or whatever that is in late game. But I
Speaker 1: think during the game, like I think, try to temper
Speaker 1: him down, you know, because you're never gonna get low
Speaker 1: turnover Russ with high usage, Like that's just never gonna
Speaker 1: be him. He's going to attack the paint relentlessly, and
Speaker 1: a lot of that comes with you know, out of
Speaker 1: control drives, out of control passes, which you know, some
Speaker 1: some of them lead to really great shots, like some
Speaker 1: of them do lead to open looks, some of them
Speaker 1: do lead to layups. But I think that's where you
Speaker 1: have to go with us kind of don't temper him down,
Speaker 1: just you know, you limit the possessions, I guess, and
Speaker 1: I think that will work out when everyone's healthy, but
Speaker 1: we just haven't seen it. So right now we're gonna
Speaker 1: get a bunch of eight turnover game, seven turnover games, um,
Speaker 1: but you just hope that the shooting is well enough
Speaker 1: to that and they can kind of survive and the
Speaker 1: defense is able to keep up with that. And I
Speaker 1: think the small line up as part of it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take too much from the interview as long
Speaker 1: as you know people as they're saying the right things,
Speaker 1: you know, inside the locker room and stuff. But it was,
Speaker 1: it was it was fascinating to see him kind of
Speaker 1: bringing up fifteen and stuff like that. I'm not I
Speaker 1: want to be clear, I'm not trying to be over
Speaker 1: the critical there, like I I And again it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of it makes me feel little uncomfortable because you
Speaker 1: feel like you're policing personality. Is like, I also didn't
Speaker 1: like that. Lebron over the course of his last few
Speaker 1: press conferences has been kind of like heavily hammering home
Speaker 1: the point that we're missing a lot of bodies. It's like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: but like you know, at a certain point we have
Speaker 1: to just kind of, you know, take it. He's not wrong,
Speaker 1: but he's not want to hear it. Yeah, for exactly.
Speaker 1: It's like we all want to hear it exactly. But um, anyway,
Speaker 1: that's all we have for tonight, guys, This is gonna
Speaker 1: air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific
Speaker 1: Standard time, and we'll be on our podcast feed here
Speaker 1: in about twenty minutes. Roger and I will be back
Speaker 1: for a postgame show tomorrow, and then another one on Friday,
Speaker 1: and then another one on Sunday. Lots of Laker basketball
Speaker 1: coming up, but we appreciate you guys support H