Speaker 1: Mmmm. Welcome to the State of the Lakers on Dad Purdie.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out
Speaker 1: on a Sunday night. Your Los Angeles Lakers are five
Speaker 1: and two in their last seven games, starting to look
Speaker 1: a lot more like the team that they that we
Speaker 1: hoped they would be. We gotta wait for the numbers
Speaker 1: to update, but my guess is that they will be
Speaker 1: top ten in both offense and defense over that span. Uh.
Speaker 1: Not a perfect seven game stretch, a couple of ugly
Speaker 1: losses in there, but we gotta take our wins where
Speaker 1: we can get him. Rogs right, how are you doing, man?
Speaker 1: How's your weekend? Ben? So far, it's been good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We're not really in a position to be picky about wins, right,
Speaker 1: like this is a five, close to five team, but
Speaker 1: it was nice to just to get another blowout win.
Speaker 1: I thank you missed the last one, but yeah, this
Speaker 1: was a much better win and it's good to have
Speaker 1: one that felt like it was a win throughout, like
Speaker 1: Orlando made a run in the fourth and those kind
Speaker 1: of things happened. But yeah, it was a good win.
Speaker 1: It was a fun win. At least I don't know
Speaker 1: about goodwin with how the Orlando Magic's record is. But
Speaker 1: how are you man? Welcome back? I guess he missed
Speaker 1: the last one. Good to have you bet. You guys
Speaker 1: did a great job holding it down while I was gone.
Speaker 1: Special shout out to Viny. I always appreciate that he
Speaker 1: is available to help us when one of us has
Speaker 1: to stop for whatever reason. But yeah, man, I'm excited.
Speaker 1: You're right. We can't be picky about this at all whatsoever.
Speaker 1: After the You know, I was extremely critical of Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d to start this season because while they
Speaker 1: had some excuses like Lebron had some availability issues and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's jump shot like that's a little bit out
Speaker 1: of his control. I can't get super upset about at
Speaker 1: him that shots that he used to make are suddenly
Speaker 1: not going in. But I was mad about process with
Speaker 1: both of them. Anthony Davis was taking a lot of
Speaker 1: really difficult jump shots. He wasn't being as aggressive in
Speaker 1: the post to get into the lane. He would float
Speaker 1: in and out of games. Defensively, his motor wasn't what
Speaker 1: it was in previous season. And then Lebron, even if
Speaker 1: you gave him an excuse for conditioning, even if you
Speaker 1: gave him an excuse for trying to get his legs
Speaker 1: underneath him. He wasn't as engaged as he should have
Speaker 1: been given the situation. And if you guys remember, after
Speaker 1: that triple overtime lost to the Kings, Roger and I
Speaker 1: both just went in on those guys for just not
Speaker 1: being good enough. And if you remember after the game,
Speaker 1: Lebron in his postgame interview said, I have to find
Speaker 1: a way to be better for this team. And we
Speaker 1: talked about in the next pot that we thought that
Speaker 1: was the first time Lebron really vocalized. You know, the
Speaker 1: word I used was contricte. Maybe that's the wrong word,
Speaker 1: but like he just finally seemed to get it that
Speaker 1: what those guys were bringing to the table wasn't enough.
Speaker 1: That if there are intent was for the Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: trade to make it so that they could coast, that
Speaker 1: clearly wasn't materializing. They weren't going to be able to coast.
Speaker 1: So it got to the point where those two guys
Speaker 1: had to take on the responsibility and the accountability necessary
Speaker 1: to get the ship headed in right direction. And they
Speaker 1: had a really ugly game against Detroit, if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: but in that ugly game. It was ugly outside of
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D. Lebron and a D were both fantastic,
Speaker 1: and over the course of the next next seven games,
Speaker 1: look there they were a bad team. It was never
Speaker 1: gonna get fixed overnight, and Anthony Davis still has a
Speaker 1: ways to go to get to where he needs to be.
Speaker 1: But again, one they played three over five teams in
Speaker 1: that stretch, they did beat one of them, they nearly
Speaker 1: beat another in that Clippers game, they had a chance
Speaker 1: to win that one late. And then they went four
Speaker 1: no against the below five hundred teams, which is good
Speaker 1: because they have already lost seven games this season against
Speaker 1: below five hundred teams. So we're trending in the right direction.
Speaker 1: But to me, it all starts and ends with Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D. And so far Lebron has been able
Speaker 1: to get back to mostly what he was at his
Speaker 1: peak in this Lebron a D era. Once, once a
Speaker 1: D kind of gets back to that level, then we'll
Speaker 1: really be cooking with gas. But to me, you know,
Speaker 1: we looked at that game, that triple overtime lost to
Speaker 1: the Kings as a potential turning point, and so far
Speaker 1: it appeared years that it might have been long way ago.
Speaker 1: Obviously not a perfect stretch of games, but we're headed
Speaker 1: in the right direction. Do you agree with me, rog, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And we keep saying like this team has
Speaker 1: kind of lost the benefit of the doubt um And
Speaker 1: we talked before we're gonna keep this one a lot
Speaker 1: about Lebron because he's kind of deserved it. I guess
Speaker 1: for this one, I want to separate. I guess because
Speaker 1: I feel like I can separate the team from Lebron,
Speaker 1: and I know they're intertwined. Obviously, his play directly correlates
Speaker 1: with wins and all that, but he's been awesome. Man
Speaker 1: in Orlando is not a good team. Okay, see he's
Speaker 1: not a good team. But the last seven games, Spectrum
Speaker 1: posted it thirty points, almost eight assists. On shooting. Tonight again,
Speaker 1: I think he hit the triple double thirty ten and
Speaker 1: ten or something three blocks. This is the best to me,
Speaker 1: he's looked since he got hurt last February. I think
Speaker 1: when Solomon Hill fell into his high ankle sprain, and
Speaker 1: I think someone was telling you that he was in
Speaker 1: the MVP conversation during that time, and the leader in
Speaker 1: the MVP conversation, but just his body looks great. He
Speaker 1: looks like the most energy energized guy on the floor,
Speaker 1: even though he's the old this guy on the floor,
Speaker 1: his body looks good. He's running like he's getting blocks,
Speaker 1: he's getting lift on his jumper as well. He just
Speaker 1: looks great. And again I want to separate him from
Speaker 1: the team because the team is, you know, two games over,
Speaker 1: hasn't been great. Lebron to me, looks Lebron looks like
Speaker 1: he's ready. He looks like a guy that can continue
Speaker 1: to be the best player UM in any series against
Speaker 1: any team. And that was the most important thing for
Speaker 1: us to look at. In the space. He still isn't great,
Speaker 1: We still put him in rough spots, but it just
Speaker 1: looks like he doesn't care about that stuff. And and
Speaker 1: we'll get into it more, I guess from this game.
Speaker 1: But I want to stick on that because I think
Speaker 1: he's been awesome last eight games. It's gonna average for
Speaker 1: around thirty eight and eight or something like that, and
Speaker 1: that's just incredible for a guy who's thirty seven, like
Speaker 1: his age needs to be put into that because that's
Speaker 1: unprecedented stuff. That's just stuff that we have not seen
Speaker 1: its stuff that we shouldn't take for granted. Um. And
Speaker 1: even though Lebron's you know, this is what you're for
Speaker 1: whatever it is with the Lakers, but just stuff that
Speaker 1: we shouldn't take for granted. And this is the best
Speaker 1: he's looked even his whole tenure. Here, his body, his
Speaker 1: jumper is, everything is going well. Um And I think
Speaker 1: that's awesome to see. And obviously when a d and
Speaker 1: Russ kind of hit their stride, that's when this team
Speaker 1: will hit the ceiling. But we've got the first part
Speaker 1: of that right, Like Lebron being Lebron is the total
Speaker 1: key to the house. Obviously, you know how to key
Speaker 1: to the house. You're not gonna be able to get in,
Speaker 1: So like that's that's step one. And I think he's
Speaker 1: looked great. Yeah, you know, there's this there's it all
Speaker 1: comes from a specific section of basketball fans, and we
Speaker 1: all know who they are and they don't need to
Speaker 1: describe them. But there's always been this sick obsession with
Speaker 1: trying to get out in front of Lebron's decline, to
Speaker 1: try to be the guy that like is like here,
Speaker 1: this guys, it's here the declines here everyone look, look,
Speaker 1: look Lebron's bad now, and and it's it's so funny
Speaker 1: because for literally a half decade, everyone's been trying to
Speaker 1: jump out in front of that train. And it's like, guys, like,
Speaker 1: it's gonna eventually happen. He's thirty seven, he's played a
Speaker 1: million minutes. You don't have to be the guy who's
Speaker 1: wrong all the time. He will eventually. If your desire
Speaker 1: is to see Lebron not be good at basketball anymore,
Speaker 1: you don't have to hold your breath that long. It's
Speaker 1: gonna eventually happen. But you keep making yourself look foolish
Speaker 1: by trying to jump out in front of that train.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. If you're being honest with what
Speaker 1: you're seeing and you understand the way that Lebron plays,
Speaker 1: he plays there is a lot of physical flash, but
Speaker 1: he plays with his brain. That is has always been
Speaker 1: his best asset on the basketball court. When you look
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, Orlando is just throwing crazy double
Speaker 1: teams and strong side like like box coverages at him NonStop,
Speaker 1: and he's just picking them apart. Like he would have
Speaker 1: loved to go out and put up forty in that game,
Speaker 1: but he didn't need to he always scored I think
Speaker 1: five five in the fourth quarter because Orlando was just
Speaker 1: sending all kinds of bodies at him. His the way
Speaker 1: he plays the game, at his size and strength, with
Speaker 1: his basketball IQ and with his newfound I said new
Speaker 1: found it's been around for roughly seven eight years now,
Speaker 1: but with his ability to shoot the basketball, he was
Speaker 1: always going to be at least a top ten player
Speaker 1: well into his late thirties. So to me, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just crazy that people keep It's like they're it's
Speaker 1: like it's like they have no worry about whether or
Speaker 1: not they'll be proven wrong. They just they're just addicted
Speaker 1: to like that rush that they get from like seeing
Speaker 1: him have a couple of bad games and trying to
Speaker 1: jump out in front of it. It's silly to me.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, man, like, just how are you
Speaker 1: not just sitting back and enjoying this? Like I could
Speaker 1: watching him tonight get those three crazy chase down blocks.
Speaker 1: All I could think is like, it's insane that he's
Speaker 1: that that we're still watching this and it's about to
Speaker 1: be the year two, and I just I wish all
Speaker 1: I like those people. That's a miserable crowd of people
Speaker 1: over there, So I don't envy them in any in
Speaker 1: any sense, but I mean, all I know is from
Speaker 1: my perspective, I'm just trying to enjoy it while I can. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't really want to give that any attention. But
Speaker 1: were you able to hear the Spectrum broadcast tonight. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if you got here, but Stulan kept saying, okay,
Speaker 1: so Steve Lance was saying, this is vintage Lebron, and
Speaker 1: I was thinking, like, well, I mean, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that ever ended, you know, like it's been vintage Lebron
Speaker 1: for a long time. But moving, I guess onto the game.
Speaker 1: He picked the team spirit up tonight, right, Like, That's
Speaker 1: what I caught from tonight, And to me, it's really
Speaker 1: not fair that he's the one that has to do that.
Speaker 1: I guess, um, but this team looked super lethargic early on.
Speaker 1: It looked very uninterested, very disengaged, high turnover prone, just
Speaker 1: lack of engagement. I thought he tried to keep everyone's
Speaker 1: spirits up, which just crazy to see again in a
Speaker 1: guy in your year, nineteen thirty seven years old. But
Speaker 1: did you see that as well? Because I thought that
Speaker 1: was a big point of this game, and I thought
Speaker 1: this turned around the whole night. He picked everyone up.
Speaker 1: He was flexing after and once right, kind of extending it.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to give everyone's spirits up. And I
Speaker 1: thought that's what turned the game. I guess in the
Speaker 1: third quarter he saw the defense go up as well,
Speaker 1: but yeah, he just looked awesome. He destroyed Orlando in
Speaker 1: that third quarter. I believe we were down five. He
Speaker 1: had two threes to start that quarter and I just
Speaker 1: got on and got them on a tree to oh
Speaker 1: run twenty three, oh run and put the game away again.
Speaker 1: Orlando came back and made a run. But he brought
Speaker 1: the spirit up of the team. And that doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be his job every night, but that he could
Speaker 1: you could see that he could tell that that was
Speaker 1: his job tonight, was to pick the team spirit up
Speaker 1: and I and I thought he did that. And his
Speaker 1: him being able to recognize that and recognize what the
Speaker 1: team needs every night, I think it's special. And you're
Speaker 1: starting to see him round into form, and he's talked
Speaker 1: about it after the games. He's starting to get healthier,
Speaker 1: and you're seeing that jump off the page. To me,
Speaker 1: he looks like you know in conversation for best player
Speaker 1: in the league, and that's all. That's all you can
Speaker 1: really ask of him. And he's looked he looked great
Speaker 1: at that. But do you agree with that? Do you
Speaker 1: agree he picked I guess the team's spirit up tonight
Speaker 1: because I thought I thought that kind of turned I
Speaker 1: guess this night around. Well, it's funny you said that
Speaker 1: this is his job for tonight, for the team that
Speaker 1: spend his job for the entire season. He just what
Speaker 1: he wasn't doing it to start the season. Like when
Speaker 1: you put this roster together, Yeah, of course it looks silly.
Speaker 1: If Lebron looks like the seventh best player in the
Speaker 1: world and a D looks like the fifteenth best player
Speaker 1: in the world, of course, then you're asking Molik Monk
Speaker 1: and Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook and all these guys
Speaker 1: who are far more limited to do a lot more
Speaker 1: to fill in those gaps. This only ever made sense,
Speaker 1: This roster construction only ever made sense with Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D being Lebron and a D the same guys
Speaker 1: that on the title. Okay, and you know again, I
Speaker 1: was super critical Lebron. I had a lot of guys
Speaker 1: who were who are who are on my case about
Speaker 1: it during that stretch, But like it's it's it's not
Speaker 1: really all that complicated to me. You cannot possibly tell
Speaker 1: me that this guy from an energy standpoint that we've
Speaker 1: seen the last two weeks is the same guy from
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season. It absolutely was not for stretches. Yes,
Speaker 1: we saw it a little bit against Houston, little bit
Speaker 1: against Cleveland. He was good in that Golden State game.
Speaker 1: He had his moments. I'm not I'm not pretending like
Speaker 1: he didn't have his moments, but it just wasn't the
Speaker 1: same guy from an engagement level, from a care level,
Speaker 1: from an effort level, that we've seen since that that
Speaker 1: triple overtime catastrophe against Sacramento. They he absolutely has turned
Speaker 1: it up. But that is absolutely what he needs, because
Speaker 1: you know, someone said on Twitter, they go. The people
Speaker 1: have been saying like, oh, it's it's ridiculous that Lebron
Speaker 1: has to hit the gas to beat a team like
Speaker 1: Orlando on a random Sunday night. And the way the
Speaker 1: way I look at it is like, no, no, know,
Speaker 1: like there will be a point this season, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully where everybody kind of is in the right role,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Nadiere in a groove and everyone else gets going,
Speaker 1: and then Lebron and a D will have some more
Speaker 1: margin for error to have off nights here and there.
Speaker 1: But the team just isn't rolling like that right now.
Speaker 1: They don't have good enough defensive habits. I talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about this in the podcast yesterday. We're not
Speaker 1: boxing out at all. We're not contesting shots. We are
Speaker 1: literally dead last in the league and contested shots per
Speaker 1: per game, and we're dead last in the league in
Speaker 1: uh in box out, the defensive box out percentage. We're
Speaker 1: just not doing those things well. When all of those
Speaker 1: things get tightened up, when this team becomes a basketball
Speaker 1: team that has good habits, that plays the game the
Speaker 1: right way, that develops that championship basketball character that I've
Speaker 1: been harping on all season, when they get that nailed down,
Speaker 1: then Lebron and a D and Russ will have the
Speaker 1: flexibility in the margin of air to have off nights.
Speaker 1: That's just not the way the team is right now.
Speaker 1: He has to be like this now. But in theory,
Speaker 1: the way this roster was constructed, if they all have
Speaker 1: good habits and they all do their jobs in the
Speaker 1: dirty work parts of the game. There is enough offensive
Speaker 1: creation here, there's enough shooting here. You have this like
Speaker 1: Elite other perimeter option in Russell Westbrook. In theory, it
Speaker 1: will all kind of come together and make more sense
Speaker 1: at that point. But yeah, like at this point, when
Speaker 1: the team still sucks at all those things, Lebron's got
Speaker 1: to be the guy who is the energy. He's got
Speaker 1: to be the guy that gets everyone going, that builds
Speaker 1: the momentum, that carries them until they get to that point.
Speaker 1: If that makes sense, Yeah, for sure. And we're starting
Speaker 1: to see it right last eight games thirty ten and ten,
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people have been trying
Speaker 1: to and I've seen just how the conversation has been
Speaker 1: around this team, and we talked about it after every game,
Speaker 1: trying to just have a one one fix, right, like
Speaker 1: just press one button and it fixes the team. Right.
Speaker 1: And it was DeAndre Jordan's not starting, it was put
Speaker 1: E d at the five, it was start our shooters.
Speaker 1: I think those are all, you know, little solutions. But
Speaker 1: there's a good team in here, right and I think,
Speaker 1: of course, and the way they're going to find it
Speaker 1: is through try on error and the trial has probably
Speaker 1: taken longer than it should have, right, Like the error
Speaker 1: was found like ten games ago, but we're still doing
Speaker 1: the same trials. But like to find the to find
Speaker 1: the good team in here, it's gonna take trial and error,
Speaker 1: and you can't even get to that trial without having
Speaker 1: Lebron being himself without a D being himself. Right, Like
Speaker 1: to me, you can't even get to that trial error
Speaker 1: part until Lebron and a D are themselves and a
Speaker 1: D has put up the numbers that still when we
Speaker 1: watch the film sometimes it feels like it's not matching
Speaker 1: and we still have issues on engaging, but the numbers
Speaker 1: are there the point you know it's leading in points
Speaker 1: of the paint. But now that Lebron's kind of picked
Speaker 1: it up, you see him start to roll and again, Okay,
Speaker 1: seeing Orlando aren't great teams, but they did have a
Speaker 1: good win over Boston, the loss in Memphis things um,
Speaker 1: and just putting this more into the team perspective. I
Speaker 1: believe we're now like six in defense in the last
Speaker 1: six games, and I think that's gonna even go up
Speaker 1: after this. Sorry last seven games or six in defense,
Speaker 1: twelfth in offense. The numbers are starting to even ow
Speaker 1: to match the roster um. And again, these are silver
Speaker 1: linings that you're trying to find on a team that's
Speaker 1: two games over five. But it's also a team that's
Speaker 1: missed Lebron for a lot of these games. And even
Speaker 1: when he played earlier in the year, he was wasn't
Speaker 1: this Lebron. So I guess those are like kind of
Speaker 1: the civil lines you can see. But Lebron being himself
Speaker 1: is such a breath of fash air. To see these
Speaker 1: last eight games or whatever it is. It seems like
Speaker 1: he's ramping up, he's picking it up. His energy is awesome.
Speaker 1: He looks like the young guy on the floor. Um,
Speaker 1: And it's just been great to see man. And it's
Speaker 1: been fun to have at least two two wins that
Speaker 1: to talk after a win for once, it's been like
Speaker 1: it's been bad loss after bad loss. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: great to see them. And the team is moving in
Speaker 1: a positive direction, even if it doesn't feel like it,
Speaker 1: even if the engagement looks bad, even if they look
Speaker 1: disengaged for quarters on end. Um, hopefully these are kind
Speaker 1: of uh stepping stones to a good team. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's a good team in here. Man, it's
Speaker 1: just it's gonna take a lot of trial and air
Speaker 1: to figure it out. And the trial is gonna take
Speaker 1: longer than we probably wanted to. But I think that's
Speaker 1: the way we find the good team in here, and
Speaker 1: I think we're getting to that. Yeah, no idee on
Speaker 1: Lebron before we move on to the team. Uh. You know, obviously,
Speaker 1: with the way that the top of the field looks
Speaker 1: right now, Lebron would have to rip off another month
Speaker 1: where he's just incredible and the Lakers would have to
Speaker 1: win a whole lot of games in order for him
Speaker 1: to kind of enter into the MVP conversation. But that said,
Speaker 1: for him to even be playing that level of basketball
Speaker 1: absolutely changes the calculations for the for the rest of
Speaker 1: the season, because that's been one of the biggest question marks,
Speaker 1: you know, around this whole era. How long can Lebron
Speaker 1: play at an m v P level that is by
Speaker 1: definition the window, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: for him for him to be looking like this and
Speaker 1: also trending in the right direction, not oh he has
Speaker 1: dead legs on Tuesday night and he has dead legs
Speaker 1: every night and you can just tell, oh, this is
Speaker 1: what he is now no, he is progressing in the
Speaker 1: right direction athletically. You could tell as his conditioning gets better,
Speaker 1: and as he gets his legs underneath him, he's looking
Speaker 1: better and better, his touches matching up. Then there then
Speaker 1: there will be this continuity piece where all the guys
Speaker 1: playing together for a long time. Because with this stretch
Speaker 1: of basketball, the Lakers still had crazy turnover. I mean,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has missed two games, right, so you know
Speaker 1: the way the way I look at it, this has
Speaker 1: a lot of room to go up from here. Now,
Speaker 1: moving on to the team, and I talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about this on the On on Today's spot earlier today.
Speaker 1: But we we have some things that we do really well,
Speaker 1: and we pushed the ball in transition and we avoid
Speaker 1: half court sets. I actually thought that was one of
Speaker 1: the biggest problems in the first half tonight against the Magic.
Speaker 1: The Magic we're playing it too big lineup, a really
Speaker 1: really big shot blocking two big lineup, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: weren't doing a good job of pushing the ball in transition,
Speaker 1: something they've done super well all season they weren't doing tonight,
Speaker 1: so they kept getting caught in these half court sets
Speaker 1: against the Magic and when you have that much size
Speaker 1: and guys like Russ and t h T and Lebron,
Speaker 1: who are are guys who prefer to be downhill, you know,
Speaker 1: try to get to the rim, guys like it's it's
Speaker 1: inherently going to lead to some Jankee looking basketball. And
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, pushing in transition is the inevitable
Speaker 1: way to get out of that. How do we know,
Speaker 1: because that's what team did to us for all season
Speaker 1: when we were starting with DJ and and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup, and and and prioritizing these big,
Speaker 1: lumbering lineups, teams would run us off the floor. And
Speaker 1: it was only a matter of time before we started
Speaker 1: to do that to the Magic and start to have
Speaker 1: some success. And we did in the second half. Obviously
Speaker 1: need to dig into the tape to kind of get
Speaker 1: a better feel for that, but you could tell that
Speaker 1: that is one of our strengths. And so when we
Speaker 1: that's what kills us at the end of these games, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not too concerned about what happened at the end
Speaker 1: of the game tonight. That's classic older guys letting me guess.
Speaker 1: But we kept getting caught walking the ball up the
Speaker 1: floor and attacking their set defense. And then when we
Speaker 1: would miss a shot, they would run it right down
Speaker 1: our throat and attack in a semi transition and get
Speaker 1: all the way to the rim and draw foul or
Speaker 1: make a layup right and and so our team is
Speaker 1: at our best. Our comfort zone is defending with energy,
Speaker 1: but pushing the ball in transition, staying out of the
Speaker 1: half chord is what allows us to be at our best,
Speaker 1: as I opposed to the other night. Before tonight this game,
Speaker 1: we were six in the league and field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good, right, So like for for us to
Speaker 1: be twenty three or whatever, we were an offense, but
Speaker 1: sixth and field goal percentage, that basically tells us when
Speaker 1: we value the possession, we don't turn the ball over,
Speaker 1: and we get and we stay out of those slow,
Speaker 1: methodical half court possessions. We are getting great shots and
Speaker 1: we have good process. So what makes me happy is
Speaker 1: there are more optimistic I should say, is that there
Speaker 1: there is kind of like an identity forming with this team,
Speaker 1: and identity that didn't exist early on. And when we
Speaker 1: start to tighten up those little things that I was
Speaker 1: talking about, like finishing possessions on defense, by getting good
Speaker 1: box outs and guys crashing from all over the floor,
Speaker 1: and then offensively just taking care of the basketball, getting
Speaker 1: to the point where that field goal percentage becomes what
Speaker 1: we rely or that's excuse me, that sixth in the
Speaker 1: league and field goal percentage that we're relying on when
Speaker 1: we on offense, that we're getting to that more and
Speaker 1: not hemorrhaging possessions and doing things stupid things to shoot
Speaker 1: us in the foot. When you clear all that you know,
Speaker 1: stuff up, you can see that there's a definitive pathway
Speaker 1: to being a contender here, and so that to me
Speaker 1: is exciting. And obviously step one is a seven game
Speaker 1: stretch like this where four of the teams are bad
Speaker 1: and two of the good teams you played are also
Speaker 1: pretty bad, and yeah, you go five and two, and yeah,
Speaker 1: there's some disappointing stretches in there, but you're defending, You're
Speaker 1: you're definitively heading in the right direction. And the next
Speaker 1: step is like, hey, go to Dallas on Wednesday and
Speaker 1: kick their ass. That's that's that's the next step. They have.
Speaker 1: They have a little foundation here, they just need to
Speaker 1: continue to build on it. Yeah, for sure, and they
Speaker 1: have a chance here to run off some wins. I mean, Dallas,
Speaker 1: I believe Luca is gonna be out for a little while. Um.
Speaker 1: Then they play Minnesota, who's been on a bad stretch.
Speaker 1: I think they lost like five games in a row,
Speaker 1: out again, came back. Now you heard his ankle again,
Speaker 1: So he's gonna be out again, I believe. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: you play the Mads without Luca, you go to the
Speaker 1: you go play in Minnesota where they beat us at
Speaker 1: home by like thirty. Um, so I'm sure they would
Speaker 1: want to get some revenge on that, and also so
Speaker 1: it has not been playing well. And then Chicago, who
Speaker 1: I think has like eight other guys or nine guys
Speaker 1: out due to COVID protocols. And then you play Phoenix,
Speaker 1: who I think is still out. I think Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker is still out or something. But you
Speaker 1: have Okay, Yeah, so you have a chance here to
Speaker 1: run off some wins. But to me, like the team
Speaker 1: is playing themselves a lot of the times, right Like
Speaker 1: when especially when you play bad teams, I feel like
Speaker 1: you're kind of playing yourself. And against Memphis, I thought
Speaker 1: we beat ourselves and turnovers it's such a big part
Speaker 1: of this team, where if we can just stop the
Speaker 1: other team from running, because I think our half court
Speaker 1: defense has been better. And then the fourth quarter, to me,
Speaker 1: a lot of this was we went small, We went
Speaker 1: lebron at the five, and to do that, your guards
Speaker 1: have to be so engaged. And you can tell Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook had did not want to be tagging, you know,
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter up twenty on guys rolling to
Speaker 1: the rim. Yeah, so it's basically just pick and roll
Speaker 1: and window Carter dunk or Wagner dunk or Vagner open three.
Speaker 1: So the engagement little job. That's why I'm not really
Speaker 1: worried about that fourth quarter. I saw enough in the third.
Speaker 1: But yeah, getting back to the team, like the identity switch.
Speaker 1: I think Austin Reaves is a big part of that.
Speaker 1: We're seeing league lunk at more minutes. Wayne Ellington, we
Speaker 1: ran a floppy action for him, I don't know, did
Speaker 1: you see that tonight? We ran one floppy action stept
Speaker 1: for him. He got a curl three. I thought that
Speaker 1: was amazing. Like we're starting to at least see the
Speaker 1: identity of this team, and the starting lineup still isn't great.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's gonna change anytime soon. Even though
Speaker 1: I thought th h T was awesome tonight. I think
Speaker 1: he hit like three threes um and his defense was
Speaker 1: was great. He had five steals. I believe we had.
Speaker 1: The team is starting around and Avery Valley is never
Speaker 1: gonna you know, hit threes out of consistent rate, but
Speaker 1: he plays hard. That starting line up again, the space
Speaker 1: is gonna be jankie, but we're seeing identity shifting. I
Speaker 1: thought it was great. We closed tonight with Lebron at
Speaker 1: the five. Orlando went on a run, he pulled out,
Speaker 1: he took out Dwight Howard. We went Lebron at the
Speaker 1: five with Russ and Uh. Russ was able to attack
Speaker 1: the rim and kind of close the game. And I
Speaker 1: think that's a little bit of and you're seeing pieces
Speaker 1: and pieces here where like you can fit a D
Speaker 1: into that, right, you can have a D at the five.
Speaker 1: And I believe they closed with Monk and uh and
Speaker 1: Bradley or or it was a th H and Bradly,
Speaker 1: I don't remember who was, but yeah, they closed the
Speaker 1: game and we're seeing pieces of the team kind of
Speaker 1: form here. And we got a little bit of news
Speaker 1: uh about a reason. I guess in that video. But
Speaker 1: we're seeing the identity shift here a little bit, uh,
Speaker 1: piece by piece in these games. Yeah, let's let's talk
Speaker 1: about TC for a second, because I thought I thought
Speaker 1: he had one of his better games as of late. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, you and I talked a lot about how
Speaker 1: he was getting kind of doing young guys, stupid young
Speaker 1: guys stuff offensively, like just you know, forcing the action, Uh,
Speaker 1: just whenever he catched the ball and there wouldn't be
Speaker 1: a defender aroun him, he would just assume it's a
Speaker 1: time to shoot instead of time to make a read,
Speaker 1: and being overly aggressive on defense and committing silly fowls.
Speaker 1: You know tonight, one of the things we were harping
Speaker 1: on with him is like kind of take away some
Speaker 1: of the decision making responsibility in terms of him like
Speaker 1: actually running actions and try to get him with an advantage.
Speaker 1: So they did a lot of really good stuff like
Speaker 1: trying to get him to attack off of curls off
Speaker 1: of like where he would just come out of the
Speaker 1: week side corner and curl around a guy and try
Speaker 1: to hit him when he's got the ender already on
Speaker 1: his back, so that he can you know, kind of
Speaker 1: use his body to get position and then just stick,
Speaker 1: you know, stick his arms out like he always does
Speaker 1: to to finish those layups, and a lot of attacking
Speaker 1: closeouts and you know, just primarily attacking and already compromise defense.
Speaker 1: You could tell tonight in particular, that's that's where th
Speaker 1: HD actually has potential to be a really good offensive
Speaker 1: player already. Obviously we can talk about his ceiling, and
Speaker 1: there's kind of a divide among Laker fans, you know
Speaker 1: about you know, whether or not he's going to be
Speaker 1: an All Star or whatever you want to say, or
Speaker 1: what other teams might think about him in terms of
Speaker 1: a trade piece. But right now, for this team, they
Speaker 1: just need him to do what he did tonight. Be
Speaker 1: able to curl off the screen when Lebron needs rest,
Speaker 1: so you can just dribble out of give you an advantage,
Speaker 1: hits you and stride and have you make a play,
Speaker 1: you know, when the double teams come, when the the
Speaker 1: the defense is loading up on one side, to swing
Speaker 1: it around to you and have you beat a guy
Speaker 1: on a close out and make a play. He also
Speaker 1: made a lot of really nice passes today. That one
Speaker 1: in the second half and where I thought for sure
Speaker 1: he was going to shoot and then he ended up.
Speaker 1: Lebron was cutting at the same time too, and he
Speaker 1: kicked it out to Avery Bradley in the corner. I
Speaker 1: think it was the three that put him up by
Speaker 1: twenty five. But just just in general, tonight, th HT
Speaker 1: succeeded by playing a role instead of being an initiator.
Speaker 1: He was a guy who's finishing plays and and it
Speaker 1: worked really well. And that's that's what you need when
Speaker 1: you're especially when you're looking down the line and you're
Speaker 1: gonna have Russell Lebron in a d in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: playing forty minutes a piece. You need him to succeed
Speaker 1: in a limited role and instead of trying to be
Speaker 1: the guy already, if that makes sense. But I was
Speaker 1: really really happy with what I saw from THHD tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: his his jumper went, which I think, you know, changes
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff for him, and he was taking
Speaker 1: it confidently. And I've always said I think he's a
Speaker 1: better at catch and shoot, you know guy than he
Speaker 1: even thinks he is. He doesn't have to drive on
Speaker 1: every play, and those curls, you're right, those are stuff
Speaker 1: that just set place for him where he comes off
Speaker 1: the curl and he gets him going downhill and he
Speaker 1: has all these wild finishes at the rim and he's
Speaker 1: does a lot of this where he thinks he gets fouled,
Speaker 1: so he just throws it up and he got to
Speaker 1: the rim a little bit tonight. But he's out there
Speaker 1: to me defense for defense, And I thought, again today
Speaker 1: we talked about it a lot of th HD is
Speaker 1: a havoc defender, right, he's a chaos creator. Um, he's
Speaker 1: not much. Indeed he does. He's not great yet at
Speaker 1: like going around screens. He still gets killed when he's
Speaker 1: trying to chase guys, but in isolation he's a problem.
Speaker 1: His length is a problem. He had a bunch of
Speaker 1: deflections tonight again, like I said, five steals, and I
Speaker 1: feel like he deflected way more, way more balls and
Speaker 1: that changed a bunch of shots. Um, he was he
Speaker 1: was good tonight. And this is kind of the peak.
Speaker 1: If we can get this level of th HD. I
Speaker 1: don't think the jumber is gonna go like this just
Speaker 1: controlled shot selection. I guess, um got to the rim,
Speaker 1: got to got to the rim aton. This is kind
Speaker 1: of what we need in Orlando is not a good team.
Speaker 1: They don't have great shop blocking, I guess at the rim,
Speaker 1: but I feel like he's gonna stay in the starting lineup,
Speaker 1: don't you like, I don't feel like that starting he's playing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I feel like he's gonna stay in the starting
Speaker 1: lineup unless maybe Reeves you know, takes over at some point.
Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, I think th hd gonna stay there
Speaker 1: for now, at least until we get a reason back
Speaker 1: whenever he comes f Yeah, Austin looks great too. And
Speaker 1: and you know, this is something Vane was talking about
Speaker 1: in the in the pod when he was filling in
Speaker 1: for me the other night, and I thought he hit
Speaker 1: the nail on the head, like Reeves is a connective
Speaker 1: tissue guy. What you know, there's with basketball, We talked
Speaker 1: about this with the starting line If you have a
Speaker 1: list of responsibilities that need to get filled on the floor, right,
Speaker 1: Like I need guys who can create from the perimeter,
Speaker 1: either getting into the length of drivel penetration or like
Speaker 1: a Chris Paul type and more of a guy who's
Speaker 1: like really good at getting teams into sets right. But
Speaker 1: then you also need guys who can finish play both
Speaker 1: at the rim as you know, vertical spacers or as
Speaker 1: guys who can roll hard to the Raymond pick and roll,
Speaker 1: or guys who can pick and pop, or guys who
Speaker 1: can attack closeouts or spot up shoot things along those lines.
Speaker 1: You have a bunch of roles you have to fill.
Speaker 1: So when you have Lebron in a d and Russ
Speaker 1: on your team, those guys do so much to cover
Speaker 1: those responsibilities. There's kind of a diminishing return with the
Speaker 1: guys who play around them, right. You know, we talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot in previous seasons, like, yeah, is
Speaker 1: Wesley Matthew is a fantastic shooter? No, but if he's
Speaker 1: wide open, how much different is the is the you know,
Speaker 1: expected result compared to if you have a better shooter
Speaker 1: in that spot with everything else that Wayne Ellington is
Speaker 1: bringing to the to the floor. Whereas if you don't
Speaker 1: have Lebron and rust and yeah, maybe you need a
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow who can do crazy stuff off the dribble
Speaker 1: to generate shots for himself. There's a diminishing attorney, isn't
Speaker 1: there with that because you actually need that ability from him.
Speaker 1: Guys like Austin Reeves, they're not great at anything, but
Speaker 1: because they're pretty good at everything and they're you know.
Speaker 1: One of the things that with Austin Reeves you see
Speaker 1: is like there was a ploy today where he caught
Speaker 1: wide open in the in the week side corner and
Speaker 1: had a shot and pump faked it and swung into
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley, who was every bit as guarded as as
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves was, and he missed it. And you're like,
Speaker 1: you like, you'd like to see Austin take that shot,
Speaker 1: But that's Austin's character. Austin's basketball character is like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna error on the side of not shooting this. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna around the side of making the extra pass. You know,
Speaker 1: even with those rotations, like there's so many plays where
Speaker 1: the Lakers will concede a basket because they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we just didn't get it done on this possession. This
Speaker 1: guy's rolling to the rim. He's gonna get it done.
Speaker 1: Who cares, We'll get it back on the next possession. No,
Speaker 1: Austin's like every single time, I'm putting my face, I'm
Speaker 1: putting my body on the line, like I'm getting in there,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try and take a charge. I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: to disrupt the play. He got hit in the gut
Speaker 1: again today like elbowed and they looked like he got
Speaker 1: the win knocked out of him on another play like that,
Speaker 1: Austin Reaves. He is a white than they said. He
Speaker 1: is a connective tissue player. When you play him alongside
Speaker 1: very good players, he actually brings more to the table
Speaker 1: than more talented players than him do. And you you
Speaker 1: you have to have guys like that in your rotation.
Speaker 1: They're such a hall mark of you know, NBA champion
Speaker 1: level teams. Like great example of this is Gary Payton Jr.
Speaker 1: With the Golden State Warriors. If you play Gary Payton Jr.
Speaker 1: On the Orlando Magic, he's not gonna look like a
Speaker 1: good basketball player because he's not going to be able
Speaker 1: to generate advantages for himself and there's nobody else on
Speaker 1: the team that can generate advantages for him. But within
Speaker 1: Golden State, he's constantly playing with an advantage and so
Speaker 1: in that environment he can his connective tissue is it
Speaker 1: brings immense value to the team and so I love
Speaker 1: that dynamics. It's always been one of my favorite things
Speaker 1: about the game of basketball. It's like when I go
Speaker 1: play pick up, I'm not always just trying to run
Speaker 1: with the most talented guys. I want guys on the
Speaker 1: floor that mesh well with what I do, and I
Speaker 1: have a much better chance of winning a lot when
Speaker 1: I have that than just let me roll with all
Speaker 1: the most talented guys, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: so that that to me is Austin Reaves basketball player
Speaker 1: in a nutshell, and I'm glad to see that he's
Speaker 1: starting to get an opportunity again. Yeah, and I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to make this. You know, you can make this
Speaker 1: THHD versus Austin Reaves. But Austin, you know, Austin has
Speaker 1: no I spoke about this again last part with but
Speaker 1: Austin has no Like he knows exactly who he is
Speaker 1: right in the league, and he knows what's going to
Speaker 1: keep him in the league. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: difference to me between him and Taylor, where Taylor still
Speaker 1: you know, when Taylor starts to get going, he'll like
Speaker 1: get the ball and like stop the whole play and
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, it's my time, you know, give me
Speaker 1: a high ball screen like this is I'm going to
Speaker 1: run the show for here. And the starting lineup doesn't
Speaker 1: ask for that, like it just doesn't it's great. It's
Speaker 1: nice to have another ball handler that can create. But
Speaker 1: it really asked for guys who you always talked about
Speaker 1: do the dirty work. And Austin, you know, is always
Speaker 1: like rubbing his face off because he just got elbowed,
Speaker 1: or you know, like grabbing his ribs because he just
Speaker 1: got hit. He just got to elbow to the rib
Speaker 1: But he he just goes in and does the dirty work.
Speaker 1: You don't have to ask him to do it. It's
Speaker 1: all natural for him. And then on the offensive end,
Speaker 1: you're right, he's a you know, he's a glue guy.
Speaker 1: He makes the right play every time you get a
Speaker 1: play tonight where the ball swung around it got to him.
Speaker 1: I think Carmelo was in the corner. Carmelo swung it
Speaker 1: to him, he got it, he was a little bit open,
Speaker 1: but the guy ran out and ran out to him.
Speaker 1: He faked it, won dribble right back to Carmelo for
Speaker 1: an open three. And I was like, man, that's just
Speaker 1: that's just stuff that you can't like. He just like,
Speaker 1: that's just stuff that he has instinctively, Like he just
Speaker 1: understands basketball and he understands how spacing and flow and
Speaker 1: where guys get open looks at so he's awesome. And
Speaker 1: last thing I guess on Reeves is him and Lebron,
Speaker 1: And again I don't want to get too much into
Speaker 1: their chemistry, but he rolls into open space into aware
Speaker 1: that fits so great with Lebron, right like their tree
Speaker 1: Man game is just beautiful and and Austin Reeves only real.
Speaker 1: You know, his detriment right now is his physicality as
Speaker 1: his body, you know, is his physical traits. But like
Speaker 1: he'll screen and he'll roll, and he could he'll short roll,
Speaker 1: or he'll roll all the way to the rim or
Speaker 1: get to any kind of open space that makes sense.
Speaker 1: So it's fun watching him play. I think his minutes
Speaker 1: are going to continue to go up. Um I believe
Speaker 1: that he wasn't healthy. I guess why he was collecting
Speaker 1: DMPs and stuff like that. But he's a big part
Speaker 1: of this team and he's part of the identity as well,
Speaker 1: uh the shift in going small. And and last thing Vogo,
Speaker 1: I guess how a quote today where he said, um,
Speaker 1: Lebron's thirty point games are a function of better spacing
Speaker 1: right and better lineups and and obviously you can say
Speaker 1: that was obvious, but it's just good to hear. You know,
Speaker 1: thanks Frank, I'm glad. I'm glad you finally understand well again,
Speaker 1: but again, like it's great to kind of hear that,
Speaker 1: I guess, and I think Austin is a big part
Speaker 1: of that. Um, it's hard to find two way guys,
Speaker 1: you know, like they pay a lot of money for that.
Speaker 1: They pay a lot of money for two way guys,
Speaker 1: and I believe we have one on a rookie deal.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, I think I think Austin has been
Speaker 1: great and it's cool to see him kind of find
Speaker 1: his niche with the team too. Yeah. Andre Gudala did
Speaker 1: a podcast a while back, um, and they were asking
Speaker 1: him about step Curry potentially breaking the three point record,
Speaker 1: and they basically were like, you know, like what's your
Speaker 1: most memorable step three? You know, like typical interview questions,
Speaker 1: and and Andre Gudala went on like a diet try,
Speaker 1: basically saying like I don't remember many of steps three's.
Speaker 1: And he was like because because he's like when I'm
Speaker 1: out there, he's he's constantly just doing these little things
Speaker 1: to help the team win, and he's like half the
Speaker 1: time he's like I would just hear the crowd go
Speaker 1: crazy and I just run back on defense because he
Speaker 1: just like he was maybe setting off all screen, or
Speaker 1: maybe he was the one screening for step or he's
Speaker 1: fighting for rebound position or whatever it is. You know,
Speaker 1: like he's just so wrapped up in the job that
Speaker 1: he's almost not even paying attention to what's happening, you know,
Speaker 1: with Steph running around or doing whatever he's doing. That's
Speaker 1: kind of like what you see with Austin Reeves. Like
Speaker 1: there are a lot of plays where where where the
Speaker 1: older veterans on the Lakers are kind of guessing at
Speaker 1: what the outcome is and trying to get ahead of
Speaker 1: their next job, you know, like leaking out after a
Speaker 1: three or doing the same thing like giving up a
Speaker 1: instead of fighting for a defensive rebound, like leaking out
Speaker 1: in transition. Austin Reeves is just always in the mix,
Speaker 1: like he's just always just fighting it in and he'll
Speaker 1: I see that happen all the time with him, where
Speaker 1: the ball go through the net and it'll like where
Speaker 1: Austin will be the last guy who realizes it and
Speaker 1: he'll start running back, you know. But uh, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: definitely a really good a really good glue guy for
Speaker 1: this team, and uh, it makes you feel Obviously he's
Speaker 1: not Alex Cruso. We're not going to talk about Alex
Speaker 1: Cruso again, but uh, but him him developing as quickly
Speaker 1: as he did into a guy that can help this
Speaker 1: team win is undoubtedly takes a little bit of that
Speaker 1: pain away, you know what I mean. And and especially
Speaker 1: since he's a little bit better offensively, you could even
Speaker 1: make the case that he fits well with this team's identity.
Speaker 1: Obviously he doesn't shoot the lights out or get to that,
Speaker 1: but he's just he's a little bit more sound as
Speaker 1: an off ball player than than Alex was. Um, so
Speaker 1: he so he fits well with this team and I'm
Speaker 1: happy with him. So we were gonna we were gonna
Speaker 1: move on to a little bit of stuff that we
Speaker 1: saw in that UM spectrum. It was in their postgame
Speaker 1: show after the last game, I think, but basically they
Speaker 1: had the behind the scenes in the the UM coaches
Speaker 1: meeting when they were kind of coming up with their
Speaker 1: strategy or whatever. Come then it looked like they were
Speaker 1: talking about rotation in particular, and so a couple of
Speaker 1: interesting things. They talked about Anthony Davison's fatigue, which is
Speaker 1: something I definitely want to hit on here in a minute.
Speaker 1: But one of the interesting parts that I saw there
Speaker 1: was Frank was basically talking about the starting lineup, and
Speaker 1: he was talking about how like guys like Monk and
Speaker 1: Ellington are guys that he favors as offensive players, and
Speaker 1: then th Ht, Avery Bradley, and Austin Reeves were defensive players.
Speaker 1: And then he basically was saying, I don't know that
Speaker 1: we can even play four of these guys alongside Lebron
Speaker 1: Russ and a D but they're going to try to
Speaker 1: play four in the meantime. But he's always trying to
Speaker 1: weigh those two against each other, which I thought was
Speaker 1: interesting strictly from the same point of like we all
Speaker 1: think of th h T as like a second side creator,
Speaker 1: a guy who runs actions, but obviously Frank views him
Speaker 1: more as a defensive piece, which I think is is
Speaker 1: definitely interesting, and I think you're seeing him kind of
Speaker 1: trend in that direction and the way they're using him.
Speaker 1: But but that I thought that was an interesting question
Speaker 1: to ask. I personally would lean into, even as good
Speaker 1: as Avery Bradley's played, and he's played very very well,
Speaker 1: I would lean into what, like Monk or Ellington, one
Speaker 1: of them lean into them big because you need that shooting.
Speaker 1: But I would prioritize, I would kind of go from
Speaker 1: every Bradley out of that five, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: But where are you at with that kind of decision? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's interesting that the quote that kind of got
Speaker 1: blown up was vocal saying we have enough wings, right,
Speaker 1: and people are like, how could you say we have
Speaker 1: enough wings? You know, like we're super short on wings.
Speaker 1: But I think what he's thinking about is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we have PhD and then he has Kem baysmore he
Speaker 1: could go to even though camp Baysbre's not playing right,
Speaker 1: and then when Trevor Reason gets back and I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of what he means by the we have
Speaker 1: enough wings um in that situation. But I've been you know,
Speaker 1: I've been asking for Ellington to start for a little
Speaker 1: while now, and Ellington was honestly the odd man out tonight. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't I think he only played like ten minutes
Speaker 1: or something like that because they Bradley, um leak monk
Speaker 1: going off. Yeah, but that's who I guess like to
Speaker 1: start in that role. I feel like th is gonna
Speaker 1: stay there because, like you said for defensive purposes, but
Speaker 1: every Bradley has been playing well too, right, like again
Speaker 1: every Bradley. You can separate the team I guess from
Speaker 1: Bradley as well, because Bradley has been playing well. He
Speaker 1: just it's not his fault. He doesn't fit that lineup. Like,
Speaker 1: I can't be mad at him that he's not a
Speaker 1: dead eye three point shooter. That's not who he is
Speaker 1: and we knew that going in. I can't be mad
Speaker 1: at him for starting, so but I would like Ellington
Speaker 1: to start. I think that would open things up just
Speaker 1: a bit um just for the starting lineup. It's still
Speaker 1: just so ugly, especially for russ Uh and for Lebron.
Speaker 1: So that's who I'd like to start. But I understand
Speaker 1: Ellington has defensive issues and Bogo is a guy that's
Speaker 1: going to maximize that he's gonna go on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: And I think we're just going to continue to see
Speaker 1: th HD and Bradley to start. But it was fascinating
Speaker 1: to get behind the scenes kind of look into the
Speaker 1: coaches and how they kind of make decisions like that,
Speaker 1: because I just I think it's interesting and it's not
Speaker 1: an easy decision. I think these are all really tough
Speaker 1: things that you have to way back and forth. And
Speaker 1: I think the A D conversation was fascinating as well
Speaker 1: when he said, eighties tired after playing the full full
Speaker 1: first quarter, but we don't have another center because you'd
Speaker 1: have to put Dwight Howard in and he doesn't like
Speaker 1: to play Dwight until the second quarter. So it's a
Speaker 1: fascinating kind of back and forth. But what do you
Speaker 1: think of that? What do you think of um A D?
Speaker 1: I guess through Phil Handy um showing his concern. I
Speaker 1: guess for being fatigued after full of force quarter full
Speaker 1: first quarter, which you know, that's that's that's fair, Like
Speaker 1: that's not every player plays the whole first quarter, and
Speaker 1: most don't, right Yannest plays in like six minutes stints
Speaker 1: like superstars all around the league don't play the full
Speaker 1: first part. But what do you think of that? I
Speaker 1: guess that that part of the video. I was genuinely
Speaker 1: confused by it. Uh not not the fact that A
Speaker 1: D was tired. That makes perfect sense to me, and
Speaker 1: I agree, like, don't play a guy twelve minute shifts
Speaker 1: when he struggles with his motor, like that's that's not
Speaker 1: a that's completely nonsensical. Now, his thing was like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to go to Dwight to end the quarter,
Speaker 1: and I don't understand that because to me, it should
Speaker 1: be a basic staggering concept, right, because like I'm looking
Speaker 1: at Lebron running the second unit to start the second quarter, right,
Speaker 1: and Dwight's probably gonna be with him in that group.
Speaker 1: But that Dwight shift is split up by a quarter
Speaker 1: time out, which is usually like three and a half minutes.
Speaker 1: So why can't Dwight play the last three minutes of
Speaker 1: the first quarter? You know, Russ is with that lineup.
Speaker 1: That's when you can lean into Russ and shooting and Dwight,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, and then from that standpoint, a
Speaker 1: D is gonna come back. Sometimes Dwight gets a rest,
Speaker 1: he comes back, starts the second quarter, and then a
Speaker 1: D can come in whenever, you know, like right now,
Speaker 1: he's been coming in around the six minute mark in
Speaker 1: the second quarter. But by taking him out at the
Speaker 1: nine minute, the first he can come out in the
Speaker 1: nine minute, come back at the nine minute after nine minutes,
Speaker 1: and the first he can come back at the nine
Speaker 1: minute mark in the second quarter. So I didn't understand that.
Speaker 1: When I was listening, It's like, it's a basic staggering
Speaker 1: If you're gonna play a D nine minutes and then
Speaker 1: Dwight six minutes, and then a D nine minutes and
Speaker 1: then you know, just repeat that in the second half.
Speaker 1: I don't see why that can't just be the rotation again.
Speaker 1: Like what you're asking from that position is when a
Speaker 1: D s on the floor, he does a little spot
Speaker 1: up work. But for the most part, those are screening
Speaker 1: dive guys. You don't have to change the way you
Speaker 1: play as much when you switch between those two. And
Speaker 1: so that was confusing to me. And look, a D
Speaker 1: has struggled with his motor all season. We you know,
Speaker 1: I've gotten an arguments with a bunch of people about this,
Speaker 1: and you know, the way I look at it, you know,
Speaker 1: he's not really much of a self starter. He struggles
Speaker 1: trying to navigate his way through the game in terms of, uh,
Speaker 1: knowing when to be physically aggressive and when to be
Speaker 1: more passive. Why not make that decision a little bit
Speaker 1: easier for him by giving him shorter burst. That's literally
Speaker 1: what Russell Westbrook does. Russell Westbrook loves coming in, playing
Speaker 1: his ass off for six minutes, sitting for three, playing
Speaker 1: his ass off for six minutes, sitting for three. It
Speaker 1: doesn't if that that might work better than playing for
Speaker 1: twelve minutes, being awful for half of them because you're,
Speaker 1: you know, very tired, and then sitting on the bench
Speaker 1: for what amounts to like twenty five minutes of real time,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, I just didn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't understand that in terms of the concept, Like, it's
Speaker 1: like to me that there, He's like, has anybody Frank
Speaker 1: goes in the video, he goes, has anybody heard anything
Speaker 1: in the locker room about A D s long shifts?
Speaker 1: And you know, I can't remember who was the assistant
Speaker 1: hand Yeah, So Phil Handy speaks up and goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: A D always comes up and tells me he's tired.
Speaker 1: To me, it's like end of discussion, Okay, cool, we're
Speaker 1: shortening his shifts, Like, like, what's the what's the push
Speaker 1: back there? Like, I just don't get it. You don't
Speaker 1: have it doesn't make any sense to do that. Lebron
Speaker 1: hasn't even done that since he was a young player.
Speaker 1: Lebron hasn't played twelve minute shifts literally since he was
Speaker 1: in like since he was you know, I think thirty
Speaker 1: two or earlier, like he just like he, It just
Speaker 1: is a nonsensical way to do it, unless you're a
Speaker 1: guy like the honest or like young Lebron, a guy
Speaker 1: who oh Draymond Green, like a guy who just has
Speaker 1: an incredible motor, who catches a second win and can
Speaker 1: just go up and down the floor all day long.
Speaker 1: If you're that guy, that's great. But Ad is just
Speaker 1: not that guy. So I would definitely try to get
Speaker 1: him more in and out of the game quicker um
Speaker 1: so that he has an opportunity to stend more of
Speaker 1: his energy while he's out there. Yeah. I thought another
Speaker 1: interesting thing too, was Phil Handy kind of putting the
Speaker 1: responsibility on a D as well. Right, He's like, he
Speaker 1: told him, if you don't want to play, they hand
Speaker 1: up and we'll sub for you. And I think part
Speaker 1: of this it's not that vocal, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: think he doesn't know how to staggers. They rely on
Speaker 1: a D so much defensively, right, So I'm thinking, like
Speaker 1: they like him playing that full first usually get the
Speaker 1: you know, you get the team's best players in that
Speaker 1: first quarter, So they play him the full force and
Speaker 1: then Dwight and Russ or whoever, and maybe it's I
Speaker 1: think it's Lebron who starts the second Um. I think
Speaker 1: Russ comes back back in late in the first and
Speaker 1: then I'm not sure if it's Russian and Braun or
Speaker 1: something that starts the second quarter, and they've been going
Speaker 1: with le Brunett center, but it's either Dwight Howard. I
Speaker 1: think they like that lineup. But yeah, we'll see if
Speaker 1: going forward, if that changes a little bit. You could
Speaker 1: tell a D is tired um, And I thought they
Speaker 1: made a good point as well that it could be
Speaker 1: injury prevention as well. Um. You could just see him
Speaker 1: not you know, like in that Memphis game, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of times where they would go at him
Speaker 1: and he's just kind of stepping back, you know, and
Speaker 1: just trying to preserve or just not go as we've
Speaker 1: seen a d B And there's a lot of factors
Speaker 1: to that, and there's always human elements to it. But
Speaker 1: I think it's a fascinating discussion because the the full
Speaker 1: first quarter thing that is fatiguing, like that's tough for
Speaker 1: a player to do, especially with the load that a
Speaker 1: D carries on the defensive end and on on on
Speaker 1: the offensive end honestly, where he put in the post
Speaker 1: and he's you know when especially when he's at the five,
Speaker 1: he's banging with guys or you know, get his job
Speaker 1: is to be the screen roll guy. But like, it's
Speaker 1: a fascinating discussion because I think it's interesting, and we'll
Speaker 1: see if Lebron at the center lineups can kind of
Speaker 1: fix that as well, maybe they pull a d a
Speaker 1: little bit quicker so he has energy going forward. But
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting. It's fascinating to get to kind
Speaker 1: of look into that because that's not something I think
Speaker 1: we knew about before before the video, even though we
Speaker 1: saw it on film and we kind of had thoughts
Speaker 1: about it. I think it's interesting to hear it, I
Speaker 1: guess from the from the coaching staff. Yeah, So moving
Speaker 1: beyond the minutes, just to the general idea of fatigue
Speaker 1: for Anthony Davis. I got into a discussion with the
Speaker 1: Cranges about this the other day, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to get him on the pod next week because
Speaker 1: obviously Twitter is just a really terrible place to have
Speaker 1: these kinds of back and forth discussions, and he's just
Speaker 1: a super smart guy and I'm sure he'll be able
Speaker 1: to to give give us a really good example of
Speaker 1: his perspective. But he basically was like his cases, like
Speaker 1: a d has more on his plate on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor than any start in the league, was
Speaker 1: his point. Like his point like, defensively, he's basically covering
Speaker 1: for garbage defensive lineup by flying around all the time
Speaker 1: trying to to cover for people and then offensively obviously
Speaker 1: has way more responsibilities than a you know, a Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert or a Clint Capella or the the other you know,
Speaker 1: ground covering mobile defensive centers that we have in the league.
Speaker 1: And he's not he's not wrong in that regard. I
Speaker 1: just think I think that's part of it. But I
Speaker 1: think I also think part of it is is that
Speaker 1: that motor, because there's no excuse, regardless of what your
Speaker 1: responsibilities are, to have three consecutive off days and then
Speaker 1: go into the Boston game and and be really hot
Speaker 1: garbage for the first twentysomething minutes of the game, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's like and just looking like you're not mentally
Speaker 1: engaged in the game. When we when we recorded that pot,
Speaker 1: that was the big that was one of the big
Speaker 1: stories of that game was like Lebron was carrying him
Speaker 1: early and Anthony Davis came in the second half, you know.
Speaker 1: And then obviously the Memphis games same thing. Like again,
Speaker 1: Memphis was two nights later, so it's not like it
Speaker 1: was the same rest. But he had played two games
Speaker 1: total in the previous seven days. So I can't like, like, man,
Speaker 1: if you're running out of gas, then like, how the
Speaker 1: hell are you going to get through a playoff run?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? So I can't. I can't
Speaker 1: really make the fatigue excuse for him entirely. I do
Speaker 1: agree that he has a really difficult job, and and
Speaker 1: I'm glad Crane has pointed out because it's it is
Speaker 1: absolutely true. However, there's not a guy in the league
Speaker 1: that's vying for a spot to be considered one of
Speaker 1: the top tier superstars that doesn't have a lot on
Speaker 1: his plate. Like think about how much running Steph Curry
Speaker 1: has to do every night in order for the Golden
Speaker 1: State offense to even function. And in addition to that,
Speaker 1: he's got people vying for him to make an All
Speaker 1: defense team, which I don't necessarily agree with. But he
Speaker 1: is absolutely a good, positive defensive player. He's doing a
Speaker 1: lot for them night in and night out, you know,
Speaker 1: like that's that is what comes with the territory when
Speaker 1: you're that type of player. Same goes for Janice, same
Speaker 1: goes for Kevin. To Kevin Dury is having an incredible
Speaker 1: two a season and he's being asked to do so
Speaker 1: much every night because one of his co stars wouldn't
Speaker 1: take the vaccine and another one of his co stars
Speaker 1: literally showed up to the season like he has been
Speaker 1: on a spot teen day bender at the strip clubs.
Speaker 1: Like he just like it's he's been asked to do
Speaker 1: so much night in the night out to keep the
Speaker 1: team afloat. Like I don't like the idea of being
Speaker 1: like guys, we should really just lighten up on a
Speaker 1: d he's he's got to do too much, Like no
Speaker 1: like that that then then don't tell me he's one
Speaker 1: of the top players in the league, you know, like
Speaker 1: this is what we expect now practically he's struggling with
Speaker 1: the long shifts, So how about we make his job
Speaker 1: a little bit easier by giving him opportunities to step
Speaker 1: off the forward and get his breath, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? That's that to me, is like a more
Speaker 1: practical solution there. But to me, asking a D to
Speaker 1: do what we're asking a D to do is foundationally
Speaker 1: what we did with this team. If you're if you
Speaker 1: are a team that doesn't trade everything away for a
Speaker 1: super duperstar, You've got really high quality role players. You've
Speaker 1: got lots of guys on midsize contracts. All of them
Speaker 1: are expected to do a lot so that the top
Speaker 1: players on the team have lighter workloads. But when you
Speaker 1: trade Brandon Ingram and Lonzo ball and and Josh Hard
Speaker 1: and all these guys to UH to a team to
Speaker 1: bring back Anthony Davis, you are saying, I think this
Speaker 1: guy can do what a lot more than what these
Speaker 1: three players can do combined. That's literally what the the
Speaker 1: entire concept of this sort of team construction was. It
Speaker 1: was it was it was always about Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D are gonna have to do a lot, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And so that and so that's where
Speaker 1: I was pushing back. And by the way, Tim's I'm
Speaker 1: gonna reach out him tomorrow. We're gonna get him on
Speaker 1: the pod next week and we're gonna have a good
Speaker 1: discussion about this, and I'll try to work it out
Speaker 1: so you can be there as well, Rods. But like
Speaker 1: my my point is is, like I think it's okay
Speaker 1: to hold Anthony Davis to that standard in terms of
Speaker 1: what we expect him. We can talk about the practical
Speaker 1: stuff like I just said, but I think in terms
Speaker 1: of the principle of the matter, I think it's okay
Speaker 1: to expect that from him. Yeah, I think there's like
Speaker 1: a fine line, right, and we're starting to see a
Speaker 1: d trades pop up on the timeline, which I think
Speaker 1: is you know, just absolutely insane. I think that's crazy. Um,
Speaker 1: it's tough. It's a it's a fine line to walk
Speaker 1: because the numbers all say that he's been contributing at
Speaker 1: you know, the level that he's supposed to. He leads
Speaker 1: the league in you know, paying touch, he leads the
Speaker 1: leading in dunks and points in the pain and and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. And then you talked about cranes. He
Speaker 1: posted that eighties, running the most as any player in
Speaker 1: the league. Um, again, his defensive versatility has been all
Speaker 1: up and down. He's switching, he has to protect the
Speaker 1: rim and all that's true, but still there's an engagement
Speaker 1: level that you have to expect, and I think the
Speaker 1: toughest part is that we've seen it. We saw it all.
Speaker 1: Like to me, I saw it all. And obviously there's
Speaker 1: games where he doesn't engage offensively as he should, and
Speaker 1: I can live with that, um, I can live with
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff here and there, but it's been
Speaker 1: too it's been too often. I guess that I see
Speaker 1: where there's just full quarters where he just isn't isn't
Speaker 1: there and this team and this team just can't handle that,
Speaker 1: I guess especially. I think Russ has pulled his way,
Speaker 1: but Russ is still supposed to be the third guy
Speaker 1: on this team. That's the whole point of this, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it's been a lot of a Russ
Speaker 1: has led a lot of the comebacks, at least early on,
Speaker 1: and again that second half against Boston was great, and
Speaker 1: we see bits and flashes of it. We just has
Speaker 1: to be consistent. I think the putting on mass is
Speaker 1: a really key point as well. I think that's been
Speaker 1: something that's everyone's kind of pointed out now and I
Speaker 1: think that's part of it. That is not getting that
Speaker 1: same lift as he was. He got blocked twice, I
Speaker 1: believe in Memphis and one of them was like by
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson. That kind of stuff happens, but it's just
Speaker 1: there was a lack of lift there that that you
Speaker 1: see is kind of impacting him and we'll see how
Speaker 1: that goes. But the numbers are still there. He's still
Speaker 1: a super impactful player. It's just when you have when
Speaker 1: you see a guy with the amount of talent so
Speaker 1: cantalizing that a D has, you expect more right when
Speaker 1: you watch him, you just feel like there's a super
Speaker 1: crazy impactful player there and we're not seeing the ceiling
Speaker 1: of it. And I think that's the part that we
Speaker 1: struggle with because the numbers are all there, like you
Speaker 1: can go and low. He's still putting up his twenty
Speaker 1: six and ten and he can sleepwalk into a lot
Speaker 1: of that, right, Like that's just how good he is,
Speaker 1: even with his jumper not falling. But it's a a
Speaker 1: thin line to walk. We'll see if the minutes kind
Speaker 1: of come down a little bit. I think that's something
Speaker 1: that that's a fixable issue. Like you talked about, the
Speaker 1: jumper isn't really something we can control. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: up and down so the whole season. But I just
Speaker 1: think like it's a tough thing to walk here. Blaming
Speaker 1: everything on a D obviously isn't the case. He's not
Speaker 1: the problem, right, But I just need him to contribute
Speaker 1: more to the solution, right, And I guess that's the
Speaker 1: That's the way I would like to put it. People
Speaker 1: are like, oh, eighties, you're saying eighties the problem. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's the problem. I just there's a
Speaker 1: solution here that needs him to be more part of it.
Speaker 1: And you know, his defense. This team needs him to
Speaker 1: be all world defensively on most possessions, and it also
Speaker 1: needs on to be all world defensively almost possessions to
Speaker 1: beat the good teams. That's just how this team is
Speaker 1: kind of built, at least until we see how thirty
Speaker 1: six year old of reason fits into it. But like,
Speaker 1: that's how this team is kind of built, and he's
Speaker 1: expected to do that. I think it's okay to expect
Speaker 1: our twenty eight year old superstar who just signed the
Speaker 1: Mega Max hold him to a higher standard. Like, I
Speaker 1: think that's okay without going to an extreme of trading
Speaker 1: him or calling him soft or you know, like all
Speaker 1: these extremes that we see. There's the middle lines. Here
Speaker 1: that that we can walk and I think I think
Speaker 1: that's important to talk about. Yeah, exactly, and guess what,
Speaker 1: like you can't you can't be like, oh A D
Speaker 1: is doing great. It's all the minimum guys that are
Speaker 1: at fault when the reason why we have minimum guys
Speaker 1: is because we went after Lebron and na D. Like
Speaker 1: with that team structure comes the accountability and responsibility, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like you and even above and
Speaker 1: beyond that with the Russ thing. It's like you guys
Speaker 1: had even a variation of that where you had some
Speaker 1: high quality role players like how Kuzma, like Alex Cruising White,
Speaker 1: k CP, all under control and you forfeited that to
Speaker 1: bring in Russ, you know what I mean. And that's
Speaker 1: that to me, like those guys, I just those three guys,
Speaker 1: I can't really go around making excuses for them. Um
Speaker 1: you know when they this is kind of like a
Speaker 1: decision they made in a predicament that they put themselves in.
Speaker 1: But to be clear, that's not something we're trying to
Speaker 1: be super negative about. This positive night, um uh, the
Speaker 1: team is trending in the right direction. I think I'm
Speaker 1: surprised I didn't hear about that Luca news. That's a bummer.
Speaker 1: I thought that would have been an interesting challenge going
Speaker 1: into Dallas on Wednesday, but so that's all we have
Speaker 1: for tonight. Uh So quick news. So, my grandfather actually
Speaker 1: passed away a couple of days ago, so I am
Speaker 1: flying to Iowa on Tuesday, so I'm actually going to
Speaker 1: miss the the game on Wednesday night, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: we'll get uh Raj is still planning on going that night,
Speaker 1: so we still have a postgame show and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to get my thoughts out there on on
Speaker 1: Thursday during the day sometime as well. But we appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys support. This will be on dash Radio tomorrow
Speaker 1: morning at seven am Pacific Standard time, and we'll be
Speaker 1: on our podcast feeds here in the next twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty minutes or so. We always appreciate your support and
Speaker 1: we will see you in a couple of days. Thanks everyone,