157. The Lakers may have just given up on the season

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seven for confidential help. In Michigan one eight seven seven eight hope n why or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine In New York, tennessee redline one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee visit www dot one eight hundred gambler net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by fan Duel. Here on the volume, I am Jason timp Happy Thursday, everybody happy? Trade deadline day, A

lot still up in the air. We are going to react to any Lakers trades that come down as they happen. We're going to start by talking about this James Harden Ben Simmons exchange that took place between the Sixers and the Nets. Anything exciting happens, we will hit it towards the end. I appreciate you guys coming to hang out. Let's get into some basketball. Let's start with this James

Harden trade. So, obviously, the the initial reaction is to look at what Philly sent out, right, because they did end up in louding Seth Curry, which was something that I advocated for them to do, because, like I said, this isn't Russell Westbrook, this is James Harden. This is a player of the necessary caliber to justify sending out role players. Now, the instant reaction, as is always the case, especially on NBA Twitters, for people to overreact to including

draft picks. But for those of you who know Darryl Morey, there's really not a GM in the league that cares less about first round draft picks, especially once towards the end of the first round then Darryl Morey, because historically, statistically speaking, there's just not a great chance of you

getting anything of really high quality in the twenties. When you're drafting in the first round, and as Daryl Morey knows, it's so easy to pick up draft picks at any point along the way, just in one single bad season, just by eating a bad contract or something along those lines. So I do not feel like Darryl overpaid. I think he was just making a very simple calculation of odds.

If you remember Darryl Morey in press conferences recently during this whole Ben Simmons saga, made it very clear that he would not trade Ben Simmons unless it's significantly increased their championship odds. He was very clear about that intention. And so what he's weighing here is a crack at this, a chance this season for things to break right for Philly and to break wrong for other teams, combining the

odds of that with future seasons. Because I think Darryl knew he could get James this summer, but he got an extra crack at it this year, and by doing that, he increased his championship odds, which, like we said, like he said, that was his goal all along. So I think to him, that's the price of the that. The price of that was those two additional first round draft picks, and they're probably not gonna miss those that badly as

time progresses. Anyway, the really interesting thing to look at here is James Harden and his and and the weird angle that he has added to this whole thing with his attitude, because you know, like many of you guys, I grew up listening to Colin Cowherd and he used to have this bit that he would do on divorce, and he would talk about how like, hey, if you get divorced, you know, usually people will sympathize with you

because divorce happens. It's normal. People can be in love and they can fall out of love for one of many reasons, right, But if they got divorced a second time, you'd start to kind of look a little sideways at the person and wonder if maybe something was going on. And then like if it was a third divorce, that's when you'd start to look at the guy and be like, hey,

maybe this is a you problem. Right, And this is now the second time in the last calendar year that James Harden has nuked his way out of a basketball situation because he was unhappy for one reason or another. And it's really strange because he was clearly unhappy in Houston when he was with Chris Paul, when he legitimately had a real chance to win a championship if he made any shots in two thousand eighteen in that playoff

series against the Warriors, he probably wins the title. But then he decides after the next season that it's all Chris Paul's fault because he's coaching him too much or has too big of an ego, or whatever the heck his problem was, And so he demands a swap, and he gets Russell Westbrook instead of CP three, a significantly

lesser player than that backfires on him. And when that backfires on him, he pouts, skips training camp, is spotted at strip clubs and stuff while all of his teammates are in camp getting ready for the season, and he plays some of the worst basketball of his career to

nuke his way out to get to Brooklyn. And it's funny because you could see why he wanted to go to Brooklyn because that was his best chance to win a title, right, you know, like alongside Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving limits some of his shortcomings as a playoff initiator. As we've seen in his career, he gets fatigued and tends to fall apart in those settings, and so you

would imagine he'd be happy there. But some normal turmoil that is generally associated with uh, just a normal regular season, especially during COVID, like some guys getting hurt or a couple of guys having to miss some time, and you having to do more as a as a player than you normally would have to do to just carry the team for a short stretch of the season. Apparently that's too much to ask for James Harden here, because he's got Kevin freakin Durant on his team and he had

his eyes down in Philly. As soon as things started to go south, he gets the wandering eye. And it's funny because I think that James Harden just cost himself his best chance to win a title as an NBA player. As I said before, the trade does make both teams better. I I really do believe that James Harden as a superstar perimeter initiator makes Philly better, and obviously Ben Simmons

makes the Nets better, which will get too later. But I do not think Philly, even though they are better now than they were before the trade, I do not think they have a real chance to beat Milwaukee. I do not think they have a real chance to beat Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving. I would you pick James Harden in a playoff series like that over one of those guys, do you? I think Milwaukee

would beat Philly soundly. So the question becomes why was Brooklyn still the title favorite on fan duel before this trade? They were because, just like all of us know from watching that team, they were destroying Milwaukee before Kyrie Irving sprained his ankle. Without James Harden, I think we can all agree that if that team was healthy, they probably

win the title. Kevin Durant was literally one inch away on a turnaround jump shot from ending that series in Game seven, even with the hamper James Harden, and even

with the injured and unavailable Kyrie Irving. So I think he had his best chance right in front of him in Brooklyn, if he could just weather the storm, if he could just carry the team for a little while until Kevin Durant came back from a knee injury, if he could just carry the team for a little while until maybe a mandate changes in Kyrie is available, or until Joe Harris can come back from his ankle surgery.

But for whatever reason, he got the wandering eye, and now I think he's in on a Philly team that's better a legit title contended. They have a chance, but I'm not picking that team over end of these other guys. I don't think they can beat Phoenix or Golden State, or Milwaukee or or or Brooklyn. It's a long shot to think that they could beat Miami at this point

with James Harden at the Helm. So it's funny. I think I think his own wandering eye, his own finicky nature, might have actually cost him his best chance to win the title, which is absolutely crazy to me. Um As far as the Brooklyn angle goes, it's really not all that complicated. Like they need somebody to fill in that spot up shooter role alongside the Stars. That was what they've been missing so badly with Joe Harris out, and

Seth Curry is a perfect fit there. I actually think Seth Curry is a significantly better offensive player than Joe Harris. Joe Harris is a bigger, stronger athlete, so it's a little bit more of a uh is a little bit better of a fit in Brooklyn switching defensive scheme, and that will be a shortcoming that they'll have to overcome. Obviously, if you have guys like Seth Curry on the floor, they can be targeted in a playoff series. But he does fill in that offensive void and then some that

you lost with Joe Harris. But that team has always been about finesse and offense. They've never had that brute force physicality on the roster. Their best brute force physicality has always been just the fact that Kevin Durant is super tall, and when he had and when he does try on defense, he can cause some problems. But they have a real, rim, pressuring, freak athlete player that is a deeply impactful player on the defensive end now in

Ben Simmons, smilar to the James Harden thing. I don't expect his attitude to be an issue now the way it was in Philly, I think both players were acting out. I don't think that acting out is going to continue. I think Ben Simmons will buy in and be a very productive player in Brooklyn. And he feels, like I said, that very specific archetype of that defensive minded forward that can guard the other team's best player and be a

good rim pressuring player alongside all your shooting. And that's where it gets really excited, because Ben Simmons is one of the best drive and kick three point shot creators that we have in the league, and so giving him transition opportunities with Kevin Durant on the wing, with Kyrie Irving on the wing, with Seth Curry on the wing, if Joe Harris can get healthy with him out there, it's really easy to see a new dynamic to that Brooklyn offense that could be really, really hard to stop.

And that defensive end is the part that's most interesting to me because in that Eastern Conference semifinal series against Milwaukee last year, there's a lot of Blake Griffin guarding Janice and he did okay, you know, because Blake is savvy and he's big and strong, and he moved his feet the best that he could. But towards the end of that series, Milwaukee had that figured out. They were doing a good job of clearing the side on his post ups and giving him more space to operate, and

he was torching Brooklyn in that series. Ben Simmons is a great body to throw at Jannis Anton and Cumbo. That's a significant weapon to have in a playoff series. Do we think Brooklyn would have beat Milwaukee if they were healthy last year? Yes? Do we think they would have done it again this year? Most likely? However, that series takes on a new dynamic now because let's say

Janice is just better. Let's say fifty point Game six NBA Finals, Janice is closer to what Janice is going to be in that series than what he actually was last year in that series. If that's the case, that could tip the scales. And so having a guy like Ben Simmons, a legitimate defensive weapon to throw at, honest gives you just another card in your hand that you might be able to play in that series. I talked about all the time on the show that these playoffs

series they're like chess matches. It's always like move counter move, and you're always working the matchups. And so having a guy like Ben Simmons that you can throw into those specific matchups gives you just an additional versatility and it increases your odds of being able to make that happen. So, you know the question that we always ask ourselves after a deal like this, is who won the trade. And it's easy to say Philly because they got the best player,

right like Ben Simmons. His stock is at an all time low because of his disastrous performance, and you know, the we forget what he's capable of and because we always just have that miss dunk burned into our memory, right you know. But the truth is is I look at it as what team has the best chances to

win the title. It's hard not to think of Brooklyn as the winner when you factor in the fact that they right now look like the team that is most capable of actually hoisting the trophy even though they sent away the best player in the trade. So I I I love the move for both teams, but I think Brooklyn is the winner. I think they have the best chance to win the title. And again, James Harden, it's time to put up or shut up. Man. You have

forced your way out of situations. You've got yourself into another situation here where there's a lot of pressure on you, and you don't have a great history in these moments. So I'm I'm curious to see if he can live up to that. But let's move on to the Lakers. Vandel Sports Book is an official sports betting partner of Super Bowl fifty six. To celebrate new customers can bet five dollars to win two eight in cash on either

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Restrictions apply. See full terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com. Gambling problem call one eight hundred next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona one eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut one eight hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash rg in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, or Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one

d seven zero seven seven for confidential help. In Michigan one eight seven seven eight hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York, Tennessee redline one eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee visit www dot hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. No deal for the Lakers, source tells ESPN this is a tweet from Major and Morganowski they'll focus on the buyout market. I think this is an absolutely disastrous outcome for the Lakers. They need

significant roster turnover. It's not just about talent anymore. As I've said on the show many times, there is something wrong with this concoction of basketball players. This group doesn't believe in what Frank is asking them to do. And that is most evident in the fact that on any given night there's roughly a coin flip chance that they'll

come out and just mail it in. Just like last night in Portland, you had Lebron James and Anthony Davis, you basically had everybody but Russell Westbrook, and you gave one of your more pitiful efforts of the season. And as I've said, like there's a lot of people who tried to turn that into like a Hey, it's not Russ's fault. Look, they lost without him. As I've said, you, you can't be this bad in the standings without many

things going wrong, not just Russell Westbrook. However, that the trade off that happened in the in the Russell Westbrook trade, losing all of those talented players is part of the reason why we're here, So I always I always tie those things together. Of course, Russ, at least the Rush trade is part of why the Lakers are so incapable of even going on the road to Portland and beating a deliberately tanking basketball team. But the group, this group

of players is not functioning anymore. And so one of my big theories is like, if you just swap out like five of them, you can get five completely new personalities in there, completely different basketball character, human beings in the room, then you might be able to mix it up and strike, you know, catch fire again because it's not always tied to the core. I mean a lot

of there was a lot of turnover last year. You swapped out Danny Green for Dennis Schroeder, you brought in Montrese Harold, you got rid of JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, you brought in Marcusol. But that group also carried on the chemistry, carried on the commitment, carried on the identity of the previous team. But this latest shake up of

the snow Globe did not. And so rolling into the rest of this season with no trades, keeping everything, holding onto assets is akin to punting the season in my opinion, because unless they have intel on some fantastic buyout candidates that are coming around, then it's hard for me to even functionally imagine this team reaching a ceiling that is capable of competing with the real teams in the league.

You know, Lebron candidly admitted after the Milwaukee Bucks game that he did not think that the Laker team was even capable of possibly in the future, potentially reaching Milwaukee's level. It was one of the craziest things I've heard from him in his career, essentially admitting defeat in a lot of ways. So too literally two days removed from that

to make no moves to me, reeks of punting. It seems to me like the like I we we all saw reports like they didn't want to trade Westbrook because they wanted to wait till this summer, because this summer they could package him with two first round picks and maybe get some star or something like that in return. If that was the ideology, if the ideology was hanging on all the assets for this summer, then it's the exact opposite of that thing I was just talking about

with Daryl Morey. You need cracks at the table, you need poles of the slot machine, and when you punt one of them, because you're waiting for next year, you significantly hinder your odds because now you're going at it with a thirty eight year old Lebron James who literally just randomly playing basketball a couple of weeks ago his knee inflated with fluid. Because he's thirty seven, things are only going to trend further in that direction as Lebron ages.

It's gonna be harder and harder for him to stay on the court. It's gonna be harder and harder for him to maintain that m v P level of play that he's shown for so much of this season. That that's why I saw this season is such an opportunity. You have Lebron and Anthony Davis right now playing this well, how do you not try at least take a crack

at it? What do you what are you risking? Yes, you lose, Yes you lose th HT potentially, but you increase your title odds in this season and you give yourself a realistic chance to win with two of the best players in NBA history at their absolute peak. And then the last angle of this that I find so infuriating,

it's just the Russell Westbrook attitude piece. You know, we after the show ended the against the Bucks, we because there was a delayed uh, they didn't get to the press conferences until quite a way, quite a ways after the game, and Russell Westbrook gets out there and just starts talking absolutely reckless. We have this super awkward moment out on the court where he's like petting Lebron and Anthony Davis on the head, and Lebron Anthony Davis are

looking super awkward and uncomfortable with the situation. Is russ is like pointing over to Frank and me and like, he didn't let me help you guys. And then he's in the press conference talking about how he's earned the right just through his reputation to be in closing lineups, and he talked about how he viewed the booze as a sign of respective. Is a truly bizarre press conference

And why was it bizarre? It's bizarre because you literally have one of the biggest egos in the league going through an identity crisis, going through the NBA's version of a midlife crisis. We had reports the other day that he literally refuses to work out with Phil Handy, that was reported by Kendrick Perkins. This guy is in a

phase of denial. In that phase of denial makes him volatile, and you have now signed yourself up to have a volatile, huge ego who is currently in denial around the team the rest of the season, and it's not going to go well. There's no universe where it goes well. Like this transition for Russ is gonna take time, just like it did for Mellow. It could take years for him to finally understand and realize the kind of changes he has to make in order to remain a productive NBA player.

You don't want to be around for those growing pains. That's why Houston sent him home. That's why Houston sent Mellow home. I mean, so, I'm just confused by it because like that, you would think at this point, um, you would need to somehow have a conversation with Russ that convinces him that his role has to be shrunken

massively for this team to to perform. We actually heard from Frank Vogel last night after the loss in Portland, straight up came out and said, like, there are going to be Knights where I go with Russ in the closing group, and there are going to be Knights where I don't. That's him basically saying, regardless of what Russ said, regardless of any of the antics, I'm going to continue to mention if he's not playing well in these clothes, if not playing well enough to earn the right to

close these games. And so I'm just I'm confused at the idea of the Lakers willingly signing up to have that around the team, that type of that type of

turmoil around the team. And the weird angle to this now is if they're really going to push forward, if they're really just gonna go for it with what they've got in a handful of buyout guys, then you're gonna learn a lot about the mental makeup of this team over the course of the next few weeks, because it could either spiral horribly out of control or something will rise up within them where where their competitive nature will take over and some better version of this team will

materialize that doesn't just go for Uss, that goes for the whole team. You know, Lebron and a Dye weren't very good last night, But like, maybe maybe Russ will acknowledge the realities of the situation and undergo a change, but it doesn't seem likely. I I just Lebron said in the postgame press or last night that the team was stuck in a fog and they're having a hard time seeing what's on the other end of the fog.

And then refusing to go through any sort of roster turnover is the equivalent of signing up for the fog. Like I said, it's like punting the season. Genuinely confused. I was prepared to come in today and talk about new Lakers. It's prepared to talk about maybe a Terence Ross, maybe and Eric Gordon's someone that would come onto the wing here and make a huge difference because of the

short the talent shortcomings of this roster. And instead we're playing Golden State on Saturday with the same guys, and it's gonna be the same group that's probably gonna come out and have the same lack of daisical nature, the same lack of belief in what the coaches asking them to do, and they're probably gonna get their butts kicked because Golden State is a really good team who's really well coached, who has an identity that they lean on,

and quite frankly, they don't have that same basketball chemistry issue that the Lakers have. They fit, they great even when guys are out of the lineup. So I'm disappointed but it is what it is. Hope hopefully they'll hopefully they hopefully they have some intel that we're that we're not aware of. Anyway, That's all I had for today. Guys,

Thank you so much for coming to hang out. Like I said, we will be back for our postgame show on Saturday, immediately after the final buzzer against the Warriors. As always, I appreciate your support and we will see you in a couple of days. The volume