160. How the Lakers’ front office has bungled the season

I sent you. Twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund issued as non withdrawalable site credit that expires in fourteen days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sports book dot fan duel

dot com. Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona one a date 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, in Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight hundred to seven zero seven one one 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. In tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee, visit www one eight dot one

eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by Fan Duel Here on the volume, I'm Jason Timp Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope you are all having a great week. I'm super stoked because on Thursday I'm headed to breck and Ridge to do some skiing, so I definitely got my eye up

on that. But you know what, I was having a nice day today, drive into the gym to get a little workout in, and I'm listening to a podcast, a podcast with Brian Windhorst and David Bennerman and Ramona Shelburne and all of a sudden, a full blown proxy war broke out. Very you know, it's very cordial. Everyone was being nice, but it basically amounted to a representative from Clutch hashing out this entire Lakers situation with someone who is representing the point of view of the Lakers front

office in ownership group. And obviously it gave us a ton of really juicy information. There were two things in particular that stood out to me that I wanted to hit on, and the first was this epic quote from again from Ramona Shelburn explaining the point of view of Laker ownership and what she said was quote the Lakers organization, from ownership on down decided, you guys got yourself into this.

This is the bed you have made Lebron, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo, Anthony, Dwight Howard, all of the future Hall of famers. This is your choice of roster and team. Go make it work. We are not going to mortgage our future in terms of draft picks, in terms of taking on luxury tax now because this team isn't working yet. Go make it work. End quote, which is which is one heck of a message, A very pointed, very aggressive message.

This is the verbal version of starting a war essentially between these two sides. And you know what's funny is I sympathize with the plight or the point of view that, you know, the sentiment behind why ownership feels the way they feel and why the front office feels the way they do. They do. Lebron and Anthony Davis did push for this Russell Westbrook trade. They are in many ways the architect of this roster to a certain extent, and there's a bunch that goes into that. I want to

be consistent. I was very critical of Genie bus last night for leaning on three guys that aren't very much hard working NBA personnel evaluators to make roster decisions for the team. I was critical of that, and I want to do the same with Lebron and Anthony Davis, Like, guess what, Like you guys aren't going home and watching twenty extra games a week on league Pass trying to get a feel for who's playing well and who's struggling

around the league. Either those two guys have the same shortcoming, which is why it is a problem when players get overly involved in roster construction. That's why Lebron and Michael Jordan historically haven't had great personnel picks in their careers. So I get that. I get why Genie and Rob Field that way. However, first of all, you have no leg to stand on because you are also very much

involved with why the team is where you're at. I laid out, step by step in last night's show, every single personnel mistake that the front office has made in the last four years, and it's pretty damning. It's one hell of a rap sheet. So you also have had

these issues. Literally, you yourself, Genie Buss. We're the driving force behind Alex Crusoe being a Chicago Bull right now instead of an l a Laker, even though Alex Cruso is the exact archetype of the type of the player, the type of player that the Lakers were desperately searching for last week during the deadline. So I get it. I get where you're coming from. But again, you're cutting

off your nose to spite your face. Here. This is what happens when people are you know, when it becomes about pride, when it becomes about retaliation, there's actually no positive you know, there's no positive result from that. So you stood up to Lebron, you stood up to Clutch, and you told them, no, you're not going to make a trade. Okay, great, Now where are we now? We're still in this situation where this roster is fundamentally broken.

Now we're still in a situation where this team as currently constructed doesn't have enough talent to win the title. And Lebron is thirty seven years old? So how do you reconcile that with whatever message it is you're trying to send a Clutch with whatever this proxy war is.

And again, like I understand the asset side of it, Like, obviously assets need to be spent in a smart way, but really, how big of a difference is it gonna make if you attach too distant firsts to Russell Westbrook this summer instead of one, Like, it'll make some difference, right, it might open the door to a deal or two that you might not have access to, But is it really going to make that much of a difference. No, Tailor is a good prospect, you guys know, I'm higher

on Tailor than most. But is keeping Tailor around some sort of franchise altering piece of asset management? No, which is exactly why even though I'm high on Taylor, I advocated for trading it because I understand the reality of the predicament, which is Lebron James is thirty seven and has a knee that's got issues, and Anthony Davis has had trouble staying on the court over the last couple

of years. There is absolutely an urgency here, and that urgency has to be factored in when you're making these types of decisions. But then we get to the money, because, as we heard in this podcast, I have now I can I can now point to multiple, multiple reports that have suggested that Genie Bus would not take on additional salary during the trade deadline. The way Ramona Shelburne described it on The Hoop collect it was, quote unquote, the Lakers were looking for low hanging fruit, any sort of

ask for assets or for money. Any of them taking on additional salary was off the table and went so far as they may. Men have been reported there was a framework of a deal that would have sent gen Wall and Christian Would to the Lakers, and everything was set,

but they didn't want to take on the money. Imagine Christian Would again, this Laker team that has struggled with talent all year, that has struggled with quality NBA players all year, that has struggled with size and athleticism all year, could have had Christian would if the franchise was willing to take on some salary. And again, like I understand, money doesn't grow on trees. You can't just spend recklessly.

But I have a really hard time sympathizing with the ownership groups in the NBA, even the ones that aren't as wealthy as some of the bigger names that we have around the league. Just because you're not Steve Ballmer doesn't mean you can't afford luxury tax. Over the course of the time that Genie has been involved with the Lakers, that franchise has increased in value by billions with a

B billions. So you're gonna have a hard time getting me to sympathize with a short term financial plight when this has been a great arrangement for you and your family, and you have a responsibility as the person shepherding literally the most famous franchise in NBA history it through this era. And if there was one time to maybe pony up a little bit, it would be when Lebron James is thirty seven and on your team and still playing at

a level like the best players in the league. This is a we can now directly point to Alex crue So and Christian would as examples of talent that the Lakers could have had on the roster and they willingly passed on because of money. That's inexcusable. And so because of that, I your message, Genie that you sent to Clutch via Ramona Shellburn rings hollow because it's hypocritical, because of your own mistakes and because you were cheap. Some of this is you just have to acknowledge what it's

like doing business with Lebron James. And again, as I said, I don't think Lebron should be making I don't think Lebron should be intimately involved with personnel, but you have to trust what he's doing here. The reason why Lebron wanted you to flip the deck at the deadline is because he's done that before. He literally did it in two thousand eighteen with the Calves and took that team to the finals. In his head, he's like, we screwed up. He literally admitted it on Twitter. He tweeted out that

he apologized for how the season had gone. He knows they screwed up. He his way of owning it is saying like, hey, we gotta pull a two thousand eighteen cass here, we gotta shuffle the deck moving like talent that's just different and make a run at this thing. And of all the times, not this summer when they approached you with the Russell Westbrook deal. Of all the times to finally put your foot down against clutch, it's now when Lebron and a d looked this good and

the team clearly isn't good enough. Now you want to put your foot down, But you didn't care when Russell Westbrook was brought to the table. So again, I just I just don't sympathize with them in any regard. You know. One of the things that a phrase that I've kind of coined over the years that ever since is like, hey, since Lebron came in the league in two thousand three, no team or player, franchise, anything has won as many titles as Lebron James. He literally has more than any

of them. That's what the business of Lebron James looks like. It's chaotic. There can be some drama there can be ups and downs, there can be turmoil, there can be change, but it is in this era the most unassailable approach to winning basketball games that exists in the NBA. So at a certain point you have to just understand that that's what you're in business with and roll with the

punches a little bit. And again, like the fact that they didn't make a trade, just a trade to try to bring some fresh blood into the room and try to turn things over for the sake of sending a message to Clutch is just cutting off your nose a bite your face. So now where do we go from here? The the answer is hopefully that you can convert some of this stuff into usable pieces this summer and try to make another run at this. But again, lebron is

thirty eight. Understand the urgency of the situation. Hopefully this whole proxy war thing gets resolved in time for Genie to sign some buy out guys. I saw DeAndre Bemberry got signed today. That's another option that just got removed from the table. Things are gonna just continue to get tighter on that front, and they need to be active. So whatever this is just needs to get resolved. Missing football, well, you can still turn every Thursday into pay Day with

NBA on TNT on Fandel sports Book. It doesn't matter if you win or lose. Vandel is giving all customers ten dollars back every Thursday in site credit. Just spent ten dollars or more in the same game parlay on any NBA on TNT game. Same game partlays let you combine the money, line, point spread, player props, and more all into one wager. It's the perfect way to turn a small bet into a big time score and win or lose, you're guaranteed to get ten dollars add it

to your account. I love vandel just because it's so incredibly easy to use. Get ten dollars back every Thursday insight credit, win or lose with TNT Thursdays. If you're new to FanDuel, just sign up with Promo co Jason T to make every moment more this NBA season. Again, that's Promo co Jason T exclusively on the FanDuel Sports Book app twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia,

or West Virginia. First online real money wager only refund issued as non withdrawalable site credit that expires in fourteen days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com. Gambling problem called one eight hundred next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona one eight 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. In Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana eight hundred to seven zero seven one one 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. In tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in tennessee visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. But I wanted to move on.

I have a very specific point that I wanted to make as it pertains of the Lakers rotation, because I was digging into the numbers today, and it's actually pretty wild the way that this team has performed with their young guys on the floor relative to when their old guys are on the floor. So for starters, it's not exactly a big shock to understand why the younger players on the Lakers have played better than the older players.

They're faster, they're quicker, they're more athletic, and most importantly, it's about urgency. Austin Reaves was an undrafted free agent. Molik Monk was. He literally told us, hey, I didn't get a single contract off for this summer except for the Lakers. Stanley Johnson was playing for the South Bay Lakers was out of the NBA. You're capitalizing on urgency there. Those guys are playing desperate and that has directly led to that influx of energy and success on the floor.

This year, only four rotation players have a positive net rating. And I like net rating because it's just the scoreboard. All net rating is is the scoreboard relative to possessions, So it's adjusted for pace. This year, with Ossar Reaves on the floor, there plus seven per one hundred possessions. With Malik Monk on the floor, their plus three point one per one hun possessions. With Stanley Johnson on the floor,

there plus zero point one per one possessions. There's one old guy in that group, and it's Carmelo Anthony at plus one point five, and that's not coincidence. He is an elite spot up player. He brings an elite skill to the table. Carmelo Anthony is one of the best catch and shoot three point shooters that we have in the league. Trevor Reason is not that Trevor Reason does not have an elite skill. Avery Bradley does not have an elite skill. Dwight Howard does not have an elite skill.

Camp Baysmore does not have an elite skill. That's why those guys are struggling. But Mellow is succeeding in that role even as you work your way down. The highest among the players that have a negative net rating is Taylor Horton Tucker and mine is zero point four. So per the scoreboard, the Lakers are playing best when they have their young guys on the floor. I even dug a little bit more. This is an absolutely wild stat When Lebron James is on the floor with Malik Monk

and Austin Reeves. The Lakers are plus five point one per one hundred possessions in a hundred and eleven minutes. When you swap those guys out for two similar players who are older guys, Avery Bradley and Trevor Ariza hundred and seventeen minutes, so and even larger sample size minus twenty two point five per one hundred possessions. So getting absolutely rolled with your older guys on the floor. Good

team with your young guys on the floor. Swap out Lebron and Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis with Austin Reaves and Milik Monk plus fifteen point two in a hundred one minutes, Davis with Bradley and Areza minus six point eight. The numbers are there, they're screaming at us, and it's again, it's all just about that overall foot speed. And most importantly, this is something we all had to learn right because coming into the season, I said, I was like, Hey,

the Lakers aren't old. They're young. Because Malik Monk is young, because Anthony Davis is young, because Taylor Horton Tucker is young. I was because Kendrick Nunn is young. I was looking at that and said that these old guys are slotting into small roles, but the actual you know, lion's share of the guys in the rotation are young. But there are two things that I didn't factor in there properly.

One is politics, just how often this year that inferior players have played over better players because of their reputation, which is a problem. And then the second part of this is just the way the game has changed. You know, ten years ago, it was like a three out, two in type of deal. There are always two bigs on

the floor. The overall foot speed wasn't that crazy, and you had specialists usually in the corners, like a Shane Dattier or Kyle Corver, like an older version of of Ray Ray Allen, right, Like that was who was in the corner. Now every NBA team is putting out three or four guys that are super fast and quick and

can dribble and get to the rint. So, all of a sudden, in today's league, your ability to defend on the perimeter, to keep people in front of you is immensely important in a way it didn't used to be. I was talking about this last night with the Chicago Bulls. They had a ton of success early in the year because they were defending. Then Lonzo Ball and Alex Cruso get hurt, their defense falls apart, and the team's falling apart. That's not a coincidence. That's another way that the game

is changing. And that's another symptom of that. You need guys on the perimeter that can keep guys in front of them. In this LA, your team utterly lacks that, especially with the guys that they've played in the rotation. But what you're seeing is the guys who are your better perimeter defenders, Taylor Horton, Tucker, It's a good point of attack defender, Austin Reeves, a good point of attack defender. Those guys are moving their feet and they're helping the

team win. And the Malik Monk and Mellow they just shoot so outrageously well that they're still net positives even though they struggle on that end. But it's not a coincidence that those groups are doing well. And it's gonna be immensely important for the Lakers to play those young guys the rest of the season to give this team their best chance to win. And that's exactly why the

buy out market is so important. If you want to have less Trevor Reason minutes, if you want to have fewer Avery Bradley minutes, you've got to bring in NBA players that can play those minutes. Because even if you did start Austin Reeves, even if you do start Malique Monk, even if you do favor the young guys, you still have to spell them with guys from the bench. And I think very Bradley can do that in a small amount.

I don't think Trevor Reason can do that. I don't think Kemp Baysmore can do that, and Dwight Howard doesn't fit with their modern style that they're going with now. So you have to find two or three guys that can play that role so that you can play the young guys more and give this team their best chance to succeed. Because Lebron and a D with those guys is working. That is very much working. It's one of the biggest silver linings of the season. So the Lakers

have to lean into that more. Al Right, before we get out of here tonight, I wanted to talk really quick about the Boston Celtics. It's very ironic because I talked about them a little bit last night, and specifically I talked about how they weren't shooting well over the course of their most recent stretch of games. Over their last twenty games, both Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown are below from three, and as a team they were in

three point percentage over that span. So I kept saying last night, I'm like, hey, if they start making shots, they're gonna start killing people. And what do you know, Tonight they make a bunch of threes on the road in Philly and beat the living crap out of a really good team in Philly, a really obviously Philly is not what they're going to be, but that's not an easy win. And the formula is very simple. They have tons and of height and athleticism all over the floor.

They are the anti Lakers in that regard. At every position there probably above average in size and athleticism. That's a huge boost in that direction. And then they have a completely modern scheme. They switch everything, so which is ironic because switching everything is a scheme that's generally reserved for lazy teams, right because it's an it's the path

of least resistance. It's a lot harder to ask a guy to chase over the top of a ball screen, fight through all that contact, apply back back pressure, then dive down and box out the big guy as the as your big guys helping on the dry it's just a really tough job. But for you to be able to point over to your teammate and go, hey, you got him now, that's easy. But when you combine that that philosophy with actually talented defensive players like what Boston has,

that's how you can get extremely dominant. And as I pointed out last night, their defensive rating is lapping the field of late. They were coming into last night in their previous fifteen games and the next closest team was a one oh six. That's a huge gap. So that's a huge foundational piece. There's a ton of height and athleticism in the ability to switch and guard everything. Then it comes down to the offensive guys developing. The big rub on Jayson Tatum throughout his whole career has been

that he doesn't create shots. First teammates, that he's just an isolation score. Well, in his last twenty games he had coming into tonight, he had seventy five assists to just thirty eight turnovers. That's a two to one assist turnover ratio. That's five assists per game. That is pretty solid playmaking. That's a growth from Jayson Tatum that has manifested over the course of the last few years because he's had to because the circumstances of the team in

the roster have forced him in that direction. Then you add Derek White, who is also a good playmaker. Now the team has some playmaker. I always talk about on the pod that there are three hallmarks to a championship contender. You have to be able to score in isolation because teams are gonna switch against you, and you need to be able to attack matchups. You need to be able to play make because teams will send multiple bodies to you, and when they send multiple bodies to you you have to

be able to make the right play. That's how you find cracks and playoff defenses. And then lastly, you have to be defensively versatile. So that's not just a good defensive team, but you have to be able to defend in multiple ways. This is what kills the Utah Jazz every year. They're really good with their drop coverages with Rudy Gobert, but when they get into a five attack and they have to really guard on the perimeter, they fall apart. They had a one thirty defensive rating last

year against the l A Clippers in the playoffs. That's horrid for a team that was the third best defense in the league. But when you can do both, like for instance Lakers, when you can run drop coverages with Anthony Davis, but you can also switch everything and you also have tons of point of attack defense, that is

defensive versatility, and that's what this Boston teams has. It has they can try to keep Robert Williams around the rim as a rimp protector using traditional coverages, and they can switch everything, so they they cross all the boxes now of a bona fide championship contender. And like I said, the most exciting part is they haven't shot well sixteen and four in their last twenty games in the league and three point percentage in that stretch. When they start

making shots, everything can turn around for them. Tatum and Brown are a lot better as shooters than they've shown over the course of this last month. So you know, it's funny because it's gonna come down to execution, right. You now have to be able to Jalen Brown, Jyleen Brown and Jason Tatum have to out execute Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, they have to out execute Jana Sountenna Coombo and Chris Middleton. That's a challenge, right, but your defense

buys you margin for error. Brooklyn is a bad defensive team. Milwaukee, like we talked about last night, is the middle of the pack defensive team that has slacked a lot. If you are an unbelievable, elite defensive team, that makes it so that Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown don't have to be as good as Kevin Durant and Jana Suntana compo. They can just compete with them to some extent and if they do, it will be enough. But it's crazy.

It's crazy because the big rub on the Celtics over the previous few seasons was there basically a five team, you know, in the aggregate when you combined it all. Ever since they lost to the Miami Heat in the playoffs in the bubble, they were like a five team. Until this This is like dominant basketball that we're seeing. And then the last night I wanted to throw out

at you guys, which is just stunning. To me. I hinted at this last night, but it's been adjusted from their latest game when Robert Williams, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum are on the floor. This year, the Celtics are plus nineteen point five per one possessions in a huge sample size seven fifteen minutes. That is like Big Three in my any type of dominance. That is like Steph, Kadie and Clay type of dominance. That's how good that

group has been this year. So they've been swept under the rug by so many people, but they're gonna be a really tough out and I absolutely think they can win a championship. Alright, guys, that is all I had for tonight. I'm very excited for tomorrow big Laker game, Lakers Jazz. We will be going live immediately after the final buzzer. I hope you all will be there. I hope you all enjoyed the rest of your night, and I will see you tomorrow. Volume