Blazers/Lakers Postgame Spaces

all good, you know. And I'm not going on for New Year's man to West COVID out there, So I'm telling what's going on with I'm doing. I'm doing good. I'm wa get up, wa, get up at four o'clock in the morning to drive up to Flagstaff to go skiing. So I'm excited about that. But it's gonna be a funky that's for sure. That said, I feel good. I'm excited to talk to the Lakers, but I'm gonna come at you with the curveball to start. So, so I am aware of the fact that the Blazers have been

dealing with a lot of unfortunate circumstances. They've been hit by COVID recently, the CJ McCollum injury is weird. Dame's clearly been dealing with something. He doesn't look like himself. That said, they look like every time I've seen them play this year, which maybe a half dozen times, they look like an extremely poorly coached, an extremely poorly organized team that doesn't have any sort of buy into what they're trying to accomplish and no feasible way to get better.

So so my question for you is this, what is what? What what is your opinion on the Blazers and and what in the world would you do if you were running that team? What was hard and right? You know, it's hard to throw that all on the coach, honest. A lot of that is, you know, Billips walked into

a bad situation. Um. You know, Dame pretty much called the season and failure if you remember his comments before going any pretty much set free agency and the draft was a failure before they even got to train again. So that's hardy and everybody's head from the jump. And then on top of that, they're already not that good day and came out struggling. It's just it's just that the worst thing that happened that team was making that

two thousand nineteen Western Conference Finals. That's the worst thing that happened to that team because it gave them a false sense of reality and like where they were as a franchise, which it really should have been blown up two years ago. Um Dame keeps saying he wont the ass out. We give reminded every two weeks that he's not running from the grind. I mean, it sounds great for a loyalty story, but that team is not. It's

not going anywhere. That's the worst. The worst place to be in the NBA's in the middle because you're never gonna be bad enough to get that marquee player. You're never gonna be good to compete. Is just they got to blow it up man like C. Why isn't C C should have been trained two years ago for a win. The fact that the biggest failure to means they never got game a feasible wing in all his entire danger

there never got a win. And it's the most important position in the n b A you could argue, and they never got to a wink in ten plus in ten years, never had this. This is a good win for him to play with, not to mention the fact that c J, because of this long situation and because of the underachieving, his value is probably the lowest that has been in a long time in terms of in terms of on the trade market. But I look at

it from two perspectives. Because from from Dame's perspective, the part that's confusing to me is the weird game he's playing in the media, because because he's like, he's saying all the right stuff about this loyalty, but there's also like all these leaks, and then there's that really weird Chris Haynes piece where he basically talked about how he

flirted with the the Lakers this summer. So and I actually got in big trouble with Blazers fans earlier this year because I just pointed out the obvious, like, look, man, if this guy is clearly looking elsewhere and this is clearly not a good situation for him, why don't we just cut the bs and just skip ahead to the part where everybody's happier, now, you know what I mean?

That that was what was frustrating. And then from the team's perspective, I I look at it as as simply as this, Like I I saw the Bucks throw the chicken sinc excuse me, the kitchen sink to try to get to try to get Drew Holiday, even though they overpaid for him. I look at what the Bulls did last summer, you know, I look at I look at these teams doing everything in their power to try to put talent around the guy they perceived to be the one.

In this case, Dame, and the Blazers just haven't. Like I mean, I like Larry Nants it's a good player, and I also like child like Normant, but you and I both know that those it was all about the fact that c J, as much as I like c J, is overqualifiy it is a number two unless you have

an unbelievable defensive front line, which they've never had. So I just I look at it like the Blazers are clearly incapable of putting Dame in a position to succeed, and Dame is beating around the bush and it's a waste he's capable of, especially as he's getting to the age where you know he's in his crime right now. But you know, small guards, they get to the parties, you know, it becomes you know, a matter of time at that point. I just always felt people got credit.

The trade that most makes sense was the c J for Dame and then you know, kind of make it work with picks and stuff to make it even on one side. But I thought that, yeah, c J for Ben Simon jc J as I said that it felt like it was feasible for both chains and served the interest, like the feeling like really needed shot making in the playoffs. Si this guy who can score from all three levels.

The Blazers need somebody who can play some defense, it can play make and put game off the ball sometimes and that like it just felt like it felt like too perfect of a trade to happen. But more feels like, you know, Beta is going off for for a franchise player at this point, and we'll see what happens. But the appointing gotta do something, man, just you can't waste Damian Lillard's prime like like this, you gotta do something

or free him. I think Ultimateple Images they kind of do what Minnesota did with Kevin Garnett I after twelve years and like all right, man, we we kind of failed you here, Uh tell us where you want to go. And that's kind of just give it. Just give us a list. We'll do the best we can what offer we get. I think that's what the end game is eventually.

But it's time for something to happen. Yeah, I could see them trying to be aggressive at the deadline to build a round Dame, But unless they find traction or something like that, then Dame like knocking on the front office door and being like once the next time, you know what I mean. Um, So okay, So let's move

on to the Lakers. So, you know, I wanted to touch base of you about the Rust the rust fit in particular, and I know tonight it's a little bit of a tricky night for that because he played so well. But at the end of the day, that was kind of more like a pickup game that involved Lakers players than it was a real nbas Some of the defensive breakdowns I'm seeing from the Blazers tonight were worse than in l a fitness. But anyway, so so let's just

cut to this point. So after the crazy game against Memphis, I was just as frustrated as you because I thought there were a couple of pivotal mistakes down the stretch of that rusts made and admittedly, coming up front before we even talked about this, I didn't like to move to begin with, and so it's taken the better part of my being to try to force myself to see the things that he does well, to try to remain

as open minded to it as I could. Um. But and there have been stretches this year where he looked really good. Actually, i'd say that he looked good most of the season. I'll even clarified to their but I've been pretty frustrated. After the Memphis game, you tweeted out that the Lakers needed to get off of him and trade in this deadline because they can't beat good teams with him, was what you had said in the tweets.

So I wanted to give you an opportunity to clarify that and to elaborate it on a little bit and then I'll give you my two cents. All right, So this is what this this, this is where I'm coming. So I kind of, like rog as explained before, like I saw the Lakers vision as far as like why they wanted this, while Lebron kind of pushed for it, and you know, I think it was to try to bring his workload down a bunch, which which it hasn't. Now if you look at it, which you know it hasn't,

which is five is lebron Is is a tank. So whatever. Um. The other thing was just um, you know, lebron Is always wanted more playmaking around him, like he's always pushed for not being the main guy to make decisions him and I understood it from that standpoint, But dude, just and I was to I was like, I'm against it. I want to see if it works first, because this is the first time in the rest of his career that he was going to be asked to be a

number three, you know, not number one. Got a number two, so that's what I was kind of hoping for. Maybe this time could possibly be different. But just the decision making Layton basketball games, I'll say that he has eliminated those little mirror range pull ups, the early shot talk pull ups that I hated to stop doing that. He he has become so much self aware, like I'll give him that much like the bad shots are are aren't

there anymore. It's just the decision making, the dad turnovers. Um, He's got an adjust to maybe not being the same supreme athlete. He was as far as going to the basket, Like the bad lay piments against Memphis, I think he jumped from beyond the dotted line, and I was like, you're not You're not twenty four anymore. But like you said, it's been mostly good. I have to be honest, it's

been mostly good. I just I don't see them. I'm thinking, I'm like, you know, six games against Phoenix, six games against Golden State, Um, even Utah like can rely on him to make good decisions in a long series like that, And I'm still leaning no on that. Just unfortunately, that's I'm being honest. I'm still leaning a note on all that stuff. Um, you know, he could prove me wrong. I'd be happy to be wrong, but I'm just it's this as a whole, you know, decade plus, like the

playoff appearances and like recently it's been really bad. But the only my only hope is that Lebron and a D knocked him down to pick where he's the doctor's first or second. He's the third option. So maybe it's not that much on his plate where he's not in the position to possibly make those mistakes. Um, maybe he

gets better. I'm guessing he gets better when a d gets back because then he's the ball doesn't find him late in his late game situations, like as much as it has, which is I think he's putting him in position to fail. That's not who he is anymore. But yeah, man, I'm just you know, the my original do not trade for this guy? Like I'm feeling that bubble to the top right now, so me too. It hasn't bubbled. It

hasn't bubbled over yet. And the main and the main reason why I would, I'm the main reason why I'm slow to reach that point is because of the total catastrophe that a Westbrook trade would be. So like, just thinking about that's the salary filler that the Lakers would get back, you would have to believe in that trade purely as an addition by subtraction to go that route.

Now here's the deal. I when I when I was trying to talk myself into the Westbrook fit to start the season, I centered around the Dennis Schroeder Cup because I'm like, Okay, here's a relatively inconsistent shooting point guard who is very aggressive to the basket. And in theory,

you know, Russ could replicate some of his on ball defense. Um, the big thing that I like completely miscalculated with that is Dennis for all of his flaws, and Dennis wasn't my favorite player that I've ever watched, But Dennis didn't make a ton of mistakes. He on the defensive end always did his job. You could count on him to be where he was supposed to be, whether it was

on the ball or off the ball. And then on offense, he was very reserved to only attack in specific matchups, especially at the end of games, and just in general.

Like I can't even think off the top of my head of a specific moment last year where he made a critical late games mistake, and I'm sure there were, but we already have several loud mistakes from Westbrook season in the situations, And so my my concern is, like I sent out a poll today and damn near, I'm just asking about the fit, and I think Brussel Westbrook is a much better basketball player than Dennis Schroeder was.

But what concerns me with this fit is I think when specifically, when you're the third guy, it's so much more critical that you don't screw things up. Then then in another position, And what scares me is like Maple's him losing him, him losing Patty Mills on Christmas Day at the end of that game. That's not related to Anthony Davis and him being in a tertiary role. That's

just him pushing the ball in transition against Memphis. That same play could happen in a clutch playoff game, even if a d and Lebron are on the floor, because you want Russ to push the ball in transition. I fear that his decision making could be fatal in that type of environment. And and that gets me to the point where where like if if he can't show strides in that specific department, where I would start to contemplate whether or not addition by subtraction would be sensical, if

that makes sense. See I mean, and all this in my and all this in my opinions, I just blow the ad Rips because they're they're they're not going to trade it. I don't think they are. The only time on the reason I think they would trade him, as I gif, it was like the Simmons deal came up, but that like feel he's not trading at all the trades they turned down, feel he's not gonna take him for Russell Westbrook, right, So I don't think he's getting traded. So I think it's a matter of, you know, put

in Westbrook in the best position to succeed. And I think a lot of that is gonna have to a lot it's gonna be on you know, the five that Frank puts out there, Like you can't play him with th ht, you know what I mean. You can't play him with DeAndre and a D at the same time, you know what I mean. It's like you got to really pay attention with who he's on the court with two to put him in the best to succeed. And

I want to say that's Westbrook. He's still like even if with all the bad plays and or whatever, he's been a top five playmaker in basketball, like his high quality assists numbers and this shock creation, it's still at the tip top of the league. So I will give him credit for that. So like that that that's a good thing he's done. Like he's helped a lot of guys um get a lot of good looks. We just you know, we want that and then want to eliminate the crucial era. And I think we we've got something

like that's feeds from playoff basketball. So I mean a lot of it is against his his nature, so it's kind of hoping against hope, But I just want to point out that that is something good that he's done. He's still one of the five best playmakers in basketball this season. Absolutely, you know. I think the way that I looked at it was so Pete from like a film room always talks about the idea of a responsible

adults lineup. It's the line up, the lineup that you would go to in a moment where you need guys to execute. And the way I've kind of come around this way of describing Russ, I think he's a fantastic basketball player who is not a responsible adult. That's the way that I look at it, Because you're right, his his ability to pressure the rim and create high quality three point shots and drop offs and things like that are in the near if not the top tier, in

the second tier that you'll find in the league. He's just flat out really good at that. So and then then you watch like a play like those two plays at the end of game against Memphis in isolation defense against John Morant, who has been lighting us on fire, all night and he gets too crucial stops and you're like, Okay, that looks like one of the better guard defenders in

the league. But that inability to trim the fat, that inability to you know, find a way to replicate what he does well and minimize what he does poorly, to me, is that lack of that responsible adult basketball character. And so what scares me is that big pivotal playoff moment

where you've got four responsible adults on the floor. You know, you've got Lebron, Anthony Davis, Trevor Ariza and call it Austin Reeves, and then you've got this one gigantic wild card in there that at any given moment could go rogue and do something silly. So that that's kind of the way that I would describe it. But you're right, it's very important to emphasize that there is a ton

of good that comes with Russ. The wrinkle here is the bad and how do you how do you evaluate that, how do you plan for that, how do you prepare for that, and how do you try to coach him or help him to avoid that? If that makes sense? Alright, guys, So, unfortunately I have some bad news we had some technical difficulties with Mr Maple's phone. No fault of anybody, just some bad New Year's luck. So unfortunately this conversation got cut short, which is a bummer for me because Maple's

is one of my favorite guys. I appreciate having him on and I love talking the game with him. But I hope you all have a happy New Year, and I apologize for the unfortunate circumstances, but we will be back with our normal postgame show on Sunday.