Celtics/Lakers Postgame Spaces

the living crap out of the Blazers the other night. Um, this is a this is a decent basketball team that came to town, and we just looked way better than them. Um why because we are way better than them? And obviously we've been off to a very frustrating start to the season. Um. I thought Lebron set the tone from the start tonight, which is something I've been begging for him to do all season, and I thought everyone else followed. And that's kind of one of the big formulas for

succes tonight. There's a lot of other details we're gonna get into, but before we get too far into it, Roge, how are you, my guy? Are you feeling as good as I am right now? Man? That has to be game of the year, win of the year. That was fun. It was it was. It was great to finally get a fun game, right, and we had three days off in between. It was nice for us as well to get a break from Lakers basketball. The Lakers looked like

they needed it. Um. Lebron especially came out with more energy than I've seen from him, and he just set the tone. Like you said, in this game was just it felt it wasn't wire to wire. But the Celtics never to me, felt like they were gonna win tonight, which which is really just a stark contrast from what we've been seeing from all these games, and that second half they took over. I don't think the final score really indicates, um, how big a game this was for them.

Just a fun game, man. Finally Laker fans and all of us kind of get a good game to enjoy, Like it was. It was nice to have one of these for a change. Yeah, you know, Lebron really set the tone from the beginning of this game, and it reminded me of a Die dnamic that used to happen back with the Lakers year they won the title, where you would see Anthony Davis kind of sleepwalk his way through the beginning of a game, but Lebron would kind

of carry him over that stretch. And one of the things that told me a lot about who Anthony Davis is as a competitor, as he would inevitably in the second half of those games really turn it up, come out like gangbusters, and put his physical imprint on both ends of the floor. And when he did, the team was borderline unbeatable, especially with Lebron already in a rhythm like he was at the beginning of the game. And that's one of the big reasons why I've been so

critical of Lebron this season. I've probably been more critical of him than any other Lakers player, and more so than most Laker fans have been. But it's just because I hold him to such a high standard and I know what he's capable of. And you know, yes, he took a lot of jump shots early in the game, but they were they were high quality jump shots, they were in rhythm. The ones that were contested were closer

to the rim. If you look at his shot chart, these weren't stepped back threes from These were interior jump shots closer to the basket, where he has shown a propensity in his career to be a high percentage jump shooter.

There's lots of good process from him. And then he was also putting his head down and getting to the rim a lot more than we've seen him try to do this season, um, And it was inevitable to me that eventually Anthony Davis and Russ would find a time in the game where they would put their imprint and a d kind of started end of the second quarter and continued for most of the second half, and then Russ was just unbelievable at the end of that third quarter,

just putting his head down and getting to the rim again, something we've talked about a lot. Russ kind of slowly breaking through that that wall, constantly putting physical pressure at the point of attack on guys, and they might hold up for a quarter some nights, they'll hold up for two quarters, but eventually he just wears on people to the point where he starts to get that rim pressure,

and from there it's about kicking out the shooters. And I have to look at the numbers because but from the eye test the scenes that we didn't shoot amazingly well tonight, So there's even another level we can get to. But we were living in the paint it was. It was much more. It was much closer to our identity. Uh. Frank Vogel's lineups made a lot more sensible. Get more into that later, but they made a lot more basketball

sense with what this team is good at. But at the beginning, it was all about Lebron doing what I expect him to do every night, which has come out and set the tone and be a leader. You know that be the guy that the other guys will inevitably get swept up in everything that you bring to the table. And that's where this team is going to be capable of beating quality teams, which is the next step and then you know, progressing this season. But did you did

you see what I was talking about there? Just Lebron kind of setting the tone and uh and the rest of the guys following. Yeah, he not only set the tone offensively, but I thought defensively as well. Right, and the starting lineup, you know, it's still kind of frustrating at times. When we got the news that you know, Blight Howard's is being taken out, we were gonna have eighty at the five, but it was Taylor and Avery Bradley so your spacing was still going to be bad,

but the floor balance is better. And with Lebron and a Dy as your back line, that's still a super great catalyst for a great defense right when you have both of them engaged. And I thought you saw that all night. Tatum had sixteen points. I think right away Um in the first quarter with like five minutes gone or something, he already had sixteen. But I thought they

didn't overreact to that. But Lebron Andy were engaged. Lebron on that back line was engaged almost every single play, taking out pretting out orders of where to switch and telling people where to go. We need that every single night, like you talked about. And this is game twelve of the Big three. I believe I have my numbers right. I think there were six and five before tonight with Lebron, and tonight I put them. I believe the seven and five. And this is kind of the way that the ceiling

of this team is gonna work. To me, I feel like Russ has pushed his weight, Like I'm looking at Russ. The lacks. The last six games, all Um pretty much all over twenty points. Other than the Clipper game. Four of those games are of at least nine assists. Two of them are with the eleven assists, and in this is tonight game from him. Tonight, he got to pick his spots because Lebron was able to take over in that first quarter, was taking jump shots, but I thought

they were good jumpers, that they were in rhythm. I thought they were aggressive a D in that third quarter going to the basket, I thought he was really settling in that first half. Only four shots for a D. To me, it's just not enough. But pulling this back with Lebron, him and a D started to get to going, started getting it going, and Russ was able to pick

his spots. Russ got really going in that third quarter, and I thought, that's what the ceiling of this team is, where you have Ron and a D going and then it's just Russ at Russ as like a volcano earthquake coming at you, where where you have to try to stop him while Lebron and a D are going. And I thought that's what we saw tonight. This was the best game the Big three I've played on both ends of the floor. He saw Russ take the Jayson Tatum

matchup and I thought that got him engaged defensively as well. Um, I thought Taylor would be the guy on Tatum, but Russ looked like he wanted that matchup, and I thought, you know, he did. He did the best that he could, but he was engaged, he fought, and that really all started from Lebron in that first quarter. It kind of led to both of them get going, and this is how you have to win. The three stars all played well, and when they do, I feel like we're gonna beat

teams like this. Yeah. One of the things I've been harping on all season is the Lakers leaning into what they're good at. It's been very frustrating to me to see Frank Vogel kind of cater his philosophy, both with the rotation and with the scheme, more towards like his personal basketball philosophies rather than what his personnel is good at, what the team's you know, basketball character is made of.

And you know, we've seen a lot over the course of the last few weeks, not just with Frank, but with Lebron and a D. This this idea that they didn't really understand what they were good at. Both Lebron and a D were leaning way too heavily into their off the dribble jump shooting game, which while it's something that has helped make both of them versatile in their careers,

it's not been their bread and butter. Their bread and butter in their career has been physical, you know, uh, leaving a physical imprint on the game, generating a ton of brim pressure all the good stuff that comes from that. And then with Frank, it's you know, I was blown away by how poorly we defended with the starting lineup

against the Clippers. But a lot of that has to do with, you know, Frank not seeing the forest for the trees, leaning way too heavily into size and defensive personnel, and not understanding that if you run crappy offense all the time and you're constantly missing contested lake clock jump shots, that your defense has never said that, your guys are always jogging back in transition, and your defense isn't gonna

look good anyway. It was. It was a whole lot of of of of guys up and down the organization that needed to wake up and understand what they needed to do for this team to succeed. Frank from the beginning of the game, you know, the everything made way more sense, Like you don't need to play Lebron at center. That can be a matchup thing, but you have Dwight Howard. Dwight Howard's a really good backup center. He's the perfect guy to bring in when Anthony Davis goes to the bench.

That makes way more sense than starting huge with a D and Dwight and Russ and then going super tiny with Lebron at center and at the start of the second quarter. None of that ever made any sense. And so this was a way more functional rotation. Like you said, I wouldn't go with Avery Bradley, I'd go with more shooting in the starting lineup. But those are nitpicky things, the things that we can go at the guys for tonight.

We're nitpicky things. All these things in the previous weeks that we've been pointing out, these have been glaring, obvious basketball malpractice that had to be pointed out. These weren't money Monday morning quarterbacking from our couches when we have no idea what we're talking about. This was every basketball mind in the world was looking at this, like, what

in the world were you guys doing? Your two best players are leaning into the weakest part of their offensive skill and the coaches playing personnel that actively sabotages the team. We were we were all in the right to be upset about what we were seeing, and it was such a breath of fresh air to see that tonight go the opposite direction, everyone kind of leaning into their strengths. I tweeted out at the end of the first quarter, but I've out of run was coming, and the reason

why it was kind of ironic. I I went into the Clippers game feeling good about what was going to happen, and then as soon as the game started, I immediately was shaking my head NonStop on the couch, incredibly frustrated. Tonight was kind of the opposite. I came into Tonight's game having no idea what to think, Like is tonight the night that the Lakers just kind of roll over and quit? Or is tonight the night that they wake up?

You know? Like I didn't know, but almost immediately when I saw how engaged Lebron was, and I knew Anthony Davis was going to follow him eventually, and I knew, like always Russ, it's been to come a theme for him in third quarters that's kind of when he starts to break through that physical wall and start to impose his will. I knew those I knew those things were coming. Our defense was dialed in and engaged. You could tell,

even though Tatum made some shots earlier. Tatum's incredible, don't get me wrong, but you could tell that both Russ and Phdre were being disruptive with their with their length and athleticism. You could see the good process. You knew the run was coming. That's why I felt good throughout most of this game. This is a of the fresh air Rod. I gotta say, man, like this was I could the Clippers game was a low point for me

as a fan of this team. Without frustrated, I was, and tonight was as encourages that Ben and and it's always been in there. They just needed to play into their strengths. Yeah, we look like a functional basketball team. Like we look like a basketball team that made sense. And I was thinking about that that other starting lineup with like two centers and all that. That starting line up is like a broken clock, right, it's right twice a day, like sometimes those you know, jumpers go in.

But it's ugly basketball. It's not conductive, it's not good process. I thought tonight was good process. Even with Avery Bradley starting. You can kind of see the reins of what we're gonna be, right And I was thinking, like, maybe Trevor Reason is in that spot. I see why Kalen is in there, and Taylor's defense will get into that later, but I thought he was. I thought he was pretty good. Like you throw him on Jayson Tatum, you throw him

on Paul George the last game. I thought he did his job for the for the most part, we helped a little bit too much. But this is kind of what the team needs to be going forward. And I think we have some Winnabo games, Winnabo games coming up here after the Boston one from tonight. But yeah, man, the big three played well. Um a d was aggressive and that they're I thought Aides defense as well. He was.

He was getting killed at halftime by the TNT guys and everybody, but I thought his defense in that second half was great. He was shutting everything off. And this is kind of what I would like the lineups to be. Um Leak monk Wayne Ellington. I thought we saw more good process with them as well. We saw Lebron ball. Right, they had Peyton Pitcher tried to try to hide on Wayne Ellington and he came and said a bunch of like ghost screens. That was just good offense. Russ as

well with driving lanes. Right, we saw Russ with driving lanes and he had like a hammer dunk on somebody I don't remember who it was. He got a big time hammer dunk and he saw him kind of being excited, and this is this the way to play, man, This

is how we have to be going forward. I hope David Bradley is not the one starting every night, but if that's what's gonna be, that's at least we have the good process of a d S starting at center, Lebron at the power forward, and those two engraged defensively can can have a good defensive team. Boston's a solid team I think there. They have a good record in the last fifteen games or something. They've picked it up since they're slow start even with out Jalen Brown, and

just there a solid team with good NBA players. Um. I thought tonight was a really big win, big biggest one of the year to me. Uh, and just good process stuff that we saw. Um all night. Yeah, and even at the end of the game, you know, in the fourth quarter when the Celtics were you know, attempting at least to try to make a run, you saw Lebron's process better. You know, he wasn't he wasn't just

navigating switches and uh and jacking up stupid threes. He was, you know, working the ball around, trying to When he would get the switch on Peyton Pritchard, he would you know, try to back him down almost like a three point line post up. And there was a play where got into the lane and kicked out to Carmelo Anthony. It was nice. It was like a lot of the lot. That was another one of those things that's been kind of irritating through this season. You know, poor poor, poor management,

lead management. That's what I'm calling poor lead management. That was an issue all season long. And and and that wasn't an issue tonight. Our process remained good. Again, Like every every issue that I had tonight was nitpicky like. And it doesn't blow my mind that Frank Vogel thinks it's a good idea to chase Dennis Shrewder over the

top of screens. Yes, that blows my freaking mind. Like that, just that continues to hammer home my philosophy that Frank is obsessed with his own basketball philosophies rather than actually catering to what his guys are good at. But like that's a nitpicky thing, like the flip side is. I'm sure Frank the way Frank sees it, like if we press up on Dennis and chase him over the top of screens will make him feel uncomfortable over the course of the game, and maybe that will you know, manifest

in the long run. And but yeah, but again these are all nipicky thing. I thought we found too much. You know, we got we got way to reach in happy underneath the basket after we get beat instead of just walling up and making guys make shots over the top of us. But again, just all nitpicky. I want to stay mostly positive tonight. I thought, th ht uh, we can kind of move on to him here, but before before you move, before you move on a t

h D really quickly. Um. Lebron has had thirty in the last in four of the last five games that he's played. Um, which it doesn't feel that way just because he's been on and off so much but it's kind of crazy to think about it, even with him, you know, load managing through games. I think it was Tony who covers the Utah Jazz. Tony jones Um, who covers the Utah Jazz, said Lebron has had thirty and four the last four games, four of the last five games. It just doesn't feel that way. But I just want

to end with that. Lebron is still putting up you know Lebron. Now, it's just he's held to a higher standard, which makes sense, it's Lebron, but yeah, go ahead on a t HD. I just want to throw that in there because it just doesn't feel that way. It hasn't felt like Lebron's had thirty in the last for the last five he's played, but I guess that's what it is. Well, really quickly on Lebron, like this is this is something that's frustrating to me. It just as someone who's watched

him through his whole career. He's so good. This is the Anthony Davis thing too. Lebron and a d half the time, you you you you're you're like, yeah, they didn't really play all that great, and then you look at box score and it's like damn from seven, eight and seven or Anthony Davis. It's textbook. It's the way Anthony Davis had thirty two and fourteen. I thought he was bad. Like that's that's just kind of the nature of the way those two guys are because they're so talented.

But the point is is, like we do know that there's a difference between a really impactful thirty points and uh, thirty points, you know what I mean, Like Lebron's Lebron's thirty points in the game against Sacramento and the triple overtime game, you're like, like, really bad shot selection, really bad game management. You probably were one of the main reasons why they lost that game. That's not the same as tonight, where from the opening tip you were setting

a tone. All of your baskets carried a great deal of impact on the game, and as a result, it gave time for for a D and Russ to find their groove in the second half to help you get

that massively. Like to me, that's different, but again that's just that to me, is the difference, like the difference between the guy who averages twenty five and the guy who's won of a super duperstar is impact within the stats, but you know, like like timely baskets, like within a winning concept, like all of those different things are are where what separates, you know, because you're gonna find lots of guys in the league at average around twenty points

a game, you know what I mean. That's that's where you see that difference. But moving moving on to th h T. I've been infuriated with his offense that goes without saying I think he's he's just he's and I say infuriated, I understand it, Like to me, it's just young basketball player, Like that's it's just it's just he's entered the phase of the young basketball player slump where he's just not even seeing the floor, like he's making he's making reads off of what's happening two inches in

front of his face. Not kind of seeing like I said earlier, like seeing the forest for the trees, like understanding the dynamic of the five man offense, like you could tell right now he's in such a jump shooting slump that he's just taking every jump shot he can see the rim on like there was one there. And towards the end of the game where he just jacked up a three in transition and could cause Frank to

call time out. There was one, and there was one of the first half where was the catch and shoot. He was kind of open, but it was early in the shot clock, and you're kind of thinking, like, you know, you maybe work for something better first, get yourself going

at the rim before you know. There are little things like that that he has to to work out, and they're going to somewhat handicap our offense in the meantime, however, Uh well, after being kind of reckless and undisciplined against the Clippers with a lot of reaching in and bowling and getting out of position, I thought tonight was one of his best defensive games as a Lakers, and and his defensive ceiling is so much higher than everyone else in the rotation that he kind of presents an interesting

ceiling raising kind of option here because because if he does rein it in offensively enough by the end of the season, and he's gonna get a lot of reps.

So I hope one of the biggest reasons why I hope Lebron and a d stay healthy all season is that th h t s role can stay more consistent This is something I complained about a lot with him early on, you know, just about every one of his first you know, five six games when he came back involved like really really strange, uh changing circumstances like could be in the in the starting lineup, out of the starting lineup with Russ with you know, with Lebron, without Lebron,

it is just kind of like really really inconsistent. If he can get to the point where he even if he's starting, which I don't like the idea of him starting, if he can just get into that role, get that same kind of minute structure for the rest of the season. In Lebron and a d stay healthy, he's gonna find an offensive role. And when he does, that will make him a huge plus because right now you could argue he's still a plus because of what he's bringing defensively.

And to me, that's that's just exciting. The love the way you put it with THHD because you always say he has one All Star play a game, right, pretty much one All Star Player game. I thought he had like three or four tonight, Um, he had one play where I think Dennis Shrewder tried to attack him, and like Dennis did like a move, got a little bit of space and t Hd just blocked it straight up

like blocks Dennis Shrewder jumper. And then on Tatum as well, there were a few players where Tatum came around the screen, he gave him back pressure, gave enough time. I think it was Dwight Howard was the big to get back to his man. He got back in front and may Tatum kick it out Like those are plays and Tatum is a superstar Paul George supers are you never gonna stop them? But I thought his defense, just isolation defense

was really good. I thought we overhelped at times as well, where um where Thd kind of had him in control and Ellington or someone else would help one pass away. And You're right, these are all gonna be growing pains that you have to live with to get the result you want in about four or five months, right, Like that's where you're looking for. Can you produced at the playoff level? And his offense doesn't have to be superstar level, right, It doesn't have to be star double shot crane ability.

It just has to be enough because I think his defense is already to the point now where he can you can throw him on a good wing for like minutes a game and not get killed. And I thought that was huge. I thought being able to throw him out there. I'm not sure if he'll stay in the starting lineup when we're all healthy, but I think he needs to play. And you saw at the end of the game there people were killing him. You talked about

that three. I thought that was him just being happy to have the ball in his hands, just to happy to be the guy at the top of the key that has it, that can play around it. But I thought his cutting was so much better tonight. Did you see that as well? Like I thought everyone cut better tonight cutting, the cutting and interior passing was amazing. But

PhD was also good. Yeah, And I thought he really picked his spots and he had again those all star type of plays where he cut catches it gather like double reverse layup on the other side and it floats nicely into the basket. Like those are the star type of players that I see, Like he has these. It's it's weird because you'll have the crazy super finishes on the wrong side with the right hand. He haste to use his left hand obviously, so finishes with the right hand.

But he'll miss like the easy lay up where he drives right by someone. So other stuff he has to work on. But I think there's stuff there to work on. And the talk for the last few days obviously has been the you know, the Indiana Pacers are kind of open and trading Miles Turner and Sabonis, and I think the best trades are the one where both teams hate it, because I've seen the Indian Ana Pacers feel just the

Pacer fans feel disrespected by it. But like, this is like the type of talent I think that he has and we have a twenty one year old You talked about it. These are young basketball plays like he hasn't He hasn't been in situations a million times to know what to do on every single read. You're right, he's driving in when they're closing out shore. That's just stuff to me you have to live with because I think you're right. His defense is too good, like it's they

needed on this team. And I thought you saw some of those runs would team would go on these defensive runs, And I thought we kind of saw some of that tonight where it was like th hd Bron and a D and even Russ engaged. It's just a bunch of length, a bunch of athleticism on the floor. So I thought it was a nice game. I thought tonight was his best game, even if it wasn't his best offensive game. I thought this was the best game he had in

terms of like impacting the game in terms of winter loss. Yeah, it was. It was a really good game from him, which is ironic after you know, kind of the way

you started the game offensively. It's interesting with young players because you know, there's two different kinds of young player development patterns, and they tend to be different for guards than they are for big So like for Biggs, for instance, it's usually about them adding stuff, right, like, okay, deandreton comes back shooting threes, or you know, the Dwight Howard comes back taking more left handed hooks off the glass, like they add things to their bag. But with guards

in particular, it's more about cutting out the bad. Almost every guard when they come into the league has a really good handle and you know, reasonably good jump shot, and those things will improve over the years and years in the league, and but for the most part, their improvement is kind of like trimming the fat. It's trimming

poor shot selection, it's trimming poor decision and making. It's trimming turnovers, it's it's trimming defensive lapses, it's taking the you know, it's it's the difference, you know, Like we look at th h t s offensive season. We have these three games at the beginning where he was amazing, right and he averaged twenty something, and then he's been

horrible since for the most part offensively. But the truth is is like over the course of a season for a young player, it's kind of what it looks like, usually not all stacked up at a row, but usually it's like, dang, he had twenty five to night, and then he had four the next night, and then you know, then he had seventeen, and then he had six, and then he had twenty seven. You know, it's like that's

kind of a young player experience. And then what happens is with those guards, as they get better and they learn how to replicate their success into into you know, trim the things that led to their failure, it becomes more replicable and now you're seeing you know, three and then a seven point night. You know, like it just happens more frequently as they trimmed the fat out, and

so that's it's kind of cool. As we're watching th HT to develop, it's gonna be a lot more of just trimming out the bad stuff, you know, which will be interesting to watch. He is one of you know, this is he's one of the few defenders on our team that actively makes offensive players feel uncomfortable. This is a concept that I talked about a lot on this show because there's such a huge This is a this

is a shortcoming of analytics. For instance, you know, if I'm you know, if RAGE is guarding me and I shoot a three and he sticks his hand up as I'm shooting, that's going to register as a contested shot. But if th HD is guarding me, no offense to you, Rage, You've got great physical tools. I'm just saying t HD

is at another level. But if th HD is guarding me and he's really pressed up on me and he's disrupting my handle as I'm going and I elevate into the shot and he's like up in me, like with his his hand like up in between my hands in the face, that that is actually making me feel uncomfortable as a shooter. That is a huge that is going to also register as a contested shot. But the reality is is that th ht contest has a much bigger chance of making me miss than the than than the

RAJ contest, you know what I mean. And you know that that's kind of like it's kind of like with It's It's kind of like with Jayson Tatum, you know tonight, you know, with some of the couple of the threes he made there at the beginning of the game were they were contested, but was he comfortable because he certainly

looked comfortable, you know what I mean. And then over the course of the game, we did a better job of kind of tightening that up and he had to get more of his stuff at the RAM after multiple counter moves, and we took away some of his easier shots. But the point is is like there's just a huge difference between that Wayne Ellington. This season, you know, like

most of the Lakers has contested some shots. Tonight, I saw Wayne Ellington actively making dudes uncomfortable, really kicking that to another gear to where it's not I'm sticking a hand up on the shot. It's no, I'm selling out to make this dude feel uncomfortable. On the contest. It's something we've seen from Austin Reeves all season long, you know, in that son's games, like second game of the season

or whatever. Literally you saw, you know, Laker defender after Laker defender after Laker defender kind of throw up, you know, feeble little contests on Chris Paul. And then you saw Austin Reeves get in there and really really sell out to try to make him feeluncomfortable, and he started missing. You know what I mean, that's the difference. That's the next level, and that that that's that kind of defensive momentum.

I'd like to see this team build. There are guys like th HT that just what their physical tools can do whenever they want. But you're gonna see some more of that become part of our defensive culture. But again, I like th HD because if you have him in any lineup, he's an actually disruptive defender. I got a guy who you know, isolating him as kind of a fool's errand there are just much better options, and so

that kind of is exciting. I want to eventually, I want to hear your response, but I want to eventually talk more about the trade ideas. That center around him, because a lot of that timeline that I'm discussing, a lot of that trimming of the fat directly relates to what his trade potential looks like. Because if he starts to trim the fat here in the next month a little bit and start to look like a functional member of our closing lineup, I don't think he can trade

him because of his inevitable ceiling down the line. But you know there if there's that fine line there where you have to weigh those two concepts against each other. The urgency of the window with th HDS development, Yeah, for sure. And he's learning how to do winning habits right, and championship habits and that stuff you don't get on a bad team. He could easily be We always talked

about it. He could be on another team, get all the on ball reps, get all the pick and roll reps, you know, average the eighteen five with you know, all the turnovers, but you know it solid, flashy. But he's on a team with better ball handlers than he is. He's on team where he's not the first, second, or even third option. He has to learn how to play off ball. And I think that that works in his favor to become a winning player in that situation, it's

gonna take time. Players like that, players like THHD have had the ball in their hands their whole career, uh their whole basketball career before they got to the league. That's just who he is, and that's the reason to me why he is more comfortable taking threes off the dribble right. And you'll see him even when he's open, he'll like to dribble in, or he's more comfortable coming off a screen and pulling up or on a pull up jumper. His form looks even better, it looks more

smooth that way. But he's trying to work into his spot up shooting. I still think he has to be somewhat of a respectable spot up shooter um to play when it when it really matters. But the defense already made as far ahead as it is, I think it's really huge and it just shows his development. And again, the offense doesn't have to be great, but I thought, tonw you saw semblances of what it can look like.

You saw some other good process stuff. You saw him screening for Lebron and then slipping, and then you saw TC be able to attack like four on five when Boston with trap and it just plays into his strains, right, he gets to go downhill. He got to get some finishes over al Horford, I thought tonight, which were really smooth.

He has a finishing game there, and it's just stuff that it's all gonna be growing pains, like he could easily the next few games and I'll play well again, not finished at the like, it's just it's gonna be up and down and there's and he's not the player that he was when he started. He's not a twenty point game player. He's not a player that gonna hit a shot for the last few games. Somewhere in between, we see him getting better. I thought. I thought tonight

he was the most comfortable I've seen him. Uh, And he's just gonna continue to get reps next to Russ, next to Lebron. But I saw a good process stuff and I'd like to see I'd like to see it more. I'd like to see him with some shooting around him, right, I think it's just tough. When he there was some place tonight where it was like Russ drives and then he kicks it out to th HD THHD drives and kicks it out to Avery Bradley and then Avery Bradley like there's just it's just like it's you know, it's

just going nowhere. And I just like a little bit of spacing line. You talked about Ellington's defense, um, and I've seen that to me all year, Like he's never going to be great, but I think he's solid enough, Like I don't think he's gonna kill you, Like I feel like he's in the right place. He's not you know, he's not gonna be ever quick enough to stay with guards and stuff like that, but I think he's just a solid guy. Um that I'd like to for him to get more minutes, but we'll see. But yeah, I

thought t was again good Tonight. Defense was fantastic. This help defense is getting better. He had some steals in transition where like someone would try to cross left or right and he just pick it right away one on one. I think he had like two steals um in transition like that. And you're right, his length is his length is a problem. Is it's something that is bothering people. It bothered Paul George. It definitely bothered Jayson Tatum. Those

twos are still gonna get buckets. They're superstars. But he did his job and that's that's all you can ask. And you can see that Vogo really likes him. It's why he continues to start even when his offense is is ugly. And I think he's gonna stay in the starting lineup at least until a reason gets back here. Yeah, I agree, I would expect him too as well. I would. I wouldn't think it's completely out of the realm of

possibility that he would continue to start. Dirt becomes back term, but so so let's let's because this was something that popped across the timeline. I think I think it was today obviously with the news that the Pacers were going to be potentially entering into a rebuild phase that they probably should have entered in a few years ago. But the the let's obviously th hd like we just got.

If he can trim the fat um and kind of find a functional offensive role on the team, he kind of fills the role of a forward because he's so strong, his center of gravity is so low you can't really push him off of his spot in physical size mismatches, and he's got so much length that he can really, really bother you at the when you're trying to shoot

over the top of him. So let's obviously accepting the fact that if he kind of develops into what the Lakers need him to be, he is the best option while also having the long term ceiling, and they should keep him. But let's pretend we're sitting in January February and the THHD thing just isn't panning out still, you know, making mistakes off ball in the defense, complete liability, jump shooting, um,

you know, struggling with decision making, blah blah blah. What did you think about the concept of flipping th h T and Kendrick Nunn for for Miles Turner demonus opponents. Yeah, I mean it's tough. Obviously I don't watch the Pacers enough, but I mean I followed. I mean, Kyln Cooper is a person who goes with him, and she thinks that trade is kind of crazy, and it would to me like, you're getting an all Star back if you get the bonus, right, I think the bonus has made an All Star team.

Miles Turner is a really good player. I'd worry about the fit. I mean, it's a tough question to me, Like it's the same kind of conversation we had. Remember after the next game, I think we talked about Jeremy Grant, right because Jeremy Grant, I think rumors came up. And it's a similar kind of situation to that. If the team is rolling and you think that's the you know, that's the way to go, then then maybe you know,

you go ahead and make that move. We'll see. I think Taylor would have to show more or to me for that to be the trade. I think there would be better just in my opinion, I think there's better offers out there for the Pacers to go and get. And then with Miles Turner, I would be worried a little bit about the fit. I feel like trading for another You know, Molestern is a good shooter. He's shooting I think thirty nine percent from three, like he's a

legit three point shooter. But I feel like that kind of you know, handicaps you to kind of play big, right because you're gonna start a d and Miles it would kind of make a d uh play the five even less. I guess it would move him to the power forward and to me that the ceiling of this team is still brawn and a D at the four or five, Like, I think that's your main ceiling and you build around that. But Turner is an amazing player, He's him, and a D would be incredible as a

defensive president. It's a it's a tough question to me because Taylor is really your only trade piece, right Like, once you move that, that's pretty much like you don't have anything behind that. Um if you move him, and we'll see what Kendrick Nunn, who hasn't played a minute tonight. But I feel like that it's such a tough thing for me to say yes right now, we're like two games over five hundred. Was see how the season goes. But it's something definitely they're gonna have to look at though.

But I just I don't have a decision right now, Like that's a really tough thing to to go through and just trade tailing because I think there is enough there. It's not the ideal fit for him. He's obviously a guy who needs facing and a guy probably where you know his ceiling as a as if everything was in an ideal world, he's the ball handler on your team

who's making the decisions. That's just not what it is right now, but I think there's something to build build around that that can be super useful for a championship team to have to have a guy with young legs, a guy with this type of potential I think is good to have on the team. But I understand the other side too. What what about you? What do you what did you think of those trades? What do you think of the the fake trades that were coming out

for a turner in sabonus. So again, the idea of whether or not we should trade THHD is a separate topic of from who you trade him for. Okay, So like whether we should trade th HD, one has to do with is the team trending in the direction that you think they have a legitimate chance to win the championship? And is th HT not a big part of that?

Because it's because if the team is trending towards an obvious, like legitimate run at the title, and th HD is a big part of that because he's defending extremely well and playing a role in our offense, then hell no, you don't trade them, you know, because whatever you're getting back, you have to factor in what you're losing with th HT. But if we are trending towards a clear run to

the title, and th HT is struggling. That's when you have to make the philosophical decision, which is, don't have one ft straddling either end of the line, because that's when you end up unsatisfied now and unsatisfied later. So once we've accepted that, let's for the sake of accepting, you know, for the sake of argument, let's say we have decided to trade th HT. What what you know, archetype of players should we be looking for? Now you

have we've discussed three completely different kinds. Right, we have jare Me Grant, the athletic, slashing wing. Then we have Miles Turner, who's more of a like kind of the modern form of a stretch rim protecting center who can shoot the three ball and as a great shot blocker. And then you have Demonic Sabonis, who's, you know, a low post scorer who has some capability to shoot from the perimeter, although this season he has a shot well

from the perimeter. Um. But you know, one of the things with sa Bonus that I think is interesting is he kind of reminds me a little bit of Kevin Love in the sense that Kevin Love used to be a dominant post player as long as he had a clear physical advantage, you know, like if you could get him against skinny forwards, he would kill them. If you could get him on switches against guards, he would kill them.

That was one of the things the Calves used to always do when they play the Raptors is really spam, you know, pick and roll with uh with Lebron and Kevin Loved to try to get switches and then they

would go to Kevin Love in the pos. But then whenever Kevin Love would face like a really big, strong, athletic power forward, which would inevitably would be would would be who the Calves would face in late playoff rounds, think like a Draymond Green or you know any of the Celtics forwards, or like a you know, a Daddy s Young or something like that. He would really struggle because he wouldn't have the physical tools necessary to score.

And I see that a lot with Sabonus when I watch him, you know, like when he when he has mismatches, he's the dominant post score. But I've seen him get physically mauled defensively by bigger stronger forwards that aren't easy to score on in the post. And so to me, Sabonis is like a massive cross off, like clear nonfit. Uh, not anywhere near a good enough floor space or to make any sense, not anywhere near to Dwight's probably a better defender than him right now. Like to me, the

Sabonis is like, like, don't even bring that up. To me, that's a terrible, terrible, terrible basketball decision. Miles Turner and Jeremy Grant, now we're talking philosophy here, because Miles Turner, we got a rim space, you know, a guy who can protect the rim, so basically the dream for Frank Vogel, but a guy who can space the floor. Right now, this is where it becomes like philosophically, what direction do

we want the team to be going? And to me, this is a team that already has the two centers they need to play the style of basketball they need to play, which is lots and lots of shooting, lots and lots of foot speed and stagger a d and Dwight. That to me makes the most sense for what they

can do on both ends of the floor. So adding Miles Turner into that makes really convolutes it, because now you're either kicking Dwight out of the rotation, who's a solid backup center, or you're going back to playing huge. And now we're getting back into the situation where it's like, Okay, can Myles Turner run up and down the floor consistently against teams that try to really get after us in transition?

You what I mean, that's where I am going to constantly point us back towards forwards, guys along the lines of Jeremy Grant. If we do decide to cash in the th HT non contracts for a good piece, to me, it has to be for a wing. That is our clear, our clear shortcoming on a roster. It's the main reason why a lot of our lineups don't make any sense, or at least up to this point in the season. That to me, philosophically needs to be the way we

were looking. So what I was bothered to be bothered today when I saw the the Turner um, you know, Sabonis trade ideas getting bounced around, because to me, it was like, whoa, this should be a universal no from Laker fans. You know, this is this is this is just I get the talent add idea of it. But this is a clue, like, this is not a roster need for us. You know, we are issue is that we have too many yards and we have too many bigs.

It's the last thing we need is another big. So I just just from a basketball philosophy standpoint, I didn't like either of those ideas. That's where I'm at too. I mean, Jeremy Grant, I'm not sure if he's a better player than you know, Turner, and but that's kind of that would be the ideal fit for me. And you know, Jeremy Grant went to uh went to Detroit. He wanted to be the guy there. I'm not sure if he's available or not, but that'd be the kind

of ideal player to me. I was thinking about something because when I saw these trades, I thought about Stan stand Gundy, who actually did the game tonight, but when the Celtics were playing the Bucks in the playoff series. I believe it was the playoff series with Kyrie and he was talking about the difference between Marcus Morris and like Al Horford right as three point shooters, and I believe Al Horford had the better three point percentage, right

but he doesn't put up the volume. So he was talking about when he would tell his his players like they were closing. Now closed out to Marcus Morris because he'll actually shoot every time he's open, you know, Al Horford kind of he's kind of he'll shoot if he's like wide open, but he doesn't shoot every time he's open. And that's kind of how I see the Miles Turner fit.

Anthony Davis like, Miles Turner is a good three point shoter, but he's like he doesn't put up the volume to be defended as a three point shooter to me, And that's the way A d plays as well. Like I feel like you still have the same issue of the paint pack, but you know, Turner is a great player if you can get him for talent. I think the fit issues are there, but it's a talent lead like you would add talent, it's a bonus. I I see what you're saying with the fit, but I think he's

just a super good passer. You know, he's a really good he has a really great feel for the game. Like again, he had one All Star appearance, but I think he's like a really it's another just you're adding just stacking talent on talent. The fit isn't great, but I think him and a D would be a force Offensively. We'll have to see defensively he's not great at switching and all that. But I think that's still a huge

just talent upgrade if you're able to get that. But again, I have no clue how the Pacers feel about th HT and and and vice versa. But yeah, that's it's a very interesting conversation and I think those won't be the last two that we talked about this. As the season goes on, more teams will kind of fade into the let's rebuild and sell our parts kind of part

of the season, and you'll see that continue. Um, I think Taylan is available, not even to be available to be traded until December fifteenth anyway, But yeah, you'll see more of this come up. But the bonus in China are definitely interesting, interesting guys to look at because those are definitely huge talent upgrades and the fit is still

a little bit questionable too. Well. The problem is when we drop a forward, we were screwed, you know, like we like when you found out Lebron in COVID you're literally sitting on your couch as a Laker fan thinking like, oh no, like we we can't even feel the basketball team here, Like we're gonna have to do super j K stuff like play two bigs all the time and and just just hope that we could score enough points and and defend well enough to to stay competitive in

these games. It's because we just don't have that kind of player on the roster. We literally don't like I Like, I've said a lot Carmelo Anthony is six ft eight, but he is not a He is not a wing. He's basically he's a lot more of like a Wayne Ellington who happens to be tall than he is a you know, like a Jeremy Grant, you know what I mean. Like, he is not a guy who he does not fulfill

the defensive responsibilities of a wing. So because he doesn't fulfill the defensive responsibilities of a wing, he can't be considered once th HD. For instance, even though he's only six ft four, he can fulfill the defensive responsibilities of a wing. That's what kind of makes him so valuable. And that's why if he does trend towards becoming a

functional part of our offense. You have to keep him because now he kind of fulfills that role in the immediate future with all the All Star potential down the line, but right now we're just thin at that position. Now, maybe your Reason comes back and and everyone stays healthy, and you're looking at it like, Bam, we've got three guys who can fulfill that job of that mobile, versatile wing with Lebron, with Trevor Reza in with with th

h T, and maybe it all works out. But the problem is is one of those guys is twenty one, just turned twenty one years old and is completely you know, you know, like in the in the midst of a massive you know, young basketball player offensive slump. The other guy just had ankle surgery. And the third guy is

thirty seven. So that's kind of our issue right now, right is in theory, Like and this is what Rob would probably tell you if you were picking his brain, like, hey, you know, do you have any regrets about the summer, Like he'd probably he'd probably tell you like, I thought we'd have th h T, Lebron and Trevor Reason the win, you know what I mean, And we've had and we've lost Lebron for half the games. We lost th HD for a third of the games, and we've lost a

reason for all the games. And for half of the games that th HD has played, he's been unplayable because of his youthful mistakes, and Lebron hasn't really been engaged. That's that's the reality of the situation. But that's why I keep looking towards that position group as the area

of opportunity. If you get to the point where you gotta make trade, if you can turn the twenty one year old, you know, versatile forward who is unplayable on some nights, into a guy like Jeremy Grant who is, you know, not an All Star, but in that tier right below All Star in terms of like really really good NBA player, then I think you gotta do it,

you know what I mean. But that that's that's that's kind of the way that I look at this, because it's got to be you're gonna know when the time comes.

No one's making any trades right now, but when when you know, late January early February comes, you're gonna you're gonna have a set of circumstances we're gonna you know, right now, what are we thirteen and twelve or whatever it is that we are or when you know at that point where you know, we might be fifteen, you know, but and then we can all be sitting here thinking, you know, th HD is great, this is great. All

we need to do is just continue this momentum. But all I'm saying is that if we get to that point and in the opportunities there, don't hold your chips to your chest, you know what I mean. And yeah, t hds are only trade piece now, but let's say you did trade him for Jeremy Grant. Jeremy Grant is

a trade piece. You know that at that point he would still have one year on his contract, could be a really really good wing who makes twenty million, and that that makes him, you know, in that same class of the you know, the Harrison Barnes is of the league that that that everyone is always wanting to offer trades for at the trade that, you know what I mean. So I again it's it's this is all high and

this guy stuff. We're way down the line here, but but it's just I just wanted to bring it up because it was definitely something I was balancing around with with Laker fans earlier today. Oh yeah, for sure. It was a It was a big topic. And I don't know if he saw in the game today. I think like Tatum blew by Carmelo Anthony and stand standba gun, He's like, this is why you go out and get Trevor Reason. I was just thinking, like that's kind of a para to Trevor Reason, you know, thirty six year

old Trevor Reason as the main stopper. But I'd like to see this team fully healthy, you know, before we just shuffle everything and and move everyone out or fire someone as as we've talked about things at lanes here, Like I'd like to see the team healthy. We got news that Kendrick Nunn is probably not gonna play until until yeah, until January. Trevor Reason is practicing with the team though, Like that's good news, so you should be maybe a week and maybe a week out. We'll see

how they want to ramp him up. But I just like to seeing this team healthy. We just got DeAndre Jordan kicked out of the rotation like two or three games ago, you know, and like we just and tonight was the first time we got a d after five starting since the last It's not exactly I'd like to see it, you know, I'd like to see the team get a chance healthy before we break everything up. A D started the five for the first time or night

since that Boston game. After that Boston game, I believe DJ started, or do I Howard started after every single one and the next few games here are all winnable. We played Memphis without I believe John morant Um. Then they play Okay, see the Orlando Magic, the Mavericks who haven't been playing well, the Timberwolves, who you know, that's a winnable game, and then he played Chicago. But the next five games are all winnable. This team has lost the benefit of a doubt obviously, um in that regard,

but these games are winnable here. You can if you're sitting at you know, eighteen and thirteen after these games, like that's a good start of the season after what happened. So I just want to see the team at least get a chance because I think they are building up here. I think Russell Westbrook has gotten in an absolute groove, and I have a D eighty can join him. We're starting to get Lebron healthy. This is his second straight game.

He hasn't played four straight games yet this season. Like there's stuff I want to see before we just you know, uh, throw everything everything in the trade machine. But but yeah, it seems like it's trending up here, and hopefully people get healthy Kendrick Nunn again in January. But Trevor rees is practicing like I'd like to see him play. Austin Reeves didn't even play tonight until garbage time. We'll see

if he's in and now the rotation. But yeah, and hopefully this is a trend upwards because I think I saw a lot of good process stuff tonight. I love how we used Wayne Ellington in the second half next to Lebron Leek Munk continues to just be fantastic, Like there's things, there's little spots in here that have been growing as the team has been losing, Like the Milake Mudd thing I think is real. Right, would even discuss him tonight, but like he's been playing well even as

the team was losing. And then you see it when the team starts to roll. How much how much more of that adds, how much his punch, his just energy, his juice gives to the team when he comes in the game. So it's just some stuff that I'm saying that's good process that I'd like to stick with as as we go forward here. Yeah, well, we're not going to commit to any sort of sweeping declaration that things have changed. We've been hurt too many times. Yeah, I

swear that stupid that that road win over Sacramento. After the game against Detroit where Lebron and A d were both so good, I was all in on this concept, like, Hey, this is happening now. And then they came out and literally looked horrible against against the Clippers, and everyone was horrible. Lebron was horrible, Anthony Davis is horrible, like Frank Vogel

was one arguably his worst game as a coach. Like it was just a just a really, really bad a night there to just kind of remind us that that's the kind of the kind of season that it was. It's always funny when I h you had mentioned that Russ has been really good. He has, He's been fantastic. It's always funny like when you listen to um, you know, people outside of the Laker fan base and I'm not judging them by any stretch of the imagination because you

and I do the same thing. Like we're basketball fans, so guess what, Like we're going to comment on Demonis sa Bonis even though we haven't watched him as much as Indiana Pacers fans have, you know, And you know we're gonna have a We're gonna have a pot on an off day one of these days where we talk about the rest of the league and it's not obviously we don't pay as close attention to them as as Lakers. But I'm not gonna sit here and tell people you're

not allowed to talk about him. But it's funny because I listened to Russillo and Simmons today and you know that the Lakers came up in the very first thing that Bill Simmons started ranting about was Russell Westbrook and the fit. And I'm just like, oh, you haven't watched the Lakers, like because they like the Lakers have a ton of problems and russ just isn't one of them, you know what I mean. Like even the spacing stuff

hasn't really reared its ugly head. I mean tonight, he had a stretch there in the beginning of the first quarter where he missed a couple of wide open threes in a row, but it's like this season he's been shooting those pretty well. So I mean, yeah, to the if you just turn on the game, you might sit there and go like, oh, look, they're ignoring Russ and

he's hurting the team. But it's like we've been watching all season and he's made enough of those to where it hasn't been a problem, you know what I mean. But yeah, we're not gonna We're not gonna get get too amped up or excited about anything until until they really ripped something a good long streak off. I mean to give you an idea. One of my big philosophies coming into the season, if you remember, was the idea that when Lebron in a D play, the Lakers went

about seventy eight percent of their games. That was the case for the first two seasons of the Lebron in a D era, and tonight was just the twelve game the season step both Lebron and a D have played,

and they went seven and five. Are they went seven and five in those twelve games, So what that means is the Lakers would have to win ten more in a row right now, uh, in order to get to that you know, seventy eight percent win percentage that they had in the previous seasons, which by the way, they're

very capable of. I mean, their schedule is so tough the rest of the season that it's far more likely that if they do pull that off, it's more of like we went, you know, five and four over game stretch rather than actually ripping off a win street, because if the Lakers were going to do that, it would have been at the beginning of the season when they

had the easy cupcake part of their schedule. But you know, the Lakers dug themselves a little bit of a hole because they went five hundred against their cupcake schedule and now they're and now they're heading into the Like you said, there's some winnable games here on the horizon, but they're they're heading into a pretty tough end of their end of their schedule. But the truth is is the Lakers can go on a run and they can kind of re establish that same formula that that carried them in

previous years. It's all possible. Um, But you know, like we said, we're not gonna sit there and and and pretend like we know for sure it's going to happen, because this team has just proven to us too many times that that's not really what they're made of, at least to this point. That obviously can change. Did you have anything else you wanted to touch on tonight? Yeah, just last last few things. Russ's numbers, the lass like

his games. I'm just looking at maybe we can equival about the numbers and how much they matter and how much you know they're impacted winning. But twenty nine, ten and eleven, twenty five, six and nine, five and six. Um, he had the one stinker against the Clippers, rose twenty ten points. But again tonight eleven and three. Like he's been there and it's not that he's not a problem or whatever. Like there's things you have to do to act us to Russ. I've been down that since the

beginning of the season. Decision to me was about fitting Russ around a title core, and we just haven't had Lebron play enough. UM eight has been a d has played well. The numbers, the numbers have been really good. I still feel like there's games where he blacking and waynes his effort. But I think Russ is a weapon that you have to deploy in a correct way, and I think we're kind of seeing that process start to work.

I think Vogel starting to figure out. I think the A D at the five stuff is extremely key for us, even when it's nonshooters. The spacing of the floor just make more sense for him, and I think we're starting to see that payoff. And the last thing, Carmelo Anthony tonight twenty one minutes, I think that's where his minute load should be. I thought you saw him kind of pop off the screen a little bit more. He could pick his spots a little bit better. That's just a

spot up guy or a post up guy. It's like ten minutes a half instead, Like I was looking, he played forty three minutes against the King's six games ago. Like if Carmelo had, he's playing forty three minutes for your team, you're a good basketball team. And that kind of goes into the that kind of goes into the

forward issue that we have and all that. But I thought tonight, it just it looks so much better when he can just pick his spots as a score for ten minutes a game, and the defense is never gonna be great, it's gonna get picked on a few times. I thought he's in the right spots and all that.

But I thought, like, we're seeing kind of the evolution of the team of what it will be when when everything is kind of finalized, and I think Carmelo at like sixteen to twenty minutes a game as part of that, and I thought he it was another good game for him. He didn't make a three tonight, but four for eleven, I die his offense was was fine. I thought he'd fit into the scheme of what we want to do.

So there was the last three things. Goodwin man a lot of positives I know from us tonight, but I thought, I think that's important. I think it was a finally a fun one for us and everyone else didn't enjoy here. Yeah, so you actually just reminded me of one last thing that we'll touch on and then we'll call you tonight. Did you happen to see Anthony Irwin's like, uh like lineup rules thing that he sent out a couple days ago rules? No, I didn't see that, So it was

kind of an interesting concept. I wanted to make sure Anthony got credit for it, because this is I mean, these are kind of ideas that I think all of us have had. But it's just like a like, if if Frank could just and he followed most of these rules tonight, not all of them, but most of these rules, but this, uh, you know. Basically, the idea was, uh, you know, just a couple of checklist items that if the lineups fit into these rules, then things would make

a lot of more sense. And the ideas were like, hey, like, if you're gonna play two bigs, can't be with RUSS, right, So never ever ever start a center alongside a D because you should ever ever have the impact of RUSS is spacing and the impact of a traditional center spacing, right.

So like, if they're going to play in a D DWIGHT lineup, it should be you know, with either three shooters or with lebron and two shooters or something along something along those lines where you know, not only can you functionally run a defense by having those two big guys in the background of background to kind of cover for other guys mistakes, but it's just there's a lot

more space to operate. And then the other rules were like staggered T H T and RUSS, which obviously I T is gonna play the big minutes, you can't fully stagger them. But yeah, I would stagger t h T

and Russ. I don't. It's one of the big reasons why I don't like starting th h T. It's the idea that our best opportunity, to our best opportunity to set th HT up for success with his rhythm is to kind of do what what I've always talked about, like let him come in off the bench and come in gunning and being aggressive offensively, rather than putting him alongside a bunch of guys who are going to shoot every time they touch the ball, where he kind of

struggles figuring out where he's gonna fit, you get you get a diminishing return on the t h T thing. In that regard. I like t she staggered with Russ. There will be some overlap. But and then the and then the last one was play our shooters. So essentially we have we have three dead eye shooters and Wayne

Ellington Carmelo Anthony in the league month. In my opinion, with exception of the starters, we should have, we should try to have two of those guys on the court as much as possible, but we should never we should never have fewer than one of those guys on the court because of you know, just foundationally, it's easier to play in in poor spacing if it's like a four on four construct, then if it's a five on five constructs.

But even if the rest of the lineup doesn't have great spacing, if that's Wayne Ellington in the corner and the guys glued to him, then even your jan Kie spacing will work better in a four in that four on four construct off of Ellington, if that makes sense. So not to mention, you can use him as a screener and do all those kinds of things. But shout out to Anthony. I thought it was an interesting concept.

Just again, three basic rules play shooter, staggered t and Russ never play Russ with the traditional center and a D obviously the two big one I should say. But it was an interesting concept because those those are really really basic basketball rules that you think that that every you know, coach should be able to kind of put together. But for whatever reason, it's been something that that was a slow development for Frank this year. Yeah, and Frank

definitely leads into defense. I think Lebron even talked about that as well when I think he was asked about the starting lineup and said, our coach is gonna lean heavily onto the defensive end. But thought, you know, just you going through those rules we went. We went with a lot of those tonight. Actually, like I saw a lot of that, um tonight. Russ was the first sub I believe, and it was Milink Monk who came in. Uh, and you had the shooter in there, um and Uh.

I think Russ and Lebron were staggered tonight. I don't think there was any point where one of them wasn't on the floor. So it was never it was never THHD by himself, or it was never a d without one of those two. Um. So I thought, like, you know, the staggering is getting better. So why Howard was the backup center? And I thought he played well and he was on the floor to me when it was Russ with no other big So it wasn't Rusted and played

next to E. D and Dwight at all tonight. I don't, at least from my memory, I don't think they played that played that way. So the stuff that's going up, but those rules, those rules make sense. Um, I think we're getting closer and closer to that, and again I think a reason is like the perfect middle ground for that. I guess where he can space the floor and be the defender that Vogel wants. Hopefully we're getting closer to that.

But yeah, those are those are funny. Those those are pretty true, true rules I guess to follow by all right, everybody, thank you so much for coming hang out on Tuesday. This will be on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time. UM. This will also be on our podcast feed here in about thirty minutes. We sincerely appreciate all of you guys for your support. We will be back on Thursday night. UM. I think that one's

on the road at Memphis, correct, but I remember correctly. UM, Friday night, Friday night, Okay, see game I. You have a Christmas party, so I will be leaving you to ride solo for that one if you're available. Um, but we will be back on Thursday. We will talk more about playing for Friday later. But again, we appreciate your support and we'll see you guys in a couple of days. Thanks everyone,