Episode 14: Early Lakers/Clippers/Warriors/Nets Takeaways, Plus Mailbag Questions!

hope you guys did too. I had to do some deliveries for my clients today that took me all over town, and I was able to parlay that into a trip to the Nike outlet, which is a solid forty eight minutes from my house according to the GPS, and I got some new basketball shoes and some other new stuff. So I'm excited. I have been fortunate enough to get invited to a consistent run that is on Monday, Wednesday Friday here in town at five am, which tests the

sleep schedule that I already have enough trouble maintaining. But I've been super super happy to have consistent basketball in my life so I can shed some of this ridiculous weight that I'm carrying around and get back to what I'm used to being as a basketball player and just as a healthier person. I ate like absolute dogshit over the holidays and got as high as two and one pounds. Um. Not good, but that's just part of being an adult.

And I grow up in a family that uh has My mom is just a really really good cook which cooks with a lot of butter and a lot of really unhealthy stuff, and and then I end up paying the price. So uh, that's a good time to make some New Year's resolutions and get back on the straight and narrow. Um. Today, I'm gonna be talking about the Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, and Nets. These are the four teams that I find

most interesting right now at this point early in the season. Um. For the record, obviously, there are teams with better records in the league, and they're gonna get attention from various outlets. The bottom line is, if we're only three games in, I really don't think the Hawks are The Calves are gonna be relevant as we get further into the season, So I'm not gonna waste a ton of time talking about them today. Um, and then at the end I'm

gonna be doing a mailbag. Uh. So I've got a couple of questions so far from my Twitter feed, but there's obviously plenty of time here in the next half hour or so for you guys to drop some more questions and the comments. Absolutely anything NBA related or whatever the heck you guys want to talk about, just drop him in the comments and we'll get to him after.

So let's start with the Lakers. Um. You know, we're early on here, and the Lakers are two and two and they have two really impressive wins and two pretty ugly losses. Although the two ugly losses seemed to me to more be a product of their effort and focus rather than some sort of damning, damning condition of their roster or lacking area that that is in desperate need

of repair. It's just to me the classic case of a team that's on a really short layoff that's trying to, you know, get their motor going when they don't really have a lot of motivation, Which is where I want to start, because I think it's important to understand that the Laker goal and focus for this season doesn't look the same that it does for the other teams in the league because they were a dominant championship team, and a dominant championship team doesn't have the same goal as

you know, a less dominant championship team, like a team that barely won the title or a team that didn't win the title. The other twenty nine teams in the league, they're looking at this going, we have to get better. We have to prove or improve to the point where we can compete with and potentially beat this Laker team four times out of seven. So they have to attack the season with a different level of focus and intensity than the Lakers need to. The Lakers don't have that need.

Their need is basically comes down to two things. One, they need to stay healthy. You need to make sure that they are more or less the same team when they get to the end of the season that they are now. And then two, they need to maintain their championship identity. Outside of those two things, as long as they are maintained, who cares what else happens. A loss

like last night is not concerning at all. Where it does become concerning is if their identity fades away, and they lose the habits and the consistency that they had the previous year and a half, and then, all of a sudden, when they need to rely on it later in the season, they let go of the rope and they don't have anything there for them to fall back on to regain control of the series when they get

themselves in a situation where the back is against the wall. So, for instance, I'm less concerned about last night because exactly one night prior, they had an extremely dominant defensive performance and an extremely dominant offensive performance where they gotta win, and then the night before, two nights before that, they

had an equally dominant performance against the Mavericks. So from that standpoint, I've got two really really good, you know, performances that looked like the Laker team that we knew of the They looked like the Laker team that was as dominant as they were last season. And then they had to let the foot off the gas night, second night of a back to back, Lebron on a bad ankle, you know, Anthony Davis on a bad calf, I don't.

I'm not as worried about it where I would get worried didn't give a good example will be the two thousand and seventeen Calves. So the two thousand and sixteen Calves were a non dominant championship team. They had an imperfect regular season where they fired their coach. They were a fringe top ten defense. They're right at number ten, and they dropped a couple of games in the Eastern Conference finals, two pretty flawed Toronto Raptors team, although they

did put them away in dominant fashion. And then they get to the finals and they barely scraped by against the Warriors, and for stretches of that series looked like they were kind of overmatched, especially at the beginning. So then they come into two thousand and seventeen and they completely let go of the rope defensively. They fell to twenty one in the league. The same team that won on the strength of their defense in Lebron and I Lebron and Kyrie's uh offensive prowess became a team that

just tried to outscore people. So their identity completely faded away. Now it may not have mattered because of how good that Warrior's team was, maybe they win anyway, But the point is is that the two thousand seventeen Warriors had basically two goals going into that season, be more or less the same team. Maintain your identity. They made it to the end healthy, but they had let go of

their identity. And when the Warriors were just you know, getting wide open layups and dunks and threes, because the Calves are making no attempt to slow things down for them, they were unable to put themselves in a position, even if it would have been a long shot for Lebron Inquyrie's offensive prowess to take over. So I'm not worried at all about what happened last night with the Lakers. However, something to keep an eye on moving forward is that

defensive rating. That's the thing that I talked I talked about all the time on this podcast, I talked about with Tommy the last time. If you guys remember that, if you go back to the beginning of this century, the last twenty one champions, fourteen of the twenty one were top five defenses, and then twenty of nineteen of

the twenty one were top ten. And the ones that were outside of the top twenty excuse me, outside of the top ten, those ones were teams that had been top five defenses previously, so they were able to fall back on it and and generally speaking, you want to be in that top five range. So the point being that that indicator is a real indicator, there's real data there that that is data that projects who will inevitably

win the NBA Championship. And so the reason why I want to track that this year, it's not because it's an indicator of their like strictly of their ability to defend. It's an indicator of their effort level. It's an indicator that they understand that they have to maintain these habits over the course of the seventy two game season to

fall back on it when they need it. So I'm gonna be tracking the Laker defensive rating all year, not because I'm picking their individual mess ups, but just to say just so that I can be sure that more often than not they can dial it up and get to that level, so that at the end of the season they've maintained enough of that identity so that when they have something to play for, because right now they don't have anything to play for. Eight, he is not

getting Defensive Player of the Year. He's been coasting too much to start the season. He's already built up a reputation this season as someone who doesn't care Lebron is not winning, m VP hasn't been playing well enough. You know, maybe that all turns around, but chances are that's not gonna happen. Chances are they're gonna kind of slowly coast their way through the season. So the reality is is they have nothing to play for in this regular season,

so they don't have that motivation. But the motivation will be there when they get to the playoffs as soon as they check ball in the first round. Especially with how deep the Western Conference is, it's gonna be two straight months of them needing to bring and so at that point they can fall back on their identity and fall back on their habits as long as they maintain them well enough through this season. So let's keep an eye on the defensive rating. Right now, they're eleven. Let's

keep an eye on the defensive rating. See if they can't get it closer to that, you know, in the right around that five to seven range. As long as they can hover in that range, who cares if they have a clunker now? And then who cares if they drop a game? To a bad team, it's not gonna matter as long as they maintain the general gist of their identity. Other a couple a couple of quick Laker notes.

I am super happy with the fact that the Lakers have finally decided to make Marcus al a spot up shooter. UM at this age and with his fading physical advantages, he's just not He's just not the type of player that really brings much to the table sitting in the dunker spot. And so from that standpoint, if he's not gonna be pounding the glass and getting a ton of offensive rebounds, and and if a d is not gonna be able to find him down there, there's no real

reason to put him there. And so, as you can see in the last couple of games, they've been putting Marcusol at the top of the key. He's been a post entry guy, he's been a spot up shooter, and it's really helped space things out for them. And that's that's just a little excess. And note those things that are the excess, And note thing that I really like. UM a lot of heat on Montrese Harold last night

for his defense. The clips aren't good. Kevin O'Connor put out a little highlight video of of the Blazers attacking Montres at the end of the game. It doesn't look good. That's set and I will harp on this all season long. Defense is a team endeavor. It is not an individual endeavor. No matter how dialed in one person is, the defense doesn't work unless all players are on the same page.

For instance, if you're hoping that Montrese Harold shows a little higher on those screening rolls and tries to I don't know, Trapper double, it's still gonna be layups all day long if the back line of the defense isn't ready and and and focused and in the right position to do their job, to keep everybody on a string and get the job done. So as as poor as Montrese Harold looked last night, almost everybody on the Laker

roster looked bad. Anthony Davis, in my opinion, is the best defensive player in the entire world, and he had one of the worst defensive performances I've ever seen watching him play last night. So I'm not gonna really get hard on, be really really hard on Montrese Harold when the alleged leader of this defense just completely no show

the game. I would much rather really dissect and and dive into montrese Harold's defensive ability in a game where they're really trying, in a game where he's playing in a more traditional lineup against lineups that he will normally play against, and then he's making mistakes that are breaking down their defense. That's when I'll be paying closer attention. So one of the one of the problems I had

with Rondo last year. There would be games where four of the five guys on the floor really dialed in and rotating and in the right spot, and Rondo would be gambling and getting out of position, and it would hurt the defense. Those are the kinds of times when I want to pay attention games like last night throw it away. It was very clear from the opening tip that when the Lakers actually try, they can beat the hell out of anybody in this league. Uh, there's just

not a lot to take away. And I don't think it's fair to Montrez to pick last night as the night to make sweeping declarations on what kind of defensive player he is. Um I thought Jason Maples on his podcast I listened to it this morning while I was

doing my deliveries. I thought he made a really really interesting point about Dennis Shrewder and and what he brings to the table in terms of alleviating Lebron of some of his creation responsibilities and allowing him to rest while he's on the court, and the example will give his the two thousand sixteen Finals, I watched every almost every game that Lebron played with Kyrie, and it took me until the end of the two thousand sixteen Finals to

really understand what they were doing because I used to always be so frustrated with Kyrie shot selection. He was never looking for his teammates. He was never really kind of like understanding and feeling the flow of the game. He was always just kind of being shot out of a cannon and being super super aggressive with no real you know, understanding of of of the flow of the game. And it dawned on me and at the end of the two thousand sixteen Finals that there was a there

was a reason to why they were doing that. It was by design. Lebron on those possessions would effectively become a spot up shooter. He'd go to one of the one of the extended wings just a couple of feet behind the three point line, staying with his hands on his hips like Kyrie go to work. If the ball got worked around to him, he shoot a spot up three. But for the most part he was resting while he

was on the court. It allowed him to extend his minutes, It allowed him to be more focused on the defensive end of the floor. It made it so that, you know, in comparison to last year, when Lebron was, you know, more or less the only creator on the floor. Whenever he was out there, he had to do everything, you know,

especially in the games, Rondo was no showing. So from that stand point, and he was out with injury half the time Rondo was, So from that standpoint, I understand now that as much as I've complained about Schroeder's shot selection here early in the season, there's kind of an added benefit to the fact that Schroeder's aggressiveness allows Lebron to rest so that he can be more efficient when

he does have the ball. And I really think when Lebron finds his groove again, when he get ditches some of this rust, when when Anthony Davis shows up and starts trying this season, I really think Lebron and a d are going to benefit from that because then when they do get the ball, it's gonna be that they can be aggressive when they want to be, and not because they have to be as a result of a lack of creation on the floor. I think there's a

fine line there. I think Schroeder could potentially cross the line to where it would hurt the team, but I don't think he's there yet, and I'm kind of okay with that balance to this point. One last tiny note on the Lakers, I I think I think it's uh my. My feelings about Anthony Davis as a defensive player are very similar to my feelings about Lebron is a player.

I think Anthony Davis is the best defensive player in the league, but that he can never win a Defensive Player of the Year while he's in this situation where he's not really giving it his all every single night. That award deserves to go to someone who's trying on a nightly basis for all seventy two for all eighty two games. The same way I feel about Lebron when it comes to the MVP. Last year, Lebron from start

to finish completely attacked the season. It feels to me now that Lebron is gonna be a little bit more, you know, uh, conscious of of coasting and taking care of his body this season. So even though I think he's the best player in the league, I don't think he's a candidate for the Most Valuable Player award as a result of at something to keep in mind with both Lebron and a d best defender in the league, best player in the league, both of them are kind

of taking it easy this season. Chances are they're not going to be involved in award conversations, and I think that's okay anyway, Just some tiny note there. So we're gonna move on to the Clippers. So the Clippers are off to another rough start. They're catching all of the jokes as a result of what happened to the to the against the Mavericks the other day, as they should. And the Clippers are more or less the same team in my opinion, that they were last year. They have

the same two fatal flaws. One they have they lack collective basketball i Q basketball games have a flow to them. There is they're they're like a play with several acts. For example, last night's Laker Blazer game is a great example. Act one, Lakers come out, dialed in and just beat the living hell out of the Blazers jump out to

a need to seven lead. They're getting steals all over the floor, they're flying around in the rotations, they're getting out in transition, they're getting easy shots, they're dunking it down their throat. It's just a ridiculous performance to start the game. Portland calls the time out. They come out, Lakers think the games over, take their foot off the gas. Act two is the Blazers getting back into the game. Act three they go in a halftime, The Lakers come

out take control of the game again. In the third Acts four, the Blazers come back. You know, Gary Trent Jr. Gets super hot, absolutely lights up talent, Horton Tucker. You know, the game is tied again, and uh the game has shifted momentum again. You know. Then there's this fifth fifth act. Blazers take a big lead in the fourth quarter. I think they were up by seven, and Lebron all of a sudden is like I'm not letting his game slip away,

goes on a crazy Lebron run. Rai's up where he's all over the place, ties the game up, and then the final act the Blazers put them away. There's always like this flow to the game from start to finish, and the really high i Q players can sense that flow and they can take control of the game in specific moments to drive that flow in one direction or the other. It's one of the It's one of the things that Lebron does better than anybody in the league

in my opinion. It's the ability to sense the direction of the game and to channel your aggression. This is one of always been one of my biggest problems with James Harden comes out at the start of the game and just kind of immediately starts doing James Harden stuff.

Doesn't understand the flow of the game, the impact that his teammates need to have on it for them to you know, feel confident at the right moments, and then inevitably by the end of the game, the defense is kind of sitting on a lot of his moves and it's harder for him to get his shots off. Doesn't mean James Harden is not great, doesn't mean Kawhi Leonard is not great. It's just that to me is one of the things that separates them from the best players

in the league. It is just their inability to really feel the flow of the basketball game. So this year's Clippers team has that exact same flaw that they had last year, and it was evident evidence against the Mavericks. When the wheels start to come off, the high i Q players make the necessary reads, make the necessary offensive decisions, make the necessary extra effort plays to bring the train back onto the tracks. It's it's preventing an e oh run from becoming a twenty run, and you know, next

thing you know, the train is off the tracks. For the Clippers, there's nobody on the roster that really knows how to take control of the game back and now you're losing in historic fashion. And which leads me to the second problem that I have with the Clippers. And it's the same reason why the same fly they had last year, and it's the same reason why I would imagine they'll have the same outcome this year that they did last year, which is the disappointing loss in the playoffs.

And that's just their overall team vibe. It's the the idea that this team, you know, uh, collectively they're psyche, seems to be just off and and I don't. There's no real like, there's there's no real way to describe it. And you know, in a in a way that's semantically, you know, proficient. But the truth of the matter is

is there's something off with this team. And the easiest way to tell when there's something off about a team is the difference between the way they act when things are going good and the way they act when things are going bad. You know, a team that is wired right when things go bad, they come together, and a team that is wired in in a in a in a in a damaging way falls apart when things get rough.

The Clippers have a tendency when things get bad, to split up on each other, to get really to have really bad body language, to go their separate ways, and to fall apart mentally and for things to get significantly worse. We saw it in the playoffs last year, and you saw it a couple of days ago against the Mavericks.

And it's something that concerns me because the only way to really change that is to bring in a bunch of you know, really good veteran personalities to kind of turn around the psyche of the team, and it's just at this point, with their lack of assets, it's difficult for them to do that. And Kawhi Leonard as a leader is not wired in a to be really outspoken and to try to grab control of that situation. And Paul George is like a like a pathological uh excuse maker.

He has a tendency anytime anything happens to immediately just start blame shifting, you know. And so from that same point, I just you know, with that team, I think they have two catastrophic fatal flaws and I think inevitably they're gonna lead to them going down the same path. I still think they're good, They're there. I still think they're the biggest threat to the Lakers, but it's more a product of the fact that all of the other threats to the Lakers are flawed in one way or another,

and their big flaw still is there. But they have the matchup advantages and they have the talent to go toe to toe with the Lakers, and that's where I think they would have the the ability to potentially take a couple of games off the Lakers and push them to the limit. But it's just something to keep an eye on with the Clippers, and I don't think it's fixable. I don't know if there's a point guard out there that's achievable for the Clippers to turn around their collective

i Q situation. I don't know that there are enough veterans that are readily available, either but at the veteran minimum salary or through some sort of achievable trade that can turn around the vibe of this team. I'm just not sure that those options are out there, and so that's something that would concern me about the Clippers. Alright, moving on to the Warriors. All Right, I'm gonna tell the story here to defend Kelly U brad Jr. Because

he's catching a lot of slander. I'm sure you guys have all seen the stat that's gone around like crazy, and it's that he's over thirty one or something like that, on over thirty three on on non dunk attempts this season. So, as Zachlow pointed out in his podcast yesterday, Kelly YU brad Jr. Is a league average three point shooter. He is not a guy who is incapable of making shots away from the basket. He just happens to be in

a stretch where he's not making anything. And this is where I'm gonna share a personal story from my experience that is embarrassing on my part, but I think shed some light onto to what's going on with Kelly you bre So. I I in college was a good three point shooter, like a very good three point shooter at

certain stretches in all three seasons that I played. I struggled early in the season as I was kind of finding my role on the team, but in conference play from the three seasons combined, I was from three point land. I usually shot well beyond the three point line a line to and I had a game in college where I made six in a row, uh from beyond the ark. I was a good three point shooter in college. Not a great shooter, not a Clay Thompson or anything, but I was a I was a good two above average

a three point shooter. But to start my third season, I went from being an all conference player in one situation to joining a team that had to all American guards. All of a sudden, I was playing off the ball more than I had ever had. All of a sudden, I had more defensive defensive responsibilities than I had ever had, and all of a sudden, I was getting less shots

than I had ever had. And I'm not necessarily saying that's exactly what Kelly Brad's going through, but it was similar in the sense that I was trying to learn how to play with a different group of guys and possibly the best player I'd ever played with. In this case, it was to leave Ukta, the All American guard that was on my team at a c U. And for Kelly Yubridge Jr. It's Steph Curry. I started that season, I made a couple of threes in the first couple

of games of the year. Uh, But there was a stretch right around the you know, third or fourth game of the season. Were in a game in a week where I played four games, I missed twenty two consecutive threes. Think about that. Twenty two consecutive threes from a guy who had been, you know, roughly a three point shooter leading into that. That's not because I forgot how to shoot. It's not because I all of a sudden just you know, completely unraveled and forgot how to be a basketball player.

It's because I was getting different shots than I was used to and and then honestly like shooting as a tendency to you know, it's when it rains, it pours effects. It's contagious, you know, and it and it's hard to find out playing in a different role than you had been, playing alongside better players than you have been when to shoot, when not to shoot, you know, when to be aggressive, when to defer to the better players on your team. It's hard to find that balance. And I can sympathize

with that. It took me that whole that whole stretch was really really hard on my confidence, and it took until a conference play in the second half of the season for me to kind of feel out where my role was. You know, I was taking a lot of threes above the break, and all of a sudden, I realized that the higher quality shots I was getting in that offense were in the corner, you know, playing in a different spot at the offense. And so, you know, when I would get the above the break threes, I

would swing it around a little bit. When I would catch it in the corner, I was more open, I was more balanced, you know, I was usually spotting up as opposed to coming on off the move. They were higher quality shots for me, and I made those ones at a much higher clip. I had to learn with that group of guys how to find how to get my skill set to fit. And that's what Kelly Ubrid Jr. Is going through through right right now. He is a league average three point shooter. He is a league average

wing defender. He's going to be a good player, not a bad player. He's not gonna be a great player either, but he's not going to be a bad player. He's gonna find a spot on this team that makes sense for him. He's going to find a spot on this team where he can be, you know, a net positive to what they're trying to accomplish. So I don't think it's fair through four games to be super super hard

on Kelly Bright for the way he's been playing. Um that said, for the team in general, so much has to change for them to become what everybody in Golden State Warrior, you know, in that fan base wanted them to be before this year, which is a middle tier playoff team in the West, someone in that three to six seed. For them to be that, they have to be so much better down the line. This is not

a situation that Draymond Green coming back can fix. This is not a situation that Steph playing better can fix. This is a situation that requires Andrew Wiggins to play better, Kelly You're Brady to play better, Steph to play way better, Draymond Green to come back and play better, and they probably need to make a trade or two or find some sort of discounted piece out there in order to crawl up into that range, because right now they are bad.

They aren't just it's They're not losing because Kelly Bray is missing shots. They're not losing because Andrew Wiggins has been inconsistent. They're not losing because Steph hasn't been aggressive enough. They're losing because all of those things are going wrong and all of them. And they're not losing by small amounts. They're losing. They're they're getting destroyed. They're not even competitive.

That Chicago Bowls team is really really bad. And the Warriors it required a vintage Steph, you know, come from behind performance to lose by two had it not been for a supporting player on the team making it contested on the move, kind of like leaning fading three at the top of the key that won that game. And so the problem that I have with it is a lot of people are talking about Steve her and a lot of people are talking about step and a lot

of people are talking about the supporting pieces. I don't even know if Klay Thompson fixes this. The truth of the matter is is that NBA defenses have learned how to better guard Steph Curry than they used to. Doesn't mean steps bad, doesn't mean steps worse. But in two thousand sixteen, think about that famous shot where he dribbles in and makes the game winner over Uh over Robertson to win that regular season game, the famous shot her around the World or whatever they call it in Golden State.

On that play, Steph Curry is dribbling across half court unguarded. That doesn't happen anymore now you're in steps shirt amnity crosses half court Now every single time Steph calls for a pick and roll, he's getting trapped or there's some super heavy show that's forcing him to give up the ball. The bottom line is NBA defenses have learned to better guards Steph Curry, so they're not going to be that same seventy three win dominant type of team. They're a

step below that. If he has all of the pieces in place, he doesn't have the same high i Q players who can make plays off of his attention that he draws. You're playing with average to below average i Q s. Now, there's not enough going on there. There's not enough that that Steph Curry can carry this over the top into being that middle tier playoff team that

they need to be. Everything needs to be fixed. And so from that same point, I'm at the point where I legitimately and expecting this team to miss the playoffs. At this point, I think it's gonna get really ugly. I think there's gonna be a whole lot that goes off the rails. And uh, I feel bad for step because it's gonna get ugly for him because a lot of his fans were talking reckless for so long that a lot of the people that are against stuff, a lot of people that aren't in his corner, are going

to be coming for revenge at this point. And it is what it is now if you ask me, those are all people that aren't really talking basketball series to begin with. I don't think we should stoop to that level. I think we should acknowledge what it is. Basketball is a team sport. Steph Curry plays on a bad basketball team. If anything, it just kind of proves what I've always been saying, which is Steph's not the best player in the league. He's somewhere in the top five. You know,

at his very best, he can get close. But he never was that guy to me. And this shows because you know, make no mistake, if you're gonna, if you're gonna be able to call yourself that guy the very best basketball player in the world, I would imagine that we should be able to hold you to a standard that Kelly bray stef uh and and Andrew Wiggins and and just you know, league average veterans in the league should be enough for you to be at least competitive.

I mean, they look like a like they look like a G League affiliate. They don't look like a real NBA basketball team. And I don't I don't know if there's an option out there to fix him at this point. Last, but not least before we get to the mail bad questions is the Brooklyn Nets. And I'm just gonna stay on this for a couple of seconds because there's not

too much to take from it. They look really good so far as I meant and earlier when we were talking about the James Harden trade, their offense is already peeking in a way that it doesn't really it can't really improve anymore above what of what what it already is. Even the Spencer didn't what he lost, which is a legitimate loss, they had such a redundancy of of ball handling. I don't necessarily think they're gonna have too much trouble

maintaining where they were offensively. And the big story is that early on in the season they're defending. There are top five defense at this point and uh number one actually if I'm not mistaken on double check um. But the key is can they maintain that, because, like I said before, they have to prove that they can defend at that level to be able to compete with that

Laker team. And to me, the key is Kade. So I've talked at length about how Kevin Durant has the same physical gifts that Anthony Davis has, and that he is capable physically of impacting the defensive end of the ball just as much as Anthony Davis does. It's always been a matter of choice for him. Now three games into this season or two games technically because he sat out one, he has shown the three games. Yeah, because they lost last night, but that was their fourth game.

They were two and one before that point. Being through those first three games that Kevin Durant played, he was a wrecking ball on the defensive end of the floor. He looked like a first team All Defense type of defender. Problem is, that's not the first time in Kevin Durant's career that he's had a three game stretch where he looks like Anthony Davis or where he looks like a wrecking ball on the defensive end of the floor. This is the first time this season. The key is that

he has to maintain that. If Kevin Durant maintains that, and he should be able to given the amount of offensive talent they have, he can divert some of his energy to that side. If Kevin Durant maintains that, my entire prospect for what this team is changes because Kevin Durant, who is an elite top five defense of player in the league, is maybe the best player in the league.

So that that's what's at stake here. In terms of Katie finally committing to that side of the ball the way he has for these first three games and continuing it forward. If he does that, he becomes the best or second best player in the league, and all of a sudden, that team becomes an extremely different you know animal will come playoff time. So that's something to keep an eye on. All right, let's get to the mail bag.

Hang on one second, for those of you are still here. Uh, there's still time to drop another question or two if you want to in the comments. All right, let's see first question. Should we be This is from Chenny Britt. Should we be looking to get th h T more minutes? He blew a few assignments, mostly on Trent Jr. That really hurt, But his offensive talent is undeniable. He's got the tools to be a great defender, and he needs reps to get better. I still think he should take

Wes's minutes. So what happened last night for th HD was your stereotypical welcome to the NBA moment, and it's a great example of why defense is not about physical tools as much as it's about effort and focus. There's a reason why players like Steph Curry, who basically have no physical tools relative to the rest of the league. Can be a league average defender. But a guy like Kyrie Irving is much quicker and faster and has all

these other physical tools that Step doesn't has. Step doesn't have that he can't be a top tier defensive player. It's all about that effort and focus. Real quick story to give you an example, this run that I've been playing in on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. There's a guy here in town that I that is overweight, kind of short. He's a good shooter, but doesn't bring a lot else to the table offensively. But he plays in a in the local seene. He's been playing forever. I pick him

up every time I get a chance. Why because I always can count on him to not miss an assignment defensively. If there's a rotation that's within his athletic ability, he'll be there. If there's he's never gonna leave his shooter open. If there's an opportunity for him to give help, he's going to give help. He is the classic case of a guy who's the least physically gifted player on the floor. But when I have him on my team in conjunction with other players who are like that. I feel confident

that we can lock down the other team. We're not going to give up easy shots. Now. Can I leave him on an island. No, If he's getting isolated by a good player, we gotta send help. But for the for the for the majority of the game, when he's in a support role defensively, I can count on him to be in the same spot. That is literally what's missing from th hd s game right now, and he'll

pick it up with time. Right now. In terms of his physical gifts, he has all defense potential, super long arms, he's very strong, He's really good on the ball all defensively. Where his struggle is is focus and attention to detail off the ball. For instance, Gary Trend Jr. The last one before they made the time out, the last year he made going into the time out, where he's one pass away. Damian Lillard has the ball to top key,

he's one pass away. Gary tren Jr. Is on fire, literally has not missed in a couple of minutes, and he's standing on the wing, wide open, simple swing pass. Th HD is not paying attention quick easy swing. Uh doesn't even touch the rim Lakers. Epps called time out. That's an example of a play where th HT is he's kind of just floating around mentally and he's not

paying attention to what his specific responsibility is. That comes in time and to the point about the rotation that you have to find that delicate balance because the truth of the matter is you have to keep West involved too, because if th HT doesn't develop into a dependable, focused defender that doesn't make those kinds of mistakes, you have to lean on West Matthews in the playoffs. If th H doesn't become that guy at that time in time

for that, so you need to keep West engaged. You need to keep West as part of the of the flow of the rotation for that for that very reason. But the flip side of that is the only way to get th HT to that point is reps. You need to get him out there. You need to allow him to make mistakes. You need to allow him to

take a bad shot every once in a while. You need to allow him to be super aggressive and kind of see where the game goes offensively and for him to learn his role in the defense and to learn that defensive focus and effort. But there there's that balance. You just gotta figure it out. So it's really it's really hard decision, you know. Like the bottom line is, Frank has the toughest job as a as a head

basketball coach right now. He has too many good players and so he has to figure out how to balance their rotation and to get all of these guys to feel comfortable and in a rhythm while at the same time understanding that there's only so many minutes that are available. So it's a really hard decision. Um right now, I

kind of think where they're at is good. Uh. And it's the one thing that they that they could potentially end up trying is instead of splitting minutes evenly between games, you know, as more of a load managing thing, give guys nights off and then play the rotation heavier minutes uh in those nights. So for instance, Alex Cruso sits out a lot more th HT you know, West Matthew sits out a lot more th HT because he's younger. Give those guys like kind of a rotating rest schedule

and see if that helps. But at the bottom line is there's no good answer. You take West out, that's that's a really really good defensive player that you're losing and experienced defensive player who's really good on wings. There's lots of playoff experience. You know, if you if you take th HT out of the rotation because you want to lean on veterans, you're losing out on th h t s potential ceiling. You know, there's there's so there.

It's just it's really it's they're really tough decisions to make. You know, there's a version of this playoff rotation where Markief Morris completely falls out as they lean heavily and Marcusol, Anthony Davis and and uh In Montrese Harrald that that would mean that the guy who who played a lot of center for the Lakers in the NBA Finals would literally not be playing. So it's just these are really

hard decisions. I think. I think there is no such thing as a perfect answer, and the reality is is I think I think Frank's just gonna kind of feel things out as they go, and Knights where th HD has it going, I think he'll go heavy on th h D and on nights where he does it, I think he'll get a quick hook. I think that's just the way it's gonna work. I did really like th hd s finishing ability around the basket yesterday though. Alright, let's see here discuss what you think the Lakers record

and seed will be. Uh. This is from Barry, So to put it simply, the entire Western Conference is talented, but the entire Western Conference is flawed. So the reason why I think the Lakers will still inevitably be the one seed stems simply from the fact that their losses are gonna are gonna come from effort um effort related problems and not actual xs and those related or talent related problems. So the real question is if the Lakers are definitively better than everybody in the league, which I

believe they are. Every single night where they go out and give a eighty percent plus effort, they're gonna win. The same cannot be said about the other teams in the league, all of the other Western Conference playoff teams, all the other Eastern Conference playoff teams. If they slack at all, they're going to lose. And there are going to be nights when they play as hard as they possibly can and they still lose. The problem here being

that there's just so much talent in the league. That every one of these teams is gonna get beat up. There aren't going to be a lot of really really good records. You're not going to see a team that runs off forty and ten. That's just that's just not gonna happen this year. By virtue of the amount of talent that there is, I believe that the Lakers will hover around, you know, in this early part of the season,

hover around that you know, sixty percent win percentage. You know, they're gonna be probably six and four after ten games or whatever. But eventually, just by virtue of getting sick and tired of losing in the sheer amount of talent that they have on this roster, they're gonna kick it into high gear and they're gonna start getting consistent wins. And you'll see the odd ball here and there, whether it's schedule related or whether it's effort related to focus related.

You're gonna see some oddball losses in there. But for the most part, this Laker team is going to be, you know, just by sheer power of their talent and by sheer power of the competitive, competitive nature of their stars, They're just gonna win a lot of games. I expect them to be the number one seed, not not overall, because there's enough bad teams in the East that I actually predict Brooklyn. Uh, it could end up with the best record in the league when it's all said and done,

but it's just gonna be a product of the conference. Alrighty, we're at forty two minutes here. Anybody else got any other questions? Could be a big post All Star break run? Yeah? Agree? I mean, like I said right now, there's a lack of effort, and there's a lack of conditioning. There's a lack of just general focus. But you can only It's like it's like when I go play pick up Like I played in college, and I played in front of

big crowds, and I was a good college player. So when I go to the local pickup run, I don't get the same adrenaline kick that I that I normally don't. I don't have as much to play for. And Tucson is in a great place for basketball talent. When I lived in Charlotte, it was a different story. If you didn't bring it every day in Charlotte, you got your butt kicked. But in Tucson, it's just a different level of talent here. There are still good players here, there

just aren't as many. And so in your typical pickup game that I find myself in, I'm not you know, I'm not as as playing as desperate as I usually do. But all it takes is you start losing and and something just clicks inside of you because you know you're better than everybody, and you start attacking the game in a different way than you used to. And I think

that's what's inevitably, inevitably gonna happen to these Lakers. It's one thing to be in one, it's one thing to be two and two, But all of a sudden, if you're three and four and you've lost four of your last seven games, like something clicks mentally in a talented competitor. The way that this Laker roster is that will bring it out of them, because nobody who is good at

what they do likes getting their butt kicked. And I think I think the Lakers will end up going on several super dominant you know, several week long runs where they just start beating the hell out of everybody, just by virtue of the fact that they're made up of the right type of competitors, and they have enough talent. They're they're they're gonna have something that they can fall back on and start beating people with. Alrighty um, I don't have any other questions at this point, so I

think we'll call it a day. UM. I have both Jason Maples and raj who you guys remember his unwritten rules on Twitter, have agreed to come on uh in the next week or so, and uh, I'll bring them on to talk mostly Lakers. I'll have Maples come on to talk some Clippers as well, and he's a big Pelicans fan, so we'll have him on for that as well. UM, as is usually the case. I hope you guys will understand how much I appreciate and uh, you know this,

this has been so much fun for me. And we're already fourteen episodes in, which is actually crazy, and that doesn't even factor in all of those periscope streams that I did before I launched the podcast. So uh, we're I think we're up over right around like podcast downloads and then the periscope feeds on average get over a thousand views and I just can't believe it. I can't believe you guys are supporting and listening to me. It means the world to me, and you know, I'm really

excited to see what happens. Maybe it just stays something like this that we do for fun, or maybe it becomes something bigger. I don't know, but for those of you who have supported me throughout the process, I really really appreciate it. Alright, guys, enjoy the rest of your night. I would imagine that after the Spurs game on Friday, I'll probably do something uh and get something going before the weekend, but in because we'll have the New Year

before then. I will y'all happy New Year, and I will talk to you guys soon