Episode 4: NBA Restart and Mailbag Questions

the live comments as well. So go ahead and drop any of your questions, any topics you want to discuss in the comments here on the Periscope feed, and as I get to the end, I will get to some of those as well. UM. So, as all of you heard from Shams and from woas today, UM, it's looking like the lead is gonna try to start on December two. Now, there is still some question as to whether or not

the players Association will agree to this. I tend to think that if we can follow anything that we've learned from the last few years in the NBA, it's that the players at the end of the day can usually talk tough, but they will probably follow the dollars and

in this case, as you saw woad report earlier. I think it was WAD, it might have been shams Um, But they're talking about the difference between starting in December and starting much later to be roughly about five million dollars, which if you know anything about the c BA, that means a roughly two d and fifty million dollars going

directly to the players. So at the end of the day, I think, like when they get into a room and they sit down, you're gonna have the players Association talk about a bigger delay, particularly for the players who just got out of the bubble, who are gonna want a

bigger layoff. But once they start seeing the numbers, once they see you know, stuff with the TV ratings and how it could impact uh future dollars for the players to make sure they stay in the traditional schedule for next season, uh, you know, starting in October and finishing in June. Once they really get to see the dollars and cents on the table, I think it's going to be a no brainer for them to to sign up for that UM. At this point, they're already sacrificing so

much money. If you know anything about the way the CBA works, it's not like they're guaranteed to get what their contract says. If you're you're on a ten million dollar contract, that's great. But if the league revenue is thirty of our seventy percent of what they expected, that means you're taking a thirty percent pay cut on what you're expecting your contract to be. So at the end of the day, once they start seeing the numbers, I

don't think it'll be too long of a discussion. And then I don't know if you guys heard, uh, Brian Windhorst a couple of weeks ago on his podcast basically reported that, um, the owners are already kind of like planting the seeds of the fact that they think that playing this next season is gonna end up costing them money.

It won't even be a profitable kind of thing. And I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, But what I do think that that does is it's part of their overarching leverage campaign against the players, which is, look, we're just doing this for the health of the league. If we're up to us financially, we'd skip this season altogether. We're already all gonna lose some money. You guys gotta understand that starting in December is gonna put more dollars

in both of our pockets. So let's just go ahead and do it that way, and I think they'll agree. So on that note, I think that it's uh almost a certainty that they will get started in late December on the twenty two, like they said. So what does that mean for all of the teams that are that are coming back. Well, first of all, it's an absolutely huge advantage for Brooklyn and for Golden State. These are two contenders that I know Brooklyn went to the Bubble,

but they're two primary players. Um you know, three three three are their primary players, three guys who will probably start for them. DeAndre Jordan's, Kyrie Riving and Kevin Durant did not go to the Bubble. Kevin Durant hasn't played in two years, you know. From that standpoint, uh, teams like that, Teams like Golden State. Clay Thompson hasn't played in nearly two years. Steph Curry has barely played in

the last two years. So from that standpoint, those teams coming into a truncated season, having to play back to backs a lot, having to play back to back to backs a lot potentially, because we saw that in two thousand twelve three games and three nights. I wouldn't be surprised if that came back. When you look at all of those things, teams that are fresh going into that, uh, not only from a motivation standpoint, but from a physical standpoint,

they're most definitely going to have an advantage. Uh. Now, what does it mean for the teams that have been playing in the bubble. I think it's hard on them mentally, without a doubt. Going from being in that bubble to coming out and only having a couple of months to kind of get your you know, wits back before you get back to work is gonna be tough. But I think when they get back into the swing of things,

they're gonna be fine. They love playing basketball, and when they get to play home game and go home to their family and go home to their families, I think they're gonna be fine. When they get to go on a road game and inevitably make their way to some establishment, even if it's not necessarily recommended, I would imagine that they're going to be fine. Um Uh. So, you know, the only thing that I would be concerned about, potentially

is for players who did make it deep into the bubble. Um, there is this understanding that you know, Okay, you started a training camp in early July, and you played through the middle of October, and you're gonna get a couple of months off, but you're starting in the middle of December, and if you make another deep playoff run next year,

you're playing into the middle of June. So, to make a long story short, that's essentially nine nine months of basketball in a twelve month span at an extremely high level, at a championship level, because you were one of the teams who made it deep into the bubble. So from that standpoint, I would be moderately concerned about, you know, serious injuries, just just based on the fact that these guys have been playing so much basketball, you know, in such a short period of time. That's a lot more

than their accustomed to in that year. That doesn't mean you know, we we don't know any uh, A lot of the studies that have been done on load management and you know, in heavy minutes and things like that aren't necessarily you know, all that revealing as to whether or not it has a real effect on injuries. But that'd be one thing to keep them keep an eye on, which takes me to my first question that I got, which was what will the toughest challenges be for the

Lakers as a team this year? And now those challenges just became twofold because it's not only the fact that they're UH defending a title, which comes with its old its own set of circumstances and challenges, but they're also now the team that is UH going to be benefit or going to be most challenged by the quick turnaround to start the next season. And so you know, first of all, you look at what the normal challenges that face a contender are, which first and foremost is motivation.

You know, like last year, the Lakers had Lebron who was on what he himself was calling a revenge tour. You've got Anthony Davis who's playing on a good basketball team for the first time in his career. You've got you've got a bunch of role players who are on what most people were considering to be kind of like last chance contracts for them. So from that standpoint, that roster from top to bottom was full of guys that had every reason to go out and play their ass

off every night. And now that's changed, And don't get me wrong, like their pros, they're going to find some sort of motivation. But the reality is is they will be a lesser motivated team this year than a lot of their peers will be, and it'll be something that they will fight mentally all year long. And then the second one is the famous pat riley is um that

you've heard, which is the disease of more. So now all of a sudden, guys who were comfortable playing in smaller roles maybe more you know, more drawn to the idea that they want to try to do more because now that ultimate championship carrot in the in front of them seems a little bit smaller, and they start to think about some of their personal goals. So that will

be something to watch. And you know, a great example is like now, to be clear, I don't think this will be a problem, but you know, Lebron and Anthony Davis got along really really well in this season because of their mutual goal of winning a championship. But who knows how that goal evolves as they move forward already having been champions. Now, to be clear, I don't think that will be a problem. I think their relationship is kind of built for this, but those are the kinds

of challenges that defending champions are going to face. And so all of that gets compounded by the fact that now you're playing in this truncated season and you're doing it on a quick turnaround, which takes those symptoms and

kind of worsens them. And you know, like as a result of that, what it's gonna be, what what the Lakers are gonna be really tempted to do is let their foot way off the gas and be a poor effort team, which kind of inevitably leads to add habits, which is one of the things that I preach about all the time on Twitter, which is, you know, uh, there are habits in basketball that go above and beyond

you know, effort. So, for instance, like if you're a we see this a lot in NBA history, championship level team wins the championship, they're still arguably the most talented team in the league, but over the course of the season, they let their habits slip, and then they turn it on or try to turn it on late in the season. But you know, there's always this phase after you start trying hard again where the habits aren't there. You know, a lot of stuff, especially on the defensive end of

the ball, is instinctual. It's you know, you see something happen and you're reacting to it and not like overthinking, You're just reacting. And you know, my favorite example of this is the two thousand fourteen heat. You know, even with Dwayne Waite's decline, even with a lot of those older veteran players kind of reaching the end of the rope, you know, there was still a lot of talent on that team. Lebron was the best version of himself. Chris

Bosh had become a three point shooter. The Lakers had on all in on Bosh at the five, so they had their spacing figure it out. And what ended up actually hurting them was they had they had developed bad habits. They became a bad defensive team. They were outside of the top ten. I think they were eleventh in defensive efficiency. So when they ran into a team like the Spurs, who really required them to be extremely dialed in on the defensive end of the ball, they didn't adjust fast

enough and they ended up getting themselves beat. So those are the things that the Lakers are going to be fighting this year. Is and trying to maintain good habits and trying to make it so that you know, yeah, they're never gonna be the same maniacal beast mentally that they were last season, but they can get as close to that as possible, then their talent can carry them

through at the end of the day. And then you know, as it as it pertains to the shortened season, it's really as simple as trying to limit minutes and then having the trainer kind of error on the side of giving guys rest when they're dealing with soreness and being

banged up and so on and so forth. So we'll talk about this a lot when we get to the Laker off season stuff, but this is a great example of why, um, you know, the centers are so important to this Laker team, even though they really can't play and keep postseason series. You know, just because they didn't need Dwight Howard and Javail to beat Miami or to beat you know, to beat Houston, doesn't mean they don't

need him in the regular season. Because the truth of the matter is is they the biggest thing that Dwight and Javail provided for this Laker team this year was just a physical presence that allowed them to keep Lebron in a D you know, around thirty five or less minutes and allowed them to, uh to allow those guys to take the physical beatings so that they could get through the ad two games season with less wear and

tear on their stars. And that's going to continue to be the case this year because with the with the trunk kid of season, with all the back to backs, with the short turnaround, now you're gonna want to keep Lebron in a D down around like thirty two minutes in the regular season. You're gonn to want them down in that like Janice Range, and then you can kind of ramp them up as you get closer to the

postseason or in the early rounds of the postseason. But if you're playing your stars thirty two minutes, that that's that that requires you to have depth, and it requires you to lean have much more heavily on your role players. So you know, that's gonna be the interesting thing for the Lakers is you know, trying to counterbalance uh, you know, health with their habits, and I think the easiest way

to do that is with minute limits. It's a lot easier to look Lebron and a D in the face and be like, I need you to be the same guys you were last year, and my reward to you is going to be it's only for thirty two minutes a night, you know, Like we're gonna cut back your the volume of your workload, but we're gonna try to expect you to be near what you were last season to maintain the identity and the and the habits of the team that were championship level habits and championship type

of identity. Um. So those are the things that the Lakers are gonna have to look out for, just watching their minutes, watching their uh you know, watching their wear and tear, making sure guys get rest when they're dealing with injuries and when they're a little fatigued, and then that mental challenge like we discussed. So the next question that I received from the mail bag, who is the biggest threat to the Lakers this year? So? Um, to me,

this threat remains the Clippers. And it's because of the fact that you know, basketball is a is a matchup game, styles make fights. You've heard that saying a million times and if you look at you know, for instance, the Warriors who I view as a team that is not a threat to the Lakers. Their strengths play right into the Lakers hands because the Laker defensive scheme is built around ball pressure on the perimeter, which I would expect

them to continue next year. Their their defensive scheme is built around pressure on the pressure on the perimeter, taking away the three point line, enforce and guys into their size, forcing guys to drive into to Dwight Howard, forcing him to drive into JaVale McGee, Anthony Davis, whoever it is that they have next year on the interior. And so

from that standpoint, the Warriors defense. The Warriors offensive scheme is built around ball movement and drive and kick started from double teams drawn by their shooters, so Steph and Clay drawing a ton of attention from the three point line, leading to guys working in three on two or working in four on three, driving and kicking to each other. There is not a great deal of mid range scoring

talent on that Warrior's roster. Steph is a good mid range score, but he's not a guy who consistently operates out of that range. So you know, I think I think that the Warriors lack of size and the way that the Warriors offense is structured, I think they would play right into the Lakers hands, and I think they'd get beat. Whereas the Clippers, they bring a lot of things to the table that would at least cause matchup issues for the Lakers. That doesn't mean I think the

Clippers would beat the Lakers. I still think that the Lakers are a better team. But assuming the Clippers come back with Paul George and and Kawhi Leonard and with you know, let's say a slightly better role player set, you know, they ditched Lou Williams and Montrez Harald, they

run their offense through Paul George and Kauai more. Uh, then the issue becomes there an elite defensive team with lots of defensive versatility who can do a lot of the things that Miami did to l A, which is forced Anthony Davis to be a jump shooter, you know, make Lebron score over wings all day long, all series long.

They can do all those things, and their offense is structured in a way that they do a lot of scoring out of the mid range, which gives them the ability to eventually, uh find quality shots against the truly elite Laker defense. So to me, at the end of the day, the biggest threat to the Lakers remains the Clippers. So the uh, the next topic? I want to get it?

And I've received a million of these questions, including one of the live questions from you guys is who do you think the Lakers should target in free agency or ever? I've heard you know best trade targets for the Lakers.

Who should the Lakers focus on? Retaining? All of these Lakers off season related topics, And from that standpoint, I'm going to be doing a full length pod like this with Raj at Unwritten Rules, you guys know, on Twitter at some point later this summer, and at that point, um, I'll go for a full hour or so in depth into this topic. But I will give you guys today kind of my initial layout of how I would see

the Laker off season going. And I think it's a delicate process because first and foremost you have to understand that, you know, one of my biggest basketball philosophies is to not fix what's broken. And I have a funny story about this. Back when I was playing in at Arizona Christian University, I Uh. Uh, there was a one of my former roommates, one of my best friends in college,

rest in PC unfortunately passed away earlier this year. Um, but his name was to Leave, and he was an All American guard when I was at Arizona Christian University and and we would play, we would have practice during the day, and then he would invite me back with uh, you know, three or four guys to go do these two on two or three on three runs at the gym late at night, like at like ten o'clock, which in retrospect was kind of crazy because you know, we

would have practice during the day and it would be something that would put a lot of wear and tear on our bodies. But to Leave was a big believer in learning, you know, winning offensive habits and uh and overall just winning habits. And he would always work until he was a little bit older. When he was playing on the team, he was thirty one. I was twenty two. A lot of the other guys in the team were in their twenties. And uh, he would constantly just try to try to get us to be at his level

mentally as a basketball player. And so we played two on two and three on three, and him and I would play like pick and roll. Uh. He would commonly put me on his team because him and I played together in the in the starting lineup, so he wanted

us to develop that chemistry, you know. And I do pick and roll, and I'd get like a small guy switched onto me, and I would kind of shoot a little hook shot over the top and I'd score, and then the next possession, I'd like pick and pop to the three point line because I always was a shooter. And to Lee would like stop the game and yell at me and be like, what are you doing. You just scored in the low block. Do the exact same thing over and over again until they stop. You do

not switch away from something that isn't broken. And over the course of the season, he really worked on me in that regard that, you know, if I ever discovered, uh, you know, an inefficiency in the defense or something that was working, I would stick with it until I absolutely couldn't use it anymore. And and it went even further than that to the defensive end of the ball, Like I I'd box out and I'd get a rebound, you know,

two or three times in a row. But then I would you know, one the fourth time I would forget to box out and you know, to lee again stop the game and just start yelling at me and be like like what are you doing? Like you you have to box out. If you don't box out, we could lose this game, you know. And it was it was a matter of habits and just understanding that in any any given possession and every little thing has to be done right and uh, no matter what, you don't get

away from something that's working. And so that's always been one of my ideologies. And so the Lakers that you have to remember, the Lakers have an identity, and their identity is that they're they're big and physical and they're gonna wear you down. Their identity is that they're going to defend the hell out of the basketball. They have a scheme that fits around that defense and the identity.

On offenses, everything goes through Lebron and a D. They do not get into the habit of running too many actions for role players like the Clippers did, then ended

up getting their stars out of rhythm. You saw with the Clippers they ran so much stuff through Lou Williams and so much stuff through Montrese Harrald and they let Reggie Jackson do stuff, and they let Marcus Morris do stuff, and it really hurt Paul George's rhythm because he would struggle night in and night out because his role in the offense was funky because he was one of six ball handlers instead of one of two. And that's what

the Lakers that figure out. So it's very important when the Lakers are approaching this offseason make sure that their moves fit into their current identity because if they get too carried away bringing in players that change the identity, now you're running the risk of of becoming a team that's not a championship team because your current identity is

a championship identity. So it's very important that they do they they focus this offseason on making sure that they kind of perfect their existing identity instead of getting too far out of their identity. Um. So starting with there's kind of three elements to this. Who do you bring back? Um, what kind of players would you potentially target in trades? And what kind of players are you looking at in

the free agent market? You know, and as far as the off season goes from a retention standpoint, the players that I'm not at all worried about bringing back are Markueth. I know a lot of people like Mark Kief, but I thought he was kind of overrated defensively and then on the offensive end of the floor. While he did make some shots, I think that's something that they can find from other players. And I'm more more worried about the fact that he couldn't really guard anybody. Dion Waiters,

who cares. I know there's a lot of Laker optimism about Dion Waiters, but he does not fit into the identity of this team at all. Same goes for j R. Smith and then JaVale McGhee. I think that if you can get someone like DeMarcus Cousins to play that JaVale

McGhee roll instead, I think that's a better route. And you know, for all of the things that JaVale brought to the table this year, I thought he was a little more negative than positive, and I think that if you can get somebody different, those are the guys to

go after. The the guys that I would absolutely try to bring back like a high priority would be Dwight Howard because Dwight Howard is like Dwight Howard becomes infinitely more valuable now as a result of the quick turnaround and the truncated season that now you're looking at a situation where um Dwight's depth that he provides, Dwight's physical presence inside becomes immensely important in that you know, a quick turnaround season with games like probably every other night,

Dwight is a high, high priority. So when it comes to their cap exception, that is the primary player I would target if you if you can't, if you can't get him at a veteran minimum, then I that's the guy that I'd be willing to dip into the exception. For Avery Bradley, my guess is that he's going to opt out of his five million dollars for next year and the Lakers can sign him at I think it's a ten percent raise, So they can get him at like five point seven or five point five or whatever

it is for next season. A little bit of a raise for Avery and UH gets him back on the roster. I think that's an important target for them, just in terms of guard depth. KCP I expect to opt in, but who knows. With KCP, he's got such like an under the table thing going on with Clutch that who

knows what they're gonna end up doing. And then the only guy that I think that I would bring back, but only at a veteran minimum, is region Rondo because you know, while Raision Rondo had some moments for the Lakers in this postseason run, I happen to be one of the guys who thought he was just as much

bad as good. You know, for all of the good moments that he had, there were games where I thought he really hurt the team tam And while his i Q is something that has been touted, I think that Lebron kind of accomplishes that goal anyway in and of himself. It's kind of a redundancy in that regard, Like if Rondo is not in the locker room, it's not like the team's gonna stop watching film like you've got Lebron there for that. Lebron is a nerd of the game's

gonna take that same approach. And uh, I don't think that it's a huge loss to get to to lose him. But if you can bring him back at a veteran minimum, which I think the Lakers can, I think you have to because at the very least he does give you that uh that potential postseason, you know, any other Like every other game, he was one of the best players on the floor, even if he was the worst player

in some of the other games. So yeah, Rondo at a veteran minimum, K C. P. Bradley and Dwight, I think you've got to try to extend yourself to whatever it takes to get him to come back. And then I'm not worried at all about Markief, Dion j R. Or Javail. So I made a list of free agent targets.

I dug into this a lot this afternoon. UMU. The main free agents that I saw in the entire list of the league agents that I think the Lakers would consider was Danilo Gallinari, Wesley Matthews, Glenn Robinson, the third, Justin Holiday, Gerald Green, Ryan Anderson, Darren Collison, Boogie Cousins who's technically a free agent, Iman Chumpert, and mo Hearkless.

And the names that I circled that I thought were kind of uh, you know, high priority targets in that list, where Gallinari, Mo Heartless, Wes Matthews, Boogie Cousins, and Darren Collinson. So first Boogie Cousins, I'd go after him to try to get him in that Javail role. I think with his injury history, I think he's gonna have a hard time finding a contract, especially in this summer when there's not all that much free agent money available. So I

think Boogie Cousins can be had on the cheap. So I think if you can get him in l a um kind of have him played that JaVale McGee roll, have him and Dwight be the two centers that you

play for. For like, Javal brought a lot more athleticism in length around the rim, but he was so like such a space case around the rim some times over helping, fouling when he should and all of this other stuff that even though Boogie is not going to be as good of a defensive player, uh in terms of his talent, I think just with his i Q for the game, he'll be just as effective on that end of the ball. So and then he's gonna be a significantly better offensive player,

especially with his ability to stretch the floor. So I think Boogie Cousins is at the veteran minimum is a no brainer if you can get him there. Darren Collison, it's all about whether or not he's coming back. But Darren Collison gives you just one more additional decision maker who's not going to be a high volume guy, and he's a really really good spot up shooter. Two years ago in Indiana he was an unbelievable spot up shooter. So he provides basically a much much better version of Rondo.

The problem is that if Darren comes back, he's definitely going to be in that exception range, like they're they're gonna have to pay him. So if you get Darren Collison, that, in my opinion, that takes the wings off the table. That takes Gallinari, West Matthews, and Mo Heartless off the table. So um in order you know, I was asked to rank the in one of the mail back questions pick up Hope. You guys know him. He's one of my

favorite Twitter accounts. He's always got all the receipts. But he was asking about how you'd rank if you couldn't get Gallinari, because I think we all agree Gallinari's the best option, and I'll get to y in a second, but how would you rank West, Matthews, Mo Heartless, Glenn Robinson the third or justin Holiday, and I put West Matthews at the top of this list. West Matthews is is one of the best perimeter defenders that we have in the league, which is insane for a guy who

is playing on a veteran minimum contract in Milwaukee. He's a little bit undersized but in terms of his height, but he's extremely strong and extremely laterally quick. He's very good at making you shoot over the top. He's very good with ball pressure, and he's he's it's very difficult to get around him. And as you saw if you've ever watched with him Wesley Matthews play, He's he's just

a total pest on the ball. And in terms of what the Lakers defensive scheme is, which is heavy ball pressure forcing guys to drive, West Matthews fits into that scheme absolutely perfectly, and so I like him as a fit um. I like him as a fit in that role, especially given the fact that he can shoot the ball so well. I'd rank number two mo Hearkless. Now, mo Hearkless is not as good as a shooter as with Matthew West Matthews, and he's definitely not as laterally quick

as West Matthews. The reason why I like Mo Heartless is I think he's a bit of an ace in the hole to use against the Clippers. He's a player that I can put on Kauai and I can feel reasonably sure, reasonably certain that he's gonna make him work. He's not gonna be able to shut him down, but nobody can. He's gonna be able to make him work. So I put Mo Hearkless number two, and then Glenn

between Glenn Robinson the third and Justin Holiday. To be honest with you, guys, I haven't seen too much of them. I haven't watched a ton of either of them, but I know that I would prefer those other two names I mentioned over them. The reason why dar Danilla Gallinari is number one on my list is he is a textbook high i Q player that's just gonna fit really, really well alongside Lebron James. Now. One of the issues that he had and okay see is he was asked

to be too much. Danila Gallinari was basically like a second option on that Thunder team on any given moment on the floor because he'd play with you know, Chris Paul and Shake Gils Alexander had their offensive responsibilities, but Daniella Gallanari was running a lot of pick and roll. He's doing a lot to generate offense on that team. On the Lakers, with the way that their identity is structured, you can count on the Lakers putting him into a

little bit smaller role offensively. He will run pick and roll, he will run stuff with the ball in his hands, but he can do it kind of like when he has it going and when it's free flowing in the flow of the game. He's not going to be demanded to do that sort of thing on the defensive side of the ball. He's a classic case of a guy

that you can ask to fill an easy defensive role. Hey, Danilo, it doesn't matter if you get blown by You just got to chase him off the three point line, and if he beat you out the three point line, you've got to be next in rotation and get to somebody else on the floor that's uncovered, which is a lot easier job than asking a guy to be at lockdown individual defensive player. So from that standpoint, I think he's a natural fit. He can shoot the ball, so he's

good for spacing. He can attack close outs. He's got size, uh, and he's got enough quickness to fit into the Laker defensive scheme as a perimeter player. UM and just all in all, he's with what the Lakers would ask him to do. I think he'd be a home run hitter. The other three names I have on my list are all what I would consider veteran minimum guys, guys that have almost no chance of fetching big paychecks around the league.

Jerald Green. There's a story out that Gerald Green wants to go to Houston again, but Houston's cap is completely messed up and their owner is a total cheap uh, total cheap guys. So at this point, chances are, uh, there's a good there's a good opportunity that Houston won't bring him back. And he's an example of just another wing that brings some athleticism that you could ask to play a really simplified role in this offense and on this defense, and uh, and you can have him regardless

of your cap situation. Ryan Anderson was another name I brought up. Again, doesn't fit into the defensive scheme, but what he helps you with is he's a really really good shooter that on any given random night in Charlotte. You know, on a Tuesday in February, you can ask him to play fifteen minutes and he'll be able to

fit alongside Lebron James. Even though he might hurt you on the defensive end of the ball, he eats up minutes and he can help you from the standpoint of of getting through that seventy two game grind in a four month stretch, it's just death. And then the last name I put on there Razimman Schumpert. This is a classic example of a guy who could fit into that like lesser version of a Contavious Caldwell Pope type of role.

You put him as an off guard. On offense, he's spotting up and attacking closeouts, and then on the defensive end of the ball. Ball pressure has always been one of his strong points. You put him in ball pressure. He's a little bit undersized, so he can't like guard big old rangey wings. But as long as you can force him off the three point line, that's what you

have Anthony Davis and all those centers for. It's a it's a it's a brilliant structure to the way that there uh their scheme works so as far as trade targets go, I am totally anti. I'm totally anti Chris Paul. UM. I don't think that he's worth what you'd have to pay in terms of salaries to get it fit the to get it to fit. The only universe in which I think Chris Paul makes any sense as if he takes a buy out, which really is down to Chris Paul.

And if we've learned anything about Chris Paul and his comments on this subject, he's not taking a pay cut. So unless okay, see feels so deeply indebted to Chris Paul that they're willing to cut him a check for forty million for the next two years to leave, then I don't see this thing happening. And so chances are I think he ends up getting traded to someone else.

Um If if the Lakers do throw in a ton of salary reason role players and toss away all their depth to try to get Chris Paul, I think that would be a catastrophic mistake. UM. Bradley Beale is completely unrealistic. The two names that I put down that I think are decent fits that make sense with the salary that would work, not only in the short term, but for the long term for the Lakers was Spencer Dinwittie and

uh In Victor Oladipo. So these are guys I think Spencer didn't what he makes around sixteen million, and then Victor Oladipo's in that twenty million dollar range. Um. Both of them are coming up on new contracts in the future soon. But both of them represent players that fit a a role, a kind of a hole in the roster that we talked about a lot last year, which

is just another playmaker alongside Lebron. So in this situation, you'd have to ditch Rondo altogether as part of your offense, because again, like we talked about, you don't want to lose your identity, your identities. Most of the offense runs

through Lebron and runs through Anthony Davis. And so what I like about Spencer Dinwoodie is in his time in Brooklyn, he showed an ability to succeed on the offensive side of the floor while not necessarily having a super high usage rate and by being kind of from time to time being under involved in the offense. And so from that standpoint, I think he's a perfect fit as a

third ball handler. A third star, so to speak, on this team, and quite frankly, I think Brooklyn needs to make a move that involves one of their two big perimeter backup players, which is Carris LeVert and Spencer Dinwoody, because they don't have any depth and they don't have any dirty work guys, and so the move there would be Crusoe and Kuzma and whatever salary filler you need to put together um for Spencer Dinwoodie. Spencer dinwood he slides into that, uh that a starting guard role kind

of where Crusoe is playing in the finals. I know you guys all love Cruso. I love Caruso too, and he'd be great on the contract next season, but he will eventually get paid and the Lakers aren't going to be the ones to pay him. So you lose one year of Alex Caruso for whatever your future is with Spencer Dinwoody. And Victor Oladipo is another great example of that as well. You get to basically try out Victor Oladipo.

You get to see what he's worth in a one year sample size, and then it's your move if you want to resign him next year, or if you want to let him go. UH and then Kuzma, same exact problem. You're getting rid of Kuzma, but you're eventually gonna have to pay him way more than what his actual production is. So it's a simple trade off of two guys that you're probably not gonna eventually want to pay in Kuzman

and Curus. So for a player that's an instant fit right now, which is that third guard in Dinwoody in an Oladipo, And then with either player, you kind of have the flexibility of what you want to do signing them long term. And the biggest thing there is you're banking on. You know, that identity I talked about works for right now, and I believe it will work at

least through next season. But eventually Lebron will slow down a little bit, and when he does, you need to have a backup plan centered on some other form of high volume ball handler and Uh as somebody that can keep you know that you can still use Lebron as a as kind of like a second option ball handler when he's thirty eight thirty nine years old, but you've got somebody that can be that guard that can run a lot of actions with Anthony Davis actions with Lebron

so on and so forth. So yeah, like I said, no, CP three, Bradley Beal is not a realistic target. I really like Spencer Dinwititi spend Spencer Dinwitty, and I like Victor Oladipo. So Um, the last question I have from the mail bag set that I received earlier, and then I'll take one or two from the questions. So if you guys have any questions, UH, drop him in the

comments here. Um. But the last question I had was from a buddy of my name, Travis, who I played against in college and now he's an assistant coach at a university out in California. He asked me to rank the following duos, not counting any trades or offseason moves, just what you think of these duos if you had

to pick him for the next five years. And the duos that he sent me were Luca and Cristaps Porzingis, Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum, Jamal Murray and Nikola Yogich, Joe l em Beat and Ben Simmons, and then Devin Booker and DeAndre Aten. And so this one was tough because I think there's a difference between, you know what you could expect from one of these guys next year, one of these duos next year, in which you can

expect from them in the next five years. I put I picked Luca and Kristaps Porzingis first, and it really was simple for me. I think Lucas I think I ranked him seventh in my top ten players in the league, and that's based on where he is absolutely at this moment.

But if he becomes even an average defender and above, and if he becomes an average three point shooter, so instead of shooting percent from three, shoots thirty seven percent from three, And if he becomes a decent positional defender who just knows where to be and knows how to rotate, knows how to just be in the right spot, even though he's never asked to be a shutdown defensive player. If he figures those two things out, he's a top

three or four player in the league. And Christap Sporzingis is, you know, it's not the kind of guy that you think of as a traditional second star, but he is a natural fit with Luca as a as a spacing five and a guy that you can throw the ball down to on the block when Lucas off the floor, so on and so forth. So I definitely take him moving forward. Secondly, I would take Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum.

I I ranked Tatum as the eleventh best player in the league this year, just ahead of Jimmy Butler at twelve, and I I think Jayson Tatum is one of the two guys in there, one of the few guys in the league that can say that they check two of those elite boxes that I always talk about, elite defensive versatility, elite isolation scoring, and elite playmaking. Tatum checks two of those boxes. He's elite as a defensively versatile player and he's elite isolation score and so from that standpoint, I

really like him moving forward. And then Jalen Brown is your textbook UH awesome wing player that can fend all positions, can get you twenty points a night. Uh. Those two guys are built to succeed in the playoffs, and I think you're gonna see them in the Eastern Conference Finals just about every year for the next few years. UH

third out ranked Yokich and uh Murray. I ranked them third because of the fact that what we saw from this last postseason run um Uh it was one of the biggest upsets in NBA history, and it was built on the fact that Yokich is such a gifted playmaker, and it's such a gifted the postseason performer because he's so smart he can pick these defenses apart over the

course of his seven game series. My big question and the raison the reason why I don't have these guys ahead of Luca or or Tatum and Brown is the fact that Jamal Murray has somewhat of a track record of being an inconsistent postseason performer, and it's really hard to say whether or not this most recent run in the bubble can really can be depended on moving forward.

And so from that same point, if I had a gun to my head, if I had, if I was a betting man and I had to pick these duos in order, I would pick Um, I would pick Murray and Yokich third. Based on the fact that I can't really necessarily depend on Murray. Fourth, I put him beat and Simmons. The irony of this list that Travis sent me is he's texted them to me in the order

that I would have ranked them in. But I had Joel Embiat and Simmons fourth, simply because of the fact that I think they are a really clunky basketball fit. They make a ton of sense defensively on paper in the regular season. But I do have some concerns about Joel Embad as a versatile defender against the absolute best of the best teams, Teams that will force him to guard on the perimeter, teams that won't allow him to

hawk the paint. I mean, you just saw in that series with Miami when when Miami put uh Kelly Olynok on the floor and Anthony Davis was forced to guard on the perimeter, Miami was able to kind of neutralize a lot of Anthony Davis's defensive impact. And then in Game six, when they leaned too heavily on Bam at a bio, you saw Anthony Davis play one of the best defensive games that we've ever seen because he completely locked down the paint because he had no interest in

guarding Bam as he kept spotting up on the elbows. So, from that standpoint, like, I worry a little bit about em beats defensive versatility when like the really really good teams will force him to guard out on the perimeter, and then we all know about Ben Simmons. He has been in his last few postseason runs. He's basically been relegated to a guy who has to operate out of the dunker spot and UH can't necessarily run offense against teams that are packing the paint and forcing him to

be a you know, a primary scoring option. So it's a really clunky fit. I think they're easily the most likely players to get traded and moved around and UH, from that standpoint, I had them fourth on my list, and then Booker and eight and I had fifth. Eighton is the worst player on this list in my opinion

by a decent margin. He showed some potential last year, uh towards the end of the year as a as a guy who was a type of you know, three and D type of center who could space the floor but also operated as a rollman and and finish around the rim a lot um. I just my thing with Eton is he's just another version of you know, we have this new we have this new kind of resurgence of centers right that is happening around the league. But it's important to understand that, like, who are the two

best centers not traditional guys. You know, Yokich, this kind of chubby, slow, you know, guy who's incredibly skilled and his basketball quees off the charts, and he can pass unbelievably well, and he's a you know, a dead eye shooter and a really good, you know, kind of crafty

score around the rim. And then I've got Anthony Davis, who's just a complete athletic freak who can shoot from the midrange, you can shoot from the three point line, and can do all of these things from a versatility standpoint. And guys like Embiid and guys like Eton, who's just a worse version of Embiid. Those guys kind of represent you know, leftovers from a bygone era, and while their size represents, you know, a defensive option to throw at

those super elite centers. I do worry about whether or not they'll always just be an inferior version of those guys when they get into a playoff series with them. I actually really really do like Devin Booker. I I am a fan of what his skill set represents in today's NBA is an elite isolation score, but he's beneath a lot of the other guys on this list. He's beneath Tatum, He's beneath a Luca in the sense that he's not a great elite playmaker and he's not a

great elite defensive player. So from that standpoint, he's the guy who only checks one of those boxes, and it kind of puts him in a situation where um uh, in a playoff series, he's just gonna be coming up against better players. So I've got you know, I talk all the time about those three things, elite defensive versatility, elite isolation scoring, and elite playmaking. Between Booker and Eton, I'm getting maybe one of those. I'm getting elite isolation

scoring from Booker, but I'm not getting playmaking. I'm not getting defense. And with Aiden, I'm not sure that he's defensively versatile and his ability to guard on the perimeter. He's not an elite isolation score and he's not an elite playmaker. So from that standpoint, just following kind of my traditional, uh, you know, ideologies that I follow in basketball, uh, those those guys just aren't necessarily the type of player that I would put my confidence in um in the

next five years. So on that note, I had question all the questions that I received in the broadcast were associated with the Laker off season stuff, which I already talked about, Like I said, I'm gonna do a much longer drawn out version of that with RAJ later on in this quote unquote NBA summer. But anyways, I really really appreciate all of you guys for tuning in as usual. This will be re released as a podcast here probably

in the next five minutes. If you guys have haven't taken the time to rate a review, I would really appreciate if you guys would do that for me. It means a lot to me. Uh. And next Wednesday, I have Tommy coming on to go over my top ten list and my MJ lebron stuff, So that will probably unless there's some big story that comes up over the weekend, that will probably be my next podcast. But yeah, so we've already this already four episodes, so I can't believe

how fastest is moving. And I I you know, I UH. The last one that I did yesterday already has over two thousand listens. And I'm just extremely thankful for you guys and and UH and the support that you've given and I'm looking forward to the journeys, So have a good rest of your night and I'll talk to you guys next week.