Episode 76: AD at the 5, Lakers Offense, Basketball Origin Stories

believe it's right around the corner. How are you doing, ros, how's your week bend. I'm doing great. It's a beautiful Friday, and yeah, we're getting pretty close to here. That game is actually at twelve thirty PM. By the way, I don't know if anyone's actually checked the times. I'm a weirdo and actually checked the time on that. It's twelve ald l a time on Sunday. So I'm sure the Lakers are excited about that. But uh yeah, excited to be here. Man, we're gonna get We're getting into this

pretty soon. So we're getting there. Yeah, and you know what, I think they'll be just fine playing at twelve thirty considering all the of the players will probably play about ten minutes anyway. UM, So today we have kind of a special uh set up compared to our usual topics that we cover. We're going to briefly touch on this report that came out yesterday about Rich Paul at the Combine three months ago that that may or may not shed some new light on the A D playing at

the five situation. Um, we're gonna kind of parlay that into one of our mail bad questions that we had centering around the Lakers offense from last week. And then what we're gonna do is Roger and I are going to talk about our origin stories, both with basketball and with the Lakers, just so you guys can get a little bit of a background on how we got to where we are in terms of where we are as basketball fans and why we root for the things we root for and so on and so forth. We thought

it'd just be fun. Um. You know, we've we really have enjoyed building this community with you guys, and I think it'd be fun uh to kind of uh drop the curtain a little bit and talk a little bit more about why we are the way that we are. I think that'd be fun Um. Anyway, let's start. You have the tweet up correct with the report. I'm gonna have Raj read the actual report from that that came across.

I think it was yesterday, it might have been two days ago, but it was from a gentleman who works at Bleacher Report, Fisher or I can't remember exactly what his name is. Maybe you can tell me. Yeah, from Jake Fisher, who's been uh, who's had his name growing here as NBA insider to be honest throughout the whole summer. So he reportedly said that Rich Paul was going around the Chicago Combine um tell people that Lebron and a d will be moving to the four and five this season.

And I've been pretty clear on my thoughts on that. And again I was reading through the reply, is no one mentioned that Chicago Combine was, you know, like three months ago at the end of June. So a lot of stuff has happened since then. We've signed players, we've

let players go, we've traded players since then. But you know, it's fun to kind of read that Enrich Paul as like the whisperer going around telling people because what guess what vocal is gonna move brought and a DA to the four and five, and I think that's all fun and great. I just again, I'm I've been pretty consistent with it. But let me get your thoughts for chasing. What do you think about that report? Does I like, improve your thoughts on it, on on thinking this will happen?

Or is it just another thing that we have to wait and see? So new report, old information is definitely the way that we can categorize this. So to be clear, I have seen the writing on the wall, as have you in the last couple of months, in particular, basically the last two three weeks, a bunch of this information surrounding DeAndre Jordan's and just kind of the path away that this appears to be heading. Seems to be screaming that a D is going to be starting at the

power forward. But I am going to stay strong. Now. This is something you and I have talked about at length over the last couple of weeks, so I understand why this is getting a little bit repetitive. However, I think there's you know, a dawned on me last week, and uh, it's something that I think it's glossed over in this debate. One of the most important reasons why, in my opinion, it's very important for a D to play the five is to free up minutes at the

guard position. You know, one of my biggest concerns, and it kind of reminds me of my last year playing

in college. I I transferred from a junior college to a four year school that had just made it pretty far in the national tournament and had almost won their conference, and they brought everybody back, and there was this moment where we're all kind of in training camp and everyone's like, man, we got all this talent, we got all these guys, We got all these guys, and it's like, all of a sudden, you start trying to think about how guys are gonna play, and your your you come to this

sudden realization You're like, wait, like, there's just not that much opportunity on the court available to match up with the third team players we have here who are capable of playing. And then it becomes a situation with inconsistent minutes, and then it becomes a situation with guys struggling with confidence, and it starts to kind of percolate down the roster and cause some problems, and you know, It's a good

problem to have. Our team was very good. We were we at the talent led to success on the court, but it was stressful in and of the uh, the the little debates and the little uh you know, subsections of the team that you know, we're advocating for certain players to play and so on and so forth. It causes problems. And we saw that with the Lakers last year a little bit. You know, the there was the

Marcusol faction. There was the Dennis shooters should come off the bench faction, there was the we need more Crusoe faction. There were all these factions out there that kind of formed. And the same thing happens in the locker room as we saw with guys like Dennis and and Andre Drummond and the way they behaved on Instagram. This is a real thing that happens in the living organism that is a basketball team, and just some thing is simple as Anthony Davis moving to the center and opening up extra

minutes at the guard position. For those guys to get consistent minutes can go a long way towards helping guys like Molik Monk and Kendrick Nunn and th Ht have better seasons and to actually hit their potential because they get more consistent opportunity because they don't have to worry about having random Tuesday night games where they just get d NP coach's decision, you know what I mean. And

so that that's what I would be concerned about. And the one last little detail that makes me a little bit more optimistic is if you were gonna pay or play Anthony Davis primarily at the four, you'd need three centers because with especially with how old they are, you would want your two centers who are going to foot the bill, and then you would want someone who could step in if one of them need to sit out a game. So that that's kind of where I'm at

with it. But does my rationale surrounding the rotation and like consistency with minutess makes sense to you? It does? Yeah, Like I guess my encounter only to that is I feel like those cars have to earn those minutes, like you know what I mean. Like anyway, like in that rotation, I want whoever is the better player to be playing

um and opening up. I don't putting a d at center opens up some minutes for that, I feel like it opens up more wing minutes honestly, and again, like I get that he's not gonna play full time power forward, Like that's my annoyance for this conversation throughout the whole summer, and people want him to be a full time five here, Like he's not gonna be a powerful or full time. He's not gonna be a center full time, and that's

why you go out and get two centers. Yet I've been pretty consistent on this, like I feel like he's gonna start at power forward and that's what we're gonna see and everyone just needs to get ready for it. Um Again, I've talked about last time, how like his feelings on it have been pretty clear, right he has. He said like we've got mixed signals, but a D has not given us mixed signals at all. He's told

us exactly what what position he wants to play. So again, like we've we've had a D for two years now, is going into his third year. We have a title in one year, and still the conversations all the way back to will he plays center, and again, it does open things up, it does make an uglier game when he's at power forward. There's all these things that come with it, but obviously it gives him some kind of

mental edge. And again Rich Paul going around being the whisper telling people three months ago that what Vogo is gonna do just doesn't doesn't push me in that direction too much. I feel like their actions tell me more. Bringing in DeAndre Jordan, bringing in Dwight Howard, giving away Marcusol, who I thought actually put a D at center on offense, you know what I mean, Like, that's what I thought

Marcosol did. And he's off the team now. Um, and you have Carmelo Anthony and so like it's just a bunch of blood of forwards and but you have two centers on the team and I think they'll play. And we've gotten into DeAndre Jordan a lot. We've talked about his skills, what he can do, his minimal role, specialized role, and I think DeAndre Jordan starts that first three season game on Sunday, So we'll see if I'm wrong. But

I just that that's where I'm at with this. But let's clarify one detail here, because to be clear, they did win the title the first year with a D starting at the four were and playing roughly sixty percent of his regular season minutes at the four. The problem is is this season he played nine of his minutes at the four, and the Lakers offense was very obvious and clearly stilted in the half court. They had no space to operate. It obviously affected him, It obviously affected

everybody on the team. You and I have talked about this at length. There is extremely difficult for two of the most gifted offensive forwards in the history of basketball to struggle to score in NBA games. That that that was a byproduct of what happened. So Anthony Davis had an opportunity to slam this door shut and be like, I'm right, you guys are wrong. I should be playing

at the four for half of my minutes. But he went so far in the other direction to making it so radicalized in this weird you know, no spacing vintage for vintage fives, e d s at the four type of offense that it led to an obvious bad result. And that's the reason why people feel the way that they feel now. To be clear, Anthony Davis went to the four in the playoffs or five in the playoffs, and in the minutes where he was at the five.

I tweeted this out a while back. The Lakers were something crazy like plus twenty two points per one hundred possessions, and that's counting Game one where he was terrible. And if you take that number out, it's even crazier. It's like almost plus fifty per one hundred possessions. The Lakers still absolutely pulverized people with a D at the five.

But that's kind of the dramatic irony here is we have all of this evidence that hey, this is the best way for us to play, and for whatever reason this is, this is the direction that we continue to go. So I mean, and again we've hashed us out at length, so we don't need to dive in into it any further. But the reason why I think it's been a continued to be a topic of conversation when it could have faded into the ether after the championship is because of

what happened last year. And so there there he does share some blame. Like if he would have just repeated exactly what he did the previous year, no one would have said anything, but they like, he literally almost never played center in the regular season last year, so that that that was that was kind of the genesis of this the resurgence of this debate, if that makes sense. Yeah, for sure. And he wasn't himself at all last year. And I don't know what to take of last year

at all. Um he played until February and it was pretty much out, came back at the end of the season, played a couple of games, Um, my power forward. I guess also it was a different type of center, right we had Andre Drummond, uh, not a lot there at Montrose, Harold Marcosol and not guys who are really threats to finish above the basket of the rim. And I guess that's where he would see. And I think he had

a big part of building this team. And I think they want to go back to that twenty nineteen two lop thret style where you have Javail Dwight and him on the floor and then obviously when they closed games, he'll close games at center. I still predict that in the playoffs he went to the center. That's my thing with this, Like in the playoffs he showed that he would go to center. It's not like he's not going to do it. We have a blueprint of what he has done in the playoffs to go to that position.

Obviously to himself, he feels like he can't do it for a d two games. Whatever that is, I don't know if we'll ever get the right answer to that. Maybe it's bumps and bruises, Maybe it's you know, maybe he doesn't want to, you know, be the only one that has to rebound all this type of stuff, all these type of responsibilities you have at the five, they are different at the four. Right at the four, he's more of a rome or more of a like he

can kind of play this free safety. I don't know if that makes sense, if that's a football term, but he can play this like free safety um on defense. But on the five, he's the full time ring protector. He's the only guy back there. He's a full time rebounder. He's the on this team maybe with Russ and it can help a little bit. But like he obviously feels the type of way. So we're gonna know in like a week and two days or something. Oh so if he's we're gonna know pretty soon here. So we'll get

our answers to that. But I think it's been crazy that this is pretty much dominated after us the conversation has been a D play at the five. Did you see the photos of a D. By the way, did you see the pictures of him? Yeah? I always have a hard time to tell whether someone's really lost weight or not from photos, but I do see the genesis of that opinion. Yet he looked he looked very thin. He looked like really skinny, So it looked really interesting.

Looked like he lost a lot of weight, which just showed where he was last year. But I thought that was interesting. He does look a lot skier, which will support the idea that he's playing more power forward. And I know you're right about that. Yeah, so we'll we'll see, but we'll see in about a week and a half. Yeah. And again we're not going to continue to talk circles

around this because we have at length. If you want to hear more about Jason and Roge talking about a D at the four or five, feel free to listen to any podcast we've ever recorded. So I did want to say one other thing about a D really quick. I just dawned on me as it pertains to his injury history, because this is something that I've been particularly

hard on him on. If you remember earlier this summer, I said, you know, you need to get in Lebron's ear and figure out what he's doing to maintain his body, and replicate that because you're of ability is basically the make or break factor for this team. And I don't know if you guys knew this, but just and in the last couple of days, Blake Griffin went on JJ Reddick's podcast, and if you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, do so because it's very, very good.

And in addition to a lot of different stuff like just how diligently Blake Griffin worked on his jump shot starting from when he was a rookie to the point where JJ Reddick used to make fun of him because before every single game he would pantomime his jump shot for him in front of a mirror by himself because it was an operation that he had worked out with

his shooting coach. And all of these different things, but one of the big reveals from that podcast that I noticed was Blake Griffin is like Lebron with the way he takes care of his body. He invests millions of dollars in special equipment and in special treatments. He sleeps in the the the hyperbaric chamber, he does the cry

out therapies on his knees and stuff. And he kind of shared a story about how I can't remember which injury it was, but it was after one of his injuries where he kind of broke down crying because he

was like, I do everything right. I do everything right, and it happened to me anyway, and it kind of was profound in the sense that, like it made me feel like an asshole, you know, because I had been so hard on Anthony Davison, and I've been fortunate in my life to be mostly healthy, you know, for an athlete, I did okay, and so I was insensitive to the fact that, you know, maybe Anthony Davis is doing everything right,

and maybe it's happening anyway. Now, Anthony Davis, if you're eating like crap and you're not taking care of your body and this is happening, and shame on you get that figured out. But I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt that he may or may not just be a victim of some bad luck here. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, for sure. If you look at his numbers, like he's

played more than I think people think he has. I mean last season obviously was another outlier here, but the previous he's and he played I think like seventy or sixty seven games or something with the Pelicans every time, and then he was set out Blake Griffin. We forget that Blake Griffin missed his whole rookie year. I mean, I'm sure that kind of impacts you how you treat your body, right. I mean, it also probably gives you a sense of like, uh, like you don't take things

for granted. I remember he was the number one pick preseason, had these crazy dunks, and then like one preseason game he got hurt missed the rest of the year. So, um, definitely, Blake Diffin. You don't get to where he has and how long he's played in the league without protecting yourself, objecting your body. So I'll definitely go listen to that. I haven't heard that one yet. Yeah, And he actually

said he's like the way he's like. My last half full approach was like, maybe I'd be out of the league if I didn't take care of my body the way that I do, given given the types of injuries that I've had. Um, anyway, so real quick, before we go into our last topic, we were gonna address one of the mail bad questions that we missed from the previous week, and it basically stated, where do you think the Lakers are going to finish in the league in offense this year? And so I'll start with you, Roger,

what is your prediction? Not you know, we're not gonna hyper analyze necessarily all the facets of the offense, but just your prediction based on what you've seen this offseason on how well the Laker offense will perform. Now, just so you know, the first season with Lebron and a D they finished eleventh, and this past season with Lebron and with Lebron and n A D being injured for

the most part, they finished twenty four. But just in general, they've been bad offensively and particularly in the half court. A lot of their offensive success over the last couple of years has been fueled by their defense and getting out in transition. So that's kind of our starting point. What do you expect for this season? Yeah, so last year they were twenty four in offense and first in defense. Which offense is wild with a team that has Lebron

in it, No matter how many games you played or not. Um, to me, I think we get an uptaking offense. I see them as a top five offense. I think this will be a really good offense. Honestly, even with the clunky fits, even with the centers playing minutes, I still think they're gonna run. I think it's gonna be hard to stop and transition russ Ron a D running the floor. I just think they're gonna be a different type of team to play every night. And uh, I think the

offense is gonna be good. I think there's gonna be a drop in defense. We've talked about this, but the uptick of offense, I totally see it. Um too too few full time ball handlers now, the shooting that they've gotten, the offense will figure itself out. Vocal is not this like super excellent, all this crazy offensive type, but just having the ball handlers with it. I think we see a revamped a D this year as well again last

year twenty four. A lot of that to me is a D just walking through games through that first couple of months as well. So I see uptacking offense. Man, I think they can be a top five offense. And I think they'll have to be UM. I don't think they'll be as good a defense last year, even taking out being number one. UM, if they can stay on the top ten, I think that's gonna be a really freaking good team, UM if they can just keep that up. But the offense will be fine to me. Yeah, so

we're on the same page here. I you know, I've lost optimism in the team towards the end of last season when Lebron's ankle was when he tried coming back and he didn't wasn't able to, and then when Dennis Shutter had the COVID suspension. But outside of that stretch, I've been really optimistic about this formula just in general, the Lebron a d formula and the the the weird combination of like super elite high end offensive talent with

physically imposing players that translate to the playoffs. And I am more optimistic right now at this point in time than I was at any point in the previous two years, which is crazy to think about because Lebron's older. UM. But the primary reason behind that is I expect them to defend well still. Now. The reason why I would not say they're gonna be the number one offense is because you have to address the obvious elephant in the room,

which is the way these numbers usually work. So, for instance, you're gonna have a team like two years ago, the Bradley Beal Washington Wizards that just put up insane offensive numbers because they don't play any defense. So they they they're gonna have a one a team or whatever offensive rating just because they save all their energy for that

end of the floor. So you're gonna probably have one or two teams along those lines, not to mention Brooklyn, who's going to be just like a super steroided up version of that type of that type of team. But then in addition to that, the Lakers are going to defend at a or you. So you have the Lakers defending, which is gonna take energy away from the offensive ent, but you also have the fact that they're spacing isn't gonna quite be what you're gonna see from teams like

the Clippers, for instance. So I wouldn't be surprised if you see like a team like the Clippers finished with a better offensive rating than the than the Lakers because they lean so heavily into spacing, which will negatively affect them on the defensive end, and it will negatively affect them just in all the physical areas of the game having to do with like rebounding and clutch time offense, because teams start to wear down as their physically inferior

and that kind of thing. So it all adds up to an equation that we're works for the Lakers, but I expect them to finish somewhere in the three to four range on defense and then somewhere in the six to seven range on offense, and then that will inherently lead to them having somewhere in the top two or three net ratings. Is what I what I expect from

this year. But the gist of it is like between the A D splitting minutes at the four and five, hurting some of their spacing, and with all of the defensive effort that they're gonna put in, it will have some negative impact on their offense. However, Lebron James at the helm of an offense with actual spacing, which they should have some actual spacing this year which they didn't have in years past. That's just pretty much in NBA history, an automatic equation that leads to a top five offense.

I've talked about this a lot, but before before nineteen so, the year that Lebron pulled his groin. For ten consecutive seasons, dating all the way back to Cleveland, Lebron James let offense says, we're top six in the league for ten consecutive seasons, and most of them were in the top two or three. There was just one random outlier and there I think it was one of the heat seasons

where they ended up six point. Being though this Lebron with shooting has always led to high level offense, throwing Russ's motor, throwing Anthony Davis, throwing just a decent amount of shooting. I think they'll still be very productive offensively. I just don't think they can be at the top of the league with some of the teams that literally sell their soul to score points at the at the detriment of the team. Yeah, and and also throw in

a good second unit, right, throwing a good bench. Like when Lebron was on the floor, offensive was fine, to be honest, it wasn't great, but like it wasn't twenty four in the league. It's when Lebron goes off the floor running lineups through Dennis Shrewder, you know, a d as the offensive fulcrum. That's kind of where our offense kind of really dipped. It gets kind of ugly. So with Russ and a DA releading a second unit, our

offense should be better. It should be able to keep up, and that net rating should be even better to me this season, Um, I don't think you'll be like Utah level last year where they were like I think plus thirteen or something like that, but you know, like something like plus ten plus eleven just getting a better bench. Um, how many times would like our bench coming and there'll be like five minute five minutes of like no scoring droughts,

no field goals for like six minutes and stuff like that. Um, really just kills offense. That's what drops your numbers down from four to like top ten or eleven as if you can kind of keep a good second unit there. So I agree with you often should be better. Um, I'm still waiting to see how the defense looks before I kind of judge on what what number I give that, But I think the office is gonna be fine with a bunch of scores, a bunch of off the dribble guys,

a bunch of guys that can can get hot. We kind of traded out our defensive kind of store warts, right, Alex Cruzo went out the door, and we put in like scores um to to replace that, and that should give you more scoring. We should be able to score more this year. And uh, hopefully we don't have to watch these super ugly games where it's like ninety one while other teams are have like one fifteen scoring nights. So we'll see with that. But I agree with the

offense should be better, should be fine. The stuff about the non Lebron minutes is a really good point, and you know, as it pertains to the net rating that you brought up, like I, you know, I wouldn't predict this because of all of the things that can go wrong, but I wouldn't be the least bit shocked if the Lakers came into the season and just started beating the hell out of everybody, like I, like, you know, that's kind of the way it was in and it kind of is the you know, twenty one in six to

start last season, UM doesn't seem that impressive, you know, it's it's kind of like roughly a sixty four win pace. You know, the Lakers the previous season started twenty four and three, so it's easy to be like it was less impressive that was twenty one in six, but it was the best record in the league, which is an important detail, Like the Jazz didn't actually pass them until after the injuries happened. They were six, which was the best record in the league, and they were at the

time aim uh. They were the team that had the least motivational advantage, meaning they were exhausted, they were burnt out from the playoff run. They had all of those reasons to fall back on in terms of not playing as hard as they as they as they ended up

doing so. And so from that same point, I would say, like, if you really break down the Lakers, they've been incredibly dominant their first season, and then they started incredibly dominant, and then there were some injuries, and so theoretically it's it's very possible that they go into the season and

just start running over everybody. I hope they do. I think that I think that would be the perfect tone to set so that you come into a potential Brooklyn Nets matchup with a ton of momentum and confidence, but anyway, I think it'll be it'll be fun to see, But we have about twenty minutes. I wanted to get to this next topic. This was your idea, Roger, and I

think it's a really good one. So everybody has like an individual relationship with the game of basketball with you know, whether it's family or whether it's something that's more by happenstance, and obviously that leads to the Lakers and one way or another, uh if you're a Laker fan. So I wanted to start with just kind of basketball in a broad sense. So my first question for you, garage is how did you encounter and fall in love with the game of basketball? So shout out Mr Ricky Spanish, our

friend Ricky on Twitter. Um, he asked the Lakers orangin story. And I thought this would be a good idea for us because we I don't think we've we've kind of talked about a little bit here and there in our different kind of analysis, but we haven't really talked about it full. So I thought this would be a good

idea for me. So like in my ivy, I have me as a you know, as a kid playing basketball, um as a kid, but like at that time, I didn't really know what basketball was or I wasn't really in jobs playing you as a kid because you know, as a kid who play sports and stuff like that. So I didn't really play it until I got to high school around in ninth grade. Um. I went to this small kind of school, um before I transferred, and uh,

they were like three fifty kids in the school. It's a school in l A uh and uh, so I was like, let me just try it for the basketball team. There's not that many people here, you know that. I don't know how good they would be. And I was wrong. There's a lot of really good players. Um. But like you know, I've made the team or whatever. And but I knew nothing about basketball. So the coach was like, do a screen and I was like, the only screen I know is a green screen. Like I don't know

what the screen is. So like so I was definitely not good. Um. But then like one of the seniors, um, he came to me, He's like, I want you to go home and watch Kobe. I was like, why would I want to go watch Kobe? I don't I don't want to be in the NBA, Like why would I just go watch me said no, I want you to go home, just watch Kobe. So I went home that night and I watched and I fell in love with the game right away. Um, since then, this was two thousand and eight, I don't think I've missed a game

on purpose since then. So like since two thousand and eight, since that guy told me, since I don't want to put his name out there, but he told me to go, um go watch Kobe. Since then, I just fell in love with the game. I started playing more and more and again you just fall in love with and both of us. You don't watch it as much as us and unless you fall in love with it. And it was just something about it, the connection, the beauty of it. Um just connecting me. And it's just something that's aid

with uh till now. So that's kind of my story on it. I started really late, Um, I really what really like I annoys me as I wish I was watching it in the Shock in Kobe years because that seems like such a amazing time to be a fan. But I missed all that. Um. I started with the Kobe and Power years, but yeah, that's where I was kind of starting. How about how about you men? Where did you where did you find your entry into uh

leving basketball? So for starters, you know, in terms of missing out on an era, um, there's a pros and there's pros and concept because for starters, there's always going to be another era. It's like this, it's like the Kobe pow years excuse me, and then the LEBRONI d years.

For the rest of our lives, we're gonna see dominant stretches of historical basketball from teams and you know, you know what you get to do is you get to go back and watch, like, you know, one of the biggest joys for me because especially because like I I share similar frame to Michael Jordan, about the same size, and I've copied a lot of elements of his game. You know how cool it was for me as a kid who didn't get to watch mj when he was laying because I was literally like seven years old when

he wanted sixth sixth title. Like, I get to go back and watch all this film and it's like new to me. It's like free basketball, you know, like it's it's cool and and and you know, being the access that we have to that stuff now is so cool, and you know, at the end of the day, like you know, there's gonna be some kids some out there one day that's gonna be watching an era of Lakers basketball, being like, man, I wish I could have watched Lebron and a d That had to have been awesome, you

know what I mean. So it's all it's all part of the bigger vision anyway. Um, you know, you talked about how we would never be able to watch as much basketball as we do if we weren't addicted to it. And it's funny because I was literally talking to my buddy about that last night, who's a big football fan, and I was like, yeah, you know, the NBA really

struggles from a lack of urgency. Like it's hard for me to convince you, my buddy, to come watch a regular season NBA game, because you're not going to feel the same urgency coming off the screen as you do from an NFL game. Because an NFL game, even though they're not all win or go home type of scenarios, they kind of carry some of that type of momentum and there's an urgency that just it's hard to replicate.

So what gets me to enjoy a random second quarter shift from Taylon Horton Tucker with DeAndre Jordan's on a Tuesday in in Memphis. Is my love for the game of basketball, and that and that that kind of is what drives all of this and and and it comes from somewhere. So for me, what was funny is I

grew up in a baseball and football family. My my dad would put the d Backs game on every night, you know, here in Tucson, and we were all big Dallas Cowboy fans because all of my my my family moved to Tucson from Dallas, and all of my extended families in Dallas, and so lots of NFL, lots of baseball. We I didn't really play football growing up, my brothers did.

I played little league baseball just like everyone else. And what ended up happening was on a random Sunday, um, we were hanging out on the couch and flicking channels and there was game six of the it was game seven actually two thousand six Pistons Calves, And what had happened was the Pistons jumped up to oh and the Calves won three games in a row. But unlike what happened in two thousand seven, Lebron could not close the deal in Game six and seven. It was his first

ever playoff run. But uh, and I remember Lebron played terrible in this game in Game seven, and uh. But it was like my first real exposure to basketball because I didn't really watch basketball growing up because my family just didn't really expose its exposed me to it, and I got hooked, like right away. So from from that moment on from the start in next season, I basically started watching every single game Lebron played in, you know,

and I was a what what? I guess? I was a fifteen year old kid who was like falling in love with the game from scratch at age fifteen. And I remember I remember watching you know, Lebron drive baseline and take that crazy double pump dunk against the Dallas Mavericks and then like running into the back of the house and like grabbing my older brother and being like you gotta come see this, and like bringing him into

the living room. And my whole family was so like taken aback by it because none of them, none of them cared about basketball. And then you double that with me randomly growing to be six ft six when all my brothers and Dad are like six ft and it was just kind of like it was kind of like

it meant to be, you know, so to speak. And I was lucky because my parents had a a basketball hoop in the front yard and I didn't have anybody to really play with, but I just worked on my shot, and so it was funny is I was basically this like six six, gangly like bandy, super unathletic, uh like nerdy, skinny dude. But I could shoot. That was like my my my skill that I could take home. Well, I

was a terrible, terrible, terrible high school player. Uh. Famously, on senior Night my senior year, I didn't play and all of the other seniors did and it was like kind of a devastating moment for me. But in retrospect, I look back and I don't blame the coach necessarily

because I was terrible, Like I was terribied. I still remember one time in a JV game, dribbling to the left in a half court set and the ball just disappearing out of my hand, not because I got stolen from but because I was such a bad ball handler that I tried to dribble in the ball just like air ball in my hand and went flying out of bounds, and like then I got pulled from the game. And so I was just a really really bad high school player. Well, I the reason why I was bad because I was

I started late. I started when I was like fifteen. Well, um, when I went to the University of Arizona, I just started playing pick up every single day. And what basically happened was is all of a sudden, I got used to my body and I actually became a pretty freak athlete. At the time, I was about two hundred and five pounds and had about a forty in vertical so I could get my elbows above the rim and so that in combination with my shooting, made me a pretty decent player.

But I was still extremely flawed. I couldn't dribble, can see the floor, couldn't do any of those things. Well, after my second year of college, I walked in to a to the community college, the local community college, and uh, and I just started killing everybody. Uh in a in an open gym, and the head coach wasn't even there. So I go home and I go about my business. For me, it was just a run. I had heard Hey, they're having open gym at PM. I used to go

check it out. I'm like okay, And so then all of a sudden, I get a phone call from this guy and he's the head coach of the team. He wasn't there, and he goes like, hey, like, can you come back to our open gym today? And I was like sure. So I went back to the open gym um the next day and killed everybody again, and he

offered me a scholarship on the spot. So what was funny was like I had never played organized basketball basically, and I was just like a twenty year old kid who who could jump out of the gym and could shoot threes. And the guy basically envisioned turning me into like a stretch five basically. And so then I I went to uh T Pima that year and I average like sixteen points a game. I had a really good

scoring season, but the team was terrible. I ended up transferring up to Utah, played a year junior college up there in Utah, and then I finished at Arizona Christian University in Phoenix. Eligibility was my big problem, even though it was all conference. My second year in uh IN in JV or excuse me, and um, junior college. I no Division one would touch me because at that point I only had one year of eligibility left and no one thought they could integrate me into a Division one

program in one year. Um. But then next thing you know, I was twenty three years old and uh, and all out of eligibility and then you're done. And I I tried to play professionally overseas, but I didn't really have any connections. And to be honest, I wasn't that good back then. I was still not a very good ball handler. And I could shoot the ball, and I could defend, and I could and I could jump, but I couldn't

really do all the in between things. And it's funny because people always ask me now, They'll be like, why don't you playing overseas? W weren't you doing this? And it's like, I didn't really get good until I was like twenty six. So like from that standpoint, by the time I got to this point where I could dribble and do all those other things, it was too late. Um, But I'm at peace with it right now. I just played for fun, and Uh, as far as the Lakers

element goes, it's really simple. I grew up in Tucson, Arizona. We don't have a professional sports team there. It's a college town. Heck, I didn't even follow the NBA growing up. Lebron is the one who got me to fall in love with the game of basketball, and I always knew

I wanted to cover the league. And so if you look in the archives, you'll find articles of me writing for a website called King James Gospel, which was the fans sided uh Cleveland Cavaliers website and uh and I wrote, you know, for a season for them, and then I also wrote about some college basketball stuff for the uv A. And then when Lebron went to the Lakers, I just on of continued to do the same thing that I've always been doing and in a weird way. Man. And

I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I'm not just saying this. I've kind of just fallen in love with this culture of this team. And you know, my fanhood for the Lakers extends far beyond Lebron because as much as I love Lebron and what he's done for me in terms of falling in love with the game and just rooting for him for all these years. I love Frank Vogel and I love the culture that he's instilled. I don't agree with everything Rob's done, but

I think Rob has done a really nice job. I've fallen in love with the young players that have come through this program. I love the culture that centers around defense, and we're going to outwork everybody and physically beat everybody

to a pulpe. And so it's been cool. It's been cool in the sense that, like you know, it'll be so easy for me to continue to support and cover this franchise after Lebron is gone, because I've almost organically kind of adopted the franchise in terms of of rooting for them, and it's and it's been really cool to become a part of this and quite frankly, and I mean this, I think you in particular for this and so many others, like the Laker fan base has just

accepted me with open arms, and I sincerely appreciate that and I look forward to the future. It's gonna be fun. Yeah, well, and it's kind of cool because we both come at from different sides. You've played at a higher level than I did. Um I played a little bit, but like we both love the game, and we're not always righting what we say, you know what I mean, But we do come at it from like an open mind, from like a love of basketball. Take So that's where we

start at our analysis or whatever we talk about. We come at it from the love of the game. And I think that shows too. I think I saw I think I remember when you started just tweeting about the Lakers. I could just tell like it was from the love of the game and you knew how you were talking about. But yeah, it's cool to see where it's grown and all that and and where it's going. I think it's gonna be great. We're gonna keep growing here. But yeah, it's been awesome to see the support as well that

that we've gotten from from all the people. It's just cool to see everyone's kind of stories. Like I always believe, everyone has like a everyone has a way that they see the game right, no one, no two people kind of see it the exact same. Everyone has ease of views on it, everyone has their principles that they come off with everything how they see it, and everyone's kind of opinion can matter. Here. We're just two people who talk basketball, you know what, I mean, and we're open

with it. We talked basketball with anyone, so it's pretty awesome and hearing kind of where we started is pretty cool. Um, do you remember your first your first organized game? Do you remember that? I remember I was so nervous, and I remember like one of the people telling me, like, you'll be super nervous, and then once you get in the game, your mind has like a crazy ability to just like focused on the game. And he was totally right.

I was crazy nervous. Right when you get in the game that you kind of are able to just focus on like what's going on. You don't really hear anyone on the crowd or anything. Do you remember like your first game? Wanted to ask you that because I think it's it's it's fascinating when I when I asked other people like their first ever organized organized game. Yeah, so

I actually vividly remember it. So the uh I played in high school, but I was never in the rotation, so like I went through practices and stuff, but if I ever got into the game, it's because we were up thirty five and it didn't really count. So mine for game that where I played organized basketball, where I was in the in the rotation was when I was in junior college and I was the starting center quote unquote,

but I wasn't really a center. I was like a stretch four basically, and there was just a lack of size on that particular team. Our team wasn't very good, but we were on the road at South Mountain College, which is in which is in Phoenix, and I remember in the layup lines again at this point I I I broke my foot the following off season and put on a bunch of muscles, so I went from like two oh five to and it made me a better player,

but I became less vertically athletic. When I was at this point before this game, when I was my first year of junior college, I was light and like incredibly bouncy, and I remember going through layup lines so juiced up on adrenaline that like I was like taking off from the semi circle and just like lightly feathered, like not not even getting a technical, but just dropping the ball

through the net, you know. And and I run over to the bench and my assistant coach, his name was Chris Claus, and he comes up to me and he goes like, hey, Jason, do we need to change your shorts because he was just making fun of me because of how excited I was. And uh, and I'm like, no, no no, no, I'm good, I'm good. I'm good. So again, you're right. You get into the game and what actually takes over is your job. When you have a job to focus on, if you have specific responsibilities, you don't

have time to get psyched out by what's happening around you. Now, what was funny was is I did score zero points in the first half of that game, and it completely I was completely psyched out, just running around a little bit disheveled, a little bit overhyped up. And the second half, the team we were playing was playing a one three one, and if you know anything about a one three one,

there's only one man on the back side. So one of the most common ways to attack on one three one is to swing the ball over to the other side and backcut from the opposite corner. There's usually going to be an open lob there. So I saw it coming and I saw the opportunity there, went up to the guard. I'm like, hey, I think if I cut back door here, I think we have an opportunity for

an alley. So uh. A couple of minutes into the second half, I cut back door on the back side of the one three one dude throws just an absolutely perfect pass and I dunk it, and it was like it was literally like the way of the world got lifted off my shoulders because the fact that my first basket was a highlight play made it so that I

felt confident. And then we ran. Our offense was centered around me at the top of the key, working out of a triple threat position because I knew I couldn't ribble super well, so I worked out of a triple threat position, and then they would just put shooters around me, and I just started getting the ball from the top of the key and just scoring almost every time I had the ball, and so I ended up finishing with seventeen points in the second half, and then um, the

next time I played that same team, I had thirty one. But like the the the like once I had that first dunk, like the way of the world got lifted off my shoulders and I felt like a million bucks and then I kind of just took off from there. But it's crazy how you get You get nervous, and

you know, basketball game are weird there. So you can remember this from when you were playing, Like they're so chaotic and like half the time, like the ball go in the hoop, and because you're in the rotation or you're running from the screen or something, you won't even

see the ball go through the hoop. All of a sudden, you'll just see someone's inbounding and you're like, oh, I gotta run the floor, go this way, you know, like it it can be very chaotic, And the biggest thing that happens after you get a few reps under your belt is things start to slow down a little bit and you start to actually be aware of what's happening around you, you know what I mean. Yeah, that's right,

and that's how it works. And pickup as well, you play a bunch of pickup, you kind of slow down, kind of understand your game. Um as well. I remember like it was like a home came coming game, I think. And again I wasn't in the rotation either. I was just kind of a player on the end of the bench, but I was in there. And then, uh, I thought I was playing well. I thought I was doing you know, I thought I was doing good. Like I thought I was playing defense in the coach like he like motions

me to come over to him. He's like, calm down, you know, like his hands like this, He's like calmdaw. I was like, oh no, I'm okay. He's like, I just slow down. I was like all right. So yeah, it's just it's just funny to kind of think back and yeah, like I don't know, like I used to watch wrestling as well, and I kind of got out of watching wrestling when I was a kid. But I feel like basketball my love for a very long time.

So I feel like I'm in love forever. So it's kind of cool seeing both of us kind of where it's going, and uh, our love for the game kind of shows and what we talked about in our work or and whatever we post. So I hope that kind of comes off to everyone as well. For sure. Yeah, if there if there's there's no doubt that you can count on the fact that we we get we give a ship for lack of a better term, and we

we will watch the film. Like but you and I almost almost every regular season game that happens this season, you and I will watch twice in all likelihood. Um, you know we are going to uh. You know, there will be times when we talk about stuff around the league where you and I are doing some pontificating on little bits of evidence because we haven't watched as much

as some of the local fans have. But when it comes to the Lakers, you can count on the fact that we've dug into the numbers, we've dug into the film, and we care. And the last thing I'll say is like, you know, when I talk about, you know, my playing experience, and you I know you feel this way, and I know you on staying that, but I want to emphasize it to all all of our listeners. It never comes from a place of a superiority complex. I don't think I'm an NBA player. I don't think I'm close to

an NBA player. I love the game of basketball, and I know I played at a pretty high level. But to me, that's just part of my story. It's not something that differentiates me. It's not something that makes me more intelligent with basketball. I don't think that I have a better analysis than you. All it is for me is it's my personal story in my personal angle, and it's part of the way I see the game. It's

just unique to me. I will never ever, you know, use that as some sort of thing to try to put some sort of gap between me and a fan or me and someone else. That's just not the way that I see it. And I hope people understand that. And and you know, when I do talk about this stuff, if a lot of times it's just me reminiscenting, you know, on the glory day, so to speaking. But but uh, but yeah, I'm really really excited to see, um, you know, how much more this can grow this year, because it's

already grown several times over since you and I started. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to do that. Um. And yeah, we're gonna get going here pretty soon. We have like two weeks. But I hope everyone kind of enjoyed that. I like to know, like where we come from from this, Like where are kind of beliefs kind of come from on this and everyone everyone has their own obviously, everyone sees the game their own way, and that's just kind of

where we come from and how we see it. And then it kind of um creates how we see, um everything, how we see life and basketball. So UM, I think I think this is just interesting for for us again into that and have the have the listeners know that for sure, exactly. All right, guys, we're gonna we're gonna get out of here and get to work for the rest of the day. But we appreciate your supports. Sincerely.

I will be putting this on our podcast feed shortly and we will see you guys next week and Roger we'll talk, but we'll probably end up doing some sort of more comprehensive season preview here in the next year. Alright, brother, have a good day. We'll see you guys later. Appreciate it. Thanks everyone,