Episode 84: Warriors/Lakers Postgame Spaces

we're what's your headspace like right now? Where you at? Mentally? So this is I predicted them to lose tonight, and like, I guess my first just overall look at this is they gave zero crap about the preseason I mean all that stuff we were talking about trying to break down preseason games, and then you look at tonight, if of like they were just playing a completely different sport and just like that competitiveness was there in the first quarter,

and I predicted that the Warriors would win. I just thought they looked a lot more comfortable, a lot more ready. This team looks like it fits what Kerr wants to do on offense. So I guess that's my first look is that the Warriors look good. They look legit even without Clay Thompson, and then the fit with us is still not there, right, And I guess that's the place we can go to. But for me, I want to start with the good. So where do you want to start?

Do you want to start with Lebron or do you want to start with a D. I think those are the two, I guess bright spots that you can say about this game. So yeah, we will we will start with the positive. I will try my hart ist I. I also predicted the Lakers would lose this game, but I predicted they would lose the game because I thought they were playing bad basketball in general in the preseason. Just with their effort level and their focus and their

attention to detail. They seemed like a team to me that hadn't really hit that gear yet. And one of my consistent basketball philosophies is that you can't do that overnight. Like you that is something that is a ball that has to get rolling, and usually if you run into a team who's playing at that level and you are not, you will lose. And that's what I expected to happen.

But today I also tweeted out that the one case here would be what Lebron was talking about, the fact that they've been having good practices, and that appears to be true. It appears that they've been having good practices and that has led to the defensive intensity that we saw basically through the first two and a half quarters. Um, obviously that's not what happened. We're going to get into that. The positives though, and this to me is actually a

little concerning. Is Lebron and a d look like two of the top five players in the world something On both ends of the floor, they look fantastic. Lebron looks every good as good as he has in his time as a Laker, both athletically getting where he needs to on the floor with his with his uh, you know, his mobility, and also with his touch and his feel and his passing and all stuff. He looks great. Anthony Davis, My main concern with him in the preseason was not

how he looks physically, because he looks great. I was just worried about his jumper because he seems to be in a pretty extended jump shooting slop, and he shopped the ball pretty well today, but think with exception of the free throw line, so there was so much good on that side of things, and I I want to make sure that we point that out. However, that's what scares me, is like the whole point of this formula is that when Lebron and a D look good, you

lose the other team. I mean, and in this case, like the Lakers really didn't even have a chance to win with how bad it was there at the end, and so that that has to be concerning, I think, I think, and that's unfortunate. But anyway, what was your opinion first look at the Lebron in a d uh situation to start those seasons. Yeah, so obviously it was a little bit concerning. Like I wasn't worried about him

in preseason, but they just didn't look in rhythm. So we talked about it all the time, like that is the most important thing of the season. And we can break down the other guys, you know, Russell Westbrooks Fair, we can break down the xs and knows how ugly the spacing is, but those two guys are on. That's the core you built around this, right, This is a whole new, revamped team a bunch of you guys, him, A D, Lebron, THHD Rondo, right, and do I that's

the core. But your core is Lebron and a D. Those two have to show up or you don't have a chance to win anyway, right, So those two being your ground floor and you can build around that. And I thought they looked great. I thought a D his jumper was going by. I don't even want to kind of consider that because that looks like it's going to

be up and down as the season goes. But he was attacking the rim, right, he had Wantascano Anderson on him, and it was just you know, spin moved right to the basket, get foul or and Rondo and him had a connection on laws as well. It's good to see him being a vertical threat being up in the air, Um, not just everything has a jumped out. His three pointer wasn't there either, but just seeing attacking the rim, Lebron was hitting his jumper and like he wasn't really going

to the basket because he didn't have to. His jumper looked on and you could tell he felt it. Um. He was hitting for mid range and it was kind of masking and all the ugly Lakers offense right, um, because because his jumper was going, but he looked good physically as well. He was getting down the court and

defensively man. So so I want to ask you about this, because they trapped Steff pretty much all game right until like the end of the third or fourth, or they trapped Steff all game, and seeing Lebron defend that way, it is just something I haven't seen even last season. You saw it in bits and parts, but just him as his help defender, man, because when you trapped Steff, you need a guy people to rotate, and I thought

he was awesome on that. Anthony David's as well. Covered up for a million defensive mistakes man, especially those Carmelo Rondo Westbrook lineups next to a D and a D. Pretty much had to clean up everything, and he was doing a pretty nice job of it. And I thought the Warriors would eventually take the lead. Their three point shooting would eventually come up. They took fourteen threes in the first half, which is way below what they usually go to, so I knew that would kind of pick up.

And plus it's tough to play a trapping scheme as long as they did, that's just really tiring for defense, and I thought that would kind of catch up to him. So that was my kind of takeaways. I thought, ad Lebron looked great, and then from there, I guess we can kind of iv into everything else. But it's good to have that foundation. I guess that gives me a little bit of a about the fresh air from from

seeing this tonight. Yeah, let me give that as the silver lining here is that with Lebron and A D looking this good, Frank should be able to find a way, um to to make this work. And and for the record, most of the Lebron, especially the Lebron A D lineups looks great in this game. And to your point, with Lebron and Anthony Davis being able to clean things up on the back end, it makes the job so much easier for the other guys on the floor. And this is kind of where I think Frank lost me in

terms of the tactical approach to this game. You know, you and I have talked throughout the preseason about like, you know, a base like a base floor level of talent that you have to have on the floor on both ends of the floor in order for things to function right, Like if you have too little shooting, once you cross a certain threshold, then Lebron and they d won't be able to do their job. Abobs, if you have two little defensive talent on the floor, then people

won't be able to do their jobs. And you know, that's the thing that was frustrating for me, is like, how can you possibly I think it's a good idea to play Mellow and Rondo at the same time. Like that, that to me is asking for those guys to fail because on their best day they can maybe feel a

very small role next to elite defensive players. You know, Mellow, you had some stretches there early in the game where he looked okay defensively when he was with the better players, but they're in the in the middle of the third quarter, it was one of the worst stretches of defense that I've seen from him, and then he obviously made some mistakes in the fourth quarter as well. That to me is that the you know, Frank understands that he does.

I know he does, especially with his defensive approach to the game. So I just genuinely didn't understand. And I know people have talked about injuries and I get that, like, you know, Rondo's minutes, they're going to go to Kendrick Nunn at some point, you know, like some of these wing minutes, probably all of DeAndre Jordan's minutes are going to go to Trevor Reza at some point. Like there is going to be you know, a greener pastor on the other side of this that injury luck they've had

to start the season. However, right now he still has better options than what he's putting out there, and just the way he's mixing this up and and I was, I was, it was frustrating to watch that because it just seemed to me like, like, as a coach, how do you not see that when you play Westbrook Rondo, Molik Monk, Carmelo Anthony, and Anthony Davis, that that lineup is not gonna be able to guard, especially against a team that has at any given moment two or three

guys that can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket and shoot off the dribble like that's your It's just it just was annoying and frustrating for me as a fan to watch that when my inferior or basketball mines compared to Frank Vogel could put two and two together and realized that wasn't gonna work, you know what I mean. Right, look, this is year three of Frank Vogel, Like like we're not new to this. Frank Vogeo is not new to this. He plays vets, right,

He's gonna play his vets. And I always thought, you know, Rondo came in and said he would play Jerry Dudley Rowland. Maybe that's true when the team is healthy, but right now, who's our backup guard? Like you talked about Kendrick Dunn is out? I feel like those minutes would go to th h T as well. Carmelo is getting the reason minutes probably right um leik Monica as well. Isn't I

think fully healthy? But but we'll see. But it's funny seeing the kind of timeline go crazy on Carmelo, saying like you should just stand in the corner and to me, to me, twenty six minutes to night for Carmelo was too high, Like I've always said, always said that, Like I thought ten to fifteen minutes to night was fine

for him. And look, he did his job tonight. Like if you're expecting Melo to go and you know read these splits, uh, these split post actions that the warriors run and able to come out on Steph and able to hedge high like his job is to kind of trap and he I thought he did his job fairly well in that and to cook for a little while. He he did push an offensive run right, and then he got, you know, a little happy with his post ups and stuff. So I don't know, like blaming Carmela

for that. It's tough to me. And I want to ask you, what do you He made a critical, critical defensive error when the game was I think it was back to two and he was guarding a step a Steph Curry pick and roll and didn't even come out above the top of the key and I and I literally was just like that, the game is in the balance, and you need to have guys on the floor who understand the way that that Steph Curry pick and roll can change the complexion of the game and understand the

job that you have there in that pick and role, and that that to me is mellow. Throughout his career, for better or worse, has not had to worry about that stuff because of the role that he's had on those teams when he was in his prime, and and that that to me is just like it to me was the kind of the epitome of what we've been worried about coming into this is just you know, these particular guys, you can count on them for small stretches,

like you're saying, for small roles. But when it's middle of the fourth quarter and Steph just checks in at the six minute mark and that's Carmelo Anthony defending the screener and a pick and roll, Steph Curry is salivating at them. That's what he wants to see. And I just feel like there were better options, but that I digress anywhere. Yeah, and they picked on him a lot all night, right, They brought up whoever Carmelo was guarding

and made him the screener. And again that's going to happen, like I and I just don't I feel like you can get away with one bad defender like we talked about, But just the Rondo Westbrook mellow lineups, and I think Malik Monk also out there next to a D. That's just a lot for a D to cover. And the Warriors are one of the best ball movement motion offense teams in the league, and that's just really tough to stop. They drive and kick really well, and they got us

in the rotation a bunch. And again I thought in the first half our defense was okay, But those those end of the quarter kind of runs, I think we gave up a bunch of runs just to end the quarter. Right. Whenever lebron would come out or a d will come out and just get a little break before the end of quarters, the Warriors will go on a run, whether Steff was on the floor or nine. I thought that

was pretty much what decided the game. And in the fourth quarter when they went on that run without Steph even on the floor, I thought that was a pretty bad moment. But I want to ask you about DeAndre Jordan's because I see a lot of a lot of people upset at him, and I have my thoughts. I guess it's funny like I gave the Javail comps and the first play of the game we ran was when we won the tip and he immediately ran to the rim.

I got a lot dunk, which is exactly the play that they would run with Javel every single time that you want to want to tip. But I want to ask you, like, what do you think of Javelle? Sorry not Javelle, excuse me. DeAndre Jordan's uh tonight was a plus two on the night and he only played twelve minutes, you know, so it's tough for me to blame the game on him when he only played twelve minutes to night,

But what do you think of DeAndre Jordan's at center? Okay, I'm gonna vent here again for a second, so I apologize in advance for people because I'm gonna sound very annoyed. You know, of course he was plushed. He was playing alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davison, Russell Westbrook. They made his job and you know, and and what what's what was frustrating for me is again you have to look at the bigger picture here, and they play DeAndre Jordan

to look at the bigger picture. Their thought process is we need to keep our centers engaged, because apparently DeAndre Jordan isn't enough of a professional to realize that if he's not in the rotation for you know, ten games, but then Dwight takes a break, but that's his time to play. Like, for whatever reason, they can't kind of figure that concept out because they used to do the

same thing with Javail McGee for whatever reason. But the point is, they didn't score for the first three minutes of the second half, and uh, when they finally did, I think the Warriors were on a eight to two run or something like that at that point, blowing whatever progress you had established in the first half. Why did they not score in the first three minutes of the second half? You tell me? Was it a lack of space? Was it the fact that you had essentially useless offensive

body on the floor like that? That That's the kind of thing that I look at here is as far as I'm concerned, Yes, you're gonna win those minutes because of how good or stars are. But if instead of being plus two with your starters, maybe your plus twelve with your starters, because that's what should happen when you have Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the court at the same time and you're you're willingly sacrificing points for the sake of of catering to this person's emotions, and

you know, and I get it. Some people have pointed out to me today, Hey, you had injuries. Uh, you know, two guards and wings. That puts you in the position where DeAndre Jordan has to play. I call absolute horship on that part of my language. And the reason why is because when you actually look at the way Um Lebron and A D defend on the back line, they when the two of them are on the court together, size is not an issue. It's absolutely not an issue.

And when you get into other lineups, when Lebron or a D on the floor by themselves, that's when you need to have somebody like a a Dwight Howard on the floor to help with the overall size of the lineup, if that makes sense, or you know, like I've always preached, like if you're gonna play Carmelo playing with Anthony Davis that well, like you discussed, so that Anthony Davis can

help clean up some of his mistakes. But at the end of the day, they had options, Austin reeves when you actually look at what they need from that role, because you know what, and Carmelo's post ups aren't actually moving the needle. They might help you rescue the occasional possession here or there, but they aren't actually moving in

the needle. When you look at what you need from Austin Reeves to do while he's on the floor, guard, get over the top of screens, help but with box outs, help, crash the glass, run the floor, and transition, you know, defend like crazy, all that stuff. When you look at what you're asking him to do, he can succeed in that role. And that was where I got was frustrated with it is you had the ability to make sure that your baseline size and baseline physicality was still there

without playing DeAndre Jordan's. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the Lakers couldn't score to start the second half. I absolutely think that was because of DeAndre Jordan's but that's for sure. And I kind of disagree with you that it's only to what's called cater to DeAndre Jordan's right, because I think this is Vogel again to me with this is our third year with him. He's a counterpuncher, right, so he's gonna go with what he likes. He likes

that two big lineup. I think that's no secret. I think he said that as well. And I think he likes Dwight Howard in the in that kind of backup role. And to me, again, six minutes every half, I don't think that's why they lost his lost his game. And again it is a trade off between offensive defense and DeAndre Jordan is not going to be able to come

out onto Step. But I thought there were a few players where, like you saw, kind of the structure of the defense they well, even if DeAndre Jordan is not the correct guy to place in it, where like bays Moore would you know, fight fight over step Chase Steph and then give him back pressure while DJ is kind of waiting in the lane and you have a D and Lebron kind of roaming trying to trying to guard three on two and stuff like that on the on the back side. Like, I think that's kind of the

structure they want. And again it was just six minutes in each half. And I don't think he decided this game. I don't think he helped the game either. I think it's just some thing that a D obviously likes. And again maybe injuries is the excuse why he can start right now, but I just think that's where it is with DeAndre Jordan. So that's kind of my take on DJ. But again, like to be clear, I thought he was

a little I thought he was. I thought he had stretches in the preseason where he where he was a little bit more you know, driven with his motor and he was moving and actually getting down in the defensive stance and trying to be mobile and trying to be impactful defensively. Like I thought he was really good against the Kings the other night, but but tonight in particular,

he just wasn't good. He did like when when when Namanza b Elites or not or Kevin Looney, I should say, when Kevin Looney catches the ball on the block and he can very easily just pump fake you out of your shoes and just go to the other side and finish, Like that's the one that we need you to shut down, you know what I mean, That's an easy job. You're seven ft or your sixpen and you're relatively mobile. You should be able to keep Keevan Looney from scoring if

he doesn't have an obvious advantage against you. And and those are the kinds of things where I thought that like he he wasn't as good as he could have been. But also I think depending on him in that starter role, I think it's a mistake. I think that's I called it. Point shaving today is a joke, and to be clear,

I was joking. But to be clear, I think for the for whatever the size, whatever it is that he is obsessed with with having size on the floor, I think the trade off on the other end is actually negatively impacting the team. Yeah, And like my biggest issue where I was going with this with the like starting lineup, and again I've talked about it. I don't mind the six minutes to start each half because he's not going

to play when it matters. But my biggest issue is that we're seeing a D only play the five next to Carmelo, right, so we're not seeing any Lebron in a D at the four or five, which is where you get that advantage, right where Lebron kind of moves down a vision and he's able to play the four and still and they still be this physical monster. When you put Carmelo at that spot, I just feel like it makes it a lot different, especially with the struggles

that Russ is having as well. It's it's really weird, like we ran our offense through Avery Bradley to close the game, like it was like Harmelo Avery Bradley, Lebron a D I believe to close the game and we're running our offense through Bradley. And just a quick funny thing on Avery Bradley. He wasn't here last season, but it's funny how they just went right back to running

actions they ran with him in nineteen. It was like dribble handoff that he likes to do, kind of come off and you saw him feed a D and he hit his corner three is just funny um to kind of see him get minutes. But yeah, that's my biggest issue with that is that we don't get enough Lebron and a D at the four or five with Russ actually as well. I think that would help us as well,

just in terms of spacing and stuff. We see Russ like playing next to Melow and again Melo counts space, but there's a lot of times he goes into the post um. But I guess we can kind of move on from that. Let's talk about the big thing that's going to be. I guess the storyline every single night. I don't think this is going away the last you first, like, what what do you think of Russ tonight? This is

day one. I want people to remember that this is day number one of Russell Westbrook, a regular season Russell Westbrook. What do you see from us and night and in totality. So I talked about this with you and Mr Jason Maples in the UH the other day, and so I'm to be clear and I have to disclose this up front. I I have a preconceived notion of this move. I didn't like the trade when it happened. I thought it would negatively impact the team. So that's probably gonna color

my analysis to some extent. So I want to disclose that up front. That's set right now. Russ is a bad basketball player. He cannot shoot. He has poor shots selection, he has poor drive selection. He's looks like a bowl in a china shop. He there were several possessions in the second half where when he had absolutely no angle or spacing or even any real, you know, vision of what the defense was doing and what his advantage was.

He would just put his head down and go into the lane and either throw some stupid thing up at the room that had no chance of going in or turn it over get an offensive foul. And then on defense, he was actually pretty good to start the game, but I thought as the game progressed, he got sloppier and sloppier on that end, and a lot of this I need to watch the film. I need to go back tomorrow and get a really good clear look at uh, you know, the totality of his impact on the game.

There was a couple of stretches there at the second in the second half where like he started crashing the boards really hard. He actually salvaged a couple of possessions with his athleticism, But right now he's not a good basketball player. Will that change? Probably? Everyone who ever has talked about Russ tells us that he struggles to start the season as he figures out what his fit is, and then he kind of kicks it into gear at

some point along the way. I thoroughly expect him to have nights with the Lakers where he looks good, but this kind of thing to me, like he he If you had to assign a blame Pie for this loss, I think he deserves the biggest chunk because of the amount of of possessions he hemorrhaged and the way that that ended up costing the team during the two pivotal runs, which was at the end of the third quarter and then they're in the in the fourth quarter. So like

from that perspective, again, I'm biased. I didn't think this would work really great. So throughout the year, I'm probably gonna sound frustrated. You guys should be prepared for that. That said, I thought today was kind of your textbook example of bad Russ and the way that it can hurt a basketball team. And that's going to be really annoying for me this year, And honestly, I'm gonna have

to like work on my work on my patients. Yeah, I mean, so when we did when they did the space on about preseason and we talked about how it's like process over results, right, and I even though this is the regular season, you still kind of have to look at it that way because I feel like Russ is looking at it that way, and I can only go by what my expectation was of him and what we can see now, right, And I'm shocked how and again this is day one, so it's not some huge

take care, but I'm shocked how much he's trying to guess a us to the team. Like if you remember when Russ came to the Lakers, it was more like, hey, we have to try to calm Russ down right or try to make him fit in. And it feels like this is the opposite problem, which I don't know is a good thing or a bad thing, Like I want him more aggressive. I guess like it's too much of this, like standing trying to feed a d trying to feed Lebron and then try to attack, and then there's three

people in the pain. Right, It's a lot of that, and I feel like he'd be better off just being aggressive, and I think that just take time. And again it's it's a process of a result thing. And I saw some good process tonight, and look, there's bad shots and you have to kind of get used to that. I guess like the shot selection with Russ is what it is. He's been in the league, however long he's been in over a decade in the league, Like the shot selection

isn't changing by that much. He's still gonna come down take a contest in mid range to try to bank it off the glass, right, And I'd love to see the numbers on what he is when he tries to bank it off the glass. I think he's actually better when he tries to do that, but you know the hold it wait for the defender to come up to kind of back up a little bit and then take that contested three. Like those are shots they're gonna see.

But I thought I saw a few good things, like he is pushing the pace like he was one of the reasons and his boss score. Tonight he was a minus twenty three and you'll see that number all the way until Friday, I feel like when they play their next game against against Phoenix. But there were a few good things I saw, like where you would give a post entry to Lebron and then they would they would double one pass away, which you're really not supposed to do,

but since his rust, they do. And he did a hard cut cut to the lane and found Baysmore in the corner. Like I saw some of that. I saw him get a little bit more comfortable. He missed a dunk like a layup dunk tonight. He missed a lot at the rim where he thought he got fouled. But it's it's gonna be an adjustment. Like again, I'm shocked.

I don't know about you, Jason, but I'm shocked at how much he's I guess trying to like not step on Lebron and eighties toes, you know, or even like playing like when Rondo and him share the floor, it's almost like Rondo's the de facto point guard instead of like Rusp being the on guard on ball guard and trying to have Rondo is actually the better spacing three point shooter play off the ball, like because a lot of playing through Rondo, a lot of playing through a

lot of passiveness that I just didn't expect that ask, which again I'm not sure that's a good thing. He's trying to adjust or but to me, I think he should be himself, Like what do you think about that? Because I'm shocked at how much he's trying to adjust the team rather than damn trying to him be himself and play his game. You brought up so much interesting stuff right there. I'm gonna try and try to hit

it all you. The Rondo stuff was was so incredibly confusing to me putting him on the ball um not not only because it moved both Russ and Malik Monk, who in the preseason showed a lot as a ball handler in pick and roll um and as somebody who was quite frankly dangerous in taking role, especially with Anthony Davis on the floor, because when you when you pair Anthony Davis as a screener with a shooter who can with a ball handler who can shoot off the dribble effectively,

it's a deadly combo because it forces the guy to chase over the top, which basically gives you automatic dribble separation as a ball handler or is going to bring the big over, which is going to allow a d to get open in the pocket past. So like that should work. And Molik Monk was relegated to way corner shooter because of Rondo. I was so genuinely confused by that. I thought that was the point of bringing in the leak Bunk, like you brought in Malik Monk. You didn't

bring in the leak Monk to be Ben mcilmore. You brought it. You brought in Milik Monk to be a lottery pick, a guy who can make things happen off the dribble. I was so confused by that. Um. But moving back to the to the Westbrook element of it, you talked about how you want him to be aggressive, and I agree. I think, like just in general with

Russ indecisiveness is going to be a problem. But that was what was so strange about the rust effect, Like you have to think when you're when you're one of these stars that has the ability to get by somebody off the dribble, it's not about the ability to get someone off to buy someone off the dribble. Lebron knows he can beat his man all the time. Of course

he knows that, so does Anthony Davis. The trick is reading what's happening behind your defender and and that to me is just basic basketball, like you stuff with Russ that he's been lacking throughout his career. This like I know I can beat my man, but I have and but like I kind of haven't touched the ball in a little while, or I haven't taken a shot in a little while. So I'm just gonna put my head

down and go. And he doesn't realize that because of the circumstances happening around him in the five on five basketball game, that the Warriors have the paint packed because your guys aren't even down the floor yet, because you're kind of pushing in transition, and the Warriors have done a good job of getting back probably because they've been coached up on it all week prepping for the fast breaking Lakers. That's basic basketball IQ stuff that where he's

he's making it low percentage. It's aggression that has a very small chance of succeeding because of the circumstances. What I would like to see is Russ being more aggressive in the flow of the offense in the half court.

Do get him in a situation where there isn't help under the rim, because maybe he's without another center on the floor and maybe Lebron On setting a ball screen or Anthony Davis is setting a ball screen, and and they're shooting surrounding him, and he's got space where he can beat that man off the dribble and not have to make decisions but rather just go all the way up to the room and score. And that that to me, it would be the version of this that could work.

I thought he was indecisive tonight, and when he was in the flow of the offense and you're right force feeding a d constantly making post entry passes and then cutting through to the other side, that's what he was doing when things were in the half court. But then what he would do is just randomly break off script and make a really low aggress a low chance of success. Uh, you know, random burst of aggression that didn't make sense

with what they were doing. Or to your point, I'd like to see him be aggressive in the flow of the offense. I think he'll get better looks that way. Does any of what I just said make Yeah, for sure? I mean and again, like you see, the timing is off as well as well, right, So a lot of times again this is tough to kind of judge with the spacing, I guess with DJ's in the dunker spot, and a lot of times when Russ is off the ball,

he'll move to the dunker spot. So like when Lebron and a D or run a screen and roll, he'll move there. But when he's on the ball, they'll set they said a lot of like step up screens, will do a little bit of action and then he'll catch it and he won't have his dribble yet, DJ or a D will come up and said the screen and a D will like roll into his driving space. Do you see that as well? A lot like I see like a D rolling and they'll like running he run into each other. I think a D drew a foul

on that, and again, these are just timing stuff. Again, when you listen to people who watched us a bunch of times throughout his career, they say that he does start slow. But I guess again, I didn't expect this type of lack of aggression. Now I'm not just talking about shots taking shots as well. I just mean like when he's coming up, it's just like it's very passive.

It's not with the mindset to get to the basket or to score like he can and he can't blow by guys, and he is trying to find but it's like over he's like making the decision of what he wants to do before he does it. I guess if that makes sense, Like he's driving, he's driving two pass right, and then the Warriors are kind of playing for that, and then he'll try to shoot at the annual miss a layup or something like that, and I feel like

the rest got in his head as well tonight. I think he got a tech and he thought he was getting fouled the rim and those of stuff that happens. And again, I think he'll get used to it. This is day one, but that's my overall I guess Russ takes. I don't want to do these overall over arching kind of takes early. Everyone's saying, like trade Russ, I mean, we got slow down. It's it's it's it's day one. It's gonna it's gonna take time. And I think Vogel,

I'm just reading the quotes. He said that Russ has the biggest adjustment to make, which makes sense. Right, you have a lot of the Lebron and eighties, the core and rust are trying to fit around that. But I still I still like him to be more himself and I think he can. Yeah. So I just in general with Russ, I do want to be preach patients to some extent because he's here for better or worse. If he if he absolutely bombs out like it looks absolutely

horrible for twenty games, he becomes effectively untradeable. So from that stand because of his contracts side, So from that standpoint, like he's with the Lakers for better or worse, they have to find a way to make this work. And I'm with you about avoiding the grand scheme type of of overarching analysis with the Lakers. However, the one thing I'll say is it is hard to lose a basketball game when Lebron and a D played this well on both ends of the floor. You and I preached extensively

in previous seasons. When Lebron and a D are playing on the on the floor together and look like themselves and are healthy, if your role players play great, you beat the hell out of the other team. If your role players play okay, you win by fifteen and if your role players suck, you still win by two or three points. That's that was our joke that we had over the last couple of years. And the reality is is tonight they lost by double digits with Lebron and a D playing great, and so that has to be

at least a little bit concerned. Now, I don't see the point in getting overly wrapped up in it, because they do have reinforced it's coming that are much better defensive players. Kendrick Thht and Trevor Resa are all massive defensive upgrades over some of the guys they've had to play tonight, So there obviously are greener pastors on the other side. Like I said, however, I I can't remember a time watching Lebron and maybe he played this wall on both ends and loose that in the last two years.

So that has to at least that has to at least make you scratch your head a little bit, you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. And on your point about role players, like they didn't bring in Russell Westbrook to be a role player, I guess you know what I mean, Like looking at looking at it from that point of view, like I saw a lot of people saying, like I wish we had you know, KCP or something like tep back, But this is just totally different.

Like we talked about when we talked about the preseason, when you asked add Russ to a team, it's almost like adding two to three players, right, just in terms of like what he does and his you shage and all that stuff. When you add that to it, it's cann't take time. And I know, like it's tough to preach patients, Like if the Lakers are like I know, you predicted them to in a lot of games and so we so did I. But if they're like five and ten or something, that the world's gonna crash or

all that stuff is gonna come out. But you know, they have an easy schedule to start. They play Phoenix next, and look, they could lose the Phoenix as well. Phoenix has kicked our butt for the last four or five times. I think even if you good preseason and the last few playoff games without a D, they're confident. They're a good team. I'm not sure if Devin Book is playing or not, but that we can lose them and then we have some easy games after that and Russ will

get comfortable. And but again, like I think looking at it from like comparing him to like guys like a three and D player, it's just not what he's brought in the year too. He's brought in to be like a usage player, like the whole point. And again, losing these non Lebron minutes are are really tough because the whole point of bringing Russ in what's so that you can have Russ a D man these you know, non Lebron minutes. And we just got cooked defensively tonight. And

the Warriors are a tough team. The Guarden anyway, Jordan Pool abstolutely cooked. I thought it was unfair to throw Malik Monk onto Jordan Pool and just try to tell him to stop from Jordan Pool got cooking. But but that's when we lost the game, in my opinion, was those second units when Lebron went off the floor. So yeah, it's gonna take time with time with Russ and we'll see on Friday. But it wasn't a great start. And like I guess my silver lining, this is probably like

what the worst game of US would look like. And I don't think it will be the last game, but I think this is kind of what you'll see. This is the floor. I guess would you agree with that this would kind of be the floor? I mean, he finished, he was like, yeah, this is this is It's hard to be worse than he was tonight on both ends of the floor. It's hard to be worse than right.

And I don't really like the box score plus minus that, you know, but minus twenty three kind of fits, you know, even if you just look at it from the eye test and the film, it does kind of fit. It felt like it was ugly and you could see him trying to not step on toes and I would kind of like him to just be kind of aggressive. I think the style of play fits him, this transition, fast paced play, and he's just trying to figure out what his teammates, but I just like him to be a

little bit more aggressive than them, and I think he will. Yeah, And and you know, you can actually go ahead and start everybody. If you have anything you want to say, or if you have any thing you want to vent about, or if you have any questions, get your request in now.

Roger's gonna get first guest up there. Um Uh, what I was gonna say is that, you know, I always want to be careful with my analysis immediately after a game, obviously because there's some emotion and obviously I've been obviously I've been deeply annoyed tonight. We will have uh something come out in the next couple of days that is more measured in responding to the tape, because you and I are both going to rewatch the game in its entirety and try to get more to the bottom of

of what actually happened. Um. The last little random shout out I wanted to put in there was Avery Bradley. Um. I was a huge fan of the signing for a bunch of reasons. He was great with the Lakers. I think Laker fan base can be pretty ravenous, and when he decided not to go to the bubble, most of the fans turned on him, which I think is pretty messed up just because of the totality of the pandemic

and all the crap that was going on there. I mean, even Trevor Reza decided not to go with the Blazers, Like it just was a complicated decision for a lot of these guys to leave their families for as long as they had to. Um that said, I thought he was really good with the Lakers in a lot of different ways, and I and I really liked the signing, and it just just to toss him a compliment here.

What a professional to basically have no practice time or game reps with the team and to step in in what amounted to a pretty intense game for a regular season game, and to do your job and to be a net positive in my opinion in terms of his individual impact in those minutes and knock down some big shots, chase guys over screens, and make some plays like you said, get back to running an action that he used to

run like over a year ago. I just thought it was really impressive of him, and I wanted to give him a shout out. Ye and we have an Eric up here, and I'll just a little shout out to Basemore. We'll get into him a little bit deeper later, I'm sure. But I thought he played really well tonight. His point of attack, defense is great. He hit his threes, I belie. I don't know what he shot, but it seemed like he had timely three. So what I thought he a good game. But Eric, can you hear us? Yep, I

can hear. You can hear me? What's going on? Guys? Um uh? Okay? So there's a lot of positives, right, um Bran and a D looked amazing, right, and that's always positive. The problem, and I'm praying this isn't a season long thing, is you know, Vogel has this thing where he's very stubborn with his lineups, and it drives me through the roof. Right, Russ was terrible, let's be clear. But we've got ten years of film on Russ, so you know who Russ is and you know what lineups

will work with him. Why you're starting DeAndre Jordan with him? I have no idea because now, all right, he's already trying to fit in, and then when he does drive, he's driving into a clock team. Well, that's not gonna work, right, So now he's settling for jumpers that he can't hit. Well, that's not gonna work either. And then Jordan's comes out and you pair him with Rondo. So I'm like, you know, if Rust had to feel like he was in heaven, right,

So yes, we're gonna pile on Rust. But I actually felt horrible for him because Vogel did him absolutely zero favors tonight, none, Like those lineups were the worst lineups you could possibly imagine. For rest of Westbrooks. He works and then uh, finally he got two minutes of a d Right, he makes two layups, so I'm like, okay, good. Then Dwight comes in. I was like, yeah, like why are you doing this to this man? Like where are you? Like?

Why are you doing this? Then he had to feel like he was in hell and he's gonna get slammed, and he said he wasn't good. But Vogel has to do a better job of of of maximizing the lineups. You can't have Rest with Cloude paints for for his whole thirty five minutes. Then that's what us, Right, he can't shoot. We know this, but there are things that Russ can do. He should have been able to take more pressure off of Brian a D with you know, his assaults on the rim, if the rim was open

for him to do so. I watched there was three times and I said it on Twitter where he drove down the lane and DeAndre just stood there. Hey man, if you see him driving, move but don't just stand like stuff like that was driving me nuts. His little things. But that's if Russ gets it going, if he makes a few of those laps. Now, Russ is unguardable, right, and he's playing with confidence and he's doing Russ stuff.

But when he's missing layups and missing jumpers and he's unsure, that translates to his energy on the defensive end, and it was it was just bad. So I Vogel. Vogal frustrated me with the Rondo Westbrook lineups. He frustrated me with the the Westbrook Jordans lineups, the Westbrook White lineups. And I don't think he got a lot of Westbrook A D lines, like maybe at the tail end of the game, but I think that's the lineup that you like. Put him at the five, Let let him do more

of that. That's my opinion. I don't know what you guys think, but that was my opinion. So I think you hit on something super interesting having to do with like the totality of the picture of the game, because in my opinion, even if you win the DeAndre Jordan's minutes, which they did, they were plus two, um, you have to look at the totality of the impact of the

players on the floor and their rhythm. So, for instance, let's say that instead of starting DeAndre Jordan's, you start any other guard and you slide Lebron in a D to the four and five. Maybe Russ gets one or two easy layups in his first shift as opposed to not having those opportunities at the rim, and maybe that changes the complexion of the game for him in terms of his confidence in the in his rhythm. Those are the kinds of things that I look at. You know,

Lebron and a D are so good. We are kind of, you know, spoiled into thinking that these players can you know, just organically find a way to impact the game even if they are forced to play in crowded space. But Russ isn't at that level. Russ is going to be a player that is going to be more inconsistent, which means he's going to lean more on his confidence in his rhythm. And so those are the things that I

look at. Would I I would rather lose the starters minutes by two points, trade four points on the scoreboard for Russ's rhythm, for Russ's comfort and confidence. And so I agree with you in that regard. As far as the Anthony Davis part, same thing. I I would rather give Lebron the challenge, make Lebron play with Dwight, make Lebron play with the other role players, let Russ in

a d get all the non Lebron names together. Not not only does that give you your best opportunity to win the non Lebron minutes, but it gives Russ his best opportunity to try to find a rhythm. Now I need to dig more into the film to see exactly how he split the rotation. So I don't want to offer too much criticism until I had a little bit more,

you know, education on it. That said, I agree with you in principle, like you have to find a way to set us up to succeed in the way you do that is the same way Darryl More he did it by giving him space, and you happen to have the world's biggest cheat code and Andy Davis that can offer that can offer space while simultaneously giving you the physical impact of the bigger One last thing I thought, uh Ros was starting to touch on it. I thought

Bayes was incredible. Honestly, Um, it's funny because a lot of you know, the the announcers we're talking about, you know, all stuffs just off. No, he wasn't just off. Bays was in his shorts like he played him about as well as you're going to play Steph Curry. He was physical, he was on now obviously practical together four years, so you know, shouldn't help. But nonetheless, he played stuff as

well as one person is going to play him. I mean, yes, they trapped a little bit, but sakers didn't trap as much as I thought they were going to because he fought through a lot of those screens. He played step really well, like if Steph hits those shots, you just gotta talk. Okay, he's deaf, but those were hard shots he was taking. He had a couple open ones, but he was so out of rhythm because most of the shots were tough that you know, it's almost like, all right,

I mean, Steph is human. He's gonna miss some shots, and so kudos the stuff for doing a bunch of other things and making a lot of other winning plays. But I think Baysmore had a lot to do with you know, with his his struggles tonight right, the length, the strength, the foot movement, and and Bayes did hit some some timely shots, So I was encouraged by what I saw with him. Um, I'm not as critical of the mellow minutes as maybe some other I did agree

with Rise did. He probably played maybe six to seven minutes too many. But I liked the fact that he was a bucket when he got on the court and he was a threat, and that kind of opened opened it up a little bit. And if he didn't play so many minutes with Dwight, I think I would have been better. I think if he'd have played more minutes with you know, I don't know, I'm not gonna say with a d but I think if he'd played more in in scoring minutes, I think he would have it

wouldn't have looked so bad. But the fact was, you know, he's trying to post up Dwights right there, so it looks it all looks clutter. I think Vocal just has to find a better balance with these big a d at the five minutes. He's got to figure that out because this team is not a phenomenal three point shooting team, so clogging the paint just doesn't help. Brown was phenomenal tonight.

I don't know that he's gonna shoot from three for the season, Like that's unrealistic, right, So I think I think he's got to do a better job of managing these lineups because, to Jason's point, you can't have Brian and a D playing this well and lose. But I think he did everyone. And I know there's some injuries and and you know, when the lineup is healthy, and

I'll be better on know that. You know, none will make a big difference because that will cut it into some of those Rhondo manants and you know, all that good stuff. But I think Vocal could have done literally to three lineup tweaks to change this result tonight. Um, he watched Monk get cooked for a whole third quarter. All right, listen, man, I only need to see two three minutes of that to say, all right, you gotta get out go just go guardend. We'll figure out your office,

but just go guardend. Like I don't need to watch eight minutes of Pool cooking him to realize again gardens. But it was a little stuff like that, and I was just like, just pull the trigger, quicker, Eric, that was a textbook event session. I was so het a lot of stuff. You had a lot of stuff. But I'll just speak on your base mark point and you're

totally right. Basemar was awesome, like STEP's gonna hit those shots sometimes, like he missed a few that he would usually hit, but that's how base Board did as well as he could. He was physical with him. Um. I didn't like that Vogo pulled him out after those two quick ones. I would like him to stay on him. I think that next possession stuff got fouled by Carmelo, I believe on the three right after, right after Basemark came out. But he was right with him. He was

going around him on screen. I've said before, he's our best point of attack defender right now. Maybe Avery badly kind of takes that, takes that uh from him, but for right now, Basement is our best and he had his corner threes. He was good he fits our like transition game that we want to play. He makes some questionable decisions sometimes, but like he's fast, he runs the floor, he runs, he fills the wing, and he knows how to rotate to the corners like he's a he's a

nice two guard to start for right now. So I think he was great and we'll we'll see, we'll see. Uh, we'll see next game. But I thought he was good on staff. I agree with you. Yeah, thanks guys, I appreciate it, thanks, Harry. All right, I think we have Nick coming up, Nix. I think space has gone better with connecting, at least from what I see or maybe not. There you go, Nick, what's going on? Man? What's up? Nick? And he went back down, so maybe it wasn't ready.

Let's see so chosen one. Yeah, can you hear us? Okay, maybe not, I see him up here, but let's get someone else. Yeah, can you hear us? Let live in live in? Oh yeah, I can hear you all my bad, I don't know you did. What's going on? Manh yeahs oh man? Uh? Yeah? So so to me, like starting DeAndre Jordan's like I get it, Okay, I don't get it, but I'll say this, like, to be honest, it really messes up the rhythm I think offensively for the Lakers.

So I really don't like DeAndre Jordan started because it really drives me crazy because I don't know, you don't bring nothing productive to the table. So I'm like, why is like why is DJ especially a team like the Warriors where Kavan Looney starting like like like I'm not,

I'm not. I was wondering like this prank bogle thing Cavan Loony is gonna have some I don't know, some huge impact to the point where like we're gonna need a big and like, to me honestly, like I know this has been talked about so long or summer, but I feel like a D should a really should be starting at the five because I don't see any like there's no bruisers in the NBA that at the five that are gonna make me go, oh my god. Um if a D starts at the five, like he's gonna

get hurt and stuff, I don't. I don't understand that. But I say, we are missing a lot of rotation guys today, so I really won't I'm not gonna overreact. I mean when we get you know, th ht um a reason none. When we get those guys in the mix, I feel like it'll look a lot better than I did tonight. Um, but I feel like the only way for like, for Russ to be successful on the Lakers, as if if is oh my god, is is f eight.

He plays the five more in my opinion, And I feel like, when you know, when those guys get back like a reason and stuff, I feel like, um Mella won't have to play as much minutes and I don't. And also like playing Rondo Rondo bringing up the ball with Russa on the wing, like Russ is some remarkable three point shooter. I don't know those those line ups don't make sense to me either. But you know, it's

game one, it's game money. You're gonna be patient. We'll see what goes on for the rest of the year. So really quickly on the Kimon Looney thing, like that's the type of big Yanni Jordan can start against, right, Like you don't want him starting against these like spaking out fives, like when you have these traditional fives, like

he can kind of start with them. And again, like it's crazy to me, we kind of focus on this he played twelve minutes like he played six minutes eats half and I see all this rust like can't be successful unless he's next to eight at the five, and you know, it's not conductive to him, Like it doesn't help him that the spacing isn't great, it's not exactly fit his game. But I think that lets Russ off too easy, Like it doesn't give enough credit to where

Russ can still be. Like even if even if the spacing isn't great, like it's not going to be Like if Lebron and Russ are sharing the floor, they're gonna live with Lebron and Russ kind of shooting jumpers. And even though Lebron is going tonight, that's kind of a win for the defense of Lebron is taking jumpers if a D is taking jumpers, right, So even if a D is out the five, you're still going to have a packed paint a lot of the time, unless you

have like Wayne Ellerton or something out there. But like, still pain's gonna be packed. Doesn't mean Russ can't play his game at all, Like he can. He still has to be able to attack in some way forms be

a threat. And I feel like he just hasn't been a threat as much as he can be from last year and again maybe it's just him starting slow, but there's like this line between what he is right now, which is just like we can we can preach paisans, I'll preach patients, I'll say process of a results, but we can be honest as well. He hasn't been great,

and that's true, like we can tell the truth. He hasn't been great, But there's this line between what he was and what he is right now that's not just answered by putting a D as the five, you know

what I mean. And even though we're getting eighty at the five and some points here, like if they can't defend at a baseline level to where Vogel sees they can, we're not gonna get much a D at the five minutes either, right If we have all these guards that are getting killed, Monk couldn't stay on any screens with with with Jordan Pool, Roger Rondo dying on screens. Westbrook isn't that type of defender where he chases guys off,

chases around screens, you know what I mean. He's a guy that likes to crash offensive board, which is great, But what happens when you die on the screen and try to box that, Like those are all kind of things that happen. And if a d is the only guy down, they're getting rebounds, Like that's something that Vogel

will look at as well. But I just feel like this, like answer to Russ is eighty at the five is is too simple fied to me, Like it doesn't give Russ less Russ off too easy, Like he's better than this and he can be better and maybe the spacing isn't conductive to it, but it doesn't mean he has to be disineffective. That makes sense, Jason, does that make sense?

So it makes sense. I just I just disagree with respectfully, like the the the So when when you watch prime Russell Westbrook, Like I was joking on the pot the other day about watching the two thousand fourteen Western Conference finals, he was so he was such a nuclear athlete that it's kind of it's kind of jarring to watch in retrospect looking back now because of just how incredible he is even in tight space, even next to Kendrick Perkins

and Sergebaka at beating guys off the dribble and floating by shot blockers to finish. The truth of the matter is that at this phase of his career, you know, he's kind of like he's more of that you know, third fourth fifth tier type of star and third fourth fifth tier type of athletes. So the truth is is, like, the reason why you need to give him the space is because he's a non shooting dribble drive guard who

isn't a you know, earth shattering superstar. So from that standpoint, if you allow teams to pack the paint on him, it immediately makes him more limited. It's it's really that simple to me. So you know, there's a reason why all of a sudden he exploded playing with the Houston Rockets after they traded Clint Capella. It's because, all of a sudden, he didn't have to navigate a packed paint.

It was all I gotta do is beat my man off the dribble with which at this phase in his career, because of his strength and size, and because he still is an above average athlete, he is capable of beating that point of attack defender. But it's that it's the next layer of the defense at this phase in his

career that he's going to struggle with. And so I don't think it's coincidence that he had some success in Washington when they were able to, you know, play with guys like Burton's and get a little bit more pick and pop where he was able to have a little

bit more space to operat around the rim. But at the end of the day, with this group of guys, because of what because like you always talk about this rodge, the difference between a shooter and a guy that like the defense, that can make shots, but that the defense doesn't really guard. And and that's where it gets difficult because Anthony Davis, for all of his strengths, he's not a guy that teams are going to be blitzing off

the three point line. I could you could even really say the same thing about Lebron to be honest, Like, there were several possessions today, There are several possessions today where Lebron's defender was heavily sagging into the paint to help off on guys. Honestly, I thought there was an opportunity where Anthony Davis needed to be a little bit

quicker to pass out. The point is is that with that group, when you've got Lebron and Lady on the floor, guys who can make shots but that aren't really having guys glued to them. And then you add in the the DeAndre Jordan element of his man sitting basically directly under the basket. That just makes it so that Russ now has to navigate a thicket of bodies that he's just not capable of navigating at this point in his career.

And so I do I do think that specifically for him, it is a factor um that remains to be seen if over the course of the season, if he proves me wrong that with lineups that have some non shooting that he's able to eventually figure it out. But I tend to think that when he looks his best this year, it will be in lineups where he doesn't have to deal with the big park under the room right waiting

for him. Yeah, I agree with you on that. I just think like he shouldn't look I guess this that not having that, Like, obviously I think he'll look great with with a D at the five, and obviously Adi looks best when he's at the five as well, Right, But when Ad plays the four, he can't just be this non effective player, Just like I think when Russ plays with these two big lineups, which I think we're gonna see a lot in the regular season, it's pretty clear.

I don't know how much DeAndre is going to be in the rotation when we get healthy, but Dwight's going to be in the rotation. They like him. They're like, we're gonna see that. He's gonna have to get used to it in some at some point. I do think there's ways he can get to it. I think there's ways that you can run actions to where he's he's getting he's getting downhill, you know what I mean. Like, I feel I saw a lot of that tonight as well.

He missed a lot at the rim to which again like has nothing to do with it has something to do with the spacing, but some of the layups you missed our point blank as well. Just like I feel like he's hitting his head a lot with these games. But but you're right, it look best when it's to have the five. I just think that he has to spind a way to also be effective with these two

big lines because I think we're gonna see it. I agree, Yeah, I was just gonna say that in terms of the reason why I have a problem with DeAndre Jordan's starting, it's because, like I'll say, like even if Russ, like I know, he's not as athletic as he used to be back in the day, but even then, so like even if like a man commits to him and he's passing about to DeAndre Jordan's, they're just gonna file the shot out DeAndre Jordan. And you know how you know

how likely it is for DeAndre two three throws. So you know, I'm just saying like they don't make a lot of sense to me, But you know what, we'll see here, man, I love, I appreciate you hopping on and talking with this man. We'll see you next time. We're gonna get onto a couple more colors and a d S read those two. I think he was like, what two for six tonight or something two for seven.

The most bizarre thing with his shooting slump is because he just he just wasn't knocked down free through shooter in the past. That is what it is. He's got to work his way through that. And I would say him making some of these pull up jump shots is a good spot. Was going what's going on Jill, Hey,

what's up, fellas? Um, just real quick, do you guys think, uh, Austin Austar Reads will be able to get into the Let's say, like, you know, when the game's gout a hand or whatever, and you know we've got these injuries, you guys think he will get a look in the game, or maybe they just don't think he's ready for this this type of action. Right now. I think he's absolutely ready. However, I don't think you'll see him play. And the answer

is really simple. With that specific concoction of egos in that locker room, playing Austin Reeves twenty minutes and leaving some of these other veteran players off the floor, I don't think would sit well, uh, in the totality of the locker room vibe. It really shouldn't work that way. It really shouldn't. But unfortunately that's just the reality of the way this business works. And if I'm frank, the way I'm looking at it is, I'm not gonna have to play some of these guys anyway in a couple

of weeks when everyone gets healthy. So rather than playing Reeves now and getting a better outcome now and having potentially some negative impacts on the culture in the locker room, maybe you ride it out with the vets and then because you know, if Rondo's sitting for Kendrick Nunn, he's not going to argue because Kendrick Nunn is their mid level exception player. He's a He's a player that it

makes perfect sense to play over Rondo. But if you play Reeves over Rondo, maybe there's some chatter, you know what I mean, And so I think that's the angle there. But I'm with you in the sense that I absolutely think Reeves could have helped tonight. He's gonna get his shot, Like, yeah, he's definitely gonna get his shot. Like it's funny. In the preseason, he was the first sub for most of the games. Austin Reason was the first guy subbed in.

I'm gonna push back, like there's politics in every locker room, and obviously the guys who's play in the league a long time, we're going to get the shot. But I mean, we saw the kind of THHD take, you know, Wes Matthews Min's last year. I mean, Vogel, I think we'll play him eventually. He's gonna get a shot here, especially if the defense continues to look like this, And we've said before he looks ready and preseason is what it is, though we do have to see it in the regular games.

But just from like a basketball que point and knowing where how to play next to superstars, he looks really ready for that. But we'll see. Uh. I think it's gonna be be a while, especially if our guys start to get healthy as well. But he's gonna he's gonna get his shot to play. He looked good in the preseason, and I don't see a reason why Vogel at least

wouldn't try it. I mean, he went to Avery Bradley tonight, who was signed less than twenty four hours ago, and almost closed the game, And you could tell Vogel is kind of search for these places where he can find defense, right, And I think if Austin Reeves shows he can get he'll play. Yeah, and and too. I I look specifically at Lebron and I saw where, you know, in the midst of that uh, that run that the Warriors made, I saw where he got a little bit frustrated, you know,

whether it was with Russ or whoever. I saw that, So I know it's going to be a process for him, but I still trusting the guy. He looked out standing and uh man, I just think it's going to be a process and to see how this team goes. But just looking forward to participating with you guys after each Lakers game. Man, appreciate y'all, We appreciate. We'll see you hopefully on Friday, and absolutely, man, alright, we're gonna try to run through these ones a little quicker. Uh DCS,

can you hear us? Okay, Yo, what up? What up? What's going on? Man? Okay, thanks for having me on the show, guys, But quickly want to talk about Lebron's jump shot tonight, guys, and his shot selection overall, like with guests with DeAndre and Dwight, even though they only both played thirteen minutes each, so maybe our spacing wasn't really as bad as we're going on about. But what do you guys think about Lebron's jumper overall and shot

selection tonight? Looks like he's being more aggressive. But Russell Westbrook, I thought Lebron were fantastic. Obviously. I didn't have a problem with his shot selection at all. I thought most of his jump shots, especially from three kind of felt like the right read out of pick and roll or out of a catching shoot situation with a defender closing out. It didn't feel like a guy who was settling because he didn't feel like driving to the basket. It felt

like solid shot selection. Just in general with Lebron, I think one of the things that people have underestimated with his extended prime here is, you know, they compare him to Johannese in a lot of ways as a guy who leaned heavily on his physical tools, and he certainly did early in his career, but for basically the last six or seven years, he's been a guy who's leaned heavily on his i Q and his passing ability and his ability to knock down the jump shot and his

ability to scuare of the midrange, and those are things that we're always going to stay with him through this phase of his career. And I don't think it's a coincidence that even though he's about to turn thirty seven, which side point here, I love Lebron, big Lebron fan. It's kind of driving me nuts how often the broadcast

brings up it's his nineteenth season. It's like, we get it man, Okay, let's just watch the but but but the point, the point is is like I'm not surprised at all that he looks this good still, and the reason why, in my opinion, is his game was built to age well, and I absolutely think that you'll look

more or less like this throughout the season. I think his jumper looked a little smoother too, like in the way he was shooting, and he was shooting it off the dribble hand, like the guy was right in front of him, like it was. It seemed like a lot he had a lot more confident tonight. Normally you see Lebrons have like a more feel of style game when it's like the first game of the season or he eases into things, but he seemed like he was on

go mode. M hm. He's been shooting consistently pretty damn good since two thousand and seventeen, and this is definitely

an extended trend. Yeah, in my opinion that you could tell he was feeling it tonight though, right with his jumper, he had that one in transition I think where like he did a running fade away jumper over he missed that one, but you could just tell he was feeling good with a jumper, and again that one was online too, that one happened, and again I thought his jumper kind of masked a lot of the ugly offense as well. He did take a couple of tough ones that went in.

He had some fade away ones that were just beautiful to watch. I think it was I think another one over Wiggins as well that didn't barely touch the net. But yeah, his jumper looked good man and Lebron looks good, and we talked about it all the time. That's him and a d looking like themselves is the most important thing. We can banter about Russ and Lake Monk and Roger and Rondo and Carmelo Anthony, but those two on the floor thirty eight minutes to night in the playoff series.

I'll take it again. This is day one. But that's the most important thing. We got that ground floor level there right now. We can build on top of that. We can build on top of that. But if you don't have that, it doesn't matter what's on top of it. Right, If you don't have a ground floor, you don't have it out. So that's the main thing. And you're right, Lebron looked Lebron looked incredible year ninety. Did you Jason, did you know it's year nineteen? I wasn't sure, you know.

I kept I was watching the game and my wife and I just kept looking over. I'm like, do you know, could you could you tell me what it's getting out of control? Like if I can totally see how Lebron haters are like this this guy, what did you guys think about a d S shot selection tonight and how he was being used in the offense, how he was getting his shots and so forth. I thought he was great.

I mean I so I actually Terry picked the clip um after the King's game where early in the game where he had I think it was Mohark was on him on the right block and the paint was pretty much clear. I think there was a guard waiting for him underneath the paint, but not somebody who would have deterred him from getting all the way to the rim, and he kind of took a crazy like fade away, looking like m J kind of curling into the lane and he bricked it and it was what started a

five for nineteen night for him. And I was critical because it just looked like because mohark was was only six eight and relatively thin, it looked like an opportunity for a D to start the game off with a

more physically aggressive move. You know, Anthony Davis all night tonight, even though he did take some tough jump shots mixed in there all night tonight, he had really good balance between the tougher jump shots and the physical aggressive was into the lane, and he had several plays that were just like the Moharkless one where he had a smaller wing on him and instead of really crazy fading away, he created some contact, got closer to the rim, took

you know, something more like a straight up jump shot or a hook that is a significantly higher percentage shot,

and made it work. And then this is something Mr Darius Oriana from like her film room is gonna preach about a lot, and he's right about it is you know, last season a D did not screen and dive to the rim at all, even just screen and pop. And there were several plays tonight where he took on the challenge, the physical challenge of setting the screen and rolling into the pain, understanding you're gonna be banging into bodies and

understanding you're gonna have to regain your bearings after catching a tough pass and try to finish. But you did all of that tonight. I was absolutely blown away impressed by both a D and Lebron tonight. I thought they were both fantastic. Yeah, but I thought it's good process. Right. We talked about like we don't mind a jumpers, it just it should come through his aggression attacking the rim.

And I'm gonna trying to chart this as much as I can, but I believe like his first touch was like he went at he attacked the basket against Traymond Green. I think he got free throws and something like that, and it's just that's the mindset he should have. And again the fade away jumpers will come from that. Right. He was kind of bullying on Connor Anderson and then he got another post up on him and hit this like fade away jumper on him. And again that's through

him being aggressive attacking the rim. So I thought he was great. He looks he looks so much better than he did to start last season. If you go start, if you go watch those games, just it's just a huge difference from what he is now. And I think he was better on defense tonight than he was on offense, and he had a pretty good game on offense as well tonight. So I thought was himself like, he needs to be this, by the way for this team. So yeah,

those those two guys were great. They were great. Thanks for happening on him, man, We appreciate you, and we'll be back Friday night if you want to come back Convince again. Nice one, Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciated man, Thank you. M I think we have two more. We'll close this out. Nick, Can you can hear us? Ere? Nick? Yeah? Can you guys hear me? We can hear you? What's

going on in Uh? Yeah, I was just I was watching Russ today and you know, I'm not going to overreact to one game, but I was trying to contextualize it in the course of a full season and what you're gonna need from him, And I'm really it's really hard for me to understand what you're what you're going to use him for in the five minutes of winning time, Like, who is he when the game is tied a hundred a hundred five minutes left? Is he initiating the offense?

Is he standing in the corner. I mean, he's not really a defensive stopper and he's not really a three point threat. So what is he doing in those five minutes that really helps you win? I think this is a I think this is a great point, and I think this is the ninety However, games they have a D two game question, right is like this is what they need to figure out, Like what does he do?

Because let's be honest, like Lebron can talk about, you know, giving up some ball handling responsibilities and all that, but those are in games that don't matter, right, Like in the last five minutes, last ten minutes of games, Lebron James is gonna have the basketball. A D is likely the screener or he's gonna be involved in some way unless Lebron wants to attack the switch or whatever. But last five times, he's gonna have the ball. And I

think there are some things you can do. And Jason can speak on this as well, but I think Russ has a screen or something. He's gonna have to get more used to. You see it a little bit, but you could also see him. It's just not something he does on a consistent basin. Right, He's not a guy who screens really hard and then rolls really hard, and you know, it's just comfortable doing that, and that's something that he's gonna have to for them to to kind

of work together. Jason, what do you see from there, because I think this is a really great point. That's something they're gonna have to figure out for sure first starters.

So yeah, the first thing is the staggering. So I thought it was really interesting that Lebrawn typically is the first sud in in a Laker game, usually will come out, you know, shortly after the first media time out, and last season they would let Shrewder and Anthony Davis run the end of the second quarter or end of the first quarter, excuse me, and then Lebron would come in with like one minute left in the first quarter and

then he'd run the bench to start the second quarter. Well, tonight they took Russ out first, I think right around the seven minute mark. Out to watch the tape to be sure. But the point is is that was clearly done in my opinion, to to help stagger Lebron and h and Russ. Because Lebron actually stayed in longer than usually think. He came out right around the four minute mark in the first quarter, and they ran uh and they brought Russ back at that point. So staggering is

the first way. But we always are going to come back to the closing lineups, right, What are you gonna do when Russ is on the floor and Lebron is on the floor, but you're having Russ Lebron run the actions? And this is a legitimate question because you're gonna see it a lot. You throw a post throw to throw the ball to the post with Anthony Davis, and Russ's

man is is just when Russ cuts through. You'll literally see Russ's man stay on the strong side of the floor, Like Russ will cut through and he just will stop at the block and just stay, you know, literally, it's almost like a shift in baseball, just like all the way over to to to shut the play down, you have to find some way to counter that. And so the two big ones that I look at are are one using him as a screener, basically turning him into Draymond.

Try to draw a trap and put Russ in a position where you can play four on three, uh, you know, off of a little looping pass or pocket pass, and then two is just using his athleticism to wreck habit that can be either as a cutter or an offensive rebounder or one of the other big ones that I'd I'd like to see some more experimentation with is have Russ take on a traditional spot up position on the floor and preferably where he can actually get the ball. So if you run him to the week side corner,

it's just difficult get it to him there. But if he's gonna be ignored, have him catch and just go Like, have him catch and just barrel into the lane. And just by the natural way that basketball works, I think it will collapse the defense in a lot of ways and and open up some things. But those are the things that, like, like Rod said, that's that that's the game question, that's the that's what they have to work

out throughout this part of the season. Unfortunately, because how easy the schedule is, Like I think the Lakers will win the next eight games with how easy their schedule is. They they have an opportunity here to kind of work

through some of this stuff. Yeah, I agree with that, and like they did some things where like that they when Russell's off the ball, like he said, like a pin screen for like since he since no one's guarding him as well, he screens for the guy who's trying to shoot in the corner, like did little things like that.

But they have to figure it out because, let me tell you, like we talked about this over the summer, he's gonna be on the floor when it matters, Like there's none of this to Russ is gonna be on the bench or no, that's not happening. Russ is gonna be on the floor when these games matter in the final five minutes, and they have to figure out how to do it. There's things to do. I think they can figure it out. Lebron Vogel, you know Rondo, all

those brain trust I think you can figure out. But you talked about him as a screener, him attacking the offensive boards. I think you can kind of flip it where he's the center, right. I think Houston did this a lot where they'd have p J. Tucker at the five and so then Russ would kind of be your center de facto center, where p J. Tucker's kind of spaceman and him and Harden can kind of run screen

role actions. I see similar things in that where a D is p J. Tucker in this kind of scenario, And obviously they're not the same type of player, but just in terms of the spacing on the floor, those are the kind of things I would like to see. And I want to watch this game to kind of rewatch this game to kind of see what he did. It was kind of tough to watch it while watching live action also with all the emotion in the game. But yeah, that's a that's a great point, though. They

have to figure it out. That's the a two game question, that's the chairmanship question because you're not you're not winning the title of those three. Don't figure out what Russ is? Uh? In those last in one games matter? Diep I agree, Hey, Roger, I think we got time. Yeah, let's do one more

and then we'll call it tonight, I think. And if we missed anybody, guys, we will be doing these after every game of the regular season, So I promise we'll get to you eventually, all right, Sean, And Sean has been waiting a while, so like making the last one, Sean, can you hear us? Yeah you're there? Yeah, what's going

on there? Man? I just wanted to talk about every every Bradly real quick, yeah, because it was crazy to me, like he I feel like he was the most effective overall guard on the floor tonight, and uh, I don't know if that was like something that's like carrying over from last year or whatever, but like to me, he looks super effective as far as like overall defense and

offense goes and that kind of go ahead. So our guards really struggled tonight, So for sure, you know, it kind of reminds it kind of reminds me of Boston Reeves in the preseason, like he was the best guard in the preseason, but that was a really low bar he was trying to hit with how bad everybody was. That's that's kind of the way tonight was. Like Rondo was really really bad, Russell was really really bad. Like Molik Monk had hit a couple of threes, but you know,

struggled defensively. Actually, I think he might only have one three anyway. But Beigemore did good on on on on staff, like we disc gotted earlier. But part of it is is like it's you know, this is a frustrating part in all of this, Like if you really look at what Avery Bradley did when he came in the game, he'd applied ball pressure on defense and chased guys off the three point line. He actually gave up some separation quite a bit. He just gave up the right kind

of separation. And this is the important kind of thing we're going to harp on a lot this year. It's chasing guys off the three point so you can funnel them into your health defense and then putting in the additional effort after the factor rotate out to the next shooter. That's all you're asking him to do defensively, and that's what he did offensively. He I think made two out of three from three if I remember correctly, so obviously

it's gonna look good in that regard. And then they ran a really basic action when they used to run a lot when he was a Laker in his first distinct, where you know, he kind of curled off that a d dribble handoff and just made a read either I'm gonna pull up from fifteen feet or floated up to Anthony Davis, and I think he connected with a D on one of those for a layup. But the point is is like he did well, so I don't want

to undercut it by any stretch of the imagination. But it kind of preaches there kind of comes back to what Roger and I have been talking about, like, it's not a hard job. What what these guards are asked to do in this system alongside the better players is not that hard of a job. What happened tonight, in my opinion, was the job became difficult because of some lineup decisions from Frank. You know, playing Mellow and Molik,

Monk and Russ and Rondo at the same time. You're making it so that that job is extremely complicated for those guys, and so I think that that that's my theory on it is is just you know, keep things simple and these guys will knock it out of the park. But you've got to disperse your defensive minutes. You're the players you have that are good defensive players. You have to disperse them in a manner that makes it easier for the players who have, you know, some challenges with

that throughout their career. It did appear that he was somewhat like he understood what his role was and he agree, yeah, sure, Bradley, I mean bin League a while now, I was I hope that they resigned him actually that summer when I think he into Miami or whatever. But again, like eighties high on him. They called it, they called their defense to Avery challenge. I mean, that's pretty high regards to put his name in there, and like he's a good

point of attack defender. I thought like it wasn't fair for him to be put in that position where he had to come in and be the on ball guy on steph. Right after STEP's been resting, Step comes back, Step comes back to a lead. You know he was They were down when he went out. Step comes back to teams up six you get Step, he's on him, and I thought he did a fine job. And again he they ran the actions that they do a little little dribble handoff off the little horns and he makes

that Like you said, Jason, it's a really quick read. Right, it's either take the mid range pull up or you know, hit a d on the roll or hit the week side shoot or whatever. I thought he was fine, but again, it wasn't really fair for me to put him in

that situation and give the Warriors some credit. Like to me, they're a very unique team in terms of the way that they run their actions and all the screening that they do, and you know, all the decisions they make you do off of steps, just off ball movement stuff. That's a really tough thing. And when you combine that with the bad defenders that we had out there, like you're talking about Jason Bronto, Mellow, all those dudes, like, it's not a recipe for success. And I thought the

lead wasn't really sustainable. Lebron and Adi were amazing, but I thought the Warriors would eventually kind of take it, and they did. So we'll see on Friday, but try. I appreciate you coming out man, appreciate guys, Thank you, thank you. All Right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. I will be posting this on our podcast feed here within the next fifteen minutes, hopefully if I don't fall asleep,

and then we will. UM. This will be airing on DASH Radio tomorrow at seven am Pacific Standard time on the Nothing but Net channel. As always, we sincerely appreciate you guys support, thanks for listening to Roger and I venting our way through that UM long season. There's gonna be a lot of good I'm sure a lot of reasons for us to be excited. Um but good, A good interesting way to start the season, which you say, very interesting. And remember this is a day one, so

don't not exhaust yourself. This day one of a very long process, so we're just at the beginning of it. It It should be a fun season. Appreciate everyone that came and listened and and stayed this long, honestly till eleven listening to us.