Episode 86: Grizzlies/Lakers Postgame Spaces

could not make it tonight. So what I'd like to do is only go for about, you know, fifteen minutes or so on just my quick takeaways from the game, and then I'd like to get as much of you guys up here as possible, um, to get lots of comments and questions, opportunities for you guys to event This game ironically went kind of exactly as I expected it to because I have a lot of respect for Memphis and how good they are, and how good John Morant

is and John Morant in particular. It's acts a specific weakness of the Lakers, so it was inevitable that at certain stretches of the game, uh, they would struggle. Lakers played good urgency, but I thought they were undercut by their starting lineup quite a bit. Um. I think this is a game that if the Lakers play small through and through they probably win by fifteen, even with their defensive shortcomings. Um, and we're gonna get to that. But this was kind of the type of game that you

could expect. The Lakers weren't just gonna flip the switch and start kicking people's asses, because that's not how you fix bad basketball. It takes weeks of trying to ditch bad habits and replace them with good habits, and so on and so forth. And so this is a good step in that direction. And there's gonna be a slightly less tough game in my opinion going down to sant San Antonio, and then the Lakers are gonna head into

four straight relatively easy ones. So this is this was the one they had to get, that they had to get to get things started off on the right foot. Um. Like I said, guys, I'm gonna talk for about fifteen minutes and the I'm gonna get callers up, So get your request in now and stick stick around, and we're gonna get as many of you guys up here as

we can tonight. Um. The main thing that I've wanted to talk about to start was the interesting stuff in closing time there, because this is our first real crunch time opportunity to watch the Lakers this season considering how bad the things went off the rails against Golden State, and I thought it was interesting that they went with Mellow as that fifth guy next to bays Moore, Lebron Russ, and a d. This is the guy that I actually

specifically suggested as the best fifth option in there. The reason being is that when he's with that group, his defensive responsibilities become so small that he can actually succeed in them. You don't need him to hold his own in a wide open space. You need him to hold his own alongside a bunch of really good defensive athletes that are going to make his job easier. And ironically, he made one of the biggest plays of the game,

which was his uh steel on John Moran. I think it was as he was coming down the lane on the play ended up ended up getting reviewed and he just brings a ton of really good space for the rest of the line up because of his ability to shoot um. You know. I thought it was one of the best plays of the game for Mellow. Was a play where he was posting up Ryan Anderson realized he didn't have a size advantage kicked it back out to Lebron and they ran to pick and roll with Anthony

Davison got a really good shot out of it. If you notice Tonight mellows shots, We're all in the flow of the offense, except for that last one that he took in crunch time, that little fade away. But for the most part, everything was easy and coming off of the tension gained from the stars, and he was kind of playing like a role player, an over qualified role player, which when he plays like that, he's going to have success with this group. So I didn't think that that

was a coincidence at all. Um, let's talk about the starters, because I'm sure that's what a lot of you guys are thinking about. You know how annoying it is to watch this basketball team play with DeAndre Jordan's And again to kind of frame this, when DeAndre Jordan was signed, I really liked him as a depth signing that would specifically play when Dwight or a d had to rest

for whatever reason. Why, because Frank has a defensive scheme, and while his defensive scheme had to change and be moved around a lot last year because of the different types of centers, that he had this year, He's got three of the same types of vertical, you know, rim

protecting types of centers. And so it's nice when DeAndre Jordan's can slot in for Dwight Howard because he's you know, hurt or serving a one game suspension for being Dwight Howard or whatever it is, or if Anthony Davis has to take a night off, you can rotate DeAndre Jordan in there and play the same defensive scheme. I liked that. I did not like him as someone who would just play with the with the healthy Lakers in their starting lineup,

rain or shine for no particular reason at all. And the reason why is he just clogs up the space and he doesn't impact the game enough where the trade off is beneficial, you know, like Dwight does so much on the floor as a guy, but like a ball of energy, especially two years ago that you know, even whatever you lost in spacing with Dwight, you got at least something back in return, because Dwight is legitimately a very good backup center in this league, which DeAndre Jordan

at this phase of his career just isn't. And in the first two games, when DeAndre Jordan played center, Lebron and A d were making jump shots and so as a result, they were plus six when DeAndre Jordan was on the floor because even though they were forced to take a bunch of jump shots by the lack of space to operate, they were still able to make them, which kind of hit and masked some of the issues

with that lineup now. Tonight, Lebron got off to a poor shooting start, although he did make some big threes late in the game, got off two poor shooting start. Anthony Davis wasn't making his jump shots. All of a sudden, that lineup can't score. And that's just what's going to happen when you put that specific group out there, because it plays right into the defensive team that every opponent they're gonna play this year is gonna put out there,

which is we're just gonna pack the paint. We're gonna play way off of us, We're gonna play way off at DeAndre Jordan. We're just gonna sit in there and make you guys take jump shots, and it's gonna work. Uh. And it did tonight, and that, like I said, if it wasn't for that specific lineup, I think the Lakers end up winning this game by like fifteen, that's how well they played. Um. What was interesting there during the beginning of the game, when the offense was all clunky,

was how well Russell Westbrook played. I thought it was really interesting that most of the shots that he took were either at the beginning of the game, he was getting into the paint. He took one three on a swing pass that I thought was a little quick, but he didn't have the crazy, you know, nonsensical transition pull up shots that have almost no chance of going in and just kind of feel like wasted possessions. Those were gone.

And then you got to see for the first time this season, one of Russell Westbrook's elite skills come to the table and start generating, you know, positives for the Lakers. And that was his passing, you know, with the starters, you saw it looking to the rim, to the bigs whenever Memphis would kind of cheat up into the to the middle of the paint to try to help elsewhere, he found DeAndre Jordan's and Anthony Davis in the lane

for dunks. And then as the game progressed, when they got into open space, he did more of what he did with Washington, which is kicked open three point shooters and he had eleven assists, and like the first it was two and a half quarters, he had eleven assists, which is awesome. That's that's the kind of thing that Russ can bring to the table. That's gonna be really good. I also really liked what he did in crunch time

when they started helping off of him a toime. He was setting ball screens for Lebron getting into that short role position. There were a couple of plays there that kind of reminded me of the Bosch Wade Lebron pairing where they'd have Wade comes at the screen for Lebron, Wade with short roll and drop it off to Bosch

for dunker first shot. They had some sequences like that they're in the fourth quarter, including one where a d was spotting up at the three point line and cut and Russ kind of tried to do a little shell will pass to him. It just got fumbled, but that could have ended in the dunk too. That there was just the Lakers did a good job in crunch time. I thought of taking you know, Memphiss attempts to counter Russ.

You know by over helping and kind of using it against them by keeping Russ involved in the play as a screener. Again, guys, get your requests in. I'm gonna take. I'm only gonna go for about five more minutes and then I'm gonna get you guys up here to talk and we're gonna go probably for another half hour or so. Um, because Roger isn't here tonight, so I don't want to just talk the whole time. Let me look at my notes really quick, make sure I'm not missing anything. Um,

Austin Reeves. So, Austin Reeves, i I tweeted yesterday, is going to be the plus minus hero of this team, kind of like Alex Cruso was now. Alex Cruso and Austin Reeves could not be more different other than the fact that they're six five white guys. There they the way they impact the game is so much different, so different from each other. However, what they do do extremely well and the reason why they kind of have a similar vibe with this team is they're just textbook glue guys.

As the fifth guy in any lineup, I always talk about over qualified roles, like with Mellow right, like Mellow succeeded tonight because he was getting extremely easy opportunities that honestly, he's a little over qualified for. So when you have a guy is talented as Mellow, he's gonna just literally light on fire and just burn the house down the way you did today as a shooter, because he's overqualified

for that a little bit. Well, what you're what you're asking for for guys playing off of lebron A d and Russell Westbrook is to knock down open shots, occasionally do something to attack a close out if they do get chased off the line, which Mellow did make a couple of wonder but pull ups into that like seventeen eighteen footmark today when guys did chase him off the line, or he'd pump fake and sidestep and knock something down. But you all you need from that position is just

hold down your defensive responsibilities. Knocked down and open three, occasionally attacked the clothes out, and Austin Reeves is perfectly

qualified for that specific responsibility. And because he's young and enthusiastic, and because he plays with desperation, because he doesn't feel like he's really earned his spot in the league yet, these guys, you know, in the direcs of the regular season, bring immense value because not only can they fulfill the responsibilities that you need them to fulfill to fulfill, but they have great motivation. Alex Caruso was like that for the Lakers. He was different, like he was had the

ball in his hands a lot more. The Lakers actually used him as a pick and roll ball handler a lot last year. And I would say Alex is probably more of a, you know, a point of attack type of defender. Austin does okay at the point of attack, but his strengths are more off ball, thriving in the chaos, being able to chase shooters, being able to, you know, identify the little things in the defensive possession, like a little box out here, a little help here, they'll rotate there.

Those are the kinds of things that he does extremely wealth and it's just interesting because they're different him and Caruso, but the way that they impact a lineup that has super talented players is the same. And and that's why you're seeing him succeed again. Guys, get your request and I'm gonna one last point I want to make, and then I'm gonna start getting callers up here. Um. Defense

tonight was garbage. That goes without saying. The Lakers defense wasn't good enough in the first two games to immediately to be able to walk into a match up with John Morant and be able to play well like it just it was never going to work out that way. But the offense made significant strides tonight. You saw in those lineups where when DeAndre Jordan was off the floor.

I'm really curious to look at the advanced metrics tomorrow morning, after the NBA site gets all updated, just to look at what the Laker offensive rating was with DeAndre Jordan off the floor, because my guess is it's probably around one thirty points per one hundred posessions. That's how good and smooth and fluid everything looked when the floor was open for the Lakers tonight, and that was kind of a breath of fresh air compared to what we're all

used to seeing with this. You know, Lebron and av core Um. I really liked there at the start of the fourth quarter how they just put Lebron with Dwight and three shooters and basically just Lebron just stood at the top of the key called for a ball screen, waited for Memphis to over help off somebody and hit shooters, and it was like Moliague monk in the top of the key. Here mellow on the left wing. They're like, oh, this time you left me open. Okay, I'm gonna pull

up the three. Like it was just methodical dissecting offense from Lebron surrounded by shooting, and it put the game away because I think Memphis was up to at that point and like bam, just like that, Lakers are up nine. It was a huge, huge stretch of just classic, you know, open floor Lebron, you know, the maestro at the top of the key type of offense, and that kind of stride is something you can build on as a team.

And if the defense can catch up, which there were stretches tonight, especially at the end of the first quarter where the Lakers defended really well, if the defense can catch up and continue to progress the way that the offense does, that's how we know that they can potentially go up to Portland here in a week or two weeks, I think, and get a big win on the road, because like they're gonna come into some easy games now. The San Antonio wants a little tough. They're gonna go

and play Houston twice. They're gonna play Oklahoma City twice. A're gonna get into some easy games here. They can win. They just need to get these things ironed out in time for when things get tougher, because they go up to Portland and then they come back and they play Miami and they play Charlotte, then they have to go on that East coast road trip to play Milwaukee and Boston. It's gonna get harder. So it's important for them to get things going now. All right, guys, I'm gonna start

taking callers. Feel fair to bring come up and say whatever you guys want. You wanna vent, you have a question? Be my guests. Hang on, let's get our first guy up here. Barn, can you hear me? Mr? Barn? Are you there? All right? We gotta same bond back down? Hang on, Kingsley, what's up? Man? Can you hear me? Yeah? Cam Man, that's going on. I'm good. How are you? What do you gotta say? Man? I'm doing good? Man? Um? Well, first, I'm glad we finally got to win. You know what

I'm saying? Felt good? Uh? John Morn I said, there, John Moran is special, Like he has that fast twitched movements, like it's on some like Derrick Rose Young Russell Westbrook type movements. So like the way he was getting to the rim tortured bays More kind of had me word for, you know, moving forward when we need bays More to get those stops. But overall, I'm glad that, um, you know, the rest bank getting a little bit more comfortable, you know.

So I like that. I like that we're finally playing reeves more and it seems like Malik Monk is getting his footing, So I think I definitely like the where we're going. Um, I just think that it's the defense. And like, once our defense comes around, I feel like that will put us back, that will put us back at the top of the Yeah, not just the what and and last day is I was listening to the The Common Tailor and he brought up something that I've been thinking about is watching the Lakers as a fan

of Anthony Davis is so stressful. Bro. I mean every ten minutes, Bro, it's like he hits the floor for no reason. And like, bro, it's so scary watching him play, bro, because like I know that we don't have a D. All of this means nothing. And I'm the biggest lebronst, but we need a D to get back to being a D. But man, it's like like the first ten minutes,

he's going down at least four or five times. What overall, you know what I'm saying, feeling good about what we you know, where we're at in the state of the Lakers right now. Yeah, man, I agree. I I'm generally an optimist um about this team. I've been a little

discouraged early on, which goes that's kind of natural. Is just part of being a fan, right, Like we were as fans, were bad at handling the bad, and we always are really quick to to to to you know, cling to the good things that happened, And that's just kind of the way it goes. Anthony Davis part is interesting to me because you're right, like, if Anthony Davis goes down, this team can't do anything. But there's a specific reason why, Like it has to do with team construction.

Like if you look at Phoenix in the way they play, you know they have all this talent down the roster, right, so if Chris Paul misses a game, they can play. If Devin Booker misses a game, they can play. Because they didn't have they don't have a top five player on their team that they had to trade all of their assets for. That's not the way their team is constructed.

They got a discounted star that they could acquire in a trade for cheap and Chris Paul, and then they have a couple of organic, you know, up and coming stars like Devin Booker or DeAndre and who's not really a star yet but that could be trending in that direction. And then all the all of their brandon Ingram's and Kyle Ko's Musli Alonzo balls are still on the roster. That's your Mchail Bridges, that's your Cam Johnson, that's all. All of the talent that's on that roster is part

of the way that they're constructed. The Lakers have all their talent tied up in Lebron and Nady. That's that's the reality of it. They're always going to be tied to Lebron and Nad and whatever you can get for cheap. Now, the advantage of that is when they're healthy and they're playing well, you just have the best players on the floor.

Every game, right, and that's that's a huge advantage. But when one of them goes down, you're inherently going to be in some trouble and and that that's just kind of the way it goes. It's no different than what happened to Brooklyn in the playoffs last year because they're in a similar predicament. Yeah, there are some big names on that roster, just like with the Lakers. However, they're all guys that a kind of passed their prime, so they're not going to be able to pull the weight

of losing a James Harden or losing a Kyrie Irving. Um, So that's part of that's just part of the journey with Anthony Davis and Lebron, Like with uh, you know, once again, somebody folded up into Lebron's leg and and Damnier messed up his ankle on that on that play at the beginning the game, which kind of reminded me, you know, of the play where he hurt his ankle. And honestly, I don't think he was hurt on that play.

I think it was his bad ankle and when he felt somebody roll up on him, I think he just had like a little bit of a panic attack and was like, oh, you know, but then he took a deep breath and was like, Okay, it appears to be fine. Um, you had mentioned John Moran like he's he's to me, he's better at this phase then Derrick Rose and Russell

Westbrook and will be better. Yeah, as he you know, comes into his prime because he's already so much better as a shooter those guys were, and in addition to that, he's got so much more of that in between. And then he's a little bit shiftier. He's he's got a little bit more start and stop to him. Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose were almost especially when they were younger or one speed guys, you know what I mean, Like they just they just were shot out of the cannon

and no one could do anything about it. John's got some shiftiness. There was a play there in the first half where he got by Russell Westbrook on the screen. He's been discouraged because he had been turned away at the rim by that big Laker lineup, you know, the big one Laker lineup that we all hate. And all he did was just kind of stopping like pump fake and Russ just came falling down on top of him

and send him to the free throw line. That's like savvy stuff that he's like just more advanced with this phase of his career. It's not a coincidence that the Grizzlies were two and oh, and I think they're very much gonna be in the mix of things in the playoffs. Yeah, man, definitely, And I appreciate you. I appreciate you letting me come on. Man, thanks for coming on, and we'll see you on Tuesday night. Sure, bro, get your requesting. Guys, I'm gonna take callers for another

twenty minutes or so. Come up and talk about anything you wanna vent about the game. You want to have to ask a question, anything you guys want. Can you hear me? What's up in hey? Hey? Yeah, hey, Um? I just saw a play um in which Lebron, he and Russ went on a pick and roll. Then Ross was on a foreign tree. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes? Kay? Um? Then Ross because it was Lebron and Ross went on the pick and roll. We know the problem of Lebron and a d on a pick and roll. They'll just

switch it, right, the defense will just switch it. So here Lebron Ross being the the roleman went on um. I think there was a foreign tree because Lebron um Paul in the two players um on him and it left a D on the bunker spot. I think that was a kind of a formula for them to use all those three players. You can actually do it multiple times, particularly if there's a big man out there in a D is just on a bunker spot. Yeah, I agree.

The play you called out is one that I thought was the most interesting play of the game because on the previous possession, Lebron was isolating at the top of the key and Russell Westbrook went over to the to the strongside corner, and they just switched Steven Adams onto Russ because they know that Russ isn't gonna shoot, and they gave you this big defender that you can kind

of roam around with. You can't, you know, letting Russ play off the ball and crunch time is kind of like playing right into the defense's hands because that's going to allow them to play five on four on you off with whatever action you're trying to run. So what's

interesting is coming into this season. I talked about three things that I wanted Russ to do in crunch time to counter teams leaving him open, and those three things were crash the offensive glass, which he had a huge rebound on the mellow he actually got stripped by Steven Adams right after, but he had a huge rebound where

he crashed in after Mellows little turnaround fadeaway. That's an example of having an impact on the game even though you don't, even though your defender is not guarding you. Another example is I'd like to see him when he does catch the ball and teams are ignoring him, just barreling into the paint, trying to just cause the next driving kick action and hopefully the defense kind of collapses. But the third one, the most obvious one, the one that will probably see you will see the most is

using him as a screener. And you brought up which is super interesting is the like sizes right, because of Lebron and d they're just gonna switch that action. But with Russell Westbrook, it's usually gonna be someone like a John Morant or someone small, and it's a lot harder to switch that action. And so what ends up happening is you're going to trap probably because you'd rather have Russ make the decision than have Lebron make the decision, right, So Russ sets the screen rust as a short role.

Lebron hits him. This is the play right after the Steven Adams player was talking about too in US just barrels into the paint, big man steps up, drops it off the Anthony Davis dunk, and then the very next possession they actually did the same thing Lebron. Lebron reversed the screen and caught him before they could really get into their um you know, hedge and recover scheme or whatever, and just barreled down the right side. Then both defenders

just sprinted back to Lebron. He threw a pocket past to Russell Westbrook, and Russell Westbrook shoveled that little past to Anthony Davis who's cutting down the lane, and Memphis actually broke that play up and forced us into a turnover. But it was another example of like really good offense and crunch time that keeps Russ involved so that the team can't ignore him. And that's what you have to do. You have to do that. Yeah, you have to do that. And I think those three fit on that plane because

you can pay your Ross like Draymond. I mean Draymond is not a shooter mhm like Ross, but he can claim me. So I think that was on the offensive side. But another thing that I saw is that I think Mellow fits on the starting line instead of DJ right, because if if it's there for defenders, then Mellow he can guard. I think Mellow can guard the bigs. He can't guard the guards, so I think if it's there too.

And as for Austin Weaves, I think Carusa is a better defender and a better point of attack defender and a better athlete. But I think Weaves as an offensive skill set that um that Caruso doesn't have. He can shoot trees at a high clip with confidence, and he knows how to see the floor on the patch. I mean that one that passed white. It's not easy to do, particularly on that setting. They're playing too fast and for a player to see that that the floor that quick.

You can teach that too to any I think PhD Reeves is what we want th HD to be on offense right, because PSHCS has this uh how do you call this? This funnel vision that he wants to attack the basket like Ross that to the point that it's becoming reckless. But as for Meeves, he has this i Q to see the floor first, then make the play. He doesn't make reckless decisions, so I think he fits that scheme too. Instead of th HD put In Reeves there so that if you scramble situation, he can still

make place. Yeah, I thought you broke that down perfectly. Reeves is the definition of a guy who's never going to force anything. And that's exactly what you want alongside really good players, because this is something that bays Moore struggles with a little bit, right, because like beings Moore, bays Moore has more talent in all of these areas than a guy like Austin Reeves, but he just can't

help himself sometimes, right. It's it's no different than it's no different than on the defensive end that play that he had where he fouled John Moran, Like he knows he can't foul there, he knows he's not supposed to, but he just can't help himself. Like when when he's when things are going fast and it's chaotic, he just he just acts without thinking and and and the same team translates to offense. He'll try to do too much on a close out. He'll try to do too much

on a drive. He overpenetrates those kinds of things. Austin Reeves is the definition of a player that just takes every read, one read at a time. There was a play. His first NBA basket is the perfect example of this. So his first NBA basket was in the fourth quarter against the Suns. He's in the right or in the left corner, and uh, I think Lebron ends up kicking

it to him. He catches, he catches it, and JaVale McGhee is not javal m. Excuse me, I can't remember who some of the jaale m. He was in the lane, but someone calls someone calls out on him. I can't remember who it was. It might have been Cam Johnson, so uh yeah, or Campaign somebody like that. So he so he's not open on the shop, but he pump fakes, and when he pump fakes, the defender kind of closes

out to his right shoulder. And on the play he takes a dribble to the baseline, but instead of being weak, he actually extends his off arm and like chicken wings and like pushes the then're off, which which again you want to do. That means you're playing into the toughness in the physicality of an NBA game in the fourth quarter, that's what you're supposed to do. So he awards the guy off. Then as he's dribbling on the baseline with his left hand, that same defender reaches around and tries

to poke the ball out. Austin sees it coming and does like a push dribble with his left hand into the into the lane, gathers and shoots that fade away over the top of Al McGhee and nothing but the bottom. And on that play, I was just like, this is an unbelievably advanced closeout attack that that this kid did for his first NBA basket, which was just it was just incredible and and to your to your point, it's that controlled approach to the role player position that you're

begging for from some of these other players on the teams. Yeah, I think it was just a smart smart for him to um to do those things. I mean, read the floor and not just push push yourself to barrel into defenders. M hmm. I think um PA's for the defense. I think it will it Wilcome that will become eventually, because I mean, our reason is a good defenders still and d h D is a much bigger and garden, so I think they still have room for that defensive end.

But I think a monk should really take over on those positions. Yeah, I'm a big believer and moreaker definitely agree. Hey Bond, thank you so much for hopping on and come back on Tuesday if you feel like it. Okay, thank you. Alright, guys, get your request. Let me take a few more here, let's go, Dave Day. Can you hear me? Man? Yeah, Man, I can. I'm here. What's up in? So? I love what you're talking about with the starters. I kind of feel and and don't don't

hear me wrong here. I kind of feel like DeAndre Jordan's is taking the flak for all the starters. But to me, you you just broke up a little bit on Camp bays Moore, And to me, we have so many guys on this team that just should not be on the floor together. Like it's not like they're bad players, Like Camp bays Moore is not a bad player, but I feel like with him in DeAndre Jordan's and with Russell Westbrook at the same time, that's just a really

crappy combination. Like you just said that you're a big believer in more Monk minutes, it seems like he just fits with with most of the other players. Obviously Lebron and a d are going to fit with whoever, but it seems like man having Russell Westbrook and camp Baysmore in at the same time, it just doesn't feel like a good fit. And obviously DeAndre Jordan nobody really wants

him to play any time. But even there at the end, right, DeAndre Jordan is not in the game, but it's still really clunky, And to me, that kind of falls on Russell Westbrook and camp Baysmore not necessarily being that good of a fit. We the whole fourth quarter, we were having great, great lineups, right and Russ was kind of on the bench, which is unfortunate for us. And I know he's not going to be the odd man out right like unless it really comes down to it at

the end of the season. But it just seems like some of these other guys, like like A Reeves or a Month or someone like that, it seems like they're they're better fits with some of these guys same with like like uh, you know, Rondo and and Russell Westbrook again a really clunky fit. They just shouldn't play together. They can play, you know, you put Rondo out there with a D and three shooters and that's a great lineup,

you know. So to me, it's about combinations, and that's really what's making it ugly is that some people just did not fit together. For the record, I thousand percent agree with you there. There's there's a concoction that happens in five on five basketball that all has to work. And now what's interesting is you can see where Frank is coming from with Russ in bays right. Because Russ you have to play. He makes four million dollars. Bay is the reason why he starts. I really don't think

it's any more complicated than this. Each game, each team you play, there is this you know, alpha on the other team that somebody has to guard. And it's clear that on the night and night out basis, the three stars don't want that responsibility right after they will do it when they have to. But like Jont Murray on Tuesday, Baysmore is gonna guard him. He's gonna guard him. To

start the game. And so what ends up happening is inevitably they're going to start bays Moore because he's now the team's you know, de facto primary defensive, isolation scorer type of defender. Now what's tricky is you're right they DeAndre Jordan does get the flak for the whole group not performing. There's a lot of truth to that. That's it to be clear. Like the like the lineup was minus stift team with DeAndre Jordan's tonight, that's not all

on DeAndre. There were there there are there's there's some sloppy basketball happening there. However, the flip side of that is like you can kind of draw a clear line between comfort level and quality of basketball. Like I thought it was really interesting that when Russ started playing with no center there and this I think it was in the second quarter where he started getting going, got all the way to the rimper layup, got a couple of easy jump shots, got to the got to the rim,

started kicking out the shooters. That comfort level breeds good

basketball on both ends of the floor. And what ends up happening with the DeAndre Jordan lineup, even though it's not just DeAndre Jordan's fault, the way he clunks up the pain causes all three of the stars to be indecisive about what they should do, which inevitably leads to them taking jump shots, which when they're going in like they did against Golden State, Lebron and A D have the swagger to them and they're gonna be awesome anyway,

and yeah, that lineup is gonna do fine. But when they don't go in like they didn't tonight, all hell breaks loose in terms of just the clumsiness and the sloppiness of the basketball, and so that that's the tricky part. Like you almost have to have Bays in there because he's gonna want the tough job you have to there. But DJ is the problem I think with Bays though too.

It's not like he's that good of a defender, you know, like when it was Crusoe or someone like Legit, it was like, Okay, he's the he's a great defender, um, And it just feels like like he he's probably the best option we have. But that's like a huge weakness for us, Like it doesn't feel like, oh, yeah, well, when he's in there for his defense, it feels like, well, yeah, he's probably the best defender that we have on ball,

but he's still not very good, you know. Like and again it feels like the whole activity without a production kind of deal, like he's doing a lot, but he's not really bothering. And again, who's Franks supposed to go to, like, because I don't think Avery Bradley is. I mean, as much as people are like, oh yeah, we're so excited every bad he's back, I'm like, okay, maybe in like real spot minutes, but not not like on a regular basis, he's your go to guy to shut down like John Rant.

Like again, John Avery was pretty bad tonight again, and he was pretty bad against you. He can't He checked into the game in his first possession, went like way under an off ball accident, lost John Murray. He literally lost John Murray on the first possession that he got in the game. And I was like, oh, man, like he was really good there to try to ignite a run against Golden State and try to stop Jordan Pool,

but he was pretty bad in his last two games. Yeah, agreed, And again Frank kind of gets crap about it too, But it's like, who's he supposed to go to like because again, Malik Monk isn't going to be the guy, which he's in there great for his offense, and I think that's why all of us are looking at Austin Reeves going well, at least he at least he like holds his own and he's giving a ten percent, you know, like the rest of the guys. It just feels like

we're bleeding. But yeah, I agree with you. It's it's a tough predicament that they're in just in general. But the thing is is, like, you know, when when John Morant went on his crazy run, the Lakers immediately coming out of the time out started sending you know, multiple bodies at him, and then and then he immediately started kicking the shooters and the next three possessions after that ended in threes. But what was funny is the rotations were so bad that they were like wide, wide open three.

So the truth of the truth of the matter is is like it's I never look at individual matchups necessarily as the crippling point of the defense, because truth be told, if I've got Molik Monk on an island with John Moran and I leave him on an island, then I'm I'm playing bad defense. But even if even if he forces John Morane into a jump shot and he happens in this like when you're playing how did teams guard

Lebron Russ and Anthony Davis. Everything's multiple bodies. There's no such thing as like, let to let Anthony Davis go one on one against our six six small forward. No, it's like there's dudes in his face. There's there's a guy sitting under the rim, there's a guy at the top of the keys, like digging down and swiping down at the ball. Like every Lebron drive and post up ends in multiple bodies. Like you throw multiple bodies that

good offensive players. So the way you have to defend is to send multiple bodies and then rotates and recover and do everything on the back end you needed to do to take shots away. So I'd like from that standpoint, I wasn't so concerned necessarily, you know, at the point of attack with Jaw. It was the fact that when they started sending multiple bodies at him, they just didn't do a good job kind of like making it a

little bit tougher on the role players. And that's when like mellow just get really exposed because he will not make very many efforts on the defensive end at all, if exactly exactly No, you're right, hey, Dave, I really perceived coming on and if you like, come on back on Tuesday. All right, let's see who guys, I'm really one more and then we'll take a bunch more on Tuesday. Hulio, can you hear me? You're muted, so you might not do on mute. Hey man, I'm here. Hey, how's it

going great? How are you? I'm doing good? So what do you gotta say events about something? You have any questions? Listen? And I think that it was a this same game, O world. The most important things throughout the game for me was stopping these huge runs by me by Memphis, because the last two games against the Words and Suns, we get on these huge hus runs and from that point on the game was mostly lost. Mm hmm. Also, I think the transition difference was the way whether this game.

I don't know if that was only by the presence of job alone, but definitely an provement. Blowest rotations were bare overalled. Beside your under Jordan, who everybody is taking short setting and this I think Frank has put more consistent and quantity lineups throughout the game, and in certain ribs throughout the game, I think he got like three

or four shifts and those were really good. And I think this this would be his role going forward, and just like a reserch, he will eventually win more minutes just based on confidence by Frank and the starts just by not making defensive or offensive mistakes. Yeah, it's it's interesting because Reeves is going to fall out of the rotation here. It's unfortunate, but it's it's the reality of

the situation. Guys like Kendrick Nullan coming back, you know, guys like THHD coming back, those other guys that are to get those minutes unfortunately. Um, which is just kind of part of the politics of the way the NBA works, right, Like you've got Kendrick Nunn on the mid level exception, the ownership group, when you count tax, the luxury tax, is going to be paying almost you know what, fifteen million dollars or something to have Kendrick Nunn on the roster.

So there's a certain amount of an expectation that those guys are gonna play. So Reeves is going to fall out of the rotation. But fortunately rob was smart and signed him, I'm pretty sure to a multi year contract. The two year contract, I believe before the season when they converted him from a two way to UH to a guaranteed contract, which at the time everyone was confused. And remember the intel was just like they just said that he went to Lebron's preseason camp and he was awesome. Um,

and maybe that's what it was. Maybe it was as simple as the camp went well and then Lebron called Robin was like, hey, you gotta sign this dude, you know, like it could have been one of those kinds of things. But the unfortunate reality is he's going to fall out of the rotation as soon as all these other guys get healthy. So everybody who wants to see more Austin reeves enjoy it while you can, because it's gonna last about a week or two and then Kendrick Nunn is

gonna come back and take all of his minutes. That's just kind of the way this is going to go down. Um. But yeah, I thought I thought you brought an interesting

point about the transition defense. Transition defense was horrible against Phoenix, and there's a couple of different things about transition defense that you have to factor and part of it is effort and focus, but a big part of it is team speed and when you when you play guys like Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan's sometimes even on their best day when they're playing hard, if you catch them in bad position and you sprint down the floor, you're just

gonna beat them down the floor because they're slow. And we talked about this a lot with vene On on

the Friday Night Pod. But your overall team speed in the lineup in the modern NBA has to be at a certain level to keep up with the way these teams are, you know, with with pushing the ball the floor, especially guys like John Moran and uh in general, I thought tonight they did a better job, much better than they did against Phoenix of just getting back off of the shots and trying to take away the super super

easy stuff. Did you have anything else with you? No, Let's keep the rolling so everyone can alrighty, thanks man, thank you man. Al Right, guys, I have one left, so let's get one last one up in here. Mandel, can you hear me? Sorry for miss pronouncing your name, Hello, man, dope, all right, we're gonna drop me into there, not hearing in. I do have one left though, Spencer, Spencer, what's up? Man? So I did, Hey, how's it going good? Um, just

kind of a comment. I thought it was interesting watching a ton of games. I like, I won't miss a Lakers game right, probably like everyone Elton here watching a ton of games last season. Watching a ton of games last season, I remember being like shocked because sometimes you like get lost in the game and the flow and you won't won't really look at the score a ton.

I don't know about you guys. And there are times where like we're missing open three after open three, and I look at the score and we'd be up ten, and I'd be like, what's going on. It's because last year and kind of the year before, we relied so heavily on our defense, just chasing dudes, guys on a string. Everyone bought into this game, just like great, right, and then this year it was just like a total flip side. We're hitting every open three and I look and we're

only up by you know, like a few points. And it was like last year if we had a game where we shot fifty from three, we win by thirty, right like easy, and so it just like was pretty hopeful. Just like with these guys, if they can just get that Vogel defensive system down, I know, like personnel lies, we may not be able to reach last year previous year's levels, but man, if they can just get it down and locked in, I think I think it's just

a hopeful nugget. Honestly, So I'm really glad you brought that up, because that was something that I had been thinking in the middle of the fourth quarter and had

not yet mentioned in the show. But there was a moment when Mello hit a three in the middle of the fourth quarter at our early fourth quarter, and I think it put us up like one oh five, one oh two or something, but the game was relatively close, and I immediately thought to myself, I'm like, this is kind of what everyone was talking about over the summer, like the fact that we might have to outscore some people. Right Like, it was this up and down basketball game,

and we were just better at scoring. In the fourth quarter. There was like it was like John Morant trying to drive and kick the shooters versus Lebron trying to drive and kick the shooters and Lebron is just way better. So we just want we won based on the quality of shots we've got in that fourth quarter and people

knocking it down. And it's super interesting because you're absolutely right, like it's a totally different dilemma, but it's the same feeling where you're like, you keep looking now at the scoreboard and we're like, we're in we're in the lead,

but we're just not like pulling away, so to speak. Now, as far as the defense goes, I'm a little bit more optimistic than most people because like with your core five, you look at the defensive ceiling, You look at, you know, on on a handful of possessions, how likely are they to get stops? You know, and you're you're so focused on the ceiling. Now with this team, I still believe in the defensive ceiling because I have Lebron and Anthony

Davis on the floor. Now, frank Is, that lineup is probably gonna look like Russ bays Moore aresa Lebron a d later in the season, and that lineup is going to be every bit as high as a ceiling defensively as what we've seen in previous years. Now, the bench lineups throughout the game. They're never gonna be able to reach the ceiling that the Lakers Lakers had, They're never

gonna be able to reach that. However, to your point, over the course of the season, you can you know, the way you win with defense in like Game six of the NBA Finals is different than the way you win with defense in their regular season. And the regular season it's all about habits and focus and dudes not falling asleep and dudes just doing their jobs right. And then in the Game six of the Finals, it's like, how big and athletic and strong and in freaky physical

can you be? Right Like, so the way that I look at it, with those bench lineups, they don't need to be the most freaky physical, crazy athletic lineups in the entire world. They just need to have enough guys they give a shit about doing their job and give a shit about doing uh, paying attention to those little details. If they can do that over the course of the season, like you said, just kind of buy into what Frank

is trying to get them to do. Over the course of the season, the bench lineups will defend well enough to where they can reach the defensive ceiling again at the end of the game with their core lineups, and this defense can be really good. I still believe that over the course of the season this team will defend pretty well. Yeah, I'm gonna be really optimistic when we have a game where we're shutting teams down, shutting their water off. You know, we'd have these back to back

to back. We'd almost go on defensive runs the past couple of years, you know what I'm saying, and man to to string one of those together, because that's that's what makes a championship team. Right. There's like teams that are built completely off of defense that are great teams to make deep playoff runs. But if you don't have offense, like they'll struggle later in the postseason, right or you have these all time offenses that struggle on defense, you

need you really need both. And I know there's been some like defensive only teams that have, you know, one the finals. Maybe I think of the Pistons way back in the two thousand's, but way way back now. But but uh yeah, I think I think if this team can like find a good balance there, because it's like a mental thing too. If you're focused so much on shooting and scoring, you you fall asleep. You know, you're

absolutely right. Now, You're absolutely right. And they do have to reach a certain baseline of defense without a doubt. I mean, there's plenty of metrics about that, or you know, just kind of his historical you know, a pre you know, kind of little landmarks that we can look at that show that you have to be at a certain level on both ends of the floor. And the bottom line is is, like they the way that this group would

defend well would take time. Right Like it was, There's no way that you would be able to get Mellow and Monk and and Ellington and some of these guys into this system and they would just immediately pick it up. It's going to take time. You're you're overturning bad habits like Mellow at this phase in his career, Pick and Roll was deph Curry in the fourth quarter. He's not a focused on the fact that he has to be

up at the screen, and so he gets beat. But maybe after sixty games with Frank, with film sessions and accountability from his peers, he'll be sitting there looking at this from the perspective of like I can't make this mistake or I won't play. You know, I can't make this mistake or it'll cause the entire system to break down, you know what I mean. So I do think over

time that kind of thing will come around. And thank god, they have a really easy schedule here over the next couple of weeks because they'll they'll be able to win without playing super well. But Spencer, thank you so much for coming on. Man, come back and say if you feel like it, see man, Alright, everybody, We're going to call it tonight. Ros will be back to make this not a solo show on Tuesday. UM. As always, I

sincerely appreciate all of you guys and your support. I'm going to take the recording of this show and post it onto our podcast feed immediately after the show ends. It will also air on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am. But again, I just want you guys to know how much I appreciate to you guys for supporting ROJ and I as we do this. Three shows down and what's a seventy to go. I'm looking forward to every one of them. Have a good night, guys,