Episode 90: Rockets/Lakers Postgame Spaces

was too small to do any real damage. And then I had basketball practice at the high school with I'm coaching out that ran a little late, so I missed a portion of this game, but I was able to watch most of the important stuff at the end, and obviously I saw the entire game on Sunday. We do have a lot to talk about, but I'm thankful because uh RODJ is my partner in crime here has been able to be a little bit more attentive. But this

is to me a classic example of UM. You know, this type of game is just something that happens in the NBA regular season when you're playing in eight two, especially as an older veteran team. UM, I think it was too much to ask for them to have too defensive performances like Sunday Night against the team of this caliber. UM. That said, and I'm interested to hear your take on this, Like, I feel like I'd be a little less annoyed if

this hasn't been such a theme from this season. You know, like if you if you saw a game like this from the Lakers, Lakers, you just chalk it up to the dregs of the NBA regular season. But when we really start to break down the games of this season so far, it's like, Okay, Golden State they were really good for about two and a half quarters and then they completely fell apart defensively. Phoenix they were good for about one quarter and then they completely fell apart defensively.

Memphis they got a bunch of stops in the fourth quarter and they got a win, But for the most part that game, they were bad defensively. I think John Morant had forty in that game, right. San Antonio complete ship show defensively, they just happened to outscore them. And then Oklahoma City they lose because it's a ship show defensively, and then they have a good defensive performance against Cleveland and a good defensive performance against Houston, and then tonight,

so we're talking about what's that? What do They played eight games and six of them have been bad defensive performances. So I think I do care a little bit more than I normally would, just because it kind of goes to the conversation we had last week on Friday having to do with identities and like what the like what what the mental makeup of the team is? Like to me, this is a little more annoying because it's a part of a larger theme. What do you think? Yeah, like

we talked about it. I believe on Friday, I was worried about the bad habits that would start being created by playing all these bad teams, and I thought tonight was just the accumulation of that. This is another bad team, another young team, and I don't think this team can survive, Like there has to be a baseline level of defense that you play, Like they can't play hard defense every single night. And I don't really like blaming defense on pure effort every time because I think that's kind of

unfair as well to the other team. Like Jalen Green was incredible tonight, and I thought in that first quarter he had a bunch of tough threes that got him going. He got to attack the rim. But definitely brought any D another game where I felt like they really just

walked through. And I feel like on those previous teams they could do that and we had the defensive kind of talent there to make up for about on this team, it just doesn't you see when Lebron's kind of not not being all into it as the help guy, a d not all into it defensively as the help guy. It's just straight line drives right to the basket. Every Bradley did what he could, Austin Reads did what he could.

Russell Westbrook got thought played hard, but still you know a lot of gambling, a lot of getting beat off the dribble, just one move right to the basket. Guys like Kevin Porter Jr. Are really dynamic in that way going off the dribble. I talked about Jillen Green as well. But yeah, and that third so in that first half used to towards seventy points and a lot of that was in the paint as well, like and that to

me just telling on exactly yeah. But then in that third quarter, and so in the second half, they had around thirty four points with four minutes left, and four minutes left is when I really thought the Lakers had the game in the bag. I think they were up eight. And I want to ask you about this. Have you ever seen so did you see where they took the two points away from base? Have you ever seen I have never seen that for something like a couple of

minutes away. I get like, right away, maybe they figure out like, hey, he's not supposed to be at the line, they're actually at four files. But minutes away. Not only does it take the points away, it takes a possession away, right, so they basically throw that whole offense was Have you ever seen that? No, So I thought that I have a feeling the NBA is going to come out, the officials are going to come out and release a statement

that they screwed up. Because so I had a huge problem with that because even okay, let's call it what it was, the officials made a mistake. Okay, boo freaking who whatever. You move on officials and make mistakes all over the place in the game, Okay, Like that's just part of basketball. However, what they don't understand. The problem with taking points away after the fact several possessions later is you never are properly accounting for the way basketball

changes based on the scoring margin. So, for instance, if you're up five instead of up seven, the game feels a little closer, right, Like we're talking about two possessions, three possessions. So maybe on defense you give a little bit more effort. Maybe on offense you're a little less

willing to settle because the game feels closer. So I had a huge problem with taking that basket of those two free throws away because it fails to account for the way that the basketball um the like the tone of the game, it is different based on the scoring margin,

and so I had a huge problem with that. But I have a feeling they're gonna end up, um, I have a feeling they're gonna end up coming out with some statement like we probably shouldn't have done that, because you're right, like, if if it was just a team foul, they would have had a side out of bounds in another possession. So you didn't just take two points away.

You took two points away, and you took away the opportunity to potentially score a basket, So it was like completely nonsensical on so many levels that a problem with it, yeah for sure, And I just thought that was weird. But yeah with the defense, like again, this is a Houston team that's not going to really be able to

punish you. They're super young. The game kind of went how I thought I would, But yeah, third quarter they completely shut it down and they had something like again, like we talked about it, they go on these defensive runs, and I thought they had that tonight. When Lebron and a d are engaged defensively, like it becomes a scary team. There are a few moments where Houston can't even get a shot off. I think one of them ended with a D blocking one of Jalen Green's three's and he

was late. But just like, they can't do that every quarter. But there has to be like a level where you don't just become this like the worst defensive team in the league. And I thought that's what they looked like in that first first half, or just straight line drives right to the basket, Sangoon just in christian Wood, just blowing their way to the rim, looking like super dominant um inside paint players. Yeah, but are you worried about

the defense? I guess as a whole going forward, just larger picture because tonight they did turn it on and they showed they can shut down this Houston team. I think we play Oklahoma City next so again and just another bad team. I know we lost to them. We'll see if that changes how they how they react to it. But I feel like we're gonna get another one of these just lack of days ago first halfs turned on

in the second half type of games. So it's all about what the totality of their identity, So what what they're what they tend to do when they're in those situations. So for instance, if they go have a really nice defensive game against Oklahoma City and then they go and have a really nice defensive performance on Saturday night in Portland and beat the Trailblazers, then we can look back at tonight and be like, hey, four of the last

five games the Lakers looked great defensively. They're turning a defensive corner. This is becoming their new identity. That's the way you can look at it. But if they go up to Oklahoma City or they stay home for Oklahoma City on Thursday and don't defend well, and then they go up to Portland and get beat and look sloppy

on the defensive end. Now we're looking at that thing I was talking about earlier where now eight of the ten games they've played, they've looked bad defensively, right, so you know, they it's up to them to show us whether or not it's a blip or a trend. You know what I mean now? And you're you are right that like defense can't solely be put down to effort. That that is a good point that that needs to

be emphasized here. However, I think when Lebron checked out of the game, they had already allowed twenty two or twenty three points by the four minute market the first quarter. So the starters they do have enough defensive talent to get stops. So the effort was not good enough with

that group. And so that's what's disappointing to me, is, like, you know, there was that photo that went that was on social media from the Sunday night game where Lebron and A d were sitting on the bench right before tip off and they both just had that angry like scowl look on their face like they were just ready to rip the throat out of the Rockets, and they went out and did that. That was a tone that

they set from the beginning. I shared a video yesterday showing just how active Lebron was on the back line, blowing up plays around the rim as that helped defender, Like Lebron set a tone and it extended through the whole game, and they held the Rockets to points in that game. That same attitude was just missing tonight. And again,

it's all about the trends. If it's one of those things where one out of every four or five games when they play a bad team that come with some weak defensive effort, then you can just attribute it to the normal things that happened in an NBA regular season. But if it's something that becomes recurring, now we're talking about we're talking about an identity problem. So that's that's the way I would look at it. Is like tonight

the Lakers. If the Lakers have the opportunity this weekend to make tonight look like a blip and not a trend, yeah, for sure. And this is definitely like a part in the schedule where you want to just rack up rack up as many wins as you can against these really inferior teams. I just kind of want to move on to I guess again the guy we're gonna talk about mainly, I think what this season revolves around. I thought Russell Westbroog is starting to kind of get more and more comfortable,

not even just tonight, but even against Houston. I believe on Friday whenever they played them, I thought you looked good. Then to tonight only three turnovers, um didn't hit it three twenty seven, seven and nine. I know his numbers don't always kind of equate to if you're winning the game or not, but I just thought he picked his spots pretty well, his shot selection. It still can be where he at times, but I thought it's getting better

and better. Not and Tonight's only game six of the Lebron A D and Russ trio, and it just feels like a lot more just the way that we consume media. Just feels like they've been playing together a lot more than they did. But I thought he's he's starting to find his way to Teammates are starting to figure him out as well. He's starting to figure them out. He's doing a lot of this like, he still does a

lot of this. He just drives in the paint recklessly and then kicks it out, but it does kind of collapse. The defense brings like a compromise defense and then they can attack. What are you kind of seeing from Russ? Not just tonight the last game as well. I feel like he is starting to find his bearings a little bit. Again, it's not great, it's not clean, but I think the a d at the five stuff like, it's no coincidence. And again DeAndre Jordan looked absolutely awful tonight, uh in

his minutes, But I don't think it's coincidence. The one center lineup has just opened things for Russ and he lived a lot more comfortable being able to attack. He attacked in one on one situations in transition. He he bullied his way to the rim. He got to the line I believe ten times uh tonight, which which is good for him. What do you what are you kind of seeing from Russ? Because I feel like he's starting

to starting to put fit down a little bit. Well, He's starting to understand that with this group he can impact the game in all of the Russell Westbrook ways that he's always impact the game while trimming back on some of his aggressiveness, which is going to increase his efficiency.

Will have to look when the when the stats get updated later tonight, but his fewer goal percentage has taken a significant take up in the last week um which is probably a big part of Lebron coming back and the way that he just allows Russ to kind of rain in some of his aggression. I tweet I tweeted out earlier today the the Lebron Russ a d with no center lineups coming into tonight. This information will not have been up aided on the NBA dot com website

until tomorrow morning or later tonight. But before tonight they had only played forty five minutes together with no center, and they were plus seventeen in those minutes, which comes out to plus fifteen point eight net rating, so plus five team point eight points per one enter possessions, and they were dominant on both ends of the floor in those minutes. Now there, they have not looked good when they've played with a big which is the most predictable

outcome in the history of basketball. However, the reason why I would use that as a huge sign of optimism or a driving force behind optimism is like they haven't played well. This is this is a basketball team that is that is playing like a middle of the pack Western Conference team right now when we when we all know that when this thing really gets going, they're going to be a team that is in contention for a championship, one of the top two three four teams in the league.

And so that's exciting for me because you know, when we envisioned this coming in, it was like we were just thinking Dennis Shrewder on steroids, right and and we knew last year that when Dennis Shredder and Lebron and a d were on the floor of the Lakers dominated that was just a fact that manifested on the scoreboard.

And so we had a feeling that if r Us could kind of replicate what Dennis Shredder did on the team in terms of usage, which when you look at the roster, the when Lebron is on the floor with Russ,

he doesn't take a ton of shots. I think it's hovering right around like like twelve or thirteen shots per one of per thirty six minutes, I think, if I if I remember correctly, So what that means is Russ is really reining it in and taking on that Dennis Shredder type of role, guy who's trying to attack when it kind of makes sense along to superior players, you know what I mean. And so that there's a lot to be optimistic about looking forward with that group because

they're gonna start playing better basketball. There will be a point, especially when they go and play some of these better teams, like they've got a road trip coming up. I think it's in just over a week where they're gonna be playing like Boston and Milwaukee. Like you're they're gonna have to to elevate their level of play. And I do think that that we've seen enough, even with as bad as they've been playing, that this can work. And you know,

I loved that Russ is. I love that when Lebron shot that fade away at the end of the game, Russ came flying in and tried to tip dunk it even if you missed it, because that's the example of like, that's just that, you know, uh, it's he's overqualified for

what you're asking to do. He's so athletic, he's so strong, he's got such a high motor that asking him to be that tertiary player alongside these two better players should manifest in all of this like positive chaos, and I think we are starting to see that a little bit. Like I again from the beginning, didn't love the move,

but I saw that it could work. I knew that there was potential for it to work, and we have seen some flashes of that so far through eight games and in minutes is nothing think about them, like that's nothing they have. They're gonna have a whole lot more opportunity over the course of the season to figure out how to make this work even better. Yeah, and this is the third straight game I really like. Well, the A D two files kind of messed it up in this game, which might take on it. I wish he

would just stayed out there with the two files. But like they've been doing this second unit kind of thing where Lebron comes out I believe around the three or four minute mark of the first quarter and they do Russ A D with just three spacing shooters, one of them is Mellow and they'll have reeves out there. And then tonight it was Monk in that situation. Um, it was Bradley A couple of times. I think it can

be Ellington when he comes back, Kedron or whatever. But I'd like that they've kind of stuck RUSS and a D together in those and then they let like you talked about, they started let Lebron running those DeAndre Jordan's lineups or whoever is the backup center lineup. But I think that, like second unit is something they can stick with. They started it in the third quarter against Cleveland, Uh, they were down ten, they went to that. They went on a big run with Lebron off on the bench.

They did again in the first game against Houston, did again tonight. I just like that as something they can go to when Lebron's on the bench. I have to check the numbers. Um if they're winning, those those lineup spy a lot or not, but like even if they're not, I just like how that looks. Austin Reeves as a connector there. He's a guy that probably stayed. But I

just like that they're finding units that work. And I thought Vogel has found something there with the RUSS A D kind of spacing line up where they can just spam that RUSS a D pick and roll. It's just a really tough cover. You can't. You can't switch it. You get a D with a small Russ gets to get a load to the rim. He can run to the rim I big under or he can find shooters

and you can find Carmelo, who has been an absolute flamethrower. Um. I know we didn't get to talk about that first Houston game together, but what do you think of Camelo just can't miss right now? It's kind of crazy. I did not think he'd be shooting this. Well, what are you seeing from Carmelo? Because I feel like it's kind of crazy what he's shooting. I think it was like seventy at home and eight percent on the road, and I think those numbers will kind of even out a

little bit. But he's been just amazing as a knockdown guy. And I think they found lineups for him too. I like him next to a D about tonight, even on defense. It kind of shows that he can survive out there. Do you do you like we're kind of seeing from Carmelo because I feel like he's kind of outplaying his contract already. Yeah, I do, so. I have I have a lot of thoughts about Carmelo, and really really quickly

before you before we get to that. Just to tie off what you were just saying, agree with you, Like, in terms of the Lebron off minutes, I would stack talent in those minutes because Lebron just has a history throughout his career of just figuring out how to be positive with limited players, especially against bench lineup. So you know, obviously I'd prefer that to be Dwight, and it will

be Dwight when he gets healthy. But it putting Lebron with a Dwight, putting Lebron with a uh, you know, with an Austin Reeves, putting him with the players that are a little bit more limited, I think makes the most sense because he is the most capable of keeping

those minutes positive. And I really do think that having this team be the first team in the Lebron era that could stay positive in the Lebron off minutes would be such a huge boost to this team, not only in uh, in those specific minutes, but that that kind of thing will help them in the standings over the

course of an eight two game season. Like think about how crazy it is to win at a sixty four get win pace like they did in the last two seasons when Lebron and a d were healthy while losing every single minute you play without without Laban Like, that's crazy, right, So you know, I kind of like organizing it in that way, and chances are that that's the way to use it, as like like innings eating, because by the time you get to the postseason, all these guys are

playing forty two minutes anyway, and if you won't have this much of a problem trying to to get through the these extended stretches of of you know, a d Off and russ Off minutes. Now, as far as Tormentlo Anthony goes, he's the guy in the early going that I've been advocated it as the perfect fifth guy to throw in with Lebron, ross a D and in Baysmore or Reeves or Bradley whoever is that they put out there.

The reason why is like he provides you. And I talked a lot about the difference between a guy who can make shots at high percentage and the guy that teams are terrified of and guard in a specific manner, because the truth of the manner is, even if Rondo hits his threes, he's being he's being left wide open.

And so it has an impact on every other possession that doesn't end in him making a three just because of congestion, And like, what what was so interesting to me in that in the Cleveland game and then in that in the last Houston game. You know, Carmelo he because he is taller and because he's so good at elevating and releasing quickly at the top of his shot. You if you close out on him, he's kind of

still open. The only way he's not going to feel comfortable bulling his shot is if you're in his shorts, like literally just like up in his airspace. That's the only way you're going to bother Carmelo Anthony spot up attempt. What that means is you have two choices as the defense. You can either take him away, in which case you're letting Lebron, A D and Russ play four on four, which I'm here to tell you as a battle you're

probably gonna lose. Or you can keep that fifth defender and in a traditional help side you know, split the difference type of spacing to try to bother Lebron resc and A D and Carmelo Anthony is gonna shoot like from three this year because because that's the that's the

gamble that you have here. These guys put so much pressure on the rim in a different way than than Damian Lillard and c. J. McCollum did that he's just going to continue to either get amazing looks that he's going to hit at an extremely high percentage, or he's going to uh pull the defender out and allow your ours to be more comfortable. It's like he's he's one of those he's made himself into almost like a Duncan Robinson,

you know, Joe Harris level spacing threat. Obviously he's not shooting on the move like those guys are, but he has he's building that kind of fear. And then, as we've seen with the really really good defensive lineups that the Lakers put out there, he can hold his own defensively as long as he's surrounded by all that size and athleticism. So I, you know, it's funny because I I was really down on the signing when it first happened. Not down, but just not as excited as other Laker

fans were. And I've been proven wrong because he's just turned himself into such a deadly spot up threat that you absolutely have to account for him and that and that that helps that spacing equation with Russ, you know, like with Russ on the floor, Yeah, he's gonna be helped. This guy is gonna be helping off. But Carmelo's spacing kind of counteracts that a bit. It helps the whole

formula work better. Right, And I looked up today, so he was shooting six almost sixty nine percent on his wide open threes, and the NBA kind of classifies that as when you're defenders six plus feet away. It was almost like when the defenders when it's just open with the defenders less than six ft. But yeah, I don't know if those numbers will stay. But he's just been an incredible spot up guy. Like he's just he's gonna be himself, right, unapology, unapologetically, Like he's kind of what

I thought Russ would be here. Russ has kind of done this more trying to fit in stuff. Carmelo is like I'm coming here to be Carmelo Anthony and like some of that you get some of those really bad kind of midrange shots. But I tweeted tonight, he must be in heaven, like he gets he gets every team

he gets every team's third worst defender. You know, he had like Kevin Porter Junor on him in the post and it's just a little one leg fade away that you know he's done a bunch of times and yeah, put him put us up, I think like four or something. But yeah, just as a catch and shoot guy. Like that's why I like him in that second unit as well. I think that's going to be a stand and stay

as we go here. Um, just russ a d mellow with two if you can get two defensive guys, I guess, And that's kind of where I wanted to go with this task you next, because it looks like th HD is kind of getting healthy, Wayne Ellington's kind of getting Wayne Ellington seems to getting healthy, Andndrick Gun should be in a couple of weeks. Like there's three new dudes

coming to the rotation. Um, I know that they barely beat the Rockets these few times, and it's really tough to kind of take from these young teams, but like, how do you see I guess the rotation people are asking about my league Monk, Like I thought Mileage Monk looked bad tonight, but you know he's gonna have games like that, he's still kind of getting destroyed defensively. But how do you see the rotation? I guess just big picture here. We get th HD back hopefully pretty soon.

Does he just slide right into there for monk or like, how do you see this kind of playing out? It's funny. I actually got actively excited about th HT the other day when I saw that that little video of him doing the left handed workout with with Yeah, gosh, now I'm planking on his name like it's so funny too, because like I feel like every person in their wife is to suffer an injury to their dominant hand at some point so that they can polish up things with

their left hand. That injury never happened to me, by the way, so I have absolutely no left hand. But the uh, it's funny because with with T T H T two is is hilarious because he's so dominant right hand, Like he's that guy that will have you pinned on the left side of the rim and still go up with his right hand. You know. But I got excited about him because I have so much uh you know, I'm so excited for what his defensive potential is as a ball pressure guard. You know, the truth is is

like Avery Bradley is not super good right now. He's not super good compared to what he used to be, but he looks really good right now because what Frank needs out of that position is pretty simple. Fight over the top of screens, apply ball pressure. It's okay if you get beat off the dribble, because if you get beat off the dribble, that is a uh in the in a ball pressure sense, that is a predictable outcome

that the defense has built to absorb. Okay, we talked about We talked about this all the time, Like when you're playing against the five, when you're playing against the Brooklyn Nets in the finals, I don't care if I've got Ben Freakin Simmons guarding the dude at the point of attack, Kyrie is probably going to beat him off

the dribble. You know, to your defensive scheme is designed to absorb that, and so it just needs to be a predictable outcome, which you can't have is blatant defensive breakdowns where guys don't do their jobs and then everything falls apart. That's where it gets more complicated. Well, th h T as we've seen is actually a better on ball defender than Avery Bradley at this point. He's got a lot to learn about those multiple effort plays within the defense in his off ball stuff, and we'll see

if he has enough of that together. He did get better at that as the season progressed last year, by the way, But that and that's gonna be the big thing for him. But I think th HD is gonna come in and play a big role right away. I expect him to imediately jumped into that Avery Bradley type of role where he's playing minutes um and being the guy that's that's fighting over the top of every single

ball screen. That's gonna be something really exciting. Kendrick nunn Is is going to be, I think a little bit more in the Link Monk type of of role. And what I mean by that is like I think his minutes a Wax and Wayne based on how well he's playing, because while he is a good defensive player compared to someone like Molik Monk, he does not have that high ceiling type of ball pressure effect that you get from an Avery Bradley or from a Campaigns more from a

th HT. So from that standpoint, I think you'll see moments where None plays a big role, especially if he's got it going offensively, kind of like Monk, but I could see him kind of drifting in and out. I mean the perfect I know, I know this is completely out of left field, but like, if the Lakers are in a position where they need to make a trade at the deadline, the the the emergence of Avery Bradley and in the emergence of Austin Reeves immediately makes Malik,

Monk and Kendrick unexpendable. Now that I who knows, they could all pan out really well and the Lakers could stand pad at the deadline. I'm not here advocating for a trade by any means, but the the advantage of having Reeves breakout and having Bradley show that he can work in this system is if you're sitting down and it's like, hey, guys, a Reza's ankle is screwed. He

cannot play this here. We need a wing. Well, you've got two contracts there in Monk and None, who add up to you know, eight nine million dollars that you can trade for ten eleven million dollars, And there are guys that are replaceable in because of all your guard depth, and so I think what will be really interesting to see is, you know, because we've seen Monk fall out of the rotation several times already and it's confusing to even wonder how Kendrick Nunne fits with this group right now.

So it'll be really interesting to see over the course of the next couple of months how much those guys are used, because they could become your primary trade pieces, uh come February. Yeah, I've been thinking about this, Like th HD, I think feels the desperate need we have for a wing, right we just don't have anyone's like six eight six seven. Kendred Nonne kind of should feel like they he was there. These are what fourth or

fifth highest paid player. They gave him the tax player mL E. He should fit into that Avery Bradley roll right with more offense, and we'll see if every Raley goes to the bench talking about him and Vogel having this like and you talked about as well, like there's defensive coach connection where he's a super high pressure UH point of attack defender that fits the scheme that Bogo wants to run. Even if it was like I don't know if you didn't get to see that first half.

But they did a lot of switching tonight because they started a d at the five, and there's still some miscommunication with that as well. I think Avery Bradley is not as good and just like a total switching scheme like you could tell U. I think some of the bigges kind of went at him. But yeah, like with let me ask you this quick. They switching because they were dying on screens or were they switching because it was by designing? In that first quarter I thought it

was by did not by design. It felt like they were trying to really switch everything. And then they kind of switched when Mellow got into the game. Mellow came in, he started kind of trapping a little bit more. But in that first quarter they really were trying to just switch everything. I think one play even where Bradley went over the top and eight, he told him like we're switching, and then I think Houston just threw the ball out of bounds but it wasn't open dunk for things sing

goun or something like that. But I thought they were trying to switch everything. But that's what I want to see. I want to see if like Kendrick Nunn comes in and can take that, you know, take the minutes from Avery Bradley, because he should be this offensive kind of player, right That was the whole point of getting Kendrick Kunn be like that backup guard um. But like he is, he is kind of small. He's six too, so we'll

see if he can defend well enough. But like, I want to see Kendrick Nunn play first before I put him in some trades, put him in a put in the trade machine. But I'm really interested to see if Kendrick Nunn comes back and takes every Bradley minutes. I think TH's gonna play right away. Though we need a wing even if she's not great. It's just we need more size out there and he should be able to

feel that. But we'll see it when he comes back. Yeah, you know, I I Kendrick Nunn in particular is a guy I'd like to see playing some of those lineups you were talking about where Russ and a d Are are together with a bunch of shooting, but Lebron is kind of with the rest. I would think Kendrick Nun would be a really interesting guy to put out there with Lebron and and because you know, Lebron likes to Hey, I run this possession. Hey, I run this possession. Hey

I run this possession. But this possession I want to go stand you know, ft on the right wing, and yeah, I have have to kick it to me. I'll shoot the three and I'll make him. But like I want you to try to create something like Kendrick Nunn is like the perfect guy to throw into something like that, um,

you know, as a as a secondary ball handler. And you're right, it's something that's missing with this particular group is like, you know, because Frank has gone the way of defense and Monk has kind of slipped in and out of the rotation. It's kind of like Lebron and Russ are staggered. But when they don't, you know, when they're not either throwing it into the to the block

the a d or or running action. With Lebron and Russ's initiators, it's a lot of like, oh, here's a random Baysmore drive, you know, or like like here's a here's our dribble handoff action for Avery Bradley coming off of the two bigs at the high post. Like there's a lot of like random actions like that that works sometimes, right, Like we've seen Bradley do that. Baisemore had a huge

driving layup in the fourth quarter. It's like those are those are fine, But it's like, what if that was a more savvy balling handler, someone along the lines of the Kendrick Nunn Or what if that was th h t attacking the fourth best defender in your lineup? You know, like those are the kinds of things where I'd like

to see. You know, you're gonna get an influence of or uh, an infusion of more offensive talent there that could make a lot of this look easier, right for sure, And we'll see when those guys come back that they should be coming back pretty soon. But I guess, like we haven't even talked really about Lebron and a Dy tonight. Like a D I feel like could have had forty tonight if he wanted to. And again, I know he didn't really catch that first half, but like they had

nothing for him. I think he had like twelve in the first quarter or something. He can get that jump hook whenever he wants. I don't think he hit it three tonight either. He had a couple of mid range jumpers, but I thought he was himself for most of that. He kind of walked through that first half. Lebron as well. I tweeted, don't take Lebron for granted. I thought he

was awesome in the fourth quarter. I feel like this is the kind of stuff we're gonna get from them though, Like I talked about it, I think on Saturday or whatever or whatever that was that I thought like the rust kind of transfer of energy would be a little bit more than it has been. It's kind of been just rust this like energetic ball and a D and

Lebron are still kind of going out their pace. Um, do you kind of agree with that that I feel like we're gonna just continue to get these like as long as we keep playing bad teams, we're gonna play Oklahoma City next, or just keep seeing Lebron and eight kind of walked through these first halfs and then turn it on in the third quarter. That that's the kind of trend. I guess I'm saying you talked about defensive

identity trend as a trend. I'm saying, like, we're gonna see these guys just walked through until these like third and second half start I mean, I hope not. I hope it's not like that. I mean, you know, you've heard a lot of talk probably around the League of parody. It's probably it's it's been one of the you know, common topics that's been brought up on Twitter in recent weeks, the idea that like every team is good and you

can get beat on any given night. It's like, oh, Memphis beat Golden State only cow or like Denver just went into who do Denver lose to last night? I can't remember, but like Denver went lost last night. It's like Phoenix started the year two and three. There's just this you can get beat on any given night. And the Lakers, you know, lost Okay, they've played what they played San Antonio, and then they played Oklahoma City and

then they play Houston twice. They one, they won three of those games, but they almost lost three of them. Like that's what's crazy. Like the San Antonio game went to overtime, they lost to Oklahoma City, and then they like literally were trailing by double digits in the second half against Houston tonight. Like the truth of the matter is is when they get into the tougher parts of their schedule, like they're about to You're about to go into a stretch here where they play Portland. They're gonna

play Miami at home. That's like your textbook Kyle Lowry and Staples Center for some reason turns into Alan iverson game. And then and then you have Charlotte coming to town. Charlotte's good, Charlotte is a very talented basketball team. Then you're gonna go play Milwaukee. Then you're gonna go play Boston. This the league is tough enough that if Lebron and a d continue to bring this inconsistent effort, they're gonna start taking losses. And you know, eventually an urgency is

gonna have to kick in with them. And I believe it will. I believe it will. Nobody we I've talked to you about this a lot in the last couple of years. Nobody likes to sit down and get slapped in the face repeatedly. Eventually, you're gonna eventually you're gonna come back and and fights like remember squid games were like that when the dudes playing the paper game with

him and slaps him in the face every time he loses. Like, you're only doing that to me like three times before we're fighting, you know what I mean, Like at a certain point, at a certain point, there's gonna be a natural response here when they get into a tougher part of their schedule where there where Lebron and they are gonna have to be like, hey, we gotta bring it every night or this this league is gonna chew us up and spit us out, you know what I mean, right,

And it could be a lot worse. So it's just looking at the standing that there. I mean, standings really mean nothing. Right now. We're way too early. But they're five and three, and I honestly I'm not going to forget that OKC game, but they should be six and two. Um. The only teams would less than two losses are Utah and the Warriors were both Utah six and one, words or five and one. So they're right there after this win. They're the third seed, um, right right above Memphis. So

they're right where there. I guess they're supposed to be. It just hasn't looked very pretty, and maybe it's not supposed to. We talked about it was going to be a process. It's all process over results, and I'm starting to see little things. Man, I just I can't wait to get the full team though, you know, like I feel like I'm watching an incomplete product. Like I saw I saw Trevor Reason standing up on the bench today

and I forgot it was him. I was like, who's that on the bench, And I realized that was Trevor Reason, who who was like predicted to start on this team um earlier on media Day. So I'm that's why I'm excited about. We're starting to get into the point where guys should be coming back and we get a whole kind of new team here. Austin Reeves is averaging like twenty minutes of game, the undrafted rookie, Like who saw that coming? But I don't think his minutes are going anywhere,

just the way he's defending. So it's just really fascinating to kind of see what the team will look like adding three full rotation guys. And I'm not even including Wayne Ellington in that, who I praised over the offseason but who might not even play. But yeah, that's why I'm excited on that We're going to a stretch here where we should be getting getting some guys back on

these on these trips. Yeah, you know, we joked before the season that their schedule is so easy that it was kind of perfect because they were so bad in preseason and and this is kind of what I was talking about, right Like, I mean, they literally had been playing god awful basketball and they're and they're five and three, So that was the that was the blessing in disguise about the way that this this season kind of shaped out.

Is this infery or products that they've been putting out, which again I'm just saying relative to what their expectations are, this is the team that is favored to win the Western Conference and has better title lot and I'm not sure if the odds are still this way, but before the season they had better title odds than the Milwaukee Bucks. Okay, that's that's what this team needs to be judged through as in terms of a lens. And the truth of the matter, is there a team right now that is

would not great offensively and is bad defensively. So the truth of the matter is things have been ugly, but thankfully with the way the schedule broke out five and three. If you told me five and three with Lebron missing two games, I think I think you take that. So in terms of like a little eight game checkpoint, which is roughly ten percent of the season. Things have gone pretty well considering the way that they've played, But you know,

we're gonna find out really quickly. Like there have been a lot of people joking on Twitter today like, Oh, they're gonna go up to Portland and Dame's gonna regain form. It's like, well, yeah, if you defend like that. Yeah, Like, if you guys, if you guys give Dame a bunch of good looks, then yeah, it's probably gonna get going, you know. But um, you know, the truth of the matter is is I'm just ready for some of the good competition to show up on their schedule because I

think this team needs it. I think this team needs to be slapped around a little bit um in order to to re engage on a more consistent basis. But we'll see, because, like I said, if they if they defend Oklahoma City really well on Thursday, and they go up and be Portland, then I can look at this through a lens and be like, hey, not only are they seven and three, but in four of their last

five games they've had really good defensive efforts. That's when we start talking about we have a core identity of this team that's starting to form. That's when we can start to get excited about that. Um and and even with this game tonight, you could look at it and like you said, hey, there was a stretch in the second half, even in our bad defensive game, there was a stretch there in the second half where we strangled

these guys for roughly for roughly twenty minutes of game clock. Yep, Man, I used the last thing in my notes, uh is just I wrote big three. So Lebron, A D and Russ combined for eighty four points tonight. Um And again, like you'ven klong with Russell Westbrook's numbers, but this is kind of what we talked about over the summer, right,

like adding his production. Again, you could joke about numbers, but the numbers are what they are putting up twenty seven, seven and nine along when Lebron and need D have good games, they had good offensive games for the most part. Defense they kind of focus in the second half. But

Lebron tennisis Russell Westbrook seven assists. Trying to see that kind of that combination of production, I guess, and that's why you go trade for Russell Westbrook, right, and you can kind of back and forth whether he's a superstar star whatever he is, he's still kind of the guy who produces at this who can produce at this level. And that's why you go get that. You see the Wizards players, the Laker Wizards prayer starting to get all

this love. Now of course they're on another team. Kyle Kuzma contres Harrell KCP and the Wizards I think are five and one or some crazy kind of five and two. Yeah, they're playing really well. But again, like this is why you combine you know, three like BC players for you know, Russell Westbrook. So that's my last kind of thing on this. I feel like we're starting to see Westbrook get comfortable.

He was seven for eight from the line tonight, Like that's I think that's a step forward for him as well, progress get into the basket. Um still didn't hit a three over four. I thought the three he took tonight, we're okay. Like they were ball moves. You know, our guy cheats sheets off him so badly on like a lebron and a pick and roll that like he has the whole world time to like stop, you know, get his feet right, try to hit in. I'm okay with

those kind of shots. I feel like he's pretty much taken away the you know, bad kind of come down trouble, pull up contested three. But yeah, like the production there, I feel like we're starting to see it, even if it's against bad teams. This is what you play bad teams for though, right, is to get that kind of reps and to get all this you know, get all the bad habits, uh that you that you have out of your system. I guess. But yeah, that was my

last thing. I guess if you had anything else from from this night or from the previous name, yeah, just I'll respond to that really quick, and you go ahead and get our first caller up here. Guys, we're gonna take callers for about ten minutes and we're gonna call let's do a hard stop at like uh So. The thing with rust that's funny is everyone wants to kind of undercut statistical production. And I actually I agree with like the underlying theme of what some of these people

are talking about, but I don't. There is no such thing as an empty stat that to be to be clear, however, it stats without context. So for instance, like if Russ goes out and gives you and ten, but he also has eight turnovers and he shot from the field, then it's it's not and ten. It's and ten with a whole lot of wasted possessions. Right, So that that's your

context there. But you look at it. You know, if Russ is gonna give you twenty three, eight and eight or whatever it is that he's going to give you per game this season, but he gets his efficiency up to where his skiegal percentage is close to instead of thirty, and his turnovers are closer to three or four instead of five or six, that's when we can start looking at this and go, this is a huge uh boost.

You know. That's that That's the thing with with Russ is like you can't undercut what he's accomplishing on the cord. You just have to. He has to cut back on what he takes away. And for the record, since that uh Oklahoma City game, he's been better. In the last three He's done a pretty good job of cutting back on his mistakes and and trying to rein in some of the chaos. Yeah, there's like he's over four from three tonight. That's gonna happen. That's that's part of the

rust experience. But he's ten of twenty one, so he was efficient enough that he wasn't taking away a bunch of possessions and uh, and there's just a lot of production there. So I don't want to undercut that, and I don't think people should undercut that. It's just with Russ, it's all about the negative place. If he can cut out, cut down on the negative plays, it becomes a hugely positive equation for the Lakers for sure. And I guess I only see one kind of caller appear, so I'll

bring him up. But lasting on the turnovers things. So I know this is not really how stats work, but if you throw away the Okay See game where to me, everyone played terrible. Ron didn't even play in that game. But that's that's neither here in the I should be able to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder thirty, but yet ten turnovers that night. So ten turnovers really brings up your average of turnovers when it's only been with six

or seven games. So on the season, he's averaging like five point I think he's having like five turnovers the game. But if you take that one out. It's he has twelve turnovers and I think like five or six games, which is around three turnovers the game, which you can kind of live with, right, You can live with three or four turnovers the game, with the amount of ball handling he does, the amount of just pushing and transition that he does in the usage like and I think

it's okay the turnovers. Sometime some of them are super ugly. But to your point, if you just throw out that, okay, see game which was just a reckless game in itself, he's been he's been okay at that. Yeah, And the real punishment from from the Oklahoma City game is in the standings because no one's trying to evaluate this team. Excuse me, no one's trying to value with the team without Lebron. There's just there's just no point in doing that.

The punishment is in the standings. And to your point, if he can keep his turnovers right around three per game in the in the games where Lebron plays, that's awesome, that's incredible because you're gonna get eight or nine assists from him. You might get eight or nine assistant the first quarter of one of these nights. You know, that's that's how explosive he can be. It's just about cutting back those negative players. Like in Oklahoma City, twelve miss

shots and ten turnovers. That's twenty two possessions were Russ either through the ball to the other team or missed the shot. That's a lot, you know that. And again, that was a game in the context of Lebron not playing, But that's an example of the it's skewing too far in the other direction for sure. And I think that that just went down. So I don't have any callers here, um or do you have anything else from tonight? No, I think I think we're gonna have We're gonna have

a lot more shows. Like I said, I appreciate you uh covering for me on Sunday, and I think we're both good to go for Thursday. So that'll be fun. And I'm hopeful that the Lakers will get some much needed revenge against Oklahoma City, right right, Hopefully they don't blow another dirty point lead or whatever it is. But yeah, I should get a win, get like what six and three on the season or whatever they are, whatever they would be if they'd be Okloma City. Yep, they'll get them.

The six and three, and then then you get a real test on the road in Portland that will be a it's a team thats like directly attacks a specific weakness of the Lakers, which is guards that can shoot really well off the dribble um, you know. And it's a road a good road test, and it'll be a specific, specifically attest to the Laker defense. I'm actually really really excited for that one. My wife has an event that day,

so she's working all day. I cannot wait to just park my happy ass in front of the TV and watch every minute of that of that game up in Portland. But guys, thank you all so much for your support. This will be airing on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven I right after get off the phone and go. Right after I get off the show, I'm going to um put this on our podcast feed as well. We sincerely appreciate your guys to support and we will see you on Thursday night. Thanks everyonen. Ah m hm hm