Episode 92: Lakers/Blazers Postgame Spaces

game because there's just not a ton to learn. Yeah, there was a little stretch there in the second quarter where you know, Reeves and Bradley and Baysmore were able to get some stops and and and keep the game looking somewhat interesting, but not really anything that's gonna translate because uh, you know, Anthony Davis and Lebron will be in the picture at some point and uh, and then other than that, I mean, yeah, Sico Numboya looked a little more active at the end. Sure, but he's not

going to fix these problems. So not really too much to talk about from this particular game. But Roger and I want to focus on two particular topics tonight having to do with what ails this team, and that is injuries, of course, and then also the conundrum surrounding Frank Vogel, which we'll get to, But I wanted to start with this injuryes thing. Roj you had told me that you had something you wanted to say about just how depleted this team is and what it means. So I'll give

you the floor for right now. Yeah, So I wanted to start with the idea that this team is too injured to compete, right, I've seen that a lot um. We're both on Lakers Twitter, both active on it. You can kind of take the pulse that's pretty much to take that a lot of people have, and I think like just me and a lot of people, not speaking for everyone, but are kind of just tired of speaking about a hypothetical team, right, or a team that's theoretical

in that way. So last year, just the season before the Lakers won the title, and then they had a whole new team to start the year. Eight wasn't himself, but that is what it is. They went twenty one and six, and then A d goes out, I believe, on February February fourteen, with an achilles injury. Right a month later, Lebron goes out March twenty with the ankle injury.

Since then, we've kind of been speaking about Since since then, we've kind of been speaking about the team in hypothetical terms, right, and like, oh, when Lebron gets back, Oh when a D gets back, and then in the playoffs we've got a few games of it, and then again a D went down in Game four or something. I forgot which exact game it was, but he went down, and then from there again that the season was kind of over

from there. Again this year, again we start this season, they start slow, and again people say, oh, wait for Kendrick None to get back, wait for t H to get back, way for a reason to get back. Now, wait for Lebron to get back. And that might all be true, like the team might be fine once they're healthy.

I just think like all we can do kind of is analyzed the team now right now and analyze the players that are on the floor, the lineups that Vogal is putting out, the execution that the players are doing. I think we can still talk about that without just continuing saying like, Okay, yeah, the team is gonna be fine once they become healthy. Do you do you canin understand what I mean there? I just feel like there's this like need to just push everything forward, and I

think there are things, there are issues right now. That's that's where in the team, which is why we're going to speak I guess on voco after this, But like, do you see my point there? So there are separate issues here. The there's an issue surrounding you know, um injuries and the fact that just strictly from a personnel standpoint, there's not a whole lot that the Lakers can do

that normal basketball teams are doing right now. That is fact. However, the team also has no identity that they don't have anything that doesn't rely on their talent. Does that make sense? Like the reason why your team is a number one defense when Lebron and a d are down is because, aside from talent, there was an identity on the team that manifested in focus and effort on the defensive end,

everybody doing their jobs. Okay, that doesn't rely on talent. Okay, so you can We're gonna talk here in second about how the absence of four words on this roster makes kind of the the five man lineups, those concoctions that they put out there and not make sense most of the time because there's just nobody that's over six five that's not either a center or Carmelo Anthony who's got cement for shoes, you know. So there there's that's a real problem. However, the lineups that are getting on the

floor are not competing. That is also a fact. So you have to address those things separately. And so that's kind of what's going to piggyback into the Frank Vogel thing is you know, for whatever reason, this group is not buying in the way that previous groups did. And I want to save the Frank bit for later, But to me, that is a separate problem from the personnel.

Now getting to the personnel, it's really simple because I got an argument with somebody today about how you could lose the Oklahoma City a second time, you know, right, because the first time you might be able to look at it and go, hey, efforts, right, this is an effort problem. But that second half against Oklahoma City the other night, you're only up four at halftime. I think it's eight if I remember correctly. So there's no sneaking up on you at that point. You know Oklahoma City

is good. You know it's going to be a battle. So how do you go about winning that game. You're gonna you're gonna approach it with urgency, You're gonna play hard, You're gonna try not to get shown up on your home floor or by by sl just Alexander, You're gonna try. But for whatever reason, they still couldn't get it done. And the reason why was personnel started to become a problem. That's a real that that's that's worth bringing up here.

When they would play small with Anthony Davis at the five, which is what they have to do with Ruts because Russ, as you shot tonight, cannot play that. You know, let me make all the decisions with a rim running big thing anymore just doesn't work. He's not athletic enough anymore in his decision making is nowhere near good enough to succeed like that. So he has to play with a

D at the five. But the only way a D at the five works is if you have somebody that can play on the back line, that has some size and athleticism and good defensive instincts. We saw a quote, I think it was today from Frank where he said, I like playing a D alongside another big because I want him on the back line. That's what he's referring to.

If a D is the only five, the only big man on the floor, and everyone else is six five or shorter, and he's defending screen and roll actions against people who can shoot like s g A, like Dame, and he's out on the perimeter. All you have is little six three six, four six, five guys running around on the back line, trying to stop somebody rolling to rim, trying to rotate and cover space and blow up stuff in passing lanes and all that stuff. So there is

at the core of this a personnel problem. No matter what they did the off season, whether they had signed Rudy Gay instead of Kendrick Nunn, which was something I wanted, or whether they had gotten Healed instead of Russ and managed and managed to keep one of either k c p or Kuzman. I think, if I remember correctly, had they done the Healed trade, they would have kept one of those guys. I can't remember which one, but it's irrelevant.

So the point is, even if all of that was right, if three of those four words get hurt, the team is not going to be good because at a certain point you need you need personnel to play basketball, and so I do That to me, is absolutely one of the issues. But you are correct Raj and pointing out that it's not the only issue and it can't be solely blamed you have to confront the obvious, glaring stuff

that goes beyond personnel. Right. So I know you said you didn't want to talk about tonight, but I mean, we do these spaces after every game, uh, and we take notes. I'd take we both take notes on it and try to figure out what happened. So tonight, I understand what Vogel saying he wants a D on the back side, but that's just like tonight. I was pretty sure a D was going to start at the five.

The Blazers start Robert Comington at the four right, which means you have nerd K as the only big and you have Damon c J running all around all these screens. So what happens? They start DJ and he starts. He's the only back line guy. A D is sitting next to Robert Covington. They're just pulling up whoever DJ's is guarding Dame. I wrote it down here. First play of the game, Dame comes off a little breast screen. They

involved DJ's man wide open three switch. Next play again, DJ comes, Dame comes off another wide open three switch. I think he started three for three. Those are layups for him. I don't care what his percentages are like, those things are the type of stuff that has nothing to do with Kendrick Nunn being out, th HT being out. That's just stuff that's like that doesn't make sense for

the type of game we're playing. And I totally understand this is a long play, but like I think the l f R people said it as well, we're in survival mode right now. We can't just blow games like did I think they were gonna win tonight? No, But the game shouldn't be older within five minutes to a Blazers team, you know what I mean. I know that a D went out with a D went out with stomach pains, and that's a whole another issue. Um, I

don't know what happened their stomach illness or whatever. That he was kind of fifty fifty two play anyway, but we are already down. I think like twelve or thirteen when he went out of the game. I don't remember the amount they are already kicking our but I think it was like nineteen to ten when he went out. He had Robert coming up, Robert Covington on him taking

a way to fade away jumpers. Joan J. Jordan's health defense is terrible staring at defensive rebounds like those just type of stuff, like you can clean up the margins, and then Russell Westbrook still just playing in an absolute phone booth. And again like if your defense can do enough to where you're playing two bigs and it matters, then that makes sense. And we just can't score. Though.

That's why I thought like we should have just went Russ a D three shooters, And then when a D went out just to Russ with one center and three shooters, and I thought we looked at least competent. We still got kind of ran off the floor a ton with Russ's decision making. But that's kind of our only chance here, Like we had fifty points with I think the third

quarter almost ending with a team full of guys. We supposedly switched defense for offense for right, and I think, like that's my issue here, Like I understand we're missing guys and all that, but like even I think you still kind of have to look at things game by game and just look at what's going on. Maybe it's just the execution, maybe it's the game plan, maybe they've tuned him out. I don't know. I don't really want

to go to that. Really, I know we'll talk about that next, but like, that's where I'm kind of frustrated with, is that, like this non adjustment that we're doing here. Like tonight, I thought it was clear eight should have started at the five, even though he came out in the first quarter. But he didn't, and the game wasn't exactly how it thought it would. Dame got three wide open looks, put himself in rhythm, and then he was starting to take those fu three's and the game was

gone by the first quarter. Really, like, do you know what I'm meaning there? Like, it's just I feel like we're not seeing I get the roster has its issues, it's just we're not maximizing the talent that we have. And I don't know if that's just a long play of keeping these two bigs together. This is just another larger issue. So this is a perfect segue into into the Frank stuff, because you know, I think you and

I are both big Frank apologists. Um, you know, you know, one of the biggest problems that I bring up to people who advocate for firing Frank is they don't understand that you're not going to find somebody better than Frank right now, you might be able to find some young coach with a lot of potential who's got you know, good uh, you know, brilliant, offensive mind or something like that,

somebody who could one day potentially be that guy. But with this situation, with his veteran locker room with Lebron and maybe there's just no better option than Frank in terms of the totality of what he brings to the table in a vacuum. However, what Frank is doing right now that is undercutting this to some extent and putting himself in danger in terms of his job security, is he's being stubborn. You know what, what Frank has tried to do with this group is more or less the

same than what he's done with previous groups. And the bottom line is that he doesn't have that personnel anymore. And and that that to me is one of the biggest indicators of of stubbornness, is trying to force your system on players instead of choosing a system based on your players. If that makes sense, and so you're absolutely right, you cannot do anything with Russ on the floor with two bigs. It's hard enough with Anthony Davis, with how

poorly he's shooting. We talked a lot in the last pot about how he's nowhere near as good as he was in the bubble, so that already has an impact on spacing. We talked about that baseline spacing that you need for dribble creators to operate, and it's already hard enough with how poor Ad is shooting. Guys are leaving him open on the perimeter. So when you couple that

with the second big it's just to poleet disaster. You look at the Rondo situation, and then even forget about second Day for a second, DeAndre Jordan's just should not be that guy that's there with Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis healthy. There's absolutely no excuse in the entire world to let DeAndre Jordan see the floor, which is what we talked about all damn summer. The same thing goes with Rondo. With this group, you went bigger on offensive creation.

You brought in Russell Westbrook, you brought in Malik Monk, you brought in guys like Wayne Ellington that you can run off of screens as a mix up in your offense. You don't need Rondo like you did in when nobody could put the ball on the floor other than Lebron. That was a different need with that group. And so continuing to force Rondo into these lineups and continuing to force DeAndre Jordan in the into these lineups is an indication that he's too stubborn and that he's not willing

to adapt to what his current circumstances are. So that's a legitimate criticism. And then secondly, a team not buying into what he's doing, a team not attempting to run his scheme full bore, with energy and with focus, is evidence that there's possibly and I'm not saying this is happening, but there's possibly a little bit of a mental checking out sort of thing going on here. And to be clear, it is once that train gets off the tracks, it's

almost impossible to get it back on the tracks. If these guys, these veteran guys in that locker room have quit on Frank, it's over. There is no version of this where it all just comes back together and it's hunky dory. If Anthony Davis has decided Frank is the bad coach for this team and it doesn't work, and he prefers David Fizdale. Then even if David Fizdale is a lesser coach in totality of what he brings to the table, he would be better for this team because

as the guys would play for him. That's where it gets really delicate, because Frank is the best coach for this team, But it seems like the guys don't want it. That's just what I'm picking up too early. I think they'll wait several more games before they make that call. But that's kind of the vibe I'm picking up. So I guess my question for you, Rogers, am I coming way out of left field here? Or does that seem like something that you're picking up as well. I don't

think you're way out of left field. I just am not there yet. Like there's just too many things going wrong on the basketball floor, too many line up situations that are wrong for to me to even judge if they're buying in or not, you know what I mean.

Like again, like when you have guards who don't stick with Dame coming off these screens and then you have DeAndre Jordan's in a dropback coverage, Like, I don't know what them buying into it more is gonna do like c. J. McCollum is gonna eat off that Damion Litter is gonna eat off that nurked uh nurked scoring on like Malik Monk because the help guy. Like to me, that's where I don't really understand it. And and know people calling for you know, Frank, some people calling for Frank's job,

Like I was. I remember when you fire a coach, like in between a season, that's really tough, like to to go there is a line that I'm not there to cross yet like to go there it means like everything you did in training camp, you don't have to cross all of it out. But I mean you have a head coach that was running his system, that putting putting his philosophies, not just this year the last few years, right, I know the roster has turned over, but the core

has been the same. I mean, Vogel's won a title with the team, went through this couple of training camps. Now with the team, Like if you let him go in the middle of the season, you better make damn sure you're right of that because that's a huge kind of decision to do. You put a whole new coach. I know he has assistance that probably share some of the same kind of values, Like I said, philosophies, you know,

play structures, all that stuff. But once you just once you release a coach your mid season, it's a brand new kind of system now, and again you can have that excuse as well that oh, now they have to adjust to a new system. I think I think Vogel can say here. I think there are decisions and lineups and tweaks he can do that are on the basketball court that he can still switch. And again the mentally checked out thing, that's something that I just can't get

to yet, Like there's just not enough. Like again, like the lineups that we're pushing out here. I understand injuries, but still like the roster, the Westbrook RHNDO lineups to me just makes zero sense at all. And I thought the Blazers, So I don't know, were you listening on Spectrum or did you hear the Blazers kind of broadcast? I had the Blazers broadcast, Okay, So I thought they were actually really great, actually kind of explaining a lot of stuff, and they made that I almost tweeted it out.

They they were very fair to not like jump on the Lakers because they understood the injuries right, and I thought they made something that's pretty clear. And it's not like they said something that you know was attacked in the Lakers, but they said that the Lakers don't run a complicated system right there, They're gonna beat you with brute force and they can. They They kind of use the example of like a lebron A d pick and roll right, like you kind of know what's going to happen.

And I think that's the way vol kind of plays. He has a small set of stuff that wants to run and I think for that to work, the lineups have to fit kind of what you want to do there. And the Blazer of broadcast is saying, if they're going to keep having Russ, you know, be screened by DeAndre Jordan's, then the Blazer players are just gonna keep flying into the paint. Rust is going downhill. There's zero help that's come. You saw all these people. I think it was one

for thirteen tonight. I don't know exactly what he finished with a bunch of turnovers, but again, like that's this kind of stuff that I just don't understand that I think it's still fixable. So no, I'm not there yet on that has the team tune, you know, Frank vocal out. I just can't get there yet, but I can see how you how other people have, so you're You're right. It's it's a very dark path because it does get ugly, and for there are examples of it working. I mean,

no different than Lebron in two thousand and sixteen. I mean, I my the first time I paid to go see Lebron in person was in two thousand sixteen, in December in Phoenix, and I spent there money on good seats and I was sitting in the tenth row and for whatever reason, he never came out of the locker room and warm ups, and I'm like, what in the world is going on? And he ends up running out like right before the opening tip and just kind of bs

is his way through. The game ends with like fourteen points. Kyrie ends up having a big game and they win, and I remember sitting there thinking like that was really weird, not just the fact that he didn't come out for warmups, but the fact that he didn't play particularly well and didn't seem to care much. And I read in Brian Windhor's book after the fact that he had gotten in an argument with David Blatt and was basically pouting in the locker room. And and that's how that all played

out on that night. And it was really ugly there, and it seemed like everything was off the rails. But for whatever reason, when they fired David Blatt, everybody bought into what Tyler wanted to do. And when they did, the team took off and they won the championship. And so I'm gonna what I'm gonna do right now is I'm gonna make the case for what that would look like and why it could work. But to be clear, if it didn't go exactly like this, I think it

would be a disastrous mistake. If Fizdale could do three things. One, get the guys to buy in, meaning they commit on both ends of the floor, night in and night out in a way that they haven't done for Frank, if you can do that, And then too, if he can play a d at the five only and spell him with Dwight Howard in the minutes where he's off the floor, and play DeAndre Jordan only when either Anthony Davis or

d White Howard misses a game. And then three, if they implemented some more modern defensive tactics, a lot more switching, particularly with lineups like the starters, like if you have russ In Baysmore and a Reza and Lebron and a d do some switching forced team to do a lot more isolation attack things along those lines. Be One of the problems with Frank here is he's trying to run this like you know, drop coverage, with guys tagging in from the outside and covering and rotating for each other.

But the problem is none of these guys want to rotate and recover. So what Brooklyn did, that's so smart as they understood they had lazy defenders, and so they put a defensive scheme in that kind of caters to laziness. Switching kind of caters to laziness. In some ways. You don't have to fight through screens. You can actually make

up for physical effort with mental effort. If you communicate every switch just by talking and paying attention, the physical where of the defense is lighter and easier, And it bizarrely works really well in the playoffs because it stagnates teams. It forces teams to isolate you and pick somebody on the court to try to attack one on one, which, by the way, you're choosing between Russ Bays more lebron Aresa in a d good luck like, there's no good

option there for you to isolate. So if they would do that, if they would run some more modern defensive principles, if they only played single big lineups, and if they bought in all of a sudden, the Fizdale think could work, even though Fizzdale is not as good as a coach

as Frank. But if it's not going to be those things, if they're gonna go to Fizzdale and do more of the same crap tons of Rondo more DJ next day Anthony Davis, it will be the move that torpedoes the season because at least with Frank, you know there's a method to his madness, and I'm not sure the same could be said with Fizzdale. And and so that's kind of the delicate rope there. It could torpedo this season

with chemistry. It could cause a ton of drama, and if it doesn't break perfectly right, it could go ugly. It's no, there's no guarantee. It could be the Tiler situation. If that makes sense, Yeah, for sure. Look it's been what ten games, they're what five and five now? Like just to give a little break here, for we don't even know if it's fisteal right, who who the hell knows? Like they can go on their own kind of thing

and hide whoever they want. Bobel descerns some like benefit of the doubt when you win a title, when you have a proven kind of thing that works. And I got I talked about this a whole bunch, like Frank Vogel has his philosophy. He ran it, it won him a championship. But a year ago, like less barely a year, a calendar year ago, Like who's gonna go Like why why should it be him that has to change? You know, like you should be able to It's probably personnel that's

the key here. He's trying to run the same system with personnel that doesn't cater to it. I totally get that, but I'm just saying from his mind, like he's thinking, no, these players like your Malik Monk, you're athletic, you know, camp Baysmore, your athletic Gavey Bradley. You know you can stick on to players. We're gonna run this system. DeAndre Jordan you're gonna fit the archetype until we get you know,

fully healthy here. Maybe when the reason starts are like that's something like I can kind of given the benefit of the doubt. I still think it's the wrong move. I think right now we are in again, like I said before survival, just need to win games here. Lebron said he's gonna be out a week. We'll see. I think there were some quotes today that like THHT and none aren't really that close, right, I think, I don't

know if you saw that as well. I think there are clothes that they said like, yeah, they were hoping they come back soon, but they're not really that close as we thought they would be. Like this is gonna be the team for a little while. Like I think there's adjustments that have to be made. It we're gonna play a whole bunch more good teams if you think Portland's good, Like wait till we play in Miami, you know, on Tuesday, or you know all these other better teams

that are coming up here. Yeah, just to give Vogel, like I think there's a little bit of benefit of the doubt you have to give. Like, I don't think it's fair for his first like hit of adversity to where you let him go, do you know what I mean, Like the first hit of like not winning, you just you just right away just put him to the side in place his replacement. That's what like bad organizations do.

Right there in constant flux Lakers Lakers before they switched to this, you know, Polinka management, they went through a bunch of coaches, Mike Brown, Mike D'Antoni, uh whoever, the other coaches where they went through a roll a deck of coaches before kind of settling on Vogel and he's been the coach for a while. Like, but that's what bad organizations do. They react really quickly. They I react emotionally to you know, records or outside noise or all

that stuff, and they let go of stuff. So if you're gonna let go of Frank, what would better be a damn good reason, Because I think he's still a really good coach even if the line up stuff isn't good. Right now, Like that's where I'm at with this. I'm not ready to kind of pull the plug on him. And again, like we're outside the locker room, we don't know if they're boughtened or not. All we can do

is look at on the floor. It hasn't been great, But I want to give him more than ten games before I, you know, pull the plug on the on the head coach. I want to see some more fighting the players. I want to see a little bit more lineup changes as well. Like I don't want to just you know, cut the head off and then you just pretty much pulled the fire alarm if you if that happens.

So what worries me with Frank in particular is that that he's not saying the right things, which makes him sound more like an insane person than than than someone who's dealing with some trouble. Like so for instance, like like if he was coming out after these games and he's like, look, guys, like I have no forwards, so I'm just trying to Jerry rig Yeah I know. But like my my point is is like him coming out and saying, uh, you know, him coming out and saying like, yeah,

I know, I know eighty at the five. You know, is comes with its benefits, but I I just prefer having him on the back line as a defender. So I I want to play with him with another big. That to me is the equivalent of being like, yeah, I know she sliced my tires and egged my car, but she's super hot. Like it's like, dude, you literally sound like you literally sound like you're trying to rationalize

a really bad decision. And the in the bottom line is is with the with Russ, when you made the decision to go the route of Russ, you had to immediately understand that the give and take with taking spacing away from him and to try to compensate for defensive shortcomings was gonna come with such a huge downgrade on the offensive side of the ball that it was gonna be an issue. And and that that, to me, is the the insanity here. Like the insanity is like how

like this dude watches a lot of tape. We know he does. We know preparation is not a Frank weakness. He's not lazy. That's not his thing. Now he's watching this film and he has to see like there was another one of those places tonight where Russ got a head of scheme going to the rim is in the

first half. I don't know if you remember, but he took off his left leg tried to you know, go back in two thousand and fourteen, he'd still be hanging on the rim, but he was like way short and tried to do a finger roll and left it short and missed. It's like Russ is not the level of explosive finisher that can finish in traffic anymore. That's that is gone. It's it's not going to be here anymore.

He needs he needs to. When you decided to go this route, you had to understand the fact that the most you can hope for from him is that he can beat his point of attack defender and from there, from that point, you have to make the game easy for him. You have to either make it simple. Reads like I either have a layup or I'm passing to this guy at the three point line, or I have a layup or I'm throwing this lob. He's he's not even seeing the floor well enough to hit the lot

passes anymore. Like tonight, he was out of control with his lot passes. It's like for every dunk because there's two turnovers, and so I guess, I guess. What I'm trying to say here is like, what's bothering me with Frank is he doesn't seem to get it like it's see, it doesn't seem to me like he's guys stuck in a tough position who's forced to do things he doesn't want to do. To me, it's it strikes says, I'm uncomfortable.

This situation isn't really working for me. So I'm just gonna fall back on my habits, which are this specific system, with this pacific type of personnel choice, and I'm just gonna hope for the best. That's what it kind of feels like to me. And and and that to me is is concerning. And I mean and and to be clear, I'm not saying yet, I'm not saying this should happen yet.

But what I am saying is like, only the guys in that locker room, no right, My My guess is Lebron and A D and Russ probably have a group chat going, and they are they're either're either talking in a hotel room or they've exchanged a few text messages and they're either saying we're fine, just need to get guys healthy, or those three guys are looking at each other like Frank's not the one, and I don't I don't know what that is but if it's option too,

if it's Frank's not the one, then make the move. What's the point in waiting, you know what I mean? And so that's that's where it gets tricky. Is I'm really curious, and we'll never know until the move is made. This is gonna come as a Organowski tweet, you know. But but we'll never know until the decision is made. But I just I'm cure you SA at this point

as too, as to what they are thinking. And you you said, like this is you mentioned, this is really sketchy, This is really uncomfortable, right, But this is kind of this is kind of the Lebron experience. Like Lebron Is thrives in this kind of drama. He thrives it. Like almost every good season of his career comes with all

this weird old drama. Two thousand eighteen, it's like, weirdly quits in January and has like an awful stretch where he barely averages like twenty two points a game on horrible shooting, and then all of a sudden, as soon as the trades happened, he just starts playing hard again, you know, And then they go all the way to the finals. Or two thousand and sixteen, you've got a coach fired. There's you know, uh in Miami in two

thousand eleven, there was drama. There was drama in two thousand fourteen about how he had beef with pat Riley for being cheap on on on the luxury tax. Like the Lebron thrives in drama. So like, I promise you they're not going to hold off on that decision because they think it's uncomfortable. Lebron is like, we're gonna be uncomfortable because it's gonna make us better. That's the way

he looks at it, you know what I mean. Yeah, for sure, look like I'm not saying it shouldn't get uncomfortable. If the losses start to pile up here, it's gonna get uncomfortable anyway, right, Like that's just what's gonna happen. Like a team that was uncomfortable, Yeah tonight, oh man down the game was over within five minutes. But yeah, like if they're like five and nine, it's gonna get uncomfortable.

We're gonna start, you know you like these holes are tough to get out of, Like the Pelicans are one and nine, and that's probably the end of the season, right, Like just realistically, if you look at like the schedule, you're not gonna roll off enough wins to kind of catch up there. I mean you could Washington did it, but like I'm just saying last year, but like still like if the loss of Pilo up here is gonna

get uncomfortable. But for me, like you were talking about like Frank Vogel's post game kind of quotes and stuff to me that like coaches know what to say in the media. To me, it's like for coaches it's more actions over their words. I've seen an enough from Vogel like this is not like I said earlier in a pod with us, like this is offering Vogels first radio, you know what I mean, Like with the Lakers and with the media, and he knows how things they construed

all the time. But like in the playoffs, I saw enough there where like I know he'll make the adjustments when they matter, and maybe he believes right now it doesn't matter, and I disagree with that. I think this is a time, like this season matters. Like we traded a lot of stuff for us, We've gone in, We've gone all in into this year and as you should. When you have the superstars that you have, you're supposed to go all in. And I've seen him make enough

of the adjustments. A D started at the five for a lot of the playoffs. He played the five for a lot of the playoffs. That's not I guess what I'm worried about here. It's just like the game to game adjustments aren't there, And maybe the team just isn't worried, like you said. Maybe Russ, A D and Lebron are in these group chats are like, yeah, we're cool, like this is the beginning of the season. We won't get

our footing until January. Maybe that's what they feel, and us fans just kind of have to go through this, uh, go through this roller coaster season in that way while they're all chill on the other side. I don't really know, but I don't think. I don't think the losing, if it catches up, it's gonna be okay with the team. I don't think if they're five and nine after these next four games, because they very well could. Charlotte's good that we play on Monday. The Miami Heat are good.

I think we play Milwaukee soon. We play these good teams. We could be like six and eleven and it's gonna get uncomfortable. Of these conversations are gonna be had. I don't want to talk about the Vogel being let go, but that stuff is gonna be run on ESPN, on Sports Center. All that stuff is gonna start if these games to game adjustments don't happen. But I see enough there where there can be adjustments to where you can

start at least being more competitive in these games. The Lakers don't have a great roster out of their big three, but it's not enough to where you should be. You know, thirty five piece by Portland. They could have beat us by fifty tonight, to be honest, if they wanted to. Um if if game and c J kind of wanted to play tonight to the extent that they could have, But that shouldn't happen. We don't have a roster where

that should happen. Even if eighties out. You shouldn't be losing by potentially fifty two like a Blazer team, or lose leaves consistingly. Okay, see or you know all those things that wrapped up not just tonight, the games before this as well, I'm just not seeing enough game to game adjustments. But like you said, maybe maybe the team's lost.

I'm just not there yet. And you know, there's a great way to circle back to your original point, which is like you can only blame personnel for so much if if like to your point there, No, I didn't think they could come up to Portland and win tonight. I think that I didn't. I tweeted that yesterday. I thought it was pointless to even have Anthony Davis stress. You know, if this thumb is hurting, like why why give ner gets a chance to slap down on it

and potentially make it worse? Like this game they can't win, Just just wave the white flag. That's what I would have done. However, they should have been able to be at least slightly more competitive than than we were, right Like, for instance, like what what do underdogs usually do in a game like that on the road, which the Lakers

were an underdog, you know, without Anthony Davis. Usually they'll go in there and no compete, you know, like you're gonna win, but you're gonna have to beat us, you know, like we're gonna linger around ten fifteen points, and you're gonna have to put us away at some point. And that just wasn't the way this was. It just looked it was laughable. And so you know that that that's that's where it gets tricky. But I mean, you know, to the one one other note about the personnel and everybody,

if you have a request, get a man. We're gonna um. As soon as I'm done with this, I'll let Rod's quick respond and then we'll start taking callers. But like you know, so you're one of the most common little one liners I've heard in the last week is this idea like, hey, how is none th hd and aresa gonna make this better? And it kind of to me that statement shows a lack of understanding of of the

way basketball works. Like there when you when you actually break down the responsibilities that need to take place on the court. There's a certain amount of shock creation, there's a certain amount of isole lation scoring. There's a certain amount of perimeter defensive responsibility. There's a certain amount of rotational defensive responsibility, there's defensive rebounding responsibility. There's a bunch of jobs that need to get done on the floor.

And you know, the whole point of the Lebron and a d experiment is that when the two of them are on the floor, those jobs actually become relatively easily easy. That's why going into the first season, everyone was like, oh, Danny Green, good he's watched David Bradley has washed Like cool, k CP, you know, he took this bad shot when Kobe was sitting courtside, like that was the way it

was discussed. But then all of a sudden they got into the simplified roles playing alongside two stars, and they all became stars in those roles, and the and the team succeeded, and so you know that right now everything is massively compounded by the fact that Lebron's out because all of a sudden, those jobs on the periphery have become big jobs. Okay, but when Lebron comes back, everything

goes back to being small jobs. And so then at that point, you know, upgrading from Wayne Ellington to th HT a guy who's actually kind of problematic at the point of attack, like good luck trying to dribble in

front of him. You know, yeah, he can get lost off the ball, but he's gotten better at that as of late, and and he can provide point of attack defense like Trevor Reason like one of the better wing veteran savvy wing defensive players that we have in the league, as evidenced by the fact that everywhere he goes, he plays like twenty eight minutes a game because coaches just trust him to be in the right spot and to do the right things. That's a significant upgrade. Kendrick Nunn.

Good luck ever seeing Rason Rondo on a court again, because Kendrick Nunn is getting all of those minutes. Molik Monk has really struggled offensively because he's kind of a gunner. Kendrick Nunn is a little bit more of a guy who can make reads out of pick and roll, and he's a little bit more savvy with his offense. That's

a bit of an upgrade. So when you take all those jobs on the periphery and you put guys who are better in those spots, even if they're just a little bit better, Yeah, the reason is not an all star. T HD is not an All star. Nun's not an All star. But when Lebron comes back and those roles need to be filled and those jobs need to be done, and you get competent players in those spots. I really do think this can look a lot better. So the question if the question is whether none, th, H, T

and or reason can fix this team. Yeah, if Lebron and a D are back, if Lebron and a D are playing like Lebron and a D, I absolutely think those guys are enough to make this team a championship contender. I really do think it's that simple. Yeah, I mean I would agree with that. And again, like I think there's just it doesn't have to be two extremes right, Like it's not like they don't have to come and

fix everything. And then also it's also like that's not the total issue right now as well, they definitely can fix a lot, Like it's not just those three coming back.

It's also like you said, they're going to be replacing a lot of kind of negative players right now, right so you're not just kind of lose, You're not just adding three players also losing three other players, which kind of add that too much, you know what I mean in my mother, But again, like there's just a limit to here where there has to be a baseline level where you could be at least competitive, Like I'm not asking to win on the road in Portland, like you said,

but I'm asking like to not get blown out by the first quarter. Like that's where like none th HD, none, th h D and a reason make a big difference in terms of rotation, Like I talked about, we're gonna get a whole new five man lineups. We're gonna get a bunch of new rotations coming, and a bunch of lineups data we're gonna get. But that that's a separate kind of issue to me than like just getting blown out by thirty in the first quarter. Like that's that's different.

Those two are two separate kind of I guess they can be connected connected in some way, but there's still kind of different to me in a where like there has to be a competitiveness game night, game by game, situation by situation where you can still compete even until those guys get back because like I said, a reason, I'm not sure probably December um none in th HD,

they haven't really put a concrete timetable on that. Maybe another couple of weeks, and we're gonna play a bunch of good teams here where you can't just lay down and get dog walked just because you know you're waiting for your rotation to settle in. So like that's where I'm at here, Like, I totally agree with you. Though it's gonna be a better team with those guys, I'm still not down on the team. I don't think either of us are in terms of like what they're end

kind of situation can be. What they're end goal is when Lebron and a d come back. Definitely this team can still kind of win at the high level we thought it could. It's just that, like I need to see a little bit more competitiveness here. There's like not this extreme where okay, until none THHD and the Reason get back, we're just gonna get destroyed by thirty against every team like that. There has to be a middle ground there. Yeah, I know, I totally agree. Get the

first color on. I'm gonna make a football analogy. Like the way I look at it, the injuries right now are like being down in the entire position group. And you know, with football, you have these skill players right like you've got your quarterback, you've got your receivers, and you've got your running back. They're the ones that make all the flashy stuff happen, but none of it works.

If the offensive line can't block and so like, for instance, the Cowboys this weekend without Tyrone Smith, he's their best left tackle, and that's a huge deal. It changes everything about the way their offense works because their blind side

isn't going to be protected as well. That's kind of the way I look at it for the Lakers being down all their forwards, It's like they have all their skill players, but all the guys that do the little things, the dirty work that make this whole thing function, are wearing suits, and so now instead you're relying on these

players that aren't as particularly good at those things. And so it's kind of predictable that that, you know, the even though you have these talented players on the floor, people ask me today, how, how like, how is okay See more talented than the Lakers when they have Anthony Davis and Russell Westburg, And I say, people for starters, Russ isn't very good and too, you know, there's just not anybody around them that's capable of doing all the things that they need to do in order for this

whole thing to work, you know what I mean. But let's get let's let's get a caller for sure, there. I'm here, man, I don't even know where to begin. I'll start with I'll start with I'll start with vogo um injuries. Obviously I played a big part, right, I mean, I mean we know that. And obviously they would be better if we had the entire squad somewhat healthy. They're not even somewhat healthy. They're just they're just not healthy.

My problem is with with Vogel is he's not putting players in their best positions or their best position to succeed, like Westbrook was absolute trash tonight. He's been to me, he's he's been okay um this season, but he's not being put in his and the best position to succeed. And why to me is DeAndre Jordan's The dude is cooked. Like the dude should be selling steaks in the back of this trunk at Costco. Like he's cooked. He should be done in the league. If he was cut today,

nobody would pick him up. Like he's done. Alright, lob City was a great time for him. I'm glad, but he's done. Um and right now, I guess you know. Vogeo is hell bent on going big, right, He's going. He's just that's what he wants, but it's not working. It is not working at all. And you know, unfortunately brons out, We're just kind of he's just trying to

make things work. But eighty after five is the answer, period And as far as we know, that was the plan up until now and and this is what we get DeAndre Jordians starting up to five and it's been an absolute trend wreck. Um. You know, another thing on Westbrook tonight, if you go to my timeline, I was

pretty rough on him. I was really rough on him. Actually, Um, what I'm disappointed in the most is the fact that he tonight was an opportunity for him with a d out most of the game and Lebron out to show why this you know, the famous thing on on Lakers Twitter is that this is why they brought rust in, right, this is why they brought him in here. Mm hmm. He was awful tonight. I mean, there's no there's no excuses for how he plays. And he was disengaged. It

looked like he just didn't care. And tonight was disappointing because this is the night even if we lost, right, I mean whatever, it wasn't even competitive. Um, he he could have showed up tonight and and really got the team together, put some for it out there, you know what I'm saying. Instead, he regretsed he he did. He did what a normal Russell Westbrook game. He did what he did. He he is who he is, you know what I'm saying, Like, I don't think he'll ever change.

And I made a point to some of the homies earlier, I don't think there's been a coach that he's been under who's been able to actually get the best out of him. Maybe Dan Tony if if I'm being honest, I don't know who else has has been able to actually get the best out of rest Um. And I don't think Vogel is that guy either, And so we're kind of just stuck with Westbrook. This is this is who he is. He'll never change. And I'm really hoping once Braun gets back, you know, obviously Bronze are closer.

He's going to have the ball when it matters Um. But at this point, you know, all we can all we can hope for now is just every but he gets healthy and see what we can do. But and the looking great, guys, It's all I gotta say. And we need some wings desperately, desperately, they're on the way. First of all, the most important thing that the most interesting thing you said is the guy who's selling steaks out of his trunk at Costco. That's genius. This is

all I'm saying. To sell them in five packs, and no one wants to spend you know, no one wants to spend like eighty bucks on a pack of steaks. But what if the dude out front was selling single stakes for like four team bucks. Now now we're talking, So this is this is a genius idea anyway, you know, as far as the rust thing goes, this is what I was talking about earlier. Make the game easy for him. You know, he he was kind of as bad as

he looked tonight, and he was utterly horrible. Um, putting Russ out there with bad basketball players is just gonna look ugly. So you know, we talked earlier in the show about simplifying Russ's job. So Russ offensively can't finish in traffic anymore. He's not a good enough passer because he's too reckless to allow him to make thirty forty of those type of you know, driving kick type of passes. Per games, you need to try to simplify the game form.

If you put a D at the five and you try to play him along a D alongside a D the whole game, like mirror his minutes all minutes almost, and you put him in a situation where he's playing with a devastating rim roller and three shooters all the time, then his job can be simplified down to all I have to do is beat this guy at the point of attack, and I can either lay the ball in or kick to a shooter, like make his job easy.

If you do that, I do think he can succeed, especially over the course of the season when he starts to understand what this team needs from him defensively. But it's just, you know, as much as I don't like the Russ move, which I've talked about ad nauseum on this platform, it's this isn't exactly the situation that would show us what he could do anyway. Um. I know people say like, oh, like, you get Russ to carry

you and Lebron's out. There's some truth to that, but the reality is is Russ just isn't that good anymore. But in there is value in being the third best offensive player on the floor being guarded by the third best defensive player and having the ability to beat that guy off the dribble and have your team make easy plays out of that. That's you know, It's what Eric Gordon did for the Rockets for a long time. It's

what Dennis Shrewder did for this team last year. Hell, it's what Rondo did for this team last or two years ago and did actually decently well, not because Rondo is very good, but just because that team was healthy and made sense on paper with their personnel, and so when you put Rondo in there in high leverage moments, he didn't have to do anything too crazy. He was attacking bench lineups. All he had to do was beat

some bench guard off the dribble. And there was Danny Green, or there was Kyle Kuzmer, there was you know, Dwight Howard, whoever. It was like, again, that's the way you gotta look at Russ is not the third star, but rather the best role player, the guy that that that you don't lean on as this like heavy, heavy, heavy workload guy, but rather somebody that can succeed alongside really good players. That's the way. That's the way I see Russ actually

working out in the long run. Yeah, and and A j you said tonight was an opportunity for Like, Russ has been in the league a pretty long time, and when we traded for us, we knew what we were getting, right, and this is part of the experience with it. It's going to be some bad shot selection. This is why I think last game, after the space in the last one,

I said to just lean into the rust ball. And you know, Jason, you were saying people are saying that, you know you get Russ to carry the Lebron minutes, Well it's supposed to be Russ and a D carrying the non Lebron minutes, right, Russ by himself, Like tonight was probably the worst of it. Six turnovers, one for thirteen, I tweeted tonight he took thirteen shots, and I feel like two of them were like ones I would like

him taking. It was a lot of just reckless forays to the rim um there flying under the screen so disrespectfully where I kind of understand it in a way right where it's like so disrespectfully how they go under that pick and he's like, I'm wide open. I kind of have to shoot those stuff. That's just gonna happen when it's rust by himself as a shock creator. But again, that's why I want to just lean into this, Like

he can't play in a phone booth. He's already so already limited in terms of like his strengths and weaknesses. Like putting him in a phone booth with two centers is it just exasperates the issue with him. And you get and you're gonna get nights like tonight the way he started. Um and if it's jumpers going some nights, great, but like that's not going to be the norm. That's the exception with Russell Westbrook. That's just how it is.

So hopefully, Like I thought with Lebron, it was they were starting to grow this little chemistry and which is why I said the Lebron kind of injury was so unfortunate that I thought they were kind of building a little bit to where he was kind of understanding his role, especially in late game situations where like he's like, Okay, I don't have the ball. You know, the balls in Lebron's hands, But once Lebron's out, it's all free flowing,

like it's it's Russell Westbrooks kind of. I know he's the third best player, but you know he has the ball in his hands, he's gonna be the first option, uh, when Lebron's out. So that's kind of how I saw tonight going. I wasn't really expecting him to play, you know, a crazy great game tonight. Once went out and it's just what you're gonna get with Lebron. It does look different and hopefully that's what we see. Thanks for coming on and we really appreciate it, man, Yeah, man, thank

you appreciate it. Appreciate it. Man. We've got a bunch of requests here, so we try to go through these ones a little a little quicker. All right, Alan is connecting. I'm trying to get a few people up here so that we don't have to wait. Appreciate everyone coming out on a on a Saturday night to hang out after that game. I'm disgusted. Are you there? Yo? What's up? What's going on? Man? I'm chilling. I'm chilling. Um. Basically, Jason, everything you said about Westbrook is like he's just a

tough watch man. Like It's like, to me, the way I look at basketball is, at some point your guards have to have a base line of shop making ability, right, mm hmm, that's outside of the restricted area because like Westbrook is a power guard, but he's six three, right, Like Janice he's six and eleven. He could get away with that Lebron six nine, he could get away with that, like wings could get away with being subpar shooters. But

I don't think guards can. And that's why I'm down on Westbrook and his game, and I feel like his contract doesn't match the impact, and I'm worried that that would make it harder for us to build a contending team. That's it. That's all I gotta say. You know, it's you're not wrong about anything, especially the stuff about guards being able to make stuff outside of the pain, at least as it pertains to being considered a start. This is why I look at Rus as a role player.

It's something Roger and I talked a lot about on the Thursday Show, This idea that like, you know, if if something has to be catered completely to somebody and their strengths and weaknesses, and they're probably not very good, you know what I mean? Like that I shouldn't say that very good, but that just means that's a huge differentiator between them and those that are above them. The guys that are above them can succeed in different types

of circumstances. So, for instance, in that Oklahoma City game, you put Derek Favors on Anthony Davis, who Anthony Davis, uh, you know, has a tendency to rely on jump shooting at the end of games. Now maybe that was his thumb. I don't want to really dive in to it. But you put Lou Dort on Russell Westbrook, and a guy like lu Dort is so big and so strong, so

athletic that Russ can't beat him one on one. And in addition to that, in screen and roll, even if you try to let him get ahead of team, he just goes underneath the screen because Russ has no ability to threaten you from the perimeter, and all he has to do is just kind of beat Russ to the spot somewhere around the rim and he can shut him down.

Now let's change that scenario. Let's say Lebron's plane and now all of a sudden, it's lu Dort on Lebron and Favors on Anthony Davis, and it's s g A guarding Russ s g A can't guard Russ in a one on one situation. Now he can guard him if there's six bodies in the paint, but he s A can't guard Russ one on one. That's a that's a bad matchup broke on the city. Because of how strong Russ is, he's gonna be able to basically just put

his head down and go to the rim. That's the difference between being that guy who's like Gordon was to James Harden and Chris Paul as opposed to here's one of our big three. The way you got to look at it is like your job is within the context of our whole team when it's put together and healthy, is to attack lesser defenders with great spacing. And he can do that no different than any of these, you know, other tertiary offensive players do around the league, like Jordan Clarkson.

You know, like Jordan Clarkson succeeds in Utah because he's primarily attacking bench players and because they set him up with fantastic spacing. Even though Jordan Clarkson is kind of a bowl in the china shop too, he's got a lot more perimeter shop making ability than Russ. But you kind of get the comparison there. That's the way that that that to me is where Russ was miscast. As you know. To me, Russ is not this is another Lebron to have out there that's gonna just just be

Mr do it all on every given night. I don't see it that way. I see him as this tertiary offensive player who has superstar traits like crazy motor, the ability to impact the game as a offensive rebounder, and just as a ball of fire and energy. But at at his core role on the team, he's only going to succeed when he's attacking lesser defensive players with great space. So the only way to do that is to have

your team healthy and to play single big lineups. And so I do think if they do that, the routs experiment could work in the long run, right, Yeah, And I don't think I don't think he's wrong at all either. The contract thing is what it is, Like he's not a superstar anymore, or at least he if he if he was one, maybe in Oklahoma City, but yeah, he's definitely not that and the but the contract is what it is. I don't want to think about that for now. Like this is the thing that we had, this is

the this is the team that we have. I still think there's things they can do, like like they did in Houston. I thought they did. They did lot of like where they inverted the offense where p J. Tucker was the five to where like Rusking where p J. Tucker kind of switched Russ his position where Uss can be in the dunker spot and stuff like that and

you can run. They did stuff in the Memphis game that I thought was good process or Russ was the screener for Lebron, Like, I think there's things that you can do. But you're right, he's no longer the superstar, you know, who makes the forty million dollars, who's supposed to carry the team. That's just not who he is anymore. You can't finish at the rims as he used to. He doesn't get the same type of lift he does

on attacks. But there's more than I think we've seen, and I think there's stuff that look actus to Russ kind of is what this season is about to me now, like that you've traded for him, you have to have him fit, Like that's what this season revolves around. Like

that's not the greatest. That's not ideal, like you want to kind of fit everything around Lebron in a D. But that's just what the season we have now is that we have to fit around him, and these two big lineups I think is the first thing that has to go fit playing him a lot of minutes next to a D like there shouldn't. I don't like these line ups either, where it's like Russ in one center that's not a D, like running our second units. I

don't think that's enough either. But you're right, like Russ isn't this is what you're gonna get, especially when it's without Lebrons. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with you said there. I just still think there's ways it can work that we haven't seen yet. All Right, I appreciate y'all for letting me on podcast. Are we really appreciate you and your support man. We'll be back on Monday night. All right, let's see h D Are you there? Yes, sir? What's

going on? From them? What's going on? So? My thing is basically we're like you know, looking at like basically every other like elite point guard in the league, like they like everybody has a floater and like that's like absent and was Bruce game like the whole like like the whole thing, And like, I mean obviously Was has been playing for a while and like he he knows he like he knows how to play, but like when he gets out there, it seems like he just forgets everything,

like everything's out the window. Yeah, So it's just it's just kind of hard to watch, like just him just constantly getting outplayed by guards that he's basically paid to play better than, or ship or he's portrayed better there type of thing. So do you think Was stays for the season. Oh? Man, I don't think there's any chance he's gone. Uh. I mean, I like his trade value

is lower right this moment than it's ever been. So your best your best case scenario would be finding some team in the off season that has a ton of cap space but can't get a free agent and would be willing to fill up their tax space or their cap space to throw you, like to just to throw you a bone, but you're you're probably not gonna get

player is back. Like, why in the world would you want to trade you know, a bunch of movable contracts for one that's immovable unless you're literally you know, it's just there's no way like Russ is here for better or worse. That's the reality. That's the reality. And you know, I thought the part the point you made about him not really having a lot of the polish that his peers at the position have is really interesting because like, the bottom line with Russ is like he's always been this.

The difference is he at one point was so unbelievably nuclearly athletic that all of the you know, it's always been a trade off of good and bad with Russ, right, like here's all the good place, here's all the bad place. But in the past he was so unbelievably athletic that there were more good plays than there were bad plays. But the bad was always there, even at his absolute peak.

If you watch for us in the playoffs in two thousand thirteen and two thousand fourteen, even in two thousand twelve, it's all running around like a chicken with his head cut off. It's just pure, unrelenting ball of energy just being fired at the opponent, and sometimes it hurts your own team. That's always been the way he is. But now he's regressed so much as an athlete that when you have him as the focal point, the bad outweighs

the good. But like that, all those things you're talking about, like floaters and in between game and slowing down and making reads and stuff like that, that was never his game. He's always been He's never been like a read and react guy. He's always been a just react guy. Yeah, that was never his game. But I thought there was more finesse in his game than I've seen, and maybe just wasn't watching Okay See or Houston as close enough. But he used to be a better jump shooter. But

that's pretty much it. That's pretty much. There was no floater or anything like that. Yeah, and that mid range pull up used to be his shot. I remember when we played them in the playoffs that like transition, just pull up around the mid range, jump high as hell on that jump shot. Now it's all off. His form looks all weird. Um. But we talked earlier in the show about like how you know, firing Olga will be the fire alarm, right, Trading Russ would be the house

burned down. Like that's that's what that's what Trading Russ would be for this season. And like I don't know if you get I don't know if you got to catch um Shanning Fry Before the game, he was on NBA TV and he was saying that in the playoffs, you know, they should, you know, have Russ come off the bench. I'm telling you right now that's not happening either. Like the rust is gonna be starting. Um, he's gonna starting all these playoffs, all the playoff games, like we

have to make this work. There's no trading Russ. Maybe in the off season. Again, that's not something I want to even entertain right now, Like I kind of want to live in this season still. But yeah, that's that's why I don't see happening. But you're right, there's no mid range game. There's like it's either a mid range pull up or it's you know a three when it's a bad transition three, or it's like trying to get to the rim finish around three people with less finesse

than I feel like he's had. I know, you said he didn't have a float or but he used to have these like finishes at the rim where you get to the basket, jump in the air, still be able to get contact finished at the basking in a way that was like efficient enough, and it's because he was getting higher Rod still Like I don't know, I just feel like when I was watching, when I would when the Lakers would play Russell Westbrook before, there was times where he would come out of our bigs and just

score on us at will. And right now Nurs he had nothing for him. Like you try to finish the left it looked all ugly. He's he's staring, he's screaming at the ref every time like it just like it hasn't looked pretty there. Maybe the finishing gets better hopefully as we go on. Maybe that's just mean being an optimist, but yeah, Russ isn't going anywhere for sure, and it's really quickly. My theory with his poor jump shooting is like I he obviously doesn't work as hard at it

as some of his peers. That goes without saying you just simply would be better. However, I think I think like jump shooting for anybody out there who who who has had some success in the past Nike making shots and basketball games, jump shooting is all about like taking the chaos and slowing it down for a second for you to get balanced and and try to repeat a muscle memory thing. And so that kind of thing just doesn't cater into a skill set because he's so bull

in a China China shop. Everything is a hundred miles an hour all the time. That kind of thing just doesn't mesh well with jump shooting. Jump shooting is all about trying to control yourself. You're trying to go straight up and down, you're trying to be balanced, You're trying to slow yourself down in a lot of ways. And so I think that's that's my theory as to why he's never been a really good jump shooter at the guard position for sure. Yeah, and hopefully that that picks

up here. And we haven't done him a lot of favors either, Like I keep talking about, like I don't think we can start these two bigs. He's playing in a phone booth, and that's tough for any player. It's tough for Lebron sometimes. Even right, we talked about how Lebron becomes a jump shooter when we start too big, Russell Westbrook, that just exasperates his issue. But d I appreciate you coming up man, Alright, everybody. That's the end

of part one. Of this podcast again. This is gonna air on DASH Radio on Monday morning at seven am. Part two. You will be Mr Rouche from Houston Rockets Twitter. Come and hang out with Roger and I at the end of the show. Thank you guys so much for listening and we will see you on Monday