Free Agency Round Two?

So I the foundation for this pod. I wanted to be something that you and I kind of we're bouncing back and forth on in yesterday's pod, which was are the Lakers going to attempt to shore up the center position or are they going to go all in on small ball? And I thought, and again, this isn't obviously set in stone, and a lot can change over the

course of the next couple of weeks. But I thought that the two signings that took place today were big indicators of you being right that they're probably gonna go all in on small ball. We Jaundy Brown is actually played in the rotation yesterday, but Jay Huff did not, and we did and we did sign this new guard. I believe Mason Jones was the one who's on the two way. That that two way deal kind of heavily

implicated implies that Jhoff is probably gonna get released. Um, so we're looking at h Jones coming in and then Jamario Jones, who's someone that Laker fans are pretty familiar with, and uh, and both of those guys are middle size. I think Mason Jones is pretty big for guard. He's like six ft four. Jamario Jones is undersize, is like six ft five. But it's just a bowling of China

who does all the dirty work stuff well. But most importantly, I think it just was a big indicator that they're they're primarily going to try to play small in this stretch. What did you think about that? Oh? Yeah, this was a Lebron get ready for center, right, like like Lebron get ready to play a lot of center. Because I feel like that's what these two signings pretty much signified.

I want to I want to start with Jamara Jones though, because we have good tape on him as a Laker and he's kind of bounced around after he left here, but he's a cult hero U for us as well. He's not as known as Ox Screw so obviously and didn't get the success he's had a similar type of player, a player that you just whatever he gives you offensively is a bonus I think he's a I compare him a lot to g P two out in Golden State, where like, if you have a perfect set of players

around him, he can be really successful. He just played on a lot of really bad Laker teams, so it was tough too. It was tough to gauge the impact that he does. But he is a really good defensive player. Like he's a smart defensive player, gets steals, leads deflections all the time, big time rebounder, right, And I think it's something we've needed. High motor guy, and I think it's nice to throw these high motor guys in. We'll

see how how he plays. But I think, like Jamon Johns, just a nice player to have, you know, I think he's on the hardship exception and all that, but yeah, he's a high rebounding garden. I think that's something this team misses. But you're right, they're about to lean super into small ball, super into lebron as center lineups because I don't think DeAndre Jordan's gonna seems like his minutes are gonna kind of till down here as as we as we go on and hopefully when dy how it

comes back. But yeah, I feel like they're about to lean fully into this small ball. Do you agree with that? Yeah? So I think there's a base like ideology behind going small that I think is really interesting. And it's something that I've harped on a lot over the course of

the last couple of years. And actually the LFR guys hit on today having to do with you know I, You and I both talked about last night that it's it's a lot to ask Lebron to be Draymond Green on defense and you think about all of the physical wear and tear that comes with that, and all of that is relevant here. How verbs one of the things that we failed to account with this kind of thing.

And I specifically was hammering this home with Anthony Davis, but Pete from like a Film Room was talking about it as it pertains to Lebron. Asking Lebron to break down an offense when the paint is packed and when everything he does offensively is difficult, that's also taxing on it. And you know what I thought was really interesting? Did you? And I'm wondering if you noticed this too. Lebron has been jumping to try to block shots more than I've

seen him do in years. Have you noticed that, Oh yeah, he loves it right, Like he's trying to He's not just trying to block it. He's trying to swatt it out of bounds to like the third row. Right, He's not even he's not just trying to block it. He's going for highlight dunks. And I don't think that's a coincidence. I think that is directly related to the fact that he's been having a ten game over his last night games.

I tweeted this out today. I think he's right around like and seven on like sixty true shooting, and he's averaging over a block of game. That's crazy. And I think those two things are related. I think Lebron's offensive job is easier than it's ever been, and there's an interesting psychology to it. It's human nature, but it's easier to ask a guy to do the dirty job when the fun part is easy, and he's deriving confidence from

the fun part. So when the when the Lakers are getting down on themselves because their offense sucks and the pain is clogged, and Lebron's having a rough night and Anthony Davis is having a rough night, it's hard to then go back and really dial it up on the defensive end. But you're seeing Lebron put in uncharacteristic defensive effort for the regular season. We know he does it in the postseason. We saw him do it in the whole bubble. You know, high real blocks and net playoff

from that was outrageous. But you're seeing him dial it up on that end, and I think it's directly related to the fact that the offensive end is coming easier to him, and that is the core ideology behind going small. And what's super fascinating about this. Yes, we're asking Lebron to do a lot, but his offensive job is easier. However, they needed to have with those small lineups. That's so imperative that you have these tweeners that can get the

rebounding job done. And obviously a reason coming back helps that. But Jerry Jamario Jones in particular, I think is a guy that will be interesting to watch in some of these small ball lineups. Kind of like I'm blanking on his name now, of course his fate would have it. But that kid who's playing for the that set center

a lot um. What's his name? Do you remember? Bruce Brown? Yeah, Bruce Brown a similar concept to Bruce Brown, like just just a basketball player, not not even really a position, just a guy who's doing the job of of all of those dirty work things that are needed to be done on the basketball court. And I'm interested to see how Jamario Jones fits into that in the short term. Yeah, and I think the spacing definitely has helped. You see Lebron at the five a lot, and I think that

uses his role offensively. I'm just like the LPR guys talked about it, how he can kind of rest a little bit more offensively because he's not breaking down, you know, a paint that's all clogged. I still think, like I think we talked about it last night, I still still think it's a lot for him to, you know, anchor defense as he has to. Um, we'll see how these two way guys are in these guys on the hardship

exception play. But it's an interesting kind of concept to look at it because it looks like Lebron has been pretty engaged on that end. I mean the Minnesota game, I thought he was bad for a lot of it, but last night he turned it on and I think that's kind of how we'll see it he'll he'll turn on for games here and there. I'll see how how it looks when a d's out right eighties been out

for a while. But yeah, it's an interesting kind of concept where because we're gonna need him to be that and it looks like they're about to lean heavily, heavily into it. Mason Jones, that is an interesting guy to kind of bring up as well. He's like a two pounds six four guard, a lot of skills. I was kind of reading up reading up on him a little bit. He's more of like a shooter, and I think that's something that you can kind of feel in as well.

And we're just gonna need bodies, right we talked about it yesterday. We're not not sure how the COVID situation is gonna kind of play out here, at least recent at least coming up in the short term. Just need players out there, and we need high motor guys. I think Johndrey Bound is a guy that's gonna stick. I think he's a high motor guy. I think Jamario jones Hole kind of game is high motor. That's like what how he plays. We'll see Mason Jones on the next

level as well. We just need guys to play, man. I thought in that Bulls game a lot of guys looked tired as well, Uh, playing guys thirty thirty five minutes. So hopefully you can just throw a couple of bodies at these guys. And I think that's what these signings kind of signify. Who knows if they make the team long term, but I think that's what they are. And Jay Huff is probably cut, which is interesting because I think center is probably our biggest need on the team,

Like just structurally how the rosters fit right now. Must have been bad. He must have been bad in some of their practice stuff. Sure, yeah, we're not behind the scenes. And he's a stretched center right which just fits the archetype you would think this team would like. But obviously they didn't. They didn't see enough from him to give him any real minutes on this team. So yeah, they're about to lean into this small ball and I think that's what these signings kind of signify. You already have

Isaiah Thomas. Now you throw Mason Jones in their league. Monk looks like he's gonna come back pretty soon. So the super guard heavy kind of thing here but yeah, I think it's a Janny Jamara Jones is a guy you can kind of throw out there, go get rebounds, just go play hard for twenty minutes, right, And I think that's what you need in small ball. Trevor Reesa obviously is going to fit a lot into that. But we'll see if these these new guys can fit in.

But I'm excited to see it. Managamaro Jones is a cult hero in l A. Again, not as known as Carusoe obviously, but he's definitely in that kind of kind of field. He was, he was loved for his minutes here. Yeah, you know, Mason Jones is probably not gonna stick around, Jamario Jones is probably not gonna stick around. Isaiah Thomas is probably not gonna stick around. Johnny Brown is not going to be in the rotation. But what the what

this is? This is an opportunity to to kind of like spit all some ideas, right, and and so why not try to see what going all in on small ball looks like? Because you can fast forward and there's gonna be a version of this team where we're gonna

be playing small ball without Anthony Davis. And it's gonna be Lebron, Trevor Reason, you know, Austin Reeves and Russell Westbrook and a Malique Monk or Kendrick Nunnon or you know, or every Bradley or Can Pays more like, we have all of these, you know, different iterations of this team. And we never even thought coming into the season that we would be using Lebron at center. So it's kind of like a great chance to experiment a little bit and and and see because we've seen Lebron at center

with a lot of shooting. What we haven't seen as Lebron at center with guys who are big and strong and athletic that can rebound and run the floor. And we were going to get that eventually with Trevor Reason coming back, and so now we can kind of test that. But it'd be fun to see a line up with you know, Lebron, Trevor Reza, and Jamario Jones all playing in the front court just like just flying around, grabbing rebounds,

running up and down the floor. It'll be fun to see and so you can kind of test out, like you know, you know that this is fake basketball, I use that's the phrase that I use. Uh, you know, Pete called it that that he said that it's the NBA is not a functional basketball league right now. We all have different ways of describing it. It is unrealistic to judge anything. But what a great time to be experimental,

you know what I mean? Like, what what a great time to to throw some stuff at the wall and see what sticks. See some concepts, and with the concepts we've seen by virtue of injuries, is like, oh, ship, Labron can play center like you know, and ideally you don't want to lean on that as much as we're

gonna have to. I know, our guy ven A has been a big, you know, believer in you know, leaving that for specific matchups, and to be clear, I a thousand percent agree with him, but we we don't have the luxury of that anymore because of our situation, you know what I mean, and especially especially at the center position, uh considering Dwight is really going to be our only functional center when he comes back. So you know, this is a it's an interesting revelation to see that Lebron

can fly around and do what he does. Obviously we have to tighten up some stuff defensive rebounding around that, but I'm excited to see guys. You know, I'm bringing some optimism. This is very glass half ald, this is very silverwhelming, but like, hey, this is gonna be fun. We're gonna get to watch some really interesting Lebron James led basketball that we've really never seen before over the next couple of weeks. And I'm curious to see what it looks like. And you brought up Austin Reeves, and

I think he's already kind of shown. Like you look at the Lebron at center lineups and I think Austin Reeves kind of sticks out. That's where like the lineups are really great and the numbers look good. He's another guy that just plays hard and again plays his role, just does role players stuff that I think you need in those kind of lineups. I said, uh, Carmelo, and I think he has played a lot while Lebron's at the five, whereas he's at the four. And I think

that's where Trevor Reza comes in as well. Just can do that dirty work. Can move Carmelo to kind of the three, doesn't have to have power forward responsibilities Defensively, again, maybe you can throw Jamary Jones, Jamario Jones in there. Throw all these other guards in there that just play hard, and I think that's what you need. Any guys who come in and rebound, right. I think that's where it

gets taxing. They talked about as well on the LFR pod, right, guys jumping over your back, Lebron having to box out. I kind of pointed out that play where Lebron was the only one boxing out. But we need guys that go to the rebound, go to the boards, right, because that's a weakness when you go small like that, especially when you go with scoring guards. Uh. I believe leave Monk will be a big part of those lineups as well.

Just you need defensive rebounding. You need guys who are who aren't afraid to get hit in the paint, aren't afraid to get elbowed and stuff like that, just to do the dirty work a little bit too. Take that pressure off Lebron to do it, because he's gonna have to do a lot. He's gonna have to anchor it being the right places, be the rim protector, also be able to switch like that's a lot to ask on him.

And then on the other end, I understand the offense is gonna be better it's gonna have a better space, You're gonna have more playmakers out there. But still, when it matters, it's gonna be in Lebron's hand, So you want to kind of put the pressure off him a little bit still defensively, so it's gonna be interesting to see if he can hold up. I don't know if I want to play thirty minutes of Lebron as center though, you know, for the next four to six weeks. I

think that's a lot. Like I still think you're gonna have to have some kind of bigs in there, or even twenty five minutes a game at center. I think that's still a lot. But we'll see how he kind of handles it going forward. Hopefully Dwight Howard is back sooner than later, so you can at least spell some of those because the DeAndre Jordan minutes look like, uh, they're just losing points out there per minute. But yeah,

it's gonna be interesting, man. I think these signings, though, yeah, you're right, signify a move towards small ball that we've been kind of hoping for. We we were hoping forward to this with a D. I think we always thought Lebron could play center. We just always said that it was too taxing, and we're going to kind of see how that works out. But Lebron looks like he's enjoying it. He likes it. He'd like like you talked about, he's

going after all these these block shots. You know, he he's taking the matchups personally when bigs trying to go at him. You saw like Bukovich try to go at him in the post. He really takes those matches like personally, right, He bodies up really nicely. He's they can't move him. He did it on towns as well, I thought in the second half where they would try to switch in towns or try to go at him and he just couldn't move them, and that stuff that Lebron can do.

Lebron obviously can do anything on the basketball part, but especially at the center lineup. He has the body for it. So we'll see how how it looks. Like, Yeah, these all these signings kind of signify a move towards small. What you're talking about in his ability to do that stuff on the back line is exactly why I think

he's become weirdly underrated in this era. You know, one of the big reasons why I think Lebron is a better defensive player than Kawhi Leonard in a playoff series is because I think what that specific ask is from Lebron on the back line to fly around, protect the rim, guard post, mismatches, all that kind of thing. I think, especially in a playoff environment, that's so much more valuable than isolation defense when if you know when I can, I can use certain actions to get you to switch,

and most teams go to switching. And the defensive rebounding part is really interesting because I wanted to get to before we get out of here and thank you guys so much for coming to hang out. We're we're not gonna go super long tonight and probably only go another five ten minutes. But the I asked for some questions, and one of the questions that we got was from our friend George. He said, how does the team play

game plan on rebounding. Do they have set player that will find a body to box out others grab the ball or is it all communication on the floor. It's it's it's all an order of operations. When the shot first goes up, you absolutely have to find your man. That's the first thing you do is you find your man. After you find your man, you make a read on

the ball. If you see the ball come high off the rim and your man is out of the play, that's when you disengage and you sprint and you jump to grab the rebound if you see it coming at you. The last thing you want to do is jump if you see it coming at you, to stay low and you have to push your man further and further out in your teammate to come get the ball. But that's the biggest issue. If you watch on that pivotal possession of the game last night, Lebron Brocks blocks to Marty Rose,

and then there's a kick out. I think it's Kobe White or somebody I can't remember who it is. Someone shoots at three on the opposite wing and they miss, so they actually give up two offensive emails. On each of the plays, different guys are boxing out, like a Reason is boxing out on the first one, but you know, Lebron's out of the play because he falls down to block the shot. But like no one else bought, no

one else is boxing out. Then on the next play, like Lebron's boxing out, but like Trevor Reas is kind of walking around, and so it's like it's one of those things where on those for those sequences to work, everybody has to do the job. It's it's it's a team effort, defensive, rebounding, and and you know, I think the group, the unit was heading in the right direction

in terms of getting that polished up. But now we have all these new guys in and so it's hard to just kinda, um, you know, have that continuity of habit from someone who hasn't put on the Laker jersey, either ever before or in a very long time, you know, to come in and do that our other questions, let's see. Yeah, A couple of people asked, who do you think is

gonna get dropped? I think we Roger and I both talked about earlier we expected to be Jay Huff just because if there was any chance he was gonna play or he was gonna stay, he would have played. Last night. Um, what do you think about trading DJ Nunn and bass for anyone? Roger and I hit that last night. I'm pro trading him for a center of rajs pro just holding on and waiting to see what things look like

in January, which I actually agree with um. Let's see, well, there was there was one question that I think it's interesting because they said how to uh, I can't find who asked it. If I find it out, how can the Lakers cover for defense? Is that one? Yes? Yes? Yeah? Yeah,

that one? Yeah yeah yeah. I think that's really interesting because because we're watching the game yesterday, I thought I thought they did a nice job kind of trapping to Marja Rosen, right, and they did it pretty strategically, like they waited for him to go on a spin move. They wait until he like took two dribbles. I thought they really threw him off his game and then they just let him play isolation basketball I guess late late

in that game. And I don't think that anything to do with Isaiah Thomas right, because I think he was on the floor for some of that is as well, and maybe they put in Rajon Rono. But I think that's an interesting thing. You're gonna have to cover for him. That's just the kind of game it goes with. I t like he's gonna be picked on. What do you think about that? Because I think you're gonna have to trap do different things going to zones as well. Lebron

had center lineups. I think kind of go into more switching like they did with a D, but I could see them going more zone. Foco played with it a lot. I'm not I don't think we ran too much of it against Chicago. What do you think about that covering? I guess for I T. And I think that goes with a lot of our guards right in league Monk as well as a guy that gets picked on. I think it's something that we're gonna have to deal with,

especially without a D anymore, to clean things up. Lebron is gonna have a lot of load on on him to do that. So what do you think about covering? I guess for I T and just not I T because I don't want to just pick on him. But we have a lot of small guards that that can be picked This is super interesting and and well we'll hit this. This This will be our last one that we'll get out here, otherwise my wife will kill me. So I we are better as this is part of this

is part of the way basketball evolves. We're better as a league now. The n b A is at covering

for inferior defenders. We've we've talked a lot about this, about the different ways that we can scram guys out of mismatches or pre rotate or you know, you'll see it a lot in the post like well, if they as they're making the post entry pass, he's just like sprinting over and guarding the guy, or like it's I I ironically, towards the end of that game, I thought Isaiah Thomas was more of a problem in terms of defensive rebounding and covering ground in rotations, like someone else

would get beat off the dribble, the ball would be swung around and I T would have to get from like the top of the key to the opposite corner, and he just can't cover that much ground that fast, you know, which which again is still a disadvantage, but nowhere near as much of a disadvantage as on ball

issues that can come with him. So I, honically, I think the league and the Lakers in particular are more suited to to help and and recover in and scheme your way out of that mismatch in particular than it was in two thousand seventeen or two thousand eighteen when I T was in his prime and and it was a huge problem, you know, what I mean, So I I I'm less concerned about that particularly just and Isaiah Thomas is not really relevant. I think right now he's

playing for a contract elsewhere. Uh that that's and and I think he looks great and I think he probably will get that contract, which is which makes me happy

for his sake. Um. But yeah, in terms of like in the future in a playoff series like scramming Molik Monk out of specific situations like that that you can learn a lot from that over the course of the stretch, which is a great example of what I was just talking about, Like what a great time to kind of you know, game like to just kind of experiment with this kind of stuff and see what works. Yeah, and

he brought up the scrambling. That's where I was going to go two next, because I think they've gotten pretty good at that, and that's something that again that was process that was building. I thought they were kind of moving in the right direction with that. You see mellow scram guys out all the time. You can hear it on the broadcast. Actually you'll hear them say get out of there, get out of there, so you'll like go and scram switch Lebron will do it really well too.

That's just stuff I think they're improving on. And it sucks that we're about to get all these new five man lineups and all these new players that have never played together, because I thought they were kind of building some chemistry in that. But yeah, that's the way I guess the answer. I'm not sure if you find out who asked that, but to kind of cover fry T or cover for other players, scram switching, trapping, that's all stuff that Again, the league has kind of moved forward

to where it's a lot tougher to pick on guys. Right, you saw on the playoffs as well, it's a lot tougher to just pick on guys like Trey Young because defenses are really good at making you have to work for that. The Knicks tried it, and it will take like eighteen seconds of your shot claw trying to pick on Trey Young, and it just becomes, uh, you know, a fool's error to try to do that if you don't have the personnel especially, So, yeah, it's interesting. I

think it's a fascinating thing. We're about to go see. Hopefully, you know, we're gonna get a lot a small wall hopefully it's some of it's fun, get some good basketball here and hopefully keep up and get some wins too. I don't want to. I hope they don't just you know, fall off a cliff here, even though you know you you're we're going to be shorthanded. Dude. It's it's it's gonna be a really really interesting couple of weeks. I am.

I'm very excited to see it. Hey, everybody's thank you so much for coming to hang out with us, like we're working on trying to do a little bit more of a daily type of deal. And uh, I appreciate you guys taking the time too quick hit on this. For those of you who joined in late, this will air on dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time. It will also be on our podcast feed here.

In about twenty thirty minutes. We did talk about We talked a lot about the identity of this team moving forward and the strategy to cover ground over the course of this next couple of months without a d And we talked a lot about how they're gonna be going in on small ball rather than uh, trying to get centers back in the lineup. It was a good it was. It was a good, interesting one, so make sure you come check out the pot if you joined. Thank you guys as always and we will see tomorrow night for

the game. Appreciate it. Thanks everyone. M.