Grizzlies/Lakers Postgame Spaces

on the positive side. I can already tell from your tweets from the energy it's gonna be a little bit more, probably on the doctor's side. But I'm doing a little man. How's your weekend. It's good, man. I'm getting ready to go skiing again on Tuesday, so it's been a little

crazy prepping for that. But I I'm annoyed because I mean, look, man, I'm with you in in the sense that there is a silver lining because the Grizzlies are really good and a lot of our guys played poorly tonight, and Anthony Davis has to be factored in here to some extent. Like I get the fact that like through adjusted expectations.

There's a little bit of a silver lining here. I also get that the scoreboard wasn't really indicative, and I should say the scoreboard before the late Austin Reaves fueled run and Wayne Ellington field run, the scoreboard was not as indicative of the of the gap between the two teams. I think the Laker I think the Lakers employed a trapping strategy with John Murant succeeded in holding his scoring

down basically to everything at the free throw line. But you know, when you do that sort of thing, you open up holes in the defense. And I think you know it's a it's a very basic basketball concept when you I mean, I even take it to the high

school level. When you're teaching a high school team some sort of trap or anything where you sent two guys of the ball, it is utterly important that you disrupt the guy with the ball enough that his pass out of the trap is either looping or slow, or requires

a pass fake, or that it's deflected. Because if you do those things, you give your defense on the back line a chance to recover and a chance to cover the ground necessary to plug the holes that inevitably are opened up by you trapping a guy, But when you let a guy just casually jump over the trap and throw passes either across the court or like look look like you'd see throughout the game, even when Jaw wasn't um, even when Jaw wasn't in the game, you'd see the

ball handler just kinda wait for the two guys to come, and then as soon as they came, he would comfortably make a pass across the court to that week side corner. And those guys are just so open and so comfortable in that weak side corner that yeah, I mean, we can say they shot really well, and definitely they did, but those are easy shots. And if you give pros

easy shots all night long, they're gonna make them. And so there's fundamentally when you adopt that strategy of of trapping like you do, especially against the player the caliber of John Moran, you just have to do a better job at the start of making those guys struggle to beat the trapping um. Otherwise you're just gonna get feasted on like you did all night. And then I think it cascaded into guys all getting confident, and then in the second half guys were making tougher shots. But hey man,

we talked about that all the time. That's the story of basketball. Do you let a team get comfortable with wide open looks and get confident to the point where they're talking trash after every foul and they're you know, you know, having a ton of fun, you know, hitting each other on the chest and cheering and just looking like they're having the time of their lives. And guess what, they're gonna keep shooting tough shots over the top of you and making them because it's their night, now, you

know what I mean. And I thought it was I'm not necessarily disagreeing with the strategy because you and I have talked a lot about how trapping is a good idea for this team as they play small. But tonight he was poorly executed in a really good team just

completely you know, demoralized this on national on television. Yeah, So, like you know, I tried to break down the Atlanta game and how we trapped a lot against them, and we trapped against Trey Young, and I thought we're a lot more active Memphis obviously, and I kind of want to labor this point. Members is a damn good team, Like they came in tonight with an eight game win streak. I believe in some of those games. I think we're even without John morand they won without John morand their

last game. They're just good. They execute at a high level. They make things really difficult on both ends. Um their discipline as well on both ends. They're just a tough team that you can't just give one cover too. And you're right, Look, I thought trapping John makes sense. I would like to see them at least let Josh show that he can, you know, kill your team one on one scoring first, like I thought, we just showed him that coverage right away, and we gave you know, Desmond

Vain wide open corner threes. I forgot who the other shooters were. I think John Conchard, I think that's his name. He had like three these in the first quarter as well.

This was one of the first games Like That's why it doesn't kill me too much, but it just felt like, you know, the belief was lost really early, like it was pretty clear Memphis was the better team, and you're right, the scoreboard doesn't indicate, at least with the not the final score, because you know, we made a little nice run in the fourth quarter there but you know, the score of the game being down thirty isn't really indicative

of the difference of these teams. But I thought there was some kind of like, yeah, Memphis is the better team, and the kind of effort they would have needed to win tonight, it just wasn't there. You combound that with all our guards not playing well, Russell Westbrook, Malik mon Avery Bradley all had games from hell to be honest, miss layups, miss open threes, um at the beast, miss shots at the basket. No one was really helping. Lebron had twenty of our forty three early. You're just not

gonna win that way. And deepensily men, Memphis shot for the game, I believe when the game was you know, when the game mattered, they shot like sev in the second quarter. You're just not gonna win that way. And the Lakers weren't playing great defense either. They were also making some pretty big big shots. So that's kind of

what the story of the game is to me. I know that Russell Westbrooks kind of going to be the headline I think for a lot of this, but I think Memphis is just a damn good team who came in and kicked ours and they had fun. They reminded me of the team where like we would just run up and down have a blast beating teams physically. They thought they physically outmauwed us for a lot of this game. Offensive rebounding, Jaw took it to our chest, um and and really beat us and Jaws a superstar, he can

do that. Jaren Jacksons junior at the five. I think that's a tough cover. We trapped screens Jaren Jackson junior roles, and that's where a lot of our you know, issues were. I thought we should have switched a lot of more actions. I thought Carmelo at this game was tied after the first quarter. Jason seven, Uh, then I believe we went to mellow at the five lineups and you know, those are just it's not Carmelo's fault. It's not you know, the guys were in those line as fault. It's just

that's that's a really tough thing that to play. A thought him and Theresa looks slow against this this Memphis team, and I thought that's what that's why we lost the game. I think Memphis went up like fifteen or something during that run. So you pointed out that the Grizzlies were way more physical than us, right, and that they beat us in a out of those areas of the game.

You mentioned specifically that you hoped that we would do some more switching, and I think that those two, especially in the screen and roll actions, to force Jaw to

beat somebody as opposed to just making easy reads. Right, So he didn't even need to be a jump shooter tonight, like none that need to at all, which is ironic because like he did that to us once, it would have been nice to see if he could shoot six for six again, because I think I believe it was Darius Story I know from La Fire pointed this out, but I'm pretty sure outside of the Laker games, John More,

it has been pretty mediocre as a jump shooter. It's been the Laker games that have have flucked up his numbers a ton. But anyway, those two specific concepts, the idea of switching more and the idea of getting physically mauled, have a lot to do with something that I I have been worried about a lot during this stretch. And this is kind of a Frank ideology because he's such

a huge believer in ball pressure. So you know, Frank likes guys that get up into guys on the perimeter, and typically the route the world basketball throughout all levels, defenders who are bigger are more positional defenders. They don't need to sacrifice position to uh to slow an offensive player down because they have the physical tools to cover ground. Right, So most bigger defenders measure up, they play a little bit further off of a ball handler, which Frank doesn't like.

And so what you're seeing is Frank playing a lot of these small ball groups that have a ton of these six three and under guards that are ball pressure guards, Guys like Russ guys like Malik Monk, guys like Avery Bradley. And what's ending what's ending up happening is they're getting caught on screens. They're not actually causing any sort of disruption at the point of attack. And now we're just a small team that's in rotation, small in stature, small

and athleticism. We're struggling in that regard. So what bothered me is guys like Stanley, guys like Austin Reeves, guys like Trevor Reza didn't really play much tonight and and am my innion if you play bigger yeah, Okay, Frank, you're gonna have to understand that a guy's like Trevor Rees aren't gonna be amazing ball pressure point of attack guys, Guys like Stanley Johnson and there. Although he's shown good ball pressure this season, I get that he doesn't do

exactly what Avery Bradley does. But when you're going up against a team like that Memphis team that's playing huge, massive athletic forwards all over the court, where their point guard is arguably the most athletic point guard we've ever seen, and their to guard literally looks like a w W E fighter, you know, like the in Desmond Baine. Like, you can't go out there with all these little guys.

It has to be more Reeves, it has to be more Trevories, that has to be more Stanley Johnson, because you need to have that physical versatility, the ability to cause more havoc and to hold your own in some of those physical matchups, especially when you're trapping, because that's the dirty little secret of why Jaw was able to pick them apart in those traps. He can just jump

over those guys. They're too small that need if if it's a bigger lineup with more versatility, if maybe Russ is the small guy in the group, then you know you're doing you're you're offering more physical resistance in all of those battles. Now when you're trapping, maybe that's Stanley Johnson that's contesting the past and forcing you to make a much more difficult pass across the court, which we was for stretches of the start of the game when

we were more competitive. So again, I just think in terms of a scale when you're playing this style, I don't think you can play all guards, which we complained about early in the season when we had to do that. We don't have to do that now we have forwards. It needs to be a better balance, more athletics and more sized. I think it gives us a better chance of actually succeeding with these smaller groups, unlike tonight. And

again it's fool's gold against the bad teams. These are the good teams, and I'm gonna talk more about how we've been against good teams lately here in a minute. But you know, against teams like this, the same stuff that worked against Houston isn't gonna work. You know what, I mean, and I think we need to play some of our bigger players, not counting centers obviously. Yeah, I

agree with that. In our guards, you know, didn't play well and we're really not in the position like if Malik Monk and Aven Bradley and Carmel and Anthy, like, if all those dudes are making shots, we probably probably don't have a shot either. I a little bit disagree on that. It's fools gold. I guess against bad like I get against a team like Orlando. You know, that's like probably one of the bottom tier ones. But you know,

I'm higher on Atlanta than most teams. Like I think Malik Monk, what he did against them is replicable against other teams. I think Malik Monk, like Russell Westbrook said, you're allowed to have a bad game, right, I think Malik Monk is, you know, allowed to have a bad game. I wish they went bigger. Frank Vogel talked about a lot they want to kind of move on to the small ball, which you know we both kind of agree with,

as we both agree with as well. I just wish it wasn't as rigid, like I would have loved to see Dwight in before we were down twenty, Like, I just think there's ways where you can insert him and kind of swim. It's the flow of the game. I think when we're small teams kind of understand how to beat us. They were getting layups, are open, corner three is like it was. It was one of the other. But you would like to see our wings play more.

It's just it's tough for me to be too nit picky here, like when you're down thirty, like, there's not a lot of stuff to me that switched to flow. Stanley Johnson only getting one shift is a little frustrating, and that's happened a few times now. He played eight minutes in that first quarter. I thought he was everywhere. I thought he had a ton of deflections, he had a couple of I think he had a block as well, running around like it would have helped to maybe have

him so we can switch more. But I mean, you know, Memphis is just good. They legit. They have pretty much all their main guys other than Dylan Brooks. I think Steven Adams as well was out tonight. But they're just really good. And we didn't shoot well, uh and they killed us. They you know, they executed nicely, Like maybe playing Reeves and a reason more would have helped a little bit. Like it's just tough for me to kind

of get get there, I guess. So I still think, like I don't think the four game win streak get something that you throw away because you lose against Memphis, you know what I mean? Because I think like there was stuff we built. I think we did find some like things that work. I think Lebron and League Monk have found a two two man game that works. It's just Leak miss layups tonight at the rim. He missed his he missed his jump shots, he couldn't get to

the basket. Part of that is also in Memphis being a good defensive team. I think you see that Memphis also switches more. They don't have a player you can pick on right like Trey Young you can kind of pick on, throw him in a bunch of actions. John Rant has gotten pretty good defensively to me, like where you can't find a guy to pick on. And Jaren Jackson Jr. Is one of the best. We're protecting bigs

as well in the league. Like they're just a solid team and you know, we're just not at the level, I guess, uh, to beat a team like that right now, and we obviously we shouldn't be down thirty, but it just felt like our belief got lost in that in that second quarter. Are you with me there? At least? Like I feel like that second quarter we got down ten or fifteen and we kind of lost the belief. Lebron was really the only one that that took it personal. Honestly,

he had a kind of personal vendetta there. But other than that, the rest of the team kind of, uh, the effort and body language was pretty awful after after that second quarter, well, every every non Lebron Lakers shot so poorly. We that we were living in transition and losing shooters in transition giving jaw ahead of steam in that semi transition, right, we committed a bunch of fouls in that semi transition uh moment where the defense just

isn't quite set. And that's the thing. It becomes like the Lakers are gonna always be a team of runs when they play small because their their defense and offense depend on each other so much. Right, Like to in order to get out and run, you have to get stops and you have to get a rebound and push the ball up the floor in order to UH in order to get um um stops, we have to score

so that we can set our defense. So we end up in this weird vicious cycle where we have these stretches of the game where guys not named Lebron are just not making shots. And then it turns into like, now we're living the entire game in transition. We're not getting any stops. I should say we're living in transition defensively,

We're not getting any stops. We're walking the ball up into the half court, Lebron's making another read and another guy's missing a shot, and it just becomes this vicious cycle. And that's part of the downside of what happens when you don't have that other supreme talent. You know, having a guy like Anthony Davis there just makes it so that you can weather those kinds of storms a little better, you know, because having that other, other, that all world

talent on the floor can change things. But you know, I want this is what this is what brings me to russ because you know, Malik Monk having an off night. I get that that's Molik Monk. You know, he's a betteran minimum guy. He's been way more consistent lately than we should be getting from him. That's gold what we've been getting out of Malik Monk saying goes for Avery Bradley non guaranteed contract until the other day he's out. He's outperforming that contract. We are getting a ton out

of him. You know, those guys playing poorly that happens. What worries me is Russ because you can't just continue to have off nights and now he is who he is. But from a strated standpoint with team building, you can't have the guy that you paid this much for, not just in money but in assets, be this inconsistent and have these kinds of bad games where all of a sudden Lebron can be otherworldly good and it's just not enough.

And this is where it gets concerning, because I told you after the last game, uh, when we played Memphis last time, I told you that I was worried about Russ's ability to succeed against good defenses that takeaway what he wants to do and force him to do what he doesn't want to do, and how that could potentially be catastrophic in a playoff setting. And I looked back. Now, I know you think Atlanta is good, but they haven't

been playing good. So the last six good teams that we played that I wrote down, three of which were against Memphis. Ironically, Um, tonight we played Memphis, he goes to for twelve and looks largely ineffective on both ends of the floor. On the last time he played Memphis,

he had that end of the third quarter fiasco. Lebron plays amazing, We're in commanding position to win the game, and at the end of the third quarter as an ugly turnover and takes a ridiculous one like step back that directly leads to the John Ranch shop that essentially turns the momentum of the game and we end up losing. Then on Christmas Day, losing Patty Mills in the corner

and then blowing the dunk on the other end. So that's three straight games that we lost against good teams where Russ had significant struggles, either for the whole game or for key moments. Against Phoenix, uh, they literally lose the lawn the non Lebron minutes by eight team. In that game, Russ has more turnovers than assists Against Phoenix, a team that is going to have a ton of length on the floor, take away what he wants to do.

Before that against the Bulls, that was the game where Lebron was incredible again and was in a role on a roll at the end of the game and Russ looked him off to drive Nikolavusevici into the paint and shoot that weird legated hook that he missed that went

down to the Bulls scoring the game being over. And then before that against Memphis, another loss, nine points, six turnovers in a minus sixteen And from what I could tell looking at the schedule, unless you're counting teams like Atlanta or Boston who have struggled all season, our last six games against actually good teams that are actually good and have been good this whole year, Russ has been either flat out ineffectual for the entire game or been

critically ineffectual in a key moment. And that is my greatest fear with this whole situation, because, yeah, it's great in theory to have somebody that can carry you through the dregs of the regular season against limited teams, But what's the ultimate goal here? The goal is to get the Larry O'Brian Trophy, and in order to get the Larry O'Brian Trophy, you have to go through teams that will do defensively what Memphis did, what Brooklyn does, what

Phoenix does. The Brooklyn it might be more j K, might be more flat out ignoring and a lot of switching and weird stuff. But against the best of the best you have to date, you you get exposed. And I'm worried about that with Russ And again, I don't know what to make of it yet, but like this is becoming a recurring theme and and it's hard for me to stay positive in light of it. Yeah, no, there's like there's no quick answer here. He's he's definitely struggled.

I don't know. I'm tired of like the every time I tweet about us, I get the million dollar right, Like every single time people bring up how much he makes and I get it, you know, from like asset management and all that. But he's here now, Like I think that stuff is just for the summer, Like we

need to kind of figure out his role. And you talked about comparing him having a bad game with Malik Bunk but act but it's like they're almost the same, right, now with how we're playing right just by what their roles are on this team, Leak Monk needs to be a score for this team. Like that's just like for us to win right now, how we're playing small ball, he needs to be a score coming anything. Needs to hit open shots. Every Bradley starting needs to hit open

shots for us to run. Russ just needs to be able to. And he took a lot of bad shots tonight. And you know the I thought he started the game taking like five straight off of mid range pull ups. And that's more what it is to me. And I was looking at his shooting. I think the last five games he's shooting like thirty three percent from mid range. And if I look at all those, I think pretty much all those are just terrible shots. Like I don't mind the bank shot pull up. It's just I like

it when like the players backing up. But like tonight, they were all contested, like it's a struggle man, like I think against those good teams when we're healthy. I've talked about this all season. It's just gonna his USA is gonna be lower, lowered, like we're gonna have the

ball in Leek Monk's hands. We're gonna be have the ball in lebronze hands, We're gonna have the ball in Anthony Davis's hands, and he's probably he's probably being outstretched still right now with this role, and it isn't great. He has to play better. He has to have better decision making for sure. I just think like we have guys with roles that are defined now. So Rust's role is not to me have to be a score on this team. We've put guys in the starting lineup to

help with that. That's what That's why I'm link Monk is starting so he can have a scoring role. If he doesn't shoot well, we're not going to win. Blaming that all so on Russ to me just doesn't like that doesn't really make sense. We've defined the roles for this team and putting like why we didn't win tonight because like, if all our guards don't pull it well, obviously you would like Russ to kind of contribute to there. But that's just not the role he's in right now.

He's in a like he needs to create, he needs to shock create. I think this team needs to live in transition. I feel like we are not a half court scoring team. And putting Russ in the half court again just opens up all what he's deficients at right now. He's not a good half court scorer. Now, he's not a half court playmaker. He's a guy that pushes the ball in transition and when we don't get stops. That's why tonight's gonna look like what it is. And Russ

has definitely struggled against the good teams. He's also he's had a few games where I feel like he saved us in a lot of those. I think the game against Indiana he played well. A few others he's played well. But yeah, man, he's struggling against good teams. I just don't like. I feel like his role is going to be, I don't know, put to the correct spot when we play the better teams. If does that make sense? So I get that and ida, in an ideal situation, that

will be the case. And that's why if the Lakers do make a trade around the deadline and get someone like Jeremy Grant and have lineups out there that like Reeves or Monk with you know, Jeremy Grant, Lebron and Anthony Davis, like, I'll still believe in the team's chances, of course, but like what you just said to me is the scary part in all of this because you go, you know, he's he's a transition player, is not a half court player, Like he's actually not a great player

in the half court offensively, and there there's truth to that. And here's the reason why rogs. Like when you're watching Lebron initiate a possession from the perimeter, you can feel all of these like good potential outcomes that are about to happen, Like they're like, oh, if if he goes under this ball screen, Lebron is gonna have a comfortable

three point shot. He's just gonna make that thing. Or like, oh, if they switch that, he's got a good post, Mitch Matcher, Mismatcher, Oh if he you know, if they trap him, he's gonna be able to hit this part. Like you think and see all these obvious positive outcomes, And the same thing goes with a lot of players on the Laker roster, like Malik Monk. Same thing, like you give that dude a bit of breathing room, that things going up and

it's probably going in. There's all these like positive outcomes.

But like when I watched Russ like initiate the offensive possession I'm looking and the defenders immediately giving ground and backpedaling to about ten feet from the rim, like putting Russ already from the start of the possession in that awkward position where he has to decide whether or not he wants to take a jump shot, which he has been taking lately, but like they're not going in and some other nights he just won't even take them, so it just turns into this awkward situation where get like

turn and post them up like five ft from the rim, but he initiated the possession at thirty feet and there's no contact. It's like the most bizarre sequence there. And then like when he gets to the rim, he's finishing at such a low rate, Like that doesn't feel like a good outcome. Really, the only good outcomes we're getting from Russ offensively is like these bizarre plays where he just puts his head down and goes into like four bodies and just hurls the ball out somewhere and hopes

that someone's there. And don't get me wrong, there are games where that has worked, but it's primarily been against bad teams, and that style of play, Like if are walking down a playoff level really good defense that is set in the half court, he just doesn't have a threat. He's not a threat. He can't shoot over the top, he can't beat people off the dribble because they play

so far off of him. And then the really good teams take away his chaos ball, which is Russ's m O that I'm just putting my head down and going to the rim and hoping for the best. But the best teams just sit on all that stuff and it doesn't work. And so it's concerned, Like that's that's that's where the concern comes from. And again, like it is, it is what it is at this point. But like the reason why it's worth talking about and I get it, Like I know, particularly you Rog you get annoyed by

this sometimes because we talked about it so much. But it's like the reason why it's relevant is because this is the ultimate test. The ultimate test is can this team get to the point where they can con peat with and defeat the top tier teams, And these problems that I'm discussing with Russ will inevitably rear their ugly head in those games. The same way they have in the previous six games that we've played against teams that

belong on that tier. And so it's just I don't see how it doesn't ever cease being a topic as long as that's the situation. And you know, that's where, like like Rager, when I look at it, I think, you know, the all the chaos that would come from a russ trade and the idea of bringing back pointless salary filler and all the wasted assets and not to mention the burn bridges that come from that and how

ugly it would be. But then I think, in terms of diminishing returns, what if I had Monk and Reeves out there with a really good with a really good wing, like like Jeremy Grant and Lebron and Anthony Davis, what I like my chances more? And you know what, raj I might, I might And that that that that's concerning

to me, man, Like that's concerning to me. I don't know how that could not just be like like, I'm not just being a hater, I'm not being I'm trying to be objective here, but like that's where my brain goes, and I don't know how. I don't know how that can that can I can't be in the minority there there alone and that there's got to be people not at all. No, no no, no, of course, of course you're

not alone in that. I mean both of us. And I'm sure a lot of people get you know, Russ Trader because that people send me, you know, they work on their trade machine and be like what do you think of this rush trade? And my response pretty much every time is like, he's not going anywhere like That's why it's hard for me to entertain it. Like I don't get annoyed at the conversation. It's just like I just know that's not changing. So I'm trying to figure

out what can we do. I guess because he's here right, Like you would agree with that, right, Jason, Like he's not going anywhere like this, It's very be extremely unlikely that he would not even right and even if you saw really quick, real quick ross before you answer, pickup who have just tweeted out against the top four teams

in both conferences. Twelve games total, fifteen point nine points, eight point three rebounds, nine point three assists, four point nine turnovers percent from the field twenty three from three sixty two from the line. Yeah, that's you know, that's not great, Like there's no way to like sugar you know, like there's no way to sugarcoat, Like how it is like that that just isn't great. And then I guess my only like caveat if you want to look at

glass half full. Stuff is like some of that is without Lebron, some of that probably is without Anthony Davis. Some of that is without any of our wings. Right. We just started to get We just started to get

our wings back. Russ has had something like I don't think the zero turnover game you throw away because he had a bad game against Memphis, Like I think there are stuff that he just sometimes goes into, like a I need to make a shot right now, like tonight like he hit I think he took like four strade mid range pull ups just because he felt like I

have to hit a shot right now. And he gets into this mode, and like, my hopeful thing is that this changes a little bit when the A D gets back, maybe like you put more of the ball in his hands, eighty can eat more possessions in that way. You brought up fifth, what do you what do you say? Fifteen? Oh you shared it in the thing. Okay, fifteen not

eight and nine. That's kind of like sixteen eight and nine is like I would kind of live with that after percent if the efficiency was a little bit more up the turnovers were down, Like I would kind of live with that with a fully healthy team, right like if we have scores around that like that's but he hasn't been great like that. There's no way to sugarcoat it. Um he's not the you know, the shock trader that we probably need right now, and he just hasn't played well.

And against those good teams, You're right, they scheme him out. They know exactly what they're gonna do. They don't they don't close out to him, right Like, he's not able to attack closeouts. We talked about last game Atlanta was going over screens on him, that stuff that Phoenix will never do, that stuff Lea Memphis will never do. Like, that's the stuff that won't happen. They'll go under and he has to be able to make the right decision.

I think putting him in the Duncker spot is something we've built on these last four games, and that's something I think also that doesn't go away just because we lost to a really good team. Like I'm seeing little things, but like there's no sugar corny, there's no like pretty answered to be like, yeah, this is why they will

work because we don't know. I've said that we are in no position to even compare to Phoenix and and and the Warriors right now, like the Warriors who got Clay back hilariously tonight, Like I think they're adding Clay

freaking Thompson to that team. But that's another conversation. But like to me, we're like we're on a ladder up to those teams like we are, Like being in Atlanta to me was a stepping stone to getting up there, and Memphis to me, is showing more and more that they're closer to that Warriors Phoenix instead of like the Dallas US and all these other teams that are mixed in right now. Um, And that's kind of where we're at. Memphis is a damn good team. They scheme the hell

out of us. They also played harder. They also kicked our ass physically outremounded us, um. And they just beat us in all levels. So that's kind of the rest conversation. Man, It's interesting, that's not going away for sure. I'm not saying it should go away. I just think like we're in a position now where he's on the team, so we have to kind of find tangible solutions to that. I don't think he's going anywhere, Like, no trade is happening for me. I got one last question about Russell

and then we'll move on. If the Lakers were to remove us from the roster and do absolutely nothing else, so now thing in return, no nothing, Like if they were to literally waive him and distribute his minutes amongst the guards and wings that we have on the roster, would the Lakers? Would the Lakers be significantly worse, slightly worse,

the same, slightly better, or significantly better. If you just removed Russ from the roster and just and just distributed his minutes among shooters and guards and forwards better on the roster, I think we'd be worse. So how much worse, slightly worse, or significantly worse. I'm going to lead more significantly, Like I think that what Russ does is something we do need, Like he's our only other ball handler in that starting lineup, even though the like I also Malik Monk,

I guesses are scoring ball handler. But I do think he does stuff that we need. I think him pushing in the base and stuff like, I think he adds stuff to the team that we can't just throw away. You know, if you just took him off the team, I feel like that's not a solution here at all. Like you're losing, that would hurt that, you would limit the roster, You would again have to you know, reach out into the four fift Like, I don't think that's

a social How about you? What do you think about So? Okay, so that's fair And I thought you would say that, and I don't. I'm not saying you're wrong. However, my opinion is, with as well as th HD has been creating over the last couple of games, and has as well as Molique Monk has been playing with, how inconsistent Russ is with the amount of bad that he brings with as good and with as well as Lebron has been playing, I think they would be somewhere between the

same two, very slightly worse. That's and to me, that's the freaky part of all of this when you really really think about what all went into that. But we can move on from Russ. That was just that was just my Like I I told you after the last game that I had just a little bit of a weird feeling, like it seemed as though he was playing poorly against the good teams. And I said he needed to research it and and kind of dig into that

and kind of see. And so I did that tonight, and it was concerning what I found, you know, But I mean, look, lebron A D plus you know, shooting is a successful formula, Like that's we we know that. So this rustling is new, like it's a new process. Like you could probably put leron a d um Leak monk and you know, Austin Reeves and Trevor reason this two would probably still win a ship ton of games if Ad was healthy. Like it's just like that's a

successful formula. To me, this is Brandon. You're throwing a full shot creator into this that needs the ball in his hands. Uh. And it's interesting. I think it's similar to y th h D has its tough time in those lineups two because he couldn't space the floor. So I don't think you're like off there, Like I don't I don't know if there's a right, right I guess answer to that to that question. Yeah, um, but you know, as far as as far as like the totality of the game, like, I do want to give a lot

of credit to Memphis. They and just played a fantastic game. They handled Now here's the thing, they're they're World coach team and um Jaw has faced traps on occasion this season, not from l A, but from other teams this season. He's all the face traps that have been far more well executed than ours, which begs which leads to the result that you saw tonight, the pointless gambling off the ball that the excuse me the uh um, well, it

was kind of gambling in a lot of ways. That guy at that week side corner, which is kind of over help into the into that romance situation, and it just became a really really easy bread But anyway, I gotta give Memphis credit. They shot incredibly well and executed really well out of those traps. And then in the second half when the Lakers did try to tighten some of that stuff up, they had a swagger to them, they had a confidence to them, and they just walked

us down a bunch of times. They made a bunch of shots. One of the recurring themes in the second half was k Anderson being able to just put his head down, take that long, lumbering dribble that like that that last dribble that initiates contact into the chest, and then shoot floaters over the top. And then you saw John Ranch to start putting his head down and ending and jumping and and you know, ripping to the rim and just drawing fouls every time. And that was it was.

It was kind of like a four. It was like a force that we were incapable of stopping. And you know, I tweeted during the right around a half time, right around the beginning and second half, I tweeted that, you know, this might just be a team that we can't beat without Anthony Davis. That's that's that's very possible. Like if we were to play a series against them and A d was unavailable, I wouldn't like our chances. That's just the reality. However, like we're better than we showed tonight.

The this to your point, we were on a four game winning streak. We're probably a few points worse than Memphis in a typical matchup. We had a nightmarish outcome where while Lebron had a good game offensively. Literally everyone else had a nightmarish game offensively, and that's just how it goes sometimes. And meanwhile, on the other end, the same looks that we were missing, Memphis was knocking down

and that's all she wrote. Next thing. You know, you're down, but you have to you have to acknowledge that there there is some positive progress here. I don't agree with everything that we did strategically tonight, but we're not as bad as we look tonight as well. Yeah, and we're like, you know, moving to a new identity and you know, moving to this new small ball. Like we've been saying like we're a new team in like a good way, right.

A lot of the times, like these last four games are like we're a whole new team and that's all that's mostly been in like a positive connotation. But then you can kind of see the bat of that tonight as well. Memphis looks like a team that's been executing, you know, for the whole season, as a squad that

knows exactly what they're gonna do. And tonight we met a team that you know, just beat us in in every way, and like Russ has to be better not to move back to him, but like he has to be able to finish layups and all that, Like that's all true. I just don't know how much that's like because Memphis are just just Russ missing layups, you know. Like that's where like I have a hard time like

putting those I guess together. But Memphis is good. They definitely you know, they have good shot shot blocking at the RAM. But like we're a new team, we're trying to figure stuff out. The camalo about the five stuff. I feel like I've seen enough film to where that should probably no longer be a thing, but we're obviously still going to that um and I talked about. I hope Dwight Howard kind of plays a little bit more

both of us. I think want Dwight Howard at least to be in the rotation and somewhat in some form. Just want yeah, yeah, yeah, a b Our backup center. I think that's something that you know that we can do. But we're obviously trying to lean all the way into the small ball and you're gonna see stuff like tonight, Frank has talked about he wants to get data on some lineups and even if you know we're getting killed

on some stuff. He'll stick with it. I think tracking job probably was some part of that as well, just trapping him every single time, even though we got the same wide open corner three. They just wanted to see

what that looked like a little bit. But I don't like to me, I just agree with just the approach in terms of I think we're in win collection mode right now, like we can't give up, you know, games that you know, should at least like we should have had at least somewhat of a chance tonight, but obviously Memphis ended that. But it Yeah, so I was tough. I just don't think that throws away everything we did

the last four games as well. You obviously this is obviously a barometer game and and we didn't, you know, we didn't come close to reaching their measure. But I don't think that throws everything away from from what we've at least somewhat built these last few games. Getting guys back a d and Kendrick Nun should be back in the next few weeks here. So that that's why I'm like a little bit more positive. But you know, it's never great to get your butt kicked by thirty at home.

For sure. Yeah, and there's it's not a let's pack everything in and and and surrender the season. It's just okay, you know, we're not as good as we looked over the last couple of weeks. There's a lot still to get better at, but you know we've made progress. We do there. I had one last thing on my list that's a mini just a miniature soapbox having to do with officiating. And for the record, when it comes to when it comes to uh uh free throw attenpts, what

do I always say? Ros I say, the team that's more physically aggressive actually gets to the figure line more. That's just a basic basketball philosophy that everyone should be aware of. But I just I wanted to nip pick a handful of calls tonight. There were two or three with John Morant floating around the lane, and then there was um the one where Desmond Bank kicked out his foot, and on all three of them they were calls that went against the Lakers, two of which went went against Lebron.

The one on Bane was against Lebron. One of the floating John Morant ones um uh jaw jumped into Lebron's airspace. Lebron basically turned intod a textbook box out where he didn't even shove jaw. He just was defending his own position and jah, nothing happened. Basically, he just screamed and

yelled and the ref called a foul. And then there was the one at the end of the game when the Lakers made their run to get within seven where uh um got to uh you drove along the left side he was going against sucerries, but it was Baysmore was guarding in and Baysmore just didn't even touch him, and that really didn't even touch him, and and the guy just screamed and yelled at and and and flopped

and threw shut up and got a foul. So again, not I'm not talking about the game itself being poorly officiated, because that kind of thing is just an epidemic around

the entire league. But like it bothers me because like if you were with fifteen guys, your buddies at the court, you know, playing some pickup, or if you walked into a high school practice, or if you walked into a college practice, or if you walked into an NBA game and you pulled all of the players and you said, hey, if you wanted the rest to error on the side of calling fouls just because they think one might have happened, or erring on the side of only calling a foul

when they're absolutely certain that it happened. What would you want? Every single one of them would say they want the ladder. Every single one of them would say that, except for maybe day Lillard, who complained about how the officiating was bad this year but at the beginning, But for the vast majority of basketball players want to play on They want flow to the game. They want you to error

on this out of not calling stuff. They're okay, they'd rather be in a game like that where they're complaining to the refs about not getting calls, then being in a game like that where they are complaining about constantly getting called for fouls. That's just the basketball character of every single person. And it drives me nuts how many of these NBA officials are literally bated by this crap.

And when it's it's it's one thing. When it's the James Harden thing and you're actually seeing contact, which is a different type of bait. This is like I heard someone yell, This is like he flailed, Like there's a lot of this kind of stuff, and it's just I swear it's just a horrible, horrible, horrible disease on the

league because it it ruins games like this. Because John Marin was incredible tonight, absolutely incredible, but he one of the most unfortunate side effects of of his play tonight is he was moving so quick that the refs just didn't know what they were looking at. Is almost shock like a sense that they just didn't know how to officiate and he would just go flying into the lane and throw something up and they blow their whistle just because they didn't know what to do, you know what

I mean. And that's that's unfortunately. I would rather have officials air on the side of calling what they concretely absolutely certainly see. Yeah, it's tough. John Rad's a tough guy to kind officiate, and he started he's kind of leveled into that superstar level as well, right, like he's kind of entered the superstar phase of like he gets he's gonna get some of the benefit of the doubt calls as well. He goes so fast and transition though,

like it's hard to kind of know. He'll just jump into you and then they'll call the foul even if it's going back. I think Stanley Johnson was a little bit frustrated with that a few times I saw. But man, John's a tough cover with that. I thought, you know, the refereing didn't decide tonight, obviously, and you talked about guys like Jannice as well, get different, get get calls like this, but it's interesting. But yeah, Job is the guy that that's he's special man. He's gonna be a

tough guy that you have to officiate. He's a tough guy to appreciate. He's a small guard who gets up in the air a lot, so it's easy to kind of mad content in that way. And I think he's gonna up his free throw attempts memoras as he as he goes here, as he gets more benefited. Doubt calls. Um, he's he's a superstar man, and he is a freaking superstar man. He is. He is so good, Like I think he should be on the All NBA team this year, and that for for a guy his age, he might

start in the Austar. Yeah, dude, like he's he's outrageously good. But that's all I had on my list. Rodgers, there anything else you add that you wanted to get it on tonight before recalled it, really coockly just shout out Austin Reeves, Wayne Ellington, you know, for I think it's a nineteen oh run. Uh. You know it's crazy you want a nineteen o run and still can't. Uh, but you know he still can't win the game. But they cut into like eight just credits then Wayne Ellington stayed ready,

played hard. Um. I've obviously been a proponent of Wayne Ellington. Hasn't worked out exactly, but you know, he let it come back. And I think Austin Reeves needs to play more. And I think you said twenty one miss tonight for aust And Reeves, Like that's just that's not enough to me, Like he needs to him read uh sorry, Austin Stanley Johnson. Those guys need more minutes and hopefully when we play

these better teams they do. But I just want to give them a shout out, not you know, just laying the game away, making making Memphis put their starters back, Like that's a we don't really take. Um, you know what was that called? We don't really take those kind of wins. But that's something at least he forced Memphis to kind of put their starters back, don't quit on the game, and hopefully that leads to uh a win on who they don't even know where they played next honestly,

but hopefully that at least today they plays Sacramento. I think, I believe. I think we played Sacramento and then Denver Wednesday this week. I'm not certain. On the road, I believe on a road trip now. But yeah, no, I'm with you. Like when it comes to the non Lebron Westbrook guys in this group, I mean, I go away from Westbrook too. If he's having these catastrophe nights, he just can't do it. But like the point is is

he needs to, Like, we have options. We have a long enough list of options on the wing, with guys like Bays who are like bases a bona fide NBA players outside of our outside of our rotation right now, largely because he really struggled playing alongside DeAndre Jordan's, you know, But like we have Bays, who's an option. We have Reeves, we have Stanley Johnson. We have a reason we have

these wings out there. It didn't have to be just incessantly leaning on Avery, Bradley in the league Monk, Like, if they don't have it like you, you probably stick with Monk because of what you need just in terms of him as an offensive threat um in terms of keeping the defense honest. But like you gotta Frank's gotta be more willing to be like, hey Avery doesn't have it tonight, let's go to Reeves. Or if Austin's having

a rough night, Hey Austin doesn't have it tonight. This goes to a reason or vice versa, like it just needs to be like the minutes out, especially in a small ball concept where it's not really about positions. It's like five perimeter players basically, and in one guy who can run your pick and roll coverages at any given time, like on the back Lind. At that point, it needs to just be fair, game, interchangeable. Who has it tonight, Like Okay, Malik's got it tonight, you know, or Austin's

got it tonight. These are the guys on riding with because that's that's how these kind of games go. Like the role players were just dead and energy tonight, and it's like, man, that that you gotta lean on your energy guys in a case like that. But anyway, that's that's all we have for tonight. Guys. We're going to uh, well before before, before you closefore you close out last, just to close this out because it's been kind of gloomy.

Lebron says it's been a lot clear how we want to play basketball over the last few weeks and said despite the poor from poor performance tonight, he believes they've been playing good basketball. So just a little bit of a positivity there. We've they've been playing good basketball tonight.

Doesn't ruin that. Just let's remember that for sure. And like the last thing really quick, like what is there are different types of teams in the league, right that if you're the kind of team that loses too bad teams, then you're probably a bad team, right But if you're the team that can beat the good teams, then you're probably not a good team. But if you're beating all the bad teams, which is what we're doing now, then

you're not a bad team. So so like so like if they're like to start the season, the Lakers were bad, you know, and we've we've leveled up without Anthony Davis from being a bad basketball team to an extremely mediocre basketball team, which is something that we can take as a as a step forward in the right direction. But anyway, thank you guys so much for hanging out on a Sunday. I know that there's a lot going on, but I

appreciate you guys hanging with us. This is going to air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time, and will also be on our podcast feed here in about twenty minutes or so. Things as always for the support. We are back Wednesday, Raj. I am bringing all my stuff with me to the mountain and I'm I'm hoping to do a postgame show, but I cannot make any promises to you, my friend, but we will stay in touch as we get closer to game

time that night, and I'll let you know how it goes. Okay, it sounds good. Alright, everybody, have a good night. I appreciate everyone. Thank you. M