Hoops Tonight - Celtics pull away from Miami

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ends of the floor. And obviously, and I'm strictly talking about talent there, because most frequently I'll get people that will say things like, hey, if they're a Jekyl and High team, that means they're not a good basketball team. That's a fair point. Hey, if they're too two with the Miami Heat, maybe they're not that much better than Miami.

That's also a fair point. I don't disagree with those details, but in a vacuum strictly looking at talent, Boston is significantly more talented then Miami both ends of the floor. To give you an idea, coming into tonight, Boston was twelve points better then Miami in half court settings per one possessions. Miami was giving you about ninety points per every one half court possessions was actually pretty good, about eight points better than Milwaukee faired against this Boston defense.

But Boston, for all their limitations, against a very good Miami defense, they were averaging about a hundred and two points per half court possession. But that static half court environment is just one part of the game of basketball. Now, that's where your overall talent will be most on display, because when teams are squared up and there's no advantage either way, that's where talent has to take over. You'll see freakishly athletic teams succeed in transition. You'll see really

skilled players like Lucas thrive in slow pace environments. You'll see really big teams thrive in offensive rebounding and depending defending the paint and things like that. But those are all ancillary factors. Those are all, like I said, swing factors that occur outside of that static half court environment, and the story of this entire playoff run for Boston has been losing games outside of the static half court environment.

They were a much better half court offensive team than both of Milwaukee and Miami, and for all the limitations that Brooklyn had, and they were a very good offensive team. That was where Boston had to win in some of the swing factors of the game. But as you saw again in the first half tonight, Miami goes into the halftime, I believe they were up by four. I can't remember exactly, but that a little bit of a lead, and it was textbook. They were getting destroyed on the offensive glass.

I believe Miami had a twelve to two second chance points advantage in the first half. Boston only had ten at ten to seven turnover disadvantage, but Miami was running out and getting layups on every single one of them. Boston's transition defense has been awful in this entire playoff run. They're giving up a hundred and forty points per one hundred transition opportunities, which is last among all four teams

in the in the conference finals. So Miami knows because They're well coached, and they're great in those details, and they're great in those swing factors. If they try to avoid the half court environment at all costs, they can

win games, and they did. I told you guys coming into this series that I thought Boston was good enough to sweep Miami, but that I expected Miami to push it to six because I figured they'd take a couple of games off of Boston because of all of that sloppiness that I talked about, and you've seen that resoundingly displayed in that series. I've been wrong about a lot of things in this playoff run, just like everybody is predicting.

Predicting sports is a huge pain in the ass. But this particular Boston team I've had a really good feel for. For the most part, Miami's offense is not bad. I had. I was pessimistic about them compared to some of the contenders. Like when people would ask me, is my Miami a contender, I'd routinely say no, because I didn't think they had the top end offensive talent to be able to hang with some of the best teams in the league. But overall,

they're a good offensive team. They were twelve in offense this season, which is not bad. That's above average, right. They have two All Stars on the team, all Star caliber players in the form of bamb At a Bio and Jimmy Butler. Tyler Harrow obviously he missed part of this series with injury, but even when he was on the floor, Miami struggled to score. Overall, this is a decent Miami offense, and Boston has utterly and completely shut them down over the course of this series. I thought

early on they struggle with some coverage stuff. I thought they were dropping way too much. They still dropped way more than I thought they would in this series, but early on Miami made them pay for that. But over the course of the last twelve quarters, so three games, twelve quarters, Boston has held Miami to twenty five points

or less in ten of the twelve quarters. The two outliers were that first quarter in Game three when Boston mailed it in and it cost him the game and the series be over by now if it wasn't for that, And then the fourth quarter of Game four when Boston was up by a million points and all the bench players were in the game. So basically, at any point in time where Boston was engaged defensively, Miami could not

score the basketball. Jimmy Butler was a complete ship show again tonight after being a ship show in the last game. And I understand so many people are gonna be like, he's hurt, and I get that, and I'm I'm not undercutting the injuries to Jimmy Butler, Tyler Harrow, and Kyle Lowry. They are real. They are a thing that was absolutely had a factor in this series. It's very possible that some of these games are closer if those guys are healthy.

But also, the better you are, the more Boston respects you as an opponent, and they don't do what they did in Game three. Everything is depending on each other in that regard. But Janis and kd their efficiency tanked against this Boston defense. Both of them utterly fell apart in terms of their ability to put the ball in the basket efficiently compared to their regular season performance against this Boston defense. So, guess what did you think Jimmy

Butler was above that? Did you think Jimmy Butler was gonna succeed where Kadie and Janice failed? It wasn't gonna happen. And so yeah, did. I thought the drop coverage early in the series, Jimmy was able to get downhill way too easily, way too often, and he got a bunch of easy shots. And then in Game two was all

transition stuff. I mean it was like pick six, pick six, pick six, right, But overall I expected Jimmy Butler to have a nightmare series against Boston's defense, and he has, And even if his knee was perfectly healthy, I still believe to some extent he would have had that type of nightmare series. Baman a bio same thing. Like, again, this is an all star level talent, and he's a whole bunch of issues with aggression that need to be

addressed by this Miami team in the off season. Like if Miami loses the series, which I expect him to. I understand the culture. I understand the power of that culture. I understand the power of coaching. I think Erik Spoelstra might be the best coach in all of basketball, and his performance in this series was excellent, capitalizing on those swing factors versus Boston. But there's a limitation to that.

There's a ceiling, and the ceiling is lower than what talent can bring because this is a Boston team that's not sharp in all of those areas I thought he made. Judoka got soundly out coached in this series. I thoroughly disagreed with his defensive strategy, and it's still worked because of the overall talent gap and just how ridiculously talented

this Boston defense is. But this is if you're Miami at a certain point, as as powerful as your culture is, you have to identify somebody out there that you can bring into this system that can be a supreme offensive engine for you, because I think as a as Jimmy Butler can lead you to the two near the mountaintop in down years like the bubble guys, like what happened that year. If you guys remember Kde was out, Kyrie

was out, Steph Curry was out. There were a lot of swing factors that allowed a weaker Miami team to rise to the top of that pile. And at a certain point Miami is gonna have to confront that. I wanted to talk a little bit about the third quarter run from Boston because I thought it was inevitable and they outscored Miami thirty two to sixteen in that In that quarter, and that was where they cleaned up those details.

When you have that big of an advantage in the half court, all you have to do is clean up those details, and you're just about guaranteed to go on the run. You Know what's funny is Tatum had a pretty bad game in terms of his ability to make shots. But this is the advantage of the way Boston's offense is put together because if you look at if you look at Boston's offensive construct, it's a driving kick offense, right, and it's you've got Jason Tatum, who's this supremely talented

offensive wing. You've got Jalen Brown who's this supremely talented offensive wing. You've got Marcus Smart who's a great driving kick guard. You've got Derek White who is every bit is capable of being that type of dribble drive guard that Marcus Smart is. You've got Al Horford and Great Williams are a great spot up players. You've got Peyton

Pritchard bringing scoring punch off the bench. When you've got that type of talent depth on offense, it's kind of like a it's kind of like a game of whack a mole, and like, okay, congrats. You've got Marcus Smarten to have Jayson Tatum to have a rough night. But tonight Jalen Brown had it going and Derek White got it going, and that was enough to carry you offensively.

You could go into Game six and Derek White could have a rough night and Jalen Brown could have a rough night, But chances are Tatum will play a lot better, and chances are Marcus Smart will play a lot better. You might have a crazy four or five three night from Peyton Pritchard. Right when you have this type of depth of offensive talent, just by virtue of odds, there's a good chance for a couple of those guys to

get hot. I remember I was talking with Colin Coward on Sunday about how to compete with luck, because to win in the NBA playoffs, you need luck. You need some things to go your way, whether that's injury luck or whether that's shooting luck, guys getting hot. But I said to Colin, the way you combat that is by getting multiple cracks at the table. The more opportunity ease

you have. If I told you you've got seven polls at the slot machine or the roulette table instead of two chances are you're gonna win three or four of them, right, And that's kind of the way I look at it. And when you've got six guys that are capable of going for twenty plus points, chances are two or three of them are gonna get hot on any given night. And that's the advantage of Boston's overall offensive depth and the way that that can carry them for stretches in

the NBA playoffs. Let's look forward for Boston here, and to be clear, it's not over. This is a team that is routinely every single opportunity they've had to close a deal to take a lead in a series, they have shown their ugly side the basically Game five of this series in Game seven of last series against Milwaukee are the only two times I can think of in his last two Hounds where Boston put multiple good performances together. They fell down one out of Milwaukee with a sloppy effort,

and then they kicked their ass in Game two. Then they came out in Game three and they were sloppy again and dug themselves in a big hole. Then they came out in Game four and smacked them again. Then they came out in Game five on their home floor and laid an egg. Then they went on the road in game six, they controlled them again, and then they come back in game seven, and finally they have a second good performance in a row, and it's enough to

win the series. You look at this series, my They come out and play really well in the first half and take the lead, and then they get smacked in the second half and a third quarter run where they look unrecognizable. Then they go in game two on the road and beat the ship out of them, and then go home in game three and lay the mother of all eggs at home in front of your own crowd, before you blow them out again in game four, and then finally tonight they put a second good performance together.

That is routine evidence that tells us we should not trust these guys, which again, regardless of what happens in this series. And my guess is they're gonna be able to close out Miami in game six because Miami is not as good as Milwaukee was. And I don't think they said, I simply don't think they have the talent to get this job done. Even that horrific performance from Boston in Game three, they still were a couple of

shots away from stealing that game. I think Miami's gonna close it out and get or Boston's gonna close it out in game six. So looking forward, I think Golden State's gonna close out Dallas. This inconsistent effort, this inconsistent attention to detail that might get you beat against Golden State. Like we talked about earlier, Boston's given up a hundred and forty points per hundred possessions in transition, which is last among the four teams in the conference finals. That's

a swing factor. Boston is giving up more offensive rebounds than Miami and Golden State. They're turning the ball over more than Dallas in Miami. That's Golden State's one weakness. They are weak in the details compared to the competition

that's remaining in this field, Golden State is going. I'm super interested to see this matchup because Golden State only managed about a hundred eight points per one hundred possessions against Memphis, and I couldn't figure out how to filter that for John moranch just because of some limitations of the the uh second spectrum stats on NBA dot Com.

I'd love to see it specifically without John morand because I bet you it's significantly lower because Golden State lit the Grizzlies on fire when John Randt was on the floor, but they didn't score efficiently against Memphis relative to the other two teams. So I'm super curious to see what this matchup looks like. I'm gonna dive way further into it in the film once we get out of these series.

And again, you're gonna want to follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason and lt to see that breakdown when the time comes. But against Golden State, you're gonna be put in some predicaments that Miami didn't put you in. If you bring a weak defensive effort at any stretch during Golden State, you're gonna get beat. Dallas is a good defensive team, and they gave up what sixty eight points in the second half of that game through a

Game two that they blew. When a Golden State is gonna space you out and put you in real five out predicaments, there's gonna be some predicaments that Boston is gonna put them in, right, I mean, like they might have to play Kevon Looney the whole series just to match up physically with the Al Horford Robert Williams front court. So there's gonna be predicaments going both ways. And again, I don't want to dive too much further into the details because I'd rather do a whole video about this

once we get out of these series. But all I'm saying is these series are defined and decided by the tiniest of margins, and you can't afford to be sloppy. And if you are, this Golden State team is gonna beat you. And as of right now, even though I think Boston is just a hair better overall in talent, I think Golden States a better offensive team, but I think Boston is a significantly better defensive team. And so from that standpoint, you know, I'm Boston has the tools

to get the job done in the next round. But this is a Golden State team that's been there before. We talked a lot about scar tissue in the last show, and I had Boston fans in my mentions and in commons saying things like, oh, we've been in the conference finals all these times. These guys have been there, they've lost they have scar tissue. Two. No, they don't. If they did, you'd see it on the floor, you'd see it in their effort, you'd see it in the attention

to detail, and it's not there. So maybe they do have scar tissue, but it's not enough. I know for a fact that Golden State is gonna come out tomorrow with an incredible effort to try to close that series. Can Dallas still win? Yeah, they're really good and they're con persistently generating quality three. So if they go in there and they you really well, Dallas might still upset them. But there's no concern from anybody watching that game whether

or not Golden State's gonna come out focused. I have no idea whether or not Boston's gonna come out focused. In fact, I haven't looked at it yet, but there might be an interesting little first quarter spread bet for Miami and that in that game six, because it's a coin flip whether or not they're gonna come out and care enough to do the job. And that's a huge monumental difference between this Boston team and this Golden State team, and it's why I pick Golden State as of right now. Alright,

we're gonna switch gears here a little bit. We're gonna talk some Lakers. Okay, So, like I said earlier, I covered the Lakers over the course the last two years. That's uh, was the original inception of this show, although things have been shifted, and um, it's a team that you know, again, I'm not a Laker fan. This is something I have to encounter with Laker fans all the time. I'm not a Laker fan. I just covered them over

the course of the last two years. That said, that team in particular, I fell in love with that team. I fell in love with their approach. I thought they were one of the toughest teams that I can remember watching. They very rarely lost multiple games in a row. They were incredible with their focus and their commitment to the details. And that's what's so interesting about the decline, you know.

I I We're gonna talk about the coaching search here in a second, but like, it's pretty bizarre to see Lebron and a d the same two guys that were so bought into Frank Vogel and what he did in that season, come out flat and just simply not caring.

And it's just part of that downfall. And ironically, the Lakers, as much as I fell in love with them as a basketball team in twenty I despise them now they offend me as a basketball fan watching their approach day to day from the front office down, the way the owner behaves, the way the general manager behaves, the stubbornness of Frank Vogel all season, the commitment from the players. It was awful. It was offensive to watch, and it was kind of a pain that I had to cover

them the way that I did. But that's such as life covering the NBA, and things can change quickly. But I wanted to take some time tonight to talk a little bit about the Russell Westbrook trade rumors that have been flying around, my thoughts on the head coaching search, and then just overall what I think needs to happen this offseason for the Lakers to recover. So with this rush trade, and you're seeing a lot of intel coming out from a bunch of different sources about whether or

not they're going to trade Russell Westbrook. And there's two specific rumors that are that are kind of leading this charge. The first is the Lakers brass is asking coaches when they're interviewing them, what would you do with Russell Westbrook. We've seen that report, right, and then I even saw one today that Terry Stotts is particularly excited about all the things that he could do with Russ, which don't

even get me started on that. The second thing is there's extensive reporting that says that the Lakers feel like they can't attach a first round pick to Russ, which is stupid on like seven different levels. First of all, that's just pride talking. Okay, you're concerned, you're concerned about the optics of attaching a first round pick to get rid of Russ. Are you aware that you're a dumpster fire? Are you aware that everyone in the league already thinks

you're the most poorly run franchise in the league. Are you aware that most coaches wouldn't even consider the idea of going to you like we heard about with Quinn Snyder because of your micro management and your lack of organization in general unprofessionalism. You're already a dumpster fire. Your reputation is already in the trash. So you expecting to to heal that or repair that to some extent because you managed to flip Russ without a first round pick.

That's ridiculous. And then, secondly, the only thing that should factor into whether or not you a hatch a first round pick should be what is coming in return, because if good players are coming, if you're gonna get good basketball players back, then you have to give out assets. And so if you're under the impression that you can get good basketball players in return, for us, who cares about the optics of attaching a first round draft pick.

It's just such a twisted approach to the whole thing, and it's just the latest indicator of how much of a disaster this ownership in front offices. But let's let's talk about this Rush trade from the standpoint of how important it is to get him off the roster. The thing with Russ this year was toxic. It was toxic with the fans, It was toxic with the coach, It was toxic with the weird you know, the weird posturing of clutch sports and the Lakers front office. It was

toxic with Russ himself. It the way that he would go to the press and refuse to accept blame for anything that he did during the entire season. The whole thing was toxic. So I don't care what Russ says to apologize. I don't care what Terry Stotts thinks he can do with Russ. If you bring him back into training camp, you are willingly signing up for a toxic environment and thus punting the season, namely the twentie season

of Lebron James. And I said last night on the show, I think it will be the last truly great season of Lebron james career potentially. So it's a big time punt that you're signing up for there. And I've had Leaker fans be like, Oh, it's posturing. They're doing it for for you know, to try to help with the trade value in these negotiations. Calling himself said that on his show, and again I hope that's the case. But for me personally, I can't give the like is the

benefit of the doubt? They have burned that down For me, when I see the Lakers do something and I have to decide whether or not it's them operating on some higher plane mentally or them not knowing what they're doing, I'm gonna error on the side of not knowing what they're doing because routinely they have demonstrated that to us. And so as far as the rush trate goes, you simply have to get rid of him because of the fact that he will propagate a toxic environment if you

allow him to come into training camp. And then secondly, it's what you get in return. Now there's a fear, Oh, you're gonna bring back these bad contracts. Oh man, I'm not sure if I want to pay Gordon Hayward two years at sixty million or two years at thirty million a year, or oh, I'm not sure I want to take on that that uh you know that that Buddy Hell contract or whatever whatever it is that you're concerned about. Here's the deal, guys, Russ is a bad contracts. You're

gonna get Russ. You're gonna get back contracts in return. That's the deal. That's what you're signing up for. But here's the difference. I thought Russ was a net negative player this year. I thought he had an overall negative basketball effect, even if we ditch all the toxicity. The only people who feel otherwise about that are Russ stands and people who routinely overlooked most of the things that he did this year out of their own fanhood, which again I grew up a lebron stance. I'm not I'm

not hating on people who behave that way. I'm just

calling it what it is. It clouded their judgment. Russ was a negative basketball player with this team because of his inability to be effective off the ball, because of his inconsistent defensive effort and focus, because of his shot selection, because of his attitude, because of especially in key moments at the end of games, his inability to finish around the rim and the way that hurt the Lakers and transition defense, his propensity to make catastrophic mistakes at the

end of basketball games. It was mad. It was all that. And so the way I look at it, you have to look at the Andrew Wiggins example. Now, Andrew Wiggins is the supreme example. You have almost no chance of hitting that much of a home run. But if you can get a smaller version of the Andrew Wiggins example, that's what you're looking for here. Andrew Wiggins was considered

a disaster in Minnesota on a max contract. I think he had to promise he was gonna work hard when he signed when he signed the deal, if I remember correctly. Don't quote me on that because I could be wrong, But what happened with Andrew Wiggins, he got traded to the Warriors, which was the latest example of brilliant asset management. And it's the thing that the Nets have to be thinking with Kyrie and it's the thing that Philly has to be thinking with James Harden. Never allow yourself to

lose a player for nothing. Because the them flipping k D for D'Angelo Russell and then flipping d' angelo Russell for Andrew Wiggins and retaining and taking back picks in the process. Not only was that genius asset management. Now Andrew Wiggins is this pivotal piece of the team that I think is gonna win the NBA Championship. Like he's been just flat out better than Klay Thompson on this team.

That's how good he's been. And so Andrew Wiggins lacked the audacity in the upstairs aggression to be a lead swing man, a superstar wing but and a tertiary role or even further down than that. When he's able to fall into the background and focus on the little things,

he's great at it. Because that's what happens when you take supremely talented individuals, talent individuals that are so talented that they dictated large contracts and you put them in a position where they can focus on specific things that they're good at. And so that needs to be the thought process with this Russell Westbrook thing. They're overpaid role players all around the league. The classic example of this was Otto Porter Jr. Remember when he was so good?

It when he was with Washington and everyone's like, oh, do we pay him? Do we not? And Washington didn't want to pay him, and so he ended up signing that big deal and go into Chicago. Right. I actually think they they might have signed him and then traded him to Chicago. I can't remember exactly, but my point is Auto Porter Jr. Dictating that massive contract as a role player. Since then, he's been an overpaid role player right until he signed in but in it when he's

been healthy with Golden State, he's been a monster. He's been huge for their spacing. He's given them one trivil pull up game like, the ability to attack close outs and get pull up jump shots. He's been huge for their rebounding and in allowing them to play some of their smaller lineups. That's an overpaid role player who slotted in on a great team and was great. That's the type of guy you gotta be targeting with the rush trade.

You need to bring back two or three guys that are massively overpaid for their position, but at the same time, next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis in smaller roles, they can excel. And that's the way I look at it. With this rust steal, You're flipping one terrible contract that actively hurts you on the court for two or three massive overpaid contracts that can functionally help your basketball team. That's the approach that they need to take. So let's

move on to this coaching starts really quick. So the three names that have been thrown out or Terry Stotts fired from Portland, Kenny Atkinson fired from Brooklyn famously for not playing DeAndre Jordan's like Katie and Kyrie wanted him to. And then Darvin Ham, an assistant from the Milwaukee Bucks. So I'm huge on Darvin Ham for two reasons. First of all, this the defensive scheme that Milwaukee ran is extremely similar to what I think the Lakers will need

to run next year. So the way that Milwaukee ran their defense, if you guys remember, is they played like a twin shot blocker scheme, they play Jannie at the four, brook Lopez at the five, and with Jannat's mobility, they usually have him guard the pick and roll screener from the other team so that he navigates the pick and roll coverages because he's more mobile, and then they'll talk brook Lopez usually on the four man whoever it is that's their worst shooter, and have him weighed around at

the basket right, and functionally with that, because Janice is up at the screen and they're funneling guys to brook Lopez, they gave up a crazy amount of three's, but they absolutely shut down the pain right and as a result, they have a functional defense over the course of the last two years, one that was good enough to win an NBA championship and one that really through Boston for a loop. Right. That concept is a seamless transition to

the Lebron in a d front court. As a matter of fact, like now again, is Lebron the same level of shot blocker as a brook lopezer A honest no. But he's an amazing back line defender and he's great at navigating pick and roll coverages if you need him to, so you can run a very similar setup that what to to what Milwaukee ran with Lebron and a D.

Plus they're interchangeable. You can have Lebron work the screen, or Lebron run the back line, or Anthony Davis can do either as well, and you can They even give you the added flexibility of switching they have. You know, Lebron and a D is a better defensive front court than Janis and brook Lopez when they're engaged. It's just you can't get him to try hard, which we're gonna get,

which we're gonna get to here in a minute. But my point is, especially with the Lakers lack of perimeter defense, this is the Lakers team that was horrific in containing ball handlers this year. Chances are, unless they hit a bunch of home runs in the off season, that's going to be in a weakness for them again next year. So you're not going to be able to be a team that plays, you know, really switchy, spread the floor defensive scheme. Everybody, just hold onto your man type of deal.

You're going to have to play into your shop blocking. You're going to have to funnel teams into the paint. So that is the ideal example of where the Milwaukee defensive schemes slide right in. So I love the idea of Darvin Ham coming in and sliding right in to two and executing basically Milwaukee's defensive scheme with the Lakers now, offensive organization is a huge deal, and I don't know a ton about Darvin Ham on the offensive end of the floor, having at the time in this playoff runer

really dive into it. But I'm less concerned about that specifically for this this Laker team because Lebron and a d are a brute force offense. They accomplish everything on the sheer power of their talent. So I'm more concerned about spacing concepts on the offensive end of the floor that I am about running, you know, coherent sets all

the time. I like the Dallas Mavericks model getting guys that are routinely in the same spots on the floor, especially for a guy like Anthony Davis who's not a great passer, if you can simplify his reads to the point where it's like, hey, a d if you ever find yourself in trouble, you know for a fact there's there's a guy in this spot, there's guy in that spot, and there's a guy in these other two spots. Because

that's the way we routinely set up our spacing. That the way that I think they need to set up their offensive vent. I'd love to see what Kenny Atkinson can do on on the offensive vent. I'd love to see what Terry Stotts can do on the offensive vent. And hopefully you can get him as an assistant, right But you know, the spacing concepts are are what I'm most interested in. And then last, it's the egos. You know,

Lebron and a d tuned Frank Vogel out. They were so bought in to everything that the team was doing, and they just they just bought out, They tuned them out. It's it's a crazy thing, and I think it has a lot to do with egos. This is not the first time Lebron is tuned to coach out. He pretty much tuned out David Blatt right now. David Blatt. If you've ever read Brian hit Windhorse and David Benneman's book about that year, David Blatt was also a huge pain in the butt to deal with, and he had a

massive ego and there's other stuff going on. There. My point is is that the establishment guys, these big coach personalities, seemed to clash with the egotistical titles, the guys like Lebron the guy. Right, if you have a Steph Curry, if you have like a supremely coachable player Tim Duncan, then you can have those guys play for all time great coaches because those coaches are gonna resonate with that

player on a certain level. Right, I think there's I think it's I don't think it's a coincidence that Tyler has succeeded, that Jason Kidd has succeeded, the Email Udoka has succeeded. These former players that recently played in the league. Darvin Ham played in the league in this century. These recent NBA players specifically tough guys, guys that represented toughness when they were playing, which Tyler and Jason Kidd and

Email Udoka and Darvin Ham absolutely did. I feel like that specific archetype of coach has a better chance of resonating and getting buy in from the egotistical stars around the league. Look at what he look at what Emai Udoka did to turn around the psychology of that Boston Celtics team. Look at how Jason Kidd in one season got the Dallas Mavericks to buy into defense. Look at the job that tylu has done with l a Clippers. I don't think it's a coincidence that those guys have

gotten buying. And like, if I actually thought that Lebron and a D would sit there and listen to Kenny Atkinson's you know, approach to offense and go like, hey, Kenny, you know that's a great idea. Let's try that. If I actually thought they'd do that, then maybe you want to target an offensive minded coach, right, I just don't

know that they necessarily would. And so having a real trenches type of guy, a guy like Darvin Hand that can look at Lebron and A D and be like, I need you guys to try every night, I need you guys to buy into training camp, I think that brings the most value In this specific case, I would argue that the most important detail for the Lakers to get back to contention next year, outside of anything else, is Lebron James and Anthony Davis being on the floor

and playing hard, which neither of those two things happened consistently this year, and I think Darvin Ham has the best opportunity to accomplish that with those guys, especially with him bringing over the defensive scheme from Milwaukee. Last but not least, I just wanted to quickly kind of go over and I'll be really quick with us just the just the what I think are the overall offense off

season needs for the Lakers. So when I do this kind of stuff, I always want to pay close attention to what is working in this playoff front, pay attention to what what types of constructs are working and what's not. So first of all, I think I just talked about this, so I won't get into it again. But spacing concepts, which the Lakers were awful at this here copy what Dallas did in the form of just making sure that guys are always in the consistent spots on the floor

that allow your stars the best amount of space to operate. Then, in terms of personnel, we are once again seeing size in strength, specifically on the perimeter working not interior size. Again the Brook Lopez I told you guys, Milwaukee got destroyed with Brook Lopez on the floor in the Boston series. It was the biggest mistake that Mike Budenholz Aer made in Game seven was playing brook Lopez thirty seven minutes.

They got destroyed with brook Lopez on the floor. When they went small, they were great in the outscored Boston. Robert Williams. He's a big, but he's a mobile big that can run up and down the floor, hanging in transition, cover ground when he needs to in five out situations, switch out onto perimeter players and succeed Kevin Looney all of the same things. Great defensive player can switch out onto guards, dominant on the glass, those kinds of things.

If you are not. The Lakers need to avoid the traditional center archetype at all costs this summer and target guys like Maxi Kleiba, like Kivan Looney, like Rob Williams. You can You're not gonna be able to get guys that caliber, but if you can find guys that are of that for the veteran minimum, guy like Damian Jones who played for the Lakers a little bit this year, a younger player who's more mobile, that plays hard every night, those are the kind of guys you should target about overall.

The what this postseason has proved once again is the number one place where size matters is a perimeter. Your guards need to be big, strong guards. Your wings need to be big, strong wings, not thin wings that are gonna struggle in the physicality the environment. That's what destroyed Brooklyn in the first round. They had no size and strength on the perimeter, and Boston bullied them as a result.

So flip flip Russ for overpaid role players that will fit alongside Lebron and a d and with your veteran minimum contracts or mid level exception or whatever it is, you opt to use this summer target big strong perimeter players. And and if all those things happen, if they get Darvin ham and if Lebron James and Anthony Davis are healthy and on the floor and caring, I genuinely believe

the Lakers can rejoin contention now. Last but not least, do not have faith in that the Lakers have not demonstrated an ability to coherently follow a smart basketball plan. So chances are those things will not happen. And that's the unfortunate reality of the circumstance with Genie Buss at the Helm. But it's a possible outcome. And that's the way that I think it needs to go down for the Lakers to get back. All Right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate

you guys supporting the show and rocking with me. If you guys could take the time to like this video, I it sincerely appreciate that it helps us a lot. Also, subscribe to the YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our shows. If you miss part of this show and you don't have time to go back and check it out on YouTube, check out our podcast feed under Lakers Tonight and subscribe to that as well, and

then follow me on Twitter. I underscore Jason LT. I'll be having a lot of videos coming out, especially once we get into the NBA Finals. All right, guys, we will be live tomorrow night four, Game five of the Warriors in Neverick Series. I'll see you guys right after the final buzzer. Volume