Hoops Tonight - Is hope lost for Lakers? Do LeBron James & LA have another level?

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varies by jurisdiction, Voyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com slash b ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week. Well, we have a weird kind of stretch here in the season for the Los

Angeles Lakers. They played on Monday against Atlanta Hawks, and then we get three consecutive days off before we get into a matchup with the albeit without Joel Embiid on Friday. I thought it was a good point. We haven't talked with yovonn since March fifth, after the Lakers got a big win against the Oklahoma City Thunder. They've played six games since then. They've gone three and three. They've wins against the Bucks, Timberwolves, and Hawks. Two quality wins in there.

Losses to the Warriors and the Kings twice, all three pretty concerning losses. So a good chance for us to take a little bit of like a deep dive into the Lakers before we head into the stretch round to see if there's anything left to be achieved this season. Yovann, you guys know, he covers the Lakers for The Athletic does incredible job. Also is doing some instant reaction content and other analysis on his YouTube channel.

For the record, three weeks from Sunday is the final game of the regular season, So I'm gonna try to nail you down to a date here, Yovon, what is your best guess as to when Gabe Vincent returns to the lineup.

last week of the season. But it does seem from

most of the information that I've heard, it is trending toward him, you know, being more likely to not return at least in the regular season now, you know, So I'm putting the odds like maybe seventy five percent toward not returning in the regular season in comparison to you know, coming back. So that one, that one's a tricky one. But it does sound like if he does come back, it's more likely final like week week and a half maybe is the most optimistic return date for him.

so that would be immensely valuable in this group. But the other side of that, I look at the roster and I look at kind of Spencer Dinwoodie is the same type of guy, but bigger and probably not as good off the ball, but better on the ball, probably a little bit better defensively than Gabe as well, And so I don't really see much of a rotation opportunity, Like I don't think you're gonna jam Gabe into the

rotation and kick Austin ord Lo out. It's gonna be Spencer that sacrifices minutes, and then obviously guys like Max and Cam that end up sacrificing minutes. And so then I look at the other side of it, and I go, if he has a knee issue, he's got a three year contract, right, If I'm not mistaken, I think there's a player option in the final year, so like Lakers have team control over him next year.

All of a sudden, a guy like Gabe Vincent at eleven million a year still on the payroll becomes immensely valuable to the team heading into the following season if you were to make that sort of trade. And so I almost feel like getting him healthy into next season is more important than trying to rush him back this year into a role that's not necessarily as kind of like open and waiting for him as people think.

make a run in the postseason. But with both players, they have some you know, something invested longer term and potentially putting that at risk for a group that right now is looking like it's going to be locked into the nine or ten game, you know, depending on you know, barring a disaster from Dallas or Phoenix, like the Lakers

are going to be the nine or ten seeds. So I think for them it's something they're kind of weighing too, of just like I think Vando is a more again more likely to return, and that's the one that I mean, players have been openly talking about it. I've kind of found it funny where Ruy Hachimora we were talking to him at practice and he had a line of like talking about the starting lineup and he was basically like, you know, and Vandon was going to come back and

it's going to help our defense. And then Anthony Davis had another quote where he was talking about lineups and he was like Yeah, then Vando's going to come back, and that's going to shift thing. So players have been openly, you know, basically saying that Vando was coming back at some point.

over the place with that stuff. But I definitely think with Gabe there's develpment of you have him for a couple of years in theory, and whether it's preserving him as a trade asset or just preserving him as a potential guy who could step in and be that three and D guard around your stars that you wanted him to be initially. I think there's some incentive there to not rush him back and you know, force him to

potentially reinjury it. And then with Vando again, I think there's more urgency just because we saw right before the break or you know, right before he got injured, like he was playing great and he was headed toward returning to the starting lineup, and the Lakers had that double overtime win against the Warriors. That group, that the group that they started last season with, you know, played the final sixteen minutes of that game and played great. And Vando,

they're figuring out ways to use him offensively. He was shooting threes with confidence, operating at the elbows, operating as a cutter, so like they were starting to kind of figure it out. And just this is the way the Lakers season has gone. Another unfortunate break for them. But I think Vando's the one that I have more optimism in terms of his return, And I'm sure you're gonna ask, so I'll just say, like, I think that one's more

within the next couple of weeks. But there's still hurdles, like neither player has returned to practice yet, and that's a big sign of like, you know, can they start doing on time? Still the ways out, So it still a ways out, But based on both what we've seen publicly from the players kind of openly saying Vano's coming back, to some of the conversations behind the scenes, that there's a lot more internal optimism with van do.

the reticence to force him back out there. That said, if he is ready, I think he's got to go.

pace and transition. Jackson Hayes runs the floor really well. Anthony Davis when he's engaged, can run up and down the floor. It's like just this specific position group, it's that that like kind of two three position group where they have very little speed and they have very little like, uh, they don't have a player on the roster like we've talked about all year that is a legitimate starter caliber guy that can play on both ends of the floor.

And so, to me, any hope for the Lakers making some sort of run surrounds Jared Vanderbilt sliding back into that three spot in the starting lineup, and more specifically, like you know, kind of as we shift forward here, we're talking about this most recent stretch since the OKC Game three and three. They beat the Bucks and the Timberwolves, two teams that are kind of slower right and down the roster, and they have fast guys on the roster obviously,

but they're a little slower down the roster. Then they run into teams like Golden State and Sacramento that have a ton of team speed that caused them a lot of problems. And so I look at Jared Vayner built as the kind of guy that gives them a little bit more resiliency against some of their weaker matchups. And so from that standpoint, like he's a complete and total necessity.

And what's so interesting is you had talked about I remember heading into the deadline that the Jared Vanderbilt injury was going to add a layer of urgency for them to address that perimeter defense group. And it's interesting because we knew that, everyone knew that, including the team, and then when Jared gets hurt, you go this extended stretch without that position group filled, and then you have all

of these issues. But over the last six games since the Oklahoma City win, obviously it's been a lot up and down.

And on paper I wanted to put Sacramento as the easiest matchup, but I kind of hedged it and put them third, And that was before the two losses to them, So like now it's like, I just they can't beat Sacramento for whatever reason, Like the Manta Sabonis is just a terrible matchup for eighty D. Aaron Fox is a terrible matchup for the Lakers backcourt, and maybe if you get Van Doll back, he has enough time to ramp up and get back to starter level minutes, like he

can take that assignment and make an impact in that game. But I thought I was pretty discouraged with the way

because we've talked about it all season, where this group, like one of the things that if you're trying to make the case for the Lakers going on a deep run has been their ability in single elimination formats and just sort of like when the stakes are high, this group rises to the occasion. And we saw it in the n Season Tournament. We saw it last year when they went on that run and needed to reel off eighteen nineteen games to close the season. They did that,

they make the conference finals. So like, yes, they have a Denver problem, and I mean who doesn't in the league right now, but you know, putting that aside, like for the most part, they've fared well against most of the West, but the problem has been, like we're looking at that three and three stretch, the three games they needed to win were the three games they lost, Like three and three would have been fine if they beat

Sacramento twice and beat Golden State once. But the games they won, like, you know, every game matters at this point, but the teams that they're in direct competition with were the teams that they lost to, and that is what you put them in this nine to ten hole now where you're potentially gonna have to So they close the

season out at Memphis, at New Orleans. Now you potentially have to go at Golden State, then like at Phoenix or Dallas just to get into the playoffs, and then you're potentially going to Denver for a game one, so you're on like a five game road trip through the first game of the playoffs, and like, that's just a

brutal way to start a series. So the fact that they couldn't get at least one of those Sacramento wins was a bit concerning to me, and for the first time really this season, it did raise the question of, like, can this team actually ratchet it up when they need to, Can they rise to the occasion in a because that was essentially like a must win game, like both of them were, and then once you lose the first one, it's like you have to go in a Sacramento and

win that game, and the fact that like, yes, you know, Delo had an off night, Like, but when I look at Lebron and like his defensive effort and just the way that he kind of mailed it in. Like I went back and watched all nineteen made threes for the Kings, and about half of those you could attribute to some form of Lebron James either mistake or apathy defensively, and the fact that he had that type of performance defensively

in such a big game was concerning. And then but then he comes out and he drops forty on Golden State and almost you know, single handedly kind of wills them into a close game down the stretretch. And then he destroys Atlanta and sets the tone early and comes out and is just attacking the rim. So like, it's just this team has continued to be like night to night, you don't really know what you're getting that the highs

are high, the lows are low. But I would say like that my biggest takeaway was sort of like they had several situations there where they needed to win if they wanted to potentially rise in the standings, and the fact that they couldn't get it done that was the first real time I started to kind of doubt, like, is this team really just who they've been all season, which has been an inconsistent group that is a nine or ten seed, and nine or ten seeds typically losing

the plan or probably in the first round.

You know, so like you now, you're in a predicament where you know, if you're if you're in that four, five, six, seven, eight range and Anthony Davis gets an elbow to the eyeball and he's out for the rest of the night and you take a loss. You can weather that storm and you can survive it, but you cut substantially into

your margin for error. With all the shenanigans in the middle of the season, the Sacramento games, it's tough because the first one, I really just think like it was the kind of thing that happened a few times to the Lakers at home over the course of the season, like the Brooklyn Nets game, the Phoenix Suns game where they came in and beat him, where it's almost like it's almost like they once they let go of the rope, it's really hard for them to regain control of the situation.

Like they played really well in the Brooklyn game to start, and then when Brooklyn started going at him, they just could never regain the situation. Same thing with Sacramento. Really good at the start, then they get blitzed in that second quarter run and they can never regain control the situation.

The road game, it was just so many things went poorly from the start, like literally D'Angelo Russell has another disaster of a game, Anthony Davis has a disaster of a game, and then Lebron is a disaster of a game, even though I do think Sacramento's a bad matchup for the Lakers and they give him a bunch of issues, Like I don't think that Lebron ad and d Lo are gonna play terribly every single time they play against them, Like Lebron for all of the like you talked about it,

Like Lebron literally in that game was just ducking under picks on Harrison Barnes and just letting him kind of settle into those easy kind of pullback threes, wasn't making any sort of low man rotations, wasn't engaging himself physically to try to score the basketball, like it was just a float through type of night when he's literally the one guy out of their core guys. Because Delo does struggle against speed and ball pressure, Anthony Davis does struggle

against low center of gravity power bigs. Lebron James is eating Harrison Barnes's lunch every time they've played, basically in his NBA career, that is a huge matchup advantage for him, and he just didn't bring it on a big nine. Who knows what was going on, but he just didn't

have it. And so like it's unfortunate because like, like literally just in that stretch, you get the win against Golden State at home, and you just split against Sacramento, you're five and one and you're sitting one game back of the seventh seed, and so it's unfortunate. And so Austin Reeves said, and after practice yesterday he said that he felt the intensity ratchet up after the last two losses.

Here's my question at this point in the season, like, should Laker fans just accept Thisker team for what it is, which is pretty mediocre, or do you really think that they have a level they can ratchet up to to try to salvage this situation.

But like you know, I think them beating the Hawks by thirty was nice, but it's still the Hawks, and like to me, I want to see them close out that so to close the homestand they have the Philadelphia seventy six Ers on Friday, the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. Like, I want to see them beat both of those teams and go into this six game road trip with some momentum and and you know, I think those are both winnable games. Sixers obviously without embiid Pacers, you already beat

them in the nd season tournament. And and you know, their defenses of you been historically bad, you know, at times this season, So like I want to see that and then go into the road trip and go at least four and two, And if they can reel off a stretch here of like six and two over their next eight games, that to me is ratcheting it up. That to me is showing you guys are serious about

closing the season. You're not just mailing it, because at this point, like I know, Houston's been hot lately and they've been on something of a run, but like really it's just a matter of like the Lakers are gonna be the ninth seed or the ten seed, right like Dallas. Again, Dallas, like Luca probably has to get injured, or like the Suns like Haiti year Booker has to go out and those teams have to go under five hundred for the rest of the season for the Lakers to have a

realistic shot to ascend in the standing. So barring that, it's just a matter of are you ahead of the

Warriors or are you, you know, behind them? And really, I think with the way that the Lakers have played at Chase Center, like they could beat the Warriors on the road, Like I would not be surprised by that they did it last season, they've done it this season, So like I don't think home court advantage like I think it probably matters a little bit more for the Lakers just because the Warriors historically haven't played as well at Crypto dot Com, like Stephen Clay, They're shooting numbers

over the last few years have been a little bit lower. So like, if the Lakers are the nine seed, I do think they're gonna win that matchup. If they're the ten, it's it's probably a little closer to fifty to fifty.

But like, realistically the Lakers could just kind of mail it in for the next twelve thirteen games and be fine and just be again, you're the ten seed, all right, whatever, Like you're basically on the same path but to me, if they show a level of urgency over the next eight games and go, oh, like, the one thing here is that they've been a terrible road team and they you know, we can count like Boston, New York, like the memorable road winds, you can kind of and you know,

Clippers like, but but some of those for the most part, they've beaten lottery teams on the road. So like this is a stretch where you got Washington, Toronto, Brooklyn, you know, now Milwaukee, Indiana. Those are a couple of tougher games. But like, if they can go at least four and two on that six game trip, that to me is showing like this is a serious basketball team entering the

play and stretch with some momentum. If not, if they go four and four or three and five or whatever, like I think at that point you just kind of have to say, like that's who they are, and whether they get vandill back, whether they get gave back, whether they get Christian back for the play and like whatever, it probably just doesn't matter at that point.

narrative surrounding the team all season long. That said, I do think effort is part of it, because like like the Lebron game in Sacramento, like Anthony Davis in both Sacramento games, Like Ad got his butt kicked in both Sacramento games, like literally, and so there's a certain there's a certain element to it where Lebron and Ad bring the physicality in the group, right, and Ruey as well, and then Austin and d Lo and Torreon and a

little bit of Spencer as well. They bring most of the offensive skill elements to the table, right, there's a certain level of variance there, just with shot making and things along those lines. But if you get a combination of a specific personnel weakness at the point of attack and a lack of engagement from your front court, things can fall apart pretty quickly. And I think so, I think it's I think it is genuinely a piece of both.

And there's a conversation to be had about Lebron James and Anthony Davis as the foundation, and I want to do that here in just a second, but I want to stay on the play in for a minute, So like I'm just gonna put you on the spot and then I'll give my thoughts. Do you think the Lakers play a seven game series in April?

I'm gonna say no. I think they. I think they win the first playing game and lose the second playing game. That that's how I see it plan out.

in every phase. By the way, you and I kind of saw coming because we talked about during those phases like these were good shooters that weren't making shots, Like the Lakers just have a roster full of good shooters. It didn't make sense that they were shooting as poorly as they were, and a lot of it had to do with just the rhythm and flow of their five

out offense. They're shooting forty percent from three since January first, that's the second best mark in the league over a now almost a three month span, So like, they can

really shoot, but they're twenty ninth in attempts, Like they don't take a ton of them, and they're second in points in the paint for one hundred possessions since January first, So like, this is a team that, like in any one game sample size, they do experience less variants in terms of jump shot result than most teams simply because they don't take a ton. That does bode well. I'm going to look at this through the lens of Jared Vanderbilt being there. I think the Lakers are going to

get the nine seed. I think they're going to be end up above Golden State. A big part of that is right now they are a game up and they have a home game against Golden State on April. It's like in the first like week or two of they must win. Yeah, yeah, and I believe the Lakers will win that game. So if they have Jared Vanderbilt and they're healthy and they're good to go, I think they'll win that game. Even without Jared Vanderbilt, I give him

a good chance to win that game. I just think I think in a Lebron ad physically imposing type of game, I think they would just find a way. So if they win that game, they're effectively two games up on Golden State. So I think they're gonna end up getting that nine seed. We get into a play in setting. I believe the Obviously you'd be foolish to count steph Out. I'm not sitting here pretending like the Warriors can't win that game, but I would pick the Lakers to win

that nine to ten game. Then we go on the road and they're going to be against somebody in that group, that group that we talked about, Sacramento, Phoenix, Dallas, right, all three of those groups, at the very least Lebron, if not Lebron and Ad will have substantial physical advantages on the front line. And so if they can drag that game down into the mud, I like their chances.

But what what you always have to be a cognizant of is like the buzzsaw type of game where you go in and the other team hits for their first five threes and you're down by nine to ten, you know, points in the first five six minutes.

And so I'm gonna give them, let's just say, a fifty five percent chance that I think they play a full seven game series and then from there, like who the hell knows, Like the top of the West is still completely jammed together like that could go in seventeen different directions here down the stretch. So like I, there's again I maintained, there's just a tiny, tiny, tiny little light at the end of the tunnel. Last thing I wanted to get into before we get out of here today.

After this season, we have a mostly healthy Lebron James and Anthony Davis with a lot of young talent around them, albeit a roster that has some gaping holes. And you did some venting early on about the health the medical staff, and there's some some legitimacy to that, but for the most part, it's been a healthy Lebron James and Anthony Davis.

And we're sitting in this play in situation again. So do you think after this season, if the Lakers did get eliminated, or if they lost in the first round, do you think there we've reached a point where the Lakers have to consider tweaking the Lebron James Anthony Davis foundation?

best net differential in the league. Lebron and AD with no Taurian prints plus nine point six points per hundred possessions, which would be the second best mark in the NBA

behind the Boston Celtics. And the context there, of course is like, obviously Torrian if you're bringing him off the bench and he's just you know, a second unit guy playing fifteen to twenty minutes to night, he's of course going to spend some level of time with Lebron and AD, but most of those minutes have come with starting groups and closing groups and like critical stretches of you're closing,

like the first half, you're closing a game. So really, I mean, the data is there, of like, the Lakers have been much better with those two without Torrion, and that's often been with Jared Vanderbilt or Ruy Hachimora or Christian Wood as that third front court guy. And then

looking at the big four I'll call them. So that's the Lebron eighty Austin Dilo plus four points one hundred possessions, which is eighth best mark in the league in a team context, the Big Four without Torrion, so that's basically any starting group that doesn't include Torian, and again some closing groups plus six point nine points per one hundred possessions,

which is the fourth best mark. So the lineup data is there where basically any version of Lebron and eighty or Lebron eighty Austin Dilo without Torrion has been pretty successful. And of course the sample size is a bit smaller

because they have played so many minutes of Torrion. So like maybe in an alternate universe like Ruy starts or Vando is healthy, and the numbers still aren't as great as they've been without Torrian, but like really like Torrian's last on the team and plus minus by almost double the next guy. The next guy next Lois is Jackson Hayes, Torrian's almost double him, So like there's just been a

sample size of Torrian. Prince has been overtasked with the starting role that the Lakers have been better with him in bigger lineups, and instead the Lakers have continued to go opposite where they're playing him at the four for a lot of stretches, like he's basically become the backup power forward over this stretch without Van Dell, without Christian So like, I don't want to put it all on Torreon, to be clear, but I do think that there's still

a foundation there of like Lebron and ad. You look at the n Season Tournament Championship, you look at some of them are like they're three and one against the Clippers, They're three and two against the Suns, They're three and one against the Thunder. Like they've been at least five hundred or better against most of the West, with Denver

being an exception, Sacramento and Minnesota. So like, just looking at that, I still think, you know, with the right players supporting pieces like this is a group that can contend for championships. Now, what I will say, though, is you have to nail the rest of the roster, and you have to nail the lineups and the rotation. And I think the Lakers have fallen short in both regards right, and part of it has been out of their control.

Where Like Gabe Vincent was their primary offseason edition, He's played five games and in theory, like the theory of Gabe Vincent around Lebron and eight. It's a guy who can play off the ball, be a plus shooter, take that basically that dentist role that they didn't have until they got Spencered Dinwiddie, and be a point of attack guy and defend either backcourt spot. Jared Vanderbilt has missed over half the season. Now, like that was a guy

who is the projected starting small forward. So like some of the stuff has been injury related and out of their control. But again, I think they didn't have enough perimeter defense in general. I don't think they have enough dirty work guys. And then looking at the lineups and the rotations, like Torrean Prince starting forty nine games was just a mistake and it just never made sense from the beginning. And the Lakers pivoted from not having Jared

Vanderbilt because that was the plan. He was going to be the starter once they kind of started sifting through things in training camp. He gets injured in the second preseason game. And then I know you've talked about it a lot the Galaxy braining things like instead of just going to Rui Hachimura, who's a guy you just invested

in for seventeen million dollars a year. You go to Torreon Prince, who is a career journeyman bench wing, and not only do you go to him, you don't even make him really like a placehold starter, Like you're playing him thirty to thirty five minutes a night and he's shattering all these minutes records that he hasn't reached since his second season in the league, and the lineups have

just been bad. And then instead of pivoting and saying, Okay, we tried this, it's not working, you ben Austin and then you benched Loo that at one point you have your third, fourth, and fifth PA highest paid play coming off the bench for a team that is top heavy, and it just doesn't make sense from like a financial perspective of this is a group where you should be playing your highest paid players because that was the way

that this roster was formed. And so I know I'm going on a bit of a rant here, but like, just in looking at it, it's been clear there is still that foundation of a championship contender in my opinion, with Lebron and ad and one healthy, but you got to nail the guys around them. I think that was kind of hit or miss, and then you gotta nail the rotations and the lineups, and I think that's been a big miss this season.

all that galaxy braining was taking place. Here's the thing I do believe in Lebron James and Anthony Davis as a playoff duo. I think that when you get into that setting and they both are engaged physically more often than not, they are deeply impactful on both ends of the floor, both as offensive and defensive players. And I think the best giveaway of that is, like Lebron and

Adier are better now than they were last year. They're better basketball players now than they were last year, and last year they were good enough to take their team to the Western Conference Finals. Here's the thing though, both ends of the floor for those guys depend on a certain level of physical exertion. Right Lebron James is probably the biggest chasm between the night to night defensive effort and his defensive ceiling that you have in the league.

Totally makes sense. He's thirty nine years old, but on any given night he's a bad defensive player, and then when he tries, he's a very good defensive player. It's like it's a crazy chasm between the two sides. And then even with Anthony Davis, like it's it's weird because when AD's really engaged defensively, he's best defensive player in the world, complete world stopper. But then like his night to night efforts sometimes can go from that to something

significantly lower as well. And then when you go to the offensive end of the floor, because teams switch their ball screens because they double team them in the post a lot like they so much of Lebron and AD's

offensive success comes down to physical exertion. And so because of that, because you have a thirty one year old Ad who's had a bunch of injuries and generally is a guy that's not necessarily the highest motor player in NBA history, And because Lebron James are thirty nine years old in the regular season for eighty two games, you have a foundation that depends so much on Lebron and Ad playing hard and playing with physical exertion, and so when they don't like that, like one of the biggest

things that went wrong in that Sacramento game is Lebron and Ad just didn't bring it physically when they went on the road. And so again, like what I look at is like when you're an offensive minded star, like I'm let me just talk about like Luca for instance, because even on Luca's Knights, where he's not playing any defense,

he's still just a super nova offensively. All of these guys that are like that, they do play hard on offense every night because offense is fun and they have this supreme skill set and so they can bring it every single night, and in the eighty two games, it impacts winning more than the two way player that's dependent on effort and energy, because that effort and energy can wane, and when it wanes, their athletic gifts are not being weaponized as much, and so they don't have as much impact.

And so I think there is a conversation to be had about Lebron and Ad in the regular season, and the conversation is very simple. You either need to surround them with high motor athletes or you need to surround them with or put them next to a supremely gifted offensive player. And no, Austin Reeveson and Dangelo Russell are

not good enough. So like, that's the thing, like one of the things that I see at a potential Trey Young acquisition if they were to make that sort of move this summer, and it could completely gut the depth chart and leave them some other holes. But at the very least over an eighty two game regular season, Trey Young brings so much to the table offensively that it would make up for a lot of the lack of physical exertion you can get from time to time for

Lebron and Ad, which you can't have anymore. Is like, I think this season has been a strong indicator that just surrounding them with offensive skill that does not bring high motor athleticism to the table is not good enough because those offensive players are not good enough to carry the offense. They require Lebron and Ad to bring a certain level of physical exertion, and then they're also not

good enough defensively. And so this team has been so dependent on Lebron and AD's effort, and so on any given night, when Lebron and Ad really bring it, they can beat the best teams in the league, but they can lose to anybody because of the exact same reason. And so they are now there this particular build, which is essentially I would argue it's offensive skill around Lebron and Ad. It's d Loo, it's Austin, it's Torrian Prince.

Even Ruy Hachimura is a guy that brings a certain level of physicality to the table, but he cannot rebound as well as you'd like, and not defend as well as you'd like from time to time. The only guy there that's a professional defender is Jared Vanderbilt. He's the only guy. And so now that he's gone, you've seen all those limitations, and so do I think that after this season, like you absolutely have to tweak in one

of those two directions. You either need you get a star guard in here, like a real star guard that can run the entire offense for eighty two games. So that Lebron and Ad can do what they want to do for eighty two games, which is set screens and roll into the open parts of the floor and let other people do the work. That's just their personality at

this point. So you either got to do that or you got to put a bunch of Carusos and Vanderbilts and Bruce Brown's types around them so that even if they don't bring a ton of physicality to the table, the other guys will and then you can win with defense. But I do think, as much as I agree with you that I believe in the Lebron and Ad ceiling, I do think that they've got to do something different in the regular season because this doesn't work.

pedigree guy coming into the NBA. He's kind of become is a name, at least if you're comparing him to like some of the other backup bigs in the league, Like most people know who Christian Would is at this point, and then even Cam Reddish or Jackson Hayes, like I think they need like and I think even if they go the third starter route, like you still have to add those dirty work guys and it's going to be

like a bunch of medal ludes. But I think this roster ended up in hindsight's always twenty twenty and it's easy for us to sit here and criticize it. Although I think we did have some of these concerns entering the season, and I think they've bore out to some extent.

But like this roster, I do think ultimately trended more offensive than defensive, and then your margin for error was so slim with it where you lose two of your better perimeter defenders in Gabe and your best in vandoh and then one of your best in Gabe and like then all of a sudden it teeters and like that.

So I've been looking at for me everything with the Lakers, and kind of how I've been judging them recently has been looking at the numbers since February third, because that is when Ruy Haschimora entered the starting lineup, and that's basically been their rotation into like Christian played some of that, but like no Vando, because I think it's kind of pointless until we know Vando is for sure coming back or we see him back in the lineup for sure.

Look at those numbers since then, they are second in the league in offense and twenty seventh in defense. And that's where some of my pessimism comes in with them making a run in the plan is like I just don't have confidence in their defense right now, and part of that is just the injuries and how things have shaken out, like part of it is the roster construction, and like, so I look at it, I think they need some of those dirty work wing and guard types, but I also think they need a big man that

you can comfortably close games with next to Anthony Davis in certain matchups against the Sabonis, against the Jokic against even if Nurkic is just you know, killing him for whatever reason, Like you need that kind of big bruiser that it's a tough player to find that you know, they don't grow in because ideally that player has some level of skill where they can be a DHO guy or they could be potentially like a floor spacer. And again that that's a very difficult player archetype to find.

But like someone you can at least play for fifteen twenty minutes a night against Denver and against some of the top teams in the league and like have confidence that they can hold their own and if need be closed next to Anthony Davis, and I don't think Christian Wood or Jackson Hayes is that level of big man. And I think moving forward, as they start to reshape and reallocate some of their resources, I do think investing in a better big man next to Anthony Davis should

be not at the top of the list. I still I agree with you overall, like if you could get an elite three and d Wing, or you could get an elite ball you know, guard ball handler to come in and be an upgrade over Austin and Dilo, Like I think those two are probably greater needs. But right there at number three for me is a big man who you can comfortably play fifteen to twenty minutes a night against good teams and close with AD because I think not having that has shifted their lineups into being

too small. And that's what you've seen lately is like they struggle on the glass. They've been playing again these lineups with like Cam when he's healthy, Autorian at the flour and like, that's not what you should be doing with this group. You should be playing bigger. All the lineup data shows Lakers are better when they're bigger. That's been the case the season, that was the case in

twenty twenty. Obviously closing games are going to close with eighty at the five, But like for the most part, for the meat and bones of the regular season, like you got to go bigger, and for me, I think finding better you know, big men that compliment AD again is something that they kind of overlooked the last few years. They've tried the minimum guys. It hasn't worked. I think they need to go out and get a better second or third big depending on how you want to label it.

I'm not even familiar with this contract situation off the top of my head, but like that's the kind of guy that is like a lower level center in the big in the in the league that's more considered as a backup big that can like kind of slide into

that kind of position. But again, bottom line, they need they need to have some sort of more physical foundation around Lebron in ad like the I think the best example of this offensive skill from a star kind of carrying you in the regular season that I can think of is like Lebron's jump shot. Like, think about how often this year the Lakers have been able to just kind of get through a regular season game that they

otherwise would lose because Lebron's just hitting threes. I mean, even the Clippers game the other like a month ago. That was a great example, Like they lose that game by fifteen points if Lebron just doesn't hit a bunch of threes. And that's the thing is like when you have an offensive skill superstar like a Luca or Trey Young, like you're you're gonna win a lot of games in

the regular season just off of offense of skill. And and that's the thing is we found out is like Austin and Dlo and even Lebron, they're not consistent enough as scores to to be able to do that sort of thing. Lebron requires a certain level of physical imposition to be a consistent offensive player, same with a d and then Austin and Dilo or textbook like non star guards that are going to have a certain level of inconsistency that is kind of natural with what they with

what their archetype is, right. But yeah, I'm really curious to see where they go because like this this no matter what happens this year, I think this year was a complete and total giant red flag in terms of this particular roster build and for Darvin Ham and so I'm really curious to see what they decide to do this summer. All right, Jovon, why don't you shout out for us what you've been working on as of late so people can find your other content.

But yeah, so that and then YouTube stuff. I've been turning out content postgame reactions and trying to get a video up every single day, trying to do a live stream once a week. So it's been fun. I've again, I've I've learned a lot from you and Paul and everyone here at the Volume, and you guys have really informed how I'm trying to build this out and having a lot of fun with it. And if you enjoy our interviews here, I hope you consider checking it out.