Hoops Tonight - Is Kyrie Irving a good fit with LeBron & Lakers or another Russell Westbrook?

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having a great week so far. Today is my one and only calendar day, full calendar day that I'm in Tucson before I have right back out of town tomorrow to go to Las Vegas for NBA Summer League. Though I'm very very excited for a couple of massive I'll be at most of the games, but a couple of

massive games I will for sure be. Yet there's a Orlando Magic versus Houston Rockets game tomorrow night, which will feature powamanchero in Jabari Smith Jr. That I will have an instant reaction video on and then I believe, either the next day or two days later the Magic Player. Excuse me, the Rockets played the Oklahoma City Thunder so we could see chat homegrin versus Bari Smith Jr. I

will be at both of those games. I'll be doing live reactions to make sure you first of all subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels you don't miss any of those videos, and also follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt. I'll be tweeting out where I'm at in the gym and stuff and where I'm at around town, so you guys have an opportunity, if you guys are friends of the show, if you want to swing by and say hi, talk some hoops and hang out for

a little bit. I also plan on trying to find at least one day where I can get to a gym um and play little basketball with some of the local people over there. So again, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt S you guys can kind of see where I'm at. I would love to get to meet some of you guys, some of the people that have supported this show so much over the course of

the last year, and then I appreciate so much. Um So last night, as we were all waiting for Kyrie news or Kevin Durant news or really anything interesting and Russell Westbrook trade something along those lines, instead we got a very interesting Lakers related piece of news. The Lakers managed to sign Thomas Bryant, who was a former Laker, very interesting young center prospect in the league right now, who had a partially torn a c L about a year and a half ago that's kept him out for

a while. So that's why I haven't seen much of Thomas Bryant. And so maybe not a big game, maybe not a big name, excuse me, not necessarily anything splashy, but I think a very very solid player and a very interesting player as it pertains to the shape and and essentially the identity of what this year's Lakers team

is going to be. So I wanted to take today to focus in on the Lakers so far this offseason, the moves that they've made, things that I liked, things that I disliked, things that I expect later in the summer as well. It's gonna be a Lakers team day. Now, remember this show originally was under the name Lakers Tonight. We switched it to Hoops Tonight because that was always

the plan. We were always going to cover the whole league. However, the Lakers, even though I know many of you probably despise the Lakers, and I'm not a Lakers fan either, I've just covered the team. Over the course the last couple of years. I've become a fan of certain elements of the franchise, of course, but the Lakers will always be one of the prominent franchises in the NBA. Hell, they have Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the team.

I know it was really strange that they didn't make the playoffs this year, but a lot even with all of the disastrous things that they did, it was primary really injury related. So if Lebron James and Anthony Davis are healthy this year, chances are they'll be right back in the mix. And this show, Hoops Tonight will always focus on all of the league, but with a primary focus on the top teams. And that goes with big

brands like the Lakers and Nicks. That goes with successful teams and franchises like the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors and teams that are contenders. So that's why we're gonna dive a lot into teams like the Boston Celtics when they're really good, or teams like the Philadelphia

is seventy sixers with the Miami Heat. We're always going to focus in on the best and most interesting teams, and the Lakers come hell or high water because they have so much star power, because they have the you know, the dramatic ownership, general management group that they have, it's always going to be a team that we spent some time on. So today is going to be a Lakers

team show. I'm gonna get into some positives from this summer, some things that I didn't like, what I expect about the Kyrie fit, because I do still think there's about an eight percent chance that he's a Laker when this is all said and done, and then I'm gonna do deep dives into four specific players, Thomas Bryant, Lonnie Walker, Juantsaskano Anderson, and Troy Brown Jr. Just some of the things that I've noticed on tape and some things that I'll be looking for from them once we get into

the season, but I do want to start positive because there's a there. I've been really hard on the Lakers, as you guys know. I've been really hard to Genie Buss have, but really hard to Rock Link. I haven't really hard on everybody on the roster and including Lebron James. And you know, I don't feel bad about it. They deserve it. They were the second leading favorite in Vegas and then they missed making the playoffs in a field that allows twenty of the thirty teams to get it.

It was embarrassing and heads needed to roll, and heads basically have rolled over There have been rolling over the course of the last couple of months. Um, It's been kind of a funny start to free agency so far. Right Like, it kind of feels like Rob Polinka is making decisions based on public perception rather than what the

league is kind of trending towards. Right Like, they lose to the Suns and then they load up on offense and shooting and then they can't guard anybody and all their old guys are hurt, and then the criticism becomes, oh, well, they didn't have any defensive minded players and they were too old well, every player they've signed so far thist

offseason is in his twenties. They've now become super young and super athletic and very defensive minded, and a lot of the role players that they've picked up are players that have severe offensive limitations. So it's kind of funny to see the the pendulum of public perception kind of drive Rob Polinka's decision making rather than just kind of focusing in on specific team needs. But we'll get to that later. Like, like I said, I just undercut myself because I said I was gonna be positive and I

just was negative. But I do want to try to start positive. So let's let's start positive with the Lakers first and foremost. I really really like the Damien Jones

and Thomas Bryant signings. They are modern NBA centers. Again, like you think about if we go back in a time machine twenty years the game played it in a grueling lee slow pace, so transition foot speed didn't matter at all, Right, Like the game, the game was primarily three out two in, meaning there was primarily two centers clogging things up in two defensive centers climbing clogging things up on every single possession, So floor spacing wasn't necessarily

a concern because everybody was dealing with it right and with the way that the game was officiated at the time, where contact was allowed pretty much all over the floor, you were better off going to one of your bigger players to try to get them to bully the ball closer to the basket. But a lot of things have

changed in the two decades since. Looking right at the physicality, the post up is basically the only place on the floor in the regular season where you're allowed to be physical, So no longer makes sense to post players up unless you have a significant size advantage, because defensively, the refs allow you to do just about anything there, whereas everywhere else on the floor it's like you put your hands on somebody, it's a foul. You bump somebody, it's a foul.

You come up underneath the shooter, it's a foul. You bear it's extremely ticky tack everywhere else on the floor, and then very and very loose and and just kind of free for all underneath the basket. So post up offenses, particularly centers banging on centers, you just don't really see much value in that anymore. You'll still see your Lebron's posting up a small guard or a big guard posting up a small guard, but it's few and far between, and it's not a very you know, smart way to

run offense anymore. Then we ditched the power forward and we basically added a fourth wing, slash guard, perimeter player. So as a result, spacing now is a concern if you are running some sort of three out two in the type of attack, or if you have to really uh, if you have two non shooters on the floor, then things really will get clogged up. And it's no longer an issue of competitor becomes an issue of competitive advantage because the other teams you're playing don't have that problem.

And so as things have gotten spaced out more and as we've ditched that foreman, the traditional foreman having that big, lumbering center has become more and more of a problem. And then, last but not least, the game just plays at a much faster pace and a lot of teams play a five out style of basketball, So your ability to get up and down the floor in transition and your ability to cover ground in rotation is much more

important now than it used to be. And so essentially, a big, lumbering center like Dwight Howard carried a great deal of value. It's ten fifteen years ago, right when the game was like that, but now it's like you almost want a guy that's a little bit smaller, a little bit thinner, a little bit faster, and the guy

that doesn't rely on post up touches. Ironically, Dwight Howard having a tiny bit of a late career renaissance there with the Lakers came with him slimming down a lot and ditching the post ups and primarily being at least

the best version of that that he could be. So I did think it was impressive for Rod Polinka to notice that trend that I just laid out into target centers that are younger, fast, or that will actually be able to get up and down the floor, especially since Darvin Hamm has talked a lot about how he does want to play fast and so you're gonna need a specific type of center to be able to do that, and Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones give you that. So

I do like that a lot. Also, they shifted towards defensive minded guards once it's gotta Anderson, Troy Brown Jr. Lonnie Walker that they're kind of fit into the existing mix of players that the Lakers signed late last year. Right, Austin Reaves a defensive minded guard, Stanley Johnson a defensive minded wing, and when you and Gabriel a defensive minded kind of like forward wing hybrid. Right, And so now you have a bunch of really defensive minded young players.

The reason why that's important is you gotta look at the Lebron James and Anthony Davis problem. You know, Lebron James and Anthony Davis. The reason why everyone got so excited when they originally paired up in is they were the consummate modern NBA front court. They brought all of the physically imposing stuff that came from your old school power forward center combos with all of the malleability, versatility,

and foot speed that comes from the modern front court combos. Right, and then you combine that with Lebron James being one of the most dominant offensive forces of all time and Anthony Davis, at least during the first year of his time with the Lakers, being the hyper versatile offensive forward that he was. You kind of was like the perfect

foundational front court for an NBA team. That's why it wasn't a coincidence that for two straight years, not only did they win a championship, but they won damn near eight of their games when the two of them were on the floor together. That is the you know that that was the foundational piece of this whole thing. But in I don't know if it was because of Frank Vogel. I don't know if it was because of Lebron coming

off of the most embarrassing season of his career. I don't know if it was Anthony Davis thriving under all of the enthusiasm from joining the Lakers. But Lebron and Anthony Davis were thorough and entirely bought in defensively. Then we went to Lebron stayed bought in defensively, Anthony Davis bought out defensively. Then we moved forward one year and Lebron James buys out defensively too. And now suddenly Lebron James and Anthony Davis are a pretty bad defensive front

court compared to what they used to be. Obviously, Anthony Davis's poor defensive effort still brings a lot of positives, but they just weren't the same in the one year they still had a ton of defensive minded players to pick up the slack for Anthony Davis, Dennis Shrewder, Danny's not Danny Green, excuse me, can tab He's called well pope. You know Kyle Kuzma. That was the year he blossomed

into an excellent defensive forward in this league. They had players that were committed defensively to kind of pull the weight for what was going on. Um with Anthony Davis backing down Alex Cruzer, I left him out. He's another great example of that. They had awesome defensive minded players. Then you get too, yes, if you basically trade out all of the defensive minded players for offensive minded players. You combine that with Lebron James and Anthony Davis buying

out defensively, and it turned into a disaster. Defensively, they were one of the worst defensive teams that I've ever seen. And so from that standpoint, I am hopeful that Lebron James and Anthony Davis are bought in this year. I'm hopeful for the sake of the Lakers that they kind of recapture some of that vibe. But if they don't, or if it's something less than that, like let's say they buy in for the big games, or they buy in for stretches, but they have extended stretches of the

season where they're kind of checked out. That's where it helps to have all of these guys that love to play defense, because that will help carry you during those stretches. Most importantly, it will make it difficult for Lebron James and Anthony Davis to buy out because it's just hard, you guys, know. I mean, look, I played in college, I play pick up now. I go through days where

I don't really feel like bringing it. But if I'm on a team and I have three or four guys next to me that are really defending, I'm probably gonna defend because it's just you started to get the side eye, you start to get those little bit of dirty looks. You start to feel guilty for not playing defense when the guys next to you are. And there was none of that accountability with the Lakers last year. There was none of that guys holding each other to the same

defensive standard. And so I like the direction, even though I feel like it was a reactionary. Even though I don't even necessarily know if Rob Blinka's mind or heart was in the right place. I do like the shift back to defensive minded guards. We talked about this earlier, and I gotta give some credit to Rob here. Umm. I talked about this about a month ago, but I really like the Darvin Ham sign. Awesome defensive um, you know, kind of transition from what he was doing in Milwaukee

to the Lakers. Some of the stuff you can do with Anthony Davis and Lebron is similar to stuff that he did with Joannas, Antenna Coompo and uh and Brook Lopez. So I loved that fit. I love that he's a tough former NBA player, role player archetype, and the way that he'll be able to look eye to eye with Lebron James and Anthony Davison, resonate with them in a way that a lot of the establishment coaches can't. I really really liked that signing. The Lakers now have a

great base of high motor players. We talked about this just a minute ago with defense, but that goes with the night and night out grind of the NBA season on both ends of the floor. Austin Reeves is a high motor player. Stanley Johnson is a high motor player, Whennan Gabriel is a high motor player, Juantasconal Anderson high motor player. You know, Troy Brown Jr. Thomas Bryant, these

are all high motor players. So this Lakers team will do better in the dregs of the regular season having this group out there too in the rotation to just bring the night in and night out energy that you need, especially to pad your to pad your team in the standings with wins and losses. So last year, if you guys remember, that was a huge problem for the Lakers.

When you're relying on Russell Westbrook and you're relying on Lebron James, and you're relying on Carmelo Anthony, and you're relying on Anthony Davis, and you're relying on Dwight Howard, and you're relying on DeAndre Jordan's and you're relying on camp bays More. It's like these are all older veteran players who don't really get up for the Oklahoma City Thunder in December. So what happens You end up losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder twice as a result. So

I liked the idea of understanding your weakness. Your weakness is your two stars struggle with motors. Sometimes, let's target young players with high motors. It will help carry them through some of those stretches. And the last but not least, in terms of positives, I think that, you know, Rob Polinka finally started to get it right in terms of the value of shooting. You know. And I kind of have like a combo opinion on this kind of thing.

It's a combo of different things that I've heard and seeing over the years when I've been playing and coaching and covering the league. Um, the best guy that I've seen to explain kind of a variation of what I believe is is My Trudel, who does an amazing job covering the Lakers for Spectrum Sports Net. He also does the Laker Film Room podcast with Pizza sent Terry Soriana. They do an amazing job Lakers fans. If you're looking for like a Laker focused podcast, that's the best one

I've seen. Got to check them out. Um, But Mike Trudel always says that like the difference between a thirty eight percent three point shooter and a thirty four percent three point shooter might be a dozen makes over the course of a season. You know, if you if you're attempting, you know, three shots right like that, it's not really that much of a difference. And I tend to agree. But more importantly, I think percentage matters less than volume.

You know your it's it's the perception of your threat versus your actual threat. So, for instance, you know NBA teams are gonna sag off of players all the time to guard Lebron James and Anthony Davis. That's just what you have to do. If you leave the paint open and let Lebron James drive to the rim all day long, he's gonna destroy you. If you don't double team Anthony Davis in the post and you let him work one on one against smaller players, he's gonna destroy you. You

make a decision when you guard. The Lakers were packing the paint and we're making other people shoot. So if Wesley Matthews shoots thirty four from three, but you know, uh, Troy Brown Junior shoots thirty five or thirty six, or I've just thrown out numbers for the sake of this argument. If there's a slight percentage difference there that's irrelevant to

the way teams will guard you. The way teams will guard you is the same regardless of whether that's Wesley Matthews in the corner, or it's contagious called Will Pope in the corner, or it's Kyle Kuzma in the corner, or it's you know, uh or Tory Banner Jr. Whoever the hell it is in the corner. They're ignoring that person. They're gonna probably have a foot in the paint or near the paint to help on your Lebron James and

Anthony Davis's drives. The only type of player will actually warp the defense out to you is a gunner that's a high volume three point shooter. Has nothing to do with the percentage, has everything, or i should say, very little to do with the percentage, and mostly has to do with the fear that you will shoot if you are open. For the most part, if you got a foot near the paint and there's a skip past to Wesley Matthews and you close out on him, he won't

even shoot it. Now, keep it moving. He might attack the clothes out a little bit, kick it to the next guy. And then reset the offense. And so that's what allows that defender to sit in the paint knowing he doesn't have to chaotically, psychotically panic chase you off the three point line because you're only going to shoot if you're completely wide open. Having a shooter out there that is a gunner, someone that has a relatively quickly quick release and never see the shot he doesn't like.

That's the type of guy out there that will cause the fender to have a little bit more hesitancy to pull further and further away from him. I accidentally listed him earlier, but I intended to use him for this example. A guy that that that that that fits this mold perfectly for you guys to understand what I'm talking about is Kyle Kuzma. Kyle Kuzma has been shooting the ball a lot letter in a lot better in the last couple of years, but for his career has been a

like a low thirties three point shooter. But he's six ft nine and he's a freaking gunner. Every time he's open, he shoots it. And so Kyle Kuzma has a better spacing effect then a forty shooter that's hesitant or a thirty eight percent shooter that's hesitant. I always liked Kyle Kuzma's fit as a role player next to stars because you never have to doubt whether or not he's brave enough to take the shot, and he more than likely will take a few more than you that you then

you actually want him to take. Every coach will tell you they would rather have a player that they have to convince to shoot a little bit less often than a player that they have to convince to shoot a little bit more often. It's just a simple matter of confidence at that point. So ditching the Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony archetypes of players, Mellow actually is more of a gunner. He was actually a better fit, and I wouldn't hate to see him back in the Laker jersey.

But Malik Monk is a good example of what I'm talking about. He's kind of got to load up on his shot. He's a little bit shorter, needs a little bit more separation. His value as a spot up threat is he pretty much has to be open, right. He's not a guy that's gonna make you pay for, you know, helping off of him just a little bit so shifting

away from high percentage three point shooters. If you guys remember last year, all those guys that they signed, it's like, oh, Kemp, he's more from three with Golden State, Like that's impressive, right, we gotta bring that guy in. You know. It's like, oh, you know, uh, Avery Bradley shot the ball really well from three last year. We gotta bring that guy in. We gotta bring these guys in because their percentages looked

better then the guys that we had last year. But then all came in and no one guarded him anyway, and they didn't make that many shots. So again it's it's and if you look at the Malik Monk, Carmelo Anthony archetypes, this is the other side of this thing. The Malik Monk mellow archetypes give up a ton on

the other end of the floor on defense. And so it's like, at least if you've got to want Uscano Anderson and a Troy Brown Jr. Lonnie Walker and Astar Reeves Stanley Johnson, they're not gonna shoot over thirty from three, right, They're not gonna make a ton of shots. They're gonna present the same shortcomings as spot up threats from just about any other Laker that has played in this era, but they're competing down on the defensive end of the floor.

So the moral of the story is, if you can choose between a guy who's a good shooter who doesn't defend, and a guy who's an okay to average shooter that does defend, take this guy unless he's an absolute gunner, like a guy that absolutely forces defense to contort his way. Those are the only guys that bring in enough significant offensive value that you can make up for some of their defensive shortcomings, which is why Mellow is one of the guys that I had considered as a potential player

to sign as we moved to the negatives. So I like the idea of going younger. You probably will have guys more available, You probably won't have to deal with line up turnover as often as you did last year. But you do need some veteran role players. You do need some wise experience, you know, guys who've been around the block a few times. You do need some of those guys in the locker room, especially as role players. One.

They can help coach up young role players in a way that the Lebron's and Anthony Davis is the world cannot because they can't relate to them, right, they can. They can be you know, mentors to them in a lot of ways too. They're usually more reliable in a playoff series. We've seen this so many times. But having a guy that you can trust to not make mistakes in a big moment carries a great deal of value, especially as a fifth starter, especially as a guy that

is surrounding your higher end players. You know that that's not to say that you'll use them often, but you like to have them as an option. You know. Typically when you're dealing with young players, you deal with volatility. I say this all the time. Young players struggle to identify what's working for them and to replicate that, and to identify what they're struggling with and to find ways to cut that out. They always struggle with that. That's

not just a basketball thing, that's a life thing. It's the reason why, like I swear, every young person I know gets in some amount of debt when they're young, and then they have to learn the hard way that that sucks. And then you get out of debt and you realize you don't want to do it. Anymore. You're young, you don't understand the mistakes you're making. You can't actually perceive consequences in the future, and so you do stupid stuff. This is the kind of thing that I'm talking about here.

So like a guy like Lonnie Walker, he'll have nights where he looks amazing, but he'll also have nights where his head's not in it and he's making a lot of mistakes. That's where it helps to have a veteran an option to plug into that spot for twelve fifteen minutes in a second half one night when lone he doesn't have it, or the same thing. If I want

to scona Anderson, isn't isn't isn't fitting in well? And this specific night in his spot in the rotation, I'd like to see a little bit of a veteran role player presence. This is why I liked Mellow again. Mellow as a guy that has to play thirty minutes a night, as a guy that you need for significant amounts of offensive creation, as a guy that you need eighty two games a year, that can be a shortcoming on a

team surrounded with other old guys. But if he's the one old guy if he's the one veteran presence, if you never need to post him up, if he can take a night off on a back to back, if he can be the veteran mentorship, veteran mentor to some

younger players, he can bring great value there. And again, he was the one true legitimate spot up threat that actually contorted defenses for the Lakers last year and that manifested in their net rating stats if you look at him when they when he would play alongside Lebron James, good things would happen. And so I like the idea of bringing Mellow back. Is one of the handful of older veteran players on this roster who brings one truly

elite skill in his ability to spot up shoot. A lot of the criticism directed towards Mellow over the course the last couple of years has a lot to do with the fact that he's been in bigger roles than he really should have had. In Portland, they needed him to score a lot. With the Lakers, they needed him to score a lot. There was no expectation for him to play defense because neither of those teams played any defense.

This is actually a much better fit for Mellow than even just last year's Lakers team was second negative the lack of wing size. So the first thing that I came to my mind when I saw Thomas Bryant. Second thing that came to my mind when I saw Thomas Bryant last night, I was like, Oh, Thomas Bryant quality signing. Really like this guy Damien Jones made more sense as a backup center anyway, I like this second thought, Oh,

they're gonna go big again this year. Now, They've never really truly leaned into a d at the five, and there's been a lot of reasons for that, um particularly this last season. They just didn't have the personnel. They didn't have enough wing size to successfully play Anthony Davis at the five. But the thing is is, I always thought that the best version of this team was Anthony Davis at the five because of the offensive spacing that

it creates. You know, again, in the modern NBA, especially when you're playing top tier defenses, when teams are allowed to be physical, when they start ignoring your nonshooters, floor spacing becomes a premium. It becomes one of the most

important things in the game of basketball. And so the problem with having Anthony Davis at the four and putting someone in the dunker spot all game long is even though it helps you in some other way areas of the game, like on defense, rebounding things along those lines, it vastly hurts the confidence of your slashing stars because they just don't see the driving opportunities that they normally see.

And so when I saw that Thomas Bryant signing, the first thing I thought was, Okay, if they have Thomas Bryant Damian Jones, chances are they playing playing Anthony Davis at the four. So at first I was a little irritated. But the main reason why I think this might be okay, and the main reason why I think this could work again just could is because when you don't have the wing size, you have to play big. Now the whole

league is going towards wings. But there was a team in that won the title largely without wings, and they did it with guards and bigs, and it was the Lakers. Then there was a team in one that won the title largely without wings, primarily with bigs and guards, and that was the Milwaukee Bucks. They were exceptions to the rule though I know they won, but the reality was as they won because Lebron James and Janice were so unbelievably good. You can functionally run a team like that.

It's not the way that I think you should in today's day and age, but as the Bucks in Lake Kers have proved, it is doable as long as everything breaks right. So with Rob Polinka still having not signed a single player that is over the six six, so I am as tall as every wing on the Lakers roster right now except for Stanley Johnson, like the because we haven't gone that route for the Lakers. You have

to play big, and so I like that. At least if they're going to play big, they're doing it with the right kind of centers, and you can kind of see the team's identity starting to take shape. Defensive minded guards Lebron James at three, Anthony Davis at the four, super athletic centers underneath the basket to be rim runners and back line defenders. That was the Lakers. So I do like that they've tried at least to re replicate something that has worked. It's not what I would have done.

I didn't think it was right to use the mid level exception. You're one large salary slot. This summer on a player that does not play the wing, on a player that cannot start for you necessarily in a playoff series, he might end up having to buy virtue of the way the roster shakes down. But I'm not sure that Lonnie Walker would have started for any of the conference

finalists last year. And I like Lonnie Walker. They would have signed Lonnie Walker for the minimum, I'd be singing praises about the deal, and he solid guy who will fit in this rotation. But when you had one slot to offer a player six million dollars, it should have been for someone who was six ft eight and could play a little bit of a play a little bit of a two way basketball. I disagreed with that strategy.

I think that the best ultimate version of this Laker team that might never end up happening, and really that we've only seen in the playoffs of was Anthony Davis at the five, Lebron James at the four in big perimeter players Alex Cruzo, Kyle Kuzma, and Contabious called Pope six five six six six nine that would or swap out Danny Green at six ft seven for Kyle Kuzma. That was always the best way to do this big perimeter players Lebron James and Anthony Davis in the front court.

So not having big perimeter players is an issue here. Now you might literally have to play big. And the ultimate reminder, if we go back to the Lakers, Yeah, they've played big, but in the playoffs, sixty of their minutes, Anthony Davis was at center when push came to shove, Anthony Davis was at center when they fell down one out of the Rockets. Anthony Davis played at the center for specific matchups like against your Kich they went big, got back to Miami, they played small most of that series.

So at the at the ultimate moments of that championship pursuit for the Lakers, Anthony Davis played center. And unless they can find another big wing, I'm not sure they can this year. Now, a lot of stuff is still gonna happen. So, for instance, re Irving is probably gonna be in this picture somehow, But that doesn't solve that problem. Right. Let's say Russell Westbrook ends up being the full crumb of the Kyrie Irving trade and one first round pick.

That means you have Kendrick Nunne, Taylor Horton, Tucker, so a six to point guard who's left handed and kind of and shifty. Not great defensively, but okay. And Taylor Horton Tucker, who like, depending on which night you catch on me, looks like a future All Star or someone who shouldn't be in the league and he's only six four. We have those two guys, and we have one more

first round pick. Those three assets have to somehow bring back somebody who's six ft seven six ft eight, can guard multiple positions and defend uh and do a little bit of something on offense. That has to be the target here, because if you're gonna try to recreate the mold of the Lakers, you need to have some malleability. You need to have some ability to to have the

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Promo code Jason t All. Right, before we get out of here, I wanted to talk for just a couple of seconds about Kyrie's fit, and then I want to rip through some of these young players and just give you guys my quick thoughts and then we'll get out of here. First of all, as that laid out with that roster, a lot of these guys, Lonnie Walker wants to Ukono Anderson, Troy Brown, Junr, Austin Reeves, Stanley Johnson. You know these are not offensive creator type of players.

And while the Lakers went too far that direction with the mellow Monk type of idea. You do need some offensive creation. You do need somebody other than Lebron James that can run action. Now, the way I look at it, in the NBA, there's two different kinds of actions. There's primary action secondary action. Primary action is ran against a set defense, and secondary action is typically ran against the defense that's either in rotation or has made a rotation

and their primary defenders are not involved. It usually is targeting one of their lesser perimeter players. So, for instance, like a guy like Lonnie Walker, I guy like Lonnie Walker has a lot of experience running second side action. He's run some primary action with the Spurs. It just doesn't really count because it's the Spurs and they're not getting the other team's best shot. I don't think Lonnie Walker is the kind of guy that can come down

the floor. You know twenty thirty possessions of game, run high, pick and roll with Anthony Davis and be trusted to make consistently good decisions. But if a Kendrick Nunn comes down the floor and runs that action and it gets swung to Lonnie Walker who now has a defender closing out on him, or you know, here comes the ball screen, but the defense isn't set all the way. That's where I do think he can bring some value. But the Lakers do need at least one more first primary side creator, right.

You know, you could post up Lebron, you could post up Lebron James, post up Anthony Davis, run any sort of high action with Lebron James, ball screen isolation, things along those lines, right, But you need one other guard, one of the wing, that could put the ball on the floor and create his own shot either and pick and roller in isolation. This is why Kyrie is so important. And again like there's again the intel with Kyrie went over a lot of it yesterday, so I'm not gonna

get into it again. My theory here is that Brooklyn is asking for two first round picks. The reason why is they know they can get one from the Lakers, so why not go canvas the league looking for a second first round pick, and maybe you'll convinced the Lakers to throw in a second first round pick. And and if that's the case, the Lakers are doing the right thing. Be patient, this will all shake out. You'll be able to get Kyrie for Russ in the first Just do

it at that point and then you'll be fine. The one thing that I would say is if Rob Polinka is not including the first, that's just complete insanity. This is Russell Westbrook. He's one of the most overpaid players in NBA history. I'm not even I don't even need to get into the rust thing. You just Russ is

a negative asset, Okay. Kyrie Irving is also a negative asset, but much less of a negative asset than Russell Westbrook is Why because Kyrie Irving actually can play basketball still at an extremely high level on one end of the floor, while Russell Westbrook can't on either end of the floor. Okay, So you're trying to trade a a forty seven million dollar a negative asset for a better asset who makes

thirty six million dollars. So you're gonna have to give him something, all right, So give him the first if the time comes. But if they're just holding out to make sure it's only one first, I support the deal. That said, the Lakers need to do whatever it takes to get Kyrie. Stay in contact, don't blow this, don't go blow the pick on somebody else, because it would be extremely advantageous for the Lakers to have a guy in Kyrie that they can toss the ball to times

a game to run that primary side action. Such a big deal for Lebron James. That's why he's targeted these point guards so much over the years. You know, Lebron Holway's joked when he was with the Calves that it was like thirds, Like for a third of the game he's looking to score, a third of the game he's looking to facilitate, and a third of the game he's looking for somebody else to do those things, Okay, And he's never been able since he came came to the Lakers,

He's never been able to find that guy. You know. In the season it ended up kind of randomly being Rondo as he had a good, a decent playoff run after having a bad regular season. But like, that's the type of guy. He's tarty, and that's why he wanted Dennis Shrouder, That's why he wanted Russell Westbrook. He wanted somebody to do that. Kyrie is your guy there. It's a natural fit. The give and take with Lebron is excellent.

You know. He he can bring the ball off the floor without even pass it and create something for himself, so he's he's kind of like a great release foul for Lebron to save his legs for the other two thirds of the game when he's more involved. So great offensive fit an absolute necessity for the Lakers, and hopefully they don't mess around and blow this. They need him. Let's rip through these young players really quick before we get out of here. Thomas bryant Um partially torn a

c L so he should. He should theoretically be back to this year. He's a decent three point percentage shooter, but he's super low volume. He'd made few or threes in his entire career through four seasons. Then Maxi Kleiber did in just one season this year for the Dallas Mavericks, to give you an idea and the volume difference between a real stretch five and a guy who's capable of making some shots. But as I talked about earlier, I'm not really all that concerned about his three point percentage.

Him just being a reasonable threat is a hell of a lot more than what the Lakers have had in the years past, even from Anthony Davis. So I do expect some floor spacing capability from him, but don't think MAXI clear, but that's just not what he is. He's always played with a super high motor and he rolls

hard to the rim every time. That's a big advantage for ball screen guys, guys like Lebron James or if Kyrie Irving ends up falling into the spot or Kendrick Now if they don't trade him, having a player that sets the screen hard and rolls hard to the rim, it's it's it's difficult because you don't always get the ball. In fact, often you don't get the ball, and so it's hard to convince Biggs to do that, and it's good that he does do that, but he does have

that high motor. He plays super physical, he's not afraid of contact. This is big time for NBA centers because a lot of NBA centers don't necessarily love basketball that much. There's a reason why guards are always so much more skilled than bigs, and a huge part of it is his guards choose basketball because they love the game of basketball. Most big guys choose basketball because they were told by

their friends and family that they should play basketball. So it's good to see when you do see a big guy that has that motor. That's that that that's something that absolutely um is unique at the position. And last but not least, Thomas Bryant. He's got all that modern center mobility. I'm not gonna get into it again because we got into it earlier, but he does have the foot speed and linear speed to be able to hang in transition into hang in five out situations. Okay, Lonnie Walker.

So everyone's comparing him to Malik Monk. Our own Chris Mannix compared him some link Monk with with Collin Coward the other day on his show. I do agree in the sense that he's a thin athlete. So you know, when you're a relatively fin athlete, it's hard for you to get to your athleticism when the slightest little bump in hand check can contain you or cause you to

lose balance. So you know, a bigger, stronger This is why I was such um This is why I was such a huge fan of ivy Uh, the kid that um Uh the Detroit Pistons signed in the draft, picked in the draft because he has that combination of strength and low center of gravity with athleticism, so you can't bump him off his line. You're not gonna be able to just and check him in his place. He's more likely to bump you off of your line. That's why

these super thin, super athletic guards have some limitations. That's why Malik Monk, even though he was a great dunker, wasn't just flying through the lane duncan on everybody all season. It's because it's just hard to do when you don't have the physical, you know, momentum to stay on your attack line. So I do agree with him there, However, that's really competition. The comparisons end. Malik Monk was a lights out three point shooter who absolutely could run primary

side action, and Lonnie Maker Walker is not. Okay, Malik Monk competed on defense, but just didn't have the instincts or the physical traits to do with Lonnie Walker is a little bit stronger, a little more laterally quick, and actually is very much committed on the defensive end of the floor. He's not an elite defensive guard right now, but he's the kind of guy that could be that

for this team. So from that standpoint, I don't really look at it as a Malik Monk comp When I do look at it is as a similarity in the sense that it was a misallocation of resources to target a young uh six four guard that doesn't fit your direct need on the wing for a player like that. Although I should give Rob blink of some credit some credit. Moliku Monk was on a veteran minimum contract last year.

A couple of specific things. Lonnie Walker said in his interview today that he that he prefers to guard one through three, but that he can he thinks he might be able to guard fours now because he's up to two fifteen pounds. I'm curious to see if he's actually two hundred and fifteen pounds because I don't I don't see that kind of size from him, So I'm really curious to see him on the court this year to see if that muscle really is there. Two or fifteen

pounds is heavy for six four guard. That would mean he's really really stout, and I don't really see that with him. But I did think it was interesting that he said that he guards one through three because that's kind of what I'm talking about in terms of wing wing versatility. In order for you to be a versatile wing, you should be able to guard one through four, like the only guys in the league. You shouldn't be able

to guard er A Yoka. You're an mbid, right, you should be able to at least hold your own and force the guy to shoot over the top, to the the um, to all of the perimeter players in the league. And if you're a little too small and a little too thin, you're gonna struggle against the bigger forwards, bigger wings in the league. And that's something I expect league, or excuse me, Lonny Walker to struggle with. He's inconsistent

with his shot. That's to be expected. If you look through his numbers, Yeah, you only shott pent from three last year, only thirty two percent when he was open or wide open. But if you looked at it, he had extended stretches where he shot, well, it's like, oh, here's a fifteen fifteen game stretch where he shot here's a seven game stretch where he shot forty seven percent. Like that's the kind of thing you're seeing there. That's

classic young, up and coming streaky shooter. To me, that's irrelevant. We talked about the shooting thing earlier. He's gonna make enough shots that teams can't completely ignore him. But At the same time, teams are gonna play off of him, just like they do every single teammate of slashing stars that you see around the league. And then we talked about this earlier. But he's not a primary side creator.

So the Lakers are gonna have to find some way to find a primary side later because if you're relying on Lonnie Walker to run, you know, high pick and roll with Anthony Davis to start possessions for a significant chunk of the season, you're just gonna be at a disadvantage compared to some of the other guys around the league. And then, last, but not least, and I'm lumping these two guys together. Who wants Toscano Anderson and Troy Barron Jr.

They're just athlete wrecking balls. These are not offensive players. These are not guys that are going to light you up spotting up from the three point line. These are not high level clothes out attackers. They're not gonna, you know, be chased off the line, ripped through into the lane, make a you know, I'll give you an example. Austin

Reeves is a high level close out attacker. That guy rips through to the middle and slows down and makes a read, sees how the defense kind of contorts to him, and then he'll make the perfect kick out every single time. And then if you don't collapse on him, he's got a couple of moves that he can go to, secondary moves like counter moves to try to get a shot off as he's attacking the close out. These aren't those guys. These are one dimensional spot up threats. They're gonna make

some of their catch and shoot threes. And if you chase them off the line and they can rip through the basket and go all the way and dunk, that's great. But you're not gonna get them to make high level close out rates. But that's fine because that's not their job. These are athlete wrecking balls. They will crash the offensive glass, they will run the floor and transition, and most importantly, they are committed to the defensive end of the floor.

I loved hearing Troy Brown Junior's press conference today talking about how his only concern on this team is to play defense and that he wants to He's gonna focus on his ability to knock down corner threes, which is what you need from a player who plays position. His position and then be able to guard as many positions on the floor as he can. You know, Troy Junior is a little bit more wiry, a little more athletic Quantasconna Anderson's a little bigger, a little less athletic, but

a little trunkier. I like that versatility. You can unleasha Troy Brown Junr against a quicker guard, and you can release a want Tosconna Anderson against a Kawhi Leonard as someone that might be able to at least hold his ground in some of the physicality. Anyway, I hadn't had a chance to touch on on a bunch of these guys because we've just been in the weeds of the rest of the free agency. But I wanted to take some time today to do a deep dive in the Lakers,

and we went really deep. We went almost forty five minutes, um. But that's all I got for right now. As we get more information about what the Lakers are gonna do again, I expect the Kyrie Irving move from Russell Westbrook. I expect Kendrick Nonn and Taylor warn and Tuck her to be flipped for a wing at least. I hope that they do, and I think they they'll end up targeting like a Carmelo Anthony and maybe one or two more

veteran players to round out their rosters. So this is not over, um, but I thought now was as good as time any to dive into the moves that they've made to this point. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. Like I said at the beginning of the show, don't forget that I will be an NBA Summer League starting tomorrow through Sunday morning. Uh. Follow

me on Twitter. I underscore Jason LT so you guys can see kind of where I'm at around town, where I'm at the game, So you guys can come say hi and we can talk some hoops and maybe we'll get to play a little bit hoops as well while we're there, and then I'll do some video reactions to some of the higher end games as we get there. All right, guys, that is all I have. I will see you guys tomorrow. The volume