Hoops Tonight - Lakers Eulogy: Will LeBron leave? Darvin Ham gone? LA's Nuggets problem & future

my championship rankings the Dallas Mavericks. You can get them on DraftKings right now at plus sixteen hundred. To win the title. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code hoops. That's Hops. New customers bet five dollars and get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly. That's code hoops hops

only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours gambling problem called one eight hundred Gambler or in West Virginia visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net York call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine In Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit.

YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. Keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna hit a couple of mail bags a week throughout the end of the season and the last, but not.

They have all in pricing, so you don't have to worry about going to check out and then all of a sudden getting surprised by much larger number than you were expecting. It's not a convoluted process. You can check out and as soon as two taps. And they also have a view of your seat that you can see within the app, so you know what you're buying and know what you're going to get when you show up

to the arena. They also have exclusive flash deals and sponsored deals on tickets for football, basketball, baseball, concerts, comedy theater and more. Amazone deals you pick the section and game Time picks the seats for you in that section with big time saving, so take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again, Create an account and

redeem code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download

Game Time Today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed, all right, Yovon. So in this you know, obviously disappointing start to this series, I think it's also been deeply informative. It's been confirming of some of the things that we've thought throughout the season.

But I want to kind of start with the Nuggets a little bit because in the Lakers pursuit of trying to address these issues, whether it's them trying to reconfigure around Lebron in ad this offseason to try to make another run at it, or if it's a pivot, I think a great team for them to try to emulate is the Denver Nuggets, a team that I think is not just the defending champion, but I think the legitimate favorite this year for a reason, and a team that I believe has a real chance to go on an

extended dynastic run here. And So, what has this series taught you about the difference between a real championship team like the Nuggets and the Lakers.

And he essentially said, you know, as a coach, that is what I have to battle and that the message has been. We were down twelve in game one, we were down twenty in Game two. We're now on the road, We're facing a hostile crowd, and you know, the Lakers want to beat us after losing ten straight times. So like the messages, don't get off to a slow start, don't turn the ball over, and keep the crowd out of the game, and the Nuggets did none of those things to start that game. The Lakers got off to

an eight zero run. The crowd was as loud as I've heard it all season. It was deafening pitch, and it was the start that the Lakers needed if they were going to win a game against the Nuggets. And lo and behold my opinion, Denver had their worst half of the series in that first half of Game three,

turning the ball over, missing open threes, and really just struggling on both ends, yet they were only down four. Then they opened the second half with a twenty four to ten run, And to me, this team has just won the mental game against the Lakers. They have gotten stronger in second halfs. They've outscored the Lakers by thirty one points through the three third quarters in this series, plus forty two overall in the second half, So we've

seen it. The Lakers have thrown their bench their best punch early and they've gotten out to these double digit leads. They've led at halftime in all three games. They've led at halftime in seven of the eleven consecutive losses to Denver, and then Denver just takes over in the second half.

It's the same movie on repeat, but for Denver to have that level of just killer instinct and seriousness and professionalism and lack of complacency to do the same thing over and over again, and regardless of Lebron's getting downhill in transition eighties cooking them with fourteen consecutive made shots in Game two, like they don't care. They run their offense the same way. Everybody is locked in. They play team basketball on both ends, and you don't see guys complaining.

You don't see guys pointing figures, you don't see guys going at the refs, and they just play a serious brand of basketball. It reminds me a lot of ways of the San Antonio Spurs and the way that they built that dynasty of it didn't matter who's doing what. Obviously you had Tim Duncan as the head of the snake. In this case it's Nikola Jokic. You had Tony Parker,

and Jamal Murray is the analog there. But just the level of no matter what's happening, they're never rattled and that's why you see them close a game to making seven consecutive shots against the Lakers, like they are one of the best crunch time teams I've ever seen period. I think, like we could talk about where they rank all the time, and I think they're higher than I

think most people would assume at this point. But to me, the crunch time, the focus, and just the mental advantage that they've had on the Lakers through these eleven straight wins, that to me has been what has stood out the most.

first half, but a specific area where they were weak is Lebron James on the back line was just doing a really poor job of reading. Reading that there is a read and react with that low man position in the sense that like there you do have help responsibilities, but you also have Aaron Gordon responsibilities, and you kind of have to tow that line between the two. And for the record, in the first two games, I thought

Lebron was really good in that role. But I don't know if it was just I don't know if Lebron

lost faith after the collapse in Game two. I don't know if it was just literally just a bad night, but literally from the opening tip, he just wasn't as sharp in that specific area, and so like it's like the Lakers had all these areas kind of tied up in that first half, but that one opening Aaron Gordon just smashed through and Don Mad the first half of that game right, Like there was a like Jamal Murray, even though he was relatively unefficient throughout the series, inefficient

throughout the series, he just had these little stretches in each series where he was really good. I thought a shot making was really good in the third quarter of Game one, obviously, down the stretch and crunch time of Game two. I thought in the second quarter, early second quarter of Game three, he just hit a bunch of

timely shots, right. And like, one of the things with Denver is their floor is so high that like even if you managed to kind of outplay them for stretches, as soon as you dip and if they just start to gain ground, right, And then honestly, I thought Denver threw a really good punch in that early third quarter stretch and then you could just literally see the Lakers

like go of the rope. And that's where I want to get to the part you talked about with being serious and being professional, because that, to me was the biggest thing that stood out to me about this particular matchup. The stuff about floor versus ceiling, That to me is more of a total first round kind of like take away. In general, I think we're learning that like players with higher floors are more valuable in the postseason than players

with higher ceilings. KCP doesn't have the ceiling that de Lo has, but night and night out in the playoffs, he's just a more impactful player.

needs to win. He dominated that game, not by dominating offensive possessions, not by being this devastating on ball defensive threat that was just putting his on his offensive player in jail. No, he just his job within the scheme is to kind of like clean up stuff on the back line offensively and clean up stuff on the back

line defensively. And and like he just capitalized on what was happening within that game and he kind of broke through that opening like we talked about, right, he did his job and within that context, he was the hero of that particular game. But he wouldn't trying to be the hero. He's just doing his job. Every single one of these guys has a job. Even Michael Porter Junior, as gifted as he is offensively, like, one of the most important roles he has on this team is he's

a dominant rebounder. And that's what they got forty nine points and twenty five rebounds out of Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon last night.

consistent part of their basketball character. And when you talk about professionalism and serious basketball, to me, it's about that

possession by possession, do your job every single time. If you see them make a mistake or go off script, it's usually like they'll do it once and then Mike malonill lose his mind and yell at them, and then and then they're right back on track by the next possession, And like that just was not you know it ironically, and this is the last thing I'll say about it, it ironically reminded me of just the entire Laker regular season, which was like, if you caught them on the right

night and you watch them, you're like, this team has championship potential. Look at how serious these guys are, look at how focused they are. This is what they're capable of. But then two nights later against Brooklyn, they would just be terrible, you know, like they were never a team that could hold on to the rope consistently, like a real championship team for the entirety of the season, you know what I mean. And so within these games, if you watched a ten minute sequence, you'd be like, man,

the Lakers are right there with Denver. But then eventually they'd let go of the rope and Denver's serious approach would take over. And I think it was really really informative, not just about what the Nuggets are and what makes them so great, but also just like team building and coaching and different aspects like that that I think set set that that are preventing the Lakers from getting where

they need to go. On that note, kind of moving towards the role players, obviously that was the biggest gap in this series. I pulled the numbers last night. I'll pull them up again here in just a second, but it was a complete and total outclassing by the guys down the roster. As a matter of fact, non Lebron ad Lakers had one hundred and thirty one points and fifty six rebounds through three games. Non Murray Jokic Nuggets had one hundred and eighty points and eighty three rebounds.

So what did you learn specifically about the Laker role players in this series and where do you think they fell short compared to the championship baseline.

is bigger and slightly stronger than Lebron James. I think they're pretty similar, but he's slightly bigger, taller.

in a better way. Like I think something that hasn't been talked about enough is Denver's won the free throw battle in two of these three games, and like that's

supposed to be one of the few strengths the Lakers had over Denver was they get to the free throw line way more than them. They don't foul as much obviously, so like the Lakers. I know you've touched on the free throw differential before, but like that is an advantage for the Lakers, you know, based on how they play offensively and how they don't foul. Yeah, Denver's won the free throw battle in two of the three games. They've won the points in the paint battle in two of

the three games. So Denver has beaten the Lakers like they've they've played their style of basketball, but they've also beaten the Lakers at their own game. And when the Lakers have played smaller front lines or like size front lines, they dominate them and they kick their ass and they look great. When they play a team that's bigger than them, it's been the opposite. And I think for me, the fact that the Jackson Hayes was a dnp CD in Game three just shows like the Lakers never really addressed

the backup center spot. Jackson had some nice moments over the last couple months of the season. Christian Wood, to me, like never really panned out and shot thirty one percent on threes, had some good moments as like a rebounder, and defensively, they think about like Kevin Durant against the Suns, but like that was the beginning of the season, and I think Christian Wood overall was a bit of a disappointment.

Like that, to me, what was a weakness of this roster and the fact that Ruy Hachimura in an elimination games, playing twenty eight minutes and you're going small with Torrian Prince at the four, or you're going with these three guard lineups and you're giving up all these offensive rebounds and again just getting physically dominated. Like part of that's on the coaching staff and the way that they're deploying these guys, but part of that is a roster construction issue.

So to me, biggest takeaway overall was just too small, but also I think just not good enough. And if we're ranking the starting lineups in terms of the best players in the series, like five through seven, five through eight might be all of the rest of the Nuggets starting lineup and the fact that they arguably have the two best players in the series depending on you know, especially in crunch time with Jamal, but like they have

the best player. Jamal has outplayed Lebron and eighty for stretches, and then you have Aaron Gordon, CACP and MPJ all thoroughly out playing Austin Dilo and RUI like that just

can't happen. And I don't think the bench outplayed LA's bench like I think Christian Brown and Peyton Watson have been more impactful than anyone off the Lakers bench, just with again their defense, their rebounding, their energy, and their finishing and transition, so like from top to bottom, and then the coaching the adjustments like Denver has decisively won this. I think it's even been more of a gap than the scoreboard indicates. So I just think Denvers is bigger and they're better.

do it. And so once again, those guys have a certain flow, like you can expect Christian Brown and Peyton Watson to have a certain amount of impact just with their athleticism. Whereas it's like Okay, Spencer Dinwood he checked in. It's like maybe these threes will go in, you know, and it's and and we'll see what happens, right. I also the bit about Jackson Hayes, like in the in the moment last night, I'm sitting there thinking like this, to me was one of the fundamental issues with Darvin

Haam during the entire darvinham experience. And we're gonna talk about Darvin in a bigger context later, but he just always defaulted more towards offensive skill and speed and and not towards size and athleticism. And I thought last night, when the chips were down, him being like, no Jackson, just a lot more three guard lineups was a pretty strong indicator of like Darvin's kind of basketball philosophy, which I think is flawed. And then also like that within

this particular matchup that that was the death Wish. And one of the problems too, is you know, the Lakers, just their guards weren't playing well, so like you're leaning into guard play when your guards are getting their ass kicked. It didn't make any sense to me in the moment.

But you know you mentioned size. I agree. I think it's a little deeper than size, and it I would just call it like overall physicality in the sense that it's not just height, it's even at these specific position these positions, these guys play with more force, like you mentioned KCP versus Austin Reeves like Austin, and we're gonna talk about Austin rue Like I thought Austin and Ruey were trying to do their jobs. I just thought they didn't play well. Like Austin and Ruiy Bolth just had

nightmare series. I saw that clip of Austin hugging Phil Handy and it looked like he said, it's my fault, and like you could just tell he was heartbroken. And I felt bad for Austin because, like Austin really defended Jamal Murray well for the first seven quarters of this series, and I thought he did his job he just couldn't

make shots. And ruly, I thought was given a really difficult role too to guard Jokich to start the series, and you could tell that kind of sap to him of his confidence and then he was just never able to regather it. But like other than those guys, it was a lot of unseious basketball. But above and beyond that, it was the lack of physical force that they could bring to the table. KCP brings physical force, Aaron Gordon brings physical force. MPJ with his length, brings physical force

to the table. Christian Brown brings physical force. Peyton Watson brings physical force. Austin doesn't. That's not in his toolkit. Delo doesn't. That's not in his toolkit. Ruy does. But they stuck him consistently in matchups in this series where he couldn't, you know, because they were using they're basically using him to eat up minutes right on Jokis for

about half the series to this point. But like Spencer Dinwoodie is probably the best athlete of the role players, and he's not a very good athlete, right Gabe Vincent has a certain force that he brings, but he's just small, you know, And so like that. That to me was the big thing that stood out. It just is like down the roster, there's just not enough physical force. And when you go back and you look at the twenty twenty Lakers, that was a huge element of what made

them great. Alex Crusoe, Contavious Callwell, Pope, Dwight Howard, Kyle Kuzma, that was a huge part of what made them great. Even Danny Green, it was just a big, strong two guard, right. And you know, honestly, it was funny when I was looking back, when I look back at kind of the the last few years, even if you just erase one singular mistake, like there was a lot of panic trades and stupid stuff that happened over the last couple of years.

But if they had just held on to Crusoe, if they had just held on to Crusoe, which by the way,

wouldn't have cost you any asset or anything. It would have just cost money out of Genie Bus's pocket, a lot of money because of the luxury tax, but money and money that probably she would have recouped through the success of the team, in my opinion, So if they just had Carusoe, and your lookoking at Austin Alex as your back court instead of Austin Dilo fundamentally changes the athletic profile of the team, slots everybody into easier roles defensively, Now,

instead of Austin have to chase around to Jamal Murray, it's Alex Cruso chasing around Jamal Murray. And instead of d LO and him be uh, you know, space case space cadet trying to chase around KCP, it's Alex or excuse me, it's Austin Reeves, who's a very focused defender who would be guarding KCP. And then everything makes so

much more sense. And so, I you know, there's a lot, there's a lot to dig into with the eulogy here, but like that that piece, that piece about physical force off the ball, especially when the content within the context of the physicality of the postseason shines through. What did you make of Dlo's night last night? Where are you at with DLO as a player, and where do you think the team and the organization is at with Delo right now?

a serious championship contender. Or at least have serious championship aspirations, because this is now two out of the three games in this series where he's been harmful, and I think he was actually probably more harmful in Game one because he was taking possessions away from Lebron and Ady and to me, calling his own number a little bit too frequently, and you know it did have a poor shooting night, but I thought more so, I thought inside the arc

this series, he was oddly you know, kind of calling it like looking for those little mid range pull ups and step backs and fadeaways that he never was able to create separation with. So they always ended up being either you know, contests from the front side or rear view contests where a KCP a Christian Brown and Peyton Watson were able to stick with him, slither around the

pick and roll and then bother him from behind. So I thought, like, the three point shooting is what it is, Like he got a bunch of good looks, didn't convert, But to me, him kind of calling his own number in the pick and roll what was ultimately harmful and he just was never able to create the separation necessary to make those shots. Because to me, Dilo is a guy who does need a level of separation and if you can get into his airspace, you were going to

bother him, as we've seen in this series. But to me, it's been six of the seven games in these in the last two playoff series against Denver, like he was. I mean, go back and look at the Western Conference Finals. He was bad in all four games. He's been bad in two of the three games got bench last night. There was the video clip of him off to the side of the huddle. He does do that sometimes, but I think optically that was a terrible time to do that,

and he just looked incredibly disengaged at that point. He ducked out on media last night. We requested him, he declined to speak. He also declined a couple times in the Western Conference Finals, declined at times earlier this season.

couple of good rebounding games. He's been competitive defensively, and I think even though he's miss shots, he's brought the requisite competitiveness and spirit that has not been the case with de Loo, and you've seen him shrink. I think in both Game one and Game three, and even in Game two, I thought he got off to a hot start, obviously had the six threes in the first half, ends up making seven, but had a very quiet second half and rest of the way.

are people going at us. For you, guys don't like Delo. Delo is clearly the third best player, Like I don't want to hear that anymore.

he's cost himself money with this series. I think you can still make the case he's a twenty to twenty five million dollars a year player. I don't know if that is a twenty to twenty five million dollar player on a good team, on a contending team.

you know Denver's not going anywhere. They're gonna be here for the next three to four years and you're gonna

have to go through them to win a championship. And I just don't think he can play in a series against Denver, which is really like a conference finals final series. I think it's fine first round, second round against normal teams, and even then he's a bit of up and down against serious, high level conference finals finals teams.

a certain ceiling to it. And by the way, going into the season, going into the regular season, you and I were like, Lakers are a second tier championship contender, and if they make a trade to address the Austin Delo pairing, which we knew was flawed after the Denver series last year, then they might be able to enter into that top tier if they were to get a Bruce Brown, if they were to get a Dejontay Murray, a real athletic two way player at that two guard position, right, Like,

how much better would de Jontay Murray have been in this series for for the Lakers to try to.

very different on so many different levels. Right, Not only does Jonte guard Jamal Murray the whole series, He's a guy that brings dribble penetration, which would have helped a lot within these half court kind of slow down environments that the the two man game that him and Lebron could have had in a lot of these situations, it would have been it would have been really effective.

were still gonna win. But if we go back a few months after a big night, he talked about how he wanted all the smoke straight up said it. He said he wanted all the smoke go back to the beginning of the season. He was in the the training camp pressers, the media day interview saying the guy I want to emulate is Derek White. He's the guy I want to be like, No, you don't. Derek White didn't didn't put in work to address his own individual ceiling.

Derek White's floor is what makes him great. It's all about his focus and attention to detail in the margins of the game, not how good he is running a pick and roll or how good he is attacking closeouts or hitting spot up threes. That's not what made Derek White great. And so Dilo talked about all this stuff, but it's abundantly clear with what happened that he doesn't actually get it. And because he leaned into his ceiling,

there was a certain volatility with him. And it's interesting because if you actually go back, the Lakers have played a bunch of big games in a row. They've played seven massive regular season games or eight massive games in a row. Right, you have the Golden State game, Delo was abysmal. You have the Minnesota game, Dilo was abysmal,

and those were really important games. If you win one of those games, you're the sixth seed and you're playing Minnesota right now, and I would have picked the Lakers to beat Minnesota. You win one of those games, Okay, instead you get two stinkers.

so incredibly low. And when we talk about the offseason, I actually disagree with you as it pertains to him being a twenty twenty five million dollar player. Maybe I'll be wrong, and maybe it'll be a bad team that swoops in and offers him some money. I do think he has some value as a regular season skill guard, a lot of value as a regular season skill guard.

I think, on a you can probably bank on fifty pretty good games out of him, and that's going to give you a chance to hold some ground in the standings. But like when I really look at an NBA team looking at skill guards that are not necessarily guys that you're going to lean on and you're closing five in

a big playoff game. The market last year for that type of player that was kind of the Gabe Vincent Dennis Schroeder tier, right like, and those guys were making the mid level exception, that's what they were making.

like eighteen and a half million next year. So like yeah, so like if some team offers him three years for thirty six or two years for twenty five or something like two years for twenty four, whatever it is that the MLE, I think that'll be a deal that he potentially looks to take because I think after next year it's possible that he enters into the veteran minimum contract territory if it, like with some of his limitation, right, But like, I don't know that he'll get twenty to

twenty five. Maybe he will. But like if I'm if I'm looking at d Lo as an asset league wide next year, I'm looking at him as a sixth man, a guy that is clearly not in my top five. So that I know that when push comes to shove. I'm closing with my closing group, but I can make some night Tonight calls with him with his minutes based on whether or not he's engaged in hitting shots. And most more importantly, I'm using him as a regular season innings eater, So I think there's some value there.

on the floor and the game that he talks. And I think that that goes to show you that there's actually a disconnect mentally between where Delo needs to improve and where Delo thinks he needs to improve. And I think those are going to be areas that kind of hold him back moving on, to the to the offseason. So obviously the Lakers have a lot of questions to address. I want to start with Darvin. So here's the thing. I don't think Darvin is responsible for the Lakers losing

to Denver. I do think he's responsible for the Lakers having ended up as the seventh seed. I've said this on the record, but like, I think his mistakes with the rotation in late December and early January probably cost the Lakers three four games in the standings. Even if it's just two or three games, you're out of the plane.

So like, I think they would have been in that Clippers, MAVs, Suns, Wolves kind of tier there in the or I should say Clippers, Suns, MAVs tier in that four through six range, right, And I think I think that that is fair criticism of darviin I you think the reason they lost to Denver is Denver's a better basketball team. That said, I do think you saw some of the the jarring elements of Darvin kind of being in over his head in

this series. An example Number one, Mike Malone super active coaching on the sidelines, accountability with his players every time someone makes a mistake. He's screaming at him.

is he? Watch Greg Popovich on the sideline? How animated is he? Watch you know, Tyron Lew on the sideline. Watch these guys on the sideline, and you'll see the difference in just their overall level of engagement with the team compared to compared to what Darvin brings. Secondly, just a a basketball ideology that doesn't match your personnel. I'm a big believer in like a coach has to be very careful with his individual ideologies inflicting them on a

roster if the roster's not capable of it. So, for instance, Darvin's kind of obsession with speed, quickness and skill at the guard position and kind of leaning into that. That's not the strength of this roster. They do not have a guard corps that is particularly fast, that is particularly good defensively, and that is star caliber and offensive creation. And so all you're really doing is playing a bunch

of small guys that can't defend and can't score. And he had athletes on the roster, he had options that he could go there.

a pretty strong indicative where he's at there. And then lastly, like I thought, I thought, and you know, you and I were talking about this a little bit in the before we started recording today, but like, yeah, it was it was bullshit that when Ad made a comment that was clearly in a moment of frustration that was clearly

not aimed at anybody in particular. I thought it was just like a I thought that the comment about us not knowing what we're doing on either end of the floor, I thought it was more directed at like some of the role players and like just them going off script and not sticking to the game plan and not doing their jobs. And yeah, I'm sure there was some criticism

Levy towards Darvin there. I thought it was just kind of like a general frustration with not being a serious basketball team, because, like Lebron said after the game last night, Lebron and Ad know they've won together. They know what it's like to be a serious team and to make a deep run, and so they are frustrated because they

know this team doesn't have it. And then for Darvin to him out in the what was it the shoot around yesterday and then to basically be like, yeah, we're going to agree to disagree on that, and we take great pride and like basically cover his ass rather than just simply saying like like, yeah, eighti's pissed off. I'm pissed off too, which would have been a perfectly normal response there. And so I don't blame Darvin for the

Lakers losing to the Nuggets. That said, I don't think he's a championship level coach, and so I do think the Lakers are going to have to address that in this offseason. They're going to have to make a move in that specific area. Where do you think the organization is right now in terms of the coaching situation. Is there some internal frustration?

reflection of mistakes earlier in the season. And I go back to early January when the Lakers lost four consecutive games and I had the report with Shan Shrania the athletic and I came on this show and we talked about it of the disconnect within the locker room between the players and the coaching staff and the frustration with lineups and rotations and just the identity of the team

not necessarily aligning with the player's strengths. And those are all things you just hit on, and those are all things that never went away, like they got better for periods.

I think winning can paper over some frustrations and some disagreements internally, and that's why you'll see like Kobe and shak can not get along, but they are so talented and Phil Jackson is such a great coach, and like they had the right role players where you can still win championships despite not being on the same page and having internal discord. But that only covers you for so long when you run into a team that is better

than you and is embarrassing you. And really, like the Lakers have been embarrassed in this matchup with Denver, I think, like it's not just losing eleven straight games, but it's losing them the manner in which they lose them. It's completely falling apart in second halfs. And I don't think that's on Darvin, and I don't think people are putting

that entirely on Darvin. But I have heard conversations with people once again referencing the three guard lineups or Torrian prints at the four and just them not lean like there had been a shift in early February where they went back there. You know, they started Rui, they started leaning into the bigger lineups because all year the lineup data has said if you go big with the front court, the Lakers win those minutes go.

season finale and the playing matchup, they've gone small. And it's just like there's there's clearly been a lack of trust for for Jackson, for I think for Ruy, Like I know Ruy did not have a good game last night,

but Ruey should not have played twenty eight minutes. Like there's no, in my opinion, credible argument for playing Ruey twenty eight minutes in an elimination game or essentially elimination game when the two alternatives are playing Jackson who's worse and they just didn't even play him, or just going super small with more Tornian and more three guard lineups and like that, just it doesn't work against the Denver Nuggets.

Like we all we already went through the head to head matchups of how they are small and less physical and less forceful at each position, and then playing smaller leans into that even more.

And because again, as I just said in the del segment, like the Denver Nuggets aren't going anywhere if the Lakers want to win a championship, and who knows how much longer they have with Lebron. Could be a year, could be two years, could be three years, who knows, could be zero year.

Here's the thing. I think Torrian Prince all season has been more like the seventh or eighth best player on the team, but within the context of this series, he was the most confident and successful bench player.

your five best players within this series. Like Toryan's not one of your five best players, but within this series, that's your five best players. They never saw the floor. But it's because of a basketball philosophy that Darvin was trying to inflict on his roster rather than trying to cater a basketball philosophy to the strengths of his roster.

And again, like it's not it's not about blaming him necessarily, It's more just about acknowledging the reality that like if you're going to continue to try to win with the Lebron and AD build. He's not up to the challenge and they're to have to address that in this offseason. So before we get into we're gonna do a little brief chat about the off season. Then we're gonna get

out of here before we actually get into the offseason. Though, what is your sense behind the scenes as to where ownership in the front office is with the Lebron and AD core do they view this year? Because like, here's the thing. I thought last year, Lebron and AD got soundly outplayed by Jokichen Murray and that was the major difference. Right, this year, AD has gone toe to toe with Jokic and Lebron, like I think, because here Murray hasn't shot

well and Lebron has had some bad stretches too. I think Lebron and Murray have been more or less the same. You know, Murray obviously hit the biggest shot of the series in Game two, but Lebron was incredible down the stretch of that game. So like, it certainly wasn't Lebron's fault that they lost that game, right, So, Like I viewed the Star matchup as relatively even in this series so far through three games, it's been the role players

that have gotten you know, demolished. So where is the Laker front office and ownership group in your opinion in terms of their optimism around giving another shot to the Lebron and ad core.

this Lebron eighty corps. But from my understanding that it's been similar to the approach at the trade deadline in terms of you have three paths, you can run it back and keep largely the same group together, which I think would be a mistake based on how this series has gone and really how the season has gone overall.

Two is you can do a like small to medium upgrade in terms of that's flippingd Lo with a pick or two picks for a first you know, a starting uh you know, lineup upgrade and maybe you bring in a you know, Cruso type not necessarily Cruso, but maybe Cruso, but like you do more of like a a marginal upgrade in terms of you add a new starter and maybe like a key bench guy and you sort of run it back, but you are making a couple of upgrades. And then path number three is let's go star hunting

and let's go get a Trey Young. Well, let's see what happens with Donovan Mitchell and Cleveland. It looks like they're gonna make at least the conference semifinals, but there's been a lot of buzz about him not staying in Cleveland. And then what happens with Dallas and the Clippers, And

does Dallas lose in the first round? And now you you know, we've talked about it before, but like, do they go in a different direction and pivot away from Kyrie and Luca as a pairing, And then there will likely be other stars that potentially come available, like and I think Michael Bridges is an interesting name of what direction.

I don't see how you can run this back. If you run this back, you are once again a Denver matchup away from just losing whenever you face them. Like this team is that if Ruy, Dilo Austin, they can all come back better. And I still don't think they could beat Denver. And even if you add like a better bench player, I still don't think you can beat Denver.

Like maybe Jackson has outplayed it to like a mini mid level, you know, four to five million dollar player, but I'm not even sold on that. He just was a DMPCD in a playoff game. Christian Wood and Cam Reddish I think are both clearly minimum guys. So like, those guys are probably opting in Max Christie's restricted free agents.

I obviously am such a huge believer in those two in the context of the playoffs, but you know, within the regular season eighty two they need to get a high level offensive player. But to me, the perfect kind of like line of delineation in terms of this archetype is like the Trey Young versus Jontey Murray type of thing. And I'm not saying that those two players are the only options, as you just laid out so many good options, but like, Trey Young is a player that has a

significantly higher offensive ceiling than de Jontay Murray. But de Jontay Murray, like no doubt, within the context of a Lebron and ad pairing, is going to be a more impactful playoff player and a more useful playoff player with a higher floor, right, And so that's kind of what I look at, Like That's why I like the idea of a McHale Bridges that isn't that is a an athlete that can really impact the game with a high floor, but that also has the ability to run action and

be a useful a guy that could run two man game with Lebron and you know that that sort of thing. There's a lot of different upside to that that type of pairing, right, So, like, I think that's going to be the key for them is I think they need to target a legitimate two way player to put in that in that two or three spot, which is something we've been talking about all day here really, But like

I'm a big believer in Austin. I think a big part of what led to Austin's poor offensive series was the fact that last year in the postseason, it was Dennis Schroeder that was taking most of the high leverage defensive assignments, and Austin was able to focus his energy

and his best skill, which is, you know, being an offensive skill guard, right and this year that's not the case. And to his credit, I think he actually was a really useful perimeter defender for the Lakers of the last couple of years, and I think that will serve him well in lower leverage assignments throughout the rest of his career. But you got to find a way to free him

up to focus on the offensive end. And the only way you're going to do that is if you bring in a real high leverage athlete at the two and the three. I like Ruiy at the three in the sense that like it does bring a big physical imposition

to the game. But there's something to be said about having two forwards like Lebron and Rui that aren't necessarily great screen navigators or that can move their feet on the perimeter, and so that to me is going to be like the area of opportunity, essentially turning d Lo and Ruie into more compatible players at that position. Dejontey Murray is a player that I'd really like for them to take another look at. I know that the hot are going to be considering blowing up things this summer.

I just think he could be relatively affordable compared to some of the other options out there. Obviously, Donovan Mitchell would be a home run. If you get Donovan Mitchell, you're you're celebrating for for a long time after that. But I just think that there's gonna be a big market for him. Yeah, and like the the idea of maybe three first round picks and filler, I don't think necessarily is gonna be able to compete with some of the other offers that are out there, especially especially when

there's so many teams that feel like they're close. Right, But we'll see. Like you said, there's so many things that can happen over the next month, Like the Suns could have a catastrophe, the MAVs could have a catastrophe, the Bucks could have a catastrophe. Like, there's so many different negative things that could happen over the next month, and that's gonna color what ends up being the uh, what ends up being the strategy. Our last note before

we get out of here. Do you think there's any any chance that that Lebron James looks another direction this offseason?

year twenty four, depending on how long he resigns, and like we've seen even Hall of Fame top ten, top twenty level guys, at some point later in your career, there's the off season that you just fall off randomly, and I think, based on Lebron's track record, that's not going to happen, and he's likely going to go out on a high note, and whenever he decides to retire, it'll just be he's still a really good basketball player and maybe not quite top five or top ten or

or whatever, but he'll still be a high, high level, star level basketball player. But within that, like the Lakers are willing to commit to that. So I think the thing with Lebron is going to be and we've touched on this before, but if he's had his way, I think this team would have a third star, whether it was last season or this season. He was a big proponent for Kyrie Irving. I was told he was a proponent for the Jontey Murray and Zach Lavine earlier in

the season. So he's clearly on some level wanted a third star and that third player who could help alleviate some of the offensive burden, you know, a player that similar to what you were just talking about. So I wonder, like now that he has some of the power back in terms of he has a say on his future and the direction of the Lakers, Like, how much does

he yield that right? And if we see the team make a change at the coaching position and then go get a third star, I think it's kind of showing that, like Lebron, like the power is sort of back and he is in influential force in terms of the direction of the team, and it's sort of like what we've done the last couple of years has not worked. And you know, yes, we made the conference finals and you know that was a nice run, and we had a nice turnaround this year, but like we have not been

at a championship level. And with Lebron historically, when he doesn't feel like his team is at a championship level, he wants wholesale changes, and more often than not, it has worked. Right, He's won a championship everywhere he's been, but I think for the Lakers, it's again kind of you know how. I'm just interested to see how much they actually allow him to yield that this offseason. If it is a power struggle at all, maybe it won't be.

Maybe it's as simple as if you're willing to resign or extend, we will.

compared to the last couple of years. So I think he now has some leverage over the Lakers that he did not have at the trade deadline, he did not have last year, and I'm interested to see just how all that shakes out, because it's, you know, it has been too like I don't think they've always seen eyed eye. I'll just say over the last couple of years, and now that he has some of the power back, I want to see how that all plays out.

Westbrook trade. Now Russell Westbrook I mean, Russell Westbrook was always Russell Westbrook and that evidence was there, and so I don't necessarily blame him for coming into the Lakers and being Russell Westbrook and it being a bad idea, right, Like that was on the like there's just no universe where any serious front office would have watched film of Russell Westbrook and been like, this is a good idea, let's do this, like they're just there's just no universe

where that would have that would have been the case. So like when you get when you're giving up a draft asset, you're like, if I remember correctly, the Buddy Healed trade was I want to say, Kuzma Haral and a pick.

that was really the downfall of everything. And you know, between that between letting Crusoe go, between signing Taylor Orton Tucker, which, by the way, I had no real problem with signing Taylor Horton Tucker. It was signing Taylor Horton Tucker without

retaining Alex Cruso that I thought was a disaster. Between all the mistakes that Magic Johnson made in the early phase of his UH President of Basketball Operations kind of stint there, like the this was a team that should have been a conference finalist year and year out for a four year period, and instead they got one additional conference finals trip off the tale of an incredible defensive run from Anthony Davis, right, and so it just kind

of felt like a waste. So part of me wishes Lebron would leave, just because I want to see him play in a competent environment and give it a real shot. But I agree with you in the sense that, like, I just have a hard time believing you will as far as the building thing goes. It's so funny because over the last couple of years, like in the twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three off seasons, it was like, don't go star hunting, just get a

quality role player. Just go get some athletes that can help Lebron in ab But like, now that we're tilting into the later portion of Lebron's career. Now we've been in a later portion, but now that we're into the preposterously late portion of Lebron's career year twenty two, like you almost have to go star hunting because, like simply put, like part of the issue is, I think Lebron could have a really useful year twenty two, year twenty three if he can pick his spots. But he could not

pick his spots on this team. They desperately needed him to be great, and to his credit, he was host deadline.

been playing at a top five level. Like and like legitimately it's ridiculous that they needed him to be that. If they could have managed this in a way that lessened his workload and kept him in a position where he could pick his spots. There's a version of this where you where this could be sustained success. And so obviously there's always going to be a part of me that that kind of like wonders what would have happened if he, if you was in a more competent situation.

But if he stays, I think at this point you have to start looking for higher firepower guys that can lessen his workload. All right, we've gone for like an hour already, so we're gonna get out of here, Yova, why don't you tell us what you guys are working on over at the Athletic right now?

u Ha. I have my podcast there, Bouja's Block. I'm doing postgame reactions after every game, and then I will also be reacting to whatever happens with this offseason, going directly to YouTube and doing reaction videos there. So be sure to check that out and subscribe if you have not done so yet.

a personal family matter. Tomorrow morning we'll have a breakdown of tonight's games, and then Saturday night we'll be going live after the final buzzer of Lakers Nuggets.