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the weekend. And after Tuesday, when Kevin Durant recommitted to the Brooklyn Nets, I had a feeling that pretty quickly the Lakers would begin to execute their backup plan. We have some precedent here. This is pretty similar to what happened with the Lakers in two thousand nineteen with Kawhi Leonard. Kauai made them wait a little while they had time to cultivate a backup plan, and then they executed that
backup plan when they didn't get Kauai. Pretty similar to what happened with Kyrie this summer, albeit with trades as opposed to traditional free agent signings. Well, that first deal went down last night, or at least was intellectually agreed upon last night. It was consummated this morning. But Stanley Johnson and Taylor Horton Tucker are going to the Utah Jazz and Patrick Beverley is coming back to the Los Angeles Lakers. At first, I didn't really like the trade
when I first saw it come down last night. I'm very high on Stanley Johnson, not just as who he is as a basketball player in a vacuum, but with this particular Lakers team that is so thin on the wing, I viewed him as very valuable. So initially I wasn't super high on the deal, but thankfully you know it's funny. I knew I needed a couple of hours to really digest all of the different elements of the trade the
players involved. The players of the Lakers signed this summer to potentially help that situation how it impacts next summer. The fit with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. I knew I needed to take a lot of time, and it was I was having a date night with my wife, so I knew I'd get in huge trouble if I just dropped everything that we were doing and got on my computer for a while. So I just put my phone down, put it on do not Disturb, and I was like, I will get to this in the morning.
And then this morning I dove into it, and honestly, I'm a lot higher on the deal than I was last night, and I will explain why during the show today. The way I want to do this is I want to get into each of the players to talk about their strengths and weaknesses specifically so that we can understand the value exchange that is taking place in this trade.
I want to talk about the Leakers front office and what this kind of indicates from them in their trajectory over the last few years, because I think that's interesting. I want to talk about this year's Lakers team and the identity that is starting to take shape with this Patrick Beverley deal, as well as the deal that I expect to follow shortly thereafter. And then, last but not least, we're gonna briefly touch on the chet Home Grin injury which is going to keep him out for the season.
You guys know the deal. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts, you don't miss any show announcements. And last but not least, if you miss one of these shows and you can't get over to YouTube to finish it, don't forget that we release them in audio form wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight,
all right, let's start with Patrick Beverley. He's not my favorite guy, not even having to do with basketball, just as a guy. The the whole loud mouth concept is not is not my favorite type of personality. Pushing Chris Paul in the back after losing a basketball game, the way he's behaved on first take, being like outwardly aggressively
disrespectful to people. He's gotta like. He's got dozens of of one liners and interviews and press conferences and show appearances and stuff where he I think, in my opinion, is as crossed the line in terms of respect to to his peers around the league. That's just my opinion on who he is as a guy. That's separate from who he is as a basketball player. Patrick Beverley is a very good basketball player, and he and for all of the attitude things I said, he's not a mal content.
He rex that behavior outside of the locker room, which is a good thing. He doesn't beef with teammates, so his behavior is not going to negatively affect the Lakers in my opinion. The one thing I will say, though, is the beef that exists between Patrick Beverley and Russ
makes it way more likely that Russell Westbrook will be traded. Obviously, Patrick Beverley is the one that injured Russell Westbrook's knee, and then Russo Westbrook had comments basically undercutting Patrick beverley success as a as a defensive player, which Patrick Beverley took exception two because he thought that was him actively attacking his perception around the league and potentially costing him money.
There's a lot of bad blood there, so I think you can pretty safely assume that Russ is going out of the Lakers locker room as a result of this Patrick Beverley deal. But I did want to get into the basketball a little bit. He is a downright disruptive point of attack defender. We talked about the difference between positional defenders and this uptive defenders to positional defenders give
ground to make you shoot over the top. Disruptive defenders are more aggressive forward, trying to disrupt your handle and shooting pocket, but they're more likely to give up straight line drives. We're gonna get a little bit more into that later as it pertains to the fit with the Lakers. But he is a downright disruptive point of attack defender.
He's what I would call a test. He's a guy that is actively doing things that aren't even necessarily normal basketball behaviors because he's trying to get in your head. He's trying to frustrate you, he's trying to get you outside of your element and to be uncomfortable. There's a great deal of value there because there's nothing. There's nothing that's more important to an offensive player playing well than
his comfort. If he feels comfortable dribbling the basketball, if he feels comfortable getting to his shot, in all likelihood, he's going to have a good shooting night. These guys are too talented, they work too hard to not play well when they're comfortable. Patrick Beverley actively attacks your comfort zone and tries to make you play outside of that, and a lot of players really struggle with that, which is why he's as success full of defensive player as
he is. He plays with consistent energy, and like the real kind of consistent energy where he really tries on every single possession, not the Russ's consistent energy, where it's more more of the the the the yelling and the screaming and the jawing, and there's a whole lot of possessions being taken off, uh, surrounding that, so it's kind of more showy than it is a substance, you know what I mean. He's a decent catching shoot three point shooter sixty for one fifty six last year, that's thirty.
He's seven for fifteen on catching shoot threes in the playoffs, which was what does that amount to. He's a standard spacing threat. He's not a guy that people are going to actively account for off the ball, but he is a guy that the that teams will play normal uh positional defense off of him when he doesn't have the basketball. They'll be far enough away that they can help, but close enough that they feel like they can close out. They're not going to abandon Patrick Beverley and leave him open.
Because he has proven himself as a willing and capable catch and shoot three point shooter, he's also really smart attacking closeouts, and he can make some plays as a second side creator. This is again this is there's a huge difference between primary side creator, meaning you're attacking a set defense, you bring the ball up the floor, the defense is set in perfect positioning, and you're attacking. Patrick's
not going to succeed in that specific situation. But if he's attacking closeouts meaning the defenders out of position and sprinting out at him, or he's a second side creator meaning he's running an action after the defense has already been put into rotation, he can actually have some success there. He had two hundred and sixty eight assists this year
to just sixty seven turnovers. That is a three point six seven assists to turnover ratio among all players in the league who played at least fifty games and at least twenty minutes per game. I would call that any normal, full scale rotation player. He was fourth in the league and assisted turnover ratio behind just Tias Jones, Chris Paul and Montemore Us. So he is good at making plays against a compromised defense without turning the basketball over. That's
very impressive. He is a solid NBA starter. So if you look at it from that perspective, the Lakers are flipping two bench players for one starter, and as I said, going into the summer, the Lakers are in a predicament because if you don't count Russ, who's eventually gonna be sent out, they have two players on the entire roster who are NBA starters, Lebron James and Anthony Davis. They needed to bring in starter level NBA talent, and Patrick
Beverley absolutely fits that mold. The one huge red flag that I would take a look at here is health. Patrick Beverley has averaged forty seven games played in the last five years. He pretty consistently has a decent a pretty significant injury that keeps him out of decent chunk of the season. Let's take a look at the players that the Lakers are sending out. So first of all, Taylor, Horton, Tucker. I really liked Taylan and I really leaving his potential
as a two way power guard. The name that I always throw out is like the high end of his spectrum is Drew Holiday. That's unlikely, but he has that potential. That's a type of player that he could be if things go right. He's only twenty one years old, but he has a really low center of gravity. He's super strong, and he has very long arms that helps him guard
up in size. Despite only being six four, he can guard a six eight wing because of how strong he is, because how low a center of gravity is, and because of his long arms that allow him to be disruptive in someone's ball handling and in their shooting pocket. It also makes him offensively very difficult to knock off of his line. This is what I mean by power guard. Like, if you look at Drew Holiday, you think he guards
up a position. He can guard basically anybody but a big right because He's so strong and he is a low center of gravity, and if you put small guards on him, he could post them up and he can drive them to the basket at will. Because how big and strong he is, Tailor has that capability. I actually really like the way he attacks the basket too, because he doesn't seek foul calls. He tucks the basketball like a running back, goes up with power, and then extends
to try to finish at the rent. He averaged two point one restricted area makes per game this year on only twenty five minutes per game. That's pretty significant. There are a lot of players in my top list that weren't getting to the rim that often. Now, he did only finish at six there, which for a guard is okay, not good. But the dude can flat out get to the rim, and he's an excellent disruptive on ball defender. So those are his two elite skills right now. That
is that high end potential. Drew Holiday concept depends on those two skills being combined with a well rounded skill set around there. But he's in that well rounded skill set, He's got a long way to go. He cannot shoot the basketball. His release is too slow and he's set. He doesn't lift off the ground very high, which I don't know. I don't understand why any coach would allow a player, especially when with his potential to do that.
The main reason why is in the NBA, with the speed and the change of direction and things like that, I don't understand why you would want to slow yourself down to then shoot a set shot as opposed to shooting with more fluidity and pace like the vast majority of guards and wings in the NBA do. He shot only twenty seven on catch and shoot threes this year.
That's atrocious. He's actually a little bit more comfortable off the dribble, but it's because with his set shot it actually makes it easier for him to fade away and to step back because he uses his legs a lot shot off the dribble this year. But he has to make massive, massive, massive improvements as a shooter to ever reach that high end potential that I was talking about. As a passer, he misses way too many easy reads.
He makes flashy plays like you'll see Taylan, you know, in a pick and roll, get into the lane and make an awesome bullet passed to the weak side. Corner for a wide open three, and you'll be like, man, Taylor's got potential there, but you'll also see him miss that same read two or three additional times. For every one time he makes the read, he only averaged three point eight assists per thirty six minutes with two turnovers. That's not good as a playmaking guard. So right now,
he's pretty one dimensional offensively. He's also weak defensively off the ball, makes puzzling help decisions, and he frequently loses his man when he's watching the ball as a help defender. So if he improves as a shooter, improves as a decision maker, and improves as a as an off ball defender, he can reach the potential of like fringe all star guard like Drew Holiday, but he's got a long way
to go there. What that means is is Talen is an interesting young prospect, but he doesn't fit the Lakers timeline because in order to be impactful, he needs years to fix all of those things that I was just talking about, and he's only twenty one years old. So for Danny Ainge and Utah Jazz, it's just a timeline
swap you're teaching. Taking Patrick Beverley, who's a known commodity who's not getting any better, and you the Utah jazz A rebuilding, You're flipping him for Taylor Horton Tucker, a player who right now is not as good as Patrick Beverley, but has the potential to one day be much better. So I like the move for Utah in that regard, and I like to move for the Lakers in the sense that they're bringing back a player that more accurately fits their timeline and can actually help Lebron James and
Anthony Davis win games right now. That swap made sense to me where I had concerned last night with Stanley Johnson. Alright, So first I need to reveal my biases here. I'm a huge fan of Stanley Johnson. I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. He came here and played at the University of Arizona for one year before he went to the NBA, and him and I played against each other a lot while he was here during the off season, and we had a good relationship, and I just like
the guys. So that's gonna color my analysis here a little bit. But he also is directly a very important fit within what the Lakers need on this roster. This Lakers team is sorely lacking in wing size, and Stanley is their biggest and most athletic wing. He's six seven with shoes on, and here's the big one. He's two hundred and forty two pounds. That is huge for a wing.
Lebron James is considered one of the biggest and most physically imposing wings in the entire history of basketball, and he played most of his career about two sixty and Stanley Johnson's two forty two. The vast majority of six six wings in the league are like two ten to fifteen, and he's two under and forty two pounds. That allows him to guard up in size. He also has a seven foot wingspan. He is the best defensive being on the roster for the Lakers now. In fairness, can't shoot
on catch and shoot threes this year. He attacks closeouts well and can pass the basketball, but it's not enough to make up for his other offensive shortcoming, so that does make him a bench wing. My thing is, with how thin they are on the wing, I would have looked at other options before I would have allowed Stanley to go that easily and now I don't know the situation. I don't know if Danny Ainge insisted on taking Stanley
or what the deal was. And look, if he insisted on taking Stanley, then you gotta throw Stanley in the deal because flipping Taylor for Patrick Beverley is is worth it. But that specifically was my one big reservation about this deal. One thing I'll say in defense of Rob Polinka, Juantaskano, Anderson, and Troy Brown Jr. Effectively do fill this role. And with the two of them and Austin Reeves on the rosters, they should be able to fill that role. It's just
a matter of depth. I would have looked at other options before losing Stanley because of the depth and because of matchups. Him being two hundred forty two pounds that's so much heavier than a Troy Brown Jr. Or in Austin Reeves. That allows him to guard bigger wings and forwards that those guys just simply can't guard. So that was my one big reservation from the deal. So zooming out from the trade a little bit, you're flipping a bench wing and a bench guard for a solid NBA
starting point guard. So that's a good exchange for the Lakers, they also get off Taylor Horton Tucker's contract, which gives them more long term flexibility, which we'll talk about here in just a few minutes. I also really like, specifically what Patrick Beverley does offensively and defensively alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis in Minnesota. Because of Anthony Edwards and D'Angelo Russell and their lack of confidences ball handlers in a lot of situations, pet beeB was asked to do
a lot with the basketball. He also had a good matchup against John rand so he was attacking a lot. But the reality is is, alongside On James and Anthony Davis, he is going to be able to hyper focus his skills in in the directions that he's great at, ball pressure, being a disruptive defender, being a great rebounding guard, shooting in spot up situations, attacking with an advantage on the
second side, and attacking closeouts. He's gonna be able to direct his racehorses in the directions that he's most capable of. But this is why the Pacers trade is so important. The proposed Buddy Healed Miles Turner for Russell Westbrook in two first round picks trade. When you lose Russell Westbrook and you lose Taylor Horton Tucker, all of a sudden, your backup creators outside of Lebron are Kendrick Nunn and
Patrick Beverley, which is just not good enough. Buddy Healed fills that role of that secondary creator next to Lebron that properly slots Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn as weak side creators, and Healed provides that off the dribble shooting that I've always found so value. But we've talked about this before, but just about every point guard that has played for the Lakers has been a bad shooter. You know, Region Rondo, Dennis Shrewder, Russell Westbroog, You guys get the point.
And what ends up happening is it makes the the Anthony Davis point guard pick and roll useless because teams can go underneath the screen and they don't have to account for off the dribble shooting. Buddy Held is an outstanding off the dribble, high volume, three point shooter, so that makes it so that guards have to chase him over the top of the screen, which changes the dynamic of the pick and roll. If the guard is chasing over the top of the screen, Buddy Healed can get
downhill into the lane. If Buddy Heald can get downhill into the lane, then the big man and the drop coverage has to step over to contain Buddy Healed. If the bigest containing Buddy Healed and the guard is chasing over the top, who's rolling untouched to the rim. It's
gonna be Anthony Davis. They're gonna have to pull guys out of the week side corner to tag Anthony Davis as a roller, which is gonna open up wide open shots on the week side, or if they stay on that shooter, Anthony Davis is gonna get pocket passes or lobs for dunks all day long. So Buddy Heald is immensely important now to the Lakers because you can't have Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn being your secondary creators and you need to unlock that Anthony Davis pick and roll again.
As far um as Miles Turner goes, this is a two big team. Not only did you just bring in another small guard, but you just shipped off your biggest wing. This is a team that is very heavy on little guards and big players centers, right, So you're not gonna be playing Anthony Davis at the five because you don't have enough wing size. This is a two big team. Lebron is gonna play most of the season at the three, and Anthony Davis is gonna play most of the season
at the four. And I like Thomas Bryant and I like Damian Jones, but on good teams, they're bench bigs. So Miles Turner brings in a starting level NBA center to fill that role once again. Now, if with this deal, I can competently set confidently say that the Lakers have five NBA starters because they have Patrick Beverley, Buddy Yield, Lebron, a d and Miles Turner. Miles Turner is an interesting player because his value is so specific to this system
in the modern NBA. He can shoot a little bit, and he's an outstanding rim protector, and he runs the floor okay, But like a lot of bigs, he struggles in spaced out situations and he's not gonna be able to guard on the perimeter. He's also not grad at attacking close out, so you're never gonna use him in a five out, you know, attacking closeouts type of system. You're not going to count on him to an extended
advantage or to drive and kick to other teammates. Defensively, you would never play him with small lineups where he needs to cover a lot of ground, But in huge lineups where you're primarily funneling guys to biggs and you're using drop coverages instead of switching, you can keep him
near the rim where he's more impactful. Turner has weaknesses and teams will find ways to attack him, but he also has emense strengths and they can at least try to build the system around turner strengths, and you can kind of kind of start to see the identity of the Lakers taking shape. They are going to be an a an aggressive perimeter defense team that is willing to give up drives because they're gonna have a ridiculous back line. Defensively, Miles Turner is one of the best shot blockers in
the league. So is Anthony Davis. Lebron James when engaged, is a dynamic help defender on the back line. The three of them cleaning up messes on the back line will allow Patrick Beverley to be more aggressive on the perimeter.
It will allow Buddy Healed, a limited defensive player, to focus on ball pressure, to focus on disruption, knowing if he gives up a drive, it's not the end of the world because there's a ton of help behind him and he just needs to rotate out to the next guy and then on the offensive end of the floor. Spacing is gonna not be great, but at least Miles Turner as a shooting five, can go to the corner or go on the opposite wing, and you'll be able to run high pick and roll with Anthony Davis. It's
not gonna be a five out driving kick attack. It's gonna be a traditional high pick and roll and mismatch attacking type of system. But Miles Turner's ability to come. He's not a great shooter, but he's a competent shooter. His ability to be a competent shooter will at least provide them better spacing than they had in the season when that big man was Dwight Howard and Javaiale McGee, and the Lakers half court offense suffered that year because
of spacing. I think it'll be a little bit better this year if they can get Miles Turner into that role. So as far as grading this trade goes, it's an incomplete. If they get Buddy Healed and Miles Turner, I'll give it a beat because it fits the identity of the team. But I don't like losing and Ley Johnson. But we can't technically give them that trade until the following trade, whatever it is, ends up actually taking place, So I'd
give it an incomplete as of right now. But once again, just like every other season of this Lakers era, everything comes down to health. Miles Turner has had health issues. He's played less than fifty games two years in a row. Patrick Beverley is averaging less than fifty games in the last five years. Lebron James and Anthony Davis had have had health issues. If they all get hurt again this year,
this is another team that will miss the playoffs. But if they all stay healthy, they can be damn good. The other angle of this trade is the future. Getting off of Taylor Horton. Tucker's deal gives the Lakers more cap space next summer. There are other factors there, obviously, like if they trade and obtained Buddy Healed. Buddy Healed has one more year on its contract, but Russell Westbrooks salaries bigger than Healed and Turner, so chances are that
they make up some of that ground there. But then again, he'd be in expiring so they might be able to move him. There's a there's a bunch of different pieces in play, but they could have as much as thirty five million dollars in cap space next summer. That's the max.
That's if they somehow managed to shed all the salary after the season, Because Lebron James and Anthony Davis alone leave the Lakers with only thirty five million dollars in max in cap space, that's not enough to offer a max, but it is enough to attract high level players who would be willing to play with the Lakers. Alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. There were three names that I looked at when I was looking at next year's free
agents that I thought were interesting. Obviously, Kyrie Irving. We don't have to get into his fit. I've done that several times on the show, but he has said that he wants to go to l A. Obviously, if things go south in Brooklyn this year, I would imagine that he'd be the top target for the Lakers. James Harden is also potentially a free agent next year if he opts out of his player option, which his player option would be right around what the Lakers have in cap
space next year. I don't think that's a realistic option because I expect things to go well this year in Philly. I think James Harden has recommitted to taking care of his body. I expect him to have one of the best seasons of his career this year, and I expect the Sixers to be very good, and I expect him
to stay in Philly. But if something else goes south in Philly, for instance, if Joel Embiide gets hurt, or if James Harden for whatever reason doesn't have a great season, he could end up opting out of that deal and becoming an unrestricted free agent next year and looking outside of Philly, at which point the Lakers become a possible destination for him. There. The last guy I wanted to mention here is Andrew Wiggins. He's an unrestricted free agent
next summer. The Warriors will have his bird rights and have the ability to sign him again, but they're in a huge situation with luxury tax and and their payroll. So there's a decent chance that Joe Lake of ends up letting Andrew Wiggins go. Andrew Wiggins is not an All Star, but he's a very interesting fit. Well technically he was an All Star last year, but he's not an All Star type of player, but he's a very
interesting fit alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. To actually allow them to go small, you need a Legit three and D wing andy Legit three and D four power forward in order to put an Anthony Davis at center. Lebron James can do that at the four, but they've never had someone to fill in that spot at the three. It wasn't Trevor Ariza. They like Kyle Kuzmago. Maybe Andrew Wiggins could be that guy for them. Point is the
getting off of Taylor Horton. Tucker's deal gives the Lakers more cap space next summer, and they will be an interesting player in the free agent market, albeit a limited free agent class, but a couple of interesting names in there. So like, just to put a bow on it, I do like the trade, and I like the buddy healed Miles Turner deal again, You guys gotta there's flaws here. Miles Turner has issues, Buddy Healed has issues. But you
are flipping Russell west Brook. You're taking a roster that had nothing and potentially retro fitting it into a team that has real upside. So if you're gonna get that result, there's obviously going to be some risk. And the risk here is health. They need everybody to stay healthy. But if they do stay healthy, this will be a damn good team and they will be a team that absolutely has a chance to hoist the trophy at the end
of the year if they stay healthy. The last thing gole I wanted to look at this trade from was the Lakers and the totality of their predicament that they created over the course of the last couple of years. The truth of the matter is is it's extremely difficult to win an NBA championship. A lot of things have to go your way, not just off the court, but
on the court, Guys staying healthy, guys making shots. But there's obviously the stuff that's off the court that's under your control, the way you construct the roster, and it's it's it's already difficult enough without you sabotage dging yourself. This Lakers trade is an attempt to clean up a mess that they created. They decided that they valued Taylon Horton Tucker, a young prospect, over Alex Caruso, a proven
winning player who started an NBA Finals game. Then they had to trade Taylor with Stanley Johnson to get back a player and Patrick Beverley, who is a lesser version of Alex Cruso. Alex Crusoe is the same type of disruptive defender, the same type of impact effort player that also has the size to guard up several positions. He's a better player, and the Lakers are undoing damage that they did to themselves as a result, and it's really unfortunate.
The other angle I wanted to look at here is the Lakers have such an interesting direction that they're going in different than the other team around the league. All of the smart teams are going in on wings, players between six six and six ten that can guard multiple positions and dribble the basketball and shoot and do all the things that perimeter players do while also containing on the perimeter as defensive players. And the Lakers continue to
prioritize the exact opposite small guards and bigs. Arguably, their best free agent signing the summer was Thomas Bryant, a center. Their first trade targeted a small guard. They have shipped off Stanley Johnson, their biggest and most athletic wing. Their mid level exception signing was on an undersized guard that's not a great defensive player. The while all of the smart basketball minds in the league are going one way,
the Lakers are going the opposite way. It's one of the biggest reasons why I don't have a ton of confidence in the direction that Rob Bolinka has taken this team. Now, Lebron James and Anthony Davis are so damn good that
they might be able to win anyway. They actually did at one point in time, But at a certain point, if the Lakers are going to have consistent success in this league, they're going to need to have a front office that pays attention to what works in the modern NBA so that they can target those players so that they don't make mistakes that put themselves in a situation where they have to fix their own problems. Going after Russell Westbrook, sacrificing the wing defenders that they lost. Alex
Crusoe Contavious called a pope Kyle Kuzma. Any smart president of basketball operations that is aware of the direction the league is going is going to know that's a bad idea, and the Lakers did not, and so they walked headlong into the trap. And now they have to clean up the mess, and as a result, they have to make high risk moves like obtaining guys like Patrick Beverley and Miles Turner that haven't been healthy often and that have
flaw us. So it's just it's just an interesting it's it's an interesting dynamic because the Lakers have enough you know, cashet around the league to pull big names, but their front office is definitely a step behind the rest of the league and it will permanently as long as Rob Polink is in control. As long as Genie Buss allows the decision making process to work the way it does, the Lakers will be operating at a disadvantage and will
make it harder for them to win. All right, Before we get out of here today, I wanted to quickly touch on this Chet homegrown injury. So, first of all, as far as it pertains to Chet and his health. Hopefully this was just bad luck on the play where Lebron is barreling into him and not the classic issue that seems to happen to so many super tall players in basketball history, which is they have bad feet. Hopefully that's not what happens here to chat and hopefully he
makes a full recovery. The question that that was flying around this morning was should players play in pro ams? Should players play in the summer? And I find this to be such a stupid conversation that's frustrating for me to listen to. Now, if it was wet floor, Like, if it was about the wet floor, I get that, Like, yeah, no player, regardless of whether or not you're a pro, should be playing basketball in a dangerous floor. It's just not worth the risk. So let's set that aside for
a minute. As far as the discussion of pro players playing in pro ams or pickup games and things like that, basketball players have to play basketball individuals. I'm a big believer, Like I do individual training for my high school team, I'm a big believer in balance, for every one hour that you spend on individual work, you should spend an
hour doing it against a live defense. Because there is a huge difference, and you need to be able to bridge that gap, connect your individual work with something that you can comfortably do in a game. And the only way you can do that is playing basketball. And when you play basketball, there's a risk for injury. I don't care if you're playing against other pros, or you're playing against other overseas pros, or you're playing against other college players,
there's risk. Now do I think Lebron James and Anthony Davis should go play in l a fitness against a bunch of like meatheadlifters that don't know how to play and could get them hurt. No, of course not. But when it comes to live basketball against other competent basketball players, they should play in the offseason, and fear of injury is irrational. You could avoid playing pick up all summer and then get hit hurt on the first day of training camp because you land on someone's foot. Injuries are
part of the game. Basketball players have to play basketball. Therefore, some basketball players will get injured. It's part of the deal. I feel horrible for Chat and I hope that he makes a full recovery and I look forward to watching him next year. But there. There doesn't need to be some sort of you know, uh rehashing of whether or not basketball players should play basketball. That to me is so nonsensical. All right, guys, that is all I have
for today. As always, sincerely appreciate your support. We should be back on Sunday night. I will see you guys. Then the volume