Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors outlast Kings, Russ dooms Lakers, Spurs-76ers, Suns-Clippers

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in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an amazing weekend. We are going to touch on five different games today and at least some capacity. We had the Kings and the Golden State Warriors in a very high scoring affair last night.

On Saturday night, the Philadelphia is seventy sixers had an embarrassing loss to the San Antonio Spurs to drop to three and oh, we're gonna be talking about that game. Washington and Cleveland last night had a really interesting overnight overtime game excuse me. And then the Phoenix Suns went in to Los Angeles and beat the crap out of the Clippers, and then I had some follow up thoughts on the Laker game from last night. Those are the five games are gonna be hitting on. You guys know

the drill before we get started. Subscribed to the volume's YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lts you guys, don't miss any show announcements. And then last but not least, if or whatever, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get

your podcasts under Hoops tonight. And then one final note, So starting tomorrow we are it's gonna be even more content coming your way. Guys. We're gonna do starting tomorrow, three additional live shows per week on AMP, which is

a live radio platform. We're gonna be targeting Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday for the first three shows on this new platform, they're gonna be We're gonna be going live in the earlier portion of the evening, so the way it'll work is the first sleigh of games will happen, you know, the games that started at four thirty Pacific time. When those games are done, we're gonna go on AMP and

instantly react to those games. Then we'll go back and watch the evening games, and then for shows like two Day and Wednesday Night, will go on YouTube for the post game show at the end of the night. So again you're gonna have two live shows each of the next two nights, and then another live show on Thursday, so you can count on three additional live shows per week on AMP. So you're gonna want to go to

my Twitter feed. On my Twitter feed, I have a tweet announcing this particular new set of live shows that has a convenient little link you can click on. When you click on that, it takes you to AMP Shows. You the app, you can follow Hoops tonight there. That's gonna be a huge portion of our content over the course of the season, So you're definitely going to want to follow me there. Um. But obviously we're still gonna

be doing a great deal of stuff on YouTube. So those those two places in Twitter are going to be the three places that you're gonna want to for sure be following as well as wherever you end up getting your podcasts if you guys can't get there, because everything will eventually be redistributed as a podcast. But in terms of timeliness with those live shows, if you want to see them live, that's where you're gonna get them, all right. So starting with Sacramento and Golden State, so a couple

of rough defensive games in a row. For Golden State, they really really struggled in this particular game guarding dribble penetration from Deer and Fox and Malik monk Um. Not just in dribble drive situations. A lot of dribble drive stuff from Deer and from Deer and Fox, a lot of pick and roll stuff from the Leak Monk, but both guys were just getting downhill way too often. And as we've talked about so much on this show, when you give up dribble penetration, it's just really hard to

play good defense on the back side of that. With how skilled everybody in the NBA is now, that's why I keep talking about how perimeter defense is the most important skill defensively in the league right now, particularly Jordan's Pool and Moses Moody had a tough time in my rewatch. Um. You know, Moses Moody in particular, was getting kind of

barbecued by deer and fox the um. I talked to you guys a lot in season about how it seems to me that over the course of this season, Golden State is willing to take a defensive hit to put Moses Moody through the ringer. It's his trial by fire. He's getting tough matchups almost every every time he checks into the game. It's clear to me that they're like, we see you as the guy that we're gonna be

leaning on big time in our playoff rotation. We need you to learn how to play perimeter defense, and so so much of that is building foot foot speed and quickness, lateral quickness, which can a great way to get those reps is to practice guarding super quick and skilled offensive players and then also anticipation getting reps against all of these guys during the regular season, so you just get a little bit better at anticipating what they're going to do.

That said, this was a win. There was a big late second quarter run from the Warriors in this game. Basically what happened was is moody and poor having trouble. When the starters came back in late second quarter, UH Steve curse which Andrew Wiggins onto Deer and Fox. Suddenly they got that dribble penetration under control because Andrew Wiggins is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Simultaneously, Steph Curry caught a heater. What a magnificent offensive game

that was from him. You could tell that left wing, that three point line, left wing extended is definitely his favorite spot to get to his off the dribble package. Um. But when you combined Wiggins finally slowing down Fox with Steph catching that heater, all of a sudden you're up eighteen. And it was kind of bizarre because to be up eighteen and a half where you gave up seventy one points is completely insane. And then from there they kind

of held him off the rest of the game. The game was never really truly hum and threatened until I think they got back within four and garbage time, but really that game was over. It's an ugly win, but a win is a win in UH in an eight two game regular season. You know, the Sixers and Lakers for instance, are losing these times of ugly games, so there's definitely a worse spot to be in. UM. The defense is not where it needs to be though, and

that's not a problem. It's only been three games, but it's just something to start kind of keeping an eye on as we go through the season. So here are some um. Here are some defensive metrics for the Warriors to start the season. There fifteen and defensive writing. They are twenty two in rebound percentage, meaning the total number of available rebounds that they grabbed by percentage. They were twenty feet in points in the paint allowed per one possessions.

Not great, but they are doing a really nice job depending defending the three point line their seventh and opponent three point makes, which coincides with the fact that they've only been allowing nineteen point three wide open threes per game, which is the eighth best number in the league in that particular metric. All this amounts to, according to Cleaning the Glass, the sixteen best half court defense in the league,

so the very middle of the pack right now. And they are eighth in transition defense according to Cleaning the Glass, so infammation they're defending the three point line really well. They're defending in transition really well, but they're below average just about everywhere else on defense right now. And that's all amounting to a very average defense. Super early doesn't

mean anything. This is why I'm a big believer in tracking metrics over the eight two Over the course of a season, no matter who you are, you're gonna have nights where the Sacramento Kings lights you up because you're just not playing much defense. That's just going to happen to every single team in the league. But that's why we track those metrics. Based on all thirty teams overall eighty two games. That's an average. It accounts that for everybody.

And when I'm looking at um, when I'm looking at these defenses as we progress around the season, I want to see your defensive rating in the top ten. So they're in there fifteen right now, so not a great start, but that's kind of a metric that I want to see them hit. Every contender that we're looking at, I want to see you top ten in defense. I want to see you at least great great at one of two things. Either eight at defending the three point line,

are great at defending the paint. Those are the two most efficient shots in basketball. If you can be great at erasing one of those, that's a good foundation. Obviously, rebounding is important and then transition defense. That to me, rebounding and transition defensives are all about coaching and how tight you are in your details. It's hard enough to win playoff series when you're not beating yourself, so you

need to find ways to not beat yourself. So let's just kind of touch base on that again with the Warriors in about a week or so and just kind of see if they make some improvement on that front, which I expect them to moving on to San Antonio, Philly. So this one I just watched the fourth quarter, so they the Spur the Sixers ended up taking a lead eight to eighty seven on a Joel and Be dunk um early fourth quarter, and you know you're feeling good

at that point, like playing with your food. We just talked about this with the Warriors. That's kind of a staple of the NBA regular season. When you're playing eighty two games, it's normal to go through these stretches where you're like the Santata on a Spurs are in town, like, let's just get through this game, and you hang around, and then they take a few five point leads, and you take a few five point leads, but no one really pulls the game away, and then in the fourth

quarter you turn it up. You get the way you get out of tempt, right, that's the way you're you're supposed to handle that sort of thing. But right now the problem is that the Sixers aren't really playing very good basketball overall. So after Joel Embi dunks it to go up seven, the Sixers lose Doug McDermott in transition

for a wide open three that he nails. Then on the very next possession, um the uh the Spurs set a back screen for Doug McDermott, and Daniel House was guarding Doug McDermott, and he tried on these next two plays that I'm referencing that he went on the opposite end of the screen. And you know that you refer to that as going under the screen, but on a backcut,

it actually looks like you're going over a screen. That is a very dangerous thing to do against a shooter or with a vacated paint, because as soon as you get disconnected from a player who's going around a screen, you now have to cover more ground then that offensive player is covering. And so if you're not flying around

and to make a play, you're gonna get beat. And so on this one, instead of locking and trailing McDermott so that if he caught it, you're right there to block the shot, he went under the screen or over since it was a backscreen, and ended up too late. McDermott was wide open for a lap. Very next possession, Doug McDermott comes off a double wide, pinned down to shoot a catch and shoot three at the top of the key. Daniel House tried to go underneath the picks

and so guess what he got disconnected from McDermott. When McDermott caught there was nobody in his airspace, and when he rose up, Daniel House contested the shot, but at that point he's already up into his release, comfortable and confident. That's not good defense. And so next thing you know, after he McDermott goes on this solo eight oh run,

suddenly you're down seven. And then on the very next possession, Doug McDermott runs off another seat of a wide screens to get a shot, and Tyrese Maxie is on him this time does a night job locking and trailing McDermott, but James Harden randomly just double teams McDermott on the on the as he's coming off the screen. The Spurs just skip it across the court pass pass, and there's a wide open layup because now you're in rotation because

you just doubled somebody for no particular reason. There's another play in that run where Joel embiide Um made a kickout pass to Tobias Harris in the corner that he missed but then didn't actually run back on defense, and Yako Purtle just beat him down the floor and got an offensive rebound put back. So it's like, my thing is like, it's okay to play with your food. That's kind of normal. It's gonna happen during the course of

the regular season. The differences is like the Warriors played with their food but did what was necessary to win the game and had these spurts of really good basketball that put them away, like they did in the end of the second quarter when the Sixers game control of the game up eight seven, they went back to playing bad basketball. And when you start playing bad basketball just becomes about variants. You know, like Tobias Harris missed two why open threes in the right corner in the fourth

quarter of this game. Like that's variants. Like even good wide open shooters are gonna miss shot. Sometimes there's a player retires. Max he caught the ball in the left corner and had an easy driving layoup, but he stepped out of bounds. You know, it's bad luck. That's three possessions that you lose there. But at the end of the day, when you're playing bad basketball and you play with your food, you run the risk of variants beating you. And in this case, Doug mc dermocconda heater and you

ended up losing a game. So I mean kind of zooming zooming out. For the Sixers, they're owing three now, they will be one in three after tonight because they're going to beat Indiana. I'd be stunned if they lost that game. Um, James Harden was awesome in the first two games, but Joel Embiad was awful in the first two games. Uh And Bead was awesome in the third game, but James Harden was awful in that game. Um, you know, I've I've obviously I've been someone who's been on the

James Harden's Canna Ever revenge campaign? Um type of season, their type of a take as it as it pertains of the Sixers in their potential this year. He had a bad game. That's going to happen. Obviously, we need a lot more than three games to determine whether or not James Harden his back. I still think he looks great, but he didn't play well against San Antonio. But the problem there is not that um um, you know, James Harden played poorly once, so that Joel Embiid played im

poorly twice. They both need to be better. This is gonna be a consistent theme as we're going down the line, when we're getting to Paul George and Kawhile Leonard here in a couple of minutes, or when we get to Lebron James and Anthony Davis when we talked about the Lakers later, Like these teams that are star late and the ones that rely on their top tier stars to lead the way. If they are inconsistent and they don't consistently find ways to dominate games, you're not you're not

gonna be very good. And right now, the Sixers have two stars that can't consistently play well. They're not very good. The Lakers have two stars that can't consistently play well. They're not very good. So that's something to keep an eye on for both of those teams. The Sixers have had stretches of great defense and stretches of awful defense. Um, they just need consistency. They consistency from their stars, consistency and defensive effort, and they'll be fine there. This is

not a roster issue. I've been asked that twice in our live shows. I don't think it's a roster issue. It's just bad basketball. They need to play better basketball. Um. Specifically, they are twenty nine and transition defense according to Cleaning

the Glass right now. Uh, specifically, Joel Embiid is absolutely killing them in that department by just lingering in the backcourt and trying to draw fouls and doing all sorts of stupid ship that's getting him caught up and not getting back on defense and time, and it's killing the Sixers. Big green, you know, big kind of silver lining. The

Sixers are sixth in half court defense right now. According to Cleaning the Glass, so Washington Cleveland, the Calves are up by seven in this game with less than a minute left UM, and it was a pretty remarkable quick comeback. They didn't even need but twenty seconds to tie this basketball game. Chris apps porzingis stuck a nasty step back

three over Jared Allen. The Calves in bound to Donovan Mitchell, and Bradley Beale just rips him and then goes up to the basket, draws a foul, goes to the line, makes two free throws, and then the Calves go back into Donovan Mitchell. He brings the ball to the floor. Will Barton brings a bunch of ball pressure and he rips Donovan Mitchell and goes down and dunks it. And like everyone in theren is just looking around at each other. They can't even believe what just happened, and suddenly the

game is tied. UM. So the game goes to ot and uh. Kyle Kuzman in particular was pretty sloppy and overtime.

He missed a couple of free throws, and then there was another play where Bradley Beale drove baseline and Kyle Kuzma was in the week side corner and de lawn Right was in the dunker spot and as Beale was going through, you know, we we talked about this a lot off you guys remember over the summer when we did our five out Offensive Principles video and we just kind of broke down with five out offense looks like but everything about you know, these dribble drive and kick

five out offenses depends on relocation. So like it's effectively like a wheel. As players are iving and kicking, you're always taking a spot and you're always causing people to leave their spot and go to empty spots around the floor and so on this play, Bill's driving baseline, And so what was supposed to happen is de lan Right, who's in the dunker spot, is supposed to vacate out to the corner, and Kyle Kuzma is supposed to vacate up to the wing, and then as Bill goes out

to the corner, then they all kind of loop around right. Well, instead, what happened is Kuzma stayed parked in the corner, Delon Right ran into him, and then Kuzma pointed at De lawn Right to go up to the wing. And then Kuzma went up to the wing with him, even though he just told him to go up there. All of a sudden, there's nobody in the corner, and that's your

main outlet as you're driving and kicking. Like every team always wants to keep that corner, the strong side corner and the weak side corner filled with shooting or just an option, because when you're driving to the basket, it is very difficult to make cross body passes back out to the wing or to the top of the key. The easiest passes are to the corners. You gotta keep

them occupied. So just a couple of sloppy mistakes from kuzma Um that caused him an issue on that particular turnover, Chetty Osman ran out and got an and one, and the game was basically over huge place from calves in in O t um Carris Lavert had a really nasty pull up jump shot on Bradley Beale, like a step back at the left elbow where he got a ton of separation. And then Donovan Mitchell blew right by Delon Wright rejecting a pick and roll what got downhill and

and uh Um got an and one. Delan right in particular, at a really hard time keeping Donovan Mitchell in front. Down the stretch of this game, there was a not only was he beating about the dribble, but at the end of regulation, after the catastrophe from Donovan Mitchell that caused the game to be tied, he hit his step back move on Delan Right where he exited the frame like he didn't fall, but like he was. He generated fifteen feet of separation and Donovan Mitchell was completely wide

open on the right wing. He just missed the shot. So, UM, i've it was interesting that Delon Right was even in the game at that specific point. Um, I would probably gone with Monty Morris, but I I it is, it is what it is. I don't know. I haven't watched the Wizards enough to have a really good feel for how they all played together. I just thought that Delon Right kind of felt like the weak link to me in that closing lineup. Jared Allen has been the most

impressive Cavalier to me so far. You know what's funny is is he I hated his contract when he signed it. Some of you guys who have been listening for a while I will probably remember that I just gotta crow on that I was completely wrong. Um, he's a lot. I hated it because I viewed him as like a very traditional shot blocking center that can roll hard to the rim and and have some vertical spacing. And I hate the idea of spending, you know, twenty million dollars

a year on someone like that. But the truth is is that Jared Allen is actually a lot closer to go bear defensively than he is to like a Damian Jones for instance. He is not a stay geotypical rim protector and vertical spacer. He's one of the best in the league at it right now who also switches out

to the perimeter really well. There was a play it was either late regulation, I think it was ot where he got switched out onto Bradley Beal and Bradley Bill tried to pull Jared Allen out to the corner so he could throw it down to the post, and in the process Jared Allen just pressured up and Ball pressured him, forced him to throw a very looping pass and it ended up getting turned over. And I like he did. He did well on switches throughout the game. I I

was really impressed by Jared Allen in this one. UM, and now you know he's better offensively than Gobert. He can punish switches and knocked down a little hook shot. He's more, he's just he's just a damn good basketball player. UM, and now his contract looks a lot better than Rudy Gobert's. Obviously, Rudy Gobert is a better player than Jared Allen. I want to be clear about that, although I do think

it's closer than people think. UM, but at his number, at his contract number, I'd certainly rather have UM Jared Allen at this point. The Uh Cleveland so far as eighth and half court defense according to Cleaning the Glass, despite having a pretty bad defensive backcourt. So that's a nice start for Cleveland. Moving on to Phoenix Clippers. This game was over in the first quarter. Uh, just just a clinic in perimeter defense from Phoenix. I was watching this game and I made it like four or five

possessions in. I'm like, oh man, that like the Clippers are not getting downhill at all. So I started tracking it. Over the course of the rest of the quarter. We got through seven minutes of basketball before a Clipper finally got downhill. And in either engaged to help defender or or made a layup. And on the play that they did, it was a pocket passes Zoobots and I think Norm Powell cut out of the corner and Zubos dropped it

down to him for a layup. But I was like, man, that's the first time in almost the entire first quarter that they got downhill And the main reason why was the mcale Bridges just absolutely locked Paul George up, like Paul George is gonna have nightmare is about Michael Bridges for weeks. And then they kept going to Marcus Morris to attack Devin Booker because of the size mismatch. Into Devin Booker's credit, he kept slidding his feet and taking contact in the chest and forcing him to take tough

jump shots. He actually made a couple of them. But like overall, on the perimeter, Phoenix contained the dribble drive and if the Clippers don't get dribble penetration, their offense falls apart. And I mean, yes, Kauai wasn't playing in that first quarter, but Quaie in particular looks pretty slow right now, and he didn't look great when he came in later in the game, So just something to keep an eye on for both teams like that. For Phoenix

is a legit weapon their ability to contain the basketball. Um. Yes, Chris Paul doesn't look great yet, but they're getting so much out of Devin Booker right now. Might not it might not even matter. Phoenix very clearly is still more than talented enough to win a ton of games in this league. We'll get to them more in just a second. But with the Clippers, they early in the season. John Wall really is the only guy on the roster who's been getting consistent germal penetration, and that's gonna be a

problem for them. I've talked a little bit about how I'm concerned about some of the age of their wings and if Kauai and Paul George similar to the Embid hardened things, similar to the Lebroni d thing. If Kawai and Paul George don't start playing like top fifteen players soon, the Clippers are gonna start to flounder a little bit. Um and how deep this league is. So with Phoenix, Chris Paul has been off to start the year, but Booker has been so good that it doesn't matter his

shot making in that first quarter was insane. Hit a nasty step back over Paul George at the left elbow. He had like a one legged, like crazy double pump short jump shot over Marcus Morris driving along the left block that was insane. He had another nasty pull up three.

By around the three minute mark of the first quarter, the Clippers were blatantly double teaming Devin Booker out at half court to get the basketball out of his hands, and immediately when they did, mcilbridge just got a dunk because now you're playing four on three on the back end. But just like, if Booker is gonna be this good, Booker has been playing like a top ten player to

start the season. If Booker is going to be this good, then it just doesn't matter what's going on with Chris Paul because how much talent there is on the rest of the roster um. You know, we we questioned before the season, will they, you know, flounder in the standings because of some of this drama, And I said, I was like, I don't know, they might, But what I said was they have the most was like, some of the most talent on the on the entire league outside

of their stars. So you know just by going out there and putting the jersey on, they're gonna win a lot of games, and so far they're off to a good start. Before we get out of here for the day, I wanted to just drop a couple of thoughts from the Lakers, um some positives to after what what everything that went down yesterday. I have not had a chance to completely rewatch this game. I'm gonna do that tomorrow during the day. Um, So keep an eye on my

Twitter feed during the day tomorrow. A couple of big bright spots. The Lakers are second in defensive rating. Yes, we've been critical of their perimeter shooting for good reason. I said before the season, they're gonna be the worst in the league, but it won't be this bad. Like they're literally shooting, you know, and the twenty nine ranked shooting team in the league is just under thirty percent.

So like, yeah, I don't think shooting is going to be a strength of this team unless they make a deal, which they will hopefully eventually. But the truth of the matter is is they're they're gonna shoot closer to thirty percent and closer to with the number two defense in the league is going to be enough to bump their offensive rating down up from the worst in the league

to something closer to the middle of the pack. Now, you know, I had a couple of people in the comments yesterday saying, like, how could you view this team as a second tier contender? Again, if you are a top five defense and you are a top fifteen offense, Like, if you're around fifteen in offense, you absolutely are right up there with the Phoenixes and the Denvers and the

sixers of the league. That's that's that second tier of contenders. Yeah, they're not talented enough to be a Slippers Celtics, Bucks Warriors type of team. That goes without saying they would need an enormous amount of luck in the trade market and in the buyout market to reach that point. But if they are a top five defense, they have Lebron James and Anthony Davis scrounging out a top fifteen offense.

That's a simple math. You're going to be a team that's capable of beating anybody in the league on the right night. Now, so much of that is going to depend on them getting that shooting back up to where it was and getting Russ out of the rotation. Particularly and crunch time, because you're gonna lose some games that way.

But I just wanted to draw put a little bit of positivity on this because for being oh and three, to have a couple of specific things you can point to as big positives, like being a great defensive team, that's something you can cling to, especially in that locker room when you're trying to keep people bought in when the winds aren't actually following the work that you're putting in.

Here's another really good stat The Lakers have played thirty eight possessions so far this year with Lebron and Anthony Davis on the floor without Russell Westbrook have a plus thirteen point two net rating, meaning they're beating teams by thirteen point two points per one possessions. And they've been awesome on both ends of the floor. So and that's too that to me is with Lebron and a d still not really playing that well. Like, I think they've

each had two great halves of basketball. I think Anthony Davis was great in the first half against the Warriors. I thought Lebron was great in the second half against the Warriors. And I thought both of them were great in the second half against the Blazers, but everything else has been pretty average by their standards, so they still have a lot that they can improve on. But even in spite of that, the two of them without Russ have been a dominant basketball team. That's a legitimate plus

that you can take from this. And then the last thing I wanted to say, I think it's time to send Russ home. Okay, So you want to play it cool, and you want to be patient, and you want to wait for the right trade. I get that. I mean, I don't get it at the expense of having Russ in the law locker room, but I get that. Now on the court, you have immense depth in the back court.

You actually don't need what Russ brings you. Troy Brown Jr. Came in yesterday and basically played the Russ role through, you know, the most of that second half run, you know, just just doing the things that they're asking Russ to do. Defend a little bit, bigger wings, you know, push the ball in transition, play off of Lebron and a d. He did all of those things and did them better than Russ does, because that's what he's been doing his whole career. He's been a role player his whole career.

Russ is trying to learn how to be a role player on the fly. So you're better without Russ. The numbers show that, Everything shows that. So rather than like, guys, that's toxic. After the Clippers game, I'm pretty sure a fan like cussed Russ out as he's walking out into the locker room. Yesterday, Lakers players are answering questions about the Russ crunch time thing. Lebron's having to tell reporters like, Hey, I'm not gonna tell you what you want me to say.

You know, we had one Toscano Ander Sin having to defend Russ in the locker room after the Clippers game. The media is doing their job. They're asking those questions because it's their job. One of the biggest stories early in the season is how clunky the rust fit is, and it literally cost them a game on Sunday against the Blazers. So we can pretend all we want that it's not a big story. It is. It is the biggest story. It's the biggest story with this Lakers team.

That's the reality. Okay. The second biggest story is probably the shooting issue. The shooting issue. The only way they can resolve it is by trading Russ, So everything comes back to us at the end of the day. The reporters are just doing their jobs by asking those questions.

The real culprit here is Robin Genie for not knowing somehow or just choosing to not accept the truth that if they brought Russ back, the basketball would be clunky, the fans would have a huge problem with it, and the media would would help stoke that fire because it's good for media success. All of that is fact, and they knew that we had tons of evidence to show that last year, and they brought Russ into this anyway. They did this to him. He is a victim of

what Robin Genie have done to him. The media is doing their job. Russ is the story. The fans have every right to be upset. Their team is struggling because because of the Rush trade and the rust fit is clunky and is hurting the team right now. All of that is true, but they also are playing well without Russ and have enough depth in the backcourt that they don't need him. So spare everybody the trouble. Let him go home to his family, Let him stay in shape

and condition, he'll get moved somewhere. The next time he plays basketball will be for a team that wants him there and that wants him to have the basketball in his hands. And or he'll be out of the league long enough that he'll embrace the role player things and at that point he can play basketball in a less

toxic environment. Then the Lakers can patient. If they want to wait till the deadline to make a deal, they can, but at least in the meantime they've got all players that fit alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and they have time to build continuity with those lineups, because when you make the Rush trade, all you'll be doing is bringing in more players to help supplement that. There's just no reason to keep him around at this point, Darvin Ham,

you got to save him from himself. He can't help himself. But put Russ into the game for whatever reason, Darvin Ham said after the game. Why they asked him, why did you go with Russ and Crunch time when that lineup was playing so well? He said, I wanted more athletic. I wanted another athletic perimeter defender out there. Troy Brown is a better athletic perimeter defender than Russ. Right now, that's that that that he played better defensively in that

game yesterday. So Darvin Ham is not seeing it or is willingly going against it. For the sake of Russ's ego, you have to save Darvin from himself by getting Russ out of the locker room. If Rob Polinko wants to methodically work out and have an opportunity to prove to us that patience was the right strategy to the Rush trade, fine, but don't subject Russ to this anymore. Don't subject the

basketball team to this anymore. Send him home like it'll be better for literally everyone involved, and then not to mention it will help you regain leverage and negotiations when the Russ basketball is like right now, you look desperate because Russ is out there hurting your team. Send him home. I don't care if you take two three months to make a trade at that point. At the very least, let this team, this group learn how to play with each other. Then you can bring in reinforcements when you're

ready to make a deal. That's where I'm at with the Lakers right now. Alright, So, like I said, you guys know the drill. Tomorrow we're gonna be doing our first AMP show. Um, I believe it's after the um the evening game. I'll tweet out exactly which game we're going after, but we'll be doing a live show there and then we're gonna be on YouTube after the final buzzer of the Warriors game tomorrow night. So I think

it's Warrior Sons if I remember correctly. So make sure you get over to my Twitter feed and download the AMP app and then follow hoops tonight there and then definitely be on my twitter feeds you guys can get an idea of where things are going to be in terms of show scheduling. All right, As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys a sport and I will see you times too Tomorrow. The volume