Kings/Lakers Postgame Spaces

so far? It's going good. Yeah. Three games in a row, three wins in a row, I think for the third time this season. I think we won four in a row one time. But man, it's good to stack a couple of these together. It looked a little shaky early in the fourth. I thing we went about we went down seven. Oh yeah, man, this is a good one. This is a fun one. A lot of threes back and forth. But I'm well, man, how are you? I'm doing good? Um, It's been a day full of basketball

for me. I played a little bit this morning. I coached my high school kids. They gotta win tonight as well. And then the Lakers gotta win. So it's been a good day of basketball. But I'm excited to break this one down with you. It was an interesting game because the Lakers clearly came out lethargic. In my opinion, their health defense was horrible. They were missing a lot of box outs. The Kings looked more energetic. Lebron in particular, looked a little bit apathetic, and then he drove into

Alex lenn and what need a knee with him? And you could tell, like for the next long stretch of the game that that really bothered him physically. You could see him favoring it. You could see him kind of continuing to miss box outs and rotations, just trying. It seemed like he was just trying to make it to the final buzzer. Lakers had a little bit of a stretch there at the start of the second quarter where they looked amazing, and we'll get into the reasons why later.

Hin and th h teams white, but it was nice to see that even though for the most part they look lethargic and pour on both ends of the floor, they hit the gas at the end of the game. And when they hit the gas, they were better, and that is what good teams do. And I know people want to undersell and and try to undercut beating bad teams. But the Laker team, this Laker team has lost too bad teams a lot this season early on, and so I look at it more as taking care of business.

The Lakers took care of business tonight in a funky game, made plays on both ends of the floor down the stretch, and they deserve to win. Yeah. Man, we are in no position I keep saying to be picky about wins, especially where we are in the standings. Memphis just keeps winning. They don't look like they're gonna slow down. They look like they might lock up that fourth seed pretty soon. Here. Yeah, man, it's a it's a good win, and you have to kind of stack some of these wins together, and they

were able to do that tonight. I thought Sacramento hit a bunch of tough shots as well. We lost Buddy healed a few times off screens. That's gonna happen, But I thought you hit a few tough ones. Deer and Fox, I think they said, I don't know if they have if this number is correct, If I heard it right, he sho from three. I'm not sure if that if I heard that correct. Yeah, yeah, and he hit a bunch of them to night. He had a bunch of step back threes. I thought the Tyrese Haliburton one over

Mellow was a tough one. We had a four point. We missed a lot of layups where like it could have changed the tide of the game. Right, Like, we're on a big run, we're up like six, and we get like a turnover. I think Russ had a block and he went the other way and miss the Mr Russ no turnovers tonight, I believe he finished with no turnovers, right, and again you texted me like he had some bad shots,

and that's that's true. There are a bunch of bad shots that you can kind of convert over to turnovers. But it's nice to see him have just a good no turnover floor game, even if the shot selection a few times wasn't great. But I mean it was a it was a win. That's nice to stack them together and hopefully we can win the next one as well to to make it four. But yeah, we're in no position to be picky. Uh. This team is still trying to figure each other out. We lost a starter tonight

due to contractual reasons that help. We'll get back. Yeah, we'll get back on Friday. Um, So it was nice to kind of get gut this one out. I thought, you know, I thought Frank pushed a lot of the correct buttons tonight. Like every lineup decision, I thought it was correct. I thought he made, you know, a bunch of good tactical decisions. He wasn't rigid with his lineups like he was in the last game. I thought, you know, mirroring Dwight minutes, and we'll get to Dwight obviously later

mirroring his minutes with Alex Land. I thought that really changed kind of the course of the game as well. But this was a good way. It was a good, good game to get a win. Went on. Yeah, so let's let's start with Dwight, because we had an interesting discussion after the last game going over this idea that Frank refused to fold under pressure to go bigger. Um, and I talked about how I personally disagreed with that right and I had mentioned that Dwight is a quality

NBA player. He is a good backup center in this league, and so I disagreed with the philosophy of leaving him on the bench for the sake of your i've out identity, when talent has been somewhat of an issue so far this season. However, in in the last part, I explained that I understood Frank's rationale in that it seemed like his I hit the goal was to train yourself to

stay small and have that be the permanent identity. And so that's why I was genuinely confused when they went to Dwight tonight, because the same rationale for going to Dwight tonight was the rationale they needed last game, and for whatever reason, he couldn't get their last game mentally as the coach, but tonight he could. And you know, I tend to think the reason why I was there's

two parts to it. Yes, it's Dwight being a good NBA player, but it's also a versatility Raj like I like the ability to be able to play multiple styles of basketball, and leaning one thousand percent into playing five out ball is just as detrimental, in my opinion, to leaning one thousand percent to playing two big ball the way they did last year, which I thought was a

departure from the previous season. And it was a problem for many reasons because then when they went to a d at the five in the very rare stretches where they did, it felt unusual, and there were some struggles, namely Game one against Phoenix, where things didn't go super well. Point being, you know, having versatility, being able to play multiple styles of basketball is is one of the one of the hallmarks of a championship team. And Dwight is a good basketball player that can make plays on the

offensive glass. He can make plays defensively in pick and roll coverage. He can finish lobs and drop off passes from guys who can make plays off the past, even guys who aren't great and making plays off the past, like Moleague Monk for instance, who hit Dwight for a couple of dunks tonight. Point, being Dwight's a good player, it made sense to play him, even if it goes against the style of play that you have in your

other lineups, because you need that versatility. You need to have the ability to call an audible in a playoff series, and Dwight's a really good audible. And so I thought that was impressive, and I heard a lot of people bringing up like, Okay, Dwight looked springy because he had some time off, and I'm not debating that, Like, I

definitely don't think Dwight should be a big minute guy. However, a lot of the bad games Dwight had recently were more related, in my opinion, to the COVID suspension and him losing his conditioning. So I tend to think as long as Dwight is in a small role, maybe a two shift player or one shift player, then he can play every night for us if we need him to.

I don't think he's physically incapable of doing that, right, And you know, I thought even I just like I used the word ridgid a lot with it because I just don't think we're in position like we had a nice lead, or we were up in the standings, or even if a d was healthy. And yeah, you can go to this full no center as they call it, right because Local used to wear no center and when he includes Aunt Davis in that as well, you could

do that. You can experiment, But I think we are in still win collection mode here and we can't give up nights and we can't have what nas redid the other night. And I thought this game was kind of tilting towards that, because the whole point of going small right is to get an offensive advantage, Like that's what we're doing when we go small, and I thought tonight we were getting killed on the boards while also not getting the offensive punch. I think we had Russ and

tailing in. I don't remember if Lebron was also on the floor when Dwight Howard checked any might or might have not, but I thought that kind of changed the flow of the game. Sacrament And went up nine to two, I believe, and then we caught them at four teen. But then Alex Lann came in and I thought he again took control of the game for Sacramento. He was getting offensive rebounds. You talked about our health defense early it was really bad. I thought Lebron wasn't wasn't there

on the help early. I'm not sure if that's just him kind of load managing through or just didn't want to whatever it was, or the physical battles download that you don't want him doing all game. I thought all of that was part of it. And I love just putting Dwight in there to kind of nullify the Alex land matchup, and I thought that changed the whole floor of the game. He came in like the middle of the first and know we kind of took back. I think we were up thirty to twenty seven or something

after the first quarter. But yeah, do I can play here and there. I'm fine. He doesn't have to play every night. I would like him to be like ten or fifteen minutes. I don't think you're gonna get fourteen and fourteen as he put up tonight in twenty two minutes every single time that you play him. But it's just a nice switch up, Like you talked about the versatility, and I don't think we're in the mode to be

able to give games away. And I feel like that was it was kind of going there with the with alex Lyn starting to dominating a similar fashion than nos READD. But Dwight still you talked about a good NBA player. He's not DeAndre Jordan, and you don't need to cut him out the rotation. He can still move his feet, he can still jump to block shots, he knows how to roll correctly. I thought him and Malik Monk had a good chemistry earlier in the year. I thought you

saw that again tonight. Their screen role game was nice. Um leaked through him some lobs. It's just a solid NBA player that we can he can be our backup center. But thought again, Frank, I thought he just pushed the right buttons. He uh, Alex Lann came in, I believe in the fourth. Then he put Dwight Howard in as well, Like he mirrored their minutes really nicely, and I think that's what you have to do right now. But yeah,

Dwight was really good tonight. Man. I thought he kind of say our first quarter and that kind of energized us to the rest of the game. Mm hmmm. I wanted to move on to Russ for a second because I've been pretty hard on Russ recently, and I think I've done a good job. I hope if I'm wrong, you guys can let me know. But I think I've gonna done a good job of explaining exactly what worries

me about Russ. It's not so much the day to day stuff, because he's been good for some stretches of the season and he's been bad for some stretches of

the season. He was bad to start, then he had a stretch there for about a month or so where he actually was really good and only some uninformed people outside of the Laker fan base were particularly negative towards Russ, and then he kind of went back into a slump here recently where he hasn't been shooting the ball well, he's make more defensive mistakes, he's been missing everything around the rim um, and so that that to me, is separate from my concerns with Russ, which have always been

late game decision making, particularly in a playoff setting. You know what I mean, That's what I've I've said, but I want to be clear, like I do think Russ dos a ton to help this team. He's the definition of a good play, bad play, got type of guy, and there are a lot of nights, especially during the regular season, where he brings a lot of good and very little bad, and today was one of those games.

He had some pull up midrange shots that I thought were ill advised early in the game, but other than that, other than that, he did a really good job. I thought he carried the team in the third quarter when Lebron was in that funk um that we described earlier, and that was an example of a basketball game where if Russ isn't there, you probably lose, you know what I mean, because that's what you need for various stretches of the game. You need somebody that can carry you

when things aren't working. And Molikue Monk, if you remember, was hot to start the game, but then kind of went cold there for the second and third quarter. So you had Lebron and Monk, the two guys who brought the game home. Those two guys were mostly cold and off during the middle portion of the game, and Russ carry then. And so that's an example of some of the good that that Russ springs to the table. But

above that, I wanted to because you actually brought this Upfrage. Yeah, I thought it was interesting late game how they basically started spamming the Lebron Monk pick and pop there on the right wing, which I think is a good play. But it was interesting how Russ basically got relegated to

being in the dunker spot. Now, there was a play where he did get an offensive rebound at one point, but that kind of thing does concern me potentially in the long run, and you may feel differently about it, but you know, for a player of Russ's caliber, in terms of reputation to basically be relegated to being Ben Simmons at the end of the basketball game, there's a huge diminishing return there offensively, um, and that scares me for a playoff series because then you start to look

at the situation and go, Okay, would we be better off with another guy there who can shoot, so that maybe Lebron and Monk are running that with a true five out, or maybe Anthony Davis isn't that dunker spot instead, you know what I mean? Like that, that's kind of the It was an interesting end of the game there, because again, if if Russ can't have the ball in his hands, what is he really doing aside from grabbing

the occasional offensive rebound. But I wanted to hear I wanted to hear your opinion on that sequence, Yeah, because I know because you and not It's not just you, it's a lot of people who have, you know, expressed concern for the late game offense with Russ right with his decision making throughout the game. Kind of lends to your thoughts on him in high level situations. And I've always thought that he's, like you said, what are you

gonna do? What's the point of having Russ on the floor if you can't have the ball in his hands. But you don't want the ball in his hands, right, you want the ball on Lebron James hands in those situations. And I've always said, uh, to kind of have Russ in those situations. It's not to like control him or try to bring him down, it's just to lower the usage. And I thought, this is what it's gonna look like in the playoffs. He saw this when they played Cleveland

earlier and it was a close game. Anthony Davis was also on the floor. He was kind of the screener. This is kind of how I see Russ in those kind of moments in the dunker spot. And to me, it's not relegating relegating him there in a bad way because it kind of puts what he's good at into the forefront. Right. He is a good offensive rebound or, and you talked about him getting one tonight, and putting him there kind of puts those in. It puts him in those situations. He also gotta I think he also

got a basket off the cut. He's a good cutter in those spots, and he doesn't always have to be in the dunker spot as well. He can be a little bit more on the weak side where it's not all the way to the three point line, it's right, it's right about halfway and that's usually where players cut from the baseline on. And we saw that again tonight and it was Lebron and Monk too man game screen roll late, right, And that's to me what our late

game offense is going to be. Even when we had Anthony Davis on the floor in the playoffs, are late game offense was a guard screen action. It was k CP and Monk is a lot more versatile than Cap

is a better shooter, better off ball handler. It reminded me a little bit and I hope this isn't like terrible, but it reminded me a little bit of like Kyrie Irving, and of course Monks not the talent of Kyrie Irving, had just me and the archetype of a three level score right where you have to guard a monk off the dribble. You have to guard him as a spot up guy and he can float, and he has a floater game like he has the whole offensive package. And it's not always on every night, but I just think

that's what we're gonna see. And that's why I'm not too worried about Russ in those kind of situations. If a d is on the floor, to me, he's probably the screener or he's in the dunker spot, and maybe Russ is a screen and there's things that you can do. I just don't think Russ would have the ball in his hands in those situations. So I was gonna ask you that does that seeing that like late game offense. I guess does that kind of temper your your worries

a little bit? Because it did, at least for me. I've seen this a couple of times now late game offense, but Russ just does not have the ball at the top of the key in late game situations, Like that's just not what we run. It's Lebron James with the ball, screen action whatever, whoever he wants to come set the screen, whether it's Wayne Ellington to be Dallas, right to be Dallas. We went Wayne Ellington straight screen roll tonight. It was

Malik Monk against the Calves. It was Anthony Davis to get mobile on him, like it's gonna be whoever he wants to mismatch hunt and it's not going to be rusted with the basketball, which is why I'm not as worried. And I think putting him in the dunkers again, stretch weak side, not all the way to the corner, but on the baseline where he can cut through. I just that's how I see us playing late game offense. So I see that side of it. I do, And I

want to be clear like I I do. I try, like I said from the beginning, with this rust thing, I go out of my way to try to see the positive. I really do. Where where I concern myself primarily has to do with a situation where that's not Damien Jones and Buddy Healed guarding the Malik monk Lebron action. So so let's say we're playing Phoenix or playing Golden State. If it's if it's Phoenix in all likelihood, if that's a Malik Monk, it's Devin Booker guarding him, right, and

probably Michael Bridges on Lebron. That's just they're they're gonna switch that every time. And yes, Steven Booker is is someone Lebron can attack. But the point is is that's gonna be Lebron having to beat Devin Booker off the dribble, and it's gonna be DeAndre Ayton and you know, probably Cam Johnson or Ja Crowder on the on the week side and CP three. It's just all those windows get way tighter against a really, really good defense. And the

same goes with Golden State. That's probably gonna be someone like Andrew Wiggins on Lebron and someone like Clay Thompson on Malik Monk, and they're just gonna switch that action and forced Lebron to either post up or drive to the basket. And again, like having a guy like Russ in the dunker spot doesn't show some of the downsides of that diminishing return I'm speaking of against a bad team, but it will against the top tier teams, especially on the defensive end of the floor. So that's kind of

like what I visualized. They're like, Okay, would we be better off, you know, not having to occupy that spot to give Lebron a better chance to come to consistently beat someone like Clay Thompson off the dribble or Devin

Booker off the dribble. The playoff series with enough of an advantage to where he can finish over the inevitable rotating defender that's going to be someone like Draymond Green or Deandret like, it's just everything I look at it is through with Russ, is through the lens of what it's gonna look like on the biggest stage, and that stuff. That stuff does worry me a little bit. I'm not saying it's not gonna work, because it might, but that's where it gets concerning. That's why I prefer the idea.

As great as the Monk Lebron screening actions are, I prefer the idea of getting Russ involved in the action because you know, in all likelihood there you're more likely to have them double Lebron than to switch, because they probably would prefer to not have Lebron um you know, go against your point guard, which is in this case to be Step or CP three. And then also Russ is so quick off the dribble, you know, and more athletic, better athlete than Monk, that he has a better chance

to punish a bigger defender off the dribble. So that probably ends up being some sort of trap which puts Russ in a situation where he can attack four on three, and I almost like our chances better there, so, accepting the reality that Russ is going to be in this picture, I tend to like him more as a screen and screener than in the dunker spot because I think the dunker spot thing works better against bad teams than it

would against good teams. But that's just me kind of like in the moment, trying to visualize what it might look like against the very best teams. If that makes sense, Yeah, for sure, And it doesn't have to be like he doesn't always have to be there, and it doesn't have to be Malik Monk as well. And if it's against Phoenix, they probably want to involve Eighten in the matchup, right. I think Lebron actually kind of likes the aiden matchup

able to attack him. It's how they're defending. If if a team is switching everything, then Lebron can kind of miss much miss mismatch hunt that way. And yeah, like I think Russ can be the screen in a lot of these situations as well. I think he's still a good four on three attacker. If Lebron is getting trapped, there's just other places on the or you can put him. He's just not going to be the spacer or the guy doing the main attack really, and that's your worry, right,

you don't want him as the main isolation attack. He's it's not gonna like I think a lot of people before the season started thought it would be kind of turn base, right, where Lebron and Russ kind of take turns running ball screen actions. That's just not how it's been this season, and nor do I think how it's

going to be in the playoffs. It's gonna be Lebron, James controlling, and Anthony Davis is another guy who's gonna be thrown into the picture who's going to be involved, and almost all these actions as well, right, I mean, you can have a d space as well to corners, but there's just stuff you can do. Why I'm not too worried about it, And you're right, Russ as a

screener I think works really well as well. Most most teams like to put a big onto Russ because he's not a spacer, and if you can involve another big, their teams don't usually want to switch their center onto Lebron, and you have a four on three in that way. And again that's how we got the Austin Reeves game winner. Kind of it was Ellington's screen role. Russ was able to attack a compromise defense and found Austin reads for

the game winner. So I'm not worried about that. I just think like our worries about Russ having to make the high leverage kind of decision making lays just it's just not what we have to worry about in my opinion, Like it's going to be Lebron James playing his style of basketball, which is card screens or uh in the post if he wants, or you know, screen with a d or whatever, and the places on the floor we can put Russ, And that's what the rest of the

season is therefore, to kind of find situations to put him and I think the dunker spot, it's just one kind of uh, one kind of variety of different places we can place them on the floor. Yeah, And again, like this is where I've had issues with this fit is even though my basketball brain tells me that your best chance to develop driving lanes is to use Russ as the screener, that then puts him back in a position where he's making decisions, which is exactly what I

don't want him doing at the end of game. So it's just tough. It's just tough like And again, this is why it's so important that I have people like you that are more optimistic about it. And then there are a bunch of people in Laker Twitter that I follow who are more optimistic about this fit because they helped me see the other side. I'm just presenting to

you guys, my my view on this. My view on this is I just see this inevitably coming to a head where in a playoff series against an elite defense late game situations, Russ is going to become a liability um,

either as a decision maker or off the ball. That's that that to me continues to be a concern and I haven't seen anything this season that has dissuaded me from that other than success against some limited teams and you know, a couple of a couple of late game situations where happened to work out well, but there have also been like a late game situations where it hasn't. So it's just been tough. But anyway, we've talked a

lot of us recently. We can move on. But the uh I wanted to talk about, I suppose because Taylor Talan deserves some attention, but I think we got to go to the Lake Monk first here because he's just been so incredible. But there's been a lot of people talking about, um the long term conundrum here, which is that a league monk has vastly outperformed his contract, But

we can get to that in a minute. UM. Basically, what I had pointed out in the last part was that sometime in recent weeks, Molik Monk seems to have either been given a green light or he just snatched the green light, because for whatever reason, in recent weeks he has been gunning and it's been very good for our offense because we don't really have anybody because as good as Mellow is, he's more of a like we talked about. He's more like if you give him an advantage,

he can score. So if you get him a really good matchup in the post, or if you get him with the defender closing out at him, he can score. But Molik Monk is basically our only non lebron player who from all three levels is lethal. Um. Even if he doesn't necessarily have an advantage, he can beat you with three point shot. He's got an arsenal of shots he can go to in the mid range, in short range, he's got floaters and scoops, and then he's a vertical

athlete above the rim. And so combining that with his youthful exuberance in his like outrageous confidence in a green light, he's really taking off for us and it's giving our offense a new dynamic that we haven't had all season. And then again in this five out attack, it's just built for him. But I mean more of the same that we were talking about in the last part. But he's just he's just something else man like that. It's like he got absolutely scorching hot in that fourth quarter

to save us tonight. Yeah. I love the way that used youthful and was it what you say, exuberance, Yes, he is. It's funny because this team was, you know, and they're still old, you know, because their best player obviously is it's thirty seven, just turned thirty seven, but in Russell Westbrooks thirty four. But it's funny kind of looking at the rotation, now, how many kind of youthful guys there are? Right? You have? You obviously have my league Monk. I think he's twenty three or twenty four,

I don't remember. Austin Reeves is around twenty three, Stanley Johnson is is twenty five. Th h T obviously the rotation at twenty two. So you do have a mix, a nice mix of young guys, I guess, and that kind of pops off the screen as well. To me. You kind of see them move at a little bit of a different pace. I think the reason is still moving at his age, which you know makes sense. He just kind of came back. Carmelo Anthony obviously is who

he is. Yeah, man, Malik has been awesome. He is fearless to me, like that's kind of the word I used for him. He's just not scared of the moment. He'll take any shot. He doesn't have to be wide open to shoot, which I think is a big thing for this team, and it was kind of the trouble for a lot of our shooters in the past. Um a lot of them had to be wide open to kind of shoot. And Malik Monk, he's able to get in his shot quickly. Again, that's kind of why I

think the Lebron Malik Monk game works so well. Uh, even you add his ball handling, but able to pop from three really quickly when we were down like four, and I think, uh, he had two threes that were kind of tying along with Buddy. He'll too continued to come back and drain threes on us. But yeah, he's been awesome. I think he has better passing ability than you know, I thought over the summer, and he's kind of showing the ability to run scoremen actions to make

re it's off of it. He's a nice law passer. We saw something to Dwight like I talked about earlier. I just think, you know, he's a really nice player, and I think him and we got some news that Kendrick Nunn is close. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but hopefully he'll come back pretty soon. I think, you know, None and Monk is a really interesting combo. We have a bunch of guards now playing every badly. Obviously starts th HD again comes off the bench. Now it's gonna

be interesting how the rotation looks. But I don't think Milik Monk is going anywhere. Also, I'm not sure he starts when everyone's healthy as well. But he's been awesome and him and Lebron obviously have something there. There's there's something uh tangible there with their connection, and it's not just tonight, it's just it's not just these last few games.

It's been since the beginning of the season to me, and Lebron plays well with you know, scoring guards, and I think milink Bunk fits right into that, especially scoring guards that can shoot the ship out of the basketball, which which moves us to the contract connundrum because it's it's it's you know, I've been an advocate all season for moving from th HD to try to get a good starter, like a guy like Jeremy Grant, which we talked about, and obviously that type of deal would require

you to include Kendrick Nunn. And you know, this brings up an interesting conversation about asset management because the reality of the situation is as Malik Monk is not a minimum contract player. He's probably not a he's definitely not like a twenty million dollar a year guy, but he's not a minimum contract player. So the reality is is after this season, someone's going to offer him either a mid level exception or something even more if they're a

team that's operating like they have cap space. So you know, the interesting rules about the way the CVA works, and Roger you can correct me if I'm wrong, But as long as Kendrick Nunn is on the roster, which could be this year and next year depending on whether or not he uses his player option, he technically occupies the mid level exception spot, which means the the Lakers would not be able to offer uh Kendrick excuse me, Malik Monk anything other than a very slight phrase over the

minimum contract. So that's another positive angle to look at when you talk about potentially moving th HD and Kendrick Nunn, because if you move th HD and Kendrick Nunn in a trade for a player like Jeremy Grant, you open up an exception slot to use to retain a player like Molik Monk. So you got to now look at that potential trade as it's not just trading Kendrick Nunn

and th h T for a wing. It's trading Kendrick Nunn and th h T for a wing and possibly keeping Malik Monk when you probably wouldn't be able to keep him otherwise. So that's another Molik Monk's recent play is now adding another interesting wrinkle to the decision making process. This coming off season, you know, like I understand us kind of discussing this and I see, you know, not just you and everyone on the time and talking about, Oh man, I hope we can keep the League Monk

next year. I can't even like get entertained with that, you know what I mean, Like I can't even like get into emotionally there. I'm so much into this in but I understanding League Monks played really well, Jason. This

roster has turned over like three times. I feel like, you know, emotionally, attaching ourselves to a guy who's not named Lebron James or Anthony Davis to me is kind of kind of like fool's goal, just with just with how the roster has turned over, how the you know, GM has operated the last few years, Like if this team doesn't win a title, even even when winning a title, they still flipped all the roster like, so that's kind of where I can't really get to invested in that.

I think the you know, trading Kendrick Nunn thing is an interesting conversation. I think they do want to see him play first before moving on from him. Uh. I know a lot of people you know and like yourself want to move him for move Taylor as well in combination with none. I think that's interesting. But Leek's playing so well, man, I can't even really move on to next year. I hope they can keep him. I don't

think he's gonna make the minimum next season. Like you talked about, he has definitely outplayed his contract, and that's what you need to do. When you have a team full of minimum guys, you need a few of them to outplay the other contract I think Carmelo has outplayed

his contract. I think you know, I think the league Monk has definitely outplay as contract um and you need that when you have a team full of guys um making when you only have minimums to give out, and our other guy who makes who makes like who makes money that's not the minimum has not played a single second this year in Kendrick not so it'd be interesting.

But yeah, Molaksen's been awesome. I hope he stays. But I can't even get entertained, honestly, with that conversation you were asking me about the c b A. I am probably one of the last people to ask about that as as well. I'm so just into this season. People like, oh, can we keep Lake Monk, I have no idea. Other people do a great job with that. Eric Pink is one of the best. Um, definitely, not for sure. I don't forget trying to be a part of that wheelhouse either,

But yeah, I hope lake Monk is back. I just you know, like I said, getting emotionally attached to a player not named Lebron or Anthony Davis. It seems kind of foolish to me, with how the roster has turned

over the last few years. Yeah, it's it's funny because I'm actually very thankful that there are people in our business who takes time to learn that stuff, because, like you know, I live and breathe the game of basketball every day of my life as a player, as a coach and as a guy who covers the Lakers and just as a fan. And I may or may not be able to offer something of value in that department, But when it comes to something that literally lawyers drafted,

yeah that's that's that's hirely above my pay grade. Um, So let's let's get th h D really quick and then I want to rant about Stanley Johnson for a second and then we'll call it a night. So so I've been heavy behind th HT this year, which is weird. You and I've kind of flip flopped because last year I was the one that was down on him, and now I'm the one to tie on him. But like the I I pointed out all season that you know,

he's been in an unfortunate circumstance surrounding his role. You know, get go through training camp and then break your thumb, then you come back and play, and it's roster volatility between you know, wings and guards dropping with injury to Lebron and Anthony Davis missing time, him going in and out of the starting lineup, and then Bamy gets COVID, and so he's just been in a really inconsistent role.

And I predicted that he would play better as he got just more consistency in the lineup, and it seems now that he's going to consistently be coming off the bench. And also they're the Lakers are leaning into a style and sticking with it, the style that is more conducive to th hts skill set. And you know, obviously it's just one game, but I think he's been trending in this direction over the last few games, starting to show some signs of confidence on the offensive end and starting

to make some plays on defense. And tonight I thought he played one of his best games as a prom because even though he had a couple of twenty point games early in this season, they were in losses if I remember correctly, um and kind of I won't say garbage time because they were't garbage time, but they weren't as impactful a statistical performances as his was tonight. The shots he made were all huge and important to the game.

That little one leg a fadeaway he made tonight in e lane was monumental superstar playing yep, and he had a handful of those plays today. Rose that that weird scoop shot he had in the first half going around Damien Jones like literally like like caught on his pivot foot underneath the basket with the massive human towering over him, and he just kind of like chicken winged them and stuck his arm out and and made that little scoop shot. But tonight he was all over the place defensively as well,

blowing stuff up and causing problems. Did I thought he did a pretty good job chasing, but he healed around when he had to and I know open he shot amazing, but he healed. His game was more of like I made a couple of easy ones early and then I got crazy hot started making the tough ones, which is

something we talked about a lot. But point being th HD, he's not gonna be like this every night because he's a young player, and consistency is the number one thing that young players struggle with because they're bad at replicating what they're good at and minimizing what they're bad at. So you're gonna see some more bad th HD in the near future, I'm sure. But this is a lot of what you saw tonight. Translates. This wasn't just oh he made shots tonight, No, that's not what this was.

Stuff that he did is stuff that's easy to replicate. His ability to finish around the basket when he's given space to operate, when he's confident and using his strength to his advantage, that will work as long as he's in the league. A lot of those little floaters and scoops and stuff around the basket, those are pretty high percentage shots for a guy like th HT. This isn't a guy that's going out there taking a ton of

jump shots. That's not that's not his game. Uh. If I'm not mistaken, he only made one three tonight, so it's not like he was out there bombing away from three. And then obviously everything he does defensively that absolutely translates forward. So this is why I've been so optimistic about th ht. This stuff that you saw tonight, that's replicable, that can be done over and over again soon, and so that's why I've I've been such a believer in what he does.

And here's the thing. It's really this simple. If sometime before January, if he can consistently do this, meaning if he can, I won't even say January fifteenth, I'll just say the trade deadline, because the Lakers can obviously kick the can down the road if you're not ready to make that decision. But if he can get to a point where two out of three nights he's pretty impactful on both ends of the floor, I don't want Jeremy Grant.

I want th D because because because this is an impactful basketball player who projects to get better and better each year. But if it's clear that he's still a couple of years away from getting to the point where he can consistently have this type of two way impact, then you have to make the move, which, for the record, roads just exactly what I said a couple of months ago. Things just got complicated by the a D injury and now, like we talked about adding the leak monk thing in there.

But you know, Teach, he's a really good basketball player and so that's gonna be an interesting decision the Lakers are gonna have they have to make now. My prediction is that tonight is somewhat of an outlier, that he will have more limited games than games like this, and the Lakers will end up moving him. But I'm glad she had a game like tonight where he put together a lot of those things that he does well into one night, so people can kind of see why I've

been so optimistic about him. Yeah, and to your point, really quickly, um, leak monk, not note monk. I think. Frank Vogel said that he felt like both Dwight and Taylor looked like they broke out after struggling physically from COVID, so that could, you know, be a part of it as well. I thought, you know, Taylor, this is the third trade game where he came off the bench, and I think that really helped him. I always said that him playing with both Russ and Lebron was a little

bit of a struggle. You pair that with how many minutes he played next to DeAndre Jordan's as well, like he was just never in lineup that kind of were conductive to him. But even with all that said, he needs a guy to have somewhat of a jumper to me, like, he doesn't have to have a good jump shot. It can be below average, but it has to be something the teams at least respect. And I thought, you know, tonight, he had a few he hit his He had like a mid range pull up or something like that and that,

and he had a few layups at the rim. He was able to attack Alex Land off the dribble. I thought playing him with Dwight was a nice thing. I don't know if you've noticed that as well. I thought

giving him a big screener was just nice. And the King's kind of run a drop back coverage because Alex Lan obviously yeah advantage, yeah exactly, And we got him, you know, getting downhill and he missed a layoup, a couple of layers, but he got to the rim, he got he got to be he was able to be physical at the basket, and that's just stuff he can do. He saw his footwork kind of come into play as well. And defensively, man, he was. I thought he was really good.

I thought his health defense was nice. His wingsman came into play um on the pick and roll defense where he knocked away a bunch of balls where he was the help guy helping the helper on the roll. Man. He was good tonight. And again, you're not gonna see the point point level that it was tonight. You don't have to see that. You just need a little bit more finishing at the rim. I still want him to shoot his open threes. I think he's a better shooter,

way better shot than he showed. I don't think he's like the worst shooter in the league, which is the percentages that he's kind of throwing up right now. He's been in his head and maybe the physical stuff is what it is. The trade stuff. Like again, I'm a guy who doesn't really like to get into that. That's gonna be an interesting topic for the next few weeks. We'll see if that that manifests into anything. But yeah, I mean, I think thh is important for this team.

He's the second he's the second only non minimum player. The other guy, obviously Kendrick Not hasn't played, and she's the guy they've invested in, put a lot of money into him as well. We'll see if that kind of bears out and he plays a lot and he plays better. But I thought him coming off the bench is huge, man.

I think that just gives him a little bit more freedom to kind of run actions They let him is so as well we run on, we run him off a little pin downs to kind of get him, get him going downhill, um, just him catching and be able to go to the basket. I still wish he uses his left hand a little bit more. He still does a lot of flip shots that kind of missed all but he's a confident him and I think he'll he'll figure it out and this is kind of the blueprint

for him. And obviously that turnaround jumper he had again tonight, that's kind of his go to shot. It's been airballing a lot recently, but that was the shot he was making I think last year, and we'll see if that continue. But it was a good game I don't expect this every night, like you talked about, but it's kind of the blueprint for him attack the basket, you know, when when he gets his minutes, I like his minutes not next to both Russ and Lebron. I think you're seeing

the kind of fruit of that. Yeah, that's exactly what I was just gonna say, is getting him where Lebron or Russ are off the floors that he can kind of actually feel free being aggressive, because that's that's really the hard part of it, right, is like how do you feel confident as a young offensive basketball player when that's Lebron and Russ standing off the ball? Like that's tough,

you know. But if if one of them is off and then the other guy, Lebron is kind of like desperate for somebody other than him to make a play, then there you go. There's your opportunity. But I wanted to quickly before we call it a night here, I wanted to talk about Stanley Johnson for a second because this has been somewhat of a uh a kind of

a confusing situation for me. So first, starter's upfront. I understand the financial predicament that the Lakers are in, I understand that Jennie Buss doesn't have a ton of money. I understand the fact that saving a few hundred thousand dollars here or there because of the compounding effects of the luxury tax are pretty significant. But I also understand that the Lakers haven't had a huge problem with continuity

this season. I understand that the Lakers have struggled all season with having somebody on the wing who does the dirty work, who has some good size and athleticism. Those two things, to me, are very very much relevant here, even as we consider the financial ramifications of potentially signing

another basketball player on this team. And what bothers me is, given that lack of continuity, the fact that we were willing to let a player miss a practice, miss a game, even though he's been what raj our fourth or fifth best player over the course of the last ten days. He was starting. He was starting. He was starting a starter for us who was our fourth or fifth best player, legitimately gave us a chance to win on Christmas Day

when I didn't think we did have a chance. This is a good basketball player that fills a very specific need for the Lakers, and the Lakers are playing a weird financial game with him right now. And quite frankly, this is where the basketball gods get involved here, because again, this might all be written in there where they're like, Hey, we're gonna wake up tomorrow, it's January five, We're gonna sign Stanley. But I think this is just bad process.

And if I was Stanley Johnson, I would feel insulted because given everything that he's brought to the table over the last ten days, to do something like this, to just try to pinch pennies, like if they signed him to another ten day contract, that that, to me is insulting to Stanley. Do you have used for Stanley? Yes? Absolutely, he's been your fourth or fifth best player over the course of the last ten days. Is Stanley an asset? No,

not necessarily, but on a minimum contract. He's shown enough over the last ten days that if he did get thrown into a trade, there's gonna be someone out there who would want him. I guarantee you he's proved over the last ten days that he's an NBA player, Okay, like not a guy who should be on on his

couch or playing in the G League. So I just don't see the I don't understand the rationale of pinching pennies to this extent, Like even with Alex Caruso, it made more sense to me, which I hated the Alex Crusoe decision, but at least you could tell me, like, hey, we're talking about thirty million dollars here right, Like that

was an entirely different type of math equation. You're talking we're talking about a very small amount of money relatively right now that we are pinching and missing a player for for for a game, especially game like tonight where energy was an issue. Stanley would have been a big help tonight, And I just I just don't understand it, and it to me, it's it's it's a difficult process as a fan of the team to try to justify Yeah,

you know, that's the human human element of it. And obviously, for Stanley Johnson, you would like the full roster, but you know, I always go to other guys for this, and Eric Pinkins obviously, who does a great job with the cap stuff, and we're lucky to kind of have him be one of the Lakers, you know, be do so much for the Lakers in terms of letting us understand this stuff. He says, it's more for flexibility kind of concerns instead of tax. It's not really a tax thing.

It's that, you know, if they want to have a trade, maybe a trade maybe won't go down by tomorrow, but just to have the roster roster spot. Me and you both thought that trading Rondo was the roster spot to get Stanley Johnson on the team. That's obviously wasn't correct. Um, they just opened up a roster spot and they can sign Stanley Johnson again tomorrow to another ten day which looks which looks like this is what's gonna happen. Um,

hopefully Santy john I don't know. I don't think he'll get signed to a team before then, and I think David mcmaniman also said that they have mutual interest to come back, So this is probably all going to work out. But you're right, you know, this isn't great process. You'd like, you know, a guy who's kind of started for his tenure here. I think he started more games that he's come off the bench, if I have that correct. Um, he's I believe. So you would like a guy like

that to you know, have earned a roster spot. But that's just not how it works. They obviously want the flexibility to be able to keep a roster proud open, and I think that's more what it is as well. I don't think it's saving money as much, which obviously they will. They also they also save money, I believe in the Rondo trade as well, but again that's neither here and there. I think this is more to key flexibility as well. Like Eric, Eric Pink has talked about,

UM so we'll see, but hopefully he's back. He's definitely earned a spot. He's been great. He's been a power forward, a power wing that this team has desperately needed. You've talked about it's bad process. Probably you know, to just let him sit out there, miss practice, missed the game. You know, you start three games then you just miss. You just missed. To be resigned to another ten day. It's not great. You would like him to have earned that spot, but it just looks like what it's going

to be. Hopefully after the second ten day they do eventually sign him. Hopefully they maybe they cut someone else will We'll see what happens. But I think that's more what it is as well. At least that's what Eric winkis believes it to be. But you're this isn't a great process. You want a guy who's who's played well

to earn a spot on the team, for sure. So Roger, you're my guy, and I appreciate your perspective, but I'm gonna call BS on you, well, not on you, but on me, not even on Eric Pinkus, but just on the idea that the Lakers are valuing the roster spot because they could the rock. The Lakers could create a roster spot anytime they want. The the DeAndre Jordan contract

because it was fully guaranteed. That money's lost, it's gone, it's into the ether of of of whatever NBA salary Captain Land is h If you have no intention of playing down to Jordan against the season, which appears to be the case, cut his ass, cut him, get him out of there, and if you do, bam open roster spot. That okay. I understand that you don't like the idea potentially of having a player that you invested in on the streets, but it's clear that he has. He barely

made sense when we were trying to play big. He certainly doesn't make sense with our current style of play. So I think and just in general, man like, with this kind of stuff, you can you can find somebody out there to help you facilitate just about anything. I mean, look at the was it at the Wizards who helped us facilitate getting that third max slot when we were

going after Kauai. It's like you know when when everybody in the league, when all those guys are like, oh, they can't do it, there's no way they're gonna get it, Well guess what they did. Like you, you can like kind of finagle this stuff if you're if you're diligent enough about it as a front office. And so the way I look at it as all of this is smoking mirrors to cover for yet another example of penny

pinching from the Lakers recently. And again this to me, this specific instance is absolutely insane because again we're not talking about a thirty million dollar commitment like it would

cost to retain Alex Caruso. We are literally talking about out I'm pretty sure for his years of service and for him being this far into the season, and for it being pro rated for a veteran minimum deal to guarantee Stanley Johnson to come back, I'm pretty sure it's a very small number, and I think it's under a million. So even with luxury tax, even with UH you know, factoring an extra couple of days to to bring him back.

I think this is just to to literally get a guy to willingly subject yourself to another starting lineup, a flip over to another UH day where one of your important swing men is missing practice and missing a game. This is just I think it's unacceptable personally, And I understand some people disagree with me and look man like like, I I appreciate your perspective, and I'm not saying you're wrong necessarily, I'm just saying I I I struggle to

see that rationale. I you're know, you're right in like a vacuum, like in a right world, Stanley Johnson would be on the team. But you know, and you're gonna You're gonna aid me for this one as well. You can call BS on this one as well, but I believe you know. Eric Winton's pink is kind of talked about the deandr Dornan situation as well. He said, there's no need to cut him when you can kind of use him for salary filler. It's not much salary, but

using for salary filler in the trade. And again if that time comes where you can then you can cut him later. And again it looks like it's going that direction, right Deandi Jordan has not played We're going to no center plus or one center lineups, and he's been so far out the rotation for this long. It looks like that's where and going where it's going. Uh it's funny because you keep you bring up the Carusoe stuff. To me, that is the more unacceptable thing. I don't care the

luxury text, you know, savings and stuff like that. Ask Cruso. You you sign him and then you trade him later if you have to, or you do what you know, you know what I mean, you don't let a guy that you've built up. And I've gone into Cruso too much. I'm not gonna rent again on Caruso. To me, that's more of a uh an offense than this. But yeah, it looks like Stanley Johnson is going to get signed though, back with the team. So this looks like it will go go. You know, the process will work out, even

if it is in great process. But you're entitled to that. You know. I'm not in the office. I don't know the inner workings the exact situation, but I believe that's eventually what's going to happen. Though Santay Johnson will be back on another ten day. Hopefully he gets resigned again. You would like him to have the roster spot now, but it looks like they're going to keep it open for now, so we'll see how it goes. But yeah, I don't know. I can't change your mind on that.

I'm just going by what you know, people who kind of who talk about this, what they kind of believe be You're allowed to believe that it's it's for savings as well well. But we'll see if Stanley Johnson doesn't make you know, it doesn't if he doesn't pass the second ten day, we can come back and have this conversation again. But but hopefully he does. For sure, I get I get the idea of retaining and for salary Ballace. My point is is like you could cut him if

you needed to. So if you're in if you're in the trade market and your trade dictates that you need salary filler, Bam, there's DeAndre Jordan's and get what they're

Stanley Johnson. If you have no room for him on the wing, and maybe if the team is like, hey, I want him in the deal, then saying there you go, there's an asset, right, Or if you're in a situation where you're making a trade and you need roster spots, like let's say it's break class in case of emergency and we're trading in Russell Westbrook came from bringing back a twenty million dollar guy, AI million dollar guy and the twenty million dollar guy or whatever, then yeah, we

would need to cut somebody, but you have you have that permanent flexibility. Like what I disagreed with was like, okay, we're we're not signing Stanley Johnson yet because we we

might need this open roster spot. No, no, no, if you actually needed an open roster spot in a predicament, you can literally create when in a moment's notice, So that that's where I I juste But yeah, but like regardless, no matter what, Like I just don't like playing with fate on this kind of the stuff, on this kind of stuff, right, because if you look at this, if you look at this Laker predicament, like part of what happened this summer is we traded a lot of depth

for Russell Westbrook. Right now, what happened by the grace

of our scouting department and just some good luck. We've had some hits, right, like Austin Reeves bam, that fills in some of that depth that we lost, right, like Malik Monk being a betteran minimum guy who, by the way, somehow no one in the league offered a contract like what in the world, but like but like Malik Monk materializing, and then Stanley Johnson literally from your G league team to come up and be a very very important basketball player for you over the last two days, Like you've

come into a stroke of luck here where now the only concerns about the rust thing are genuinely just fit, you know, like is this going to work in the playoffs? But the death thing really isn't a concern anymore. We have depth. We through Austin Reeves, through Malik Monk, through Stanley Johnson, we've recreated at least a significant portion of what Kuzma and KCP brought to the table. Right we have now. Whether or not that one of those groups is better than the other, that can be argued by

someone else. But my point is is you have somehow tripped and fallen into getting some of the best of both worlds here. If your desire was to have Russ, so why would you play with that by by playing this game with Stanley Johnson over a couple hundred thousand bucks Like that, to me is just foolishness, But it is what it is. That I that's all I had for the night, Roger, was there anything else you want to hit on before we get out of here? Uh? No,

I think that was pretty much it. I'm not sure if we did shout it out, I don't remember, but Russell Westbrook no turnovers tonight. I think that's you know, I think that's great. I think we only have like five as a team. So again we talked about the misshots there, but no turnovers. That's a positive here. Uh and you know, the Kings play some pretty good premiery defenders. Davian Mitchell. To me, we didn't get to him either. He's he's special. I think he's gonna be an awesome,

you know, defender player in this league. But yeah, no turnovers, prop Uss. Hopefully that kind of keeps up. But yeah, that's all I had as one man. Cool. Yeah, and look, Russ again, I'm glad he had no turnovers tonight, but let's I want to see him show a consistent commitment to that part of his game. I was. I did a little rant for on this for my Twitter page, but like you know, the idea of Russ being Russ, there's a limitation to that on this team, in his

specific role. I actually think he needs to change in some ways. That doesn't mean, hey, Russ stop driving to the basket now, That's not it at all. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying Russ stop being aggressive. It's just Russ does need to change in the sense that he does need to devote more attention and effort towards cleaning up some of the margins of his game. Because when he was younger and more athletic, you know, he had the ability to overcome a lot more of

his mistakes than he does now. So he actually does actually need to change. And and so it's it's not a matter of of you know, trying to get out of Russ's way and let rusty Russ. It's about Russ does have to try to fit in a little bit more. I think. Um, But that's like, yes, tonight, big positive step. It's not easy to get zero turnovers the game, especially with Dave on Mitchell's up in your air space all night long. Yep, and I think it is his first

zero I read him. Let me see if I can go to the tweet first turn first zero turnover games since the March fourteen, two thousand sixteen wow, which which is you know, quite a quite a while. So this is good to see. We probably most players don't get no turnovers with the ball handling that Russ has obviously gets more than most players. But yeah, it's a good good thing to kind of celebrate. Hopefully it's something we get going forward as well. All Right, everybody, thank you

guys so much for coming to hang out. This is going to air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time, and we'll be on our podcast feed here in about twenty minutes or so. Thank you guys as always for your support for rocking with Roger, and I'm excited to see what we got for the rest of the season. I believe we play again on Friday night, if I'm not mistaken at eight I think, um, so we will see you guys for the postgame show then appreciate your own thanks,