Lakers/Bulls Postgame Spaces

I was complaining yesterday that, like, as much as I love the holidays and getting to be around all my loved ones and you know, getting to really just step away from being so busy on work related stuff and kind of focus on family. It's it's great, but man, it can it be stressful when it's just one thing after the other after the other. And obviously with my grandfather's funeral, you're being able to cover for me meant a lot. I sincerely appreciate it. But it is good

to be back. Um and I we have a lot to talk about tonight, my friend mm hmm, yeah for sure. Yeah, good to have you back, man. I hope the holiday party was good. I hope it was a safe travels up to where you were going. Um, we were kind of going back and back and forth doing kind of solo stuff. But yeah, good to have you back, man. How are you, Man, I haven't I haven't. Haven't been able to talk to you for a while. I'm doing good.

It's been you know, the Lakers have certainly kept things interesting. This has been a bizarre week. I was talking with Eddie Gonzalez from the E t c S this morning on a space that I did with him, just kind of about just how crazy this COVID stuff is and how bizarre it is in the short term and in the long term to kind of think about how it impacts things. And you know, one of the big things that I was saying this morning was, you know, they're

not going to pause the season. There's no reason. There's absolutely no reason for on a bunch of different fronts. They're not going to pose it because of the money, obviously, but they're also not going to pose it because it doesn't actually solve the problem. Like these guys aren't gonna go lock themselves in their houses. They're gonna go do stuff that rich people do, like they're gonna go, uh, you know, hang around other people and and and have fun and that it just was never it was never

an actual solution to the problem. Um and logistically trying to reschedule a ton of games that's already going to be complicated enough for them to reschedule the games that they have to reschedule. So, you know, I was just saying, you know, to Eddy, I was like, it's just gonna be a weird couple of weeks. You know, they stopped testing for a while, so a bunch of guys got infected because they had guys that were carrying the virus around walking around the team when they didn't know. And

now they're testing. So over the course of the next few weeks, this is going to really die down, I think, and things will get back to normal. But right now, in this little stretch of time, it's gonna be weird. And you just watched a really really weird basketball game

Rock that was it was really weird. Like we're gonna talk about a lot of the some stuff that's relevance, but there's a lot of stuff that we saw tonight that's just irrelevant to what this Laker team is going to be it through without Anthony David Siro, without any of these circumstances. It's just there's a lot of unusual stuff, if that makes sense. Yeah, the rough part about tonight and it's one game, and we're gonna be out, you know, without a D for like four to six weeks. People

think four weeks. I think that's on the lor end. I think it's gonna be closer to around six. Yeah. Yeah, And my thing with this game is like you would hope when you play this hard you're rewarded with a win, right, Like that would have been nice, Like this was a game they actually did try. Everyone seemed to want this one. They all played. You missed the Minnesota game. I don't know if you got back, you got to rewatch that one fully. Yeah, that was just an ugly effort game.

I mean, Minnesota came out and punched just round the mouth Carl Anthony Towns did. But just from effort, body language standpoint, that was bad. Um even before a D obviously went down. And then you talked about how when a D went down, our spirits just died with him, right, Like our spirits just went into the locker room kind of with him. That's why I kind of saw from

from tonight as well a lot of weird lineups. Obviously, not of stuff you can really take in terms of process, but I think in these four to six weeks, this is kind of what the center lineup will kind of look right like, especially if they don't go and get us another center. And I'm sure we'll touch on that later, but Lebron was mostly the center for a lot of this. Tobiasa played center. DeAndre Jordan's still looks unplayable even in

his minutes. That's why I saw from tonight. Obviously, Isaiah Thomas, I think we both agree that he's not probably long for this team. But yeah, it's just it's just tough to have a loss where the players really did try like you would like to be awarded with the win with the type of effort they displayed tonight, and they weren't a lot of fouls. Twenty two turnovers is something. A lot of them were just lackluster, just you know, high risk, low reward type passes from our main playmakers.

It was a rough night that Jamorrow Derosen lived at the free the line. He also hit a bunch of clutch shots. You have to give it to him. Tough loss, though, and this is the one you wanted to get because you played Fenix next and I think they got Devin Booker back tonight. Just just a tough one to move on from. Yeah, you know, and like when it comes to looking at what it can take away from tonight, because like you know, you mentioned Isaiah Thomas, he's not

long for the team. I was so impressed by his competitiveness tonight. I love that dude as a player and compete and try to impact winning in really a difficult situation if you think about what his circumstances are. A guy who didn't go through training, cramp, didn't go through anything, was literally just jammed into this situation under the COVID circumstances and is playing with basically a fake basketball team with the with the with a bunch of the guys

that are out there. It's like for him to come out and to compete the way he did and to help this team the way that he has is really impressive. But it's irrelevant to to looking forward with this team because they're just you would even if they wanted to use that last roster spot right now, if the team

was healthy, they would never use it. On on on on Isaiah Thomas it was just it was a stop gap because Russell went into COVID protocols and they thought he might be gone, and the leak monk was gone, and all their guards started dropping. They had to do

what they had to do. But the so for me, Raj, the couple of the handful of things that I saw tonight that I thought were actually relevant is one, Lebron continues to look great, especially around spacing, and Lebron is synically putting together a couple of weeks stretch here where he's been obviously the Minnesota game being kind of outlier. His he just his his energy wasn't really with it that night. Um, and we're not going to get too far into that, but you know, Lebron still looks great.

That helps project well for this team. Like if Lebron can stay healthy and he plays at this level, then now we're now we're talking about how if a d comes back after this injury and he's you know, healthy and mobile and looking good, that we're going to be

in good shape. So the Lebron thing is good. And then the second thing is and this is the thing I think you wanted to hit on, right, complained a lot early in the season that we had all these lineups out there that weren't really functional basketball lineups because when Lebron was off the floor, which was almost all the time as a result of his injury, we would have an assortment of small guards and then usually two bigs on the floor at any given moment, or maybe

even sometimes when Lebron was out one one big you know, Anthony Davis at center or to what howard its center and four guards, and those just aren't functional lineups, especially when you factor in all of the things you have to accomplish outside of that, like defensive rebounding, like that play tonight where Lebron, you know, blocks the DeMar diversion at the rim. There's just no other big guys on the floor to go get the rebounds. That's a huge part of how to mark got the ball back, you know.

So the thing is is Trevor Resa gives us another one of those guys, those guys that are in between the guys that can are the jack of all trades types of athletes on the floor, and when you see him out there, the basketball lineups just make more sense. And that's exciting to think about. When this team kind of comes back to having all of their players is having a reason plugged into a spot that has normally

been occupied by a guard. This year makes us a team that is all of a sudden way more athletic, way longer better with defensive rebounding, fewer misnatches in terms of you know, if we're switching and and getting you know, other guys from the other team on an island, Like he just he just functionally makes so much of our lineups makes so much, so much more sense. Yeah, for sure, before like I get too deep into Trevor MS, because I think he was a big part of this. I

think he's he's been like the positive news. I just want to push back on the Isaiah Thomas stuff. Is is not relevant. I think it's relevant in terms of I see Kendrick Nun's role in Isaiah Thomas right, And I think I texted you I wanted to kind of get into that because I think that's an interesting kind of thing. I think they're similar. Isaiah Thomas might be the better three point shoot, like the better pull up three point shooter, but Kendrick Dunn plays that kind of

play style, right, And I talked about this. I think the last one. We don't have very many mid range scorers, and Isaiah Thomas being a guy who can come off a screen roll and pull up in the mid range just gives us another look. He also has the floater game, and I think Kendrick Nunn kind of can fit into that, and Kendrick Nuns a little taller as well, not by much, but at least. I think it's significant in terms of

those two in terms of how they're attacked defensively. You see how teams go at Isaiah Thomas, even Cruz, so I'll try to go at him. But Kendrick Nunn is at least, if he's not a good defenders, at least an average defender. And that's where I see Isaiah Thomas is his scoring and stuff as relevant. I think it fits right into what Kendrick Nunn is. Uh, do you agree with that? Only to ask you about that, because I think that's just an interesting kind of way to

look at it. I think they score in similar ways, right, Kendrick Nuns are very off the pick and roll, get into the mid range, floater game, get to the basket, a little bit more athletic as well, finishing at the rim. Thomas has been grey, he's been competitive. But I just think that's where like, that's where you can compare, and that's what you can take I guess from the Isaiah Thomas role here. And look, I say Thomas may sit fit with the team, I just don't think you will.

You don't think you will either. WRIT think Kendrick Nunn fitting in Frisaiah. They do a lot of similar things. And it also helps having another ball handler out there right Lebron Russ and just one more ball handler that can do something with it and hugely important exactly and just giving another guy with's with a little bit of handle and shot and a guy that defense has to respect. And even if I t gets killed defensively, our offense you can tell, just has a big boost having another

ball handlers. I want to ask you about that. Do you see that comparison as well, that Kendrick Nunn kind Isaiah Thomas uh player archetype. I guess they're not the exact same player, but I think they just kind of fit and do similar things offensively. So I do agree with you in principle about you know, the archetype of

player in the way that it works well. One of the big differences between Isaiah Thomas and a guy like Kendrick Nunn, and the reason why it's a little less functional is Isaiah Thomas shoots at the top of an elevated kicks off, gets up into a shot, and shoots at the top. So he's really good when he's coming off of the screen at making people pay with a quick,

high release, even at his height. Kendrick Nunn is a little bit more of a set shooter, so he's not as good at those dynamic pull up jump shots that Isaiah Thomas takes. And I'm specifically talking about jump shots when we get into the paint, all those the assortment of little floaters and push shots and things like that. Kendrick Nunn, so and I'm just I'm I guess I'm

just paying a compliment to Wasaiah Thomas there. There's just not that many guys in the league that are that dynamic off the dribble as a jump shooter, and Kendrick

Nunn is certainly not at that level. But yes, I agree with you in terms of the overall archetype of the player, especially as a guy who has all of those in between moves, which is something that is like utterly lacking from Russell Westbrooks game right, Like when when Russell westbrook gets in the lane and he takes anything that's not a layup, you just assume it's gonna miss, you know, and that having having somebody in the lineup,

it's definitely exciting. So I definitely agree with you on that front, but I wanted to hear your opinion on the Trevor Reis and stuff. Yeah, he just fits right. He just knows where to be on defense, on offense. He's also a threat offensively to hit a three tonight as well. I think he puts all our players in the right spot and he's gonna be huge for the for the week we have without a d to me, and we played him at center tonight as well. There's

a super versatile forward. And even when we're fully healthy, I said, we're lacking in versatile forwards and he's a guy that helps with that, you know, thirty six year old. I thought he moved well. Um, he did a nice job. I thought on de Rosen in the minutes he had. I think he was like a plus six or something for the night when I checked. He just fits with

the team needs to do high basketball. I Q it's just nice to have a player that is in the right spots right and he's in the right spots and helping. He's a guy that's done this his whole career. He's been a role player kind of a lot of older players have been like the guy the other whole career and trying to are moving into role player kind of role player status. He's been a role player pretty much his whole career, so you can tell he just knows

where to feel. He feels corners correctly, he screens and rolls really nicely, and he's a big part of our small ball I feel, and I think that's the key for him because I don't know if they'll pick up another center or not, but it looks like we're gonna go a lot of Lebron at the five, a lot of centerless lineups. They played a reason Carmelo at the four or five tonight, and I think he makes Carmelo's

job a little easier as well. Carmelo likes all the responsive I don't think Carmelo likes the responsibilities that a four takes, let alone the five. And Trevor Reason does trev Reason guy that fights he gets into it right, He's not afraid to get hurt, not afraid to get get in there and get dirty a little bit on rebounds. I thought he was good. I thought he looked you know. I think he looked like Trevor Reason. And he's going to get in a better rhythm as we go here

and as he plays more. I just think he fits well. I thought he fits as seamless as you could have for his first minutes, first minutes tonight, and he's gonna be a big key of this team. I'm worried about the load we're gonna put on him, because again, I think he's gonna have to play big minutes. I thought they were. I was worried about that tonight. I was worried about that tonight. Yeah, and they didn't start. Did

they start him to start the second half? I believe they did, right because I know, yeah, so they started, they started Trevor Reason. Honestly, I think if Trevor was healthy, you know, for the last few weeks, he probably starts tonight anyway. But yeah, I thought like he looked good. He looks like he fits. I was a little lower on him than you were over the over the summer.

I was worried about the mile that he's had, but it looks like in five minute role, this is what this is what he can he can even it's it's so needed on this team. It jumps out. Yeah, agree, he's I'm I'm super super excited about a reason. We're not going to even really begin to get to understand how valuable he is until until we get more of our guys back. Like that's the crazy part with the reason, because he is a textbook like final piece of the

other lineup grouping. You know, right now, he's more of like a like he's going to be the third, second or third best player on the floor, and a lot of these lineups just because of the weirdness with COVID, so you can't even like for him to look you know, serviceable now is even is very encouraging. But so, um, I wanted to get your opinion on this and and I'm curious to hear where you're at with this. So I'm with you. I think A D is going to

be out at least eight weeks. I think I think we're looking So the reason why is because if you really factor and ramp up, if you really factor in the fact that the Lakers more or less are not going to have an opportunity to get a top seed, just because of the reality of the situation. This is a team that at at this point it's just got

to be thinking anywhere but seven. So they're just gonna be fighting for that sixth seed, right And and from that standpoint, you know, rushing a d back to try to make a blitz at the top of the top side of those standings doesn't really make sense. So I think they're gonna be a little more cautious with him, especially since we've all seen plenty of examples in NBA history of guys spraining their knee, coming back to early and then something bad happening. So I'm a big believer

in them probably taking their time with this. And so from that standpoint, we're looking at probably getting a d back in my opinion, and I could be wrong. Hopefully it's better, but probably around middle February. So you saw tonight a good example of how decimated our front courts. Obviously Dwight Howard makes it a little bit better, but ideally you don't want to Ideally you don't want to

play DeAndre Jordan. It although right, so ideally it's gonna be if they didn't make any sort of moves, you're gonna be seeing a lot of Dwight Howard and Lebron James literally trading off playing center. So like we're decimated in the front court. That's just the reality of our situation.

And I talked, I talked a lot with you over the course of the season that I thought th HT, you know, because I believe he's gonna be an All Star, I think you should hold on to him and only cash him in if you get to the point where you're near the deadline the team is trending in the right direction. Th HD isn't much of a part of that. It's a way to go all in on the season. And that was kind of my patient approach with that.

I think under these circumstances with a d being out but not seriously out, and knowing that the season is not lost and there still is an opportunity to make a playoff run here, I would cash in th HD as soon as humanly possible with his contract to get something in the front court, preferably that you know, Kendrick Non th HT for Miles Turner type of deal because of the fact that I think you have to. The only way you're gonna float in the standings enough is

going to be bringing in a legitimate center. And you saw tonight. You you talk, I think you might have been one of the people tweeting about this, But Lebron was unbelievable defensively on the back end. Tonight took a handful possessions off, but he was unbelievable. And he cannot do that for the next two months. I genuinely think that would be a terrible idea. I know he's physically capable of it. I just think it would be a

terrible idea. And then over the course of these next two months you're gonna need so much out of him offensively. So I'm of the opinion that you have to absolutely have to bring in a legitimate center and put d White back in that backup center role. Do you agree with me? Are you taking the let's just wing it for the next two months approach? Well? First, so, um, I think his name is Jeff's thoughts, Uh? He he didn't.

I think his Jeff thoughts. Yes, at in street clothes, he does a great job kind of uh doing injuries and NBA injuries, and I think he does other sports too. He said the average for for the a D injury is twenty two games, which is about six and a half weeks, right, which is which puts a D back February second. It's still you know, it's still a while

is away. My issue with this conversation because I've seen this a lot and people are like, Okay, let's go trade for voles Turner, right, and I think that's the name that probably pops out up props up a lot. T HD isn't tradeable until January four, January, right, which is still like four weeks away, which is so long, and this center issue is an issue now. To me, I think during that time you can kind of assess

what the record is. I feel like the the answer to this to me is I would like to see what our two way guy has, Like I would like to see what the Jayhuff guy has, and maybe he can't play, But I think the Lakers scouting department hasn't enough of you know, resume, yeah, enough credibility to where like try these guys out, try out the jhouse, see

if he can play. There's no way he can be that much worse than what DeAndre Jordan's is, giving you a nine league basis and watching DeAndre tonight, man, it's just it's a it's a rough watch, and he got you know, Fisdale had twelve twelve minutes of it before he had enough and had to bench him in the second half. But that's where I would go with, You're right, Lebron can't play center like this every night. It's it's

not possible. And it's why this loss hurts so much, because, like he he played that hard and you lose on amarg Rosen, you know, to fade aways and one foul on a fade away like that's a really tough way to lose. Lebron obviously wanted this one, but yeah, you're right, he can't play center this much. I think that's the answer, and hopefully Dwight Howard comes back soon. Hopefully he's back in a couple of days. But I think that's the

way they go with this. I don't think they're gonna make a trade right now because your only trade offer is THHC and you don't have four weeks. They can't, Jason. They can't just lose at a crazy pace, right The West is. It's not great, but it's still good enough to where you you don't want to be in the play in, right. I know you said that they're not going to try to fight for a to top seed, but you don't want to be in the play in Like, that's not where you want to be in this Uh.

I think if they're like five hundred, if they can stay around there and they have eight of their next ten games at home, uh coming up here, So like it's a it's a tough thing, but I would try out. You know, Jay Health the other I believe he's on a two way, right, I believe like I would try him out, maybe see you maybe see if you can sign a minimum center somewhere. Um, But that's where I would go with this because I don't think trades are even a possibility yet. Your only trade your only trade

pieces are THHD and Kendrick Nunne. D Nunn has not touched the floor this year and T is not tradeable for four weeks. So like, I don't know how we I don't know how we get into trade discussions to solve the eighties not here to play center when that's a when we can't trade our main piece until January. You know what I mean. Yeah, so I do, so

let me So this is a good discussion. I'm glad you're on the other side of this because this always makes it more interesting when you can get two people to kind of bounce the you know, counter examples off of each other. So I look at it from two perspectives. First of all, I think that a D on the injury spectrum is probably going to take a longer rather than shorter. Okay, um, that's just my personal belief there.

I could be wrong, but I tend to think that if the average tells us uh, Anthony Davis is coming back in early February, then it's probably gonna be closer to late February. So I look at it. That's part of it. And then the second part of it is I look at it from functional basketball and the best possible strategy with which two float things until a D gets back. Right. So we just talked about how I think it's absurd to try to ask Lebron to be Draymond Green while also being m v P level offensive

Lebron for the next two months. I don't think that that's a realistic expectation. So yeah, exactly, so my calendar. So so for instance, if we if we run, if we go all in on small ball and only use you know, like a lot of DeAndre Jordan in those other minutes, and we go heavy on switching, it's just gonna be complicated for Lebron in the short term to try to make that work. So if you bring in a legitimate center, then you can at least go back

to something that benefits your limits patitions elsewhere. So, for instance, we have guards that can't defend at the point of attack. So it's so important when you have guards that can't defend at the point of attack to have size around the rim that can deter driving driving lanes. Right, And so I think like if you had to play fake basketball for two months to try to float things until you can lean into your true identity. When a d gets back, I think it makes more sense to play

some bigger guys. That's just that's just my my take on it. And and again, like you you guys know how I feel in real life here, like when this team gets healthy, you guys know I preached switching all the time. I would go all in on ditching the centers. Having a d and Lebron play center switch everything, you know, especially when you got a reason out there. I'm a big believer in that style, especially when it comes playoff time. I just don't think without Anthony Davis you can do

that for two months right now. But that that's just my two cents on it. Well, like to me and also a solution to this, and I agree to me, I think you have to go small ball, go offensive, go offensive minded here. I think Austin Reeves, uh th h t Baysmore a big part of this because we saw some of the detriments to playing Lebron at the five is rebounding, right, That's an issue, and we have

small guards. Russell Westbrooks the guy that doesn't box out either, right, He's a stand, try to get the ball by jumping type of rebounder, and I thought that we saw that tonight. Lebron as well, can't be the guy trying to go and rebound for for everyone. And Isaiah Thomas is too small as well, trying to get bored. So I think like getting Austin Reaves back, getting Kent Baysmore, who hopefully you know, can play as well he did in Minnesota, but getting those guys back, I think I think helps

as well. Trevor Reason goes as well, We're gonna have to just try to fight through here, like and then Dwight Howard coming back to Like, I don't think there's a trade answer coming here. Maybe you can find a big on the minimum, but Jason, like a big on the minimum that can anchor a defense, Like I think that's tough to find right now. Like, I don't think those are out in the market, Like maybe you can try to find one, but maybe in the g LA you can find a center somewhere, like they did with

Damian Jones last year. I think Damon Jones was in the G League last year. I don't remember, but he was a guy they found as well and he was able to play. But yeah, like that's the only issue. It's an issue that's going to be a problem for a long time, like at least for the next four to six weeks. And I don't think trade there's any

trade option to find here. I just think try to find it if you're two way guy can play center, uh, and then try to buy some DeAndre Jordan, Like DeAndre Jordan can come and place what eight minutes a game maybe, like, can you do that? Like I think, I think twelve minutes in a full half shift is too much though, right you play twelve minutes at first half, that's too long, that's way too long of a shift. Um, he looks

tired by like the six minute market. If you just watch him closely, you can see his legs go out from of him. He's already a guy that goes to the path at least resistance on every place, so it's just a bad mix for him. So that's where i'd go. Hopefully we get Austin Reeves Trevor Reasa back and you can play that switchy style if you get those guys. But right now we can't, and that's why it looks so so rough. But yeah, I don't. I don't think a trade is coming man, like I know it would

be if h was tradeable. Now, I think this is a different conversation, but he's not. He's not tradial for another four weeks. They can't even have those. They can have the conversations obviously, but they can't even think about that until then. So I think you have the minimum. You can get guys on the minimum or find if your two way guys can play, and right now I would try the two way guys can I think Isaiah Thomas is going to stay for at least his ten

day contrary. Yeah, So I tend to think when you're talking about centers, because you make a good point, like, oh, go get a minimum center, maybe you can flip like a you know, a guy like Malik Monk who other teams are going to see as valuable for you know, a guy out there who's who's on the minimum. I get that. I think, you know, I'm a big believer in going cheap on centers in a in a perfect world,

you know. For instance, like the reason why I was against the proposed Miles Turner trade is because I thought, like, what's the point like that, You're we don't we we don't expect much from that position. We're better off going for a position where we have a shortcoming, which is that on the wing. You know, when the guy like Jeremy Grant like that, that ex more sense to me, right,

Like that was kind of my ideology there. But like when Anthony, a lot of that was because of the fact that Anthony Davis was on the team, you know, And I think I think, like a minimum center does a really nice job. When you're a team like Golden State and you know you're so stacked at the other positions that you know, Kevin Kavon Looney is is operating on a really limited role, and he can knock that limited roll out of the park. But I tend to think that over this stretch of games, he's gonna be

asked to do a lot. Like I I whoever's in that position, whoever is playing that role on this team, is going to have a huge role. Unfortunately under the circumstances, So it would be beneficial to have a good player there. Will see, You're right, Like a lot can change by January. You could have reports come out that's say a D

s N is doing better than expected. You could have like you said, like maybe they lean crazy into small ball and switching and just janket up on everybody the way that Brooklyn did last year, and maybe they just went a bunch of games. I mean, for the record, they had no business even being competitive tonight, Like they had no business being competitive with that Bulls team tonight. Like even with the guys that were out for the Bulls, they just had a far more functional basketball roster tonight

than we did. And we competed because we spread the ship out of the floor and Lebron is an MVP, and and Rutts had his moments and Isaiah Thomas had his moments. Like that's kind of how we we faked it till we made it, if that made If that makes sense, So I I can I can see where you're coming from there. I'm just I'm just worried about like workload stuff and things along those lines. But the other the other thing I wanted to ask you and

I talked about this yesterday as well. You know, I'm hopeful that Anthony Davis takes this opportunity to figure out what's going on with his body. And and it could be a couple of different things, right, Like he either was dealing with some sort of nagging injury that was limiting his mobile or he became overweight, not overweight from a fat perspective, but overweight in terms of the way he constructed his body over the course of the last

couple of years in the weight room. And you know how that goes, Like when you we all know because we've all been there if you've ever lifted before, but you can drop that kind of thing relatively quickly by getting out Jim, And I wonder if it's if this time for a D is a good opportunity for him to either figure out what's going on with his um injuries that he's been coping with, or if this is a body weight issue for him to kind of get

back down to an optimal body weight. And then you know, the idea there is is hey, like, if a D can come back mid February and just a perfect basketball machine version of himself in terms of his conditioning and just come back into a team that's desperate for him to slot right back into that role and just go on a run to end the season, like this could all work out just fine, because the dirty little secret is and you know, I don't think it's a comfortable

topic because a D was hurt um, you know, and it's it's uncomfortable to be like, oh, you know, a D s waiting on Mr I results, Let's talk about how much he sucked tonight, you know, like that that's that's kind of an awkward topic. But man, he wasn't playing good basketball like he he was getting I mean, he got manhandled by Karl Anthony Towns a few times

in that game, and and just in general looked. We complained all season about how he was getting beat on rebounding position even though he was super strong, that his mobility wasn't the same, that he didn't seem to have that ability to get a step on guys. And he's twenty eight years old, and the injuries he suffered in the last couple of years were not serious, you know, joint injuries that lead to you know, long term mobility concerns.

He didn't tear as achilles, He didn't you know, have a severe you know, a knee injury now, like he pulled his groin, you know, and like he had some achilles tendon soreness that he waited out. Like he should, in theory be more mobile than he is right now, and for whatever reason, he hasn't been. And so I'm hopeful that this couple of months here is a chance for Anthony Davis to get his body right, whether that's healing injuries or getting back down to a more functional

body weight. But that's kind of like another thing that I see as like a you know, pseudo silver lining here. Yeah, definitely, Like we've been watching the full season It definitely looks like he's put on mass. He doesn't look as mobile as he did. I mean to put in context and we always try to, you know, put the human element as well. He has had a large low defensively, and I wanted to ask you about this because this is

something that's tough too. It's tough to define. I guess it's just something you see when you watch every game. He's looked frustrated on most nights, right just just in general playing basketball. And I want to ask you this. He doesn't he doesn't look like as joyful playing ball. Like that's such a weird thing for like to look at with a D Would you agree with that? Like, I don't know how to put that in context. Not saying he's not enjoying playing basketball, It just it doesn't

look as fun, I guess as it used to. It looks like he's super serious all the time. And hopefully, hopefully, I'm hopeful that this time off just gets him a little bit more, you know, en circle with himself, able to heal whatever was was hurting him. It definitely looked like he wasn't add percent. And again the numbers are all there though, all the leading in points, uh, you know, leading points in the pain, leading with dougs, leading, dunks

and all that stuff is there. It's just when you watch it, it it just feels like, again we talked about this before, when he plays the five, it feels like he goes to into injury prevention mode. And maybe that's some of it. Is that, maybe some of it he feels like he has a lot of responsibilities. He just looks frustrated and looks like he's not as enjoyable on the floor. Would you agree with that? Or is that like me kind of stretching this out to somewhere where

it's not there? Is that? Is that just me seeing things? Because I want to ask you about that as well. No, I think I don't think. I don't think that's in question. I think A D has very clearly been in some sort of mental funk this year in a lot of ways. But I don't think it's any sort of larger issue.

I think it's just human nature. I mean, the reality, the reality of the situation is aside from those metrics which you mentioned, which are you know, we we've talked about E D is so freakishly talented that you know, twenty and ten for him isn't the same as twenty in ten for Clint Compella, Like twenty and ten for a guy like Anthony Davis is you know, if he's not engaged the way he usually is, is is not a

great night, you know what I mean? Where whereas you be thrilled to the moon if if if Clint Compella did that for you, you know what I mean. So there's a different there's like a sliding scale with a lot of this stuff. Um, But that said, like I

think he here's the thing. He's not playing as well as he knows he can and and the team is massively underachieving, and it's human nature, Like losing basketball games really sucks, Like it really sucks, especially when you're you know, with this core, the core of this group, you're used to win it, you know what I mean. Like we've talked about it the I've said this stat a million

times on this pot. But coming into this season, when Lebron James and Anthony Davis suited up in the purple and gold for the Lakers, they won almost eight percent of their games that that would like counting the playoffs. That's how dominant this group was. And so for them to be, you know, going into that Minnesota game sitting at sixteen and thirteen and to have been dealing with a bunch of injuries, like it has an impact on body language, even Lebron has had a couple of times

this year. Actually I'm not we don't want to get into it tonight because it's kind off topic. But I thought Lebron has been surprisingly good with his leadership after in his history that's been a weak point for him when things get bad. I remember coming on here and talking about how I thought we might be going down a dark path on the Lebron front. You know, you remember that, Like, but it just ended up not It just ended up not happening. And that's a credit to Lebron.

But the point is is it's been that kind of season. It's been a roller coaster and so you know, and look at it from Anthony Davis's perspective too, Like he went from playing with a group of guys who were devoted to the dirty work to suddenly playing with a group of guys where that's so far back on their list of of basketball priorities that he's caught cleaning up

after them all the time. And now to to you know, to those guys defense like a D hasn't been that great either on on those areas of the game, but he's been a hell of a lot better than them, the rest of the guys on the roster, at least,

you know, up until this last couple of weeks. And so I would imagine it's been extremely frustrating for him to constantly see the guards not helping on defensive rebounding when they used to when it was k CP and Kyle KU's not not boxing out, not you know, not offering some resistance on the back line, not rotating like I'm sure, I'm sure it was frustrating for him, you know. Um, and then and then obviously this is the last thing I'll say about it, Like integrating a basketball team is

hard as well. This is something I talked about a lot, you know, when we're talking about team construction and you know, the give and take of ball handlers, like you know,

it's when you go. It happens to me all the time, like I'll go play pick up and I'll run into a bunch of my buddies that used to play in college and from you know, every once in a while, I'll be like, oh, let's all play together today, and it always like ends up weirdly not working, you know, because like we're all used to having the ball in our hands and then suddenly you get in like a five man operation with that, and it just doesn't function in a single pickup game when the scores to eleven,

you know, when you don't have weeks and weeks to figure it out, you know what I mean. Like that's the thing here, Like it's Lebron Russ and Anthony Davis are figuring out kind of a new partnership and there are bumps that come with that, and it can be

frustrating at times. And I'm sure I'm sure Anthony Davis has struggled with not being able to get off his isolation game the way that he usually has in the past, and a lot of its spacing, a lot of that's because of us, and a lot of that's because of Frank and and I'm sure I'm sure he's been frustrated by that stuff. And and but that said, like it's not an excuse for playing as poorly as he has been, and I would attribute most of this to his body.

I just don't think he's anywhere near as and mobile as he used to be. And I think that him figuring that part out will be the quickest pathway to him getting back to where he was, you know, back in the bubble. Yeah, And I think him not being able to hit a jump shot has also kind of impacted him, right, You could tell like he's been frustrated with it. I think you posted it. I think you posted the three pointer that he airballed, right, you could

just tell his jumpers not there. And I think that just that just translates to the rest of his game, the rest of his office and game. He could tell his aggression drops as well in that way. But you're right, he's just looked frustrated this season, man. And maybe that's the silver lining here if there is one, obviously, Like this team goes nowhere without healthy Anthony Davis. I think that's true. I think I think it's super unfortunate that,

you know, he goes out. In the next game, we get Trevor Reason back, because we've been just waiting for Trevor Reason to get added to this team. And it's just a kind of sick circumstance that Trevor Reason comes back and a d goes right it out. But hopefully, you know, he takes his time, uh to kind of get back into the shape he could have been a little bit slimmer. Maybe just you know, finds a new way to kind of fit into this team. I think when you're not playing, you kind of see things that

that you don't see when you're on the floor as well. Right, A lot of players talk about that they go on the injury and they come back and they kind of find their fit with the team a little bit better. But it was rough. This team hasn't had a lot of games where the big three can kind of work on things. You have guys in and out. Russ has played every game, e D I think has missed one, but Lebron was out for a long time. So hopefully

like they can get back once he comes back. But this is a rough stretch man four to six weeks. Any team would go through a shock missing their second bus player, especially one that's so important defensively. But I just hope he finds a way to kind of navigate back to this team because I don't think we've gotten the full Anthony Davis yet that we thought we would

over the summer. It just hasn't worked out that way, even though the numbers, even though the numbers, you know, paint the picture that it does us watching the game every night, just hasn't been and he's been frustrated. And I don't blame him. The guards are what they are, but I can't fully like, I can't fully give that up because he's been He's part of the roster construction. To me, him Lebron are part of this that you don't get to complain about it. And then also you

know he's part of recruiting DeAndre Jordan's as well. I think he's been really open about that. So like that stuff that I can't there's both sides to it. Obviously, it's context and everything. But that's why I can't just blame like he's not allowed to just be upset at them. He's part of the roster and construction here, and they knew what they were getting when they came into It was going to be an offensive team. It was gonna

be a struggle. And I think when a D goes out, it's just natural that Lebron is gonna have to pull

a heavier load here, especially on defense. I don't think he can do what he did tonight every single night, but it has to be at least some baseline level, right like, because they can't just fall, you know, off a cliff here, and they have some easier games coming up as well, And with the COVID situation, you don't know what every team comes into every night with all these people going into protocols, So maybe you get a couple breaks here and there in terms of who you're

playing every night. But yeah, man, four to six weeks, hopefully a E D comes back. I haven't checked how players come back from that type of injury. Obviously, any any injury that takes you out that long, it's going to have an impact on you. Just hopefully he's able to come back healthy and then we're gonna have it's gonna be an adjustment for the whole team to try

to figure out what they do during that time. But I don't see like reinforcements coming anytime soon, you know, like because of our trade possibilities and what what we

can trade. Everyone's on a minimum deal. You brought up Bleak Monk, you makes like what two three million dollars a year, Like there's just there's just no salaries that you can really um and any trade you trade them for, if it's like a minimum center, you're kind of losing on that deal because I think Monk has I'll played his contract, so I just yeah, so I just don't know where they go with this other than Lebron More at center, which is taxing on him. Trevor Reads at center.

I thought that looked okay tonight, uh, and and go from there. That's but it's a tough situation, man. We're gonna be you know, we were you know, even when we were fully healthy, A D and D and just Dwight Howard was already like a thin center rotation right like that was already kind of a thin center rotation with way the A D doesn't want to play center for full on minutes, and now without a D is

just going to be It's gonna be rough. But we're gonna need Lebron a step up and like to talk about Trevor Resa hopefully Austin Reeves and Baysmore are you able to come back, because I think they kind of fit what we need right now. Going super small, uh super small here, Yeah, well, with us having to go super small, it'll be nice. It'll be nice to have a reason in that spot. But you know, no one

feels no one's gonna feel sorry for the Lakers. And because everyone's going through stuff, and there's already the there's already the Laker aspect to this, you know, in terms of just the way fan base is outside of of of l a view the Lakers. And you know, when I'm talking about the human nature of it, that's I'm explaining why I think, you know, I'm explaining why I think Anthony Davis feels a certain way. But the truth is, none of this is an excuse, like you have to

go out there and compete. That the Bulls have been dealing with COVID. They had a huge out break. I think tomarda rose and just got cleared. You know, the the Brooklyn Nets have had an absolute nightmare of a season, and in terms of player availability and uh, you know, James Harden coming into the season way out of shape, Kyrie Irving having the vaccination issue, and you know what, that team just decided to play really good basketball and they're in their best player decided that he's going to

play the best basketball of his career. And and I and I give them a lot of credit for that I think the Lakers have been trending in the right direction lately, and I love the fight that I saw out of the group tonight. So I don't want to dwell on the past in terms of the way basketball character that this team used to show at the start

of the season. But you know, there are no excuses here, you know, And and I think because everybody on the team is vaccinated, I think you're going to see a lot of these guys come back sooner than later, and and hopefully they can put together, you know, the facade of a basketball team, you know, until until either January when you can move p HT or if things are serviceable enough and til Anthony Davis gets back. But is there anything else you want to do tonight before we

call it a night. Well, I guess just the last thing. So did you watch the second half of that that Minnesota game? Right? I thought that, you know, it sucks because I thought in that third quarter it kind of showed what we were going to be. And Wayne Allington is starting to get starts, like and this is just the worst way from Wayne elling to get starts, But I thought like that showed a little bit of what

we can be when we're healthy. I think we started Russ, Russ, Basemore, Ellington, Lebron and a D, and I thought they really found a rhythm. Kar Anthony Towns was killing us early, but a D started to win those physical matchups against him, and I thought, just that showed what we can be. And I think there's still a good team in here. It's just like we're gonna have to wait another four to six weeks to see it. So that was my last thing. I guess. I think I think we found

a little bit of something. It's just we're about to go through a whole bunch more. I talked about how this team needs to go through trial and error to kind of figure out what's good and what's not, and we're about to go through a whole bunch more trials and errors. So I just hope people get ready because it's they're gonna be some of the basketball going know exactly, And and No, I I actually agree with you entirely

about the the second half against Minnesota. I tweeted out the the little line graft thing that shows the team scores, and how basically right when the A D injury happened, those lines, you know, went opposite directions, and I tweeted that out and I had a lot of people, you know, in the mentions being like, ah, yeah, I don't we sucked anyway, Like this is I disagree? Like I thought,

I agree with you. I was like, first of all, it's it's normal to go on the road and get kind of punched in them out at the beginning of the game, and then to fight back and make it competitively. That's totally normal. And yeah, I get it Minnesota and the standings doesn't look great, but I'm pretty sure they're eleven and six when D'Angelo Russell, Karl Anthony Town's play and in Patrick Beverley play. I think that's the I saw that staff the other day. So they're not a

bad team when they have their players available. So, you know what, it was a tough road game, and the Lakers got off to a bad start. They are two best players, both got off to really, really bad starts. And then in the third quarter things kind of started come together, and I thought they were gonna make a run, and I genuinely thought they were gonna win that game. And then Anthony Davis got hurt and we talked all about how how that can suck the life out of

the team. But I'm with you. I thought we're trending in the right direction. This is an unfortunate circumstance. Uh, we should all just take a second to be thankful that it wasn't way worse, you know, in terms of the injury. So all things considered, you know, it's gonna be fine. And again, you know, and I said this today with with Eddie, this next couple of weeks, none of these teams should be judged like there's no judgment

to make about the Lakers tonight. Even if the Bulls had lost at home to that depleted Lakers team, there shouldn't be any judgment there. All of these teams are playing, you know, I you know what kind of made me feel like it kind of made me feel like charity basketball games. Like it felt like a charity basketball game with big name NBA stars in it, mixed in with guys that would have no minutes in any normal and bea NBA scenario Like it's it just it's an unusual

in vironment. This next couple of weeks is gonna be weird. We all just gotta suck it up. But it's gonna get back to normal now, because they're testing everybody now that this outbreak will be quelled and and things will go back to normal. But hey guys, that's all we have for tonight. So this is gonna be on dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven and Pacific Standard time. This will be on our podcast feed here in a couple

of hours, and then next game is Tuesday night. I believe at home against the Sun's if I'm not mistaken, UM, and I believe that's an eight o'clock start. Roger and I will both be back for that one. UM. So we will see you guys all on Tuesday night and enjoy the rest of your Sunday. We'll see you in a couple of days. Happy holidays, Thanks everyone,