Lakers/Rockets Postgame Spaces

but Lebron didn't let that happen. Um, So I'm glad that for the first time in a long time, Rose, you and I can talk about a Laker win. How are you doing, Buddy? I am doing well, man. Yeah. The last Laker win was the Austin Reeves game winner, which feels like two years ago. Um. But yeah, a lot of Laker games coming up here tomorrow again one against Memphis. But how are you, man? How is your

week going? It is going good. I'm prepping for my first ski trip of the year, and I looking at the weather and seeing all this snow drop in on the mountain I'm going to so I'm pretty stoked about that. But hey man, let's let's dive right into it. So I thought I thought the story of tonight's game was the Lakers finally kind of leaning into their identity. And I think we saw that right away with the starters.

Something that we've been preaching for this entire season, this idea that this could be one of the best driving kick basketball teams that we've ever seen, because you see so many guys on the floor that are capable of beating a guy at the point of attack, in making reads and passes out of that for high quality offense. It's something that I thought the Clippers had nailed down to his science last year in the playoffs, and they

were doing it with lesser players. They were doing it with Paul George as their best player, with Reggie Jackson doing a lot of that driving kick work. They didn't have anywhere near the personnel in terms of that specific skill set that the Lakers had, And it was so infuriating for me and for you as well, rog to watch this team try to actively sabotage that specific skill set. You know, they're so good at driving the ball to the basket, but we would play multiple bigs. We'd play

a bunch of non shooters. We'd be in a situation where we had our driving kick guys taking off the dribble, pull up jump shots just about every time down the floor at the start of these games, and obviously there's a lot still to work through. I don't understand why they didn't play Dwight at all tonight. I would have played him. Staggered with Lebron that said, I loved what we saw from the starting lineup. I thought you saw

everyone look comfortable. Russ had a lot of bad rust moments tonight, but he also had a lot of good rust moments, and I thought he looked comfortable driving and kicking. Lebron looked comfortable getting to the basket. Malik Monk looked comfortable, even mellow, operating in his little isolation sets, just the space that he had to oper He just looks so comfortable.

And with that team operating with confidence, especially as their two best defensive forwards come back, a Resa and reeves this team will get enough stops to where if they can replicate this offense, they're gonna be a tough team to beat. And then you plug Anthony Davis into that and it gets even more exciting. But that was that

was I thought the story of the game. Rod starting Stanley Johnson and dropping Dwight Howard, leaning into a five out offense, driving kick, driving kick, driving kick, and just all of our offensive players feeling comfortable. What did you think? Yeah, And it wasn't just Stanley Johnson, right, it was putting Malik Monke in for th h T And I thought that was very important. It looked like the offense flowed

a lot better. And this feels like we've really just lean into and I've been on this from like I think the fifth, the sixth game of the season. To me, this season is about maximizing Russ. It's about making sure lineups are kind of induced to help him play better, kind of fit around his skill sets. You know, we have the miss dunks and stuff like that, but there's still a good player in where in Russ. There's still

a effective player, there's still a winning player there. And I think that starting lineup kind of pushes those correct buttons I put in my notes here. Our first or second basket was a Russ, you know, left or right, drive right to the rim and he got to the rim a lot tonight. There was a lot of miss miss layup still at the basket, but he's getting to the basket. And I thought, that's kind of what we saw with the spacing. With that new starting lineup, Malik

Monk and Lebron have had an instant chemistry. I thought, just you know, from the beginning of the season, I think when he was out, we missed his offense. He has a punch to him where like he can he can drive to the basket or shoot. I feel like every time he gets into the dip of his jumper, I think it's going in like that's how clean it looks when he's spawning up. But he's just been Him and Lebron have a nice chemistry, man, and that that

stands out. But yeah, I thought the starting lineup really helped russ Um get going. And still there's some bad passes, some awful turnovers that Russ does, and those kind of glare out more when you don't have Anthony Davis to kind of take some of those possessions away, so you see more when you you know up Russ is you said you get you up the turn over? Is he also up the numbers right, and I think he got another triple double tonight. But yeah, that's what I think

the starting lineup did. Man, there's still a lot of defensive concerns. To me, we gave up a lot of points, especially the backup you know, center position booches Carmelo right now. But Stanley Johnson looks good again. Him and Lebron are

able to switch actions. And that isn't me or just Stanley Johnson just look huge and that like in any lineup peace and he just but he just looks like like massive, Like he's like he was dropped out of another era and just dropped in, you know, like he just looks absolutely like he doesn't fit with the players are on the floor. It's like Darren Coulson and then you know also every Bradley and then it's like Stanley Johnson. Him and Lebron looked almost same size sometimes and they're

able to switch. And I thought, you know, that looked good. He's still not hitting his jumper, he's still not scoring, you know, at any kind of rate, but he looked good, man, and it looked like this lineup is inducive to us. We've leaned fully into the Lebron small ball. Lebron is playing exclusively at center now, which is crazy kind of

the switch we've done. Yeah, Stanley's dude, I uh he when he came through Tucson to go to the University of Arizona, and I was fortunates get to play basketball against him a lot over the year that he was there, and I can speak from personal experience that he's just a massive human And what's funny is he was massive like that coming right out of high school. That's a little similarity between him and Lebron is that they both they both had their grown man body when they were

like sevent teens. Who the heck knows how that happens, you know. So, Malik Monk, you're starting to see a little bit of his cutting chemistry with Lebron, which is something that we we've all we've seen throughout Lebron's career. Players as they learn how to operate off the ball with Lebron, they kind of, over the course of time playing with him, they figure out where their opportunities were.

And we saw a lot of backdoor cuts from Malik Monk today, which is interesting because that's why Avery Bradley has had so much success, uh playing with Lebron cutting on the backside, just kind of sneaking around and staying a threat even when he's not at the three point line. And so that's the instant chemistry with Malie Can. Lebron

comes from three things. His ability to cut off the ball to his ability to attack closeouts in a more complicating way, meaning a complicated way, excuse me, Like he can make complicated finishes around shot blockers at the basket, he can make floaters, you can make pull up jump shots. He can also do the next level reads out of those clothesouts. And then lastly, he's a shooter. He can knock down shots at a high rate. So when you put those three things together, that's like your ideal off

ball Lebron teammate. Now. Defensively, he was all over the place tonight, and that's the next thing, um that this team's got to figure out is how to get more stops with these smaller lineups. And I think a lot of it will just be you know, taking you know, because the Lakers only play eight guys tonight, which is that was really interesting for a couple of different reasons.

First of all, they're on the front end of the back to back, you know, so ideally you'd want to play a deeper rotation, but again it's the COVID circumstances at play here as well. The part that I got confused with is Dwight should have played like Dwight. Dwight is a quality backup NBA center. He has to be in the lineup unless he's hurt or dealing with conditioning problems, which that very well may be the case. We don't know, but he was playing the other day, so I don't

really understand. But it was interesting that they kept the rotation super short under the circumstances. But when you get guys back in there like Reeves like a reason, now that becomes a ten man small ball rotation. And now we now we can kind of ask for more out of those guys defensively, because in an eight man rotation like that, you just end up with guys playing big minutes.

And when they played big minutes, that's when they start paying really close attention to their own personal fatigue, like how much how much longer can they hold down the turbo like we have. Stanley played thirty two minutes tonight, which I'm fine with. I want him to play big minutes. But Avery Bradley thirty one minutes, that's a lot, Carmelo Anthony twenty eight minutes, that's a lot. Like you're asking guys that are going to experience a drop off in

their defensive effort as their minutes increase. As guys get back from the COVID protocols, they should be able to be in a more traditional you know, here's your two shifts or here's your one shift. You play your ass off while you're in there, and then you know, well, we can actually expect more from you defensively. So they've got to figure out how to get more stops to that group. But I just think it's really cool because this is the identity of basketball that I've been pining

for this entire past eighteen months. This is modern basketball. Modern basketball is five outs. That's what we did. That's that that's the best way to maximize offensive talent in today's NBA. And again, it's just about how can you get stops with these smaller, primarily offensive minded players, And I think they can. They're just gonna have to kind of figure that part out. But this is this is kind of my idealized version of the way this team

would play offense. Yeah, and with like with Russ playing, you're almost never always five outright, because he's going to be the one kind of that's that's inside. But tonight, like Lebron played, you brought up the minutes that all these guys are playing. You know, we played the eight man rotation broadcade thirty nine minutes tonight. But it didn't look like it was too much for him. It didn't look like it was too much of a heavy kind

of load for him. A lot of his offense was just, you know, throw it into the post and let him playmake out of that. Jason, I think our offense is getting better. It looks like we've added a lot of kind of actions and stuff, a lot of off ball stuff, right. We're getting a lot of baskets, off cuts, um, We're running like a lot more split actions on week sides and stuff that are involving on shooters like Malik Monk and Carmelo run a lot of offside actions and it's

cool to kind of see that. We also spam like the guard screen roles that are that are doing and Lebron's Lebron's playing center, but he's still playing a lot of point guard. A lot of his stuff is just playmaking. Yet Yeah, so he's still doing a lot of playmaking, which I think is easier for him. His playmaking again is coming out of the post or just you know, guard screens and try to make decisions out of that

didn't look too difficult. Houston is not a great team, right, They don't have, you know, a really great They don't play defense that well. I think they're one of the worst defensive teams in the league. But it was nice to just to see that. And again it's we can't really be picking right now with Winds six five losses in a row, so it's nice to just kind of put the script there. But yeah, I think we're getting better on offense, man, if we can fill these wings in.

And both of us would like Dwight to play, but I think we'd much rather have this be the have this be the place where they lean into, right, You'd rather them lead into the small ball identity um, rather than you know, lean into the two bigs and then go with the small ball here and there. They lean in all the way and I don't like how rigid it is. I do think Dwight can play a few

minutes here and there. I still think he's a serviceable backup center, especially those Mellow at the five minutes, those are really a struggle. Although you know, Stanley Johnson next to him makes it a little bit better look at it in terms of the athleticism, Yeah, exactly, And he definitely makes those lines a little bit better. It still feels like a layup line a lot because you know,

Stanley is usually still on the perimeter. Mellow likes to stay in the paint, which makes sense, can't really move his feet um and again that's where I think Dwight can come in. But you know, Russ in those second units gets to the basket a little bit more. I do think the finishing should get a little bit better at the ask, you right, people to usually shoot at the rim. But he's getting there and that and that's

a good thing. But yeah, they lean all the way into this super small ball, which makes it fascinating when you know Reeves a Resa all those guys get back because they are kind of built to play in this kind of this kind of system. We'll see if Lebron can kind of continue to hold up at center. But it's nice that they've leaven into it, uh and it took what games to get to get there, but it's good that we're here, and hopefully eighty can kind of

come back and fill those spots. But it's it was fun to kind of watch tonight at least the offense right, And I think this really does help Russ be able to pick his game up too. So my argument for playing Dhite is the fact that he's a good NBA player. I know that he didn't look good coming out of the locker room, but like I've said to you so many times, when you've walked the guy in the locker room, when you walk the guy in the hotel room for ten days, he's going to struggle to quickly adapt back

to playing NBA basketball. That's just kind of part of the deal there, and that I would imagine that's even exaggerated for big guys, you know, because so much of what they do is based on their motor and they're conditioning. My reasoning for playing Dwight is the exact same reason why you don't play DeAndre Jordan's. You know, you're playing DeAndre Jordan because you feel like you need a center. But he's actually like one of the worst players in

the NBA. So actually, what you're doing is you're just putting one of the worst players in the NBA out there. Well with Dwight, we're having issues with talent, especially with Anthony Davis out. We're bringing in guys off the street. We got guys like Darren Collison, who we might talk about later may or may not still be an NBA player. But the point is that Dwight is very much a completely passable, maybe even good backup NBA center. He just

has to be he has to be out there. And then the flip side of that is like kind of bringing this to Lebron because I do want to go in the direction of Lebron here. You know, Lebron at center is easy on his body against most of the teams in the league. Like a night like tonight, Lebron had no issues playing center against Houston. There thin Christian Wood wants to take him out on the perimeter and take jump shots anyway, there's it's just not labor intensive.

And you saw that literally at the end of the game, after playing all those minutes he dunked all over Christian would like he wasn't even there. So the point is is like physically he's fine there. But let's say Carl Anthony Towns tomorrow. Let's say you know Nicola Yokis down the line, Let's say you know these Joe olmpide when you're playing against these bigger centers. I think that's where you're starting to talk about, Okay, can Lebron do this

physically for thirty nine minutes a night? Is that a good idea? That's why I would keep Dwight in there as your backup center, have him play a couple of shifts every night, you know, in the minutes where you'd normally had Mellow at center, and essentially just keep him engaged and in shape and prepared to then have the bigger role against the bigger centers. And then what I would do, like like tomorrow night against uh Karl Anthon. Excuse me, they play Memphis, so they play uh Steven Adams.

So it's wrong about that, but oh, I think we played Minnesota a couple of games from now, if I'm not mistaken, maybe later this week, but anyway, against Steven Adams, Like, rather than go big and put d White on Steven Adams, what I would do is I just say, like Lebron's starting at center, run them off the floor. Like with

that lineup, just run, run, run, run, run. Maybe Steven gets a couple offensive rebounds here there, but over the course of the that stretch of basketball, you have the advantage. And then I'd bring Ed White in and have him spell in the in the non Lebron minutes. But I wanted to talk about Lebron for a minute because I think what you're seeing here is kind of an idealized

version of him. And I don't think it's coincidental because you know, he did dunk on Christian Wood tonight, but this hasn't been a year for him as a high flyer, so you can kind of we can all kind of admit to the fact that physically he's not the same guy that he was, you know, back in two thousand eighteen. That goes without saying. However, his efficiency is up across

the board. I tweeted about this earlier today. He right now is shooting a higher percentage in the restricted area then he hasn't any of his years since he left Miami. That's a that's an awesome number, especially when you factor in how many of his minutes at the beginning of the season, we're alongside DeAndre Jordan's. But he's also shooting near the top of his career highst for shots in the mid range and his overall true shooting percentage. He's

just he's just having an extremely efficient scoring season. And I think a big part of that is this recent move into this modern idea of what basketball should be, this five out basketball. And to your point about Lebron playing the point, his assist numbers are down this year because he's been so deferential to Russ and he's done so much work as a screener and off the ball. But what you saw tonight is what the team needs

to be. Lebrons to defer to Russ only when he's fatigued or when he out of the game, and when he's on the floor, he needs to play that role. This team has always been at their breast when Lebron's a tennisi ist guy and not a five assist guy, you know what I mean, Like when Lebron's at the top of the key, surrounded by shooters, or at the elbow surrounded by shooters and cutters, just picking you apart

with his brain. That's when he's at his best, and then which what inevitably ends up happening is guys all glue up to their man and now he's playing one on one basketball, and that's how he ends up with these super efficient shooting numbers. But again, what you saw tonight is a little bit different than what we've seen from Lebron for a lot of this season because he's been deferring to Russ so much, and I think we need to kind of try to bottle that up a

little bit and repeat it moving forward. Have Lebron make more of the decisions. Have Russ when Lebron's on the floor, be more of an off ball guy, because what you saw there is peak Lebron ball, top of the key, elbow extended one of those two spots either with a live dribble or out of your threat. That's where's that his best? Yeah, and we're starting to playing with Billie nice cutters, right, I think again, going back into Leak Monk, I think that's a big part of it as well,

playing with guys who move off the ball. Every Bradley is not a shooter, but he is a nice cutter, and I thought he got a lot of baskets off that, and again it looks like we're getting into second and third kind of production of our offense as well, like we're getting into more movement, a lot more cutting, and

Lebron is able to just find guys. It's it's interesting the Russ you know Lebron dynamic there because I think the starting lineup is all intertwined into that as well, like the r late game offense, and I was just Lebron in the post or it was also Rust Lebron screen and roll right like Russ was able to attack the basket. I think he got a lay up off the uh he found Lebron twice cutting and you're getting to see Lebron as a cutter with which I think

is great when when he's at the center position. That's just a really tough cover. You have Rust Lebron running a screen role, Lebron rolls and him as a roller. It just creates a whole bunch of havoc. If you don't help on that, he's able to dunk on you. Still. You talked about the dunk on. I think Christian would he had to lay up at the end as well. You're seeing just a full of transformation, and he's been

just incredible. I think it's what thirty thirty and like thirteen games this year, which is tied for I believe Trey Young. I think pick Up Whop tweeted that out. But yeah, he's just been incredible of this season man and his jumper to every time he shoots. I think it's it's pretty much going in now and becoming just a great jab step, pull up jump shooter this year. Um and then just as a cutter. But he's been awesome.

The team hasn't you know, matched his play, which has been sad, but it's been great to at least see him still be at that level. He's still had a top three, you know, producing player in this league, and I think that's the most important thing for the season. And we're starting to put players around him that kind of make things easier for him, which was the whole point of putting an offensive, you know, laated team around him. And you're seeing the kind of advantage of that again

tonight thirty nine minutes. I just didn't think it was too difficult. Houston's defense is part of that. They're not great. They lose guys off ball time all the time. But this is just the role I think he'll be in and I think it will be fascinating. Also when a d comes back how he kind of fits around it too. But yeah, Lebron was great, man. It was just throwing it, throwing it to him in the post. If they trapped, he finds the cutter. If not, it's a fadal Way jumper.

It's a bullyball to the basket. I think only like three free those with like three minutes left or something. Still not getting to the line as much as you would think. But he's just been awesome. He's been getting to the basket. You have no complaints about Lebron these last six games, Yes, six games, so five of them had been losses. But I think he's played well and

all of them, which is which is great. Well, people need to adjust our expectations, like we given the personnel that we've had at our disposal over the course of the last couple of weeks, winning NBA basketball games is damn near impossible. That's just the reality of the situation.

We're trying to project forward here, and that's that's what's kind of exciting about this is it's not like where Lebron's groin injury was completely devastating to any chance of making the playoffs because of the fact that the West was so deep that you had to be significantly over

five to get in. Like like said in a couple of pods ago, the Lakers could hover around five hundred this whole time that Anthony Davis is out and still easily end up with the four or five seeds, Like that's very much on the table because of the fact that the West is is pretty weak. And then obviously, like the most exciting part about it is Anthony Davis I think is an awesome plug and play guy into

a five out system, I think he could be. I think he could be devastating in a five out system attacking close outs, just because of his outrageous size and ability to handle the basketball, and especially if he's not that first guy when you're not depending on him to beat somebody out of a standstill, but rather attacking closeouts. I think he could be so so so good at that. But you know, looking forward at the style like this is because you had mentioned, you know, Houston's bad defense,

and that's true that needs to be acknowledged here. However, the reality is is five out basketball is extremely difficult to guard because everyone's in space, and as we know, it's just really dive the colt from the basket to keep somebody in front of you, no matter how good you are. That's that, especially when you've got players the caliber of Lebron and the caliber of Russ, which say what you want about Russ, and he's had a boatloaded issues this year. God knows, I've been one of the

guys pointing those out. But he does not have problems, have a problem beating guys off the dribble, you know what I mean, That's not his issue. So the point is is like that, in general, this style gets very difficult to guard. For instance, Utah last year, I think they were the number three defense in the entire league. They had a scheme that worked for them in the day in and day out system in the In the

regular season, however, they ran into the Clippers. The Clippers spaced them out, and suddenly they had a one thirty defensive rating in that series. One thirty. Can you can you imagine how like that is atrocious. They could not get a stop against the Clippers, and the Clippers didn't even really have that much talent relative to some of the other teams they would have had to face to make it to the championship, which is exactly why I've

been preaching about this so much. Guys like this is how basketball works these days if you need to get guys out in space, because it's just extremely difficult to cover them, no matter how good you are at a specific position Defensively. Rudy Gobert was useless in that series, and it wasn't his fault. It's just that they spaced him out. He was out of the play. He would

step over and rotate to help. On a drive, they kick it out to the corner and the next guy would get beat and it'd be over, or the next guy wouldn't even make the rotation and he'd make it three. It's just difficult to to to even attempt to stop people when they're in this kind of system, which is takes me to what excites me about this team, because not only are they capable of it offensively, but in theory.

There are lineups that exist on this roster. Line ups, especially now that Stanley Johnson is on the roster, but you could go with Lebron, Anthony Davis, Trevor Rees is Stanley Johnson and someone like Russ And now it's like, take your pick, which guy are you gonna try to drive by? Okay, so you've decided it's Austin Reeves or Stanley Johnson or Russell Westbrook. Cool. Well, the other four guys on the floor are all six eight and can

run and and can cover ground. So it's like, you know that the Lakers were always built to play this modern style of basketball, and this has been one of the things that I've been so frustrated about with Frank. He just was really slow to accept that. And I thought tonight when I saw that starting lineup come out, I immediately got excited because I was like, you don't put that starting line up out there unless you finally understand that this is the strength of your team. So

it definitely is exciting. Yeah, And I think, you know, th HD has had a really rough you know, a few games, and you had a comparison to th HD as well, uh today that that a lot of people jumped on for. But he's a good defender to me, And I thought, you know, tonight, that's why I was

kind of frustrated. I wish they switched more actions and I thought, that's kind of the team that will eventually see um they were still doing like trapping and try to get back, And I thought, you know, any screen action that Lebron that involves Lebron, THHD and Stanley Johnson, I would have loved to see them just switch any

of that. It's kind of interesting how the season has kind of gone right because again I keep talking about how we were sold this starting lineup to start the year, and obviously a reason being hurt was kind of the excuse I guess, or the reason or however you want to call it for them going into the other two leaning into the other way of that right, And now I think it's interesting you could have you could think of like there was two ways to go with that.

You could have found like a fact similar of reason, or you could or they went right back into this too big lineup, And I think I would have loved to see what that looked like like if Bays could have just filled in for a reason during that time. How different does this team look? Do they gell a little bit earlier? Like those are questions that probably we can't answer anymore, but that stuff that's really interesting interesting to me. But that's kind of where this team is going.

You talked about, you know, Stanley Johnson playing a bunch of minutes. Now we'll see if he stays. We'll see if he stays, right. I hope he does. It looks like he's shown enough. But they stuff I think cuts someone to kind of keep him. But that's just that player kind of archetype him aresa next to Lebron Like that's a really interesting five and it's like we're just

gonna go with the super small ball lineups. I think it's I think it's really telling that DeAndre Jordan can't get a you know, a single minute, or even Dwight Howard to a lesser extent. I think Dwight will eventually again the rotation, but DeAndre Jordan cannot get off the floor when we're playing, like you said, a guys in the first of a back to back, Like that's really telling to me, Like that's kind of showing where the team is and where it's going. And uh, I think

it shows for positive, positive positivity going forward. I would I want to see still Kendrick Nunn get some time. I think Darren Caulson is interesting, right, He's still he looks like he's still trying to, you know, catch up to being caught up. Like he's like two weeks he's like a week away from being a week away U, which is the way I would see it. Like he's

like a step slower than everybody, which makes sense. He had a nice drive on the baseline tonight to get a basket, but you can tell he's just not in any kind of basketball conditioning. It doesn't matter how much how much in shape you stay. But again, I think he's just a fill in until Kendrick Nunn gets back. And I think those are just player archetypes. So you can kind of see and see the vision here a little bit. I'm still on the like I need to see more wins, I guess, because this is gonna be

a really big stretch here. I think we play we play Memphis Tomorrow's. He's been killing everyone that they play. They got John rampec Um. It's gonna be interesting. They can kind of hover around five hundred. You said, the standings have kind of leveled off to where the middle of the pack is all still kind of bunched up and you can kind of catch up. But it's interesting, man, it looks like, we really lean into this though, this super small ball and this is the way you want

to lean I like it. It's a little too rigid for both of us. We want to see dhy I play, but we're kind of happy right with with them leaning into this because I think it's just it just makes everyone else on the on the team look better. It allows them to run actions that makes sense. You're having, you know, Malik Munk coming off two pin downs and then you have like Carmelo cutting off of that, like just put you off into players. I think it's a

better positions. Oh, absolutely, And then it just gives them more, you know, desire to even attempt to do the job defensively, which is something you and I have been preaching about all your The Callison thing is hilarious if you think about it, because we saw a report that came out

today actually wasn't report. I think it was a straight up interview from Steve Nash with him saying, yeah, we're not gonna play Kyrie until the conditions for two weeks, and it's like, okay, meanwhile, Darren Collison, I'm I'm pretty sure it was like some sort of youth minister before he before he showed up in the in the Lakers jersey, so like, and he just stepped out there and started playing. And so I mean, it's just that just goes to

show you just how complicated this is. I mean, it's just there's stepping into NBA basketball from not playing NBA basketball for an extended stretch is really difficult. It's one of It's been one of the big reasons why I've been trying to get everybody to lighten up on th HD a little bit. And everyone everyone jumped on me about the th HD Drew Holiday in comparisons today, But guys, guess what Drew Holiday um didn't make an All Defense

team until two thousand eighteen. Like like Drew Holiday was was basically a guard who bounced around from team to team because everyone decided he wasn't really good enough to justify the money and uh and and he was a good player. He made an All Star team once in

a week Eastern Conference in two thousand and twelve. But what you saw with Drew is over the course of the last few years of his career, he finally kind of found his idealized role, which is, hey, if I'm the third best player on the team and there's not a ton asked for me offensively, I can devote all my energy to the defensive end of the floor and I can be a flat out impact player there. And

that's what he's been for the Bucks. And that's all I was saying, is like, look, man like th ht he he has the potential to be a guy who averages between fifteen and twenty points per game and makes all defense teams. To me at the guard position, that's very similar to a Drew Holiday type. And I think I think the hilarious part about it is if I have said that exact same thing exactly one year ago before Drew won a title, everyone would probably be like, oh, yeah,

it's a good cop. I like it, you know. But that's just it just goes to show you the way that perceptions change when when someone wins a trophy. But again, like my thing with t HD is is like, just like I was saying, with those quarantine situations, it's hard

to come off the street and play basketball. And he went from an extensive injury that knocked him out for um the start of the season to coming into the lineup and every night it's a different game or like one night he's starting, one night he's playing with Lebron, the next night Lebron's out. This time is going to the bench. Now Anthony Davis is out, Like his role is just constantly changing. It's been influx and then he goes into COVID. You know, this is just it's just

really difficult. Like you mentioned, uh Camp Baysmore, that guy deserves a freaking do over for this whole season because he had to play all his minutes with DeAndre Jordan

to start. Poor guy, Like, come on, like that's like like he he could in theory be just fine in a five out system, especially since he's such a good, you know, single leg leaper with that rip through going to his left, Like he could be devastating in that close out attacking chain if he's the third or fourth guy attacking a close out like Baysmore deserves another shot now, and I think he's gonna get it when he gets

back from COVID and gets back in shape. But the point is is like we're basically a different team now then we were at the beginning, and and as we you know, this is a new style, and yeah, guys like Lebron have a lot of experience running this style because he basically ran a five out type of system in Cleveland where he'd be at the four with Kevin Love.

So it's not a foreign concept to him, but it is a foreign concept to a lot of the guys on this team, and it's gonna take time for them to get used to it, especially on the defensive end of the floor. And I mean, you even saw that a couple of times on the offensive, and you saw it Stanley, like Stanley cut back door late of the

middle fourth quarter. Lebron throws him a pocket pass and Stanley, Stanley kind of gives up on the cut, and it's like, that's something that he's gonna learn he can't do with Lebron. Like when you're with Lebron, you start to cut, you have to finish it because he's gonna pass it to you. You know, you're gonna see all of these different And we just talked about that with the Leak Monk earlier, the Leak Monk getting better at understanding how to play

off ball with Lebron. But that's the point. It's like, what's exciting now is over the course of this next month, they're going to lean heavily into this style, and you're gonna get to see them get better and better at it every day because it's new to them, while also getting reinforcements in the form of quality defensive forwards like Arizona and Reeves, who both will succeed in this system.

Ariza was awesome in two thousand and eighteen with the Rockets and their heavy switching system, and there are five out system, so you're gonna see a lot of familiarity with the reason there. And then here comes Anthony Davis, who hopefully at this point will have shed a few pounds and and be moving pretty ll and be able to fulfill that role as that big, versatile forward that that kind of covers up a lot of the mistakes

for the other guys. But I I think you're going to see as long as COVID doesn't maintain its you know, strangle hold on the roster, and as long as the other guys don't get hurt, I think you're going to see this team start trending in the right direction. I truly believe that. Yeah, me too, And I hope Taylor can also find a role in that right and I

think if he becomes through holiday. That's amazing. That's a guy that I wouldn't I guess trade in some of the trade offers I'm seeing I just don't agree with. I mean, the Jeremy Grant stuff, I guess kind of makes sense. I speak a little bit about the Russ miss dunk though, because I think that's interesting. Like, you know, there's been a lot of US miss dunks this season.

I think, you know, watching players like him face, I guess their mortality is is a like really fascinating thing to watch, and you know, it's something been that's been happening with him. I think throughout his career. Just watching night Tonight is interesting because their miss dunks are what get on the you know, get on the House of Highlights or House of low Lights, whatever you wanna call it. But like that's where like you see all like the

miss dunks and stuff like that. But that kind of stuff is just to me, the missdunk is like the backdrop for the other parts of the game. I think his athleticism or lack of it now, or the dropping athleticism that he has it kind of impacts not getting lift at the rim anymore. Right. Also, like I think a lot of turnovers as well, doesn't get as much lift trying to go up and see over the defense.

Stuff like that that I see. And I think the miss dunks are kind of just become the representation of that. But you see that as well, because I think the miss dunks are what kind of get highlighted. But I think that just that is what kind of impacts the rest of his game. You see, like the miss dunks are just people highlight out. But I think it's fascinating to see, like him trying to fix his finishing at the rim, and he saw tonight like he got the left hand lay up. I think he wanted to go

for another like big dunk. We decided let me just go to the left hand lay up. But I think it's just interesting to watch him because like it's the guy that you've seen being able to jump over moons, you know, throughout his old career, and you see it now like you see it every night, And this is stuff was probably happening in Houston and Washington, but weren't just seeing it every night. And I still think he's

playing well. He's played a lot better. Um, I think he's gonna continue to play better as we go into these lineups. But I think it's just fascining that, you know, the miss dunks are what's going to get plastered everywhere. But that's kind of the backdrop to me because it kind of impacts the rest of his game. Do you see that as well? With you see what I'm trying to go with there? Yeah, the missdunk thing is an interesting phenomenon. It doesn't It's not overly complicated you think

about it. Because if you if I gave you a ladder and you stared, uh, you know, and you were your eyeballs were two inches above the ring and you were looking, you wouldn't see a circle. You'd see a very very thin oval. But if you were a foot above the rim and you were looking down, you'd see the better part of the circle. And it's the same concept with dunking. When you're up there, it's easy because it's hard to miss when you're throwing it down into

the ring. But when you're in that weird gray area where your hands and fingertips are barely above the rim, like a lot has to go right for that dunk to finish. You've got to be able to fit it into a much tight your window there, and what you're seeing is like Russ is operating as an athlete in that very very small area right above the rim where the margin for era error is extremely small. And the problem is is like he because even the one he missed tonight, the one he missed against the nets, he

wasn't even above the rim. That was just that was just embarrassing. But the one tonight he actually was a little bit above the rim, He just like I said, was operating in that area where it had to be perfect because it was kind of just barely his wrist above the rim and if you don't throw it just right, it'll come off the background. But to your point, he just has to accept reality. That's all it is is, you know, embracing a change in your body and understanding

you have to play differently like Russ. You know, this is something I thought trying to remember who brought this up. It might have been my Trudell on the La fire Pod. But finishing at the rim is so much about slowing yourself down. It's so much about because you need these changes of pace to beat people off the dribble, like you need to hit the gas to beat people off the dribble. But when you actually get to the basket,

there's such a finesse element to it. And I think that's been one of the big problems with Russ throughout his career, even even when he was a better athlete. Is he just it's always full speed at the rim, so if there's somebody who steps over to stop him, unless he's dunking over the top of him. He just

struggles with the touch on those types of finishes. But what you can hope for is that hopefully as he embraces and understands that dunking is not in the picture for him anymore, or at least not very frequently, then maybe he can train himself to slow himself, to slow down on those finishes. It's just this could be all pie in this guy thinking though, because he's not exactly a guy who you know is willing to accept criticism

or or kind of ster reality in the face. Actually, I meant to ask you this, so this will be the last thing it's tonight, and we'll call it since we have another show to morrow. But what did you think of the Russ interview yesterday? Because I thought I thought it was a pretty shocking lack of self awareness but I wanted to hear I wanted to hear your two cents on it. Yeah, it was interesting the way

it was kind of framed, right. I think it was Dave mcmenimum who asked him about it, about the criticisms, and you know, it was kind of weird because he mentioned I think Frank Vogel and he mentioned Fizdale I believe, and then he went into a lot of people are telling me what to do, and I kind of know who I am. I was thinking he was more speaking on like just media and fans in general, Like that's

because that's usually who he speaks on. But like, you know, we spoke about this when Russ came here and was traded here, like there was there was no qualms about what was going to happen, like Russ is gonna be Russ, Like there was no changing him, and there was an

adjustment period for sure. And I think we I think it's been kind of unfair because we haven't really seen the version of Russ that we kind of predicted, which is the third you know, the third option, third star over want to put it where two other guys are taking up a bunch of possessions. But again when you have a RUSS into the first or second option, like, this is what it's gonna look like. There's gonna be

bad games for for twenty games. We particuled that before the season, and that's what the other night was against I forgot who they played already, but against Brooklyn on Christmas. So those are kind of games we're gonna happen. But I thought that's what it was. I thought it was him going after you know, the media and the fans and you know in general, that's usually who he's talking

to in those kind of moments. He's always been kind of, you know, I guess against media, and like the last few seasons, like in ways that he talked to them and stuff like that. That's kind of how I saw How did you see it? So, you know, to me it was darring in the sense that I thought he, like you, you would just like to see some sort

of reflection, right. So for instance, like as frustrated as we were with Frank Vogel to start the season, he at least was saying some of the right things, like he would mention space sing in an interview or before before he got hired, right after you get hired in this first press conference, He's like, we're going to take an outside in analytical approach, which Laker fans were dying to hear because we just went through that Magic Johnson fiasco. But you you just like to hear like at least

that he's aware of the important matters at hand. And to me, like him bringing up fifteen thing was just such a classic Russ like your head's kind of in the wrong place, buddy kind of thing, because like, would you ever hear would you ever hear Lebron like come after a game and be like, you know, like I'm averaging thirty eleven and seven during the stretch, so I'm

doing everything I can. Like No, it's just like like Lebron will be hyper focused on like a like I had these two turnovers in the fourth quarter that were very avoidable, or oh, like I missed some shots I normally make today, or you know, I missed some reads, I made some defensive mistakes. Like that's the kind of thing that you would prefer to see. Russ folk us On is like, actually, on this specific team, they don't

need you to score fifteen and fifteen. If you were to average ten ten and ten or held ten five and five, But embrace everything that this team needs out of you defensively, it would go a long way towards raising this team ceiling. Like we've talked a lot about how Russ has shopped the ball better than we hoped. That's true, but he also hasn't been good enough yet and some of the finer details, like tonight was another one of the many games this season where he hasn't

taken care of the basketball. He's also had stretches where he's taken care of it well. But the point is is Russ, like when we get to the late moments and the postseason against a really good team, like, we can't afford any of those games from you, So that needs to be a detailed focus for you moving forward. Like critical possession late in the game today, Jalen Green, it's another step back three Um there he's on a

little personal six oh run, Everything's going Houston's way. He just dribbled it up the sideline, Molik Monk slipped the pick and roll wasn't open and rush just through it

right to the other team. And it's like that's the kind of stuff that like, that's that is what's going to actually hurt this team, not how well did you shoot from the field, not did you get twenty five points instead of twenty points, like your defensive focus off the ball, like what happened on the Patty Mills play, and you're making solid basketball decisions, especially at the end of games. Those are the things that are gonna make or break this team. And so I I wouldn't take

too much from the interview. I I don't think Russ is going anywhere. I don't think there's any sort of larger theme. They're all I'm saying is just as a fan of his and as a fan of this team, I would like to have seen a little more self awareness from him there, just a little bit more of like a my team needs me to not to make fewer mistakes defensively and to take better care of the basketball if that's going to be my focus moving forward. I don't care what the box score says. That's what

you'd like to hear. But that said, like you can't, I mean, a guy's person all these guys personality. I'm not going to police that by any stretch. Just as a fan, for me watching that, I was disappointed because it just showed to me that he didn't seem to get it, And the only way we'll find out if he ever actually gets it is when the moment comes, when we end up in a pivotal late playoff series moment and it's a really good team. He's either gonna

pay attention to those things or he won't. And if he doesn't, I'm going to be thinking about moments like that when he was more concerned about, you know, what Lakers fans might want out of a box out of a box score, rather than the obvious, clear, tangible basketball things that we need from him, if that makes sense. Yeah, And you know, as long as they're having those conversations inside, which I'm sure they are, I'm sure they watch you know, it should time a film and you know, go over

what he needs to do in those situations. To me though, like it's the last thing. I guess I'll stay on it this season. Like I don't want to temper rush, right, Like I think that's the wrong way to kind of go about this, Like do you try to calm I

guess his play down. I'd rather just limit those possessions, like let let him kind of attack and spots, And that's kind of where we've seen where this team is best, right where we can kind of channel that energy into spots in the game and then you know, laid down the stretch. It can be Lebron, you know, you know Lebron staple offense basketball or is just you know what he likes to do, which is guard screens or post

ups or whatever that is in late game. But I think during the game, like I think, try to temper him down, you know, because you're never gonna get low turnover Russ with high usage, Like that's just never gonna be him. He's going to attack the paint relentlessly, and a lot of that comes with you know, out of control drives, out of control passes, which you know, some some of them lead to really great shots, like some of them do lead to open looks, some of them

do lead to layups. But I think that's where you have to go with us kind of don't temper him down, just you know, you limit the possessions, I guess, and I think that will work out when everyone's healthy, but we just haven't seen it. So right now we're gonna get a bunch of eight turnover game, seven turnover games, um, but you just hope that the shooting is well enough to that and they can kind of survive and the defense is able to keep up with that. And I

think the small line up as part of it. But yeah, I wouldn't take too much from the interview as long as you know people as they're saying the right things, you know, inside the locker room and stuff. But it was, it was it was fascinating to see him kind of bringing up fifteen and stuff like that. I'm not I want to be clear, I'm not trying to be over the critical there, like I I And again it's it's kind of it makes me feel little uncomfortable because you

feel like you're policing personality. Is like, I also didn't like that. Lebron over the course of his last few press conferences has been kind of like heavily hammering home the point that we're missing a lot of bodies. It's like, yeah, no, but like you know, at a certain point we have to just kind of, you know, take it. He's not wrong, but he's not want to hear it. Yeah, for exactly.

It's like we all want to hear it exactly. But um, anyway, that's all we have for tonight, guys, This is gonna 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. Roger and I will be back for a postgame show tomorrow, and then another one on Friday, and then another one on Sunday. Lots of Laker basketball coming up, but we appreciate you guys support H