Lakers/Sixers Postgame Spaces

you're kind of ready to come back home. So, you know, a nice, nice sleep in your own bed, back to your own place, to be able to have, you know, your own breakfast and stuff like that. It was it was nice. But how are you, man, How are you doing. I'm doing very good. It is good to have you back.

We have a lot to talk about. Um. We're gonna talk about this Anthony Davison be battle um because I thought it was super interesting and fascinating and as a basketball fan, it was kind of the type of matchup that you live for. Um. That said, I wanted to start, you know, kind of talking about the game in general. You know, I thought the Lakers should have been able to to to give this one a run for even without Lebron. I thought this was a winnable game. Why,

Because the Sixers have overchead overachieved a bit. They don't have a ton of talent in their back court. They're leaning on their version of th HD and Tyrese Maxie, who was a better player than t HD right now, but another young, inconsistent type of guard. And Tobias Harris has not shot the ball well this year and has not been super consistent, and he's been in talks as a contract of the Sixers are trying to get off of. But there's this imbid factor and him obviously playing super well.

But I thought that this was a winnable game. So I'm a little disappointed. You and I talked to in the text messages about how the Lakers didn't quite approach approach the game with the right amount of a belief, you know, you know, and just a handful of sequences in the game where you can tell they let go of the rope because they just didn't think they could win. And that became unfortunate because then when they tried to make runs later in the game, um, they weren't able

to sustain anything enough. But I think the main driving force behind this, and this is something we've talked about a lot on the show is the Lakers are a brute force offense. They depend heavily on matchups. They depend on Lebron and Anthony Davis in their ability to compromise the defense, which then gets the defense and rotation, and then guys can capitalize off of that, right, That's kind of their formula. So they're not great with offensive sets.

They don't run super sophisticated actions. They're not the team that's going to run down the floor and set fifteen screens and a bunch of flayers and hype, you know, like really complicated pick and rolls. It's it's pretty basic stuff. And so when you take a Lebron James out of the equation, all of a sudden, the basic stuff doesn't work as well, you know, because you just don't have

that initial advantage creation. And I thought our offense struggled a lot tonight and led to a bunch of poor jump shots, which then led to runouts where the Sixers were so comfortable in transition, even in beat, it's just so comfortable bringing the ball up the floor and making moves. And I thought that's kind of where the wheels came

off tonight. What was your take on that. Yeah, you know, like when you whenever Lebrons hits out, you kind of moved people up a position, you know, you bring Russell, you put Russell Westbrook more in a creation mode. I thought, you know, going to into this game, that Malik Monk and every Bradley starting was just too small. And I thought that kind of played out as the game went on to Bias Harris got comfortable even court Mas and then we and we doubled and beat on the catch

a lot. I didn't really like that as a scheme, I understood it. I would have liked to see Anthony Davis get a little bit more of a one on one defense on him. I thought he did okay in that matchup and beat again. As a brute force, that's just a tough guy to stay off the rim. But I thought Anthony Davis did a pretty good job. But when Dwight was in the game, we just doubled on

the catch, which I didn't really understand that. I didn't really understand if you're going to play Dwight Howard, at least you know, make Mbat work for some of those possess sessions, especially doubling one passed away. We just weren't connected tonight. And the belief again, I thought, wasn't there a lot of babbled passes thumb leak Monk really struggled early. I think he had like it was like one for five to start, a bunch of uh babbled balls in the in the lane when he tried to attack. So

I thought there's a lot of disbelief lacking there. But Anthony Davis being the story, I thought he was amazing. But yeah, our scheme against it beat really didn't make a lot of sense to be got to the line. But Anthony Davis matched him like if you can get a D two match in bed, and I think he even outplayed him tonight. That should have probably been enough. I just thought we didn't defend well enough, we didn't get enough shooting. I think I tweated out Anthony Davis.

I think was like fourteen for thirteen for nineteen, and the rest of the team was like fourteen for forty six. At one point it was about which is about thirty percent. And then if you add Russ in there, I think Russ was like five for eleven. So if you take those two, the rest of the team really hit like six or seven shots in the game was pretty much over and uh Philly was able to take over. Man,

this would have been a great one. I was so disappointed when I saw Lebron was out because I thought this is something this is a game we could have built on. And I feel like if Lebron play aid, you get this Anthony Davis type of production. I thought we could have one tonight, but we just weren't there, didn't defend well enough. You know. Still the Carmelo Dwight Howard lineups are still too wonky for me, especially defensively.

Philly continued to attack Carmelo. He hit a cree jump shots, but I think that's just a tough thing to stay up on. And again, Malik Monk Avery Bradley played too many minutes together. Um, that lineup is just too small. It gets a team like Philly. Even when you talked about all the time how these contests aren't really contests, Danny Green was contested I guess four or five times. He still hit three threes because it's like every Bradley getting a hand out or two him and stuff like that.

So I thought that's where we lost the game. But Anthony Davis man incredible and credib will get into him. But the game I thought was lost by doubling and b too much and Philly hit shots and we didn't from tonight. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought up that having to do with uh, you know, Lebron coming out in the continuity, because that was one of my biggest takeaways.

When I saw that today, I was like, Okay, so you're thinking about it back to back here, So is Anthony Davis gonna play both ends of the back to back? Because the continuity is the number one thing that's missing here. I don't need to see anymore of what a Lebron with a d off lineup might look like. I don't need to see any more of what an a d On with Lebron off lineup might look like. We just we've seen, we've seen so much of that this year.

You know, typically in a regular season like back in you might be like, oh, a d s off tonight, Lebron's off tomorrow. We've got a chance to win both games and we can kind of tinker with No, we

don't need to tinker with lineups anymore. We need our guys out there that's what actually needs to happen, and so I hope a D goes tomorrow, and I hope Lebron goes tomorrow, because if it ends up being one of those things where Lebron's like, oh, my knee is fine, but then a D takes the night off, that's going to be frustrating because then we basically accomplished nothing in this back to back. But that remains to be seen.

I'm really glad you pointed out that thing with doubling, because that's a super fascinating basketball concept that is, uh, you know, seems simple, but really isn't right. Like, it's seem simple, just send two guys to the ball and then you make the guy pass out of it, right, But if it's when it's done well, it's effective. When it's done in a sloppy way, teams will make you pay NonStop. And so, like what you were saying, I

thought it was super interesting. They were doubling one pass away, but then they weren't recovering to that first pass, and so it was just a quick outlet to that first guy and then swing swaying shot or swinging attack, close out shot, and it wasn't they weren't making anything difficult on embeat the way you're supposed to do that kind of double as you immediately cover that first pass away. You understand when you double that you're going to give away a pass, but you need to give away the

furthest pass. Why so that if you apply a ball pressure on Embiid and you can force him to throw something loopy like with a lot of arc on it, or God forbid you tip the pass. If you can do something along those lines to make that pass slow, then you can recover because it's all the way across the floor and it's easy to rotate out of it. But when you make it easy for them to pass out, it's just immediately just you know, pass past swing, swing, drive,

and it's over, you know what I mean. And so that's an important deal, and I agree with you, like make it. Make Embiid earn it, earn the right to get those double teams, especially with matchups with a D and Dwight. Like I get it when it's like, okay, we got Stanley Johnson on a switch here. We need to scram them out of it. You know, I get that, But like Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard, they can at least make embiid earn his baskets. And this is the

key here. Stagnation something we talked about all the time. Rods like a possession where Embied takes fourteen seconds to stare down Dwight Howard and score over the top of him. It's kind of a win for the defense. Yes, it results in points on the scoreboard, but it slows things down. All of the other defenders on the floor a standing still so they get to rest. If he does miss, it's usually leads to a run out because guys are

loaded up and ready to run. Any sort of isolation possession that is usually the best possible possession that a defense can give up. So my thing is, I'm with you, I would have and if that matchup, like especially in the Western Conference, it's more like a Yokich kind of thing. But I don't think we'll see him beat in the finals. But same thing goes with you know, uh Janice type

of matchup to like make a guy earn that. Then if it becomes if it gets to the point where he's in such a group where he's burning you every time, then yeah, then that's when you make that adjustment. But the hard doubles early in the game, unless you're dealing with someone like Anthony Davis is just such a bad passer that like you can throw him out of the

game entirely. I just don't really like that strategy. But like, just in general, I seemed to me tonight that the Lakers at approach the game with the right amount of belief. I thought it was a winnable game, and so that was unfortunate. Yeah, I felt the same way. You could tell from the role players as well. I felt like once Lebron was out, the belief was gone. But going back to a doubles, we doubled one pass away right. It was just too easy. Philly eventually adjusted. They had

Cork mods throwing the entry pass. So it's basically the entry pass goes in Taylor Horn, Tucker drops down, Carmelo Anthony is the guy that's supposed to rotate over. He's

just too slow and it's open three for him. We had Motiste Tye will throw it in, and Russell Westbrook was really bad at this tonight, Like he would double right away off the cutter, and that's like a cardinal sin, right in basketball, you don't double off the cutter Matisse Eize will throws it in, he cuts Westbrook just leaves him and he got to lay up a few times.

So I didn't like the scheme. I think, like you know, in a seven game series, that type of stuff will be cleaned up, and those are things that you know, I think we need to be coaching game the game. I think we're like a game under five hundred now. And again, if Anthony Davis wasn't just incredible, I think you have like twenty five points or something. I have time. Yeah, this game is probably over by the first quarter. Eighty was just amazing. And this is the e d that

one that is the damn title, right. I guess we'll move on to him. But yeah, it just didn't like the schemes I guess against em Beat and you know, don't take anything away from em Beat and Beat is a freaking monster. He's playing like one of the best players in the world, maybe the best player in the game right now, carrying this Philly team. Philly also has a Max guy that's just decided not to play this season, so uh, and be doing what he's doing is super impressive.

We we we came into this game deciding to double him, and I think that was unfortunately. I wish we kind of let the game decide that, Like you said, right, let the game decide that you double Joel Embiid, you know, just go in and you instantly double him every time. That's too easy. And joelan Bead is also not a great pastor. I think that's one of his you know, worst quote unquote skill sets is his playmaking. We just

made it too easy for him tonight. And maybe that's just a function of what the game was that they wanted to do. Didn't want a D I guess having to you know, bang with Embiid for a full game, him just coming back from injury and all that. A D again went down with the risk. I'm glad he was able to finish, finish the game. It wasn't too serious, but yeah, I didn't like the scheme again against Joel Embiid. Could have could have mixed it up a little bit,

but that's just why. And Philly again hit all their all their threes against us. Didn't take Anthony Davis long to have a run back to the locker room and his return to the Lakers. Did it, you know, not man? Has has us holding our heart every single game, and so the the actual matchup between Embad and Anthony Davis is super interesting to me because they're basically completely different players.

I think that's a very important detail here. Like, I know it's being portrayed as like this classic battle between two dominant big men, and don't get me wrong, they are, but they both represent two completely different eras of NBA basketball, and you know, more or less, they're both completely ill equipped to guard each other, which I think is why they both had so much offensive success against each other. We saw this a lot in the season. Actually it

might have been, Yeah, it was. It was last year in the game where they lost the Philly when Tobias Harris made the game winner. In that game, Anthony Davis had the most success against them Beat when he stayed kind of a little bit disconnected from his body, like a little bit further off, you know, and made and bead tried to drive into his length where he was struggling to find angles to finish it. And in that game last season, when a d was attached to em

Beat's body, it played into em beats physicality advantage. Because it's crazy when you watch and beat and Anthony Davis staying next to each other, and he makes Anthony Davis looks small like a massive human being, and massive he is a massive human being. And so when you get physically attached to the guy who has the physical advantage, it's so easy for him to do a quick pivot or that little like imperceptible you know, chicken wing that never gets called. You know that little elbow that to

throw the guy up. You can do so many more, you know, physical bullyball types of actions when you're connected. And so Anthony Davis, I thought struggled early in the game with trying to figure out that right distance. But over the course of the game he had some success

block in a few shots and things like that. But then on the other end of the floor and be just couldn't stay in front of Anthony davis foot speat, and Anthony Davis was able to get plenty of separation both going to the basket and getting to his jump shot.

It really funky shot chart. If you look at Anthony Davis's shot chart, everything needs on the left side of the floor from fifty feet was money, and then everything he took in the middle of the floor on the right side was off, which is just one of those weird things with basketball. You'll never be able to understand it.

That's why these analytics people that work for these teams have these sorts of shot charts handy so that they can look and go like, hey, like, let's try to get a d more touches over here, because this is where he's more comfortable. Over here, he seems to struggle more. But just in general, I really like to see that was the most confident I've seen Anthony Davis offensively and literally sense the bubble, I can't think of, you know,

I'll take that back. There was one game against Phoenix at the end of the season last year, right before Lebron came back, where he looked this confident going to his jump shot. But it's been rare. It's been rare to see that since the bubble, and so one of my biggest wishes was hopefully over this time that he's rehabbing, he'll just be repping out jump shots by himself in a gym, and maybe he'll be able to read for

some of that confidence. And he I think he went one for two on jump shots, uh the other night, and then he made a bunch more tonight, so we're obviously a small sample size still, but good progress for Anthony Davis in the sense that he seems to be regaining some of his perimeter form. Yeah, he's regaining his mobility. Like this is the best I've seen him move. He had to places tonight where like I think only him and maybe like, be honest, are you able to do it?

Where like Joel Embie did a step back jumper and he blocked it, you know what I mean, and Beach shoots it from the top of his head and the beads already you know, seven foot tall, you put the ball over his head. Anthony Dave was blocked out one. I think he had another one and be tried to like a turnaround and he blocked out one. Just seeing you know, Anthony Davis moved like this. This is the defensive player we need. Back to back games with four blocks,

so eight eight blocks in two games. Um, I think he's only had he had four blocks this whole season in terms of games. So it's just cool to see him kind of move his feed. He looks like he lost a little bit of weight to b Yeah, it looks like he's lighter. On his feet, and that means a lot for a player like him. And you know the gap from and you know, we do these, you

do these player rankings and stuff like that. I'm not as much into those, but the gap from a D as a top ten to fifteen player to a top five player is wide right. That's a huge gap from what he was playing this from the regular season to start this year to what he looked like these last Even in that first game, I thought against the nets, his offense wasn't there, but his defense to me was incredible. He looked like the second best player on the floor

with eight points for that whole game. So he looks good man, and tonight just looked like he's moving well. If they're jumper is real, I'm not sure if it's gonna hit like tonight, but it just looks smooth. He looked confident with it. Um. He had a step back game going as well. He had a few jumpers behind the backboard. They gave them some isolations and against him beat and you're right, he's able to attack and beat with his speed, with his handles, get by him. Step

back jumpers. He just looked good. If this is the a D that we compare with Lebron. Man, we're cooking. Uh, this is the this I always say, there's a good team in here that revolves a lot around a D looking like this and Lebron coming back to where he was playing. But he looked. He looked incredible. That big man matchup was fun, I think and beat again. He was playing like one of the best players in the world, and I think a D out played him tonight. If

you get this a D that should get you. That gets you some marginal error for the rest of the roster here, which I'm sure we'll get to you. But Adi looked great. Man. I hope you know this is a continuation. I hope there's no setbacks. I hope he's able to continue to play, and he plays tomorrow. We can finally get another game with the big three. They have sixteen games together on this season, I believe, and now they're like at two hundred something minutes where eighties

at center. So we need to get those minutes up. Man. We need to get some more reps here and continue to build. This would have been a nice win if Lebron would have played, but Adi looked incredible. His movement was there you know he was. He was running a lot more pick a roll, a lot more dribble handoffs. He saw him running actors with Leak Monk and it looks like he's getting comfortable that second unit. Did you see that, Jason? I had that in my notes. I

thought that was really fun. We had a D Stanley Reeves and Monk, and I think that's just a super like bouncy second unit. That. Yeah, and it looks like that kind of stuff rubs off, not on just Lebron but a D as well. You see him jump for lobs and stuff like that. Um, he got a bunch of like tip dunks. How many tip dunks does he have on this season? I think he had like three tonight. How'n tip dunks does he like have on the season? Two hands? Yeah, where he catches it above the above

the rim. Like it's just cool to see him look like he gets his legs back rolling and crashing ros rolling and crashing something. You haven't seen a lot from him, not at all. So it's great to see again, especially against the guy that can be who I think we both agree is one of the best just post defenders. Just a guy who can you know, defend the rim and defend big So it's cool to see him have this type of game and hopefully picks it up in

Charlotte tomorrow. Ye, no agree, And you know it's you and I were joking around in the text, right we were like, the Lakers don't have a ton of belief right now, but right rog and I, we have some belief right now. And and the reason why is because A d looks better than he had like tonight. Offensively, he's probably one of his better games of the season right in terms of just the not not necessarily the

end result, but just the way he looked. In terms of his quickness, He's not quite as quick as he was in bubble, but he certainly looks quicker than he did the previous you know season. So there's that progress, and then you have this Lebron progress. And you know, one of the big things here is it's it's building blocks. It's no different than when you're building a roster in the off season and you're looking at your situation, You're going, Okay,

I've got Lebron James here. That's a huge building block. Okay, how good is he still? Is he top five? Is he top ten. Like those are the kinds of questions we were asking ourselves after the title, right, it was like, okay, you know, what's it going to be like moving forward? How good? Okay, well, Lebron still is very much in the conversation for the best basketball player alive. That's a

very good building block to go with. Then we look at Anthony Davis and it was like, Okay, it used to be that Lebron in a d to the top four or five players in the world, we have this awesome, you know, formula that's guaranteed to win. But then we

declined and was hovering in that different range. And again, regardless of what you want to say about player rankings, like forget about play rankings, he just wasn't as good like you just Anthony Davis was not as good as at basketball since the bubble, you know, as he was

when he was in the bubble. It's that's not I don't even think that's up for debate rags like that was like like in in Game six of the Finals, he literally had one of the most dominant defensive performances we've ever seen in conjunction with him shooting like Kevin Durant and since then, he's declined defensively, mostly because the effort I think in health, but then he also just hasn't been able to shoot the ball, so he hasn't been the same guy. If he becomes a better basketball player,

that's the same as trading for more talent. You're infusing talent into the rosters. So if Anthony Davis starts to come around, if what we're seeing from tonight is real and not just a blit but rather a trend, then that's when we start talking again about how the Lakers have a talent advantage in a lot of these matchups. Because now we're talking about Lebron James, you know, top four or five player in the world, and Anthony Davis, top seven eight player in the world. That's just a

lot to handle for anybody. And then from there, that's when we can start looking at the building blocks. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in a minute, but it's like that's where the Stanley Johnson and the Austin Reaves become important factors because when this team was struggling early in the season, those two guys just weren't playing. So, I mean, it's a different type you know, I hate using the work reset because you know,

it's a famous Phil Parcels quote. You're you're you are what your record says you are. And I don't want to sit here and just undercut and pretend like none of that stuff never happened. That said, like, oh, just about everybody playing in the rotation now is different than what we were using early in the year. And the Lebron and a D we're getting now they're just better players than the Lebron in a D that started the season. Yeah, for sure, And that's the most important part of the season.

And all this stuff, all the loudness about Russell Westbrook and that's, you know, the stuff that still has to be figured out. I think he's starting to figure out his role. I think tonight it was uplifted obviously with Lebron. Now you're gonna put more possessions in his hands, a lot of responsibility on him. But you know, a D has to be this type of player for this team to go anywhere. I think Lebron has kind of showed that he's still that guy from the beginning of the season.

The jumper looks get looks there. Lebron has turned into a full time screener, you know, ball mover kind of off the ball, uh, running screen actions with Malik Monk and stuff like that. And A d has talked about it too, how he wants to move less in isolation more in ball screen action as well. I think you're seeing that again, running trible hands off with Malik Monk

and defensively when this team missed him like crazy. Like we talked a lot about offense, and that's mostly what we discussed with the Russell Westbrook fit, but we needed Anthony Davis to be there. Defensively, he takes away pick and rolls in a way none of our other bigs can do. And he did that again tonight on a lot of possessions. We ran a little bit of a drop coverage and he was able to guard like Tobias Harris and take away Joel and beat at the rim.

And that's just stuff none of our bigs can do. And when you see him like Jux juxtaposed with like Dwight Howard, right, because Dwight Howard played some minutes and now you just see the difference. Like we were running. Our center lineup was Lebron James and Dwight Howard for so long and then you see Anthony Davis out there being able to move block shots. Yeah, it jumps off the page right now. You can take that for granted.

And we just talked about how A D wasn't himself and he wasn't on both ends right offensively and defensively, the replace where you know, he wasn't as engaged for full games. And we can put whatever context we will into that COVID season, short offseason, not wanting to be injuryed yadi YadA. But it was just there. And you see these last two games, I thought he was engaged, and you know, Philly's a tough matchup with Himbiid having

a bank against him. But I thought again against Brooklyn against tonight, I thought, you know, he gave them a chance to win. And that's all you can ask for Dowight Howard. You know, looks it looked a lot, looks a lot slower. When you're playing Anthony David's minutes, you don't notice it as much until A D gets back. You just see the mobility difference, and then DeAndre Jordan you can forget about it, right, So, so you just talked about you just talked about the rotation. Man, it's

flipped so much. Right when a D went out, we still had DJ in the lineup. I think Wayne Ellington was really really quickly. Ro Rondo was playing, minutes bas was playing, minutes DeAndre Jordan was playing, minutes Wayne Ellington was consistently in the rotation. All of those guys are just completely not being played anymore different. It looks like,

and the hook is a lot quicker, right. Trevor Reason got three games and we realized his legs are just not under him, and maybe, you know, we give him a few weeks off to go find them. We'll know who knows if he'll find them. But I think you know that's the better case than whatever we were getting from him. He just was moving in slow motion. So you're seeing the rotation kind of flip. Austin Reeves has jumped all those guys you just mentioned I treated before.

Austin Reasons has jumped all those guys. Went from undrafted to jumping four guys we signed to think to be in the rotation at least a bit. Whatever you think of Wayne Ellington, whatever you think of Camp bays Moore, you know those guys are supposed to be NBA players for US, and Reeves has jumped all of them. Uh, Stanley Johnson, the tame gay guys starting now, we kind of moved into him. I think he did in more

minutes tonight. He played twenty five minutes to me, which isn't enough for a team that just lacks athleticism and pop. When Lebron's out, we still have a shortness of wings, so I thought he should have played more. But yeah, this is a totally different team, man, and it looks like eight and Lebron kind of played better next to the young guys. It doesn't that's not really what it should be. And he's supposed it should have been more vetereman, I guess savvy next to them, but that's just not

how the how the season has played out. So we'll see how it goes going forward. Getting this a D back I think is the most important thing for the season, and I'll lose something that continues going forward. Yeah, it's funny throughout Lebron's career, he's always been dependent on this experience this. I would rather have a player who I can count on to, you know, understand what it takes to win big, pivotal basketball games. Rather than the young

player who doesn't understand those things. But as it turned out as we got into this season, their biggest shortcoming had to do with consistent energy. So actually ironically it became we need youth and as a result of that, you know, there had to be this awkward transition of start starting to slowly move these older, unenthused players out of the rotation to these guys that were playing with desperation.

And desperation was the key there, right, because like guys like Austin Read Stanley Johnson, they're literally playing for their NBA careers, Like Stanley was going ten day to ten day and it was like, is this going to be the time? Am I gonna get to solidify by spot in the league or is it gonna be here we

go to the G league again? And that that desperation fueled that consistent effort and that ironically, and like this is the thing, the Stars weren't playing hard RAJ Like like in the season, Lebron and a D had this mutual accountability with each other and they fed off of that with each other to push each other on a night tonight basis to play hard to start this season. And you can You can blame them, you can blame the scheming, you can blame spacing, you can blame Frank

and then just getting sick of his voice. I don't know how you want to describe it, but they got to the point where they just weren't playing hard that consistently, and I think some of that energy from the younger players on the roster just became contagious. And I think that, in conjunction with the urgency of the situation and where they were in the standings, got them to finally start

to dial it up and start to take things more seriously. Yeah, no, I agree, And it looks like that's what it's going to be. I think the young guys are just gonna get more and more minutes. I think a d playing thirty four minutes tonight is great, Like it looks like he got his legs under him. But lit, we're gonna go towards this youth movement, right, and I think that's the plan. Now. Ken Basemore can't even get minutes, man, I think that's absolutely insane. I would like to see

him getting out of the chance. But all those guys we sign, it just looks like they're going to be taking out of the rotation. Wayne Allington, Trevor Reza. I'm not sure he'll be back. I think DeAndre Jordan is done for the team. I don't think he's gonna be in the rotation. Avery Bradley is like the last surviving the last survivor of that right Like it looks like every Radley just continues to start. I think that will eventually switch. I'm not sure when. I think Reeves will

eventually take that over. But the main point here is like this is a brand new team that even we started and even when a D went out um a couple of weeks ago, so brand new team has to kind of get reps here. I think Russell Westbrook is getting a little bit more and more comfortable with his role every game. I think we've kind of decided that he's more. Even tonight, there wasn't much Was there much Russ ad pick and roll tonight? Jason? I didn't notice

very much, did you. There hasn't been a ton of pick and roll with Russ this entire season, And you know, we Vene and I got into this a little bit the other night. I think they're there's a couple of

different potential explanations. Part of it has to do I think with the fact that teams are starting to put bigger defenders on Russ and switches so they can just switch it, like and again, like there's just no point in running a pick and roll, you know, if it's not going to gain any advantage other than a switch, unless that switch is one that compromises the defense, you know. And so I think I think that's part of it.

But some of it too is like they just I don't know, I I don't for whatever reason they have it, Rob, I don't know. Yeah, no, no, they've completely get more of a chance to do well. This isn't just well, this isn't and this just isn't tonight. It's been happening even when Lebron's on the floor, when Lebron is on or off the floor, like even tonight we did more just Horn's action and then run it off like Malik Munk coming off the screen and Russell Westbrook would kind

of flow into the corner. So it's interesting. I think Russ is still attacking the rim. I thought he found guys were jump shots tonight that didn't work. He got some nice drive tonight, like they threw Matisse tyable on him, and that's not a guy you want rust really attacking in isolation, but that's on transition. He got to the

rim on him and finished at the basket. But yeah, it's been it's been out to kind of watch them move more and more off of that uh in action we thought would be so you know, vital to our team. The Russ eighties screen roll just hasn't materialized at all, and a D has been out for a lot of that, but even these last two games, I haven't seen much

of it. So it's interesting to watch kind of the team moved to more other ball handlers and even Lebron's on the floor, and the rust fits still will be something that hasn't get worked out as as the season goes, but hopefully, you know, we can kind of build on whatever we on the Brooklyn win and get Lebron back tomorrow and just get you know, some more reps. Man. Sixteen games between our big three just isn't enough, especially with these other teams coming in already with a super

headstart and continuity. You go to Phoenix, you go to Golden State having their core um intact for all these years, so hopefully there's something we can build from here. But yeah, it's interesting. We moved to a brand new kind of younger, more youth confused team th h T. I think twenty two, Austin Reeves two, Stanley Johnson um all just super young guyslak Monk three and that's just not what you thought to start the season. So hopefully they can kind of

build a little rhythm here on this road trip. Yeah, So it's it's funny because one of the things that I think is a more realistic outcome or goal from the trade deadline, because we've talked the trade deadline has been kind of a NonStop discussion among Laker fans over the course of the last week, whether it's surrounds for us or it surrounds Jeremy Grant and I've talked to Russ literally to death over the course of the last week.

So I'm not going to go there again. I'm kind of I'm kind of coming to terms with the fact that he's going to be around I. I personally think it's a mistake. I've laid that out at like at length on this podcast, so I don't need to get into it again. But understanding that he's going to be here. You know, there are still opportunities to make these improvements.

And we talked about slotting a lot having to do with Anthony Davis and just how having him on the floor makes everybody's defensive responsibilities easier, which just makes everything more achievable. Right, Well, I think I think a lot could be gained there by accomplishing some better slotting at the two guard positions. So this is where like someone

like an error like Eric Gordon or Terence Ross. These are our guy been They pointed these out on Twitter earlier, and these are two perfect examples of just what we're talking about. Guys that are like, they're just better two guards than Avery Bradley. Are they? Are they championship level starters? I don't know. Are they still capable of doing the things they could do, you know, at their absolute peaks

at I don't know. But are they better than Avery Bradley? Yes, I think in a situation where we're upgrading that specific position, just slots everybody every a little better. All of a sudden, now Avery Bradley is coming off the bench instead of running with all your most important lineups. All of a sudden, now, maybe th h T can take some of those Avery Bradley minutes away, and now we're just bigger in general. Now we can do more switching and a little bit

less of our chase over the top rank. Vogel had a pregame interview i think before the game earlier this week having to do with, uh, like, hey, I've come to terms with the fact that with our personnel, we're a little bit more of a switch team than we are what I've been, which is something that like literally Rogers to hear that. It was like like, oh my goodness, we're we're damn damn near game fifty year and we're finally coming to terms with what kind of basketball team

we are, you know. But the bottom line is is that bringing in a reasonably like because if you look at our starting group now and you're looking at Russell Westbrook, which you know by like, you know, very uh you know, he's a he's a very like polarizing person, but he's there like it or not. And then you have Lebron and Anthony Davis Well Stanley Johnson slots into that three spot and it works, like it just works. He plays so hard to start the game. He takes the most

difficult defensive matchup. He it brings this level of athleticism that I've been pleading for with the Jeremy Grant trade, where it's like, oh man, you have Jeremy Grant, Lebron and Anthony Davis in the front court. That's just the devastating athletic defensive front court. Well, Stanley Johnson kind of accomplishes the same thing. I I don't I don't think he's quite the defender that Jeremy Grant is, but he's

in that same archetype, right. So but then then there's this two guard spot, and our to guard is not Seth Curry. You know, it's not like a league average to slightly above league average starting to guard. He's probably one of the worst starting two guards in the league. Doesn't mean he's not an NBA player, doesn't mean he doesn't belong in the rotation. It's just he's underqualified for

that position. So bringing in somebody like a Terence Ross, like a Eric Gordon, somebody in that vein just a bona fide like NBA two guard that can do the things that this team needs that from that position, I think would go a long way towards and as much as I like, because Kendrick Nunn is where a lot of people are going to go there and why I don't While I don't disagree with the fact that Kendrick Nunn is a viable option at that position, this just

kind of goes back to a small ball concept garage, like I don't think we need to places six two guys with a six two guy like I think I think we need to try to to to have that aggregate size and the lineup be big, because that's where you get that. You know, if it's if it's Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon, Stanley Johnson, Lebron, Anthony Davis, you can switch every screen screen in that line up because both russ and Eric Gordon are so strong that they can hold

their own in post mismatches. So I just would like to see them upgrade that position. I think that's super achievable. I don't think that's a pie in this guy idea. It's not like, oh, it's Jeremy Grantmer arguing about trade value. No, this is a realistic, on the table option to upgrade the roster that very clearly makes us better, fixes our greatest weakness in the starting lineup, slats everybody a little

bit better, and I think just makes us a better team. Yeah, and look, I think that players on the team Jason, like I would just and probably maybe yes, you know, maybe because he's a rookie, you know that that they don't want to go there yet. I understand that. But and the Crusoe arc is just hilarious to watch in I've hated you know, comparing those two, but just the arc in terms of how they kind of came up, I guess in the rotation is almost like deja vu.

But yeah, I think we have a better to guard currently sitting on the team. Like I think Austin Reaves is already closing games. He's already like leading our fourth quarter minutes. Again, that's a Cruso thing that was following before Cruso eventually took over, that you know rotation in the fourth in the bubble and all that stuff. But yeah, Austin res is already kind of you know, winning the fourth quarter minutes. He's already closing games. Like, I think

that's the eventual lead here. If you can't get a trade, obviously there are trade you know partners out there. I'm not a guy that really likes to go in the trade machine. But and Jeremy Grant would be my wish. I think, you know, you see Stanley Johnson do this. Imagine a guy you know, like Jeremy Grant who has all the uh, all the physical tools, who has all the skills to match with that. I think that would be amazing. But I think that guy's on the team already.

I think that's the last kind of piece to kind of the piece of the puzzle here to you know, fulfill the starting line up full potential there. Everybody's not everybody's not just undersized. He's undersiged for the he's undersized for the point guard positions. He's under comed to point guards. Yeah, let alone the to guard position. And we've kind of got, you know, in nauseum of like why Frank Voga starts him.

I think a lot of it also is the roster has flip three times, you know, like it's nice to have a guy that was there through the through the trenches with you, even though he didn't go in the bubble, but he was there for that full season, that successful season. He does a you know, a good point of attack defense on drop coverage YadA, YadA YadA, But yeah, I understand why. But I think that's the eventual lead here.

And maybe, you know, Frank Voga doesn't really care who starts, is about who finishes to him, maybe that really hasn't matched up with the numbers, but you know, reason is starting to pick up in the fourth quarter, and I think that's that's where you can go. Justin Holiday, I think I think that's his name on the pacers has been rumored as well, that would the pacers would go, would let him go for like two seconds or something

like that. There's players out there to kind of upgrade our athleticism, But yeah, that would be the eventual kind of in house moved to me. He just fits so well, Jason, Like you watched these games and like he doesn't play like a rookie. You know, he jels so well. He's kind of a connector with both of those guys. He's played so well next to Lebron. I've already seen him kind of gain camistry with a D. I think he's thrown a D like five logs in the last two games.

Like just in the last two games, he's already hit eighty with like five lots, which is you know, it's nice to see a rookie be able to read the floor like he does. So that's my eventual move here. Reeves isn't tall either. I think he's like six four six five, but just and he and he's a legit good defender. He's not a good defender for a rookie, like he's a legit good defender. He knows angles. I think he leaves. He's a leader in the league and charges and stuff like that. So just a guy, I

think I would kind of fill in. I understand why he's not starting, but that's my eventual kind of role here to kind of pick for the pieces together in that starting lineup. I think everybody is the final kind of older veteran guy that eventually kind of move out from there. But we'll see if that happens. So the last item on our list was Sammy Johnson, and we Roger and I both wanted to to talk about them

for a minute because he's earned something that is really cool. Um, he was out of the league and he scratched and clawed his way back in and found an opportunity. Now I've told a shorter version of this story on the show, but I grew up in Tucson, and Stanley was recruited to University of Arizona, and um, I got to compete with him a lot while he was here, and I remember just liking the guy. It was just a nice guy and like he was very enthusiastic and energetic. He

was thrown into a very difficult situation. Sean Miller is a is a very demanding coach, and Sean Miller was very hard on Stanley while he was there and did a lot to try to, you know, because Stanley was

a he was a high school star. You know, he was literally one of those YouTube stars as we've talked about here on the show, and and you know, I just to see his development from you know, getting into like having some struggles at Arizona, not quite performing to the level that he thought he would, but then still being a lottery pick because of his athletic potential, but then having some struggles as things didn't quite work out, to the Massiyu Jerry thing where he allegedly looks Stanley

in the face and said you're bad at basketball, to him becoming like you know, I think I think just from I've watched him throughout his career because I've always been a fan of him just as a person, and he's better at ball handling and shooting now than he used to be. You know, he just looks more he looks more comfortable, he's more committed to the dirty work. He's he's thoroughly embraced what his role is to succeed in the NBA, and it's manifested in him getting to

your contract. And I just all I wanted to say was that I'm super stoked about it. I can just say, you know, as someone covering the Lakers just like you, Roge, I'm very excited that I get to cover him for the rest of the season, and I'm rooting for him and I'm happy he's on the team. Yeah, I mean too. He has a fearlessness about him, which I think is important when you play next to superstars like he, and

he understands his role as well in that. But I think I just love like he'll get a rebound and even if it's like a d or Rust or Lebron looking for the outlet past, he would just be like, I'm a big six six nine dude with ball handling ability, Like, let me just go down the lane. You know, to gather, get up, get up a shot at the rim. I think he drew a foul on embeat. I guess I want play tonight. He just has to fearlessness that. I think it's important playing next to those guys and it's

not like a direct competent. Reminds me a little bit of Kuzma as well, that, you know, irrational confidence. He's not you know, the shooter that couzes or whatever, but or the floor spacer, but just a guy that also takes shots. He doesn't pass up open threes, which I think there's another like domino effect that's important to me. He's a guy that takes the open corner three when it's there. I think he's hitting at a high percentage. But even if not, I think that's just important. Has

a dominant effect on your game, on your confidence. At least him attack in the basket. He's had a bunch of shots, you know, in four quarters, big time plays. Um. I think he's important for this team. I think he's gonna be in closing lineups more than people realize. I don't know if you would agree with like even in the playoffs. I know that's crazy for a guy whose deal isn't even guaranteed for next year. It's a team option. But I just think that fits man. Just a super agile,

athletic wing. He's like looking like a younger Trevor Reza who's a little bit more bulked up, Like just a guy that can run the floor. And I think he's I think he doesn't get credit for how smart of a defender is he is to Like, obviously he plays hard and that's a skill and all of that stuff, but I think he's also like a smart defender. He

understands angles. You watch him against James Harden, and he knew like the scouting report, he knew like where to shade him, how to like if James Harden drives right, he's gonna go to the rim. He goes left. He likes to step back jumper like he liked. He knows all that kind of stuff and he works that to

his advantage. I actually liked him on switches against Joel and b Tonight, Like I like that a D and Stanley can kind of switch for five, and then if you have Stanley Lebron and a D, you can switch three, four or five you have Jeremy. Granted that you can switch two through five and Rust can handle some physical matchups as well. Like, I think that's the idea for this team to go back to winning the battle athletically, and I think Stanley is a huge part of that.

And I know that again that sounds crazy for a guy who's guaranteed, who's not guaranteed, but still, I just think he fits this team. You add his ball handling ability really attacked the rim, the fearlessness to play. I think he's a big part of us going forward. Yeah, there's a handful of things that he does really really well that have given him a spot right like, because you know, it's not us that he's big an athletic, because as we've seen, there are guys who are big

enough like do I like DeAndre Jordan for instance. DeAndre Jordan's is definitely declined massively athletically from where he is, but he is still physically capable of doing some of that job. He's just not willing to do it, you know what I mean. Yeah, Stanley has that, and there there are three important things that he does that I think translate really well at this level. First of all,

he applies consistent ball pressure. Now this is something with Avery Bradley that, um, you know, it's the only thing Avery Bradley does. That's kind of one of my you know, criticisms of him is he applies ball pressure, but he can't really impact the defensive end anywhere else. Stanley can apply for ball pressure and do other things, but ball pressure is important because it makes the paul handler feel uncomfortable and makes them do something they don't want to do.

You know, it's a it's a classic concept of the Kevin Durant has he pull up jump shot that he made over Lebron in the NBA Finals, Like, if you apply just a little bit of ball pressure as he's coming across half court, he just won't take that shot because that's not what the read is. That you're going to force him to all of a sudden drive into the teeth of a defense when he's not really necessarily

wanting to do that. Like, you're just even for me as a basketball player, I met my most comfort playing pick up when I'm comfortably on the perimeter, just manipulating the basketball getting to where I want to go. If you applied ball pressure to me, it forces me to do something I don't want to do. That translates at every level of basketball, and that is it's like with James Harden. It's not that he stopped James Harden. Of course, he didn't stop James Harden. He didn't stop James Harden

on Christmas Day either. But what he did is he made James Harden play faster than he wanted to play, which fatigued him over the course of the game and made things just more difficult than they needed to be. The second thing is just this ability with his low center of gravity to attack the basket even when he

doesn't necessarily have a size advantage. So from what we've heard, according to Stanley, this came from Lebron, So apparently Lebron has advocated for him with him privately, like, hey, dude, attack the basket. If you see an angle, put the ball in the ground, try to get to the rim. That's that will help our team. And you can tell over the course of this last four or five games like when he sees an opportunity, he goes, he tried,

he tried, and he tries to get there. And then the last thing is he's actually a very good finisher. And this is an underrated difficult basketball ability. Because it's not easy to work on guys, Like when you go to the gym, it's hard to work on finishing because it's boring, Like who's gonna like just perpetually drive to

the basket and take difficult layups? Like it's different. It's much easier to work on a jump shot, or to work on dunking, or to work on your handle, because all those things are just easy to work on in the flow of a workout. It's difficult to build the like Kiber Irving, for instance. I've always been so fascinated just with how long it must have taken for him to become so gifted finishing around the basket. And Stanley

isn't above average finisher. When he gets around on the rim and he gets a little bit of an angle, he's probably gonna make it. And so that's another one of those really high end NBA skills that he has. So that ability to attack the rim, that ability to finish when he gets there, and that consistent ball pressure motor, those three things have made him kind of an indispensable part of this team. And I just I just think it's really impressive, And like I said, I'm just happy

to have him on the team. Yeah, me too. He's earned that two year deal, you know, or one year plus the team option. Like he's earned every penny of that and hopefully he's on the team next year as well. But yeah, man, and you also like he gives that assignment, he can take the defensive assignment. That's what Trevor reason was supposed to be. And obviously Trevor doesn't look like

you can even feel that. Stanley also like he picks up guy's full court and he can keep up that energy and I think that's just some of this team sorely needed. Um. He just has a physicality to him as well. That's important when you're playing next to Lebron and a d those three are just physically are guys that can just dominate physically, and I think that's important. I think that's the kind of identity that this team

is going for. And it's crazy, man, a guy that wasn't on the roster, you know, like four weeks ago, Um, it is now such an important key cock. That's kind of what that's kind of what we figured out, and that's what a season is for. They're going to figure out where, you know, where to plug your holes. From and to find, you know, weaknesses that you have. This is kind of a godsend, right, he you know, flies into your G league and you're able to find him and bring him up that way. Um, and he's able

to earn a spot. So it's good, it's great. I'm glad they didn't like wait till the trade deadline or something to keep him. Um. And so it's just good process. Man. This is what good organizations do. They find players like this and they keep them, They extend, you lock them down. Yeah, exactly. And so it's great for Stanley, great for the team, and I think both of us believe he's going to be a big part of this rotation. And he competes. Man,

he's a competitive dude. Like again, like not even just against Harder on Christmas hard and you know the other night Joel and b Tonight just makes guys work. You talked about the low center of gravity. Guys can't like push him backwards. He gets a lot of steals where guys try to, you know, physically go into him and he just doesn't move and he just grabbed the ball and he's Okay, I'm to twenty six six and that's big for six six, Like most taller guys I meet

are usually right around like two pounds. He is literally a refrigerator that move, that moves like a wide receiver like that. That is a massive human being. Yeah, exactly. And you put that next to Lebron and you and put that next to a d he looks small, right, you have them next to those, dude, you look small. But he's a huge dude. And I think that's you know,

so key for this team. And and just a guy who plays freaking hard and can defend and it takes takes the right shots, doesn't you know, never will ask for a possession, We'll never try to, you know, break the offensive flow. He's a good closeout attacker as well. I think he has passing ability that we've you know, talked about on this podcast as well. He can find dudes. He can find dudes off the dribble. So it's just important, man,

to have this kind of guy on the team. And it's a godsend to find it in the middle of the year you usually find guys like that. So I'm glad he's on the team. Man, I'm glad he's locked in for the full year. Team option is huge because like it gives us the flexibility. That's the thing is like, like, and from Stanley's the angle, it's easy, it's like I

want to stay in the league, you know. But but from the Lakers angle, it's like, hey, like you have this guaranteed low salary player that can play a big role, possibly start for you coming in next year. That's huge. That's that's that's a huge deal exactly. I'm shocked that they were able to get, you know, a team option. I think he's played well enough where he could have probably just earned the full full next year, but you know,

they're the lucky to get then. I think he's gonna be a big part of this team going forward, and he fits looks like Lebron has really you know, liked him. He got his first game next to eight last time, all right, Tonight was the second game next to eighties. So hopefully those dudes canna build a rhythm too as

we go forward. I think the team option thing, because you're right, I think he played himself into a situation where he had the leverage to probably just keep it as a deal to the end of the season, or even a player option. Right. But the thing is, I think I think Stan wants to be a Laker, And that's the other that's the other really cool part about this. I think he's really happy here. I mean, he's an l a guy and and you know, I think he was. I think he was playing with the G League squad

here before he even signed that deal. Like, I think he's just happy here. I think he loves his role. This is honestly, I think I think this. I've watched him a lot in Detroit and I watched him a lot in Toronto. This it feels like in Detroit he had moments where they leaned on him a lot and he got to be more aggressive. This, it seems to me where he's the most comfortable here in terms of just like at peace with his role, knows what the

team needs from him every night. There's you know, even if he has a poor shooting night, like it doesn't matter because he has these other responsibilities. Like I just I'm happy with him. But anyway, is there anything else on your list that you wanted to hit before we call it tonight? Uh? No, I think that's it. Man. Hopefully Lebron place tomorrow. We'll be back at it tomorrow again.

But yeah, hopefully we can kind of build something here, man, where we keep we keep building this house and then we have to stop for like a few days with like no roof on his head. You know, I've made that analogy before. So it's like raining and we're like, man, we have no clue what's happening in this house. So hopefully we can kind of build build a little bit

more tomorrow. Dude, How incredible was it when you watched the film of that Miami game just to see Lebraun and Anthony Davis on the floor, even though I didn't like the Avery Bradley piece, Like just just to have like Lebron, a d Stanley Johnson on the part, It's just like it's like physically imposing, just so when you see them out there and they're running around, you're like, WHOA like it had do? It felt good to see that? No, it felt amazing, man, watching that, watching that game over,

watching the replay of it. Seeing a d on the floor, Man, it's just you take for granted what he does out there. Just having a guy who can move like that, who's athletic, you pray that next to Lebron who looked at his peak physically and then Russell Westbrook being able to attack the rim off of those two's. You know, attention. It just it looked like it was working, man. It looked right.

It looked like what the team was supposed to be. Mhm, alright, guys, this is gonna be on Dash right down tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time. We will be going live for the postgame show tomorrow in Charlotte right after the final buzzer, hopefully with both Lebron and Anthony Davis playing, but regardless, Rog and I will be here as always. We appreciate your guys support and we will see you tomorrow. Thanks everyone,