Magic/Lakers Postgame Spaces

top ten in both offense and defense over that span. Uh. Not a perfect seven game stretch, a couple of ugly losses in there, but we gotta take our wins where we can get him. Rogs right, how are you doing, man? How's your weekend? Ben? So far, it's been good. Yeah. We're not really in a position to be picky about wins, right, like this is a five, close to five team, but it was nice to just to get another blowout win.

I thank you missed the last one, but yeah, this was a much better win and it's good to have one that felt like it was a win throughout, like Orlando made a run in the fourth and those kind of things happened. But yeah, it was a good win. It was a fun win. At least I don't know about goodwin with how the Orlando Magic's record is. But how are you man? Welcome back? I guess he missed the last one. Good to have you bet. You guys did a great job holding it down while I was gone.

Special shout out to Viny. I always appreciate that he is available to help us when one of us has to stop for whatever reason. But yeah, man, I'm excited. You're right. We can't be picky about this at all whatsoever. After the You know, I was extremely critical of Lebron and a d to start this season because while they had some excuses like Lebron had some availability issues and Anthony Davis's jump shot like that's a little bit out

of his control. I can't get super upset about at him that shots that he used to make are suddenly not going in. But I was mad about process with both of them. Anthony Davis was taking a lot of really difficult jump shots. He wasn't being as aggressive in the post to get into the lane. He would float in and out of games. Defensively, his motor wasn't what

it was in previous season. And then Lebron, even if you gave him an excuse for conditioning, even if you gave him an excuse for trying to get his legs underneath him. He wasn't as engaged as he should have been given the situation. And if you guys remember, after that triple overtime lost to the Kings, Roger and I both just went in on those guys for just not being good enough. And if you remember after the game, Lebron in his postgame interview said, I have to find

a way to be better for this team. And we talked about in the next pot that we thought that was the first time Lebron really vocalized. You know, the word I used was contricte. Maybe that's the wrong word, but like he just finally seemed to get it that what those guys were bringing to the table wasn't enough. That if there are intent was for the Russell Westbrook trade to make it so that they could coast, that clearly wasn't materializing. They weren't going to be able to coast.

So it got to the point where those two guys had to take on the responsibility and the accountability necessary to get the ship headed in right direction. And they had a really ugly game against Detroit, if you guys remember, but in that ugly game. It was ugly outside of Lebron and a D. Lebron and a D were both fantastic, and over the course of the next next seven games,

look there they were a bad team. It was never gonna get fixed overnight, and Anthony Davis still has a ways to go to get to where he needs to be. But again, one they played three over five teams in that stretch, they did beat one of them, they nearly beat another in that Clippers game, they had a chance to win that one late. And then they went four no against the below five hundred teams, which is good because they have already lost seven games this season against

below five hundred teams. So we're trending in the right direction. But to me, it all starts and ends with Lebron and a D. And so far Lebron has been able to get back to mostly what he was at his peak in this Lebron a D era. Once, once a D kind of gets back to that level, then we'll really be cooking with gas. But to me, you know, we looked at that game, that triple overtime lost to the Kings as a potential turning point, and so far it appeared years that it might have been long way ago.

Obviously not a perfect stretch of games, but we're headed in the right direction. Do you agree with me, rog, Yeah, for sure. And we keep saying like this team has kind of lost the benefit of the doubt um And we talked before we're gonna keep this one a lot about Lebron because he's kind of deserved it. I guess for this one, I want to separate. I guess because I feel like I can separate the team from Lebron, and I know they're intertwined. Obviously, his play directly correlates

with wins and all that, but he's been awesome. Man in Orlando is not a good team. Okay, see he's not a good team. But the last seven games, Spectrum posted it thirty points, almost eight assists. On shooting. Tonight again, I think he hit the triple double thirty ten and ten or something three blocks. This is the best to me,

he's looked since he got hurt last February. I think when Solomon Hill fell into his high ankle sprain, and I think someone was telling you that he was in the MVP conversation during that time, and the leader in the MVP conversation, but just his body looks great. He looks like the most energy energized guy on the floor, even though he's the old this guy on the floor, his body looks good. He's running like he's getting blocks, he's getting lift on his jumper as well. He just

looks great. And again I want to separate him from the team because the team is, you know, two games over, hasn't been great. Lebron to me, looks Lebron looks like he's ready. He looks like a guy that can continue to be the best player UM in any series against any team. And that was the most important thing for us to look at. In the space. He still isn't great, We still put him in rough spots, but it just

looks like he doesn't care about that stuff. And and we'll get into it more, I guess from this game. But I want to stick on that because I think he's been awesome last eight games. It's gonna average for around thirty eight and eight or something like that, and that's just incredible for a guy who's thirty seven, like his age needs to be put into that because that's unprecedented stuff. That's just stuff that we have not seen

its stuff that we shouldn't take for granted. Um. And even though Lebron's you know, this is what you're for whatever it is with the Lakers, but just stuff that we shouldn't take for granted. And this is the best he's looked even his whole tenure. Here, his body, his jumper is, everything is going well. Um And I think that's awesome to see. And obviously when a d and Russ kind of hit their stride, that's when this team

will hit the ceiling. But we've got the first part of that right, Like Lebron being Lebron is the total key to the house. Obviously, you know how to key to the house. You're not gonna be able to get in, So like that's that's step one. And I think he's looked great. Yeah, you know, there's this there's it all comes from a specific section of basketball fans, and we all know who they are and they don't need to

describe them. But there's always been this sick obsession with trying to get out in front of Lebron's decline, to try to be the guy that like is like here, this guys, it's here the declines here everyone look, look, look Lebron's bad now, and and it's it's so funny because for literally a half decade, everyone's been trying to jump out in front of that train. And it's like, guys, like, it's gonna eventually happen. He's thirty seven, he's played a

million minutes. You don't have to be the guy who's wrong all the time. He will eventually. If your desire is to see Lebron not be good at basketball anymore, you don't have to hold your breath that long. It's gonna eventually happen. But you keep making yourself look foolish by trying to jump out in front of that train. And here's the thing. If you're being honest with what you're seeing and you understand the way that Lebron plays, he plays there is a lot of physical flash, but

he plays with his brain. That is has always been his best asset on the basketball court. When you look in that fourth quarter, Orlando is just throwing crazy double teams and strong side like like box coverages at him NonStop, and he's just picking them apart. Like he would have loved to go out and put up forty in that game, but he didn't need to he always scored I think five five in the fourth quarter because Orlando was just

sending all kinds of bodies at him. His the way he plays the game, at his size and strength, with his basketball IQ and with his newfound I said new found it's been around for roughly seven eight years now, but with his ability to shoot the basketball, he was always going to be at least a top ten player well into his late thirties. So to me, it's just it's just crazy that people keep It's like they're it's like it's like they have no worry about whether or

not they'll be proven wrong. They just they're just addicted to like that rush that they get from like seeing him have a couple of bad games and trying to jump out in front of it. It's silly to me. I mean, come on, man, like, just how are you not just sitting back and enjoying this? Like I could watching him tonight get those three crazy chase down blocks. All I could think is like, it's insane that he's that that we're still watching this and it's about to be the year two, and I just I wish all

I like those people. That's a miserable crowd of people over there, So I don't envy them in any in any sense, but I mean, all I know is from my perspective, I'm just trying to enjoy it while I can. Yeah, I don't really want to give that any attention. But

were you able to hear the Spectrum broadcast tonight. I'm not sure if you got here, but Stulan kept saying, okay, so Steve Lance was saying, this is vintage Lebron, and I was thinking, like, well, I mean, I'm not sure that ever ended, you know, like it's been vintage Lebron for a long time. But moving, I guess onto the game. He picked the team spirit up tonight, right, Like, That's what I caught from tonight, And to me, it's really not fair that he's the one that has to do that.

I guess, um, but this team looked super lethargic early on. It looked very uninterested, very disengaged, high turnover prone, just lack of engagement. I thought he tried to keep everyone's spirits up, which just crazy to see again in a guy in your year, nineteen thirty seven years old. But did you see that as well? Because I thought that was a big point of this game, and I thought this turned around the whole night. He picked everyone up.

He was flexing after and once right, kind of extending it. I'm just trying to give everyone's spirits up. And I thought that's what turned the game. I guess in the third quarter he saw the defense go up as well, but yeah, he just looked awesome. He destroyed Orlando in that third quarter. I believe we were down five. He had two threes to start that quarter and I just got on and got them on a tree to oh run twenty three, oh run and put the game away again.

Orlando came back and made a run. But he brought the spirit up of the team. And that doesn't have to be his job every night, but that he could you could see that he could tell that that was his job tonight, was to pick the team spirit up and I and I thought he did that. And his him being able to recognize that and recognize what the team needs every night, I think it's special. And you're starting to see him round into form, and he's talked

about it after the games. He's starting to get healthier, and you're seeing that jump off the page. To me, he looks like you know in conversation for best player in the league, and that's all. That's all you can really ask of him. And he's looked he looked great at that. But do you agree with that? Do you agree he picked I guess the team's spirit up tonight because I thought I thought that kind of turned I

guess this night around. Well, it's funny you said that this is his job for tonight, for the team that spend his job for the entire season. He just what he wasn't doing it to start the season. Like when you put this roster together, Yeah, of course it looks silly.

If Lebron looks like the seventh best player in the world and a D looks like the fifteenth best player in the world, of course, then you're asking Molik Monk and Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook and all these guys who are far more limited to do a lot more to fill in those gaps. This only ever made sense, This roster construction only ever made sense with Lebron and a D being Lebron and a D the same guys that on the title. Okay, and you know again, I

was super critical Lebron. I had a lot of guys who were who are who are on my case about it during that stretch, But like it's it's it's not really all that complicated to me. You cannot possibly tell me that this guy from an energy standpoint that we've seen the last two weeks is the same guy from the beginning of the season. It absolutely was not for stretches. Yes, we saw it a little bit against Houston, little bit against Cleveland. He was good in that Golden State game.

He had his moments. I'm not I'm not pretending like he didn't have his moments, but it just wasn't the same guy from an engagement level, from a care level, from an effort level, that we've seen since that that triple overtime catastrophe against Sacramento. They he absolutely has turned it up. But that is absolutely what he needs, because you know, someone said on Twitter, they go. The people have been saying like, oh, it's it's ridiculous that Lebron has to hit the gas to beat a team like

Orlando on a random Sunday night. And the way the way I look at it is like, no, no, know, like there will be a point this season, you know, hopefully where everybody kind of is in the right role, Lebron and Nadiere in a groove and everyone else gets going, and then Lebron and a D will have some more margin for error to have off nights here and there. But the team just isn't rolling like that right now. They don't have good enough defensive habits. I talked a

little bit about this in the podcast yesterday. We're not boxing out at all. We're not contesting shots. We are literally dead last in the league and contested shots per per game, and we're dead last in the league in uh in box out, the defensive box out percentage. We're

just not doing those things well. When all of those things get tightened up, when this team becomes a basketball team that has good habits, that plays the game the right way, that develops that championship basketball character that I've been harping on all season, when they get that nailed down, then Lebron and a D and Russ will have the flexibility in the margin of air to have off nights. That's just not the way the team is right now.

He has to be like this now. But in theory, the way this roster was constructed, if they all have good habits and they all do their jobs in the dirty work parts of the game. There is enough offensive creation here, there's enough shooting here. You have this like Elite other perimeter option in Russell Westbrook. In theory, it will all kind of come together and make more sense at that point. But yeah, like at this point, when the team still sucks at all those things, Lebron's got

to be the guy who is the energy. He's got to be the guy that gets everyone going, that builds the momentum, that carries them until they get to that point. If that makes sense, Yeah, for sure. And we're starting to see it right last eight games thirty ten and ten, And I think a lot of people have been trying to and I've seen just how the conversation has been around this team, and we talked about it after every game, trying to just have a one one fix, right, like

just press one button and it fixes the team. Right. And it was DeAndre Jordan's not starting, it was put E d at the five, it was start our shooters. I think those are all, you know, little solutions. But there's a good team in here, right and I think, of course, and the way they're going to find it is through try on error and the trial has probably taken longer than it should have, right, Like the error was found like ten games ago, but we're still doing

the same trials. But like to find the to find the good team in here, it's gonna take trial and error, and you can't even get to that trial without having

Lebron being himself without a D being himself. Right, Like to me, you can't even get to that trial error part until Lebron and a D are themselves and a D has put up the numbers that still when we watch the film sometimes it feels like it's not matching and we still have issues on engaging, but the numbers are there the point you know it's leading in points

of the paint. But now that Lebron's kind of picked it up, you see him start to roll and again, Okay, seeing Orlando aren't great teams, but they did have a good win over Boston, the loss in Memphis things um, and just putting this more into the team perspective. I believe we're now like six in defense in the last six games, and I think that's gonna even go up after this. Sorry last seven games or six in defense, twelfth in offense. The numbers are starting to even ow

to match the roster um. And again, these are silver linings that you're trying to find on a team that's two games over five. But it's also a team that's missed Lebron for a lot of these games. And even when he played earlier in the year, he was wasn't this Lebron. So I guess those are like kind of the civil lines you can see. But Lebron being himself is such a breath of fash air. To see these last eight games or whatever it is. It seems like

he's ramping up, he's picking it up. His energy is awesome. He looks like the young guy on the floor. Um, And it's just been great to see man. And it's been fun to have at least two two wins that to talk after a win for once, it's been like it's been bad loss after bad loss. But yeah, it's great to see them. And the team is moving in a positive direction, even if it doesn't feel like it, even if the engagement looks bad, even if they look

disengaged for quarters on end. Um, hopefully these are kind of uh stepping stones to a good team. But yeah, I think there's a good team in here. Man, it's just it's gonna take a lot of trial and air to figure it out. And the trial is gonna take longer than we probably wanted to. But I think that's the way we find the good team in here, and I think we're getting to that. Yeah, no idee on

Lebron before we move on to the team. Uh. You know, obviously, with the way that the top of the field looks right now, Lebron would have to rip off another month where he's just incredible and the Lakers would have to win a whole lot of games in order for him to kind of enter into the MVP conversation. But that said, for him to even be playing that level of basketball absolutely changes the calculations for the for the rest of the season, because that's been one of the biggest question marks,

you know, around this whole era. How long can Lebron play at an m v P level that is by definition the window, you know what I mean. And so for him for him to be looking like this and also trending in the right direction, not oh he has dead legs on Tuesday night and he has dead legs every night and you can just tell, oh, this is what he is now no, he is progressing in the

right direction athletically. You could tell as his conditioning gets better, and as he gets his legs underneath him, he's looking better and better, his touches matching up. Then there then there will be this continuity piece where all the guys playing together for a long time. Because with this stretch of basketball, the Lakers still had crazy turnover. I mean, Anthony Davis has missed two games, right, so you know the way the way I look at it, this has

a lot of room to go up from here. Now, moving on to the team, and I talked a little bit about this on the On on Today's spot earlier today. But we we have some things that we do really well, and we pushed the ball in transition and we avoid half court sets. I actually thought that was one of the biggest problems in the first half tonight against the Magic.

The Magic we're playing it too big lineup, a really really big shot blocking two big lineup, and the Lakers weren't doing a good job of pushing the ball in transition, something they've done super well all season they weren't doing tonight, so they kept getting caught in these half court sets against the Magic and when you have that much size and guys like Russ and t h T and Lebron, who are are guys who prefer to be downhill, you know, try to get to the rim, guys like it's it's

inherently going to lead to some Jankee looking basketball. And I thought, you know, pushing in transition is the inevitable way to get out of that. How do we know, because that's what team did to us for all season when we were starting with DJ and and Anthony Davis in the starting lineup, and and and prioritizing these big, lumbering lineups, teams would run us off the floor. And it was only a matter of time before we started to do that to the Magic and start to have

some success. And we did in the second half. Obviously need to dig into the tape to kind of get a better feel for that, but you could tell that that is one of our strengths. And so when we that's what kills us at the end of these games, Like, I'm not too concerned about what happened at the end of the game tonight. That's classic older guys letting me guess. But we kept getting caught walking the ball up the

floor and attacking their set defense. And then when we would miss a shot, they would run it right down our throat and attack in a semi transition and get all the way to the rim and draw foul or make a layup right and and so our team is at our best. Our comfort zone is defending with energy, but pushing the ball in transition, staying out of the half chord is what allows us to be at our best,

as I opposed to the other night. Before tonight this game, we were six in the league and field goal percentage. That's pretty good, right, So like for for us to be twenty three or whatever, we were an offense, but sixth and field goal percentage, that basically tells us when we value the possession, we don't turn the ball over, and we get and we stay out of those slow, methodical half court possessions. We are getting great shots and

we have good process. So what makes me happy is there are more optimistic I should say, is that there there is kind of like an identity forming with this team,

and identity that didn't exist early on. And when we start to tighten up those little things that I was talking about, like finishing possessions on defense, by getting good box outs and guys crashing from all over the floor, and then offensively just taking care of the basketball, getting to the point where that field goal percentage becomes what we rely or that's excuse me, that sixth in the league and field goal percentage that we're relying on when

we on offense, that we're getting to that more and not hemorrhaging possessions and doing things stupid things to shoot us in the foot. When you clear all that you know, stuff up, you can see that there's a definitive pathway to being a contender here, and so that to me

is exciting. And obviously step one is a seven game stretch like this where four of the teams are bad and two of the good teams you played are also pretty bad, and yeah, you go five and two, and yeah, there's some disappointing stretches in there, but you're defending, You're you're definitively heading in the right direction. And the next step is like, hey, go to Dallas on Wednesday and kick their ass. That's that's that's the next step. They have.

They have a little foundation here, they just need to continue to build on it. Yeah, for sure, and they have a chance here to run off some wins. I mean, Dallas, I believe Luca is gonna be out for a little while. Um. Then they play Minnesota, who's been on a bad stretch. I think they lost like five games in a row, out again, came back. Now you heard his ankle again,

So he's gonna be out again, I believe. Yeah. So you play the Mads without Luca, you go to the you go play in Minnesota where they beat us at home by like thirty. Um, so I'm sure they would want to get some revenge on that, and also so it has not been playing well. And then Chicago, who I think has like eight other guys or nine guys out due to COVID protocols. And then you play Phoenix, who I think is still out. I think Chris Paul

and Devin Booker is still out or something. But you have Okay, Yeah, so you have a chance here to run off some wins. But to me, like the team is playing themselves a lot of the times, right Like when especially when you play bad teams, I feel like you're kind of playing yourself. And against Memphis, I thought we beat ourselves and turnovers it's such a big part of this team, where if we can just stop the other team from running, because I think our half court

defense has been better. And then the fourth quarter, to me, a lot of this was we went small, We went lebron at the five, and to do that, your guards have to be so engaged. And you can tell Russell Westbrook had did not want to be tagging, you know, in the fourth quarter up twenty on guys rolling to the rim. Yeah, so it's basically just pick and roll and window Carter dunk or Wagner dunk or Vagner open three. So the engagement little job. That's why I'm not really

worried about that fourth quarter. I saw enough in the third. But yeah, getting back to the team, like the identity switch. I think Austin Reaves is a big part of that. We're seeing league lunk at more minutes. Wayne Ellington, we ran a floppy action for him, I don't know, did you see that tonight? We ran one floppy action stept for him. He got a curl three. I thought that was amazing. Like we're starting to at least see the identity of this team, and the starting lineup still isn't great.

I don't think it's gonna change anytime soon. Even though I thought th h T was awesome tonight. I think he hit like three threes um and his defense was was great. He had five steals. I believe we had. The team is starting around and Avery Valley is never gonna you know, hit threes out of consistent rate, but he plays hard. That starting line up again, the space is gonna be jankie, but we're seeing identity shifting. I thought it was great. We closed tonight with Lebron at

the five. Orlando went on a run, he pulled out, he took out Dwight Howard. We went Lebron at the five with Russ and Uh. Russ was able to attack the rim and kind of close the game. And I think that's a little bit of and you're seeing pieces and pieces here where like you can fit a D into that, right, you can have a D at the five.

And I believe they closed with Monk and uh and Bradley or or it was a th H and Bradly, I don't remember who was, but yeah, they closed the game and we're seeing pieces of the team kind of form here. And we got a little bit of news uh about a reason. I guess in that video. But we're seeing the identity shift here a little bit, uh, piece by piece in these games. Yeah, let's let's talk about TC for a second, because I thought I thought

he had one of his better games as of late. Um, you know, you and I talked a lot about how he was getting kind of doing young guys, stupid young guys stuff offensively, like just you know, forcing the action, Uh, just whenever he catched the ball and there wouldn't be a defender aroun him, he would just assume it's a time to shoot instead of time to make a read, and being overly aggressive on defense and committing silly fowls.

You know tonight, one of the things we were harping on with him is like kind of take away some of the decision making responsibility in terms of him like actually running actions and try to get him with an advantage.

So they did a lot of really good stuff like trying to get him to attack off of curls off of like where he would just come out of the week side corner and curl around a guy and try to hit him when he's got the ender already on his back, so that he can you know, kind of use his body to get position and then just stick, you know, stick his arms out like he always does to to finish those layups, and a lot of attacking closeouts and you know, just primarily attacking and already compromise defense.

You could tell tonight in particular, that's that's where th HD actually has potential to be a really good offensive player already. Obviously we can talk about his ceiling, and there's kind of a divide among Laker fans, you know about you know, whether or not he's going to be an All Star or whatever you want to say, or what other teams might think about him in terms of a trade piece. But right now, for this team, they

just need him to do what he did tonight. Be able to curl off the screen when Lebron needs rest, so you can just dribble out of give you an advantage, hits you and stride and have you make a play, you know, when the double teams come, when the the the defense is loading up on one side, to swing it around to you and have you beat a guy on a close out and make a play. He also

made a lot of really nice passes today. That one in the second half and where I thought for sure he was going to shoot and then he ended up. Lebron was cutting at the same time too, and he kicked it out to Avery Bradley in the corner. I think it was the three that put him up by twenty five. But just just in general, tonight, th HT succeeded by playing a role instead of being an initiator. He was a guy who's finishing plays and and it

worked really well. And that's that's what you need when you're especially when you're looking down the line and you're gonna have Russell Lebron in a d in a playoff series, playing forty minutes a piece. You need him to succeed in a limited role and instead of trying to be the guy already, if that makes sense. But I was really really happy with what I saw from THHD tonight. Yeah, his his jumper went, which I think, you know, changes a lot of stuff for him, and he was taking

it confidently. And I've always said I think he's a better at catch and shoot, you know guy than he even thinks he is. He doesn't have to drive on every play, and those curls, you're right, those are stuff that just set place for him where he comes off the curl and he gets him going downhill and he has all these wild finishes at the rim and he's does a lot of this where he thinks he gets fouled, so he just throws it up and he got to

the rim a little bit tonight. But he's out there to me defense for defense, And I thought, again today we talked about it a lot of th HD is a havoc defender, right, he's a chaos creator. Um, he's not much. Indeed he does. He's not great yet at like going around screens. He still gets killed when he's trying to chase guys, but in isolation he's a problem.

His length is a problem. He had a bunch of deflections tonight again, like I said, five steals, and I feel like he deflected way more, way more balls and that changed a bunch of shots. Um, he was he was good tonight. And this is kind of the peak. If we can get this level of th HD. I don't think the jumber is gonna go like this just controlled shot selection. I guess, um got to the rim, got to got to the rim aton. This is kind of what we need in Orlando is not a good team.

They don't have great shop blocking, I guess at the rim, but I feel like he's gonna stay in the starting lineup, don't you like, I don't feel like that starting he's playing. Yeah, so I feel like he's gonna stay in the starting lineup unless maybe Reeves you know, takes over at some point. But uh, yeah, I think th hd gonna stay there for now, at least until we get a reason back

whenever he comes f Yeah, Austin looks great too. And and you know, this is something Vane was talking about in the in the pod when he was filling in for me the other night, and I thought he hit the nail on the head, like Reeves is a connective

tissue guy. What you know, there's with basketball, We talked about this with the starting line If you have a list of responsibilities that need to get filled on the floor, right, Like I need guys who can create from the perimeter, either getting into the length of drivel penetration or like a Chris Paul type and more of a guy who's

like really good at getting teams into sets right. But then you also need guys who can finish play both at the rim as you know, vertical spacers or as guys who can roll hard to the Raymond pick and roll, or guys who can pick and pop, or guys who can attack closeouts or spot up shoot things along those lines. You have a bunch of roles you have to fill. So when you have Lebron in a d and Russ on your team, those guys do so much to cover

those responsibilities. There's kind of a diminishing return with the guys who play around them, right. You know, we talked about this a lot in previous seasons, like, yeah, is Wesley Matthew is a fantastic shooter? No, but if he's wide open, how much different is the is the you know, expected result compared to if you have a better shooter in that spot with everything else that Wayne Ellington is

bringing to the to the floor. Whereas if you don't have Lebron and rust and yeah, maybe you need a Tyler Harrow who can do crazy stuff off the dribble to generate shots for himself. There's a diminishing attorney, isn't there with that because you actually need that ability from him. Guys like Austin Reeves, they're not great at anything, but because they're pretty good at everything and they're you know.

One of the things that with Austin Reeves you see is like there was a ploy today where he caught wide open in the in the week side corner and had a shot and pump faked it and swung into Avery Bradley, who was every bit as guarded as as Austin Reeves was, and he missed it. And you're like, you like, you'd like to see Austin take that shot, But that's Austin's character. Austin's basketball character is like, I'm gonna error on the side of not shooting this. I'm

gonna around the side of making the extra pass. You know, even with those rotations, like there's so many plays where the Lakers will concede a basket because they're like, Okay, we just didn't get it done on this possession. This guy's rolling to the rim. He's gonna get it done. Who cares, We'll get it back on the next possession. No, Austin's like every single time, I'm putting my face, I'm putting my body on the line, like I'm getting in there, I'm gonna try and take a charge. I'm gonna try

to disrupt the play. He got hit in the gut again today like elbowed and they looked like he got the win knocked out of him on another play like that, Austin Reaves. He is a white than they said. He is a connective tissue player. When you play him alongside very good players, he actually brings more to the table than more talented players than him do. And you you you have to have guys like that in your rotation. They're such a hall mark of you know, NBA champion

level teams. Like great example of this is Gary Payton Jr. With the Golden State Warriors. If you play Gary Payton Jr. On the Orlando Magic, he's not gonna look like a good basketball player because he's not going to be able to generate advantages for himself and there's nobody else on

the team that can generate advantages for him. But within Golden State, he's constantly playing with an advantage and so in that environment he can his connective tissue is it brings immense value to the team and so I love that dynamics. It's always been one of my favorite things about the game of basketball. It's like when I go play pick up, I'm not always just trying to run

with the most talented guys. I want guys on the floor that mesh well with what I do, and I have a much better chance of winning a lot when I have that than just let me roll with all the most talented guys, you know what I mean. And so that that to me is Austin Reaves basketball player in a nutshell, and I'm glad to see that he's starting to get an opportunity again. Yeah, and I'm not trying to make this. You know, you can make this

THHD versus Austin Reaves. But Austin, you know, Austin has no I spoke about this again last part with but Austin has no Like he knows exactly who he is right in the league, and he knows what's going to

keep him in the league. And I think that's the difference to me between him and Taylor, where Taylor still you know, when Taylor starts to get going, he'll like get the ball and like stop the whole play and be like, Okay, it's my time, you know, give me a high ball screen like this is I'm going to run the show for here. And the starting lineup doesn't ask for that, like it just doesn't it's great. It's

nice to have another ball handler that can create. But it really asked for guys who you always talked about do the dirty work. And Austin, you know, is always like rubbing his face off because he just got elbowed, or you know, like grabbing his ribs because he just got hit. He just got to elbow to the rib But he he just goes in and does the dirty work. You don't have to ask him to do it. It's all natural for him. And then on the offensive end, you're right, he's a you know, he's a glue guy.

He makes the right play every time you get a play tonight where the ball swung around it got to him. I think Carmelo was in the corner. Carmelo swung it to him, he got it, he was a little bit open, but the guy ran out and ran out to him. He faked it, won dribble right back to Carmelo for an open three. And I was like, man, that's just

that's just stuff that you can't like. He just like, that's just stuff that he has instinctively, Like he just understands basketball and he understands how spacing and flow and where guys get open looks at so he's awesome. And last thing I guess on Reeves is him and Lebron, And again I don't want to get too much into their chemistry, but he rolls into open space into aware that fits so great with Lebron, right like their tree Man game is just beautiful and and Austin Reeves only real.

You know, his detriment right now is his physicality as his body, you know, is his physical traits. But like he'll screen and he'll roll, and he could he'll short roll, or he'll roll all the way to the rim or get to any kind of open space that makes sense. So it's fun watching him play. I think his minutes are going to continue to go up. Um I believe that he wasn't healthy. I guess why he was collecting

DMPs and stuff like that. But he's a big part of this team and he's part of the identity as well, uh the shift in going small. And and last thing Vogo, I guess how a quote today where he said, um, Lebron's thirty point games are a function of better spacing right and better lineups and and obviously you can say that was obvious, but it's just good to hear. You know,

thanks Frank, I'm glad. I'm glad you finally understand well again, but again, like it's great to kind of hear that, I guess, and I think Austin is a big part of that. Um, it's hard to find two way guys, you know, like they pay a lot of money for that. They pay a lot of money for two way guys, and I believe we have one on a rookie deal. So um, yeah, I think I think Austin has been great and it's cool to see him kind of find

his niche with the team too. Yeah. Andre Gudala did a podcast a while back, um, and they were asking him about step Curry potentially breaking the three point record, and they basically were like, you know, like what's your most memorable step three? You know, like typical interview questions, and and Andre Gudala went on like a diet try, basically saying like I don't remember many of steps three's.

And he was like because because he's like when I'm out there, he's he's constantly just doing these little things to help the team win, and he's like half the time he's like I would just hear the crowd go crazy and I just run back on defense because he just like he was maybe setting off all screen, or maybe he was the one screening for step or he's

fighting for rebound position or whatever it is. You know, like he's just so wrapped up in the job that he's almost not even paying attention to what's happening, you know, with Steph running around or doing whatever he's doing. That's

kind of like what you see with Austin Reeves. Like there are a lot of plays where where where the older veterans on the Lakers are kind of guessing at what the outcome is and trying to get ahead of their next job, you know, like leaking out after a three or doing the same thing like giving up a instead of fighting for a defensive rebound, like leaking out

in transition. Austin Reeves is just always in the mix, like he's just always just fighting it in and he'll I see that happen all the time with him, where the ball go through the net and it'll like where Austin will be the last guy who realizes it and he'll start running back, you know. But uh, yeah, he's definitely a really good a really good glue guy for this team, and uh, it makes you feel Obviously he's

not Alex Cruso. We're not going to talk about Alex Cruso again, but uh, but him him developing as quickly as he did into a guy that can help this team win is undoubtedly takes a little bit of that pain away, you know what I mean. And and especially since he's a little bit better offensively, you could even make the case that he fits well with this team's identity. Obviously he doesn't shoot the lights out or get to that, but he's just he's a little bit more sound as

an off ball player than than Alex was. Um, so he so he fits well with this team and I'm happy with him. So we were gonna we were gonna move on to a little bit of stuff that we saw in that UM spectrum. It was in their postgame show after the last game, I think, but basically they had the behind the scenes in the the UM coaches meeting when they were kind of coming up with their strategy or whatever. Come then it looked like they were talking about rotation in particular, and so a couple of

interesting things. They talked about Anthony Davison's fatigue, which is something I definitely want to hit on here in a minute. But one of the interesting parts that I saw there was Frank was basically talking about the starting lineup, and he was talking about how like guys like Monk and Ellington are guys that he favors as offensive players, and then th Ht, Avery Bradley, and Austin Reeves were defensive players.

And then he basically was saying, I don't know that we can even play four of these guys alongside Lebron Russ and a D but they're going to try to

play four in the meantime. But he's always trying to weigh those two against each other, which I thought was interesting strictly from the same point of like we all think of th h T as like a second side creator, a guy who runs actions, but obviously Frank views him more as a defensive piece, which I think is is definitely interesting, and I think you're seeing him kind of trend in that direction and the way they're using him. But but that I thought that was an interesting question

to ask. I personally would lean into, even as good as Avery Bradley's played, and he's played very very well, I would lean into what, like Monk or Ellington, one of them lean into them big because you need that shooting. But I would prioritize, I would kind of go from every Bradley out of that five, if that makes sense.

But where are you at with that kind of decision? Yeah, So that's interesting that the quote that kind of got blown up was vocal saying we have enough wings, right, and people are like, how could you say we have enough wings? You know, like we're super short on wings.

But I think what he's thinking about is like, yeah, we have PhD and then he has Kem baysmore he could go to even though camp Baysbre's not playing right, and then when Trevor Reason gets back and I think that's kind of what he means by the we have enough wings um in that situation. But I've been you know, I've been asking for Ellington to start for a little

while now, and Ellington was honestly the odd man out tonight. Um. I don't I think he only played like ten minutes or something like that because they Bradley, um leak monk going off. Yeah, but that's who I guess like to start in that role. I feel like th is gonna stay there because, like you said for defensive purposes, but every Bradley has been playing well too, right, like again every Bradley. You can separate the team I guess from Bradley as well, because Bradley has been playing well. He

just it's not his fault. He doesn't fit that lineup. Like, I can't be mad at him that he's not a dead eye three point shooter. That's not who he is and we knew that going in. I can't be mad at him for starting, so but I would like Ellington to start. I think that would open things up just a bit um just for the starting lineup. It's still just so ugly, especially for russ Uh and for Lebron.

So that's who I'd like to start. But I understand Ellington has defensive issues and Bogo is a guy that's going to maximize that he's gonna go on the defensive end. And I think we're just going to continue to see th HD and Bradley to start. But it was fascinating to get behind the scenes kind of look into the coaches and how they kind of make decisions like that, because I just I think it's interesting and it's not an easy decision. I think these are all really tough

things that you have to way back and forth. And I think the A D conversation was fascinating as well when he said, eighties tired after playing the full full first quarter, but we don't have another center because you'd have to put Dwight Howard in and he doesn't like to play Dwight until the second quarter. So it's a fascinating kind of back and forth. But what do you think of that? What do you think of um A D?

I guess through Phil Handy um showing his concern. I guess for being fatigued after full of force quarter full first quarter, which you know, that's that's that's fair, Like that's not every player plays the whole first quarter, and most don't, right Yannest plays in like six minutes stints like superstars all around the league don't play the full first part. But what do you think of that? I guess that that part of the video. I was genuinely confused by it. Uh not not the fact that A

D was tired. That makes perfect sense to me, and I agree, like, don't play a guy twelve minute shifts when he struggles with his motor, like that's that's not

a that's completely nonsensical. Now, his thing was like, I don't want to go to Dwight to end the quarter, and I don't understand that because to me, it should be a basic staggering concept, right, because like I'm looking at Lebron running the second unit to start the second quarter, right, and Dwight's probably gonna be with him in that group. But that Dwight shift is split up by a quarter time out, which is usually like three and a half minutes.

So why can't Dwight play the last three minutes of the first quarter? You know, Russ is with that lineup. That's when you can lean into Russ and shooting and Dwight, you know, and uh, and then from that standpoint, a D is gonna come back. Sometimes Dwight gets a rest, he comes back, starts the second quarter, and then a D can come in whenever, you know, like right now, he's been coming in around the six minute mark in

the second quarter. But by taking him out at the nine minute, the first he can come out in the nine minute, come back at the nine minute after nine minutes, and the first he can come back at the nine minute mark in the second quarter. So I didn't understand that. When I was listening, It's like, it's a basic staggering If you're gonna play a D nine minutes and then Dwight six minutes, and then a D nine minutes and then you know, just repeat that in the second half.

I don't see why that can't just be the rotation again. Like what you're asking from that position is when a D s on the floor, he does a little spot up work. But for the most part, those are screening dive guys. You don't have to change the way you play as much when you switch between those two. And so that was confusing to me. And look, a D

has struggled with his motor all season. We you know, I've gotten an arguments with a bunch of people about this, and you know, the way I look at it, you know, he's not really much of a self starter. He struggles trying to navigate his way through the game in terms of, uh, knowing when to be physically aggressive and when to be more passive. Why not make that decision a little bit easier for him by giving him shorter burst. That's literally

what Russell Westbrook does. Russell Westbrook loves coming in, playing his ass off for six minutes, sitting for three, playing his ass off for six minutes, sitting for three. It doesn't if that that might work better than playing for twelve minutes, being awful for half of them because you're, you know, very tired, and then sitting on the bench for what amounts to like twenty five minutes of real time,

you know what I mean? Like, I just didn't. I didn't understand that in terms of the concept, Like, it's like to me that there, He's like, has anybody Frank goes in the video, he goes, has anybody heard anything in the locker room about A D s long shifts? And you know, I can't remember who was the assistant hand Yeah, So Phil Handy speaks up and goes, yeah, A D always comes up and tells me he's tired.

To me, it's like end of discussion, Okay, cool, we're shortening his shifts, Like, like, what's the what's the push back there? Like, I just don't get it. You don't have it doesn't make any sense to do that. Lebron hasn't even done that since he was a young player.

Lebron hasn't played twelve minute shifts literally since he was in like since he was you know, I think thirty two or earlier, like he just like he, It just is a nonsensical way to do it, unless you're a guy like the honest or like young Lebron, a guy who oh Draymond Green, like a guy who just has an incredible motor, who catches a second win and can just go up and down the floor all day long. If you're that guy, that's great. But Ad is just

not that guy. So I would definitely try to get him more in and out of the game quicker um so that he has an opportunity to stend more of his energy while he's out there. Yeah. I thought another interesting thing too, was Phil Handy kind of putting the responsibility on a D as well. Right, He's like, he told him, if you don't want to play, they hand up and we'll sub for you. And I think part of this it's not that vocal, you know, I don't

think he doesn't know how to staggers. They rely on a D so much defensively, right, So I'm thinking, like they like him playing that full first usually get the you know, you get the team's best players in that first quarter, So they play him the full force and then Dwight and Russ or whoever, and maybe it's I

think it's Lebron who starts the second Um. I think Russ comes back back in late in the first and then I'm not sure if it's Russian and Braun or something that starts the second quarter, and they've been going with le Brunett center, but it's either Dwight Howard. I think they like that lineup. But yeah, we'll see if going forward, if that changes a little bit. You could tell a D is tired um, And I thought they made a good point as well that it could be

injury prevention as well. Um. You could just see him not you know, like in that Memphis game, there are a lot of times where they would go at him and he's just kind of stepping back, you know, and just trying to preserve or just not go as we've seen a d B And there's a lot of factors

to that, and there's always human elements to it. But I think it's a fascinating discussion because the the full first quarter thing that is fatiguing, like that's tough for a player to do, especially with the load that a D carries on the defensive end and on on on the offensive end honestly, where he put in the post and he's you know when especially when he's at the five, he's banging with guys or you know, get his job

is to be the screen roll guy. But like, it's a fascinating discussion because I think it's interesting, and we'll see if Lebron at the center lineups can kind of fix that as well, maybe they pull a d a little bit quicker so he has energy going forward. But I think it's interesting. It's fascinating to get to kind of look into that because that's not something I think we knew about before before the video, even though we saw it on film and we kind of had thoughts

about it. I think it's interesting to hear it, I guess from the from the coaching staff. Yeah, So moving beyond the minutes, just to the general idea of fatigue

for Anthony Davis. I got into a discussion with the Cranges about this the other day, and I'm going to try to get him on the pod next week because obviously Twitter is just a really terrible place to have these kinds of back and forth discussions, and he's just a super smart guy and I'm sure he'll be able to to give give us a really good example of his perspective. But he basically was like his cases, like a d has more on his plate on both ends of the floor than any start in the league, was

his point. Like his point like, defensively, he's basically covering for garbage defensive lineup by flying around all the time trying to to cover for people and then offensively obviously has way more responsibilities than a you know, a Rudy Gobert or a Clint Capella or the the other you know, ground covering mobile defensive centers that we have in the league. And he's not he's not wrong in that regard. I

just think I think that's part of it. But I think I also think part of it is is that that motor, because there's no excuse, regardless of what your responsibilities are, to have three consecutive off days and then go into the Boston game and and be really hot garbage for the first twentysomething minutes of the game, you know, like it's like and just looking like you're not mentally

engaged in the game. When we when we recorded that pot, that was the big that was one of the big stories of that game was like Lebron was carrying him early and Anthony Davis came in the second half, you know. And then obviously the Memphis games same thing. Like again, Memphis was two nights later, so it's not like it was the same rest. But he had played two games

total in the previous seven days. So I can't like, like, man, if you're running out of gas, then like, how the hell are you going to get through a playoff run? You know what I mean? So I can't. I can't really make the fatigue excuse for him entirely. I do agree that he has a really difficult job, and and I'm glad Crane has pointed out because it's it is

absolutely true. However, there's not a guy in the league that's vying for a spot to be considered one of the top tier superstars that doesn't have a lot on his plate. Like think about how much running Steph Curry has to do every night in order for the Golden State offense to even function. And in addition to that, he's got people vying for him to make an All defense team, which I don't necessarily agree with. But he

is absolutely a good, positive defensive player. He's doing a lot for them night in and night out, you know, like that's that is what comes with the territory when you're that type of player. Same goes for Janice, same

goes for Kevin. To Kevin Dury is having an incredible two a season and he's being asked to do so much every night because one of his co stars wouldn't take the vaccine and another one of his co stars literally showed up to the season like he has been on a spot teen day bender at the strip clubs. Like he just like it's he's been asked to do so much night in the night out to keep the

team afloat. Like I don't like the idea of being like guys, we should really just lighten up on a d he's he's got to do too much, Like no like that that then then don't tell me he's one of the top players in the league, you know, like this is what we expect now practically he's struggling with the long shifts, So how about we make his job a little bit easier by giving him opportunities to step off the forward and get his breath, you know what I mean? That's that to me, is like a more

practical solution there. But to me, asking a D to do what we're asking a D to do is foundationally what we did with this team. If you're if you are a team that doesn't trade everything away for a super duperstar, You've got really high quality role players. You've got lots of guys on midsize contracts. All of them are expected to do a lot so that the top

players on the team have lighter workloads. But when you trade Brandon Ingram and Lonzo ball and and Josh Hard and all these guys to UH to a team to bring back Anthony Davis, you are saying, I think this guy can do what a lot more than what these three players can do combined. That's literally what the the entire concept of this sort of team construction was. It was it was it was always about Lebron and a D are gonna have to do a lot, you know what I mean? And so that and so that's where

I was pushing back. And by the way, Tim's I'm gonna reach out him tomorrow. We're gonna get him on the pod next week and we're gonna have a good discussion about this, and I'll try to work it out so you can be there as well, Rods. But like my my point is is, like I think it's okay to hold Anthony Davis to that standard in terms of what we expect him. We can talk about the practical stuff like I just said, but I think in terms of the principle of the matter, I think it's okay

to expect that from him. Yeah, I think there's like a fine line, right, and we're starting to see a d trades pop up on the timeline, which I think is you know, just absolutely insane. I think that's crazy. Um, it's tough. It's a it's a fine line to walk because the numbers all say that he's been contributing at you know, the level that he's supposed to. He leads the league in you know, paying touch, he leads the leading in dunks and points in the pain and and

all that stuff. And then you talked about cranes. He posted that eighties, running the most as any player in the league. Um, again, his defensive versatility has been all up and down. He's switching, he has to protect the rim and all that's true, but still there's an engagement level that you have to expect, and I think the toughest part is that we've seen it. We saw it all.

Like to me, I saw it all. And obviously there's games where he doesn't engage offensively as he should, and I can live with that, um, I can live with that kind of stuff here and there, but it's been too it's been too often. I guess that I see where there's just full quarters where he just isn't isn't there and this team and this team just can't handle that, I guess especially. I think Russ has pulled his way, but Russ is still supposed to be the third guy

on this team. That's the whole point of this, and I feel like it's been a lot of a Russ has led a lot of the comebacks, at least early on, and again that second half against Boston was great, and we see bits and flashes of it. We just has to be consistent. I think the putting on mass is a really key point as well. I think that's been something that's everyone's kind of pointed out now and I think that's part of it. That is not getting that

same lift as he was. He got blocked twice, I believe in Memphis and one of them was like by Kyle Anderson. That kind of stuff happens, but it's just there was a lack of lift there that that you see is kind of impacting him and we'll see how that goes. But the numbers are still there. He's still

a super impactful player. It's just when you have when you see a guy with the amount of talent so cantalizing that a D has, you expect more right when you watch him, you just feel like there's a super crazy impactful player there and we're not seeing the ceiling of it. And I think that's the part that we struggle with because the numbers are all there, like you

can go and low. He's still putting up his twenty six and ten and he can sleepwalk into a lot of that, right, Like that's just how good he is, even with his jumper not falling. But it's a a thin line to walk. We'll see if the minutes kind of come down a little bit. I think that's something that that's a fixable issue. Like you talked about, the jumper isn't really something we can control. It's gonna be up and down so the whole season. But I just

think like it's a tough thing to walk here. Blaming everything on a D obviously isn't the case. He's not the problem, right, But I just need him to contribute more to the solution, right, And I guess that's the That's the way I would like to put it. People are like, oh, eighties, you're saying eighties the problem. No, I'm not saying he's the problem. I just there's a solution here that needs him to be more part of it.

And you know, his defense. This team needs him to be all world defensively on most possessions, and it also needs on to be all world defensively almost possessions to beat the good teams. That's just how this team is kind of built, at least until we see how thirty six year old of reason fits into it. But like, that's how this team is kind of built, and he's expected to do that. I think it's okay to expect our twenty eight year old superstar who just signed the

Mega Max hold him to a higher standard. Like, I think that's okay without going to an extreme of trading him or calling him soft or you know, like all these extremes that we see. There's the middle lines. Here that that we can walk and I think I think that's important to talk about. Yeah, exactly, and guess what, like you can't you can't be like, oh A D

is doing great. It's all the minimum guys that are at fault when the reason why we have minimum guys is because we went after Lebron and na D. Like with that team structure comes the accountability and responsibility, you know what I mean, Like you and even above and beyond that with the Russ thing. It's like you guys had even a variation of that where you had some high quality role players like how Kuzma, like Alex Cruising White, k CP, all under control and you forfeited that to

bring in Russ, you know what I mean. And that's that to me, like those guys, I just those three guys, I can't really go around making excuses for them. Um you know when they this is kind of like a decision they made in a predicament that they put themselves in. But to be clear, that's not something we're trying to be super negative about. This positive night, um uh, the team is trending in the right direction. I think I'm surprised I didn't hear about that Luca news. That's a bummer.

I thought that would have been an interesting challenge going into Dallas on Wednesday, but so that's all we have for tonight. Uh So quick news. So, my grandfather actually passed away a couple of days ago, so I am flying to Iowa on Tuesday, so I'm actually going to miss the the game on Wednesday night, but I'm sure we'll get uh Raj is still planning on going that night, so we still have a postgame show and then I'm gonna try to get my thoughts out there on on

Thursday during the day sometime as well. But we appreciate you guys support. This will be on dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time, and we'll be on our podcast feeds here in the next twenty or thirty minutes or so. We always appreciate your support and we will see you in a couple of days. Thanks everyone,