Nets/Lakers Postgame Spaces

had a nice holiday. Uh, Merry Christmas to you and everyone in here, and again, like if you celebrate obviously, and happy holidays to everyone. That was a rough one. We did have some good basketball though today before that, so there was some good NBA um and today was a fun game at the end. But yeah, how are you, man? Merry Christmas to you and your your family, and happy Holidays to you and your family. Good basketball earlier the day. That's that is a I should say, a fun end

to the game. That's an interesting way to characterize it because from my perspective, it was like we were already deeply irritated by a deep irritating basketball game, and then the basketball gods were like, why don't we top it off by making it seem like there's an opportunity to

win before it blows up in your face. Um, I think we have to start with Russ And I'm gonna Ross Raj Beary with me here for a second, because I'm gonna get something off my chest, something that I've I've been complaining about a lot this season coming into the season, and that my biggest spear with Russell Westbrook. My biggest spear with Russell Westbrook from the beginning had

very little to do with fit. I had a feeling that you know, over the course of a playoff series and over the course of the regular season, he would be mostly a net positive in terms of what he brings to the team with his athleticism and his energy and his good leadership and just the sheer force will that is Russell Westbrook, and there's obviously so much good

that comes with that. But he is his own worst enemy because he can't see one inch in front of his face with his decision making on both ends of the floor. And as I told you during the summer, my biggest fear with Russell Westbrook wasn't you know what would happen in the meat and potatoes, but rather a handful of crucial possessions at the end of a playoff game. Now, this was not a playoff game. We thought the Lakers

were probably gonna lose tonight. You know, it looked like they were going to get absolutely destroyed tonight if you paid attention there in the third quarter. So obviously this, this in and of itself, isn't a crisis right now. But what you saw tonight is what I'm so scared of. Crucial game. Team is fighting. You're playing against the contender. Everything's on the line. Two completely bone headed, critical mistakes

that cost her team of basketball game. On a possession where the Lakers do a bunch of switching, Russ ends up getting switched on Patty Mills he's guarding him at the top of the key. He immediately turns his back to Patty Mills and just starts drifting listlessly over to the elbow, paying no attention to where Patty is. Patty, because he's a smart basketball player, just relocates to the weak side corner, easy driving kick. Russ is nowhere to be found. Patty Mills is going to make that shot

nine times out of ten. That's a huge huge catastrophic mistake, and then I think it was two possessions. Later on the offensive end, Lebron drives into the lane, throws a pass, gets deflected and it lands into Russ's hands. But there's plenty time on the shot clock. There's no need to rush anything. Russ sees a driving lane, gets into the lane, has an opportunity to lay the ball up with his left hand, especially since the shot blocker was on the right side of the rim, so he could have used

the rim to protect his own shot. And for whatever reason, even though I think he's dunked on one person this season, and that one crazy run that he had, I can't even remember what team it was against, but against the Celtics, but he's missed more dunks than he's made this year. He's very clearly not had the same lift that he's

had in years past. And he tried to left hand dunk the ball and he was probably four or five inches short of ever being able to make that attempt, launched it into the rim, and just like that, the game was over. And again, like you can live with the four or seventeen or whatever he started the game, You can live with any of that stuff because he's getting offensive rebounds. He gets a loose ball here and there, he gets a tie up, forces a jump ball. He

brings a lot of good to the table. But it's those catastrophic decisions at the end of these games that will cost you. It will cost you a loss in a playoff series. Literally watched him do it to Kevin Durant. No ca See, that's my biggest fear. So talk me off the led rage, tell me how it's all gonna be okay. Yeah, I'll try to be a little bit more more measured with it. I don't know about talking to you off the ledg. It feels like we've been

standing right at the ledge for a while now. Every other game is rock bottom and then they all of a sudden dig another bottom. Right, So we just keep on falling through and just keep finding more rock bottoms. No, Russ was bad throughout this whole night. I mean, you said, you know, critical possession in the game. I think the you know, the late run is a little fool's gold. I thought Brooklyn really took their foot off the gas.

James Harden, who also has questionable decision making right in in big pressure moments, I thought you saw that as well. When the game got tied. He saw him kind of take tough shots, make bad passes, and that end of the run was kind of fools gold we were down twenty or something with the fourth quarter. RUSS was just bad tonight, And just putting this into context, this is probably the worst RUSS you're gonna get. And you said

we can live with the four for twenty. We can't live with the four for twenty, not with the way that we're shorthanded right now, not without Anthony Davis and the shots he's missing, like he's missing layups at the rim. I thought the turnovers were just awful tonight and him, him and Lebron had a nice little two man game. Lebron was fronted in the post by the Nets a lot, and he found him on the back doors when they

did high low action. But a lot of his turnovers tonight he tried to push off makes, which is really tough with this team. We're really slow to start the game. We had Dwight Howard obviously starting, and he tried to run and we just weren't with him. And he would drive in and do a lot of high risk, low reward passes. It was just a lot of stuff that was just really bad for him, and it was a rough start and I thought that carried through the whole game.

He was just really bad. There's nothing to say, and the late game decision making, man, are our best offense tonight was Lebron Malik Monk screen roll right, like, that's to me where we got our best offense? And Lebron would dry kick it out to us and he would drive or take these awful shots. He took a bunch of job step three tonight, which made no sense. And again not to pin everything on him, because the loss is kind of you know, convoluted with a bunch of factors,

but no, he was really bad. We went on and again these numbers aren't fair to him as well, because I think there's stuff that this lineup did that are productive just to the skill sets of the roster. But we went on a seventeen because your run without him tonight, Jason, that turned the fourth quarter around, and people are asking, I saw our friend dom and saying, how the hell

could you put us back in? It's a bigger story if you don't put us back inside, and I don't, and I don't think they want that right now, and I get that you have to find ways to have Rus be you know, impactful in these minutes, and he just wasn't. And I tweeted cruel after he missed that dunk, because that's what it was. Right two thousand eight or two thousand nine or even two thousand twelve of us probably is still hanging on the rim right in that kind of uh, in that kind of play, but he's

just not there, could not lift. And I think the mislayups are part of that. We discussed his finesse. I think he's lost a finesse part of his game, which is just so fascinating to me. I know you say he's never really had it, but I disagree just in terms of I've seen the way he finished in the past. But he was bad tonight, man, There's no there's no sugarcoating it. He was. He was al He was I think a minus twin six in the game we lost by like four or five like that, just and plus

minus isn't always to tell all. Yeah, it matches the eye test, man. And again if you probably you if you don't put Russ back in this game, you probably have a better shot at winning. But that's not how a team works, right, That's not how construction, locker room chemistry, politics, whatever you want to call it. You just can't bench Russ in this type of game right now. It's it's just not gonna happen. So it was bad, man, and the fit was bad. I thought him. I thought Taylan

played well when he was off the bench. I like the tailor Lebron monk with Melow lineups, but Russ was bad. There's no sugar coning in for sure. Yeah. You know, you said yourself, You're like, we can't, we can't live with the four twenty games. And I agree with you in the sense that if Russ is gonna have like just absolutely disastrous offensive games, that it's going to have a massive negative impact on the team. That goes without saying. The problem is is Russ is just as likely to

make those types of mistakes when he's having a great game. Yeah, you know, I'll even expanded out to the to the to the larger scheme of the season. To start this season, Russ was very reserved and crunch time and deferred to Lebron almost exclusively and was avoiding those kinds of mistakes but then suddenly tonight he lost his mind. And that's

the thing. You could be in a playoff series like that, and he could be really good in the crunch time a game one, and really good in the crunch time a game too, but maybe the road team, you know, maybe it's too too after five games, just because of the way the series shakes out, and he loses his mind in game five and bam, you're down three two going on the road or whatever. It is, the circumstances

that the series provide. But that's the thing with Russ, it's there's a difference between you can depend on me to consistently make the right decision, and it's a con total coin flip. One night, I'm reserved and I'm playing the game measured and I'm slow down and I'm making the right decisions. And then the next night it's like you might as well just shot me like a baby in a tiny room and I'm just bouncing off the walls and no one knows what I'm doing. Like that's

that is the Russell Westbrook experience in a nutshell. Again, it's like a couple of plays before the two horrible plays that I'm talking about that post up play where

he's posting at Patty Mills. It's like, dude, you haven't been able to make a layup all game long, So if you're going to any sort of complicated layup, I should say so, if you're gonna post up Patty Mills, you need to be thinking I am above the rim by myself, or I'm kicking it out any sort of below the rim finesse type of hook anything like that. It's like, man, you just don't have it tonight. That has to be moved around. But that that that's my

that's my thing. He could go twelve or twenty in a pivotal playoff game and make two completely bone headed mistakes, one on defense and one on offense, and it can cost you a playoff series. And that's the problem. It's like the example that I always uses that two thousand fourteen series against the Spurs. In Game six, they're inside there in Oklahoma City, okay see, it is actually down

pretty big late in Russ. Russ goes on an amazing run in the middle late fourth quarter to get okay see back in the game, and you're like, man, great Russ. Two completely awful pivotal mistakes at the end of that game that costs Okay, see the game. And that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. It's good good, good bad dad, you know, or it's good bad good bad good bad, or nights like tonight where it's all bad. But he cannot control his decision making at the end

of high leveled situations. And that is a potentially lethal flaw. And I don't again, like he could play amazingly well and amazingly reserved for the rest of the regular season. He could do it for the entire first round, he could do it for the entire second round, and we could be sitting in Golden State and I would be sitting on my couch terrified that he's going to do that again, because that's that's the Russell Westgroup experience. And and I don't know, I don't know how. I don't

know how you prepare for that. I don't know what you do, because it's like it's like tonight, just one second, you have all the momentum and it feels like you're gonna win the game, and then the next second is gone like that that that it's it's over. But when when those mistakes happen at the end of a game like that, there you cannot recover from them. And so again, it's just it's very discouraging. And I mean, there's a

lot more to take from this game, guys. And we're gonna get into we're gonna talk about their start, We're gonna talk about Stanley Johnson, We're gonna talk about all this stuff. But I think the story of this game at the beginning here is Russell Westbrook. This is this is part of the Russell Westbrook experience. He can almost single handedly derail a game and that and that's that's problematic. Yeah, the you know, the experience is a roller coaster, right,

and you talked about that playoff game. You know, he brought us back, and he does this a lot in every game, right. It seems like every game that he starts, he really walks into it, right, He tries to feel it out, and he makes his impact later on. And you know, sometimes that's fine, you'll have a huge third quarter, but you don't get the good without the bad with him and right, and a lot of and this season, like to give him a little bit of credit, like

he has kind of pushed the pace. He has kind of try to keep our energy up when the when the body language has been bad. So I don't want to make this, you know, like he's been awful this season, but you're right in crunchtime situations like it is a question. It's why you know, a lot of late game situations

he has, you know, questionable plays, questionable shot selection. Even in the Dallas game, Right, that three went in, But Jason has probably be an awful shot, right to be honest, Like we're like down three, uh and he hits three to time, but that's probably a bad shot. This isn't the first time it's happened either, right, I believe against the Bulls, we were on our way to a comeback and he like drove and tried to make like a left hand lay up. I forgot who's at the rim.

I think it was Ruchevich or someone, and he just missed that right at the basket's shot that I thought that I was. I remember that right, right, And here's the only like silver lining. I guess like that I can go because we have this. We have seen a few games of this team fully healthy, and we've seen

close games. And what has it been. It's been Lebron with the basketball and Russ either as the screener or in the dunker spot where Lebron's using another guard to set the screen, or using Russ as a screener and he can play four on three. We haven't really seen very many times this season where Russ has the basketball in like in late game situations where he's the kind of main creator. And I thought tonight he got a few of those possessions. And again, that's not how basketball works.

You can't just tell someone to never touch the ball late. And there's players where Lebron, you know, it's gonna have the ball, he's gonna have to kick to Russ and he has to make high levels decisions. But I think for the most part, and we are so far away from that. I guess where we have to, you know,

worry about late game situations. I watched the Phoenix and Golden State game today, and my goodness, we are so far away from executing or compete, like competing or even being at that level to a basketball that those teams are playing at. We're on a ladder trying to climb up there. And there's still time to you know, get up those steps. There's process that we can do. Um, and again that I feel like there's stuff that doesn't help us out either. I think the starting lineup is

a big part of it. We can get into that next as well, all the lineup stuff and all the shifting that we're doing. But yeah, man, Russ was bad and this was another tough one, just bad decision making late. And hopefully he's not in those positions when eight is healthy, when Lebron, you know, is there controlling the decisions in the playoffs. I just don't think he'll be put in those situations for the most part. But tonight's just a really bad rest game. And we talked about over the

summer these are gonna happen. He's gonna have four for twenty games. It's gonna be loud, and it was loud tonight. And his mistakes are very much like what were you thinking there? You know, or like what was the what's the reward there of getting that passed through? Like a lot of times it's like a screen roll and he throws that pocket pass with like zero finesse. It's just hard, it's down, there's no like if it gets through, it's by luck, you know what I mean. So a lot

of players like that happened. But yeah, Russ was just bad man and that was it was tough to watch, and it's don't want to blame everything on him because that's not fair because there's lineup stuff that we can kind of go into next. But he was it was bad man, and that's and there's no sugarcoating that tonight. That's why I used the expression he can't see one inch in front of his face, you know, like a good game manager always sees the big picture. That's what

Lebron is so good at. He sees the big picture of the possession right Like he sees, Okay, if I beat this man at the point of attack, this rotation is probably coming to take away the point, the pocket pass or the week side corner or whatever. He's always seeing several steps ahead. But at the same time he also sees behind. He's like, okay, is this guy in a rhythm? Knows this guy in a rhythm? Yes? Like, is they haven't gotten a shot for so and so in a while? You know, what's the what's the flow

of this game? Is this game flowing in a way where they need me to be more aggressive offensively? Or is this a great time to try to get other guys involved. Like Lebron always sees the bigger picture, and he also sees the bigger picture of the regular season. That's why he can be such a good leader in these types of environments with a team that has championship aspirations. But with Russ, there's none of that. There's nothing outside of what's one inch in front of his face. Think

about that last session where he missed the dunk. It's a ricochet pass from Lebron that lands in his hands. Okay, a couple of possessions earlier, Stanley Johnson catches the ball on the wing wide open in transition, but he sees the bigger picture of the possession and goes, I could shoot this, but actually a better option is to go to Lebron. Here swings it to Lebron. Lebron bullyballs is way in the basket and gets a layup. That's the thing.

In that moment, Russ saw Lane and you know what, he thought, it would be cool if I dunked this here, Like if I if I dunked this one man, I'll be all over the House of highlights. And he saw that in that like that tiny little fraction of time, he made a calculated decision that it was worth it to go for the highlight, whereas if he was seeing anything outside of that tiny, little fraction of moment, he might have thought, actually, this this ball I need. We

happened to gain control of a loose ball. This is a great time to get the ball back to Lebron so we can make a real basketball decision. Or if you see a lane, okay, I see e lane here, I'm going to get into his body and try to either get a foul or lay up. You know not, Here's a low percentage play that even if i'm you know all season long, I've been missing, I'm just gonna go for it. You know what I mean? Like that

kind of decision making? Is that That's what I mean when I say he can't see more than one inch in front of his face. Now moving on to the start of the game, because I thought this was really interesting because you and I we were we had planned on talking to start this game about their lackluster effort and uh and body language in the with the starters.

And I think there's two elements to it. One is that that basketball character thing that we that we keep talking about all season having to do with guys just not being willing to do the dirty work. But a big part of it is just a foundational structure of the lineup. We have talked. We talked a while back about basic lineup rules, so you remember that it was actually something that our guy Anthony Irwin from Silver Screen

and Roll kind of conceptualized. And one of the rules was you cannot play Russ and th httgether or or with the big was the big one. Basically, if you're gonna play t h T and Russ, you need to take Dwight off the floor. The idea being let's try to limit it to two nonshooters, and anything over two nonshooters it just gets way too clunky and it's impossible to get anything going. And those two problems compound each other. Right, because we get Russ, t h T and Dwight in

the lineup, there's no shooting. Everything becomes stagnant. You get a lineup like what or you get a defensive scheme like what Brooklyn does where they're just kind of switching everything and floating around. It becomes like, Okay, somebody's got to take a jump shot because there's just someone in the paint. We even had a clip if you remember, James Harden miked up going up to Claxton saying, hey, buddy, you're living in the paint. You don't pay attention to

anybody live in the paint. That's a side effect of that lineup. But those two things speed off each other, right, line up and structure and basketball character. If you are a lazy team, then it's gonna be exacerbated by lineup shortcomings that are gonna make you even lazier, you know. And it all like the eads off of each other,

and it's like it just waterfalls into this. Now we're getting rolled with Lebron James and Russell Westbrook on the floor, which should never happen, right, And so that that that kind of is what frustrated me about that is I'd like for them to play harder, but I'm not sure that they will until you start putting functional lineups together. Yeah, I mean that's fair. I just don't think like that should be the reason that they played hard, like they

were so disengaged to start this game. And it reminded me a lot of the Spurs game actually, because the nets just came down simple James Harden pick and roll right. There was nothing fast, there was nothing complicated. You knew this was coming to start the game, Like, there's no way you didn't know. The nets were going high ball, screen, screen and roll every time, and it was literally just no one tags, No one tags a roll man. It

was a layup or wide open corner three. And again I need to go back and watch the tabe and see if that's Lebron just deciding not to tag, if that's th Ht not knowing where to go. Those are stuff that I feel like they need to clean up, no matter what the lineup is. And that's identity. That's you know, your called your basketball culle ture. I've been saying like for a long time, and after this Stirs game, you were kind of more positive writing or saying, this

is a lot. You know, we're playing a lot of lineups that aren't real right, and I totally agree with that. I still think there's an identity to this team that's just not fitting with our circumstance. We're two games under five now, like there's no reason to come out tonight, super disengage, awful defense to start it right, and the stuff that just easy to fix. Our friend Darius Soriano said it was a clown show to start the game, and I agree with that. We were walking up and

down the court and the lineups are bad. Look, you can't start why th HT and Russ together and Russ is not going anywhere, So the other two are the one where you kind of have to fill out where to go with it. And th HT we'll see if he continues to start. He still looks absolutely lost in the offense. I thought it looked better when he was in for us. I think, uh, in that big run we went on, I think he was on the floor.

But we just can't start games this way. And it's kind of really unfortunate that we have two centers that are just kind of unplayable right now. Like I mean, Dwight Howard's better than DeAndre Jordan's, but he didn't look great tonight either against the Nets. I thought he played hard in his minutes, but he just was not functional

um to do anything defensively. So we had to go Lebron at the center and then obviously our favorite Carmelo at the five, And we went Carmelo at the five with four guards, which really just put the game away. In my opinion, they put the nets up twenty, but that starting lineman is is just so rough, and I

think we just go so rigid with our decisions. Like in the second half, we didn't start Dwight Howard, which is fine, like I totally agree with that assessment, but then we just decided not to plan the whole half, which again led to those off the line up. But that start, we need to clean that up. Jason, did you see this as well, because I put in my my notes here as well. Our body language picked up when Lebron went to the five, Like it's just everything

kind of picked up. It seemed like, and I don't know if that was just stubbing Malik Monk in for us at the six minute mark, but it seemed our whole energy kind of switched when that happened. And Malik Monk's probably too small to be start. Although his defense was fine tonight, uh Wayne Allington was kind of getting picked on. I didn't think he was the problem. Expecting him to guard James Harden isn't it. But it's just

stuff that we started these games so slow. It's a first quarter league to me as much as it is a fourth quarter League, we were down like double jiu JITs. We were down fifteen of like four minutes left. That stuff, to me, has nothing to do with a d being out, with the reasoning out, Kendrick now being out, Austin Reads being out, that's just We're gonna get to Stanley Johnson later. But a guy who just plays hard jumps off the damn page on this team. Like Stanley Johnson is a

good defender, he hasn't skills as a defender. I think, you know, defensive skills go underrated when we talk about basketball kind of uh in a total sense. But he just played his ass off and I jumped off the page. But these starting lineups are just are just so rough, and we're starting these games out so lethargic, so against what I think our identity of the team is. And we went all into Russ and I think these are interconnected. I think Russ not starting well also is a part

of this. But yeah, these line ups are rough, man, I don't know where we Hopefully we get some guys back, hopefully get a reason back. But I think just starting Kaylin and Dwight next to us makes Lebron's life a lot harder as well. Where do you think we go with this news? Because I think I think that's where we kind of fixed. Lebron's played super Wealth the last few games and he still lost. He's playing his ass off at least in the second half of these games,

and we're still losing. Where would you where would you kind of go with this? I guess going into the Rockets game next year? Well, you and you and I have been on this already, this idea that Lebron and Dwight should stagger the center. Tick a pick a center you're gonna play, which obviously should be Dwight, and stagger

him in Lebron. It's that simple, Like Lebron plays thirty five minutes a game, he's going to be the center, and then when uh, let Dwight check in for that to six minute shifts to seven minute shifts, whatever, and let him play his butt off allays out there and he will be effective. That that was it made absolutely no sense to go to that lineup with Carmelo Anthony

and the four guards. That's just that's just nonsensical. Like, as I always say, there are jobs that need to be done on the basketball court, and the jobs won't be completed unless you have guys that can fill those roles, Like, yes, Lebron, you want to know why Lebron works at center because he could do stuff that centers do. It's it's not

any more complicated than that. But this brings me back to the frustrating part of the of of like roster construction, right because you know, we just watched the Warriors play and the Warriors were down. You know, the Warriors were down five of their best wings, right, Like, they're down Andrew Wiggins, they're down Jordan's Pool, They're down Clay Thompson, They're down uh andre A Guadala, they were down a

Damian Lee. But it's like they still have all of these guys that can guard up and down several positions, Gary Payton Jr. And Raymond Green obviously in the starters, but then beyond it, it's like, yeah, Jonathan cominga, Jonathan Wantaskano,

Anderson and Otto Porter. They had like five additional wings they could play because foundationally, the Warriors organization understands that in the future of basketball, it's a lot of switching and in a lot of running up and down at higher pay So like having size and athleticism and guys that can guard multiple positions is directly what relates to your abilities succeed on the basketball court, which is something that I preached all year last year in the playoffs

in in respect to the l A Clippers, who lost their best player and came within two wins of an NBA uh N NBA Finals appearance, because they thoroughly embraced that concept, and meanwhile, the Lakers have just been kind of allergic to going after that kind of guy. I told you guys that I had heard through the grape vine that they had an opportunity to sign Ruddy Gay, but they were unwilling to pay him more than the

veteran minimum. So clearly they valued a guy like Kendrick Nunne for five and a half million more than they valued a guy like Rudy Gay for five and a half million. That's a that's a basketball philosophy that I just can't understand. You know, Stanley Johnson looked really good tonight for two reasons, and one of them is effort.

I've been talking about this with you on this podcast for a while, Like the the urgency of of lying and fighting for your spot in the n b A breeds effort naturally, and that's something that this team desperately needs because it's missing down the roster. So voila. Put a guy in there who's fighting for his NBA life, who has some size and athleticism. It's gonna reap some rewards.

But the second half of that is the fact that functional basketball lineups in the modern NBA require guys between six four and six eight that can move and that can guard multiple positions, run up and down the floor. They don't even have to be able to knock down a three necessarily, preferably you want them to be able to. But Stanley Johnson's spacing did not hurt the team tonight

because of how much other good he brought to the table. Now, the Lakers have two really good defensive forwards right now and help and safety protocols in Austin Reeves and Trevor Resa. So do they have as many forwards as I would hope for them to have the way Golden State does? Know. But in theory, again, if you're looking for some optimism here, this is where you hope to God that Jennie us

is not going to pinch pennies on Stanley Johnson. The obvious move here is to cut DeAndre Jordan or somebody like that at the end of the bench and make room for this guy. I know it's just one game, but it's a it is a structural problem with this roster. He fits a specific need and at the at the end of the day, even if you keep him on a non guaranteed deal, at least then you have the flexibility to have him until a better option comes up.

But Stanley Johnson is the type of the archetype of player that this team desperately needs in order to run functional basketball lineups. And then, like I tweeted out earlier, and this last thing I'll say about it, when you there's there's one thing that is one thousand percent under control, under your control in a basketball game, a bunch of things that are out of your control knocking down shots. That's that's the game, the game sort of thing. I mean, Heck,

we just watched against the Spurs the other night. We watched Mellow and Wayne Ellington go to for eleven from three. That's gonna happen sometimes. Those are two guys that have been shooting of lights out when they're open this year, and they didn't make shots. That that happens from time to time. Layups sometimes lamps don't go in. We literally watched the Lakers smoke like six layups tonight that rolled

in and out of the rim. That's unfortunate like that that that I can't you can't necessarily control that, but you can control your effort and attention to detail. That is one thousand percent under your control. And when you put in effort and attention to detail in combination with size and athleticism, it is a guaranteed impact on a

basketball game. And you saw that with Stanley Johnson tonight played his butt off, has great physical tools, automatic impact, And so that that's the kind of thing that the Lakers need to lean into more over the course of the next couple of weeks. More Austin Reeves, more, drev Reason, more Stanley Johnson. Those guys play hard. Those guys have great physical tools, as Series doesn't even have great physical tools, and it's still impacts the game because of how already tries.

So those that's the direction that the Lakers need to lean into more. Yeah, and I want to start like kind of macro here and then kind of go onto the basketball court I feel like there's like a market in efficiency, a little bit of like defensive minded players who can't score right or who aren't offensive options or even liabilities offensively, and I think we're kind of seeing

that around the league. GP two, right, is one guy watching that Warrior Sons game, just seeing him impact the game without really having a jump shot right at the guard positions can guard one through five. Alex CRUs obviously is kind of the face of that. Although he's gotten better offensively, and not to give Stanley Johnson because it's been one game, I think it's easier, easiest for us, and he played really well tonight, and I think he has defensive skills that kind of can translate what this

team needs. We have to see it a little bit more consistently. Right, Let's see if he can keep that up going forward. But again, just guys who are He's not going to be an offensive threat. And I don't even think he has to have a jumper Jason for

this for him to be successful on this team. We have enough scoring options on this team, and it was nice just to have a guy who's defensive minded, right, who's defensive for who's that's what he puts his money into right, that's what his heart had kind of goes to. It's onto defense and watching him in the isolation defense against James Harden, that got me excited and reminded me of the twenty nine team, and we continue to latch onto that because that was kind of our last positive.

I guess, look at this team after a d got hurt um in February last year. But just going back to that, defensive minded guys watching him mirror James Harden, right, James Harden trying to cross him over and him matching. Uh, you call it mirroring when you're guarding a guy defensively. Just watching him do that fight on the rebound, fight on the boards, man, and I thought he looked good. And you're right, six eight physical wing. We're hoping Johnny Brown could kind of be that, but I don't think

his body is ready or he's not NBA ready. Stanley Johnson has been around the league enough where he's kind of card his niche as a defensive player. Now, the offensive limitations are why he's on the team, But I think he is a good defensive player. I think he can fit right in. And again, it's not like Stanley Johnson's this great players just on this team. It stands the hell out when you have all these small guards that we're playing. We'll talk about Darren Collinson next. Who

he's actually listed at. Darren Collinson is listed at six ft. Isaiah Tomas step five nine, so it's not like you're getting so much more of a height advantage, and he had some rough foul snipe. But man, Stanley Johnson, I'm hoping he can kind of fit in. And it just works when you have a guy who's defensive minded. You could throw on James Harden where Lebron didn't have to be that guy th HD with him being young, you don't have to have him being the full guy defensively.

I thought it fit. I thought he was a big part. I didn't get to look at his plus minus night. I think it was pretty good. I thought he was a part of all the runs we went on. He just fits the archetype that this team needed. He's on a two way. I think he's gonna stay on the two way. I think Isaiah Thomas is probably done who didn't play tonight, but yeah, his archetype just fits hard working player and if he can if he can stick

him Reeves and Areza. And again, that's such a tough thing to throw on a guy who wasn't in the league a couple of weeks ago and an undrafted kid. But that's kind of where at we're at right now. We need guys who need to who need to play hard, to go along with our young guards. But that's where

I think it is. I think there's a marketing efficiency if we can kind of tap into that a little bit um and tap into a few defensive minded players around, you know, going small, because it feels like that's where we're gonna go to. We're gonna go to Lebron at the five a lot we went to Mellow at the five with guys who just can't defend. You need some leading, a little blend, a better blend of both, and I think Stanley Johnson can fit in that. He was in

the league a couple of weeks ago. But this team just is begging for an archetype like that, and hopefully he sticks man. Ye I mean, you know, the coaching staff is into under a tough predicament here. You know, It's it's really easy for us from our couch to say that we have better solutions, and I like to

think that we're right about some of the stuff. But at the end of the day, like they were tossed a uh like basically the residue of of a basketball roster and then forced to add a bunch of guys off the street into it and then try to win basketball games. But now again, a lot of other teams around the league are dealing with it similarly, but functionally they have to come up with a better strategy than

what they've been coming up with. So, like we said, Stagger Lebron and and Dwight, that Dwight, there's been a lot of slander directed towards Dwight as a light the dude was in COVID protocols and then came, you know, just straight off the street to try to play against san Antonio, excuse me, straight up more or less the same because he was locked in the hotel room for for ten days. So Dwight, after he gets back in the lineup consistently, he's going to get back to what

he is, which is a perfectly fine backup center. Dwight is a perfectly fine backup center. That's that is not a weak point on the roster for us, But when we start him, if we decided to start him and then do a poor job of staggering him in Lebron and now play Carmelo as center, Carmelo Anthony is a terrible backup center, So that's where functionally make mistakes there.

And then you know, that concept of going with four guards has to go away as we get our forwards back right now, you know, I get it, you know, like even though I personally wouldn't go with some of those pairings, like I, I I get under the circumstances why

it at least was tried. But moving forward, if you look at our roster build as now in the time without Anthony Davis, if you look at it as a simple breakdown of Lebron and Dwight our our centers, then the rest of those minutes we have to put as many of our wing players on the floor at any

given time, I mean those switchable, multiple position wings. So Austin reeves th h T. I know THD continues to struggle offensively, offensively, his fit makes absolutely no sense on this team that it is what it is at this point. But we can't trade until January. But he can guard up and down a position. He still is a very good defensive player. So him, Austin Reeves, Trevor Reasus, Stanley Johnson.

We have four completely functional, defensive, defensively versatile forwards. Those guys have to take all the minutes at the three and the four. Right now. There should never be a lineup once Reeves gets out of protocols, once a Reason gets out of protocols. There should never be a lineup while Anthony Davis is injured where we don't have two of those guys on the floor. That just ha, that's

how we can run functional basketball lineups. We have to get away from this three guard lineup, four guard lineup stuff. It just doesn't function without Anthony Davis. When Anthony Davis is back, maybe you can go back to trying some of that stuff. But even then I don't like it that. The point is is we we have something here. Um, we have enough when co when when the COVID protocol losses are behind us, we have enough here to be competitive with what we have even without Anthony Davis. We

just have to lean into those strengths. So it's gonna be really frustrating for me and for you as well. Rogers for all of us Laker fans is two weeks from now, everyone's out of COVID protocols. Were in a game against a good team and it's d White at center with four guards, or it's Lebron and center with

four guards. That is not leaning into your strengths. At that point, that is where we have to start having questions about the coaching staff in doing their job, because we're watching too many teams around the league succeed because they lean into those things. The Sun's lean heavily into Jay Crowder mcail bridges, Cam John's, the guys that are big and can guard multiple positions. The Warriors are like

almost entirely made up of that type of player. That has to be the direction we lean into and we we we actually is as long as they keep Stanley, which I'm hoping they will, we have enough. I prefer more depth, but we have enough there to to try to run some functional modern basketball here for a month without a D. Yeah, and you talked about the tough decisions that the coaching staff has, and it is kind of a push and pull right because you can't just

play all defensive lionps around them. That's the reason these small guard lineups play because we need to score as well when we're out there, right, and when Lebron's at the five, you're kind of leaning into your offense. You're trying to run and it's hard to do that. Off makes obviously, but that's the push and pull that the coaching staff is going to have to play. I think it's tough when we're playing all these different lineups as

well to try to be cohesive. Like like like tonight, our game plan was to trap James Harden, right, trap, trap James Harden at the top and then try to rotate out of that, and you have to be in somewhat in sync to do that, and we were lost all over the place. The effort kind of uh, the effort double down on that made that a lot tougher. But we were trying to trap, and even when James Harden was out of the game, I tweeted once we trapped Patty Mills at the top just because that's what

we were doing. So we just were trapping. James Harden went off the floor and we still decided to trap at the top. I think James Johnson drove and got to lay up off of it. Or got fouled. But yeah, there's stuff like that that would like to see cleaned up. But it's rough when you're throwing you guys in every single day, um, and you're trying to fit these defensive guys in now because you realize the roster you have isn't good enough, right Deandi Jordan's healthy, Roger and Rondo

is healthy. Those are guys you you know, put roster spots to who just can't play even though we have no wings or you know, guards that are able to play. We're signing guards off at ten days, we're signing you know what I mean. Like, it's just that means you have a roster kind of problem here, and maybe that's just solved by getting a d back, getting Reeves back, getting a reason bag. Um. That's the tough part about it,

throwing these guys into it. Stanley Johnson, I want to ask you about, you know, Darren Coulinson, because I think it's interesting he played a lot with Russ and Lebron tonight, which kind of confused me, and it worked a little bit. You saw Darren Coulinson able to push the ball right and have Russ and Lebron work as wings. So you have instead of Russ or Lebron running the break, you have Russ and Lebron as the wings on the break where Jarn Darren Coulinson is in the middle making decisions.

He had some bad fouls tonight. I thought some of them could have went the other way. You tweeted about one of them where the shooter kind of jumps into it. Don't have to get into that, but no, no, no, until you get that, those are rough calls. Man. You have to give a shoot never mind not good at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, some other time, but after the game against like Sacramento or something, you can get into the exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

But I thought Darren Collinson, now it's an interesting player because he kind of is building on stuff we already have. Right when you have milnk Monk already, when you you know, have Kendrick and I coming back, and then you throw Darren Collinson into it. You also have t Hd who wants to be a ball handler. He's a high basketball que guy. That was a very good player. You know, I think it's three seasons ago, but two years ago.

I think that's the correct math if I'm doing that right. Um, his last game was in, so I think I'm doing that math right. But what do you see from Darren Coulson tonight? Because I think it's interesting kind of why they signed him, right, and they went after him. They've been courting for a while, but you already had Isadiah Thomas, and obviously that that experiment looks like it's over. But what do you think of Darren Coulinson's Darren Coulson's played.

I loved Darren Collinson's game, and I've loved him ever since the Lakers were initially interested in him in the season when he was contemplating returning. The thing. The thing with Darren Colson because like what he brings to the table is is just grown up, veteran professional point guard basketball, like just as perhaps Lute dead eye spot up shooter when he was in his prime, and like when he's wide open, like he just was a reliable spot up shooter.

He can get your team into the sets, he doesn't make mistakes, he runs just grown up basketball offense, and then he can defend his position. Fine. Um. The problem with Isaiah Thomas is like I'd love for them to swap him out for Rondo just because I think he's

a better basketball option. But the truth of the matter is he just doesn't offer anything to this team when their whole the The only way you could talk me into that potentially be making a lot of sense, as if they you know, we had we had that Sham's clip when um, you know, shortly after the Anthony Davis's injury, when there was some stupid rumors going around that Lebron was eyeing going to Cleveland or some stupid crap like that, when which which I originally like, immediately was like, well,

that's not happening because we all just know Lebron's kids are all going to see your Kane and he he just Lebron just loves it in l a that was never was, never wherever gonna happen. He's he's way too happy where he is. I'd be shocked if he ever wants to play for anybody else. But that's it. In that report from Shams, he comes out and says they're extremely active in the trade market, and he explicitly brought up Jeremy Grant, which is somebody that you and I

have talked about a million times this year. If you think that you're like if Rob Polinka is in his in in his office going, we are for sure going to trade Kendrick Nunn and t HD for Jeremy Grant and you're dropping two guards and bringing back and forward. Then yeah, Darren Collison fits into that picture at that point,

at least as a good backup guard, depth option. It's just hard to imagine the Genie Bus shedding a guaranteed contract like Gray Jean Rondo uh In in his role to pay for a guy like Darren Collison and stick around the rest of the season. But I love his fit. He's also a guy to Darren's Stanley Johnson because he's young and so athletic. He can come off the street and have success in a role like what he had tonight. Darren Carlson was obviously going to look a little rough

around the edges. He's he's a small guard who hasn't played NBA basketball in almost three years, so that that obviously was gonna be a thing with him. My thing is like, it only makes sense to bring it back if you know you're going to trade a bunch of guards for uh for another forward and you think of

him as debt. I'm with you at that point, But Genie's gonna have some tough decisions to make here because I think you have to keep Stanley and you just can't do I think they have one roster spot left. But my guess is they're like the Genie's gonna have to make some tough decisions here about what she wants to spend, like how much does she feel like spending to try to keep this this train on the tracks,

you know. But I love Darren Carlson's game. Like I said, it's just if you're the only way it's gonna work out for him in l A Is if he stays here for more than ten days, because as a small guard who hasn't played NBA basketball basketball in a while, he's just not gonna he's not gonna just pick it up like he's riding a bike, you know, and mean, yeah, he's to me, he's Kendrick Nunn insurance, Like that's kind of what I see him as. And he gives another guy.

And just to go on your point about you know, Genie and keeping and I don't want to get into all that, but just how just how the rotations are kind of going right DeAndre Jordan's we had no centers available, DeAndre Dwight Howard couldn't play in the second half, DeAndre Jordan couldn't get off the bench. Like, to me, that's kind of if you can read through the lines there,

I'm kind of seeing where this is going. But Jarren Collinson again gives us a guy with the midrange kind of game, right, he can come off screens and pull up and to me, that's something we're missing. And they're obviously looking for some guards scoring, right, you don't go out and get Isaiah Thomas. And the issue with Isaiah Thomas is if he's not scoring, because he's a shoot first, second, and third guy, right, and you know that's what he should be. He's a five nine guard in the league.

You have to make your impact offensively. That's just what it is. He comes off any kind of screen, he's gonna shoot. He's not trying to play make you know, he's not really trying to drive and kick and all that. He's I'm getting to my spot and pulling up or I'm pulling up from three. Darren Collinson is a little bit more of you talked about it for general point guard, right, he is more of like he can he can create and That's why I'd kind of like to see him

in the second unit. I think him and Malik Monk is a kind of fun mix if you can have enough defense around him. Him and th Ht I think is interesting. Again, I wanted Darren Carlinson when the Lakers recording him the twenty nineteen. I think people forget he was about to get a big contract that summer. He's just a solid guard. You said, growing up basketball. I think that fits so well. He reminds me of like Wayne Ellington. It's not the same archetype. Ellington is a

straight shooter, but they're both growing up basketball players. Right. They're not high risk. They're very low risk, low reward kind of players, right. They just play the right way. Jarren Carlson, he's lost a step that's expected for me. Um and I want to give him some time as well, because they're obviously searching for guard depth. Fear you don't go out and get those two guys. But I think it's interesting. I think he's gonna play UM and I

think he can fit grown up basketball player. He's thirty four now, but I mean Carmel's thirty seven, you know, so it's not like he's the oldest in the bunch. But I like his game too. It's a grown up, adult game. It's nice to have a controlled ball hand it right. Rust For all the good he brings, he's very still a chaotic ball handler. He's a chaotic player. It's nice to have a guy you just give it

Dann Collison. Little ball screen at the top, make the simple read, the simple bounce pass, or the simple skip pass to the corner, or skips like simple plays, or the simple pull up jumper in the mid range if it's open. Just stuff that he can read. High basketby i Q player and I think, I think it'll be fine for for a guy until you know, Kendrick Nunn

can can come back whenever he does. Yeah with you, um I wanted to hit one last thing before we get out of your guys, and thank you all for hanging out with us on Christmas night like this, um, as is usually the case, I want to end on just a little positive note and the my one, you know, saving grace here. The thing I'm clinging to is the fact that Lebron continues to look like he's very firmly in the conversation for the best players in the world.

He continues to look absolutely incredible. That's three, right. I think it was immediately after the Patty Mills three that put them up five. Lebron comes down in knocks down a forty footer when the net spots of switch on the perimeter. Did you see that? That was just like, that's just like a that's like an f you, I'm the best player on the floor type of shot. And

it was. It was just unbelievable stuff from Lebron. And when you pair that with the fact that the Lakers do have some flexibility in the sense that like, as as bad as THHD looks, I do think that he is a trade asset around the league. And I when you look at it from the perspective of Lebron, is still Lebron. A d has this time to get healthy. You have wings, not as many as I'd like, but

you have wings. And this, the Stanley Johnson experiment, is a great example of the fact that even if Stanley doesn't stick around, maybe through the buyout market or something like that, or just in free agency through one of these other teams that signs a replacement player, maybe the Laker scouting department can find another somebody like that, there is there is enough good in the trash bag here

that that I think. I think there's still a scenario where this all could kind of come together and become a legitimate championship contender. It's like, you know, there's a there's a big difference between optimism about the future and the way I feel about the team right now. You know, because I get made fun of a lot by all of you guys for being so optimistic all the time. I know we sucked. You don't think I know we sucked.

I have I have eyes, but I literally I played I played basketball college, I coach kids now like all I do. I live and breathe this game every day of my life. And I know what I'm watching. I'm watching absolute trash basketball. I get it. But that said, there is still in this trash bag a concoction that could work and until like, like I said, I will give up the faith when Lebron and a d can't

finish playoff games because I'm still a believer. You can plug in a guy off the street like Stanley Johnson into a role and it were because Lebron is Lebron ng all over the Brooklyn nets, right that that to me is is always going to be a working formula. So I remain optimistic in the sense that this is an achievable thing, but a lot of stuff has to change. Just starts with getting everybody back out of COVID protocols. Then from their play functional lineups. Stop starting a big

man with Russ and Pht. It just can't do it. And then from there lean into your strengths, play more of your wings, and get continuity. With guys getting to play together every night, they will start to discover a formula that works for them. And then you just plug Anthony Davison. Because Anthony Davis is the easiest plug and play basketball player ever, because he can defend literally one through five. He can attack close outs, he can play on the perimeter, he can play from the post. He

is the easiest plug and play guy. So this is the perfect opportunity to build a working identity and just get it humming on all cylinders and then just plug Anthony Davis back in. Yeah, so I'm gonna kind of bring this to the previous game. I was watching so the Warriors Sons game, right, and again I said, we're playing nowhere near close to this kind of basketball that kind of top to your basketball. But I tweeted out,

I would like to see Lebron and Nadi healthy. You get a chance at those two teams, right, And people are like, are you crazy? Have you watched the team this year? But you know, playoff basketball is different. It

is very match up hunting. And at the end of that game, you know, Chris Paul and Devin Booker had a tough time getting shots up right, and we talked about shock creation and how important that is, and playoff basketball does come down to, you know, what your stars can do, what your stars can create when defenses are locked in. And I thought that Sons Worriors game where it was as close to a playoff game as I've

seen this year. Both teams were locked in, and I think that's still where the hope, I guess is for this team. It's easy to lose track now, I mean, but you know, the last playoff we've seen, leron Nadye were able to kind of take over, and again, we're so far from that. It's tough to even watch those games because the roster has you know, turned over so much. But you're right, that's where the positivity and that's where

the hope still is. You kind of have to, you know, screen your eyes now to see it, just because the situations that we've been in. Anthony Davis won't be here until February UM and Lebron, Yeah, Lebron looks incredible. I think it's disappointing. He's played his ass off for the last five games or four games or whatever it is. We've lost every single one of them, and I thought, you know, that that's rough for him to, you know, put effort into that and us losing that way. But yeah,

that's where the hope just comes in. Man if Lebron and a d can still be themselves, because that's what playoff basketball comes down to. It comes down to can your worst players switch on my best player? Right, Let's basically what playof basketball is. Can your lowest defenders switch onto my best player? And can you survive that? Can you trap out of that? Can you scheme out of that?

And when possessions slow down. That's why you know teams like the Utah Jazz that win a million games the regular season and they're a absolute jugger and I think they're serious title contender and all that. But it's why the playoffs is a different story. And if we can just get there somewhat healthy, going into some kind of rhythm, that's the little gleam of hope you can see. But right now we are nowhere close to that. We are

not we haven't built habits that are conductive to getting there. Um. But you know, there's still a path to being good. Like I agree with that. I just we aren't on that train, you know, yet, but there's still time to get on it. So hopefully we can. Hopefully it starts

with Houston on Tuesday, Tuesday or Monday is Tuesday, Tuesday? Okay, with Houston on Tuesday, which is great because the Lakers are going to get a chance to probably get a good day or two of practice in and practice that you can keep relatively short and easy on the bodies, but give guys a chance to learn the scheme. Good. Good time to get Stanley Johnson back into the mix.

Good time to get all these guys that were walked in their hotel rooms because of COVID tons and tons of shots up let's say Austin Reeves and uh camp Bays more clear protocols. In the next day. You can give them lots of time to get their feel for the game back. It's it's a good time to have that two day break. I'm gonna leave you guys with one quote from Lebron Um. He was asked how he tries to stay patient with this roster, and he said, quote,

I'm not a very patient person. But without her head coach, just getting guys back, still missing a few, I just try to stay even keeled. No one is going to feel sorry for us. And it's something that I've appreciated from lebron this year. He's been, you know, a little bit less dramatic and a little bit more you know, in the moment of trying to just do the best he can, and the effort that he's put forward in

this nasty stretch has been amazing. And all I would say is, you know, the Lakers just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It's like that quote from Camp Baseball, chopped with carry water. All you can do is work hard with what you got. Guys are going to continue to come back into the lineup. As they come back, they're gonna get their legs underneath them and get a rhythm. And then Anthony Davis is

on the way as well. And when that happens, if you put in the work now, it'll all come together and it'll all work. Um, guys, thank you so much for coming to hang out with this on Christmas evening like this. This is gonna m hm aeron Dash Radio on Monday morning at seven am Pacific Standard time. It will also be in its entirety on our podcast feed here in about thirty minutes. Thank you guys so much

for supporting Rog and I in the show. We appreciate it, and hopefully, if we're lucky, the Lakers will start to turn things around against Houston on Tuesday. Merry Christmas, everybody, Happy Hollidays. Thanks for coming.