Wolves/Lakers Postgame Spaces

the effort was. UM. Quick context here. The Lakers, you know, obviously, in addition to being down a bunch of bodies from injury, also had just had a couple of really, really tough games. Um. With Lebron out, it just takes so much more physically from this team to be able to win. And obviously with those two super competitive games with the overtimes, it's not entirely uncommon for a team to come out flat or to come out looking good but then to run

out of gas. Um. However, that was borderline a quick job there in the second half. I thought there was such a large chasm in effort between the two teams. Our guy, uh Cranes, who's my favorite, Uh you know

statistical analysts that that covers d NBA right now. He sent out a tweet a few games ago saying, like, it's amazing how quick people are to blame effort for the Lakers struggles, and that is true to a lot of to a large extent because of their personnel shortcomings, which we've talked about so much on the show, like, hey, it's really hard to run hottern NBA defensive coverages without forwards, Like that's it's not something you can play hard your

way through in a lot in a lot of ways. However, I thought tonight it was just an effort thing, Like tonight was one of those nights where the effort was the primary driving force behind the wheels coming off. UM. So, rog, what was it like there in the building? What was what was your initial takeaway from um from just just

how bad things went there in the second half. Yeah, So, like being at the game, being at being at Stable Center, you can kind of feel all of the energy the crowd trying to give the energy to the team, And in the first half I thought it was working pretty well. Honestly, Like I thought Russ was just having an okay floor game. I thought A d was incredible, and I'm over here in my seat like taking notes, you know, I'm like call eight, you know, nice help there, switched on, switched off,

and Carl Anthony Towns and still switched on Edwards. And then that third I went to go get a drink. I went back in my seat, and that third quarter it was just hell, like the whole and again like not just to blame it all on effort, but like you could definitely see the body language being up close of all the players. Once like those open three started to miss and then called Anthony Towns when kind of berserk with his shooting, and the defense really dropped off again.

Like it's not all effort. I don't think you can lose a third quarter forty to twelve and just blame it all in effort, because at some point you're getting your ass kick and there's something has to change there. But Minnesota just kept pushing in. We just couldn't get any stops. We got really lethargic. All those fighting over ball stream stopped um. All that trying to fight through and try to contain guards all stopped. Anthony Edwards got

wherever he wanted. It opened up shooters, Um Karl Anthony Towns, like I said, started hitting. He was going one on one and a d a lot, and I was fine with that. In the first half and the second half his jumper just started to go and you could tell it excited them. I'm not sure, like at least in person, just seeing Minnesota going on that run, it just felt like they just couldn't. They just could not stop them at all, no matter what happened. And then obviously effort

kind of went into that. We missed open shots. Carmelo was super cold, his first kind of ice cold Staples game, I guess. I know, just being in the building, you could tell the fans get kind of tired of it. There's a little bit of a booing there in the third quarter, especially when the league got really league got

really big. But that was the most initial take. My biggest take, I guess was being there and seeing all the guys who are injured on the bench, you know, seeing Lebron next to Thht, next to a reason, next to none, and then Austin Reeves behind them looking like assistant coach uh sitting on the back behind the players. That was kind of the thing that kind of popped out. How many players are out, But that's no excuse to

get you know, almost forty piece tonight by Minnesota. But that was the takeaways being there, I guess being in the building, Um, the fans were kind of tired of it. They were tired of the energy in that third and I thought you could really feel them. Uh the booze weren't loud enough. There were definitely people starting to boom

that third, you know, fans. I was actually talking about this with one of my friends on Twitter earlier today, this idea that you know, the most unlikable trade in all of sports is inconsistent effort, you know, like that's why, that's why we always get naturally drawn to guys like Austin Reeves or like Alex Caruso. It's you know, it's not because they're the the white guy that can jump a little bit. It's because they play really hard all the time. It's the most likable trade in all of sports.

It's no same reason why Gary Payton Jr. Is Is building such a cult following with Golden State fans. It's this this guy checks in the game and you can depend on him to just sell his soul on every play to try to make something happen for his team. And so I don't necessarily blame the fans for getting upset. Obviously, I don't like the idea of booing necessarily, uh, in

the middle of a random regular season game. But you know where I thought, where I thought things got off the rail got off the rails has to do with this concept of comfort in basketball. It's actually something that I'm trying to sell it to the high school kids

and I'm coaching right now. This this idea that if you from the opening tip in a game really really apply ball pressure, like intense ball pressure, then even the best of players in the world, even if they are capable of getting to their spots and making some shots here and there, they're gonna be largely uncomfortable during the game. And uh, there's a reason why Karl Anthony Towns gets going. It starts making a bunch of threes. And there's a

reason why D'angela Russell gets going and starts hitting. Every time they go, you know, under a pick and roll or get caught on the screen, it's because they get comfortable. And when you allow good basketball players to be comfortable, especially ones that are as talented as these guys are.

They're just going to get hot eventually. It's like guaranteed to happen, you know, when you when you pull a random Steph Curry game and you organize all the field goal percentages from the highest the lowest, chances are if you watch the tape, the ones where he's lower are going to be the ones where the teams do a better job of making him feel uncomfortable, and the ones where he's higher are going to be the ones where the teams didn't apply a lot of ball pressure, didn't

apply a lot of physical, you know, pressure off the ball that to make him feel uncomfortable as the game is progressing. And that's not just a Steph thing. That's with every star, And I thought that's what happens to night. And the reason why it got so out of hand is on the other end of the floor, the Wolves

did a fantastic job applying ball pressure. Even Anthony Davis's jump shots that he was taking were far more contested than the ones Karl Anthony Towns was taken, which is wild when you consider the gap between the two of them as shooters. They were up in up in russ you know, Pat Beverley was applying ball pressure as the ball was being brought up the floor. You know, on

every catch they were bumping you off balance. There were a bunch of players where Anthony Davis would start on the block and come off of like a pin down or something to try to catch at the elbow. And when you would catch at the elbow, you'd have to like extend to the ball and quick twist and get his hips around to shield the defender, because the defenders just right there, like right in his shorts, trying to

make him feel uncomfortable. And so you know, that sort of thing I thought manifested in that third quarter to the Lakers feeling deeply uncomfortable, which caused them to because they were lazy and out of you know, because their legs weren't there because they were fatigued from what's spent a long week. They then resorted to settling for jump shots. And that's that can't happen with that a D at the five lineup, But the d s at the five that needs to be a dribble drive attack type of offense.

And there just was no rim pressure there was none of that because they were uncomfortable and because they were fatigued. But I want to give Minnesota a lot of credit because they simply outplayed the Lakers, particularly at the point of attack anytime anybody had the ball, in terms of just the level of discomfort they were afflicting on their opponent. Yeah, Like in person, you can really tell Minnesota was super physical to start this game, especially at the point of attack.

We started Wayne Ellington, another non ball handler, Avery Bradley as well, right, not like a ball handler. Even Russ, they made it difficult for him. They were super physical early. I thought that's why we really couldn't score. It was a super low scoring first quarter, I believe. I think in the second quarter we picked it up a little bit. But yeah, they did a great job there. But I mean, like there's a difference between like what the other team

does and what you yourself can do to control it. Right, Like, It's just that third quarter to me was more on the Lakers and than what anything Minnesota was doing to me. But yeah, you're right. To start that game, they did a great job being physical. I thought a d gets pushed out of his spots a lot um and they did that again tonight. Towns was super physical down though. I thought he had a great first quarter though. He was running the floor, catching lobs um, you know, dominating

inside with the offensive rebounds. But like this offense where we're just doing these trible handoffs, like it looks super it looks even uglier in person, I just wish they went straight russ a D pick and roll. To ask you about rust because I thought tonight I looked at his you know, his box score at halftime wasn't great. It was like seven points I think three assists or

something like that. He got a lot of it in garbage time tonight, which doesn't really afflict reflect his uh his stats from from tonight, but just how did it look on TV? I guess because in person, I thought he was playing a pretty good, uh floor game, like he wasn't forcing things. I think he took his first three like with like six minutes left in the third, if I'm correct, I think it was only like one or two threes um, but they were all late in

the second half. I thought he was trying to find eighty, trying to force it into him. They had nice actions where they got Wayne Ellenking a bunch of looks. He wasn't mind positive for tonight. I guess we can save the positives for a little later. This is more of a negative kind of game. But what you kind of see from Russ because I feel like in that first half I thought he was doing okay um and then that third quarter he was a big part of the

just let's just stop caring anymore. After Minnesota I think went up nine, and basically the Lakers just they decided to pack it in as pretty much as a team, as a group effort, the whole team kind of packed it in. But what did you see from rest of night?

I thought Russ was fantastic. In the first half. He did an outstanding job of applying rim pressure and creating high qualitum shots, which is something that doesn't always show up on the box score, especially when you have multiple shooters on the floor and the defense will do a good job of rotating on the first pass, but fall apart on the second or third pass and you'll get

a good shot out of it. You know, This is something that I talked a lot about in the last pod, This idea that if you allow it Russ to play in space to start the game with a D at the five, he'll get a couple of easy baskets early in the game that will give him the confidence to

channel that throughout the rest of the game. And he really did for most of the first half, for really the entire first half, he was especially after that first stretch, after his first stint when he got in um in the second quarter, he was doing an outstanding job of just beating guys off the ribble and making that kickout pass to whether it was baysed More on the wing or whether it was Monk on the wing or whether it was Mellow on the wing, and then those guys

would make simple little close out reads out of that, and it all looked really good. But for whatever reason, in the third quarter, he just wasn't getting to the rim. And it's hard to say what caused that. I'd have to go back and look at the film. Obviously, you know our you know, a friend from La far Darius Oriano, believes it's associated with fatigue and the fact that they've had a long week and the fact that, um, you know, when you have an older team like this, they're just

more susceptible to that kind of thing. But I think it was a combination of both. Like you know, I think you'd like to, in theory see that type of fatigue manifest more in shots not following, because then at least you can trust the process, Right, Like, if we're running good stuff and we're driving and kicking and we got good motion and we're kicking to shooters and they're just missing shots, at least then you can say, hey, we we we had good process. The results just weren't there.

But that same drivel penetration that was there in the first half was not there in the second half. And that's the best way to get out of a slump or to get out of a bad run like that, right, you know, I always talk about how when you're when you're in adversity, you have to fall back on your habits, right when when the other team has it going and you don't, the only way to flip the script is

to fall back on good habits that you've established. So, for instance, like I said earlier, if Karl Anthony Towns has made a couple of threes in D'angela, Russell has made a couple of threes, or Anthony Edwards has made a couple of threes. All you can do, all you can hope to to turn that tide is to make

them feel uncomfortable. They might make a couple more if they're still hot, but if you continue to make them feel uncomfortable and you continue to play solid defense, they will start missing, because every player in the history of basketball will eventually start missing if you play solid defense on them. And then on the other end, same thing. Okay, if you miss the three, that's fine. Did you have

good process? Was it just swinging around on the perimeter and a guy just jacking the first time he had an into breathing room or was it a paint touch. Did you get the ball into the paint and they kick it out. The difference between those two is, if you're driving into the paint and kicking it out, chances are the shooter is already squared up to the rim.

Chances are the shooter doesn't have to do anything weird with his vision to find the rim because he's already looking at the rim, And chances are he's balanced and has his momentum moving towards the basket, and it's probably a higher quality shot. That process just got so jacked up in the second half, they let Minnesota stay comfortable, and on the other end, they were not generating the same quality shots that they were in the first half, and a couple that with the effort falling off, and

what you have is a forty twelve quarter. But to answer your question, Russ looked great, just like everyone looked great. Anthony Davis was better than Carl Anthony Downs in the first half, but in this but in the second half, Carl Anthony Towns was many, many, many levels better than Anthony Davis. And Russell Westperk completely fell apart and everybody fell apart, and that's out went. So I mean, take

take from that what you want. It's a highly unusual game in that respect, because there was some real good in that first half. I thought the Lakers on several different occasions had a chance to get it up to double digits and they just couldn't make a couple of plays here and there. But it's definitely a funky one in that respect. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to throw this whole game out as negative. Sometimes these third

quarters do happen. I don't like that it's kind of become a theme a little bit like they had a okay, see had a big run on us twice actually again tonight against Minnesota. But I was like in my notes, like the first play of the game where we scored our first field goal was you know, they had an a D. Russ pick and roll, and then since the pain was empty, Russ was able to get to the

basket get a layup and then another one. I think he had Dwight Howard on the floor with him as the only big He got to the rim and got a lay up, and he was he looked really comfortable attack in the rim and that way, and that's why we start eighty at the five to get him comfortable. But like, I don't know, I'm kind of in between this where like Russ has to play his game and also we kind of need his counting stats with Lebron out, you know what I mean. Like that's where I was

wrestling with during the game live. I looked up, I'm like, we're playing really well. We're up five, but Russ has like seven points, three assist And in my head, like I thought we were playing well at half time, but I was just thinking, like that's not sustainable for us right now with the talent we have like he needs to produce at a more at a higher level um

and that's kind of how the game went. He continued to kind of stay at that seventy point kind of it kind of stayed at that point level, and then Minnesota went on and went on their run. We had a super cold stretch and maybe you just throw that third quarter out to fatigue, But it just happens too often for me to just throw it out because they played an overtime game a couple of days ago. Like these offensive droughts happened way too often for me. And

maybe that's just a function of the offense. Maybe that's a function of Lebron not playing our guards out. But it is happening a little bit uh to often for me to just just throw this as effort. But you know, if the team's not caring, like it wasn't definitely a combination of like the lineup, the team not caring, and

Minnesota getting hot. It was like a perfect storm. That's not an excuse for them, it's just what I saw live, and I saw the body language completely dropped there in that in that third quarter, and some of the lineups in that second half, like the rondo Westbrook um A D and Dwight lineups were just head scratching to me, maybe vocal just experimenting, but yeah, Like it's tough to take from games like this, like if both of us like to go back and rewatch games and the third quarter, Like,

I just don't know what you do with that kind of that kind of film, you know what I mean? Like do you just throw that out? Do you only take the first half from here? Because they tried in the first half, you know what I mean. Like it's tough. Even when I'm there at the game, I'm like, oh, we're down twelve, but this game is over. Like I could just feel where the game was going. So that's kind of how this one went. I guess. Yeah, I

would throw out the film too. I mean, you know, what can you learn about strategy when there's not effort behind it to support it, you know you know what I mean? And you know you like to your point about Russ and his aggression. I can't fault the guy when I've been begging him all year to make basketball reads, like real basketball reads, like reading the teens, and the defense was collapsing when he would drive to the rim.

What I don't remember. And again, I'd have to go back and look at the film, but I don't remember a play or rush robe into the paint and passed on a driving lane, or passed on an opportunity to get all the way to the rim just to force it to some shooter on the wing. He was just making reads and that's that's all we that's all we

can ask him to do. But you did make a really interesting point about their effort, because, like you said, if this was a one off, if this was a team that had consistent effort and for whatever reason it just didn't materialize tonight, then you could fall back and say, hey, you know, this is just one of those nights. But as we've talked about, this team kind of has an identity, and not the good kind. This team has an identity

in that they are inconsistent with their effort. They have an identity in that they are inconsistent in their willingness to do the dirty work, in their willingness to physically put their imprint on the game. You know, like Anthony Davis, it's like, you know, uh, He'll go through these five ten minutes stretches where he's just absolutely manhandling everybody on the floor and there's nothing anybody can do with them.

But then he'll go through a five minute stretch where he's kind of just floating around, you know what I mean. So when that happens in a pivotal moment, are we going to sit there and say, you know, well, I think Davis just had a bad five minute stretch, or are you gonna sit there and say, like, this is kind of like what he does? You know what I mean? That's that That's that's what happens. What you know, the

best indicator of future performances past performance. So if I told you that over the course of the next ten games, the Lakers were going to have three games where they brought absolutely trash effort and they lost to a team they probably should have beat, would you be surprised or would that just be more of what this team has kind of established as who they are, you know what I mean? And that's the that's the concerning part to me.

And that's you know, again, like we've talked about this in a bunch of different ways or throughout the season, like is it related to coaching and buy in? I don't know. If you ask me gun to my head, Like, do these players seem to be committed to doing the job the way that they used to be under Frank in the previous two seasons. No, they absolutely are not.

But I don't know if that's a coaching thing, or if it's just a personnel thing, or if it's just a These are the we mixed up with some different different personalities in the locker room, and these personalities are less consistent with their focus and effort. I don't know. I genuinely don't know. Um. I can have a theory, you know. My theory is that this group isn't bought into Frank for whatever reason. But that's not founded on evidence. That's just a theory, you know what I mean. So

it's hard to say. But but you're I'm glad you pointed at that out rage because that's so important. Like this, this is not Lakers happened to drop a couple of games in a row around Christmas because they just kind of were in a little bit of a funk. No, this has been the story of the season for this team. You know. The differences is when you do it to Oklahoma City, you still have a chance to win at

the end and maybe you'll get lucky. But when you do it against a team that's half decent, against a team that has some all star level talent on the floor, they will blow your freaking doors off. Man and and and that's what happened. Yeah, in Minnesota's like they haven't played well the last few games, but they're a real team. Like they're a solid, you know, offensive lane, a team

that can really break you. And while I was watching the game, I'm like, man, and again, I want to give a D credit at least for the first half, because I thought it was absolutely absurd. Um. Again, he's surrounded by a lot of you know, below average guards. Um when watching Rondo Ellington Monk all out that together next to a D and he has to clean up

all of that. I don't know how fair that is, like for him, I guess to do that all game that that's really tiring, switching out helping here, you know, blocking here, Um, a lot of like blocks at the RAM while also switching out to Anthony Edwards. And we just play a lot of like defensive a lot of low out, low blow average defensive guards. And maybe that's

just what's gonna happen right now. Like I thought, Malik Monk and Wayne Ellington, we're fine defensively in that first half, but maybe just expecting that for a full game is just not realistic. Also, a Monk was super cold today. Uh, get a couple of shots go in, but I thought, you know, missed a lot of open ones our guards man in transition, Like if it's not Russ or Lebron leading the break, it's just an absolute adventure even in person.

Some of the passes when Avery Bradley, Malik, Monk, Baysmore trying to run transition, just a lot of wild stuff with our guards And maybe that's just a factor of getting our shot creators back against staring at th Ht and Lebron on the bench. The whole game was kind of sad watching us, you know, babble balls all out all over the floor. But yeah, like I don't know, like this team is not gonna be able to be a top you know five defensive team. I think they

were going in the right direction. They were playing well, and I was hoping that Miami game was something to kind of build off of, and I thought that's what that first half was. So if you want to throw out the second half and if you want to just build, and that's not how basketball works at all, obviously, But if you just pilled from that Miami game to like

the first half of tonight, there's something there. But you know this, the second halfs like, like you said, I've just been happening too often where we just lay down, Like I understand, we're out four or five guys. That makes sense. That doesn't give you the right to be forty piece five Minnesota, you know what I mean, Like they were way too comfortable and there's got to be

some kind of competitiveness there that kicks in. And maybe that's just a lack of that that's combined with the lack of defensive identity, you know what I mean, Like those two are kind of intertwined in a way. But yeah, I feel like this is where we're gonna keep seeing. Man, I think we play we play Chicago next. I think Okay, okay, yes, the Spurs and Spurs and the president of the team

a good team. They're not, you know, they're not a they might not make the playoffs, but they're just a solid team that comes with the baseline level of effort every game that you have to be ready for as well, so like I don't know, like maybe this is just what we're gonna get until the healthy guys comes back. Um, but you know, there's no real word on when that is. So that's why I'm kind of tired of just using

that as an excuse. And DeAndre jordan't even played tonight, like the skate Coat didn't even play to night either, so you can't even blame him for this. So this is a yeah, this is just a trash effor in the second half, and maybe that's all it is. Maybe we're over analyzing that, but I don't think that's acceptable with it. No, I I agree, I you know, I like I said, I have no problem with the fans booing when when you know they paid good money to

go see. Like I ad made a joke reminded me of the Squid game scene where where he is in that like subway station and the dudes like playing the game with him, and he's like, he's like, I'll let you play again if you let me hit you in the face as hard as I can, and like the dude just keep playing and the guy just keeps hitting him in the face, and like when you're watching the scene, it's kind of like a little uncomfortable, like you kind of are waiting for the main character to kind of

flip out and just start, you know, beating the ship out of the guy just because he's sick of the sick of losing and sick of getting hit. But it just doesn't happen, you know. And that's kind of the way this game was. Like as it's like, okay, you're you're up at halftime. Now you're downy. Now you're down four can Now you're down seven, okay, Now you're down twelve. Okay,

now you're down twenty. Okay, now you're down thirty. Like okay, at what point, at what point is someone going to like get in the huddle and start screaming at people? And like at what point is Russ just gonna get an offensive foul by just barreling into the rim? Or at what point is Anthony Davis gonna like throw someone to the side to try to get an offensive rebound or do something just to show some fight And that fight just wasn't there tonight for whatever reason, you know.

And like again like as we're as we are talking about these little miniature checkpoints throughout the season that kind of reveal the mental makeup of the team. Uh, you know, I'm not necessarily sure that this is a bad thing, but it's certainly not a good thing. Certainly doesn't make me feel more confident about what this team is made of. Certainly doesn't make me feel like, you know, you know

that team. And again, we can't always compare them to that because it's not fair because it's a different group of guys. But like, there was a certain like a certain amount of fight that that team had that that made them so much fun to watch because if they ever were down ten in a game, you always felt like they were still in it. They we were down fifteen in a game, you always felt like they were still in it because they just always had these runs in them where they would kick in the gear and

fight and fight and fight. Like I'll give you perfect example. They went into Milwaukee that year and remember Janice shot their eyes out and Middleton shot their eyes out in the first quarter and they were down like and you were like, this team is going to pack it in, but they just didn't. They just battled the entire game and I think they only lotted by like nine. Anthony Davis like even though Janice was on fire. Anthony Davis

just kept going right at him every possession. I think Anthony Davis finished with more than thirty in that game, had a couple of plays where he took, be honest right to the rim or defended him. Well, like it was, it was just there. There was a certain fight, And you know, I'm not saying this team is absolutely capable of getting that back. It's just for whatever reason, it's not there right now. And I don't really know what to make of that. As far as the advanced metrics go,

you talked about are they gonna be a top five defense? Well, first of all, we're nearing what we've already played twelve games. We're entering into an area here where there's enough sample size that it's gonna be really difficult for this team to touch some of the elite teams in the league in terms of their season long metrics. This is gonna be one of those deals where we're gonna have to

specially measure their metrics when they actually have their guys available. Um, you know what I mean, Because like they could get everybody back and go on like a thirty game run where they have all their guys and be a top

five defense. But it'll manifest as you know, ninth or tenth on the season, you know, rankings, just because and how much bad data they put in, Like getting your ass beat at home by Minnesota by twenty, that's going to throw off a bunch of data, you know, throw off a bunch of data points for this season, you know. So this is one of those things where we're gonna

have to be really careful as the season progressed. Is when we're trying to project how good this team can be, We're gonna have to be really careful to kind of like find out what's throwaway data and what's not you know, because a significant chunk of the season, Carmelo Anthony has been their only power forward. So like what do you what do you make of that? You know what I mean? Like, that's just that's just tough. So, I mean, it is what it is. But did you have any more thoughts

on this game? I thought we could take a minute to chat about some of those topics we had talked about earlier this week. Yeah, just the last thing I guess um I wrote down here. Do you remember that, like flagrant foul Carmelo had at the end of the end of the first quarter. Do you remember that at at I think someone was shooting from like the behind the find behind half yes, es, yes, behind half court. I thought that, I know, like that was early, but

I really thought that turned the game. Like just looking at body language, Minnesota kind of felt like they were so we were up nine. I believe it was like s to seventeen, and Minnesota was kind of like feeling like, okay, we could kind of get ran out of the building. That was just my read on like how they were playing and all that they like the Lakers were, you

know and super boosted up energy. And then that play where Powal happened and it only cost us two points, but I like rowing my notes like this could kind of change the game here, and it did. The Minnesota came out of the second quarter, they cut that they went on I believe us so they had the two points from the free throws and they went on another like six oh run, I think to make it like and I think they even took Yeah, they took the lead,

and I thought that really just killed the momentum. And again I'm not blaming Mello for a loss, but I just think like that was an interesting kind of turning point, but I think that's enough. In the last thing on this game, I thought Wayne Ellington had a good first half. Again, like I thought he played well. I thought he kind of busted up the zone. Minnesota went to his own one possession and uh in that I think in the

first half, and Wayne Allington had three. That was my only real positive from tonight was the Wayne Allington looks like he's a legit shooter in Staples, which is which is nice to see. But yeah, that that's pretty much it from this game. Again. Yeah, that was That was

a huge momentum killer, that one. And then the weird Rondo play where he just like him and a d decided in the middle of a game to have a conversation while walking the ball up accord and got it and got an eight seconds Oh the app eight second. I couldn't believe that. I don't even think that ended up hurting them necessarily on the scoreboard except for the

loss of a possession. But it was just like a weird like it was a weird like, Oh, we have the lead now and and they're just gonna They're just gonna let us run away with the game type of deal, you know what I mean. Um, anyway, let's let's talk. Let's talk about this Alex Cruizer. Think for a second, because this is super fascinating. Man. You know, there was a there was a debate that took place on Brian

Win or SPoD Um today. I think it might have been today, might have been a different day, but they were talking about they both kind of picked a side. You know, Bontemps was strangely on the same side that I'm on for once because that guy, that guy literally drives me insane. But uh, basically I'm blanking at his name. All of a sudden, David Bennaman, David Vanneman took took the organization's position, and the way he pitched it basically

was like we had a number. The number in mind was you know, two for fifteen or whatever, seven million a year, and they weren't willing to go about that number. Because of this larger vision of what they had and the way that the way that they looked at it, you know, they were able to, like as in terms of just a simple cost value proposition, they were able to replace a certain percentage of what Alex brought to

the table for by saving this amount of money. And Bontam's you know, pointed out one fact that I thought made a lot of sense that was super fascinating. You know, the level exception doesn't make you immune to luxury attacks. If you the mid level exception gives you the ability to go over the salary cap to sign players that are not currently on your roster. However, you're still on the hook for any tax associated with that salary. And basically what Bontam said was like, who's a better player,

Alex Caruso or Kendrick Nunn? And I think we would all agree that. I think we would all agree that Alex Cruso is clearly a better player. And you know, for the difference between the eight or nine million or nine or ten million or whatever that Chicago paid him and the six million that they paid Kendrick Nunn, why not just pay whatever that gap is and keep Alex Crusoe instead. He's just a better player. He's if it's

a more important need for your roster. You're under the impression that you're gonna get Molik Monk, You're under the impression that you're gonna get Russell Westbrook, and you have Lebron James and so there's just no need necessarily for what that position brings. So why were you pinching pennies on Alex Crusoe but willing to spend on Kendrick Dunn. And you know what, I don't know, I can't I can't answer that question for you. That that that is

a tough one to answer. And at the end of the day, this is the same argument that I used when when Kyle Lowry was on the table last year. People greatly, greatly, greatly underestimate just how close the NBA Championship is to swinging a different direction almost every season. You know, we talked about Kevin Durant having a foot on the line. That was the difference between Brooklyn beating Milwaukee, right, we talked about, you know, honest knee be honests knee.

If that buckles instead of uh, you know, only partially buckling, he misses the finals and the Sons win the title. You know, even in the NBA Finals, the in game four of that series, game five of that series, but it was Game four, Game four, Sons are up to one then one point lead late in the game, and you know, a couple of a couple of big shots, a couple of key defensive stops, and all of a sudden, you're you're tied series tied to two instead of three one.

Or Toronto when they're about to fall down three oh to the Bucks in two thousand nineteen and they steal a crazy game in Game three and it ends up turning the series. It's one of those things where you have to you have to understand that these margins are extremely tight. The difference between winning and losing is so small in so many cases, and so it's so so dumb to pinch pennies when it could be the difference

between you winning and losing. Alex Cruiser may not seem like that good of a player relative to all of the talent on the roster, but he could very well be the difference between winning in the first or winning the title and losing in the second round to a really really good Phoenix Suns team or really really good Golden State Warriors team. That's how close these margins are, and so that's why I had a problem with that

philosophy from ownership. Yeah, I mean, this is a bad night to talk about Alex Crusa, you know, I mean, probably the worst night to talk about Alex Cruso. Look, man, Like I know people say get over it, but I mean there was new information that was brought out. He went to the Bulls, got a contract, went back to the Lakers, and look, I'm not here to tell anyone's money, you know what I mean. I don't know how much

the luxury tax would have cost. I'm not really into I'm not good at the salary having all that stuff. But I just think, like title windows is not where you It's not where you try to save, you know what I mean, Like we are in a full on title window and you try to say like trying to save money in that time, like just really doesn't make sense to me. And you said that Alex Cruso might not look like a great player, but he was to us, like in house he started Game six of the finals

like this, obviously they know what his talent is. And I have a hard time believe believing Lebron James and A d don't see it. And maybe you know it was kind of a separation between you know, front office and players. I really don't know. I don't know what happened there, but there was death, only a mistake like Alex Cruising to me is one of the best guard defenders in the league, and he's been one for a long time, and he was in all of our closing

lineups on our title teams. Like that, There's no they there was no secret for who he was. And my biggest issue with this, I guess if you're gonna let me just go out here like the like look crediting, like like we always talked about crediting and organization for a player's success is kind of an unfair way to look at it, right, Like that's not really the way

like people always do that. They're like, oh, Julius Royn, he went to the Knicks and now he's a superstar created the Knicks, like juwis Ryno put in a ship ton of work to get to where he is. I was cruised up putting a ship ton of work to become the guard defender. He is putting a ship ton of film film. Where putting ship ton of you know all, being in the gym to make himself a really good

offensive player to go on to the defense. The Lakers did like the hard work though, you know, like they found him in the G League, developed him a couple of years. He becomes a starter, he becomes really good, He becomes one of the most connective players with your superstars ad Lebron and Caruso. Plus minuses are through the freaking roof, like like they still are. You can go back and look at those numbers. Um, those numbers are

through the through the roof. So you've got him, You developed him, you you create you not create him, but like you found a gem there and he came to you, and he even came and said, look, I'll take a discount, and the Lakers still said no. And that's just something we have to accept. But that's kind of my issue here is, like you they did so much of the

hard work. Lakers scouting department has hit on so many players, but Crusoe heards more because it's like, not only one, but he won at the highest level and you prove he can play at the highest levels, you know what I mean next to the next to your core that you're building around. You can still go trade for us Westbrook do all that stuff, but you know your core kind of players, Like as a fan, which you root

for because we are still fans here. Um, what you root for you want to root for players that kind of started on your team, right, that's just kind of how it goes. And Crusoe started from the bottom for lack of a better term, and kind of raised himself up to become a starter on a damn championship team. And you know, he took a little less money the first year, but like now, is this time to pay to get to paid? I don't know. It's a bad night to talk about this, I guess, but that's my

biggest easy here. They did the hard work. You find him the ge League, develop him, you get him to the point where he's not only a good player, he's a freaking winning player that impacts winning at a super high level. And he just walks out the door for nothing, like you just walked out the door. You replaced him with some really good players like Kendrick Now was a good player. We have to see him play. Um th HD was the guy they said was the one on one,

one for one replacement. I don't think that was necessary really, but that's what people say happened. We still need to see th HD. Maybe he makes his leap, but the cruisal thing definitely is frustrating. So yeah, sorry if that's rambling. For no, you're fine, man, It's it's like you're it's

the it's the reality of the situation, you know. And and when when the team you know, I think Genie and all these people were banking on the Lakers attacking the season early on with their week schedule and them sitting at ten into you know, uh, nine and three something like that right now, where they would just be able to point to all the critics and get like, look, you're like, Alex is doing great in Chicago. That's fine, but we're doing great too. But that's not what happened.

You're sitting at seven and six and you've lost the Oklahoma City Thunder twice. You just got absolutely destroyed at home by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and you look like a team that has no identity, particularly on the defensive end of the floor and particularly with your effort. So how do you not expect the fan base to look at what's happening in Chicago where, yeah, it's not all Alex crew, So it's a lot of talent. Lonzo Ball is partially

to blame for the turnaround there. Uh, you know, JAMARDA. Rosen is partially to credit for it. But we see Alex Cruso in Chicago on a team that suddenly has a defensive identity, that suddenly has this liveliness to them that was missing in previous seasons. And we remember that same effect from Alex when he was here. And so we're looking at a seven and six team that looks

like it could desperately use itself some Alex crew. So and so that's that That's where Jeanie screwed up here, is she miscalculated the fact that you know, if you when you are cheap, when you hoard your money in this regard, and the team doesn't perform with the expectations that they had, then you open yourself up to criticism. And that's what happened here. And I'm glad you pointed out all that stuff about just how good Alex is, because there's a reason why he started Game six of

the two NBA finals. It's because when you really factor in what needs to be done to win basketball games

at the highest level, Alex checks all the boxes. You know, if you're going to complain about one thing, it's the fact that he's not a super great spot up shooter, but he does everything else so incredibly well that every time on the floor that scale tips in his favor and in the favor of the team he's playing for, which is why he's a plus minus hero, which is why the best line up, the best two man lineup for the Lakers of the last two seasons, was Lebron

and Alex Cruzo. It's it is a he was a absolutely amazing fit here, and then when you factor in what you just talked about having to do with the fact that he's home grown, the fact that he represents a win for our front office and our scouting department, it's even more disappointing because it's like it'd be like if you were a really fancy teaching hospital and you picked up this awesome graduate from Harvard who was the top of their class, and you trained them their residency,

and then you got cheap on them when they were when it came time for them to apply for a job, and you lost them to another hospital. It's like, Okay, then why did you invest all this time and energy in training them? Why did you invest all of this into helping Alex Crusoe get to where they are? And to your point to Alex deserves a lot of credit. It is not a you know, there are even the greatest organizations in basketball struggle sometimes to convert supreme talents

into productive basketball players. I mean, look at the raptors of Stanley Johnson for instance. So obviously Alex deserves a

lot of credit for this as well. But there there's a good amount of this that reflects a front office that that was cheap and now they're losing, and it looks like the reason why they're losing is they're lacking in certain uh you know, intangible characteristics on the team, and Alex addresses does Also, the team doesn't have anybody over six five that's really strong and physical and can defend their position outside of Anthony Davis. So uh, where

would Alex Cruiser fit in there? Alex Cruso would be a better power forward, you know, than than many of the guys that they're having to are not power forward but on the wing, than many of the guys that they're forced to play right now. And so so it is frustrating, but it is what it is. I mean,

we all got to move on. But to your point, there was new information that came out and that yeah, that's that's the whole reason they discussed exactly and and you know, don't don't don't post bail for for for rich people. That's just stupid, like especially in a situation like this. But the reality of the situation is as Genie Bus and the Bus family are doing just fine.

I've sure, I've done some research through just picking the brains of some people that I know who know more than me, and there is there is a contingency set up for this team when they have to pay huge luxury tax bills. There's a way for them to come up with the cash. There's a way for them to disperse that. There's a way for them to be able to afford it and to make up forward in years

where they don't pay the tax. Don't let anybody tell you that they're physically incapable of of making that payment, because they absolutely are. They could pay a hundred billion more than they're paying right now. They couldn't do a year in and year out, of course, but they there are contingencies set up to allow this ownership group to be able to shell out the cash to keep players entitle windows like this, and they simply chose not to, and so that that that, in my opinion, leaves them

open to criticism. Yeah, and I'm not there to like call you know, Genie Chap, but I'm like I'm not there at that point, you know what i mean, Like I just can't get there. I just feel like it was a misplaced you know, thought that they could just replace what Alex does. And I can't really just blame

Genie on that. She's not the president of basketball operations like Rob Blinkuez, Like they made the decision to go into this new team and look, the roster has flipped for the last two years, um, and this may just have been another consequence of that. Like I'm not there yet.

I just think it was I think it was the wrong decision, But I'm not there to like call the whole organization and cheap, Like I don't think you go trade for Russell Westbrook and and and cut corners on the side, Like I think that those two, Like I can separate Alice Crusoe not on this team and like why we should have signed him? And also this team is just bad right now, Like I separate those two things, Like I'm not like drawing Crusoe on this team, you know what I mean, Like, I feel like that is

just a wrong decision. As a whole, like would he help this team? Yeah, But I feel like those are two separate kind of issues. They're like, I feel like he should just came back anyway, whether or not you thought he fit the identity of this team, but they

obviously didn't. And I'm choosing to believe the head over the fact that they just didn't want to pay out Screws at all, because it felt very clear that he was just not in their plans, which because of the offer that was given at least that's what Carusoe kind of said on on the on the JJ Reddick podcast. The offer was so low that it was completely negligible for him. Um, so obviously I think he just was not in their plans and that's just something we have

to accept. It is what it is. And and to your point, had some things gone differently to start the season, then I don't think people would be complaining. But they didn't, and so this is the shoes that they're in, you know what I mean, That's just the reality of the situation. No different than the Frank thing. Frank is not on the hot seat if they because the team would be competing and winning. But there's talk surrounding his job security simply because the team is not performing, you know, to

their preseason expectations. So we gotta we gotta ten more minutes here. And I wanted to touch on one other kind of league wide topic with you, just because we haven't had a chance to on the pod UH in the last few weeks. So there has been There was kind of like two extremes in this regard, so the UM.

Last year, we just had this outrageous offensive season. UM. To give you an idea, for the most part, throughout NBA history, offensive ratings have hovered somewhere between hundred and five points per one hundre possessions and a hundred and ten per hunter possessions, depending on the UH, you know, depending on the year, depending on how physical the rests

allowed the game to be. And then last year got crazy, got up to like a hundred and twelve, and so then you had all these people, these like you know, older NBA fans that were obsessed with their era and everything that about their era, who were like this is bs, this is the steroid era of of of the NBA, blah blah blah blah. And then they make these rule

changes and offensive ratings plummet. I think I think we're hovering right around like one oh seven, one oh a right now and a bun two guys who used to be efficient scores are suddenly struggling to score. And so now you're seeing all the same guys come out and say like, ah, this is the most skilled era in

NBA history. Look at them now they can't score, you know, And it's kind of like turned into this whole thing which almost all the discussion around this kind of thing is intellectual dishonesty, and it's and it's kind of frustrating.

But I guess we can start with you Rush. So my question for you is this, do you agree with me that the that there that, regardless of what is happening with the rules and regardless of what is happening with the stats, that the league right now is more skilled than it ever has been in the history of the league. Oh yeah, absolutely, I think that was pretty clear.

I mean you can just look at every team you go one by one, there's stars, and every team that don't even get the attention, I think that they should. Like you can even go on Sacramento. I think Jaren Fox is just an insane guard, and he just he's probably on the lower end of like star star young guards with like John Moran and with Daunches and all

those players. Like. I think players are even coming into the league even more skilled than they ever have Like they're ready to play right away, Like John Rand rookie year, it was probably like a star already walking into the league. Like a lot of these players coming in are way more ready to contribute than I think they've ever have been. The game moves forward right. I think every player now learns from learns from everyone from the past, and I

think that's why players now are definitely more skilled. And look, the game is definitely more offensive driven, and I can and I feel like the league definitely wants to tilt that back a little bit with the new rules and with all the you know, nonfoul calls. But most definitely I think the league is actually in great hands. I think the product is in great hands. The game looks even better this year with all the new rules. Definitely think players are more skilled today. I didn't actually didn't

like think that was too much of a debate. I know some old heads do definitely think that the game was I guess more tougher back then, But I don't think you can argue now. I mean, look at the just even look at the three point percentages. Look at the shots that players are taking now at just a ridiculous difficulty um shots that are accepted now as like just that back then, weren't you know these like sidestep, dribble, fade away threes are now like just normal practice for

a lot of players in the league. Uh, not just step, but like just regular players take those shots regularly that you just didn't see before. So I guess that's my take on it. I think the league is definitely more skilled if the game is better now. I think that's a conversation that you know, two people can have. But

I definitely think players are more skills. So I think the driving force between the animosity on this topic has to do with the fact that the people associate Like if I say Kyrie Irving is the most skilled, you know, offensive player that I've seen, you know you're going to have people that will be deeply offended that you're not factoring in somebody from an altar from a different era. That's that to me is foolishness, because every player has to be you know, graded on the curve. That has

to do with what their circumstances were. So for instance, like you know, even with longevity, it's hard to wait the longevity of current players against the longevity of players in the eighties when they just didn't have the same level of sports medicine. If you had an A C. L tear in the seventies, that surgeon doesn't have the capability of rebuilding your knee the same way that they do today today. An A C. L tear is nothing

but a year and a half off. When you come back, you are absolutely every bit as explosive as you were when you left. I mean, hell, we just saw Kevin Durant like the world on fire to start the season after tearing his achilles, and that used to be a death sentence even just five six years ago with Kobe, you know what I mean. And so so much of this is like we have two grade people on the curve of where they're at. When I say that people are more skilled now than they've ever been, that's not

a shot at former players. That's just, to me, the natural progression of the way this industry works. Myself. Realtor Jason from Tucson, Arizona has moves offensive moves in my game as a basketball player that did not exist on

the court ten years ago. Things like you're talking about side step three, step back three is one, like fade aways, things along those lines that just that literally came from players ten years ago experimenting and identifying a new way to gain an advantage and using that to improve their game,

and then people copying them. No different than Kevin Durant copying Dirk or even Lebron over the course of the last stretch of his career is you know, added things to his game that have unlicked, like like his turnaround, fade away, things that things that he didn't used to take, things that you never would see. Um, you know, a player that big take the way that he takes him you see, you'd see super athletic shooting guards take that

kind of shot. But like every everyone is kind of slowly in but but surely just constructing their game based on the whatever is available, whatever intel is available, whatever is available to them at the time. You know, like that Steph Curry in two thousand fifteen and two thousand sixteen was a lesser player than he is today. In my opinion, but he was so far ahead of the curve relative to his surroundings with his shooting that it

literally broke the game. The defensive coverages weren't even set up to be able to handle him. And so that that's the way I look at it, is like if you you can only be judged relative to what your time was, you know, like and and from that regard me saying that the league is more skilled now is just an indicator of natural progression and it's not a shot at former players. And it goes both ways in

terms of the offensive ratings. And this is what I always tell people, Like in theory, if hand checking got you know, outlawed, and you were never allowed to contest at three point shot without committing a foul, and you were allowed to touch guys off ball, and everybody and their brother was just free to do whatever the hell they wanted on offense, and defenses were completely handcuffed, and

guys were as skilled as they are today. In theory, teams would average a hundred seventy points a gain, right because because they were averaging in the hundreds previous to this, but before all these changes. So you have to also factor in that defense has improved over the course of time, not just in versatility and athleticism, because we went from having two lumbering bigs on the floor at every time too.

Now the vast majority of centers in the league are a leaner and less like muscular, but more athletic, and they're more like rim running bigs that stretched the floor, that are more mobile and capable of covering space on the perimeter. And we've ditched the Paul Millsap types of the world for the you know, the freak athlete type of power forward you know, uh athlete long can switch onto guards, that type of thing. Just in general, the defenses have transformed to be able to counter all of

the things that offenses due today. And that's that to me is super fascinating. Like you, we we talked about it all the time, you and me. Just a little little details of defense that Frank Vogel has used over the last couple of years to try to slow teams down, like the sophistication and the rotations pre switching to try

to stop from attacking Trey Young. You'll see teams pre switch the switch before the switch that stops Trey Young from being attacked or you know, all these all these little wrinkles that these teams like, everybody's constantly trying to gain an advantage, and that's just the way the industry works, you know. And in terms of you know, Larry Bird to me is like the guy who invented the computer, and the guy who invented the computer is immortal. He

changed the industry. But computers are a lot better now, you know what I mean. That doesn't That's not an insult to Larry Bird. That's not an insult to the guy who invented the computer. It's like, if anything, we depend on him because none of this would have happened

without him. And maybe that's a bad comparison, and maybe maybe that's the wrong way to put this, but the way I look at it is like it is, I would I would hope that twenty years from now, the game has advanced even so far that people look back at Lebron and go like, hold on, like that that that guy was the best player in the league. Are

you serious? Like what about this dude? Who's Kevin Durant mixed with John maraat kicks with mixed with Lebron James mixed with Luca like, God, God knows what the best players in the league is gonna look like in twenty years. It's probably gonna be absurd, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And people always developing. And that's what I meant by people are coming into the league even more

developed than ever. I think players practiced definitely now. You know, nowadays people are training from like nine nine years old and super professional training program ms. You know, I don't think that existed before. I look at Luca has been hooping since like fifteen, but he knew he was gonna be a professional, so like his training was different. He walks into the league basically a superstar already. Like you

just look at these players. You have all these six ten guys who now can dribble, you know, step back threes and the stuff that just didn't exist back then. So I agree with you, the game always moves forward. We'll see what comes next. I think like guys like kde Lebron are kind of one on one, one of one, kind of in that way where you know, they kind of changed the game. Katie, I think is the best

score ever. To me, Lebron is probably one of the best players ever in terms of playmate, mixing playmaking with just being with a control of defense, manipulated defense, and people get better as they come in the league. And I think that's just I just that's how I see the game. It moves forward every year. I feel like players are better at a younger age. Now, their primes last a lot longer. You don't have to wait till the players like four for them to have m v

P type of impact. We're getting that at like one with a lot of players. It's insane. The league is moving at a insane town level. And the amount of teams is still like there's only thirty teams, which means the talent pool is still only like four fifty guys. And the talent pool is just growing more and more to where only sixty guys get drafted, and then you know, you have a bunch of undrafted guys that come to league. But the talent pool just keeps growing, and I think

that's a great thing for the game. Yeah. I mean, like Nicola Yoka just starting to look like a bona fide top tier superstar. And my guess is that when Lebron comes back from his abdominant injury, he's gonna look like a bona fide top tier superstar, because that's what

he looked like against Cleveland and against Houston. So the truth of the matter is like we've got Yogis, Lebron, Kevin Durant, Joannice, Steph Curry, and we have Kauai you know, who will eventually come back and we know when he's capable, Like, but when if we ever had this many like top tier you know, like ultra super duper duper stars, you

know what I mean. And it's just it's it's it's to me, it's just I think it's as an NBA fan, it's weird to be so resistant to the growth of the game, you know what I mean, Like it makes way more sense to me to complain about something to have to having to do with the flow of the game, like officiating and reviews, and you know, the commentators being so negative and being so preachy, like those kinds of things that that those are the things that disrupt the

game that we love. Those are the things that deserve to be called out and criticized for so many reasons. But doing it like attacking the players themselves for their little personal touch that they're putting on the game, like listening to Charles Barkley, This is where I could brought this up. I should have clarified from the beginning. This

has to do with Charles Barkley's podcast appearance. Um, you know, with THATI Gonzalez and with Kevin Durant on the etc. S. You know, there was a lot of good in the podcast, to be clear, So I'm not trying to undercut that. And char Charles I genuinely like him and a lot of the things that he has to say. However, in this case, the way his general disdain for the way guys play basketball now is kind of infuriating to me.

And you know, they're there. I was happy Kevin during kind of called him out on on one thing, like, you know, because at one point Barkley is like, you know, like, well why do you guys keep shooting them threes? You know, and like and Kevin Durant's like, you know, sometimes that's what the defense has given you. Like if I drive to the basket and they take away the paint for me and I kick it out to a really good shooter, I don't care if we've missed six in a row.

If it's a good shot, that's what we take. That's how we play basketball today. That's our personal touch that we've put on the game. It's a driving kick game because the floor is more space. It's not the same as it was in your era. And that's okay. And you know, and I hope, I hope to god if if ten years from now the league changes again and I become Mr. I'm on my ports preaching about how much these players suck. I hope you guys all come for me, you know, like I hope you do, because

it's it's just not fair. But you know, I think it's awesome. I I guys, like, I literally, I literally was coming back from the pandemic and I was I was twenty pounds overweight. I was trying to drop all this weight. I was trying to get back into basketball shape, and my my knee was killing me. I was having horrible tendonitis and it was really causing me to hit a wall and I wasn't moving as well as I

wanted to, and I was really really frustrated. And then some guy on on Twitter who's fifty years old, who is still dunking, like sends me this brand new program this like, uh, knee knee kind of like uh reconstruction, you know, like exercise program to strengthen your patela. I've been doing that thing for six weeks and I'm jumping better than I have since I was in junior college. Like it's insane. Like I literally I'm like, I feel

like I've got like the secret to life. I just want to every time I see somebody, I just want to be like, is your knee hurting? Let me show you something, Like it's it's crazy and it's like, I just these are the kinds of things that we have access to now, and I think that's so cool. I think that's awesome. Like the guy who invented this program

has it replaced me? Literally has an is artificial and the dude can dunk and and it's and it's because of technology that we have Just knowledge is not even tech in this case, it's knowledge. We just learned through trial and error as human beings, how to be better at what we do. And I think that that's so cool. And I hate that people poop poo on that all the time. It's just it drives it drives me nuts. I feel like it's such a negative attitude to have

about things anyway, I'm off myselfbox. Now you're good, You're you're right, Like we're at we're telling you age things keep advancing, Players come back from injuries a lot sooner, like with Charles Brockley, And even Shack has his stick as well, right Like he likes to have the center be the you know, go out and get thirty and fifteen like he did every night. And Charles Brockley has his way of viewing the game, and you know, sometimes it does feel like it gets old. He does have

his own kind of opinions and stuff like that. But yeah, like you're right, the games moving forward and we have a lot more things that we have access to. We're lucky that players come back a lot quicker now, you know. We're lucky that there's a lot of injuries that aren't you know, career ending anymore. And you're it's super cool and hopefully the Lakers kind of can kind of be a part of that as well, part of that movement towards all this brand new stuff that we're kind of

getting into, uh, while the NBA moves forward as well. Yep, I agree, everybody, Thanks for coming to hang out tonight. We sincerely. Appreciate it. I know it's Friday. I know you're all very busy. UM. I hope you all have an awesome weekend, and I hope that on Sunday the Lakers come with a little bit more fight and this team needs Lebron back desperately. I hope he's right around

the corner. UM. This is gonna air on dash Radio. Actually, this one will not air on dash Radio because our Sunday show will, so that might be better because we were all piste off to night anyway, but this will be on our podcast feed. UM be here in about an hour, and as always, we appreciate your guys support and we will see you in a couple of days. Appreciate it. Thanks everyone,