Hoops Tonight - How JJ Redick SOLD Lakers on vision, why LeBron James & Anthony Davis will thrive - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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co slash mma. All right, old, good to hoops today
you're at the volume. Hope all of you guys have

(01:47):
had an amazing week. Well, we had the JJ Redick
news come down yesterday and we went for about ten
minutes just giving my initial impressions on the hire. But
I've had another day now to kind of sit down
and think it all over, and I can think of
nobody better for us to get into the weeds of
the JJ Reddick higher than my friend Yovan Boja covers
the Lakers for the Athletic and also has been doing

(02:08):
some work for us over the course of the last year.
We're gonna get into every single angle of this. We're
gonna talk about the hiring process. We're gonna spend a
good amount of time on the x's and o's side
of things. I really tried to sit down today and
think about all the different areas of improvement for this
particular Lakers team and how JJ can help, and Yova
and I are going to go back and forth about
that for a little bit, and then at the tail
end of the show, we are going to talk about

(02:30):
the off season and what direction we think the Lakers
at this point are going to be looking to go
in terms of personnel, which my opinion is a way
bigger deal than anything having to do with the coach. Anyway,
real quickly, before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops
and I YouTube channels so you don't miss any more
of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS.
You guys, don't miss announcements, don't forget about a podcast
feed wherever you get your podcasts on our Hoops tonight,

(02:51):
and then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments,
all right, without any further or do let's bring on Yova.
So Yova, this has been kind of a wild couple
weeks for you, I would imagine, why don't you just
kind of let us under the hood a little bit.
Tell us about what the last month or so has
been like as you've been tracking this process. How did

(03:12):
we land with JJ Reddick as the head coach the
Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Well, Jason, it's been a while seven weeks for me,
dating back to May third, the Lakers fire Darvin Ham.
I'm on my way to a wedding in Mexico, and
I thankfully like I done my prep work of had
the story ready, had my Youthtube video ready. But from

(03:39):
that point, all of the chatter that I was hearing
from talking to people within the Lakers and around the
league was JJ Reddick, and that was all the buzz
for basically all of May and the when you fire
a coach, you do so with at least a couple
candidates in mind. So for the Lakers that was JJ
Reddick and tylu Now, the problem with Tyleru was he

(04:03):
was still in a contract with the Clippers for another year.
He also had the whole situation with the Lakers back
in twenty nineteen up that the Lakers were trying to make
amends and if he somehow it was in a lame
duck situation and could get out of his contract with
the Clippers, the Lakers were going to pounce on that
and make him a big offer to be their head coach.
So through like early to mid May, the buzz was

(04:26):
Tylu JJ Redick. Then it started to be the actual
interview process with guys like Sam Consel, James Barrigo, Mike
and Noriy David Adelman. Tylu ends up coming to an
extension with the Clippers, and it's clear that maybe from
his side there was a little bit of negotiating tactic
where if you have interest from another team, now of
a sudden, there's some onus on the Clippers to get

(04:48):
something done a little bit quicker than they had initially wanted.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
So interview process starts. J. J.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Redick meets with Rob Polinka for nearly two hours in
Chicago at the pre draft comp and it is a
sort of an informal meeting technically, but two hours is
a long time to talk with someone, and I think
you get a pretty good sense of someone and their
their background and their philosophies, and you know, they did.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Touch on some of those things.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
But so that that's about like mid May now and
then rest of the month, it just continues to be
the buzz growing of JJ Redick is going to be
the guy. The one thing that is holding this process
up is that he's set to call the NBA Finals
for ESPN and ABC, And in the middle of the season,
ESPN and ABC lost Doc Rivers, who is part of

(05:36):
that top broadcast crew. So you then promote JJ Reddick
to that spot and you don't want to lose him
right before the pinnacle of the season. So that was
a bit of a hold up, you know, according to
multiple people. Just you know, JJ is going to have
to ride this out through the finals, and if he
ends up being the Lakers head coach, it's going to
have to be after the finals. Then early June it

(05:59):
starts to really be JJJJJJ, But then this Dan Hurley
situation comes out of nowhere, seemingly and all of a sudden,
you know that there's like he's flying to LA there's
a meeting. The Lakers make him an offer. Now the
offer people can quibble about how strong of an offer
it actually was, clearly it was not strong enough to
get him to leave Connecticut. And he even said, and

(06:23):
you know, he did multiple interviews. In the Dan LeBatard interview,
he says, like there was a number. I don't know
exactly what it was, but I'm sure there was a
number that would.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Have got me to leave.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Clearly that the six years, seventy million dollar deal was
not that. So then the Lakers have to circle back
with JJ Reddick and some of the other candidates and
then do some damage control bring him in officially for
an interview in between Game four and Game five of
the finals on that Saturday. I was told by multiple
people he crushed the interviews. Was incredibly impressive. One person

(06:55):
told me that his personality was electric and it was
just like unlike anything that compared to all the other candidates.
It was just like ja We knew JJ was going
to crush the interview. I don't think that's a surprise,
but like he really stood out from just his communication
and his personality and his ability to talk through different scenarios.
So he crushes the interview on Saturday. On Monday, he

(07:17):
has an important conversation with Anthony Davis. The two talk
on the phone, and that was important because Anthony Davis
had sort of been backing James Brago, who he overlapped
with in New Orleans briefly after being drafted.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
So, you know, he talks to JJ.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
They get on, you know, the same page that they
talked through the offense and sort of what the vision
is for Ady being more involved in fourth quarters and
crunch time, and then on you know, So then a
couple of days, so the finals on Monday, JJ gets
a couple of days to decompress, be with his family,
think over the situation, and then Thursday morning he gets

(07:55):
the contract offer and they agree to terms. So that
is the sort of timeline of the last seven weeks.
And there was lots of swiss and turns with the
Dan Hurley situation. James Brago was technically the first candidate
to get an interview in person, so like, there's some
detours along the way, but from the beginning, most of
the buzz was JJ and this ended up playing out

(08:18):
that way ultimately.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah, the timeline seemed pretty simple to me in the
sense that like, yeah, you don't want I think JJ
would have honored ESPN and gone and covered the finals
even if he had taken the job. I mean, obviously
we know behind the scenes he kind of thought it
was his to have anyway, you know. But at the
same time, I could see why ESPN wouldn't want the

(08:40):
broadcast team like just naturally discussing JJ coaching the Lakers
while they're trying to cover the finals. So like, it
made some sense on that front. And then Dan Hurley's
one of those guys too, where you know, if his
name comes up as an option, you just have to
explore it. You can't just be like, nope, we already
have our guy, like go. You know, there's a certain

(09:00):
diligence you have to do there. Even if it was
a long shot, and it all seemed pretty standard in natural,
there was definitely some drama on the reporting front. I
thought it was bizarre how Adrian Moorganowski was just kind
of covering it as though the JJ was never in
the picture and it was always about Dan Hurley. It
was kind of weird. It seemed pretty natural flowing to
me that JJ was their guy. Another option came to

(09:22):
the surface, they explored it, it didn't pan out. They
were patiently waiting for the end of the Finals, and
then JJ became the option. Now before we kind of
get back into JJ, I was wondering, I have a
couple of quick follow ups.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
First of all, was there.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Any consideration for Monty Williams after he became available the
other day?

Speaker 3 (09:42):
No, I've been told no.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
There had been some Monty buzz in May of it
was trending toward him potentially being fired, and there was
a sense of similar to Taylou, who Monty Williams was
someone the Lakers previously pursued in twenty nineteen. He was
the number two choice behind Lou, and had he become available,
I think, like a month ago, I think he would
have been interviewed and had a legitimate chance to win

(10:08):
the job. But I think at that point they were
too far along with Reddick to seriously consider that. And
I mean if they had pivoted to well, let's stall,
let's like I mean, first, they're running out of time
that the draft is in, you know, five days, but
also it's you know, I think at that point, had
they spurned Reddick a second time for another candidate, that

(10:28):
might have been a deal breaker.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
I like I viewed Money Williams two as like the
old guard of NBA coaches. It kind of fits into
that like like Doc Rivers kind of mold where it's
there's just it almost seems like they're disconnected from where
modern basketball is going, and there their own personalities almost
become bigger than the team. It almost just seems counterproductive.
So I feel like they, you know, made the right

(10:52):
decision to not look down in that direction. So just
really quickly before we move on, how did you interpret
the whole like woje Day and Hurly thing? Was that
like do you think that there was some gamesmanship going
on there or was there truth to what he was
saying about early being the target the whole time?

Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's this part of the story is I will say,
like I've been covering the NBA since twenty eleven, this
is going to be my seventh season as a beat writer.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
This was the craziest like wrinkled to a.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Story I can remember personally, because even coming like typically,
I mean, there will be things that blindside you covering
the MBA of be it trades, signings, firings, hirings, like
there's an element of secrecy for sure, but this is
still a situation where you talk to five different people
with and around the team, and you will get five

(11:43):
different answers, five different conspiracy theories, five different perspectives as
to what actually happened with this situation. So for me,
my best read on it, I would say is there
was legitimate interest from the Lakers end for Dan Hurley.
Like they made him, they flew him out, they interviewed him,

(12:03):
They risked losing j because like there was a scenario
in which this plays out and JJ just says, like,
you know, peace, like I don't like you know, you guys,
were you know, indicating one thing, then you flip that
and now you're interviewing Hurley and like I'm out, and
JJ could have and then all of a sudden, now
there it's Jade Sprago or maybe it is Moni Williams

(12:24):
now that he's available. But like, I think that the
Lakers would have been on like Plan C or D
at that point. So, h there was some real risk
for the Lakers in terms of pursuing Dan Hurley and
having this come out the way that it did and
being this like spectacle like that, there was some real
risk on their end. So I do believe that the
Lakers had legitimate interest in Dan Hurley. Now was it

(12:46):
the level of interest that they were willing to make
a godfather offer that he couldn't refuse, and the type
of you know, eight years one hundred million had been
thrown out there, Like had they put that on the table,
I think he's probably.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
The coach, and they clearly were not willing to do that.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
So there's an element of like, you could want something
but not want it to the extent that you're going
all in, So I don't it's still unclear to me
if they were quite all in on Dan and Hurley. Like,
they clearly were very interested and interested enough to make
an offer, but it seems to me it might have
been a situation where it was more like, we want you,
and we're willing to give you this contract, but we're

(13:21):
not going to go above this, and if you're not
willing to accept this, we're fine with getting our first
choice pretty much the whole way, which was JJ Reddick.
So as for like the Hurly communication, you know, my
sense was they reached out to him initially when they
made the initial candidate pool and he was not interested
at that time. Since then, ESPN and The La Times

(13:44):
have reported that Hurley met with Polinka, apparently kind of
secretly at the combine and they had some conversations there,
so you know, if that's the case, then obviously you
know that there was maybe something interest around then. But still,
you know, in talking to a lot of people around,
the Lakers was like this was something that was kept
very internal of it, very tight lipped, like it might

(14:05):
have only been three or four people who knew about it,
including players not knowing about this. So they did a
good job of like moving in secrecy with the move.
And look, I think if Dan Hurley had been available
from the beginning, I think he would have been the
no brainer for choice, So it makes sense why the
Lakers went after him. I think the thing that is
less clear is how serious Dan Hurley was about this situation, right,

(14:29):
because really, if you look at who had the most
of the gain here, it was basically Dan Hurley.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
And now he got elevated. Like I don't follow.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
College basket, Like I knew who he was, but I
don't follow college basketball that much. I know Yukon had
won back to back, but it's like now I know
a lot more about Dan Hurley over the last few
weeks than I had previously known, and like he's been
elevated to a certain status that you know, he probably
deserves because of his accolades. But like, I don't think
he I mean, you've clearly talked about way more now
and he just did a giant press tour after this

(14:59):
Jury five interviews. It's like, I don't know, there's like
so that that part of the doesn't necessarily pass the
smell testomy. But I know from the Lakers, Like I'm
not as plugged in on the college basketball side or
the Hurley side, but I can't say from the Lakers
side there was legitimate interest. It's just there's also degrees
of interest, and clearly they weren't willing to go past
that six seventy and that to me, in the case,

(15:21):
they were fine with JJ if he didn't work out
with early, they were fine you know picking JJ.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I appreciate that JJ didn't take it personally too. Like again,
like I'm excited about what JJ can be as a coach,
but he doesn't have any coaching experience. Dan Hurley is
one of the most respected and accomplished coaches in the
country right now, you know what I mean? And like,
if the volume was looking for an NBA analyst and
they had been talking to me and then suddenly JJ

(16:03):
Reddick came available. It'd be stupid for me to be
offended that they would consider JJ, or probably higher JJ
over me. He's JJ Reddick, He's arguably the best in
the world at what he does, you know, right now
in the sports media space. And so, like, I appreciate
to your point there's some risk, but like I appreciate
that JJ didn't take it personally, because again, that's just
an avenue you have to explore if it becomes available,

(16:25):
you know what I mean. So I want to I
want to move more to the basketball side of this,
which is, to me, the far more, the far more
fascinating side. Just tell me a little bit about the interview,
the formal interview when JJ came to LA. What if
you were to kind of like explain, like if you
had to just just kind of like translate JJ Reddick's

(16:47):
pitch for how to take the Lakers to the next level,
how would you word that for us?

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, So JJ met on Saturday with you.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
You previously met with Rob Polinka, spoken with him multiple
times over the course of multiple weeks, but this was
his first chance to meet with Genie Buss Joey Buss,
Jesse Buss and the real stakeholders in the Lakers and.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Have conversations with them.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
So, you know, my understanding was he he met individually
with each person and then there was also some some
group conversations, but you know, each person had their own
set of questions and different parts of the organization and
just you know, basketball philosophy that they wanted to break
down with him. And again I was told he was

(17:34):
incredibly impressive, the most impressive of I mean, they only
met with three different candidates Barrego, Hurley, and Reddick in person.
All of the other interviews were done remotely, uh, you know,
primarily with Rob Polinka. So I guess among those three candidates,
I was told JJ was the most personable. Uh. It
was just the most detailed and he had, you know,

(17:58):
multiple answers for any hypothetical that they were throwing at him.
So one thing that he really pitched himself on was like,
I know, I don't have any coaching experience at the
professional level, but I'm going to be adaptable. I'm going
to come in with an open mind, and you know,
I'm not coming from a certain coaching tree or a

(18:19):
certain coaching philosophy like I'm going to be establishing this
in this position, and I'm going to adapt to the
roster and the season and how things are going. And
I think coming from you know, the situation with Darvin
Ham and how that unfolded, there was an element of
stubbornness with a lot of his mistakes, and that was

(18:40):
really the biggest gripe with Darvin Ham was, you know,
just the lack of adaptability with the rotation with lineups,
with his coaching philosophies, be it pick and roll schemes
or how the offense was being run. That Darvin Ham
was married to his philosophies. And JJ Redick came in
and they had basically the exact opposite approach of I'm

(19:03):
willing to adapt and continue to adapt and continue to
tinker and try different things. And then the other thing,
which I think is arguably like it's not Ex's and O's,
it's not basketball strategy, but his communication skills and the
ability to effectively communicate with players and command the locker
room and get a level of buy in was something

(19:23):
that really appealed to them, especially coming off of Frank
Vogel lost the locker room in his final season. Darvin
Ham lost the locker room in his final season, and
part of it was with Frank. I think he's on
the nicer side, he's a bit soft spoken.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
With Darvin, there's.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Elements of that, but there was also some elements of
disorganization in terms of game plan and strategy.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
So I think JJ not only having.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
A certain level of adaptability and coming in with an
open mind of like I want to collaborate with the
from office, collaborate with the players, and really make sure
everyone is buying into the same vision of how we
are running this team. There's that element, but it's also
the element of effectively communicating with players and making sure
you know that the plan is going to be the plan,

(20:07):
and you're going to know where you are in the
pecking order, where you are in the hierarchy, and if
that changes, we will have an open and honest conversation
about that instead of because I would hear like and
stuff starts to trickle out, but you would hear stuff
of like you know, with Darvin, this isn't the PYLO
on Darvin. This is just to kind of contrast it.
But like with Darvin, there might be like a certain
plan at shoot around, and then in the pregame meeting

(20:29):
that plan changes and guys would feel like, I don't
really know like why this is changing, or I'm not
given a reason. I'm just kind of told like, hey,
you're out of the starting lineup tonight, or hey we're
going with this look tonight. And with JJ, I think like,
and he certainly, I'm sure knew some of this stuff
and was able to properly cater to the audience, and
that's part of his skill, you know, clearly, But I

(20:52):
also think like, if we're looking at his strengths coming
in from day one, I think it is his adaptable mindset,
and that's based on just listening to his podcast, listening
to his basketball philosophy, but also his communication skills, and
he is far and away a better communicator than Darvin
Ham or Frank Vogel, and I think that that's going
to be an asset that from day one he's able
to communicate with the players in a direct way and

(21:14):
even a confrontational way, but I think a way that's
going to benefit them where they're going to have the
hard conversations early and it's not always going to be pretty,
but I think that's one of his clear skills from
day one.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, I think specifically with the younger roster too, Like
if we look back last year now, I think will
I think they will bring in a vet or two
this year to try to kind of balance that, because
I would venture to guess if you asked Lebron on
some truth serum, like what were your thoughts on the
roster last year, one of the things he would say
is he'd probably say we were a bit too young,

(21:46):
and that I think it reflects in some of just
the lack of attention to detail that you saw on
a possession by possession basis. You know, JJ, I think
is going to have a relatively easy time bringing the
certain amount of you know, uh presence or aura to
communicate with a young player and get him to kind
of like listen to what he has to say. But

(22:07):
I think it will be contingent on Lebron kind of
backing all of that, in AD backing all of that,
And so as long as Lebron and Ad kind of
stand behind JJ early on to help add you know,
legitimacy to the things that he's saying, I think that
a lot of JJ's communication will resonate you know when
I think about it, Bear with me here for a minute,
because I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of go through my

(22:28):
thought process on this.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
But like.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
His love for the game and his competitiveness, I give
him like an a plus. You just don't make it
to the NBA as JJ Reddick if you're not just
a crazy, a crazy m effort for lack of a
better word. And like, I actually think that JJ. We
see this JJ that we see in the media, but
I think he's got a nasty side, which I think
will serve him well as a coach because I think
there's a I think there needs to be an element

(22:53):
of that you were talking about Frank Vogel being a
little soft spoken. Like, I think JJ's is going to
be an animated coach, and I think that's going to
be a good thing. I mean, when I look around
the NBA and I think about the best coaches, Spolstra, Popovich,
you know, occur tylu, you know, Michael Malone, like those
guys are pretty animated and active and involved with what

(23:13):
they're doing. Right the experience side, to me, experience is
like one of the more overrated things, you know, when
it comes to this sort of thing like, I'd rather
have a talented, inexperienced person over a mediocre experience person
any day of the week, especially when it comes to
these kinds of overly competitive professions. So the real thing
that I think is fascinating is the actual basketball organization piece.

(23:36):
And so bear with me, I'm just kind of going
to kind of go through some of my thoughts on
where I think JJ can really help. So I want
to start with offensive organization. So one of the things
that frustrated me last year was the Lakers took some
massive leaps in their five out offense and just seem
to have awesome ball in player movement for extensive stretches
and got a lot of really high quality looks that

(23:57):
manifested in them being one of the best offenses over
the tail end of the season. But I thought that
there was a lack of value on individual possessions in
a kind of a tendency to get away from that
from time to time. You know, one of the guys
that I think did a really good job of breaking
this down this year is Tim Kranews. Tim kranis who
does stuff just a lot of x's and O stuff,

(24:18):
but he focuses a lot on the Lakers, and he
was crazy enough to sit and chart like every single
damn possession that the Lakers had this entire season, and
he did a really nice job of kind of demonstrating
the difference between when the Lakers ran set offense versus
when they ran freelance offense. And freelance offense has a
very important part in the game of basketball, and it
needs to be to think of it as like five

(24:39):
out motion. It's just kind of like read and react
basketball that you lean back on after you've run a
set action or after you end up in the half court.
But I think the Lakers could be served well by
being more deliberate about getting to a set early in
the possession and then playing in the flow out of that.
And there are too many possessions where like they would

(25:00):
try to push in transition to run early offense, which
is good. You want to push up the floor when
you can, because if you can get the defense in
rotation without having to run a set, that's great. But
there were too many of those possessions that when the
transition push was kind of cut off, that they would
flow into just like some basic ballscreen or ISO or
dribble drive and the possession would fall apart early instead

(25:23):
of pulling out running a set and then getting into
action from there, getting into your five out motion from there,
and so just simply increasing the percentage of possessions when
the Lakers actually run a set play versus and kind
of cutting down on the possessions where they push and
transition and then just kind of get into the flow
before getting any sort of advantage. I think the attention

(25:45):
to detail, valuing each individual possession more will help, as
cran just pointed out so well, all over the course
of the season, and as you can tell just by
watching the film when the Lakers would run their sets,
they got great stuff all the time. There's just too
much talent on the floor. There's too much basketball IQ
in terms of the ability to read and react out
of it. The weaklink was Ruey at the start of

(26:07):
the season, and by the end of the season he
started to feel when he was supposed to cut along
the baseline, when he was supposed to flow into the
next action. They have the talent to be a truly
great offense as long as they value each individual possession.
A couple individual things too, like cutting down on pull
up twos. They took twelve per game last year and
shot just forty percent on him that was zero point

(26:29):
eight points per shot. D LO took a ton of
them that were really bad shots that he was barely hitting,
like thirty nine percent of Austin Reeves was the only
player on the team that actually got more than one
point per pull up jump shot. And so I think
like just cutting back on some of those, especially the
ones early in the clock. The getting Anthony Davis more
involved piece is really interesting to me, and we can

(26:50):
get let's just let's bounce back and forth on this
for a minute and then we'll come back, because I
do have some thoughts on JJ on the defensive end
of the floor, but with getting Ad more involved, I
one hundred percent agree as it pertains to the overarching
forty eight minute game, Like there were way too many
stretches where it'd be like a big third quarter run
for the other team and AD hasn't touched the damn

(27:12):
ball for two and a half minutes, you know what
I mean, Like that sort of thing happened way too often. However,
crunch time. You know, AD has his own issues in
those situations. You know, he has. He can struggle to
read the floor from time to time. His inability to
hit a jump shot can be an issue from time
to time. The crunch time offense wasn't an issue for
the Lakers last year. They were top ten in the league.
They had a one nineteen offensive rating in the clutch,

(27:34):
and they had a one twenty one off offensive rating
in the clutch in the three postseason games where they
ended up in clutch situations. So, like, again, I'm not
necessarily opposed to it. I just don't necessarily think that's
the strong suit of AD's game. I think the bigger
thing is just sticking with the the uh. Like JJ's
a big believer in three man action, making sure that

(27:56):
if Lebron has the ball in these clutch time situations,
that Ads not just standing in the corner spacing or
just setting a basic ball screen. Because if Ad just
sets a basic ball screen, most teams are gonna switch that,
and then AD is just gonna go stand in the
corner or stand in the dunker spot. Three man action
makes it so much harder to switch. And there were moments,

(28:17):
especially in the Nuggets series, where the Lakers run a
bunch of stack pick and roll down the stretch of
the game with d Lo backscreening for Ad in those
ball screens, and they got great stuff out of it,
and they can that I think is great. Keeping Ad
involved in three man action at the end of games
is great, But I don't think just force feeding Ad
in the clutch is gonna solve the problem. And then

(28:37):
the last thing I'll say before I bounce it back
to you, They've got to invest more at the start
of the season and throughout games in Anthony Davis's jump shot.
I think, especially as Jared Vanderbilt gets reintegrated next year,
especially if they end up having some sort of big
look where AD's at the four, I think they're gonna
need Ad to take at least five to six jump

(29:00):
shots a game and be willing to take three point shots,
especially out of the corner. And then if I shouldn't
even say just out of the corner too, like he's
got to take picking pop jump shots too, because those
are open in the offense. But like there is way
too often during the regular season where that just disappeared
from AD's game and he'd take one or two jump
shots a game for a month and it's like no

(29:20):
matter how good he is as a jump shooter if
you don't invest in it so that he can build
rhythm that won't reap rewards down the end. And so
I really want to see him just be more invested
in over the course of the season as a jump
shooter as well. But in general, I agree with getting
Ad more involved in the offense. I just don't necessarily
think force feeding him in the clutch is going to
solve all their problems. Do you agree?

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, yes, I do.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
And you mentioned the three man actions, So that's something
that we heard during this process of reporting was the
Lakers and now JJ Reddick are looking forward to these
three man actions with Lebron Ady and Austin Reeves. I
think you are going to see some stack pick and
rolls in span pick and with those three and a
lot more three man actions. And I think the framing

(30:04):
has been interesting where it's been. You know, obviously, you
know at some point Lebron is going to retire and
it's going to be Anthony Davis's team. So there has
been a focus and an onus on how can we
get Ad more involved, how can we continue to funnel
things through him a bit more? But the three names
that we've heard over the last few weeks as like,

(30:26):
you know, focuses for the Lakers in terms of player
development and how they fit with the roster is Austin Reeves, Ruey, Hutchimora,
and Max Christy. And I think that's kind of interesting
with you. I mean, you still have Jared Vanderbilt there,
you still have Gave Vincent, you have Jalen Hood Schafino,
Maxwell Lewis so like some younger players, but like those

(30:46):
have been the three names that the Lakers have been
sort of treating as the foundation of the team in
addition to Lebron and Ad. So I think elevating Max
Christy will also, you know, that's a whole other conversation
that we've had I'd at various points, but like, I
think he can step in and potentially be like a
top eight guy next season for them Ruey, either as

(31:08):
a starter or as like a six man type like
microwave forward off the bench.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
So I think the.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Lakers, I mean, like it seems to be an acknowledgement
of like who the best players on the roster are
or who the better players on the roster are and
the different ways to empower them.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
But yeah, I think like the Lakers would.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
I remember with Frank Vogel, they'd run those pin down
actions for ad that where he could curl or he
could pop from the left side of the floor, and
like they would occasionally do that with Darvin, but they
didn't do it consistently enough. And I think that's the
other thing is like, you know, and this was something
that we reported out during this process, was like JJ's
meticulousness and his attention to detail. And he's a guy

(31:47):
who's very i mean honestly borderline OCD and in some way,
like you talked about doing his three hundred and forty
two shots from the same spots on the floor every
day during the offseason, and like he's very routine based
to to you know, is.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Everything he does.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
And I'm sure, like I'd love to pick his brain
on the podcasting side as to like how he improved
as a podcaster, because I'm sure he was very routine
oriented with that and probably would watch back to film
and take notes and like break it down almost like
breaking down basketball. So like that's just how he's wired,
that's his personality. And that was not and again it's
not to keep bringing up Darvin Ham, but like that

(32:24):
was something that the Lakers struggled with last year. And
I think JJ coming in and I think he is
going to be tracking some of these things. And that's
another thing that JJ is much more pro analytics than
any coach the Lakers have had, like ever, and the
Lakers are kind of always like, you know, they were
one of the last teams to send an analytics group
to the Sloan Mit Sports Conference, and they're one of

(32:46):
the last organizations to beef up their analytics staff. So
like the Lakers have always kind of been behind the
curve with analytics and modern basketball even I mean even
the last few years, like they've been among the league,
you know, you know, among the last place of three
point attempts, and like last year they shot the ball
much better, but they were still twenty eighth in attempts.
So it's like they have to modernize their offense as well.

(33:08):
And I think one of the things that JJ has
constantly talked about is like he has a good relationship
with Joe Miszula, And you know, I don't think Laker
fans do love this, Like his son's favorite team is
the Celtics, and like so he consumes the Celtics a lot.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
And what did the Celtics do?

Speaker 1 (33:22):
They take forty plus threes a night, And there's obviously
ways you generate those threes. You're not just taking threes
to take them necessarily. But I think for the Lakers,
like modernizing the offense and actually like and everything was
rim based, and I think there is an element of like, yes,
you have Lebron, you have Ad.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
You should be living in the rim.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
You shouldn't be making those guys take like, you know,
ten plus threes a night.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
But there's also.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
A balance to it where I just think in twenty
twenty four and beyond, you can't be twenty eighth and
three point attempts per game and expect to actually contend
for a championship.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
So I think unless you, you know, have your dominating all.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
The other category, which the Lakers weren't necessarily doing either.
So I think for them, part of it's going to be,
you know, to your point with Ad, like getting ads
jump shot going and potentially more threes, and that's that's
been a talking point every preseason for like the last
three years. So it remains to be seen if he'll
actually do that. But even if eighty isn't taking more threes.
If they can find ways to just generate five to

(34:20):
seven more threes a game and shift that away from
some of the pull up jumpers, some of the mid
range stuff, and just modernize their offense, I think that
could go a long ways. I mean, they were again
second in the league, you know, from February on, that
could be first by a bit right over the course
of a full season, potentially depending on how they reshape
the roster. So I think JJ is going to come

(34:43):
in with a very organized, very analytically driven and I
think he's going to bring an element to the Lakers
offense that they have not had really ever, you know,
since the league has shifted over like the last decade.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, you hit that, you hit the nail. Ned Like
if you could turn those twelve pull up twos into
seven pull up twos and those five all become either
rim attempts or three point attempts, like, that's the thing.
It's not. It's not so much the number of threes,
because you know, it's more efficient than threes rim attempts.
So it's like, as long as you're just trying to
tilt your offense towards those two types of attempts in

(35:16):
a way from the lower value attempts in the middle. Now,
some of it's unavoidable, like Lebron James is forty next year,
so like he's not gonna stop taking pull up twos,
at least not to some sort of dramatic extent. But
like if you can get it, like if Austin's taking
them in Lebron or taking them, but no one else
is taking them, and they're primarily in rescue possession situations,
meaning like late clock, need to get something going, you know,

(35:40):
just to kind of get something up on the rim
before the end of the clock. I liked your mention
of kind of JJ's focus on analytics, Like I like
that he specifically mentioned in the reporting that I saw
the focus on empirical evidence, which is basically like being
able to Again, there's always there's there always two sides

(36:00):
to this, because you don't want to overreact to evidence,
especially in a small sample size if you have an
overarching basketball philosophy that you're trying to build out. So
for instance, like the Laker early five out results were bad,
and so if you actually just listen to the evidence,
you'd be like we were a better offense last year
when we were running these spread pick and roll, cleared

(36:21):
side pick and roll, just kind of like old fashioned
four out brute force type of offense. If you bail
on five out, you don't get the results that we
got in the tail end of the season when everything clicks.
So it's always a delicate balance. But at the same time,
it's like there was abundantly clear evidence that the Torrian
Princes at the three stuff wasn't working for the majority

(36:41):
of the first part of the season, and they never
bailed on that until it was too late, and then
they were in some massive hole in the standings. And
so I think just a better relationship with the data,
better understanding of how it works, in a better like
willingness to listen to it will go a long way
toward towards helping the Lakers kind of avoid some of
those pitfalls. Defensive end is where that can be really useful. So,

(37:03):
like I was looking through the numbers today, the Laker
defense was pretty bad, especially bad in the regular season
after their offense started clicking. Now they had some moments
in the playoffs where they defended really well. I thought
they defended the Nuggets pretty well for large stretches, but
then they really struggled in crunch time. But I thought
that was more personnel related. And there's this I want

(37:24):
to be clear before I go any further on this,
there's a personnel element to this that has to be
factored in. The Lakers do not have a starting caliber
player that is an excellent perimeter defender and a plus
offensive player doesn't exist on the roster, and that's something
that they absolutely have to address going into this postseason,
which we're going to talk about here in just a minute.
But the Lakers gave up the three the third most

(37:46):
three point attempts in the league per game, They allowed
the sixth highest opponent three point percentage, they allowed the
the tenth most points in the paint per game, they
allowed the fourth most second chance points, and they allowed
the fourth most fast break points. So like they were
there wasn't a phase of defense where they were great

(38:07):
except for not fouling, so which probably had a lot
to do with everyone getting easy buckets on them.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Right.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
So, like, I think there's an analytic approach to defense
as well as it pertains to like you've got to
find out what you can protect for sure, in this case,
in all likelihood, protecting the paint is probably going to
be the goal of this particular team, But we don't
know what the roster looks like. But there are certain
things that, regardless of your personnel, you can clean up

(38:35):
through coaching in terms of preaching, attention to detail, and
focus on fundamentals. So like, this team has to be
a good defensive transition team. You can't be giving up
as many points in fast break situations as they did
last year. This team has to find a way to
at least take away either the rim or the three

(38:55):
point line. It can't be neither. If it's neither, you
have no chance to be effective defense. So like, again,
if we come out of this and Max Christie's the
best perimeter defender on the roster going into training camp,
then that probably needs to be a roster that loads
up the strong side and shuts down the paint. That
has to be like at least somewhat of the fundamental

(39:16):
strong point. Or if they're more built around taking away
the three point line, then there needs to be a
focus on that in terms of not overhelping, staying home
on shooters, giving up rim attempts at the expense of
taking away those three point shots. What it can't be
is what Darvin Ham built out last year, which is
a defense that is good at nothing. And so again
like just identifying whatever direction he wants to go with

(39:38):
this with this roster when it's all built, and just
kind of constructing a game plan that at least tightens
up some of those areas, because at the very least
you have to be like, if this is going to
be an offensive oriented team, like, let's pretend they go
in on an offensive minded you know, trade piece that
they bring in and it's Austin lebron Ad and some

(39:58):
other great offensive player, and we're the super high powered
five out offense and we're top five in the league
in offensive rating. Blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
You still have to be at least a mediocre defense.
They have to be in that ten to fifteen range
at a minimum if they're an elite offense to be
a legitimate threat. And that can be done just like
the Denver Nuggets did last year, as long as you
polish up all of those details and you're great at
least at some things. And so again, just paying attention

(40:26):
to the data, the attention to detail holding players accountable.
I think that's gonna go a long way all right,
before we get into the offseason, I'm gonna have some
rapid fire questions for you surrounding surrounding the JJ higher.
What is Lebron's involvement been with on the JJ Reddick
front in terms of him getting the job.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
Apparently it's not been involved.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
That's been what we reported at the Athletic that that's
what we've heard from sources within the organization and also
outside of the organization. I mean, Rich Paul came out
and basically out statement to Sham's about Lebron not backing
JJ and basically just because of our podcast partners doesn't
mean he wants him to be his head coach. So

(41:10):
I think really this traces back to the Russell Westbrook
situation and some of the fallout with that and the
blame game from that. So I think ever since then,
the front office and Lebron have not been.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
They've not been.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
Working as closely as they were up to that point.
So I think that it's it's been a little bit
more of a separation of church and state, so to speak.
And I think with Lebron it was sort of like like,
you're I'm probably gonna get the blame here.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
If JJ, if they hire JJ.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
And it doesn't work out, Like I'm going to get
some level of blame here because we have this podcast together.
So I'm just like, I don't have a say in this.
I'm removing myself. So you know, to my knowledge zero,
I mean, of course, on some level, like him having
a podcast, we can't ignore him having a podcast with
JJ and then seeing eye to eye on basically every everything,

(42:02):
excuse me, everything basketball wise, Like there's some level of like, okay,
well you got the co sign there, but from my
you know, to my knowledge, he was not involved in
this process.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
So what do you think the Lakers mean when they
say they view him as pat Riley or Eric Spolstra.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Well, pat Riley, I think there's a clear you know
that one. It's not just like the way he dresses
or or the hair. It's it's more so like making
the jump from being a player to the broadcast booth
to the coaching chair and a matter of just a
few years now, pat Riley, did you know he was
an assistant coach for a couple of years, so he

(42:57):
at least had a little bit of experience before becoming
a head coach, So that is one key difference. It's
also in late seventies early eighties, like they had one
assistant coach, so it was like a much different process,
and it was probably like a slightly easier process, right
or even very much easier.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
But so that's one thing. But they see like the charisma.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
The gravatas, like him having that tough, competitive.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Spirit, and they see a lot of the traits that
the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Saw in pat Riley that made them want to elevate
him to being their head coach as traits that JJ
Reddick has as well.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
So nothing like basketball exits.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
No's necessarily, but more so like just the the personality,
the charisma, the competitiveness, the like the desire to win
at all costs.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
They see that in JJ Reddick. So that that's and.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
The Lakers, of course, like they tend to, you know,
compare things to their past and the glory days, so
like it is, you know, it's kind of funny that
like that was the comparison. Now the Eric Spolstra Steve
Kerr is more so, like they want JJ to become
a program builder, a culture setter, like those are the

(44:13):
terms that they use and have a coach in place
for the next ten fifteen years. And it is interesting
to me that he only signed a four year deal
compared to the six year deal that was offered to
Dan Hurley. But they're viewing this as like Lebron and
eighty probably have two more years maybe three MAX together,
and then there's going to be the next era of

(44:35):
Lakers basketball, and can you build something sustainable here and
be a stalwart and be you know, an iconic coach
that transcends this era of Lakers basketball, that transcends maybe
multiple iterations of Lakers basketball. And you know, Steve Kerr
obviously has been fortunate to have Steph and Draymond and

(44:55):
Clay together for that whole time. But like looking at
Eric Spolstra when he came in, I mean, he came
in right before the Heatles, and then you know, see
he had that version of like Dwayne Wade going out
getting thirty and ten every night, but they were a
pretty bad team. Then they get the Heatles, then they
have that kind of down period and then they rebuild
and get Jimmy Butler and Beam out of Bayo. Now

(45:17):
they have this iteration and now they might be going
in a different direction potentially this offseason. So, like Eric
Spoltzo has been there for multiple generations of heat basketball,
and I mean it's it's a very high bar for
JJ tow be coming in it'd be compared to those guys.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
But he's about to turn forty next.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Week, and he you know, he's incredibly young, and so
like this is if he wants to, he could coach
till he's sixty five seventy, and you know, whether that
ends up being with the Lakers or multiple teams, like
only time will tell. But they want that type of
guy of like just a smart person who's going to
adapt to how basketball is changing and year over year

(45:57):
change their coaching philosophy, change like how they view things,
and that is something that JJ's pitching that he's going
to do. And so I think those comparisons are more
like a modern version of that. But the pat Riley wanted,
I think it's more just like the glory days and
they're just the path that they follow to becoming coaches.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Yeah, there's a lot of pressure there, but I think
that JJ will handle that kind of pressure well and
use it to fuel him two more quick ones before
we get to the offseason. Did the podcast get mentioned
at all during the interview process?

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Not to my knowledge, but I was not in those conversations,
so I can't. I'm I mean, I would guess probably,
but not to my knowledge.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
If you had to quickly list off what you expect
the assistant coaching staff to look like, what do you think? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (46:44):
So the four names we reported at the Athletic are
Sam Cassell. The Lakers would love for him to be
a lead assistant, Scott Brooks, Jon Rondo, and Jared Dudley.
I don't expect all four of those names to be
on the bench next season. I would expect maybe a
couple of them. Uh, Sam could be in Land to
be promoted in Boston with Charles Lee going over to

(47:04):
Charlotte that Scott Brooks was recently let go by Portland,
and then Rondo's dealing with some off court legal stuff,
so that's that's the potential, you know, hold up there.
And then Jared Dudley, I mean, he was on Dallas's
bench and they just made the NBA Finals, so he
could potentially be in Land for a promotion there or
just staying there because of the state that that team

(47:28):
is in right now, So I like Stanman. This is
just pure speculation here, but Stanman Gutty is a name
that to me, I think would be an interesting one
of just you know, he's calling games for T and
T right now. But JJ has said that that is
the best coach he's ever played for, and I think
he would make a lot of sense either as an
offensive or probably more of a defensive coordinator, but like

(47:48):
either way, kind of being that lead guy if the
Lakers can't land Sam Cassel. So pure speculation there for
those who are about to agree to that, but I
think stanm Aan Gutty would make a lot of sense.
So I've heard though they want at least one former
head coach, if not two, on this current staff or
on JJ's staff, as kind of a buffer with experience
and just to help guide him through his first year.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Yeah, I'm I am most concerned about them giving him
somebody to help with just like the personality dynamics and
navigating just the flow of an eighty two game season
and some of the postseason highs and lows that can
take place after wins and losses. In terms of the tactics,
I actually get really nervous about former head coaches because

(48:32):
like some of them tend to be a little bit
stuck in their ways. The NBA is very different than
what it was when Stanman Gundi was last coaching at
the NBA level. So like, but I don't worry about
JJ with the tactics at all, because he's just he's crazy.
He's crazy competitive, he loves the game. That dude will
That dude will be buried in basketball ideologies for the

(48:52):
next month, like for the next three four months prepping
for this season. I have no concerns about his ability
to handle the tactic side of things. It's just will
he be able to handle the personality dynamics that are
very different being a coach versus when you're just in
the locker room as a player, And so like getting
some head coaching experience just to help him navigate that

(49:13):
I think would be really useful. All Right, we're just
going to spend about five to ten minutes on this.
But obviously it's been what seven eight weeks since you
and I last chatted. What do you think the current
ideology is at the front office in terms of the
direction you think they'll go this summer in terms of
player personnel.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
So what I've been hearing the last few weeks and
what I've been reporting out has been the team leaning
more toward small to medium upgrades to this roster, likely
in the form of a couple separate deals with role players.
So the mid sized contracts that they have are Austin Reeves,
Ruy Hutchemora, Jared Vanderbilt, potentially the Angel Russell if he

(49:57):
opts in, and Gabe Vincent. So of trading some combination
of those guys, either packaging a couple of them together
or doing a couple separate deals and then using your picks,
maybe using a Jalen Hoodschafino to get a couple of
upgrades Vietnam.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
Primarily like they need a wing.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Upgrade that they need ideally, like Ruy Hutchimora and Jared
Vanderbilt have like a basketball baby, and like that is
the starting small forward for the Lakers. That player is
hard to find. But you know, I think not having
to do sort of like offense defense with those two
and having to pick and kind of give up one
side of the ball. So that's going to be a

(50:37):
point of emphasis for them, is trying to find that
elusive three and d winning, which they had multiple of
them a few years ago, if you remember KCP, Kyle
Kuzma and Alex Caruso, and now that they've really struggled
to find two way talent over the last few years, so.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
That that is like priority number one for them. Is
figuring that out.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
Now if D'Angel Russell opts out and leaves or ops
out and is signing trade it somewhere like all of
a sudden, you have that point guard hole and you
only have the non taxpayer mL to replace him with.
So the Angel Russell really is the pivot point here,
and I haven't got a great read on what he's
likely going to do. I mean, I thought the Molik
Monk contract was pretty interesting. It was a little bit

(51:16):
lower than I was expecting for Molik Monk, and that
could just be a sign of with the new second
Apron rules and even the first Apron rules, teams are
going to be more conservative with their spending on non
all stars and superstars. So a guy like the Angel
Russell in theory, you couldn't maybe make the case of,
you know, could he get twenty million from a team

(51:36):
or twenty five like maybe on paper that could be
his value, but in actuality like it might not be
the case. So a guy like the Delo has to
pick between do I want eighteen million four one year
and then test for agency the following season, or do
I want maybe a smaller annual value.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
Deal for multiple years.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
So but my sense in all this is the Lakers
have been leading more toward smaller moves in part just
because it gets really difficult to build out a good
roster in twenty twenty four when you have three guys
making forty plus million dollars. I mean, look at the
Phoenix Suns like that ultimately was I think what you
know did them in was just and there was a
limitation there. I think to how those guys fit, I

(52:16):
think there'd be a more natural fit between a guard
Lebron and ad Like I think positionally it kind of
makes a bit more sense and like you could you
could see the vision there. But after the Russell Westbrook situation,
with the new second apron rules and the limitations with
building out the roster and the limitations that come with
just even crossing the first apron, I think they're leaning

(52:38):
that way now.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
I will say, like the Dan.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Early thing, it shook me a little bit in terms
of like their ability to sort of misdirect. So I
want to add the caveat of like, there's certainly the
possibility that, like the buzz coming out has been supporting
cast upgrades and you know, more minimal to margin all upgrades.
But maybe there is a something that are working. But

(53:04):
the problem with that, though is we just don't even
know who's available. Like right now, Atlanta has not clarified
who's going to be available between Trey Young and de
Chantey Murray.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
It could be both, could be, neither could be one.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Donovan Mitchell has not signed his extension yet with Cleveland,
so like that's a big one. Darius Garland is going
to be kind of like the fallout guy with Die
if Donovan stays versus if Donovan asks out. So like
there's still a lot of uncertainty as far as like
which stars are even available right now. But I would
not be surprised if like that the Lakers kind of

(53:34):
pull a smoke screen and all of a sudden, it's like,
well they trade for star X that we were not expecting.
But as of now, everything I've been hearing has been
more let's upgrade, like the starting small forward spot, may
maybe the point guard spot if Dlo is gone, and
then let's go into next season with some measure of
continuity and then a couple of upgrades.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
I like that strategy within the context of Lebron and
Ad being healthy, Like if I just knew they were
gonna have another season like they did last year. I
like that strategy just simply because, like I thought, Lebron
and Ad both played at a top ten level through
the entire season, and especially in that first round. I
thought both of I thought both Lebron and Ad. I
thought Lebron and Ady just they straight up out played
Yo Kitchen Murray head to head. I thought Ad kind

(54:15):
of more or less met Yo Kitchen's level, and Lebron
was better than Jamal Murray outside of a few clutch
jump shots. But down the roster, Aaron Gordon, KCP, Michael
Porter Junior, those dudes just absolutely dusted the D'Angelo, Russell,
Ruy Hatchi Mura group, like they really struggled and so like,
Austin Reeves was pretty good once again, shot fifty five

(54:37):
percent on pull of jump shots. He's at twenty one
playoff games now, seventeen points per game on sixty one
percent for shooting, which is awesome, and so like, I
kind of liked that idea within the context of what
we've seen in recent NBA history too, because like Dallas
misses the playoffs last year, make a couple of personnel tweaks,
like here's a good point of attack defender and Derek

(54:58):
Jones junior. Here a Ford in PJ. Washington, here's two
vertical spacing threats, and Lively and Gafford bam, all of
a sudden, they're in the finals. So like, if your
top two is as good as Lebron and ad Are
and your third best player is as good as Austin
Reeves is, then subtle tweaks can go a long way.
Golden State twenty twenty one, their mediocre missed the playoffs.

(55:21):
You know, bring in a you know, an Auto Porter junior,
Bring in you know, Gary Payton, bring in the you know,
Andrew Wiggins kind of buys into his role. Klay Thompson
comes back, all of a sudden, they end up winning
the championship. So like, again, I don't I think it's
a little bit more complicated just with how talented the
top of the league is. But if the reality is

(55:42):
is the de Lo Ruey piece was the weak point
last year. I was actually this morning watching a bunch
of film, just kind of getting just reminding myself what
the Laker offense looked like, because it's been so long
since I've watched it, And like Ruy, Ruy turned out
to be the weak point on both ends of the floor.
Too many possessions were ending with him getting wide open

(56:03):
corner threes that he couldn't make, too many driving closeouts
into the lane where he'd smoke a layup or take
some sort of bad mid range pull up jump shot,
not tracking Michael Porter Junior on the other end of
the floor, losing track of him, not battling enough physically
underneath the basket. Like Ruy just had a bad series.
But Ruy to me is a bench player who's masquerading
as a starter for the Lakers. D'Angelo Russell is a

(56:25):
redundancy next to Austin Reeves. And so if I believe,
I genuinely believe this, if the Lakers could get two
high quality starters, not stars, just starters that play at
the two and the three between Austin Reeves, Lebron James
and Anthony Davis, that just automatically puts them into a
different tier as a basketball team. I think that would

(56:46):
put them up in that group with the teams that
are out of the play in that are towards the
top end of the of the Western Conference. But it's hard,
it's those are the two most desired positional archetypes around
the league in terms of role players are the two
and the three guys that guard opposing perimeter players and
that are offensive threats off the ball when teams throw

(57:09):
extra attention towards your stars. So it's a lot to
ask to go out and find that type of player.
But like, as long as Lebron and Ad are healthy,
I like that strategy. My main concern is what do
you do if AD misses thirty games? What do you
do if Lebron misses thirty games? If Ad misses thirty games,
you absolutely have to have some kind of legitimate center

(57:33):
that can play and defend the rim and win contested
rebound battles. Jackson, Hayes and Christian woodren't those guys, So
they have to find a legitimate backup center option because
chances are Ad will have to miss some chunk of
games this year and then on the Lebron James front.
If he misses time, the Lakers ball handling takes And

(57:55):
that's where it could be an issue where if you
did have just role players and you didn't bring back
let's just for the sake of argument at Dejonte Murray,
if you add a Dejontay Murray in a legitimate backup center,
you just have more fortitude to deal with Lebron and
AD injuries. But then the flip side of that is like,
you're not winning the title unless Lebron and Ad are
healthy anyway. So like, I understand that perspective in the

(58:17):
sense that you're basically betting like our best version of
ourselves is healthy Lebron Ad playing at a top ten level,
Austin being the MAINO genobili of the team, and two
starting quality two and three that all come together for
a postseason run. So like, again, there's just a certain
amount of risk when you're building around a forty year
old Lebron James and an Anthony Davis who's had a
propensity to be you know, deal with injuries from time

(58:39):
to time. But I am curious to see and to
your point about like them coming out of the woodwork
with some sort of you know, random deal. It really
just matters what's available, Like that's really what matters. Like
if you have a phone call with somebody and that's like,
oh shit, we can get this guy or that guy,
then yeah, you got to explore it. But like if
those aren't available and these high quality role players available,

(59:01):
you got to go that way. It's not worth it
to just invest in two low quality starters either, right, So,
like again it's it's really hard to make a call
on these things just because we're so disconnected from it.
But anyway, Yovan, we've already taken too much of your time.
I really appreciate you making this work on short notice.
It's good to see you again. It's been too long.
I would imagine you and I are gonna have a
lot to talk about over the course of the next month.

(59:23):
Isn't it funny how the NBA season works where it's
like it's just it's like, oh, here's the trophy. On Monday,
it's the Celtics are are champions, and then it's like
JJ Redicket's hired, the draft is on Wednesday, free agency
starts that weekend or whatever, like it just never freaking ends. Man,
before we get out here, why don't you tell us
about what you're working on over at the Athletic right
now and on your YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Yeah, so I will be reporting out the JJ Redick
press conference whenever. That likely Monday or Tuesday. He actually
turns forty on Mondays, so I wonder if he gets
the day off from doing the buzzsaw of media that
that's gonna be fitting for him asking about podcasting and
all that stuff. But uh, yeah, so we'll be reporting

(01:00:05):
all that out at the Athletics, So make sure to
subscribe and then also make sure to check out my
YouTube channel. You can just search you govom booha or
Booja's block. That is my video podcast on there. So
we'll be also reacting and uncovering everything that we're reporting out,
so be on the lookout for that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Thanks again, Yovan. Everybody get over there and subscribe to
Yovon's YouTube channel as well as supporting his workover at
the Athletic. We are going to take the rest of
the weekend off. On Monday, we have Sam Vassini, also
from the Athletic, coming on the show. We're going to
break down the NBA draft everything I talked about at
the end of this week in terms of the five
biggest takeaways from the postseason and the mail bag. Thanks
to the JJ redick Hier, we are pushing that to

(01:00:45):
Tuesday Wednesday next week and then we will be reacting
to the NBA Draft on Thursday morning. As always, I
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show and we
will be back after the weekend on Monday.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
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Hoops Tonight - How JJ Redick SOLD Lakers on vision, why LeBron James & Anthony Davis will thrive

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