February 11, 2025 • 21 mins
Jason Timpf returns to react to NBA superstar Luka Doncic’s first game as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. Timpf explains why LeBron James’ newest high-profile teammate immediately raises the Lake Show’s offensive ceiling, despite Jason growing concerned about L.A.’s defense with the departure of star forward Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks. Timpf breaks down all of the action in the Lakers’ dominant 132-113 victory which saw Luka Magic score 14 points in 24 minutes as he attempts to shake the rust off of a weeks-long injury. Then, Jason explains why Luka and LeBron’s pairing with lob threat Jaxson Hayes is proving to be an effective band-aid after Los Angeles failed to acquire Charlotte Hornets big man Mark Williams at the NBA trade deadline. Finally, Jason closes the show out by explaining why Luka Doncic’s impact on the Lakers could prove to be invaluable as one of the Association’s premiere franchises fights for another Larry O’Brien trophy.
Timeline
4:15 - Intro
6:45 - Jason reacts to Luka Doncic’s Los Angeles Lakers Debut
9:00 - What does the Luka acquisition mean for LeBron?
12:15 - Timpf on what makes Luka such an unstoppable force
14:00 - Was Jason WRONG about Jaxson Hayes?
17:45 - How Luka’s defensive liability affects the Lakers
24:00 - Final thoughts from around the NBA
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The volume. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season?
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see DKG dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome
to Hoops tonight here at the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody.
Hope all of you guys are having a great week.
In this episode, we're just going to be hitting Luca's
(01:51):
debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. We're going to be
doing two episodes today. There's a lot of Lakers excitement.
I'm going to be covering a lot of Laker games
throughout the rest of the season. Obviously as a fan,
I'm gonna have a take. I'm gonna be watching all
those games. I want to get that content out there,
but I don't want to inundate you guys with it.
So I'm gonna be working on kind of separating Lakers
content from the rest of our content as much as possible.
(02:14):
Moving forward, we do have another episode coming out today.
We're gonna do a deep dive on the Milwaukee Bucks.
I've been really excited about Kyle Kuzma's early returns. We're
gonna talk some Warriors in that one, couple other teams
as well. So we will have another episode coming out today,
just Luca's debut with the Lakers. In this one, though,
you guys are the job before we get started, Subscribe
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
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(02:56):
in our Friday mail bags throughout the remainder of the season.
All right, lealk some basketball. So Luca's debut with the
Lakers a really weird game because the Jazz are just
really bad, and the Jazz are also a legit like
switch everything one through five no matter what type of team,
and so all your ball screen actions are kind of
shut down, and the only way you're really gonna get
(03:19):
advantages is by like slipping out of switches ceiling switches
or attacking one on one and drawing hell right, And
the biggest thing that stood out to me in this
game was their ability to consistently get dribble penetration. There
was good action too, JJ talked about in the postgame
press or how they ran a three man horn set
(03:39):
with Luca Lebron in Austin one time in the game
and got a wide open shot for Rui Hachimura, and
it was they made so Austin was at the top,
Lebron and Luca were at the elbows. Luca's on the
left elbow. Austin makes a post entry to Luca and
then cuts off of Lebron, And when he cuts off Lebron,
Lebron sets a good screen that obviously triggers the switch.
But Jordan clark was guarding Austin. Lebron just sealed him
(04:02):
and created that over the top passing angle. Luca threw
it to him. Now, all of a sudden, Jordan Clarkson's
trapped on Lebron's backside, so there's nobody in front of him.
If you don't step up, Lebron's gonna go to the rim.
Ruy Hachimura's man who was in the corner, steps over
to help on Lebron. Lebron makes the kickout past to
Ruey wide open three. That's the type of action that
they'll have to run more frequently against some of the
(04:24):
better teams in the league when it's just a little
bit harder to break down individual defenders. But they did
get good stuff out out of action. There were some
other examples, like Rui's first dunk, in the game. Along
the baseline, Luca set a screen for Ruy Along the baseline,
Isaiah Collier was guarding Luca and was really hesitant to
switch off of Luca, and so he did it. John
(04:44):
Collins got caught on the screen. Ruey Hachimura got a dunk,
even the lob dunk that Jackson Hayes got to start
the second half, same sort of concept, a little wide
screen between Luca and Jackson Hayes. Isaiah Collier did not
want to switch off of Luca. He was kind of
hesitant on that, but they did switch off of Jackson Hayes.
So Luca just threw the lob right up to Jackson
(05:05):
and he got it dunk. There were examples of them
getting good stuff out of action, and especially against more
traditional coverages, they're going to get a lot of stuff
out of action. But again, by far, the biggest thing
that stood out to me was their ability to get
drible penetration. Luca has this remarkable ability to turn any
small gap or small angle into a full blown drive
(05:27):
to the rim, and part of it is his incredible
ability to use fakes. He just says he's really good
at Like I talk about this all the time when
he was in Dallas. But he will sell every part
of every move with every part of his body. So,
like I talk about this all the time, instead of
like doing a big sweeping crossover, it makes more sense
just to face this way and then completely change direction.
(05:48):
If you sell it with your eyes, and you sell
it with your shoulders, and you sell it with your hips,
the defender's going to react. Most good defenders don't watch
the ball. They watch like your center of gravity to
see where your body's going. And you sell that direction
chain and then you pull the ball back across right.
Like It's more about those little head fakes and body
fakes to get players out of position. He's great with
he's great with pump fakes, he's great with pass fakes.
(06:10):
He can do all these things to get guys out
of position. And once he gets that tiny little angle,
that's where his strength takes over. He's just so big
and so strong that he can turn a small gap
into like a lumbering drive to the rim because he
gets you caught on his shoulder or caught on his backside.
And his drives have a tendency to bring in a
ton of help because they are slow he like rumbles
(06:33):
downhill and everybody reacts to it, And because he's such
a threat to throw the lob pass, everyone kind of
overreacts to stuff in the paint and that's what opens
up those kickout reads. Did you notice how much Lebron
was pressuring the rim last night? A big part of
that is because he doesn't have to create every single shot,
he doesn't have to worry about burning himself out. He's
(06:54):
also clearly very excited right now. That plays a role
in it. But did you notice that he was, like
on those switches, being aggressive downhill, pressuring the rim. He
kind of gets choppy with his feet and tries to
get ahead of steam so that he gets his body
weight going downhill, and guys just don't want to get
in the way of him. Like, there's a certain amount
of energy that Lebron can afford to expand on each
(07:15):
individual iso, on each individual post up, on each individual
ball screen, simply because he has less to do on
the offensive end of the floor. I thought Lebron was
fantastic in this game. He's been great for a while.
JJ Reddick talked after the game about how ever, since
the Miami game, they had a talk and then if
you guys remember the Miami game was when I had
my meltown and I was like, what the hell is
(07:35):
wrong with these guys? You know, and JJ sat down
with Lebron, and ever since then, he's been fantastic. I
dug into the numbers. Since that Miami game, he's averaging
twenty six point four points per game, eight rebounds per game,
nine assists per game, fifty four percent from the field,
forty three percent from three eight thirty point games, four
(07:56):
triple doubles. He's playing at a top five level right now,
which is what's so excited about partnering him with Lebron James,
with the other talent on this roster, I thought Austin
was fantastic. Again, he had to lead a unit in
the early second quarter with Lebron, excuse me, in the
late first quarter with Lebron and Luca both off the
floor because Luca was on a minute's restriction. Now, I
(08:17):
would expect that it'll be like all three of them
to start games. Then Lebron will come out and it'll
be Luca and Austin right in that like mid first
quarter stretch, and then one of those guys will come
out probably probably Luca, and it'll be Austin and Lebron
to end the first quarter, and then they'll probably start
the second quarter with Lebron and Luca. Then Lebron will
(08:38):
come out in the middle of the second quarter, it'll
be Luca and Austin, and then it'll be all three
of them at the end. Right, that's probably going to
be the normal progression. You're probably always going to have
to deal with two of those guys, right, And that's
the exciting part about this in the big picture, And
I was literally thinking about it last night, like there's
been a lot of time over the course of the
last couple of weeks where the Lakers have been playing
really good basketball, but over the course of games, teams
(09:00):
will ball pressure Austin and ball pressure Lebron and wear
them down. And Lebron is forty and Austin is a
little bit susceptible to strength and athleticism from time and
from time to time, and they will wear down. And
they've been playing so great that they've still been winning,
and Austin still made enough plays in the Pacers game
to get the job done, and they do what they
need to do to get the win. But there's clearly
(09:23):
like a little bit of like a Okay, we're running
out of gas offensively here, where adding Luca just immediately
doesn't just address that but turns you into the most
resilient shot creation team in the league. To just be
dealing with waves of all three of them, and then
Luca and Austin, and then Luca and Lebron and then
Luca and then all three of them again, and it's
(09:43):
just gonna be Lebron and Austin here and all these
just these groups that have so much shot creation on
the floor, they're just gonna have such a resilient offense.
But again, because of Luca's minutes restriction, Austin had to
lead a unit by himself. And guess what, He's been
doing that a lot this year, and he did it
amazingly well again last night in that first quarter stretch.
(10:03):
One of the biggest things, though, that I was excited
about after this trade was the play finishing that is
on this froster. Okay, like Luca's an indomitable force, there
are a handful of guys in the league that can
make him work harder than usual. I think of like
lou Dort, I think of like Andrew Wiggins, who's not
even in the conference anymore. But even some of the
best perimeter defenders in the league, guys like Jaden McDaniels
(10:24):
right in the Western Conference finals, those guys can't keep
him from getting to his spots. As a matter of fact,
he kind of gets where he wants to easily against them.
That is the superpower that will help this offense when
things get really tough. But the other guys do have
some limitations. Right Lebron's forty. There's a couple times last
night where he tried to turn the corner on Lourie
Markinen and just couldn't get there. Laurie was like blocking
(10:45):
him off the glass or forcing him into bad misses
five years ago. He's dounking on his head. But he's forty, right,
and he can wear down a little bit physically over
the course of games. Although to Lebron's credit, he's been
fantastic out of late. As of late, and that's the
optimism with this group. But Lebron is forty years old.
Austin Reeves, for example, not a great athlete. He can
struggle under ball pressure sometimes Ruey if it's not a
(11:05):
dunk under the rim like he's shooting under fifty percent
on layups right and his jumper under contests can get
a little finicky sometimes. Point being they're awesome offensive players,
but they have some limitations when they're in lead roles.
For all three of those guys, right, but once you
give them an advantage, if you let Lebron have someone
sprinting at him and now he's playing driving kick basketball.
(11:28):
If you let Lebron slip out of screens to where
he can lead a four on three, if you put
Austin on the perimeter with the guy sprinting at him
where he can show the ball and drive left or right.
If you put Ruey wide open where he's shooting fifty
three percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this
year field goal percentage, meaning he's making more than half
of them with what he can do driving closeouts. Gabe
(11:50):
has been playing super well again. He was a big
part of that Austin solo unit that did so well.
Dorian Finney Smith can knock down and open three. Jackson Hayes,
like I talked a lot after the Mark Williams trade
went through or fell through about how like not having
Mark as like a roleman threat could be a significant
(12:10):
hit to this offense. After watching last night, like I thought,
Jackson did just find capitalizing on all the vertical spacing opportunities.
I believe he was six for six from the field
if I remember correctly, Like I think he's not as
good as Mark Williams, but I think he's gonna do
just fine unlocking that vertical spacing. The point is is
there's just a ton of play finishing on this roster.
(12:32):
So if you have Luca, who against the very best
defenses in the league and against the very best defenders
in the league, can still create advantages, and Lebron, who
kind of looks like he's still doing it for whatever reason.
And let's say, let's even pretend for a second that
Lebron eventually kind of wears down over the course of
a playoff run and doesn't look like top five Lebron
(12:54):
but looks like top ten Lebron. Even if that happens,
Luca is there to create the sh'll advantage once he
creates that initial advantage. Lebron and Austin and Gabe and
Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey, those guys are incredible at
this driving kick thing, and They're just gonna take those
advantages and either score out of them or drive them
(13:16):
and draw another defender and create an even better shot.
There were so many sequences last night where the Lakers
continued to break down the defense and would get like
a really good look with like two or three seconds
on the shot clock. It's like, oh, Lebron's driving on
like the fourth driving kick of the possession and whipping
a pass back across the court to Gabe Vincent who
(13:37):
knocks it down. Or all of the possession is great
defense from the Jazz and everything's covered. But Walker Kessler
is on Austin In a switch on the left wing,
and Austin just pump fakes on a close out. You
get the end of the possession is you get a
short close out for Austin on the left wing against
Walker Kessler. Austin shows the ball, Walker over pursues that
(13:59):
pump fake, Austin drives and hits a little bank shot
with like two on the shot clock. That is play finishing.
I talk about this all the time when you go
into lower levels. It's dramatic the difference at the high
school level. If I let the guys play King of
the Court, with a set defender versus a king of
the court with a guy closing out at him. Their
ability to score like quadruples. And when you give them
(14:20):
that advantage. Now again at the NBA level, it's a
smaller advantage. It's more like maybe twenty to thirty percent
more efficient per possession. But that's a substantial increase that
you can benefit from because now you have the best
set of advantage creators that are in the NBA. And
I thought that was screaming off the screen yesterday. Ruey
was fantastic finishing plays, Jackson, finishing plays Lebron and Austin
(14:43):
and the driving kick. Even Luca like catching in transition
when he's got an opportunity and driving and just baiting
everybody into him with his slow, lumbering drives and flipping
the ball up to Jackson Hayes. I thought their transition
pushes were really good. I thought they played with a
lot of pace, and I thought they did a good
job of just creating advantages just by playing fast on
the defensive end of the floor. I didn't think they
(15:05):
really defended all that well last night. I thought Vando
had his worst game since he came back the whole
group wasn't particularly engaged, but Utah didn't shoot well and
they turned the ball over a ton, so it didn't
really matter. And I don't really care because they're playing
a bad team. They're kicking the shit out of them,
and the kind of the silver lining there, the point
of optimism is the Lakers are eleven and two in
(15:27):
their last thirteen games. That's the best record in the
league in that span. But it's the number one defense
in the league over that span. For thirteen games now,
no one's been getting stops better than the Los Angeles Lakers. Now,
Do I think they're going to be that good with Luca, No,
that's just the reality of having Luke on the floor.
By the way, he looked kind of chubbying, kind of
slow last night, but again he was kind of chubbying,
(15:48):
kind of slow in the playoffs last year too. I
still think they're going to be pretty good on defense, though,
I'll be looking at the game in Portland on the twentieth,
So if you look at the schedule now, they play
Utah again in Utah tomorrow, then they get a big break,
and then on the nineteenth they play the Hornets and
then they go to Portland on the twentieth. Portland's won
(16:08):
six games in a row at home and they beat
some good teams there. So that's gonna be a tough game.
And that's what I'm gonna have my eye on as
like a test for the Lakers defenses because they have
a lot of speed and they're gonna put the Lakers
in some predicaments in terms of their defensive personnel, and
that'll be a good test for them. But again, as
I look at the Lakers defensively, I don't see them
as like a group that's gonna be some elite top
(16:30):
three defense, even though they've been playing great defense as
of late. The idea here is have achieved peak unguardability
on offense like Denver did in twenty twenty three, and
find a way to be good enough on defense somewhere
in that ten to fifteen range, like ideally in the
five to in they're like six to ten range, right
like just outside of that top five. If they can
get up into that range consistently defensively, that's where this
(16:53):
group has some championship potential. Again, as long as they
can catch some favorable matchups and as long as they
get the type of center that they need. Right. But again,
like I'm not reading too much into the defense last night,
just because they were playing the Jazz. A couple other
(17:17):
things before we get out of here. Jordan Goodwin, he
in the last two games with the Lakers, seemingly has
gotten a million loose balls, grabbing offensive rebounds. Every time
there's a scrum, he just somehow ends up with it.
There was one last night, I think it was John Collins,
I can't remember exactly, but it looked like a Jazz
player had the rebound and next thing you know, Jordan
(17:38):
Goodwin has it and is laying it up underneath the basket.
And it's like there's a gift that some players have.
And I see this with Jimmy Butler with the Warriors too.
It's been screaming off the screen for me. But like
Jordan good there are certain players that just have a
knack for scrapping for the ball, like they have a
nose for the ball, they have ability to they just
have an ability to get to the ball somehow, whether
(17:59):
it's an instinct to be able to understand where it's going,
whether it's a scrappiness and a fight, whether it's just
hand eye coordination. I don't know what it is, but
Jordan Couldwin has been really really good just by scrapping
and creating extra possessions, and like ironically in garbage time
he got in there and just got a crazy heater
from the mid range as a jump shooter and ended
(18:20):
up hitting the three as well. Like Jordan showed a
little off the dribble pop last night as well. But
like that scrappiness, if you look at the Lakers guards
right now, it's Gabe who's small, and Austin who's thin.
Jordan's kind of like an interesting option there. Makes me
wonder if he keeps playing like this, if the Lakers
will consider waving Shake Milton and converting him into a
(18:41):
standard contract to see if he can get onto the
playoff roster. But I've been really impressed by Jordan Goodwin.
And as far as that like knows for the ball thing,
that's another thing that stands out to me every time
I watch Luca, and really this really comes to the
surface with his defensive rebounding. Luca has a knack for
seeing where the ball is gonna come off of the
rim by just watching the shooter, and he just kind
of finds that gap and gets in there, and he
(19:02):
gets a ton of defensive rebounds, And I think that's
gonna be huge, especially for the Lakers small ball groups
who could struggle with rebounding from time to time depending
on the matchup. But the last thing I was gonna
talk about with the Lakers was the Alex Lenn news.
So Alex Lenn ended up backing out of his commitment
to the Indiana Pacers. I think he's gonna end up
signing with the Lakers. You know, as I look at it,
(19:25):
if you were gonna if you're gonna look at vetmin
type of dudes, right you've got You've already got Christian
KloCo on the roster as kind of like a raw
prospect who's a defensive mold. You have Jackson Hayes on
the roster as your starter right now, is like the
rim running role man kind of thing, right, Well, you
don't have in terms of like a real contracted player.
(19:47):
Is a big, strong kind of guy. And Alex Llne's
two hundred and fifty pounds, which is at least an
option to put out there for some of the bigger centers. Now,
you might argue that Trey Jamison or Trey Jemison is
every bit is good an option there. If not better,
we'll see. But like I do have a feeling it's
going to end up being Alex lenn that signs with
the Lakers. If you just look at it, it's like,
(20:07):
why would he back out of the Indiana Pacers commitment?
That obviously has ramifications for his agency in terms of
his credibility for backing out of like a verbal commitment,
So like there's there's obviously downsides there, And the only
reason I could think of him doing that is if
he thought he was going to slot right into the
Lakers starting lineup or into the Lakers rotation in a
significant context. So I have a feeling it's going to
(20:28):
end up being Alex lenn hadn't played him a ton
in the last couple of years, and I don't hate
the idea of having a big, big seven footers two
hundred and fifty pounds in that type of spot. But
I still think in the big picture, Alex Lenz still
still lends this team towards being primarily a small ball group,
a group that's going to be operating without a center
on the floor. In the majority of these situations when
(20:51):
the when the chips are down in the playoffs. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today, or excuse me,
all I have for this morning. I'm going to have
another video coming out this afternoon with a bunch of
others up around the league. Again, I appreciate you guys
for rocking with me and I will see you later
today the volume What's Up? Guys. As always, I appreciate
you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would
(21:12):
actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
take a second and leave a rating and a review.
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
The volume. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season?
You are with all the new ways to get in
on the action at Draft Kings sports Book, an official
sports betting partner of the NBA. From Monster Slams to
dishing the rock to cleaning the glass, get behind your
favorite players and the prop bets you can make on DraftKings,
the home of NBA player props. Ready to place your
first bet, Try betting on something simple like picking how
(00:22):
many points your favorite player will have. Go to the
Draft Kings Sportsbook app and make your pick right now.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have supplanted the Celtics as the
favorite on DraftKings to win the title at plus two thirty.
The Celtics and second at plus two to fifty, and
the Los Angeles Lakers leapt all the way up to
the fifth best title odds right now at plus fifteen hundred.
First time, here's something special just for you new DraftKings customers.
(00:44):
Bet five dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars
in bonus bets. Instantly take it to the rack with
DraftKings sports Book, Every point counts. Download the Draft Kings
sports Book a gap and use code Hoops. That's Hops,
that's code Hoops for new customers to get one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets when you bet five
bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem
called one hundred gambler In New York call eight seven
(01:06):
seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why
to four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help
us available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven
eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org.
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty
eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,
(01:29):
see DKG dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome
to Hoops tonight here at the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody.
Hope all of you guys are having a great week.
In this episode, we're just going to be hitting Luca's
(01:51):
debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. We're going to be
doing two episodes today. There's a lot of Lakers excitement.
I'm going to be covering a lot of Laker games
throughout the rest of the season. Obviously as a fan,
I'm gonna have a take. I'm gonna be watching all
those games. I want to get that content out there,
but I don't want to inundate you guys with it.
So I'm gonna be working on kind of separating Lakers
content from the rest of our content as much as possible.
(02:14):
Moving forward, we do have another episode coming out today.
We're gonna do a deep dive on the Milwaukee Bucks.
I've been really excited about Kyle Kuzma's early returns. We're
gonna talk some Warriors in that one, couple other teams
as well. So we will have another episode coming out today,
just Luca's debut with the Lakers. In this one, though,
you guys are the job before we get started, Subscribe
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
(02:35):
json LTS. You guys don't miss any show announcements. Don't
forget about our podcast feed, where we get your podcast
un our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you
leave a rating and a review on that front. We
also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the rest of the season.
Make sure you guys follow us there. In the last
but not least, on Fridays, we do mail bags. Drop
questions in the YouTube comments. We will get to those
(02:56):
in our Friday mail bags throughout the remainder of the season.
All right, lealk some basketball. So Luca's debut with the
Lakers a really weird game because the Jazz are just
really bad, and the Jazz are also a legit like
switch everything one through five no matter what type of team,
and so all your ball screen actions are kind of
shut down, and the only way you're really gonna get
(03:19):
advantages is by like slipping out of switches ceiling switches
or attacking one on one and drawing hell right, And
the biggest thing that stood out to me in this
game was their ability to consistently get dribble penetration. There
was good action too, JJ talked about in the postgame
press or how they ran a three man horn set
(03:39):
with Luca Lebron in Austin one time in the game
and got a wide open shot for Rui Hachimura, and
it was they made so Austin was at the top,
Lebron and Luca were at the elbows. Luca's on the
left elbow. Austin makes a post entry to Luca and
then cuts off of Lebron, And when he cuts off Lebron,
Lebron sets a good screen that obviously triggers the switch.
But Jordan clark was guarding Austin. Lebron just sealed him
(04:02):
and created that over the top passing angle. Luca threw
it to him. Now, all of a sudden, Jordan Clarkson's
trapped on Lebron's backside, so there's nobody in front of him.
If you don't step up, Lebron's gonna go to the rim.
Ruy Hachimura's man who was in the corner, steps over
to help on Lebron. Lebron makes the kickout past to
Ruey wide open three. That's the type of action that
they'll have to run more frequently against some of the
(04:24):
better teams in the league when it's just a little
bit harder to break down individual defenders. But they did
get good stuff out out of action. There were some
other examples, like Rui's first dunk, in the game. Along
the baseline, Luca set a screen for Ruy Along the baseline,
Isaiah Collier was guarding Luca and was really hesitant to
switch off of Luca, and so he did it. John
(04:44):
Collins got caught on the screen. Ruey Hachimura got a dunk,
even the lob dunk that Jackson Hayes got to start
the second half, same sort of concept, a little wide
screen between Luca and Jackson Hayes. Isaiah Collier did not
want to switch off of Luca. He was kind of
hesitant on that, but they did switch off of Jackson Hayes.
So Luca just threw the lob right up to Jackson
(05:05):
and he got it dunk. There were examples of them
getting good stuff out of action, and especially against more
traditional coverages, they're going to get a lot of stuff
out of action. But again, by far, the biggest thing
that stood out to me was their ability to get
drible penetration. Luca has this remarkable ability to turn any
small gap or small angle into a full blown drive
(05:27):
to the rim, and part of it is his incredible
ability to use fakes. He just says he's really good
at Like I talk about this all the time when
he was in Dallas. But he will sell every part
of every move with every part of his body. So,
like I talk about this all the time, instead of
like doing a big sweeping crossover, it makes more sense
just to face this way and then completely change direction.
(05:48):
If you sell it with your eyes, and you sell
it with your shoulders, and you sell it with your hips,
the defender's going to react. Most good defenders don't watch
the ball. They watch like your center of gravity to
see where your body's going. And you sell that direction
chain and then you pull the ball back across right.
Like It's more about those little head fakes and body
fakes to get players out of position. He's great with
he's great with pump fakes, he's great with pass fakes.
(06:10):
He can do all these things to get guys out
of position. And once he gets that tiny little angle,
that's where his strength takes over. He's just so big
and so strong that he can turn a small gap
into like a lumbering drive to the rim because he
gets you caught on his shoulder or caught on his backside.
And his drives have a tendency to bring in a
ton of help because they are slow he like rumbles
(06:33):
downhill and everybody reacts to it, And because he's such
a threat to throw the lob pass, everyone kind of
overreacts to stuff in the paint and that's what opens
up those kickout reads. Did you notice how much Lebron
was pressuring the rim last night? A big part of
that is because he doesn't have to create every single shot,
he doesn't have to worry about burning himself out. He's
(06:54):
also clearly very excited right now. That plays a role
in it. But did you notice that he was, like
on those switches, being aggressive downhill, pressuring the rim. He
kind of gets choppy with his feet and tries to
get ahead of steam so that he gets his body
weight going downhill, and guys just don't want to get
in the way of him. Like, there's a certain amount
of energy that Lebron can afford to expand on each
(07:15):
individual iso, on each individual post up, on each individual
ball screen, simply because he has less to do on
the offensive end of the floor. I thought Lebron was
fantastic in this game. He's been great for a while.
JJ Reddick talked after the game about how ever, since
the Miami game, they had a talk and then if
you guys remember the Miami game was when I had
my meltown and I was like, what the hell is
(07:35):
wrong with these guys? You know, and JJ sat down
with Lebron, and ever since then, he's been fantastic. I
dug into the numbers. Since that Miami game, he's averaging
twenty six point four points per game, eight rebounds per game,
nine assists per game, fifty four percent from the field,
forty three percent from three eight thirty point games, four
(07:56):
triple doubles. He's playing at a top five level right now,
which is what's so excited about partnering him with Lebron James,
with the other talent on this roster, I thought Austin
was fantastic. Again, he had to lead a unit in
the early second quarter with Lebron, excuse me, in the
late first quarter with Lebron and Luca both off the
floor because Luca was on a minute's restriction. Now, I
(08:17):
would expect that it'll be like all three of them
to start games. Then Lebron will come out and it'll
be Luca and Austin right in that like mid first
quarter stretch, and then one of those guys will come
out probably probably Luca, and it'll be Austin and Lebron
to end the first quarter, and then they'll probably start
the second quarter with Lebron and Luca. Then Lebron will
(08:38):
come out in the middle of the second quarter, it'll
be Luca and Austin, and then it'll be all three
of them at the end. Right, that's probably going to
be the normal progression. You're probably always going to have
to deal with two of those guys, right, And that's
the exciting part about this in the big picture, And
I was literally thinking about it last night, like there's
been a lot of time over the course of the
last couple of weeks where the Lakers have been playing
really good basketball, but over the course of games, teams
(09:00):
will ball pressure Austin and ball pressure Lebron and wear
them down. And Lebron is forty and Austin is a
little bit susceptible to strength and athleticism from time and
from time to time, and they will wear down. And
they've been playing so great that they've still been winning,
and Austin still made enough plays in the Pacers game
to get the job done, and they do what they
need to do to get the win. But there's clearly
(09:23):
like a little bit of like a Okay, we're running
out of gas offensively here, where adding Luca just immediately
doesn't just address that but turns you into the most
resilient shot creation team in the league. To just be
dealing with waves of all three of them, and then
Luca and Austin, and then Luca and Lebron and then
Luca and then all three of them again, and it's
(09:43):
just gonna be Lebron and Austin here and all these
just these groups that have so much shot creation on
the floor, they're just gonna have such a resilient offense.
But again, because of Luca's minutes restriction, Austin had to
lead a unit by himself. And guess what, He's been
doing that a lot this year, and he did it
amazingly well again last night in that first quarter stretch.
(10:03):
One of the biggest things, though, that I was excited
about after this trade was the play finishing that is
on this froster. Okay, like Luca's an indomitable force, there
are a handful of guys in the league that can
make him work harder than usual. I think of like
lou Dort, I think of like Andrew Wiggins, who's not
even in the conference anymore. But even some of the
best perimeter defenders in the league, guys like Jaden McDaniels
(10:24):
right in the Western Conference finals, those guys can't keep
him from getting to his spots. As a matter of fact,
he kind of gets where he wants to easily against them.
That is the superpower that will help this offense when
things get really tough. But the other guys do have
some limitations. Right Lebron's forty. There's a couple times last
night where he tried to turn the corner on Lourie
Markinen and just couldn't get there. Laurie was like blocking
(10:45):
him off the glass or forcing him into bad misses
five years ago. He's dounking on his head. But he's forty, right,
and he can wear down a little bit physically over
the course of games. Although to Lebron's credit, he's been
fantastic out of late. As of late, and that's the
optimism with this group. But Lebron is forty years old.
Austin Reeves, for example, not a great athlete. He can
struggle under ball pressure sometimes Ruey if it's not a
(11:05):
dunk under the rim like he's shooting under fifty percent
on layups right and his jumper under contests can get
a little finicky sometimes. Point being they're awesome offensive players,
but they have some limitations when they're in lead roles.
For all three of those guys, right, but once you
give them an advantage, if you let Lebron have someone
sprinting at him and now he's playing driving kick basketball.
(11:28):
If you let Lebron slip out of screens to where
he can lead a four on three, if you put
Austin on the perimeter with the guy sprinting at him
where he can show the ball and drive left or right.
If you put Ruey wide open where he's shooting fifty
three percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this
year field goal percentage, meaning he's making more than half
of them with what he can do driving closeouts. Gabe
(11:50):
has been playing super well again. He was a big
part of that Austin solo unit that did so well.
Dorian Finney Smith can knock down and open three. Jackson Hayes,
like I talked a lot after the Mark Williams trade
went through or fell through about how like not having
Mark as like a roleman threat could be a significant
(12:10):
hit to this offense. After watching last night, like I thought,
Jackson did just find capitalizing on all the vertical spacing opportunities.
I believe he was six for six from the field
if I remember correctly, Like I think he's not as
good as Mark Williams, but I think he's gonna do
just fine unlocking that vertical spacing. The point is is
there's just a ton of play finishing on this roster.
(12:32):
So if you have Luca, who against the very best
defenses in the league and against the very best defenders
in the league, can still create advantages, and Lebron, who
kind of looks like he's still doing it for whatever reason.
And let's say, let's even pretend for a second that
Lebron eventually kind of wears down over the course of
a playoff run and doesn't look like top five Lebron
(12:54):
but looks like top ten Lebron. Even if that happens,
Luca is there to create the sh'll advantage once he
creates that initial advantage. Lebron and Austin and Gabe and
Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey, those guys are incredible at
this driving kick thing, and They're just gonna take those
advantages and either score out of them or drive them
(13:16):
and draw another defender and create an even better shot.
There were so many sequences last night where the Lakers
continued to break down the defense and would get like
a really good look with like two or three seconds
on the shot clock. It's like, oh, Lebron's driving on
like the fourth driving kick of the possession and whipping
a pass back across the court to Gabe Vincent who
(13:37):
knocks it down. Or all of the possession is great
defense from the Jazz and everything's covered. But Walker Kessler
is on Austin In a switch on the left wing,
and Austin just pump fakes on a close out. You
get the end of the possession is you get a
short close out for Austin on the left wing against
Walker Kessler. Austin shows the ball, Walker over pursues that
(13:59):
pump fake, Austin drives and hits a little bank shot
with like two on the shot clock. That is play finishing.
I talk about this all the time when you go
into lower levels. It's dramatic the difference at the high
school level. If I let the guys play King of
the Court, with a set defender versus a king of
the court with a guy closing out at him. Their
ability to score like quadruples. And when you give them
(14:20):
that advantage. Now again at the NBA level, it's a
smaller advantage. It's more like maybe twenty to thirty percent
more efficient per possession. But that's a substantial increase that
you can benefit from because now you have the best
set of advantage creators that are in the NBA. And
I thought that was screaming off the screen yesterday. Ruey
was fantastic finishing plays, Jackson, finishing plays Lebron and Austin
(14:43):
and the driving kick. Even Luca like catching in transition
when he's got an opportunity and driving and just baiting
everybody into him with his slow, lumbering drives and flipping
the ball up to Jackson Hayes. I thought their transition
pushes were really good. I thought they played with a
lot of pace, and I thought they did a good
job of just creating advantages just by playing fast on
the defensive end of the floor. I didn't think they
(15:05):
really defended all that well last night. I thought Vando
had his worst game since he came back the whole
group wasn't particularly engaged, but Utah didn't shoot well and
they turned the ball over a ton, so it didn't
really matter. And I don't really care because they're playing
a bad team. They're kicking the shit out of them,
and the kind of the silver lining there, the point
of optimism is the Lakers are eleven and two in
(15:27):
their last thirteen games. That's the best record in the
league in that span. But it's the number one defense
in the league over that span. For thirteen games now,
no one's been getting stops better than the Los Angeles Lakers. Now,
Do I think they're going to be that good with Luca, No,
that's just the reality of having Luke on the floor.
By the way, he looked kind of chubbying, kind of
slow last night, but again he was kind of chubbying,
(15:48):
kind of slow in the playoffs last year too. I
still think they're going to be pretty good on defense, though,
I'll be looking at the game in Portland on the twentieth,
So if you look at the schedule now, they play
Utah again in Utah tomorrow, then they get a big break,
and then on the nineteenth they play the Hornets and
then they go to Portland on the twentieth. Portland's won
(16:08):
six games in a row at home and they beat
some good teams there. So that's gonna be a tough game.
And that's what I'm gonna have my eye on as
like a test for the Lakers defenses because they have
a lot of speed and they're gonna put the Lakers
in some predicaments in terms of their defensive personnel, and
that'll be a good test for them. But again, as
I look at the Lakers defensively, I don't see them
as like a group that's gonna be some elite top
(16:30):
three defense, even though they've been playing great defense as
of late. The idea here is have achieved peak unguardability
on offense like Denver did in twenty twenty three, and
find a way to be good enough on defense somewhere
in that ten to fifteen range, like ideally in the
five to in they're like six to ten range, right
like just outside of that top five. If they can
get up into that range consistently defensively, that's where this
(16:53):
group has some championship potential. Again, as long as they
can catch some favorable matchups and as long as they
get the type of center that they need. Right. But again,
like I'm not reading too much into the defense last night,
just because they were playing the Jazz. A couple other
(17:17):
things before we get out of here. Jordan Goodwin, he
in the last two games with the Lakers, seemingly has
gotten a million loose balls, grabbing offensive rebounds. Every time
there's a scrum, he just somehow ends up with it.
There was one last night, I think it was John Collins,
I can't remember exactly, but it looked like a Jazz
player had the rebound and next thing you know, Jordan
(17:38):
Goodwin has it and is laying it up underneath the basket.
And it's like there's a gift that some players have.
And I see this with Jimmy Butler with the Warriors too.
It's been screaming off the screen for me. But like
Jordan good there are certain players that just have a
knack for scrapping for the ball, like they have a
nose for the ball, they have ability to they just
have an ability to get to the ball somehow, whether
(17:59):
it's an instinct to be able to understand where it's going,
whether it's a scrappiness and a fight, whether it's just
hand eye coordination. I don't know what it is, but
Jordan Couldwin has been really really good just by scrapping
and creating extra possessions, and like ironically in garbage time
he got in there and just got a crazy heater
from the mid range as a jump shooter and ended
(18:20):
up hitting the three as well. Like Jordan showed a
little off the dribble pop last night as well. But
like that scrappiness, if you look at the Lakers guards
right now, it's Gabe who's small, and Austin who's thin.
Jordan's kind of like an interesting option there. Makes me
wonder if he keeps playing like this, if the Lakers
will consider waving Shake Milton and converting him into a
(18:41):
standard contract to see if he can get onto the
playoff roster. But I've been really impressed by Jordan Goodwin.
And as far as that like knows for the ball thing,
that's another thing that stands out to me every time
I watch Luca, and really this really comes to the
surface with his defensive rebounding. Luca has a knack for
seeing where the ball is gonna come off of the
rim by just watching the shooter, and he just kind
of finds that gap and gets in there, and he
(19:02):
gets a ton of defensive rebounds, And I think that's
gonna be huge, especially for the Lakers small ball groups
who could struggle with rebounding from time to time depending
on the matchup. But the last thing I was gonna
talk about with the Lakers was the Alex Lenn news.
So Alex Lenn ended up backing out of his commitment
to the Indiana Pacers. I think he's gonna end up
signing with the Lakers. You know, as I look at it,
(19:25):
if you were gonna if you're gonna look at vetmin
type of dudes, right you've got You've already got Christian
KloCo on the roster as kind of like a raw
prospect who's a defensive mold. You have Jackson Hayes on
the roster as your starter right now, is like the
rim running role man kind of thing, right, Well, you
don't have in terms of like a real contracted player.
(19:47):
Is a big, strong kind of guy. And Alex Llne's
two hundred and fifty pounds, which is at least an
option to put out there for some of the bigger centers. Now,
you might argue that Trey Jamison or Trey Jemison is
every bit is good an option there. If not better,
we'll see. But like I do have a feeling it's
going to end up being Alex lenn that signs with
the Lakers. If you just look at it, it's like,
(20:07):
why would he back out of the Indiana Pacers commitment?
That obviously has ramifications for his agency in terms of
his credibility for backing out of like a verbal commitment,
So like there's there's obviously downsides there, And the only
reason I could think of him doing that is if
he thought he was going to slot right into the
Lakers starting lineup or into the Lakers rotation in a
significant context. So I have a feeling it's going to
(20:28):
end up being Alex lenn hadn't played him a ton
in the last couple of years, and I don't hate
the idea of having a big, big seven footers two
hundred and fifty pounds in that type of spot. But
I still think in the big picture, Alex Lenz still
still lends this team towards being primarily a small ball group,
a group that's going to be operating without a center
on the floor. In the majority of these situations when
(20:51):
the when the chips are down in the playoffs. All right, guys,
that is all I have for today, or excuse me,
all I have for this morning. I'm going to have
another video coming out this afternoon with a bunch of
others up around the league. Again, I appreciate you guys
for rocking with me and I will see you later
today the volume What's Up? Guys. As always, I appreciate
you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would
(21:12):
actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
take a second and leave a rating and a review.
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Host
Jason Timpf
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