January 25, 2022 • 34 mins
In this episode, Jason breaks down the Lakers win in Brooklyn. Thanks for listening!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers
as Ny by dask Raandio. Happy Tuesday, everybody, Thanks for
(00:20):
coming to hang out. Reinvigorated is the word that I
would use to describe tonight. By the way, No Roj tonight.
He's still out of town on a work trip, although
he should be back for the back to back on
Thursday and Friday this week. Um so Ryan solo tonight,
but I appreciate you guys coming to hang out. Um.
Like I said, reinvigorated. This is a team that has
struggled with belief and a willingness to do the job
(00:45):
all season. Now. To be clear, a lot of that
struggle happened with Anthony Davis on the court. But I'm
hopeful that with the combination of that infusion of talent
with Anthony Davis and just the reality of the situation,
the predicament, and the urgency that is presented by their
place and the standings, I'm hopeful that effort will be
(01:05):
less of a problem moving forward, at least as long
as guys to help you and Frank continues to play
the right guys, which I liked most of the groups
that he went with tonight, he started Stanley Johnson, which
I thought was really interesting. Trevor Reason has really been
struggling of late on both ends of the floor, and
there's a certain, you know, balance that has to be
taken there because you wonder if if Trevor Reason can
(01:28):
be useful in the long run, and the only way
to find out is to give him a long runway,
a long distance, and a lot of time for him
to figure out if, if, if his body is going
to be up to the task. And for whatever reason,
tonight was the end of that rope and ended up
being Stanley Johnson. But one of my concerns coming into
this game was gonna be Bowl trouble and because just
(01:50):
typically when you've got a guy like Stanley is super aggressive,
tons of ball pressure draped all over James Harden like that,
and you've got a guy like James Harden, who's probably
the most gifted, you know, a foul grifter in the
history of the NBA. Those two things, it was inevitable
that Stanley would get in trouble, which you did, but
it didn't matter because the Lakers played a really good
basketball team in one now to be to be clear,
(02:12):
because of injuries, uh and the Kyrie Irvan situation that
Brooklyn Nets team is not very good right now. A
lot of that is, you know, I would have picked
them the Lakers. I would have picked the Lakers to
win tonight even if Um Anthony Davis had not played,
just because this is a this is a team that
is beatabule right now. They're going through a similar stretch
(02:33):
to what the Lakers were going to going through about
a month and a half ago. They just don't have
a ton of talent. They're playing a lot of basketball
lineups that are not functional. Um that said, it was
a good win. Like Bras always says, we can't be
picking with the team like this that has struggled to
win as often as they have now. Looking at the
Anthony Davis thing, what what is so interesting is that
(02:56):
when you plug him into the line up, the entire
team just becomes that much more functional because he can
actually do the job of a starting NBA center in
this league. You know, we talked a lot about how
Lebron is. He is a center in the sense that
he can be in that position and you won't get
absolutely destroyed. But he's not a traditional center in any
(03:16):
sense of the other word, and then Dwight Howard is
a backup NBA center, so plugging someone in there that
is functional already just makes everything work so much. I
thought it was super interesting that they didn't just force
feed him in the post. They kind of used him
the way that they've been using Lebron in these small
ball lineups, where they're using him as a screener and
(03:37):
rolling to the basket. And yeah, he got a handful of,
you know, face up touches on the wing. I think
he made a pull up jumper on one of them
and drove to the baseline on the other. But he
wasn't as we were hoping, they didn't spam that the
way they did at the beginning of the year. Things
stayed free flowing and it just worked. And one of
the big reasons for that is Anthony Davis is the
(03:59):
best defense player in basketball. And I know that's a
complicated topic because there are guys that play better defense
in the NBA throughout the day in, day out grind
of the NBA regular season, but they're not capable of
the defensive ceiling that Anthony Davis is capable of. This
is something that I talked about a lot with Lebron
(04:21):
James like, if I'm if we're ranking basketball players and
who the best players in the world are, I don't
think I'd take anybody over Nice for a regular season
because the guy just has the motor and the youthful
exuberance to be what he is at his very best
night in and night out in the regular season. In
a way that someone like Lebron who can go through
(04:42):
the lethargy of just he's been in the league forever
and he's concerned about saving his legs and he's not
hyped up by big crowds anymore. Like it's you're not
going to get that same you know, effort out of
Lebron night in and night out in the regular season.
That's set when things get really important, when the basketball
games become more meaningful, when the stakes get higher, all
(05:04):
of a sudden, Lebron can tap into something that Janice can't.
He is an unbelievable defensive player. He can be like
Draymond Green when he's dialed in on that end, and
then on the offensive end. He has that unique combination
of extreme high end, elite offensive creation on the ball
(05:24):
as a score mixed with that elite high end playmaking
which only a few men of only a few players
in the league are capable of, and so Lebron can
hit this ceiling that Janice just can't hit. And it's
kind of like that with the Anthony Davis in the
regular season. It's unfortunate and it's kind of an indictment
of his motor that, for whatever reason, he hasn't been
(05:46):
able to win a Defensive Player of the Year award
or consistently be in the top of that conversation because
he struggles with that. But man, when Anthony Davis dials
it up, there's just nobody that can stay with him there.
In that first quarter, I think he had three blocks
in his first seven minute shift and was actively disrupting
(06:06):
everything Brooklyn was trying to do. And there was an
isolation possession there at the end of eighties first shift
or try to shoot a step back over the top
and eight partially blocked it. I think he got another
block there in the fourth quarter on Patty Mills. He's
just a devastating defensive weapon. And if they can combine
some of the you know, new influx of athletic talent
(06:27):
with guys like Austin Reeves and Stanley Johnson with a
more consistent motor, with a more engaged Lebron, and with
Anthony Davis being back on the floor, all of a sudden,
we're talking about a good basketball team here, and I
think that is something to get excited about. The most
important part about bringing Anthony Davis back has to do
with slotting. This idea is is all. It's when you
(06:51):
send a group of guys out onto the floor to
play basketball. Each of them has a job list of
responsibilities that they have to fill, and any five man unit,
in order to succeed, has to be able to check
a bunch of boxes on the court. But because Anthony
Davis checks so many boxes, it shrinks what everybody else
(07:12):
has to do, even Lebron, And by virtue of that,
you get everybody back into a more natural position. Now,
instead of Malik Monk doing a ton of isolating, he's
attacking closeouts. Now. Instead of a ton of Carmelo Anthony
post ups, it's Carmelo Anthony spotting up. You know, we're
gonna get into Russell Westbrook in a minute and how
(07:33):
that all works. But the point is is everyone just
kind of slots in properly now, Lebron James can not
have to be the back line defender all the time.
You can play passing lanes more. And you saw that
there in that fourth quarter where he got back to
back steals for for run out dunks. That's just all
part of the process of adding Anthony Davis to the
equation to make everyone else's job so much easier. And
(07:56):
I think that will hopefully lead to a lot of
guys who have struck gold in their specific role to
playing better. And as far as that slotting concept goes,
that goes to an even greater extent when you add
in whoever it is that the Lakers bring in at
the trade deadline. Now we're gonna talk more about the
trade deadline later. There's a bunch of you know, reporting
that has been done from various sources over the course
(08:18):
of the last week that are ranging from the Lakers
have a chance to get everybody to the Lakers aren't
going to make any moves, and we'll see what ends
up happening. But if you can bring in someone like
Eric Gordon, if you can bring in someone like Harrison Barnes,
and those are just two random names, but if you
can bring somebody like that in that helps the slotting
even more because guys like that are just capable of
(08:40):
accomplishing so much more on the court than a very
young Taylor Horton Tucker, very young Stanley Johnson or Austin Reeves.
And it just slots everybody even further into a better
position on the floor for them to succeed, for them
to play that their best, to have fewer bad nights,
and for this team to getting a real rhythm. Now
(09:02):
as far as slotting goes, this is where it gets
really interesting with Russell Westbrook because with Anthony Davis out
there was a different kind of slotting that took place.
Russell Westbrook was forced to do more, and it exposed
him as somebody who wasn't capable of doing it anymore
at this level. This is something I talked about a
ton on the show as a blate, This idea that
(09:24):
you know, Russell Westbrook because he can't shoot, and because
he's not a fantastic ball handler, and because he doesn't
have great finishing moves around the rim. There short finishing
moves you know, as far as floaters and scoop shots
and stuff like that before he gets to the rim,
and because as a playmaker, he's kind of more just
a drive into the chaos and kick it out to
(09:45):
the corner and hope for the best kind of guy.
It was only a matter of time as his athleticism
declined that he would struggle with this kind of stuff.
And you saw that to a significant extent, you know,
in this stretch without Anthony Davis. But now what you're
seeing now and Anthony Davis's back is Russ kind of
seems useless. The metaphora uses like it's like if you know,
(10:07):
some random trumpet player hopped on stage for a rock concert,
like he's just kind of out of place. It's not
that he's bad necessarily, but it's like, when you look
at all those responsibilities that I'm talking about, the stuff
that the team needs to do, all of a sudden,
Russ doesn't make a ton of sense. You know, they
don't need him to create off the dribble anymore because
(10:28):
in this five out system, they're just getting tons of
rim pressure just from all these guys that can put
the ball on the floor. Stanley Johnson can put the
ball on the floor and go to the rim. Austin
Reaves can put the ball on the floor, a very
Bradley actually is in a pretty good offensive rhythm as
of right now. There's there's just there's no need to
have this other guy that can stand at the top
of the key and and create offense. They don't need
(10:50):
that anymore. So now he's being relegated off the ball,
and when you relegate him off the ball, you're seeing
teams just completely and utterly ignored. And it didn't hurt
the Lakers tonight, but Brooklyn was basically not paying any
attention to him even when he had the ball in
his hands. There was a sequence of post up touches
in that second half where Lebron is turning and catching
(11:13):
on the wing and turning and facing and Russ has
the like kick out. Russ has the ball and James
is just like James Harden's like, I'm not going out there.
And James knows best. He literally went through this in
the Bubble Payoffs. He was on the floor getting doubled
out at half court while Russell Westbrook was standing on
(11:33):
the quarter in the corner and the Lakers were completely
ignoring him. James Harden knows this very well, so of
course he was willing to implement that same strategy against
the Lakers. We haven't seen it a ton this year
because it's the regular season and you're not going to
see some super high level, you know, uh, crazy adventurous
scheming in a regular season, But you saw it tonight
(11:54):
from Brooklyn, and what you saw there is something you're
gonna see in a large dose when we get to
the postseason. You're going to see every good defensive team
put a big, physical forward, just like the Lakers did
with Anthony Davis on Russell Westbrook. They're gonna like Phoenix,
for instance. Phoenix is probably gonna put someone like you know,
(12:14):
Jay Crowder on Lebron and then they're gonna put McHale
Bridges on Russell Westbrook and sit his ass in the paint,
having jump passing lanes, double team post ups, double team
guys drive into the basket, and it's gonna look a
heck of a lot worse than this version where the
Brooklyn Nets for doing it with Patty Mills James Harden
(12:34):
at a bunch of JE League guys. That it's only
going to get harder and harder to try to make
this work as we get further along and as better
teams are involved and I don't understand, you know, how
you can make this work with Russ on the floor
knowing that that's going to happen. Now what you saw,
(12:56):
there was a counter that the Lakers used when when
Russ was getting north like that, they put him in
the dunker spot and he actually got an and one
out of it. Here's the issue with that, though. That's
what Bruce Brown is doing for the Brooklyn Nets. He's basically, uh,
you know, kind of like a Swiss army knife type
of basketball player who's not super big, not super athletic,
(13:18):
but he just plays super super hard and does all
this dirty work for the Nets, right, and they use
him as a guy who sets ball screens and you know,
short rolls to the basket to make reads and crashes
the glass and he'll sit in the dunker spot. But
the differences is Bruce Brown doesn't take defensive possessions off.
Bruce Brown doesn't have inconsistent and volatile decision making. So
(13:41):
what's the point of using Russ as Bruce Brown when
he doesn't do Bruce Brown stuff well enough for it
to be worth it in the tradeoff. You know, there
were several plays today where you have a sloppy turnover
and he jogged back on defense and not really pay
attention and get burned. And that's not stuff that Bruce
Brown does. There's Bruce Brown can be functional in the
(14:03):
offense as a guy who hangs around, hangs out around
the dunker spot, but he is on the floor because
of all the dirty work he does and Russ just
doesn't do that stuff. And so because of that, the
Lakers are actually better off going with another wing. Take
whatever you're thirty two minutes or whatever it is you're
getting from Russ, and distribute them among guys who, rather
(14:25):
than sitting in the dunker spot, will be on the wing,
attacking close outs, be a threat from the three point line,
be a threat to put the ball on the floor,
and also fulfill their defensive responsibilities every single possession, do
their job. That is a more tenable option. Now, again,
it's complicated because of the situation surrounding RUSS. We saw
(14:49):
this article come out today from Ramona Shelburn. It's absolutely wild,
basically talking about how the Lakers have kind of made
their bed and there's not a whole lot they can do.
But there were some interesting bits of information in there.
For instance, apparently Russ doesn't take very kindly to you
criticizing him in a film session, which was a wild
thing to read. I mean, as someone I've sat in
(15:11):
these film sessions when I was playing in college, and
I mean, you're in front of your whole team, you're
in front of your coaching staff, there's video footage on
the wall of what you did wrong. I can't even
imagine standing up and being like, no, I didn't do
anything wrong there. That's just like one of the most
(15:32):
outrageous displays of ego that I can even imagine. And again,
that's not entirely uncommon in the NBA. Guys have big egos.
Lebron has a history of you know, Shaquille O'Neil said
once that in two thousand ten Lebron wasn't super responsive
in film sessions. But a couple of differents there. One,
Lebron is a kid, he's still like four years old too.
(15:52):
He was Lebron James, he was the MVP of the league.
There's a certain amount of leeway or willingness to put
up with b s because it was Lebron James at
the peak of his powers defending m v P and
so you you just kind of went with it. And
but again, at the same time, Lebron over the course
of his career has become more mature and cable of
(16:14):
handling that stuff because he grew up. And for whatever reason,
with Russ, you're getting that type of attitude, You're getting
that top of the league, top of the world type
of ego without any of the on court production. And
this is why I think it's so important to do
whatever it takes to try to get him off the
(16:34):
roster before the deadline, because the general manager and the
ownership group has given Frank Vogal the right to mention
as we saw last week in that fourth quarter. But
one of the problems is is he didn't handle it well.
Made a scene, left the floor, left the arena, didn't
even hang out for the Lakers postgame meeting. So the
(16:56):
thing is, if he's not taking to this whole concert,
this whole city situation very well, then you run into
the dangerous situation where you might have to do this
again in a postseason series. And now you've got Russell
Westbrook still on the roster, and however that reaction goes
surrounding that and it could get ugly and so my
thing is like, get ahead of it. If you know
Russ is going to be a problem from a matchup
(17:19):
perspective in a playoff series, and if you know he's
not going to handle it well when you have to
take him out of the lineup, then what's the point.
And that's where, you know, kind of like when I
start to look at potential trades, it's not just about
what you might get back, It's about the concept of
dealing with what could go down with Russ, you know,
and essentially, you know, is there a is there a
(17:43):
absolute perfect outcome where maybe Russ has some sort of
dramatic wake up call and he embraces the dirty work,
He changes his attitude, he becomes what I wanted him
to be, which was this team's Drew Holiday. You know,
the guy that plays off of two superior offensive players,
(18:04):
primarily focuses on being a power guard on offense, trying
to get to the rim, but on the defensive and
takes that responsibility personally understands that that's his biggest contribution
to the team. That's what you're getting from ju Holiday.
That's what I was hoping for in terms of my
attempt to rationalize how this could work before the season,
(18:26):
but Russ has never embraced that. Now, is there a
small chance, like I said, that he might embrace that. Yeah,
But if you're trying to project forward with this team
and you're trying to make decisions around the deadline, what's
more likely to happen? Guys? Is it more likely that
Russ continues to be this guy or is it more
likely that he becomes an issue down the line? And
(18:49):
that That's why I stand where I stand with the
concept of of getting him off the roster. It's about
getting ahead of the potential problem, get ahead of the
idea that teams won't be able to you know that
teams will ignore him and you won't be able to
functionally run your offense in a playoff series, and get
ahead of the potential attitude problem that can come with it.
(19:10):
It's a it's a problem, and I'm hopeful that the
Lakers will do something about it as far as that
trade goes. I wanted to talk about this John waltrade
a little bit more because I kind of laughed it
off last week when I initially heard of it in
the mark Stein report. But it's kind of picking up steam.
There are a bunch of factors at play here that
(19:31):
make it a little bit more realistic than people think.
For starters, John Wallas with clutch and clutches really trying
hard to get John out of Houston. Um, the guys
on the Hoop Collective did a big thing today talking
about how he's a much better catching shoot shooter. He's
over thirty seven percent on catching shoot threes in his
(19:52):
last two seasons that he actually played, and that he
in theory, is a less volatile, a little bit more
controlled playing. And most importantly, he is actually amenable to
the idea of not being used or being taken out
of the rotation as we've seen in Houston. Now, I'm
not saying that I would make that move. I'm just
(20:14):
saying it's something that Laker fans need to at least
start to mentally prepare themselves for, because there are a
few things working in favor of that that make it
a possibility. Now, so much has to go right, like
Russ would have to continue to struggle the way he
has been, the Rockets would have to be amenable to
taking second round picks instead of a first round pick,
(20:35):
because that would be like ditching the first round pick.
To get off a rust for John Wall would be
an absolute travesty. I think Laker fans need to be
more open to spending that pick, but certainly not on
someone like John Wall. But like I said, the Lakers,
just Laker fans just need to be prepared for the
fact that that is a realistic outcome. And should John
(20:56):
Wall come back, you know it could it certainly couldn't
be any war than what we're getting from Ross. I
think Russ is a much better athlete than John at
this point in his career, but I think John is
a potentially a little bit more capable of of fitting in. Again,
don't want to see that, but it's just something like
your fans have to potentially be prepared for now as
(21:17):
far as this first round pick goes, because I've seen this.
This was reported by Eric pinkus Uh in the last
couple of days, this idea that the Lakers are hesitant
to throw this first round pick into anything, and that
to me is completely ridiculous because everything we know about
you know, rebuilds, tells us that, hey, guess what, you
can get first round picks anytime you're having a bad season.
(21:39):
Why because you can call teams and telling hey, we'll
take that overpaid guy you have, and we'll take that
overpaid guy and we'll eat his salary for a year
or two, but you're giving us the first round pick
in exchange. We've seen this so many times in recent years.
If you if things go off the rails, you can
accumulate picks quickly. So let's say Lebron ages out of
(22:02):
the league, and let's say Anthony Davis just isn't good
enough to be a franchise cornerstone and the team is
massively underachieving and comes around and it's just not working
in those seasons. Even if you spent the first round
pick on a player this year, pretty quickly you can
(22:23):
make calls around the league, take back salary, take back picks,
and do a rebuilding. There is a playbook out there now.
Oklahoma City is showing us where you can pretty quickly
a mass picks just by being bad for a season
or two. Now, you obviously don't want to get stuck
in that. But my point is is, like, there's no
(22:43):
scenario where clinging to that first round pick is if
as though it's the most important thing in the world,
will pay off for the Lakers. If they're good over
the course of the next half decade, then that pick
is very carries very little value because it's a late
first round pick, and if they're bad and they use
the pick, you know, to to get something in the
(23:04):
UH in this season, it'd be easy enough for them
to recoup it just simply by doing what every other
bad team does this time of year. So I think,
I think that that pick needs to be in the
conversation for any deal in order to get it done,
especially when you realize what's at stake. What's at steak
is Lebron James in his age thirty seven season playing
(23:26):
some of the best basketball of his career and Anthony
freaking Davis coming back from an injury looking good, and
there's a core here that could potentially make a run
to win a championship. Meanwhile, Golden State has Draymond Green
with a back issue that could may or may not
be serious. The Phoenix Suns don't have anywhere near the
(23:47):
top end talent that the Lakers have. There is an
opportunity here, there's a slight crack in the door, there's
a window. You need to try to capitalize on that,
and the only way to do so is to push
your chips into the middle of the table. And so
I hope that the Lakers are willing to do that.
All right, to two last quick things I wanted to hit,
(24:08):
and then we'll get out of here. So this Jeremy
Grant thing, which I think is is really funny for
a bunch of reasons. So basically the report comes out
saying that Jeremy Grant has decided his his representation is
basically telling Detroit like, hey, these are the teams we
want to go to, and telling the rest of the
league like, don't pick up our guy unless you plan
(24:29):
on using him as a primary option and paying him
all sorts of money. And basically it's cooling the market
and that's part of the reason why Detroit hasn't been
getting great offers. Now again, Jeremy Grant's mind is made up.
He's gonna do what he wants to do. And look
like a lot of this my theories it has to
do with pressure. I mean, it's not just about the money,
(24:50):
it's not just about the touches. It's the fact that, hey,
look at Russell Westbrook. When you're on a team that
has championship aspirations and you don't play well, it doesn't
go well for you with the fan base. There's a
lot of pressure that comes with that. There's a lot
of pressure that comes with expectation, whereas when you're with
Detroit or when you're somewhere else in the league, there's
(25:11):
no pressure that comes with that expectation when there is
no expectation. So from that standpoint, like I think, from
I think Jeremy Grant just looks at it like I'm
having fun in Detroit, making lots of money, and guess
what if I shoot poorly? No one cares. His percentages
have tanked this year. Most of you don't even know
except for the fact that you looked it up because
(25:32):
he thought he might be a Laker. That's the reality
of his situation in Detroit. He is in a very
cush situation in terms of pressure. So that's my theory.
But what's silly about it to me is Jeremy Grant
is a very good basketball player and he's not going
to struggle the way that Russell Westbrook will. Chances are,
(25:53):
because he's that skilled, he's going to thrive. When he
was in Denver with Jamal mur A, with Nicola Yoki's
before he put in that summer of work to prep
for being a primary ball handler. He did a great
job in the possessions that were thrown his way. And
that team was spamming the Jamal Murray Nicola Yokers pick
and roll. They were not getting other people involved as
(26:15):
often in terms of initiating actions. This Laker team and
a lot of these teams like the Clippers, a lot
of these teams that are running this modern five out attack.
There's a couple of other teams that are linked to Utah.
Jazz are a great example there. You know, a full out,
one end team, but they let all four of those
guys initiate. Boston Celtics have been mentioned their team that
lets everybody from the perimeter initiate. When you're in these
(26:38):
modern systems, when you have all these guys on the
floor that can pass, shoot, and dribble, everybody gets touches.
It's really about just who's in the rhythm. Like on
any given possession, you're probably gonna get two or three
opportunities to drive and kick. So the idea that like
you need to have this guy this is something I've
been pushing back for on the Russ thing NonStop as
it pertains to Lebron wanting rust. I just don't understand
(27:02):
this idea that like this this one ball thing was
proven wrong all the way back with the Lebron and
Dwayne Waite stuff, and that was in a completely different era.
It was proven wrong with Chris Paul and James Harden,
and it's gonna be proven more and more wrong as
time goes on, because basketball is evolving in a way
to where everybody has the ball in their hands, everybody
(27:22):
puts it on the floor, everybody creates, and everybody kind
of feeds off of that, and you're seeing it. You're
seeing that in Detroit anyway. And the other thing too,
is he's gonna go to some other team. He's gonna
go to some team where they're going to give him
the ball more, but they're also going to be rebuilding
and trying to put other guys who can dribble around him.
Like if he goes to Washington, you don't think Kyle
Kuzma is gonna want his possessions. You don't think, you know,
(27:44):
Bradley Beale or Spencer DINWITTI are gonna want their possessions.
Like it's like every everywhere you go it's the same issue.
It's just it was really nonsensical to me from the start,
and that's why I think it primarily has to do
with just the pressure and him just wanting to play basketball,
collect his paycheck and go home. I respect it, but
let's just call it what it is, all right. Lastly,
(28:05):
before we get out here, you guys, I wanted to
talk about James Harden because we saw something tonight that
we saw in the Bubble that I think is very interesting.
In Bubble, James Harden put up monster numbers against the
Lakers on good percentages, but they pretty much rendered him
ineffective in terms of controlling the outcome of the game.
(28:26):
And you saw that again tonight. James Harden put up
big numbers, had monster rebounding Game two, Shop chucked the
ball well but generally well not not you know, over
or anything. We shot reasonably well for James Harden game,
but it just didn't seem to have much impact. You
never really felt like James was controlling the game. You
never really felt like James had a real chance to win.
(28:47):
And this is kind of like a recurring theme in
the James Hardened world, this idea that his repetitiveness is
what undercuts in You know, the announcers on T and
T actually did a really nice job describing this to
those of you who are listening. The difference between dealing
with James Harden in a set defense and the half
court versus dealing with him in the full court. The
(29:10):
difference between isolating one on one or beating a guy
off the dribble when things are kind of fluid and
in motion versus all five Lakers staring at you and
you have to make a decision or make a read
or make a play. Things get complicated when the game
slows down, and the Lakers did a nice job, especially
when they were in the half court tonight, of just
(29:30):
making things difficult. But most importantly, they were able to
use that same kind of bracketing trap thing that they
used in the bubble. They would just as Bruce Brown
or whoever it was Claxton was set in the ball screen,
they would basically just send him to the ball screen
and have the guy guarding the screen or just bracket
on the other side, and James would kind of take
(29:52):
a couple of dribbles and he wouldn't want to keep
going because he knew if he kept going, then the
trap would come hard, so he kind of like stay
with the dribble and then he'd swing the ball away
and when they swing it, the Lakers could easily rotate
out of it. Because James hasn't created an advantage. He
needs to actually pull the double team away in order
to get some sort of real advantage. And it wasn't
(30:13):
surprising to me at all that it worked again because
this is something that James Harden has struggled with throughout
his whole career. Every possession with James Harden begins on
the wing extended, either on the right side of the
left side him with a live dribble, either isolation or
pick and roll. If you see that exact same play
sixty times in a game, you're just gonna get good
(30:33):
at Guardian. He might have his possessions where he gets
a bucket, usually when things are disheveled or when you
make a mistake, but generally speaking, he's going to eventually
struggle or run out of gas. This is why he
struggles a lot in fourth quarters or in playoff series
is as the series Dragon. He's just so repetitive and
the way he attacks then let's juxtapose that with Lebron.
(30:56):
I watched Lebron, and he can do those wing extended
possessions he's running in isolation. He can do those wing
extended possessions where he's running the pick and roll. But
he can also come off of a down screen and
should have pull up. He can also go to the
low block and punish a mismatch there. He can also
turn and face. You saw in the third quarter he
(31:16):
just was like, Hey, I'm just gonna catch the ball
seventeen ft from the basket on this left wing. I'm
gonna turn and face, do a couple of jab steps
and knockdown a three. And then once you guys start doubling,
I'm gonna start passing out of that. That's a whole
other element to his game. Off the basketball. He's devastating
as a cutter. And then you just just in general,
Lebron can attack you in you know, a half dozen
(31:38):
different ways, a half dozen different places on the floor.
So the predicted, the predictability element is out of the picture.
He can if for whatever reason, there's a action that
he's trying that isn't working, he'll just go somewhere else
on the floor and try it until he finds that
crack in your armor and he can break through. That
lack of versity, that lack of variety from James Harden
(31:59):
will always be what holds him back in my opinion,
and it's really unfortunate because he's one of the best
two guards of all time. And when I'm looking at
two guards and you look at the guys who came
before him, Guys like Dwyane Wade, guys like Kobe Bryant,
guys like Michael Jordan's, every single one of them was
a dominant low low post player. The mind he used,
Dwyane Wade NonStop attacking mismatches down on the block with
(32:21):
his little with his arsenal of floaters and hook shots.
They all had a versatility element that James has never
added to his game. Now, I don't know if it's
entirely his fault or if it's a product of that
and the Houston system, which I think leaned heavily on
analytics and the idea like, hey, when you run this
high pick and roller, when you run this extended isolation,
(32:41):
we're averaging one point to six per possessions when you
shoot or when you make one pass and so it
pushed him to leaning further into that stuff instead of
understanding that there were It was really easy to scheme
against it in the playoff series and basically render it useless.
And most importantly, when you get to a tiny number
of possessions in a pivotal game, no one's given you
(33:04):
one point to six points per possession anymore. It's like
you either score or you don't in that smaller sample size.
And we saw that limitation throughout his career in those moments,
and I just thought it was interesting because, like, you know,
there's been a lot of talk about James Harden since
he went to Brooklyn, this idea that he's evolved, he's
become a playmaker now he's no longer doing the things
(33:24):
that he used to do. And you know, that might
all work if Brooklyn is healthy, just simply because they
have so much talent, and you know, James might get
a trophy anyway. But you know, just watching him again tonight,
I'm just sitting there watching and I'm like, man, you know,
I wrote an article back when I was writing ages ago.
I wrote an article about James after he lost I
believe in two thousand eighteen or two thousand nineteen, so
(33:46):
the year he won the m d P. And I
wrote all the same stuff that I'm telling to you guys,
And it's just so interesting to me because here we
are four years later, same guy hasn't added a damn
thing to his game. And I don't think it's a
coincidence that we see like what we saw tonight. You know,
a guy who can be rendered somewhat ineffective with simple,
(34:09):
basic strategies as soon as things get slowed down or repetitive. Alright, guys,
that's all I have for tonight. ROJ is going to
be back for hour back to back on Thursday and Friday.
This is gonna be on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at
seven a m. Pacific Standard times, and we'll be on
our podcast feed here in about an hour or so. Thanks,
as always for you guys to support, and we will
(34:30):
see you on Thursday.
M all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers
as Ny by dask Raandio. Happy Tuesday, everybody, Thanks for
(00:20):
coming to hang out. Reinvigorated is the word that I
would use to describe tonight. By the way, No Roj tonight.
He's still out of town on a work trip, although
he should be back for the back to back on
Thursday and Friday this week. Um so Ryan solo tonight,
but I appreciate you guys coming to hang out. Um.
Like I said, reinvigorated. This is a team that has
struggled with belief and a willingness to do the job
(00:45):
all season. Now. To be clear, a lot of that
struggle happened with Anthony Davis on the court. But I'm
hopeful that with the combination of that infusion of talent
with Anthony Davis and just the reality of the situation,
the predicament, and the urgency that is presented by their
place and the standings, I'm hopeful that effort will be
(01:05):
less of a problem moving forward, at least as long
as guys to help you and Frank continues to play
the right guys, which I liked most of the groups
that he went with tonight, he started Stanley Johnson, which
I thought was really interesting. Trevor Reason has really been
struggling of late on both ends of the floor, and
there's a certain, you know, balance that has to be
taken there because you wonder if if Trevor Reason can
(01:28):
be useful in the long run, and the only way
to find out is to give him a long runway,
a long distance, and a lot of time for him
to figure out if, if, if his body is going
to be up to the task. And for whatever reason,
tonight was the end of that rope and ended up
being Stanley Johnson. But one of my concerns coming into
this game was gonna be Bowl trouble and because just
(01:50):
typically when you've got a guy like Stanley is super aggressive,
tons of ball pressure draped all over James Harden like that,
and you've got a guy like James Harden, who's probably
the most gifted, you know, a foul grifter in the
history of the NBA. Those two things, it was inevitable
that Stanley would get in trouble, which you did, but
it didn't matter because the Lakers played a really good
basketball team in one now to be to be clear,
(02:12):
because of injuries, uh and the Kyrie Irvan situation that
Brooklyn Nets team is not very good right now. A
lot of that is, you know, I would have picked
them the Lakers. I would have picked the Lakers to
win tonight even if Um Anthony Davis had not played,
just because this is a this is a team that
is beatabule right now. They're going through a similar stretch
(02:33):
to what the Lakers were going to going through about
a month and a half ago. They just don't have
a ton of talent. They're playing a lot of basketball
lineups that are not functional. Um that said, it was
a good win. Like Bras always says, we can't be
picking with the team like this that has struggled to
win as often as they have now. Looking at the
Anthony Davis thing, what what is so interesting is that
(02:56):
when you plug him into the line up, the entire
team just becomes that much more functional because he can
actually do the job of a starting NBA center in
this league. You know, we talked a lot about how
Lebron is. He is a center in the sense that
he can be in that position and you won't get
absolutely destroyed. But he's not a traditional center in any
(03:16):
sense of the other word, and then Dwight Howard is
a backup NBA center, so plugging someone in there that
is functional already just makes everything work so much. I
thought it was super interesting that they didn't just force
feed him in the post. They kind of used him
the way that they've been using Lebron in these small
ball lineups, where they're using him as a screener and
(03:37):
rolling to the basket. And yeah, he got a handful of,
you know, face up touches on the wing. I think
he made a pull up jumper on one of them
and drove to the baseline on the other. But he
wasn't as we were hoping, they didn't spam that the
way they did at the beginning of the year. Things
stayed free flowing and it just worked. And one of
the big reasons for that is Anthony Davis is the
(03:59):
best defense player in basketball. And I know that's a
complicated topic because there are guys that play better defense
in the NBA throughout the day in, day out grind
of the NBA regular season, but they're not capable of
the defensive ceiling that Anthony Davis is capable of. This
is something that I talked about a lot with Lebron
(04:21):
James like, if I'm if we're ranking basketball players and
who the best players in the world are, I don't
think I'd take anybody over Nice for a regular season
because the guy just has the motor and the youthful
exuberance to be what he is at his very best
night in and night out in the regular season. In
a way that someone like Lebron who can go through
(04:42):
the lethargy of just he's been in the league forever
and he's concerned about saving his legs and he's not
hyped up by big crowds anymore. Like it's you're not
going to get that same you know, effort out of
Lebron night in and night out in the regular season.
That's set when things get really important, when the basketball
games become more meaningful, when the stakes get higher, all
(05:04):
of a sudden, Lebron can tap into something that Janice can't.
He is an unbelievable defensive player. He can be like
Draymond Green when he's dialed in on that end, and
then on the offensive end. He has that unique combination
of extreme high end, elite offensive creation on the ball
(05:24):
as a score mixed with that elite high end playmaking
which only a few men of only a few players
in the league are capable of, and so Lebron can
hit this ceiling that Janice just can't hit. And it's
kind of like that with the Anthony Davis in the
regular season. It's unfortunate and it's kind of an indictment
of his motor that, for whatever reason, he hasn't been
(05:46):
able to win a Defensive Player of the Year award
or consistently be in the top of that conversation because
he struggles with that. But man, when Anthony Davis dials
it up, there's just nobody that can stay with him there.
In that first quarter, I think he had three blocks
in his first seven minute shift and was actively disrupting
(06:06):
everything Brooklyn was trying to do. And there was an
isolation possession there at the end of eighties first shift
or try to shoot a step back over the top
and eight partially blocked it. I think he got another
block there in the fourth quarter on Patty Mills. He's
just a devastating defensive weapon. And if they can combine
some of the you know, new influx of athletic talent
(06:27):
with guys like Austin Reeves and Stanley Johnson with a
more consistent motor, with a more engaged Lebron, and with
Anthony Davis being back on the floor, all of a sudden,
we're talking about a good basketball team here, and I
think that is something to get excited about. The most
important part about bringing Anthony Davis back has to do
with slotting. This idea is is all. It's when you
(06:51):
send a group of guys out onto the floor to
play basketball. Each of them has a job list of
responsibilities that they have to fill, and any five man unit,
in order to succeed, has to be able to check
a bunch of boxes on the court. But because Anthony
Davis checks so many boxes, it shrinks what everybody else
(07:12):
has to do, even Lebron, And by virtue of that,
you get everybody back into a more natural position. Now,
instead of Malik Monk doing a ton of isolating, he's
attacking closeouts. Now. Instead of a ton of Carmelo Anthony
post ups, it's Carmelo Anthony spotting up. You know, we're
gonna get into Russell Westbrook in a minute and how
(07:33):
that all works. But the point is is everyone just
kind of slots in properly now, Lebron James can not
have to be the back line defender all the time.
You can play passing lanes more. And you saw that
there in that fourth quarter where he got back to
back steals for for run out dunks. That's just all
part of the process of adding Anthony Davis to the
equation to make everyone else's job so much easier. And
(07:56):
I think that will hopefully lead to a lot of
guys who have struck gold in their specific role to
playing better. And as far as that slotting concept goes,
that goes to an even greater extent when you add
in whoever it is that the Lakers bring in at
the trade deadline. Now we're gonna talk more about the
trade deadline later. There's a bunch of you know, reporting
that has been done from various sources over the course
(08:18):
of the last week that are ranging from the Lakers
have a chance to get everybody to the Lakers aren't
going to make any moves, and we'll see what ends
up happening. But if you can bring in someone like
Eric Gordon, if you can bring in someone like Harrison Barnes,
and those are just two random names, but if you
can bring somebody like that in that helps the slotting
even more because guys like that are just capable of
(08:40):
accomplishing so much more on the court than a very
young Taylor Horton Tucker, very young Stanley Johnson or Austin Reeves.
And it just slots everybody even further into a better
position on the floor for them to succeed, for them
to play that their best, to have fewer bad nights,
and for this team to getting a real rhythm. Now
(09:02):
as far as slotting goes, this is where it gets
really interesting with Russell Westbrook because with Anthony Davis out
there was a different kind of slotting that took place.
Russell Westbrook was forced to do more, and it exposed
him as somebody who wasn't capable of doing it anymore
at this level. This is something I talked about a
ton on the show as a blate, This idea that
(09:24):
you know, Russell Westbrook because he can't shoot, and because
he's not a fantastic ball handler, and because he doesn't
have great finishing moves around the rim. There short finishing
moves you know, as far as floaters and scoop shots
and stuff like that before he gets to the rim,
and because as a playmaker, he's kind of more just
a drive into the chaos and kick it out to
(09:45):
the corner and hope for the best kind of guy.
It was only a matter of time as his athleticism
declined that he would struggle with this kind of stuff.
And you saw that to a significant extent, you know,
in this stretch without Anthony Davis. But now what you're
seeing now and Anthony Davis's back is Russ kind of
seems useless. The metaphora uses like it's like if you know,
(10:07):
some random trumpet player hopped on stage for a rock concert,
like he's just kind of out of place. It's not
that he's bad necessarily, but it's like, when you look
at all those responsibilities that I'm talking about, the stuff
that the team needs to do, all of a sudden,
Russ doesn't make a ton of sense. You know, they
don't need him to create off the dribble anymore because
(10:28):
in this five out system, they're just getting tons of
rim pressure just from all these guys that can put
the ball on the floor. Stanley Johnson can put the
ball on the floor and go to the rim. Austin
Reaves can put the ball on the floor, a very
Bradley actually is in a pretty good offensive rhythm as
of right now. There's there's just there's no need to
have this other guy that can stand at the top
of the key and and create offense. They don't need
(10:50):
that anymore. So now he's being relegated off the ball,
and when you relegate him off the ball, you're seeing
teams just completely and utterly ignored. And it didn't hurt
the Lakers tonight, but Brooklyn was basically not paying any
attention to him even when he had the ball in
his hands. There was a sequence of post up touches
in that second half where Lebron is turning and catching
(11:13):
on the wing and turning and facing and Russ has
the like kick out. Russ has the ball and James
is just like James Harden's like, I'm not going out there.
And James knows best. He literally went through this in
the Bubble Payoffs. He was on the floor getting doubled
out at half court while Russell Westbrook was standing on
(11:33):
the quarter in the corner and the Lakers were completely
ignoring him. James Harden knows this very well, so of
course he was willing to implement that same strategy against
the Lakers. We haven't seen it a ton this year
because it's the regular season and you're not going to
see some super high level, you know, uh, crazy adventurous
scheming in a regular season, But you saw it tonight
(11:54):
from Brooklyn, and what you saw there is something you're
gonna see in a large dose when we get to
the postseason. You're going to see every good defensive team
put a big, physical forward, just like the Lakers did
with Anthony Davis on Russell Westbrook. They're gonna like Phoenix,
for instance. Phoenix is probably gonna put someone like you know,
(12:14):
Jay Crowder on Lebron and then they're gonna put McHale
Bridges on Russell Westbrook and sit his ass in the paint,
having jump passing lanes, double team post ups, double team
guys drive into the basket, and it's gonna look a
heck of a lot worse than this version where the
Brooklyn Nets for doing it with Patty Mills James Harden
(12:34):
at a bunch of JE League guys. That it's only
going to get harder and harder to try to make
this work as we get further along and as better
teams are involved and I don't understand, you know, how
you can make this work with Russ on the floor
knowing that that's going to happen. Now what you saw,
(12:56):
there was a counter that the Lakers used when when
Russ was getting north like that, they put him in
the dunker spot and he actually got an and one
out of it. Here's the issue with that, though. That's
what Bruce Brown is doing for the Brooklyn Nets. He's basically, uh,
you know, kind of like a Swiss army knife type
of basketball player who's not super big, not super athletic,
(13:18):
but he just plays super super hard and does all
this dirty work for the Nets, right, and they use
him as a guy who sets ball screens and you know,
short rolls to the basket to make reads and crashes
the glass and he'll sit in the dunker spot. But
the differences is Bruce Brown doesn't take defensive possessions off.
Bruce Brown doesn't have inconsistent and volatile decision making. So
(13:41):
what's the point of using Russ as Bruce Brown when
he doesn't do Bruce Brown stuff well enough for it
to be worth it in the tradeoff. You know, there
were several plays today where you have a sloppy turnover
and he jogged back on defense and not really pay
attention and get burned. And that's not stuff that Bruce
Brown does. There's Bruce Brown can be functional in the
(14:03):
offense as a guy who hangs around, hangs out around
the dunker spot, but he is on the floor because
of all the dirty work he does and Russ just
doesn't do that stuff. And so because of that, the
Lakers are actually better off going with another wing. Take
whatever you're thirty two minutes or whatever it is you're
getting from Russ, and distribute them among guys who, rather
(14:25):
than sitting in the dunker spot, will be on the wing,
attacking close outs, be a threat from the three point line,
be a threat to put the ball on the floor,
and also fulfill their defensive responsibilities every single possession, do
their job. That is a more tenable option. Now, again,
it's complicated because of the situation surrounding RUSS. We saw
(14:49):
this article come out today from Ramona Shelburn. It's absolutely wild,
basically talking about how the Lakers have kind of made
their bed and there's not a whole lot they can do.
But there were some interesting bits of information in there.
For instance, apparently Russ doesn't take very kindly to you
criticizing him in a film session, which was a wild
thing to read. I mean, as someone I've sat in
(15:11):
these film sessions when I was playing in college, and
I mean, you're in front of your whole team, you're
in front of your coaching staff, there's video footage on
the wall of what you did wrong. I can't even
imagine standing up and being like, no, I didn't do
anything wrong there. That's just like one of the most
(15:32):
outrageous displays of ego that I can even imagine. And again,
that's not entirely uncommon in the NBA. Guys have big egos.
Lebron has a history of you know, Shaquille O'Neil said
once that in two thousand ten Lebron wasn't super responsive
in film sessions. But a couple of differents there. One,
Lebron is a kid, he's still like four years old too.
(15:52):
He was Lebron James, he was the MVP of the league.
There's a certain amount of leeway or willingness to put
up with b s because it was Lebron James at
the peak of his powers defending m v P and
so you you just kind of went with it. And
but again, at the same time, Lebron over the course
of his career has become more mature and cable of
(16:14):
handling that stuff because he grew up. And for whatever reason,
with Russ, you're getting that type of attitude, You're getting
that top of the league, top of the world type
of ego without any of the on court production. And
this is why I think it's so important to do
whatever it takes to try to get him off the
(16:34):
roster before the deadline, because the general manager and the
ownership group has given Frank Vogal the right to mention
as we saw last week in that fourth quarter. But
one of the problems is is he didn't handle it well.
Made a scene, left the floor, left the arena, didn't
even hang out for the Lakers postgame meeting. So the
(16:56):
thing is, if he's not taking to this whole concert,
this whole city situation very well, then you run into
the dangerous situation where you might have to do this
again in a postseason series. And now you've got Russell
Westbrook still on the roster, and however that reaction goes
surrounding that and it could get ugly and so my
thing is like, get ahead of it. If you know
Russ is going to be a problem from a matchup
(17:19):
perspective in a playoff series, and if you know he's
not going to handle it well when you have to
take him out of the lineup, then what's the point.
And that's where, you know, kind of like when I
start to look at potential trades, it's not just about
what you might get back, It's about the concept of
dealing with what could go down with Russ, you know,
and essentially, you know, is there a is there a
(17:43):
absolute perfect outcome where maybe Russ has some sort of
dramatic wake up call and he embraces the dirty work,
He changes his attitude, he becomes what I wanted him
to be, which was this team's Drew Holiday. You know,
the guy that plays off of two superior offensive players,
(18:04):
primarily focuses on being a power guard on offense, trying
to get to the rim, but on the defensive and
takes that responsibility personally understands that that's his biggest contribution
to the team. That's what you're getting from ju Holiday.
That's what I was hoping for in terms of my
attempt to rationalize how this could work before the season,
(18:26):
but Russ has never embraced that. Now, is there a
small chance, like I said, that he might embrace that. Yeah,
But if you're trying to project forward with this team
and you're trying to make decisions around the deadline, what's
more likely to happen? Guys? Is it more likely that
Russ continues to be this guy or is it more
likely that he becomes an issue down the line? And
(18:49):
that That's why I stand where I stand with the
concept of of getting him off the roster. It's about
getting ahead of the potential problem, get ahead of the
idea that teams won't be able to you know that
teams will ignore him and you won't be able to
functionally run your offense in a playoff series, and get
ahead of the potential attitude problem that can come with it.
(19:10):
It's a it's a problem, and I'm hopeful that the
Lakers will do something about it as far as that
trade goes. I wanted to talk about this John waltrade
a little bit more because I kind of laughed it
off last week when I initially heard of it in
the mark Stein report. But it's kind of picking up steam.
There are a bunch of factors at play here that
(19:31):
make it a little bit more realistic than people think.
For starters, John Wallas with clutch and clutches really trying
hard to get John out of Houston. Um, the guys
on the Hoop Collective did a big thing today talking
about how he's a much better catching shoot shooter. He's
over thirty seven percent on catching shoot threes in his
(19:52):
last two seasons that he actually played, and that he
in theory, is a less volatile, a little bit more
controlled playing. And most importantly, he is actually amenable to
the idea of not being used or being taken out
of the rotation as we've seen in Houston. Now, I'm
not saying that I would make that move. I'm just
(20:14):
saying it's something that Laker fans need to at least
start to mentally prepare themselves for, because there are a
few things working in favor of that that make it
a possibility. Now, so much has to go right, like
Russ would have to continue to struggle the way he
has been, the Rockets would have to be amenable to
taking second round picks instead of a first round pick,
(20:35):
because that would be like ditching the first round pick.
To get off a rust for John Wall would be
an absolute travesty. I think Laker fans need to be
more open to spending that pick, but certainly not on
someone like John Wall. But like I said, the Lakers,
just Laker fans just need to be prepared for the
fact that that is a realistic outcome. And should John
(20:56):
Wall come back, you know it could it certainly couldn't
be any war than what we're getting from Ross. I
think Russ is a much better athlete than John at
this point in his career, but I think John is
a potentially a little bit more capable of of fitting in. Again,
don't want to see that, but it's just something like
your fans have to potentially be prepared for now as
(21:17):
far as this first round pick goes, because I've seen this.
This was reported by Eric pinkus Uh in the last
couple of days, this idea that the Lakers are hesitant
to throw this first round pick into anything, and that
to me is completely ridiculous because everything we know about
you know, rebuilds, tells us that, hey, guess what, you
can get first round picks anytime you're having a bad season.
(21:39):
Why because you can call teams and telling hey, we'll
take that overpaid guy you have, and we'll take that
overpaid guy and we'll eat his salary for a year
or two, but you're giving us the first round pick
in exchange. We've seen this so many times in recent years.
If you if things go off the rails, you can
accumulate picks quickly. So let's say Lebron ages out of
(22:02):
the league, and let's say Anthony Davis just isn't good
enough to be a franchise cornerstone and the team is
massively underachieving and comes around and it's just not working
in those seasons. Even if you spent the first round
pick on a player this year, pretty quickly you can
(22:23):
make calls around the league, take back salary, take back picks,
and do a rebuilding. There is a playbook out there now.
Oklahoma City is showing us where you can pretty quickly
a mass picks just by being bad for a season
or two. Now, you obviously don't want to get stuck
in that. But my point is is, like, there's no
(22:43):
scenario where clinging to that first round pick is if
as though it's the most important thing in the world,
will pay off for the Lakers. If they're good over
the course of the next half decade, then that pick
is very carries very little value because it's a late
first round pick, and if they're bad and they use
the pick, you know, to to get something in the
(23:04):
UH in this season, it'd be easy enough for them
to recoup it just simply by doing what every other
bad team does this time of year. So I think,
I think that that pick needs to be in the
conversation for any deal in order to get it done,
especially when you realize what's at stake. What's at steak
is Lebron James in his age thirty seven season playing
(23:26):
some of the best basketball of his career and Anthony
freaking Davis coming back from an injury looking good, and
there's a core here that could potentially make a run
to win a championship. Meanwhile, Golden State has Draymond Green
with a back issue that could may or may not
be serious. The Phoenix Suns don't have anywhere near the
(23:47):
top end talent that the Lakers have. There is an
opportunity here, there's a slight crack in the door, there's
a window. You need to try to capitalize on that,
and the only way to do so is to push
your chips into the middle of the table. And so
I hope that the Lakers are willing to do that.
All right, to two last quick things I wanted to hit,
(24:08):
and then we'll get out of here. So this Jeremy
Grant thing, which I think is is really funny for
a bunch of reasons. So basically the report comes out
saying that Jeremy Grant has decided his his representation is
basically telling Detroit like, hey, these are the teams we
want to go to, and telling the rest of the
league like, don't pick up our guy unless you plan
(24:29):
on using him as a primary option and paying him
all sorts of money. And basically it's cooling the market
and that's part of the reason why Detroit hasn't been
getting great offers. Now again, Jeremy Grant's mind is made up.
He's gonna do what he wants to do. And look
like a lot of this my theories it has to
do with pressure. I mean, it's not just about the money,
(24:50):
it's not just about the touches. It's the fact that, hey,
look at Russell Westbrook. When you're on a team that
has championship aspirations and you don't play well, it doesn't
go well for you with the fan base. There's a
lot of pressure that comes with that. There's a lot
of pressure that comes with expectation, whereas when you're with
Detroit or when you're somewhere else in the league, there's
(25:11):
no pressure that comes with that expectation when there is
no expectation. So from that standpoint, like I think, from
I think Jeremy Grant just looks at it like I'm
having fun in Detroit, making lots of money, and guess
what if I shoot poorly? No one cares. His percentages
have tanked this year. Most of you don't even know
except for the fact that you looked it up because
(25:32):
he thought he might be a Laker. That's the reality
of his situation in Detroit. He is in a very
cush situation in terms of pressure. So that's my theory.
But what's silly about it to me is Jeremy Grant
is a very good basketball player and he's not going
to struggle the way that Russell Westbrook will. Chances are,
(25:53):
because he's that skilled, he's going to thrive. When he
was in Denver with Jamal mur A, with Nicola Yoki's
before he put in that summer of work to prep
for being a primary ball handler. He did a great
job in the possessions that were thrown his way. And
that team was spamming the Jamal Murray Nicola Yokers pick
and roll. They were not getting other people involved as
(26:15):
often in terms of initiating actions. This Laker team and
a lot of these teams like the Clippers, a lot
of these teams that are running this modern five out attack.
There's a couple of other teams that are linked to Utah.
Jazz are a great example there. You know, a full out,
one end team, but they let all four of those
guys initiate. Boston Celtics have been mentioned their team that
lets everybody from the perimeter initiate. When you're in these
(26:38):
modern systems, when you have all these guys on the
floor that can pass, shoot, and dribble, everybody gets touches.
It's really about just who's in the rhythm. Like on
any given possession, you're probably gonna get two or three
opportunities to drive and kick. So the idea that like
you need to have this guy this is something I've
been pushing back for on the Russ thing NonStop as
it pertains to Lebron wanting rust. I just don't understand
(27:02):
this idea that like this this one ball thing was
proven wrong all the way back with the Lebron and
Dwayne Waite stuff, and that was in a completely different era.
It was proven wrong with Chris Paul and James Harden,
and it's gonna be proven more and more wrong as
time goes on, because basketball is evolving in a way
to where everybody has the ball in their hands, everybody
(27:22):
puts it on the floor, everybody creates, and everybody kind
of feeds off of that, and you're seeing it. You're
seeing that in Detroit anyway. And the other thing too,
is he's gonna go to some other team. He's gonna
go to some team where they're going to give him
the ball more, but they're also going to be rebuilding
and trying to put other guys who can dribble around him.
Like if he goes to Washington, you don't think Kyle
Kuzma is gonna want his possessions. You don't think, you know,
(27:44):
Bradley Beale or Spencer DINWITTI are gonna want their possessions.
Like it's like every everywhere you go it's the same issue.
It's just it was really nonsensical to me from the start,
and that's why I think it primarily has to do
with just the pressure and him just wanting to play basketball,
collect his paycheck and go home. I respect it, but
let's just call it what it is, all right. Lastly,
(28:05):
before we get out here, you guys, I wanted to
talk about James Harden because we saw something tonight that
we saw in the Bubble that I think is very interesting.
In Bubble, James Harden put up monster numbers against the
Lakers on good percentages, but they pretty much rendered him
ineffective in terms of controlling the outcome of the game.
(28:26):
And you saw that again tonight. James Harden put up
big numbers, had monster rebounding Game two, Shop chucked the
ball well but generally well not not you know, over
or anything. We shot reasonably well for James Harden game,
but it just didn't seem to have much impact. You
never really felt like James was controlling the game. You
never really felt like James had a real chance to win.
(28:47):
And this is kind of like a recurring theme in
the James Hardened world, this idea that his repetitiveness is
what undercuts in You know, the announcers on T and
T actually did a really nice job describing this to
those of you who are listening. The difference between dealing
with James Harden in a set defense and the half
court versus dealing with him in the full court. The
(29:10):
difference between isolating one on one or beating a guy
off the dribble when things are kind of fluid and
in motion versus all five Lakers staring at you and
you have to make a decision or make a read
or make a play. Things get complicated when the game
slows down, and the Lakers did a nice job, especially
when they were in the half court tonight, of just
(29:30):
making things difficult. But most importantly, they were able to
use that same kind of bracketing trap thing that they
used in the bubble. They would just as Bruce Brown
or whoever it was Claxton was set in the ball screen,
they would basically just send him to the ball screen
and have the guy guarding the screen or just bracket
on the other side, and James would kind of take
(29:52):
a couple of dribbles and he wouldn't want to keep
going because he knew if he kept going, then the
trap would come hard, so he kind of like stay
with the dribble and then he'd swing the ball away
and when they swing it, the Lakers could easily rotate
out of it. Because James hasn't created an advantage. He
needs to actually pull the double team away in order
to get some sort of real advantage. And it wasn't
(30:13):
surprising to me at all that it worked again because
this is something that James Harden has struggled with throughout
his whole career. Every possession with James Harden begins on
the wing extended, either on the right side of the
left side him with a live dribble, either isolation or
pick and roll. If you see that exact same play
sixty times in a game, you're just gonna get good
(30:33):
at Guardian. He might have his possessions where he gets
a bucket, usually when things are disheveled or when you
make a mistake, but generally speaking, he's going to eventually
struggle or run out of gas. This is why he
struggles a lot in fourth quarters or in playoff series
is as the series Dragon. He's just so repetitive and
the way he attacks then let's juxtapose that with Lebron.
(30:56):
I watched Lebron, and he can do those wing extended
possessions he's running in isolation. He can do those wing
extended possessions where he's running the pick and roll. But
he can also come off of a down screen and
should have pull up. He can also go to the
low block and punish a mismatch there. He can also
turn and face. You saw in the third quarter he
(31:16):
just was like, Hey, I'm just gonna catch the ball
seventeen ft from the basket on this left wing. I'm
gonna turn and face, do a couple of jab steps
and knockdown a three. And then once you guys start doubling,
I'm gonna start passing out of that. That's a whole
other element to his game. Off the basketball. He's devastating
as a cutter. And then you just just in general,
Lebron can attack you in you know, a half dozen
(31:38):
different ways, a half dozen different places on the floor.
So the predicted, the predictability element is out of the picture.
He can if for whatever reason, there's a action that
he's trying that isn't working, he'll just go somewhere else
on the floor and try it until he finds that
crack in your armor and he can break through. That
lack of versity, that lack of variety from James Harden
(31:59):
will always be what holds him back in my opinion,
and it's really unfortunate because he's one of the best
two guards of all time. And when I'm looking at
two guards and you look at the guys who came
before him, Guys like Dwyane Wade, guys like Kobe Bryant,
guys like Michael Jordan's, every single one of them was
a dominant low low post player. The mind he used,
Dwyane Wade NonStop attacking mismatches down on the block with
(32:21):
his little with his arsenal of floaters and hook shots.
They all had a versatility element that James has never
added to his game. Now, I don't know if it's
entirely his fault or if it's a product of that
and the Houston system, which I think leaned heavily on
analytics and the idea like, hey, when you run this
high pick and roller, when you run this extended isolation,
(32:41):
we're averaging one point to six per possessions when you
shoot or when you make one pass and so it
pushed him to leaning further into that stuff instead of
understanding that there were It was really easy to scheme
against it in the playoff series and basically render it useless.
And most importantly, when you get to a tiny number
of possessions in a pivotal game, no one's given you
(33:04):
one point to six points per possession anymore. It's like
you either score or you don't in that smaller sample size.
And we saw that limitation throughout his career in those moments,
and I just thought it was interesting because, like, you know,
there's been a lot of talk about James Harden since
he went to Brooklyn, this idea that he's evolved, he's
become a playmaker now he's no longer doing the things
(33:24):
that he used to do. And you know, that might
all work if Brooklyn is healthy, just simply because they
have so much talent, and you know, James might get
a trophy anyway. But you know, just watching him again tonight,
I'm just sitting there watching and I'm like, man, you know,
I wrote an article back when I was writing ages ago.
I wrote an article about James after he lost I
believe in two thousand eighteen or two thousand nineteen, so
(33:46):
the year he won the m d P. And I
wrote all the same stuff that I'm telling to you guys,
And it's just so interesting to me because here we
are four years later, same guy hasn't added a damn
thing to his game. And I don't think it's a
coincidence that we see like what we saw tonight. You know,
a guy who can be rendered somewhat ineffective with simple,
(34:09):
basic strategies as soon as things get slowed down or repetitive. Alright, guys,
that's all I have for tonight. ROJ is going to
be back for hour back to back on Thursday and Friday.
This is gonna be on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at
seven a m. Pacific Standard times, and we'll be on
our podcast feed here in about an hour or so. Thanks,
as always for you guys to support, and we will
(34:30):
see you on Thursday.
Host
Jason Timpf
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