September 30, 2024 • 54 mins
Jason Timpf continues his NBA power rankings with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Jason discusses LA's offseason moves, where JJ Redick will most help the team, and why the Lakers are one big trade away from being serious NBA Finals contenders.
Timeline:
04:00 - Introduction
04:00 - Lakers offseason additions
10-:00 - Lakers starting lineup was great last season
12:45 - What happened vs. Nuggets in playoffs?
14:15 - Major Weakness 1: No two-way player
17:45 - Major Weakness 2: Can they survive AD injury?
19:30 - Major Weakness 3: Enough bench talent?
28:45 - How JJ Redick can help
33:00 - It all comes down to this
38:00 - Lakers trade targets
43:00 - Can Lakers win without a trade?
46:15 - Why Lakers were underrated
52:20 - NBA Mailbag..
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(02:03):
All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Happy Monday, everybody. If all of you guys had an
incredible weekend, we got a jam pack show for you today.
We are continuing our power rankings with number eight the
Los Angeles Lakers. We also have a mail bag for
the tail end of the show. Today is NBA Media Day,
so all sorts of different quotes are gonna be floating around.
We're gonna kind of wait and put all of those
(02:23):
together for our next episode. So our next episode we
will go into anything interesting from NBA Media Day, but
today again. Mail bag at the end, Lakers off the top.
Also keep that in mind for mailbag questions for the
Wednesday show. Drop any questions you have about anything related
to Media Day and we'll kind of stay centered around
that on Wednesday. You guys are the job. Before we
(02:45):
get started, subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't
miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
at underscore jsonlt so you guys don't miss you announcements.
Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
podcast on our Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail
bag questions in the YouTube comments. We can keep hitting
them throughout the rest of year. All right, let's talk
some basketball. So number eight the Los Angeles Lakers, little
(03:06):
offseason recap for you guys. They lost Spencer Dinwiddie and
Torrian Prince. They added Brownie James, a second round pick
that has some NBA potential, but I don't think he's
good enough to be a rotation player yet probably a
few years away on that front. Dalton connect was their
first round pick, does some things at an NBA level
right away. He's a lights out shooter off the catch
(03:27):
on pretty high volume. At Tennessee last year he got
one point twenty four points per catch and shoot jump shot.
It's really really good. Has some scoring chops too, just
like you know, scoring is a kind of a vague
term that I use to describe anything that's kind of
in between. So like if you imagine a driving layup
or a finish off of a cut underneath the basket,
(03:49):
or a catch and shoot jump shot, those are all
shots that are more like play finishing types of moves. Right,
Scoring is like everything in between. Whenever the offense or
the defense I should say, is taking away the rim
and taking away those catch and shoot threes, any sort
of additional opportunity to score the basketball, I think kind
of floats into that category. Right to me, it's a
(04:12):
combination of a bunch of different things. Audacity, you gotta
be crazy enough to take tougher shots, creativity against good defense.
There are like opportunities to take creative types of shots
and angles of release and stuff. Like that in that
mid range area. Also at the basket when you're running
into traffic. Athleticism, the ability to get to your spots footwork,
(04:33):
which is the ability to actually get your body moving
towards that spot and in there in a way that
actually you can flow into a shot that's a footwork
element right and then touch right the actual ability to
make shots. All that stuff kind of combines into the
organic scoring ability that you have, and Dalton has some
(04:53):
good natural scoring ability, like he can create his own
shot off the bounce when he needs to in those
situations where the easy stuff isn't there, and Tennessee relied
on him a lot and that specifically. He's also a
good athlete in transition, like when you get him running
in a straight line, he can hang with the best.
But he's a really bad defender at this point. So
whether or not he can actually be a rotation player
(05:15):
right away, we'll come down to that end of the
floor and how quickly during training camp he can find
a role that JJ Reddick can trust him to do
on the defensive end of the floor. If he can
get that up pretty quickly, I think he'll be a
big time rotation player for the Lakers this year. If not,
they might have to look into another direction. They also
had a couple of interesting deals on the margins. They
(05:36):
got Christian KloCo on a two way deal. Once upon
a time he was an exciting defensive center prospect, and
the Lakers don't really have a center that can roughly
approximate what ad does Jason excuse me, Jackson Hayes is
more of like an offensive minded center, screen and roll guy.
Christian Wood is more of like a scoring center, a
pick and pop guy. So like, neither of those guys
(05:56):
are what I would consider defensive anchors. And so if
Christian KloCo can give them some, you know, a different
look at that backup center position, that might be useful.
And then Jordan Goodwin comes over on an exhibit ten deal.
It's a training camp deal. He's the reason why I'm
putting him in here is he's a stocky, athletic guard
and this is a guard corps that sorely lacks that
(06:18):
specific archetype of guard like Jordan Goodwin can pressure the
ball well, he's a physical defender, he rebounds well for
a guard. He's kind of like a dirty work guy.
And in addition, to that. He also shot the ball
pretty well last year when he was open. Didn't shoot
well when he was contested, but when he was open
he shot thirty nine percent on unguarded catch and shoot
jump shots in Phoenix and forty seven percent on unguarded
(06:38):
catch and shoot jump shots in Memphis. So he kind
of fits more of the mold of like a like
a role player athlete guard and on a team that
doesn't really have that sort of player. I think that's
a guy that might be an interesting dude to keep
an eye on in training camp to see if he
can't grab a start a roster spot. A couple other
guys too. These guys were already on the but that
(07:00):
didn't play much last year. Max Christy just never got
favor with Darvin Ham so never got consistent opportunity. I
expect him to get consistent opportunity this year. Jared Vanderbilt
was just hurt all year last year. I expect him
to get hopefully if he's healthy, to be an addition
to the team this year. Gave Vincent was available for
the postseason but was kind of a shell of himself
(07:20):
and was injured all year. So like just having those
guys re enter the rotation via health and opportunity are
what I would consider to be basically like kind of
changes to the roster compared to last year. Those are
all minutes, All those minutes that Dalton connect would play,
all those minutes that Jordan Goodwin would potentially play if
he made the roster, Max Christy, Jared Vanderbilt gave Vincent.
(07:41):
Those are all minutes last year that we're going to
Tory and Prince Spencer Dinwittie like, those are the types
of Cam Reddish was getting a lot of those minutes too.
Those are minutes that are going to be shifted towards
different players this year. Now, looking at the Lakers and
their outlook for this year, the strength of this Lakers
team as their starting lineup, it's a seamless offensive fit
(08:03):
with those With those five guys, again, we're talking Austin Reeves,
D'Angelo Russell, Ruey Chamura, Lebron James, and Anthony Davis, who
JJ Reddick has basically come out straight up and said,
these are the guys I'm starting with. Right makes a
lot of sense offensively. You have these two really skilled
guards with these two really versatile forwards that can function
both on or off the ball, like screening and rolling
(08:24):
or post up Folkrum's Lebron and Ady can both attack
out of the posts, that can both attack in ISO situations.
But they're just very versatile forwards that kind of counter
what the skill guards bring. And then Ruy Hachimura has
kind of found his little niche as a master of
weak side scoring, meaning like a lot of attacking and
spot up situations. He got one point one to six
(08:44):
points per spot up possession last year that was in
the eighty third percentile. He also scored on a cut
sixty times last year, which was by far the most
in his career to this point. Just we kind of
did a breakdown of this when we did our JJ
Reddick video the other day, But the gist of it
is knocking down three point shots on skip passes, but
also identifying when they are opportunities to cut along the baseline.
(09:04):
And one of the other things you'll see that happens
with the Lakers is if you've got let's say you've
got big, strong players in your starting lineup, where are
the first two of them going. They're going to Anthony
Davis and Lebron James, so Ruy Hachimura is going to
be guarded by your third best ford defender, and that
usually is a player that Ruy can look to attack
in matchup situations. It was mixed results on that last year,
(09:27):
but it was something that they went to quite a bit.
The Lakers switched to that starting lineup on January twenty first,
after not using it all season, not even for a
single minute. That was one of the many things that
went south for Darvin Ham last year. But from January
first forward, that team with the starting lineup intact, so
with all five players playing, they went twenty three to ten.
(09:47):
That's a seventy percent win percentage, or another way of
looking at that as a fifty seven win pace. As
a team overall, including the games where guys missed time,
they went twenty six and thirteen from January twenty first.
That was the fifth best record in the NBA, and
they were third in offensive rating behind only Boston and Indiana.
So really scored the basketball well, really found their groove
(10:08):
as a basketball team last year. The Lakers were also
one of the best teams in the league in high
leverage matchups, so whenever they played really good teams, so
the teams that were in the top ten in point differential.
They had seventeen wins against teams in the top ten
in point differential that was tied for the most in
the NBA with the Boston Celtics. They also had the
sixth best net rating in games against teams that were
(10:30):
in the top ten in point differential. So when they
needed to get up for good teams, Lebron and ad
were always great. The role players stepped up, and they
were actually were very successful against the NBA's best last year. Now,
the season obviously came to an end in the first round.
They had a weird playoff series against the Denver Nuggets,
very different from the series two years ago. The series
(10:50):
two years ago, it was like the Lakers were hanging
on for dear life, but they would somehow just kind
of keep it close and then Denver would just consistently
out execute them at the end of the of the game.
Right this year was much more of like the Lakers
actually controlled the series. They led for the vast majority
of the time in the five games they led for
(11:10):
I can't remember the exact percentage of the time, but
it was like three fourths of the series they led
and then just in clutch time, the Lakers could not
get a stop. They gave up a one to sixty
three offensive rating in clutch situations to the Denver Nuggets.
Jamal Murray hits two game winners and Denvers dispatches them
in five. So it's kind of a weird series because
Denver wins in five, which is kind of what most
(11:31):
people saw happening before the series. But the Lakers were
way more competitive in that series, and I actually thought
in a lot of ways led to some of the
wear and tear, just with their paint on slot that
kind of led to them eventually running out of gas
in that Minnesota series. So the Lakers have a strong
foundation if two of the top ten players in the league.
They were great offense for the second half of the year,
devastating paint attack. They were second points in the paint
(11:53):
per game, which is interesting because Lebron is the only
player on the team that really drives to the rim.
But it's a great example of how you don't need
to drive to get paint attempts, like posting up is
the way to get paint attempts. Rolling to the rim,
cutting to the rim, offensive rebounding, those are all these
different ways you can get rim attempts right now, the Lakers,
it was mostly cutting, rolling, and posting, but they use
(12:14):
those three things to get a lot of shots in
the pain. But the Lakers have some major weaknesses, and
there are three of them that I want to get
into today. First of all, the starting lineup does not
have a professional two way player next to Lebron and
ad d Lo is incapable of filling an on ball
defensive role, and he's mediocre at best off the ball,
(12:34):
so he not a whole lot you can do with
him defensively. Ruey is pretty much bad at everything on defense.
He doesn't rebound well for a forward, which is disappointing
because he's bigger and stronger. There are a lot of
players at his position. Doesn't rebound well, he does not
chase perimeter players around very well. And then if you
need him to defend bigger players, he's not really good at,
like actually using his strength defensively. Gives ground too easily
(12:58):
instead of holding his ground and absorbing contact, which players
will just go right at him and get a lot
of and ones and stuff like that. Like Rui's just
doesn't really know how to use his physical gifts on defense,
yet I think he's a pretty bad defender at this
point in his career. Austin is solid, he does his job,
he competes, but he's currently slotted as their primary point
of attack defender. He is guarding the other team's best
(13:19):
guard every single night, and that's just not a smart
way to use Austin, And that's the main reason why
they couldn't get stops against Denver. They actually did a
good job in the large sample that lineup. The starting
lineup had a one to ten defensive rating in almost
four hundred minutes in the regular season. That's a solid
defensive rating. They defended Denver well statistically, they held him
below one hundred and fourteen points per one hundred possessions.
(13:41):
For against a team like Denver, you're holding a well
below their typical offensive output. That's solid, but it was
mostly fools gold in the large sample because ad was
just cleaning up a lot of messes and helping keep
the metrics down a little bit. And it's a reminder
of why metrics in the large sample can only mean
so much. Metrics in a large sample will help us
(14:01):
understand some concepts, but at the end of the day,
we have to look at what actually is going on
on the floor to see where the specific matchup weaknesses are.
And that's the thing is like whenever Denver needed to score,
they were immediately able to comfortably get wherever they needed
to get on the floor and get a good look.
That's why they had that one to sixty three offensive
(14:22):
rating against the Lakers in clutch situations. Even further, going
beyond the Denver matchup, they always struggled against teams that
had a lot of perimeter speed. So like the Warriors
torched them one twenty six offensive rating in the regular season,
the Pacers a one to twenty two offensive rating in
the regular season, the Kings a one to twenty offensive
rating in the regular season. All three of those teams
(14:45):
combined to go eight to two against the Lakers. So
teams that perimeter defense is like a prerequisite to be
able to contain the ball, they really struggled with right
so to put it nicely, like I just don't think
the Lakers are good enough defensively right now to get
to where they want to go, similar to Milwaukee right
like Milwaukee right now is not good enough defensively to
(15:05):
get where they want to go, which is to win
four playoff rounds. So for both of those teams for
the eight and nine in my power rankings list, and
I would even extend that to ten with Phoenix. They
they're not. They just at some point this season, either
via trade or by in house development or just a
certain young guy popping, they need substantial improvement in their
(15:26):
defensive ability and versatility, meaning their matchup resilience. All three
of those teams need to now. For the Lakers specifically,
I think it's more so going to be via trade,
but we will get more into that later. Second major weakness,
can they withstand an injury to Anthony Davis? Lebron in
the regular season is kind of inconsistent with his effort,
so I think they can kind of live without him
(15:49):
some nights. The skill guards, I'm not too worried about,
Like as long as two of those three are available,
Like if Austin's out but Dlo and Lebron are playing,
or Lebron's out but Dlo and Austin are playing, Delos
out but Austin and Lebron are playing, I feel like
they've got a chance to score enough to win games.
But as of right now, if Ad were to miss
some time, they have like basically no shot of putting
(16:10):
together even an average defense because they're so weak on
the perimeter and they just don't have the interior kind
of like backup centered guy that kind of mimics like
I talked earlier about like roughly approximating, I don't mean
an impact Christian KloCo would never in a million years
be able to replace what AD does. But if you
have a guy that is the rough approximation, then at
(16:30):
least you can run the same scheme and at least
hope to have a certain floor defensively. And Jackson Hayes
and Christian Wood are just not those guys. And you know,
we'll see you Christian Cloco, but he's a complete and
total wild card at this point. So, like, I think
it's more of a regular season issue. I don't think
the backup center spot is as important for the playoff context,
because if you're healthy and you're in the playoffs, AD's
(16:52):
playing forty two minutes a night, and like I think
if you had to play Jackson Hayes six minutes a night,
I don't think that's gonna make or break your playoff hopes.
But in the regular season if Anthony Davis has to
miss a chunk of time. That's where I'm concerned about
their lack of depth at the center position. Now, encouragingly,
they have acknowledged as much in the last week that
(17:13):
that's something they need to do. My guess is that
if they ended up making a deal, it'd be more
of like a combo deal, either like two deals or
one deal with one team to bring back multiple players
where they look to upgrade at starting spot and bring
up a backup center. But we'll talk about some options
there down the line. Their third, big, biggest weakness is
there enough talent on the bench to carry the Lakers
(17:35):
through eighty two games. Let's take the starters out for
a second, because that's how the Lakers were winning. They
were winning because they had this great starting lineup that
was the driving force of the majority of their success.
If you took a look at their depth chart after
the starters, it's a little thin ball handling guards, guys
that can run action. Gabe Vincent. He's a good player
in Miami, but he was hurt all year last year,
(17:57):
so he was a little bit of a wildcard, right.
Jalen Hood Shafino. He didn't look like an NBA player
last year. Those are the only two ball handling guards
that they have off the bench off ball wings, so
these are guys that are not necessarily going to run action,
but can run action. But these are guys that are
primarily looking to score off the ball and are like
just kind of your typical off ball role players. Max Christy,
(18:20):
I actually really like him as a three and D prospect,
but this will be his first season in a real
consistent role, so there's a little bit of a wild
card there, right Dalton Connects, we talked about him earlier.
Whether or not he can play, it comes down to
the defensive end of the floor. That's a wild card.
Cam Reddish, I don't think he's good enough to be
a rotation player on a serious NBA team. I've never
been a big Cam Reddish fan. Maxwell Lewis doesn't look
(18:41):
like an NBA player right now. So in the off
ball wing category, you've got Max Christy I think is
an okay option. Dalton connect who knows Cam Reddish, Maxwell
Lewis not good options in my opinion. At the forward spot.
Jared Vanderbilt, who I really like, I actually am much
higher on Vanderbilt than most, but he hasn't been available
much since he got traded to the Lakers, so there's
(19:01):
a question mark there, and that's it. There's not another
bench forward. I mean, in theory, you could play Christian
Wood as like a bench forward, but that's only in
like specific matchups, and he brings his own issues. And
then you have three backup centers. You have Jackson Hayes,
Christian Wood, and Christian Coloco. So like, how many of
those guys are reliable NBA rotation players. Just let's be optimistic.
(19:23):
I think Max can. I think Max can guard bench
guards and be a functional offensive player off the bench.
I think Max is fine. I think Gabe is fine
as a bench guard. Gab and Max two good options. Vando,
when he's healthy, I think, is a solid bench rotation piece.
I even think Vandal could start in place of Ruie.
I would start him in place of Rui if Vanda
was actually healthy. I think it gives more balance to
(19:45):
that lineup. We'll talk more about that in a minute,
but those are the only three. So I've got my
five starters that are rock solid. I like that as
a regular season unit. We could talk about their limitations
in the playoffs we have, but I think if those
five guys are healthy, I think they're going to stay
afloat in the regular seat in and win enough games.
And I have a prediction there that I'll talk about
in a minute. But after that, I've got three ify
(20:08):
next guys, right, Gabe, Max, and Van Doo for various reasons.
Health for Gabe, health for vand oh youth for Max.
But those are like my three best guys coming off
the bench. And then I've got a lot of question marks.
So a couple of specific things that would go a
long way towards giving them a little bit more resilience
are like, if Dalton Connect could prove himself to be
(20:28):
a useful rotation player right away, that would be huge.
Jalen Hood Shaffino if he could demonstrate why he was
a first round pick to begin with, that would be huge.
And then Christian KloCo, if he can give you a
legitimate backup center that can be a defensive anchor. Those
are three things that could that would go a long
way towards swinging the Lakers bench talent, because then you
(20:50):
look at it and it's like, if Dalton Connect can defend.
If let's just say, let's say two of those three
pop like Christian KloCo gives you a legitimate, defensive minded
backup center that athletic and gives you a little bit
of consistency there. And you have Dalton connect proved playable,
and then Max Vando and gay Ball pan out. Then
you've got ten good players. Now you've got something that
(21:12):
you can work with. But there's definitely quite a bit
of a swing factor at play in the Laker bench.
There's a lot that could go either way there. Before
(21:39):
we look a little bit more big picture, where can
JJ Redick help this team? So I put down two
specific things that I want to talk about. One regular
season attention to detail. The Lakers were really good in
big games against good teams last year, but they routinely
dropped games against mediocre teams. They had specific bad stretches
of basketball, like the I talked about in the large
(22:02):
sample that stretch in late December early January where they
went three and ten. They in the December January stretch,
they lost to the Spurs, once, they lost to the
Chicago Bulls, They lost to the Brooklyn Nets, they lost
to the Utah Jazz, they just dropped a bunch of
games to bad teams. But even within games, they had
some bad habits, Like they had some bad stretches where
they'd like let go of the rope for two or
(22:23):
three minutes and just stop doing anything that they were
supposed to do on both ends of the floor and
then promptly blow a fifteen point lead or promptly go
from a competitive game to now you're down by fifteen.
This was especially bad at the end of quarters, where
they would like end of the second or end of
the first quarter, end of the third quarter, you would
just see the Lakers being good spots and then they
(22:44):
would just immediately drop a bunch of their advantage that
they gained over the earlier portions of the game. That
was an issue, and that was on darwn Ham. In
my opinion, Darwin had a very relaxed, big picture attitude
about everything. He let a lot of shit go throughout
the season when he shoot it been holding guys more accountable,
and so I think that we're going to see a
sharper Lakers team and more disciplined Lakers team this year
(23:07):
under JJ Redick. And then the second big piece is
optimization of talent. I think JJ is going to bring
some specific improvements on the offensive end in terms of
spacing and shot diet. For spacing, Anthony Davis, I think
is going to take more jump shots, JJ Reddick. This
was actually one of the quotes from Media Day. Anthony
Davis said that JJ wants him to take more jump shots.
(23:28):
But those of you guys who remember the Zach Low interview,
JJ actually said to Zachlow that he has a theory
about why Anthony Davis hasn't shot the ball very well,
and he said he would share it with Zach down
the line if it works out. I think what JJ's
referencing there as attempts, I think he just thinks that
Anthony Davis doesn't take enough jump shots to be a
good jump shooter. I tend to agree. I think Anthony
(23:51):
Davis needs to take more jump shots to be in rhythm,
and I think JJ forcing him to take more jump
shots will go a long way. Two other things on
the space in front three man action, JJ's a big
believer in running action. Three man action is just instead
of running a ball screen, have another element to the
ball screen, for instance, a double drag where you have
two guys set the ball screen one guy roll one
(24:12):
guy pops, a ram screen where someone screens down for
the big before he comes up to set the screen,
so you get more separation between the screener and the
screen defender before the action. Spain pick and roll where
you have a shooter backscreen for the roller as he's
rolling to the basket. These are all drubble handoff actions
like Chicago action or just any any like pistol. Anything
that's going to bring three players into an interchange makes
(24:37):
it harder for the defense to guard at the beginning
of a possession, right, especially teams that like to switch.
It's just harder to switch a three man action than
a two man action. But there's a third element to
the spacing piece, which is off ball. Off ball screening
and cutting was something that the Lakers did better laster
than they have in years past, but something that they
still have a good amount of area for improvement, specifically
(24:58):
with shooters relow Oka, like they got good at baseline
cuts with whichever screener was not involved, whether that was
Ruey or it was Lebron or was a d that
sort of thing. But even beyond that, just not having
guys stand off the ball would go a long way
towards making them harder to guard. So between Ad being
more of a jump shooter, more three man action, more
off ball screening and cutting, I think those things will
(25:19):
go a long way to loosen things up for their
spacing and then their shot diet, just a more deliberate
process of hunting quality rim attempts and quality catch and
shoot attempts. The Lakers were an excellent three point shooting
team after the lineup change in late January because they
got great looks. They got a ton of shots at
the rim and then easy catch and shoot shots after that.
But they were still twenty sixth in attempts overall three
(25:42):
point attempts. So they could turn a few of these
mid range shots, a few of like the d Lo
mid ranges, a few of the Austin mid ranges, a
few of the Lebron and Ad mid ranges into rim
attempts and quality catch and shoot looks that could just
help an already good offense get a little better, Just
squeeze a little bit more out of that sponge, if
that makes sense. So everything for the Lakers and their
(26:03):
ultimate potential, though, will come down to whether or not
they hit on a mid season trade. In my opinion,
I think they're actually going to be fine in the
regular season if they stay healthy. Here's my big prediction
for the Lakers. If Lebron and ad are both healthy again,
meaning if they both play seventy plus games, I think
the Lakers are gonna win fifty plus games. I'm a
big believer in the starting lineup. Their offense is legit.
(26:25):
It's low on variance, Like they attempt a ton of
shots in the paint, and they attempt quality threes off
of that, so they don't take like a ton of
really difficult jump shots that can wildly oscillate back and
forth in efficiency. The Lakers shot forty percent from three
after the lineup change. How's the second best mark in
the league over that span, while being the second best
paint offense. I think that their paint attack and the
(26:50):
way they play off of that is really reliable. I
trust their offer. There's a basic stat to put that
together for you guys. After January twenty first, when they
made the lineup change, the Lakers attempted thirty two point
five threes per game. Twenty eight point seven of them
were classified as either open or wide open by NBA
dot Com. They get great looks. That's why they shoot
a high percentage, and it's because they're paint to great.
(27:11):
They're paint first into an outside attack from there, and
I think you're gonna even turn more of those mid
range attempts into more threes. I think they're going to
be a very efficient offense this year. Now, their offense
does have some specific weaknesses because they don't have a
lot of dribble penetration teams that do a lot of switching,
like the Clippers, for instance, they have a tendency to
cause the Lakers offense to bog down. Even in the
(27:34):
wins the Lakers had against the Clippers last year, they
were ugly for the large portion of the game as
their offense looked a little stilted because of the switching.
The way they have to attack switching is through Lebron
and Ad leveraging their physical gifts, which they can be
a little passive sometimes. Right. So, like they have some
specific offensive weaknesses, but in the large sample, as long
as they're healthy, I think their offense will carry them.
(27:54):
I also think JJ will do a much better job
of getting the most out of the Lakers as a
regular season team, avoiding the self inflicted wounds that Darvin
Ham did to the team last year. Better game to
game preparation and game planning, better exploitation of margins that
help you win. Those are the kinds of things that
I think JJ is going to get out of this team.
(28:15):
So again, if Lebron and Ady both play seventy plus games,
I think the Lakers are gonna win over fifty and
be a team that is firmly above the plan. That's
my kind of prediction. Obviously, if everyone gets hurt, it's
a different story. But I do believe in that starting lineup,
and I think they're gonna be fine that set. Even
if they do both play seventy plus games and let's
(28:37):
say they go fifty two to thirty, I still think
they can't win four playoff rounds unless they properly balance
the starting lineup. I think the key is turning one
of ruiy Ordll into a rock solid two way starter.
I don't think it needs to be a star. I've
gone back and forth with this over the past year.
There are times in the regular season where I'm like, man,
(28:59):
they could use just enough a really high level offensive
player to just kind of make things easier for them.
But Lebron and Ad just came on so strong at
the end of the year, including the playoff run. We're like,
I don't feel that way anymore. I think Lebron and
a D are more than good enough right now to
anchor a championship team. If you look at that Denver series,
they didn't lose because Lebron and a D. I have
(29:19):
actually said this before. I think Lebron and Ad played
Yo Kitchen Murray to a draw, if not even slightly outplayed.
Then they lost that series because Ruby got his lunch
eaten by Michael Porter Junior and d lo is terrible.
It was down the roster, guys like Michael Porter Junior,
Contavious Cabo Pope, Aaron Gordon like. Down the roster was
(29:39):
where the Lakers got beat. Lebron and AD stepped toe
to toe with Yo Kitchen Murray and gave them the business.
They got it back, but they they were they were
going toe to toe with the duo that won the
title last year. It was down the roster where they
had those issues. And specifically it's about redundancy. D lo
(29:59):
and on are redundant. Lebron and Ruie are redundant. That
means there are responsibilities on the floor that go unfulfilled
or go fulfilled by people that are not qualified for it.
And then there are like there's too much of some
things that you already have enough of, right, So, and
the Lakers I think are well set up for a trade.
They have two first round picks that they can use,
(30:20):
and those are valuable first round picks because the Lakers
are a dumpster fire organizationally, and so when Lebron retires,
you can pretty much bet on them being bad for
a while, right And so, Like, if they've got two
first round picks that are desired around the league, and
they've got mid level salaries to use, they've got lots
of guys like Gabe and Van Dooh and Austin and
Dilo and Rui that are all on these like mid
level contracts between ten and twenty million. They're set up
(30:43):
to be able to make a trade. So, now let's
imagine what that looks like from the standpoint of the
starter upgrade. And there's lots of examples. I've talked about
Bruce Brown a lot. It really just needs to be
a very athletic player that can guard the ball, rebound,
and be a functioning cop in the five out attacks.
Just a functioning cock doesn't need to be a high
(31:03):
level offensive player. As a matter of fact, Like the
Lakers have enough offensive talent and they started That's what
I mean in their starting lineup. That's what I mean
by the redundancy. They need somebody that kind of balances
things a little bit. A couple other guys I'd look at.
Jeremy Grant. I'm actually higher on than most Laker fans.
I know that people have some concerns about him playing
some losing basketball in Portland and how well he fits
(31:24):
next to Lebron and AD. I think he can help
on offense. I think he is a better athlete than Ruie,
and I love the idea of leveraging Jeremy's athleticism next
to Lebron and AD. A couple other guys though, that
I'd look out for, Like what if the Clippers season
goes south and you go after a guy like Terrence Mann,
Like what if James Harden gets hurt, Kwi Leonard gets hurt,
Clippers are just bad, Clippers decide they want to rebuild.
(31:47):
Terrence Man is twenty seven years old and is not
a star, so like he's at that point an asset
that the Clippers could look to move. I think Terrence
Mann would be a beautiful fit next to Austin Reeves.
You can imagine Austin and Terrence and Ad is like
a nice little core to kind of like look at
the post Lebron era with not to mention he could
help you in the short term as a potential ceiling
(32:07):
raising move. Another guy like that if the Warriors season
goes south. I like a guy like Andrew Wiggins at
the three next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Once
again that can guard the other team's best player and
kind of layers athleticism on top of what Lebron and
Ad bring to the table. I don't think that would
happen unless the Warriors went south. But those are a
couple of different things that you could keep an eye on.
There are lower level moves you can look at too,
(32:29):
like I wouldn't be surprised if a team like Minnesota
decides that they want to offload one of their guards.
I wouldn't now that they've brought in Dante DiVincenzo and
they have Nikhil Alexander Walker already as kind of like
a backup guard a team like Orlando, now that they've
brought in KCP, what about a guy like Gary Harris,
just like an athletic, like just a rock solid type
(32:52):
of role player guard I think would go a long
way towards helping at the two or the similar version
at the three, though, regardless of what that player is,
and those are a bunch of example. Let's just take
Bruce Brown for example. Let's pretend that the Lakers make
a deal for Bruce, and I can't remember the exact
functionality of the deal, it'd be like it'd be like
(33:12):
d Loo and Jalen hoods Chafino and like Cam Reddish
and like a first or something like that. Let's say
you make that deal from there. Now, let's pretend it's
Austin Bruce and then ruy lebron Ad. Now I can
put Bruce on the other team's best offensive player. Now
(33:34):
Austin is guarding the other team's second best offensive player.
Now overall, I took the worst athlete in the lineup,
de Lo, and I put him the third best athlete
in the lineup, a guy who's firmly a better athlete
than Ruy and Austin. Right now, I'm bigger, I'm stronger,
I'm more athletic. In the backcourt, I'm tiered better in
(33:54):
terms of my point of attack assignments. Bruce is a
seamless fit offensively as like a screener and roller, a
guy that can kind of do a lot of the
similar stuff that Alex Cruso did with the lebron A
D front court back in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty Like,
I like that sort of fit. Now, all of a sudden,
I'm infinitely more imposing physically, I'm infinitely more balanced. Again,
(34:15):
Like a lot of people talk about, like how is
it that this trade could move the needle or that
trade can move the needle. It all depends on what
the team needs. If you have a gaping hole in
a specific skill set and you feel that you're going
to experience a dramatic return, if you have a small
(34:36):
hole that you try to fit a big player into,
you experience diminishing returns. For instance, Bradley Beal with the
Phoenix Suns, the Sons are not benefiting from a lot
of what Bradley Beal brings because they don't really need
a lot of what Bradley Beal brings they need more of,
like what a contavious cobb of Pope brings to the table. Right.
That's kind of my point is, like, if you were
(34:57):
to pick up and put Bradley be on a team
that desperately needs guard play but is loaded in the
front court, all of a sudden, he brings a lot
more value. But it's all about what your roster needs.
The Lakers have tons of offensive talent in a championship
level front court. What they need is a specific type
of athlete at the two or the three that can
(35:20):
do the kinds of things that they were not getting
from d Lo and Rui, which is quality defense on
the opposing team's best perimeter player and defensive rebounding athleticism
that just winning more of those physical battles that they
had been losing over the previous years. That's why I'm
such a big believer in that if you don't make
a trade. So let's say, if you're like a Lakers
(35:41):
fan and you're like, hey, Jason, we've heard Rob Polinka
talk about how he doesn't want to make a trade
unless it woul lead to sustain success. Let's say the
Lakers are having a solid season where they're in the
fourth or fifth seed, but the Lakers ownership in front office,
they're just like, we're not going to invest in this group.
We're gonna just hoard all these assets for the future. Okay,
(36:02):
if that's the case, is there's still a pathway for
the Lakers to get to four round wins to getting
to the trophy. I think it's a very very very
tiny path, but it would look different for starters. I
still think you need balance in that starting lineup, so
Jared Vanderbilt would have to get healthy and take Ruey
starting spot. That would be And again, Jared, the defensive
(36:23):
end is easy. We've seen what Jared looks like guarding
the other team's best player next to Anthony Davis in
that front line. It looks awesome. They look great. Jared
is great on the defensive end, like I think he's
in that like fringe, first tier, second tier perimeter defenders
in the league. Jared Vanderbilt's awesome on the ball, but
on the offensive end he can be a nightmare. However,
there's a tiny little pathway here in what the Lakers
(36:47):
kind of got out of Jared Vanderbilt. Towards the tail
end of the season last year before he got hurt,
and Jared Vanderbilt's last eight games before he got hurt
last year, he averaged eleven points per game on sixty
six percent shooting. And it was just a totally different
role than what we saw the year prior. The year prior,
they were running four out, one in setup, spread, pick
and roll, go stick Jared Vanderbilt in the opposite corner,
(37:09):
and he's just shooting a three or crashing the offensive glass.
That's all he was doing. And he couldn't make the
threes a high enough clip or even be guarded really
when he was over there, right, So like kind of
a JANKI fit for him offensively in the Lakers' five
out attack, he was running dribble handoffs and rolling and
cutting the basket, and he was scoring and scoring effectively there. So, like,
if they can replicate that in a large sample size,
(37:32):
if Jared Vanderbilt comes into training camp and he gets
healthy and he takes Rue's starting spot and he guards
the other team's best player every night, and he plays
seventy plus games and he becomes a functioning dribble handoff,
cutting offensive rebounding kind of like offensive player within that unit.
That would go a long way towards giving them a chance.
But I think if Jared's gonna be in the starting lineup,
(37:53):
I think in order for the Lakers to be a
championship team, ad would have to rise to the level
of the top your superstars by becoming the type of
jump shooter that he was in the past. That's a
long shot because we haven't seen it since twenty twenty.
But like, if you're telling me, Jason, give me some hope, Jason,
the Lakers aren't going to make a trade. I don't
believe in Rob, I don't believe in Geenie. Give me
(38:14):
some hope that the Lakers are going to get this
done this year. It would come down to building a
starting lineup that has more two way balance within the roster.
That's going to require Jared Vanderbilt becoming healthy, getting his
way into that lineup, and being the versatile two way
player that they kind of got little bits and pieces
(38:36):
of towards the tail end of the year last year.
And then Anthony Davis just needs to become one of
the top tier offensive players in the league by building
up a jump shot long shot, So I think the
best chance for the Lakers is to hit on a
mid season trade. So, in summary, I think the Lakers
are one of the most underrated teams in the league.
Last year, they were really good for the most part
of the season, with exception of a month that spanned
(38:57):
from December and January. It is what it is. Laker
fans just kind of got to get used to a
lot of people underrating them on those grounds they were
clawing up from the plan. So like anybody who's not
really watching them closely is gonna use that as an
excuse to think they're bad. Obviously, we know those of
us who watched Lakers close last year, we know we
(39:17):
know they were good all year. They had this one
bad stretch. It is what it is. They have to
prove it again this year, though. That's it. I do
think that they're underrated. I think that if they are
healthy that they are going to perform well. As I said,
if Lebron and Ad are healthy for seventy plus games,
I think they're gonna win fifty plus games and stay
out of the plan. It's mostly about their stars. The
Lakers top three is really good. Lebron and Ad were
(39:39):
amazing last year. Austin Reeves is a rock solid championship
level starter in my opinion, But like everyone else in
this tier, they've got to address some things. They've got
to have some things go right for them to win
four playoff rounds. For the Lakers, it's about improved play
at the two or the three, either in house or
via trip. All right, that's all I have for the Lakers.
(40:12):
Let's move on to our mail bag. First question, Jason,
I'm a very sad Timberwolves fan after finding out we
traded Cat. I'm trying to find the positives. Is it
freeing up cap space? Apparently Dante and Randall have big contracts,
(40:32):
so we're at a net worse off than before, or
it could be something else. With no Cat, we were
less equipped to take down Yokicchen the Nuggets. I need
some help to cope. So here's the thing. I don't
know how any Timberwolves fan would feel good about this
deal in the short term, and the main reason why
is like, if you go on a Western Conference finals
run and you've got a star who's twenty two years old,
(40:55):
or however, I think Aunt's only twenty two aunts young,
but got a young star like Aunt that's on his
way up, run it back, run it back and try
it again and see what you can get done. That's
what any team would do, right, So there's no doubt
that like throwing a giant wrench in things. Because here's
the thing. Even if you're of the opinion that Dante
Devincenzo makes you better and Julius Randall's is just a
(41:17):
better player than cat, even if you think that it's theoretical,
we haven't seen it. And so like you take a
team that made it to the Western Conference finals and
you don't give them a chance to run it back,
that's obviously frustrating. But there's a different way to look
at it, and it's through the lens of the long term. Right, So,
(41:38):
because Karl Anthony Towns had so much money left on
his deal, because Julius Randall's a free agent after the season,
because Rudy Gobert has a player option after the season,
and who knows, maybe you can work out a longer term,
more team friendly deal after that. Will see what ends
up happening. But you go instantaneously into a much more
flexible cap situation. I was a huge price to pay
(42:01):
there and the price is now all of a sudden,
there's major question mark over this season, right, is this
Julius Randall fit gonna work like? And look here's the thing.
I've slept on it a few days now. I'd be
lying to you guys if I didn't say I hated
to Fit. I love Anthony Edwards. He's probably my favorite
player in the league of this generation. Right like when
(42:21):
the Lebron's Steph crew All retires an It's probably gonna
be my favorite player. It'll be a different type of thing,
and it won't be the type of emotional attachment I
had to Lebron because I became a fan of his
when I was a kid. But like Ant's gonna be
my favorite player, I'm rooting for him. I want him
to succeed. I think his best trait is that he's
the best driver of the basketball in the NBA right now.
And so I hate the idea of putting him next
(42:43):
to Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randall, and Rudy Gobert. I think
that's a three four five that is a disaster for
spacing whenever Ant has the ball. So like, I'd be
lying if I told you guys. I like the fit.
That's it. There is upside. Dante DiVincenzo is a really
good player that I think minnesot Or two roles fans
are gonna love. And Julius Randall, when healthy and in rhythm,
(43:04):
I think is a better shot creator than Karl Anthony Towns,
which is a nice number two option to put next
to hand. So there's upside, but there's risk. And so
the way that I would look at it is Tim
Conley basically is telling you that he wants to sacrifice
a little bit of the right now, sure thing element
(43:26):
that we saw from last year's Minnesota Timberwowls team and
replace it with some long term flexibility while also maintaining
some of the upside within this season. And that's the thing,
because like, here's the deal. Let's say you run it
back and you lose in the Western Conference finals again,
and then you're in cap hell for a few years
(43:46):
and there's not much flexibility for you to do anything,
Versus maybe it goes south with the Julius Randall fit
and you lose in the first round, but you have
more ability to surround an with talent later. And again,
this is where we have to kind of look at
NBA history. NBA history tells us that even the all
time greats, they don't really start to kind of figure
things out at a championship level until twenty six, twenty
(44:07):
seven years old, right, So it is more important for
you to be flexible at that point. That said, I
don't see any universe where in the short term. It's
not annoying because again, you just went to the Western
Conference Finals, you lost close games to Dallas and is
just rapidly ascending. The defense was frightening, it was how
you beat Denver. Karl Anthony Towns was a huge part
(44:28):
of how you beat Denver. There's always going to be
that part of me, and I'm sure lots of you
Wolves fans that are like, why the hell didn't we
run this thing back? But I think I just view
it as a long term kind of attempts to try
to maintain some of that flexibility. Like we talked about,
I wanted to spend a little bit of a follow
up talking about the Knicks just after thinking about that
(44:51):
a little bit more. How do you put together a
lineup without Dante Devencenzo and with Karl Anthony Towns on
the floor with Mitchell Robinson kind of like out of
the equation for now, but potentially rejoining the equation. There's
a couple different options that they could go with. I
talked about duce McBride in the show that we did
on the actual night of another way to look at
(45:12):
it would be Josh Hart potentially playing at the two.
I don't like him at the point of attack as
much as duce McBride. You could also kind of like
kind of flip that and kind of have McHale Bridges
functionally operate as your two guarding the other team's best guard,
and then have Josh Hart function more as a three.
You could also size up, like you could go with
Precious to chew at the four and put him next
(45:33):
to Kat with og and McHale Bridges, now you're just
huge and rangey and athletic. There's I think that there's
even a version of this when Mitchell Robinson comes back,
where you just go big. There's been a lot of
like people talking about like, oh, Kat as the rim protector,
this isn't going to be enough, blah blah blah blah,
and it's like if you're good enough on the perimeter,
I think that's not as big of a deal. But
(45:54):
the other element of it, too, is what if you
had a big look, like what if you went with
Karl Anthony Towns at the four, Mitchell Robinson at the
five kind of like what Minnesota was using him as
and you have this massive look, and look, there are
gonna be lineups or matchups where you need more perimeter
speed and that doesn't work. But like, I'm a big
believer in championship teams need to have multiple looks. You
(46:17):
need to have versatility. You need to be able to
play a two big lineup, you need to be able
to play a three guard lineup. You need to be
able to have different looks that you can go to
depending on what the game calls for. And so like,
as far as the Knicks go, like to me, having
Karl Anthony Towns at the four the five, there are
good problems to have because of all of the upside
(46:39):
that Kat brings at a position group where you were
originally very thin. But again, there's a bunch of different
looks that they can go with. But those are just
some examples. All right, let's look at I've got two
more questions for you, guys. I got a, a Bucks one,
and then a Celtics Jason Tatum question, Dude, if you
drop the Bucks in the West, they would be the
fourth best team and it wouldn't be close. The West
(47:00):
is overrated. The MAVs got destroyed in the finals, and
they took care of the now weakened Wolves. Other than
those teams, the Nuggets and the Thunder are okay. Blazer, Spurs, Warriors, Lakers, Clippers, Rockets,
Pelicans are all terrible, zero chance. I got a lot
of Bucks fans in our last video that really want
them to be referred to and respected as like a
(47:22):
top tier championship contender. Guys, the Bucks won forty nine
games last year in the East, with Damon Giannis both
playing seventy three games. Like, I can't, in good conscience
on a couple of veteran minimum signings bump up a
forty nine win team to like top tier championship contender.
(47:42):
And as far as the West East thing, I've said
this before, but the West was six hundred and fifty
in five eighty versus the East head to head last year.
They were seventy games over five hundred head to head
against the East. The West was so much better than
the East. It was not close. I don't even know
how that's argued at this point. Like uh, and again,
like the Bucks played in the substantially easier conference where
(48:07):
you got to play legitimately terrible teams three and four
times in the season and won two more games than
the Lakers. They were with Damion Giannis both playing in
seventy three games. Like I'm a believer in the Bucks upside.
I think they have potential to enter into the top
tier contender tier if a bunch of things go right
for them this season. But in my opinion, it's irrational
(48:30):
to look at what we saw last year and think
that they're one of those top teams in the league.
It's just I'm I'm rooting for it. I want Dame
to have a big bounce back year. I want Giannis
to play like an MVP. I want Delon Wright to
pan out. I want Gary Trent Junior to pan out.
I want Torrian Prince is a good player. I think
Bucks fans are gonna like him. There's a lot of
upside there, but it's upside. It's theoretical. The reality is
(48:54):
is Damianis played seventy three games last year and he
won forty nine games in a very weak conference. So like,
that's why right now the Bucks are just like the Lakers,
just like the Suns, just like everyone else. There's potential,
there's a lot of good that could happen, but it
hasn't really materialized to this point. That's what this kind
of group of teams is, if that makes sense. Last
(49:15):
question and we'll get out of here for the night.
What criteria do you believe Jason Tatum has to meet
to be the MVP? In recent years, they've shown that
being the best player on the best team is not enough,
and I personally believe that his highest value is in versatility.
With that being said, he's most likely not going to
average thirty five like Luca Embiid. So what type of
season do you foresee him needing to attain that award?
(49:36):
That's what you would have to do. I mean, the
thing is is like whenever you are like, there's like
three different criteria that I've always used for my kind
of interpretation of MVP, and I think it kind of
loosely follows the way most media members look at it.
But it's like, who's the best player in the league,
Who's the best player on the best team in the league,
and then like who's the most valuable, like who's specifically
(49:59):
like writhing the engine, so to speak. And the problem
is is like Tatum's gonna get hurt in two of
those categories, Like nobody thinks he's on the tier of
the top best players in the league, and nobody thinks
he's specifically driving the Celtics bus because of how much
talent they have. So like, in order for him to
win the court of public opinion in terms of like
(50:20):
winning over the voters, I shouldn't even say public opinion,
media opinion. I think it would require him having a
dominant season. He would need to look like one of
the best players in the world while he's playing in
the games. Then the Celtics would have to win over
sixty five games. At that point, I think there would
come a point where people would be like, this is unniable.
(50:41):
This guy's playing like one of the best players in
the league. This is the best team in the league.
But the thing is is Jason Tatum more or less
plays like a second tier superstar most of the time,
and that sort of thing on a dominant team is
just not going to win MVP votes. And so like,
it is what it is. But like, if it was
purely just who's the best player on the best team,
you're right, he'd be in the I've received, But this
is not how it works. And so like, if Tatum
(51:02):
goes out this year and he just crushes from start
to finish and hits a bunch of clutch shots and
averages thirty two, ten and six and just kicks everyone's
ass all year, I think there's a good chance that
he wins MVP. But it's just that's kind of unrealistic,
even within the scope of what the Celtics are trying
to accomplish. They're very talented, They've got a ton of
good players. They don't need Tatum to average thirty two
(51:25):
and so the best. Here's the thing I've encountered a
lot of This is the last thing I'll say about it.
I've encountered a lot of this from Celtics fans, and
I want to be clear, Like, I know that there's
a large portion of you guys who are Celtics fans,
who are reasonable and realistic and understand what's going on,
But there's a lot of like complaining from Celtics fans
about how much credit they're getting. How well regarded that
(51:48):
team is how people view Jason Tatum in the hierarchy
of the league, And it's like, here's the thing. Who
cares what anybody else thinks. The best thing for Tatum
and the Celtics to do is to go whoop everyone's
ass and just rack up the accolades, just keep winning,
keep stacking the chips, and then eventually everyone will have
(52:11):
no choice but to acknowledge your greatness. Like, at the
end of the day, if you're worried that I think
Tatum is the seventh best player in the league and
you think he's the third, who gives a shit what?
I think Tatum needs to go out there and win games,
and if he does, he's gonna keep getting trophies. And
is he keeps stacking up the trophies, it becomes undeniable, right,
Like all of this stuff is just semantics at a
certain point, this is just debate, and so like, that's
(52:33):
the thing. I understand how you Celtics fans feel. You
want Jason Tatum to get the credit that he deserves.
You want everyone to acknowledge that team for what they accomplished.
But at the end of the day. Tatum's not going
to get an MVP. It's very, very unlikely. So what's
the best he can do. Go kick everyone's ass and
get another lari O'Brian trophy and just stack him up,
just stack him up again. Like there's the same thing
(52:55):
happened to the Warriors with twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen,
like no one was given them a ton of credit
because of how much talent they had, and it was
a lot of talk about Katie joining the super Team
and all that kind of stuff. But you know what,
you just rack up the titles and then you look
back and it's like, well they have four of them now,
you know what I mean. So, like at the end
of the day, like if the Celtics are concerned about
(53:19):
the what kind of media like acceptance they're getting, just
focus on the ultimate goal and then at a certain point,
no one will be able to deny how good you are.
All right, guys, That is all I have for today
is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show.
We'll be back on Wednesday with another team as well
as some another season preview, as well as some media
(53:40):
day reaction. I will see you guys, then the volume.
What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening
to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would 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.
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(02:03):
All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Happy Monday, everybody. If all of you guys had an
incredible weekend, we got a jam pack show for you today.
We are continuing our power rankings with number eight the
Los Angeles Lakers. We also have a mail bag for
the tail end of the show. Today is NBA Media Day,
so all sorts of different quotes are gonna be floating around.
We're gonna kind of wait and put all of those
(02:23):
together for our next episode. So our next episode we
will go into anything interesting from NBA Media Day, but
today again. Mail bag at the end, Lakers off the top.
Also keep that in mind for mailbag questions for the
Wednesday show. Drop any questions you have about anything related
to Media Day and we'll kind of stay centered around
that on Wednesday. You guys are the job. Before we
(02:45):
get started, subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't
miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
at underscore jsonlt so you guys don't miss you announcements.
Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
podcast on our Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail
bag questions in the YouTube comments. We can keep hitting
them throughout the rest of year. All right, let's talk
some basketball. So number eight the Los Angeles Lakers, little
(03:06):
offseason recap for you guys. They lost Spencer Dinwiddie and
Torrian Prince. They added Brownie James, a second round pick
that has some NBA potential, but I don't think he's
good enough to be a rotation player yet probably a
few years away on that front. Dalton connect was their
first round pick, does some things at an NBA level
right away. He's a lights out shooter off the catch
(03:27):
on pretty high volume. At Tennessee last year he got
one point twenty four points per catch and shoot jump shot.
It's really really good. Has some scoring chops too, just
like you know, scoring is a kind of a vague
term that I use to describe anything that's kind of
in between. So like if you imagine a driving layup
or a finish off of a cut underneath the basket,
(03:49):
or a catch and shoot jump shot, those are all
shots that are more like play finishing types of moves. Right,
Scoring is like everything in between. Whenever the offense or
the defense I should say, is taking away the rim
and taking away those catch and shoot threes, any sort
of additional opportunity to score the basketball, I think kind
of floats into that category. Right to me, it's a
(04:12):
combination of a bunch of different things. Audacity, you gotta
be crazy enough to take tougher shots, creativity against good defense.
There are like opportunities to take creative types of shots
and angles of release and stuff. Like that in that
mid range area. Also at the basket when you're running
into traffic. Athleticism, the ability to get to your spots footwork,
(04:33):
which is the ability to actually get your body moving
towards that spot and in there in a way that
actually you can flow into a shot that's a footwork
element right and then touch right the actual ability to
make shots. All that stuff kind of combines into the
organic scoring ability that you have, and Dalton has some
(04:53):
good natural scoring ability, like he can create his own
shot off the bounce when he needs to in those
situations where the easy stuff isn't there, and Tennessee relied
on him a lot and that specifically. He's also a
good athlete in transition, like when you get him running
in a straight line, he can hang with the best.
But he's a really bad defender at this point. So
whether or not he can actually be a rotation player
(05:15):
right away, we'll come down to that end of the
floor and how quickly during training camp he can find
a role that JJ Reddick can trust him to do
on the defensive end of the floor. If he can
get that up pretty quickly, I think he'll be a
big time rotation player for the Lakers this year. If not,
they might have to look into another direction. They also
had a couple of interesting deals on the margins. They
(05:36):
got Christian KloCo on a two way deal. Once upon
a time he was an exciting defensive center prospect, and
the Lakers don't really have a center that can roughly
approximate what ad does Jason excuse me, Jackson Hayes is
more of like an offensive minded center, screen and roll guy.
Christian Wood is more of like a scoring center, a
pick and pop guy. So like, neither of those guys
(05:56):
are what I would consider defensive anchors. And so if
Christian KloCo can give them some, you know, a different
look at that backup center position, that might be useful.
And then Jordan Goodwin comes over on an exhibit ten deal.
It's a training camp deal. He's the reason why I'm
putting him in here is he's a stocky, athletic guard
and this is a guard corps that sorely lacks that
(06:18):
specific archetype of guard like Jordan Goodwin can pressure the
ball well, he's a physical defender, he rebounds well for
a guard. He's kind of like a dirty work guy.
And in addition, to that. He also shot the ball
pretty well last year when he was open. Didn't shoot
well when he was contested, but when he was open
he shot thirty nine percent on unguarded catch and shoot
jump shots in Phoenix and forty seven percent on unguarded
(06:38):
catch and shoot jump shots in Memphis. So he kind
of fits more of the mold of like a like
a role player athlete guard and on a team that
doesn't really have that sort of player. I think that's
a guy that might be an interesting dude to keep
an eye on in training camp to see if he
can't grab a start a roster spot. A couple other
guys too. These guys were already on the but that
(07:00):
didn't play much last year. Max Christy just never got
favor with Darvin Ham so never got consistent opportunity. I
expect him to get consistent opportunity this year. Jared Vanderbilt
was just hurt all year last year. I expect him
to get hopefully if he's healthy, to be an addition
to the team this year. Gave Vincent was available for
the postseason but was kind of a shell of himself
(07:20):
and was injured all year. So like just having those
guys re enter the rotation via health and opportunity are
what I would consider to be basically like kind of
changes to the roster compared to last year. Those are
all minutes, All those minutes that Dalton connect would play,
all those minutes that Jordan Goodwin would potentially play if
he made the roster, Max Christy, Jared Vanderbilt gave Vincent.
(07:41):
Those are all minutes last year that we're going to
Tory and Prince Spencer Dinwittie like, those are the types
of Cam Reddish was getting a lot of those minutes too.
Those are minutes that are going to be shifted towards
different players this year. Now, looking at the Lakers and
their outlook for this year, the strength of this Lakers
team as their starting lineup, it's a seamless offensive fit
(08:03):
with those With those five guys, again, we're talking Austin Reeves,
D'Angelo Russell, Ruey Chamura, Lebron James, and Anthony Davis, who
JJ Reddick has basically come out straight up and said,
these are the guys I'm starting with. Right makes a
lot of sense offensively. You have these two really skilled
guards with these two really versatile forwards that can function
both on or off the ball, like screening and rolling
(08:24):
or post up Folkrum's Lebron and Ady can both attack
out of the posts, that can both attack in ISO situations.
But they're just very versatile forwards that kind of counter
what the skill guards bring. And then Ruy Hachimura has
kind of found his little niche as a master of
weak side scoring, meaning like a lot of attacking and
spot up situations. He got one point one to six
(08:44):
points per spot up possession last year that was in
the eighty third percentile. He also scored on a cut
sixty times last year, which was by far the most
in his career to this point. Just we kind of
did a breakdown of this when we did our JJ
Reddick video the other day, But the gist of it
is knocking down three point shots on skip passes, but
also identifying when they are opportunities to cut along the baseline.
(09:04):
And one of the other things you'll see that happens
with the Lakers is if you've got let's say you've
got big, strong players in your starting lineup, where are
the first two of them going. They're going to Anthony
Davis and Lebron James, so Ruy Hachimura is going to
be guarded by your third best ford defender, and that
usually is a player that Ruy can look to attack
in matchup situations. It was mixed results on that last year,
(09:27):
but it was something that they went to quite a bit.
The Lakers switched to that starting lineup on January twenty first,
after not using it all season, not even for a
single minute. That was one of the many things that
went south for Darvin Ham last year. But from January
first forward, that team with the starting lineup intact, so
with all five players playing, they went twenty three to ten.
(09:47):
That's a seventy percent win percentage, or another way of
looking at that as a fifty seven win pace. As
a team overall, including the games where guys missed time,
they went twenty six and thirteen from January twenty first.
That was the fifth best record in the NBA, and
they were third in offensive rating behind only Boston and Indiana.
So really scored the basketball well, really found their groove
(10:08):
as a basketball team last year. The Lakers were also
one of the best teams in the league in high
leverage matchups, so whenever they played really good teams, so
the teams that were in the top ten in point differential.
They had seventeen wins against teams in the top ten
in point differential that was tied for the most in
the NBA with the Boston Celtics. They also had the
sixth best net rating in games against teams that were
(10:30):
in the top ten in point differential. So when they
needed to get up for good teams, Lebron and ad
were always great. The role players stepped up, and they
were actually were very successful against the NBA's best last year. Now,
the season obviously came to an end in the first round.
They had a weird playoff series against the Denver Nuggets,
very different from the series two years ago. The series
(10:50):
two years ago, it was like the Lakers were hanging
on for dear life, but they would somehow just kind
of keep it close and then Denver would just consistently
out execute them at the end of the of the game.
Right this year was much more of like the Lakers
actually controlled the series. They led for the vast majority
of the time in the five games they led for
(11:10):
I can't remember the exact percentage of the time, but
it was like three fourths of the series they led
and then just in clutch time, the Lakers could not
get a stop. They gave up a one to sixty
three offensive rating in clutch situations to the Denver Nuggets.
Jamal Murray hits two game winners and Denvers dispatches them
in five. So it's kind of a weird series because
Denver wins in five, which is kind of what most
(11:31):
people saw happening before the series. But the Lakers were
way more competitive in that series, and I actually thought
in a lot of ways led to some of the
wear and tear, just with their paint on slot that
kind of led to them eventually running out of gas
in that Minnesota series. So the Lakers have a strong
foundation if two of the top ten players in the league.
They were great offense for the second half of the year,
devastating paint attack. They were second points in the paint
(11:53):
per game, which is interesting because Lebron is the only
player on the team that really drives to the rim.
But it's a great example of how you don't need
to drive to get paint attempts, like posting up is
the way to get paint attempts. Rolling to the rim,
cutting to the rim, offensive rebounding, those are all these
different ways you can get rim attempts right now, the Lakers,
it was mostly cutting, rolling, and posting, but they use
(12:14):
those three things to get a lot of shots in
the pain. But the Lakers have some major weaknesses, and
there are three of them that I want to get
into today. First of all, the starting lineup does not
have a professional two way player next to Lebron and
ad d Lo is incapable of filling an on ball
defensive role, and he's mediocre at best off the ball,
(12:34):
so he not a whole lot you can do with
him defensively. Ruey is pretty much bad at everything on defense.
He doesn't rebound well for a forward, which is disappointing
because he's bigger and stronger. There are a lot of
players at his position. Doesn't rebound well, he does not
chase perimeter players around very well. And then if you
need him to defend bigger players, he's not really good at,
like actually using his strength defensively. Gives ground too easily
(12:58):
instead of holding his ground and absorbing contact, which players
will just go right at him and get a lot
of and ones and stuff like that. Like Rui's just
doesn't really know how to use his physical gifts on defense,
yet I think he's a pretty bad defender at this
point in his career. Austin is solid, he does his job,
he competes, but he's currently slotted as their primary point
of attack defender. He is guarding the other team's best
(13:19):
guard every single night, and that's just not a smart
way to use Austin, And that's the main reason why
they couldn't get stops against Denver. They actually did a
good job in the large sample that lineup. The starting
lineup had a one to ten defensive rating in almost
four hundred minutes in the regular season. That's a solid
defensive rating. They defended Denver well statistically, they held him
below one hundred and fourteen points per one hundred possessions.
(13:41):
For against a team like Denver, you're holding a well
below their typical offensive output. That's solid, but it was
mostly fools gold in the large sample because ad was
just cleaning up a lot of messes and helping keep
the metrics down a little bit. And it's a reminder
of why metrics in the large sample can only mean
so much. Metrics in a large sample will help us
(14:01):
understand some concepts, but at the end of the day,
we have to look at what actually is going on
on the floor to see where the specific matchup weaknesses are.
And that's the thing is like whenever Denver needed to score,
they were immediately able to comfortably get wherever they needed
to get on the floor and get a good look.
That's why they had that one to sixty three offensive
(14:22):
rating against the Lakers in clutch situations. Even further, going
beyond the Denver matchup, they always struggled against teams that
had a lot of perimeter speed. So like the Warriors
torched them one twenty six offensive rating in the regular season,
the Pacers a one to twenty two offensive rating in
the regular season, the Kings a one to twenty offensive
rating in the regular season. All three of those teams
(14:45):
combined to go eight to two against the Lakers. So
teams that perimeter defense is like a prerequisite to be
able to contain the ball, they really struggled with right
so to put it nicely, like I just don't think
the Lakers are good enough defensively right now to get
to where they want to go, similar to Milwaukee right
like Milwaukee right now is not good enough defensively to
(15:05):
get where they want to go, which is to win
four playoff rounds. So for both of those teams for
the eight and nine in my power rankings list, and
I would even extend that to ten with Phoenix. They
they're not. They just at some point this season, either
via trade or by in house development or just a
certain young guy popping, they need substantial improvement in their
(15:26):
defensive ability and versatility, meaning their matchup resilience. All three
of those teams need to now. For the Lakers specifically,
I think it's more so going to be via trade,
but we will get more into that later. Second major weakness,
can they withstand an injury to Anthony Davis? Lebron in
the regular season is kind of inconsistent with his effort,
so I think they can kind of live without him
(15:49):
some nights. The skill guards, I'm not too worried about,
Like as long as two of those three are available,
Like if Austin's out but Dlo and Lebron are playing,
or Lebron's out but Dlo and Austin are playing, Delos
out but Austin and Lebron are playing, I feel like
they've got a chance to score enough to win games.
But as of right now, if Ad were to miss
some time, they have like basically no shot of putting
(16:10):
together even an average defense because they're so weak on
the perimeter and they just don't have the interior kind
of like backup centered guy that kind of mimics like
I talked earlier about like roughly approximating, I don't mean
an impact Christian KloCo would never in a million years
be able to replace what AD does. But if you
have a guy that is the rough approximation, then at
(16:30):
least you can run the same scheme and at least
hope to have a certain floor defensively. And Jackson Hayes
and Christian Wood are just not those guys. And you know,
we'll see you Christian Cloco, but he's a complete and
total wild card at this point. So, like, I think
it's more of a regular season issue. I don't think
the backup center spot is as important for the playoff context,
because if you're healthy and you're in the playoffs, AD's
(16:52):
playing forty two minutes a night, and like I think
if you had to play Jackson Hayes six minutes a night,
I don't think that's gonna make or break your playoff hopes.
But in the regular season if Anthony Davis has to
miss a chunk of time. That's where I'm concerned about
their lack of depth at the center position. Now, encouragingly,
they have acknowledged as much in the last week that
(17:13):
that's something they need to do. My guess is that
if they ended up making a deal, it'd be more
of like a combo deal, either like two deals or
one deal with one team to bring back multiple players
where they look to upgrade at starting spot and bring
up a backup center. But we'll talk about some options
there down the line. Their third, big, biggest weakness is
there enough talent on the bench to carry the Lakers
(17:35):
through eighty two games. Let's take the starters out for
a second, because that's how the Lakers were winning. They
were winning because they had this great starting lineup that
was the driving force of the majority of their success.
If you took a look at their depth chart after
the starters, it's a little thin ball handling guards, guys
that can run action. Gabe Vincent. He's a good player
in Miami, but he was hurt all year last year,
(17:57):
so he was a little bit of a wildcard, right.
Jalen Hood Shafino. He didn't look like an NBA player
last year. Those are the only two ball handling guards
that they have off the bench off ball wings, so
these are guys that are not necessarily going to run action,
but can run action. But these are guys that are
primarily looking to score off the ball and are like
just kind of your typical off ball role players. Max Christy,
(18:20):
I actually really like him as a three and D prospect,
but this will be his first season in a real
consistent role, so there's a little bit of a wild
card there, right Dalton Connects, we talked about him earlier.
Whether or not he can play, it comes down to
the defensive end of the floor. That's a wild card.
Cam Reddish, I don't think he's good enough to be
a rotation player on a serious NBA team. I've never
been a big Cam Reddish fan. Maxwell Lewis doesn't look
(18:41):
like an NBA player right now. So in the off
ball wing category, you've got Max Christy I think is
an okay option. Dalton connect who knows Cam Reddish, Maxwell
Lewis not good options in my opinion. At the forward spot.
Jared Vanderbilt, who I really like, I actually am much
higher on Vanderbilt than most, but he hasn't been available
much since he got traded to the Lakers, so there's
(19:01):
a question mark there, and that's it. There's not another
bench forward. I mean, in theory, you could play Christian
Wood as like a bench forward, but that's only in
like specific matchups, and he brings his own issues. And
then you have three backup centers. You have Jackson Hayes,
Christian Wood, and Christian Coloco. So like, how many of
those guys are reliable NBA rotation players. Just let's be optimistic.
(19:23):
I think Max can. I think Max can guard bench
guards and be a functional offensive player off the bench.
I think Max is fine. I think Gabe is fine
as a bench guard. Gab and Max two good options. Vando,
when he's healthy, I think, is a solid bench rotation piece.
I even think Vandal could start in place of Ruie.
I would start him in place of Rui if Vanda
was actually healthy. I think it gives more balance to
(19:45):
that lineup. We'll talk more about that in a minute,
but those are the only three. So I've got my
five starters that are rock solid. I like that as
a regular season unit. We could talk about their limitations
in the playoffs we have, but I think if those
five guys are healthy, I think they're going to stay
afloat in the regular seat in and win enough games.
And I have a prediction there that I'll talk about
in a minute. But after that, I've got three ify
(20:08):
next guys, right, Gabe, Max, and Van Doo for various reasons.
Health for Gabe, health for vand oh youth for Max.
But those are like my three best guys coming off
the bench. And then I've got a lot of question marks.
So a couple of specific things that would go a
long way towards giving them a little bit more resilience
are like, if Dalton Connect could prove himself to be
(20:28):
a useful rotation player right away, that would be huge.
Jalen Hood Shaffino if he could demonstrate why he was
a first round pick to begin with, that would be huge.
And then Christian KloCo, if he can give you a
legitimate backup center that can be a defensive anchor. Those
are three things that could that would go a long
way towards swinging the Lakers bench talent, because then you
(20:50):
look at it and it's like, if Dalton Connect can defend.
If let's just say, let's say two of those three
pop like Christian KloCo gives you a legitimate, defensive minded
backup center that athletic and gives you a little bit
of consistency there. And you have Dalton connect proved playable,
and then Max Vando and gay Ball pan out. Then
you've got ten good players. Now you've got something that
(21:12):
you can work with. But there's definitely quite a bit
of a swing factor at play in the Laker bench.
There's a lot that could go either way there. Before
(21:39):
we look a little bit more big picture, where can
JJ Redick help this team? So I put down two
specific things that I want to talk about. One regular
season attention to detail. The Lakers were really good in
big games against good teams last year, but they routinely
dropped games against mediocre teams. They had specific bad stretches
of basketball, like the I talked about in the large
(22:02):
sample that stretch in late December early January where they
went three and ten. They in the December January stretch,
they lost to the Spurs, once, they lost to the
Chicago Bulls, They lost to the Brooklyn Nets, they lost
to the Utah Jazz, they just dropped a bunch of
games to bad teams. But even within games, they had
some bad habits, Like they had some bad stretches where
they'd like let go of the rope for two or
(22:23):
three minutes and just stop doing anything that they were
supposed to do on both ends of the floor and
then promptly blow a fifteen point lead or promptly go
from a competitive game to now you're down by fifteen.
This was especially bad at the end of quarters, where
they would like end of the second or end of
the first quarter, end of the third quarter, you would
just see the Lakers being good spots and then they
(22:44):
would just immediately drop a bunch of their advantage that
they gained over the earlier portions of the game. That
was an issue, and that was on darwn Ham. In
my opinion, Darwin had a very relaxed, big picture attitude
about everything. He let a lot of shit go throughout
the season when he shoot it been holding guys more accountable,
and so I think that we're going to see a
sharper Lakers team and more disciplined Lakers team this year
(23:07):
under JJ Redick. And then the second big piece is
optimization of talent. I think JJ is going to bring
some specific improvements on the offensive end in terms of
spacing and shot diet. For spacing, Anthony Davis, I think
is going to take more jump shots, JJ Reddick. This
was actually one of the quotes from Media Day. Anthony
Davis said that JJ wants him to take more jump shots.
(23:28):
But those of you guys who remember the Zach Low interview,
JJ actually said to Zachlow that he has a theory
about why Anthony Davis hasn't shot the ball very well,
and he said he would share it with Zach down
the line if it works out. I think what JJ's
referencing there as attempts, I think he just thinks that
Anthony Davis doesn't take enough jump shots to be a
good jump shooter. I tend to agree. I think Anthony
(23:51):
Davis needs to take more jump shots to be in rhythm,
and I think JJ forcing him to take more jump
shots will go a long way. Two other things on
the space in front three man action, JJ's a big
believer in running action. Three man action is just instead
of running a ball screen, have another element to the
ball screen, for instance, a double drag where you have
two guys set the ball screen one guy roll one
(24:12):
guy pops, a ram screen where someone screens down for
the big before he comes up to set the screen,
so you get more separation between the screener and the
screen defender before the action. Spain pick and roll where
you have a shooter backscreen for the roller as he's
rolling to the basket. These are all drubble handoff actions
like Chicago action or just any any like pistol. Anything
that's going to bring three players into an interchange makes
(24:37):
it harder for the defense to guard at the beginning
of a possession, right, especially teams that like to switch.
It's just harder to switch a three man action than
a two man action. But there's a third element to
the spacing piece, which is off ball. Off ball screening
and cutting was something that the Lakers did better laster
than they have in years past, but something that they
still have a good amount of area for improvement, specifically
(24:58):
with shooters relow Oka, like they got good at baseline
cuts with whichever screener was not involved, whether that was
Ruey or it was Lebron or was a d that
sort of thing. But even beyond that, just not having
guys stand off the ball would go a long way
towards making them harder to guard. So between Ad being
more of a jump shooter, more three man action, more
off ball screening and cutting, I think those things will
(25:19):
go a long way to loosen things up for their
spacing and then their shot diet, just a more deliberate
process of hunting quality rim attempts and quality catch and
shoot attempts. The Lakers were an excellent three point shooting
team after the lineup change in late January because they
got great looks. They got a ton of shots at
the rim and then easy catch and shoot shots after that.
But they were still twenty sixth in attempts overall three
(25:42):
point attempts. So they could turn a few of these
mid range shots, a few of like the d Lo
mid ranges, a few of the Austin mid ranges, a
few of the Lebron and Ad mid ranges into rim
attempts and quality catch and shoot looks that could just
help an already good offense get a little better, Just
squeeze a little bit more out of that sponge, if
that makes sense. So everything for the Lakers and their
(26:03):
ultimate potential, though, will come down to whether or not
they hit on a mid season trade. In my opinion,
I think they're actually going to be fine in the
regular season if they stay healthy. Here's my big prediction
for the Lakers. If Lebron and ad are both healthy again,
meaning if they both play seventy plus games, I think
the Lakers are gonna win fifty plus games. I'm a
big believer in the starting lineup. Their offense is legit.
(26:25):
It's low on variance, Like they attempt a ton of
shots in the paint, and they attempt quality threes off
of that, so they don't take like a ton of
really difficult jump shots that can wildly oscillate back and
forth in efficiency. The Lakers shot forty percent from three
after the lineup change. How's the second best mark in
the league over that span, while being the second best
paint offense. I think that their paint attack and the
(26:50):
way they play off of that is really reliable. I
trust their offer. There's a basic stat to put that
together for you guys. After January twenty first, when they
made the lineup change, the Lakers attempted thirty two point
five threes per game. Twenty eight point seven of them
were classified as either open or wide open by NBA
dot Com. They get great looks. That's why they shoot
a high percentage, and it's because they're paint to great.
(27:11):
They're paint first into an outside attack from there, and
I think you're gonna even turn more of those mid
range attempts into more threes. I think they're going to
be a very efficient offense this year. Now, their offense
does have some specific weaknesses because they don't have a
lot of dribble penetration teams that do a lot of switching,
like the Clippers, for instance, they have a tendency to
cause the Lakers offense to bog down. Even in the
(27:34):
wins the Lakers had against the Clippers last year, they
were ugly for the large portion of the game as
their offense looked a little stilted because of the switching.
The way they have to attack switching is through Lebron
and Ad leveraging their physical gifts, which they can be
a little passive sometimes. Right. So, like they have some
specific offensive weaknesses, but in the large sample, as long
as they're healthy, I think their offense will carry them.
(27:54):
I also think JJ will do a much better job
of getting the most out of the Lakers as a
regular season team, avoiding the self inflicted wounds that Darvin
Ham did to the team last year. Better game to
game preparation and game planning, better exploitation of margins that
help you win. Those are the kinds of things that
I think JJ is going to get out of this team.
(28:15):
So again, if Lebron and Ady both play seventy plus games,
I think the Lakers are gonna win over fifty and
be a team that is firmly above the plan. That's
my kind of prediction. Obviously, if everyone gets hurt, it's
a different story. But I do believe in that starting lineup,
and I think they're gonna be fine that set. Even
if they do both play seventy plus games and let's
(28:37):
say they go fifty two to thirty, I still think
they can't win four playoff rounds unless they properly balance
the starting lineup. I think the key is turning one
of ruiy Ordll into a rock solid two way starter.
I don't think it needs to be a star. I've
gone back and forth with this over the past year.
There are times in the regular season where I'm like, man,
(28:59):
they could use just enough a really high level offensive
player to just kind of make things easier for them.
But Lebron and Ad just came on so strong at
the end of the year, including the playoff run. We're like,
I don't feel that way anymore. I think Lebron and
a D are more than good enough right now to
anchor a championship team. If you look at that Denver series,
they didn't lose because Lebron and a D. I have
(29:19):
actually said this before. I think Lebron and Ad played
Yo Kitchen Murray to a draw, if not even slightly outplayed.
Then they lost that series because Ruby got his lunch
eaten by Michael Porter Junior and d lo is terrible.
It was down the roster, guys like Michael Porter Junior,
Contavious Cabo Pope, Aaron Gordon like. Down the roster was
(29:39):
where the Lakers got beat. Lebron and AD stepped toe
to toe with Yo Kitchen Murray and gave them the business.
They got it back, but they they were they were
going toe to toe with the duo that won the
title last year. It was down the roster where they
had those issues. And specifically it's about redundancy. D lo
(29:59):
and on are redundant. Lebron and Ruie are redundant. That
means there are responsibilities on the floor that go unfulfilled
or go fulfilled by people that are not qualified for it.
And then there are like there's too much of some
things that you already have enough of, right, So, and
the Lakers I think are well set up for a trade.
They have two first round picks that they can use,
(30:20):
and those are valuable first round picks because the Lakers
are a dumpster fire organizationally, and so when Lebron retires,
you can pretty much bet on them being bad for
a while, right And so, Like, if they've got two
first round picks that are desired around the league, and
they've got mid level salaries to use, they've got lots
of guys like Gabe and Van Dooh and Austin and
Dilo and Rui that are all on these like mid
level contracts between ten and twenty million. They're set up
(30:43):
to be able to make a trade. So, now let's
imagine what that looks like from the standpoint of the
starter upgrade. And there's lots of examples. I've talked about
Bruce Brown a lot. It really just needs to be
a very athletic player that can guard the ball, rebound,
and be a functioning cop in the five out attacks.
Just a functioning cock doesn't need to be a high
(31:03):
level offensive player. As a matter of fact, Like the
Lakers have enough offensive talent and they started That's what
I mean in their starting lineup. That's what I mean
by the redundancy. They need somebody that kind of balances
things a little bit. A couple other guys I'd look at.
Jeremy Grant. I'm actually higher on than most Laker fans.
I know that people have some concerns about him playing
some losing basketball in Portland and how well he fits
(31:24):
next to Lebron and AD. I think he can help
on offense. I think he is a better athlete than Ruie,
and I love the idea of leveraging Jeremy's athleticism next
to Lebron and AD. A couple other guys though, that
I'd look out for, Like what if the Clippers season
goes south and you go after a guy like Terrence Mann,
Like what if James Harden gets hurt, Kwi Leonard gets hurt,
Clippers are just bad, Clippers decide they want to rebuild.
(31:47):
Terrence Man is twenty seven years old and is not
a star, so like he's at that point an asset
that the Clippers could look to move. I think Terrence
Mann would be a beautiful fit next to Austin Reeves.
You can imagine Austin and Terrence and Ad is like
a nice little core to kind of like look at
the post Lebron era with not to mention he could
help you in the short term as a potential ceiling
(32:07):
raising move. Another guy like that if the Warriors season
goes south. I like a guy like Andrew Wiggins at
the three next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Once
again that can guard the other team's best player and
kind of layers athleticism on top of what Lebron and
Ad bring to the table. I don't think that would
happen unless the Warriors went south. But those are a
couple of different things that you could keep an eye on.
There are lower level moves you can look at too,
(32:29):
like I wouldn't be surprised if a team like Minnesota
decides that they want to offload one of their guards.
I wouldn't now that they've brought in Dante DiVincenzo and
they have Nikhil Alexander Walker already as kind of like
a backup guard a team like Orlando, now that they've
brought in KCP, what about a guy like Gary Harris,
just like an athletic, like just a rock solid type
(32:52):
of role player guard I think would go a long
way towards helping at the two or the similar version
at the three, though, regardless of what that player is,
and those are a bunch of example. Let's just take
Bruce Brown for example. Let's pretend that the Lakers make
a deal for Bruce, and I can't remember the exact
functionality of the deal, it'd be like it'd be like
(33:12):
d Loo and Jalen hoods Chafino and like Cam Reddish
and like a first or something like that. Let's say
you make that deal from there. Now, let's pretend it's
Austin Bruce and then ruy lebron Ad. Now I can
put Bruce on the other team's best offensive player. Now
(33:34):
Austin is guarding the other team's second best offensive player.
Now overall, I took the worst athlete in the lineup,
de Lo, and I put him the third best athlete
in the lineup, a guy who's firmly a better athlete
than Ruy and Austin. Right now, I'm bigger, I'm stronger,
I'm more athletic. In the backcourt, I'm tiered better in
(33:54):
terms of my point of attack assignments. Bruce is a
seamless fit offensively as like a screener and roller, a
guy that can kind of do a lot of the
similar stuff that Alex Cruso did with the lebron A
D front court back in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty Like,
I like that sort of fit. Now, all of a sudden,
I'm infinitely more imposing physically, I'm infinitely more balanced. Again,
(34:15):
Like a lot of people talk about, like how is
it that this trade could move the needle or that
trade can move the needle. It all depends on what
the team needs. If you have a gaping hole in
a specific skill set and you feel that you're going
to experience a dramatic return, if you have a small
(34:36):
hole that you try to fit a big player into,
you experience diminishing returns. For instance, Bradley Beal with the
Phoenix Suns, the Sons are not benefiting from a lot
of what Bradley Beal brings because they don't really need
a lot of what Bradley Beal brings they need more of,
like what a contavious cobb of Pope brings to the table. Right.
That's kind of my point is, like, if you were
(34:57):
to pick up and put Bradley be on a team
that desperately needs guard play but is loaded in the
front court, all of a sudden, he brings a lot
more value. But it's all about what your roster needs.
The Lakers have tons of offensive talent in a championship
level front court. What they need is a specific type
of athlete at the two or the three that can
(35:20):
do the kinds of things that they were not getting
from d Lo and Rui, which is quality defense on
the opposing team's best perimeter player and defensive rebounding athleticism
that just winning more of those physical battles that they
had been losing over the previous years. That's why I'm
such a big believer in that if you don't make
a trade. So let's say, if you're like a Lakers
(35:41):
fan and you're like, hey, Jason, we've heard Rob Polinka
talk about how he doesn't want to make a trade
unless it woul lead to sustain success. Let's say the
Lakers are having a solid season where they're in the
fourth or fifth seed, but the Lakers ownership in front office,
they're just like, we're not going to invest in this group.
We're gonna just hoard all these assets for the future. Okay,
(36:02):
if that's the case, is there's still a pathway for
the Lakers to get to four round wins to getting
to the trophy. I think it's a very very very
tiny path, but it would look different for starters. I
still think you need balance in that starting lineup, so
Jared Vanderbilt would have to get healthy and take Ruey
starting spot. That would be And again, Jared, the defensive
(36:23):
end is easy. We've seen what Jared looks like guarding
the other team's best player next to Anthony Davis in
that front line. It looks awesome. They look great. Jared
is great on the defensive end, like I think he's
in that like fringe, first tier, second tier perimeter defenders
in the league. Jared Vanderbilt's awesome on the ball, but
on the offensive end he can be a nightmare. However,
there's a tiny little pathway here in what the Lakers
(36:47):
kind of got out of Jared Vanderbilt. Towards the tail
end of the season last year before he got hurt,
and Jared Vanderbilt's last eight games before he got hurt
last year, he averaged eleven points per game on sixty
six percent shooting. And it was just a totally different
role than what we saw the year prior. The year prior,
they were running four out, one in setup, spread, pick
and roll, go stick Jared Vanderbilt in the opposite corner,
(37:09):
and he's just shooting a three or crashing the offensive glass.
That's all he was doing. And he couldn't make the
threes a high enough clip or even be guarded really
when he was over there, right, So like kind of
a JANKI fit for him offensively in the Lakers' five
out attack, he was running dribble handoffs and rolling and
cutting the basket, and he was scoring and scoring effectively there. So, like,
if they can replicate that in a large sample size,
(37:32):
if Jared Vanderbilt comes into training camp and he gets
healthy and he takes Rue's starting spot and he guards
the other team's best player every night, and he plays
seventy plus games and he becomes a functioning dribble handoff,
cutting offensive rebounding kind of like offensive player within that unit.
That would go a long way towards giving them a chance.
But I think if Jared's gonna be in the starting lineup,
(37:53):
I think in order for the Lakers to be a
championship team, ad would have to rise to the level
of the top your superstars by becoming the type of
jump shooter that he was in the past. That's a
long shot because we haven't seen it since twenty twenty.
But like, if you're telling me, Jason, give me some hope, Jason,
the Lakers aren't going to make a trade. I don't
believe in Rob, I don't believe in Geenie. Give me
(38:14):
some hope that the Lakers are going to get this
done this year. It would come down to building a
starting lineup that has more two way balance within the roster.
That's going to require Jared Vanderbilt becoming healthy, getting his
way into that lineup, and being the versatile two way
player that they kind of got little bits and pieces
(38:36):
of towards the tail end of the year last year.
And then Anthony Davis just needs to become one of
the top tier offensive players in the league by building
up a jump shot long shot, So I think the
best chance for the Lakers is to hit on a
mid season trade. So, in summary, I think the Lakers
are one of the most underrated teams in the league.
Last year, they were really good for the most part
of the season, with exception of a month that spanned
(38:57):
from December and January. It is what it is. Laker
fans just kind of got to get used to a
lot of people underrating them on those grounds they were
clawing up from the plan. So like anybody who's not
really watching them closely is gonna use that as an
excuse to think they're bad. Obviously, we know those of
us who watched Lakers close last year, we know we
(39:17):
know they were good all year. They had this one
bad stretch. It is what it is. They have to
prove it again this year, though. That's it. I do
think that they're underrated. I think that if they are
healthy that they are going to perform well. As I said,
if Lebron and Ad are healthy for seventy plus games,
I think they're gonna win fifty plus games and stay
out of the plan. It's mostly about their stars. The
Lakers top three is really good. Lebron and Ad were
(39:39):
amazing last year. Austin Reeves is a rock solid championship
level starter in my opinion, But like everyone else in
this tier, they've got to address some things. They've got
to have some things go right for them to win
four playoff rounds. For the Lakers, it's about improved play
at the two or the three, either in house or
via trip. All right, that's all I have for the Lakers.
(40:12):
Let's move on to our mail bag. First question, Jason,
I'm a very sad Timberwolves fan after finding out we
traded Cat. I'm trying to find the positives. Is it
freeing up cap space? Apparently Dante and Randall have big contracts,
(40:32):
so we're at a net worse off than before, or
it could be something else. With no Cat, we were
less equipped to take down Yokicchen the Nuggets. I need
some help to cope. So here's the thing. I don't
know how any Timberwolves fan would feel good about this
deal in the short term, and the main reason why
is like, if you go on a Western Conference finals
run and you've got a star who's twenty two years old,
(40:55):
or however, I think Aunt's only twenty two aunts young,
but got a young star like Aunt that's on his
way up, run it back, run it back and try
it again and see what you can get done. That's
what any team would do, right, So there's no doubt
that like throwing a giant wrench in things. Because here's
the thing. Even if you're of the opinion that Dante
Devincenzo makes you better and Julius Randall's is just a
(41:17):
better player than cat, even if you think that it's theoretical,
we haven't seen it. And so like you take a
team that made it to the Western Conference finals and
you don't give them a chance to run it back,
that's obviously frustrating. But there's a different way to look
at it, and it's through the lens of the long term. Right, So,
(41:38):
because Karl Anthony Towns had so much money left on
his deal, because Julius Randall's a free agent after the season,
because Rudy Gobert has a player option after the season,
and who knows, maybe you can work out a longer term,
more team friendly deal after that. Will see what ends
up happening. But you go instantaneously into a much more
flexible cap situation. I was a huge price to pay
(42:01):
there and the price is now all of a sudden,
there's major question mark over this season, right, is this
Julius Randall fit gonna work like? And look here's the thing.
I've slept on it a few days now. I'd be
lying to you guys if I didn't say I hated
to Fit. I love Anthony Edwards. He's probably my favorite
player in the league of this generation. Right like when
(42:21):
the Lebron's Steph crew All retires an It's probably gonna
be my favorite player. It'll be a different type of thing,
and it won't be the type of emotional attachment I
had to Lebron because I became a fan of his
when I was a kid. But like Ant's gonna be
my favorite player, I'm rooting for him. I want him
to succeed. I think his best trait is that he's
the best driver of the basketball in the NBA right now.
And so I hate the idea of putting him next
(42:43):
to Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randall, and Rudy Gobert. I think
that's a three four five that is a disaster for
spacing whenever Ant has the ball. So like, I'd be
lying if I told you guys. I like the fit.
That's it. There is upside. Dante DiVincenzo is a really
good player that I think minnesot Or two roles fans
are gonna love. And Julius Randall, when healthy and in rhythm,
(43:04):
I think is a better shot creator than Karl Anthony Towns,
which is a nice number two option to put next
to hand. So there's upside, but there's risk. And so
the way that I would look at it is Tim
Conley basically is telling you that he wants to sacrifice
a little bit of the right now, sure thing element
(43:26):
that we saw from last year's Minnesota Timberwowls team and
replace it with some long term flexibility while also maintaining
some of the upside within this season. And that's the thing,
because like, here's the deal. Let's say you run it
back and you lose in the Western Conference finals again,
and then you're in cap hell for a few years
(43:46):
and there's not much flexibility for you to do anything,
Versus maybe it goes south with the Julius Randall fit
and you lose in the first round, but you have
more ability to surround an with talent later. And again,
this is where we have to kind of look at
NBA history. NBA history tells us that even the all
time greats, they don't really start to kind of figure
things out at a championship level until twenty six, twenty
(44:07):
seven years old, right, So it is more important for
you to be flexible at that point. That said, I
don't see any universe where in the short term. It's
not annoying because again, you just went to the Western
Conference Finals, you lost close games to Dallas and is
just rapidly ascending. The defense was frightening, it was how
you beat Denver. Karl Anthony Towns was a huge part
(44:28):
of how you beat Denver. There's always going to be
that part of me, and I'm sure lots of you
Wolves fans that are like, why the hell didn't we
run this thing back? But I think I just view
it as a long term kind of attempts to try
to maintain some of that flexibility. Like we talked about,
I wanted to spend a little bit of a follow
up talking about the Knicks just after thinking about that
(44:51):
a little bit more. How do you put together a
lineup without Dante Devencenzo and with Karl Anthony Towns on
the floor with Mitchell Robinson kind of like out of
the equation for now, but potentially rejoining the equation. There's
a couple different options that they could go with. I
talked about duce McBride in the show that we did
on the actual night of another way to look at
(45:12):
it would be Josh Hart potentially playing at the two.
I don't like him at the point of attack as
much as duce McBride. You could also kind of like
kind of flip that and kind of have McHale Bridges
functionally operate as your two guarding the other team's best guard,
and then have Josh Hart function more as a three.
You could also size up, like you could go with
Precious to chew at the four and put him next
(45:33):
to Kat with og and McHale Bridges, now you're just
huge and rangey and athletic. There's I think that there's
even a version of this when Mitchell Robinson comes back,
where you just go big. There's been a lot of
like people talking about like, oh, Kat as the rim protector,
this isn't going to be enough, blah blah blah blah,
and it's like if you're good enough on the perimeter,
I think that's not as big of a deal. But
(45:54):
the other element of it, too, is what if you
had a big look, like what if you went with
Karl Anthony Towns at the four, Mitchell Robinson at the
five kind of like what Minnesota was using him as
and you have this massive look, and look, there are
gonna be lineups or matchups where you need more perimeter
speed and that doesn't work. But like, I'm a big
believer in championship teams need to have multiple looks. You
(46:17):
need to have versatility. You need to be able to
play a two big lineup, you need to be able
to play a three guard lineup. You need to be
able to have different looks that you can go to
depending on what the game calls for. And so like,
as far as the Knicks go, like to me, having
Karl Anthony Towns at the four the five, there are
good problems to have because of all of the upside
(46:39):
that Kat brings at a position group where you were
originally very thin. But again, there's a bunch of different
looks that they can go with. But those are just
some examples. All right, let's look at I've got two
more questions for you, guys. I got a, a Bucks one,
and then a Celtics Jason Tatum question, Dude, if you
drop the Bucks in the West, they would be the
fourth best team and it wouldn't be close. The West
(47:00):
is overrated. The MAVs got destroyed in the finals, and
they took care of the now weakened Wolves. Other than
those teams, the Nuggets and the Thunder are okay. Blazer, Spurs, Warriors, Lakers, Clippers, Rockets,
Pelicans are all terrible, zero chance. I got a lot
of Bucks fans in our last video that really want
them to be referred to and respected as like a
(47:22):
top tier championship contender. Guys, the Bucks won forty nine
games last year in the East, with Damon Giannis both
playing seventy three games. Like, I can't, in good conscience
on a couple of veteran minimum signings bump up a
forty nine win team to like top tier championship contender.
(47:42):
And as far as the West East thing, I've said
this before, but the West was six hundred and fifty
in five eighty versus the East head to head last year.
They were seventy games over five hundred head to head
against the East. The West was so much better than
the East. It was not close. I don't even know
how that's argued at this point. Like uh, and again,
like the Bucks played in the substantially easier conference where
(48:07):
you got to play legitimately terrible teams three and four
times in the season and won two more games than
the Lakers. They were with Damion Giannis both playing in
seventy three games. Like I'm a believer in the Bucks upside.
I think they have potential to enter into the top
tier contender tier if a bunch of things go right
for them this season. But in my opinion, it's irrational
(48:30):
to look at what we saw last year and think
that they're one of those top teams in the league.
It's just I'm I'm rooting for it. I want Dame
to have a big bounce back year. I want Giannis
to play like an MVP. I want Delon Wright to
pan out. I want Gary Trent Junior to pan out.
I want Torrian Prince is a good player. I think
Bucks fans are gonna like him. There's a lot of
upside there, but it's upside. It's theoretical. The reality is
(48:54):
is Damianis played seventy three games last year and he
won forty nine games in a very weak conference. So like,
that's why right now the Bucks are just like the Lakers,
just like the Suns, just like everyone else. There's potential,
there's a lot of good that could happen, but it
hasn't really materialized to this point. That's what this kind
of group of teams is, if that makes sense. Last
(49:15):
question and we'll get out of here for the night.
What criteria do you believe Jason Tatum has to meet
to be the MVP? In recent years, they've shown that
being the best player on the best team is not enough,
and I personally believe that his highest value is in versatility.
With that being said, he's most likely not going to
average thirty five like Luca Embiid. So what type of
season do you foresee him needing to attain that award?
(49:36):
That's what you would have to do. I mean, the
thing is is like whenever you are like, there's like
three different criteria that I've always used for my kind
of interpretation of MVP, and I think it kind of
loosely follows the way most media members look at it.
But it's like, who's the best player in the league,
Who's the best player on the best team in the league,
and then like who's the most valuable, like who's specifically
(49:59):
like writhing the engine, so to speak. And the problem
is is like Tatum's gonna get hurt in two of
those categories, Like nobody thinks he's on the tier of
the top best players in the league, and nobody thinks
he's specifically driving the Celtics bus because of how much
talent they have. So like, in order for him to
win the court of public opinion in terms of like
(50:20):
winning over the voters, I shouldn't even say public opinion,
media opinion. I think it would require him having a
dominant season. He would need to look like one of
the best players in the world while he's playing in
the games. Then the Celtics would have to win over
sixty five games. At that point, I think there would
come a point where people would be like, this is unniable.
(50:41):
This guy's playing like one of the best players in
the league. This is the best team in the league.
But the thing is is Jason Tatum more or less
plays like a second tier superstar most of the time,
and that sort of thing on a dominant team is
just not going to win MVP votes. And so like,
it is what it is. But like, if it was
purely just who's the best player on the best team,
you're right, he'd be in the I've received, But this
is not how it works. And so like, if Tatum
(51:02):
goes out this year and he just crushes from start
to finish and hits a bunch of clutch shots and
averages thirty two, ten and six and just kicks everyone's
ass all year, I think there's a good chance that
he wins MVP. But it's just that's kind of unrealistic,
even within the scope of what the Celtics are trying
to accomplish. They're very talented, They've got a ton of
good players. They don't need Tatum to average thirty two
(51:25):
and so the best. Here's the thing I've encountered a
lot of This is the last thing I'll say about it.
I've encountered a lot of this from Celtics fans, and
I want to be clear, Like, I know that there's
a large portion of you guys who are Celtics fans,
who are reasonable and realistic and understand what's going on,
But there's a lot of like complaining from Celtics fans
about how much credit they're getting. How well regarded that
(51:48):
team is how people view Jason Tatum in the hierarchy
of the league, And it's like, here's the thing. Who
cares what anybody else thinks. The best thing for Tatum
and the Celtics to do is to go whoop everyone's
ass and just rack up the accolades, just keep winning,
keep stacking the chips, and then eventually everyone will have
(52:11):
no choice but to acknowledge your greatness. Like, at the
end of the day, if you're worried that I think
Tatum is the seventh best player in the league and
you think he's the third, who gives a shit what?
I think Tatum needs to go out there and win games,
and if he does, he's gonna keep getting trophies. And
is he keeps stacking up the trophies, it becomes undeniable, right,
Like all of this stuff is just semantics at a
certain point, this is just debate, and so like, that's
(52:33):
the thing. I understand how you Celtics fans feel. You
want Jason Tatum to get the credit that he deserves.
You want everyone to acknowledge that team for what they accomplished.
But at the end of the day. Tatum's not going
to get an MVP. It's very, very unlikely. So what's
the best he can do. Go kick everyone's ass and
get another lari O'Brian trophy and just stack him up,
just stack him up again. Like there's the same thing
(52:55):
happened to the Warriors with twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen,
like no one was given them a ton of credit
because of how much talent they had, and it was
a lot of talk about Katie joining the super Team
and all that kind of stuff. But you know what,
you just rack up the titles and then you look
back and it's like, well they have four of them now,
you know what I mean. So, like at the end
of the day, like if the Celtics are concerned about
(53:19):
the what kind of media like acceptance they're getting, just
focus on the ultimate goal and then at a certain point,
no one will be able to deny how good you are.
All right, guys, That is all I have for today
is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show.
We'll be back on Wednesday with another team as well
as some another season preview, as well as some media
(53:40):
day reaction. I will see you guys, then the volume.
What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening
to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would 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.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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