The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Anthony Davis Trade rumors, Kevin Durant surges, Bucks + Wolves struggle

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Jason Timpf reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks' first loss of the season to Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks as well as the Timberwolves lackluster performance against the Knicks. Jason later discusses the trade rumors surrounding Anthony Davis, and offers his advice on what LeBron James and the Lakers should do in addition to touching on Kevin Durant and the Nets' improved play without Kyrie Irving. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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AMP. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had a great weekend. I was actually ready for a little bit of a break after last Friday because it had been such a crazy two and a half weeks. But I'm very excited to get back to work tonight. So much interesting basketball going on around the league. It's fun to go back to work. when the league is like this. We're going to be touching on seven different teams tonight in varying capacities. The Atlanta Hawks, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Utah Jazz, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Brooklyn Nets.

And we will start with that very back-and-forth game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hocs. The Bucks started really well, really controlled the first half of that game. You know, they're spot-up shooting. I talked a lot during the first few weeks of the season, and even before. the season that there was no 2017 warriors among this group. Every one of the best teams in the league has a certain weakness, right? You know, we talked about Golden State and their lack of perimeter size, and now obviously we've discovered they have an issue with their bench.

We've talked about the Boston Celtics and their issues with offensive decision making. We've talked about the Los Angeles clippers and their lack of perimeter quickness, which has ironically manifested on the offensive end for them. this year because of their inability to get dribble penetration. And that goes down the line, including the Milwaukee Bucks, who've had a weakness with spot-up shooting, which one of the big reasons why there's so much optimism around Bucks fans is the fact that they've got a lot of reinforcements coming on that front with the return of Pat Connaughton and Chris Middleton at some point in the future. And after getting off to a pretty rough start shooting the basketball this year, despite kicking

everybody's ass, they actually had a couple of really good shooting games in a row. They were on back-to-back games where they made at least 17 threes. And that continued into the first half and they had made 11 of them, particularly Brooke Lopez and Grayson Allen aggressively, confidently, rising and knocking down shots. You know, shooting is contagious. I'm a big believer in that most of you guys that have played basketball competitively at some level would probably agree with me. It just fills your team with confidence when guys start making shots. I don't think it's, I don't think it's a coincidence that Grayson and Brooke coming out, rising and firing, confidently knocking shots down, that trickled down the roster. But that game took a left turn, a wild

left turn in the start of the second half. And it was fueled by a couple of different things. Anytime you see a dominant kind of reversal like that, there's always multiple factors. For instance, the Bucks couldn't shoot anymore. They made zero-threes in the third quarter. But a big part of it, I thought, was DeJante Murray, really changing the pace of the game, getting with a pep in his step up the floor quickly and putting pressure on the rim, importantly enough to avoid Milwaukee set half-court defense, which is so important, especially with how well Brooke Lopez and Janice Antenacoumpa are playing as rim protectors this year, which we'll get further into here in a little bit, because I want to talk about that

dominant win in Minnesota against the Timberwolves on Friday night. But in that third quarter, Dejante Murray got them going in transition. They started to get baskets, which allowed them to set their defense. They defended extremely well against Janus, forcing him into a lot of uncharacteristic misses. And then they got out and transitioned themselves again. And they got going, forcing turnovers, getting stops, and pushing the ball. The whole pace of the game shifted.

That ended up feeding their confidence. And then you saw a lot of guys get going with tough shot making down the stretch. You saw Justin Holliday make a bunch of big shots. You saw Anya Kwangu attacking the unsatisfying. offensive glass and making plays that got the the crowd invested in the game. You know, this is, this is the upside to making the Dejante Murray trade. Now, that particular trade had very mixed feelings about this summer because I'm a big believer in all-in type of trades.

I just thought it was interesting that of all the guys, Dejante Murray was the one that they targeted. However, the obvious upside by bringing in a guy like Dejante Murray is it gives you so much more flexibility with your team's identity. So for instance, over the course the last couple years, it's kind of like a Trey Young, heliocentric offense. And we're surrounding him with role players, right? And everything depends on him.

And when he's out, the team can kind of lose that identity because they don't have this backup identity that they can go to. And instead, what happened in this game is not only does DeJante Murray give you kind of an offensive fulcrum to run around when Trey's not out there, but all of a sudden you're going away from Trey and you're bringing in another athlete. So you get a guy like A.J. Griffin, who has barely played this season and is kind of a fringe part of the rotation gets a much bigger opportunity, more athleticism, more like off ball scoring pop in that. He had a great offensive game. Obviously, Trey Young,

it brings a ton in that specific role. But A.J. Griffin, a little bit more size, a little bit more athletic, a little bit more ability to crowd Janus in the paint. And then he was scoring on the other into the floor. He caught a little heater in this game, and it gave them a different way to win. If you're an Atlanta Hawks fan, you won that game in a very different way than the vast majority of her wins over the course of the Tray Young era. That different look, that flexibility of identity is what makes that DeJante Murray trade have so much upside. And it's not even just when Tray Young is out of the lineup. It's, for instance, gives you the ability to take that identity and transfer it to non-Trey minutes. for instance. In a playoff series, when you got to go 12 minutes without Trey, you know what you can go to now. This look of DeJante Murray with four freak athletes that just play incredibly hard and play off of DeJante, run up and down the floor in transition and defend like crazy, get into passing lanes and force a bunch of turnovers.

It's a big part of why teams go about those specific types of deals. And it was a very, very impressive win for Atlanta and the first team this season, too, notch a win against that Milwaukee Bucks team. But the Milwaukee Bucks, their biggest weakness, like I said, all season in the past has been their spot up shooting. And that's what failed them in that third quarter. They had zero makes after 11 in the first half. I also thought in general, they kind of fell into the pace a little bit. There was a lot of questionable decision making, even from Drew and Janus there in that third quarter, where it was just like them getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of Atlanta's run and try.

trying to hit home runs to kind of real things in rather than controlling the pace again. Because you know if you slow it down and you keep them in the half court, they're going to struggle to score. And so that would be my one other bit, a little bit of criticism. I'm not over here to get on the bucks because they're the best team in the league right now. But you always want to play the way you want to play. Don't ever let another team in their style whip you up into a frenzy and start playing a different style of basketball than you want to play. That will only further send things down, you know, a dark. path for you in terms of a run in a game like that, that the Bucks very well could have won

if they had they managed to rein in control of that game a little bit easier in that third quarter. I did want to talk a little bit about that Buck's Wolves game on Friday night that I watched this morning. It was kind of an interesting matchup because I had a feeling it would go the way that it did because we're going to talk a little bit more here in a minute about the Minnesota Timberwolves in some of the fundamental ways that they're constructed that is inherently flawed. that we'll talk about here in just a minute. But in that particular game, Brooke Lopez and Yanos Santinacupo,

depending on which shift had which guy where and what was going on, they were sagging way back into the paint. And as a result, they're basically funneling and funneling Delo down into the lane where there's already this rim protection. And we're talking about two of the best rim protectors in the league.

And then on the other end of the floor, the bucks, when they're making their spot of threes like they did, are damn near impossible to beat. and they made 17 threes in that game. Janus, 11 assists. And, you know, I've said this a million times. But Janus, everyone focuses on the jump shot,

and it always looks cool when he makes a jump shot. But the reality of the situation is, is he cannot be guarded in single coverage. So he's going to force teams to build a wall. And Minnesota did a good job in this game, holding Janus well below his normal efficiency, crowding the paint, getting him to miss shots that he normally makes. But in the process, as they were collapsing to paint, Janus continued to make the right

reeds. And he is above and beyond as a passer than any of us could have even expected at this point in his career. And that was what I kept saying over the years is the most important thing. It is more important for him to be able to pass his way open or to make teams pay for building the wall than it is for him to hit shots over the top of the defense, especially with the way the team is constructed, where Chris Middleton kind of brings that specific capability.

They don't need Janice to hit threes or to hit step back twos or anything along those lines. When he makes them, it's great. It's great that he's working on him. Hell, if he figures that stuff out, we're talking about the greatest basketball player that's ever lived. But at the end of the day, it's always the passing that I'm watching with Janus, and that's where he's taken the most steps over the course of the last couple years in his ascendancy into the best player in the world.

I did want to talk about the Minnesota Timberoles for just a second. And I talked about their offensive struggles on Friday a little bit, but I wanted to get into it a little bit deeper. You know, when Brooke Lopez and Janice Antenacumpa are camping into the paint, it severely limits what Rudy Gobert does offensively. And it really disrupts the flow of that entire Minnesota Timberwolf starting unit on the offensive end of the floor. And a big part of it is just his unwillingness to score the basketball

when he has advantage positions on the court. There is a play in this game. I believe it was first quarter where, where Rudy got a deep seal on Bobby Portis directly under the basket. He could have just jumped and dunked it reverse behind his head and didn't even look at the rim. He caught it and just threw a touch pass to DeAngelo Russell and the play went nowhere.

When the whole purpose of offense is to generate an advantage. I don't know, like maybe your seven foot tall guy with super long arms directly under the basket buried a defender where he's got no chance to stop him from going up in finishing and or drawing a foul. And that specific concept, the ability of teams to sag off of Gobert into the paint, while the other four Timberwolves just kind of flounder around taking bad shots is a big part of why their offense is struggling so much. And it's really bad. So far this year, Anthony Edwards,

DeAngel Russell, Jada McDaniels, Carl Towns, and Gobert, their starting lineup, is getting outscored by 11 points per 100 possessions and is only scoring 97 points per 100 possessions on offense, which is atrocious, especially with Aunt Edwards and Carl Towns on the floor at the same time. So let's look at that kind of fundamentally for a second. So what are the two things that Rudy Gobert does well offensively? He screens really well. Now, Utah Jazz fans were preaching to us about screen assists for years. And that is a legitimate gift of his. He's very good at screening and kind of like delaying his role just enough in like lingering contact to get guard. to hang up on him so that his guards can get downhill.

And then he's also one of the best offensive rebounders in the league. I believe he's tied with Stephen Adams at the top of the league with like 4.7 offensive rebounds per game this year. So those are his two things that he does super well. Offensive rebounds are just going to manifest in extra possessions. But if you screen super well and the team is packing the paint, what is the one way you can weaponize that for your offense? Pull up jump shooting, which I keep saying is the most important.

an offensive skill in the NBA right now. You have to be able to weaponize Rudy Gobert's screening by having guys that can come over the top of those screens and score off the dribble, just like Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley did and Jordan Clarkson did with the jazz during that jazz era. That was a great offensive team despite Rudy Gobert on the floor, and it was because of their ability to make pull-up jump shots. The Minnesota several wolves are averaging making 7.8 pull-up jumpers per game this year, which is 22nd in the NBA. You know, both DeAngel Russell and Anthony Edwards are shooting about 36% on pull-up jumpers. That's just not good enough for that specific type of roster construct.

So as a result, the Carl Towns-Go-Barre lineups with the two bigs on the floor, they just can't score. And so that's kind of where I see the fundamental structure of the roster as flawed, inherently flawed. If you're going to structure your team in a way that allows the other team to pack the paint, then you need to be one of a couple of different things. You either need to be the best defense in the league. Like the 2020 Lakers, everybody packed a pain on them and they had half-court offense problems,

but they were the best defense in the league. And so they were always out in transition, avoiding half-court sets, and they won the championship, and no one even really threatened them. And then we look at the 2021 bucks, same type of deal. Struggled in half-court offense, especially in the playoffs, but they were so damn good defensively that it was enough for it to like essentially they're choosing personnel that limits their spacing but gives them one of the best defenses in the league and the timber wolves are not a great defensive team at least not to this point not as good as they need to be to justify

having rudy go bear on the floor in these lineups and then the only other way that you can survive with that type of lineup is if you're an outstanding pull-up jump shooting team like the golden state warriors so you have draymond green on the floor kevin looney on the floor two non-shooters every team can pack the paint if they want to, but they're so damn good at pull-up shooting that it basically renders the idea of packing the paint useless. And we literally saw the Boston Celtics last year Chase Steph Curry and Jordan Poole and Clay Thompson

over the top of screens all series long, and they just made them pay all series long because they're the best pull-up jump shooting team in the league, in my opinion. So you've got to either be outstanding defensively or an outstanding pull-up jump shooting team to pull off that team construct, and the Timberwolves are neither. And so I think they're a prime candidate for mid-season trade, especially when you factor in some of the personality stuff.

I talked a lot on Friday about the kind of rift that's forming between Carl Towns and Anthony Edwards. And I think some of that is fueled a little bit by the fan base, kind of leaning towards Ant. He's a little bit more of a likable basketball personality. He's got a lot of fire and competitiveness while Kat can be inconsistent with the way that he competes, which is just an inherently, you know, unlikable trait.

for a fan base, right? But even deeper than that, like you're starting to see Anthony Edwards get really frustrated with the way his offensive game is more difficult with the team construct. And you guys probably all saw that video that went around where the Timberwolves ran to play

and Aunt just sat on the right wing and just standing like hands on his hips and watch the whole play happen, which by the way, like I'm sure he got dealt with privately for that because that's a really bad look. And no matter what your issue is, that's just not the way to go about expressing that. But you're starting to see some fractures in the personalities of the team. So if I've got the personalities aren't jelling and the team itself is fundamentally flawed with the way that it's constructed, they're a prime candidate for midseason trade.

And so they can go one of a couple different routes. You can either ditch all the non-shooting since you don't have good enough pull-up shooting and you can go all in on five-out spacing and driving to the basket, and kick type of stuff, but I have a hard time believing that they're going to ditch Rudy Gobert after they just traded everything in the entire franchise cabinet for it, right? So the more realistic option here is they end up flipping Delo and Kat and they target defensive players. And you basically go all in on, we are going to be the best defense in the league surrounding Rudy Gobert. Because Anthony Edwards, by the way, has the potential to be an outstanding defensive player. And you could tell it when he's engaged, he's really, really good on that front. So if I, I would

imagine the direction they'll go is leaning heavily in on defense and understanding that they'll never be a great offensive team, at least in the half court. But if they defend really well, get Anthony Edwards out in transition. Maybe that can be the way that they win games. The NBA season is underway, and it's the perfect time to download Fanduel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers get a no-swet first bet up to $1,000. Plus, Fan Duel is the only sports book that's giving all customers three months of NBA league pass when they make a $5 bet on the NBA. I hope you guys jumped on my Janus MVP bet before the season

when it was like plus 700, but you can still get Janice at plus 210 to win the MVP, and I do believe he's going to win it. Another guy I keep an eye on there is Mr. Donovan Mitchell, who I think is the best player on one of the best teams in the league and has played like a top five player this year and was by far the best player on the floor to win, over the Lakers on Sunday, you can get him at plus 2,400 to win MVP.

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Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast.

It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need. to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here.

unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence.

Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. People. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's move on to the Lakers. So they go O&2 over the weekend. By the way, we will be covering tonight's Lakers Jazz game during tomorrow's show, including the Warriors game tonight. And I think the Nets are also playing tonight. We're going to basically the entire late slate tonight, we're going to cover tomorrow. that'll be live on AMP at I believe 6 p.m. Eastern time, but I'll tweet that out just in case as we get closer to the show tomorrow.

But the Lakers go, they win two games in a row, right? They beat Denver. They beat the Pelicans. Up to two and five, a lot of optimism. But they had a really tough weekend slate, that Utah Jazz team that's beating everybody somehow. They beat the Clippers later in the weekend, too. And then you had the Cleveland Cavaliers in that Sunday game, and they're just arguably the best team in the league right now, right?

I was specifically worried about both of those matchups from the standpoint of the way that they attacked specific weaknesses for the Lakers. For instance, the Utah Jazz have two stretch bigs. And Darwin Ham, his screen coverage is he calls it center field, but it's basically just drop coverage. The big man is way back in the paint containing things and they help a ton out of the strong side on pick and roll. So like if you're defending a wing on the left wing and a pick and roll is coming out of the right wing, that defender on the left wing is digging down to the free throw line to contain the ball. So they give up a lot of wide open threes. And then you guys, as you know, one of the biggest specific kryptonites for drop coverage is a pick and pop.

And it's just about the way the coverage works. If the guard is chasing the guard over the top of the screen and the big is sagging back to contain the ball handler, but the screener pops rather than rolling directly into the screen defender, he's not guarded. And so the Utah Jazz with all of the shooting that they have on the floor to punish Darwin Ham's overhelping. And with their pick and pop bigs with the way that the Lakers drop into the paint so much, I had a feeling that they would have a hard time guarding that specific matchup. And they got absolutely torched.

They gave up 130 points. Lori Mark and in absolutely killed. way, Lori Markinen this season, 81% on five restricted area attempts, 54% on paint non-restricted area attempts, 46% from the mid-range and 42% out of the corners. Basically, the only place he's not making shots right now is above the break. Olinick and Markinen combined for 45 in this game, and they made eight jumpers. LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Russ combined to make five jumpers in that game. Another big thing from Utah that killed the Lakers in this game was, and the Lakers by the way, even though there was some matchup stuff that was problematic, which I just went over,

it also just wasn't a very good defensive effort from them in this game. This was the first time that they didn't bring a plus defensive effort after seven really good defensive games. And Mike Conley in particular, was having a great season, was killing the Lakers, punishing them for not checking cutters. So a lot of times what will happen is, you know, offball defenders will kind of key in on the basketball and they put themselves in a typical defensive position, which is roughly halfway between their man and the ball.

But one of the ways that you can remain a threat off ball is not just shooting, but cutting to the basket. And particularly Jared Vanderbilt and Lori Markinen, every time that, like, LeBron would be keyed in on the basketball. They would just, like, face cut, like cut right in front of LeBron's face. And rather than him paying attention and checking the cutter, he'd be late and they would just quit catch and finish. and Mike Conley did such a good job of making the Lakers pay

every time they got lazy in their offball defense. And then the, so that was just an ugly game for the Lakers. And then the Cleveland game, they're massive on the interior. They're very good paint defense. And so basically when you have downhill threats like LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Russ, and the worst perimeter shooting team in the league, you're basically driving at Jared Allen and Evan Mowgli all game long. It's going to go poorly.

So I was worried about that. And then on the other end of the floor, the Cleveland Cavaliers are an outstanding pull-up jump shooting team, which is another one of the great ways to beat a drop coverage, which is Darvin Ham's bread and butter coverage. So it was kind of a two-way bad matchup for the Lakers. And for the record, the Lakers came out and played a really, really good first half, but things really fell apart in that third quarter. And, you know, I wanted to specifically highlight the value of pull-up jump shooting and how it's driving Cleveland right now. So in that particular game, Karras Levert, Darius Garland, and Donovan Mitchell combined to go nine for 17 on pull-up jump shots, which is over 50%. It's not just about like, oh, he makes a tough step. Like Donovan Mitchell sticks a stuff, a tough step back over Lonnie Walker that rescues a possession. Yes, rescuing a possession is a big part of it, but it's about beating the coverage.

And all game long, Darius Garland in particular and Donovan Mitchell were getting over the top of the screen, getting downhill. big is too far back, rise in fire from 15 feet, and they knock it down. That is why that skill is so incredibly valuable. And you juxtapose that with the Lakers, who are by far the worst pull-up jump shooting team in the league. They are dead last and pull-up jump shots made per game at 5.3. 29th is 7 makes per game. So they're significantly behind the rest of the field, and they're dead last in percentage at below 30%. Cleveland is eighth in makes, pull-up jump shot makes per game, and sixth in percentage by comparison.

So you can see that specific problem is manifesting for the Lakers on a bunch of different fronts. We focus so much on the perimeter shooting as it pertains to spacing, but LeBron just completely losing his pull-up jump shot, which has been one of the most reliable parts of his game, basically from 2017 to 2021, like him losing that from his game so far. far to start this season has been really problematic because Russell Westbrook can't do it. Kendrick Nunn completely forgot how to play. The team just has no pull-up jump shooting. So they're never forcing teams to go over the top of screens, at least not often enough for it to manifest in real offensive advantage creation. It's a big problem. But shout out to

Donovan Mitchell. He was the best player on the floor in this game by a mile, had absolutely no problem getting to his spots all game long. You could see it dripping. with confidence all game long, talking to people court side, just a swagger from him on the court, and he controlled that game. He has been one of the five best players in the league to start this season. He's firmly in early MVP debates. And when we do our first top 10 players of the regular season list, which I think is coming on Thursday this week, he will absolutely be featured very high on that list. The Lakers tried to match his athleticism with Lonnie Walker as an individual matchup, and he just got absolutely barbecued. So,

We have two kind of like side Laker topics that I want to talk about. First is LeBron, who struggled really bad in the Utah game. He's pretty solid in the Cleveland game. He was nine for 10 in the restricted area. Looked a lot more explosive. You could tell that the illness is at least fading or he's starting to get over that a little bit. But he couldn't hit his perimeter shot again. There are specifically two things from LeBron that are really hurting the Lakers.

First of all, like we talked about the pull-up shooting, he's taking six of them per game, but he's only making 29% of them. He's the only guy on the team that can bring that skill, so they need him to get that going. But the big part, and this is something that we're not talking about nearly enough, is he's not actually trying to turn the corner and pressure the rim in pick and roll. So for instance, Russ leads the team, Russell Westbrook, leads the team in offensive rating among rotation players. Amongst guys that are actually in the rotation, the team scores best when he's on the floor

compared to anybody else on the roster. Russ and Anthony Davis lineups without LeBron are performing, considerably better than LeBron James Anthony Davis lineups without Russ. And the main reason why is Russ is attacking off of pick and roll. He is picking up ahead of steam and he is getting downhill, which is collapsing the paint and leading to advantages, which is the whole job for Russ, LeBron, and AD, create advantages so that the rest of the team can benefit from it. It's not a one-on-one game.

It's a five-on-five game. But if everybody's playing one-on-one because nobody has an advantage, you're going to struggle. but if you turn it into a one-on-oh, because this guy's unguarded and you've created an advantage, that's where you start to get really high-quality shots. And I'll give you an example. Early in the third quarter, they go back to Russ with like eight and a half minutes left in the third quarter because the Cavs came out and immediately went on like an 11-0 run after

a LeBron James layup. And they bring Russ in, and he runs a pick and roll with 80th top of key, and he gets downhill fast on Donovan Mitchell. and it might not even have been a pick and roll, might have just been in isolation, but he gets fast downhill. And as a result, Jared Allen has to step up, easy little lob pass. Anthony Davis is dunking and hanging on the rim. That's only open because Russ gets downhill. Everything depends on you getting downhill to create those advantages.

LeBron, when he runs pick and roll with AD, there's no pace to it. There's no intention to get downhill. He's coming over the top of the screen, and a lot of times he's just picking up the dribble and like throwing a crappy swing pass to somebody who's not even open who has to like V cut back out to the perimeter to catch the basketball. Or he's throwing like super low, difficult pocket passes to Anthony Davis who's barely open in those situations. He's not being very intentional about creating an advantage as he comes over the top of those screens, which is literally the only purpose to why you do that. So not only does it kill, I'll give you an example.

There are 48 players in the NBA that have registered at least 40 possessions as a pick and roll ball handler this year. 48 players, at least 40 possessions, LeBron is dead last and is scoring just 0.56 points per possession in those situations. And it's because he's being incredibly passive there. and that's a huge part of the problem with the Lakers offense right now. Now, he was sick, and now Lonnie Walker's sick, and now Patrick Beverly's sick, Anthony Davis said he caught it too, so there's a little bug going around the Lakers. I want to cut him some slack,

and he did look a lot better against Cleveland than he had in recent games. But LeBron's inability to make jump shots in him not being aggressive in pick and roll, those two things are a huge problem for the Lakers right now. Yes, they're two and seven, but they're fifth in defense. The Lakers are literally fifth in defense after having the third toughest schedule in the league, according to ESPN, literally a playoff team every single night. That's how difficult their schedule has been, and they're getting stops. So getting the offense figured out is the difference between this team

notching a bunch of wins in continuing to flounder. in the failure that they've been floundering in. So the wrong thing is worth keeping an eye on. Now, I anticipate that he'll figure it out. But let's be clear about what's happened to this point in the season. Last note on the Lakers, Anthony Davis. So Bill Simmons started a little bit of a fire last night when he said that he had been hearing rumors

that Anthony Davis might be available for trade. And then I also saw something that said Colin Coward might have seconded that, but I didn't actually specifically see that audio, so I'm not 100% sure. But I did think that was interesting, and that was kind of the talk that was dominating, you know, Twitter today was just like, is Anthony Davis going to be traded? Who would you trade him to? You know, why would they trade him? That sort of thing.

First of all, he's been the best player on the Lakers by a mile so far this year. He's not what he was offensively in 2020, not even close, but I think he's been the best defensive player in the league. And probably is the frontrunner for defensive player of the year if the Lakers could win enough games. on the offensive end, he's still giving you 23 points per game on 58% true shooting, which is fine. But obviously he's got some ground to go there. But he's been so good defensively that he's right around the 10th best player in the league right now, which is good.

He's doing his job. AD is doing his part. I've been critical of him in the past. I wish he could get it together offensively. He's had some bad defensive games this season, but for the most part, he's been great. I don't think there's any reason to trade Anthony Davis. Tanking is pointless. They don't own their pick.

Like if they have a terrible season this year, the Pelicans have the right to swap with them. And if they have a great season this year, then they'll just take their pick the following season. So there's just no advantage to tank it. You're also not going to get any value for him, aside from draft capital. The quality of players you're going to get back for Anthony Davis

are going to be like what the Jazz got for Gobert, rotation-level NBA players, and a bunch of draft picks. So the only value there is draft capital. which doesn't benefit this particular window. So I just don't really see the point. Now, there are two scenarios where I could see the Lakers trading Anthony Davis during this season. First is KD becomes available.

And somehow Brooklyn says, I'd rather have Anthony Davis and two first round picks than DeAndreighton or Mikhail Bridges or Jalen Brown or any of the other packages that were out there. If you were under the impression, like Brooklyn calls you and goes, we will do this deal right now. Give us Anthony Davis and two first round picks. Rob Polinka says yes. I genuinely believe that he would. But that's one of the potential scenarios. The only other one I could think of is if LeBron had a season-ending injury. And Anthony Davis was still healthy. And the Lakers are pretty sure after all these years that he's not their franchise cornerstone. So they opt to go full rebuild because they know LeBron's career is basically over,

and Anthony Davis can fetch, you know, some trade assets and help them kind of spark or rebuild. But those are the only two scenarios where I could see that happening this season. And I view both of those as extremely unlikely. So I don't think it's happening. I don't think they're just going to send him to the Knicks or to the Warriors in exchange for role players. I don't see that happening.

Now, here's what I would do. I would go all in with this particular group. So I would trade Russell Westbrook. And first of all, I know Russell Westbrook's been pretty good as of late. But he's still very volatile, still very up and down. And the Lakers, by the way, are the second worst transition defense in the league. And so turnovers and mislayups and things can be very detrimental to them. It's almost like pick sixes.

And Russell Westbrook, in that Cleveland game, in a really bad second half. For the game, he had 10 more mislems. layups and turnovers, which, you know, helps hurt the Lakers in transition defense. He's been better, a lot better. In fact, aggregate good during this season compared to bad the way he was last season. So Russ has been better. However, the best way to upgrade the team remains his salary, a massive salary that can

bring back multiple players in conjunction with multiple draft picks. So I would go all in with the Westbrook trade. Then what you do is you've put the fate of the season in LeBron James and Anthony Davis's hands. If you bring back Buddy Heald and Miles Turner just to make it easy. Now you're giving them Patrick Beverly, you know, or Lonnie Walker, Buddy Healed, you know, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Miles Turner. Now all these guys like, you know, Troy Brown Jr. and Austin Reeves are in bench roles where they probably belong at this phase in their careers.

Everything starts to make more sense. if they lose, like if they still suck, that's LeBron and Anthony Davis's fault. It's because they weren't good enough. So if they're not good enough anymore, after a full season, then you know for sure that that can't be your core anymore. So that's when you can do something like either you decide like, okay, 80's worth salvaging. So I'm going to trade LeBron and I'm going to refill my draft stash. Okay, I lost two picks to Indiana and the healed trade, but we sucked the season was a disaster, so I traded LeBron. Now I have three more first round draft picks. Or maybe it's like, we're keeping LeBron, but Anthony Davis keeps getting hurt.

We can't keep, okay, we're going to trade Anthony Davis. Now we got two more draft picks back. Or heck, maybe it's both. It was like LeBron and AD out the window. Here comes six draft picks and a bunch of young players. Like, who knows what that looks like. But the point is, is like everyone talks about these two Laker draft picks, like they're the last draft picks the Lakers will ever own and that they don't have the flexibility or the capability of bringing in future draft assets. Yes, they do. Trade the picks, trade Russ. Bring in role players. Give LeBron and Anthony Davis a real chance to win this season. If they do, great. If not, then you blow it up. And when you blow it up, you're able to recoup those draft assets. This is a process that has been

done many times in NBA history. There's a playbook out for this kind of thing. You know, and like, I don't even know, I've never understood the obsession with the draft picks, and I really don't understand the obsession with the cap space if they didn't do anything next year's free agent class is really bad it's not a good year to have cap space so that again that's just what i would do if i was running the lakers and you know but i'm not in the chair rob polinka runs the team we're going to find out soon enough all right quickly before we get out of here i wanted to shout out kevin durant um after the kairi suspension, I talked about how it was going to require a Herculean performance from KD to keep this team afloat in the meantime. And I predicted that they would go one and four in their next five

game stretch the window of Kairi suspension. And they've already proved me wrong because they've gone two and no. And what's funny is there's nothing exceptional in the stats. KD averaged 28, 9, and 7 over this two game span, 49% from the field and 30% from three, arguably below what you would expect statistically from Kevin Durant. But as I've always said, that's just the worst way to evaluate talent. We're looking at so many different areas of the game. And I hope we've done a good job of explaining that over the course of this show. But from the start of those games, the energy was just different than it was in any of the other Nets games this season. You know, KD himself said after the game, quote, I just think we rallied around each other. It was a tough week for us.

and it's always good to just get back to the game. Once the ball is tipped, all the bullshit goes out the window. And you could tangibly see that from the team in those two games. KD came out super engaged from the start on both ends of the floor. He took care of the basketball, which is something he hasn't done all season. He only had five turnovers total in the two games. He defended the rim well. He had four blocks.

And the whole team responded. What are the two things that have destroyed the Brooklyn Nets this year? Defending and grabbing rebounds. in the two wins, they grabbed 49.8% of available rebounds, which is solid. That means they just barely got out rebound and instead of getting destroyed. And then they notched a defensive rating of 94, which is outstanding. And particularly against the Wizards team, which has a lot of offensive talent. So, you know, essentially, they got Kyrie out of the picture a little bit.

The distraction was gone. KD. was 100% Kevin Freaking D. the role players were galvanized by that, and they won a couple of basketball games. Now, are they going to continue to win basketball games? I don't know. Probably not. They don't have enough talent.

And so I still think this is headed towards the thing blowing up. But it was just a great example of how a star's engagement level is so important for the rest of the team. And also just how good Kevin Freaking Durant still is at basketball. You know, I tweeted that night, I hope someone rescues him so I can watch him play some meaningful basketball. You know, it's funny, the irony of the KD. Kyrie partnership is they're wired very differently. KD is like the first thing in his life is basketball and then spots two through five are vacant. And then I don't even know what six is video games or who the hell knows, music, something like that. Basketball is all that matters to him.

It's his favorite thing to do in the world. It's all he cares about. When anything interferes with that, he hates it. And he's been thrust into this situation. I shouldn't even say thrust. He willingly went into the situation with Kyrie, a player who frequently gets distracted from basketball. And it's massively undercut his ability to achieve his goals in this environment.

Katie is a hooper. He deserves to be in a situation where he can just play basketball and not have to worry about any of this stuff. And selfishly, as a fan of the game of basketball and as a fan of KD, I want him to play on a good team because I want to see KD play meaningful basketball late into May and into early June so I can see what he's capable of on that biggest stage, again, like we've seen so many times in the past. But I did just want to shout out KD for what I thought was a really, really impressive

couple of basketball games. All right, that is all we have for tonight. obviously a ton more games going on while we're even recording this show. But tomorrow, I believe at 6 p.m. Eastern time, we are going to be live on AMP going over the late night slate from tonight's games. And then Wednesday, we're going live on AMP after Knicks, and then live on YouTube after Lakers Clippers. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys' support, and I will see you next time. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

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