Should the Lakers run it back? + Is the Warriors dynasty over? | Get Up

talking about players that Darvin ham wants to coach to me that's that's making a statement look Darman was a former teammate of mine I know how his approach was to the game he wants tough-nosed guys guys that defend that will get up in you guys that are always going to put team first that he came from that culture in Milwaukee as an assistant coach so this

is his mentality about the game obviously you're going to need that star Talent at the top they're talking more about how do we supplement the rest of the roster outside of this core that we won't back Austin reasons are clearly a big part of that I think Austin Reeves ended up being a far better offensive player than they expected going into the season you now have

a dynamic playmaker on your team that you didn't even know you had going into this season now it gives you more options for how you want to attack what you want to do offensively and now what do you do with the rest of that roster you don't just go out in that shooting he wants guys that want to work and grind get up in you and

make your life miserable defensively that's the kind of players I think they're going to be seeking in the free agent Market you know Wendy I know the Lakers have got some decisions to make here especially with A.D in the near future can you what can you tell us more about all that yeah but part of keeping this team together includes Anthony Davis this now this is

not an issue for this week but it's starting August 4th Anthony Davis is eligible for a contract extension and look I think the reason why the Lakers are going this route is they don't have the salary cap space even if they waived all their guys to to truly chase a James hardener Kyrie Irving they don't really have the trade assets to go after a Bradley Beal

or or Damian Lillard if he comes on the market they do have a team to win 18-6 last year after the trades and reached the Conference Finals and they have Anthony Davis who was awesome for a lot of that run and so one of the big things they need to do this off season I know it's not adding a new player but is securing Anthony Davis

locking him in an extension a multi-year extension he can be a free agent in 2024 they want to take that off the table so they can do other business going forward and they can do that starting in August and their GM Rob polinka well he talked about their plans going forward we want to try our hardest to keep this core of guys together and also improve

around the edges and on the margins to not only get back to where we were last year but hopefully take the next step get into the NBA Finals we're going to try our best to match players with players that coach wants to coach and that work in his system all right so that's polinka basically saying it looks like Hey we're going to run this back with

the same type guys what'd you think about what he has I love that I loved everything about this delivery and I thought this was important remember it wasn't that long ago in fact I think it was a year ago that there was a power struggle going on in the Laker organization Rob palinko was in the midst of it because who was the one calling the shots

who was the one building the roster and he's made it clear it's him Darvin hams his coach and I'm going to build a roster with players who fit my coach and when he talks about edges and margins he's not talking about adding another star this is like all that Kyrie stuff we were talking about a couple of weeks ago where they go after Kyrie Kyrie wants

to be a Laker LeBron wants Kyrie it's not happening because they know it doesn't make sense depth is why they became a really good team that made a run to the Western Conference Finals yes it was a sweep but it was a competitive sweep I know it sounds ridiculous but a 24 point point differential in four games shows you how close that series was and how

close the Lakers really are and they believe in this group it also gives them continuity annuity but more importantly still gives them flexibility during the season if something shakes and they can get a high-end player that can put them over the top they can make that move when it's available legs all I think about is a LeBron James at the end of the season tired basically

saying I don't know if I'm going to come back because I play for championships does this give him the best opportunity to win a championship yeah that was the worst time in the world for LeBron James to answer questions like that right your season just ended you get pulled poured everything into it you came up short and I'm sure at this stage of his career he

was exhausted and he's probably thinking those kinds of things I know if you give him a month off let him get to some all-inclusive resort rejuvenate himself right he's going to come back in the summer get back into the gym because here's the one thing about the Lakers everything is relative to the rest of the western conference right when you look at known Commodities in the

Western Conference you've got Denver and then you got everybody else maybe you want to put Sacramento in that category as well because they they're staying intact for the most part they had a great year but they took advantage of a lot of teams having injuring they lost in the first round look at all of the rest of those teams there's a lot of flux going on

guys being hurt remaking their rosters what are they going to be even a team like Phoenix those guys haven't played together yet can they stay healthy so I think with your Rob palinka LeBron James and the Lakers you think we're a lot closer maybe than we thought we were going to be even two months ago right now they're very much in the mix and they discovered

some things in the season Personnel wise that I think gives them hope going forward you just have to add a little bit of toughness athleticism and some defensive minded players I think to round out their roster Brian windhorst listen to the Lakers having some decisions to make with some of those players especially A.D in the near future what can you tell us more about that yeah

brightest you're going to talk about running it back and keeping this team together I think that you also have to include Anthony Davis I mean arguably the most important thing the Lakers are going to have to do this summer is to deal with his contract he has one year left on his deal he can be a free agent next summer and we know in the modern

NBA if you've got a star player who's going to be a free agent you try to get him locked up the year before now he can add three years and over 165 million dollars it is a gigantic number you're talking about the highest salary that you can make in the NBA the 35 percent of the salary cap but A.D is still a very important player to

them they're they're run late in the season when they went 18-6 with this roster after the break it made it to the Western Conference Finals was largely built around how strong A.D played and so that's a that can't be done until August 4th because of the the timing in his contract it's not something that's done in the next couple of weeks but it's also right there

at the top of the list for the Lakers to deal with going into this off season you don't Alan I'll go back to LeBron James saying at the beginning of last season saying hey look this has got to be Anthony Davis's team and yet it was LeBron James's team he was the one scoring 30 at night even in the postseason because with Anthony Davis you didn't

know what you were going to get every game yeah and that's a problem because it was a year ago we were talking about the same stuff with A.D which is the conditioning factor and being an elite shape and being a guy that can be relied on night in and night out not a guy that can give you 30 and 18 one night and then we're all

just like well you can't expect that in game two why the hell not first of all you hear that extension that's 55 million a year you're just you're 30 years old 55 million a year on a guy that we're just gonna make excuses well you can't expect this every night I remember those conversations we had during the series well you know Anthony Davis what can we

expect from him tonight I'm expecting 30 and 18 every night because you are that talented of a player but are you in the right kind of condition that you need to be in over 30 that allows you to be that every single night that's how you become the true franchise player and take that Torch from LeBron James they've got to make this decision in August as

Wendy just said and that makes me really nervous because if I'm the Lakers how do I know that I give them the extension and it's going to be more of the same from Anthony Davis down the road when we get to April and May and he's already broken down and he can't play every game or he can't give you big performances in the playoffs night after

night lack of consistency at that level is a major concern and I think we're going to be talking about that with Anthony Davis his entire career I don't think that's all the sudden gonna the the that light switch is going to get flipped now at this stage of his career but the thing is this they are much of a choice because the one thing about Anthony

Davis his Peak is best player on the floor that night yeah that is his Peak there aren't a lot of guys in the league that can save that Anthony Davis can and he can even string those games together it's then all of a sudden after a couple that eight point game that head scratcher where you can't figure it out it doesn't look as interesting it those

are the ones that you have a hard time living with and unfortunately for him those are the ones that we discuss a lot in the media and he gets beat up for after a loss but he is that good he's that important to what they're doing and I feel like if you don't give it to him yeah you're basically what are you saying to LeBron James

and what are you saying about the future of the franchise beyond the next year right so I think you have to give him the money you give him what it takes because he still can be that good on a given night and they're probably going to lose Dante divincenzo who opted out of his contract yesterday and it's probably going to be looking for more money elsewhere

but when you still have Steph Curry still putting up prime numbers you have Draymond Green you have Andrew Wiggins who's found a terrific role there you have Klay Thompson who I agree is not the player he was before the injuries but still has terrific Firepower you are talking about an awesome team they were in sixth seed last year because Steph got hurt twice he missed stretches

during the season they weren't in the sixth seed because there were five teams better than them in the Western Conference Denver is obviously going to come back because favorite but if you count them out I don't think that you're looking at it fairly okay so I'm thinking Jay when you bring in Chris Paul I'm like you got Steph Curry there is your point how is this

going to work and and is this dynasty is it just as strong is it over when you bring in Chris Paul see I was slightly disagree with Wendy here I don't think the the ceiling has lowered I think the ceiling has slightly elevated tight like slightly now there's still some defensive challenges to win CP3 and stuff play together because it's a smaller back court if you're

going to closing minutes but you know I look at how these guys actually compliment each other if you're looking at Golden State one of the last teams in the league at their usage rate of picking rolls right now you saw a higher usage rate during the playoffs when they found out that against Sacramento right obviously Steph Curry involved in a ton of pick and rolls well

the usage rate for picking rolls with CP3 is a lot more it's one of the top in the leagues right so I think having them on the floor offensively together it or separately it allows them to utilize that a lot more and save me three has learned to play at a different speed before he played at a different speed when he was in Houston with James

Harden so he can't adapt to being off the ball still questions defensively I have for a small unit but I think basketball iqis and spacing they've gotten slightly better what do you think yeah listen you can't debate whether Chris Paul makes them smarter better ball control there's no doubt about those things and he's a great great player an all-time great player make him a better team

but does it move the needle that much for me because I'm having a hard time understanding stylistically stylistically how does this work I mean Golden State needs to play fast when they play at a fast pace that's when their most effective offensively it also requires a whole lot of off the ball movement from everybody on the team and the ball in the middle of the floor

with Draymond Green doing a lot of facilitating Chris Paul is a traditional point guard give me the ball let me bring it up let me handle it let me get a high ball screen let me probe get into the lane and play you know drive and kick basketball that's the way Chris Paul wants to play that doesn't really fit with the way the Warriors play I

do have some concerns about their size I thought they were too small last year and they got small smaller I don't know that that's a great thing because they got thrown around a little bit on the glass with different matchups last year the youth movement hasn't happened at the level we thought that was a big one kaminga Moody wiseman's not even there anymore we thought that

was the next wave hasn't really developed yet if those guys Moody and caminga particularly could take a leap forward I agree that this team's still very much in the championship window because of how Curry looks but they absolutely have to have that out of depth with those young players and it didn't really happen last year does this mean they have to resign Draymond Green Oh critical

yes absolutely if they lose Draymond Green then I think we're talking we're in a totally different conversation about this team about the dynasty about their ability to contend in the Western and you can't lose them to a team like Sacramento right yeah you can't lose them to a team that close to you that's like right there in the rankings and where they are because that's the

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