Chris Paul vs. Scott Foster & Pistons Hit Bottom

Published Nov 28, 2023, 10:48 PM

Chris Mannix and Rohan Nadkarni break down the escalating feud between Chris Paul and referee Scott Foster after his ejection last week. We also discuss the lifeless Detroit Pistons who are headed towards a fifth lottery pick, the growing pains for the Milwaukee Bucks and Damian Lillard, and Anthony Davis' play with the Lakers so far this season

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Here's your host, Chris. This is the Crossover NBA podcast on christ Mannix. Join this week as always by my colleague Rowan not Trinisa Rohan. We are going to do a lot of good and bad on this week's episode. You've got some good in the NBA. We all know about that, Boston, Minnesota, Philadelphia, all that good stuff, but the bad is really starting to stand out. And for the first time, I think in the modern history of this podcast, we're gonna talk about the Detroit Pistons. What the Detroit Pistons are doing. What they are doing is just reaching bad. Yes, they are reaching new lows and it really is perplexing to see a team like the Detroit Pistons, which has been really bad for a long time, not improve like some other teams we've seen over there. So we're gonna get into that. I'm gonna talk about the Lakers, of course, how they've been kind of uneven, and a little bit of Milwaukee, the good and the bad. Chris at the Milwaukee.

Before we get into all that, I have a question for you that I've been like ruminating for the last ninety seconds before we started this podcast, and I just I have to know, are you like a huge Thanksgiving guy or do you not care at all? Because I can't get read I can't get a read on it. Okay, okay, this is what I this is what I was. If I had to lean one way, this would be my guess. But okay, oh.

Look I don't. I don't want to be that guy. But if you are listening to this show and you actually like Thanksgiving food, I want you a tweet app I do because I don't believe those people actually exist. And I think you're lying. I think you are lying. Oh look, my god, Rod, what days besides Thanksgiving do you sit down and have cranberry sauce and stuffing and actual turkey? Like, what days besides November umber twenty fifth of every year? I think it's no number twenty fifth? What days do you eat Thanksgiving foods? You're making a compelling argument. You're making a compelling argument. If it was good, people would eat it other days. Yeah.

Yeah, we're not a turkey family. Like, that's something we abandoned kind of early on. So I think we're in the same ballpark here.

Yeah, well, no question about that. If you're pro Thanksgiving food by all meats, send me a tweet, tell me all about tell me how on like December sixteenth, you eat turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce and all that. Because you don't, you're lying. I had meatballs on Thanksgiving. I polished it off with a bag of chips. I had some ice cream. It was pretty much a typical day for me. It's good. Great to hear man. All right, So the day before Thanksgiving, to make a seamless transition, we had an incident in the NBA, an incident that has kind of faded away over the last couple of days, but I do want to talk about it. Scott Foster versus Chris Paul. This has been an ongoing rivalry. It's weird to call a referee in a player a rivalry, but that's what it is. A rivalry between you know, one of the biggest names in the NBA and one of the league's star officials, one of the best officials at least by NBA standards, in the league. Today, on Wednesday, in a game UH featuring you know, Golden State playing I forget who they play again? They play the Warriors in the Sun forgot war in Phoenix. Nationally televised game in Phoenix. That's right, nationally televised game. First half of that game, Chris Paul gets whistled for a foul.

Uh.

After the foul, Chris Paul and Scott Foster engage in a pretty animated back and forth. After about twenty five thirty second, Scott Foster whistled Chris Paul for a technical. Five or six seconds after that, he whistled Chris Paul for another technical. Here's how Chris Paul explained what happened between him and Scott Foster and the issues between him and Scott Foster.

It's personal. Yeah, we had a situation some years ago, and it's personal, you know what I mean, Like the league know, everybody know. It's been a meeting and all that, and it's just a situation with my son and so it's they know what it is. He know what it is too, so we don't know what it is. Yeah, there's just no I had a meeting with him, my dad, Doc rivers By Blainey and all us. So yeah, yeah, him too. That with the Clippers.

Clippers so.

Did.

It was a whole thing, man, But it's it's still been a thing for a while.

All right. So there's a lot to unpack with what Chris Paul said there. He affirmed that it was a personal beef between him at Scott Foster. He mentioned his son being involved. They didn't give many specifics, just said his son was somehow involved in all this. Said he had a meeting with league officials about Scott Foster. So Chris Paul, you know, put the spotlight directly back on Scott Foster. Now why does this matter? Well, if you look at the last twenty playoff games that Chris Paul has played in that Scott Foster has officiated, the teams Chris Paul has played on three and seventeen, so and I think they've lost a credit. Tom Haberstrop with this had this number, and they've lost by an average like eleven and a half points in each one. So when Scott Foster referees Chris Paul games, Chris Paul's teams tend to lose. Now, cause and effect aren't the same thing, of course, that you know, there's there's right, but this continues to be a dilemma for the NBA because the NBA considers Scott Foster one of its top officials. Scott Foster routinely referees finals games. Going into last year's finals, the engage to press release when they announced who the officials were saying Scott Foster had referee twenty three finals games. That was more than any referee that was part of that. I think it was a ten man or ten person referee rotation. The NBA thinks Scott Foster is great, Chris Paul thinks Scott Foster sucks. How does this get resolved? And how big an issue is this with the NBA?

I think it's a pretty substantial issue, Chris, And like you mentioned to me, this has been going on for years. This is like the latest in a series of blow ups these too have had, as you guys know, like I talk about Chris Faull a lot on this podcast. I'm a fan of his if you followed his career with any sort of regularity or closeness, So you know that this is an issue, and I you know, I read your column about it and I thought it was measured. I'm willing to go a step further right now and say I don't think Chris Scott Foster should be officiating Chris Paul's games. And I understand why the NBA doesn't want to open up that can of works. They don't want to open up this idea that officials have relatetionships with the players. And if we do this for Chris, so we're gonna have to do it when Lebron complains about a certain official, et cetera. You know, the optics of that are not good and kind of opening that Pandora's box, it's a slippery slope. I get all that, But there's a couple of things here. One, it's clearly personal between these two guys. It's like it's one thing when people joke they call Scott Foster the extender on Twitter. I mean, it's one thing to joke about Scott Foster, and you know, these little funny videos about him brefing a Game three, making sure the series goes to two to one. This is so clearly beyond kind of any other thing we're seeing in the league. And it's not the first time Chris is alluded to.

Issues between those two.

I mean, we it's been a storyline after playoff games. Chris like to me, that's when it should have stopped. Like I thought this was gonna stop years ago, frankly, like we're talking about Chris Paul and the Rockets, like complaining about Scott Foster. How long this has been going on for the Clippers. I mean he mentioned it, like it's just the NBA. Anytime Chris Paul plays in a Scott Foster game now is gonna the integrity of the game is gonna be called into it. And I think it's as simple as that. And again, I am sympathetic to the end. It's a slippery slope, but I don't think you can have Scott Foster running a Chris Paul game again.

Yeah, but Roan, you just YadA YadA, Like the most important part to all this, like the the idea that a player can get a certain referee off of games, is a very slippery slope. Because what happens if Lebron James says, I don't want my games refereed by Ed malloy anymore. What happens if Nikola Jokic says Bill Kennedy is out to get me? Like where does it end? And my thing is with all this is I have yet to see one piece of evidence that shows that Scott Scott Foster unfairly referees Chris Paul. Now you can certainly quibble with the double technical last week. Uh, my interpretation of it was that at some point Scott Foster, when that back and forth was going on, could have relocated a little bit. He stayed kind of, to use a football analogy, stayed kind of in the pocket and had had a lengthy discussion with Chris Paul. I know, because it was a free throw, Scott Foster has to stay at a certain area. I thought he could have relocated. I also thought he could have been less quick on the trigger on the second tech. But look, these are I don't know exactly what was said. We know, thank you to our friend world Wide Wobb who did a great job lip reading. We kind of know what Scott Foster said. We don't really know, at least not in the beginning stage, what Chris Paul said. So I'm willing to say I don't agree with that, But you know whatever, I wasn't privy to the entirety of the conversation. Why I think Scott Foster is on high ground here is because if and when Chris Paul had this meeting with a league official back in I think he said twenty nineteen there was no discipline for Scott Paul Scott Foster in this particular situation. Scott Foster had the incident with Chris Paul and he was back on Friday. I was in LA at the Clippers game. He worked that game on Friday night. There was no discipline for this. And when you get to the playoffs, you can't cherry pick who your officials are for certain players. You have to go by the system that the NBA goes by. They ranked their referees. They have a system in place Montie McCutcheon his staff there. They do a really good job I think of determining through you know, tangible data, who the best officials are. You can't take someone off because a player has a beef with them.

Rohan, listen, I hear all about what you're saying. I just I guess then, I just have an issue with the way the league has handled this. I don't expect Adams. How would you want them to handle it?

How would you want them to handle it? You put yourself in Adam Silver's position. What should he have should he do? What should he have done? This situation.

First of all, you know, I respect that. You know, it sounds like Chris he was like Doc Rivers is in this meeting League officials, with this meeting, I was silver there. I want to know what, Like, what is it he's got to do? The beer summit?

You know?

What is it that the presidents do whenever something this happens, Like he's got to get just the two of them in a room, no no one else, and they gotta hammer this out, like it's a what out?

But hammer what out? So this idea, Look, I don't know what Chris Paul was alluding to specifically with his son. By saying there was an instant with my son, he leaves it open to wide interpretation. And I think he did that on purpose. Yes, I think he did that a purpose, Like I think he wants. I think he wants Stevie B four six nine in Phoenix tweeting out that like Scott Foster, you know, ran over his son in a basketball gamer. So like then, like he he wants there to be just a hint of real propriety. From what I have heard, I've asked a few different people who declined to give specifics, it was nothing like that that like there is no you know, outside of the arena interaction between Scott Foster and Chris Paul's son. So but but that being out there in the universe I think works in the favor of Chris Paul. You're saying, but you're saying, settle the beef. In the NBA's mind, there really is no beef. The NBA doesn't seem that's but the NBA can't pretend like there's no beef. There's a data backing up the beef. This is also the understanding total date of Chris Paul being pissed off at calls. Like I guarantee you Roland, if you really dug into this, like if somebody out there please people on social media, feel free to waste your time doing this. But I guarantee, like Shake Gilders, Alexander probably hasn't won X number of games with X referee there. I guarantee if you dig into this long enough, you're going to find more examples like the one we have with Chris Paul. I get it.

But it's when you narrow it down to playoff games and it's so much more high profile. And this is my issue is this is not the first time this is spilled over into a postgame press conference between these two guys. And what I just don't understand for the league if they're trying so hard to be transparent the last two minute reports, all this stuff with the referee. You had the insane situation between the Celtics and the Lakers last year, and the Referee Union came out with this like self loathing statement about how set they were that they got it wrong, blah blah blah. But this is the most high profile case of this happening, and I, you know, respect and understand what they're saying in terms of we don't want to open Pandora's box here and start developing this thing with every player. But then I think it's got to start with Silver. I think Adam's got He's gotta either figure out a wait for the two of them to get a lid on it or or stop or stop us from questioning the validity of next time. Scott Foster refs of Chris Paul playf game because this data, you know, tried out to Tom Haberstrow, who really compiled it on his Lows letter, a great newsletter. This is like this, these numbers have been floating around NBA Twitter for years like that. That's what really frustrates about the numbers.

It's not new. His recorded by Scott Foster. Yes, that's it.

But he like at some point, at some point when he'd lost like six or seven or eight games in a row reffed by Scott Foster, and the the talk leading up to an important playoff game for Chris Paul, when Scott Foster's refereeing it being like, well, we know that Chris Paul is.

Losing that closing by double digits in these games. It's not like it's like the difference of one free throw. He's losing by double digit It tells me that Chris Paul's teams aren't as good as the teams that he's going up against more than anything else. Listen, I respect you getting that. I just like to deal with didnty gritty look. I just like to deal in reality, in facts and look, I think Chris Paul has done a masterful job of boxing the NBA. If the NBA doesn't take if he doesn't, if the NBA doesn't take your advice and keep Scott Foster away from Chris Paul, it's a bad look for them because no matter what, they have lost the perception bound because Chris Paul can get up there on the podium and say whatever he wants about whoever he wants, as long as you willing to eat like a small fine at the end of the day, Scott Foster. I know some people were kind of irritated that Scott Foster didn't get into detail in the pool report. If you've ever done these pool reports, the referee cannot get into detail there. The referees are never going to say anything but the least amount possible to answer your question. They're like, if Scott Foster put this way, if he had got out and said Chris Paul called me an m effort or whatever Chris Paul might have said to him, if Scott Foster had said that, he would have heard from the League office and there would have been disciplined probably for him for saying that. So like, I look, I just Chris Paul's boxed the NBAN. There's no question about that. I just don't think there's any evidence outside a win lost round. Do you think but do you think you think he's not the only referee. By the way, there are three referees of these games.

I get it, But so you're saying they should do nothing status quo. Let's just let's just do this again the next time.

Unless unless they can prove that Scott Foster has an agenda against Chris Paul and he calls games differently against Chris Paul. I mean, the reality is Rohan like this might actually work out Chris Paul's favor, Like if Scott Foster is refereeing a game, maybe in the back of his mind, Scott Foster's like, you know what I'm I can't get you know, Look, Chris Paul plays that Chris Paul is really good at playing that game. So I don't think the NBA can do anything unless they can prove that Scott Foster has been calling Chris Paul differently. And look, this isn't to say the NBA doesn't have referees issues. You go back to Tim Donege, I was a major issue. I still haven't heard Adam Silver address Eric Lewis. Like, nobody asked that Silver about Eric Lewis. That is press for preseason. I wasn't there. I would have asked him. Eric Lewis the referee who it turns out had like a burner account and was defending Eric Lewis and other referees on that burner account. He quietly retired during the summer. My question for Adam Silver, it's free to come on the pod answered if he wants, would be like, is there any evidence any that indicates that the the integrity of the games were compromised? And that's not a ludicris question because the NBA has recently is like fifteen years ago, had an issue where the games the integrity of the games compromised. I would like to know the answer to that question, because as far as I know, there was an investigation. Eric Lewis resigned, the investigation stopped. That always to me kind of stunk a little bit, So that would be the question I would have. I don't unless somebody is going to present me with actual evidence besides a one loss record that Scott Foster is mishandling games played by Chris Paul out of the NBA should do anything nothing, all right? The end of rents on that one. The Detroit Pistons stick, Let's go with that one. They are terrible. I was watching Rohan Monday night Wizards. Pistons. Don't ask me why it was probably because the Laker game was so far out of hand so early. So I switched over to Wizard's Pistons and watched the game between two two and fourteen teams. One of those two and fourteen teams looked like a playoff team. You know the Wizards, you know Kyle Kuzma out there knocking down threes, you know Jordan Poole making shots. Meanwhile, you've got the Detroit Pistons, who a month into the season look lifeless. They had apparently a player's only meeting recently. And then Monty Williams, the head coach of the Pistons, goes up to the podium after the game and says this, it's.

Just a level of growing up on this team, maturity, understanding what game plan, discipline is, all the stuff we talk about all the time. It's enough talking. That wasn't fight on the floor. That wasn't Pistons basketball by any stretch of the imagination. That's what this is. We have to have people that honor the organization and the jersey by competing at a high level every night. Now talking about execution, just competing, That wouldn't it. And that's on me, so Rowan.

It's not good when your head coach a month into the season is questioning your fighting spirit. The fighting spirit I should add a bunch of young guys who, if nothing else, should have a real fighting spirit. What do you make of the mess that is the Detroit Pistons? It is.

I know last week they're the saddest watch in the NBA, and it's only gotten worse since then. I own to throughout this stat Omari Sankofa, who writes about the Pistons for the Free Press. I believe Omarrio. I hope I got that right. Their last four games, they've lost by twenty nine, four, twenty three, and nineteen. Like when they lost fourteen in a row, you know, the first ten of those whatever, they had some competitive losses in there. You know, you remember there were a game winning three missed my kid Cunningham away from beating Miami in Miami to start the season.

They looked frisky. I mean, the.

Issues are everywhere, man. I just don't know right now that you could say Monty's the right coach for this group. If he's getting the most out of them, you want to.

Pull the shoot a mod. What was his contract? You can't.

You can't six years, seventy eight million. You know who was probably the happiest person in the world when Montu Williams signed that contract.

Michael Malone my other coach everywhere.

Yeah, yeah, but you know they're so they're financially hamstrung. There, Kid Cunningham, you know, he played twelve games last season. He has an injury. I'm not suggesting that he could have played at the end of the season or if it was a shutdown. They knew they were gonna tank. But it's been a very long time now that we've seen in an extended stretch from Kaid Cunningham's game that linds you believe he's gonna be a franchise type number one. And I don't even mean like it's too it's too much pressure to say, this guy's got to be the best guy on a title team. But could he be Donovan Mitchell, Like, could he be in that next tier of guys who's kind of the lead guy and a good team. We haven't seen anything to suggest that. Really this season, his efficiency has been terrible. I mean, I get that they've been missing Monty Morrison, boy On Bogdanovich, like two vets they thought would help stabilize things here.

But it's rough, Morris said, Bowie and Bogdanovitch to save the day you're asking, it's there.

It's dire straight and you know they've picked like first, fifth, sixth, se like they've had plumb draftfics the last five or six years and live and it's it's brutal to watch.

Brutal. I've got my power rankings up on up today Tuesday, Detroit is thirty with a bullet like they are super glued right now into that thirty spot. You go back to last season and the Pistons have lost forty four of their last forty nine games, and you have to really try to be that inept and to your point, like they have been the lottery for the last four years. They have had some success when it comes to lottery location the last four years, and they can't win. They can't win. They have no energy, they're lifeless. Their defense is bad, but that's just like run of the mill bad. Their offense is horrible. They are horrible virtue, yeah, constantly turning it over, fouling all the time, like they are just they're bad offensively in every possible way. Jade and Ivy can't get any kind of burden under Monty Williams. To your point, Kate Cunningham looks like a decent number two on on a winning team and not the number one that you would hope for with the top overall pick that they just don't have. They just don't have talent. And I've seen some people out there saying trade some of the veterans, Like, first, who who are you trading off that team? Second? Uh, you know for what? Like tear it Down's already torn down, like they're they're their win totals last year, last few years have looked like a locker combination. It's like twenty twenty three, seventeen, Like these these win totals are awful. H You can't fire money Wors like he is. He is the definition of unfireable, Like with a seventy plus million dollar contract. He is the definition of unfireable. Do you fire Troy Weaver? Like, I don't know, Troy's got a pretty good eye for talent, but this team, like Troy might be better off being like the director of scouting for this team, like being the guy that you know goes out in scouts down because some of these guys can play. Jellen during could play. I thought Jade and Ivory last year, Ivy last year could play. You know, I say you number won a bad draft.

Yeah, Ivey's had some nice moments here, but to your point, he just hasn't played that much. Like he looks better, but he hasn't played enough. And it not only Yeah, and they also you know, they're like, we'll take a chance on Marvin Bagley, will take a chance on James Wiseman, like goods are good, but that doesn't work, Like you know, Badley's a scratch wise when barely plays like they're not even seemingly really able to develop these guys who theoretically had top.

Of the draft talent.

I mean, you're red a good point, Like they can't really fire Monty, so what's left? I mean, I do think they should probably trade Bogdanovic and more, it's just for the hell of it, Like might as well lean in at this point. Those guys are both unexpiring deals anyway.

As those guys right now, they haven't played. Who wants those guys?

Don't let me uncork my favorite Miami Heat fake trade on you right now?

No want that this week.

But to your point, like, I'm genuinely stumped on what they should do, because I'm with you. I don't think Troy has done it terrible job. But at some point you have to imagine, like someone's gonna have to take accountability for what's going on here, right, and it can't be Monty. I'm not gonna like advocate for Troy losing his job, but they don't have to leave any great options unless you want to go.

It's one of two if you if you are going to make any kind of change, one of two it's the general managers, the head coach, as simple as that. Like you don't, You're right. I like Troy a lot. I've known Troy for a long time, and I do think he has a pretty good eye for talent. He's proven that over the years, especially in Oklahoma City where he was an instrumental part of what they did there for a number of years. But really respect him too, they do. But but look, I mentioned that was a bad draft a couple of years ago, But if you redrafted the twenty twenty one draft, where would you take Kate Cunningham? Like you wouldn't take him over Evan Moldy you wouldn't take him over Scottie Barnes. Do you take him over Jalen Green? Maybe they're both kind of two, you know, one dimensional issue sort of players. I would take uh Franz Wagner over Kate Cunningham right now. You know, Josh, he's got some stuff going on off the court he's got to deal with, but as a player, he's I'd probably take him over k Cunningham right now. I mean there's there's probably four or five maybe six guys. Al Prince Sangoon definitely would take over Ka cunning right now. Think got Prince Sangoon's legit. Uh, there's five six guys you would take over Kaid And that when you're draft a number one, you can't miss like you have got to get the guy everybody wanted. You can miss on like sixteen that that's acceptable, but you can't miss on number one. And right now, even though kid's a good player, he's not a great player. And that looks like a miss it does.

I mean at this one, their best bet is just like not South into this season. The thing is they're saying next.

Year, I mean, got South is the season it's like seventeen.

Games in my like my point being like at this one they're probably again best medic League. Now they're play the lottery. The next year's draft is also not supposed to be that great. It's a brutal, man, it's a brutal I would be genuinely blown away if their ownership was willing to move on Fromani Williams.

They can't. You just can't, Like you're not going to walk away from that type of investment. Look, so the teams are the teams that are bad. What do you think is the move? I don't. I think you gotta you give it a little more time. As bad as it is. You probably wait till mid season at the earliest. But if you get to the end of the season and you're at like seventeen to twenty two wins, I don't know how that front office days intact, I don't. I don't know how you you keep going down the same path that has led to zero success. Look at the bottom of let's just say by power rankings, there you've got Washington, which is like trying to be bad. Like the Wizards gutted their team, traded all the veterans, Like I wouldn't be surprised they trade Kyle Kusma at some point, Kuzmas having a pretty good season career best with three point range. You know you've got them. They're trying to be bad. San Antoni doesn't care right Like they're they're looking for another high draft pick as well, trying to figure out who plays best opposite Victor Webbin Yam. But Memphis is just Memphis because they don't have their guys. That's a problem. Detroit should not be in this position. Detroit should not be this bad. They should be like somewhere competing for a play in spot, like they should be competing for ten, not circling the drain in the Eastern Conference basement. That's and if they continue to do that, I don't know how you stay on this path, going into the lottery for a fifth straight year with this same type of organizational structure intact. All right, let's talk about Milwaukee for a minute. The Bucks, Uh pretty good right where they're sitting third in the Eastern Conference standings right now? Uh yeah, I think they're with like ten and three in the last thirteen games, something pretty solid. But you watch these games, if yeah, you don't know what you're gonna get it's it's the old Forest Gump line. You just don't know what you're gonna get.

The Lis had them sweating in the last Yeah, that's what.

That's why. Like when I was making I dropped the Bucks down in my power rank is a couple of slots because you know, wins are wins, but how they got those wins not not so great. The the numbers for Lillard and Yannis are not great. They're not great. So I pull this up at NBA dot com. Lilard and Giannis have played three hundred and thirty nine minutes together. Their offensive rating is one ten point six, which would be bottom five in the NBA if that was an entire team. Defensive rating one eleven point zero not great either. They have a net rating of a negative point zero four. And like, if you just search Lillard's name in the two man rankings, there's a lot of guys he's playing with that he has better net ratings than with gi Honest. Now, Lillard has come out and said, look, it's not easy, right, You've got to figure it out. And I'm actually willing to buy that, Like I'm willing to believe that Damian Lillard, who is a high IQ player who is still a tremendously talented player, is going to figure it out. Like they'll figure it out. Adrian Griffin will figure it out. I think the firing or whatever it was of Terry Stotts, however that played out, set them back a little bit. They Terry would have been a nice kind of bridge, someone that knows Dame's game and figured out how to make it all work. But I think they'll figure it out Offensively. Defensively is where I think there could be some lasting problems because Lillard is not going to transform overnight into a G eight defensive player. Milike Beasley has been, you know, positioned. Is this like stopper. I don't know how that happened. He became I don't have anyone on the way. They don't have anybody. And you watch some of these games, and you mentioned the Wizards game. I was watching that like Jordan Poole. Granted Jordan Poole, he's not gonna pass, but he's doing like these straight line drives to the basket, like he's just going at these guys. And that's something that worried me when I'm watching these games. Couple that with the fact that. I don't think Adrian Griffin's quite figured out how he wants to defend like he was doing early on. That kind of Toronto defense was extending guys out like thirty feet and relying on athleticism that doesn't really exist in Milwaukee. Now they're kind of back to that Boodenholzer droppish coverage, at least from what I've seen of their game. So there's still very much a work in progress there. But I'm more willing to believe that offensively, their work in progress will work itself out. Defensively, when you've got Lillard, Beasley and still banged up, still recovering Chris Middleton, you're not getting great perimeter defense one way or the other. It doesn't matter how many shots that Brook Lopez blocks. He's blocking a lot right now, but it doesn't matter how many shots he blocks, you're not going to be a high level defensive team. But without being a high level defensive team, they're not getting past Boston, they're not getting past Philadelphia. They're gonna have a lot of problems when we get to the second round of the playoffs. How do you see it?

The Milwaukee thing is interesting, First of all, shout out to Brook Lopez who went nuts on the Wizards the other night. I think he ended up with over forty, like thirty nine late in that game. Crazy, it's like forty nine of his fifty blocks. I saw some stat have come like the last twelve games, like it is a block party for Brook Lopez. I'm nervous about the Bucks. And I don't know if you're familiar with the Gwyneth Paltrow classic sliding doors, but them choosing to go down this Lillard path.

Who references sliding doors, Okay, continue, sorry.

Has set off a series of events that if you gave the Bucks some truth serum, I really wonder how they'd feel about it. Because what's hilarious to me about the Bucks, and I wrote about this last week, is this is all happening in the backdrop of the Boston Celtics being far and away the best team in the NBA record wise, net rating wise, best starting five in the NBA. Going back to the NBA, you know trove of lineup data, which is I think seven oh eight the first season you can look up on their website in terms of line up DA. The Celtics not only have the best line up in the NBA right now, they're one of the best most efficient lineups in NBA history based on the data we have available. Like, that's how good they've been, and they are. If the Bucks are Doctor Frankenstein, the Celtics are Frankenstein's monster because the Lillard trade is what got Drew Holliday in Boston. And it's funny to be about it. And I thought about this after these two teams played the other night. Boston wired to wire win. Really Milwaukee made it close late, but like the Celtics have been needed no time to adjust. You know, they're working in two new starters. Al Horford is a new role, and I get it. Drew's not a ball dominant guy. Porzingis isn't a ball dominant guy. It's not like Lillard. But they've had no issues adjusting to their new reality. And they have new bench mises coming in and they're thriving. They hit the ground running, you know, the Nuggets, you know, revamped their bench, Root lost important guys in the title run. The injuries are catching up to him. They had a great win the other night against the Clippers, but they hit the ground running to start this season. So and Milwaukee's not been terrible, but the fact that Giannis and Lillard have been a net negative for most of the season now is definitely concerning. Crowder is supposed to be their he's injured right now. He's supposed to be their wingstoper guy. I don't think he's that player anymore. Middleton was really struggling against Tatum in that Celtics game, and Tatum is a great scorer. That's not a diss at Middleton, but he was their guy to stole down those kinds of players. So I'm definitely concerned about them. And the irony of them struggling when they've kind of created helped to create the best team in the league right now is fascinating.

Yeah, look, there's there's a lot that can go right in Milwaukee. I think that Adrian Griffin, as the year goes on, is going to get better as a head coach. Lillard as the year goes on, and is getting more comfortable playing alongside Giannis. I just don't see how like more minutes for Pat Condan or you know, different lineups are going to make them better defensively, not on the perimeter, and it's gonna put a lot of pressure on Giannis, on Brook Lopez, on Bobby portis to be defensive stoppers, and I just don't know if they can do it. Look, they were right there against the Celtics. I mean, Damian Little the finishes that dunk. You know, it's a different game. But you know, when you get to the playoffs, if Boston's fully healthy, if Philadelphia right now is fully healthy, I would favor either one of those teams over this version of the Milwaukee Bucks. All right, let's finish with the Los Angeles Lakers, who absorbed a forty four point ass kicking at the hands of the Philadelphia seventy six ers, second loss in three nights. They play at Detroit on Wednesday. If they lose that game, roll on. There's gonna be a lot of panic, certainly for the Lakers. But you know, this is a familiar issue with the Lakers. At least there is one. It's Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis has played like he's been out there, he's been durable. But once again, you've got long stretches of games, sometimes entire halves, where Anthony Davis just disappears. It doesn't play well. And look, when you've got guys like Paul Reid, like talking smack, like calling you a flopper, like you know you, the respect level may have diminished some for Anthony Davis. That to me is the biggest problem. Lebron's gonna be Lebron. He's outstanding once again. But you know, we talked before the season and it was pretty widely understood, but the Lakers to succeed at the highest level, AD he's gonna have to be the guy. He's gonna have to be the number one guy on that team. And this season, like the numbers are okay, I just had him up there. I think he's like twenty three points per game, fifty plus percent from the floor. Yeah, I got it. Fit twenty one point eight points per game, fifty five percent from the floor. But he' shooting thirty percent from three. His effective field goal percentage five to fifty two. That's down from last season. Still getting twelve rebounds that's good, three and a half assists that's good, two point eight blocks that's good. But again, it's if you just look at it and watch these games like you see like these eight to twelve minute stretches where Davis disappears, like that's the biggest problem right now they move off to reefs the bench. That was great. I think Jared Vanderbilt is pretty badly missed there. I mean that was the energy guy, like a real energy guy could guard multiple positions. I think they need him back in that rotation. But the biggest problem with the Lakers right now is that Anthony Davis is not reliable night in and night out. He has stretches where he's looks like the best player in the game, like quarters halves, where he looks like the best player of the game. He also has stretches where he looks like the fifth best player on the floor. So to me, that's the biggest problem with the Lakers right now. How do you see it?

I think what I'm gonna say is related to how you feel, and that is this team just relies on Lebron way too much. I wrote about this earlier. Not to keep plugging my work here, you can only get my bespoke takes on Sports Illustrated. They're a plus twenty two point two that that's their differential with Lebron on the court. That would be the biggest split in his career. Plus twenty two point two points for one hundred possessions better when Lebron is on the floor than off. They're like, they have a five point nine net rating when Lebron is on him and I can try to do some quick math here, but point being like, they are like sixteen a negative sixteen point three net when he's off the floor, Like that's horrendous. They like Lebron at this age should not be relied upon this much. And to your point about ad like, when they acquire Davis, I think we all assumed he was gonna have like, maybe not assume, but like there are times in New Orleans where it's like, this guy's gonna be a perennial top five MVP finisher. I think we assume he's going to be closer to Jannis and Embiid than to where he is now, which is firmly a tier below those guys. And the thing is, I don't only put.

It on him.

I definitely think he's a big part of the issue that the other My mom saw the score in the Sixers game and was like, is Anthony Davis is still good? She's still on the team, But I mean, Reeves, Reeves, I think moving him to the benches seem to help him, but he is not the guy that he was at the end of last year and in the playoffs, and I think that's hurting him, especially when that means here to Ryan D'Angel, Russell Moore, especially in the wake of Gave Vincent's injury. Hachi Mura is someone who I think we expected more out of as well, And so it comes down to they're relying a lot on Camradis, who's now having his own injury issues. Just I think some of the depth that we thought was gonna be a better fit around this team hasn't materialized, and that that means guys like Reeves Vincent. But to your point, like we're not talking about that.

If he is the the link that that blends it all together, if he's dominant, the Lakers still have a chance to be one of the best teams in the Western Conference. If he's not, unless Lebron goes super dover, even when he does that, they're just not able to compete with those top tier teams right.

Well, just real quick, like the year they won the title, like that year eighty was the leading scorer on the team. You know, we did the story coming out of the finals, and their whole thing Lebron and andd was like, the reason this works is is we make each other so much better, Like we push each other. Lebron's like, eighty makes my life easier. Eighties like Lebron makes my life easier. We just haven't really seen that on a consistent level. We haven't since that title.

Look, the team around them changed dramatically, but the Lakers prioritized consistency continuity. This year. They brought the band back. They figured out Reez is better off the bench. They need Anthony Davis to be All NBA Anthony Davis, First Team All NBA Anthony Davis. If he's anything less than that, they're at a world of trouble and what's obviously a really tough Western conference. All Right, we will be back next week. Hopefully the Pistons will have a couple of wins. We'll talk to you then

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