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What is up, fellow thermonuclear affers. I am dance in the valley,

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coming at you with a conversation,
a soapbox sermon if you will on le

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Bron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. But what else are we going to

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talk about? This team just gives
us fodder by the day before we get

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started. Please remember to continue rating
and reviewing and subscribing wherever you consume us.

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If you're on YouTube, hit the
sub button like comment, help the

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algorithm love us back. We have
a lot of fun around here. Join

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our discord, follow us on the
socials. All those links are in our

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podcast and YouTube descriptions, and subscribe
to the actual podcast from a podcast player

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on your phone, use Apple and
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the whole nine to subscribe and download
every episode, and then continue to follow

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along on YouTube. We do post
exclusives on TikTok ig YouTube as well from

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time to time. But I think
with that it's time to talk about Lebron

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James and an Instagram captions. Because
I'm an adult, We're all adults around

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here in this way. We need
to talk about not Twenty four hours after

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the Los Angeles Lakers dropped to oh
and four in the season, Lebron posted

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a kind of cryptic but not totally
Instagram caption Thursday that has reading between the

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lines sluts buzzing. How long will
you be taken for granted? Keep going,

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kid, is what it said.
Perhaps this caption is a code for

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absolutely nothing. Maybe it's an innocuous
nod to the picture of a thirty seven

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year old soaring through the air,
defying age and gravity and by extension science.

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This post might be Lebron's way of
saying, nobody appreciates what I'm doing

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at my age, at this level
nearly enough, and he'd be right.

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His longevity is acknowledged and cherished,
but there is no fully comprehending or treasuring

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his lastingness. Counterpoint, though,
yeah, no, that's not with this

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caption is doing It can't be.
The timing is too incidental to be coincidental.

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He's sending a message he has to
be. The twenty twenty two two

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twenty three Lakers are spiraling, and
Lebron, it seems, is fed up,

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and on the surface, he has
every right to be. Next season,

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isn't a given for him. He
turns thirty eight on December thirtieth,

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giving him precious little time to play
meaningful basketball, no matter how much of

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a generational anomaly his aging curve remains. But the Lakers are nowhere near playing

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meaningful basketball, let alone actually sniffing
title contention. Sure, four games doesn't

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have to be profoundly telltale, but
los Angeles winless start is merely the sum

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of all its long standing flaws actualized. Russell Westbrook remains a putrid fit on

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offense. Trading for him while also
bankrupting their wing depth during the twenty twenty

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one off season was an obviously bad
decision then, and it looks even worse

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now. To what extent Russ deserves
blame here, though, is questionable.

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He has not reinvented himself on offense, is a high volume ball screener or

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reliable spot up threat. That's not
a surprise. He didn't undergo functional fate

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slifts in Oklahoma City or Houston or
Washington. Expecting him to dramatically change in

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Los Angeles nearly fifteen years into his
career is an irrational hope. It's a

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minor miracle. He's played so hard
on defense this season. If we're being

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honest, none of this means he's
above critique. Before suffering that hamstring injury,

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he was shooting eight point three percent
from deep and thirty five point eight

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percent on two's. Both marks would
be career lows and are absolutely positively disgusting.

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Between his gargange win forty seven point
one million dollars salary, critically bad

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offensive play, and just his overall
poor fit, Westbrook has received a lion

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share of the blame, as if
his very presence is the loan barrier separating

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the Lakers from contention, or at
the bare minimum, simply not sucking.

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It's not. The Lakers as a
team are shooting in a league worse twenty

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two point seven percent from three and
ranked dead last in point score per possession.

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Overall. That's not all Russ.
Everyone shares in the brick Lang.

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Anthony Davis has verged on dominant for
stretches, but followed up last year's sub

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nineteen percent clip from three with another
sub nineteen percent clip from three so far.

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Kendrick Nunn is a career thirty six
point one percent shooter from deep and

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is currently nowly just twenty three point
five percent of his trays, while also

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having notched more fouls seven and turnovers
nine than assists six. Patrick Beverley is

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a career thirty seven point six percent
three point sniper, yet presently joins ad

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in the sub nineteen percent club.
Lebron himself is banging in just twenty five

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point seven percent of his triples,
which would be a career low. Lonnie

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Walker, the fourth meanwhile, is
second on the Lakers and three point attempts,

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which he's burying at a seventeen point
four percent clip. Merely removing Westbrook

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from the equation solves very little.
He wasn't on the floor, and the

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Lakers lost to the Nuggets and their
lineups on the season in which Lebron and

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a d play without Russ remain offensive, clung fess and in the net negatives.

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Anyone bellowing obscenities at ross from the
stands or behind the protection of an

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avatar list social media account is one
overdue for some serious soul searching, and

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two misplacing most of the blame.
The Lakers are not built by Westbrook or

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in the image of Westbrook. They
were assembled by general manager Rob Polinka and

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the rest of the front office.
A majority of the outrage must be directed

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there. Across so many different fronts, Polinka and Company's cardinal sin remains the

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same. They watched the Lakers win
a title in twenty twenty by surrounding Lebron

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in a d with complimentary shooting and
defenders, and then decided not a full

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year later to dismantle that nucleus in
favor of what Westbrook might possibly, potentially,

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if they're lucky, be able to
sort of do when one of the

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two greatest basketball players of all time
wasn't on the floor. That is watertight

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logic. So is letting Alex Caruso, one of their most important defenders,

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walk in free age see on a
contract that was neither egregious nor outside the

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Lakers price range. With one of
the goat candidates on their roster still playing

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like a superstar, the Lakers acted
like a small market franchise, equally inexcusable

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doing so little in the aftermath of
last year's implosion. Yes, the Lakers

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turned over their supporting cast, but
only because most of that supporting cast is

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now out of the NBA. There's
nothing noble about steering into decisions made for

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you, or for stockpiling largely ball
dominant guards. Almost everyone's favorite pastime is

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now leaking Westbrook trades the Lakers could
have made but didn't. That is damning.

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It suggests a complete lack of urgency
in the face of an extremely urgent

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situation. That being Lebron's timeline,
he should absolutely be pushing them to make

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a move, any move, just
for the sake of increasing the meaning behind

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their largely purposeless basketball. Yes,
the cost of doing so is prohibitive.

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Trading twenty seven and twenty twenty nine
first rounders that likely post date the Lebron

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era is dangerous. It's one thing
if those two picks ended up bagging them

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Kyrie Irving or another star. It's
entirely different to punt on such a massive

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portion of your future in exchange for
Miles Turner and Buddy Healed, or for

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Josh Richardson and Jacca Peartle, or
for Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward. And

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the Lakers current dilemma doesn't help matters. They are so deeply broken beyond the

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Westbrook fit they might be irreparable.
Why mortgage crucial assets just to not contend

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and potentially eat into this summer's cap
space. The answer, because you have

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Lebron Fucking James. Patience isn't a
virtue, not in this case. The

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Lakers waiting for the trade market to
expand doesn't ensure they'll have access to superior

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deals. Better options will incite more
competition, and their best package, while

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steep for them, can be easily
outstripped by teams capable of conveying a first

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round pick sooner than five drafts from
now. Urgency is at once obligatory and

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essential. The Lakers haven't shown it. They've done everything, but they've made

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head coach Frank Vogel escapegoat. They
hired head coach Darvin Ham at least in

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part because he sold them on making
it work with Russ, yet again implying

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that Russ is the lone obstacle they
must overcome. Amid all these missteps over

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the past year and change, the
Lakers extended Polinka for some reason, even

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though he's the architect of perhaps the
NBA's most disjointed roster. That's worth another

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few dozen or so kind of cryptic
but not totally instagram captions from Lebron,

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which left of his window is being
squandered, and Polinka, along with all

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the other folks upstairs, including Genie
Buss, should be thoroughly blamed for being

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so slow or unwilling to appropriately act. And Yet, while the Lakers are

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no question taking Lebron for granted,
he is not beyond culpability. He reportedly

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pushed for the team to acquire Westbrook
in the first place. It is Linka's

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job to override that input from his
star, from his superstar whenever necessary.

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But we can't pretend like Lebron has
been a voiceless bystander. What's more,

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unless the Lakers promised to jettison Westbrook
before the start of this season and then

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renigged at the last second, Lebron
still signed a two year extension knowing this

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was the roster on which he'd be
playing, that is eyes wide open behavior,

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and it must factor into the blame
game currently being played. Still,

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even with all this in mind,
the mess that is this season and this

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team falls at the feet of Polinka
in the front office. It doesn't matter

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if Lebron wanted Russ, and it
doesn't matter if the Lakers are so far

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gone it actually doesn't make sense to
ship out their draft picks. It doesn't

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matter. Trade the picks anyway.
Get better now, figure out how to

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reload the war chest later, ad
and Lebron trades will be on the table

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in the coming years if your direction
goes belly up once again. Polinka and

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company pivoted away from a proven blueprint
into aimless territory more than a year ago,

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and they've yet to even sort of
pull themselves out from the resulting freefall

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that is franchise mail practice, and
so Lebron will soon turn thirty eight,

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somehow still performing at a level high
enough to contend for titles on a team

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run by a front office that frankly
doesn't seem to give a shit. The

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next thing we absolutely have to talk
about is the Brooklyn Nets. They have

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a they've had some better games.
They're lost to the Mavericks on Thursday Night.

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Was encouraging in many ways with the
aggression you saw from Kyrie, even

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some Ben Simmons moments, but they
have a Ben Simmons problem, and it

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was really underscored during that Bucks that
Bucks lost early in the third quarter of

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that Wednesday Night lost to Milwaukee,
Kyrie attempted to distill what the team needs

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from Ben Simmons down to three words. Shoot it, Ben. Brevity can

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lack context, and I doesn't take
the time to stop, break the fourth

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wall and explain into the camera everything
else the Nets need from Simmons. He's

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also not wrong. Simmons was two
of seven from the floor in Milwaukee and

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three of seven versus Dallas, and
is now twelve of twenty seven from the

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floor on the season. The loss
to the Bucks specifically marked the second time

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this year Simmons finished with at least
as many fouls as points. He has

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tallied now twenty eight points against twenty
two fouls through his five games, and

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the Nets have been outscored by a
total of forty two points during his minutes

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on the floor. That's the sixth
worst mark in the league among one hundred

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and twenty players who have logged as
many minutes so far. Of course,

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the two most important words in that
previous sentence might just be five games.

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That sample size is nothing. Early
season stats get warped every night, plus

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minus in particular isn't always telltale.
Kadi owns the second worst mark in the

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league from that one hundred and twenty
player group. I just referenced Leeway needs

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to be given. Simmons is still
working through his return from back surgery,

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a sixteenth month long absence and a
well documented yet poorly covered mental health struggle.

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Players don't always return to previous form, and Simmons also tweaked his back

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in that one game against the Bucks. We saw him on the bike,

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riding it on the sidelines when he
wasn't in the game to stay loose.

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Kyrie once again eloquently noted this after
Brooklyn's loss to Milwaukee. He wasn't He

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didn't need to address it. After
the loss to Dallas, he said,

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you guys keep coming in here asking
me, like, what about Ben?

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He hasn't played in two years.
Give him a fucking chance. We stay

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00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:37,039
on his shit. You just stay
on him, but we're here to give

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him positive affirmations. Does screaming shoot
at Ben while waving your arms and jumping

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up an apparent exasperation count as positive
affirmation? Who's to say I'm not trolling

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trolling him either. I did not
interpret Kyrie's reaction to Simmons looking off the

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lay up in favor of a KD
jumper as ironclad support. But Kyrie deserves

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nothing less than the benefit of the
doubt after that little quote dropping f is

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proof of positive affirmation in my book. Still, Simmons has been a problem

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for the Nets at both ends,
and it's okay to say that citing facts

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is not akin to personal attacks or
declaring his career over. Maybe he needs

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more time, but at this exact
moment his play is an issue. The

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defense should be fine, and we
even saw that at points with the Mavericks.

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That turnover he was able to force
off double Going to double Luca was

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just vintage Ben and being able to
create an opportunity for the Nets then in

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transition. Overall, though, Simmons
is not defending with the same circular,

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unaltering explosion and force, and has
committed some tiki tack fouls, sometimes seemingly

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out of frustration or just disinterest in
getting back in transition. To his credit,

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he's also needed to guard some pretty
large humans early on, Jannis Iion

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Williams and Jonas Valancunis. The MAVs
did a good job of making him avoid

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reps against Luca nan Chich. But
like these are assignments he's taking on after

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such a long absence. It's tough. It's tough. It's just tough,

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like rumor hasn't. When you're fully
healthy, defending those guys can be tough.

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A fairly long chunk of Simmons fouls
are also coming on the offensive end.

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That's either an aberration in the face
of unfamiliar usage for him, a

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00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:13,039
slight concern, or maybe it's both. Paint me free from panic on defense.

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For now, Simmons should get healthier
and work his way back into game

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shape. More than that, the
nets as currently constructed don't seem built to

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optimize how he best defends, not
even with Nicholas Claxton on the floor.

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That's a problem, but not necessarily
a Simmons problem. His offense is a

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different story. Relative passivity warrants plenty
of panic. The lack of aggression we're

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seeing now is not rooted solely in
his absence and recovery from injury. It's

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an extension of the warts he's always
hinted at, the same ones that seemed

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00:14:43,799 --> 00:14:46,720
to mushroom leading up to what became
his final game and hallmark moment with the

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00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:52,679
Philadelphia seventy six ers. Playing Simmons
with non shooters up front has always been

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00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:56,399
a no go. Who among us
wasn't traumatized from his minutes with Dwight Howard

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in twenty twenty one. The Nets
are dominantly slotting him beside non shooting bigs

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anyway, and their offense is paying
the price they got away from it over

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their past couple of games. Day
Ron Sharp didn't even play in their loss

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to the Mavericks, but in the
eighty seven minutes Simmons and Claxton have logged

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together this season, Brooklyn's offensive ratings
sits at a not so robust one oh

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three point four, and that mark
has plunged to ninety two point one.

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When Simmons sets up shop beside day
Ron Sharp, and yes, when you

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watch go back and watch these units
these minutes, the Nets look just as

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clumpy as the numbers would suggest.
Part of this might just be on the

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offensive structure the Nets. Even when
he's the big, he won't even be

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listened as the big. But the
Nets are not having Simmons initiate a ton

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of pick and rolls with Claxton or
Sharp, and anytimes he spends. Anytime

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he spends off the ball in the
half court is largely moved. When Claxton

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and Sharp generally need to occupy the
same space, or at least they're not

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enough of threats from the outside for
defenders to occupy different spaces. They're going

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to be able to close up gaps
and just seal off cuts to the basket.

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If you want to go through with
the Katie post up. Playing Simmons

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without a big is a trendy,
hypothetical solution. I'm gonna still emphasize hypothetical

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here. The Nets haven't leaned on
in a ton before their past two games.

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Simmons logged just twelve possessions outside garbage
time without Claxton a sharp on the

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corps prior to that Buck's loss.
Brooklyn, though, like I said,

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did give those arrangements a more thorough
look against the Bucks and the MAVs,

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and it's sort of worked. The
lineups finished as a net plus overall.

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And that's set up when you look
at the game against Milwaukee with Simmons is

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let's call Simmons without a big,
not Simmons as the loan big. They

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went on a ten o run I
think to close out the half and really

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make that a game, and against
Walking and put them on the ropes.

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Simmons without a big, without a
big lineups are worth further exploration by default,

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then, because what else are the
nets supposed to do? They still

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can't be viewed as a cure.
All screening and rolling is not Simmons's natural

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state, and the Nets have not
meaningfully attempted to use him in that vein.

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They should try more of it,
to be sure, especially in pick

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and rolls with Kyrier or KD please, but this type of usage is largely

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foreign for Simmons and has never been
considered a potential strength. More problematic than

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anything, though, is Simmons's general
lack of aggression. He's averaging six point

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three shot attempts for thirty six minutes. That's about half of what he averaged

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prior to this season for his career. His drives are not surprisingly down amid

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all this. He went from averaging
eleven point three drives per game eleven point

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three drives per thirty six minutes in
twenty twenty two twenty one to six point

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four right now with Brooklyn. Some
of this can once more be traced back

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to his getting displaced from the ball
on Brooklyn, but even his quality moments

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don't feel the same. Most of
his assists aren't coming deep into paint penetration.

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He's throwing pitch passes or completing handoffs
from above the free thront line.

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He's getting rid of the ball early
in transition, which, to be fair,

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isn't necessarily sinister. Maybe this changes
in time. Maybe the Nets need

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to scour the trade market for a
stretch. Big shout out Miles Turner,

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shout out Mo Bamba to streamline Simmons's
defensive role and open up the half court

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on offense. Maybe this is just
the overreaction to five games. Whatever this

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is, though, doesn't change what
Brooklyn needs from Simmons in the coming days

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and weeks and months to come,
and that's to cease toeing the line of

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offensive invisibility. Let me know what
you think in the comments in the mentions.

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Depending on where you're consuming this,
remember to subscribe to us on YouTube

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00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:38,279
and the podcast players. Appreciate every
single one of you. Until next time,

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I'll leave the shout out to the
one, the only, the person

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who could actually solve He picks everything
wrong with the Lakers, Frankly dam