State of the League | LaMelo out-duels Luka; Lakers loseLuka Doncic struggles as the Lakers lose their first game after the All Star to LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets. Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni react to the the Lakers’ loss and breakdown the defensive issues that will limit Luka and LeBron. Then, the Athletic’s Sam Amick stops by to discuss the fallout from a poorly received All Star weekend, Draymond Green’s comments, and whether broadcast negativity creates more problems for the NBA.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni & Sam AmickExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyJoin our Discord: https://discord.gg/Ua2qrEe7Read Sam’s story on Draymond’s prediction: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6141143/2025/02/16/draymond-green-jimmy-butler-warriors-nba-championship/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened in the Lakers vs Hornets game?
And you know, S, we say often on the show, there's a good game every night. Yes, but. Welp, folks. That might have been a lie. Last night, we got the Mark Williams bowl. Look, we're still coming back from vacation.
You know, not a big deal.
We aren't the only ones. Charlotte Hornets were in L.A. to face the Lakers in a basketball game. Um, the, the Hornets one, um, the, the Lakers actually, they started the game off. I thought it looked pretty good. And you and I, we were thinking, Hey, we might have an easy night. The Lakers, they ought to blow out the Hornets.
Um, you know, especially because Luca now off that minutes restriction and you think, okay, he's going to maybe show out. He's had a little bit more time to do some rehab. LeBron looks extremely healthy to start the game.
Yeah. Yeah.
And then all of a sudden, the Lakers build a lead and the bottom falls out. And the Hornets go on, what was it, a 21-1 run?
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Chapter 2: What are the Lakers' defensive issues?
Yeah, 21-1 run to finish that third quarter and eventually take the lead. It was basically a combination of just crazy shot making from the Hornets. And then the Lakers, like you said, bottoming out. The turnovers were bizarre for them. You know, Luca for the entire game had a lot of turnovers. I think he ended up with six overall. And so eight assists, six turnovers for him.
It was sloppy overall for the Lakers as they were trying to move the ball. Still feel like a team that's trying to figure out who they are. And you could tell that one in this. It just felt like they were discombobulated throughout. And so Charlotte took advantage. They're like, hey, you're going to let us get into this basketball game. Sure. Why not? We'll take this one.
I mean, I think a lot of people will look at the score and think it's like 1995. You know, it's 197. This was a brutal game. You know, hey, what's going on with the Lakers offense? That's not the issue. They got looks. They just didn't make shots, which, you know, again, they're trying to figure things out. I understand the offensive problems.
The defensive problems, though, as there were too many times where LeBron and Luca were bad. Both the backline helper. That's that's a layup every single time. And I got to say, now that we're seeing this on the court, I have to go back to when we thought Mark Williams was going to be a Laker. And we started saying, oh, wait a second. Wait a second. Could the. No, no, no. No.
S. Now that we see it, Mark Williams would not have been good enough to elevate. No, no. Mark Williams would not have been good enough. I don't know if there was a solution to this Lakers defense other than Anthony Davis staying there. That would have been the solution.
And honestly, Anthony Davis maybe should be getting some defensive player of the year buzz.
Yeah, fair enough. No, there were a few possessions, especially in the clutch where, you know, teams tend to especially teams that are playing small like the Lakers, like they finish. out with Dorian Finney-Smith and Jared Vanderbilt. They're trying to pre-switch everything to get LeBron out of actions, get Luka out of, out of actions.
There was one possession where they tried to double Lomelo ball and Luka is guarding Lomelo and, you know, they double him, but then he doesn't rotate over to get the guy in the corner, ends up being a wide open three for Nick Smith Jr. And so there's just, there's little wrinkles like that where you can see their defense falling apart.
And so if you are having this switch everything mentality that they're trying to have, you got to, you got to rotate over. You've got to be in front of the guy.
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Chapter 3: How did Luka and LeBron perform?
before the break was one that I think we're going to get to this, but Draymond Green had said after that game that that's the kind of game the Warriors would have lost before. He's obviously feeling fired up about this version of the Warriors, and so I'll get a chance to see them on Friday here in Sacramento as well.
But these new and improved teams where now we get to see if the on-paper product looks as good as the actual thing.
Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned the Warriors. They went 3-1, like you said. And Draymond made headlines when it came to a big declaration for a lottery. Actually, yeah, he had a lot of comments throughout the weekend. But there was one that jumped out, which was that the Warriors were going to win the championship this year. I know you kind of got a chance to catch up with him as well.
How do you feel about that comment? Do you think there's some validity to it? And what did Draymond say when you asked him?
so there's an event on friday before all-star weekend called tech summit always one of my favorite things to go to it's honestly a pretty tough list to get on and the benefit of it is that while the panels are off the record and they're super interesting panels and they want the panelists to have the freedom to speak freely off the record the hallways at this event are kind of a reporter's dream
when it comes to owners executives agents players a lot of former players being out there and you can just have casual conversation sometimes you even get current players who appear to be kind of plotting the next stage of their post-planning career trying to learn about business and tech and and that type of a thing. So I look up and Draymond is at the event.
He spends most of his time chatting with Baron Davis, his podcast buddy. Um, and they're just kind of milling around. And eventually, uh, I decided to go over and say hello to Draymond at the time. He was talking to a guy named Brandon Schneider, who was the Warriors team president and, um, just wanted to catch up and get his thoughts on the trade.
And when we did that, I mean, the funny part in hindsight is that, uh, You know, obviously, I did not know that he would then go on on Sunday night at the All-Star game to declare to the world that the Warriors were going to win a title. But to show you how genuine it is and like actually authentic, I think, in terms of his opinion, I literally just said, so what do we think?
Like, what do we think about Jimmy and this new look? And the first thing out of his mouth was, oh, like we can win the title. And my favorite part was that, and I wrote this, I then had to tactfully figure out how to not be like, what the hell is wrong with you?
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Draymond Green's comments?
know i don't know what the next change is i feel like more than ever uh you know adam silver did his all-star weekend press conference where a big focal point was just the state of the game and so like while i don't know what the change is i can't remember a time when the state of the game was in question so much you know where lebron got a similar question you know how do you feel about the state of the game and everybody it's one of those things where if everybody's asking
then then then the answer can't be great right even though a lot of people you know and dave i think you feel this way and you know i to a large extent i feel the same way that today's game is in a great spot um i think yeah i think a lot of the things we're talking about here
we should probably my two cents leave the game alone and just start realizing that the major reason this discussion is happening in the first place is just because the environment around the game has changed so much in terms of how people consume games generational differences when you talk about social media and the marketing business component of the game that is what is in question the reason that adam silver wants to pontificate about 10 minute quarters
is because a two-hour game fits more neatly into a certain television streaming time slot. That is a different conversation than what do we think of the players and the teams and the talent and the entertainment value of the game itself.
It does feel like, Sam, though, that part of those, they get wrapped in together. you know, and it's a little bit unfair, you know, style of play stuff that is about the evolution of the sport. And, and we split hairs over really four feet on a difference on a basketball court. I, I don't know. I think they, they get a little bit hung up in, in the three point line aspect of this entire thing.
When they're thinking about what the problems with the game, instead of the flow of the game, I think that the 10 minute quarters at least would be a move in the right direction. So I, I think I'm on the right track there, like as far as they're thinking.
Yeah, no, and I think you're right on all that.
I think that, you know, Kevin Durant, honestly, I know, you know, raising your hands and doing nothing is not the answer, but I did kind of love Kevin's tweet where here's a guy who I think his spirit at the moment is kind of this energy of, you know, we're pretty damn good and the game is in a pretty good place, but everybody keeps complaining all the time.
you know um nobody is happy right everybody about that and you know and i don't blame them because the problem is when you try to change too much i don't know how you guys felt about the all-star game format being there in person just i want to use that as an example okay a significant change to an nba event um it's not a four-point line because it's just an exhibition but yeah
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Chapter 5: What is the state of the league post-All-Star?
Well, it was one of the first games and there was a game winning dunk that I walked right in front of his camera as he was trying to get the shot. And he kept giving me a hard time. He shows the video and it was like just epic timing. And my body literally covers the entire camera like right when there's a game winning dunk. And I just looked at Ben like, well, who cares?
I didn't care about this event. It was too many games, too many players. You look on the court, and I forgot who was actually an all-star.
It felt secondary to everything else they were doing. The fluff. For sure. All the fluff.
Well, and by the way, as a shout out media members, you know, friend and colleague Rachel Nichols did a nice job over the weekend. She got all these NBA all stars on camera to commit to taking part in a one on one tournament. Yeah.
that was, you know, one angle that definitely moves the needle for me, where if you want to get gimmicky, I just think that is incredibly, that's something that we all can relate to from growing up playing the game. Unrivaled has had some success with their one-on-one tournament. That's how she framed it was, you know,
asking guys if they'd seen the unrivaled thing and whether or not they'd be willing to do it. I think the league probably assumed they wouldn't in that regard. Shoot. Rachel was doing the heavy lifting for them and getting them to, you know, give their two sets.
Well, I think one issue that you've got is so one-on-one is more approachable, right? We've all played one-on-one. We can relate to it. And I think an issue that the NBA has is that the game has become so complex and And the media doesn't do a great job on television of explaining the complexity like they do with football. And part of that is function of the sport.
You can't stop in the middle of an NBA game to give a breakdown and nor should you. I think it's much more of a vibes and flow sport anyway. But I want to talk about the media a little bit. I have a question. I think part of this is perception becoming reality. How much of this is because you have the guys on TV and in the media, they kind of bash the sport. They bash the players.
They bash them before the game. They're bashing them during the game. I mean, they had a comedian roasting players during the All-Star game, which is supposed to be a celebration of the sport. And, you know... Sam, you know me pretty well, man. I'm a guy. I find a lot of joy in basketball. I think that's the way to approach it. And I'm not going to knock anybody else's hustle.
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Chapter 6: What are potential solutions for the Lakers?
I guess I added that part in. But like, you know, it was like, you can just kind of shrug at, at, you know, the uncle who is grumpy about different things. And I would tend to think, and I think Dave, you probably agree and ask as well, like that, you know, it has more of impact than that. Like it's,
probably not something you should just shirk off and be dismissive about and i will tell you because we all have our people in our lives right who enjoy the game i'm going to share a text message that i got from that night from my nephew jackson who's a big time nba fan uh somehow growing up in the bay he became a huge okc fan and and i don't think he'd mind me sharing this he sent a text
And he says, disaster of a broadcast. We need people who like basketball to talk about it again. I like Jackson. He says, Candace Parker was the only one I could listen to tonight. And so for me, just kind of having the everyman's perspective like that, brought it home. And I do think it's something that they need to pay attention to.
And not only have they not seemingly very much, but I mean, I've enjoyed covering Draymond as much as anybody, but my God, now you have like, you know, Barkley 2.0 sour, man. Yeah.
People complain about Reggie Miller, but that guy is having a great time every single game.
He enjoys the sport. Yes, he absolutely enjoys the sport. You know, it's funny you brought up like Jackson, because I think generally there's this conversation about younger audiences and how does the NBA tailor their product to younger audience? And I think if you saw The all-star game format, you have this situation where it's like you get bite-sized basketball.
It's 10 minutes here, 10 minutes here. The attention span is all over the place because you got a performance here. You got all that stuff. So it's interesting how much they're putting their eggs in the basket of let's try to tailor this thing towards younger people versus we have this audience already. How are we going to create a good broadcast for television?
And then that's interesting because you look forward to the new TV rights deal and how they're supposed to kind of approach this situation. We're leaning into streaming more often. So I think that's why these questions come up mostly. It's how they're going to use this next little bit to tailor their audience to the next generation. I agree.
And, you know, maybe I'm wrong on this, but, man, if I was given my two cents –
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Chapter 7: What insights did Sam Amick share about the trade deadline?
But I'm about halfway through Netflix's Court of Gold documentary. And I think it's fantastic. It's incredible. The locker room access and the behind-the-scenes stuff and the storytelling, because they feature, and this relates to the All-Star NBA discussion, they feature legitimately behind the scenes with Team USA, but also with the Canadian team and the Serbian team and the French team.
And I'm watching this and thinking to myself, Okay, why not lean into the storytelling and the access on All-Star Weekend? You just had an incredible trade deadline, which, by the way, as an example, Malik Andrews just talked to Kevin Durant about some of the stuff that went on with Phoenix and the fact that he was nearly traded from the Suns.
And he didn't go into great depth, but you had Kevin himself addressing –
the some of the interesting stuff that preceded all-star weekend there's part of me that just says there's got to be a way to shape the programming about all-star weekend more about the storylines and the people and through access and through storytelling rather than you know the outside the box ideas and the shiny glittery stuff that you think is going to work
Well, they want to give us celebrities. They have their own celebrities. Yeah, the athletes, right? This is it. I want more Kevin Durant on the court. I want, you know, I want them mic'd up. I want their personalities. Even more so, again, All-Star Weekend is supposed to be a celebration of basketball and the NBA.
And for some reason it was, I don't know, we got this weird dystopian Mr. Beast shooting contest. Yeah. Beat Damian Lillard for money.
it was it's a weird that's a weird angle also it's like there's there's too many of these conventions now so you have nba cup has its own convention summer league has its own convention nba all-star weekend has its own convention every player has a podcast that you can have access to so that level of access now has been so integrated into our everyday life whereas it doesn't feel as special anymore to get that sort of access
court of gold did a great job of it because this is stuff we've never seen before and that level of access was something i never saw before yeah i mean just to finish that point s i mean because you guys have watched it like my god watching joker uh yeah light up i believe bodan bodanovich for his defense on kevin durant in the game i'm sure bogey didn't love that clip being in the dock but like yeah come on like take the good with the bad this is perfect
this is the real stuff and joker is a guy you talk about how the nba has its own celebrities that it needs to lean into like the nba to this point has not been successful at convincing somebody like joker to pull the curtain back we still don't know him uh shout out mike singer my buddy who wrote a whole book about joker and tried his best and did a fantastic job of telling that tale but on television like you had this five second clip
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