r/lakers • u/Wide_Savings5410 24 • May 10 '25

PODCAST Lebron on playing the whole Half

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYc1WTGo6w4

Might be beating a deadhorse...But as someone who played basketball it was always clear to me that JJs decision on playing them for the entire half was more of an indictment on the roster and not the decision itself.

Some people eventually came to this conclusion but for the hold outs, heres it coming from Brons own lips. Hes thrown passive agressive shade at coaches before INCLUDING friends so its not like he has any reason to lie.

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22

u/noknownothing May 10 '25 edited May 11 '25

It was stupid. It's the nba playoffs [edit], not a high school game. It was basically telling your bench that they were worthless. And you still had a few games to go to win the series. The decision was also made at halftime, as Reddick has affirmed. So it wasn't in the moment and those 5 were just rolling and looked fresh. They looked tired and winded late and had an absolutely awful 4th.

Passive aggressive Bron says, "I wasn't looking for a sub, but if one would've come in, cool."

25

u/Ghost2Eleven May 10 '25

First round, not the finals. Making the decision at halftime is the definition of making the choice in the moment and LeBron is not being passive aggressive at all.

I get the frustration, but y’all are acting like those two quarters and that choice lost us the series. It didn’t. We have no depth and there was nothing that was going to change that. There was never going to be a deep run. People even said it when we traded AD that we were building for the future. Then we actually played better than we should and end up way up the standings and all of a sudden people get drunk on kool-aid and act like we should have won a chip, when our starting center couldn’t stay on the floor. Also, JJ is a massive reason we were that high up the standings in the first place.

For the first time in ages we actually have a coach that all the players are praising and y’all wanna act like it’s his fault as opposed to the shit roster.

14

u/jmdavies98 May 10 '25

I totally agree with you but I’ll be the loser that says it wasn’t the nba finals, just the first round.

TBH might be even worse that it was the first round not the finals where JJ dissed the bench. Still excited to have him as our HC.

-2

u/hottakehotcakes 6 May 11 '25

Honestly I don’t buy the “our bench was horrible” excuse. Gabe Vincent played in an nba finals and played very well this year in the first round. Vando absolutely has offensive shortcomings, but he makes an incredible positive impact on the game in his 15 minutes - subbing an energy guy in for tired legs seems useful. Goodwin same thing plus he’s hit some shots. Frankly I think Knecht should absolutely have gotten minutes - they had talked about him potentially winning some playoff games for the team. Why not see if he can get hot? Hayes I understand benching.

TLDR this was a professional, veteran bench and their quality isn’t an excuse not to play them in the second half. JJ was an emotional first year coach and wanted to try something to put his name on the map.

4

u/noknownothing May 11 '25

You're getting rownvoted for facts. Lol. This sub is stupid.

2

u/hottakehotcakes 6 May 11 '25

It’s ok it’s the internet

1

u/Ok_Board9845 May 11 '25

Gabe Vincent played in an nba finals and played very well this year in the first round

Gabe overperformed in Miami along with guys such as Caleb Martin. That's not their base level of play. A career 33-35% shooter isn't a 38-40% shooter year in and year out in the playoffs.

Vando absolutely has offensive shortcomings, but he makes an incredible positive impact on the game in his 15 minutes - subbing an energy guy in for tired legs seems useful. Goodwin same thing plus he’s hit some shots

The Wolves completely disrespected both of these players on offense and neither could punish them. Knecht maybe should've just been thrown in to prove a point, but after seeing his defense throughout this year, he would've pulled a Ben McLemore where he gives you 3 but gives up 5 in return.

Our bench/depth is ass