Stephen A. CALLS OUT Tobias Harris, Windy says D’Angelo Russell has ‘COME BACK TO LIFE’ | First Take

Stephen A. CALLS OUT Tobias Harris, Windy says D’Angelo Russell has ‘COME BACK TO LIFE’ | First Take

After back-to-back wins against good teams is this success sustainable would you say so maybe and I know that’s not the the strong answer that you’d like to hear and the Lakers would like to hear a stronger answer darham has been all over the place trying like crazy guys to

Figure out a way to have this team be competitive offensively i’ I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team that’s a competitive team like the Lakers get boat race to the first quarter as much as they have this year and his latest move is to put his two guards his two

Scoring guards Austin Reeves and D’Angelo Russell in the starting lineup this is how they started the season and it was a disaster they they were getting blown out of every first quarter and basically he was forced to break Austin Reeves and D’Angelo Russell up well over these last few games D’Angelo Russell

Has come back to life and this is really a core issue with the Lakers they’re one of the biggest things that’s important with their offense which is which is the biggest challenge on the whole roster is that they are really riant on D’Angelo Russell to deliver for them and he is a

High Varian player in Good Times throughout his career he can drop 35 he can drop five it’s all over the place for the last month even more he’s been cold so much so that he got taken out of the starting lineup and was basically I don’t want to make an assumption but was

Basically brooding pouting uh about it he also had an injury in there and not talking to the media and hearing his name in trade talks and then they had to put him back on the starting lineup three games ago because of another injury this one to cam reddish and he’s

Been hot and he’s been awesome and all of a sudden Anthony Davis has 25 assists in three games the most in his career yeah he’s passing the ball he’s Anthony Davis is having an excellent season but it’s because he’s passing the ball to a guy who’s making the shots so like yeah

Stephen A when the Lakers are at their top offensively when D’Angelo Russell is hitting shots of course they are a formidable team but you just can’t trust him from one week to the next which is one of the reasons he’s been involved in trade talks absolutely that’s the

Problem and I’ve been saying that for weeks Wendy you know I’ve been saying that for weeks I’m not blaming first of all Anthony Davis is playing like an MVP candidate he’s playing like a defensive player of the year candidate he’s been lights out major major props to him and

His durability hasn’t been a question mark because he’s played damn near every game he’s only missed a few games this year so give love and credit to Anthony Davis where is Du LeBron is LeBron and I don’t care when he has an off night or

Whatever the man is 39 years of age in his 21st season he’s still averaging better than 25 a game he’s still LeBron and so for me when you know that you can rely on those two brothers to do what they are doing it comes down to you

Simply doing your damn job which is why I said and I announced on National Television if I’m jeie bus if I’m Rob pinka I grab some of these brothers I take them in the car around Los Angeles I make sure the weather’s nice Sunshine is not gray skies clear skies sun is

Shining and what have you and be like listen how many places in America is like this you want to stay here or you want to go back to Minnesota you want to go someplace else cuz we ain’t going to tolerate this you got to do something

Now it’s not an accident that eight of D’Angelo Russell’s team High 29 Points came off of passes from Anthony Davis like you pointed out when Anthony Davis gives him the ball Anthony it ain’t like Anthony Davis just started giving him the ball he’s been giving him the ball

Just that he wasn’t making shots he was missing shots when D’Angelo Russell is making shots that makes their offense that much more potent and formidable why because it freed things up a little bit more for LeBron James for an Anthony Davis they can’t like LeBron said they can’t double It’s Quickly on Anthony

Davis when you got D’Angelo Russell to worry about if he’s kicking the ball out to him by the way let get Austin Reed more involved in the activities he came played summer ball this year obviously came into this season didn’t start off strong it wasn’t just D’Angelo Russell

That wasn’t getting it done it was Austin Reeves who wasn’t getting it done either we have to literally call it like it is from the standpoint that if D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reed Lees play up to their potential the Lakers could go on a run and could even go to a Conference

Finals without those two doing what they got to do the Lakers would be lucky to make the play in this is not a a a franchise that’s about LeBron James and Anthony Davis they’ve shown you what they can do and are willing to do it’s

The other guys that have to step up and two of those key guys are Austin Reeves and D’Angelo Russell and by the way traded Rob pinka you didn’t trade but you acquired gab Vincent in the off season I don’t know if you should have let go of stader because guess what

Demonstrator when he was on the team last year I mean this this dude was an Energizer Bunny he came off the bench he could make shots he was clutch he could make free throws he had Moxy he was tough I would not have let him go I

Would have found a way to keep him and run it back again the fact that they don’t have him and they got a Gabe Vincent who can Ball but clearly has been injured and hasn’t really played this year has really compromised their success as well what impact do you think

The Pacers acquiring Pascal SE yakum will have in the East well look Pascal sakam and Tyrese Alberton are going to fall in love with playing with each other because SE yakum is a great transition uptempo player and nobody is better in transition than than than pal Burton and nobody runs more

Almost in the NBA than the Pacers you’re going to start seeing highlights immediately and they’re a serious Contender to be the number four seed I think you can look how tightly packed the East is I think they’ve taken a major step forward from a league perspective though Molly I think the big

Takeaway from this is who did not get SE yakum now I think the Pacers were in the driver’s seat on this all the way and I think primarily because they have shown an interest in giving SE yakum a Max contract in the off season and I’m not

Sure that was the case everywhere else and that made him a more valuable trade piece but look at a team like the Philadelphia 76ers that’s a team that you know had the assets to trade for SE yakum and you add SE yakum to the 76ers especially if

They don’t touch their core that’s a very that’s a hugely impactful move I don’t think the Warriors have gotten to the point where they’re ready to make that type of move but SE yakum and the Warriors did make some sense and so you know and and it’s it’s important to

Realize they made this deal three weeks before the deadline and there’s a number of different reasons for that I think the Pacers want SE yakum in house they want him in house when halberton comes back from his hamstring injuries they can take off I think the Raptors wanted

To get Bruce Brown who now could be ret ated somewhere else he’s got an expiring contract but it was also before you get to the deadline where maybe the Sixers and the Warriors could have gotten involved I think a shrewd move by the Pacers to close the deal now because

That’s what people in the league were watching I don’t think siakam’s move will affect the title race but I think it could have affected it if we had let it get closer to the deadline well I will say this a couple of things number one if you bruise Brown hope that the

Toronto Raptors buy you out and you can end up back in Denver because I think that that’s that’s where he belongs I think that he would be in as a I’m just I’m just there you go you know what I’m saying this this dude showed up in the

Playoffs in the finals so I like him but let me say this about Pascal cakam I like him a lot I know he’s a 22-point per game scorer shoots better than 50% for the field not a great three-point shooter we get that about him I know he

Brings some offensive fire power is he affecting the balance P power in the Eastern Conference hell no that would be Boston Milwaukee and Philadelphia I don’t think he’s affecting that for the Indiana Paces that’s just my belief even though Indiana has beat Milwaukee four to five times they’ve gone against them

This year and we saw new Milwaukee last night without Giannis wet the bed in Cleveland I’m not sleeping on Donovan Mitchell because I love him and I wish he was in the New York Knicks uniform but I’m just not sold on Cleveland so could Indiana Elevate itself to a top

Five a top four spot within the Eastern Conference giving folks like the Knicks and the Miami Heat a run for them money okay we can make that argument but as far as the other guys I don’t see that making that much of a difference let me

Touch on your point about cakam as a Philadelphia 76er if you’re talking talking about keeping embiid Maxi and Tobias Harris with cakam on that Squad oh I like that I I love the possibility of that but I’m imagining that if you were to let go of him somebody like Tobi

If you were to lose him somebody like to Tobias Harris somebody you would get in returned I want to bring up the name Tobias Harris on National Television for this reason because I mentioned it on my podcast yesterday the Stephen A Smith show let me say this Tobias Harris a

Potential championship ship is in your hands the way that that that Joel embiid has been playing combined with the way that Tyrese Maxi has been playing the Tobias Harris that we’ve seen in recent recently the one that dropped 32 and a loss I think it was to Atlanta the one

That dropped 37 in the win over Sacramento the one that dropped 24 the other night if that Tobias Harris shows up with a level of more assertiveness more efficiency offensively all right because we know he’s capable of it I don’t think you can dismiss the Philadelphia 76s because of the sheer

Dominance of a Joel andb and what Havoc he can cause so I’m not sold on well you know what Tobias Harris is not this or is not that Tobias Harris’s got skills he’s got size he’s got a perimeter game he can post you up he can average 20 a

Night anytime he wants to if he wants it bad enough Nick nurse has increased the pace they’re averaging seven point seven more points per game they’re still the same defensive rating they were fourth last year they’re fourth right now all of these things get taken into consideration it comes down to Tobias

Harris being a bit more aggressive this brother is not a scrub I get tired of people talking about him like he can’t play Tobias Harris can play he is not a scrub he just has to take the bull by the horn and say you know what I look at

Boston I look at Milwaukee I look at Miami I think I got the potential with the way Maxi has shown up now that Harden is going going with the ball in his hands with embiid being the league MVP candidate the reigning League MVP averaging 35.1 points per game Molly if

I’m Tobias Harris all I got to do is say give me the damn ball a little bit more and show out and the Philadelphia 76ers could make some noise that’s all I wanted to say about that yeah two things real quick one I do think the Sixers

Could have made that deal Stephen A because the Raptors ultimately wanted draft picks and expiring cont contracts they could do it without including Tobias the question is what they’ve been willing to pay in the Max and that that’s that’s another thing the second thing is under Doc Rivers tobias’s

Harris’s role diminished he only averaged 12 points a game last year making almost $40 million that’s why people were against him Nick nurse one of the first things he did increased tobias’s Harris’s role scoring’s up five points and everything else you’re right On

Stephen A. CALLS OUT Tobias Harris, Windy says D’Angelo Russell has ‘COME BACK TO LIFE’ | First Take

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith and Brian Windhorst discuss topics surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers, Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers.

0:00 Is the Lakers’ success sustainable?
5:00 Pascal Siakam trade
8:15 Sixers’ title hopes

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