Isaiah Thomas' Time With The Los Angeles Lakers is Done Because of This

I hope everybody had a happy holidays and I hope everybody is doing good. Speaking of the holidays, I really want to start this video off by talking about what happened on December 25th. For those of you that missed the NBA slate of Christmas Day games, I'll actually say this. I think you missed a good bit of good games. I really did enjoy the games that were played on Christmas and I really did enjoy the reaction We actually got one of the craziest poster dunks on LeBron James that I'd ever seen and it feels like this dunk has already came and went. I'll never be mad at a player for trying to stop a dunk or an alley-oop or making a play on the basketball. There are a lot of players in the NBA that just let people dunk the ball. I've even seen capable shot blockers let guys go right by them and dunk right in front of their faces without any contest. Sometimes I feel like the fear of getting dunked on overshadows the possibility of stopping two points. Man, I know people that go to my gym that don't play defense because they don't want to get crossed. At the end of the day, this stuff is part of basketball. Contest and defense make the game 20 times better. Now that we got that out of the way, Nick Claxton's finish on that alley-oop was absolutely filthy. For those that haven't been paying attention, Nick Claxton and James Harden are absolutely money on screen and rolls. Wait, where have we seen this before? James Harden's passing ability is something that I will forever have respect for. The guy is one of the more naturally gifted passers in the NBA, regardless of if anybody wants to admit it or not. I know that Harden being a good passer is pretty common knowledge, but I feel like sometimes people let their hate for Harden overshadow how good of a player that he actually is. While we're sitting here talking about big plays in the Nets Lakers Christmas Day matchup, we have to talk about this play from Russell Westbrook. Go ahead and roll the clip. Now nobody is mad at Russell Westbrook for saving this broken play. Let's be real, this play was going absolutely nowhere. If Russell Westbrook doesn't save this ball, there is a chance that we're not even talking about the outcome of the play, which in hindsight is still incredibly crazy. Getting stuffed by the rim on a dunk in a situation like this is tough to say the least. Now when talking about this play, a lot of people talk about the fact that LeBron James was wide open. I have a serious question for you guys. Do you think that Russell Westbrook was even capable of getting this pass to LeBron James? Do you think that Russell Westbrook saw LeBron James? And more importantly, are you more mad at the outcome than the thought process? Westbrook got to the rim, he got a good look, he just missed it. And he also missed the LeBron James that appeared to be wide open. Now you guys know that when I zig, I typically zag no matter how much hate it gets me. Westbrook's Christmas Day game, to be sure it was a bad game from Russell Westbrook. According to Yahoo Sports, Russell Westbrook shot 4 of 15 within 3 feet of the basket and the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Brooklyn Nets on Christmas Day. Overall, he was 4 of 20 from the field. Like I said, it was a bad game, it happens. While I give props to the Lakers for bouncing back, they have to figure something out and figure something out soon. I know that Russell Westbrook is going to have better games. I actually don't think that Westbrook is the Lakers only problem. But you could say that his contract is one of the Lakers biggest problems. I know that I'm setting myself up for troll answers, but I'm going to ask the question anyways. If Russell Westbrook was a free agent right now, what do you think that he would command on the free agency market? More importantly, what would you feel comfortable paying Russell Westbrook to play for your team? Compare whatever you just said to what he's getting right now and to what he's due next season. When the Lakers traded for Russell Westbrook, they made a decision. And that decision was to be a top-heavy star-reliant team. Being top-heavy doesn't look as good when your stars aren't playing up to caliber, or you're missing one of your best players. LeBron James has been playing good for the Los Angeles Lakers, but it simply has not been enough. According to Harrison from Lakers SBN, in the four games since Anthony Davis went down, the Lakers are allowing 116.9 points per 100 possessions, which would be the worst defense in the league, if for the full season. While I don't think there's an easy fix for the current Lakers defense, I will say that I did like what I saw from Stanley Johnson. For one, I'm not even going to look at the statistics. I don't care what the plus-minus says, I know it's bad. I don't like when the Lakers play three small guards at one time. When you do something like this, and you put LeBron James at center, you're putting your defense in an incredibly tough spot. Your defense essentially has to be perfect, because if you make a mistake, any mistake, you miss an assignment, a rotation, or you get beat off the dribble, you're essentially allowing a layup. Look, I understand the infatuation with small ball, and I understand that the Lakers currently have no really good big man options on their team. I actually like what I've seen from LeBron James at center in spurts, but check it out, I don't like when I see Isaiah Thomas, Rayjean Rondo, and also Russell Westbrook on the floor at one time. As a matter of fact, I really don't like any of the Russell Westbrook and Rayjean Rondo lineups. If Russell Westbrook is your biggest guard on the floor, and you're playing two other guards, one who is notoriously bad at defense in Isaiah Thomas, and another who is not a good defender at this stage of their career in Rayjean Rondo, you're going to have a very tough time. Because as good of a rebounder as Russell Westbrook is, he is a very bad defender at this stage of his career. Westbrook's always been a gambler on the defensive side of the basketball, but lately I feel like I've been seeing just more bad basketball IQ than gambling. Patty Mills absolutely lit the Los Angeles Lakers up. To be fair, Patty Mills is a dog. When he plays for his country, he looks like a flat out superstar. That being said, you guys have to see how Patty Mills was getting open on some of these plays. That's all I'm going to say. Now when it comes to the Los Angeles Lakers defense, I feel like there's more than enough blame to go around. If you ask me, I think the roster needs more versatility. I think it needs more guys like Stanley Johnson who are able to defend multiple positions. Now of course this isn't me saying that Stanley Johnson is going to solve every problem that the Lakers have. He's a guy that has his own deficiencies and expectations should be realistic. While we're sitting here talking about realistic expectations, what were people expecting from Isaiah Thomas? There has been this nasty narrative where I have seen people blaming Isaiah Thomas for the Los Angeles Lakers losses. This is a guy that was on a 10 day contract. Anything that this guy did was supposed to be a bonus. December 21st, Statmuse tweeted, the Lakers are 0-3 since signing Isaiah Thomas. Now guys, I'm not an NBA GM or anything like that, but I definitely guarantee that the Los Angeles Lakers problems are much bigger than Isaiah Thomas. With the Los Angeles Lakers, at the time that I'm making this video, Isaiah Thomas would go on to shoot 30.8% from the field and 22.7% from the 3 point line. The problem with IT is that at this stage of his career, if he's not scoring the ball incredibly efficiently, then the chances are he's just going to hurt you because what else is he bringing to the floor? On the defensive side of the basketball, he's going to give up a lot of points. Maybe not give up a lot of points directly, but he's going to be a liability, which is why I definitely recommend that Isaiah Thomas' next team be a team that just needs scoring off the bench and may be able to hide him on the defensive side of the basketball. I definitely want to see IT playing with a good rim protector going forward or a team that emphasizes team defense. December 26th, Shams announced that the Lakers and Isaiah Thomas wouldn't be doing a second 10 day contract, making IT a free agent. Multiple teams are expected to express interest in Thomas, who averaged 9.3 points in 4 games for the Los Angeles Lakers. My question for you guys is where do you think IT's best fit in the NBA is? And possibly more importantly, do you think that Collison is an upgrade over IT? Collison and all of these players getting opportunity is incredibly awesome, but part of me can't help but wonder why guys like Tyreek Evans and Jeremy Lynn are not currently in the association. Another guy I'd love to see back in the NBA is Anthony Randolph, hey man, if you know you know. Who are some guys that you guys would love to see get an opportunity? Clicking the video on the screen right now is a great way to support my channel. I'm Get Like Coop, bringing you guys the scoop until our next upload.