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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Jason tim Podcast. Thank you

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Speaker 1: guys for taking time out of your day to come

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Speaker 1: hang out and talk some hoops with Justin. And I

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Speaker 1: am super excited about this episode because one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite things to do is tell old hoops stories. And

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Speaker 1: when I can do that and talk NBA basketball, that's

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Speaker 1: about as good as it gets. I'm gonna bring Justin

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Speaker 1: on here right now. What's up man? How are you

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Speaker 1: pretty good? Man? How you doing? I'm doing well. So

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Speaker 1: before we get started, I wanted you to give like

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Speaker 1: just a quick, little fifteen second rapid resume about where

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Speaker 1: you played and what your basketball background is, and then

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Speaker 1: we'll get started. Cool. Um, I played at clarent University.

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Speaker 1: It's a small division to school, UM like an ours

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Speaker 1: out of Pittsburgh Upper Wes np A. Played there all

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Speaker 1: four years. UM, had a decent career. UM played against

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Speaker 1: some pretty high level guys over my course of my

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Speaker 1: time there, and then after that shortly started playing like

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Speaker 1: semi professional lubly and on the DC Maryland area and

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Speaker 1: then pretty much doing that ever since. That's awesome, man. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So for those of you don't know me, similar story,

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Speaker 1: I played an A I A I played junior college

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Speaker 1: up in Utah. Was a real late bloomer. I started

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Speaker 1: playing when I was twenty and uh. I had a

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Speaker 1: couple of seasons at DUCO and then I played in

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Speaker 1: the n E I A and then same thing. I

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Speaker 1: played at a couple of different semi professional things, and

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Speaker 1: I was supposed to go play in the league in India,

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Speaker 1: had a contract and everything, and then that league folded.

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Speaker 1: And then at that point my wife was like, it's

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Speaker 1: time to hang him up. So now I just do

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Speaker 1: it for fun and and play on the local scene,

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Speaker 1: and I'm kind of enjoying it, although I always you know,

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Speaker 1: it's always hard, and I know, you know what this

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Speaker 1: is like. It's always hard to not just drop everything

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Speaker 1: and try to do it again. But yeah, you gotta

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Speaker 1: find a way to be a grown up, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean. Um So, today we're gonna primarily focus

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Speaker 1: on on the Warriors and this offseason, which I think

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Speaker 1: is gonna be one of the more pivotal off seasons

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Speaker 1: in their franchise history, mainly just because the difference between

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Speaker 1: them going on another run of contention here or kind

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Speaker 1: of disappearing into the middle of the Western Conference is

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Speaker 1: gonna entirely depend on how they put pieces around their

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Speaker 1: core three guys. And my my initial take on that

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Speaker 1: is gonna entirely depend on one of my overarching basketball ideologies.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's got their overarching basketball ideologies that shape most of

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Speaker 1: their opinions, and one of my big ones is quite

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Speaker 1: simply that really young basketball players don't know how to win.

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Speaker 1: And my favorite example of this is, you know, I

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Speaker 1: live in Tucson, Arizona, which is where the University of

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Speaker 1: Arizona is, and they consistently, every single year have one

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Speaker 1: of the best recruiting classes in the country. They constantly

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Speaker 1: get top five or five star recruits, top ten recruits

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Speaker 1: in the country that come through this school. And then

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Speaker 1: we lose. We lose early and often in the in

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Speaker 1: the tournament, and we and the main reason for that

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Speaker 1: is is there's a huge difference between projecting someone's potential

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Speaker 1: and projecting their current impact on winning right now. And

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of guys that have come through

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Speaker 1: this school. Aaron Gordon's a great example, a guy like

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Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson who kind of struggled understanding how to contribute

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Speaker 1: in a winning environment at Arizona, who then went on

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Speaker 1: to have much more success in the NBA. Aaron Gordon

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Speaker 1: is the best example you can think of someone like that.

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Speaker 1: But the main reason for that is I think that

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Speaker 1: every like young player is primarily focused on kind of themselves,

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Speaker 1: and when they go to the gym and when they

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Speaker 1: work on their game, they're primarily focused on what they

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Speaker 1: can do to be better individually. And then every single

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Speaker 1: player kind of twists and change like kind of transitions

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Speaker 1: into a phase of their career where they primarily focus

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Speaker 1: on the scoreboard and what it takes to impact winning,

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Speaker 1: especially within the team construct. And some people make that

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Speaker 1: change faster than others, but everybody is going to have

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Speaker 1: to make that change, and almost never will you find

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Speaker 1: a player that's that young that already knows how to

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Speaker 1: contribute at that level and like the you know, there

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Speaker 1: are a couple of examples in NBA history of young

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Speaker 1: guys who have done winning early, like John Morant and

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Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell. Dwyane Wade's even a great example, but the

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Speaker 1: huge differences they were drafted into a situation where they

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Speaker 1: were supposed to be the best player on their team,

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Speaker 1: and more importantly, they were surrounded by veteran players who

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Speaker 1: did all of that dirty work for them. Dwyane Wade

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Speaker 1: played with Alonzo Mourning and James Posey and Antoine Walker,

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Speaker 1: and you know, all of these guys who were able

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Speaker 1: to do all of that heavy lifting mentally for him

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Speaker 1: so that they could just shoot Dwyane Wayne at a

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Speaker 1: Dwyane Wade out of a cannon to be a wrecking

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Speaker 1: ball and understand that all of the fine details of

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Speaker 1: ning they could take care of, and exact same thing

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Speaker 1: with Donovan Mitchell. He played with some of the smartest

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Speaker 1: players in the game like Ricky Rubio, Joe Ingles and

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Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert and Jay Crowder, guys like that. So in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, you know, when we're shaping this forward, even

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Speaker 1: when you look at the players in this draft that

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Speaker 1: are you know, kind of advertised as guys who can

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Speaker 1: be right away type of winners like that Denny Avija,

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Speaker 1: I think, is the main one that a lot of

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Speaker 1: Warriors fans bring up. Even with the guy like that,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, just an average role player, a guy

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Speaker 1: like Jeff Green would impact winning more right now and

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Speaker 1: over the next couple of years than he could. And

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Speaker 1: the main reason for that is if you look at

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Speaker 1: Jeff Green, he's made that transition. If you look at

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Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen with the Calves, he understood mentally that

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Speaker 1: his peak as a winner was as a guy who

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Speaker 1: ran in transition, got easy layups and dunks, knockdown open

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Speaker 1: threes as as best as he could, made simple plays

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Speaker 1: that it was, and defended on the other end of

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Speaker 1: the flour. And so from that standpoint, if I am

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Speaker 1: a Warriors fan, I think you have to trade the pick,

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Speaker 1: and I think you have to just understand that it's

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Speaker 1: gonna hurt in the future potentially to see whoever this

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Speaker 1: kid is end up being a better player than whoever

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Speaker 1: you got, but understand that within this tight little two

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Speaker 1: or three year window where you plan on contending, that

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Speaker 1: whoever you got is going to bring more to the

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Speaker 1: table within the scope of winning. If that makes sense, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: for sure, And I definitely agree. And I wouldn't necessarily

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Speaker 1: trade the pick for like someone like a Green, but

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Speaker 1: definitely like initially think, hey, like, let's see what we

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Speaker 1: can we can get, maybe like trade down for a

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Speaker 1: player and a pick um for someone that's that's more

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Speaker 1: ready to contribute to winning, to winning right away, and

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Speaker 1: you can still get a young guy that you can

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Speaker 1: possibly groom that can help you farther down the line

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Speaker 1: or even play spot minutes in the playoffs now and

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Speaker 1: kind of help you get to where you want to go. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and like and for sure you can do a lot

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Speaker 1: better than Jeff Green with that pick. I just think

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Speaker 1: that Jeff Green is a great example of the fact

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Speaker 1: that that veteran player that understands in his finite role

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Speaker 1: that he's gonna have on this team what they're going

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Speaker 1: to be asking him to do, because they're not going

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Speaker 1: to be asking much of him. If you look at

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Speaker 1: what that team already has on paper, you've got like

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Speaker 1: four starters at thirty five plus minutes a night completely

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Speaker 1: taken up. So you're basically looking for rim running and

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Speaker 1: defense from your center position, and you're looking for backup

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Speaker 1: playmaking and spot up shooting and things along those lines.

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Speaker 1: And so from that standpoint, um like, there's absolutely no

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Speaker 1: way in my opinion, that you can get as much

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Speaker 1: quality out of drafting, even at high as high at

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Speaker 1: number as number two as you could um looking elsewhere

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Speaker 1: and trying to just make the most what of what

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Speaker 1: there is. And I think your example is great. That's

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Speaker 1: trading down and getting you know, some kind of mid

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Speaker 1: level veteran role player and then understanding that if I

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Speaker 1: pick at seventeen or twenty two, that guy has just

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Speaker 1: about the same amount of chances impacting winning this season

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Speaker 1: as number two, because like, do you think James Wiseman

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Speaker 1: can go head to head with Anthony Davis in a

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Speaker 1: playoff series right now? And probably in in five years probably,

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Speaker 1: but right now I have a feeling that that matchup

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Speaker 1: is just going to be too much for him mentally

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Speaker 1: to understand the little things he'd have to do to

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Speaker 1: match Anthony Davis's impact. And uh So, from that standpoint, like,

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Speaker 1: I think that that's where where that uh decision has

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Speaker 1: to be based on. So the main guys that have

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Speaker 1: been floated around for the Warriors at number two are

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Speaker 1: killing and his Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, this Danny Avija guy,

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Speaker 1: and then James Wiseman. And I suppose, and this is

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Speaker 1: my next question for you, is if you had to pick,

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Speaker 1: let's say there's no trade available or nothing that is

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Speaker 1: other than a certain amount of value that Bob Meyers

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Speaker 1: would be willing to accet, which one of those guys

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Speaker 1: would you have if you had to pick one. Um,

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Speaker 1: I'd probably say I'd take Wiseman right now, probably because

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Speaker 1: like the center is probably our weakest position at the moment.

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Speaker 1: And his measurables are like, oh, they jump off the

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Speaker 1: paper for you, you know what I mean, Like they

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Speaker 1: just read the other day. He has like a nine

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Speaker 1: six standing reach something like that. Yeah, it's like he

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Speaker 1: has observed measurables. He's a freak athlete. He has a

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Speaker 1: lot of size, which were which we're lacking inside. And

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Speaker 1: even though he can't necessarily match up with that guy

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Speaker 1: like Anthony Davis like mentally, yet at at least he

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Speaker 1: has like the physical attributes to to bank with some

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Speaker 1: of the bigger centers or some of the some of

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Speaker 1: the guys with size that we're going to see in

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Speaker 1: the Western Conference, like a Yo kids or even like um,

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Speaker 1: whether or not Dwhite comes back to the Lakers, but

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Speaker 1: somebody like a Dwight or whatever the case may be. UM,

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Speaker 1: And I think, as you said, like younger guys coming in,

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Speaker 1: they typically think like me, me, me, like how can

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Speaker 1: I improve myself? Um, and all those other guys you

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Speaker 1: name are either wings of guards, which is it's even

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Speaker 1: going to be more towards that I want to develop

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Speaker 1: my own game. Let's see how many points like an

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Speaker 1: average wherever these may be. Whereas Wiseman, I think a

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Speaker 1: big might be easier to convince to like buy an

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Speaker 1: indefensive end early on in his career rather than focus

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Speaker 1: on like how many points he's scoring and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: That makes sense, That's actually a really good point, Like

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Speaker 1: I think the Wiseman has the best capability of potentially

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Speaker 1: accepting that smaller role. One of my favorite things about

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Speaker 1: this year's Laker team was the fact that every single

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Speaker 1: one of their role players had a really small role.

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Speaker 1: And when you give a limited player a very small role,

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Speaker 1: it's much easier for them to, you know, excel in

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Speaker 1: that role than it is when you're asking them to

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Speaker 1: do a lot. And I agree, like if you draft

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Speaker 1: someone like Anthony Edwards, if you draft someone like Lamella Ball,

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Speaker 1: you're asking them to come in and playmate, which at

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Speaker 1: this level is arguably the toughest skill. It's arguably the

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Speaker 1: hardest thing to do from a decision making standpoint, Like

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Speaker 1: even when you watch young players. Now, you know, when

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Speaker 1: you watch Killie and Hayes next year or Lamella Ball,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna see them have two or three possessions in

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Speaker 1: a row where they make a good play and then

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Speaker 1: they're gonna go, you know, right off and to do

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Speaker 1: something stupid, because that's just the natural thing that happens

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Speaker 1: when you're dealing with that type of young player. And

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Speaker 1: then also, I think with Wiseman, you have the best

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Speaker 1: capability I think of potentially flipping him at the trade

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Speaker 1: deadline if you had to um to to some team

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Speaker 1: out there that has, you know, like the good The

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Speaker 1: best example of someone like this would be maybe a

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Speaker 1: team like the Pistons who foolishly convinces themselves that, you know,

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Speaker 1: we can maybe compete in the East with a healthy

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Speaker 1: Blake Griffin, and then they get out there and they

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Speaker 1: start getting their ass kicked and pretty quickly there you know,

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Speaker 1: seven and twenty two, and it's like, okay, it's time

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Speaker 1: to rebuild. Why don't we go after Wiseman. Why don't

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Speaker 1: we go after someone like that? And um that that

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Speaker 1: I think Wiseman gives you the best chance of flipping

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Speaker 1: him if you need to. But like, so, let's let's

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Speaker 1: talk about the Warrior's needs, because you know, if you

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Speaker 1: look at the two thousand sixteen Warriors, which were arguably

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Speaker 1: one of the top three or four teams ever and

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Speaker 1: uh arguably I'm never gonna allow this to be say

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Speaker 1: stated as act, but arguably, had they stayed healthy, they

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Speaker 1: would have won the championship that year. Um, they were

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Speaker 1: built on the Steph Curry offensive formula of you know,

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Speaker 1: drawing attention and players kind of feeding off of the

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Speaker 1: attention he draws. And then Clay Thompson, who was without

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Speaker 1: a doubt a better player now than he was in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen, as long as his knee can

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Speaker 1: hold up. But Clay is weirdly, you know, just Clay

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Speaker 1: is just kind of a physical freak in that sense,

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Speaker 1: So I think he had cans of coming back. Uh, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: And then you've got Andrew Wiggins, who I don't think

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Speaker 1: that much of him, and I know you don't, and

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Speaker 1: I know most people don't, but it is completely reasonable

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Speaker 1: to think that he could be Harrison Barnes, you know,

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Speaker 1: when you look at what they were asking Harrison Barnes

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Speaker 1: to do in that role. So there is a very

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Speaker 1: clear like the pathway you can follow mentally to see

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Speaker 1: how this team can compete. But one of the most

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Speaker 1: important things about that roster was the fact that when

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Speaker 1: they downsized, they had a wing that could guard Biggs

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Speaker 1: in Andrea adult yep. And then they and then they

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Speaker 1: had a bench full of really really savvy veteran players

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Speaker 1: in Andrew Barbosa and and Sean Livingston and all those guys.

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Speaker 1: So the key there is, like to follow that mold

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Speaker 1: you need to look for because I don't know, a

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Speaker 1: lot of people talk about bo Get, and Boget, in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, was not as important on that team is portrayed.

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Speaker 1: He only played, I think, if I'm not mistaken, like

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Speaker 1: ten minutes a game towards the end of that playoff run. Uh,

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Speaker 1: he was not all that involved. It primarily to me

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Speaker 1: comes down to finding a really big win so that

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Speaker 1: you can downsize, and then finding just smart basketball players

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Speaker 1: that can make decisions in four on threes, in three

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Speaker 1: on two's, off of Steph Curry double teams. If that

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Speaker 1: makes sense. Where do you land on that? I'm right

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Speaker 1: there with you, Like you said, Um, the main thing

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Speaker 1: that I that I remember from those Warriors teams, like

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Speaker 1: prior to Katie's arrival, I mean even with Katie's that

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Speaker 1: with Katie there is that soil as the Lakers operated

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Speaker 1: this year, where they just had, like you said, a

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Speaker 1: bunch of many roles that people can people can feel,

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Speaker 1: and they were versatile as far as like they had

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Speaker 1: size that they wanted to go big and they can

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Speaker 1: go big, and they if they wanted to go small,

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Speaker 1: which they did mostly because teams at that time really

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Speaker 1: couldn't handle it, they went small, but they had guys

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Speaker 1: that can guard. They had dream On and and Iggy

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Speaker 1: and Harrison Hooping guard up. So I think right and

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Speaker 1: Clay can guard up. So it's like if they really

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Speaker 1: never really gave up a size even when going down. UM,

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Speaker 1: So I think that definitely should be a priority getting

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Speaker 1: like bigger wings up and guard um if like Lebron

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Speaker 1: goes to before or something like that, or they put

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Speaker 1: eight at the five or colados um to the to

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Speaker 1: the wherever the case maybe um they need to have

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Speaker 1: that versatility to be able to mass teams size wise,

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Speaker 1: and as well as like i Q and skill has

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Speaker 1: a follow as well, because you can't just mass team

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Speaker 1: with size and then you just don't have any shooting

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Speaker 1: or whatever the case may be. So I think, yeah,

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Speaker 1: definitely defense and like versatilities should be their primary leg focus. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and there are a couple of players who fit that

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Speaker 1: mold because like so, Andre Godalo is about strength, like

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Speaker 1: that dude was just unbelievably strong for a player who

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Speaker 1: played that position. Um, the other players that I thought

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Speaker 1: that kind of fit potential, this potential role. One of

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Speaker 1: my favorites was Wesley Matthews, and secretly I'm hoping the

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Speaker 1: Lakers get him. But Wesley Matthews, it is a player

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Speaker 1: who is undersized, if I'm not mistaken, He's only like

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Speaker 1: six five or six four. But Wesley Matthews is His

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Speaker 1: defensive principles are based on getting super low and uh

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Speaker 1: like getting up underneath guys and forcing them to shoot

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Speaker 1: over the top with his ridiculous lateral quickness. So a

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Speaker 1: player like that is what would allow you because you

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Speaker 1: gotta think, everything to me with the Warriors has to

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Speaker 1: be framed through what their late round playoff matchups would be,

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Speaker 1: which in this case is in all in all likelihood,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna have to go through both the clippers of

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Speaker 1: the Lakers, or at least the one who won in

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Speaker 1: that matchup. So from that standpoint, at any given moment,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna be dealing with either two massive front court

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Speaker 1: players and Anthony Davis and Lebron, or dealing with uh

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Speaker 1: two extremely versatile wings in Paul George and and Kawhi Leonard.

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Speaker 1: And a guy like Wesley Matthews is an example of

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Speaker 1: a player who you could probably get with your mid

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Speaker 1: level exception, who would at least make those guys shoot

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Speaker 1: over the top. Because even with Lebron, if you watch

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Speaker 1: in both of their matchups this year, particularly even when

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Speaker 1: they won in l A, Wesley Matthews was forcing Lebron

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Speaker 1: into fadeaways and forcing him into taking shots away from

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Speaker 1: the basket. The only time he ever really got to

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Speaker 1: the rim on him was in pick and roll when

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Speaker 1: they were using Jail McGee to like kind of like

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Speaker 1: run him out of the lane and then like basically

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Speaker 1: throw blocks for Lebron in isolation. He was forcing him

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Speaker 1: to shoot over the top, which is really all you

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Speaker 1: can ask for from a player, especially at that at

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Speaker 1: that pay level. The other guys that have been tossed around,

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Speaker 1: Robert Covington, Uh, Jeff Green, there's uh the older Holiday

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Speaker 1: brother justin Hall Day, guys like that. But I don't

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Speaker 1: think like I worry about guys like Robert Covington and

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Speaker 1: Justin Holiday being a little too skinny because the problem

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Speaker 1: is with like again, what makes that work is Draymond

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Speaker 1: Green's strength in Andreago Dollar's strength and their ability to

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Speaker 1: match up with the size. And so from that standpoint,

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Speaker 1: I just don't see uh getting it. Like there's an

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Speaker 1: obsession with wings in today's NBA, this idea that you

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Speaker 1: need to get his wings as you can get. But

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Speaker 1: the reality is is I think it's more versatile size

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Speaker 1: and size can be distributed in many different ways. Like

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Speaker 1: I played a lot bigger than my position in college

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Speaker 1: because I wait two pounds, so I was able to

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Speaker 1: guard bigger players. And when you look at like even

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Speaker 1: this Houston Rockets team this year this past year, everybody

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Speaker 1: complained about how short they were because even their wings

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Speaker 1: were short, But every single player on that team was

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Speaker 1: strong and you couldn't just back them down. And from

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Speaker 1: that same point, I think that would be the big

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Speaker 1: one because even with guys like Clay and Steph and

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Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, they're little thin, and that physical wearing and

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Speaker 1: that physical wear and tear would be the big thing

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Speaker 1: that I would look out for with them. I definitely agree.

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Speaker 1: I think another guy's name has been floated around as

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Speaker 1: they like Jake Crowder. Um he set saying like mold. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so if they if they can find a way to

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Speaker 1: land a guy like him, that would be that would

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Speaker 1: be huge as well. So let's let's uh, let's focus

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Speaker 1: on a hypothetical scenario where the Warriors get Let's say

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Speaker 1: they get They're like they're dream offseason, Okay, they they

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Speaker 1: trade number two and they get a high quality center

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Speaker 1: and another pick, like let's say they trade him to

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Speaker 1: who's it that as Capellas at Washington. Let's say they

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Speaker 1: get like Capella and you know, an a late second

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Speaker 1: or late first round pick or something like that, just

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Speaker 1: a league average center. And let's say that they get

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Speaker 1: Jay Crowder And let's say they get Wesley Matthews and

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Speaker 1: they are structured, let's just say, comparable to the two

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Speaker 1: thousand sixteen Warriors. Not quite as good, but comparable, and

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Speaker 1: they end up cruising through the season. And let's say

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Speaker 1: the Lakers also add Vanilla Gallinari some quality piece with that,

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Speaker 1: because I think that needs to be factored in the Lakers.

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Speaker 1: I can't say for sure who they're going to get,

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Speaker 1: but it is in mind they're going to be there.

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Speaker 1: They're gonna get somebody. They're gonna get somebody. And so

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Speaker 1: from that standpoint, what do you think a Warriors Lakers

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Speaker 1: series in that hypothetical would look like? Who would you

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Speaker 1: pick and why? Um, let's say, okay, both teams have

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Speaker 1: like a great off season. I'd say it's a toss up.

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Speaker 1: I really don't know, because I think so much rides

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Speaker 1: on UM. One. Is Lebron gonna full further time again

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Speaker 1: and just be Lebron for another post season? I think

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Speaker 1: that's like huge. If he is, then that obviously gives

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Speaker 1: them like a great chance. I would probably give them

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Speaker 1: the slighter edge in that in that scenario, and if

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis becomes a better like playmaker out of the

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Speaker 1: post from teams Dublin, because in that case, even if

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Speaker 1: we do get like an average level center, they're probably

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Speaker 1: gonna have to double and even if they put Draymond

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Speaker 1: and they're gonna have the double amount of posts and

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Speaker 1: try to take him out of the game, similar to

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Speaker 1: how like um Miami was doing just like not lett

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Speaker 1: him get touches and just kind of forced the ball

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Speaker 1: his hand in the post. Um. So I would definitely

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Speaker 1: say it's a toss up. I would say it comes

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Speaker 1: down to the Warrior's ability to get those stops. Because

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Speaker 1: even if we even though we saw the Lakers defend

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Speaker 1: at extremely high level throughout the post season this past season,

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00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:57,919
Speaker 1: they rotate well, they close out on shooters, they run

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Speaker 1: out of the mind. Um. But we saw all in

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Speaker 1: the twenty nineteen playoffs with Toronto how well they defended,

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Speaker 1: and even even then the Warriors kind of gave them

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Speaker 1: some issues. We just didn't have enough guys that hit shots. UM.

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Speaker 1: So I don't think offense is gonna be a problem

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Speaker 1: for for a really euty team. It just comes down

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Speaker 1: to who gets the most stops. And at that point,

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Speaker 1: if if we bring in a guy like if we're

410
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Speaker 1: bringing Jay crowder and and Wesley Matthews and guys would

411
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Speaker 1: really help on that in um, I can't really say

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Speaker 1: the Lakers would be that much more dominant defensively to

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Speaker 1: kind of swing it heavily in their favor. And I

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Speaker 1: can't say the same thing for the wars either. UM.

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Speaker 1: I guess the by the bias and me will being

416
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Speaker 1: like Warriors in seven or something. But but yeah, I

417
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Speaker 1: would say i'd say to Tassa honestly, Um, And that's

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Speaker 1: that's like the beauty of that's kind of that's kind

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Speaker 1: of what we want to like not knowing necessarily who

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Speaker 1: was going to win, Um And Yeah, that's that's where

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Speaker 1: Austin that. Yeah, So I mean we're both biased, So

422
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Speaker 1: we're both gonna be looking at this in a particular

423
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Speaker 1: way that HUM is going to favor our particular side.

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Speaker 1: My case for the Lakers being a pretty significant favorite.

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Speaker 1: There is the fact that I do believe that styles

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00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:06,159
Speaker 1: make fights and the big believer in playoff matchups in

427
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:08,800
Speaker 1: the way that they can swing series. Um, there's so

428
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Speaker 1: many examples of it throughout NBA history. We're a better

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Speaker 1: team throughout the regular season loses in the playoffs because

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Speaker 1: of the way the things the matchups work out. The

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Speaker 1: best example of that is that two thousand eight or

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00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 1: two thousand nine Calves team that lost to the Magic

433
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 1: because they didn't have their centers were old and slow

434
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,479
Speaker 1: and couldn't stay with Dwight Howard and their guards were

435
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 1: smaller and UH and Orlando brought this unique challenge to

436
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,920
Speaker 1: the table in the form of these really tall perimeter

437
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,680
Speaker 1: players in Richard Lewis and UH a Hedo Turker Glue,

438
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: who were just too big for the smaller perimeter players

439
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,960
Speaker 1: in UH with with Cleveland and Guard and it ended

440
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: up literally swinging a series even though Lebron was far

441
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:51,960
Speaker 1: and away the best player on the floor every single game,

442
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 1: just because that's the way that playoff series worked. And

443
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:58,560
Speaker 1: you know, I've always been worried about the Clippers for

444
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,200
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and I all, I do think that the

445
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: Lakers would have won against the Clippers. I think it

446
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 1: would have been really close. I think it would have

447
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:08,440
Speaker 1: gone six or seven games, and the games would have

448
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:13,119
Speaker 1: been super competitive. And the main reasoning behind that is

449
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:17,440
Speaker 1: the idea that uh like, with these specific playing styles

450
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 1: and roster constructions, the Clippers were built to beat the

451
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 1: Lakers in the sense that they they had at least

452
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,639
Speaker 1: enough big, strong wings to force Santhony Davis to shoot

453
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: over the top. They had all sorts of bodies that

454
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:36,119
Speaker 1: throw out Lebron, and the Laker defense, which was built

455
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,920
Speaker 1: on the Laker defense, was under size. It's one of

456
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 1: the big things that people forget, like a very Bradley

457
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,960
Speaker 1: was small. Danny Green, who was basically playing small forward

458
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:47,440
Speaker 1: for them, was pretty small for that position. He's like

459
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 1: six six. You know, he's not a really overly large player.

460
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: You know, Alex Crusoe is only like six five, and

461
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 1: you know, Region Rondo is small and and KCP is smaller,

462
00:24:57,800 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 1: he's only like six four. So like all of these

463
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: guy eyes are are you know, undersize relatively at their position.

464
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,720
Speaker 1: So they had to build their defensive scheme to match

465
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:11,719
Speaker 1: that personnel. So what they were doing was essentially having uh,

466
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,320
Speaker 1: every single one of those guards error on the side

467
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 1: of chasing guys off the three point line and ball

468
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,920
Speaker 1: pressure getting up into people's shirts, understanding that, uh it

469
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:24,240
Speaker 1: will force them into the size and and understanding that

470
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,720
Speaker 1: they're there. They can make up for the weakness of

471
00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 1: their size by making people drive into their taller players

472
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: that they do have on the court in the form

473
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,119
Speaker 1: of Lebron Anthony Davis in their centers. And so what

474
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 1: the Clippers brought to the table that was a challenge

475
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 1: for that was lou Williams was so remarkably good at

476
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 1: those little floating jump shots and little tear drops and

477
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: things and that ten to fifteen foot range, and he

478
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,760
Speaker 1: was so good at drawing fouls on bigs and then

479
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard was so good operating out of the mid

480
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,480
Speaker 1: range as a score that when they got the switches

481
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 1: they want it. With Kauai, they were getting super high

482
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,200
Speaker 1: quality shots against the Laker defense at that mid range area.

483
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: And then with Lou Williams when they put him in

484
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 1: pick and roll, he was killing the Lakers centers and

485
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: they only really basically forced them to put a d

486
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: at the five. And so from that standpoint, like when

487
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 1: I look at a potential Warriors UH Lakers matchup, what

488
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:27,920
Speaker 1: would worry me for the Warriors is that the idea

489
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:34,520
Speaker 1: of doubling Steph off of pick and rolls, of double

490
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: like chasing him off the three point line, forcing him

491
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,400
Speaker 1: to drive to the basket and make plays is kind

492
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,119
Speaker 1: of the whole design of their defense. It's kind of

493
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 1: the entire it's their entire winning formula. And so from

494
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 1: that standpoint, like they don't necessarily have a guy that

495
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:54,240
Speaker 1: can kill the smaller Laker guards and mismatches, um, the

496
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: Lakers would always be able to go small, so that

497
00:26:57,119 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: the figs that Steph could attack would have to be

498
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: Braun and Anthony Davis, and then you know, but I

499
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:08,479
Speaker 1: think it would basically come down to the Warrior role players,

500
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,360
Speaker 1: relying on guys like Andrew Wiggins and all of these

501
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,560
Speaker 1: future role players to be named later making a ton

502
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:18,360
Speaker 1: of shots as the Lakers are scrambling and trapping out

503
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:20,359
Speaker 1: out of staff, out of pick and roll, and then

504
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 1: Steph would have to just make an unbelievable amount of

505
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:25,560
Speaker 1: shots in that midrange area, like kind of like Lou

506
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: Williams just head of steam coming down off of a

507
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: pick and roll um or beating someone off the dribble

508
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,960
Speaker 1: who's overplaying the shot in him just making a huge

509
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,679
Speaker 1: amount of floaters and scoop shots and all that kind

510
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 1: of stuff, And so that that I do think that

511
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: you know, you have to understand. Like I I am

512
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: a Steph fan. I think he's the second best player

513
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,399
Speaker 1: in the league right now. I'm a huge believer in

514
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: what he does offensively. I think he's a much better

515
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:55,520
Speaker 1: player than Kawhi Leonard. But I just think that this

516
00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:00,040
Speaker 1: particular matchup kind of plays into the Lakers hands in

517
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:04,200
Speaker 1: the sense that that their scheme there, the way that

518
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 1: they're constructed, is kind of a scheme that theoretically could

519
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 1: give the Warriors some issues. If that makes sense, Oh yeah,

520
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 1: for sure. And I think I think it's kind of

521
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: like it's similar on the on the opposite end as well,

522
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 1: where I mean Karr has seen Lebron in the playoffs

523
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 1: for four times. I pretty sure we've seen Anton Davis

524
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: twice now. Obviously Anthony Davis is a much better player

525
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: now um and Lebron and even in some ways it's

526
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 1: even better than he was now, which is ridiculous. But

527
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 1: but then they've always kind of like scheme to keep

528
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: them away from the basket as much as possible. Obviously,

529
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: the personnel then was a little bit different than it

530
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 1: is now, but hypothetically, if they get a similar personnel,

531
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 1: they can kind of force them into the same type

532
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 1: of looks they were given before. Not that they weren't

533
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 1: having success, but a lot of times we they forced Lebron.

534
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 1: It's a passing two guys that that are necessarily aren't

535
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: necessarily beat shooters. But like you said, you're going to

536
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:02,120
Speaker 1: force your role players to kind of hit shots, and

537
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: I think is I think it kind of comes down

538
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 1: to how well the superstars can kind of navigate those

539
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: schemes and how well the role guys can kind of

540
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 1: like step up and hit the time of shots to

541
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: they that they are going to need to hit. So

542
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,960
Speaker 1: I mean that just mattering Stephan leron are the best

543
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: in the world that at that kind of thing. That's

544
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: what would make that match up exactly. Um. And the

545
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:27,959
Speaker 1: last thing I'll say about it is like, as far

546
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: as I'm concerned, one of the biggest things that people

547
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:33,360
Speaker 1: forget about the Warriors because they were such an electric

548
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: offense and they and you know, Steph Curry revolutionized the

549
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: game in the way that we guard perimeter players and

550
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 1: the way that perimeter players developed their game. There's so

551
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: much focus on what the Warriors offense did. People forget

552
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: that they were the best defense in the league in

553
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, and I think the best defense

554
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 1: in the league again in two thousands sixteen or top

555
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 1: two both of those years for sure. And so from

556
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: that standpoint, like like like that, the same thing happened

557
00:29:57,280 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: with the Lakers this year. Like there was all of

558
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 1: this focus on Lebron and him leading the league and

559
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,560
Speaker 1: assists and Anthony Davis averaging you know, twenty nine points

560
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: a game and all of this stuff, and it totally

561
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: took the focus away from the fact that you know,

562
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 1: when I was projecting these playoffs series, all I could

563
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: think was, uh, this Laker defense is the best defense

564
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:19,720
Speaker 1: in the league. And when it comes to that, when

565
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 1: it comes down to a uh to Lebron controlling the

566
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:26,360
Speaker 1: pace and slowing everything down and keeping things in the

567
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: half court on the defensive end, and and getting out

568
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,600
Speaker 1: and transition selectively when it fits. You know, their numbers

569
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: and stuff there was it was just extremely difficult for

570
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 1: everybody to score. And that was what I noticed, and

571
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: that was the reason why they were winning. It had

572
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: very little to do with what they did on the

573
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. They could have been, you know,

574
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: that significantly lesser offensive team in my opinion, and still

575
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: won the title because of how much their defense carried

576
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 1: them for those stretches. And so from that standpoint, like

577
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,560
Speaker 1: to me projecting the Warriors as I get into next season,

578
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 1: as I'm watching offseason move as I'm watching the first

579
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 1: ten fifteen games of the season, the number one thing

580
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be watching when I'm thinking about what I

581
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: can see this team achieving this year, it's gonna it's

582
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 1: gonna all depend on the defensive end, because I know

583
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 1: that Stephen Clay and Raymond over the course of a

584
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 1: season will figure out the offense. I don't care who

585
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 1: what role players they bring in. I don't care how

586
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 1: much Andrew Wiggins struggles. I don't care who they end

587
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: up facing the playoffs. I know that they are going

588
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: to be able to generate quality offense. That is that

589
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 1: is the biggest given of the century. The number one

590
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 1: question mark for this team will be can they get

591
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 1: into a playoff series with the team like the Clippers,

592
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 1: who are likely to be much better next year and

593
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: a team like the Lakers who are as dialed in

594
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 1: defensively as you'll see from any team this decade. Can

595
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 1: they at least get close to that level defensively to

596
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: where their offensive prowess can carry them over the top.

597
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 1: And and that'll be the thing to watch over the

598
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 1: next Uh, what's gonna be what like two or three

599
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 1: weeks now? With the way that shaping up, Yeah, it's crazy,

600
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: but yeah that's I feel the same exact way. So

601
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 1: it's definitely gonna come down to to feel in those

602
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: pieces and thinking defense first. When you're feeling in those pieces,

603
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 1: I think a lot of a lot of guys are

604
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 1: kind of attractive towards fens because they can generate some audence.

605
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 1: So they can provide like some type of offense. And

606
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 1: it's like at the at the end of the day,

607
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: Steph and Clay are gonna, like you said, they're going

608
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 1: to generate offense like no other duo that that we've seen,

609
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,479
Speaker 1: and like even you can see in the finals. Granted,

610
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you're you will maintain the stance that

611
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 1: the Lakers took a few games off on defense, but

612
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: we saw like the stuff that Dr Robinson and Tyler

613
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 1: Harrod was able to generate is when you can shoot

614
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: that well, it's kind of you have to go out

615
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 1: of your way to to not at least generate some

616
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 1: type of offense at a high level. Um. So I'm

617
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: not even worried about the offense at all. It's more

618
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 1: so about bringing defense and bring in the vegativity with

619
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 1: the lineup that we can were able to throw out.

620
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,320
Speaker 1: I do think that the Warriors and the Lakers have

621
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:11,600
Speaker 1: the best chance to bring in high quality veteran players

622
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: that are discounted. Um. The main reason because like you know,

623
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 1: if if I'm looking, if I'm looking as a veteran player,

624
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: just like put yourself in these shoes, you're a player

625
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: that money is no longer really a concern like, Yeah,

626
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 1: you could go make seven or eight million somewhere else,

627
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: but you'd rather, you know, be in a better situation,

628
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: a dream situation, and make four or five million, for instance.

629
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:34,280
Speaker 1: If you're in that situation, I think you're looking at

630
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: two main concerns. One is winning, and then two is

631
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: gonna be you know what the quality of the basketball

632
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: and the locker room is going to be. Like right,

633
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 1: so because both of these teams are in California, is

634
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 1: a lot like coastal California, so like it's not like

635
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:55,240
Speaker 1: the location's gonna matter. You're gonna be looking at like,

636
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 1: am I going to enjoy being in this locker room?

637
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: Am I gonna be? Am I gonna around good guys?

638
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,840
Speaker 1: Am I going to be in it? Because as as

639
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: someone who played in college, you probably understand better than most.

640
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 1: It's just like I do that, Like, you know, the

641
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: quality of the locker room is a huge impact on

642
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 1: the on how much fun the season is. I I

643
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: played on two different junior college rosters and an an

644
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: ai A roster, and in each situation, like I I

645
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: got all into the spectrum. I got an average team

646
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: as far as chemistry goes I was on a team

647
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 1: that all loved each other, and then I was on

648
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,759
Speaker 1: a team of juco guys that all were out for

649
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,839
Speaker 1: themselves and and and the coach was terrible and everything

650
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 1: under the sun. So from that state point, like, if

651
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 1: you're a veteran, you're looking at those things. And so

652
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 1: if I'm looking for winning, uh, you know, the Lakers

653
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: are a great selection, and obviously the Warriors are too,

654
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,120
Speaker 1: But mainly that locker room piece, Like, why in the

655
00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:49,879
Speaker 1: world am I going to risk a Clipper locker room

656
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 1: that has the potential to be an absolute dumpster fire.

657
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:55,440
Speaker 1: Why in the world am I going to risk a

658
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: Philly locker room that's gonna be a dumpster fire? Why

659
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:01,879
Speaker 1: in the heck would I risk You know, Boston who

660
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,400
Speaker 1: is famously has a fan base that's a bunch of

661
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 1: you know, Mount breathers. You know, like, there's a lot

662
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 1: of different reasons why you're not going to pick the teams.

663
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: But I know for a fact that the Lakers had

664
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,759
Speaker 1: one of the best locker room chemistry situations in the

665
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 1: league this year. And I know for the fact that

666
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is one of the best leaders in the

667
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 1: history of the NBA, and that if I'm in that

668
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 1: locker room, I'm gonna be happy. And so from that

669
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 1: same point, I think that that gives them a huge

670
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:30,719
Speaker 1: advantage moving forward. And then lastly, before we move on

671
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 1: to some of this fun stuff, the I am excited

672
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:38,320
Speaker 1: to watch Steph Curry this year because you know, I

673
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 1: am a big believer in what he does. And if

674
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,479
Speaker 1: there's one huge side effect of the Kevin duran move

675
00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:51,400
Speaker 1: to Golden State, it's that it clouded a lot of

676
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:56,480
Speaker 1: the perception of his career in the sense that like

677
00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 1: if you're if you are a detractor, if you are

678
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 1: a person that you know wants to root against Steph

679
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, there's all the ammunition in the world

680
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:08,160
Speaker 1: based on Kevin Durant and based on the two thousand

681
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: sixteen loss, and based on the two thousand nineteen loss

682
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:15,560
Speaker 1: to paint him in a certain light. And it's unfair

683
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:19,440
Speaker 1: because if Kevin Durant wasn't there, we'd have another three

684
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 1: years of evidence of of what type of player he is.

685
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 1: You know, uh as that undisputed best player on the team.

686
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:30,279
Speaker 1: And I believe that had Kevin Durant not gone there,

687
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:32,759
Speaker 1: he probably still would have won one of the last

688
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,320
Speaker 1: three titles or or maybe more, who knows, but I

689
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 1: think and I think he would be perceived in a

690
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 1: different way. And so kind of like what Lebron had

691
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 1: this year for the Lakers as a as a season

692
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 1: where he quote unquote reminded everybody, you know, just how

693
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 1: good he is, I think this is Staff's opportunity for that.

694
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,439
Speaker 1: And I'm really really excited to see, you know, a big,

695
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 1: giant f U season from him to remind everybody just

696
00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: how good he is and what he's capable of. And uh.

697
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:04,000
Speaker 1: And then obviously we're gonna have one of the greatest

698
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:09,479
Speaker 1: late round playoff you know, matchup between the three really

699
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,360
Speaker 1: really really good Western Conference teams and in the teams

700
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:13,799
Speaker 1: in the East. It's gonna be as good as as

701
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:15,919
Speaker 1: as we've seen in NBA history. But I'm just really

702
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:18,680
Speaker 1: excited to watch stuff this year. And uh, and I'm

703
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: excited to see what he can bring to the table.

704
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure. Um, I don't know if Carr

705
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:28,600
Speaker 1: is gonna gonna fully let him off the leash, well

706
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:30,480
Speaker 1: like like Luke Walton did in the beginning of that

707
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 1: season when when Carr wasn't there and they just kind

708
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:35,320
Speaker 1: of went on that crazy run they give me like

709
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: another game or something like that. But yeah, I'm excited

710
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: to um. The twenty nineteen finals was kind of like

711
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 1: another opportunity for him to kind of just like shut

712
00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:48,399
Speaker 1: everybody up. Kind of came up short there, so I thought,

713
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it's in the back of his mind too,

714
00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:53,320
Speaker 1: So I'm sure we're gonna see some some crazy stuff

715
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: from them this year. And the two thousand nineteen Finals

716
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:57,880
Speaker 1: is a great example of what we're talking about in

717
00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:01,600
Speaker 1: this roster construction in the sense that, like, like that

718
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,840
Speaker 1: team after Kevin Durant went down, because they were constructed

719
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:07,800
Speaker 1: in a top heavy way, their lack of depth is

720
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 1: what killed them against the Raptors. And you know, I've

721
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: seen a lot of guys. Tommy has gotten a lot

722
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 1: of crap from Warriors fans for being too hard on

723
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 1: Step for that two thousand nineteen series in my opinion,

724
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 1: But the reality is is that like, um, you know

725
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 1: what ended up swinging that series when their stars went

726
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:29,279
Speaker 1: down was they were relying too much on players who

727
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:31,759
Speaker 1: didn't have any idea how to impact winning on that level,

728
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 1: uh in specific times and even even in tiny roles.

729
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 1: And I think that's what ended up swinging that. Um,

730
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:44,480
Speaker 1: all right, so you are the most experienced hooper that

731
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:48,240
Speaker 1: I've had, Uh come on this podcast. I know Tommy

732
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,759
Speaker 1: played a little bit in college too. But what what

733
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,120
Speaker 1: I'm really interested in here is the fact that you

734
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 1: kind of grew up in a different area of the country,

735
00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 1: because you know, and I know from when I lived

736
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:04,280
Speaker 1: in Charlotte that like, the hoop culture is just completely

737
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 1: different as you get onto different areas of the country,

738
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 1: and the Southwest is very unique, and that it's a

739
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:13,000
Speaker 1: lot of duotes from l A and Phoenix, and and

740
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,360
Speaker 1: then you get in the East Coast and it's completely different.

741
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:17,000
Speaker 1: And I've I've never been up into the New York

742
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 1: or into up into the further northeast area. And you

743
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:24,320
Speaker 1: said you're in Pennsylvania, right, Yeah, yeah, where do you

744
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:26,080
Speaker 1: live right now? You live in New York. I'm in

745
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:30,000
Speaker 1: d C. D C. Okay, run on. Uh, here's great

746
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: hoop there too. But what I wanted you to start

747
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 1: with is, just uh tell me a little bit about Like, Um,

748
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:40,319
Speaker 1: everybody's got their list. Everybody's played in college has their

749
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,680
Speaker 1: list of NBA players that they've played with at various

750
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 1: levels and various settings. So why don't you tell me

751
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 1: about the NBA players that you've played against in various

752
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: hoop settings over the last few years. Okay, um, I'll start.

753
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:57,040
Speaker 1: I guess I started in high school. Um. It was

754
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 1: actually my very last game in high school. We have

755
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: just had like a pretty successful season, came from the playoffs,

756
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,160
Speaker 1: but we were good enough to to be asked to

757
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 1: come into like a citywide lie tournament. Um. And we

758
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: got to play Sidwell Friends in the first in the

759
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 1: first round of that tournament, who at the time had

760
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 1: Josh Hart there, um in his season, Yeah, getting ready

761
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 1: to go to Villanova. Um, so I messed up with him.

762
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:20,440
Speaker 1: It was it was a pretty cool experience, Like I have,

763
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: I played pretty well when I said like the twenty

764
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:25,399
Speaker 1: years something points, right, But he at a certain point

765
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:27,320
Speaker 1: just kind of flipped that like I'm going to the

766
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:30,840
Speaker 1: league switch kind of like he just kind of like

767
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:33,040
Speaker 1: ended the game on his own. Like I think we

768
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 1: were we were close, and at what point you just

769
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 1: like stole a passing lane pass and just kind of

770
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 1: just like went up when Mill dunked or something like that.

771
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,320
Speaker 1: And at that point we were just like okay, like

772
00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:46,400
Speaker 1: he's kind of like above us. But UM, that was

773
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 1: a cool experience. And then UM in college my senior year,

774
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 1: we actually got a chance to play against Kentucky. UM.

775
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: Really Yeah. So the story is John Parry went to

776
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,400
Speaker 1: Clarion and played there four years, so UM, he always

777
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,439
Speaker 1: has that connection with us. UM. And when John Wall

778
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: was there, they set up that exhibition game as well,

779
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:11,040
Speaker 1: and they blasted Clarion, so we got a chance to

780
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 1: play them again and he flew us so he got

781
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:16,839
Speaker 1: us down to Kentucky, which is probably like uh four

782
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 1: or five hour drive from from where we were pretty

783
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 1: close to Ohio, so we just went straight through to Kentucky. UM.

784
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:25,960
Speaker 1: And we we end up playing the baron FOXX to

785
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 1: Malik Monk Bam out the bio team UM, and they

786
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:33,880
Speaker 1: absolutely destroyed Asleep. And I want to say they had

787
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 1: five five in big players. I know those three for

788
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 1: sure win UM, Isaiah Briscoe had like a short stint

789
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 1: in the G League and U UM Winning Gabriel, who's

790
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 1: obviously just playing for the Trail Bays in the playoffs,

791
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 1: was also on that team. And they had a bunch

792
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 1: of other veterans and and it was it was kind

793
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:52,840
Speaker 1: of closed for like the first two minutes. Um, it

794
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:54,840
Speaker 1: was like thirteen to ten or something like that, and

795
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:57,880
Speaker 1: then we we just got blasted by them. And the

796
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 1: funny thing about that game is, I don't know if

797
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:03,160
Speaker 1: it's exactly like true the story is true, but the

798
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:07,640
Speaker 1: story is that we were um pretty much presented with

799
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 1: an option to only go man, no zone at all.

800
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: We were we were preparing to go zone because obviously

801
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:17,319
Speaker 1: we couldn't match up with them athletically, so we had

802
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:21,880
Speaker 1: to give ourselves a chance, um somehow defensively. So we

803
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 1: were preparing the whole week for the team to go zone.

804
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 1: Um and apparently John called parties like there's no zone here,

805
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:30,320
Speaker 1: like this is our first game interrupt for the season,

806
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,080
Speaker 1: the fans are expecting the show. We need you guys

807
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:36,160
Speaker 1: to go man or like pretty the deals off like

808
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:42,400
Speaker 1: that type of thing. Yeah, So our man principles are

809
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: like full core press because in our in our conference,

810
00:42:45,239 --> 00:42:47,120
Speaker 1: where like we were probably one of more faster teams,

811
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 1: we had full corp press the whole game. And we

812
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:52,000
Speaker 1: brought that to Kentucky and Darren Fox was just like

813
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 1: eating uself, like blowing past us, like couldn't we couldn't

814
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:00,479
Speaker 1: trapping because we couldn't catch him to trapping, so Lobb

815
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 1: City mob after mob, like and it was from there.

816
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: That's so, that's so unfair that he did that to

817
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:09,600
Speaker 1: you guys in such short notice, I know, right, Like

818
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 1: you guys didn't know at the time. So you were

819
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: in the opening huddle of the game and the coach

820
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:17,120
Speaker 1: was like, hey, listen, we're gone, man, and you're like, okay, Yeah,

821
00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 1: it was like the night before or before something like that. Yeah, gosh,

822
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 1: we had we had a similar experience with when I

823
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 1: was at Arizona Christian University, which was the n A

824
00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 1: I school I played at. We this is actually a

825
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 1: great example of my overarching ideology on age because our

826
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:38,320
Speaker 1: backcourt was a thirty year old Navy veteran because you

827
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,839
Speaker 1: can do your eligibility pauses when you serve, and then

828
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:45,480
Speaker 1: a thirty one year old dude um who was like

829
00:43:45,560 --> 00:43:47,319
Speaker 1: an All American that year, like one of the best

830
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:51,000
Speaker 1: players in the country and uh. And then I, like,

831
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 1: I was one of the younger guys on the team,

832
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 1: and I was twenty two, and I had already played

833
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:56,320
Speaker 1: in junior college few years and all that stuff. So

834
00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:59,439
Speaker 1: we played the same thing like a tune up game.

835
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,239
Speaker 1: Was supposed to be a tune up game at a

836
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:06,239
Speaker 1: Big Sky Conference team, the Northern Arizona University and Flagstaff

837
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,080
Speaker 1: And so they're like a mid major Division one team

838
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:11,439
Speaker 1: and we were just an n A I A team

839
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,279
Speaker 1: and you know, they're they're all ready for their you know,

840
00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:18,520
Speaker 1: their version of that Kentucky Opening Night ask beating, and

841
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:21,480
Speaker 1: the crowd is already and we went out we just

842
00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 1: we just beat them. We just beat them because we

843
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,200
Speaker 1: were we were older, we were smarter and uh and

844
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 1: uh from that standpoint, like we uh and we were

845
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:32,280
Speaker 1: one of the best n ai A teams in the country.

846
00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 1: We were in and out of the top five all

847
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:37,120
Speaker 1: season and like, uh, yeah, we just we just beat him.

848
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:38,919
Speaker 1: And it was crazy and I'll never forget. Like after

849
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:43,320
Speaker 1: the game, the I've read an article from the local

850
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:47,640
Speaker 1: paper and the head coach did an interview from n

851
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:50,280
Speaker 1: a U and he's like, yeah, that wasn't an upset.

852
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:52,040
Speaker 1: They were just a better team than us, like and

853
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:53,960
Speaker 1: he was just like that, and I think he was

854
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 1: doing it to try to like rile up his guys

855
00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 1: and try to get, you know, a little bit of

856
00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,000
Speaker 1: motivation out of him. But yeah, it was crazy. The

857
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 1: same thing like we were just but like I trust me,

858
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:04,360
Speaker 1: had we gone to Kentucky, we would have gotten absolutely murdered.

859
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:07,359
Speaker 1: We weren't that, but so we were really good an

860
00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: ai A team. And and I think that's one of

861
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 1: one of the greatest examples I used for people who uh,

862
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: you know, played because I've seen I've seen enough of

863
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 1: your your athleticism and watching you play that I know

864
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:22,759
Speaker 1: that you could have played Division One at least if

865
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 1: I dropped you in a in a random Division one

866
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:28,200
Speaker 1: practice right now, you'd be able to play. You know,

867
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:30,440
Speaker 1: I know you can and I know I could too.

868
00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 1: But like everybody has their story, and you know, for me,

869
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 1: I did to start playing, so I was twenty and

870
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:37,279
Speaker 1: you know there's a two there's a five year clock.

871
00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:39,359
Speaker 1: So after my two years in junior college were up,

872
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:42,720
Speaker 1: no Division one would would touch me for one season.

873
00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:45,360
Speaker 1: You know, I had Division one coaches that because I

874
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 1: was All conference my last year in junior college, and

875
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:53,279
Speaker 1: I have coaches call the the the my program and

876
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 1: be like, what's the deal with this guy? And they'd

877
00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:59,160
Speaker 1: have to be like these one year of eligibility and

878
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:03,120
Speaker 1: they would all like just immediately drop contact. And I

879
00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:05,759
Speaker 1: actually actually got to the point where I told the

880
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:07,680
Speaker 1: coach to stop telling me about it because it was

881
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 1: like depressing for me to like because like everything I

882
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,760
Speaker 1: was playing in Utah's like every school in Utah offered

883
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:15,320
Speaker 1: me are called the school, and every single time I

884
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:16,600
Speaker 1: was just like, look, just I don't want to hear

885
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 1: it anymore. This is depressing exactly. The point is is like,

886
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,879
Speaker 1: you know, we played small school basketball, and the truth

887
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: of the matter is is like you know, uh, small

888
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 1: school basketball is really really really competitive, and the players

889
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:33,440
Speaker 1: are really really good. And the truth is I can

890
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:36,120
Speaker 1: take a lot of D ones and drop them into

891
00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:38,440
Speaker 1: Kentucky for opening night against here and Fox and they

892
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:41,239
Speaker 1: would get rolled. And and that's that's just the way

893
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 1: that basketball works. Yeah, a lot of people just kind

894
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,440
Speaker 1: of have this misconception that like if you're not the one,

895
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:49,520
Speaker 1: then you're not good or something like that. There's a

896
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 1: lot of D one players that aren't good and how

897
00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:54,840
Speaker 1: to D two in a N A A and like

898
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:56,920
Speaker 1: even D three players that can they can play with

899
00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 1: those D ones for whatever reason, they just aren't there.

900
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,720
Speaker 1: Um they got I think really starts to show itself.

901
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 1: Um when you get like high high major like those guys.

902
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:08,880
Speaker 1: And even then, like you said, at age can be

903
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 1: the difference that that can that can make those guys lose,

904
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:14,400
Speaker 1: like when it comes to Timantum or whatever case may be,

905
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:16,719
Speaker 1: And it's not. It's not until like later on in

906
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:18,719
Speaker 1: life where they've become like NBA players and superstar and

907
00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:20,640
Speaker 1: stuff like that, would they really kind of just like

908
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:24,120
Speaker 1: take away from from like the other guys. But the

909
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: gap between these divisions and these different conferences in schools

910
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:30,920
Speaker 1: is not as big as people make it seem. Yeah. Agree,

911
00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:34,520
Speaker 1: and uh actually so this old segue into my next story.

912
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 1: So I've played, I wrote down the list of NBA

913
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 1: players that I played against. Obviously, in Tucson, the vast

914
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:42,320
Speaker 1: majority of NBA players that come through here go to

915
00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:45,480
Speaker 1: the uv um to the on the top of my mind,

916
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:48,279
Speaker 1: I can't remember a Tucson local and made it to

917
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:53,600
Speaker 1: the NBA. The best player locally um that people might

918
00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:56,239
Speaker 1: recognize that went to high school here and came through

919
00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:59,560
Speaker 1: here would be guys like either Bryce Cotton who played

920
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:01,919
Speaker 1: in the n Yeah, that's try. Bryce Cotton played the NBA. Okay,

921
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:03,759
Speaker 1: so you remember Bryce Cotton. He was a little guard.

922
00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:05,399
Speaker 1: He played for the Spurs. He played for the Jazz

923
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:06,759
Speaker 1: and now he's the m v P of the A

924
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:11,200
Speaker 1: D of the league in the NBL in Australia. Like that,

925
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:14,440
Speaker 1: I've definitely heard. So he just won the MVP of

926
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:16,160
Speaker 1: the NBL in Australia. I think he's one of two

927
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,239
Speaker 1: years in a row. But he went to he went

928
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:20,320
Speaker 1: to local high school here in Tucson. He played for

929
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:22,719
Speaker 1: a handful of NBA teams briefly, and now he's like

930
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: the best player in that league over there. So he

931
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:26,960
Speaker 1: just makes more money. So that's why he doesn't come back.

932
00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 1: And then like uh, Terrelso going to play at the

933
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:33,960
Speaker 1: University of Maryland, Lefty score was like over two points

934
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 1: a game in the a SEC. Then he's played in

935
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 1: a bunch of different leagues overseas. Uh, he's actually the

936
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:40,920
Speaker 1: guy who hosts the private run here in Tucson that

937
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:43,920
Speaker 1: I play and all the time now. But so those

938
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:46,400
Speaker 1: are the only like local guys, but through from the

939
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,560
Speaker 1: U of A. Uh, most of you guys know Alonso Treer.

940
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:53,480
Speaker 1: I played with him a bunch. Ronde Hollis, Jefferson, T

941
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 1: J McConnell, Nick Johnson, Kittymowen, Justice Winslow, actually Justice Winslow.

942
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:00,800
Speaker 1: I'll tell you guys that was a different story. Aaron Gordon,

943
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:04,320
Speaker 1: Derrick Williams, Solomon Hill, and Raley Alkins. There are a

944
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 1: couple of guys like, uh, um, what's the big White

945
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:09,800
Speaker 1: due to place for the bulls LORI marking in, he

946
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:12,960
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, never was around when I was playing,

947
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:14,520
Speaker 1: Like he was here while I was here, but I

948
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:16,799
Speaker 1: just never ran into him for whatever reason. But those

949
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,320
Speaker 1: are the guys that I remember seeing. And then the

950
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 1: last one is Stanley Johnson, which leads me to this story.

951
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:24,840
Speaker 1: So and it's a great example of just the like

952
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,279
Speaker 1: I was talking about, like the winning and the way

953
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,239
Speaker 1: that changes as you get older. So Stanley Johnson was

954
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,600
Speaker 1: you know, six ft five you know something pounds just

955
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 1: britt super super good athlete. Um, but in high school

956
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 1: he was bigger and stronger than everybody. And so, uh,

957
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:46,120
Speaker 1: I had been out of college for about a year

958
00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:49,319
Speaker 1: and I was still in pretty good shape, like as

959
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,759
Speaker 1: close to top shape as I as I had been.

960
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:55,160
Speaker 1: And I was about twenty five years old, and uh,

961
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 1: you know, just like kind of peaking somewhat so to speak,

962
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,040
Speaker 1: as a basketball player. And most importantly, I waited as

963
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,839
Speaker 1: much as Stanley Johnson did, so he came to UH.

964
00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:07,319
Speaker 1: So him and t J McConnell and could Em Allen

965
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 1: ended up coming to UH to the rec center at

966
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:11,560
Speaker 1: the uv A to play with just a bunch of

967
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:14,440
Speaker 1: you know, regular kids, and I happened to be there

968
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:16,640
Speaker 1: on the court when they came. And of course, like

969
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,279
Speaker 1: this is the important disclaimer where you have to understand that,

970
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:22,920
Speaker 1: like Stanley Johnson was probably you know, in mess around

971
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:26,239
Speaker 1: about when he came into the to the gym. But uh,

972
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,680
Speaker 1: I'm not wired that way. I'm the kind of guy that, like,

973
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 1: even in a random pickup game to this day and

974
00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:35,319
Speaker 1: I'm twenty nine, I just take it super seriously. I've

975
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:37,560
Speaker 1: just always been wired in that way that I just

976
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:39,880
Speaker 1: hate losing so much that I'm just wired in a

977
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:41,920
Speaker 1: way when I'm playing that I take it super seriously.

978
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:47,359
Speaker 1: So I started going at Stanley Johnson early in the game,

979
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:50,160
Speaker 1: and uh it became clear that he needed to take

980
00:50:50,239 --> 00:50:53,920
Speaker 1: it more seriously. And I started playing like five feet

981
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:56,960
Speaker 1: off of him because he couldn't shoot. And then when

982
00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 1: he would try to drive into me and bullying me,

983
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:01,040
Speaker 1: he couldn't bullying me because I was as strong as it.

984
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:04,560
Speaker 1: Because at that age as an eighteen year old kid,

985
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:08,520
Speaker 1: he was against other eighteen year old kids. He was

986
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:10,680
Speaker 1: a grown man, but against grown men, he was just

987
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 1: another guy, you know. And uh, and then I also

988
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:16,759
Speaker 1: ended up like just kind of focusing on all those

989
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:19,239
Speaker 1: little things to win, like breaking open when he would

990
00:51:19,239 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 1: turn away from me, or cutting back door and all

991
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:23,080
Speaker 1: these like little things that would help win games. And

992
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:28,560
Speaker 1: we ended up winning. And I remember, uh, like literally

993
00:51:28,640 --> 00:51:30,600
Speaker 1: the rest of that year when I would run into Stanley,

994
00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:33,120
Speaker 1: he'd always like take it super super seriously when you

995
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:35,520
Speaker 1: play against me. And I tell that story just because

996
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:38,320
Speaker 1: like Stanley Johnson is a is five hundred times the

997
00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: basketball player that I am, especially now, and even in

998
00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:45,040
Speaker 1: that particular season, and that at that point in his life,

999
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:48,239
Speaker 1: he was probably a lot better than me. But the

1000
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:50,560
Speaker 1: point is is that, like you know, when you're a

1001
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 1: grown man and you've been playing for a long time

1002
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:55,480
Speaker 1: and you understand how to win, and you're grown into

1003
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:58,479
Speaker 1: your body, like it's just if you put an eighteen

1004
00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:01,000
Speaker 1: year old kid in that environment, he's at a disadvantage.

1005
00:52:01,719 --> 00:52:05,360
Speaker 1: And that standpoint, like that's a that's another great example

1006
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:08,759
Speaker 1: of how like like you, they're like Doug Christie used

1007
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:10,799
Speaker 1: to take it to Lebron or Lebron's two thousand three.

1008
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:14,640
Speaker 1: You know in two it's just really really difficult for

1009
00:52:15,640 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 1: for teenagers to compete against grown men at that level.

1010
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:22,799
Speaker 1: But yeah, so that's my favorite. That's my favorite story

1011
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 1: of an NBA player that I've like gone head to

1012
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:27,799
Speaker 1: head with and had a bunch of success. Um, I've

1013
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:29,759
Speaker 1: played against a bunch of guys where that hasn't been

1014
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:31,759
Speaker 1: the case. But do you do you have any other

1015
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:34,919
Speaker 1: stories along those lines that you can share. I don't

1016
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:38,520
Speaker 1: know about any necessary stories like that, but I guess

1017
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:42,800
Speaker 1: I'll go through my list. Um, and middle school actually

1018
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:47,279
Speaker 1: matched up with Jeremy Grant. Oh really okay, Yeah, it

1019
00:52:47,400 --> 00:52:50,959
Speaker 1: was like middle school championships today. He played for Holy

1020
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:52,719
Speaker 1: Trinity I believe that's the name of the school. They

1021
00:52:52,760 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 1: were in Maryland and my school to DC, and we

1022
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:57,200
Speaker 1: just kind of like played for the area. We ended

1023
00:52:57,280 --> 00:53:00,200
Speaker 1: up winning, which is, uh, it's pretty cool. So we

1024
00:53:00,200 --> 00:53:03,279
Speaker 1: played Jeff played Jeremy, but obviously played against Josh Harden

1025
00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:07,239
Speaker 1: high school. Um, I played against Marcus Derrickson, who with

1026
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:09,400
Speaker 1: the Georgetown he was he was like in out of

1027
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,720
Speaker 1: the G League I think recently. Obviously the Kentucky guys

1028
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:15,359
Speaker 1: play against Tim Fraser. I gotta, I gotta, I guess

1029
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:18,960
Speaker 1: I got a story for Malcolm Brogden. I played against

1030
00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:22,839
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden in like a local proram league, the recently league.

1031
00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:27,160
Speaker 1: They hold it at Georgetown UM, and he was just

1032
00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 1: like completely in control of the game the entire time,

1033
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,080
Speaker 1: Like it was really nothing. He just I don't think

1034
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:34,759
Speaker 1: he scored. Yeah, he's just like so strong and like

1035
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: he was just nobody can move him off the spot

1036
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:38,600
Speaker 1: where he wanted to go. He got there. Is just

1037
00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:42,719
Speaker 1: he just controlled the game and it was over pretty quickly. Um. Yeah,

1038
00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:43,880
Speaker 1: that's off the top of my head. That's all I

1039
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 1: got right now. Yeah. So, uh, the last story that

1040
00:53:48,239 --> 00:53:50,480
Speaker 1: I'll share because a lot of these guys so like, uh,

1041
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:54,880
Speaker 1: Stanley was in the open gym just at the rec center.

1042
00:53:55,120 --> 00:53:58,000
Speaker 1: I'm messing around Alonso tree Er. I only ran into

1043
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:01,400
Speaker 1: him messing around at the rec center. Uh. He just

1044
00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:03,839
Speaker 1: I was blown away that he ended up being such

1045
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 1: a good NBA player because he I he would he

1046
00:54:06,719 --> 00:54:09,600
Speaker 1: I thought that he like I thought at the University

1047
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:12,320
Speaker 1: of Arizona that he was a little sporadic from a

1048
00:54:12,400 --> 00:54:15,480
Speaker 1: basketball act standpoint, and then whenever I'd see him in person,

1049
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:17,120
Speaker 1: I always thought he was too small, like he just

1050
00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:21,000
Speaker 1: wasn't that impressive of an athlete. And I he proved

1051
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:22,719
Speaker 1: me way wrong because he went to the league and

1052
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:26,399
Speaker 1: ended up being like a legitimate backup scorer off the bench. Uh,

1053
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:31,040
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson was only at the rec center. Uh. Let's

1054
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:34,280
Speaker 1: see Derrick Williams. I ran into when I was eighteen

1055
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:37,359
Speaker 1: years old at a random like a random city league game,

1056
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:39,480
Speaker 1: Like I don't know how the hell at it because

1057
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:40,840
Speaker 1: he was at school at the time. I don't know

1058
00:54:40,880 --> 00:54:44,399
Speaker 1: why he was there, but he absolutely destroyed all of us. Um.

1059
00:54:44,719 --> 00:54:47,120
Speaker 1: Solomon Hill was at a random open gym that I

1060
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:49,200
Speaker 1: went to that was at McHale Center, which is where

1061
00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:53,960
Speaker 1: they actually play their games. But um, I got invited

1062
00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:55,759
Speaker 1: to so my buddy. So I went to a local

1063
00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:57,319
Speaker 1: high school here in Tucson, and there was a guy

1064
00:54:57,440 --> 00:55:00,920
Speaker 1: named uh Matt Cortcheck who was a big man who

1065
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 1: played at our school. Sixten just your stereotypical like uh,

1066
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: I think, like, uh, what's his name? He played for

1067
00:55:07,239 --> 00:55:11,399
Speaker 1: the Thunder with Kevin Durant forever. Um the big white

1068
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:15,160
Speaker 1: dude Nicholson just like that type of dude, just big

1069
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:18,440
Speaker 1: six ten, hard playing, hard type of guy. So he

1070
00:55:18,840 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 1: he played junior college here in Arizona, and then he

1071
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:25,319
Speaker 1: ended up getting UH signed by Arizona and he never

1072
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:28,320
Speaker 1: got to play really because he was trapped behind Aaron

1073
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:32,960
Speaker 1: Gordon and UH and Brandon Ashley and all of those

1074
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:35,799
Speaker 1: guys that came through the UV so he just all

1075
00:55:35,960 --> 00:55:38,200
Speaker 1: NBA players, So he just didn't get that, didn't get

1076
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:41,480
Speaker 1: to play much. But unfortunately, through his connection, because him

1077
00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 1: and I were really good friends, he was in my

1078
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:45,839
Speaker 1: wedding like he would invite me to all of their

1079
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:50,240
Speaker 1: private open gym runs, and so they have. Richard Jefferson

1080
00:55:50,320 --> 00:55:51,880
Speaker 1: donated a ton of money back to the u B

1081
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:53,879
Speaker 1: years ago and they built this place called the Richard

1082
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:58,080
Speaker 1: Jefferson Center. It's just this unbelievable practice facility. So one

1083
00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:00,080
Speaker 1: day over the summer, I happened to be back in

1084
00:56:00,200 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: town between my two seasons, and Uh, literally he invites

1085
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:08,520
Speaker 1: me to this open run and I walked in. I'm

1086
00:56:08,520 --> 00:56:10,800
Speaker 1: just expecting it to be like a handful of guys

1087
00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:13,080
Speaker 1: that were on the team and then you know, maybe

1088
00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:18,400
Speaker 1: guys from around town, and Uh, for whatever reason, happened

1089
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:20,279
Speaker 1: to be at the same time that Justice Winslow was

1090
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:23,359
Speaker 1: on his visit. So at this point, So at this point,

1091
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:27,680
Speaker 1: Justice Winslow and Stanley Johnson were both the two recruits

1092
00:56:27,719 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 1: that Arizona was fighting over, and uh uh, Justice Winslow

1093
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:36,560
Speaker 1: had an offer from Duke, and Arizona wanted Justice Winslow

1094
00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 1: over Stanley, but they ended up taking Stanley when Duke.

1095
00:56:39,560 --> 00:56:43,680
Speaker 1: When Duke signed Justice Winslow, but Justice Winslow was on

1096
00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:47,000
Speaker 1: his visit, so Sean Miller wanted all the guys there

1097
00:56:47,239 --> 00:56:50,840
Speaker 1: for this open run. M So next thing you know,

1098
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:53,719
Speaker 1: I end up in this game where literally like it's

1099
00:56:54,160 --> 00:56:58,520
Speaker 1: uh t. J McConnell was there, Aaron Gordon was there,

1100
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:02,600
Speaker 1: Um Kid em Allen was there, Nick Johnson was there,

1101
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:05,359
Speaker 1: and Justice Winslow was there, and then there were I'm

1102
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:07,120
Speaker 1: blanking on some of the other names, but there was

1103
00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:08,960
Speaker 1: some dude who was recently the player of the year

1104
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: in the Big Ten Conference, and like a bunch of

1105
00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:12,800
Speaker 1: these like huge names just happened to be in the

1106
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:16,200
Speaker 1: area and it proceeded to be like the most ridiculous

1107
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:18,400
Speaker 1: string of pickup games that I've ever played in my

1108
00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:22,440
Speaker 1: entire life. Like it was like I was rarely involved,

1109
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 1: like I did end up catching a lob from t

1110
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:25,959
Speaker 1: J McConnell, and I just did my job like spot

1111
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:28,080
Speaker 1: up shooting and defending and stuff like I wasn't about

1112
00:57:28,120 --> 00:57:30,280
Speaker 1: to go solo dolo and when I'm on the court,

1113
00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:33,680
Speaker 1: as you know, but like like just one play, like

1114
00:57:33,720 --> 00:57:37,680
Speaker 1: I'm trailing Nick Johnson on defense and Nick Johnson's running

1115
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:39,840
Speaker 1: the length of the floor and I like kind of

1116
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:42,040
Speaker 1: run with him and jump with him to keep him

1117
00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:44,160
Speaker 1: off of the to keep him from taking a layup,

1118
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,200
Speaker 1: and he just throws a drop off pass and I

1119
00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:49,840
Speaker 1: like quick turnaround and Aaron Gordon's just literally flying down

1120
00:57:49,920 --> 00:57:52,200
Speaker 1: the way and just put both the third one handed

1121
00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:54,680
Speaker 1: dunk like like thank god, I got out of the

1122
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:58,120
Speaker 1: way kind of thing, and just uh like literally And

1123
00:57:58,240 --> 00:58:00,400
Speaker 1: a lot of those guys hadn't played in the NBA. Yeah,

1124
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:02,200
Speaker 1: Like Nick Johnson hadn't made it to the league yet.

1125
00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 1: T J McConnell hadn't made it to the league yet.

1126
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:06,600
Speaker 1: I had no idea how good Justice Winslow would be

1127
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:09,640
Speaker 1: or any of those guys. But like it's funny looking

1128
00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:13,480
Speaker 1: back at that now, because like at the time, I

1129
00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:15,520
Speaker 1: had no idea that I was playing with like six

1130
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:17,320
Speaker 1: dudes who would be in the NBA in a couple

1131
00:58:17,360 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 1: of years, you know. But it's fun It's funny that

1132
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 1: you randomly just will find yourselves in situations like that

1133
00:58:23,800 --> 00:58:26,080
Speaker 1: without even really being ready for Like now, like who

1134
00:58:26,160 --> 00:58:28,160
Speaker 1: the hell would think that you'd go to that game

1135
00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:31,120
Speaker 1: one day and then Malcolm Brocken the whole time, you know,

1136
00:58:31,600 --> 00:58:33,520
Speaker 1: but you just randomly suiting up and I'm not gonna

1137
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:41,520
Speaker 1: carry today. Like the hardest thing you'll find is like

1138
00:58:42,120 --> 00:58:46,680
Speaker 1: that I've noticed is like, um, you'll get super highths

1139
00:58:47,200 --> 00:58:51,600
Speaker 1: and you'll be on adrenaline and you'll be playing your

1140
00:58:51,680 --> 00:58:54,720
Speaker 1: ass off, and and there's always that phase at the

1141
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:57,120
Speaker 1: beginning where the other dude doesn't really know your style,

1142
00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:00,600
Speaker 1: he doesn't know how you play. He's definitely not your effort.

1143
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:02,680
Speaker 1: That you can kind of gain a little bit of

1144
00:59:02,760 --> 00:59:05,520
Speaker 1: an edge, and then all of a sudden, like they

1145
00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:08,080
Speaker 1: realize that you think that you're getting a little bit

1146
00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:10,840
Speaker 1: of an edge, and it clicks their compreditive instinct and

1147
00:59:10,920 --> 00:59:13,520
Speaker 1: then they start dialing it up and they then you

1148
00:59:13,560 --> 00:59:16,760
Speaker 1: can't do anything with them, you know, And like that,

1149
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:18,960
Speaker 1: like even with Stanley Johnson at the end of the year,

1150
00:59:18,960 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 1: because I ran into him at the beginning of the year,

1151
00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:22,640
Speaker 1: at the end of the year, after his full season,

1152
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:26,040
Speaker 1: when he really went through Arizona strength and conditioning program,

1153
00:59:26,080 --> 00:59:28,720
Speaker 1: and he was even bigger and even stronger, Like there's

1154
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:30,919
Speaker 1: nothing I could do with him physically at that point.

1155
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:34,840
Speaker 1: Like it's just it's just unbelievable that the level of

1156
00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:37,480
Speaker 1: athletes that those guys are and just in the skill

1157
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:39,600
Speaker 1: to go with it, you know, it's ridiculous, which is

1158
00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:41,520
Speaker 1: crazy because I actually thought Stanley would be a better

1159
00:59:41,640 --> 00:59:46,479
Speaker 1: NBA player. I really don't know why I happened. Before

1160
00:59:46,480 --> 00:59:51,480
Speaker 1: I let you go, I want to ask you a question, Okay, So, um,

1161
00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:53,920
Speaker 1: I've asked everybody that I've had on since the end

1162
00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:58,120
Speaker 1: of the season, where where do you have Lebron all

1163
00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 1: time after this season? And why? Okay, I have been

1164
01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:09,800
Speaker 1: second currently, I'm fairly certain that are that are ranking

1165
01:00:09,840 --> 01:00:12,080
Speaker 1: of him is is very similar. Um. I don't think

1166
01:00:12,160 --> 01:00:15,560
Speaker 1: anyone else is like other than Jordan's being like slightly

1167
01:00:15,600 --> 01:00:18,120
Speaker 1: above him. I don't think anyone else has claimed for

1168
01:00:18,200 --> 01:00:20,360
Speaker 1: second at this point anymore. It's just like those two

1169
01:00:20,440 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: and in the field. UM, I'd say, um, just the

1170
01:00:24,640 --> 01:00:27,280
Speaker 1: dominance that he's shown, like since from the beginning of

1171
01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:30,160
Speaker 1: his career, so now, especially once he started like living

1172
01:00:30,200 --> 01:00:32,640
Speaker 1: in the finals for like a decade straight, it's just

1173
01:00:32,800 --> 01:00:34,680
Speaker 1: kind of like unparalleled, you know what I mean, Like

1174
01:00:34,760 --> 01:00:37,160
Speaker 1: it's only the only person that can that can make

1175
01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:42,080
Speaker 1: a claim to to Lebron's career is MG at this point. Maybe, UM,

1176
01:00:42,200 --> 01:00:43,960
Speaker 1: I guess like Kareem, you could feel Kareem in there

1177
01:00:44,080 --> 01:00:47,080
Speaker 1: just because he's he's wracked up some money acculades. Um.

1178
01:00:48,080 --> 01:00:50,600
Speaker 1: But like if you look at it from my career standpoint,

1179
01:00:50,640 --> 01:00:53,880
Speaker 1: obviously he's probably gonna finish at worst the second, all

1180
01:00:53,880 --> 01:00:55,560
Speaker 1: the time leading the score. Um, I think he's gonna

1181
01:00:55,600 --> 01:00:58,200
Speaker 1: get first. Um, he's gonna be up there and all

1182
01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:01,240
Speaker 1: the time rebounds. Sis. It was like pretty much everything

1183
01:01:01,640 --> 01:01:05,560
Speaker 1: playoffs and regular season, which is which is also crazy. Um,

1184
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:08,480
Speaker 1: he has the championships, he has the m v p s,

1185
01:01:08,520 --> 01:01:11,960
Speaker 1: he has all NBA's All Defense, All Stars, all that stuff.

1186
01:01:12,280 --> 01:01:14,280
Speaker 1: So you look at his resume and how many awards

1187
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:16,000
Speaker 1: he has and all that stuff he has to be there,

1188
01:01:16,040 --> 01:01:17,600
Speaker 1: and then you just look at him as a player

1189
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:20,280
Speaker 1: and then it's just like how many players can you

1190
01:01:20,400 --> 01:01:23,120
Speaker 1: legit say is a better basketball player than Lebron. It's

1191
01:01:23,160 --> 01:01:27,080
Speaker 1: like not really anyone other than maybe Michael, you know

1192
01:01:27,120 --> 01:01:29,920
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I was like, he's definitely second

1193
01:01:29,920 --> 01:01:32,040
Speaker 1: at least for me. Yeah, I'm with you. I don't

1194
01:01:32,080 --> 01:01:35,160
Speaker 1: think I don't think there's a coherent case for anybody

1195
01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:37,560
Speaker 1: to be above him other than m J. I do

1196
01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:41,960
Speaker 1: still give an edge to MJ. I think, like with everybody,

1197
01:01:42,040 --> 01:01:44,200
Speaker 1: like with Kareem, you can point to the fact that

1198
01:01:44,600 --> 01:01:46,040
Speaker 1: you know, when he was winning at the end of

1199
01:01:46,120 --> 01:01:48,800
Speaker 1: his career, he was in like not just a supporting role,

1200
01:01:48,840 --> 01:01:50,520
Speaker 1: but like like he was the third best player on

1201
01:01:50,560 --> 01:01:53,200
Speaker 1: the team there at the end. And when you look

1202
01:01:53,280 --> 01:01:58,000
Speaker 1: at uh like Magic, other guys that you would consider

1203
01:01:58,120 --> 01:02:00,720
Speaker 1: up in that top five similar circum stances where they're

1204
01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:03,240
Speaker 1: their actual period of dominance where they were the best

1205
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:05,640
Speaker 1: player in the league for that stretch of time was

1206
01:02:05,800 --> 01:02:10,960
Speaker 1: much shorter. And you know, with with Lebron, like I

1207
01:02:11,120 --> 01:02:15,880
Speaker 1: think his opportunity is from this year forward in the

1208
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:18,919
Speaker 1: sense that you know, up to age thirty five, both

1209
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:23,760
Speaker 1: Lebron and MJ just had this decade long, you know,

1210
01:02:23,880 --> 01:02:26,000
Speaker 1: stretch where they were either the best player in the

1211
01:02:26,080 --> 01:02:28,439
Speaker 1: league or you know, our argument for the best player

1212
01:02:28,480 --> 01:02:33,280
Speaker 1: in the league. And I think that um where Lebron

1213
01:02:33,360 --> 01:02:36,000
Speaker 1: can really separate himself is to be that guy who's

1214
01:02:36,040 --> 01:02:40,720
Speaker 1: thirty seven or thirty six and still somehow better than everybody,

1215
01:02:41,040 --> 01:02:43,040
Speaker 1: because that's where you would have to start pointing to,

1216
01:02:43,720 --> 01:02:46,000
Speaker 1: just to the longevity of his dominance. But I'm with you.

1217
01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:48,320
Speaker 1: I think like I think like the argument for any

1218
01:02:48,400 --> 01:02:50,320
Speaker 1: other player over him at number two has kind of

1219
01:02:50,360 --> 01:02:53,080
Speaker 1: disappeared after the season. It just doesn't really make any

1220
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:54,959
Speaker 1: sense to me. But I wanted to get I wanted

1221
01:02:55,000 --> 01:02:57,120
Speaker 1: to get your feel for it. Um, just because I'm

1222
01:02:57,120 --> 01:02:59,520
Speaker 1: gonna ask everybody that I bring on. But hey, justin

1223
01:02:59,560 --> 01:03:01,400
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you taking the time. We've been going

1224
01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:03,160
Speaker 1: for about an hour. I really appreciate you taking the

1225
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:07,040
Speaker 1: time to make this work. I actually, uh enjoy following

1226
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:10,600
Speaker 1: your fitness related stuff. I tried part of your push

1227
01:03:10,640 --> 01:03:13,440
Speaker 1: workout yesterday as part of my chest day. Be the

1228
01:03:13,560 --> 01:03:15,400
Speaker 1: one with the five by five by five with the

1229
01:03:15,520 --> 01:03:19,400
Speaker 1: triangles and then the uprights and stuff. Uh, keep sharing

1230
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:22,000
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I really like that stuff. We'll do.

1231
01:03:22,160 --> 01:03:25,000
Speaker 1: We'll do. Yeah, sure, I appreciate you having me on man.

1232
01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:28,720
Speaker 1: Uh if you if you want to check over the Instagram,

1233
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:30,360
Speaker 1: I have like a lot more like in this way

1234
01:03:30,400 --> 01:03:34,520
Speaker 1: to stuff. It's like at performance prowess. Um. So yeah,

1235
01:03:34,600 --> 01:03:37,240
Speaker 1: for sure, if you if you want to over there,

1236
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:39,960
Speaker 1: and I'll follow you on Instagram and uh and let's like,

1237
01:03:40,240 --> 01:03:41,760
Speaker 1: like I said, I had no idea you were interested

1238
01:03:41,800 --> 01:03:43,360
Speaker 1: in doing this kind of thing. So let's get let's

1239
01:03:43,360 --> 01:03:44,680
Speaker 1: get back together and do something like this as we

1240
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:47,840
Speaker 1: get closer to the season. Oh for sure, the problem.

1241
01:03:48,160 --> 01:03:49,400
Speaker 1: All right, man, I have a good rest of your day.

1242
01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:50,280
Speaker 1: You too.