Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys for coming to hang out talk some basketball with
Speaker 1: Rog and I on this very busy NBA news morning
Speaker 1: between Team USA losing again and the Ben Simmons trade
Speaker 1: request or not I shouldn't say trade request, the front
Speaker 1: office openly shopping Ben Simmons, um to the extent that
Speaker 1: they're telling Shams Sharania uh. And then Roger just informed
Speaker 1: to me about some news about Lonzo Ball and him
Speaker 1: potentially leaving New Orleans, um that I was unaware of
Speaker 1: until just now. So we got a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about today. UM, but we're gonna start
Speaker 1: by talking about the Game three of the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: on Sunday. But first, Rog, how are you doing on
Speaker 1: this morning? How's your weekend? Was great? Yeah, I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: It's weird to like try to transition back to video,
Speaker 1: Like I know the podcast listeners, Um, they don't see
Speaker 1: the video, but just for us. So I used to
Speaker 1: doing spaces and now like we're on video now, so
Speaker 1: it's like a it's like a funny adjustment back to
Speaker 1: being on camera. Um, you have to look somewhat kind
Speaker 1: of presentable when you come up here. You can just
Speaker 1: you can just wally onto the spaces on Twitter. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's fun to be back, though. Yeah, exactly the
Speaker 1: spaces allowed us to slum it a little bit, that
Speaker 1: is what that is for sure. But uh, don't worry
Speaker 1: after this offseason, we will return to doing mostly spaces
Speaker 1: um in our postgame shows during hopefully much much more
Speaker 1: positive and good luck oriented Lakers season next year. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna start by talking about Game three on Sunday.
Speaker 1: I continue again, I'm not always right. Everyone's wrong a
Speaker 1: lot of the time, including myself. I'm going to brag
Speaker 1: a lot in this series because I've been right so far.
Speaker 1: I've predicted every single outcome in every single game so far. Um.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of talk about the Bucks you know,
Speaker 1: kind of season control of this series and showing some
Speaker 1: you know, uh problems in in in Phoenix's design that
Speaker 1: they're able to physically exploit. And while I do think
Speaker 1: that that is the reason why they were able to
Speaker 1: win in that particular game, I think this is just
Speaker 1: textbook NBA playoff series in a nutshell. I've seen this
Speaker 1: so many times over the years. You know, the uh
Speaker 1: team USA which we're gonna talk about later, is such
Speaker 1: a great example of the difference in motivational advantage. You know,
Speaker 1: you win basketball games by doing all of these things,
Speaker 1: these little things, not just scoring the basketball, and you know,
Speaker 1: if you don't have people that are willing to do
Speaker 1: those little things, you can lose games two teams with
Speaker 1: less talent. And and similar to obviously that with with
Speaker 1: this FEBA thing, it's a much bigger talent gap and
Speaker 1: a much bigger issue. But when it comes to this
Speaker 1: playoffs series, you've got the better team, which is Phoenix,
Speaker 1: who's up to games to none going into Milwaukee, playing
Speaker 1: against a desperate team, So they are more willing to
Speaker 1: do those little things. They're more willing to be more physical,
Speaker 1: to be more aggressive, to feed off of the energy
Speaker 1: of the crowd. And so then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: this gap manifests in their effort, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: a team that pretty much got handled in the first
Speaker 1: two games wins by twenty uh So, my impression, you know,
Speaker 1: from the over the top kind of macro sense, is
Speaker 1: just that this was a textbook progression of a playoff series.
Speaker 1: Did you think it was something bigger than that? Or
Speaker 1: did you just think it was kind of the thing
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, so like we both like to tie
Speaker 1: it back until it happens on the court to write
Speaker 1: like all that playing harder and stuff that that's all true,
Speaker 1: and I think it has a dominant effect as well.
Speaker 1: We always talk about how the more physical team gets
Speaker 1: the calls, or gets or doesn't get the call, whatever
Speaker 1: way you want to look at it. I really thought
Speaker 1: Deandrean's um fourth foul kind of change the whole game,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, was back and forth. Phoenix was coming
Speaker 1: back a little bit. He picked up his fourth foul
Speaker 1: with ten twenty five left to go in the third.
Speaker 1: I don't believe if he played the third quarter and
Speaker 1: then the Bucks just ran the score up. And I
Speaker 1: think that really has accumulative effect. Allowed the Bucks to
Speaker 1: go small without the consequence of going small on the
Speaker 1: other end, so allowed them to play the honest at
Speaker 1: the five, not worrying after not worrying about a rim roller,
Speaker 1: not worrying about offensive rebounds. Kaminski got destroyed in his minutes.
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't really understand those minutes at all.
Speaker 1: Um he was like a minus fourteen in five minutes.
Speaker 1: Which shouldn't even be possible. But yeah, like and again
Speaker 1: all that stuff you said, it's true. The home crowd
Speaker 1: really put them on their back. Janice had a legendary
Speaker 1: another legendary performance. His numbers in these series is absolutely insane.
Speaker 1: They have no one to guard him, and I don't
Speaker 1: think that was ever true that. I don't think they
Speaker 1: ever had someone to guard him, but without eight on
Speaker 1: the floor, that really shows. So I think you're right.
Speaker 1: All that playing hard and stuff is true. I just
Speaker 1: think like that the game changed to me when Aint
Speaker 1: picked up his fourth foul and Monty decided, I don't know,
Speaker 1: is different philosophies on that. I thought that's a little
Speaker 1: bit of over reaction to just not play him because
Speaker 1: of who backs him up, Like you're you're gonna lose anyway.
Speaker 1: You know you'll lose if you play with Kaminsky. I
Speaker 1: would have just took the chance on me. But that's
Speaker 1: why I kind of saw, did you see anything else
Speaker 1: on the floor that that you thought really impacted game?
Speaker 1: Or just play tiny? Like but like if you can't,
Speaker 1: you know, they played Kaminsky because their their whole you know,
Speaker 1: structure is built around this, like four out one in
Speaker 1: concept and except with a big and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: if if you're gonna get boat raced with Kaminski at
Speaker 1: the five, you might as well put Crowder at the
Speaker 1: five and just put all your wings out there. And
Speaker 1: you know, maybe just by you can jank up the
Speaker 1: game a little bit and and uh and win that way.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you, like, you know, overreacting to foul
Speaker 1: trouble is one of the stupidest things in the world.
Speaker 1: It makes way more sense to do it in the
Speaker 1: college game when egos are more in favor of the referees.
Speaker 1: Like in college, like a ref's not gonna think twice
Speaker 1: about fouling a dude out of a game if he
Speaker 1: thinks he sees a foul. But in a pros you know,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit more of a discretionary thing going
Speaker 1: on with the refs where they'll look at a guy
Speaker 1: like DeAndre Etan with four fouls and be a little
Speaker 1: bit more lenient. And you know, eighton can go up
Speaker 1: to the refs and be like, hey, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna staying here with my arms up. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be reaching at all, you know, blah blah blah, blah,
Speaker 1: and he might get the benefit of the doubt on
Speaker 1: a lot of those types of calls. So I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I think that's always a big strategic flaw. You know.
Speaker 1: I thought this game was super interesting because it kind
Speaker 1: of was it was it was breaking down like a
Speaker 1: typical Game three, where you know, Milwaukee was playing with
Speaker 1: a lot more physical energy, a lot of their baskets
Speaker 1: early in the game where we're around the basket, offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: you know, janice and pick and roll catching and finishing
Speaker 1: around the rim. But what kept Phoenix in control because
Speaker 1: they were up thirty six to thirty at one point,
Speaker 1: was Chris Paul was still just in this ridiculous mid
Speaker 1: range rhythm where he was making everything he was taking
Speaker 1: in that fifteen to twenty two feet range even when
Speaker 1: it was contested. And then you had DeAndre Ayton just
Speaker 1: destroying Milwaukee on both ends of the floor, like he's
Speaker 1: such a problem for them, And I think it's the
Speaker 1: most interesting subplot of this series. I tweeted these stats
Speaker 1: out yesterday, but one of the big reasons, one of
Speaker 1: the one of the big reasons why the Bucks were
Speaker 1: able to swing the Hawks series in the net series,
Speaker 1: even though they trailed was uh by going to Jannis
Speaker 1: at the five. In lineups with with Janice at the five.
Speaker 1: Against those two teams, they were plus seventeen points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions against Brooklyn and plus twenty nine points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions against Atlanta. But in this matchup,
Speaker 1: because of eighton in their inability to guard him, there
Speaker 1: minus nine point five points per one hundred possessions with
Speaker 1: Jannis at the five. There was a sequence right at
Speaker 1: the first TV time out they took Burke Lopez out,
Speaker 1: put your Honis at the five eight and immediately burned
Speaker 1: them on a little hook shot on a switch over
Speaker 1: I think it was over Connaughton. And then the very
Speaker 1: next possession he has a deep seal on Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: just turns and lays it into the basket, and then
Speaker 1: the next possession he got an offensive rebound, and then
Speaker 1: Bud immediately put Bobby portison. So that that was that
Speaker 1: was carrying over through that first stretch of the game
Speaker 1: on Sunday, and then, like you said, after after Aidan
Speaker 1: got in foul trouble, those lineups started to have more success.
Speaker 1: But everything was going Phoenix's way because of how dominant
Speaker 1: Aton was, and because of how dominant Chris Paul was,
Speaker 1: and then Milwaukee just completely took over in the middle
Speaker 1: of the second quarter, and honestly, you know who was
Speaker 1: fantastic was Drew Holiday in that stretch. Unbelievable defensively. And
Speaker 1: then Drew Holiday had kind of like a uncharacteristically great
Speaker 1: game as a passer, which I think is one of
Speaker 1: his limitations as a guard compared to some of his peers,
Speaker 1: but like, he was unbelievable passing the basketball. In that
Speaker 1: second quarter. He had a sequence where the Sons were
Speaker 1: down five after a campaign and one, it was forty five,
Speaker 1: and after the and one, Chris Middleton takes a terrible
Speaker 1: pull up twenty two ft or and it leads to
Speaker 1: a two on one fast break, and Pat Connatson blows
Speaker 1: up the two on one fast break. Drew Holiday pushes
Speaker 1: it in transition and makes a really nice, like falling
Speaker 1: out of bounds bounced pass into the corner to p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker nails of three. Then Drew Holiday blocked Devin Booker
Speaker 1: underneath the basket, and then that's when they had that
Speaker 1: crazy fast break where he through the behind the back
Speaker 1: pass and dropped it off to Bobby Porters for dunk.
Speaker 1: That was literally a seven point turnaround, and it completely
Speaker 1: changed the game and went from Phoenix being right there
Speaker 1: to all of a sudden, you're down twelve, and it
Speaker 1: was just it was kind of like a like a
Speaker 1: like a wave of energy that just Phoenix couldn't really match,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. No, for sure, And we always
Speaker 1: talked about like the home and road splits for like
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton's shooting. Like Drew Holiday hit
Speaker 1: five threes last night, five for ten from three. I
Speaker 1: think those are shots that like the Sons lived with
Speaker 1: him still taking, like that he hit a bunch of
Speaker 1: like step back kind of threes, but these shots I
Speaker 1: feel like they win with if he has if he
Speaker 1: takes those shots to defense kind of wins. So like,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's tough. I don't know what really
Speaker 1: to take from Milwaukee's offense other than like y honest
Speaker 1: scoring forty. I think they'll live with that, Like you
Speaker 1: obviously want to try to stop him, but like I
Speaker 1: feel like you can still win with the honest uh
Speaker 1: scoring forty, Chris Milton six with fourteen, Like they're still
Speaker 1: kind of shutting him down. I thought the biggest key
Speaker 1: in my opinion, was but kind of limiting brook Lopez
Speaker 1: minutes once eight and went out with foul trouble. He
Speaker 1: really didn't play brook Lopez. It was mostly just be
Speaker 1: honest at the five full time switching everything. We saw
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of you honest on Chris Paul
Speaker 1: on Devin Booker, and he was really able to impact them.
Speaker 1: Chris Paul still hit a bunch of tough shots. He
Speaker 1: had like a one left to right crossover fade away
Speaker 1: over Yannice Um. And I think Devin Booker will play
Speaker 1: better as well. Devin Booker was what three for uh
Speaker 1: three from fourteen in that game, one for seven from three,
Speaker 1: Like he's been kind of hot and cold a little
Speaker 1: bit lately, right, I feel like he's he's had big
Speaker 1: scoring games and he has like really tough shooting nights.
Speaker 1: I think that's where the Phoenix kind of push her
Speaker 1: head on. So where do you see, like game four,
Speaker 1: do you see Phoenix winning winning Game four? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: think Phoenix will win the next two games. A couple
Speaker 1: of things, like Booker was actually getting half decent shot quality.
Speaker 1: You could just tell the overall physicality the game was
Speaker 1: wearing on him a bit, and he was missing shots.
Speaker 1: You know, you and I after Game two talked about
Speaker 1: how Milwaukee didn't necessarily need to change what they were doing,
Speaker 1: they just needed to do it better. And when I
Speaker 1: what I noticed when I was watching that game and
Speaker 1: when I rewatched it was just how much better Milwaukee
Speaker 1: was it. All these simple things, like a lot of
Speaker 1: their drop coverages with Brook Lopez actually kind of worked.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is the dude chasing Chris Paul
Speaker 1: or Devin Booker over the screen just did a better
Speaker 1: job of getting over the screen and hounding the ball
Speaker 1: handler so that Brooke didn't have to come up as high.
Speaker 1: And if Brooke doesn't have to come up as high,
Speaker 1: he can then shut off the paint, which then throws
Speaker 1: everything else in that in in Phoenix's action off. And
Speaker 1: so from that standpoint, you know, that's a that's kind
Speaker 1: of an effort thing. A lot of that stuff, A
Speaker 1: lot of that a lot of that stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: when you look at projecting forward in the series, chances
Speaker 1: are Phoenix is gonna come out with a lot better intensive.
Speaker 1: They did not shoot the ball at all. We talked
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, earlier in the podcast that you know,
Speaker 1: the physically aggressive team is the one that gets the
Speaker 1: foul calls. The team that the team that is putting
Speaker 1: pressure on the other team physically is generally gonna get
Speaker 1: rewarded with free throws. And guess what after Phoenix was
Speaker 1: the team that controlled the free throw line in the
Speaker 1: in Phoenix. Here in Milwaukee in Game three, Milwaukee's the
Speaker 1: more physically aggressive team. They're the team that's getting to
Speaker 1: the line more. That I think is going to swing
Speaker 1: back in Phoenix's favor in this next game. I also think,
Speaker 1: like you know, just in general, with the honest, as
Speaker 1: Chris Paul mentioned in his postgame interview, they just didn't
Speaker 1: do a good job of building that wall around the rim.
Speaker 1: There was just a there was a sloppiness to some
Speaker 1: of the basic principles that you need to slow down
Speaker 1: your honest and so I just in a similar way
Speaker 1: till to the way mil Milwaukee just did a better
Speaker 1: job in game three with all of their things that
Speaker 1: they need to do, I think Phoenix is going to
Speaker 1: do a better job in game four. And they didn't
Speaker 1: get anything out of really anybody other than Eton and
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and even Eyton struggled after the first fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes of the game. So I think I will feel
Speaker 1: relatively confident that Phoenix is gonna win by right around
Speaker 1: ten points in game four and then blow their doors
Speaker 1: off in game five. That's what I expect to happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Aiden is everything like forty minutes a game in
Speaker 1: this series. He had twenty four minutes UM in game
Speaker 1: in game three, eight for eleven and twenty four minutes
Speaker 1: is insanely efficient. And he's really their honest garter in
Speaker 1: my opinion. And Jay Crowder but like when they get
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson on a switch, like it's just or whoever
Speaker 1: else is switched on, switching on to Janice, it's just
Speaker 1: Overhannest is too strong. Going thirteen for seventeen from the
Speaker 1: free throw line, I thought was a big part of
Speaker 1: this game. It really helps him out. His aggression continues
Speaker 1: when he hitting free throws. I don't think you'll hear
Speaker 1: that at that rate going forward as well. That I
Speaker 1: think that's really a big domino for them when he
Speaker 1: gets his free throw rate going up and he gets
Speaker 1: assists from now he gets passes out um And I
Speaker 1: think Bud kind of we talked about early buds, a
Speaker 1: guy that reacts to the series. He doesn't punch first.
Speaker 1: I thought he really did a nice job. Brent Forbes
Speaker 1: played I think three four minutes last night for Lopez
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. I think that's where if the Bucks are
Speaker 1: going to make this series, that's kind of happen to
Speaker 1: go forty minutes for all their starters. P J Tucker
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. Um, he hit one corner three last night.
Speaker 1: So I know they got really good shooting from everybody, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how sustainable that is going into Game four,
Speaker 1: and I feel like the Suns feel pretty well. Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: like you said, man, I was watching he took the
Speaker 1: shots that he gets, like, those are the shots he's
Speaker 1: looking to get to. Um, he just missed them. And
Speaker 1: he can do he can go like that, he can
Speaker 1: go cold. But I thought he got the shots he wanted.
Speaker 1: And I think the Suns lived with those jumpers from
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday and he got better shot quality than Drew Holiday.
Speaker 1: Drews just went in yeah, exactly, like three free throws
Speaker 1: combined for Drew Holiday and Chris Milton. And I think
Speaker 1: Chris Milton got it on a he was piled on
Speaker 1: three point attempt. I believe because he has three free
Speaker 1: throws total and it was the first first free throws
Speaker 1: of this series. Yeah, and Drew Holiday zero free throws
Speaker 1: last night, Like he had an amazing game eight from fourteen,
Speaker 1: zero free throws, Like when he was passing when he
Speaker 1: got to the rim too, I think that was a
Speaker 1: big part. He was jump shot heavy and then driving
Speaker 1: to pass that that's very true, and he he had
Speaker 1: a bunch of big jumpers. But again those shots I
Speaker 1: think they live with, Like Drew Holiday is not the
Speaker 1: level of shooter to where I'm comfortable with him taking
Speaker 1: step back threes in transition and thinking that's um that
Speaker 1: can work going forward. So I think I like where
Speaker 1: phoenixes as well. I feel like they win. They win
Speaker 1: Game four. So in the last thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: say about about the Bucks, Chris Middleton in particular, You
Speaker 1: and I talked a lot about Chris Middleton in the
Speaker 1: last pot, and I made a point of of of
Speaker 1: talking about how his tendency is to want to turn
Speaker 1: his back to the basket when he has a he
Speaker 1: has a mismatch and try to take a jump shot.
Speaker 1: So he got isolated into campaign three times in the
Speaker 1: first half by my count, and the first one was
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, and he got Campaign on his
Speaker 1: hip and took a turnaround fade away and missed it.
Speaker 1: And he had not done anything at the rim to
Speaker 1: that point in the game. It was literally his one
Speaker 1: of his first shots of the game, had a great mismatch,
Speaker 1: could have got to the rim, didn't, took a fade away,
Speaker 1: missed it. So then started the second quarter same thing.
Speaker 1: Gets isolated on Campaign side, is cleared, he rips over
Speaker 1: the top and pulls the ball down and goes to
Speaker 1: the basket, gets right by Campaign, gets all the way
Speaker 1: to the rim, scoop layup and Campaign fouls him and
Speaker 1: one easiest basket he got all night, and then literally
Speaker 1: a few possessions later, he gets isolated on Campaign on
Speaker 1: the other side of the floor. This time he's kind
Speaker 1: of facing the basket from about twenty ft and he
Speaker 1: rips through to the right and beats Campaign to the
Speaker 1: spot and immediately turns his back to the basket. And
Speaker 1: then as soon as he turns his back to the basket,
Speaker 1: he takes a back down dribble and Campaign reaches in
Speaker 1: and knocks the ball out of bounds. And literally like, dude,
Speaker 1: you just got all the way to the rim on
Speaker 1: this guy, Like you just overpowered him physically, you know,
Speaker 1: like like it's it's you know, Chris Middleton is one
Speaker 1: of the most skilled and polished players that we have
Speaker 1: in our league. He's at over twenty points per game.
Speaker 1: That automatically puts you an elite elite company. But he
Speaker 1: just it's inexcusable to have zero free throw attempts through
Speaker 1: that point in the game, and then to have through
Speaker 1: that point in the series, and then I obviously had
Speaker 1: a three later in the game. But the point is
Speaker 1: is like that the physical aggression, aggression of Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: is the missing piece, and you could see it, Like
Speaker 1: I told you I expected Chris to go off in
Speaker 1: Game three and Drew to struggle that boys, I wrong.
Speaker 1: Chris continued to kind of do more of the same thing,
Speaker 1: even though once he made were tough, it seemed like
Speaker 1: in that game and then uh, and then Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: got going. So I don't know, it's just it's just
Speaker 1: it's got to be frustrating to watch for Bucks fans
Speaker 1: because he's a six eight wing, like that's that should
Speaker 1: be a physical advantage for you not a skill ad
Speaker 1: and it's necessarily makes sense. Yeah, And I think Michael
Speaker 1: Bridges does a good job on him as well, kind
Speaker 1: of chasing over those screens, fighting and putting back pressure.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Chris Milton's shot chart here. He took
Speaker 1: one shot at the rim the whole night, and that's
Speaker 1: the that's the kind of play you're talking about. And
Speaker 1: I just think that's kind of his game. And Yannice's
Speaker 1: floor has to be so high for them to win. Um,
Speaker 1: he had went back to back forty point games. Um,
Speaker 1: I think they had the stat Only a few guys
Speaker 1: have done that. UM. Lebron and other guys have have
Speaker 1: had multiple forty point games UM in the finals. Like,
Speaker 1: that's where his floor has to be for them to
Speaker 1: be competitive in this series. And uh, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if he can continue that. Maybe he can. The way
Speaker 1: they're defending him, I think more eight minutes will kind of, uh,
Speaker 1: kind of kind of to turn him a little bit
Speaker 1: at the rim. Um, it's hard to build that wall
Speaker 1: with no one back there. And again, the Kaminsky minutes
Speaker 1: to me, just didn't make any sense. I'd rather play
Speaker 1: Tory Craig at the five and kind of live with
Speaker 1: just switching. Um, and I feel like my budleholes are
Speaker 1: playing with fire thirteen minutes for Jeff Tigue is just
Speaker 1: you're just asking for death and get in game four.
Speaker 1: I just don't understand it at all, even though he
Speaker 1: was a plus nine tonight. But yeah, like I don't
Speaker 1: the bucks, I feel like just shorting the rotation. Try
Speaker 1: to continue honest at the five as much as they can.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I thought that was the biggest key to
Speaker 1: me eight going out with those with the foul trouble
Speaker 1: just open the whole game up for them and they
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry about anything on the other end. Um,
Speaker 1: they got their spacing, pat content, hit a bunch of
Speaker 1: hit a big three as well. Um, they got their
Speaker 1: shots to go. And it's usually what happens at home.
Speaker 1: It's just weird for guys of Drew Holiday and Chris
Speaker 1: Milton's stature to where like the home and road splits
Speaker 1: are what they are is it's it's it's fascinating to
Speaker 1: me when I when I see that as uh see
Speaker 1: those stats for them. But they have another home game,
Speaker 1: so maybe they'll take came four. But I have the
Speaker 1: suns as well. Winning. You know, this is something that
Speaker 1: Bill Simmons talks about all the time on his podcast,
Speaker 1: is the concept of like, you know, the the last,
Speaker 1: the last, you know, frontier of the superstar is consistency.
Speaker 1: You know that what separates a Drew Holiday or Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton or Devin Booker from the top echelon of stars
Speaker 1: is the ability to do it every single night. Um
Speaker 1: and and you know, and I think we take that
Speaker 1: for granted a lot of the time with the Lebrons
Speaker 1: and the A d s. Is just how how consistent
Speaker 1: they are and what what you can expect from them
Speaker 1: on a night tonight basis. And I do think that's interesting. So,
Speaker 1: you know, one last thing about this game before we
Speaker 1: move on. Um, So just to preface this before we
Speaker 1: even get started, because I want to talk about Janics
Speaker 1: for a second. You know, this was something Jackson Frank
Speaker 1: was tweeting about yesterday. He went on a soliloquy basically
Speaker 1: discussing this idea that uh that you know, we should
Speaker 1: always uh we're we're too we're too quick to try
Speaker 1: to contextualize everything that happens in a basketball game within
Speaker 1: NBA history, and how all we should do is just
Speaker 1: watch what's on the floor and talk about what's on
Speaker 1: the floor. Now, I do agree with him to the
Speaker 1: extent that talking about what's happening in the games is
Speaker 1: the most important because everything else is fake, you know,
Speaker 1: like talking about anything that's not actually taking place on
Speaker 1: the floor is fake basketball, whereas what's happening on the
Speaker 1: floor is real basketball. So I agree with him in
Speaker 1: that regard. However, NBA history is all about comparing and
Speaker 1: and talking about how is this similar to what Shack
Speaker 1: died in two thousand one, How is what Lebron did
Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen similar to what you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know Dirk did in two thousand eleven, or whatever.
Speaker 1: It is, Like, that's what we do. We we we
Speaker 1: compare eras, we compare players, like we build lists. We
Speaker 1: talked about who the greatest of all time is. We
Speaker 1: talked about who the greatest team of all time is.
Speaker 1: And I think that's okay. I think that that's part
Speaker 1: of being an NBA fan. I just think that the
Speaker 1: nuts and bolts of those conversations has to be basketball oriented,
Speaker 1: which which is totally fair. So my question for you
Speaker 1: is this, Janice has been incredible to this point, in
Speaker 1: the postseason. He's clearly the best player in this series. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna win, but there's obviously a
Speaker 1: chance that he could end up, uh, you know, going
Speaker 1: nuclear and stealing this series. So my question for you is,
Speaker 1: how do you contextualize what Janice is doing compared to
Speaker 1: his peers and what they've done in the past, guys
Speaker 1: like Kauai, guys like Staff, guys like Lebron. How does
Speaker 1: what he's doing stack up or or compare to what
Speaker 1: his peers are doing. Because if you're gonna say Nice
Speaker 1: is the best, you have to say he's better than
Speaker 1: k d. You have to say he's better than Steph.
Speaker 1: You have to say he's better than Lebron or Kauai.
Speaker 1: And so that that's my question for you is like
Speaker 1: what do you make of this? The honest run to
Speaker 1: this point. So for me, really clearly on the Jackson France,
Speaker 1: Jackson is my guy. He's he's a great dude. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, like everything is contextual, Like everything in life
Speaker 1: is contextual, and that off court encourt encore is quantifiable, right,
Speaker 1: Like we can see what happened, we can go to
Speaker 1: a box score, like hey, this guy missed ten shots.
Speaker 1: That's what happened. Off the court, it's objective, who's the greatest?
Speaker 1: All that aesthetics? What do you prefer? That's why I
Speaker 1: try to keep it on the court. Off course stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't really get into legacy and stuff as all that,
Speaker 1: but with the honest, like for me, I really value
Speaker 1: playoff performance and like finals performance. Like I feel like
Speaker 1: I heard a lot of these conversations lately. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you here too, here too, not to like move off
Speaker 1: of the honest, but people are like, oh, is zach
Speaker 1: Lavine Zach Levine? If you play sack Lavine with Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: the sons will be exactly where they are. I'm like,
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know that though, but Devin book are
Speaker 1: doing it on this stage should mean something. He should
Speaker 1: get at least the benefit of the doubt, like or
Speaker 1: they say like, oh it replace zac Lavine with Donovan Mitchell,
Speaker 1: the Utah would still be the number one seed. I
Speaker 1: don't know that to be true. But Zach Lyman, I
Speaker 1: don't know what he would do in the playoffs, but
Speaker 1: just seeing in person means a lot to me, Like
Speaker 1: you honest, doing this puts him on the upper echelon.
Speaker 1: To me, this is with like Steph who went through
Speaker 1: the playoffs, Um, Katie when he was in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: ran through, got to the finals. Like this is up
Speaker 1: there with that. You can't deny the numbers anymore. You
Speaker 1: just you just can't. As it once like all that
Speaker 1: Middleton was Middleton is Batman or whatever they were saying.
Speaker 1: All that stuff is dead now I believe. I mean,
Speaker 1: honest has pretty much put himself up there. Um and
Speaker 1: his skill and his physicality. I mean, you have to
Speaker 1: put him there. You just have to. Guys who have
Speaker 1: these finals performances are rare. That's why I put what
Speaker 1: a D did last year in such high regard. I
Speaker 1: know people skip over it because of where it was
Speaker 1: done in the environment, but that's an insane run. If
Speaker 1: you look at the numbers, look at the performances, the
Speaker 1: guys see out played. James Hardens is a surefy Horror
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer. That dude guy outplayed by a D
Speaker 1: in a series Like that's what happened, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And I just look at that. Nicola Yokich
Speaker 1: as well, another great player. But people who do it
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, to me, means a lot more. Be honest,
Speaker 1: if he gets a ring with this means a lot.
Speaker 1: It's a dirt level ring in my opinion, like go
Speaker 1: look at who dirt beat to run to the finals.
Speaker 1: It might be a little bit more than this, but
Speaker 1: that's the kind of run he's on. And the Honest's
Speaker 1: numbers I think are even more insane than Dirk if
Speaker 1: I have to look at it, um just from finals
Speaker 1: to finals. Um. I don't know if that's really comparison.
Speaker 1: They're totally different players, but yeah, those numbers are undefinable. Man.
Speaker 1: He It puts him in the echelon of Katie, you know, Kauai,
Speaker 1: whoever you want to put him with, uh and to
Speaker 1: do it with this Bucks team. I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: look back at the town on this roster and I
Speaker 1: think it's good. But still like his second and third
Speaker 1: guys from Chris Mountain, Drew Holiday should means something for him.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a superstar next to him, So what
Speaker 1: do you see, Like where do you kind of put him?
Speaker 1: I guess in those lists because I know you're you
Speaker 1: really like to kind of go and and kind of
Speaker 1: compare these these guys. What do you see from him?
Speaker 1: In that list. I like comparing UH players because like
Speaker 1: this is, let's just be clear, like basketball is a sport.
Speaker 1: It's a team sport, but it's the team sport where
Speaker 1: individuals have the most impact. And it's also the sport
Speaker 1: where you work on your individual game, you know, and
Speaker 1: see results that can impact the team the most. And
Speaker 1: and and I think it's just it's also just a
Speaker 1: part of NBA history. That's the reality of it. Like
Speaker 1: throughout NBA history, players have been ranked and compared against
Speaker 1: each other. It's part of the culture of the game.
Speaker 1: And that's just never gonna go away. That's just kind
Speaker 1: of the way it works. But anyway, like the way
Speaker 1: I see, it's real simple. I used to see Kauai, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Stephen Katie in their own tier at the top of
Speaker 1: the league, and the guys like Janice and Harden and
Speaker 1: a d were like right there behind him. Well, now
Speaker 1: I think Janice has every bit of as much acclaim
Speaker 1: to be in that tier. Um, you know, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: did last year as well, but then he had a
Speaker 1: huge fall off this year, which you know, could be
Speaker 1: effort related, it could be injury related, it could be
Speaker 1: a combination of all those things, but you can pretty
Speaker 1: much count on that not happening with Joannice. Like Janice
Speaker 1: is gonna come out next year and attack the season
Speaker 1: just like just like he did this year. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I think that that's I think that means a lot
Speaker 1: to be to be considered in the same tier as
Speaker 1: those guys is a huge deal. Um That said to me, personally,
Speaker 1: I still think that those four guys are better than him.
Speaker 1: If if he has a case over any of them,
Speaker 1: it's going to be Kauai because he's a similar type
Speaker 1: of player who had success when every other hole in
Speaker 1: his game was filled by something that his teammates did
Speaker 1: really really well. Um But I think that, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: it's important to acknowledge what's going on here. Like Janice,
Speaker 1: as incredible as he's looked, was out late by Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant in the Conference semis and was one inch away
Speaker 1: from losing that series even though he had the better team,
Speaker 1: because Kevin Durant was that much better than him. I
Speaker 1: think that that is not something I can wipe out
Speaker 1: of my memory just because Janice is still playing in
Speaker 1: Katie's not playing, And I think that this whole year
Speaker 1: has been a referendum on the way that we evaluate players,
Speaker 1: because even myself, I think leaned too much into the
Speaker 1: team that wins and holds the trophy at the end
Speaker 1: the best players on that team when nine times out
Speaker 1: of a tend not nine times out of tend, but
Speaker 1: a significant percentage of the time, it actually doesn't work
Speaker 1: out that way. But I think, I think I'm extremely
Speaker 1: impressed by Janice. I consider him a top tier superstar,
Speaker 1: which is something I didn't consider him to be before.
Speaker 1: And last, but not least, I because I'm because I've
Speaker 1: seen the way he's wired, because I've seen the way
Speaker 1: he's not scared of the moment, because I've seen the
Speaker 1: way he can physically dominate guys. I am like, relatively
Speaker 1: certain that at some point in his early thirties, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty years old, thirty one years old, thirty two years old,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have enough Paulish where he's gonna go on
Speaker 1: a stretch where he's better than everybody. He's gonna and
Speaker 1: who knows, maybe Luca is gonna be right there with him,
Speaker 1: who maybe his ion will who knows, But Janice is
Speaker 1: going to have a stretch where his brain catches up
Speaker 1: to his body, and it's gonna be frightening, especially if
Speaker 1: he's on a decent team, Because this guy is doing
Speaker 1: all this stuff right now. I hate the phrase no bag,
Speaker 1: but he's doing all this stuff right now, and he's
Speaker 1: lacking polish and what the polish. He'll never be Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: but he he might eventually get to the point where
Speaker 1: he's a little bit more on the level of like
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown in his skill set, a guy who can
Speaker 1: do some more complicated dribble moves, a guy who can
Speaker 1: get hot from the three point line and be relatively
Speaker 1: consistent as a jump shooter, you know, from fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty feet, like that stuff will happen for him, and
Speaker 1: when it does, it's gonna be scary. And and I think, uh,
Speaker 1: and I enjoy rooting for him, and I think it'll
Speaker 1: be fun when that when that time eventually comes. But
Speaker 1: I don't think this is his moment. I don't think
Speaker 1: he has what it takes to win this series. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I want to bring it back to two things,
Speaker 1: like like you kind of said, um first of all
Speaker 1: with him, like, yeah, where was I going with this?
Speaker 1: I lost my lost my train thought. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: that dude is twenty six year old. Oh yeah, there
Speaker 1: we go. But you talked about Bill Simmons saying, like, um, consistency, right,
Speaker 1: that's what Superstar is. Consistency, Like that's everything. Look at
Speaker 1: Joannest the last three years, Like we talked about his
Speaker 1: MVP Awards. We laugh at him because of the way
Speaker 1: they went on the playoffs. His numbers are insane every night.
Speaker 1: His motor is insane. It's a generational motor. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: the guys don't play this hard as long as he does. Um,
Speaker 1: he plays hard the whole night he goes. He carries
Speaker 1: that Bucks team to sixty plus wins. I think in
Speaker 1: like two straight years his numbers are insane. Year old,
Speaker 1: Like he's gonna be insane at like thirty. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Guys at this age just don't just
Speaker 1: aren't aren't this guys without this kind of bag as
Speaker 1: you talk about this kind of like handle don't average
Speaker 1: these kind of numbers just because they're physical. Like he
Speaker 1: does have skills, they're just not skills that are aesthetically
Speaker 1: pleasing in my appeion. And the second thing you said,
Speaker 1: he got outplayed by Kevin Durant there's no shame in
Speaker 1: that like that, of course, like Kevin Durant to me,
Speaker 1: it might be the best score ever, Like there's no
Speaker 1: there's no there's no shame in being out played by him,
Speaker 1: especially through scoring. Like Katie to me is a might
Speaker 1: be a top ten player ever and that might be
Speaker 1: like his floor, you know what I mean, Like that's
Speaker 1: how good Katie is. Being outplayed by him is no shame.
Speaker 1: I saw people like we're like laughing at that. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, there's no shame in me out there.
Speaker 1: Jest was incredible, honest was incredible. I just thought Katie
Speaker 1: was better. You honest, didn't shrink from the series your
Speaker 1: honest just he be honest, brought his best punch, and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's best punch was better. I thought that That's
Speaker 1: just the way I interpreted that seriously. And Katie is
Speaker 1: a super polished playoff performer, forget just regularly. He knows
Speaker 1: exactly how playoffs work. He's been in a ton of them,
Speaker 1: won two rings. Like he's a guy that really knows
Speaker 1: what he's doing. Um, So being outplayed by him is
Speaker 1: no shame. And I agree with you. I think you're
Speaker 1: honestly gonna touch a couple more finals before it's all
Speaker 1: said and down. I just that's just how I see
Speaker 1: his kind of career going out. But yeah, the students, Uh,
Speaker 1: the students amazing and uh, I think even putting in
Speaker 1: context like his numbers, you can't deny them anymore. His accolades,
Speaker 1: you can't deny them. Two m vps. Uh. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he has two Defensive Player of the Years.
Speaker 1: I think I think his first last year Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year. So yeah, like I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: be great. Um, and that's where his career is heading to.
Speaker 1: When you're right at thirties, gonna be a monster six man,
Speaker 1: that's in That's insane. This isn't a Apple's Apples comparison
Speaker 1: because Lebron was twenty two when this happened, but it
Speaker 1: kind of but you know, Janice isn't Lebron, and but
Speaker 1: he's kind of on a similar type of trajectory. I
Speaker 1: think in the sense that you know, the two thousand
Speaker 1: seven playoff run from Lebron wasn't the playoff run where
Speaker 1: he was gonna win a title. It never was. He
Speaker 1: took him further than than you would have expected under
Speaker 1: the circumstances. But what the two thousand seven playoff run
Speaker 1: was was a week Eastern Conference, a Pistons team that
Speaker 1: was kind of on the way out. Some things that
Speaker 1: broke his way. It kind of like what happened with
Speaker 1: the Honest here. Some things broke his way in this
Speaker 1: playoff runts he benefited from some injury luck and so
Speaker 1: what what what's interesting is you know that two thousand
Speaker 1: seven run for Lebron, though, what did it tell us?
Speaker 1: It told us that this guy's made of the right
Speaker 1: stuff and that soon in the next few years, he's
Speaker 1: going to elevate his game to a point where he
Speaker 1: can dominate the league. That's what that told us, And
Speaker 1: we were all right to have thought that. Well, that's
Speaker 1: kind of where I am at with the honest is like,
Speaker 1: this is like his two thousand seven finals run. He
Speaker 1: gets he's getting to the finals. He's probably gonna lose
Speaker 1: to a better team, but he's proving to all of
Speaker 1: us that he is one thousand percent the real deal
Speaker 1: in terms of that, you know, like they were asking, uh,
Speaker 1: Bill Bill Simmons was asking, I think Kevin O'Connor in
Speaker 1: his podcast, he goes, do you think Janice is capable
Speaker 1: of like being a Pantheon guy, which he considers to be.
Speaker 1: I think it's like his top fifteen players of all
Speaker 1: time or something along those lines. Well, and they were
Speaker 1: kind of bouncing around. I think I can't remember. I
Speaker 1: think he said, don'tn't know. To me, that's ad percent,
Speaker 1: absolutely yes, because you know, to be that kind of
Speaker 1: level of player, all you need to do is to
Speaker 1: have like a seven to eight year period of true
Speaker 1: dominance where you win several championships, several m v ps,
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. You mean to tell me
Speaker 1: Janice can't go from twenty seven to thirty three and
Speaker 1: and just be a wrecking ball in the league. Of
Speaker 1: course he can. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
Speaker 1: He's wired. I mean, he needs to get better. I
Speaker 1: just think he will. I think he will get better.
Speaker 1: And like and in terms of his mentality, he's like
Speaker 1: so he's like this weird hybrid of like Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: and Steph Curry where he's this consummate leader who always
Speaker 1: is even keeled, but at the same time as this
Speaker 1: unbelievable motor and and and so I I'm a I'm
Speaker 1: a believer in what he can be, and I certainly
Speaker 1: think he could go down as one of the best
Speaker 1: players ever. Yeah, and I was just looking at his numbers.
Speaker 1: He's twenty nine forty five in the last two games,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's that's absolutely ridiculous. Get again, Like the
Speaker 1: no bad kind of conversation. I feel like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of nuance to that, and I feel like there's
Speaker 1: good arguments on both sides, like, yeah, he doesn't have
Speaker 1: a heavy step back crossover, there's euro step, Like that's
Speaker 1: skill you have to like work on and have to perfect.
Speaker 1: And he understands angles, he understands where guys if he
Speaker 1: hits them, where they fall off, Like that's all skill related.
Speaker 1: And then like you just compare to a guy like
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons who number one pick, similar type of game,
Speaker 1: similar type of uh trying to attack the rim, and
Speaker 1: you just watch the mentality difference, and I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of what separates them to right. Ben Simmons has
Speaker 1: decided I'm never gonna shoot a jump shot ever, Like
Speaker 1: that's just not what I'm doing. I'm gonna do what
Speaker 1: I do. And there's a cap to your ceiling to
Speaker 1: that even if you honest misses those shots, even though
Speaker 1: people Charles Prokoly goes on TNT every time and like,
Speaker 1: don't ever take a three? And yan his head like
Speaker 1: why should I not take it three? I work on
Speaker 1: this crab for hours and hours and hours. Of course
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take one, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: exactly yeah, and like again we don't. Basketball is not
Speaker 1: played on a spreadsheet, you know what I mean. You
Speaker 1: can't just type in be honese never shoot at three,
Speaker 1: and he does that, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: that's just not how basketball works. We've all played. When
Speaker 1: you're left open, you shoot, Like that's just just like
Speaker 1: from a standard standard basketball, It's just how that works.
Speaker 1: So it's funny watching that his mentality is what it is,
Speaker 1: Like he's a guy that what drafted. I think you
Speaker 1: have to like thirteenth or some some late kind of
Speaker 1: first round. So his kind of arc is so different
Speaker 1: that I feel like his success is his own villain
Speaker 1: in this way, like he was too good too early,
Speaker 1: like like people put championship or bus expectations on him.
Speaker 1: Last year it was like twenty five, Like guys don't
Speaker 1: even win their first house. I thought that was always
Speaker 1: kind of crazy. The Bucks were too good for their
Speaker 1: own good, Like that's what he's funny, that's just kind
Speaker 1: of where are we? And Luca is going to go
Speaker 1: through this in the next two years, even though he's
Speaker 1: not gonna be twenty three for another like three years
Speaker 1: or two years or whatever. It is like these all
Speaker 1: these guys because of the arrow and we're in and
Speaker 1: their numbers are insane. I think we're gonna look at
Speaker 1: Luca this way and in a short time too. Those
Speaker 1: are the two guys though, Those are the two guys
Speaker 1: that that I think are going to run the league,
Speaker 1: um probably and obviously not together but on different teams.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Uh. The last THINGLE say about you, honest
Speaker 1: before we move on, is like, I'm actually okay with
Speaker 1: him taking jump shots as long as it doesn't dominate
Speaker 1: his shot selection. But I think he should take five
Speaker 1: jump shots a game. I think he should take one
Speaker 1: or two threes, and you know, one or two turnaround
Speaker 1: pull ups and then another you know, off the dribble,
Speaker 1: seventeen footer or when the defender sacks off of him,
Speaker 1: if for nothing else, just to keep them honest. Variety
Speaker 1: is what keeps a defender off balance. You have to
Speaker 1: be able to you have to be able to. You know,
Speaker 1: I tweeted something about this out yesterday, but it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, no fake that you make works unless it's
Speaker 1: built on the foundation of an actual threat to score.
Speaker 1: If I if I'm posting you up and I do
Speaker 1: a shoulder fake to my left side, if I haven't
Speaker 1: shown that I'll shoot over that shoulder, then you're gonna
Speaker 1: ignore that fake, you know if if in vice verse,
Speaker 1: so you need to Everything needs to be built on
Speaker 1: the foundation of something that's real, uh and that the
Speaker 1: defender has to think about. And so if you're your
Speaker 1: honest and in an out dribble is the foundation for
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot because the balls in your
Speaker 1: left hand and your and your you look like you're
Speaker 1: about to get into a shot. If you can't at
Speaker 1: least make the defender think about exiting his defensive stance
Speaker 1: to take a lunge step forward to contest the shot,
Speaker 1: then you're not going to get by. And you have
Speaker 1: to you have to have that fear of every option
Speaker 1: that's available. And so that's why, and that's what makes
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons so easy to guard is you don't even
Speaker 1: have to if he if he if he comes, if
Speaker 1: you go under a ball screen and he's standing but
Speaker 1: naked at the top of the key, like you don't
Speaker 1: even have to think about the fact that he might
Speaker 1: try to make you pay for doing that, and that
Speaker 1: just makes him that much easier to guard. Um. Do
Speaker 1: you have anything else on your honest or the Bucks
Speaker 1: or the Suns before we move on to Team USA? Uh? No,
Speaker 1: I think that's it. Yeah, I feel like we we
Speaker 1: really got into Uh, it's gonna be a fun game
Speaker 1: for so we we'll see, should be a fun game
Speaker 1: for and and Milwaukee's favored by four, so I will
Speaker 1: be on the Suns and we'll see if my streak
Speaker 1: of being right continues or if I lose all my money.
Speaker 1: We'll see anyway, you've been on game three? Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: bet everything and I've just rolled the winnings into the
Speaker 1: next one. So so far, I've turned fifty bucks into
Speaker 1: four hundred bucks. We'll see if that ends up being
Speaker 1: oh Man by the end of the series, or if
Speaker 1: I'm broke. One of the two will happen. I'm not
Speaker 1: touching it. I know if I bet Suns, the Bugs
Speaker 1: are gonna win. So I leave it alone. Don't leave
Speaker 1: it alone. Okay, So there's a couple of things with
Speaker 1: this Team USA thing that I want to touch on.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the officiating shortly, but the thing
Speaker 1: that I wanted to start with is just this this
Speaker 1: team construction. So I haven't watched gone back to watch
Speaker 1: the Australia game yet, but I but I watched the
Speaker 1: Nigeria game. Um, and I probably will go back and
Speaker 1: watch the Australia game just because I think Australia is
Speaker 1: a fun team to watch. Two there's such an interesting
Speaker 1: group of of of ball players. But anyway, so this
Speaker 1: is the thing that I think is super interesting, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use a personal experience for me personally just
Speaker 1: to kind of explain in this. So you know, when
Speaker 1: I was in junior college, I was an All Conference
Speaker 1: offensive player. I've said this on this podcast before. And
Speaker 1: then when I came to Arizona Christian the last school
Speaker 1: that I played at, we were one of the best
Speaker 1: teams in the country. We were top five in the
Speaker 1: nation and a I A and we had two All
Speaker 1: American guards and all of a sudden, they didn't need
Speaker 1: me to score. And what was interesting was I really
Speaker 1: struggled early in the season trying to be a scorer
Speaker 1: and a third role, which was so different for me,
Speaker 1: and I had some issues with it. But I remember
Speaker 1: there was a film study, uh film session that we
Speaker 1: had about a third of the way through the season,
Speaker 1: and we had a really deep team with a lot
Speaker 1: of talented guys. The guy behind me coming off the bench,
Speaker 1: it was an All conference player the previous season at
Speaker 1: the same position, and the coach got up and he goes,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the reasons why Jason is still
Speaker 1: playing even though he hasn't been making shots at this
Speaker 1: point in the season is he's defending like crazy, and
Speaker 1: he's always doing the right thing within the offense and
Speaker 1: the play like he's not he's running the plays properly,
Speaker 1: he's not breaking off, he's staying within himself. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm continuing to play him, because I can trust him.
Speaker 1: And it kind of resonated with me and the rest
Speaker 1: of the season, I almost never shot. I would take
Speaker 1: two or three shots a game, and I would just
Speaker 1: guard the other team's best player. But I played, I started,
Speaker 1: and I played, you know, the vast majority of the
Speaker 1: game because of it. Because I took a larger role
Speaker 1: that I had in the past, and I reconfigured it
Speaker 1: into a smaller role to fit with better players to
Speaker 1: win in a team concept. And you know, there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of analytics guys going nuts on this Team
Speaker 1: USA thing, being like points per game is overrated. A
Speaker 1: lot of these players are overrated because they're putting up
Speaker 1: big scoring numbers. That's bullshit. Scoring is every bit as
Speaker 1: valuable as it's ever been. The ability to put the
Speaker 1: basketball in the in the basket is extremely valuable. However,
Speaker 1: within a team concept, that's just one of the things
Speaker 1: that you need to do. You actually need to do
Speaker 1: a great many things to win a basketball game. You
Speaker 1: need to be physical at the point of attack defensively,
Speaker 1: especially in FIBA when they allow you to be. You
Speaker 1: need to be able to rebound, you need to be
Speaker 1: able to uh to knock down spot up three's, not
Speaker 1: crazy off the dribble three's. And what's happening with Team USA,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is you've got a lot of guys
Speaker 1: who are used to playing one role, which is this
Speaker 1: alpha offensive role, that are now being forced into a
Speaker 1: tertiary or an even further down the food chain type
Speaker 1: of role, and they're not doing all the dirty work
Speaker 1: that you have to do in those roles in order
Speaker 1: to succeed. Zach Levine is used to being the guy
Speaker 1: who takes a million shots and everyone else on the
Speaker 1: team does all the dirty work. Well, guess what on
Speaker 1: this team, Zach Lavine needs to be more like Michail Bridges.
Speaker 1: He needs to be more like a guy who uses
Speaker 1: his athleticism as a wing defensively and then takes shots
Speaker 1: in the flow of the offense. Everything should be catch
Speaker 1: and shoot for him. Everything for him should be attacking closeouts.
Speaker 1: Everything need for him should be simplified to his specific role.
Speaker 1: And it bothers me because, like I feel like all
Speaker 1: of the people involve aolved with Team USA should know
Speaker 1: this because this is literally what happened in two thousand eight.
Speaker 1: If you remember, they lose in two thousand four, and
Speaker 1: they lose in two thousand six, they lose twice, and
Speaker 1: the whole thing became exactly what I'm saying, too many stars,
Speaker 1: not enough role players. So if you remember they brought
Speaker 1: on uh what were the who were the guys they
Speaker 1: brought in? They brought on the lefty from the Bucks,
Speaker 1: um Michael read as like a spot up shooter to
Speaker 1: join the team. They on the two thousand twelve team,
Speaker 1: they brought in Jason Kidd. On the two thousand eight team,
Speaker 1: they brought in uh I think it was Mike Miller
Speaker 1: was on that team too. They brought in role players,
Speaker 1: They brought in guys to play roles instead of strictly
Speaker 1: bringing stars. And then all of a sudden, here we
Speaker 1: are ten years later and they've completely forgot that that
Speaker 1: that lesson that they learned, Like, it does what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is saying make any sense? Or do you think
Speaker 1: I'm crazy? It does? Really, I just want to preface
Speaker 1: this is that two Expedition exhibition games, like they're not
Speaker 1: going their hardest as well, right, people want Katie to
Speaker 1: bend like it's the end, be a finals. He's not
Speaker 1: going to. He knows like what the consequence of losing
Speaker 1: these games are, which is nothing. Also, I think the
Speaker 1: lead the world has kind of caught up a little bit,
Speaker 1: Like I like, you watch Australia play and it's so
Speaker 1: like this modern offense or running these double track screens
Speaker 1: with for Patty Mills and he's coming off shooting like
Speaker 1: he's Steph Curry, Like, I feel like the world also
Speaker 1: has kind of caught up. But like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: looking at their roster construction, there should be more than
Speaker 1: enough talent to win. Like these other teams have a
Speaker 1: few NBA players. We have all NBA dudes on this team.
Speaker 1: They should be able to work it out. You can't
Speaker 1: score any three points with like Dame Katie Tatum real
Speaker 1: playing for you, Like these are offensive juggernauts at what
Speaker 1: they do, not just good offensive role. But this is
Speaker 1: not not like Dennis Shrewder. This is like the top
Speaker 1: the top offensive level players. I think they'll figure it out. Um,
Speaker 1: I think their talent is still enough. That's why I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to really blame. I know the
Speaker 1: roster construction isn't perfect, but like they have a team
Speaker 1: like all star level dudes that should be able to
Speaker 1: figure it out high basketball. Like you guys, I think
Speaker 1: Draymond is a guy that can do the stuff you're
Speaker 1: talking about, the little stuff, the rebounding um, trying to
Speaker 1: protect the rim. Playmate kind of moved the ball, be
Speaker 1: a ball mover. Zach Lavine. I think Zach Lavine kind
Speaker 1: of last night, at least when I was watching he
Speaker 1: got shots that he usually guess those dribble step into threes,
Speaker 1: that he took those. Dame is like the de facto
Speaker 1: point guard on this team. Um, he's a guy running
Speaker 1: all the ball screen action, trying to get people involved.
Speaker 1: I think they'll figure it out. Um, it's not a
Speaker 1: perfect roster. The talent discrepancy isn't like it wasn't two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight. Two thousand eight, they had Kobe Lebron.
Speaker 1: I think Durant was was Durant on that team or
Speaker 1: he wasn't drafted yet. He was in twenty twelve team
Speaker 1: Kobe Lebron Durant. They were beating teams by like forty
Speaker 1: and fifty like in two twelve. I remember those games.
Speaker 1: I don't think this team will do that, but there
Speaker 1: still should be enough talent to kind of override that.
Speaker 1: It's been two games. I expect the chemistry to pick up.
Speaker 1: I expect their them and know each other's tendencies. It
Speaker 1: felt like it felt like a little bit more serious
Speaker 1: All Star game to where they're trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: be a little bit more unselfish than they're used to. Um,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I saw. Did you see a
Speaker 1: little bit as well. Yeah, I mean the I think
Speaker 1: that it's better to lose early and to build that
Speaker 1: urgency when things don't matter, than to skate by in
Speaker 1: some of these games to convince yourself it's not a problem,
Speaker 1: and then to and to succeed later. To your point,
Speaker 1: they have guys on the roster that will do the
Speaker 1: dirty work. They just have to do it. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of talk about defense on this roster,
Speaker 1: right We've we've all heard it. I'm sorry, but if
Speaker 1: you're starting lineup as Bam Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: you should be locking teams up. A lot of exactly
Speaker 1: A lot of this is effort. Like you said, they
Speaker 1: aren't giving their best. The one thing that concerns me
Speaker 1: about that though, is and you can tell me if
Speaker 1: you disagree, Raj, but like the they're never going to
Speaker 1: be able to match the effort. So or I shouldn't
Speaker 1: even say the effort. The the it's way more more important.
Speaker 1: This is somebody uh j is. His name is buddy
Speaker 1: of mine on Twitter. He played Division one ball out
Speaker 1: in California, I think, and he tweeted this out yesterday
Speaker 1: and I thought it made perfect sense. He's like, it
Speaker 1: just doesn't mean the same to these guys to play
Speaker 1: for USA that it does for the Nigerians to play
Speaker 1: for Nigeria, or the Australians to play for Australia. For
Speaker 1: Luca to play for the Slavonian national team, like, it
Speaker 1: means so much more to them to do what they're
Speaker 1: doing than it does for the Americans to play for
Speaker 1: the USA. There's a lot of reasons for that that
Speaker 1: we're not going to get into, but as far as
Speaker 1: they're concerned, it's just less important. So that's going to
Speaker 1: be a factor throughout this entire run in my opinion,
Speaker 1: And you're right, the world has caught up. The other
Speaker 1: teams are like Nigeria, the Nigerian team is ten times
Speaker 1: better than they were ten years ago. You know, the
Speaker 1: USA beat them by a d I think the previous
Speaker 1: time they had played them. So like, there's just more
Speaker 1: talent globally, and they give a ship and the Americans
Speaker 1: kind of don't. And so that will be a factor
Speaker 1: throughout the whole process. Now, I I'm with you. I
Speaker 1: think that as this progresses, Popovich is going to be
Speaker 1: able to get stars to buy into roles. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get guys of the caliber of a Jason Tatum to
Speaker 1: embrace being Hey, like, this is Katie and Dame's team,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna be a three and D guy. You know,
Speaker 1: You're gonna get guys to embrace all of that. Bam
Speaker 1: is going to be like, you know, maybe I'm not
Speaker 1: Miami Bam. Maybe I'm more of like a DeAndre and
Speaker 1: type of role where I'm just letting them do all
Speaker 1: of the the offensive work and I'm just gonna bruise
Speaker 1: the hell out of everybody with my physicality. You know,
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna I think they're gonna get into
Speaker 1: their roles and I think they're gonna get it going,
Speaker 1: and I think they're gonna be able to win this
Speaker 1: tournament when it comes down to it. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the roles will be more defined as we go on here. Um,
Speaker 1: Katie was still amazing. He had like a bunch of
Speaker 1: really tough three point shots that he hits. But you
Speaker 1: could tell they're like in a relaxed kind of mode
Speaker 1: on the other side, going hard as they should. That Jr.
Speaker 1: Played their Assholt like they wanted to win that game,
Speaker 1: and that was one and people are saying that's one
Speaker 1: of the biggest upsets UM that they've seen. Right in
Speaker 1: in uh In Viva Basketball UM. Australia as well. They
Speaker 1: wanted to win that. You could tell. Joe Ingles was
Speaker 1: fired up, Patty Mills was fired up. When they played
Speaker 1: the USA. You watched, you watch Katie and Dame's body
Speaker 1: language compared to like the Australia players, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean they they want to win, that they're fired up,
Speaker 1: they want to be team is say, and you know
Speaker 1: the other side is just kind of kicking the ball around,
Speaker 1: trying to you know, trying to I'm not saying they
Speaker 1: didn't want to win, but it just didn't feel like
Speaker 1: as intense as I think in actual game would and
Speaker 1: they could still lose. I mean, this team isn't I
Speaker 1: still think they have a huge talent advantage, but it's
Speaker 1: not like it was UM in previous years. The world
Speaker 1: has definitely caught up and these teams practiced together right
Speaker 1: Like Australia, this team knows each other. You could tell
Speaker 1: their actions are Chris, they know exactly what they want
Speaker 1: to run. UM, they know what they're doing on the
Speaker 1: offensive end. Meanwhile, like team you say, is still trying
Speaker 1: to figure out The King's still trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what they wanted do. That's what I saw the difference
Speaker 1: in these first two games. Um the effort and those
Speaker 1: teams know each other a little bit more um than
Speaker 1: this one. That's super interesting that you bring that up,
Speaker 1: because I was going to say that earlier to like
Speaker 1: the these national teams generally bring the same guys to
Speaker 1: every tournament. Yeah, and Team USA is so radically different
Speaker 1: every time they send a team because it's like what
Speaker 1: what uh you know what a sponsorship type of deals
Speaker 1: or you're running over the summer that are gonna make
Speaker 1: it so that you can't get out, Like oh uh,
Speaker 1: space jam is happening, so I can't play this year?
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, you know, Like literally, that's the issue
Speaker 1: that a lot of these American players deal with that
Speaker 1: the guys overseas don't have to deal with, and so
Speaker 1: they bring the same group of guys. Um, how do
Speaker 1: you think. I don't think officiating is the reason why
Speaker 1: the Americans are struggling. I do think that they have
Speaker 1: struggled with it, but I think they can win in
Speaker 1: spite of that. What did you make of the officiating?
Speaker 1: Do you think it's impacting their ability to win these
Speaker 1: games games. Do you like the way Feeble as officiated?
Speaker 1: What has been your your thought process with that? Oh?
Speaker 1: I love the officiating. I love that they look at
Speaker 1: the ref and the ref just tells them to play on. Like,
Speaker 1: I absolutely love it that it's pretty much like open
Speaker 1: run kind of where like you can't just call these
Speaker 1: bogus fouls. You see Damon bal drive, trip on their
Speaker 1: own leg, throw the ball up, try to draw a foul,
Speaker 1: and these refs are just not buying it. Um. I love.
Speaker 1: I love the kind of physicality that they also allow.
Speaker 1: It just feels like a little bit more like not.
Speaker 1: I know it's still the modern game as well, a
Speaker 1: lot of high pick and roll, but they allow a
Speaker 1: little bit more hand checking as well. You kind of
Speaker 1: put your handle and defender um as they used to.
Speaker 1: I tooted it out. Eighty three points is inexcusable, and
Speaker 1: people are telling like, well, it's the feeble rules. A
Speaker 1: few rules does not stop Damian Lillard, Bradley Beale, Jason
Speaker 1: Tam Kevin Durant from getting baskets. USA scored one point
Speaker 1: in the final four minutes and thirty seconds of that
Speaker 1: game like that, that does shouldn't happen for a team
Speaker 1: with this much offensive talent. I don't care what the
Speaker 1: rules are, I don't care what the physicality allow. Like that,
Speaker 1: just that just should not happen. I don't think it will.
Speaker 1: But I love, I love what the rest are doing. Man,
Speaker 1: people want their FEBA reffs to kind of move into
Speaker 1: the USA. Um. I don't think that's how that works.
Speaker 1: I think they're allowed to kind of call the games
Speaker 1: this way. Um, they don't. I saw Kevin Love trying
Speaker 1: to draw a foul at the three point line. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he saw that were like he pumped baked,
Speaker 1: try to put his body into the defender and shoot
Speaker 1: at three, you know, just the unnatural shooting motion, and
Speaker 1: the ref absolutely ignored it, did not even give it
Speaker 1: any kind of any kind of daylight. So um, I
Speaker 1: love with the rest are doing. I don't think it's why.
Speaker 1: I think it's an adjustment. But like, I don't think
Speaker 1: that's why they lost these first two games. I think
Speaker 1: A hundred has to do more with effort and also
Speaker 1: continuity of the teams. Any other teams playing a lot harder,
Speaker 1: like you said, and that's where I see. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I think they'll adjust pretty quickly to these uh FEBA rules. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I I'm with you. I can't. It can't be
Speaker 1: used as an excuse. Um. Yeah, as far as like
Speaker 1: I absolutely wish the NBA was officiated in this fashion, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I do disagree with Like there was one
Speaker 1: exchange that I saw on Twitter where you know where
Speaker 1: people there's the and I've seen this kind of talking
Speaker 1: point happen a lot over the last year because officiating
Speaker 1: has been such a problem in the NBA. But it's
Speaker 1: like who's to blame. Is it the rules or is
Speaker 1: it the officials? And so many people want to blame
Speaker 1: the league in the rules, but I do I do
Speaker 1: think the officials carry a good amount of the blame
Speaker 1: because they are officiating in a way that is hurting
Speaker 1: the league. And the reason why I say that is,
Speaker 1: guess what. You're not allowed to foul people in FIBA.
Speaker 1: That's not the rule. The rule is not you're allowed
Speaker 1: to grab at you who was driving past you. The
Speaker 1: rule is not if Kevin loved pump Fakes, you're allowed
Speaker 1: to run into him while he's shooting. Those are not
Speaker 1: the rules. What's happening there is the referees are showing discretion.
Speaker 1: They are saying amongst themselves and to the players, if
Speaker 1: you try to foul bait, I'm not rewarding you. It is.
Speaker 1: It's a psychology with the refs that they are imprinting
Speaker 1: as their interpretation of the rules. In FEBA, you're not
Speaker 1: allowed to foul, but the refs are saying, if you're
Speaker 1: trying to fool me, if you're trying to flop and
Speaker 1: make it look like you're getting fouled, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: reward reward you. And that's what the basketball that's that's
Speaker 1: the way that the NBA needs to approach this is.
Speaker 1: It's not about changing rules. The rules are fine. There
Speaker 1: are a couple of rules they need to change, Like
Speaker 1: you know, obviously, you know something silly like if you
Speaker 1: attempt to draw some sort of jump shot foul. That's
Speaker 1: an unorthodox Yeah, we check out outside out of bounds
Speaker 1: instead of free throws, that sort of thing. But in
Speaker 1: terms of the nuts and bolts of the way the
Speaker 1: game is set up with the rules, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with that. Necessarily, it's officials that are baited into fouls
Speaker 1: from players. They play that game with the players, and
Speaker 1: it's a mutue and the players are partially to blame
Speaker 1: for the record. The players and the officials have built
Speaker 1: this relationship where they have allowed you to manipulate them,
Speaker 1: and and in FIBA that relationship doesn't exist. They don't
Speaker 1: put up with it, and the game is better for it.
Speaker 1: You know, if if if Kevin Love shot that exact
Speaker 1: same three without doing the crazy pump, fake lean in
Speaker 1: type of deal, and the dude hit him in the
Speaker 1: exact same way, I think he gets the call. It's
Speaker 1: it's part of that psychology they're fighting against ref manipulation,
Speaker 1: which I think is good, and so I think I
Speaker 1: think that's the part that needs to be fixed, even
Speaker 1: more so than any sort of rule change, if that
Speaker 1: makes sense. Yeah, I don't know if you caught the
Speaker 1: World Cup game to England versus um Italy World Cup,
Speaker 1: I'm not World Cup, sorry euro Final, um don't. I've
Speaker 1: heard about it, but I didn't see it. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: just it's so funny watching that and seeing the refs,
Speaker 1: like even the refs there are even more of a
Speaker 1: like like guys will in soccer. I guess guys, I'm
Speaker 1: new to soccer, so like that the guy would the
Speaker 1: guy would fall and then like he would hold his
Speaker 1: knee like in driving pain, right, like driving pain, like
Speaker 1: absolutely hold it like screaming, and the ref would just
Speaker 1: be like no, no, no, no, no, we're not doing this.
Speaker 1: And then like and then two minutes later, the guy
Speaker 1: will get up and just start playing again. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, like and they do this a lot,
Speaker 1: but the ref just does not go for it at all.
Speaker 1: They just kept trying to move on. I think they
Speaker 1: called like two about two flatterever even red cards started
Speaker 1: two cars or whatever. Yeah, yeah, two cars over the
Speaker 1: whole time. So it's amazing to watch that and then
Speaker 1: also watching Viva. Kind of the refs. Those refs don't
Speaker 1: have relationship with the players, right, NBA refs they go
Speaker 1: to every game, the players know them, know them by name,
Speaker 1: the family, whatever, And you talked about it in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Superstars in the NBA can impact a game more than
Speaker 1: any other sport. And when that happens, like there's domino
Speaker 1: effects to that. So superstars also have relationship with the refs.
Speaker 1: They have a little bit more, you know, they just
Speaker 1: know them a little more. It's just funny watching Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal and Dame falling and look around for like a
Speaker 1: ref they know, and there's no ref they know, so
Speaker 1: they have to like just keep playing. Is it's so
Speaker 1: funny to kind of watch that, And I would like
Speaker 1: that a little bit more in the NBA, for sure.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you uphold that, especially when these
Speaker 1: rests have been in the league for twenty thirty years.
Speaker 1: You know, the same refs of rep the final, I
Speaker 1: think they said, like I forgot who the name was
Speaker 1: the referee, but where everything like twenty finals or on
Speaker 1: like that, Like you've been repping the same way for
Speaker 1: a very long time. Um, and I just don't think
Speaker 1: that's going to switch anytime soon. So I don't know
Speaker 1: where they go from there. Human beings are creatures of
Speaker 1: habit and and and But that's what I figured she
Speaker 1: said anyway. Anyway, But my dad used to say this
Speaker 1: to me all the time, like people as they get,
Speaker 1: as they get older, it's far less likely for them
Speaker 1: to change. So I agree with you. I think I
Speaker 1: think it's something that that that gets complicated, you know.
Speaker 1: At the at the end of the day, I'm okay
Speaker 1: with players taking a gamesmanship from players. I'm okay with
Speaker 1: players taking advantage of the way things are. That's part
Speaker 1: of just a desire to win. We talked about this
Speaker 1: with Chris Paul last week. However, I think part of
Speaker 1: the league's job is to legislate gamesmanship out of the game,
Speaker 1: because gamesmanship should not determine who wins. It should be
Speaker 1: who's the better basketball team. So like, I'm pro taking
Speaker 1: advantage of it while you can. However, I think it's
Speaker 1: the league's job to get it out. It's important for
Speaker 1: the league to find out how to stop this sort
Speaker 1: of thing. Guys James Harden grabbing an arm and throwing
Speaker 1: him up in the air, or or Dame Lillard just
Speaker 1: throwing his body on the ground trying to draw jump
Speaker 1: shot out all of that. In my opinion, they need
Speaker 1: to try to get it out because it's not basketball,
Speaker 1: you know that. And and then guess what, Dame is
Speaker 1: really good. He's gonna find a way to be effective
Speaker 1: without it. That's just the way that that that's the
Speaker 1: way that those top echelon stars are. Did you have
Speaker 1: anything else on Team USA for me move on? The
Speaker 1: only thing was, like, I think they're going to figure
Speaker 1: it out and I think the craziest thing was, like,
Speaker 1: I hope people are joking about the Katie can't handle
Speaker 1: the pressure of a second exposition game. Like, I think
Speaker 1: those takes are really funny and kind of crazy. I
Speaker 1: guess that's kind of what Twitter is for. But um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I think that's pretty much it. Man. I
Speaker 1: don't know what. I don't want to take too much
Speaker 1: from two exhibition games. Um, it's hard to really break down.
Speaker 1: It felt like they were just playing a friendly with
Speaker 1: another team that was going really hard. So people should
Speaker 1: calm down. The USA is gonna be fine. That going
Speaker 1: to go out in like the first round or something, though,
Speaker 1: they'll be fine. I'm glad you mentioned that because I
Speaker 1: actually thought about this yesterday, Like, it sucks so bad. Now,
Speaker 1: First of all, Twitter trolls are Twitter trolls. You're never
Speaker 1: gonna satis. But it sucks so bad that Katie was
Speaker 1: so incredible in that playoff run and here he comes
Speaker 1: into this really funky basketball situation, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: it's just really hard. I mean like it's it's it's
Speaker 1: really hard for guys after never playing together before, to
Speaker 1: just come together and figure out how to play basketball.
Speaker 1: So I I sympathize with Kevin Durant because he's gonna
Speaker 1: get if they do happen to lose, which is certainly
Speaker 1: a possibility, He's gonna get blamed, and I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think that's fair. But at the end of the day, like,
Speaker 1: because we know why Kevin Durants there. Kevin Durant there
Speaker 1: because he loves to play basketball and he had an
Speaker 1: opportunity to play more basketball. I be I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if he plays in four years. Like this is
Speaker 1: just the way Kevin Durant is and it just sucks
Speaker 1: because he's gonna get blamed for this if it goes south.
Speaker 1: I don't think that that's fair. Yeah, really quickly before
Speaker 1: we get out of here, I wanted to do two things.
Speaker 1: We're gonna quickly touch on Ben Simmons and then and
Speaker 1: then we'll tell our stupid stories. So, um, Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: news came down, not a shock. We all expected this.
Speaker 1: Let's just make this really simple. Where do you want
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons to end up? Man, I have no clue,
Speaker 1: to be honest, I would like a team where, like
Speaker 1: I would have loved him in Houston kind of where
Speaker 1: they can kind of build around him and kind of
Speaker 1: build around his strength as like a driver, transition player,
Speaker 1: um finding shooters. But like watching the playoffs, I wonder
Speaker 1: how much that's more theoretical than like actually who he is.
Speaker 1: Like if you give Ben Simmons his own team, is
Speaker 1: that how it would work? Or does he still become
Speaker 1: really like, uh, kind of shy on the court or
Speaker 1: like you know, kind of melts under like real playoff
Speaker 1: type intensity. I have no clue. I think he does
Speaker 1: need a new situation and looks like he's going to
Speaker 1: get that. So I wouldn't like to see him on
Speaker 1: like some super rebuilding team though, like like Orlando or
Speaker 1: something where you know, it's just like if you get
Speaker 1: Ben Spence, him is there, it's just like it's it's
Speaker 1: it doesn't really help your team. In my opinion, he
Speaker 1: needs a good team around him. He needs shooters. I
Speaker 1: really don't know, how about you. Do you have like
Speaker 1: a team that that you would like him to go to.
Speaker 1: So I just want to see what it would look
Speaker 1: like if he played in the true five out system
Speaker 1: where he was able to get to the rim or
Speaker 1: kick out the shooters, because those are strengths his strengths
Speaker 1: are he can get to the rim and and he's
Speaker 1: a great passer. He's great at finding openings in a defense.
Speaker 1: You know. Uh in the times when he had success
Speaker 1: in Philly, a lot of it had to do with
Speaker 1: when Joe El Embiid was down early on and he
Speaker 1: was just the guy the team that I that I've
Speaker 1: seen brought up that makes a lot of sense to me.
Speaker 1: As Minnesota, I think it'd be really interesting because of
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns if you could somehow do some sort
Speaker 1: of swap where Ben Simmons goes and I don't know
Speaker 1: if he said D'Angelo Russell back or or or a
Speaker 1: bunch of draft picks or whatever. It looks like you're
Speaker 1: capitalizing in that case on Ben Simmons being cheap right
Speaker 1: now because he just played so poorly. But Minnesota would
Speaker 1: be a really interesting one because it'd be a true
Speaker 1: five out system. He'd be running pick and rolls with
Speaker 1: a guy who can pop to the three point line
Speaker 1: and shoot you know, forte on wide open three point
Speaker 1: shots like Carl Towns, and there's a lot of talent
Speaker 1: on that roster. With the guy like Anthony Edwards. You know,
Speaker 1: there's some spacing issues there because he's not a great shooter,
Speaker 1: but that that would be a team, the kind of
Speaker 1: team that I think would make sense. I just don't
Speaker 1: want to see him go to another place where he's
Speaker 1: gonna have the exact same problems that he had before,
Speaker 1: if that made sense for sure. And the sun of
Speaker 1: this that, like I see a lot of people bringing
Speaker 1: up trade like Phillies and win now mode, Like they
Speaker 1: can't replace Ben Simmons with like three first round picks.
Speaker 1: That doesn't do anything for him. That the jewel and
Speaker 1: reads and window mode. That Philly team is a window mode.
Speaker 1: They're playing Tobias Harris bi jillion dollars, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like, that's where they are if you swap
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. D'Angelo Russell like to me, like if I'm
Speaker 1: looking that at as Philly, like my offense gets a
Speaker 1: bit better, like I have a better pick and roll
Speaker 1: a ball handler, but my defense gets insanely worse right
Speaker 1: like and and that Philly team to me, is built
Speaker 1: around this like rugged defense and bea Simmons kind of
Speaker 1: manning the manning the helm with that and then um
Speaker 1: kind of getting enough offense from there. I don't know
Speaker 1: where they go, like who is who or who is
Speaker 1: trading Philly a good enough player that replaces Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: um to where they're better, Like those options are so
Speaker 1: low to me. Again, team like Houston, I don't know
Speaker 1: what they would have to give up again, like the
Speaker 1: team you men in Minnesota. D'Angel Russell is probably the
Speaker 1: most likely one for salary matches. But I don't know
Speaker 1: if that makes Philly better like that there in wind
Speaker 1: now Mo. That's what makes it so interesting. Usually, like
Speaker 1: you don't trade your second All star, like you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, who's twenty I don't know how old
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons is. He's like twenty seven years old. But
Speaker 1: they absolutely just create came in the press, They created
Speaker 1: him after the game to where you have to trade him.
Speaker 1: You can't bring Ben Simmons back. Um. So it's they're
Speaker 1: in a weird situation where like everybody knows they're trying
Speaker 1: to trade him, and like, so you're gonna get two
Speaker 1: Michian returns on that in my opinion. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: like the Warriors would would they take like a Draymond Back.
Speaker 1: I don't know how that would work and why why?
Speaker 1: Why would they do that, Why would Portland want Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons to take the ball out of Damian Lillard's hand?
Speaker 1: You know, like why would You're right? Like for both
Speaker 1: for for to make sense for both teams. It needs
Speaker 1: Philly to stay relevant and it needs and it needs
Speaker 1: the team that they're going to to actually need a
Speaker 1: ball handler because that's what Ben Simmons is. And I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, it's it's it's really tricky. I don't know.
Speaker 1: If you go to Sacramento and I don't know, try
Speaker 1: to do like a Deer and Fox type of deal,
Speaker 1: but I don't know why they would do that. Like
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's tough because Ben Simmons presents a
Speaker 1: problem to whoever takes him. You need him to have
Speaker 1: ball in his hands because he can't do anything off
Speaker 1: the ball. So that that that's the that's the issue
Speaker 1: that's presented if he if he doesn't have the ball,
Speaker 1: he has to stay in the dunker spot, you know,
Speaker 1: and he becomes basically like a like Andre Roberson, you know,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's what he becomes if his if if
Speaker 1: he can't be have the ball in his hands. So
Speaker 1: I'm with you, man, it's A, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: tough one. I don't I don't necessarily know what the
Speaker 1: answer is. Let me throw one at you. So like
Speaker 1: I see Philly fans, you know they're they're already had
Speaker 1: their Dame photoshops or whatever. If Dame kind of requests
Speaker 1: a trap, I'm not saying he would, but like if
Speaker 1: he did, is like Simmons and thiable enough you think
Speaker 1: or do you think they able to get more for
Speaker 1: Dame on like an open and open market, Like I
Speaker 1: feel like that's the kind of deal where like Portland
Speaker 1: kind of feel good, like they get a budding superstar
Speaker 1: in Portland where you know, free agents don't really come
Speaker 1: at twenty four years old, he's locked into a contract
Speaker 1: and you get a young guy like Kibal. Maybe Philly
Speaker 1: throws in a couple more things, but I feel like
Speaker 1: that's the kind of deal where both teams can kind
Speaker 1: of walk away from the table and feel like we
Speaker 1: got something. But Ben Simmons played so poorly. Like when
Speaker 1: you think now, when you look at it, you think
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons for Dame, You're like, oh man, that's that
Speaker 1: feels like a lot for Dames. I mean, not enough
Speaker 1: for Dame. So what do you think about that one?
Speaker 1: Because that's the one I've been kind of thinking about. Um,
Speaker 1: that's the only one that really makes sense to me
Speaker 1: from like where that would work money wise, and the
Speaker 1: team has a team built for him kind of where
Speaker 1: you can Reportland can still kind of edit their roster
Speaker 1: to kind of maneuver around Simmons um since and then
Speaker 1: they'll obviously moving the column. I'm guessing in that situation,
Speaker 1: but like that's the only kind of real deal. I see,
Speaker 1: what do you think about that one? Have you? Have
Speaker 1: you seen the title odds for next year? Mm? Hmm,
Speaker 1: so did you so the title odds for next year?
Speaker 1: So Golden State as the third most likely team to
Speaker 1: win the championship, behind the Lakers and nets um which,
Speaker 1: think to yourself, is there any reason why Golden State
Speaker 1: should be considered better than the Clippers next year, or
Speaker 1: the Sun's or or Denver Like? No, right, because Golden
Speaker 1: State is basically getting back Clay Thompson, who is more
Speaker 1: or less coming off too incredibly severe injuries. There the
Speaker 1: reason why Vegas has Golden State as the third favorite
Speaker 1: is they know that if a star comes available this summer,
Speaker 1: no one's beating their offer, because if you get if
Speaker 1: if you're trading with Golden State, what you're getting back
Speaker 1: is probably going to be Wiggan Wiggins Wiseman seven and fourteen.
Speaker 1: So you're getting a salary filler type of dude in Wiggins,
Speaker 1: You're getting James Wiseman, who was one of the top
Speaker 1: prospects in last year's draft, and you're getting two lottery
Speaker 1: picks this year. There's no offer out there that can
Speaker 1: match that, including including Ben Simmons. So what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is the way Ben Simmons could bring back someone of
Speaker 1: Dame's caliber or Bradley Beale's caliber is only if both
Speaker 1: of them get traded. Because if one of them comes available,
Speaker 1: Golden States beating you because why would you want Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons if you could have Wiseman and two lottery picks
Speaker 1: from this draft? If that makes sense, because Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: is like we kind of already know what he is,
Speaker 1: which is an extremely flawed star. Wiseman could very well
Speaker 1: be another futuristic center, and the two picks from this
Speaker 1: draft could be anything like you know, I I have
Speaker 1: a feeling Vegas snows. Golden State's gonna win the bidding
Speaker 1: war for the star that comes available this summer. If
Speaker 1: that makes sense, it does. I just maybe that's a
Speaker 1: great offer for Bradley Beal. But like my my ow
Speaker 1: thing was that I don't think Wiseman showed end up
Speaker 1: like Wiseman I think has a lot of potential. It
Speaker 1: just I don't think he showed enough in that first
Speaker 1: year to kind of warrant to be like this center
Speaker 1: of a trade package. Seven and fourteen are great picks,
Speaker 1: but like fourteen is the middle of the first round.
Speaker 1: Seven is late, not late lottery. But like, if you're Philly,
Speaker 1: what does that do for you? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like law for Ben Simmons to the Warriors, they offer you, Wiggins. No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you. I'm not saying Philly would trade
Speaker 1: for the Golden State package. What I'm saying is, so
Speaker 1: you had mentioned what if Philly went after Dame, And
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is if Dame was available, Philly is
Speaker 1: not winning because Golden State has a better package. What
Speaker 1: what What I'm explicitly saying is that Philly can't win.
Speaker 1: Philly can't win a bidding war for a superstar unless
Speaker 1: two of them become available, because the first one, Golden
Speaker 1: State's gonna win. In my opinion, They're gonna have their pick.
Speaker 1: If both if both Bradley Beale and Damian Lillard this
Speaker 1: summer come out and say we want to trade, then
Speaker 1: Golden States getting whichever one of those two they want,
Speaker 1: and then Ben Simmons might be the one who closes
Speaker 1: the deal on the other. But if only Beal is available,
Speaker 1: Golden State's getting him. If only Dame is available, Golden
Speaker 1: State's getting them in my opinion, because of the fact
Speaker 1: that their trade package, everyone else is going to be
Speaker 1: able to offer distant draft pick years down the line.
Speaker 1: They might be able to get a young star, but
Speaker 1: Golden State's the only one that can give you the
Speaker 1: young prospect in Wiseman and the draft picks and a
Speaker 1: solid role player someone like Andrew Wiggins. Or they could
Speaker 1: probably sign and trade an ubree into there to fill
Speaker 1: salary or something along those lines. But Golden State has
Speaker 1: the treasure trove of assets that they they have the
Speaker 1: Godfather offer, which is why Vegas has Golden State as
Speaker 1: more likely to win the title next year than Phoenix
Speaker 1: or the Clippers. You know what I mean, Like, look
Speaker 1: at how good Phoenix is in Vegas thinks the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors are more likely to win next year, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? No, yeah, for sure. I guess
Speaker 1: like just from my perspective, I feel like most teams
Speaker 1: in markets like Lollington in Portland's they want the surefire
Speaker 1: star like I feel like they would like just this
Speaker 1: is my preference, Like I feel like they would take
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons over over that offer. But you might be right.
Speaker 1: I'm Oklahoma City obviously has the crazy draft capital where
Speaker 1: if they want too, they could throw thirty first round
Speaker 1: picks as some team and say, you know, try to
Speaker 1: retract that offer. So it's just interesting, um how that works.
Speaker 1: I follow Warriors people and like they kind of I
Speaker 1: think they feel like the Warriors aren't going to trade
Speaker 1: both of those picks, right, just well, at least just
Speaker 1: like the consensus I'm seeing, Like because they just hired
Speaker 1: two draft coach developmental coaches I think and at Kenny
Speaker 1: Atkinson and someone else. Um, just showing like I think
Speaker 1: they're really gonna try to invest in They're trying to
Speaker 1: do both, right, They're trying to win now and also
Speaker 1: invest in young players. And when you do both, you
Speaker 1: do neither right. So so, but I feel like that's
Speaker 1: where they're going with this. UM. I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: try to do this a little bit too right when
Speaker 1: they had Lebron that first year, and also try to
Speaker 1: develop Alonzo and Ingram and you know, and Couz and
Speaker 1: acoustall on the team. But like you know, they try
Speaker 1: to do both and then you find out you do
Speaker 1: neither doing that. UM, you don't win enough to to
Speaker 1: go in that route. So I don't know, I feel
Speaker 1: like that's a good offer. I just don't think for
Speaker 1: a winning team that makes sense. Maybe for Shington, but
Speaker 1: like so Fantasy World, Fantasy World Lakers, they need to
Speaker 1: trade Lebron for some reason. Would you rather have Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons and Phillies draft first round draft picks for the
Speaker 1: next seven years or would you rather have Wiggins Wiseman
Speaker 1: in fourteen and seven? If I'm trading Lebron James, I
Speaker 1: need a lot more than just fantasy. Do you think
Speaker 1: is better? Yeah, you're if you're a team that is
Speaker 1: somewhat relevant like that. That's so interesting. I feel like
Speaker 1: if eight is still on the roster, I would probably
Speaker 1: still go with the Simmons package. I'd take the Star
Speaker 1: and then just figure the rest out later at seven
Speaker 1: and fourteen, aren't going to help me in the next
Speaker 1: two years, three years. Like I'm in wind now mode.
Speaker 1: I have eighty on a maxim. But if I'm Washington
Speaker 1: or Portland and losing Dame or Bill, I'm going full rebuild.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's you're going to prioritize the Golden State package everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, if you're those teams, you get the two
Speaker 1: pigs plus wise men probably plus even a little bit more.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, like like Bill goes, Bild goes on
Speaker 1: the open market, Like I think every team's gonna throw
Speaker 1: their best offer, um the word. Maybe the Warriors offers
Speaker 1: the best. I don't know. I've really looked. I haven't
Speaker 1: really seen the market, but it's interesting. Man, I don't
Speaker 1: know where Simmons goes, but he's definitely not in Philly, right.
Speaker 1: I think we agree with that. Next year he'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I think he'll be gone unless unless everyone stings you
Speaker 1: with their offers. But we'll see. I tend to think
Speaker 1: that it's more everyone always says like, oh, wait till
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, Wait till the trade deadline. I tend
Speaker 1: to think that it's way better to get a guy
Speaker 1: in for training camp, and that's the urgency, you know. Like,
Speaker 1: I think part of the reason why the Lakers looked
Speaker 1: so good with a d is that they went through
Speaker 1: a whole season with a training camp rather than trading
Speaker 1: for him at the previous trade deadline, you know, and
Speaker 1: having to be crazy in that regard. Um, did you
Speaker 1: have anything else on this or do you want to
Speaker 1: get to our last topic before we get out here? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think that was good on Simmons. I'll be quick
Speaker 1: because I know you gotta go to work. But this
Speaker 1: was a hilarious story because I I I like to
Speaker 1: think that that you and I are fully functioning, intelligent
Speaker 1: human beings and and but every once in a while
Speaker 1: we have are our incredibly stupid moments. And I've had
Speaker 1: more than more than enough for one lifetime. But I
Speaker 1: had never run out of gas before. And for the record,
Speaker 1: I didn't technically run out of gas. But what happened
Speaker 1: was is I was going to go golfing with my
Speaker 1: brother and I was driving across town and I was
Speaker 1: running a little bit late for the tea time, and
Speaker 1: I saw that I only had like seven miles of
Speaker 1: range you know, and obviously this is a different era.
Speaker 1: You and I talked before the podcast, like, how do
Speaker 1: you know when you're going to run out of gas?
Speaker 1: Like you'd see the E symbol and you know you
Speaker 1: can go some amount past it, but you don't know
Speaker 1: how far before you run out. Well, the range is
Speaker 1: like a number, and I'm very analytical thinker thinker, So
Speaker 1: when I see, oh, I have seven miles of range,
Speaker 1: they're literally saying like, I can go seven miles and
Speaker 1: then the thing is gonna stop, you know. So so
Speaker 1: my wife and I had plans that night. So I
Speaker 1: get in the car after golfing and I called my wife.
Speaker 1: And as I'm talking to my wife, I drive by
Speaker 1: a few gas stations. I get off the phone with
Speaker 1: my wife. I'm on a major Tusson Street. Okay, major
Speaker 1: Tusson Street, major cross street that goes across the entire city.
Speaker 1: I get on it, and I get off the phone
Speaker 1: with my wife, and I look down. I only have
Speaker 1: five miles of range, and I go, Okay, I need
Speaker 1: to stop at the next gas station I see, but
Speaker 1: I'm on this major street, so I'm just gonna go. Well,
Speaker 1: I start driving and I make it a few blocks down.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, I have to two miles of
Speaker 1: range and I haven't seen a gas station, and and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, So I quickly pull over in the
Speaker 1: side of the road into a into a little shopping center,
Speaker 1: and I'll pull up the GPS and there's randomly, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, on this big stretch of street, no gas
Speaker 1: stations in this like entire little sea is stretch of Tusson.
Speaker 1: And so I'm like, oh my god, I'm I literally
Speaker 1: can't get to a gas station right now. I look
Speaker 1: up the GPS, and I look up all the gas
Speaker 1: stations nearby. Nothing's within four miles. I literally had to uber,
Speaker 1: uh in a hundred and seven degree heat to a
Speaker 1: gas station. I get to the gas station and there's
Speaker 1: no gas can. I look on the shelf, says gas can.
Speaker 1: There's no gas can. I go to the lady. I'm like,
Speaker 1: can you check in the back She doesn't have one.
Speaker 1: I had to uber to another gas station, get to there.
Speaker 1: There's no gas can, and I go up to the
Speaker 1: guy and I'm like, hey, man, can you please go
Speaker 1: look at your backstock for for a gas can? And
Speaker 1: he's like he's like, well, we don't have backstock, but
Speaker 1: we've got a shed outside. But I'm the only one
Speaker 1: working today, so I can't leave the store. And I'm
Speaker 1: like about to lose my mind. I look at the
Speaker 1: guy and I'm like, I'll watch the store. Can you
Speaker 1: please go out there, I'm stranded, you know that. Finally
Speaker 1: the guy that goes out and he comes back in
Speaker 1: with a gas can and uh and then he's all like,
Speaker 1: I found one. I'm like, yeah, thanks, appreciate it to
Speaker 1: buy it, fill up with gas, drive all the way
Speaker 1: back by the time I got home, and it's taken
Speaker 1: me two hours to do like a thirty minute drive.
Speaker 1: And again, as Roger and I were discussing, and this
Speaker 1: is something I'm hoping that somebody can answer for us.
Speaker 1: If the range says seven miles, does that actually means
Speaker 1: seven miles or does it go to zero? And then
Speaker 1: you enter some weird twilight zone where you can keep driving.
Speaker 1: Because I don't know, because I could have risked it
Speaker 1: and driven to the gas station. I just didn't want
Speaker 1: to get stranded on the side of the busy street,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I don't know would
Speaker 1: you have kept going or would you have done what
Speaker 1: I did. I would have definitely kept going. I have
Speaker 1: kept going before so my car as well. So it
Speaker 1: will say like it'll say twenty miles and then at
Speaker 1: like the at like eleven miles, it'll stop telling the number.
Speaker 1: It'll just do this little like it'll start beeping, not beaping,
Speaker 1: but like it'll show like a flashing, so it won't
Speaker 1: tell me like one mile left or zero mile left.
Speaker 1: After like it get past ten miles left, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I go to a gas station, but I've definitely like, um,
Speaker 1: gone close to the gone really close to leg zero
Speaker 1: for sure or past it. I don't know the exact number.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's the exact one I was telling
Speaker 1: you before we recorded. I've seen like a news poor
Speaker 1: like they they went like thirty miles past zero something
Speaker 1: before it finally went out. So I think you would
Speaker 1: have been fine. I understand you're not risking it, but
Speaker 1: I think you would have made it home for sure,
Speaker 1: because they know, like the human kind of like people
Speaker 1: are going to try to test that, so they can't
Speaker 1: make it in exact in my opinion, like it's just
Speaker 1: not how that how that works. But I think it's
Speaker 1: smart that you didn't test it to not get you know,
Speaker 1: stranded there, but I think you would have made it
Speaker 1: home in my opinion, Yeah, you would have definitely made
Speaker 1: it home. It's it's so funny because like, I turned
Speaker 1: thirty in less than a month. August nine was my birthday,
Speaker 1: so I made it almost thirty years without that happening.
Speaker 1: And my wife never let me hear the end of it,
Speaker 1: because I've given her crap before for letting her range
Speaker 1: get too low, but she's never going out of gas
Speaker 1: like I did. So Yeah, anyway, it's just funny. We've
Speaker 1: all had our moments. But like, man, that was like
Speaker 1: I was like for that entire hour and a half
Speaker 1: saga of me looking for a gas station that had
Speaker 1: a gas can I have. I was talking so much
Speaker 1: shipped to myself in my head about how such an
Speaker 1: idiot I was. I was so frustrated and it was ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I was so upset with myself. Anyway, did you have
Speaker 1: a story of something stupid that you've done that you
Speaker 1: wanted to show. I was gonna stick to the car,
Speaker 1: I guess so like back in college, like I used to,
Speaker 1: You know, in college, you stay up late, you do
Speaker 1: you know, assignments and stuff like that. And this is
Speaker 1: I don't remember what I was like eighteen nineteen years old.
Speaker 1: So I used to live near the school and I
Speaker 1: drive home on like so i'd have class, let's say it,
Speaker 1: from like till like one, I'd go home and go
Speaker 1: back for like a class around three thirty, right, And
Speaker 1: so I was always dumb because like I'm like, what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do at home after drive fifteen minutes. But
Speaker 1: like it's just like a it just feels good to
Speaker 1: go home for a little bit during the day and
Speaker 1: then like I'd be so sleepy though, so like I
Speaker 1: drive like i'd be tired, and I get home like
Speaker 1: I had to go back. So one time, like I'm
Speaker 1: ranking front of the school. It's like a red light.
Speaker 1: And me, stupidly, when you're sleeping, you tell yourself a
Speaker 1: lot of things. I'm like, it's a red light. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick nap, I swear. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a quick nap for a second. So
Speaker 1: like so I should have put the car and break,
Speaker 1: to be honest, but I didn't. I'm like, my foot's
Speaker 1: on the break, like I'm gonna know this light is
Speaker 1: no longer than two minutes, you know, So like I
Speaker 1: swear so like I closed my eyes for a second
Speaker 1: and like you don't know what's going on, so like
Speaker 1: and then like I wake up to a boom. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh damnit. So this this is right in front of
Speaker 1: the school. And it's just hilarious because like the guy
Speaker 1: I actually ran into, he was like he's actually a teacher,
Speaker 1: which is funny, and he's he's like, yeah, what happened.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I don't know, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: and it didn't mess his car but all like his
Speaker 1: car was fine. But yeah, that's one dumb thing. And
Speaker 1: I never did that again ever. I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: never ever ever going to try to close my eyes
Speaker 1: when I'm out of red life. It's sad because I
Speaker 1: was like riding in front of the school too, so
Speaker 1: that was a sad part about it. But dude, that's
Speaker 1: completely hilarious. But I think, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: life has a way of putting you down sometimes to
Speaker 1: to kind of keep you even keeled and keep you
Speaker 1: like every time, like like it's I feel like this
Speaker 1: with basketball, Like every time I go on a stretch
Speaker 1: where for two weeks I'm just busting everybody's ass and
Speaker 1: no one can guard me. I always have like a
Speaker 1: random bad day, and I feel like that's like the
Speaker 1: basketball gods were like saying, like you're not ship Jason,
Speaker 1: You're not sure, Like I feel like that's just part
Speaker 1: of the process. But like I that's hilarious because like I, well,
Speaker 1: I I have another one that I'll share on another day.
Speaker 1: But like I think that's just God's way, Nature's way,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call its way of of just
Speaker 1: reminding us that we're not all that and we need
Speaker 1: to we need to stay grounded. But anyway, roj, I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you taking over an hour today, um to
Speaker 1: hang out. And I guess Game two or Game four
Speaker 1: is tomorrow, so we'll plan on Thursday morning. For now, Thursday,
Speaker 1: let's do it all right. Thank you everybody for listening in.
Speaker 1: I will have the podcast version of this up shortly.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the rest of your day and we will see
Speaker 1: you on Thursday. Thanks everyone,