WEBVTT - 10 Reactions From LeBron to 76ers: Fit with Jaylen Brown, Embiid, Maxey + Steph Curry's future 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:16.799 The volume. All right, Well, good to Hoops to night 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:18.800 here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. Hope all you 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.280 guys are having a great start to your weekend. I 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.880 spent all night thinking about that Lebron James moved to Philly. 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:26.880 Had a lot of time to kind of think through 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.000 all the different angles and storylines and hit on a 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:31.440 bunch of stuff that we didn't get to hit in 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:33.760 the instant reaction yesterday. So I thought the best format 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:35.720 for us to be able to do that is to 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:41.080 go through the top ten takeaways from Lebron's move to Philly. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:42.720 You guys know the drip before we get started. Subscribe 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:44.120 to the Hoops and YouTube channel so you don't miss 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:45.519 any more of our videos. We have a goal to 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:47.680 get two hundred and fifty thousand subs. You need about 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:49.839 seventy five hundred more. So if you guys could help 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:51.519 us by scrolling down and hit that subscribe button, it 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:53.440 would help us a lot. If you're already subscribed like 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.160 this video, sign up for post notifications, that helps us 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.680 a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball. Number one 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.920 simple and E Lebron really wants to win again. You 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.200 know I did a video right when Lebron announced that 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.600 he was leaving LA and we did a breakdown of 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:13.839 like I think it was like top five or top 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.480 six Lebron destinations. And in that list, if you guys remember, 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:20.959 I had like all these different factors that I was 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:25.319 talking about. I talked about like off court fit, how 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.280 it goes with this family, public perception, all these like 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.480 different things. And one of the segments was like basketball fit, 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.200 like on court talent. One of the segments was like 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.720 ability to compete for a championship. But I had like 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.760 five or six different factors that I thought Lebron would 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.280 consider when making his decision. And I thought that the 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.560 simplest way that we can interpret Lebron's decision to go 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:53.880 to Philly is that all those other things didn't matter. 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:58.120 He clearly didn't care about how convenient it was to 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.640 spend time with his family. There was even some reporting 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.920 yesterday that you might consider like living in living in 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.080 New York and taking a helicopter to Philly. I have 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.760 no idea what the logistics will look like. I'm sure 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.680 Lebron doesn't even know yet. I'm sure he's contemplating lots 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.360 of options, but Philly was certainly one of the most 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:19.359 inconvenient places for him to go play with the way 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.799 his life has changed in terms of off court fit. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.440 What a bizarre group of personalities. You've got a second 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.120 year player in vj Edgecomb, a young up and coming 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.720 guard in Tyrese Maaxi, a heart of his prime All 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.160 NBA player in Jalen Brown, and then kind of like 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.440 a post prime injury prone Joel Embiid. It's a very 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.600 interesting mix of personalities. I don't think Lebron picked Philly 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.480 because he wanted to hang out with the guys, right Like, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:50.040 it's there's and there's just very clearly a This was 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.280 just a belief that this would give him his best 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.079 chance to win a championship, but also in the context 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.960 of him being able to contribute and help them get 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.280 over the top, not necessarily a situation like we'll talk 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.720 about in our next segment, involving him going to a 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.160 team that could kind of win with or without him, right. 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.640 I think that that is super revealing in this case, 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.000 because I've talked about this before. Lebron for some reason, 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:19.720 because he's jovial and happy and he can be a goofball. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.720 Sometimes he's famed like Austin Reeves talked about that after 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:24.360 he left. He's just a big kid in the locker 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.520 room because he's not like your stereotypical Kobe Bryant, Michael 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:33.440 Jordan like kind of like asshole personality. Combine that with 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.920 like him going to Los Angeles, him being somewhat of 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.080 a showman. There's a lot of people that have tried 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.320 to paint this picture that Lebron James doesn't care as 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.640 much about the competitiveness and the winning side of basketball, 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:46.960 that he's more in it for these like other reasons. 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.960 And I've always thought that was a ridiculous characterization because 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:52.800 if you dig into anything, if you listen to anybody 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.560 who's actually been on his team, they talk about his 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.880 psychotic work ethic and how he's always showing up to 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.240 the arena way before, and the way he cares about 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.680 his diet, the way he manages his body, and all 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.960 these different things. You only do those things if you 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.400 care about winning, and Lebron himself has said, keep the 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.800 main thing, the main thing. Lebron very clearly is one 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.520 of the best competitors in the history of the league, 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.600 certainly one of the best competitors, if not the best 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.279 competitor of this era, meaning if you just quantified not 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:29.799 his natural ability, not his his skill set, not his anything, 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:34.400 but you just quantified his desire to win, he would 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.400 be near the top, if not at the top of 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.440 the list in recent NBA history and in all of 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.560 NBA history. In many ways. I left yesterday going like, 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.360 maybe we should have considered that more when we were 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.360 talking about his decision, because the Philly decision was shocking, right, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.200 I know, I personally wasn't super high on it. In 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.560 the process, I was looking at Miami and Golden State. 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:58.719 Is my two favorites, Golden State being number one, Miami 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.080 number two. I thought Cleveland around three in terms of likelihood, 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:04.640 and then I had Philly at four. Philly ends up 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.960 winning the race and had if we had paid more 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.880 attention to the simple fact that Lebron cares about winning 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.560 more than anything else, then we probably would have cared 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.560 more about Philly. Now, it's more complicated than it looks 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:22.200 on the surface, because there are obvious fit stuff of 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.400 fit ramifications when it comes to trying to put together 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:29.680 this type of this group of talent, Right, And what 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.240 I kind of thought after thinking about that throughout the 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.240 night last night, because I actually agree that, like if 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:40.120 Lebron were to go to Miami, for example, I think 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:41.760 they'd be better than if he would have went to 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.920 Philly right away. If Lebron, even if he would have 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.440 gone to Golden State, even if they never would have 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.320 made another trade, because of the natural basketball fit, I 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.680 could see Lebron and Draymond and Steph and you know, 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.400 their four depth and their center depth. I could see 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.320 them clicking more than Philly right away. Same goes with 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:06.200 even Cleveland because they have such an existing infrastructure. I 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:11.560 think Philly is a long term bet from Lebron that 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:15.520 if they do happen to figure it out and maximize 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.520 the sum of their parts, that the sheer amount of 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:23.280 talent is of a level that supersedes all of these 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.280 other options that he had on the table. In other words, 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.599 I think Lebron looked at the situation and went, if 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.760 I'm gonna win a title, we're gonna have to get 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:33.760 lucky in terms of health. We're gonna have to get 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.400 lucky in terms of guys meshing together and reaching a 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.280 level greater than the sum of their parts. And if 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.920 you look at the spectrum of all the available outcomes. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.719 Does Philly have a lower floor than Golden State, than Miami, 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:52.280 than Cleveland, Yes, I do believe so. But the ceiling 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.279 with all those guys, if they do figure it out, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.160 is higher. And I think Lebron was looking at it 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.360 from the perspective of his opportunity to if they do 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.560 capture that ceiling, achieve what he ultimately wants, which is 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:08.440 an opportunity to win a championship. I thought that was 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.400 really fascinating. He kind of showed in his tweets yesterday too. 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.679 If you guys remember he was like saying about family 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.520 and saying about money, and like, clearly not because he 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.720 took a veteran minimum contract and he moved twenty five 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.960 hundred miles away from his family. So like, it's very 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.480 clear that Lebron is like, if I'm gonna do this, 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.800 if I'm gonna put my body through this, if I'm 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.000 going to dedicate myself to this craft for an additional 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.680 year or two, I'm gonna do it with the intention 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.560 of hoisting the trophy. And he clearly thought Philly had 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.440 the best opportunity for him to do that. Now, again, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.080 I think there's an argument in debate surrounding like, I 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.800 do think there are versions of this story where other 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.920 options would have been better for him than Philly, But 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:56.240 I don't think the best case scenario for any of 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:00.360 the teams is as high as Philly's best case scenario 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:06.560 was number two. No, Lebron is not ring chasing. Now. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:11.320 This is a subjective kind of like phrase that we're 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.720 looking at here, and there's a lot of different interpretations 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.560 of it. Like if your basic interpretation of ring chasing 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:24.800 is just is Lebron trying to win the title? Like, yeah, 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.880 he's ring chasing. He's been ring chasing for twenty three 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:32.120 years now, so like even Steph Curry on the Warriors 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.040 right now is ring chasing. He wants to win a ring, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.760 right Everyone wants to win. No one wants to play 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:38.520 on a bad team. I don't. I've yet to see 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.319 an NBA player that goes into a situation or raises 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:42.840 their hand and goes I would like to play on 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.560 a bottom ten roster so that I can try to 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.560 win the title and have it somehow mean more. Even 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.280 though no team has ever won the title without a 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.720 great accumulation of talent, Even in situations where teams do 0:08:56.000 --> 0:09:01.640 supersede their talent level. It involves low level players achieving 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.600 a level of greatness that even extends beyond what their 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:10.319 reputation is. Right, you go back to you go back 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:15.440 to like twenty the twenty twenty three Nuggets and it's 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.200 like Jamal Murray just goes absolutely ape shit. Right, you 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.480 go back to the twenty twenty two Warriors and it's 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:25.040 like best season of Andrew Wiggins's career. And Jordan Poole, 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.600 who's like basically a non factor in the NBA right now, 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.960 was this incredibly important six man microwave score. Right, you 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.280 go back to we can go on and on and on. 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.840 You go whether it's the twenty eleven MAVs with Jason Terry, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:42.240 if like you look at like the twenty twenty Lakers 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:45.600 and Rajon Rondo randomly shooting really well from three in 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.600 that entire playoff run, like you're either super talented or 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.920 you're very talented, and some of your lesser talented players 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.040 like play better than they've ever played in order to win. 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.160 You don't win a title without having talent. So, in 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.560 the very basic sense of the term, is Lebron ring 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:04.959 chasing because he wants to win a championship in the 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:07.160 same way that every competitor would want to win a 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.280 championship and would want to play on a team that 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.520 is capable of winning a championship. Yes, so what is 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:18.360 my subjective interpretation of like the negative connotation of ring chasing. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:20.920 To me, that would be going to a team that 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.880 can win without you, going to a team that is 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:29.679 a legitimate championship contender with or without you, And that 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.640 is a completely different ballgame. And like, if Lebron had 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.439 gone to San Antonio, I think calling it the derogatory 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.400 form of ring chasing would have been a fair characterization. 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.079 If Lebron would have gone to Oklahoma City, I think 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.920 it would have been a fair characterization of the negative 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:51.360 connotation of ring chasing. But outside of those two scenarios, 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.040 none of these teams are legitimate top tier championship contenders 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:59.640 without Lebron Lebron. The whole thing is, if look at 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.960 how we viewed Philly before this situation, We're like, oh, 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.040 Jylen Brown kind of clunky fit. You know, Tyre's maxy 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.839 good player, Jolan Bie can't stay healthy. You would have 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.120 just viewed them as a second or third tier contender. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.079 But nothing is in terms of a legitimate threat to 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.880 go win the championship. You plug Lebron James in there, 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:18.840 and it's like, well, the ceiling is there. They have 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.640 a legitimate championship ceiling. And so that's what I mean 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:26.320 when I say, like the if, like if the Sixers 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.520 win a championship this year, Lebron's gonna be such a 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:34.040 substantial piece of that equation. And if Lebron is not there, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:38.240 or if Lebron goes and plays extremely poorly or gets injured, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.560 you're not giving Philly a chance at all whatsoever. Like 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.160 I hate to bring Kevin duran into this equation, but 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.240 like that's that's why that situation is so specifically referred 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.920 to as like the kind of poster boys. Situation for 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:57.280 ring chasing is like the Warriors won seventy three games. 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.280 They were too heroic performance is from Lebron James and 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.240 Kyrie Irving and a banged up Steph Curry for the 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.839 and a suspension to Draymond Green for the Cavs to 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.319 barely beat them. Otherwise they would have been repeat championship champions. 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.520 They had won already, They were this close to winning again, 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.040 and Kevin Durant signed with them, outright as a free agent. 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:25.240 That is why that situation comes with the backlash that 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:29.320 Kevin Durant faced. To me, this is pretty par for 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:34.080 the course for any other free agent player, a player 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.080 that demands a trade, that wants to leave their team 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.720 and change situations, but go to a situation where they 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:41.840 have an opportunity to win. And of course Lebron has 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.920 an opportunity to win in Philly now, but there's a 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.439 lot of pressure. There's a lot of ways it could 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.520 go wrong. It is the furthest thing from a sure thing. 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.760 The twenty seventeen Warriors won fifteen straight playoff games. They 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:59.040 weren't even remotely threatened. There was no adversity. There was 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:00.880 very little in what you would consider it to be 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:04.080 difficulty in their pathway to a championship. If the Sixers 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.079 win the title this year, it's gonna be tough. It's 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.199 gonna be hard, there's gonna be adversity. There will almost 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.720 certainly be a series where they're down to one, down 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.839 one zero, down three to two because they don't have 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:18.720 this like natural fitting, perfectly talented basketball roster. So like 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.479 to me, Lebron is certainly trying to win a championship, 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.800 but I would not call this move the kind of 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:30.160 negative connotation of ring chasing number three getting into some 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:31.880 of the basketball stuff that we didn't get a chance 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.080 to hit yesterday. And again, my brain was just moving 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.000 one hundred miles an hour as I was processing everything 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:39.480 with that move, and we kind of hinted at it 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:40.960 early in the show, but I never got around to 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.880 talking about it. Defense to transition is gonna be a 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.360 very important part of how this team succeeds, and I 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.160 want to dig into that on two specific levels. One 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.880 the Nick Nurse piece of this, and then two the 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.560 half court issues that they could very well have and 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.360 how much much their transition talent could help counter that problem. Okay, 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.280 so first of all, just looking at the talent level. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.320 I've talked about this before with Nick Nurse, where every 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.960 single team I've ever watched him coach has this like 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.800 emphasis on trying to force turnovers, being aggressive, a lot 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.480 of like Ford aggression at the level coverages and pick 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:24.320 and roll blitzes, ball pressure, you know, when you're hedging, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.920 your hedging and attacking the basketball, all that kind of stuff. 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.120 Just a lot of like really aggressive coverages Because Nick 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:30.800 Nurse likes to force turnovers, and he wants to get 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.800 out and transition as much as possible off of those turnovers. Now, 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.480 one of the things I've always talked about is like, 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:37.920 when it comes to coaches, I don't want them to 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.680 have a coaching philosophy, at least not be completely married 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.760 to a coaching philosophy irrespective of surrounding talent, because there 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:46.480 are certain teams where it's like, Eh, maybe that's not 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.280 the way you should play given the type of players 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.640 that you have. Right this though, is a roster that 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.680 in many ways is perfectly built for that Nick Nurse 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:59.960 style of basketball right now. You know, Jalen Brown, for example, 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.240 has received criticism over the years for not being as 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.560 good at forcing turnovers, but I actually think he's very 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.640 capable of that. Lebron James is a big turnover forcing 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.440 defensive playmaker. You have speed at the guard spots, you 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.600 have the ability to force turnovers with this group of talent, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.720 and so I actually think it accentuates Nick Nurse's coaching 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.560 style well. And then when they force turnovers, they're going 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.720 to be frightening in transition. The speed of Tyrese Maxi, 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.600 the speed of VJ edgecomb. Lebron is still at age 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:31.840 forty two this year going to be one of the 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.000 best transition players in the NBA. Jalen Brown is one 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.360 of the apex athletes in the NBA. This is a 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.200 team that has the opportunity to be very, very good 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.880 in transition. So there's a couple of specific ways to 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:49.040 look at that. One just pushing as a habit. So 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:54.400 regardless of outcome made shot, missshot, turnover, block shot, long 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.400 missed jump shot, whatever it might be, get out and 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.560 run like a bit of Nick. Nurse needs to build 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.120 running habits in this group at the start of training 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.280 camp so that it just becomes second nature for them 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.040 to run, run, run, run run. Lebron is such a 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.920 good defensive rebounder and outlet passer that I think this 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.440 has the ability to work extremely well, and then when 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.080 he doesn't get the rebound, he himself can be very 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.920 impactful in transition running the other way. But again, this 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.760 is where these things are connected. The habits only carry 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.320 you so far in terms of running. You also have 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:29.280 to have habits in terms of the things that actually 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.280 get you going in transition, which takes me to number four. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:35.440 Today's show is brought to you by a presenting sponsor, 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.520 hard Rock Bet Sportsbook. Some sports fan call this the 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.000 slow period until football season, but on hard Rock Bet 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.280 we call it Baseball season. There's a full slate almost 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.320 every day for you to bet on your favorite teams 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.400 and players, build epic same game parlays, and even live 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.000 bet every inning from the first pitch to the final out. 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.600 However you like to play ball, hard Rock Bet has 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.480 you covered. 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So there are guys in this starting lineup 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.800 that are certainly capable of doing things in terms of 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:39.560 dirty work that will help this team. Like we know 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.720 Joel Embiid is a great drop coverage defender who can 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:47.040 block shots, rebound, start the break right. We know Lebron 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.560 James can be one of the best back line defenders 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.600 in the league while also being switchy so he can 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:57.000 guard multiple positions on the perimeter. He can play passing 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.879 lanes on skip passes in pick and roll when it 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:01.920 does have to go to the level, he can fill 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.520 in behind and make plays at the rim and do 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.280 all sorts of things there. We know Lebron is very capable. 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:09.480 He's been called a Swiss Army knife his entire career. 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.439 Jalen Brown has the ability to be an apex perimeter 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.080 defender in this league, if not the best, close to 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.480 one of the very best. Like if I need a 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.160 guy to guard the other team's best guy, Jalen Brown's 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.480 near the very top of that list, and then we 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.960 know VJ. Edgecomb has a ton of talent as an 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.439 athletic kind of defensive playmaker. All those guys have the 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.520 talent for it, but for various reasons over the course 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.840 of their recent years in their career, it's not something 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.720 they've done. Lebron, I think a combination of his age 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.800 and his lack of belief. Like Lebron, this is going 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.760 to be by far Lebron's like the season of this 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.800 phase of his career where Lebron actually believes in his 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.760 ability to win a championship the most. And I generally 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.320 believe that when Lebron actually smells blood in the water, 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.280 when he actually thinks he has a chance to win, 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.359 he takes things to another level. The dead giveaway for me, 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.480 look at the difference between twenty nineteen Lebron in twenty 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.280 twenty Lebron. The difference in what he looked in all 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:08.360 phases of the game. When he was with Lonzo Ball 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.800 and Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram versus when Anthony Davis 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:13.640 was in the building and it was like, oh shit, 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.600 like I can win the title this year. Lebron was 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.200 laser focused from start to finish, I think he should 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:20.840 have won MVP. That year is the one year I 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.280 actually thought he got robbed of MVP, and then he 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.440 wins the title. Right, So Lebron a lack of belief 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.160 and just reaching that point in his career, he didn't 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.680 have as much energy reserves that led to him having 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.679 inconsistent effort in the dirty work in previous seasons. Jaylen 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.680 Brown last year especially not his best defensive season, in 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:46.439 large part because he had such enormous offensive responsibility. Right, So, 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.000 like that's the tricky piece of this is how much 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.560 are those guys, under these circumstances where they have more 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.960 depth of talent and they have more ability to conserve 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:01.840 resources on offense to be able to devote resources towards 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:03.639 the dirty work. How much are they willing to do 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:09.200 that because again, getting stops, getting defensive rebounds, forcing turnovers, 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:13.000 by giving effort. In Nick Nurse's scheme, that's going to 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.359 be a huge part of how they trigger the transition possessions, 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.960 which are going to be by far their best offense. 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.560 The accumulation of talent for them can be clunky in 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:27.560 the half court, but it will not be clunky in transition. 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.000 When this team gets advantage running up the open floor, 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:33.360 they're going to be more athletic than all the other teams. 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.719 With so much scoring and finishing and playmaking talent on 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.760 the floor. In those open force situations, they're going to 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.439 be devastating. But again, it's going to hinge on the 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.480 idea that they're able to force turnovers, get defensive rebounds, 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:48.760 get stops, which is going to put a lot of 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:51.400 pressure on the stars to do their jobs. There are 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.359 dirty work guys on the roster. Dominic Barlow is actually 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:56.480 one of my favorite kind of like Swiss army knife 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.679 role player forwards in the league. I think he's going 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.200 to play quite a bit for this team. Dean Wade 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:03.560 obviously is going to be plugged into many of these lineups. 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.320 Is to do everything kind of versatile, dirty work forward. 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:08.600 There will be dirty work players that end up on 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:11.600 the floor. It's been reported that Contavious Calwell Pope is 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:13.760 going to be joining this team eventually. He's a guy 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:15.960 that can help in that particular area. He's been a 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.880 very important starting caliber player on two different championship teams 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:24.680 in the last seven years. There are gonna be guys there. 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.240 But knowing that Max he's gonna play thirty five plus minutes, 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:30.520 knowing that Lebron's gonna play thirty five plus minutes, knowing 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:32.400 that Jay leb Brown is gonna play thirty five plus minutes, 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:35.040 knowing VJ. Edgecomb is gonna play thirty plus minutes, and 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:37.359 Embied when he's healthy, he's gonna play thirty plus minutes. 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.080 It's going to be incumbing on those guys to be 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.200 willing to do the dirty work, or they won't force 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:45.720 as many turnovers and get as many stops and defensive 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:48.280 rebounds as they're capable of getting, which will cause their 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:51.159 defensive ratings to suffer, which will limit their ability to 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:53.520 get out in transition, which will get them stuck in 0:22:53.560 --> 0:22:55.560 the half court, which will then lead to some of 0:22:55.560 --> 0:23:00.320 the clunkiness, especially early in the season. Number five, I'm 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.399 really curious to see how Embiid's lack of foot speed 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:07.399 fits with the rest of the guys on this team. 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.800 So Lebron still one of the fastest players in the 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.040 open floor in the league. Not as laterally quick as 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:15.560 he used to be, but still an I'd say he's 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:18.200 still easily a top five percent athlete in the NBA. 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:22.120 Jalen Brown's like a top one percent athlete in the NBA. VJ. 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.440 Edge comes a top one percent athlete in the NBA. 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:27.639 Tyrese Maxi maybe top five percent because he's not, you know, 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:29.840 the most vertical or the most strong or anything, but 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:33.199 he's just so lightning fast. Right. So you've got like 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:37.320 four legitimate upper tier athletes in the NBA, and then 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:39.680 you have Joel Embiid, who, even back when he was 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:42.600 young and healthy, was kind of a lumbering, kind of 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:46.360 clunky type of athlete. Right. The reason why I think 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:48.199 this is an interesting fit is if you kind of 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:51.199 dig into again the way that Nick Nurse is going 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:53.200 to want to play defense, the way he's going to 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:58.479 want to trigger transition attacks, that foot speed kind of 0:23:58.520 --> 0:24:01.800 like fit with Embiid is. And if you dig back 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:06.240 into like Embiid's career and his time with the Sixers, 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:09.639 they consistently had transition defense issues that used to be 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:12.840 the way that Nikola Jokich would always give the Sixers problems. 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:14.879 I know Embiid won some major battles with him there 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:17.400 towards the end, but one of the ways that Jokic 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:20.240 would have his success with the Sixers was just pushing 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:23.760 the ball the floor and beating Embiid down the floor 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:26.879 just with transition, kicked passes and guys running their lanes. 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:30.040 They were vulnerable in transition because Embiid struggled kind of 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:33.760 transitioning end to end. And so whether it's you know, 0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:37.000 on defense with Embiid needing to be aggressive in coverages 0:24:37.040 --> 0:24:39.119 and get up to the level and cover ground, or 0:24:39.160 --> 0:24:41.360 whether it's in transition as the game just turns into 0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:44.080 an up and down game which favors the other four guys. 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.800 I'm really curious to see how well Embiid just keeps up. 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:50.480 For lack of a better way to describe it, he 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:53.200 to me, even though when he's healthy, I think brings 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:54.639 a lot of other value, which we're going to talk 0:24:54.640 --> 0:24:57.560 about in the next segment. His lack of footspeed, to me, 0:24:57.640 --> 0:24:59.040 is going to be something I have my eye on 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:01.480 early in the season, just to see how well it fits. 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:06.080 Because going from Paul George and Kelly Ubray to Jaylen 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:09.199 Brown and Lebron James, you're just going to another level 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:12.480 of athleticism at your three and four spot, and this 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:15.400 is going to be a team that emphasizes defense to transition. 0:25:15.560 --> 0:25:18.320 Just curious to see how Embid keeps up number six. 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:22.280 I'm very excited to see what this looks like with 0:25:22.400 --> 0:25:26.360 Joel Embiid spacing from the five spot. I talked about 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:29.280 this a lot with Lebron in his free agency, specifically 0:25:29.320 --> 0:25:35.119 surrounding Nikola Jokic. If you guys remember I a little 0:25:35.119 --> 0:25:37.080 bit with the Warriors as well, with guys like Corford 0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:39.920 and Porzingis, but you know, I always just factor Draymond 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:42.800 in for most of their best lineups. I looked at 0:25:42.800 --> 0:25:45.640 Denver and I was like, well, you know, with Cam 0:25:45.720 --> 0:25:48.959 Johnson and Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, 0:25:49.560 --> 0:25:52.760 imagine Lebron just operating with no big at the rim. 0:25:54.080 --> 0:25:58.360 And specifically, Lebron in this phase of his career has 0:25:58.440 --> 0:26:02.000 been consistently, even in his late thirties early forties, one 0:26:02.040 --> 0:26:05.920 of the highest volume, highest efficiency basket attackers in the NBA. 0:26:07.240 --> 0:26:12.040 And for him to do that playing alongside and Anthony Davis, 0:26:12.400 --> 0:26:16.840 A DeAndre Ayton, Jackson Hayes, for him to do that 0:26:16.920 --> 0:26:22.520 alongside you know, like just all the different variations of 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:26.639 centers that came through LA is really impressive to me. 0:26:27.640 --> 0:26:29.560 And if you go back to like some of the 0:26:29.760 --> 0:26:33.280 craziest sequences in Lebron's mid prime, like with the Calves, 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:35.960 whether it was with Shanning Fry at the five or 0:26:36.000 --> 0:26:38.920 with Kevin Love at the five, Lebron reached these levels 0:26:38.960 --> 0:26:42.439 of like straight up unguardability because of the ability to 0:26:42.480 --> 0:26:44.679 space from the five spot, and you combine that with 0:26:44.720 --> 0:26:46.399 his ability to get to the rim and his ability 0:26:46.440 --> 0:26:49.960 to pass. It creates this like extremely difficult to guard dynamic. 0:26:50.080 --> 0:26:53.560 Now it's not as straightforward with Philly because bj edge 0:26:53.560 --> 0:26:55.119 Come can go hot and cold as a shooter. We 0:26:55.160 --> 0:26:56.720 saw that in the postseason running of games where he 0:26:56.800 --> 0:26:58.080 hit a bunch of threes, and he'd have games where 0:26:58.080 --> 0:27:01.880 he misses all of his threes. Right. Brown last year 0:27:02.000 --> 0:27:04.080 a low thirties as a spot up three point shooter 0:27:04.560 --> 0:27:06.960 in terms of percentage, like forty fifth percentile in terms 0:27:07.000 --> 0:27:09.960 of overall spot up efficiency. So there's some trickiness there 0:27:10.000 --> 0:27:12.800 in terms of like those guys actually knocking down enough 0:27:12.800 --> 0:27:15.679 shots to really make this work. Em Beat himself is 0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:18.040 very much a rhythm shooter. Like when he's healthy and 0:27:18.080 --> 0:27:21.120 he's playing every game, he can get really hot from three, 0:27:21.560 --> 0:27:23.920 and then when he's not playing very often, the three 0:27:23.920 --> 0:27:25.600 point shot can kind of come and go. That was 0:27:25.600 --> 0:27:27.720 something that happened to him in the postseason this year, 0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:29.479 as he obviously was in and out of the lineup 0:27:30.840 --> 0:27:33.399 coming into the playoff run. But like there's a version 0:27:33.440 --> 0:27:36.600 of this story, whether it's through Jalen Brown having a 0:27:36.600 --> 0:27:40.200 good catch and shoot season VJ edgecomb improving and b 0:27:40.400 --> 0:27:43.440 just being healthy and in rhythm, or whether it's lineup construction. 0:27:43.600 --> 0:27:46.600 So it could be Okay, we have a lineup with 0:27:47.400 --> 0:27:50.840 you know, Justin Edwards and and Anthony Simons who could 0:27:50.840 --> 0:27:53.199 both really shoot, and like let's say Dean Wade has 0:27:53.200 --> 0:27:55.280 a good shooting season and it's Embiid at the five 0:27:55.359 --> 0:27:58.080 with Lebron, you know, or like different variations like that, 0:27:58.840 --> 0:28:02.720 maybe cacps in that group. Whoever, it might be different 0:28:02.840 --> 0:28:05.479 combinations of five man groups where you have a good 0:28:05.520 --> 0:28:07.560 amount of shooting on the floor and you have Joel 0:28:07.560 --> 0:28:10.960 Embiid at the five. I'm excited to see some of those, 0:28:11.000 --> 0:28:14.080 like kind of fun floor spacing dynamics where Lebron actually 0:28:14.080 --> 0:28:16.800 has a legitimate stretch five on the floor. And there 0:28:16.800 --> 0:28:18.240 were some examples. I was looking through some of the 0:28:18.240 --> 0:28:20.520 Team USA footage today. There was a clip going around 0:28:20.560 --> 0:28:24.199 from the Serbia game where Lebron was burning Jokics for 0:28:24.280 --> 0:28:26.960 helping off of Embiid. He hit him for corner three 0:28:27.000 --> 0:28:28.960 on the left side in the first half of the game. 0:28:29.000 --> 0:28:30.600 He had another one in the right corner where he 0:28:30.680 --> 0:28:33.640 hit embiad and Be pump baked and Yokics jumped out 0:28:33.640 --> 0:28:35.880 of his shoes and Be just drove and threw down 0:28:35.920 --> 0:28:38.600 a dunk. And like, I'm just really excited to see 0:28:38.680 --> 0:28:42.120 Lebron play in potentially five out spacing again, something we 0:28:42.160 --> 0:28:44.680 haven't seen in years, and even at age forty two, 0:28:44.880 --> 0:28:48.720 I think there's a version of that story where Lebron 0:28:48.880 --> 0:28:54.400 could be devastating as a basket attacker. Again. I want 0:28:54.440 --> 0:28:55.800 to be clear, we saw bits and pieces of it. 0:28:55.880 --> 0:28:59.320 We saw the Lakers go to five out groups with 0:28:59.400 --> 0:29:03.960 Lebron at center in the Timberwolve series, which, by the way, 0:29:04.440 --> 0:29:06.280 when those guys were on the floor, they scored the 0:29:06.280 --> 0:29:12.000 ball really effectively against the vaunted Timberwolves defense. We saw 0:29:12.040 --> 0:29:14.840 groups in the Russell Westbrook years where Lebron would play 0:29:14.840 --> 0:29:17.280 center simply because they didn't have any centers that could play. 0:29:17.840 --> 0:29:20.120 So we saw it on occasion. But I'm excited to 0:29:20.120 --> 0:29:22.120 see like a real full season where some of their 0:29:22.120 --> 0:29:26.480 best looks could involve real five out spacing number seven. 0:29:27.520 --> 0:29:31.320 This is the latest example of how fortune favors the bold. 0:29:31.720 --> 0:29:33.560 One of the things that I've talked about consistently over 0:29:33.600 --> 0:29:37.200 the years is, like most of the examples in NBA history, 0:29:37.240 --> 0:29:41.000 where you look through and a team actually pushes their 0:29:41.120 --> 0:29:44.480 chips into the middle, so to speak, it tends to 0:29:44.560 --> 0:29:47.160 result in a championship for one reason or another. I 0:29:47.160 --> 0:29:48.960 shouldn't say it tends to result in a championship, but 0:29:49.200 --> 0:29:54.200 a lot of our champions involve situations where they made 0:29:54.240 --> 0:29:56.880 some sort of bold or aggressive move at some point 0:29:56.920 --> 0:30:01.240 down the line, right, whether it's the Knicks and pushing 0:30:01.240 --> 0:30:03.720 their chips in on Michale Bridges, Karl Anthony Towns and 0:30:03.760 --> 0:30:07.640 Ojan Andobi over the previous few years. You know, Oklahoma 0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:11.280 City's not as much of an example, but if you 0:30:11.360 --> 0:30:14.880 dig into, like you know, Boston going after Christaps Porzingis 0:30:14.880 --> 0:30:17.880 and Drew Holliday, You go into Denver in their move 0:30:17.960 --> 0:30:20.400 for Aaron Gordon and how that that was a risky move. 0:30:20.440 --> 0:30:22.720 Aaron Gordon was kind of an undervalued player coming out 0:30:22.720 --> 0:30:24.840 of Orlando, right, And we can go on and on 0:30:24.880 --> 0:30:27.800 I'm not going to dig too much further down NBA history, 0:30:27.800 --> 0:30:29.479 but there's just a lot of different examples where it's 0:30:29.480 --> 0:30:30.920 like you push your chips in. You know, we're going 0:30:30.960 --> 0:30:32.520 to make a move for Kawhi Leonard even though he's 0:30:32.520 --> 0:30:36.080 not promising us that he's going to stay beyond this year, 0:30:36.120 --> 0:30:37.880 And now all of a sudden, we're hoisting the trophy 0:30:37.920 --> 0:30:41.040 in twenty nineteen in Toronto. Right. So, like there's just, you, 0:30:42.080 --> 0:30:45.240 generally speaking, a lot of the things in life that 0:30:45.280 --> 0:30:48.440 are worth having involved some sort of risk in one 0:30:48.440 --> 0:30:52.760 shape or another, Right, And I just thought Philly was 0:30:52.800 --> 0:30:55.520 the example of the team that said we're going to 0:30:55.560 --> 0:30:58.800 be aggressive and this has a chance to be clunky, 0:30:58.920 --> 0:31:01.240 this has a chance to not work, this is a 0:31:01.320 --> 0:31:04.440 chance to not be good enough. But hey, maybe just 0:31:04.600 --> 0:31:07.920 maybe we can get Lebron James out of this situation. 0:31:08.800 --> 0:31:10.560 And now all of a sudden, we have our best 0:31:10.640 --> 0:31:13.800 chance to win the championship in a quarter of a century. Right, 0:31:14.360 --> 0:31:17.920 you dig into, you know, some of the stuff surrounding 0:31:17.920 --> 0:31:19.560 the other decisions. I was, I was thinking about this 0:31:19.600 --> 0:31:21.200 with respect to the Warriors, and we're gonna talk about 0:31:21.200 --> 0:31:24.960 Warriors in a minute, But like, like if you look 0:31:25.000 --> 0:31:28.200 at what happened with this Lebron situation. He made some 0:31:28.880 --> 0:31:31.040 he did some probing behind the scenes of like, okay, 0:31:31.120 --> 0:31:33.840 is Anthony Davis gonna come with me? Is Kyrie gonna 0:31:33.880 --> 0:31:37.040 come with me? Is that even plausible from the trademarket standpoint? 0:31:37.320 --> 0:31:39.640 But ultimately he ended up picking just based on the 0:31:39.680 --> 0:31:42.080 current roster of the team that he thought gave himself 0:31:42.120 --> 0:31:45.000 the best chance to win. And what ends up happening 0:31:45.040 --> 0:31:46.320 is you have a lot of these teams, like the 0:31:46.320 --> 0:31:48.520 Warriors we'll talk about in a minute, who are like, well, 0:31:49.280 --> 0:31:51.600 are we gonna get Lebron? Because if we're not gonna 0:31:51.600 --> 0:31:54.480 get Lebron, I don't necessarily want to put all this 0:31:55.320 --> 0:31:58.600 steak in the skin in the game and potentially handcuff 0:31:58.680 --> 0:32:00.600 our ability to rebuild in the future. And so then 0:32:00.640 --> 0:32:03.160 they hesitate and they don't do anything, and then the 0:32:03.200 --> 0:32:06.360 opportunity passes them. One of the things I talked about 0:32:06.480 --> 0:32:09.160 during the process, if you guys remember, is I was 0:32:09.200 --> 0:32:11.080 worried that Lebron, even though I wanted him to go 0:32:11.080 --> 0:32:13.400 to Golden State, I was worried that Lebron would look 0:32:13.400 --> 0:32:15.600 at Joe Lacup and go, you have all your picks, 0:32:15.600 --> 0:32:17.640 and all you've done is pass on really good players 0:32:17.640 --> 0:32:20.360 every time they've come available. I don't trust you to 0:32:20.480 --> 0:32:24.160 actually put your chips in the middle when the opportunity comes. 0:32:25.880 --> 0:32:29.800 Bob Myers and my Ganzy, they were incredibly aggressive this 0:32:29.840 --> 0:32:34.080 summer between the move for Jalen Brown, again identifying him 0:32:34.240 --> 0:32:36.920 as an asset that was undervalued because of the way 0:32:36.960 --> 0:32:40.560 these analytic departments looked at him. Whether it was you know, 0:32:40.600 --> 0:32:43.040 going after a guy like Dean Wade, going after a 0:32:43.040 --> 0:32:46.160 guy like Anferny Simons, like meaningful upgrades like Dean Wade 0:32:46.680 --> 0:32:48.720 can start for your team in a playoff game, in 0:32:48.760 --> 0:32:53.000 a pan Jaferny Simons is a valuable sixth man microwave score, 0:32:53.600 --> 0:32:56.600 like just putting, like making real attempts to just be like, 0:32:56.640 --> 0:32:59.480 we're gonna put together the best possible roster we can 0:33:00.720 --> 0:33:05.400 and maybe through that we can persuade Lebron to come right. 0:33:06.320 --> 0:33:10.960 Bob Myers, going on Rich Paul's podcasts, you know, openly 0:33:11.000 --> 0:33:13.560 advocating there were, you know, a lot of ways that 0:33:13.600 --> 0:33:15.680 could have gone wrong. There's a version of it where 0:33:15.680 --> 0:33:18.360 you don't get Lebron and your team's just not good enough. Right, 0:33:18.560 --> 0:33:21.040 There's a version of it where even just Bob Myers 0:33:21.120 --> 0:33:23.960 going on the podcast, maybe it ends up rubbing Lebron 0:33:24.000 --> 0:33:26.840 the wrong way and feeling like a dynamic he doesn't 0:33:26.840 --> 0:33:28.920 want to involve himself with. It was risky, All of 0:33:28.960 --> 0:33:32.000 it was risky, but it was all an example of 0:33:32.040 --> 0:33:34.400 them pushing their chips in the middle. And now, if 0:33:34.440 --> 0:33:36.360 you really dig into it, it's like they didn't just 0:33:36.480 --> 0:33:41.760 trade Paul George for Jalen Brown with a couple of picks, 0:33:41.760 --> 0:33:43.400 one of which was a really good pick and another 0:33:43.480 --> 0:33:45.640 one was a kind of a mediocre pick. Now you 0:33:45.720 --> 0:33:48.880 dig into it, and it's like, in one summer they 0:33:49.040 --> 0:33:52.640 added Dean Wade, Anferny Simon's, Jaylen Brown and Lebron James 0:33:53.280 --> 0:33:56.680 for basically a bunch of contracts that were six million 0:33:56.760 --> 0:34:00.360 or less in terms of the free agent signings the 0:34:01.680 --> 0:34:04.920 toe and basically one really good first round pick, another 0:34:04.960 --> 0:34:07.959 pick first round pick that's you know whatever, and a 0:34:08.040 --> 0:34:11.040 bad distressed contract in Paul George. So like, when you 0:34:11.080 --> 0:34:14.839 actually piece it all together, it's like an insane acquisition 0:34:14.920 --> 0:34:18.960 of talent for one summer, And again, I just will 0:34:19.000 --> 0:34:21.239 it work? Who knows? Is there a version of the 0:34:21.280 --> 0:34:24.160 story where the sixers don't win the championship. Yeah, absolutely, 0:34:24.200 --> 0:34:26.560 I'd argue they have the fourth best chance right now 0:34:26.600 --> 0:34:29.799 behind New York, Oklahoma City in San Antonio. Like they 0:34:30.800 --> 0:34:33.799 it's certainly risky, but the point is is, like I 0:34:33.880 --> 0:34:35.319 like their chance as a hell of a lot more 0:34:35.360 --> 0:34:39.480 at fourth than if they didn't get Lebron or if 0:34:39.480 --> 0:34:41.480 they didn't get Jylen Brown. And they were running back 0:34:41.520 --> 0:34:43.360 basically the team from last year, and they were like 0:34:43.440 --> 0:34:47.160 ten or eleventh on my list right Like, it's just 0:34:47.440 --> 0:34:50.000 they push their chips in and now they have a chance, 0:34:51.640 --> 0:34:52.920 and it's a hell of a lot better than a 0:34:52.920 --> 0:34:54.520 lot of these other teams out there that don't have 0:34:54.560 --> 0:34:58.440 a chance. Which takes me to the other to number eight. 0:35:03.080 --> 0:35:08.320 What the fuck are the Warriors doing? They have passed 0:35:08.840 --> 0:35:13.840 on every opportunity to make a move to support Steph 0:35:13.920 --> 0:35:19.680 Curry that involved any sort of substantial risk. You know, 0:35:19.719 --> 0:35:23.400 it's funny when you're talking about going all in so 0:35:23.560 --> 0:35:28.360 to speak, around an older player, there's this belief that 0:35:28.440 --> 0:35:35.160 it's like, oh, you're mortgaging your future for a small 0:35:35.239 --> 0:35:38.880 increase in your chances to win. I know this talking 0:35:38.960 --> 0:35:43.200 point because I heard it constantly surrounding Lebron James and 0:35:43.239 --> 0:35:46.399 Anthony Davis in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four, 0:35:47.440 --> 0:35:49.880 and people being like, oh, well they're just not quite 0:35:49.880 --> 0:35:54.120 good enough. If you move this pick to go get 0:35:54.520 --> 0:35:59.160 whoever it is, it's not really going to demonstratively improve 0:35:59.200 --> 0:36:01.359 their chances to win, So why would you do it? 0:36:02.760 --> 0:36:06.239 And that ends up becoming the rationale And I would argue, 0:36:06.280 --> 0:36:09.360 the only way you're really going to mortgage your future 0:36:10.719 --> 0:36:14.560 is if you make a move for a like an 0:36:14.600 --> 0:36:18.719 expensive move for a player whose timeline doesn't match up 0:36:18.719 --> 0:36:23.720 because they're too old. Right, Like, I like, I understand 0:36:24.239 --> 0:36:28.200 why a team wouldn't want to trade a bunch of 0:36:28.239 --> 0:36:33.720 picks for Andrew Wiggins in his age thirty two season 0:36:34.440 --> 0:36:36.480 and get one or two good years out of him, 0:36:37.080 --> 0:36:39.800 and then suddenly you're like, shit, we gotta go, we 0:36:39.880 --> 0:36:41.680 gotta trade him, and he's not worth as much as 0:36:41.719 --> 0:36:45.440 he used to be worth. I understand hesitance in that 0:36:45.520 --> 0:36:50.080 specific regard, but like when it comes to young, great 0:36:50.160 --> 0:36:54.000 role players, they are an asset in and of themselves. 0:36:55.480 --> 0:36:58.800 If the Knicks wanted to trade ogn and Obi right now, 0:37:00.600 --> 0:37:03.879 even on his big contract, they would get a haul 0:37:04.040 --> 0:37:08.239 for him. Any one of these teams that has a 0:37:08.280 --> 0:37:11.239 really good role player that they want to trade, they 0:37:11.239 --> 0:37:14.880 could trade them like this, If the Oklahoma City Thunder, 0:37:14.920 --> 0:37:16.960 We're like, you know what, we want to trade Alex 0:37:17.040 --> 0:37:20.960 Crusoe right now. Alex Cruso's probably getting you multiple verse 0:37:21.040 --> 0:37:26.040 round picks at least one, and so it's really frustrating. 0:37:26.120 --> 0:37:30.000 He is an older bet, by the way. I that's 0:37:30.040 --> 0:37:33.080 what bothers me about this, like hesitance the Sixers, or 0:37:33.120 --> 0:37:37.040 excuse me, the Warriors passing on Pascal Siakam, passing on 0:37:37.080 --> 0:37:41.360 ogn Andobi not calling up New Orleans this summer and 0:37:41.400 --> 0:37:46.520 being like, hey, we want Trey Murphy and Dejonte Murray. 0:37:46.640 --> 0:37:50.400 Because even if you don't get Lebron, even if you 0:37:50.480 --> 0:37:53.440 have to run it back with Steph Curry and Draymond 0:37:53.480 --> 0:37:56.879 Green and Trey Murphy and you lose, you can turn 0:37:56.880 --> 0:38:00.279 around and trade Trey Murphy again because he's young and 0:38:00.320 --> 0:38:04.160 great at basketball. The best thing you can do as 0:38:04.160 --> 0:38:09.640 a basketball team is continue to improve your basketball team. 0:38:09.760 --> 0:38:14.560 The Sixers, for example, the Jalen Brown trade, Will they 0:38:14.600 --> 0:38:19.320 get the same haul that Hall quote unquote that Boston 0:38:19.400 --> 0:38:22.000 got for Jalen Brown. Maybe not, But if they turn 0:38:22.040 --> 0:38:23.719 around and wanted to trade Jalen Brown next summer, you 0:38:23.719 --> 0:38:25.520 don't think they'd get something for him. Of course they would, 0:38:25.640 --> 0:38:29.080 He's Jalen Brown. And that's what I don't understand about 0:38:29.120 --> 0:38:32.920 any of this process from Golden State. There's this idea that, like, 0:38:33.840 --> 0:38:37.400 their draft picks are the only assets they have that 0:38:37.480 --> 0:38:40.880 give them the ability to build post Steph Curry. I 0:38:40.920 --> 0:38:44.439 don't see it that way. A draft pick or a 0:38:44.480 --> 0:38:48.560 good basketball player in his prime are both valuable assets. 0:38:49.600 --> 0:38:53.520 So if you can move draft compensation and get really 0:38:53.560 --> 0:38:58.040 good basketball players that both in the short term supports 0:38:58.080 --> 0:39:01.879 your ability to compete with Steph Curry, but also gives 0:39:01.920 --> 0:39:03.960 you a better chance to convince a guy like Lebron 0:39:04.080 --> 0:39:06.959 James to come to town, and you can turn around 0:39:07.040 --> 0:39:10.160 and move that young player if you need more draft 0:39:10.200 --> 0:39:13.400 picks in the future. It's a no brainer to me. 0:39:14.960 --> 0:39:17.880 And instead, Golden State has hesitated every single time at 0:39:17.880 --> 0:39:21.080 the one yard line when they've been in these situations 0:39:21.120 --> 0:39:25.320 based on this like perceived belief that those draft picks 0:39:25.320 --> 0:39:27.960 are their key to the future. One of the things 0:39:27.960 --> 0:39:29.719 I've always said is, like, there's no guarantee that your 0:39:29.760 --> 0:39:32.919 draft picks gonna land in a good draft. The number 0:39:32.960 --> 0:39:36.680 one pick in like a Zachary Risasche draft, or hell, 0:39:36.760 --> 0:39:38.680 maybe in a stacked draft, like one of these top 0:39:38.760 --> 0:39:40.440 four guys, one of these top four guys this year. 0:39:40.480 --> 0:39:43.840 There's a good chance that one of these top four guys, 0:39:44.160 --> 0:39:48.600 you know, Caleb Wilson, Cam Boozer, Darren Peterson, A J. Deabontsa, 0:39:49.080 --> 0:39:50.719 a pretty good chance that one of them is just 0:39:50.760 --> 0:39:56.120 not very good. That's that's the game. And it's like that. 0:39:56.200 --> 0:39:58.520 It's like that family guy joke about the what's in 0:39:58.520 --> 0:40:00.880 the box, the mystery box of thing, where it's like, 0:40:01.880 --> 0:40:05.239 you have this mystery box of these draft picks. But 0:40:05.719 --> 0:40:08.480 for years now you've had Steph Curry, who, even in 0:40:08.480 --> 0:40:10.480 his post prime, has continued to be a top ten 0:40:10.520 --> 0:40:13.680 player in the NBA. And there is no guarantee, In fact, 0:40:13.719 --> 0:40:19.960 it is very unlikely that that pick will become a 0:40:20.040 --> 0:40:24.440 top ten player. There is a good chance that of 0:40:24.960 --> 0:40:28.640 Caleb Wilson, Cam Booser, AJ DEBONSA, Darren Peterson, that none 0:40:28.719 --> 0:40:32.120 of those four ever become top ten players in the NBA. 0:40:32.200 --> 0:40:35.120 That's a legitimate possibility. They might all kind of hover 0:40:35.200 --> 0:40:39.560 in the ten to twenty range. It is exceedingly rare 0:40:39.600 --> 0:40:42.919 to actually get a player that good, and I feel 0:40:42.960 --> 0:40:46.000 like it has been an example of mismanagement the way 0:40:46.000 --> 0:40:48.600 that the Warriors have failed to be aggressive on any 0:40:48.640 --> 0:40:51.480 of these young, great role players that both could have 0:40:51.560 --> 0:40:55.280 helped Steph compete, helped them convince a guy like Lebron 0:40:55.320 --> 0:40:59.560 to come and help them in the future by virtue 0:40:59.600 --> 0:41:01.399 of them being an asset that they can turn around 0:41:01.400 --> 0:41:04.040 and flip when they need to. And I feel bad 0:41:04.040 --> 0:41:06.880 for Warriors fans. I feel bad for Steph Curry. They 0:41:06.880 --> 0:41:10.680 are going to run back next year a team that, 0:41:10.800 --> 0:41:13.520 even when healthy, was a playing team in the Western Conference, 0:41:13.560 --> 0:41:16.359 and their second best player is rehabbing his acl right now. 0:41:17.160 --> 0:41:20.640 It's very dark. They're in Golden State. I two more 0:41:20.680 --> 0:41:24.000 quick ones. Number nine, The Miami Heater are a multi 0:41:24.040 --> 0:41:28.360 year project. I think They're one chance to compete in 0:41:28.400 --> 0:41:32.160 the short term was to get Lebron. Rich Paul basically 0:41:32.239 --> 0:41:37.040 said himself in a one of those pods with Max 0:41:37.120 --> 0:41:40.000 Kellerman that he viewed the Miami Heat as like a 0:41:40.080 --> 0:41:42.960 multi year cycle, like he did not think they would 0:41:43.000 --> 0:41:45.080 compete for a championship in year one and that their 0:41:45.080 --> 0:41:47.680 best chance would actually be in year two. That, by 0:41:47.719 --> 0:41:50.120 the way, should have been a clear indicator to all 0:41:50.200 --> 0:41:53.200 of us that Lebron probably wouldn't going to Miami, the 0:41:53.239 --> 0:41:55.239 fact that his agent was openly saying that he didn't 0:41:55.239 --> 0:41:58.920 think they could win this year. But now, especially that 0:41:59.040 --> 0:42:02.000 Lebron's not in the pickture, this is a multi year project. 0:42:03.040 --> 0:42:05.960 They are going to be so devoid of backcourt talent, 0:42:06.160 --> 0:42:11.040 overall ball handling and shooting around Giannis and Bam, center depth, 0:42:11.400 --> 0:42:13.719 a variety of other areas where there's weaknesses in this 0:42:13.840 --> 0:42:16.720 roster that they are going to need a multi cycle 0:42:16.760 --> 0:42:19.200 approach to try to build a contender around these guys. 0:42:19.560 --> 0:42:22.400 Between other moves they make this offseason in terms of 0:42:22.400 --> 0:42:25.719 free agent signings, whether it's Russell Westbrook, Demarta, rozen Bradley Beal, 0:42:25.800 --> 0:42:30.120 whatever ball handlers become available to them, the moves that 0:42:30.120 --> 0:42:36.200 they can make at this upcoming trade deadline, the following summer, 0:42:36.560 --> 0:42:41.000 the following trade deadline, we're talking about basically four cycles 0:42:41.040 --> 0:42:44.000 here for them to be able to have an opportunity 0:42:44.040 --> 0:42:48.239 to compete for the twenty twenty eight NBA Championship, and 0:42:48.280 --> 0:42:49.839 it's going to require it's going to be a thin 0:42:49.960 --> 0:42:52.440 road for them to walk, because they need quite a 0:42:52.480 --> 0:42:54.759 bit of talent at some key position groups. I do 0:42:54.760 --> 0:42:57.560 think they need a backup center, like pat Riley talked about. 0:42:57.680 --> 0:43:00.600 I do think they're gonna need a good amount of 0:43:00.600 --> 0:43:02.560 ball handling and shooting talent that's going to be hard 0:43:02.560 --> 0:43:04.719 to acquire over such a short period of time with 0:43:04.760 --> 0:43:08.080 the asset constraints that they have. But between Rich Paul 0:43:08.120 --> 0:43:11.480 admitting it and now Lebron actually kind of turning them 0:43:11.520 --> 0:43:14.600 down this Heat team, it's going to be a very 0:43:14.640 --> 0:43:18.600 delicate balance over these next four cycles again summer deadline, 0:43:18.640 --> 0:43:21.520 summer deadline for the Heat to turn that roster into 0:43:21.520 --> 0:43:25.520 a championship roster. The number ten Lebron is still very 0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:28.720 much one of the best needle movers in the NBA. 0:43:29.400 --> 0:43:32.200 This whole saga has been very fascinating to me, and 0:43:32.280 --> 0:43:36.560 there's some uniqueness to it in the sense that, you know, 0:43:37.040 --> 0:43:40.799 how often do you have a legitimate All NBA level 0:43:40.840 --> 0:43:45.319 player when he's healthy. I would argue he's probably we'll 0:43:45.320 --> 0:43:47.400 see how we do in the player rankings when we 0:43:47.400 --> 0:43:51.919 get into the summer, but like he's in my book, 0:43:52.320 --> 0:43:55.680 somewhere around the top fifteen, top twelve regular season player 0:43:56.200 --> 0:43:58.760 and somewhere around like a top seven or eight playoff 0:43:58.800 --> 0:44:01.759 player in the entire NBA. For a guy like that 0:44:02.440 --> 0:44:06.000 to be available to just sign outright at a veteran 0:44:06.040 --> 0:44:11.080 minimum contract is kind of an unprecedented dynamic in the NBA, 0:44:12.000 --> 0:44:14.080 and it was a combination of a bunch of factors. 0:44:14.320 --> 0:44:17.840 You know, the way the CBA has changed it so 0:44:17.880 --> 0:44:20.839 that good teams don't have cap space. Like the one 0:44:20.960 --> 0:44:24.080 good team that had like a substantial amount of cap 0:44:24.120 --> 0:44:29.279 space this summer was a Lakers team that didn't want 0:44:29.360 --> 0:44:32.440 Lebron and that was clearly trying to move in a 0:44:32.480 --> 0:44:35.319 different direction and wanted to use that cap space on 0:44:35.440 --> 0:44:38.440 young talent to surround Luca, which put Lebron in this 0:44:38.520 --> 0:44:42.160 situation where he was going to be choosing between either 0:44:42.400 --> 0:44:45.320 bad teams with cap space or good teams that didn't 0:44:45.360 --> 0:44:48.600 have cap space as a free agent or a sign 0:44:48.640 --> 0:44:50.760 and trade dynamic, or he could go to a team, 0:44:50.880 --> 0:44:53.200 but he'd have to send out a bunch of salary, 0:44:53.239 --> 0:44:56.120 which would sap the team he's going to of talent. 0:44:56.480 --> 0:44:59.360 Very different from previous iterations of the NBA when you 0:44:59.360 --> 0:45:01.759 go back decade where it was more common to go 0:45:01.800 --> 0:45:03.880 to a summer and a good team would have some 0:45:03.960 --> 0:45:05.960 cap space available just by virtue of the way the 0:45:06.000 --> 0:45:08.960 league has changed, and now players tend to extend with 0:45:09.000 --> 0:45:11.160 their teams rather than go to free agency, which means 0:45:11.160 --> 0:45:13.480 most player movement happens through the trade market rather than 0:45:13.760 --> 0:45:17.160 through free agency. So it's just this confluence of events 0:45:17.960 --> 0:45:21.400 that led to this super unique situation. But the basketball 0:45:21.440 --> 0:45:24.880 world stopped. The basketball world stopped for a month here 0:45:25.600 --> 0:45:28.799 literally because Lebron James was a free agent. And this 0:45:28.840 --> 0:45:32.160 is a guy who entered the league in two thousand 0:45:32.160 --> 0:45:35.680 and three. This is a guy who legitimately will turn 0:45:35.800 --> 0:45:40.360 forty two years old this season and substantially altered the 0:45:40.480 --> 0:45:44.840 championship picture in the NBA. You look around the league 0:45:45.000 --> 0:45:48.920 and it's like, the only teams you're putting over Philly 0:45:49.080 --> 0:45:52.800 for sure right now are okay, see in San Antonio, 0:45:52.920 --> 0:45:55.480 the two freaky talented young teams in the league led 0:45:55.520 --> 0:45:58.319 by Apex Superstars, and a New York Knicks team that's 0:45:58.320 --> 0:46:02.120 a defending champion. Even with all of the question marks 0:46:02.160 --> 0:46:04.759 and all of the stuff. With that Philly team, you're 0:46:04.760 --> 0:46:09.080 putting him forth because you know, Lebron James plus that 0:46:09.200 --> 0:46:11.520 type of talent, his leadership and his ability to kind 0:46:11.520 --> 0:46:14.480 of help things coalesce gives them a dead serious chance, 0:46:15.000 --> 0:46:16.839 and I just think it's crazy. I can't believe it 0:46:16.960 --> 0:46:21.000 that here in the summer of twenty twenty six we 0:46:21.000 --> 0:46:23.600 were talking about a Lebron James free agency that stopped 0:46:23.600 --> 0:46:27.040 the basketball world and substantially altered the title landscape. And 0:46:27.080 --> 0:46:30.040 it just as another feather in his cap as one 0:46:30.080 --> 0:46:32.840 of the great basketball players of our time. And I 0:46:32.840 --> 0:46:34.839 think if he wins the championship in Philly, and again 0:46:34.880 --> 0:46:37.839 that's we're a long way from there right now. But 0:46:37.840 --> 0:46:39.040 there's been a lot of talking like what does it 0:46:39.080 --> 0:46:43.440 mean for Lebron's legacy, And Lebron's legacy is stamped. It's 0:46:43.480 --> 0:46:46.000 not really something that I think is up for changing 0:46:46.080 --> 0:46:48.480 at this point. But what it does to me is 0:46:48.520 --> 0:46:51.600 reinforce what is the strongest part of his basketball case, 0:46:51.760 --> 0:46:55.360 which is, as you dig through NBA history or his history, 0:46:55.400 --> 0:46:58.959 I should say he's so versatile that he's been able 0:46:58.960 --> 0:47:01.839 to take many different different types of rosters and turned 0:47:01.880 --> 0:47:06.720 them into legitimate championship contenders. Whether it's like Larry Hughes 0:47:06.800 --> 0:47:13.440 and Sasha Pavlovich and Drew Gooden and zydronisolgowskis competing for 0:47:13.480 --> 0:47:17.520 a championship in seven, or it's the the Moe Williams 0:47:19.200 --> 0:47:22.279 version of the team in the late two thousands. Or 0:47:22.320 --> 0:47:27.480 it's Wade Bosh, or it's Kyrie Kevin Love, or it's 0:47:27.600 --> 0:47:32.040 Anthony Davis, or it's you know, Luka Doncic, Jen Austin Reeves, 0:47:32.520 --> 0:47:35.400 or it's this team. There have just been so many 0:47:35.400 --> 0:47:38.840 different iterations where Lebron's taken on different roles. I'm partnering 0:47:38.840 --> 0:47:42.400 with a scoring guard here, I'm partnering with a elite 0:47:42.440 --> 0:47:46.680 big here, I'm partnering partnering with a non shooting slasher 0:47:46.840 --> 0:47:49.759 like Dwayne Wade. I'm partnering with all these different types 0:47:49.800 --> 0:47:51.400 of players, and he's just always been able to kind 0:47:51.400 --> 0:47:53.200 of figure it out and compete for a championship. And 0:47:53.200 --> 0:47:55.360 famously he's won a title on every team he's been on. 0:47:56.320 --> 0:47:57.920 And if you were to win a title in Philly 0:47:58.160 --> 0:48:00.640 and win his fourth title with this excuse me, his 0:48:00.680 --> 0:48:03.560 fifth title with his fourth different team, it would just 0:48:03.560 --> 0:48:08.200 be another resounding statement that of that case that I've 0:48:08.239 --> 0:48:11.359 always talked about for Lebron's goat case, which is his 0:48:11.400 --> 0:48:14.120 goat case, is very simply if you were to draft 0:48:14.120 --> 0:48:18.240 a team from scratch in a all of NBA history, 0:48:18.280 --> 0:48:21.120 in a fantasy draft and you had the number one 0:48:21.160 --> 0:48:23.400 overall pick, and you got to have that player for 0:48:23.440 --> 0:48:26.399 his entire career, and everything else is up in the air. 0:48:26.480 --> 0:48:28.839 Who your number two is, Who the rest of your 0:48:28.920 --> 0:48:32.319 roster is, all of the injuries and different things that 0:48:32.360 --> 0:48:35.840 can happen throughout an NBA career. Which player gives you 0:48:35.880 --> 0:48:39.840 the best chance to win the most championships? It's Lebron 0:48:40.280 --> 0:48:42.200 because you can do the most things, and he's going 0:48:42.280 --> 0:48:43.880 to play the longest, and he's going to be at 0:48:43.920 --> 0:48:46.440 the highest level for the longest, which gives you the 0:48:46.480 --> 0:48:49.160 best chance to win. And if he was able to 0:48:49.160 --> 0:48:52.440 win a championship with Paul George Tyres, Maxi, bj Edgecomb 0:48:52.480 --> 0:48:54.840 and Joel Embid in the year twenty twenty six, that 0:48:54.880 --> 0:48:58.600 would be perhaps the most resounding defense of that particular statement. 0:48:59.080 --> 0:49:02.160 And again, long way from there, but that's the opportunity 0:49:02.160 --> 0:49:04.520 that he has in this particular season. All right, guys, 0:49:04.520 --> 0:49:05.960 It's all I have for today is always a sincerely 0:49:06.000 --> 0:49:08.400 appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. 0:49:09.080 --> 0:49:11.160 We are taking tomorrow off. We will have an episode 0:49:11.160 --> 0:49:13.960 on Monday morning that I already recorded before the Lebron trade, 0:49:14.000 --> 0:49:16.640 talking about different number twos. Who's like the best fitting 0:49:16.719 --> 0:49:19.439 number two for our top five superstars in the NBA. 0:49:19.560 --> 0:49:21.840 That's just a short, little quick episode coming out on Monday. 0:49:22.880 --> 0:49:25.560 From there, next week I want to do a contender 0:49:25.640 --> 0:49:29.759 rankings where we go over the where we kind of 0:49:29.760 --> 0:49:34.000 go over the current contention landscape now that Lebron is 0:49:34.040 --> 0:49:36.399 actually signed. That will be going out on Wednesday. He'll 0:49:36.440 --> 0:49:38.040 probably have a mail bag on Friday, and then we'll 0:49:38.080 --> 0:49:40.160 end up starting our player rankings as we head in 0:49:40.200 --> 0:49:42.160 the following week. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys 0:49:42.160 --> 0:49:44.120 for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll see you 0:49:44.120 --> 0:49:50.240 guys on Monday.