Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to him tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the volume Heavy Friday, everybody, hope Bob. You guys had
Speaker 1: a great week. We're actually recording this on a Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I'm leaving on Thursday to go to my brother's wedding
Speaker 1: in Houston, the last TIMP wedding, and then all of
Speaker 1: us siblings will have officially been married. Very excited to
Speaker 1: get to spend some time with my family. I haven't
Speaker 1: seen them in a while since obviously we moved to Denver.
Speaker 1: But we're recording this on a Wednesday, so obviously, as
Speaker 1: of right now, Lebron James has not signed. We have
Speaker 1: a couple Lebron related questions, but I don't think they're
Speaker 1: going to matter too much as to whether or not
Speaker 1: Lebron signs. By then, I am bringing my equipment with
Speaker 1: me to Houston, so if Lebron signs, will obviously react
Speaker 1: to it when it happens. But we got lots of
Speaker 1: interesting questions from around the league from you guys. As always,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you dropping questions. If you want to get
Speaker 1: questions in the mail bag, going the full episodes on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Mail bag, Colon, write your question that helps me sort through.
Speaker 1: When we're looking through, you guys on the tripe before
Speaker 1: we get started, it to subscribe Toups on YouTube channel
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Speaker 1: us a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball. First question,
Speaker 1: assuming Lebron hasn't signed by the time you do this,
Speaker 1: the longer this goes, is there any chance that the
Speaker 1: Lakers come back to the table. Lebron obviously announced he
Speaker 1: would play elsewhere, But if the Lakers came back to
Speaker 1: him and said they want him to be a part
Speaker 1: of the team, is there any chance that fence could
Speaker 1: be mended? And obviously, regardless at the time you guys
Speaker 1: hear this of whether or not Lebron is signed, I
Speaker 1: think the answers know here, and that's why it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter as to whether or not he's signed. I
Speaker 1: think egos have just been bruised too much as part
Speaker 1: of this process, and I think I think it comes
Speaker 1: down to two things. On the Lakers side of it,
Speaker 1: like it is deeper than just the Lebron piece. There
Speaker 1: was a very clear intentional effort to completely overturn the
Speaker 1: roster and the two main guys that I think are
Speaker 1: key revealing pieces here are actually I'll bump it up
Speaker 1: to three one. Choosing a Sondro Mama Kalasvili over a
Speaker 1: Ruey Hachimura. They both made about the same amount of money.
Speaker 1: You're basically saying, rather than continuity, and a guy that,
Speaker 1: especially on the weak side off of Luca, can just
Speaker 1: shoot the shit out of the basketball, you're straight up saying, like,
Speaker 1: you know, mom, who's a different player. He's better at something,
Speaker 1: better rebound or better at putting the ball on the floor,
Speaker 1: not as good as a standstill three point shooter. They're
Speaker 1: different players. But it's just you saying, like, regardless of continuity,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a gamble on this dude because we
Speaker 1: just want something different. Another example like Marcus Smart. Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart was very clearly by every statistical measure last year
Speaker 1: the most valuable Lakers role player beyond Lebron, Austin and Luca,
Speaker 1: and to let him walk for that deal in Houston,
Speaker 1: which I Gain. I don't don't remember off the top
Speaker 1: of my head. I think it was like two years,
Speaker 1: twelve million or whatever it was. That two years fourteen million,
Speaker 1: That six or seven million a year to let Marcus
Speaker 1: walk instead of bringing him back is very clearly like
Speaker 1: a we want to be done with that era of
Speaker 1: Lakers basketball. Jackson Hayes. Jackson Hayes being a member of
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz right now instead of a Los Angeles Laker.
Speaker 1: I think that is another kind of a bell Weather
Speaker 1: for that sort of idea. So, like, it's very clear
Speaker 1: the Lakers were like beyond just we want Lebron out
Speaker 1: of the picture. It's like Luca and Austin are our guys.
Speaker 1: We want a completely new slate beyond that point. Obviously
Speaker 1: other than the young players in like Bronnie James and
Speaker 1: Adu Thierro that have been around. But like that was
Speaker 1: abundantly clear in their strategy this offseason. It wasn't just
Speaker 1: a we don't want Lebron anymore. It was we don't
Speaker 1: want anything associated. We want to palette cleanse that entire
Speaker 1: era of Lakers basketball now. I think that's a little
Speaker 1: ridiculous if you if you dig into it, it's like
Speaker 1: we're talking about, you know, guys who like a guy
Speaker 1: that grew Hutch Murro made a Western Conference finals run
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, right like you if you look into
Speaker 1: those last couple of years, they won fifty plus games
Speaker 1: each of those seasons, they won a playoff series, Like
Speaker 1: it's rare to win a playoff series, especially in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference. So like it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: like I think this idea where the Lakers brass was
Speaker 1: kind of like, ugh, like we're done with that era
Speaker 1: of Lakers basketball is a little weird to me. I'm
Speaker 1: surprised that they didn't value any of the culture from
Speaker 1: the previous guys like a deeper than Lebron, like a
Speaker 1: guy like Marcus Smart, who was clearly a very important
Speaker 1: player to the culture that the Lakers were trying to build.
Speaker 1: But it's abundantly clear on the Lakers side that they
Speaker 1: were just kind of done with the whole thing. And
Speaker 1: then on the Lebron side, you got to think about
Speaker 1: it this way, like Lebron is at worst the second
Speaker 1: best player of all time and a player who currently
Speaker 1: is at worst a top twenty player in the NBA
Speaker 1: in the regular season, and at worst, a top ten
Speaker 1: playoff player. Like, that's what we're talking about with Lebron.
Speaker 1: He's still extremely good at basketball while also having the
Speaker 1: deep resume of a guy who has a legitimate goat case.
Speaker 1: So to be in his situation and to have a
Speaker 1: basketball team literally go like no, thanks, dude, you know.
Speaker 1: And again, like I know that the reporting around it
Speaker 1: was different. There's you know, like a lot of posturing
Speaker 1: in the public eye, and Lebron did get the final
Speaker 1: word by saying he was leaving. But like between Lebron's
Speaker 1: ego in the whole situation and straight up being told
Speaker 1: by a basketball team essentially that like, you know, we're
Speaker 1: ready to move on without you and basically everyone that
Speaker 1: was associated with your era of basketball, I think it
Speaker 1: just has caused a situation where there's just too much
Speaker 1: damage done. And like I said this in the Wednesday show,
Speaker 1: and I mean it like it's sad. It's sad because
Speaker 1: I want to watch the Lakers from March with Walker
Speaker 1: Kessler instead of DeAndre Ayton, in a deeper bench with
Speaker 1: more athletic you know, win plays. I want to watch Lebron,
Speaker 1: Luca and Austin continue to build chemistry together and figure
Speaker 1: out how to be the team, like a better version
Speaker 1: even than what we saw in March. I want That's
Speaker 1: what I wanted, And I think it would have been
Speaker 1: an awesome end to Lebron's career to just have like
Speaker 1: a good nine to ten year stretch in a Lakers jersey.
Speaker 1: The Lakers would still have had room to build for
Speaker 1: the future in the form of Walker Kessler and the
Speaker 1: draft picks camcar and a do Thiero, and the development
Speaker 1: of Bronnie James, who I know they value internally, Like
Speaker 1: there there was a happy middle ground here where everyone
Speaker 1: involved could have achieved their goals and the behavior and
Speaker 1: I said it on Wednesday, and I mean it, like
Speaker 1: it wasn't just all the Lakers not valuing Lebron, Like
Speaker 1: the stuff with Rich Paul definitely started to strain the relationship.
Speaker 1: It's a lot more complicated than it appears on the surface,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of people to blame. But ultimately
Speaker 1: it's sad because what you're seeing is is you know
Speaker 1: two entities that would be better off with each other,
Speaker 1: that are going to be worse off without each other,
Speaker 1: and at least in terms of risk, like there's a
Speaker 1: chance where Lebron goes off and and he finds a
Speaker 1: team that fits really well and that he has a
Speaker 1: very successful season. But I just think his chances are
Speaker 1: as good as, if not better, in LA and it
Speaker 1: just is kind of sad that it's not going to
Speaker 1: work out in that way. Next question, If you ignore
Speaker 1: the championship and the fact that it's the Knicks, don't
Speaker 1: you think that it would be an amazing basketball fit
Speaker 1: for Lebron Kat brunts in og and McHale. That's so
Speaker 1: much shooting in so much space. Lebron like the ball movement,
Speaker 1: he can play on in all ball, he can play
Speaker 1: all on and off the ball. The competitive edge, an
Speaker 1: older team that I like would be really fun for him.
Speaker 1: So this is a good one for us because we
Speaker 1: know Lebron's not going to the Knicks regardless of whether
Speaker 1: or not he signs. It's more of just a philosophical
Speaker 1: conversation about basketball fit. My initial impression at first was, like,
Speaker 1: I remember when I first heard this idea going around
Speaker 1: when Rich Paul had the whiteboard incident, and he talked
Speaker 1: about how like, if the Knicks hadn't won the title,
Speaker 1: he'd be going to New York. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I originally thought it was like, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron kind of they kind of have like their starting
Speaker 1: five like really ironed out right. And when I started
Speaker 1: to think more about it, I think og and Andobe
Speaker 1: because I think when it comes to positions, it more
Speaker 1: has to do with what jobs you can do defensively
Speaker 1: than what you can do offensively. And I think Ogannobi
Speaker 1: is a versatile enough defender to guard enough positions on
Speaker 1: the perimeter that he can easily be a three. And
Speaker 1: I mean we saw over the years the Knicks go
Speaker 1: to lineups at times that had Karl Anthony Towns and
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinson at the floor on the floor at the
Speaker 1: same time with og and Andobe at the three. So
Speaker 1: in this theoretical scenario, like a guy like Josh Hart
Speaker 1: or a guy like Michael Bridges moves to the bench
Speaker 1: and you go with like an og Lebron cat front court.
Speaker 1: And I do think it would be a wonderful fit.
Speaker 1: And when you start to dig into it, it's it's
Speaker 1: like the off ball action stuff with kat as a
Speaker 1: folk rum that we saw in over the course of
Speaker 1: this playoff run, where Lebron could be both good off
Speaker 1: the ball in that action and also as the folk
Speaker 1: rum while Kat's running off ball screen for other players.
Speaker 1: There's I really think when you dig into the backup
Speaker 1: ball handling piece, like the Knicks kind of pieced that
Speaker 1: together with a bunch of different guys with Jose Alvarado,
Speaker 1: with Michale Bridges, Ogana Noobi would get his reps, and
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns would run a lot of that off
Speaker 1: ball action when Brunson was off the floor. But I
Speaker 1: think it would have been really helpful for the Knicks
Speaker 1: to just have like a rock solid ball handler as
Speaker 1: like a secondary ball handler off of Jalen Brunson, which
Speaker 1: Lebron would just seamlessly fit into. There's the I talked
Speaker 1: about this a little bit with the Joki fit, but
Speaker 1: like I have always thought about Lebron's post prime as
Speaker 1: being weirdly impressive in terms of his rim frequency and
Speaker 1: rim efficiency given that he's been playing with non shooting fives,
Speaker 1: and I just think watching Lebron play in a system
Speaker 1: where they can actually truly space the floor, whether it
Speaker 1: was the Denver situation that I kind of talked about
Speaker 1: in recent weeks or this Knixt situation with Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 1: I just think think Lebron would absolutely annihilate teams at
Speaker 1: the rim if they could actually space the floor with
Speaker 1: him looking to drive the basketball. So like, I just
Speaker 1: think in general, it would be a really natural fit
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. And again it's never
Speaker 1: gonna happen. But in terms of the actual basketball fit,
Speaker 1: I would put it above Miami. I'd put it above Philly,
Speaker 1: I'd put it above Cleveland. I really think only Denver
Speaker 1: and Golden State are the two teams that I think
Speaker 1: Lebron would have a more natural basketball fit than those
Speaker 1: other teams. One of the things I talked about over
Speaker 1: the course of the last couple of weeks is the
Speaker 1: idea of like Lebron being in a situation where he
Speaker 1: can be Lebron, you know, Like I know Lebron. I
Speaker 1: knew the whole time, even when everyone was dragging him
Speaker 1: through the mud last year. I knew Lebron was going
Speaker 1: to be able to do what he did in March.
Speaker 1: I knew he could be like, I'm versatile enough and
Speaker 1: competitive enough and want to win enough to change my
Speaker 1: game to fit this like smaller role as a as
Speaker 1: like kind of a Swiss army knife on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor for the Lakers, and he showed that
Speaker 1: I never thought that was going to be a problem
Speaker 1: for him. That doesn't mean necessarily that it's the best
Speaker 1: use of his resources, though, right Like Lebron, what I
Speaker 1: like about the idea of like a theoretical Denver fit
Speaker 1: which isn't going to happen, or a theoretical Golden State fit,
Speaker 1: which I don't think is going to happen, but is
Speaker 1: a possibilities. At least at the time of this recording,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it as more of like a like,
Speaker 1: this is a situation where Lebron and what he's great
Speaker 1: at still at age forty two, really fits what this
Speaker 1: team is trying to do. So you can have not
Speaker 1: only the team have a great amount of success, but
Speaker 1: also watched Lebron be a very happy version of himself
Speaker 1: because he's being used appropriately, And that's kind of why
Speaker 1: I was drawn to that specific kind of idea. But
Speaker 1: I think the Knicks are a similar idea and that
Speaker 1: I think it would be a really natural fit for Lebron.
Speaker 1: Next question. As a it's been really interesting to see
Speaker 1: the Jonathan Kaminga saga continue. Seems like he still wants
Speaker 1: a bigger role than anyone wants to give him. In
Speaker 1: your opinion, which team is his best fit right now?
Speaker 1: What role is he best suited for on the court,
Speaker 1: and how do you think that aligns or doesn't with
Speaker 1: what he wants or envisions for himself. So it's tricky
Speaker 1: because there's not really the trouble with Jonathan Kaminga in
Speaker 1: his specific skill set is it's hard to find a
Speaker 1: team that is competitive and looking to win that could
Speaker 1: really actually use his skill set, you know, ironically, a
Speaker 1: team that hasn't been brought up. I was trying to think, like,
Speaker 1: what is a team out there that's like in position
Speaker 1: to win, has need of a player at his position group,
Speaker 1: but that also would like throw him the ball sometimes
Speaker 1: and let him do some work. And ironically, the team
Speaker 1: I came up with was Denver in the sense that
Speaker 1: they have some injury vulnerabilities at the power forward spot
Speaker 1: and Jonathan I think would fit rich nicely as like
Speaker 1: a baseline cutter off of Nikole Jokic. And that's a
Speaker 1: team that's actually looking for more ways to initiate offense,
Speaker 1: especially when they get away from the Murray jokicch two
Speaker 1: man game. The problem is is, like I don't think
Speaker 1: Kaminga can play the three alongside Aaron Gordon, So like
Speaker 1: he's a bench role in that specific case, which is
Speaker 1: why he's not looking there. He's looking at some of
Speaker 1: these other options because he's looking for a place that
Speaker 1: he can start. You want to know why there's Lakers
Speaker 1: buzz there. Rob Polinka has been known to give promises
Speaker 1: to players in free agency. I could see universe where
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga gets a promise from Rob that he gets
Speaker 1: the starting power forward spot as part of a of
Speaker 1: a deal. And so but here's the thing. If he
Speaker 1: starts in La or even if he ends up going
Speaker 1: to a place like Cleveland, whether they start him at
Speaker 1: the three or whatever they decide to do, you're talking
Speaker 1: about spread, pick and roll teams with multiple ball handlers
Speaker 1: that are gonna put him in situations where he's a
Speaker 1: play finisher. And if you're a play finisher on the
Speaker 1: court alongside Walker Kessler, or you're a play finisher on
Speaker 1: the court alongside Evan Mobley Jared Allen, you are a
Speaker 1: spot up shooter basically in a spread pick and roll system,
Speaker 1: and similar to what we were talking about with Lebron,
Speaker 1: Like there's a diminishing return on a Jonathan Kaminga if
Speaker 1: he's being used as a spot up shooter. So Jonathan's
Speaker 1: in this weird situation where like ironically, what he really
Speaker 1: needs is to go to a team that's willing to
Speaker 1: give him the ball a lot and just let him
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to kind of build out that side
Speaker 1: of his game. But it's hard to find those opportunities
Speaker 1: because they're developing other younger players that have shown more
Speaker 1: promise and are especially are young enough to have that
Speaker 1: like plausible like maybe they can become this better version
Speaker 1: of themselves. So it's hard to be like take the
Speaker 1: ball away from that player and give it to a
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga who now has been in the league for
Speaker 1: half a decade, right, So, like it's a very tricky
Speaker 1: situation that he's in. The best case scenario for Jonathan
Speaker 1: right now is a situation like that Laker situation because
Speaker 1: he would get minutes. They're so they lack depth at
Speaker 1: that power forward spot, and if you really dig into
Speaker 1: some of the specifics, I think Soandro Mamo kailash VILLI
Speaker 1: will play some four, but I bet you he ends
Speaker 1: up playing a lot at the backup five because Keavon
Speaker 1: Looney I don't think is a great fit there. I
Speaker 1: think he's more of like a third center, and I
Speaker 1: think they like the idea of a spread like a
Speaker 1: spread out five five out kind of look that they
Speaker 1: can go to. So I think with your other with
Speaker 1: your four spot basically being like some Sondro Mama Kailash
Speaker 1: Vilely and then like maybe it's Matist Staibel, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, can play some four, but he's like a
Speaker 1: three to four. You know, maybe it ends up being
Speaker 1: some Jared Vanderbilt in the short term, maybe it ends
Speaker 1: up being some Adu Thiero, Like it could be a
Speaker 1: we'll see if Arthur Kaluma can play some minutes there.
Speaker 1: But there's just a lot of like if a real,
Speaker 1: like legitimate NBA Power Forward comes in, that dude's just
Speaker 1: gonna get thirty minutes a night at the Power Forward.
Speaker 1: And that's really the best thing for Jonathan right now.
Speaker 1: The best thing for Jonathan is just consistent time on
Speaker 1: an NBA even if the fit isn't great, And is
Speaker 1: the fit great in La No, but it's a place
Speaker 1: that I think he can go and get thirty plus
Speaker 1: minutes a night, and if he at least twenty five,
Speaker 1: and like, just doing that for a couple of years
Speaker 1: could go a long way to him rehabbing his value,
Speaker 1: becoming a better basketball player, and positioning himself for more
Speaker 1: of a long term lucrative deal. So I know that
Speaker 1: the Lakers can't offer very much and assign and trade,
Speaker 1: and I know that a salary would amount to less
Speaker 1: than probably what he wants. But at this point, dude,
Speaker 1: you can't keep playing this game every summer where you
Speaker 1: want twenty plus million a year, but no one's willing
Speaker 1: to give it to you until you prove that you're
Speaker 1: able to play at that level. And the best way
Speaker 1: for him to prove that is to get on the
Speaker 1: NBA court. And the best chance for him to get
Speaker 1: on the NBA court is to find a situation like
Speaker 1: the Lakers where they're like, yo, dude, we need a
Speaker 1: starting power forward. This is your job, and you could
Speaker 1: play big minutes for us. And so that's why I
Speaker 1: think the Lakers fit makes the most sense, and that's
Speaker 1: what I'm hoping ends up happening for him. Also, I
Speaker 1: think the Lakers offseason becomes a little sketchy, even though
Speaker 1: I like some of the bench pieces, it's sketchy if
Speaker 1: you don't get a starting caliber player in there. Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaming guy, I think at least gives you more talent
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Speaker 1: Next question, can you give us your opinion on the
Speaker 1: ongoing topic of the salary cap in the first and
Speaker 1: second apron A good example is the OKC Thunder giving
Speaker 1: their homegrown talent their money, but with Shay's contract getting
Speaker 1: a huge boost next year to sixty million, between the
Speaker 1: three of him, J Dub and Chet, they're going to
Speaker 1: be worth a little over one hundred and forty of
Speaker 1: the two hundred million before they get to the first
Speaker 1: and second apron. So I actually had another question from
Speaker 1: one of you guys that pitch this idea. So this
Speaker 1: is and this is not exactly some groundbreaking idea. We've
Speaker 1: talked about it on the show before and it's been
Speaker 1: kind of bounced around, But I think the main change
Speaker 1: the league needs to make is the homegrown talent discount.
Speaker 1: And I think it gets tricky because like if you
Speaker 1: I think it if you trade for a draft pick
Speaker 1: from another team because you're tanking and you're just absorbing
Speaker 1: draft picks and taking on bad contracts, that if that
Speaker 1: player gets drafted, they should be under the same salary constraints.
Speaker 1: But I believe personally that if you draft a player
Speaker 1: with your own draft pick that you originally owned, the
Speaker 1: one that you get based on your performance as a team,
Speaker 1: I think that that draft picks should be under different
Speaker 1: cap holds, so to speak, cap allocations than other players,
Speaker 1: because it does not make sense for a team to
Speaker 1: have great talent evaluation and to have the ability to
Speaker 1: find good basketball players with their own draft picks, and
Speaker 1: to ultimately get squeezed out of being able to maintain
Speaker 1: control over those players. I had another question. It didn't
Speaker 1: get into this, It didn't get into this particular mailbag,
Speaker 1: but someone had asked something about the health of the league,
Speaker 1: Adam Silver doing these things that led to us having
Speaker 1: what has it been, seven different champions in seven years
Speaker 1: or eight different champions in eight years. And I think
Speaker 1: one of the important details there is like things are
Speaker 1: going really well. Yes you have the parody, Yes you
Speaker 1: have the ratings records that the league broke this year.
Speaker 1: I think get going to everyone bitched and moan about
Speaker 1: it going to streaming and is it more expensive, yes,
Speaker 1: but the bottom line is it's getting into more houses.
Speaker 1: More people are watching the NBA than ever in modern history, right,
Speaker 1: And it's not a fair cop to go back to
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight because there just wasn't as much on TV,
Speaker 1: so there's not as much competition for eyeballs. Like, the
Speaker 1: league is doing great, and I think that's an important
Speaker 1: upside or an important like context here, But that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you can't continue to improve it. Like we talked
Speaker 1: about this with Brian Winhorse when he came on the show, Like,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean you can't improve certain things. I've talked
Speaker 1: about officiating and improving the flow of games and getting
Speaker 1: rid of non basketball plays. I think this is another
Speaker 1: example where it's like when one of the strongest things
Speaker 1: that makes Major League Baseball a viable product is the
Speaker 1: support of local fan bases. There's just if you're a
Speaker 1: Saint Louis Cardinals fan, like Saint Louis Cardinals regional local games,
Speaker 1: they just churn out numbers night in and night out
Speaker 1: because they have such loyal fan bases. The Dodgers, the Yankees,
Speaker 1: the Red Sox go around the league, even like the
Speaker 1: d Backs got good a couple of years ago and
Speaker 1: I dropped everything I was doing and watched every d
Speaker 1: Backs game and I barely have time for baseball. But
Speaker 1: it's because like growing up in Arizona, we all remember
Speaker 1: the team that won the title in two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: You know, the local fan bases are extremely strong in
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, and that in a way that supplements
Speaker 1: otherwise weak performing national TV schedule. That's an area of
Speaker 1: opportunity I think for the NBA, and the only way
Speaker 1: to really breed long term, like fan base loyalty is
Speaker 1: to have continuity. And if you have the rosters constantly
Speaker 1: turning over because the team has to pick between which
Speaker 1: guys they want to pay, and it's like, oh, this
Speaker 1: team got really good, but now they have to hemorrhage
Speaker 1: all their players because it's too expensive. Like that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. I think a chips away at that specific
Speaker 1: type of local fan base loyalty and turns the league
Speaker 1: into more of a national sport. I think it can
Speaker 1: be both. And like if you have a universe where
Speaker 1: it's an incentivized cap situation when you're able to retain
Speaker 1: your own draft picks in some way, shape or form,
Speaker 1: whether it's just okay, it's your own draft picks, so
Speaker 1: it only counts seventy percent towards the cap of the
Speaker 1: total number, which gives you more ability to spend money
Speaker 1: elsewhere or to retain your great players. Something like that
Speaker 1: could lead to marginal improvements and local fan based loyalty,
Speaker 1: which can supplement a national TV schedule that's already performing
Speaker 1: really well. And the league could be even better. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing. League's doing great, but it can be better,
Speaker 1: And I think specifically rewarding teams that are well run
Speaker 1: and that can draft well that allowing them to maintain
Speaker 1: their talent I think would be an upside for the league.
Speaker 1: Next one, the Bucksteo roster is pretty guard heavy, with
Speaker 1: Buris and a mean showing flashes. Should Milwaukee look to
Speaker 1: move Hero and Coops to free up minutes for younger
Speaker 1: guys and acquire size or should we ride it out
Speaker 1: and see what we have? Hero is the big one
Speaker 1: for me, Like I just I really like the guard
Speaker 1: rotation out there between, especially on ball guys in terms
Speaker 1: of Ryan Rollins and Braiden Burry's and you guys know,
Speaker 1: I like Aj Green a lot. I just think the
Speaker 1: Bucks have a really good guard, corep And I think
Speaker 1: while Tyler Hero is a good basketball player that I
Speaker 1: think can help certain teams, like I just personally don't
Speaker 1: think he makes a lot of sense for the development
Speaker 1: trajectory that Milwaukee is on. And so again, like and
Speaker 1: if you want to give him at the ball more
Speaker 1: maybe Like obviously I think Kyle Kuzma inevitably ends up
Speaker 1: getting moved or moved to the bench in Milwaukee. But
Speaker 1: to me, the big one is Tyler Hero. Tyler Hero
Speaker 1: I think has some value too. Like if you look
Speaker 1: at we talked about this with the Austin Reeves contract,
Speaker 1: Tyler Hero's contract is actually like pretty affordable for a
Speaker 1: player of his caliber because of the fact that the
Speaker 1: league has gotten more and more expensive and just how
Speaker 1: much these guards cost. So like, Hero's got some value
Speaker 1: if you can get something for him and clear up
Speaker 1: usage for your guards, I think that makes a ton
Speaker 1: of sense. But I was really impressed by Braden Burry's
Speaker 1: I watched him all year with Arizona, and one of
Speaker 1: the things that really impressed me him is like he
Speaker 1: would get into these slumps and he would dig out
Speaker 1: of them. Like I've seen slumps make players spiral, and
Speaker 1: he just kind of kept his confidence, kept hooping and
Speaker 1: was able to dig out of multiple like slumps in
Speaker 1: like the conference tournament and in the actual tournament. And like,
Speaker 1: I just think he projects to be a really, really
Speaker 1: solid NBA player. He's a scrapper, he gets to loose balls,
Speaker 1: he hit a legitimate three level score, knock down, open,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot. Guy has great size for the position,
Speaker 1: kind of unassuming in a good locker room dude. Like
Speaker 1: I just he was one of my favorite players that
Speaker 1: ever rooted for and in Arizona, Jersey. And I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a big addition for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: Another Bucks related question, before the trade deadline where players
Speaker 1: like Tyler Herro and Jaime Hakkas are probably traded away,
Speaker 1: how competitive in the standings can a Milwaukee Bucks team
Speaker 1: be with a lineup of hero Rollins, Hakez, Kuzma, and
Speaker 1: Turner with depth pieces like Brayden Burry's, Kevin Porter, Junior,
Speaker 1: Kars Lavert and Killware. So here's the thing, and this
Speaker 1: is where it gets tricky, because You're right. If you
Speaker 1: put out a lineup like Tyler Hero, Ryan Rollins, Himahakez,
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzman, Miles Turner, and you basically just retain everybody,
Speaker 1: can you be reasonably competitive? Sure? I think that team
Speaker 1: is still a play in team in the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: like in that seven to ten range. I don't think
Speaker 1: that they're a playoff team by any means. But that's
Speaker 1: really the key there is. Like if you I've talked
Speaker 1: about this before, I would maintain Turner and kell Aware
Speaker 1: because I think the center position is very important for
Speaker 1: the foundation of what your guards are trying to do
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. Like if you're trying
Speaker 1: to teach Braden Burry's and Ryan Rollins to be good
Speaker 1: drop coverage defenders so that you can ultimately, one day
Speaker 1: in the future compete for a championship or compete in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. You want them playing with legitimate rim protecting
Speaker 1: talent like kell Aware and Miles Turner. Right, same thing
Speaker 1: with like pick and roll, Like both players can pick
Speaker 1: and pop, both players can pick and roll. Kellawharre's a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a vertical spacer, although Miles Turner
Speaker 1: is I think a better role man than he gets
Speaker 1: credit for. You know, you have these pick and roll
Speaker 1: partnerships that are gonna be what helps Braden Bury's and
Speaker 1: Ryan Rollins develop into the guards they're going to be.
Speaker 1: So like I want, I don't want to like just
Speaker 1: turn Miles Turner and kell Aware into draft picks and
Speaker 1: then put really inferior center talent on the floor in
Speaker 1: a way that just stilts the development trajectory of our guards. Right,
Speaker 1: So like that, I think I would keep Turner and
Speaker 1: and kell Aware, but I wouldn't roll out all these
Speaker 1: dudes and play them just to be a mediocre playing team.
Speaker 1: I would try to get as much value for them
Speaker 1: as you can and open up as much opportunity as
Speaker 1: possible for your for your young players to develop in
Speaker 1: the short term. Two more, three more excuse me, Jason,
Speaker 1: big fan of the show. In your coverage of the game,
Speaker 1: you and your guys at Nerd Sash from my go
Speaker 1: to his for NBA coverage, I remember you talking about
Speaker 1: what you believe when east Peak will look like when
Speaker 1: he finally develops offensively. But I was curious what kind
Speaker 1: of offense you've run for Wemby is it more off ball
Speaker 1: stuff to free him up from physicality? Can you see
Speaker 1: him running dhos to maybe free himself up and getting
Speaker 1: the slashing guards downhill? Curious for your thoughts. So I
Speaker 1: actually ended up landing on like a Denver Nuggets style
Speaker 1: approach with Nikola Jokic. Now, obviously Jokic is much more
Speaker 1: of a post player, so I would say, like, replace
Speaker 1: what you envision as the Jokic post up with more
Speaker 1: of like a Wemby face up. We have an episode
Speaker 1: coming out on Monday that's going to be talking about
Speaker 1: the perfect number twos to pair with your superstars. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think about with Wemby
Speaker 1: is like a lot of times with centers or playmakers,
Speaker 1: you go, well, you want to put a score next
Speaker 1: to them, they can help in the late game situations.
Speaker 1: I actually don't worry about that with Wemby. I think
Speaker 1: Wemby is going to become a devastating closer. I think
Speaker 1: that his jump shot is unguardable and he's got the
Speaker 1: touch that within a couple of years, I think he's
Speaker 1: going to be deadly from the mid range, and I
Speaker 1: think he's going to pick teams apart down the stretch
Speaker 1: of games with little short dumb shots. So like I
Speaker 1: don't worry about Wemby's ISO game in the long run,
Speaker 1: it's more of a short term issue. I think Wemby
Speaker 1: playing at the elbow extended in face ups would be
Speaker 1: like my replacement for the Jokic post up kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But what I really like about the Jokic style offense
Speaker 1: with Victor wemen Yama is the two man game and
Speaker 1: then the inverted ball screens. So the two man game
Speaker 1: pick and roll style, like getting Wemby with the high
Speaker 1: level pick and roll player, whether it's still in Harper,
Speaker 1: Steph Castle, Darren Fox are a player to be named later,
Speaker 1: but getting Victor wemen Yama in as many two man
Speaker 1: game sequences where he's the screener and he can get
Speaker 1: open pick and pop threes opportunities on the role for Lobbs.
Speaker 1: You know, the openings that it creates on the weak
Speaker 1: side with his role gravity, deep post position on those
Speaker 1: situations like that, a lot of a steady dyet of
Speaker 1: pick and roll. You got to use Wemby's pick and
Speaker 1: roll player because he's just incredibly valuable with his gravity
Speaker 1: rolling to the rim. The second piece of it is
Speaker 1: the inverted ball screen thing, and this is what Jokic
Speaker 1: does a ton. He'll bring the ball to the floor,
Speaker 1: He'll dribble up to the right wing or the left wing.
Speaker 1: He'll have Jamal Murray or Tim Hardaway Junior or whoever
Speaker 1: the shooting guard is on the floor come up and
Speaker 1: set a screen for him. And if his man fights
Speaker 1: through the screen and the guard stays home, he'll rumble
Speaker 1: downhill and get a layup. If the guard switches, he'll
Speaker 1: turn and post him. If the guard lingers in a
Speaker 1: double team, he'll pitch the ball to the guard slipping
Speaker 1: out of the screen. Right. It creates a very simple
Speaker 1: decision tree for the defense where somebody's going to be
Speaker 1: open right, like you're either going to concede a switch
Speaker 1: or Yokis is gonna get open on the drive or
Speaker 1: the guard is going to get open on the pop. Right.
Speaker 1: That's just the decision tree of the inverted pick and roll.
Speaker 1: But I think it fits Victor wemen Yama's skill set
Speaker 1: extremely well because he can okay, you go way under.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that it can hit pull up threes. Okay,
Speaker 1: you create a passing read for him. He can see
Speaker 1: over the top of the defense and throw those passes.
Speaker 1: You give him a driving lane, He's just gonna go
Speaker 1: down the lane and dunk on your ass, right. So,
Speaker 1: like that's why I kind of look at the Denver
Speaker 1: offense as an offense that I think makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense for San Antonio in the long run. Steady
Speaker 1: died of inverted ball screens. For Wemby, Steady died of
Speaker 1: regular kind of two man game pick and roll at
Speaker 1: the top of the key and then instead of like
Speaker 1: the Jokic post up style offense. I do think that
Speaker 1: there's going to be a I think Wemby is going
Speaker 1: to build out a pretty devastating kind of like high
Speaker 1: post face up game in the coming years. That's going
Speaker 1: to be what he closes games with. Next question, Brunson
Speaker 1: went head tohead with Wemby on the biggest stage of
Speaker 1: sports and not only dominated him individually, but one in
Speaker 1: five games, three of them being on the road. So
Speaker 1: how is Jalen Brunson not the best player in the world,
Speaker 1: let alone than Wemby. So I want to be really
Speaker 1: clear up front here to the Knicks fans, I do
Speaker 1: not mean my answer in this question to take away
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form what Jalen Brunson did
Speaker 1: in his Final Finals MVP campaign. This conversation is now
Speaker 1: officially being framed in the best in the World conversation,
Speaker 1: which is a very different conversation. One of the most
Speaker 1: common fallacies that I see with basketball is the idea
Speaker 1: of the late game shot making being kind of like
Speaker 1: over index Don and I do think it's an incredibly
Speaker 1: valuable piece. I would argue it's more valuable than it
Speaker 1: is statistically right, Like a couple shots at the end
Speaker 1: of the game is just a few points, but it's
Speaker 1: worth a lot in an environment where nobody can score.
Speaker 1: So I don't mean to say that like late game
Speaker 1: shot making is not valuable. It certainly is. But it's
Speaker 1: just one part of the game, right, And there's no
Speaker 1: doubt that if there's three four minutes left in a
Speaker 1: game and it's close, Jalen Brunson might literally be the
Speaker 1: best player in the world at that one specific job.
Speaker 1: And so yes, if I can build a roster around
Speaker 1: him that can carry him to those situations, he can
Speaker 1: bring a great deal of value there. But that getting
Speaker 1: to that very unique situation is a different job than
Speaker 1: being in that exact situation and executing in that situation. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, like the guy from my era that got
Speaker 1: this kind of buzz, the two guys were Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, And it's like there were plenty of times
Speaker 1: where guys tried to say Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: were better than Lebron James and Steph Curry. But Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Steph Curry, in my opinion, were by a
Speaker 1: pretty decent margin the best players in that era, and
Speaker 1: I think there was a little bit of a gap
Speaker 1: between them and the Kawhi KD group. And the reason
Speaker 1: why is that they both had this ability to drive
Speaker 1: incredibly high level offense over the course of entire games,
Speaker 1: entire seasons, entire playoff runs. Lebron also had this defensive
Speaker 1: utility and Swiss army knife kind of thing. But they
Speaker 1: both impacted winning in a way that was a lot
Speaker 1: deeper than just late game shot making, where Steph and
Speaker 1: Lebron the best late game shot makers in the league
Speaker 1: never right. Like Steph on occasion would have trouble separating
Speaker 1: from the Apex defenders in the league. Lebron his jump
Speaker 1: shot kind of came and went, which made him somewhat
Speaker 1: less reliable in those situations. But they were both good
Speaker 1: in those situations while also bringing everything else to the table.
Speaker 1: To me, Jalen Brunson is an example of a player
Speaker 1: who like may very well be the best player in
Speaker 1: the world for that specific situation, but there's just so
Speaker 1: much more that goes into basketball than just that situation.
Speaker 1: So even to put it this way, like do I
Speaker 1: think Jalen Brunson out played Victor wemben Yama in the finals?
Speaker 1: It's like, well, yeah, at the end of games, and
Speaker 1: I think that he was a deserving finals MVP, and
Speaker 1: I think that his ability to out execute the Spurs
Speaker 1: specifically in those situations was the separator that got it
Speaker 1: done for the Knicks. But do I think Jaln Bunson
Speaker 1: is better than Victor wemen Yama? Know? And like, if
Speaker 1: you really dig into the series, the number one chess
Speaker 1: match of the series was like, where's Victor wemen Yamen?
Speaker 1: What are we doing with him? On both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. So like again it's just it's it's tricky
Speaker 1: because I'm if I'm starting a season tomorrow, I'm taking
Speaker 1: Wemby over Jalen one hundred times out of one hundred,
Speaker 1: but yes, in the NBA Finals, Jaalen Brunson took advantage
Speaker 1: of five close games, one four of them and was
Speaker 1: able to hoist the trophy. So, like I just think again,
Speaker 1: it's about separating what happened in an individual playoff series
Speaker 1: from like what basketball looks like in a vacuum. When
Speaker 1: circumstances around that shift, which they do, the Spurs will
Speaker 1: look different in the coming years and the Knicks will
Speaker 1: look different in coming years. Last question, mailbag kind of
Speaker 1: off topic, but what do you predict will be the
Speaker 1: twelve players on USA twenty twenty eight men's Olympic team.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to really try to piece together
Speaker 1: the full twelve here, but I'm more just interested in
Speaker 1: looking at what the general roster is going to look
Speaker 1: like and at the guards. You're gonna have some combination
Speaker 1: of like Anthony Edwards, K. Cunningham and Tyrese Haliburton on
Speaker 1: the wings, Jason Tatum, Cooper Flagg, Pala Boncaro, Center's Chet Holmgren,
Speaker 1: bam At a bio Evan Mobley. We'll see if one
Speaker 1: of these young rookies is able to play by the
Speaker 1: time we get to twenty twenty eight, you also have
Speaker 1: like a tail end of the roster that you can
Speaker 1: fill in with a variety of different guys. But that's
Speaker 1: kind of like the core of the team, those nine
Speaker 1: guys that I can think of, And honestly, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be challenge. I was when I was looking at it.
Speaker 1: I'm a little I think this twenty twenty eight team
Speaker 1: is gonna be pretty vulnerable. I'm like, I should include
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown in that list too. By the way, I
Speaker 1: put Jalen Brown in as one of the forwards. But
Speaker 1: the point is is, like those guys are gonna have
Speaker 1: to gel in a real way because what you don't
Speaker 1: have there is a super super reliable, high level offensive
Speaker 1: engine type like Tyres Halliburn is an offensive engine, but
Speaker 1: he's not the level of like what the Lebron Steph
Speaker 1: machine was in twenty twenty four some previous teams. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum is a better passer than most forwards, but like
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be anywhere near the level of offensive
Speaker 1: engine as some of the teams he's gonna run into
Speaker 1: in the Olympic Tournament. You know, Cooper Flag is developing
Speaker 1: really nicely, but I think it's just hard to predict
Speaker 1: him being like some all world offensive engine. So they
Speaker 1: lack that like kind of natural like we're gonna play
Speaker 1: through this guy on offense and get great shots at time,
Speaker 1: missing that it requires everything to come together perfectly. They
Speaker 1: got to be awesome on defense. They got to shoot
Speaker 1: the basketball extremely well. A bunch of these guys are
Speaker 1: gonna have to mesh together in their skill sets and
Speaker 1: make personal sacrifices. I'm not saying I still think the
Speaker 1: TMOSA will always be the safest bet because of all
Speaker 1: of their talent, but twenty twenty eight will be the
Speaker 1: most vulnerable that Team USA has been since that two
Speaker 1: thousand and four team that came up short. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: it's all I have for today is always a sincerely
Speaker 1: persent you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back Monday. We're gonna do my perfect number
Speaker 1: twos for the top five superstars in the NBA. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we might have a Lebron reveal somewhere in there, maybe
Speaker 1: it's already happened, and then next week we will get
Speaker 1: into some either fallout from the Lebron trade most likely
Speaker 1: or Lebron signing most likely if not, then we'll get
Speaker 1: into our player rightings