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Speaker 2: welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody, wellvolve.
Speaker 2: You guys are having a great week. We as promised
Speaker 2: they're going to get into a mail bag today. Lots
Speaker 2: of interesting questions from you guys. But before we get
Speaker 2: into the questions, I want to give some thoughts off
Speaker 2: the top about the state of NBA media and the
Speaker 2: comments from Lebron James the other day after his kind
Speaker 2: of back and forth that he was having with the
Speaker 2: press about just like other players and media shitting on
Speaker 2: the state of the NBA. So that's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 1: One off the top.
Speaker 2: You guys are the joke before we get started. To
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Speaker 2: We're releasing content throughout the year. The last but not least,
Speaker 2: keep dropping mail back question so we can hit them
Speaker 2: throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk
Speaker 2: some basketball. So I've talked about this concept a lot.
Speaker 2: It's a really difficult dynamic that the media and the
Speaker 2: players have. I've thought about this a lot because I imagine
Speaker 2: what it would be like like if I was playing
Speaker 2: in the NBA and I was working my butt off
Speaker 2: behind the scenes and doing everything I could be the
Speaker 2: best basketball player I could be and I had some
Speaker 2: dude in his guest bedroom with a bunch of stuff
Speaker 2: on the shelves behind him, who's not an NBA player,
Speaker 2: who is telling me what I'm doing wrong, and I
Speaker 2: get that that leads to a visceral response. There's a
Speaker 2: certain amount of this dynamic that is unavoidably weird. And
Speaker 2: I've always wanted to like sit with an NBA player
Speaker 2: and just ask them about it, and I haven't really
Speaker 2: had the chance yet. I've the one interview I did
Speaker 2: was with Haime Haakes and it was a short form
Speaker 2: interview and we were focused on some other stuff. I
Speaker 2: didn't really get a chance to get into it, and
Speaker 2: who knows, maybe one day I'll have that opportunity. But like,
Speaker 2: it's an interesting dynamic, and I understand and sympathize with
Speaker 2: that kind of instinctual revulsion that so many of these
Speaker 2: players have towards the NBA media. I think it's complicated
Speaker 2: because one of the things that specifically frustrates me is
Speaker 2: this idea that it has a lot to do with
Speaker 2: guys like me who are not NBA players. When when
Speaker 2: I'm watching an NBA media and the vast majority of
Speaker 2: the negativity comes from former players, Like it feels to
Speaker 2: me like the shitting on the NBA and the current
Speaker 2: players comes from the guys on inside the NBA, not
Speaker 2: just that, but all of these player pods. It feels
Speaker 2: like every single week, every single day, I'm scrolling through
Speaker 2: Twitter and it's like Gilbert Arenas said this, or like
Speaker 2: this other guy said that, or you know, uh, Chandler
Speaker 2: Parson said this, and it's like another NBA player relatively
Speaker 2: recently retired who's just openly shitting on an NBA player.
Speaker 2: And sometimes I'm looking at it and I'm like, that's
Speaker 2: not even true, you know what I mean. Like I
Speaker 2: saw a dude the other day talking about how like
Speaker 2: Lebron James has struggled with shot making his entire career.
Speaker 2: I'm like, the guy who's the all time leading scorer
Speaker 2: is the guy that you think struggles to make shots?
Speaker 2: Like what are we even talking about here? And I
Speaker 2: think it leads to a there's a weird dynamic with
Speaker 2: former players too, where like they're already accomplished and they've
Speaker 2: done so many amazing things for the game of basketball,
Speaker 2: and their media career is kind of like just another
Speaker 2: like hendage on the back of it. But it's not
Speaker 2: something that was their fiery passion from day one, like
Speaker 2: so many of the media professionals you meet out there,
Speaker 2: and so as a result, there's a lot of like
Speaker 2: that kind of surface level insulting coverage of the league
Speaker 2: that you see, And like it's kind of a reality
Speaker 2: because those guys would be the guys who would be
Speaker 2: best equipped to teach people about the game. But like,
Speaker 2: I get how if they just spent twenty years devoting
Speaker 2: their entire life or an seeing amount of time to
Speaker 2: the game, that they might want to take an easier
Speaker 2: approach in their post career media experience, right, Like, I
Speaker 2: understand all of that. I get it. It's complicated. But
Speaker 2: even among non NBA players, I see irrational criticism. I
Speaker 2: see stuff that I think goes too far. I'm not
Speaker 2: sitting here and saying that I think it's perfect. I
Speaker 2: was thankful for the way Lebron phrased his response in
Speaker 2: that threat of tweets where he talked about how is
Speaker 2: important for us to break down and discuss when players fail.
Speaker 2: This is a dynamic I talk about a lot on
Speaker 2: the show. If I came on every day and all
Speaker 2: I ever did was just tell you about how great
Speaker 2: and amazing every NBA player is. It is propaganda. Even
Speaker 2: further than that, it's not reality.
Speaker 1: What are sports?
Speaker 2: Sports are nasty, competitive, physical, violent. It's about a pursuit
Speaker 2: of winning. In sports, you're trying to step on your
Speaker 2: opponent's neck to get where you're wanting to go. It
Speaker 2: is inherently nasty. And guess what, there's a winner, but
Speaker 2: there's always a loser. And discussing how a team wins
Speaker 2: or how a team loses forces you to discuss weaknesses,
Speaker 2: forces you to discuss flaws and mistakes, and so like,
Speaker 2: I think it's a very important part of this profession
Speaker 2: to also balance your praise with a certain amount of criticism.
Speaker 2: I think it's inherent and so it's this dynamic that's
Speaker 2: unavoidable because I totally sympathize with the players who are
Speaker 2: doing all of the work and are actually playing basketball
Speaker 2: at the highest level. These are the very best people
Speaker 2: in the entire eight billion person world at their profession
Speaker 2: being criticized by people that are not even in the
Speaker 2: same stratosphere as them. I get it, but it is
Speaker 2: unavoidable because of the realities of the profession my approach
Speaker 2: to it, and this is just my feeling on it
Speaker 2: is like Lebron said, break it down.
Speaker 1: If you have an.
Speaker 2: Issue with a player or a weakness with the team
Speaker 2: that you want to discuss, explain why. If you make
Speaker 2: your case, then I think it's all part of the
Speaker 2: larger process of how we all process the game, and
Speaker 2: as we're all trying to learn about players and learn
Speaker 2: about teams that I think makes sense where it becomes
Speaker 2: a problem. And I'm not saying that I've made this
Speaker 2: mistake over the years. I remember when Russell Westbrook was
Speaker 2: on the Lakers. I I had a day where, like, dude,
Speaker 2: I was so frustrated with him, and I was younger,
Speaker 2: you know, it was three years ago, but like, I
Speaker 2: had a day where I came on the show and
Speaker 2: I said, Russell Westbrook sucks. I said it in the
Speaker 2: context of his frustration with the fans, and I was
Speaker 2: explaining why the fans feel the way they feel.
Speaker 1: It was wrong.
Speaker 2: I came on the next day and I apologize. That's
Speaker 2: not the kind of guy I want to be. Russell
Speaker 2: Westbrook doesn't suck. He's one of the very best basketball
Speaker 2: players to ever grace the earth, and I'm a fan.
Speaker 2: That's the crazier part too. I'm a fan of his
Speaker 2: from his younger phase of his career when he was
Speaker 2: a star, and I just got worked up and I
Speaker 2: got a little too emotional and I said something I
Speaker 2: wish I wouldn't have said. And I'm not and I'm
Speaker 2: not expecting perfection from anybody. That's part of the profession.
Speaker 2: If you're going to talk for a living, you're gonna
Speaker 2: say stupid shit. It's not the first time I said
Speaker 2: something stupid, it won't be the last time I say
Speaker 2: something stupid. But as a goal for all of us,
Speaker 2: and as a goal for myself, I just want to
Speaker 2: if I'm going to be critical of a player, make
Speaker 2: sure that it's based in evidence, in something that I
Speaker 2: can defend. I want to be able to if I'm
Speaker 2: saying Bradley Beal is really struggling off ball, both as
Speaker 2: a rebounder and as a help side defender, I want
Speaker 2: to make sure that I've watched the film and I
Speaker 2: have a clear feeling in my head based on my
Speaker 2: pursuit of evidence that what I'm saying is based in reality.
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean it's perfect. There are disagreements, right. One
Speaker 2: of the most common things I find when I'm talking
Speaker 2: with NBA personalities, is like this guy thinks so and
Speaker 2: so is a good defender, and I think he's a
Speaker 2: bad defender. This guy thinks so and so is a
Speaker 2: reliable playoff performer. I disagree whatever it is. Like a
Speaker 2: lot of this is subjective, but if you're at least
Speaker 2: putting in the work and you're making an evidence based case,
Speaker 2: I think criticism is good. It's part of how we
Speaker 2: learn about the game. You want to understand why this
Speaker 2: team is struggling to do this. It's important for us
Speaker 2: to dive into why. Helps all of us learn And
Speaker 2: it's just the reality of sports. Sports is nasty, Sports
Speaker 2: is competitive. Sports is not just like a big love fest.
Speaker 2: That's not what it is. It's mean, guys talk shit,
Speaker 2: there's cheap shots, there's blood, sweat, tears. It's complicated. So
Speaker 2: like I think we all embrace that. But as it
Speaker 2: comes to our coverage of the game, I think it's
Speaker 2: important that criticism is based in evidence and not just
Speaker 2: like slanderous. And it is one of the funny things
Speaker 2: I see because like it does kind of like great
Speaker 2: at me a little bit, the way that it's portrayed
Speaker 2: as like an issue that can be solved by just
Speaker 2: getting certain types of people into the profession. The types
Speaker 2: of people has nothing to do with whether or not
Speaker 2: you played the game. I played the game I played
Speaker 2: in college. I have a lot of playing experience. That's
Speaker 2: not why this show is what it is. The show
Speaker 2: is what it is because I love basketball, and because
Speaker 2: I put in the work behind the scenes. And yeah,
Speaker 2: my playing experience is something I relate to sometimes and
Speaker 2: I might drop a reference in there based on my
Speaker 2: experience playing the game that helps to a certain extent.
Speaker 2: I've met people that never pick up a basketball that
Speaker 2: are brilliant basketball minds that I learn every day from.
Speaker 2: And I've sat across from dudes that I play basketball
Speaker 2: with every day that are very good basketball players that
Speaker 2: I'm talking about an NBA team, and I'm like, dude,
Speaker 2: I just don't agree with you. That to me, that
Speaker 2: I think the gate keeping surrounding NBA media about the
Speaker 2: idea that you need to have like a certain amount
Speaker 2: of basketball experience is foolishness. I think that it's about
Speaker 2: a love and a respect for the game that will
Speaker 2: manifest in hard work that will lead to quality educational
Speaker 2: content and entertaining content for all of us. All right,
Speaker 2: let's get to our mailbag questions. Could Stanley Johnson help
Speaker 2: the Lakers in this difficult stretch With Ruey's injury, the
Speaker 2: Lakers wing rotation is pretty shallow. If they wave Reddish
Speaker 2: and sign Goodwin, which is expected at this point, they
Speaker 2: could sign Stanley to a two way to give them
Speaker 2: a couple of shifts per game. They could also check
Speaker 2: his fit with the team for a potential minimum contract
Speaker 2: next season. Loving the coverage of the Lakers on the
Speaker 2: show lately, keep it up, Jason, I'm really curious to
Speaker 2: see how they handle all these different roster situations as well,
Speaker 2: because it gets even more complicated with Trey Jemison. Like,
Speaker 2: if Trey Jemison is your backup center behind Jackson Hayes,
Speaker 2: like he needs to be rostered if you trust him
Speaker 2: more than you trust Alex lenn to be your ass
Speaker 2: kicking center, and you need a guy on the roster
Speaker 2: where if like if Ruy goes down, or if like
Speaker 2: a small ball group doesn't work in a specific matchup,
Speaker 2: that means you got a roster Jemison too, And it's
Speaker 2: gonna be complicated. It's gonna be complicated because I do
Speaker 2: think Jordan Goodwin is like basically a like their tenth
Speaker 2: man or whatever in their rotation, and a guy that
Speaker 2: they're gonna need to need to use even when they're
Speaker 2: fully health at times if they end up converting one
Speaker 2: of those guys, I think Stanley is a perfect fit.
Speaker 2: I think he's a great small ball type of forward.
Speaker 2: He's been shooting the three ball substantially better in his
Speaker 2: time in the G League over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: I'm personally a fan of Stanley. He came through Tucson,
Speaker 2: Arizona's super nice guy, played against him and with him
Speaker 2: several times when he was here. I would love to
Speaker 2: see Stanley be a Laker. I think he'd be a
Speaker 2: great fit. I know you're a big Celtics advocate, and
Speaker 2: I do rate them, but I feel like when the
Speaker 2: lights shine brightest and a full strength team really matches
Speaker 2: them toe to toe, they do struggle. You talk of
Speaker 2: the Celtics settling for shots when under pressure, but do
Speaker 2: you think they lack b MT at the highest level?
Speaker 2: Not sure what that means, you know how Butler thrives
Speaker 2: in that situation, and so does Steph and Lebron. It's
Speaker 2: that killer instinct, which I think Tatum lacks as the
Speaker 2: leader of the team. I keep reflecting on how the
Speaker 2: Cavs and Pacers were all severely injured in last year's playoffs.
Speaker 2: In the previous playoffs, they did struggle against the Heat
Speaker 2: and the Warriors. So part of me thinks the Celtics
Speaker 2: are still unproven at the highest level. Where thoughts Jason,
Speaker 2: So there's a small part of me that agrees with
Speaker 2: you in the sense that, like I have consistently said,
Speaker 2: and Celtics fans know this, I've consistently said, I do
Speaker 2: not view this Celtics team as an all time great
Speaker 2: type of team. They were a dominant regular season team
Speaker 2: last year in a historically weak Eastern Conference, and they
Speaker 2: caught favorable matchups on their way to the postseason. That
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that they're not the best team in the league. Still,
Speaker 2: I do think Boston is the best team in the league.
Speaker 2: I just don't think they're the twenty eighteen Warriors. And
Speaker 2: there were a lot of Celtics fans after last year's
Speaker 2: postseason who were saying that they're like the twenty eighteen Warriors.
Speaker 2: I don't view them like that. But as I zoom
Speaker 2: out and I look at all the teams. Yes, their
Speaker 2: record is not as good as Cleveland or OKAYCS. It'd
Speaker 2: be weird if it was. Those teams are an entirely
Speaker 2: different motivational cycles or parts of their motivational cycle. But
Speaker 2: as I look at them, I go, do they have
Speaker 2: versatility on defense? Different schemes they can use. Yeah, they
Speaker 2: can keep Porzenkis at the rim and run you know,
Speaker 2: more traditional drop coverages and and and be kind of
Speaker 2: physically imposing in that way. But then they also have
Speaker 2: switching groups where they can switch one through five, and
Speaker 2: like every single one of the five defenders is a
Speaker 2: good strong defender, and like they can put together tons
Speaker 2: of groups that space the four really well. They have
Speaker 2: a bunch of different dudes that can create shots. They
Speaker 2: have different types of shot creators for different types of matchups.
Speaker 2: And as I look through them as strictly as strengths
Speaker 2: and weaknesses type of team in the playoff context, I
Speaker 2: just think they're better than Okay see in Cleveland and
Speaker 2: Denver and the Lakers and the Knicks. And I think
Speaker 2: they're better. That doesn't mean that they're Yeah, like guys,
Speaker 2: I don't think they're the Katie Steph Prime, Clay Prime,
Speaker 2: Draymond Andre Gudala Warriors. I don't think they're that team.
Speaker 2: I don't That's that will be determined in the long run.
Speaker 2: If they get into this postseason and they rip through
Speaker 2: the Knicks, and they rip through the Calves, and they
Speaker 2: rip through whoever comes through the West, then we can
Speaker 2: start having a conversation about whether or not they're one
Speaker 2: of those all time great teams. I've said this before.
Speaker 2: All time grade is determined by multiple dominant playoff fronts.
Speaker 2: But like I do think that, like just we're having
Speaker 2: a different type of debate in terms of where last
Speaker 2: year's team ranks historically and among these thirty NBA teams
Speaker 2: this year, who is the most well equipped to succeed
Speaker 2: in the postseason. Should the Lakers prioritize going for the
Speaker 2: two seed or do you think JJ will instead risk
Speaker 2: some losses by testing out different lineups and rotations to
Speaker 2: see which players could be useful for the playoffs and
Speaker 2: to keep his core players healthy and fresh. I would
Speaker 2: be one hundred percent focused on health within the context
Speaker 2: of trying to win games. Like for instance, like Austin
Speaker 2: probably could have played last night. I think they have
Speaker 2: a high enough foundation to be able to win a
Speaker 2: certain amount of games. Two seed would be great for
Speaker 2: home court, Like if you ended up in a two
Speaker 2: to three matchup with Denver, it'd be great to have
Speaker 2: home court. But like, I'm not particularly worried about home
Speaker 2: road necessarily as long as the Lakers are completely healthy. So,
Speaker 2: like to put it simply, I think they should try
Speaker 2: to win as many games as possible, but never play
Speaker 2: a guy who's in any sort of significant discomfort in
Speaker 2: terms of managing health and just their their bodies.
Speaker 1: As they head into that stretch, the.
Speaker 2: Celtics have gotten into a lot of trouble and have
Speaker 2: lost a few games leading into the fourth. Majority of
Speaker 2: these games, Tatum isn't put into the fourth until the
Speaker 2: eight to six minute mark. Why do you think Missoula
Speaker 2: keeps doing this in the rotation? I think this year
Speaker 2: Tatum has created even more space between him and JB
Speaker 2: being the clear number one. But as it stands, Misula
Speaker 2: is content with sitting Tatum for four plus minutes. I
Speaker 2: don't understand it. I didn't I've wanted to know what
Speaker 2: your thoughts are in this. This is something every team does,
Speaker 2: is what the Lakers do with Luca. This is what
Speaker 2: the Nuggets do with Jokic as they're trying to establish
Speaker 2: a rotation. Most teams with their very best player are
Speaker 2: either going to play their start the entirety of the
Speaker 2: first quarter, the entirety of the third quarter, and the
Speaker 2: second half of the second quarter, and the second half
Speaker 2: of the fourth quarter. So to take a break to
Speaker 2: start the second quarter and start the fourth quarter. An
Speaker 2: easy way to put it is, if you sit six
Speaker 2: minutes in the second and sit six minutes in the fourth,
Speaker 2: you're still playing thirty six minutes. You don't want to rest.
Speaker 2: You don't want to be routinely playing your guys more
Speaker 2: than thirty six minutes in a regular season game, right,
Speaker 2: So some teams will tweak that a little bit and
Speaker 2: they'll move that second six minute stretch to spam the
Speaker 2: first and second quarters and to span the third and
Speaker 2: fourth quarters. This is what the Lakers do with Luca.
Speaker 2: Take him out with like two minutes left in the first,
Speaker 2: bring him back with like eight minutes left in the second.
Speaker 2: But like that is pretty typical for teams to want
Speaker 2: to get off to a really strong start and set
Speaker 2: the tones, so they play their star the majority of
Speaker 2: the first quarter and the majority of the start of
Speaker 2: the second half, and then it's like we're going to
Speaker 2: try to cover you during this stretch in the early second,
Speaker 2: early fourth. In clutch time, you come in six seven
Speaker 2: minutes left and you fire the rest of the bullets
Speaker 2: in the chamber and we see if we can get
Speaker 2: this thing. Also, if you look at it, there's different
Speaker 2: phases of the game where the starters play. Typically beginning
Speaker 2: of the first quarter, end of the second quarter, beginning
Speaker 2: of the third quarter, end of the fourth quarter. That's
Speaker 2: what all the starters on the floor. End of first,
Speaker 2: early second, end of third, early fourth, or almost always
Speaker 2: bench groups. So regardless of whether your stars playing with
Speaker 2: the first set of bench groups or the second set
Speaker 2: of bench groups, it's still bench groups. Those are opportunities
Speaker 2: where you need to show that you can have your
Speaker 2: bench guys outperform the other team's bench guys. And if
Speaker 2: you have played Jokic or played Tatum to start the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter, you'd have to sit him at the end
Speaker 2: of the third quarter. And if you sit him at
Speaker 2: the end of the third quarter, you could have the
Speaker 2: same problems that you're complaining about in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: Context got to sit these guys in the regular season,
Speaker 2: or you're gonna wear them out. When evaluating a young
Speaker 2: player's skill set at one point, at what point in
Speaker 2: their career does it go from hasn't shown it yet
Speaker 2: to isn't capable of it? To me, this has a
Speaker 2: lot to do with the actual foundational set of skills.
Speaker 2: A couple of examples. If I'm looking at If I'm
Speaker 2: looking at a guy like Palo Boncero or a guy
Speaker 2: like Jalen Green, I feel like Paolo even if he
Speaker 2: struggled from now till the day he turned thirty. He's
Speaker 2: so big, he's so strong, he has so much natural
Speaker 2: talent that if it clicked for him, like he had
Speaker 2: a really good summer in the gym working on his
Speaker 2: jump shot and a change in approach in terms of
Speaker 2: not settling for as many bad mid range jump shots,
Speaker 2: and he kind of clicked a little bit more as
Speaker 2: a playmaker. Over a five year span. He could be
Speaker 2: massively underwhelming and then explode in his thirties because he
Speaker 2: has such a strong foundation. It's why I quit on
Speaker 2: Jalen Green. Yes he's a frustrating defensive player. Yes he
Speaker 2: plays tunnel vision on offense, yet it's frustrating when he
Speaker 2: beats his man off the dribble and then tries to
Speaker 2: throw up some crazy fucking layup in around like four
Speaker 2: help defenders.
Speaker 1: It's frustrating.
Speaker 2: But if at age twenty nine it clicks, he can
Speaker 2: be deeply impactful because of how strong his foundational traits are.
Speaker 2: So where it becomes an issue is when you see
Speaker 2: an obvious sign of physical decline and that improvement hasn't
Speaker 2: been made yet, or this player's developing but he doesn't
Speaker 2: have a strong enough physical foundation. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2: I was a little worried about Darius Garland early in
Speaker 2: his career because I didn't think he brought any trait
Speaker 2: to the table that was really problematic for teams. He's
Speaker 2: gotten healthy now and he looks incredibly fast, like problematically fast,
Speaker 2: Like teams can't handle him fast. And so like if
Speaker 2: we got three four years down the line and he
Speaker 2: still had his playoff struggles and started to see some
Speaker 2: decline in his quickness, then I would be concerned.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Like it's a combination of like your evolution of at
Speaker 2: as a basketball player and how strong your physical foundation is.
Speaker 2: With the way Jason Tatum is playing the season on
Speaker 2: top of the ridiculously stacked roster the Celtics have. I'm
Speaker 2: curious what teams, if any, you think match up well
Speaker 2: against Boston. It seems they have one of the most
Speaker 2: complete starting fives we have ever seen. Do you see
Speaker 2: any teams that have obvious advantages over them? The two
Speaker 2: teams that i'd be are like, all these teams have
Speaker 2: potential issues they can present. I think the Caves would
Speaker 2: be ridiculous to write them off completely. I just think
Speaker 2: they have some entry points that can cause them problems.
Speaker 2: So the Calves are a big one. I think that
Speaker 2: they'd have to keep an eye out out of the West.
Speaker 2: It's the Lakers and OKC that I'd be worried about.
Speaker 2: I think they match up really well with Denver because
Speaker 2: of their ability to consistently get them in rotation. The
Speaker 2: Lakers and the thunder both have the ability to pretty
Speaker 2: routinely play them into their worst tendencies, which is like
Speaker 2: ISO's difficult over the top shot making because of those
Speaker 2: teams and the way they stunt and sag and and
Speaker 2: find ways to kind of make them feel like they're
Speaker 2: playing in a crowd even when they're playing one on one,
Speaker 2: then the Lakers. They have the ability to match up
Speaker 2: attack Boston and Oka See has a speed advantage. I
Speaker 2: think that manifest for OKAC, especially on the defensive end.
Speaker 2: They can stay up underneath Boston and keep them in
Speaker 2: front and turn them into contested jump shooters. Those are
Speaker 2: the three teams that I'd be particularly worried about, but
Speaker 2: I would pick Boston against all three of them. Two more,
Speaker 2: what team would be the best fit for KD next year?
Speaker 2: Since we know he's not going to be in a
Speaker 2: Sun's jersey next year, where should he go? I think
Speaker 2: Houston would be his best move. But what do you think?
Speaker 2: Houston and Oklahoma City are the two teams that scare
Speaker 2: me for that type of trade with Kevin Durant. Houston
Speaker 2: because they can anchor him with just a rock solid
Speaker 2: defense and a ton of physicality, a good coach, just
Speaker 2: like it's a physical, ass kicking team that KD can
Speaker 2: lift over the top. We talked about that a little
Speaker 2: bit when we talked in our Sun segment yesterday. Oklahoma City,
Speaker 2: if they were like, screw it, let's go get KD.
Speaker 2: I think they would be an immediate, like massive championship
Speaker 2: favorite like head and shoulders over the field. He fits
Speaker 2: a position group that they're a little thin at at
Speaker 2: the power forward. You can imagine him next to Chet
Speaker 2: and Shae. It's just a ridiculously strong foundation. They can
Speaker 2: throw the Suns a million draft picks to figure it
Speaker 2: out for a team that probably would like to pivot anyway.
Speaker 1: Okay sees the team.
Speaker 2: Everyone should be crossing their fingers and begging doesn't go
Speaker 2: after Kevin Durant this summer. Last question really fun one. Hey,
Speaker 2: Jason love the pod. You mentioned how jaws speed and
Speaker 2: downhill force represents an unsolvable issue for defenses at the
Speaker 2: highest levels. I was wondering if you go through the
Speaker 2: NBA and list the players that also have unsolvable abilities
Speaker 2: and what that skill is. I suspect that list isn't
Speaker 2: as long as many others think. Thanks and keep it going,
Speaker 2: best basketball part of the net. Thank you, Thank you
Speaker 2: for the kind words.
Speaker 1: All of you guys.
Speaker 2: So we talked about Darius Carland earlier, John Morant, as
Speaker 2: you mentioned, I decided to just list a couple others
Speaker 2: for you guys. This is just kind of rough thrown together,
Speaker 2: but let me know what you guys think. So I
Speaker 2: put Shae his first step, his pull up shooting that
Speaker 2: kind of just makes him very, very difficult to keep
Speaker 2: in front or to keep from getting to his spots.
Speaker 2: Jannis overwhelming size and athleticism, Jokic size, shot making and passing,
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards first step, pull up shooting and strength. Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum doesn't really have an A plus trait necessarily, but
Speaker 2: I do think his overall skill set is so good
Speaker 2: that it's that type of imposing for teams like you
Speaker 2: just can fill so many different holes in any specific matchup.
Speaker 2: Tyre Smaxi's speed, I think is a real game changing talent,
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant's size and shooting, Luka Doncic size, shot making
Speaker 2: and playmaking, Anthony Davis defensive versatility. Kate Cunningham eventually should
Speaker 2: be able to do a rough facsimile of what Luka
Speaker 2: Doncic does. Lebron James rough facsimile of what Luka Dancic does,
Speaker 2: And I think Lebron's been one of the best two
Speaker 2: or three defenders in the league over the last you know,
Speaker 2: thirty games or so. Zion Williamson is dribble penetration in
Speaker 2: rim finishing, Victor Weimin Yama's length, I defense, Steph Curry
Speaker 2: the threat of his shooting, Joel Embiid's size and scoring,
Speaker 2: his footwork, his ability to move his body. Palo I
Speaker 2: think eventually could bring a combination of size, strength and
Speaker 2: scoring that is a potential there for So what does
Speaker 2: I give you? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.
Speaker 2: So that's eighteen guys that bring that type of issue.
Speaker 2: I'm setting a pretty low bar, Like there's obviously like
Speaker 2: four or five of those dudes that are at another
Speaker 2: level above everyone else. But those are the guys that
Speaker 2: I think bring a specific talent that is an A
Speaker 2: plus talent that could be a foundational trait for an
Speaker 2: elite basketball team.
Speaker 1: Very good question. That was a fun one.
Speaker 2: All right, guys. That's all I have for today is
Speaker 2: always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
Speaker 2: supporting the show. The plan as of right now is
Speaker 2: on Wednesday morning, while I'm in Breck, I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: a video breaking down some of the games from Tuesday night,
Speaker 2: and then we're going live on Thursday night after the
Speaker 2: TNT game that night, so couple shows while we're there,
Speaker 2: and then we'll take Friday off and then we'll go
Speaker 2: live on Saturday night as Celtics Lakers on ABC.
Speaker 1: That should be a fun one.
Speaker 2: Again, as always, I appreciate you guys for supporting me
Speaker 2: and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: Now I'll see you on Wednesday the volume What's Up guys?
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 2: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 2: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 2: do that, I'd really appreciate it.