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Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Thursday,
Speaker 1: everybody happy. I'll be one Canobi released day, something that
Speaker 1: I am very excited to indulge myself with immediately after
Speaker 1: this show is over. In completely inconsequentially, I wore my
Speaker 1: Star Wars shirt tonight. Um awesome, incredible performance from the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors, enough fight from Dallas to not be
Speaker 1: completely embarrassing, which is about the best that we can
Speaker 1: hope for in this conference final, which has been an
Speaker 1: utter disaster. But I believe that the disaster that this
Speaker 1: Conference Finals has been is largely fueled by Golden State
Speaker 1: being much better than Dallas. Yes, I was wrong. Dallas
Speaker 1: is not in the same league as Golden State. They
Speaker 1: are much better and that played out in the series.
Speaker 1: And Boston is much better than Miami, and more often
Speaker 1: than not, the blowout nature of this Conference Finals has
Speaker 1: been a swing back and forth between the better team
Speaker 1: dominating and then the better team letting their foot off
Speaker 1: the gas periodically because there's so much better than the
Speaker 1: team they're playing, which is what happened with Golden State
Speaker 1: in Game four and what happened with Boston in game one.
Speaker 1: In Game three, the chasm between these two teams is gigantic,
Speaker 1: and that led to a pretty ugly Conference final, although
Speaker 1: Boston still has to close the deal. But I do
Speaker 1: believe our NBA Finals series, which I expect to be
Speaker 1: Boston versus Golden State, is going to be much more interesting.
Speaker 1: We have packed show tonight. I want to get into
Speaker 1: the weeds of this game tonight. Talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about how this Golden State Warriors engine continues to impress me,
Speaker 1: a little bit about Luca and the way he went
Speaker 1: down tonight, and some kind of concerning markers that I
Speaker 1: noticed not just on the defensive end, but also with
Speaker 1: some of his off ball threat stuff. And then if
Speaker 1: you guys stick around for the end of the show,
Speaker 1: I want to take some time. I'm not as big
Speaker 1: on the player rankings as I used to be when
Speaker 1: I was younger, but I do still think they carry
Speaker 1: some importance. And there was an epic debate in the
Speaker 1: social media world about whether or not Steph or Lebron
Speaker 1: will be higher all time after this if the Warriors
Speaker 1: were to win a championship this year, fueled of course,
Speaker 1: as always by the talking head cycle at ESPN, this
Speaker 1: time Patrick Beverley, who is clearly not afraid to say
Speaker 1: anything scary. So we will get to some Lebron VERSU
Speaker 1: step stuff at the end of the show. Before we
Speaker 1: get started, all of you guys who are listening, if
Speaker 1: you could take the time to like this video, I
Speaker 1: would sincerely appreciate that that helps us a lot. Also,
Speaker 1: if you could subscribe to the channel so that you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our content, that would be awesome.
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, I'm sure we'll be reacting soon in the
Speaker 1: next couple of days. And then, last but not least,
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt So you
Speaker 1: guys can see the video breakdowns that we do. We
Speaker 1: have big plans to do a lot of footage, like
Speaker 1: actual on court footag stuff during the NBA Finals, So
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to be following me for that. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to get started by talking a little bit
Speaker 1: about the importance of having multiple offensive threats, which has
Speaker 1: been the difference between Golden State in Dallas and the
Speaker 1: difference between Boston in Miami. The we we looked at
Speaker 1: this Boston game last night. You go into an important
Speaker 1: game on the road in Game five, and Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: plays poorly, right, Marcus Smart plays poorly. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't shoot the ball particularly well. But that team is
Speaker 1: loaded with guys that can score. And so even though
Speaker 1: those two guys didn't play particularly well, you've got a
Speaker 1: big Derek White game, You've got a monster Jalen Brown game. Right.
Speaker 1: The anatomy of having multiple threats is chances are you know,
Speaker 1: like this is just the anatomy of being a basketball player.
Speaker 1: Any of you guys who are listening who played hiccup,
Speaker 1: don't you have days where you go up and everything's
Speaker 1: going in and then you have days where you're going
Speaker 1: up where you're taking the same shots and they just
Speaker 1: miss for whatever reason. Right, Like, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, what's the what's the word I'm looking for here?
Speaker 1: Like like shot just like a difference in expected shot
Speaker 1: result versus actual shot result. Right, And if you only
Speaker 1: have a couple of threats, it's far more likely that
Speaker 1: you might catch them on a night where no one's scoring.
Speaker 1: We go forward to Golden State tonight. You know, I
Speaker 1: have once again met up with with Live Moods. Are
Speaker 1: are are one of our big gambling people here at
Speaker 1: the volume, and we were talking about the same game
Speaker 1: partlay to put together today. And you know, Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: uniquely seems to have a nose for these types of settings.
Speaker 1: He's one of those guys that seems to get even
Speaker 1: more confident and have even more audacity when the stakes
Speaker 1: are highest, which is why he's so reliable towards the
Speaker 1: ends of playoff series. And it's such an interesting dynamic.
Speaker 1: It's such an interesting dynamic in the sense that that
Speaker 1: threat is always that's always a possibility when you have
Speaker 1: that much talent on the floor. If it wasn't Clay tonight,
Speaker 1: it would have been someone else. Jordan Pool had an
Speaker 1: okay game, right. I think he had fourteen points or
Speaker 1: fifteen points, right, Like, that's an okay game from Jordan Pool.
Speaker 1: You know you've got uh. Steph Curry was largely playing
Speaker 1: decoy tonight. And the value of having all those threats
Speaker 1: is what allows you to have the enough shots at
Speaker 1: the roulette table to have a couple of them hit.
Speaker 1: If I got six guys that can go for twenty points,
Speaker 1: it's a lot more possible that a couple of guys
Speaker 1: actually do. Andrew Wiggins couldn't buy a three point shot tonight,
Speaker 1: but he was massive scoring in the mid range and
Speaker 1: at the rim, right, Like, that's that's a nice threat
Speaker 1: coming through for you there. Kevon Looney eighteen rebounds, seven
Speaker 1: offense siv rebounds, seven additional possessions, including what I thought
Speaker 1: was the dagger to Clay Thompson on the right wing
Speaker 1: after and Andrew Wiggins missed three on the left wing,
Speaker 1: and with Andrew with with Kevon Looney, it's not the
Speaker 1: same kind of threat, right, It's not you know, him
Speaker 1: going for twenty five points. What it is is it's
Speaker 1: him remaining a threat off the basketball by simply playing
Speaker 1: hard and having a nose for the ball, chasing after
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds right, and securing the defensive rebounds. This is
Speaker 1: something I've been super critical of a lot of players
Speaker 1: over the years. I'm gonna be critical about Luke with
Speaker 1: Luca about it later tonight. You know, there are, roughly
Speaker 1: depending on the team, you play around a hundred possessions
Speaker 1: in a basketball game. You're not going to shoot or
Speaker 1: pass on all of them. You might be like, if
Speaker 1: you're a starter, you're gonna be in there for seventy
Speaker 1: ish possessions, So what are you gonna do on the
Speaker 1: other thirty or forty possessions when you're not involved? Right?
Speaker 1: That's what have all Looney does to remain threat. But
Speaker 1: most importantly, and this is I think the thing that
Speaker 1: most frequently gets glossed over with this whole Golden State
Speaker 1: Warrior system because don't get me wrong, they have a
Speaker 1: lot of talent. Gold State and and Boston have proven
Speaker 1: that they have the two most talented rosters in this
Speaker 1: playoff field. Unfortunately because of the decline of Phoenix's Superstars,
Speaker 1: which we we've been over on the show before. But
Speaker 1: there's something very different about the way Step plays and
Speaker 1: the way that opens things up for other scores. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the you know, the heliocentric style I think
Speaker 1: gets maligned too much. I think people point to heliocentric
Speaker 1: styles failing when more often than not, it is talent.
Speaker 1: Like everyone says, oh, two thousand eighteen hard and it failed.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, Harden wasn't great. Deserves a
Speaker 1: ton of criticism there. But they're up three too before
Speaker 1: Chris Paul went down, right, they look at you know,
Speaker 1: things like the we look at like the Clippers last year,
Speaker 1: it's very heliocentric, is very Reggie Jackson and Paul George
Speaker 1: just isolating while they space the floor. But it's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, if they have Kawhi Leonard, they probably be Phoenix, right,
Speaker 1: you know. And then this year with Luca, it's like
Speaker 1: this style, the spreading the floor. It has a lot
Speaker 1: more effectiveness than you would think. This team has out
Speaker 1: king coverage with respect to the amount of talent that
Speaker 1: it has. It has a lot more to do with
Speaker 1: the fact that Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinuity are running
Speaker 1: your alternate possession. So to be clear upfront, I do
Speaker 1: think helio centric basketball can work if you have the
Speaker 1: right roster construction. But this style that Steph plays with
Speaker 1: also works and it's damn effective. It requires a different
Speaker 1: kind of thing, right, Like there's a huge difference between
Speaker 1: a spot up threat and a scoring threat for helio
Speaker 1: centric systems. You need spot up threats for movement systems,
Speaker 1: and with the star that can succeed so much off ball,
Speaker 1: like Steph, it helps more to have scoring threats. That's
Speaker 1: why you saw guys like Andrea Guadala and Sean Livingston
Speaker 1: and Leandro Barbosa and everything you know, Jordan Pool, these
Speaker 1: kinds of guys succeeding alongside step to have a scoring
Speaker 1: archetype because with the way that Steph inverts a defense,
Speaker 1: with the way that he can succeed off ball, with
Speaker 1: the way that he dictates attention even when he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the ball a lot more often than not, it
Speaker 1: has to do with guys being able to put the
Speaker 1: ball on the floor and score rather than with the
Speaker 1: heliocentric system. You need guys like Maxi Kleiba. You need
Speaker 1: guys like Reggie Bullock who can just spot up and
Speaker 1: be deadly when you help, as guys like Lucar Driving
Speaker 1: into the lane. But what's this Steph play style? We've
Speaker 1: talked about it before, and I said the same thing
Speaker 1: to Colin Coward when I went on his show on Sunday.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to replicate because there just isn't a player
Speaker 1: around the league that has the requisite commitment to winning
Speaker 1: to be willing to do something like be a decoy
Speaker 1: all night long. Like there's a little flurry there in
Speaker 1: the third quarter where Steph tried to or but outside
Speaker 1: of that, he basically was content to absorb defensive attention
Speaker 1: and let his teammates go off. That's very unique around
Speaker 1: the NBA. The Warriors had thirty six assists on forty
Speaker 1: five field goals tonight. That's an insane number. Over of
Speaker 1: their field goals were assisted tonight. Think about how wild
Speaker 1: that is. That kind of thing just doesn't happen anywhere
Speaker 1: else in the league. That is a unique, impossible to
Speaker 1: replicate play style that is opened up by Steph, and
Speaker 1: everyone down the line is bought into it, including Clay Thompson,
Speaker 1: who was incredible tonight. I wanted to talk about this
Speaker 1: clay Hot streak because you know, the the the anatomy
Speaker 1: of a Clay Hot streak is so different than other scores.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of Warriors fans over the course
Speaker 1: of the years will tell you that Steph is obviously
Speaker 1: a much better player than Clay, and obviously step is
Speaker 1: a much better shooter than Clay. Steps the best shooter
Speaker 1: of all time. But Warriors fans usually will admit that
Speaker 1: Clay's hot streaks are actually better than steps. The famously
Speaker 1: once scored what was it, thirty seven points in a quarter.
Speaker 1: He once had sixty points in three quarters. Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: will be and it's a couple of different things. One,
Speaker 1: he's got a really quick release and it's very there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of wasted movement. It's one of the
Speaker 1: number one things that I coach kids on when I'm
Speaker 1: coaching my high school kids about shooting. You know, the
Speaker 1: more moving parts you have, the more margin for error
Speaker 1: there is, or the less margin for error there is.
Speaker 1: If I'm doing all sorts of weird stuff as I'm
Speaker 1: going up into my shot, all it takes is one
Speaker 1: of those parts getting out of whack for the shot
Speaker 1: to miss. Clay Thompson is one of my favorite players
Speaker 1: to show people at an example of beautiful shooting. For
Speaker 1: him because there is no wasted motion, which is one
Speaker 1: of the main things that allows him to get that
Speaker 1: muscle memory so dialed in that he can hit these
Speaker 1: hot streaks. And then the key is he's tall. He's
Speaker 1: six ft seven and with that quick release at six
Speaker 1: ft seven, for Clay, if he wants to and don't,
Speaker 1: you don't have to work too hard to get a
Speaker 1: shot off. And so his hot streaks have always been
Speaker 1: so interesting to me because there's it's a different kind
Speaker 1: of helplessness than it is with Steph. A lot of
Speaker 1: times with Steph you feel like you're guarding him well
Speaker 1: and he's just making impossible shots because he's the best
Speaker 1: shooter of all time. With Clay, it just feels like
Speaker 1: he's getting great looks. He seems to have a nose
Speaker 1: for the ball. This is another huge detail. This is
Speaker 1: an instinct thing. It's not something you can coach. It's
Speaker 1: something that some players just have. It's like it's like
Speaker 1: the rebounders like Kevan Looney who just have an instinctual
Speaker 1: nose for the basketball. They just they seem to know
Speaker 1: where the ball is coming off the rim. They seem
Speaker 1: to know where they're supposed to be to get the rebound.
Speaker 1: Clays the same way with his spotting up, his ability
Speaker 1: to relocate and kind of just have a feeling of
Speaker 1: where he can get the basketball and kind of just
Speaker 1: have a feeling of where the open spot in the
Speaker 1: defense is. Every time there's an offensive rebound, doesn't it
Speaker 1: just kind of seem like Clay's open. He'll he'll sense
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. He'll sense when the offensive rebound
Speaker 1: is there, and he won't get back on defense. He'll relocate.
Speaker 1: He's got all these little unique traits that are so
Speaker 1: different from other shooters around the league. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why, even though he's not as good as shooter
Speaker 1: as Steph, he can have hot streaks that are even crazier.
Speaker 1: But overall, I thought tonight was an absolute clinic in
Speaker 1: what makes this Golden State offense great. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be really critical of Dallas and their defense here in
Speaker 1: a little bit, but there, over the course of the
Speaker 1: last third of that game, I thought Dallas actually was
Speaker 1: defending pretty well in Golden State. It still was able
Speaker 1: to get the shots that they needed to get, so
Speaker 1: salute to them. Um. I was bummed out by the
Speaker 1: conference finals. I thought they were boring on a bunch
Speaker 1: of different levels. First of all, Golden State proved to
Speaker 1: be way better than Dallas, and Steph proved to be
Speaker 1: way better than Luca. I made a prediction when I
Speaker 1: wasn't confident in I told you guys, I wasn't confident
Speaker 1: in this particular series, but I thought Dallas. I leaned
Speaker 1: slightly towards Dallas in six games. I was flat out wrong.
Speaker 1: I was wrong about Luca over Steph. I was wrong
Speaker 1: about the Dallas roster and being able to keep up.
Speaker 1: I have to own that Golden State proved themselves to
Speaker 1: be the better team. I've been right about a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff in this playoff run, and I've been wrong
Speaker 1: about a lot of stuff in this playoff run. It's
Speaker 1: just kind of the nature of the way things go.
Speaker 1: But that talent gap between Golden State and Dallas, as
Speaker 1: well as the talent gap between Boston and Miami, I
Speaker 1: think it's a huge part of why these games been blowouts.
Speaker 1: I think it's been a combination of Boston and Golden
Speaker 1: State dominating games because they are better, and Dallas in
Speaker 1: Miami hanging tight and and and taking advantage of lacks
Speaker 1: of daisical effort from Boston and Golden State when they
Speaker 1: get too arrogant and they let their foot off the
Speaker 1: gaess like what happened to Golden State and game in
Speaker 1: game four and what happened to Boston in games one
Speaker 1: in game three. Right, this series is going to be
Speaker 1: a whole lot closer. If Boston closed the deal tomorrow,
Speaker 1: which I expect them to. We're looking at again. This
Speaker 1: is the biggest example that I can use to kind
Speaker 1: of demonstrate to you guys the difference in this matchup
Speaker 1: compared to what Golden State has been dealing with through
Speaker 1: this playoff run. Golden State averaged like over points per
Speaker 1: Hunter possessions against Denver. Denver was outmatched with talent. Yoki
Speaker 1: had so much on his offensive load that he basically
Speaker 1: had to mail in the defensive end just to have
Speaker 1: the energy to hang in the games. Golden State lit
Speaker 1: him on fire. Golden State destroyed this Dallas team. They
Speaker 1: embarrassed him on the defensive end. Dallas has a whole,
Speaker 1: a whole other defensive set of issues they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to confront this summer. With John Morant on the floor,
Speaker 1: the Warriors scored about a hundred and twelve points per
Speaker 1: one hundre possessions, which is pretty good. Not as good
Speaker 1: as they did in the other two series, but pretty good.
Speaker 1: Here's the issue. When Memphis was without Job through that
Speaker 1: entire series, the Warriors had a hundred and four offensive rating.
Speaker 1: That's pretty low. Boston is a much much better defense now.
Speaker 1: To be clear, I'm picking Golden State to win this series,
Speaker 1: but I expected to be much closer and to be
Speaker 1: by far Golden State's biggest challenge of this playoff run,
Speaker 1: and it will have a lot to do with the
Speaker 1: fact that they're facing a defensive matchup that they haven't
Speaker 1: faced yet. In this series, Boston ran a ton of
Speaker 1: drop coverage against Miami. Miami their offensive system is is
Speaker 1: reliant on a lot of dribble handoffs and high ball
Speaker 1: screens with Bam and guys like Max Struce and Gay Vincent,
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry, you know, even a little bit of Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler Tyler Harrow coming off of those screens and pulling
Speaker 1: up jump shots right. And I vehemently disagreed with the strategy.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a huge part of why Miami
Speaker 1: got the wins they did early in the series. But
Speaker 1: the way the reason why it broke for Boston is
Speaker 1: everyone went cold. Max Strew's completely fell apart, Kyle Lowry
Speaker 1: completely fell apart, Tyler Harrold got hurt, and then Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler completely fell apart. Gay Vinson has been the only
Speaker 1: guard really for Miami that's played well. Right, We're upgrading
Speaker 1: all of that for this series. Steph Curry, Clay Thompson,
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool even a little bit, and Andrew Wiggins. This
Speaker 1: is an entirely different level of pull up jump shooting
Speaker 1: team and curl jump shooting team and movement jump shooting team.
Speaker 1: So I don't think Boston is gonna be able to
Speaker 1: run the same drop coverage that they did. So this
Speaker 1: is where rim pressure becomes critical. I expect Boston to
Speaker 1: do a ton of switching. Now that that what happens
Speaker 1: with switching, Golden State's gonna do things like they're gonna
Speaker 1: run wild off ball actions to try to confuse Boston switches,
Speaker 1: to try to bait them into mistakes. They will get
Speaker 1: some a ups and dunks in this series off of
Speaker 1: that type of off ball movement and mistakes from Boston.
Speaker 1: But a large part of what Golden State will have
Speaker 1: to do offensively in this series is to attack switches.
Speaker 1: So this is where this is This is where shot
Speaker 1: selection becomes key and rim pressure becomes key, specifically for
Speaker 1: Jordan's Pool and Steph. When you're attacking a switching defense,
Speaker 1: it becomes about your ability to create an advantage against
Speaker 1: your defender, specifically the weakest defender on the floor that
Speaker 1: you're trying to target, which with Boston there's just not
Speaker 1: a lot of options there. So the tendency for a
Speaker 1: lot of players in these types of situations is to
Speaker 1: fall for the trap and to go to a series
Speaker 1: of isolation moves and take pull up jump shots. It's
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things that Boston's had issues with
Speaker 1: throughout the series, which by the way, will impact Boston
Speaker 1: when they're on offense. And I'm gonna get to that
Speaker 1: here in just a minute. But the best way, the
Speaker 1: smart way to attack a switch defense is to apply
Speaker 1: rim pressure to engage help defenders, because you don't want
Speaker 1: to run into an isolation contest. If you run into
Speaker 1: an isolation contest, you put yourself at the mercy of physicality,
Speaker 1: and Boston's gonna have physical advantage over advantages over you
Speaker 1: in this series. But if you turn it into an
Speaker 1: isolation contest where they're isolating and you are getting kick
Speaker 1: out wide open shots and nice you know, uh, offensive
Speaker 1: opportunities attacking closeouts, then you have the advantage. The only
Speaker 1: way to get to the point where you can attack
Speaker 1: closeouts against the switching defense is if you apply rim
Speaker 1: pressure and engage rim defenders. So there will be a
Speaker 1: ton of pressure on Steph and Jordan Pool in particular
Speaker 1: to get dribble penetration, and they both do it very differently.
Speaker 1: Steph does it by weaponizing the threat of his shooting
Speaker 1: to keep you on your toes, leaning forward, constantly concerned
Speaker 1: about the threat of the pull up, and weaponizing that
Speaker 1: to get around you. For Jordan's Pool, it's just straight
Speaker 1: line speed in the ability to change direction in combination
Speaker 1: with the ability to handle the basketball. There was a
Speaker 1: massive pivotal play in the third quarter of this game tonight.
Speaker 1: Luca makes a tough float in the lane, gets it
Speaker 1: down to eight. Actually someone else at score, but they
Speaker 1: got it down to eight, and it's the end of
Speaker 1: the quarter and Jordan Pool brings the ball off the
Speaker 1: floor and he's got Reggie Bullock on him and he
Speaker 1: just hits him with a vicious right to left crossover
Speaker 1: and completely dusts him a good defensive player and gets
Speaker 1: into the lane on a in a blur and finishes
Speaker 1: with a left handed lay up off the glass. It
Speaker 1: was a massive play in that game to get it
Speaker 1: to double digits going into the break, and it's a
Speaker 1: clear demonstration of what I'm talking about here. The one
Speaker 1: of the keys to the series in this Boston Golden
Speaker 1: State matchup. If Boston can close the deal against Miami
Speaker 1: tomorrow again, which who knows, but if they can, is
Speaker 1: that deal and they end up in this matchup. The
Speaker 1: ability of Steph and Gold and Stephan Jordan Pool to
Speaker 1: apply rim pressure against Boston switches and to get their
Speaker 1: defense and rotation is going to be pivotally important because
Speaker 1: if they get a one or four offensive rating against Boston,
Speaker 1: it might not be enough. It might have to be
Speaker 1: closer to one ten. And the only way that's happening
Speaker 1: is if they get consistent rim pressure. I want to
Speaker 1: move over to the other side of the ball for
Speaker 1: a second, So the the I want to I want
Speaker 1: to take you guys back to the Brooklyn Boston series
Speaker 1: for a second. So in that series or Brooklyn actually
Speaker 1: fared pretty well against that Boston defense, which again I've
Speaker 1: spoken very highly of that Boston defense. I think when
Speaker 1: they're actually dialed in and trying, and they have Robert Williams,
Speaker 1: I I think they're one of the best defenses of
Speaker 1: this era, if not the best defense of this era.
Speaker 1: They held a Kade Kyrie line ups during the regular
Speaker 1: season averaged about a hundred and twenty two points per
Speaker 1: one hundre possessions. They held that same pairing to about
Speaker 1: one thirteen in the first round series. The consistent theme
Speaker 1: is that Boston has been holding your scoring to about
Speaker 1: ten points less per one hun possessions than what you
Speaker 1: did in the regular season. But one thirteen is a
Speaker 1: pretty decent number for Brooklyn, and Boston swept them. And
Speaker 1: the reason is is because Boston had no trouble scoring
Speaker 1: in that series, a lot less trouble than they had
Speaker 1: against Milwaukee and then they had against um Miami. And
Speaker 1: one of the keys there was the way that Boston
Speaker 1: was able to attack small perimeter players, which Miami doesn't
Speaker 1: have much of, in which Milwaukee didn't have much of.
Speaker 1: So what will be interesting is Golden State's ability to
Speaker 1: avoid mismatches, particularly guys like Steph in Jordan's pool, keeping
Speaker 1: your smaller, slighter guards off of the bigger Boston Wings
Speaker 1: to attack. Again. This isn't like Luca where he's to
Speaker 1: methodically work you into the lane herkey jerky and you
Speaker 1: have plenty of time to help and recover. These are
Speaker 1: guys in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown that are gonna
Speaker 1: put their head down and try to slash to the rint.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things that Golden State's done
Speaker 1: consistently in this playoff run that I think is very
Speaker 1: smart is they've used Stephen Jordan pool and what's called
Speaker 1: a hedge and recover scheme. So there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: different types of pick and roll coverages. Right. We've talked
Speaker 1: about drop coverage a lot on this on this show,
Speaker 1: we talked about switching on the show. There's different things
Speaker 1: you can do within drop coverage is like a catch
Speaker 1: hedge and things along those lines. But you don't see
Speaker 1: the hedge and recover very often anymore. It was primarily
Speaker 1: used about ten years ago and power forwards that we're
Speaker 1: in the game and you'd see old slow bigs hedge
Speaker 1: and recover out on the perimeter. You can kind of
Speaker 1: You can if you guys, those of you who have
Speaker 1: been watching the game for a while, just visualize it.
Speaker 1: You can imagine the big lumbering post player coming out
Speaker 1: to hedge almost out to half courton and recovering right. Well,
Speaker 1: the genius of the hedge and recovery is it forces
Speaker 1: the ball handler to take a retreat dribble out to
Speaker 1: have court. And when you make a ball handler make
Speaker 1: a retreat dribble out to half court, it just buys
Speaker 1: your time to recover around that. Okay, so what will
Speaker 1: happen is Luca or somebody will call for step on
Speaker 1: a switch and when he comes up, when steps Man
Speaker 1: comes to set the screen, instead of doing a switch,
Speaker 1: Step will hedge hard, forcing Luca to take a retreat dribble,
Speaker 1: which gives Andrew Wiggins time to fight through the screen
Speaker 1: so that Steff can recover. It was the genius thing
Speaker 1: that Golden State did to try to keep guys like
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool and Steff off of Luca, which is why
Speaker 1: they weren't able to get that switch. Often they were
Speaker 1: much more willing to give the Looney switch or the
Speaker 1: Elita switch than they were to give the guard switches.
Speaker 1: That is going to be vitally important against Boston because
Speaker 1: Boston was relentless and attacking Patty Mills and attacking Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving and it and it just an attacking Gore and
Speaker 1: Dragic and all the slower, slight, skinny guards that we're
Speaker 1: playing for Brooklyn. That's going to be a really really
Speaker 1: interesting part of this matchup. Andrew Guadala is going to
Speaker 1: be a key factor here because Andrew Wiggins demonstrated that
Speaker 1: he can stand up to Stout Wings the way he
Speaker 1: still stood up to Luca. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: another thing I have to own I said in the
Speaker 1: Dallas series, I said no one, nobody on Golden State
Speaker 1: has a chance of guarding Luca. Now, I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody in the league can guard Luca in the sense
Speaker 1: like shut him down. But Andrew Wiggins demonstrated in that
Speaker 1: series he can guard Luca, and by guard, I just
Speaker 1: mean naked, so that he has to rely on the
Speaker 1: more difficult elements of his offensive game. So credit to
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins. I was wrong. There was one player on
Speaker 1: Golden State who could guard Luca. It was Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: ended up being a huge swing factor in this series.
Speaker 1: But if Andrew Wiggins is on Jayson Tatum. Who's gonna
Speaker 1: guard Jalen Brown. That's an interesting It's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson, right, but Clay Thompson is not the same
Speaker 1: defensive player that he was earlier in his career. This
Speaker 1: is where Andrew Guadala being available would be massive. Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: First of all, Jalen round. Have you guys noticed how
Speaker 1: many times Jalen Brown has gotten stripped in this series
Speaker 1: and turn the ball over. It's like every time he
Speaker 1: puts the ball on the floor tries to go through traffic,
Speaker 1: the ball just goes to the other team. Andre Goodal
Speaker 1: has some of the best hands of any defensive player
Speaker 1: that's ever played this game. So Andre Goodala's availability so
Speaker 1: that they can physically match up with the two wings
Speaker 1: for Boston is going to be vitally important. Last thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to touch on for the NBA Finals again
Speaker 1: caveat Boston has to close the deal. I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be really important for Golden State to do a
Speaker 1: ton of switching outside of those headge and recover situations
Speaker 1: and test Boston's decision making. So as you've seen with
Speaker 1: Miami and with Milwaukee. Both of those teams have been
Speaker 1: able to get Boston to go through extended stretches where
Speaker 1: they can't score, largely fueled by baiting them into isolation
Speaker 1: basketball and getting Tatum and Brown to take stupid contested
Speaker 1: jump shots and avoid that same rim pressure that I
Speaker 1: say is so vitally important to attack these switching schemes.
Speaker 1: I expect Steve Curve to do exactly what Erik Spoelstre
Speaker 1: did and to consistently mix things up, to consistently change coverages,
Speaker 1: and to consistently forced Boston to test their decision making.
Speaker 1: I haven't checked it updated for Game five, but through
Speaker 1: the first four games of the Conference Finals on the East,
Speaker 1: Boston average about a hundred and two points in the
Speaker 1: half court per one possessions. That's a decent number. It's
Speaker 1: a lot better than they fared against Milwaukee. And so
Speaker 1: that dynamic, that that half court dynamic, it's going to
Speaker 1: come down to which team can execute better there. Will
Speaker 1: it be Steph and Jordan Pool applying the rim pressure,
Speaker 1: getting Boston in rotation and getting quality three point shots
Speaker 1: for their wings, or will it be Boston running over
Speaker 1: the small bar guards of Golden State and getting into
Speaker 1: the lane. This is an incredibly close series. I think
Speaker 1: it'll be a long series and I'm incredibly excited for it.
Speaker 1: I am leaning towards Golden State in six. Actually, we'll see.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm to do a final pick
Speaker 1: as we get closer to the finals, but I'm picking
Speaker 1: Golden State as of right now to win in a
Speaker 1: longer series because I trust their overall commitment to the job,
Speaker 1: their attention to detail, their leadership, and there's a guy
Speaker 1: named Steph Curry who's been there before. He's been there
Speaker 1: five times. He will be immensely comfortable. Just like Lebron
Speaker 1: was on the early Golden State teams in the finals
Speaker 1: where he was clearly the most comfortable guy on the floor.
Speaker 1: I expect that to be Steph in this final series,
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna be a huge swing factor
Speaker 1: to Golden State. All Right, we have two other things
Speaker 1: real quick. I want to hit tonight. I want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about Dallas We're looking forward, and
Speaker 1: then at the end, I want to talk about this
Speaker 1: Lebron Steph debate that was going all over the place
Speaker 1: on social media because of Patrick Beverley all right, So
Speaker 1: I talked about Luca's defense. I'm not gonna get into
Speaker 1: that again. Luca has to get in better shape and
Speaker 1: become a better defensive player. That goes without saying. But
Speaker 1: one of the most interesting dynamics that I noticed in
Speaker 1: this series and throughout this entire playoff runt is that
Speaker 1: Luca was not making his catch and shoot threes. And
Speaker 1: so I went into the numbers and looked to see
Speaker 1: Usually that's how I always am. I'm trying to attach
Speaker 1: things with the eye test too, things that are represented statistically,
Speaker 1: because I think either without the other is worthless, right A.
Speaker 1: Numbers that don't actually represent what's happening on the floor
Speaker 1: are worthless, And whatever you perceive is happening on the
Speaker 1: floor that's not also leading to statistical success is also worthless.
Speaker 1: It needs both. Lucas shot on catching shoot threes in
Speaker 1: this playoff run before tonight. That's awful. That's extraordinarily bad. Now,
Speaker 1: catching shoot threes and are are an entirely different dynamic
Speaker 1: than pull up threes. Pull up threes are so much
Speaker 1: more about touch and getting lift and getting separation. Lucas
Speaker 1: shot pull up threes in this series before tonight, overall,
Speaker 1: so he shot better there. Catching shoot threes are way
Speaker 1: more about muscle memory and repeating the same motion every
Speaker 1: single time. You have to take time to work on
Speaker 1: catching shoot threes. When I go through my shooting routine
Speaker 1: means I always make sure there's a good balance between
Speaker 1: what I'm doing with step back threes and pull up
Speaker 1: threes and step back jump shots, pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: turn around jump shots out of the post. I always
Speaker 1: have a balance between that kind of thing and just
Speaker 1: a ship ton of reps and standard catching shoot threes.
Speaker 1: Because again, this is the most important dynamic here. Because
Speaker 1: let's we talked a lot about helio centric offenses earlier
Speaker 1: in the show. In order for helio centric offense to
Speaker 1: win a championship, they're gonna have to bring in another star. Right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about that here in just a second.
Speaker 1: So let's say they bring in another star. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Luca's usage rate is going to go way down,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna have to be a threat on on
Speaker 1: possessions when he does not have the ball. He's not
Speaker 1: quick enough to do what Steph does and just fly
Speaker 1: around off the screens and stuff, right, he'll be able
Speaker 1: to do the occasional deep seal and when he gets
Speaker 1: switched on to a smaller defender. Kind of the some
Speaker 1: of the stuff that Lebron does right, but a huge
Speaker 1: part is going to be him to turning himself into
Speaker 1: a successful catching shoot three points. This is actually something
Speaker 1: that I think Lebron has done a really nice job
Speaker 1: towards the end of his career. He he even spots
Speaker 1: up a little bit further outside the line. He'll spot
Speaker 1: up at about twenty five feet instead of ft, just
Speaker 1: so he has that little extra bit of space and
Speaker 1: and it it makes that defender have to go a
Speaker 1: little bit further out and he'll Lebron is a gunner
Speaker 1: and catch and shoot situations, and Luca will take them
Speaker 1: at the end of the clock when he has to.
Speaker 1: But it seems like that's not a big enough part
Speaker 1: of his game. And I think that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: huge part. In addition to his conditioning and in condition,
Speaker 1: in addition to his ability to defend, He's going to
Speaker 1: have to make himself a threat off the basketball. Now.
Speaker 1: I talked about them retaining a star with Dallas. It's
Speaker 1: vitally important that they retain assets. The Warriors just clearly
Speaker 1: demonstrated this. Kevin Durant says he wants to leave, says
Speaker 1: he's going to Brooklyn. Golden State has two options, let
Speaker 1: him go or engage the Brooklyn Nets and try to
Speaker 1: bring something back for k D. As a result, they
Speaker 1: overpaid for a player They didn't like the little Russell.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, they didn't like him so
Speaker 1: much that I actually have been pretty critical of Golden
Speaker 1: State in the way they handled him, and they kind
Speaker 1: of burped him to the ground after they traded him away,
Speaker 1: which I thought was unprofessional. But the move of retaining
Speaker 1: D'angela Russell was genius because they were able to flip
Speaker 1: him to Minnesota, not just for Andrew Wiggins, but for picks.
Speaker 1: And Andrew Wiggins is now a vitally important part of
Speaker 1: a team that I think is going to win the
Speaker 1: NBA Championship this year. So retaining assets is one of
Speaker 1: the most important dynamics to maintaining your competitiveness as you
Speaker 1: move forward over the years. You need to resign Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson to whatever he asks, or not what he asked,
Speaker 1: but whatever he dictates in the open market, because even
Speaker 1: if you don't think he's the number two for Luca,
Speaker 1: you need the asset. Jalen Brunson is not a star,
Speaker 1: but he did demonstrate in this postseason run that he
Speaker 1: is an effective matchup attacker. He can beat people off
Speaker 1: the dribble, he's a great mid range game, he's a competitor.
Speaker 1: He had some massive games in this playoff run. So
Speaker 1: he does have value. And if there's a disgruntled star
Speaker 1: somewhere around the league, somewhere around the next couple of years,
Speaker 1: and you're engaging them as the Dallas Mavericks, and you
Speaker 1: can come to them and say, hey, I've got all
Speaker 1: these draft picks. Also, here's Jalen Brunson, a player that's
Speaker 1: at least a good player for you. You know, here's
Speaker 1: so and so, here's so and so. Retaining assets is
Speaker 1: important to engage in those trade situations. So I think
Speaker 1: it's really really important for Dallas this summer to not
Speaker 1: you know, I, yeah, they're not good enough, they need
Speaker 1: another star. But don't let guys walk for nothing. Follow
Speaker 1: the Golden State example. Retain your assets, be prepared to
Speaker 1: engage teams in the trade market. Okay, So I had
Speaker 1: no intention of talking about Lebron and Steph tonight. Wasn't
Speaker 1: planning on really getting into that unless stephf got the trophy,
Speaker 1: which obviously there's still one more step there. But I
Speaker 1: do think step will end up getting the trophy. I
Speaker 1: typically don't hair anywhere near as much about all time
Speaker 1: player rankings now as I did when I was younger.
Speaker 1: I bought into that stuff a lot, a lot more
Speaker 1: when I was younger. Now as as I've gotten older,
Speaker 1: I'm a lot more, you know, Just aware of the
Speaker 1: fact that this situation is way too complicated. Everyone's way
Speaker 1: too entrenched. Like all of you Warriors fans listening, you
Speaker 1: think Steph was better. I can't tell you you're wrong.
Speaker 1: You know I disagree with you, but I can't tell
Speaker 1: you you're wrong. Like and that there is no static environment.
Speaker 1: This is not tennis. This is a team sport. Not
Speaker 1: only does talent player role, injuries player role makes and
Speaker 1: mrs player role. I mean, I watched a playing game
Speaker 1: last year where Steph vastly outplayed Lebron for the entire game. Now,
Speaker 1: Lebron was hurt and just come back from injury, but
Speaker 1: look Steph like resoundingly outplayed Lebron and Lebron made a
Speaker 1: wild contested three at the end of the shot clock
Speaker 1: and stole the game. You know, like basketball as a
Speaker 1: team sport, it's not tennis. None of this stuff ever
Speaker 1: just comes down to Lebron one. Therefore he's better than
Speaker 1: the stuff, or step one, therefore he's better than Lebron.
Speaker 1: The stuff is complicated, and all of that complication is
Speaker 1: why I've been so annoyed by these kinds of topics
Speaker 1: over the years. But we we were forced to discuss
Speaker 1: it a little earlier than I thought because of Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley going on ESPN today and saying that Lebron and
Speaker 1: Steph were close to each other all time. Now, to
Speaker 1: be clear upfront, Steph is my second favorite player of
Speaker 1: this era. I think he has resoundingly established that spot,
Speaker 1: meaning yes, he's a significantly ahead of Kevin Durant for
Speaker 1: this era, and I think that I think that that
Speaker 1: is a remarkable accomplishment on his part. That said, I
Speaker 1: think as the years have gone by, Lebron has almost
Speaker 1: become a little underrated, And the reason for that is
Speaker 1: I think he fell short of the MJ standard and
Speaker 1: as he's gotten older, it's been drama with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and it's been two times, missing the playoffs in a
Speaker 1: first round exit surrounding the championship, and so Lebron's kind
Speaker 1: of drifting out of focus a little bit. Meanwhile, Steph
Speaker 1: is having a remarkable season, which we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: here in just a second, and the Warriors on the
Speaker 1: title run. And that's just kind of the nature of
Speaker 1: recency bias, right. But I want to remind people why
Speaker 1: Lebron is in the Goat conversation to begin with, because
Speaker 1: now I don't have Lebron ahead of MJ. But there's
Speaker 1: a reason why he's in that conversation. This is a guy,
Speaker 1: you know, I talked about shots at the table. We
Speaker 1: talked about this with Colin Coward on Sunday. In order
Speaker 1: to win a championship, a lot of things have to
Speaker 1: break your way, like for Golden State even this year,
Speaker 1: some things are breaking their way. You catch a matchup
Speaker 1: right in with Denver in the first round. You don't
Speaker 1: have to face Jamal Murray. You know, let's face Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Jr. Right, You go into the second round and
Speaker 1: John Ran gets hurt. You go into the third round
Speaker 1: and you get to play a weaker Dallas team because
Speaker 1: Dallas beat a Phoenix team that had an injury at
Speaker 1: the point guard position, and Chris Paul, Right, you have
Speaker 1: some things go your way, but things go your way.
Speaker 1: Every time you win a championship. There's no such thing
Speaker 1: as you just going through and beating everybody at full strength.
Speaker 1: It almost never happens. Lebron's last title bunch, things went
Speaker 1: their way. Stephan Katie were on their couches. Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: was on his couch, and he went through some stars.
Speaker 1: He went through Damian lillardy went through James Harden and
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook and Nicola Yokich. But those guys were all
Speaker 1: on lesser teams. Lebron he had caught. He had Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on his team, playing at the peak of his powers. Right,
Speaker 1: you need some things to go your way. But if
Speaker 1: I get seven opportunities to play the game and three,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes things are gonna go not my way,
Speaker 1: but sometimes things will go my way. And when they do,
Speaker 1: that's how I end up with three or four championships.
Speaker 1: I have to get to the table enough times for
Speaker 1: things to break my way. And what's so in interesting
Speaker 1: is is more often than not, we just make it.
Speaker 1: We simplify it down to just who had the trophy,
Speaker 1: and that's all that matters. Lebron is in the goat
Speaker 1: conversation because he has consistently in a twenty year career
Speaker 1: for basically nineteen of those years. I'll take that back,
Speaker 1: will take away the will take away this last year
Speaker 1: because the injuries, and we'll take away the two thousand
Speaker 1: nineteen season, the Mario Hazonia block, the wine under the seat.
Speaker 1: So for seventeen years of a twenty year career, excluding
Speaker 1: those two that I just mentioned and his rookie season,
Speaker 1: he's been so damn good that his team's had a
Speaker 1: puncher's chance to win the title. That seventeen seasons is
Speaker 1: exactly what puts him in the goat conversation. Because when
Speaker 1: you're talking about who the best basketball player of all
Speaker 1: time is, I like to think of that personally as
Speaker 1: a static situation. If I had to pick up player,
Speaker 1: irrespective of talent, irrespective of coaching, irrespective of things going
Speaker 1: your way, what player gives you the best chance to win?
Speaker 1: And Lebron having seventeen of those seasons is what puts
Speaker 1: him in that conversation. So with Steph, he's had a
Speaker 1: remarkable run here, but not only okay. So personally, I
Speaker 1: think Lebron's peak because of his two way play and
Speaker 1: the way he was as a defensive threat in addition
Speaker 1: to what he brought as an offensive player. That's we're
Speaker 1: seeing this from Janice right now. He had a world
Speaker 1: beating element to him. There wasn't a player in the
Speaker 1: world that could touch how good he was in two
Speaker 1: thousand twelve and two thousand thirteen. Steph I never I
Speaker 1: never thought step had a peak like that. But in
Speaker 1: addition to that, he just hasn't had the same number
Speaker 1: of shots at the table. His window has been shorter
Speaker 1: because we lost two seasons right over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years because of some bad luck last year with
Speaker 1: him falling on that step and bruising his tailbone which
Speaker 1: led to him being in the playing tournament, and then
Speaker 1: the year before him breaking his hand right and then
Speaker 1: outside of that, you know, he hasn't been relevant since
Speaker 1: like two thousand thirteen, or he was relevant starting in
Speaker 1: about two thousand thirteen. So I'm getting a shorter window
Speaker 1: of opportunity with Steph, and I'm getting a lower peak
Speaker 1: ceiling than stuff. So for me, that just simply makes
Speaker 1: a chasm there. But That's why for me, when I'm
Speaker 1: ranking players all time, a couple of things, I always
Speaker 1: have guards and wings separate from bigs. I think they
Speaker 1: play an entirely different position. To me, it's like comparing
Speaker 1: an offensive lineman to a quarterback. And then I also
Speaker 1: split eras I don't think of anything but pre nine
Speaker 1: because it's also just an entirely different sport. So for me,
Speaker 1: I have m J and Lebron in the top tier,
Speaker 1: and I think MJ's clearly above Lebron, but I think
Speaker 1: Lebron is the only guy who's in that conversation. Then
Speaker 1: when I dropped down from there, that's where I get
Speaker 1: to the Kobe, the Magic, the Bird, and then I
Speaker 1: have Steph in that group if he wins a title
Speaker 1: this year. So for me to say that with that
Speaker 1: short window, with Steph having only really been relevant in
Speaker 1: the championship landscape for about half as long as Lebron was,
Speaker 1: for him to be in the same conversation as Larry
Speaker 1: Freaking Bird and Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, that's remarkable.
Speaker 1: That's an unbelievable accomplishment. But that degree of difficulty has
Speaker 1: to be factored in there. I put in my notes,
Speaker 1: the two guys that steps career reminds me the most
Speaker 1: of in terms of long like rankings of the all
Speaker 1: time great players, Magic and Kobe strike me as the
Speaker 1: most uh most realistic comes because degree of difficulty does matter.
Speaker 1: Lebron won a championship with Anthony Davis, and that was
Speaker 1: probably the best team that he had, right and what
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis did that season was amazing, but he was
Speaker 1: a play finisher. There was no debate as to who
Speaker 1: the best player on that team was. Kyrie Irving. It's
Speaker 1: been exposed now that outside of scoring the basketball, he
Speaker 1: just doesn't bring that much to a team. So you
Speaker 1: gotta give a lot Lebron on a lot more credit
Speaker 1: for what he did in two thousand sixteen, and then
Speaker 1: in two thousand twelve and two thousand thirteen, Dwyane Wade
Speaker 1: was a shell of himself, which is how they trailed
Speaker 1: against the Boston Celtics into twelve, which is how they
Speaker 1: trailed against the Indiana Pacers in twelve, which is how
Speaker 1: they trailed to the Oklahoma City Thunder in twelve, which
Speaker 1: is how they trailed to the Pacers and Spurs. The
Speaker 1: reason why those series were so close was because yes,
Speaker 1: there were big names involved, but Bosh and Wade were
Speaker 1: clearly at a level below Lebron. The titles that Steph
Speaker 1: one with Kevin Durant remind me a lot more of
Speaker 1: the titles that Kobe won with Shack or the titles
Speaker 1: that Magic won with Kareem in the early eighties. They're
Speaker 1: still titles. They are incredible indicators of what they are
Speaker 1: as engines. They're incredible indicators of of their overall basketball ability,
Speaker 1: but they aren't the same degree of difficulty as what
Speaker 1: Lebron did in his four championships. And even though in
Speaker 1: my book, Steph has the Finals MVP for two thousand fifteen,
Speaker 1: that's why Lebron has four of him. There was no debate,
Speaker 1: there was no conversation about who the best player in
Speaker 1: the team was. There was a clear engine that was
Speaker 1: making the whole thing work. And so one of the
Speaker 1: things that that hurts Steph in this regard is that
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, those those championships with Kevin Durany just had
Speaker 1: a lower degree of difficulty. But again, I'm just pointing
Speaker 1: those things out to juxtapose him with Lebron freaking James,
Speaker 1: the second best basketball player to ever play the game,
Speaker 1: who for seventeen seasons was in the conversation for being
Speaker 1: the best player in the game and very well might
Speaker 1: have been, and gave his team chances to win championships
Speaker 1: and one ten conference titles in the process. So for
Speaker 1: me to say that Steph is in a tier with
Speaker 1: Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant is not
Speaker 1: an insult in my opinion. For me to say that
Speaker 1: Steph was better than Kevin Durant in this era but
Speaker 1: not as good as Lebron is not an insult to
Speaker 1: Steph in my opinion. But once again, and this last
Speaker 1: thing I'll say about it. You Steph fans, if you
Speaker 1: think if you think Steph was better than Lebron, I
Speaker 1: can't argue with you there. This is a subjective take.
Speaker 1: It's it's so much more comes down to personal preference
Speaker 1: because this isn't tennis, and we don't have clear cut
Speaker 1: results to to to dictate this kind of thing. It's
Speaker 1: all about weighing context, and everyone weighs context differently, so
Speaker 1: it's impossible to reach common ground. So if you guys
Speaker 1: want to tell me in the comments, if you want
Speaker 1: to tell me, if if you ever seen me out
Speaker 1: in public and you come up and chat and you say, hey,
Speaker 1: I think Steps better than Lebron all time. More power
Speaker 1: to you, man. I can't I can't disagree with you,
Speaker 1: and I can't prove you wrong. All I can do
Speaker 1: is disagree with you. But for Stepp to have, if
Speaker 1: he's got one last task he has to accomplish. But
Speaker 1: if he closes this deal, then it's an unbelievable accomplishment
Speaker 1: for him to get into that tier of players with
Speaker 1: his shorter prime relative. Al Right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate you guys hanging out.
Speaker 1: I apologize for the technical difficulties we had earlier. If
Speaker 1: you missed any part of the show, you'll find it
Speaker 1: in its totality on YouTube. If you can't check it
Speaker 1: out on YouTube because you don't have time to get
Speaker 1: on your computer on your phone, go to our podcast
Speaker 1: feed Lakers Tonight. You can find the full show there,
Speaker 1: typically a couple of hours after we finish. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your support. No live show over the
Speaker 1: course of the next couple of days, I am traveling
Speaker 1: to Charlotte with my wife, So tomorrow night before I
Speaker 1: hit the road, I'm going to upload a breakdown of
Speaker 1: the Celtics Heat Game five or six. I expect the
Speaker 1: series is to be over at that point, So at
Speaker 1: that point I would probably take some much needed days
Speaker 1: off this weekend to enjoy time in Charlotte, but I'll
Speaker 1: have my equipment with me and I might do some
Speaker 1: film breakdowns or do a preview of the finals. We'll
Speaker 1: see and then the NBA Finals starting next week on Thursday,
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna be incredible. So as always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your guys support and rocking with me, and
Speaker 1: I will see you guys tomorrow night. The Volume