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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the ball you Happy
Speaker 1: Friday everybody. Oh lo If you guys have been having
Speaker 1: a great week so far, we got a Jampaxstowe for
Speaker 1: you tonight.
Speaker 2: NBA playoffs have not.
Speaker 1: Been very kind to us in the last few weeks,
Speaker 1: I should say, in the last week or so. As
Speaker 1: we have yet another blowout tonight as the Pacers destroy
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks to send this to a game
Speaker 1: seven on Sunday.
Speaker 2: We're gonna break that game down.
Speaker 1: From the perspective of both teams, but I want to
Speaker 1: I want to bounce around the rest of the league
Speaker 1: tonight since we had such a boring game. So why
Speaker 1: don't you guys drop some mail bag questions in the
Speaker 1: chat and Paul, our producer, is going to be texting
Speaker 1: them to me and we'll get to them at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show. I have roughly about ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes that we're gonna go over this game,
Speaker 1: but then we're gonna get into a mail bag. You
Speaker 1: guys are the job before we get started. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: a brand new YouTube channels. You don't miss any more
Speaker 1: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason
Speaker 1: lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about a podcast feed where you gut your podcast under
Speaker 1: hoops tonight. Then keep dropping mail back questions in those
Speaker 1: YouTube comments that we can keep get to them over
Speaker 1: the course of the rest of the postseason. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So wild oscillations and effort that
Speaker 1: have been the story of this series since Game three.
Speaker 1: Game three was that kind of like pivot point where
Speaker 1: it felt like it could have gone the other way
Speaker 1: for the Knicks, but unfortunately we get for the Knicks,
Speaker 1: I should say the Andrew Nemhart hits that three and
Speaker 1: it's two to one, and then we the injuries start
Speaker 1: to stack up. It becomes a problem to get blown
Speaker 1: out in game four, then the Pacers get blown out
Speaker 1: in Game five, and then the Knicks get blown out
Speaker 1: in game six. It's just been going back and forth.
Speaker 1: The gap and effort was apparent from the jump. There
Speaker 1: was an early shot on the right wing. It was
Speaker 1: like the third possessed, second or third possession for the Pacers.
Speaker 1: Andrew Nemar gets a pretty decent look at three at
Speaker 1: the right wing and he misses it. Josh Hart closes
Speaker 1: out get a contest, but after he contests, he leaks
Speaker 1: out instead of going for the board. The ball comes
Speaker 1: short off the front of the rim. Jalen Brunston's standing
Speaker 1: right around the elbow like no one's engaged with him.
Speaker 1: He's in position to go get the basketball, but he's
Speaker 1: too upright, not in an athletic stance, ready to go,
Speaker 1: and Sony Smith ups ends up just chasing his own
Speaker 1: shot and getting the offensive rebound.
Speaker 2: It gets works back around.
Speaker 1: Tyres Halliburton hits a three in the chaos after it
Speaker 1: it's like, this is an opportunity to close out the
Speaker 1: Pacers and you're not bringing that effort. You know, immediately
Speaker 1: from the that was just abundantly clear. Obviously Indiana was
Speaker 1: the one that was the team that was really scaling up.
Speaker 1: There was a play that I thought kind of demonstrated
Speaker 1: that early too, and it was we went to that
Speaker 1: action that the Knicks were spamming so much over the
Speaker 1: course of the tail end of this series, which is
Speaker 1: having duce McBride's screen for Jalen Brunson, where Halliburton's either
Speaker 1: blitzing or hedging and recovering, and then they're getting good
Speaker 1: looks out of duce McBride slipping out of that kind
Speaker 1: of the top of the key area where he can
Speaker 1: either shoot a three or make that extra pass if
Speaker 1: the defense rotates to him. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that I noticed that was a little bit different. And
Speaker 1: I don't even think this is so much execution as
Speaker 1: it is just effort. I shouldn't say execution.
Speaker 2: I don't know how. I don't know how much of
Speaker 2: this is game plan. It's probably more just effort.
Speaker 1: But in the hedge and recover, remember Haliburton when he
Speaker 1: hedges he's supposed to stop Jalen Brunson from turning the corner,
Speaker 1: but then he's got to sprint back and recover, and
Speaker 1: in Game five, he just wasn't doing it. He just
Speaker 1: was lingering way too long, and so the duce McBride
Speaker 1: would catch there somewhere around on the top of the key,
Speaker 1: around the wing, and he'd either get a clean look
Speaker 1: at three or a different pacer would have to rotate,
Speaker 1: which would allow duce McBride to just make easy reads
Speaker 1: out of it. One of the early possessions of the game,
Speaker 1: Halliburton hedges, the ball gets dropped from Brunson back to
Speaker 1: duce McBride around the top of the key, but Halliburton
Speaker 1: sprints back into the play and chases duce McBride off
Speaker 1: the line, which makes it so that a different pacer
Speaker 1: didn't have to rotate, so they didn't get the defense
Speaker 1: in rotation and duce ends up taking like a contested
Speaker 1: mid range two where Halliburton's offering some back pressure and
Speaker 1: it's like, that's just better execution of a coverage that
Speaker 1: you've been running most of the series, Like it's really,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. I was thinking about this a
Speaker 1: lot after the Timberwolves Nuggets game last night, because there
Speaker 1: were some tactical things that were done differently, right, Like, specifically,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of double teaming of Nicola Yokitch.
Speaker 1: That was the main like difference schematically between what the
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves did in game five, But the vast majority
Speaker 1: of what happened in that game was just the Timos
Speaker 1: did a much better job. They did a much better
Speaker 1: job of everything in terms of like running harder, screening harder,
Speaker 1: competing at the point of attack, running of fighting over
Speaker 1: the top of screens, like every little detail, even just
Speaker 1: little things like battles where Karl Anthony Towns was trying
Speaker 1: to play bullyball earlier in the series. He was getting
Speaker 1: stood up and flattened out, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he's going through people and getting easy hook shots
Speaker 1: in game six, right, So like, so much of this
Speaker 1: is just the the oscillations of force, like athletic force
Speaker 1: that naturally take place as urgency shifts back and forth
Speaker 1: between the two teams. I thought, I thought that was
Speaker 1: the story of this game. The Knicks were really bad
Speaker 1: in transition defense, in particular, they kept like not getting
Speaker 1: matched up or not loading up their shell. They give
Speaker 1: up an easy early layup to Andrew Nemhart in transition
Speaker 1: because they just didn't have their shell set up. And again,
Speaker 1: like all of you guys who have played basketball at
Speaker 1: any level are familiar with what the shell is. It's
Speaker 1: basically just you're loaded up defensive principles whenever there's just
Speaker 1: a guy holding the ball on the wing, right, Like
Speaker 1: the guys that are one pass away are typically up
Speaker 1: in the past lane, right, the guys that are two
Speaker 1: passes away usually have a foot in the paint. That's
Speaker 1: like just the very very basic version of what a
Speaker 1: shelle is, right, And like every team's gonna have different
Speaker 1: principles depending on what type of personnel they have. But
Speaker 1: like if you are not in your loaded up position,
Speaker 1: like if there's a guy like in this play, Andrew
Speaker 1: Nemhard was driving a close out in transition on the
Speaker 1: right wing. If Andrew Nemhart drives that close out, but
Speaker 1: you have two guys digging down in the driving lanes
Speaker 1: one pass away, and then everyone who's two passed away
Speaker 1: as a foot in the paint, then there's not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of room for Nemhar to operate and he's
Speaker 1: probably gonna have to kick and then it's gonna turn
Speaker 1: into like a driving kick kind of close out situation. Right,
Speaker 1: but if you're not loaded up, then themhard can easily
Speaker 1: kind of jump into the lane. I think he went
Speaker 1: to a left right euro step for a right handed
Speaker 1: layup in too much opening around the basket right. Not
Speaker 1: getting matched up was a big problem. They gave Siakam
Speaker 1: a wide open layup on like the fourth or fifth
Speaker 1: possession of the game because literally just no one picked
Speaker 1: him up when they were back in transition, and so
Speaker 1: like it was just a really poor execution effort game
Speaker 1: from the Knicks. Pascal Siakam really carried the offense early
Speaker 1: for Indiana. He has this short and mid range game
Speaker 1: really dialed in right now. Miles Turner had a big
Speaker 1: bounce back game after having a rough game. Five had
Speaker 1: a driving dunk earlier off the left wing that I
Speaker 1: thought really set the tone. Similar type of play in
Speaker 1: the early second quarter where the Knicks cut it to
Speaker 1: five and then he had like a tip dunk where
Speaker 1: he was screaming and it just kind of like reasserted
Speaker 1: the team after they started to let go of the
Speaker 1: rope a little bit. And then from there in the
Speaker 1: middle third quarter, Tyre Saliburton finally kind of got going
Speaker 1: as a score, really got going with this pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot, and that pretty much would put the game
Speaker 1: outside of fifteen points where it became just insurmountable for
Speaker 1: a Knicks team that can struggle to score sometimes. I
Speaker 1: felt like there were two chances in this game for
Speaker 1: the Knicks to kind of take some control and send
Speaker 1: it into something that could have been a closer and
Speaker 1: more competitive game, and in both situations, the Pacers were
Speaker 1: the team that ended up taking control instead. In the
Speaker 1: middle second quarter, the game was tied at forty six
Speaker 1: at one point, and the Pacers just really locked in defensively.
Speaker 1: They held the Knicks to just two points over the
Speaker 1: following six minutes. Brunson just went brutally cold from the field.
Speaker 1: A lot of really good individual and team defense. Aaroney
Speaker 1: Smith continues to just do an incredible job on him
Speaker 1: since switching onto that assignment in Game three. Andrew Nemhard
Speaker 1: also got a couple of big stops on him during
Speaker 1: that run, a big one on the left elbow where
Speaker 1: he forced Brunston to pick up his dribble and then
Speaker 1: pressured him and forced him into a really difficult kind
Speaker 1: of like pivoting bank like kind of push shot at
Speaker 1: the end of the shot clock. During that span ten
Speaker 1: that run where they held the Knicks to only two points,
Speaker 1: they ended up scoring fourteen of their own, and INDI
Speaker 1: ended up Indian. Indy ended up going up by twelve
Speaker 1: points in that span. And then the early third quarter
Speaker 1: was the other chance where I thought the Knicks had
Speaker 1: a chance. They get a couple of buckets quickly out
Speaker 1: of the halftime right, Brunton gets a driving layup, there's
Speaker 1: a back cut, they get a couple stops.
Speaker 2: It's back to five, right.
Speaker 1: But then the Pacers immediately went on the tend to
Speaker 1: run and on the knickt front, they missed a couple
Speaker 1: of open threes in that stretch. Duce McBride missed two
Speaker 1: of them and Josh Hart missed a really good look
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. Feels like you kind
Speaker 1: of need to hit at least a couple of those
Speaker 1: to give yourself a chance to win this type of
Speaker 1: game in this environment. Yet on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor, Haliburton drives and kicks to Nemhard in the
Speaker 1: left wing.
Speaker 2: He hits a three.
Speaker 1: There's a play where Halliburton misses a step back jumper
Speaker 1: on the baseline Overduce McBride, and there's a tap out
Speaker 1: rebound and Halliburton just beats everybody to the ball and
Speaker 1: it gets tapped. In the chaos, it ends up working
Speaker 1: back to Halliburton and he ends up hitting a three.
Speaker 1: Miles Turner hit two buckets in that stretch. He drove
Speaker 1: a close out on the right wing, hit a little
Speaker 1: bank shot, and then then that tipdunk that I told
Speaker 1: you guys about. That kind of like reasserted the Pacers
Speaker 1: control of the game. So like these two stretches where
Speaker 1: it felt like if a couple things go differently, then
Speaker 1: maybe we're looking at a different type of game. But
Speaker 1: in both of those situations, the Pacers instead made all
Speaker 1: the plays and took control of the basketball game they
Speaker 1: deserve to win the night. They brought the energy, they
Speaker 1: brought the force. The Knicks did it.
Speaker 2: Obviously.
Speaker 1: Josh Hart's injury is another factor we got to look
Speaker 1: at there. It looked like he strained something in his abdomen.
Speaker 1: The dead giveaway there was like when he was trying
Speaker 1: to pull that rebound down from Siakam and like that's
Speaker 1: just essentially a crunch, right, and you could just tell
Speaker 1: it was really bothering him and specifically with his play style.
Speaker 1: That's an injury that's gonna be tough for him to
Speaker 1: play through. The injury is just keep stacking up for
Speaker 1: the Knicks, and like there's some good news, right, Like
Speaker 1: if they can survive game seven, it looks like they'll
Speaker 1: get ogn and Obi back in the next round against Boston.
Speaker 1: But it's gonna be a lot to survive Game seven.
Speaker 1: Now as we look through the situation here where we
Speaker 1: have basically three straight blowouts, some of them more dramatic
Speaker 1: than others, but these teams have not played a competitive
Speaker 1: game since Game three, right, So like with that being
Speaker 1: the case, it's kind of hard to sift through the noise.
Speaker 1: But I just want to kind of give you guys
Speaker 1: my overarching thirty thousand foot view of the series as
Speaker 1: we go into Game seven, to try to help with
Speaker 1: making a prediction or trying to figure out what's going
Speaker 1: to happen. The Pacers have been the far better transition
Speaker 1: team for cleaning the glass coming into tonight. Fifteen percent
Speaker 1: of their possessions have been in transition, and they're scoring
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty one points per transition per one
Speaker 1: hundred transition plays. The Knicks are only getting out thirteen
Speaker 1: percent of the time and only a one to twenty
Speaker 1: nine of one hundred and twenty nine points per one
Speaker 1: hundred transition plays. So the Pacers have been a far
Speaker 1: more impactful offense in transition tonight per cleaning the glass
Speaker 1: as of three and a half minutes left in terms
Speaker 1: of the data updating, but in the enda had A
Speaker 1: had scored at a rate of two hundred points per
Speaker 1: one hundred transition plays and the Knicks were only at fifty.
Speaker 1: So there's like a chasm between the two teams in
Speaker 1: terms of getting out in transition and scoring. That's obviously
Speaker 1: the way the Pacers like to play, but when they've
Speaker 1: been good, it's been getting out in transition. The Knicks
Speaker 1: have been the better half courteam per cleaning the glass.
Speaker 1: Through games one through five, they had a five point
Speaker 1: edge per one hundred half court possessions a three point
Speaker 1: edge tonight as of three and a half minutes left
Speaker 1: per one hundred possession, So the Knicks have a size
Speaker 1: like at least a clearly discernible gap in their half
Speaker 1: court ability to score the basketball. It really comes down
Speaker 1: to two things. They're rebounding thirty eight percent of their
Speaker 1: own misses through the first five games, and then Brunston
Speaker 1: has been a more reliable shot creator in the half court.
Speaker 1: Haliburton has brought a lot of value in transition, but
Speaker 1: when we actually get stuck in the half court, Brunson
Speaker 1: has been the best shot creator in the series. His
Speaker 1: action where he targets Haliburton with those Duce McBride screens,
Speaker 1: that's probably the most reliable and efficient play for either
Speaker 1: team as a half court kind of like get the
Speaker 1: defense in rotation and try to make something happen type
Speaker 1: of play at this point. And so really if we
Speaker 1: sort through that, it's just going to come down to
Speaker 1: that battle, the half court first transition battle. If the
Speaker 1: Knicks can get back in transition, well, first of all,
Speaker 1: execute in the half court offensively and score right. If
Speaker 1: they can get back in transition and kind of contain
Speaker 1: Indie and keep them in the half court, I think
Speaker 1: the Knicks will win. If the Pacers get a lot
Speaker 1: of stops and they get out in transition a bunch,
Speaker 1: that could be a death sentence for the Knicks, so
Speaker 1: that the main battle that's going to determine what happens
Speaker 1: in Game seven is going to be who wins that
Speaker 1: physical battle. Are the Knicks able to strangle the pace
Speaker 1: and keep this thing in the half court as much
Speaker 1: as possible or the Pacers gonna get stops and get
Speaker 1: out and run. That's gonna be who determines the victor
Speaker 1: of Game seven. I believe the Knicks are going to win,
Speaker 1: but we'd be foolish to not give the Pacers a chance.
Speaker 1: Obviously they got ran out of the gym in Game five,
Speaker 1: but they were very, very competitive in both Game one
Speaker 1: and Game two of this series. Now, both teams have
Speaker 1: kind of made a lot of adjustments since then, have
Speaker 1: really settled into their play styles. But the Pacers are
Speaker 1: gonna feel confident going into that game that they have
Speaker 1: a chance to win. Josh Hart is obviously going to
Speaker 1: be a huge question mark there as well, Like if
Speaker 1: he's out, that's a huge problem. So yeah, picking the Knicks,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be covering the game. It's a three thirty
Speaker 1: pm Eastern start. My guess is will go live on
Speaker 1: YouTube after that because we'll probably be going with Colin
Speaker 1: in the evening after Wolves Nuggets. So I'll see you
Speaker 1: guys after the final buzzer of that game. Now, before
Speaker 1: we get out of here, let's get to some mailbag questions.
Speaker 1: Keep dropping questions with Paul in the chat. Obviously we've
Speaker 1: got we're gonna go for like another fifteen to twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: So if you guys got anything interesting, anything's fair game,
Speaker 1: whatever you guys want to talk about, drop it in
Speaker 1: the chat. How can you differentiate a surprise playoff team
Speaker 1: like taking the next step versus an overachieving fake run.
Speaker 1: To me, that really just comes down to personnel, right,
Speaker 1: Like if you're, for instance, like if I'm looking at
Speaker 1: a team that like the two examples that were given
Speaker 1: in this mailback question, or the twenty twenty three Knicks
Speaker 1: versus the twenty twenty one Hawks. So one of the
Speaker 1: things for the Knicks in particular, is like they're doing
Speaker 1: this even though they've got personnel that's unavailable, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I was talking with Paul, our our lead
Speaker 1: producer here. He's a big Knicks fan, and we were
Speaker 1: talking about this earlier, like before the show, Like, I
Speaker 1: one of the things that's a dead giveaway to me,
Speaker 1: when the home team wins every game in a series,
Speaker 1: is like neither team is particularly good now. Obviously the
Speaker 1: Knicks one, they have everybody. When the Knicks have Ognnoby,
Speaker 1: when Josh Hart is healthy, when they've got their guys
Speaker 1: in the lineup, I think that they're a team that's
Speaker 1: much closer to the top tier than they appear right now.
Speaker 1: And I actually think that if og and Andoby's healthy,
Speaker 1: this series is probably over already, it probably ends in
Speaker 1: six games, right, So, like it just there's just a
Speaker 1: certain amount of talent loss that they've experienced their injury
Speaker 1: that's made them look like a different type of team.
Speaker 1: But with a team like the Knicks, no matter what
Speaker 1: happens in this postseason run, you're encouraged because Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: is clearly a top ten player in this league. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of resiliency to his ability to score that
Speaker 1: we've seen over multiple playoff runs, even dating back to
Speaker 1: when he was with Dallas and last year as well. Like,
Speaker 1: Brunson's just one of those dudes. Now we just have
Speaker 1: to kind of consider him one of those guys. And
Speaker 1: so Brunson's legit, You've got a real identity a good coach,
Speaker 1: a lot of two way personnel. You really just need
Speaker 1: an additional shot creator right to tie this all together,
Speaker 1: And the Knicks aer in beautiful position to do something
Speaker 1: like that this summer. So like, I do think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of legitimacy there with the Hawks. Like I
Speaker 1: never have really looked at I never have really looked
Speaker 1: at Trey Young as one of those guys. Now I
Speaker 1: know that that's kind of a polarizing topic that Trey
Speaker 1: Young is a lot of fans and a lot of
Speaker 1: people think he's really really good.
Speaker 2: I think Trey Young's.
Speaker 1: More in that like twenty to thirty range of NBA player,
Speaker 1: not in the five to fifteen range, like Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: is right, So like I just think Jalen Brunson is better.
Speaker 1: So I think that makes him different. Again, when I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the when I'm looking at like whether a
Speaker 1: team has a real playoff run, meaning like the potential
Speaker 1: to take the next step to get into championship contention,
Speaker 1: I mean to look at the same set of rules
Speaker 1: that I look at for every franchise. Do do you
Speaker 1: have a guy that's good enough to be the best
Speaker 1: player on a championship team, and I actually think Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson is capable of being that guy. I think he's
Speaker 1: on the very low end of that, but I think
Speaker 1: he is on that level. Do they have a legitimate
Speaker 1: secondary shot creator this year? They don't, But I Knicks
Speaker 1: fans have heard this consistently from me. I love this team.
Speaker 1: They've got a really bright future, but I never gave
Speaker 1: them a legitimate chance to win the title this year
Speaker 1: because they don't have that, like, really reliable secondary shot creator.
Speaker 1: If they get that next year, then we're talking about
Speaker 1: a more serious team. And then there's all these other
Speaker 1: boxes that we look at down the roster, which the
Speaker 1: Knicks check with flying colors like championship character, basketball character, coaching,
Speaker 1: like two way personnel, like depth of talent, like competitiveness
Speaker 1: and spirit, like all of that stuff they have in spades.
Speaker 1: There's just this one hole, which is, and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the healthy version of the Knicks, but there's this
Speaker 1: one hole, which is they don't have a reliable secondary
Speaker 1: shot creator. All right, let's look at another one here.
Speaker 1: Denver has been sold as a high floor team, but
Speaker 1: they've had two duds. Is this just about the matchup
Speaker 1: with Minnesota or actual flaws that teams in later rounds
Speaker 1: can exploit if the Nuggets get through. So I think
Speaker 1: the really ugly losses have had more to do with
Speaker 1: the play styles, and I think I think we've seen
Speaker 1: this a little bit in Knicks Pacers as well. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: the Knicks are a much better half court team than
Speaker 1: the Pacers, but the Pacers are much better transition teams.
Speaker 1: So like, if they play a half court based game,
Speaker 1: the Knicks win a lot by a lot. If they
Speaker 1: play a transition based game, the Pacers win by a lot.
Speaker 1: Right for the Nuggets, they have an offensive skill advantage
Speaker 1: against Minnesota that is pretty substantial. So when when Denver executes,
Speaker 1: and I mean on both ends of the floor, when
Speaker 1: they handle ball pressure well, when they set good screens,
Speaker 1: when they really get into their offense, and then on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, when they press up
Speaker 1: into Minnesota and make them uncomfortable, you just see this
Speaker 1: massive chasm and offensive talent. The games are slower, but
Speaker 1: Denver just scores more reliable, and they're winning by what
Speaker 1: fIF like somewhere in that twelve to eighteen points range, right, Like,
Speaker 1: every one of those games from Game three four and
Speaker 1: five kind of looked the same, right in terms of
Speaker 1: like Minnesota's offense really struggling. I want to say five
Speaker 1: times in those six halves they failed to reach fifty points.
Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, I need to go back and
Speaker 1: double check. It might have been four times, but they
Speaker 1: were consistently being held under fifty points and a half.
Speaker 1: Like Minnesota just couldn't score. And Denver had a one
Speaker 1: twenty eight or one twenty seven and change offensive rating
Speaker 1: over those three games, So like that was the difference, right,
Speaker 1: But in games two, in game six games where Denver
Speaker 1: really struggles offensively and they are not bringing that same
Speaker 1: level of defensive pressure, that's where Minnesota's athleticism advantage just
Speaker 1: comes screaming off the screen, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's like, wow, they just look so much faster, so
Speaker 1: much lankier, and like they just bring so much more
Speaker 1: like downhill force through Anthony Edwards running his lane and
Speaker 1: like Kat bullying his way to the basket, Nas Reid
Speaker 1: driving and dunking on people. Like there's just like a
Speaker 1: level of athleticism that pops for Minnesota when Denver doesn't
Speaker 1: have control of the game. But as long as Denver
Speaker 1: can control the game. The athleticism stuff doesn't matter as much.
Speaker 1: It's just it's very much been to me, like when
Speaker 1: Minnesota wins those battles, it's just more extravagant of a
Speaker 1: deficit because their athleticism advantage is so big. Does the
Speaker 1: winner of Game seven in Minnesota Denver instantly become the
Speaker 1: title favorite. So I one of the things that I
Speaker 1: was high on. I was much higher on Minnesota after
Speaker 1: Game two of this series in the sense that I
Speaker 1: looked at they had a lot going for them offensively,
Speaker 1: and there were a bunch of different things that were
Speaker 1: clicking that weren't clicking in the regular season that had
Speaker 1: them looking really good on offensively. Cat was like consistently
Speaker 1: good on offense every night. The Keil Alexander Walker was
Speaker 1: consistently good on offense every single night. Kat's three point
Speaker 1: shot in particular was just like deadly locked in and
Speaker 1: Ant was playing super well.
Speaker 2: But then we found out over the course.
Speaker 1: Of the series, particularly Game three, four, and five, like
Speaker 1: Aunt has had some resiliency in his ability to score
Speaker 1: the basketball throughout the different circumstances of the series, but
Speaker 1: the rest of his team is not, and that has
Speaker 1: been pretty standard for what we've seen from Minnesota all season,
Speaker 1: except for it's been even more exaggerated because it wasn't
Speaker 1: as good in the regular season. Right, And so when
Speaker 1: I look at Denver versus Boston, I think Denver is
Speaker 1: to me clearly just the safer bet because they're more
Speaker 1: consistently operating at their ceiling. But if we imagine a
Speaker 1: Minnesota versus Boston final, Boston's going to be able to
Speaker 1: do a lot of the same damage to Minnesota's offense
Speaker 1: that Denver has done to Minnesota's offense. And Boston also
Speaker 1: has this incredibly high powered offense that can look to
Speaker 1: attack entry points. One of the unique things that makes
Speaker 1: Boston's offense so scary is when you have five starting
Speaker 1: caliber players out there when Porzingis is healthy, or six
Speaker 1: with the five when Porzingis is not healthy and six
Speaker 1: twenty is. But when Porzingis is out there with that
Speaker 1: starting group, not only do you have five high powered
Speaker 1: offensive players, you have five high powered offensive players that
Speaker 1: are all great at attack king matchups. Drew Holliday can
Speaker 1: really do damage to smaller guards in the post. Chris
Speaker 1: Apps Porzingas can really do damage on switches in the post.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown can do the same thing, so can Tatum.
Speaker 1: Derek White obviously is an offensive initiator of a different type,
Speaker 1: but can also do a lot of damage. And so
Speaker 1: one of the things is, like, you can't really hide
Speaker 1: defenders against Boston the way that you can against other teams.
Speaker 1: And like, if if Jada McDaniels is gonna guard Jylen
Speaker 1: Brown and uh and.
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday is gonna guard or if.
Speaker 1: Anthony Everags is gonna guard Jason Tatum, or however it
Speaker 1: is that they split up the matchups, Conley's gonna have
Speaker 1: to guard one of them, you know, Carl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: was gonna have to guard one of them. Carl Anthony Towns, Like,
Speaker 1: my guess is they'll probably end up putting him on
Speaker 1: like Drew Holliday and trying to let him roam around
Speaker 1: if they end up in that type of series. But
Speaker 1: like that, Drew Holliday's a really good cutter and he's
Speaker 1: he's found ways to be useful off the ball. He's
Speaker 1: been a deadly catching and shoot guy in the regular season,
Speaker 1: not so much in the playoffs, but he's made a
Speaker 1: few more as of late. But like Boston has like
Speaker 1: a a plethora of shot creation, a bbility that makes
Speaker 1: them a very difficult challenge in their own rights. So like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stick with what I said right around the
Speaker 1: time that Minnesota was kicking the shit out of Phoenix,
Speaker 1: which is like, I look at Denver and Boston as
Speaker 1: the top two teams, and Minnesota for me, joined that
Speaker 1: tier with their performance through the first two rounds of
Speaker 1: the playoffs, And so yeah, I think if Denver loses,
Speaker 1: Boston becomes the favorite. I think if Denver wins, Denver
Speaker 1: stays the favorite. But certainly all three of those teams
Speaker 1: have a really good chance. When was the last time
Speaker 1: you were able to get practiced with guitar? So it's
Speaker 1: actually kind of a funny story. I played a lot
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. My dad was a diehard
Speaker 1: Alman Brothers fan, so I kind of grew up on
Speaker 1: blues a lot of like Duyne Allman, Derek Truck's, you know,
Speaker 1: Warren Haynes, Sticky Bats, those kinds of guys. And when
Speaker 1: I went to go play basketball in college, I moved
Speaker 1: into a dorm up in up in Utah, and so
Speaker 1: I didn't bring my guitars with me and I just
Speaker 1: kind of stopped, and like I stopped for a long time.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I was probably I want to say,
Speaker 1: I want to say it was like two thousand. It
Speaker 1: was right around like twenty nineteen, twenty twenty. Relatively recently.
Speaker 1: Two things kind of got me back into it. One,
Speaker 1: I discovered the John Mayer Grateful Dead the whole thing,
Speaker 1: where like I'd always thought of John Mayer as John Mayer,
Speaker 1: you know, and like I didn't even know he was
Speaker 1: doing this kind of music. And my older brother, who
Speaker 1: was also a big guitar guy and a big blues guy,
Speaker 1: he ended up sending me a link one day that
Speaker 1: was like, hey, check this out, and it was John
Speaker 1: Mayer playing Alfhea and I was like, holy shit, this
Speaker 1: is awesome. And right around the same time, my brother
Speaker 1: in law, who doesn't play guitar, gave me a guitar
Speaker 1: that he had sitting around. I didn't even I didn't
Speaker 1: even have one like my old ones that I genuinely
Speaker 1: don't even remember what happened to him, And so I
Speaker 1: it was just an acoustic guitar that my older brother,
Speaker 1: my brother in law, gave me, and I played it
Speaker 1: for a little bit, and I remembered that I loved it,
Speaker 1: and so like two days later, I went down to
Speaker 1: a guitar center and bought like a cheap it's this
Speaker 1: epiphone and Les Paul that I have over here, and
Speaker 1: then immediately I was like being a kid again. I
Speaker 1: just fell in love with it again. And then I
Speaker 1: got like super hooked. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: about me that's like kind of different than it was
Speaker 1: when I was a kid is like I really struggled
Speaker 1: to work hard on things that I that I don't
Speaker 1: have a passion for, and I just have a passion
Speaker 1: for guitar, and so it's like really easy for me
Speaker 1: to work on it. But that said, I don't devote
Speaker 1: as much time to it as I do basketball right now.
Speaker 1: My guess is, whenever my knees fail me or whenever
Speaker 1: I have some sort of serious injury that causes me
Speaker 1: to stop playing basketball, I'll probably devote a lot more
Speaker 1: time to playing guitar. But it's definitely like something that
Speaker 1: I that I love to do and that I'd like
Speaker 1: to do more and more as I get older. I
Speaker 1: joke with my wife, there are a lot of dive
Speaker 1: bars here in Tucson. I'd love to be that like
Speaker 1: fifty sixty year old dude who like goes down on
Speaker 1: a Tuesday and like plays cover band music at a
Speaker 1: dive bar. Just I just I just love that that
Speaker 1: kind of music. All right, Let's see when is a
Speaker 1: good time to pull the plug when losing in playoff games?
Speaker 1: If not down twenty with five minutes remaining in game
Speaker 1: seven forty eight hours away, then when, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: really it is like I think when you're I think
Speaker 1: when you get down twenty plus with like right around
Speaker 1: like seven minutes left in that fourth quarter, you're almost
Speaker 1: better off buying rest for the next game.
Speaker 2: Do you watch the MCU. I watched the entire whatever you.
Speaker 1: Call it, phase one with the Fanos story everything through
Speaker 1: Avengers endgame.
Speaker 2: Loved those. My wife and I a couple times over
Speaker 2: the years of rewatch them too. Was a big fan.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of like anything that's like fantasy
Speaker 1: based and that has deep story building and like deep
Speaker 1: world building, and the MCU has been like that for me.
Speaker 1: But I've had a really hard time getting into it
Speaker 1: in the next phase. It's just the villains haven't been
Speaker 1: as interesting the characters haven't been as interesting. I've just
Speaker 1: had a I've had a hard time getting into it.
Speaker 1: Do you classify Jimmy Butler's heat as real contenders or overachievers?
Speaker 1: I look at them kind of like in between. I
Speaker 1: think they're like the To me, they're like the bouncer
Speaker 1: at the championship club, but they're not actually in the club.
Speaker 1: What I mean by that is like, if you're a
Speaker 1: fraudulent team and you run into Miami, you're gonna lose
Speaker 1: when they have Jimmy and Bam healthy. But every time
Speaker 1: they end up running into a team that actually has
Speaker 1: championship ability, whether it's the Nuggets last year, or it's
Speaker 1: the Lakers in twenty twenty or that Celtics team in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, which I actually think was better than
Speaker 1: some of these other Celtics teams because they were so
Speaker 1: much more engaged on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: They he just eventually run out of firepower. And so
Speaker 1: there's a lot of guards available this summer. Whether it's
Speaker 1: de Jontae Murray, or it's Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell,
Speaker 1: or it's or Trey Young or whatever it is, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of there's just a lot of guys available
Speaker 1: this summer. I think Jeremy Grant could be available this summer.
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram could be available this summer. So, like the Heat,
Speaker 1: just have to get one of those guys. They simply
Speaker 1: do and they have to give it a shot with
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Bam and one of those guys to see
Speaker 1: if they can get something.
Speaker 2: Do you think a good SGA.
Speaker 1: Player comp would be the late late nineties MJ with
Speaker 1: the way his offensive approaches along with the shot profile,
Speaker 1: but now as great as an athlete, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I don't really see MJ in Shae.
Speaker 1: Shay is such a hesitation based, like stop start, kind
Speaker 1: of like methodical player. He's honestly like super unique and
Speaker 1: even like his release it's kind of like slow but
Speaker 1: then quick at the end, like he kind of has
Speaker 1: like a long load up but then a quick snap
Speaker 1: at the end. Shay is a very very unique player
Speaker 1: that I think is hard to find comps in NBA
Speaker 1: history and so like, honestly, that's just kind of unique
Speaker 1: about him and one of the things that I think
Speaker 1: is really cool about SGA. He's another one of those
Speaker 1: guys kind of like Luca where I feel like young
Speaker 1: players should watch him because his handle is a lot
Speaker 1: tighter than I think people realize. And specifically, like you
Speaker 1: will see Shae get into contact with defenders and then
Speaker 1: hit a dribble combination. In that dribble comp we'll just
Speaker 1: kind of get the defender to lose his like base
Speaker 1: and then he'll wait for you to lean one way or.
Speaker 2: To maybe take a hop.
Speaker 1: And when it's like, as soon as the think of it,
Speaker 1: like this, whenever an offensive player sees a defensive player
Speaker 1: come off of his feet in any way shape or
Speaker 1: form or get his footwork messed up, he can't plant
Speaker 1: to make the next slide, So like that's the perfect
Speaker 1: time to try to hit the gap. Is like find
Speaker 1: those moments when the defender just kind of hesitates for
Speaker 1: a second. Right Shay has this move where like he'll
Speaker 1: go between the legs slow, but then right when it
Speaker 1: gets to his right hand, then he'll take off and
Speaker 1: it's like it's very much change of pace oriented. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of like really good stuff in there for
Speaker 1: young basketball players to replicate. And he's unique and I
Speaker 1: think that's what makes him kind of a cool player
Speaker 1: in NBA history. What are your thoughts on the Christopher
Speaker 1: Nolan Batman movies. Absolutely loved him. Dark Knight's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite movies to watch. It's been a while since
Speaker 1: I've gone back to see him, but really really enjoyed
Speaker 1: the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. So the seventy six ers
Speaker 1: pursue Paul George, Yeah, they should pursue again. He's another
Speaker 1: one of those guys in that long list of stars
Speaker 1: that I just unleashed. But like, they got to get
Speaker 1: one of those guys, right, Like, I think Embiid has
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a clock on him than
Speaker 1: people realize with his injury history, and so you got
Speaker 1: to try to give it a go. Also, if Embiid
Speaker 1: is gonna make it to the playoffs and be ready
Speaker 1: to go, you have to cut substantially down on his
Speaker 1: workload and make it so that he can load manage
Speaker 1: throughout the season. And the only way you're gonna do
Speaker 1: that is if you get a secondary star, because as
Speaker 1: we saw last year, there was a moment towards the
Speaker 1: end of the Embiid injury phase where Maxi kind of
Speaker 1: regained control and had them hovering around five hundred, but
Speaker 1: they dropped a bunch of games at the beginning, so
Speaker 1: in totality they were below five hundred for that whole stretch,
Speaker 1: and so I think they just need a little bit
Speaker 1: more firepower to be able to weather Embedd being out
Speaker 1: of the lineup. Who's a better chance against the Celtics.
Speaker 1: The Pacers are the Knicks with all the injuries. I
Speaker 1: think it's the Knicks, no question. I think the I
Speaker 1: think the Pacers would really really struggle to score and
Speaker 1: to guard Boston. One of the things with the Pacers
Speaker 1: that we talked about earlier is they've got really good
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders, but like they can only really keep two
Speaker 1: of them on the floor at the same time, and
Speaker 1: so as a result, they run into the same issue
Speaker 1: that a lot of teams are gonna have with Boston,
Speaker 1: where it's like, just give it to one of the
Speaker 1: guys that Tyress Saliburton's garding, like they're just gonna like
Speaker 1: one of the things with Duce McBride is you can
Speaker 1: put Tyres on Duse McBride because Dus McBride is not
Speaker 1: just gonna come down the floor and run, pick and
Speaker 1: roll all game long.
Speaker 2: But if they put him.
Speaker 1: On Derek White or Drew Holliday, you bet you're asked
Speaker 1: that Boston is just going to look to attack him
Speaker 1: every single time they get a chance and get really
Speaker 1: good looks out of it. The Knicks, for me, they
Speaker 1: represent a couple like when they're healthy and oh, Gnob's
Speaker 1: allegedly going to return, but when they're healthy, to me,
Speaker 1: the Knicks kind of represents some of the Celtics weaknesses
Speaker 1: in terms of like physicality and like the Knicks can
Speaker 1: really grind games down into the mud and make teams
Speaker 1: not shoot well from jump shot range, and so I
Speaker 1: think they can play the Knicks or the Celtics into
Speaker 1: some cold shooting stretches. And then obviously with Madison Square
Speaker 1: Garden and that just the how borderline unbeatable then have
Speaker 1: been there. I think that gives them a chance to
Speaker 1: win some games at home. I'll pick the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: to win that series, probably in five or six games.
Speaker 1: But I think the Knicks have more of a chance
Speaker 1: to keep it competitive than Indiana does. Are the Spurs
Speaker 1: the next dynasty with Wemby and thesel Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: I think Victor wembin Yama is just a clear bona
Speaker 1: fide top tier superstar, like he's probably gonna be that
Speaker 1: by halfway through the year next year, and is certainly
Speaker 1: going to be that within two to three years. So, like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a lot of stuff with them Wenby
Speaker 1: this summer.
Speaker 2: I planed.
Speaker 1: I didn't spend a lot of time on Wenby during
Speaker 1: the regular season, just for obvious reasons, as I primarily
Speaker 1: focus on the top ten to fifteen teams in the league.
Speaker 1: And so we're gonna do a ton of Wemby film
Speaker 1: study this summer and just kind of dive into what
Speaker 1: he's good and bad at right now and where is
Speaker 1: their areas of opportunity are. And I do think the
Speaker 1: Spurs are gonna end up doing something in the trade
Speaker 1: market this year to try to bring in some more
Speaker 1: ball handling to make things easier for him.
Speaker 2: So, like, I mean, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If Wenby stays healthy for ten years and is a
Speaker 1: Spur for ten years, then they I've been dyningas a
Speaker 1: lot just because there's so much talent in the league.
Speaker 1: But I think the Spurs are going to be a
Speaker 1: perennial contender at some point in the next five years.
Speaker 1: How do you approach watching film when breaking down a
Speaker 1: player or team? What are the top things that you
Speaker 1: look for. So, for instance, if I if I'm looking
Speaker 1: at I look at it in two different ways. If
Speaker 1: i'm and I'll start with the player. So like, for instance,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna scout draft prospects when we get out of
Speaker 1: the NBA finals, Like, as soon as the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: are over, we're gonna turn all of our attention to
Speaker 1: the draft, right, and so I need to try to
Speaker 1: scout a player in a short period of time, even
Speaker 1: though there are draft guys that do it year round, right,
Speaker 1: And so I look at a couple of different things
Speaker 1: I look at. I think it's very important to watch
Speaker 1: full games, at least one or two of them. And
Speaker 1: the main reason why is like a full game is
Speaker 1: going to give you the best view of all of
Speaker 1: the little things that a player does, Like does he
Speaker 1: eb and flow an effort? Does he ebb and flow
Speaker 1: in aggressiveness? How is this game management? Like identifying no
Speaker 1: matter how like what your points per possession in ball
Speaker 1: screens are, if you're not good at identifying when to
Speaker 1: be aggressive versus when to be a playmaker in the
Speaker 1: flow of a basketball game, right, Like all these little
Speaker 1: details leadership details, or do they get can players get
Speaker 1: in their head and get him emotional. Like, there's all
Speaker 1: these like different things you look at. Defense is a
Speaker 1: big one there. Watching full games, you get a much
Speaker 1: better view of what it looks like for them and
Speaker 1: help and recover situations, what they're like on the defensive glass,
Speaker 1: you know, all all that kind of stuff. Right, So
Speaker 1: you got to watch a few full games just to
Speaker 1: pick up the little details. Then from then from the
Speaker 1: from like the individual play type data. It just depends
Speaker 1: on what kind of role they're looking at. So like
Speaker 1: if I'm looking in lottery at lottery stuff, and like
Speaker 1: let's say I'm trying to figure out a Let's say
Speaker 1: I'm scouting you know, Tray Jackson Davis.
Speaker 2: Right Like, I'll literally go.
Speaker 1: To to Synergy and I'll just watch every single ball
Speaker 1: screen that he's involved in, and I'll look at how
Speaker 1: well he screens, how good his hands are at catching
Speaker 1: in the pocket, how good is decision making is there?
Speaker 1: And I was really high on Tray Jackson Davis out
Speaker 1: of Indiana, if you guys remember, because one of the
Speaker 1: things I talked about with he played with Jalen and
Speaker 1: Chafino there in like the when he would catch on
Speaker 1: the role. Trace would catch on the role just completely
Speaker 1: swarmed because he was one of the best players in
Speaker 1: his conference, and so kind of similar to what Yokic
Speaker 1: deals with now, where teams are swarming him on the role.
Speaker 1: It's just there's a lot of uh, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of traffic that he's running into in terms of what
Speaker 1: the game plan is is dictating, right, And so what
Speaker 1: I was excited about for Trace Jackson Davis with the
Speaker 1: Warriors is like he's going to be rolling to the
Speaker 1: rim largely unimpeded compared to what it was like for Indiana.
Speaker 1: And so for him, he's got so much practice already
Speaker 1: making reads out of the role, I just thought he'd
Speaker 1: be a good fit there, right. Similarly to like, like
Speaker 1: when I scout a ball handler, like I'll look at
Speaker 1: every single iso they run, every single pick and roll
Speaker 1: they run, every single you know, like a back to
Speaker 1: the basket player. We'll look at all their post ups,
Speaker 1: so like I'll get play type data to dictate to
Speaker 1: learn more about their shot creation ability, and then obviously
Speaker 1: I supplement that with actual data in terms of what
Speaker 1: their efficiency was in those situations. And then the last one,
Speaker 1: I'll look at a lot is like close out attacking,
Speaker 1: So like spot up situations are too often, like to me,
Speaker 1: oversimplified down into like what's the catch and shoot percentage?
Speaker 1: And so much of it is like good defenses will
Speaker 1: chase you off the line, So what do you do
Speaker 1: when you get chased off the line? Are you capable
Speaker 1: of hitting a wonderable pull up? Are you capable of
Speaker 1: hitting a like ripping through to beat the close out
Speaker 1: defender kind of slowing down waiting to see the play
Speaker 1: develop and then like change your angle and get into
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor for a float or driving
Speaker 1: a kicking to the next guy in line. Like spot
Speaker 1: up situations to me need to be examined in a
Speaker 1: more full sense than just catch and shoot jump shooting.
Speaker 1: But in terms of players, it really just comes down
Speaker 1: to a combination of full game and play types. Teams
Speaker 1: I exact same kind of thing, But one of the
Speaker 1: things with teams that I primarily focus on is like
Speaker 1: looking at a different phases of the game. So like
Speaker 1: bench units, I'll look at a lot of like for
Speaker 1: the beginning of the second quarter, beginning of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter type of stuff. But when it comes to starting units,
Speaker 1: I feel like you actually learn the most about them
Speaker 1: in crunch time situations.
Speaker 2: That's when.
Speaker 1: That's when you actually see them against the defense that's
Speaker 1: fully engaged, that has scouted all your plays through the
Speaker 1: game to that point and is probably.
Speaker 2: Going with whatever they're going to try to do to
Speaker 2: win the game.
Speaker 1: And so you can learn a lot about a team
Speaker 1: watching a watching crunch time, But again, film for a
Speaker 1: team is more of a big picture type of thing,
Speaker 1: like I need to watch a team thirty forty times
Speaker 1: during the season for an entire game to really get
Speaker 1: a good feel for them before we get to the postseason.
Speaker 1: Who is higher in current player rankings Booker or Kyrie?
Speaker 1: So you know, Devin Booker had a postseason that left
Speaker 1: a lot to be desired obviously, although he had a
Speaker 1: big game four, But I still think that at Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: with his height and his shot making ability, brings a
Speaker 1: little bit more to the table than Kyrie. Kyrie's one
Speaker 1: of those guys too, where like if you put him
Speaker 1: in a situation where the rest of the team can
Speaker 1: do everything else and he just needs to focus on scoring,
Speaker 1: you could argue he's the best at that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But Devin Booker, I think as a
Speaker 1: higher level playmaker and ball screens. I think the thing
Speaker 1: with Devin Booker that's been an issue is his hamstring injuries.
Speaker 1: Like he just continually deals with these soft tissue injuries
Speaker 1: that seem to effective his explosiveness, and then he's not
Speaker 1: as good getting to his spots and getting a lyft right. So, like,
Speaker 1: obviously it's tough, but I'd probably lean. I think Devin
Speaker 1: Booker has the edge there for sure. Had the Warriors
Speaker 1: gotten the first pick and the twenty twenty NBA Draft
Speaker 1: and take an Ant, would the dynasty have extended or
Speaker 1: of Ant's development slow they of course it would have extended.
Speaker 1: Don't overthink Ant. He's twenty two years old. He's already
Speaker 1: better than most of the players in the league. Like
Speaker 1: he's just awesome. But at the same time, like he
Speaker 1: wasn't available. That's just the reality, right, Like, Like even
Speaker 1: as it pertains to the Wiseman pick, like that draft
Speaker 1: in particular, everybody was a high risk pick. And I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like what do you call it, Like, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of revisionist history in the sense that like so many
Speaker 1: people want to pretend that you know, one of these
Speaker 1: some of the some of these things were obvious and
Speaker 1: it's just not the case. Like Golden State kind of
Speaker 1: needed a big Now, should they have taken a LaMelo Ball, maybe,
Speaker 1: but like LaMelo balls had injury issues, right, So, like
Speaker 1: so much of it is just like it was a
Speaker 1: weak draft. Everybody was risky, even Anthony Edwards, even though
Speaker 1: he was the clear number one. Anthony Edwards came with
Speaker 1: a lot of question marks coming out of Georgia, right,
Speaker 1: And so now all those question marks have been answered resoundingly,
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, I think Anthony Edwards a
Speaker 1: series actually reminds me a lot of Lebron in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight against the Celtics, where it's like he's
Speaker 1: clearly playing the best team in the league, and like
Speaker 1: it's like he has this like superpower that has kept
Speaker 1: them in this series.
Speaker 2: But like Denver's just better.
Speaker 1: Now, Aunt has an opportunity on Sunday to etch his
Speaker 1: name in history. If Ant goes in on games for
Speaker 1: Game seven and he goes for thirty five plus and
Speaker 1: he shakes the foundation of that Denver team and they
Speaker 1: win and they advance to the next round. You're talking
Speaker 1: about going without home court advantage as a substantial underdog
Speaker 1: to be the best player in the world on his
Speaker 1: home floor, that would be one hell of an early
Speaker 1: feather in the cat for Anthony Edwards, especially since that
Speaker 1: puts them into a conference final series where I think
Speaker 1: they'd probably be the favorite against whoever comes out of Dallas,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. So huge opportunity for Aunt on Sunday. I
Speaker 1: don't think they're gonna win, but that's the type of
Speaker 1: opportunity that lays in front of him. Do you watch anime? So,
Speaker 1: what was the show with the superheroes.
Speaker 2: That was anime? Paul?
Speaker 1: If you could think of it, let me know. It's
Speaker 1: the one where the kid has the dad, not my
Speaker 1: hero Academia. What was the It's the one where like
Speaker 1: the kid's dad has the has the mustache and he's
Speaker 1: like Superman and like and there's a moment in the
Speaker 1: first season where he beats the shit out of him.
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly what that show was called, but
Speaker 1: like I watched, I watched the Uh that doesn't count
Speaker 1: as anime or it's just animation. I guess Invincible. That's
Speaker 1: what it's called invincible. Okay, So anime is like Okay,
Speaker 1: I see what you're saying. So I watched you know
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, you know, like I watched
Speaker 1: Yu gi Oh when I was a kid, right, or
Speaker 1: Pokemon when I was young. But like, I haven't been
Speaker 1: into anime very much. I did really enjoy the Star
Speaker 1: Wars Visions shows where they went to a bunch of
Speaker 1: anime studios and had them make a bunch of Star
Speaker 1: Wars stories. I really really enjoyed those. There's a a
Speaker 1: part of Star Wars that I've always enjoyed just in
Speaker 1: terms of like I've always been fascinated by the Sith
Speaker 1: and like they're kind of like overly dark aura and
Speaker 1: like that mixes with anime extremely well. And there was
Speaker 1: a lot of really really cool stuff from Star Wars
Speaker 1: Visions with that. See, I'm gonna be in trouble now
Speaker 1: because I just called Invincible anime and that doesn't count,
Speaker 1: all right, any more.
Speaker 2: Questions before we get out of here.
Speaker 1: Also, I know I've I've mentioned this a couple times
Speaker 1: in the last week, but like I I have a
Speaker 1: podcast that I have on the side, two sons podcasts,
Speaker 1: this one that I do with my buddy Luke, and
Speaker 1: we cover basically TV shows and TV series and major
Speaker 1: movie releases and stuff like Loved Fallout. We covered Fallout,
Speaker 1: loved Showgun. We call it a covered Showgun. We just
Speaker 1: did kind of a preview of The Acolyte Acolytes less
Speaker 1: than a month away. We're gonna hitting the Acolyte every
Speaker 1: single episode. We're gonna be hitting a house of the
Speaker 1: Dragon every single episode. I saw the trailer today for
Speaker 1: Rings of Power. Super excited for that. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: uh episode of breakdowns for all of those, so you
Speaker 1: can find that where. I have my other podcast at
Speaker 1: two sons. Let's see and someone to give it a
Speaker 1: description of anime for me.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I apologize. I didn't mean to disrespect the format. I
Speaker 1: have a brother in law as a big anime guy,
Speaker 1: and he's always trying to get me to get into it,
Speaker 1: but I just haven't been. I love that you went
Speaker 1: to Star Wars. I just I one in doubt. I'm
Speaker 1: always gonna go to Star Wars. That's just how it goes.
Speaker 1: How close is Indiana to being a true contender. I
Speaker 1: think part of it is like Tyres Aliburton just needs
Speaker 1: to get a little bit better as a score, right,
Speaker 1: Like I think they need to get. They need to
Speaker 1: get kind of like that nim hard Nee Smith piece, Like,
Speaker 1: I think one of those guys can be the fifth
Speaker 1: best player on your lineup, but I think you got
Speaker 1: to upgrade one of those guys, and then if Tyree's
Speaker 1: can become a more reliable scorer in the postseason, I
Speaker 1: think that's enough for them to really enter into contention.
Speaker 2: I'm a huge believer in Halliburton.
Speaker 1: I think, like, I think he's got a very unique
Speaker 1: shot creation ability that goes under the radar. So much
Speaker 1: focus on his scoring in this series, and like, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to underplay that the scoring matters, but like,
Speaker 1: let's just be honest about the situation and acknowledge that,
Speaker 1: Like Halliburton's best skill is getting the defense in rotation,
Speaker 1: and he's done a lot of that in this series,
Speaker 1: and he's just generating easier offense for his teammates. Should
Speaker 1: the next trade Randal, I think they should. I think
Speaker 1: they should trade Randal and try to get a star
Speaker 1: forward to put next to Og if they can. That's
Speaker 1: on Bronni. I thought that a lot of people like,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. One of the things that sucks for
Speaker 1: Bronni is Lebron is just a super polarizing player, right,
Speaker 1: And I want to be clear, like I feel like
Speaker 1: the majority of people who are basketball fans are pretty
Speaker 1: reasonable about this, Like they either like in respect Lebron
Speaker 1: or don't like but respect Lebron. But then there's like
Speaker 1: ten percent on the front end that's like so like
Speaker 1: problematically obsessed with Lebron that it poisons the discourse. And
Speaker 1: then there's like ten percent on the bottom and that's
Speaker 1: like so like like hates him in such a toxic
Speaker 1: way that it poisons the discourse, right, And so like
Speaker 1: I think like that turns it into this like shouting
Speaker 1: now about the Bronny stuff. And like one of the
Speaker 1: things for Bronnie is like he literally had heart surgery
Speaker 1: less than a year ago. I want to see, it
Speaker 1: was like nine months ago. So like everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: his numbers at USC weren't very good. It's like, dude,
Speaker 1: he almost died, Like come on, like what are we
Speaker 1: doing here? Like this this is not that's not fair
Speaker 1: to Bronnie or to anybody involved, right, Like to me,
Speaker 1: it's this simple. He's got excellent physical tools, So the
Speaker 1: at two ten for a guard, that's like really stocky
Speaker 1: and strong, and then in addition to that an outstanding athlete,
Speaker 1: super quick first step, great vertical athlete, long arms. He's
Speaker 1: got like a six seven six eight wing span, which
Speaker 1: for a guard is outstanding. And so to me, I
Speaker 1: keep thinking he's like Jalen Suggs. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: I think could be a primary point of attack defender
Speaker 1: that can be a guard who says guard guard screens
Speaker 1: and pops a three point line and can attack close
Speaker 1: outs and things along those lines and be a transition weapon.
Speaker 1: That's what I look at Bronnie as and I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, Like, does does the fact that he
Speaker 1: didn't put up great numbers at USC matter? No? But
Speaker 1: does that mean that he's just like an automatic shoe
Speaker 1: into be an NBA player? No, It's just my thing
Speaker 1: is he deserves his chance. I think he's got the
Speaker 1: tools to get to He's got the tools to potentially
Speaker 1: be a good NBA player. And as far as like
Speaker 1: the whole like nepotism angle, here's my thing, Like, like,
Speaker 1: would Brownie have gotten an invite to the combine if
Speaker 1: he wasn't Lebron James's kid?
Speaker 2: Maybe not, but I mean probably not. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: He is Lebron James's kid, and he did get an invite,
Speaker 1: and so he is gonna get a chance. Are we
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and be stupid and pretend like there
Speaker 1: aren't people that get opportunities because of connections. That's just
Speaker 1: how life works. And so if Bronni is able to
Speaker 1: take advantage of that and parlay it into an NBA career,
Speaker 1: more power to him. You know, you got to get
Speaker 1: lucky in life, and like no one ever achieved anything
Speaker 1: without some luck, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's straight hater behavior to
Speaker 1: focus on what has benefited Bronnie when the reality is
Speaker 1: is like if he goes to the NBA and he's
Speaker 1: not good, he won't he won't stay in the NBA.
Speaker 1: So like he's going to get his opportunity because of Lebron,
Speaker 1: but it's still on him to capitalize on it. No
Speaker 1: coach is going to be giving Ronnie real NBA minutes
Speaker 1: on a good team if he can't play. So so
Speaker 1: just get over it. Let the kid have his opportunity,
Speaker 1: Let's see what he makes of it. Let's see last
Speaker 1: question better at twenty three Kobe or Anthony Edwards, that's tough.
Speaker 1: I here's the thing. Kobe at this age had already
Speaker 1: had a lot of deep playoff experience, so I think
Speaker 1: he was a little bit more reliable at this point.
Speaker 1: And Kobe had like actually made plays in the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: So I think it's foolish to give anthe edge right away.
Speaker 1: That said, like Kobe's role in his early twenties was
Speaker 1: fundamentally different as the second best player on his team.
Speaker 1: If Aunt were to win the title this year, like
Speaker 1: let's say Aunt goes in game seven tomorrow or on
Speaker 1: Sunday and drops thirty eight, soundly out plays Jokics and
Speaker 1: wins the game, and then he goes into the next
Speaker 1: round and soundly out plays Luca and wins the Western
Speaker 1: Conference finals, and then goes into the finals and soundly
Speaker 1: out plays Jason Tatum and they hoist the trophy. He
Speaker 1: at age twenty two would have the best case for
Speaker 1: best player in the world be the reigning Finals MVP,
Speaker 1: and we'll have done it about a half decade earlier then.
Speaker 1: The majority of the people that he's getting lumped in
Speaker 1: with in terms of his potential, right, like, Kobe was
Speaker 1: the second best player on those Lakers teams. He was
Speaker 1: vitally important, but he was the second best player on
Speaker 1: those on those championship teams, right, And so like, I
Speaker 1: think Ant has an opportunity. Again, I expect the Nuggets
Speaker 1: to win on Sunday, but I think Ant has an
Speaker 1: opportunity to do something truly special on Sunday. And that's
Speaker 1: why we're going to be all in front of our
Speaker 1: TVs to watch it, which is gonna be exciting. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: we're gonna head out of here. I really really appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting the show. I don't say that enough.
Speaker 1: It's been really cool to see the channel grow over
Speaker 1: the course of the last nine months. We built this
Speaker 1: thing from scratch back in October, the new YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: and I think we're already up at like sixty six
Speaker 1: thousand subscribers, And obviously the support has been insane, and
Speaker 1: it's open doors for me that I never thought i'd
Speaker 1: get access to. Like I'm getting to go watch Team
Speaker 1: USA in their scrimmage in Vegas the week before Summer League,
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to Summer League, and like, there's
Speaker 1: all these opportunities and things that I've been able to experience,
Speaker 1: and I have you guys to think for that. So
Speaker 1: I just hope you guys understand how much I appreciate you,
Speaker 1: and I know that I wouldn't have any of these
Speaker 1: opportunities if it wasn't for you guys, and I just
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting the show. All Right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get out of here for the night. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna do anything in the morning. Again, I don't really
Speaker 1: think anything's worth a film study at this point, So
Speaker 1: we're going to run this mail bag as a breakout
Speaker 1: in the morning, and then we'll be back at the
Speaker 1: final buzzer of thunder MAVs Game six tomorrow night live
Speaker 1: on YouTube.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume