Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast. Happy Friday, everybody.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be discussing Game four, Sons, Bucks, We're gonna
Speaker 1: be discussing the Dame Lillard pending trade requests. And then,
Speaker 1: depending on whether or not we have time, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we have a hard stop today at nine oh five.
Speaker 1: But depending on whether or not we have time, we
Speaker 1: might do the uh, we might do the uh montraise comments,
Speaker 1: and just kind of the general attitude surrounding a lot
Speaker 1: of the Lakers free agents. Um depend Like I said,
Speaker 1: if we have time at the end, Roger, how you
Speaker 1: do it? On this Friday morning? Man doing great, Man,
Speaker 1: Another beautiful morning. I'm excited to see Space Jam too tonight,
Speaker 1: although I feel like half the people saw it already.
Speaker 1: But I don't remember anything about the first one, to
Speaker 1: be honest, I just remember Jordan's kind of um his
Speaker 1: longhand trying to dunk um, what do you think? Do
Speaker 1: you think I have to see the first one again
Speaker 1: to enjoy the second one? What do you think? Not
Speaker 1: at all? And you know what, I'm so like, so
Speaker 1: movie critics in general suck because I swear they don't
Speaker 1: watch movies the way normal people watch movies when I
Speaker 1: when I go to look at Rotten Tomatoes, now, I
Speaker 1: look at what the fans think or like the public
Speaker 1: in their percentage, because that's that's guys like you and me,
Speaker 1: that's the way we watch movies. Whereas critics are so
Speaker 1: you know, they're so used to, you know, liking the
Speaker 1: smell of their own farts, that they can't they can't
Speaker 1: just enjoy a movie. Um. But anyway, this is literally
Speaker 1: a Loony Tunes movie. It is a children's movie, and
Speaker 1: you've got grown men talking about Lebron's acting and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. It's just it's just not a topic I'm
Speaker 1: interested in. Oh no, for sure, they're calling it a
Speaker 1: lot of propaganda already. I'm like, man, just enjoyed the movie.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the movie. It's supposed to be fun. That's what
Speaker 1: it's for. Supposed to be fun. Oh man, all right. Well, So,
Speaker 1: as Roger and I were discussing before we started the show,
Speaker 1: I started with the fifth dollar bet on game one,
Speaker 1: and I turned that two hundred, and then I turned
Speaker 1: into two hundred, and then I turned it into four
Speaker 1: hundred because I hit every single game. Well, I rolled
Speaker 1: all of it into the Sun's money line and almost
Speaker 1: got rich, but no, I did not get rich. So
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks one. And you know what, dude, this is.
Speaker 1: This is the first thing I'm gonna say. As the
Speaker 1: game was unfolding, even as Phoenix had the lead, I
Speaker 1: just I knew Milwaukee was gonna come back. And you know,
Speaker 1: in pickup games, it's about shot results, you know, because
Speaker 1: they're shortened, right, So a couple of guys get hot,
Speaker 1: make a couple threes, you lose. But in a forty
Speaker 1: eight minute basketball game, it's more about shot quality. Are
Speaker 1: you getting better shots than the other team, because regardless
Speaker 1: of what the scoreboard says, usually over forty eight minutes,
Speaker 1: the team that gets better shots is gonna win because
Speaker 1: they'll eventually start going in. And even though Phoenix had
Speaker 1: leads in that game, it was Devin Booker making incredibly
Speaker 1: tough shots. It had nothing to do with the shot quality.
Speaker 1: And then guess what. Down the stretch of the game,
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton was getting really nice, easy in rhythm pull
Speaker 1: up fifteen footers and the Sons were clawing tooth and
Speaker 1: nail to get crazy difficult shots and they weren't going in.
Speaker 1: And so I wasn't surprised at all that the game
Speaker 1: ended the way it did. Um, was that kind of
Speaker 1: the way that you interpreted that as well? Uh? Well,
Speaker 1: Like when Phoenix went up nine, I thought they kind
Speaker 1: of had it. I think Cameron Paine had like a
Speaker 1: huge three he got to and one on a drive. UM,
Speaker 1: I really thought they were gonna take it. Chris Paul
Speaker 1: was struggling all night. He wasn't even shooting because of
Speaker 1: the way that Milwaukee was defending. But once Devin Booken
Speaker 1: went out, I think he got his like fifth Bowl
Speaker 1: or something like that. He went out of the game.
Speaker 1: I thought Chris Paul would kind of take over, get
Speaker 1: to his spots, and he just missed, like shots that
Speaker 1: he should be able to take, should be able to make.
Speaker 1: He wasn't taking advantage. And Dean dre Atan man like
Speaker 1: he has to be better in my opinion, Like that
Speaker 1: was the game to me. Nine shots, three for nine,
Speaker 1: no free throws. UM played forty minutes and Milwaukee went
Speaker 1: small pretty much the whole night. UM, And then again
Speaker 1: Janna's and fourteen even on a bad night. Middleton, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I feel like those shots are the shots
Speaker 1: Milton gets anyway, Um, he gets some he doesn't hit him.
Speaker 1: Is he gonna hit him on the road, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but again forty points him and Devin Book had a
Speaker 1: nice back and forth. I thought that was really fun. Um,
Speaker 1: they had like a mid range kind of battle. I thought,
Speaker 1: I thought Phoenix gonna take him. Maam, I thought, Um,
Speaker 1: I really thought they did. Milton hit tough shots like
Speaker 1: driving left raising fade away, so I thought he was
Speaker 1: gonna take it. I really did. But the series is
Speaker 1: tied now, Man, this series of time. That's interesting that
Speaker 1: we had a different feel on that because the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: comeback just kind of felt inevitable to me. Um, But
Speaker 1: that's that. That's that's part of the fun of of
Speaker 1: of watching basketball is two people can watch it and
Speaker 1: kind of see a different thing. You know, Janice had
Speaker 1: one of the most dominant defensive performances I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: You know what it reminded me of was the All
Speaker 1: Star Game two years ago, Um, when he had that
Speaker 1: block on Lebron's one legged fade away and then blocked
Speaker 1: him at the rim on play where Lebron had him
Speaker 1: completely beat to the basket. Janice has this ability when
Speaker 1: he really turns it on defensively where he's frightening and
Speaker 1: there's really nothing anybody can do. I mean, the one
Speaker 1: legged fade away is one of the most indefensible shots
Speaker 1: in all of basketball, and a six nine guy tried
Speaker 1: one on on Janice in that All Star Game and
Speaker 1: got blocked. Like he just is he's He's transcendently good defensively.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was interesting because he was such
Speaker 1: a non factor offensively at the end of that game,
Speaker 1: it was all Middleton, Drew holiday in. Janice had nothing
Speaker 1: going and eighton got called for a couple of of
Speaker 1: kind of jankie fouls early in the game. But the
Speaker 1: one thing he did well in that game, and in
Speaker 1: a game that he was generally bad, he defended Janice
Speaker 1: well down the stretch and forced him into some tough shots.
Speaker 1: But I have to I have to say, like, and
Speaker 1: I mean, the people have talked about the block to death,
Speaker 1: that was just that. What an incredible performance to to
Speaker 1: have nothing going offensively and to still have such a
Speaker 1: massive impact on the game defensively, because literally they can't
Speaker 1: run a play within fifteen feet of you without you're raising.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. And I thought Devin Booker made the right
Speaker 1: play there, Like, that's the correct play to do you
Speaker 1: come off that little screen action and then Janice is
Speaker 1: helping on Devin Booker and then he sees that Janice
Speaker 1: comes over to help and he throws that law I
Speaker 1: thought pretty perfectly. Janice just gets it at like the
Speaker 1: apex of it. Um, that was an amazing play. He
Speaker 1: was awesome all night. What do you think I thought
Speaker 1: the Janna is kind of at the five switching everything
Speaker 1: is really like, I don't think it's a coincidence that
Speaker 1: Chris Paul is starting to play worse and worse as
Speaker 1: the Bucks continue to play more small and small. Um
Speaker 1: like his I think he's scoring Milwaukee is way down
Speaker 1: from when he was in Phoenix. Um, they're really switching everything.
Speaker 1: Devin book is hitting tough shots. Um, Where do you
Speaker 1: think Chris Paul can kind of get better shots here?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like he's kind of lost, Like this
Speaker 1: is a guy who's a generational point guard and he
Speaker 1: looks absolutely unsure what to do where to go with this? Um?
Speaker 1: To me, it's eight and has to be better to
Speaker 1: kind of open things up for Chris Paul. What do
Speaker 1: you see like for him gets to get better shots
Speaker 1: in this series. So for first of all, Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: deserves credit because you know, I told you like early
Speaker 1: in the series that I didn't really see him as
Speaker 1: capable of having much of an offensive impact. He just
Speaker 1: got uncharacteristically hot from three in Game three. Other than that,
Speaker 1: he can't really generate quality shots, and he actually won
Speaker 1: them that game with there with his defense and honestly,
Speaker 1: man like, if there's one criticism to throw at Drew,
Speaker 1: it's just that he needs to shoot less, because if
Speaker 1: he can take Chris Paul out of the game and
Speaker 1: and have a smaller offensive role, he's actually going to
Speaker 1: have a better impact on on Milwaukee's ability to win
Speaker 1: the game. So with Chris Paul, here's the thing. This
Speaker 1: is something I've talked about with you many times in
Speaker 1: the past, Like this is something I get made fun
Speaker 1: of for a lot of times because I've I've brought
Speaker 1: it up in the past. But physical tools matter when
Speaker 1: you get into these super physical games, when things get
Speaker 1: outrageously physical and the refs are swallowing their whistles, you
Speaker 1: it helps to be Chris Middleton's six ft eight and
Speaker 1: able to shoot over the top Like this is not
Speaker 1: it's so I tweeted yesterday that I thought that officiating
Speaker 1: was going to play a big part in this series
Speaker 1: moving forward, because Milwaukee is the bigger, stronger team at
Speaker 1: least on the perimeter. Aton is huge, Aten's a beast,
Speaker 1: but outside of DeAndre Ayton, the like, there was a
Speaker 1: moment in that fourth quarter where I'm looking at the
Speaker 1: lineup and I'm like, I'm like, that's campaign this. I
Speaker 1: think Chris Paul was out at this point, but it
Speaker 1: was like Chris Paul Campaign, Michael Bridges and Cam Johnson,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's a thin, uh parameter core. That's
Speaker 1: a thin group of guys. And meanwhile, Drew Holidays built
Speaker 1: like a truck, so is Janice and and they're they're
Speaker 1: just They're just a big, big, physical perimeter lineup. And
Speaker 1: so I it's like, if the refs are gonna let
Speaker 1: them be really physical at the point of attack with Chris,
Speaker 1: he's just not gonna get quality shots, you know, Like
Speaker 1: the Drew Holiday has this uncanny ability to fight over
Speaker 1: those rolls like that, Like he just sidles up above
Speaker 1: the screen and just bumps Chris a little bit further
Speaker 1: out and just gets over the top of it. So
Speaker 1: pick and rolls, not freeing up Chris. Even when he
Speaker 1: gets a little bit of separation on the pick and
Speaker 1: roll Yannice is right on or not nice. Drew his
Speaker 1: right on his back, and then Janice is just a
Speaker 1: freak and drop coverage because he can guard the ball
Speaker 1: and turn around and block shots at the rim like
Speaker 1: it's it's unbelievable. I don't if the refs continue to
Speaker 1: let Drew be that physical at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: There's nothing Chris Paul can do because he's just not
Speaker 1: athletic enough or big enough to get separation. But if
Speaker 1: he starts getting some calls, which at home he very
Speaker 1: well might, then that might be enough to get Chris
Speaker 1: Paul going. Yeah. And Drew's also picking up like full core.
Speaker 1: He's like having laid his body on him. Um all night.
Speaker 1: We talked about I think after a game two I
Speaker 1: forgot which game it was, where like they were just
Speaker 1: letting um, Chris Paul get the switch way too easy,
Speaker 1: and now Drew's like fighting over every single time. And
Speaker 1: you're right, they're letting them be more physical. Eating is
Speaker 1: catching it like I think it's like a foot pass
Speaker 1: where he would like to in the paint, like where
Speaker 1: he's comfortable. He has a little jump book. I thought
Speaker 1: he settled a few times, but he has to punish
Speaker 1: to me those like when they switched through Holiday on
Speaker 1: Eighten p J. Tucker on eight and like, I think
Speaker 1: that's where he has to punish him with the offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds too. I just don't think you can allow um
Speaker 1: the Bucks to play this small right, like play honest
Speaker 1: at the five without the consequences of playing honest at
Speaker 1: the five and credit to coach Bud like he's really
Speaker 1: short in that rotation. But you're right, Pat Connaton, Bobby Porters,
Speaker 1: those are big dudes that Chris Paul is like really
Speaker 1: trying to attack in isolation. If it's not him, it's
Speaker 1: just Devin Booker. What had an amazing night by the
Speaker 1: way to um what he had like forty I think
Speaker 1: as well, and they defended him well shots all night
Speaker 1: long he did. Yeah, yeah, he's coming off those screens,
Speaker 1: just firing. Um. I thought he got a little tired
Speaker 1: at the end there, um And I thought Chris Paul
Speaker 1: would try to take over um little late, a little
Speaker 1: too late, but Middleton kind of saved the day there.
Speaker 1: What what do you think about that foul, letting, letting
Speaker 1: that foul go. I feel like you haven't get interesting
Speaker 1: take on that. Yeah, I don't care. So first of all,
Speaker 1: first of all, like we we can't complain about refs
Speaker 1: stealing the show and then also complain when they swallow
Speaker 1: their whistle on purpose so that they don't steal the show.
Speaker 1: Like who do you want to what do you want
Speaker 1: to know? Do you want to know if the Sons
Speaker 1: in the Bucks, you know who's gonna win with all
Speaker 1: their players or with Devin Booker sitting on the bench
Speaker 1: with six fouls? You want to you want the Bucks
Speaker 1: to beat the Suns with Devin Booker out there, so
Speaker 1: that you can know who the actual better team is.
Speaker 1: And I shared this morning, uh at four o'clock when
Speaker 1: I woke up. If you look at my twitter feed,
Speaker 1: I shared the the uh, the foul early in the
Speaker 1: game where Drew Holiday jumped up into him and elbowed
Speaker 1: him in the face. And like, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I don't think it should have been an offensive foul,
Speaker 1: but it shouldn't have been anything that should have been
Speaker 1: a no call that And I I haven't gone back
Speaker 1: to look over the tape, but I remember there being
Speaker 1: a couple of kind of nit picky fouls that the
Speaker 1: uh the rebounding foul on on p J. Tucker where
Speaker 1: he kind of chucked him out of bounds, a couple
Speaker 1: of things. First of all, as the ref show some describe,
Speaker 1: the ball didn't go anywhere near them. It had no
Speaker 1: impact on the play. Shouldn't have been a call. Second
Speaker 1: of all, it's game four of the Finals. It's been
Speaker 1: one of the most physical games I've ever seen, and
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker's running in to go get the offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: Let them, let them bump and chuck each other, and
Speaker 1: and and and box each other out. It's a physical
Speaker 1: game like it just it bothered me because of course
Speaker 1: it was a foul and Drew Holiday and it was just,
Speaker 1: of course, it was a dumb play from Devin Booker
Speaker 1: to do that when he knew knew he had five fouls.
Speaker 1: But independent of all of that, I'm okay with the
Speaker 1: fact that the guy with the whistle was like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to take Devin Booker out of Game four
Speaker 1: of the NBA Finals when he's got forty points. Like
Speaker 1: to me that that was an obvious judgment call, and
Speaker 1: I would hope that every ref in the NBA would
Speaker 1: have done the same thing, especially since he saw the
Speaker 1: he saw the guy trailing and the and and had
Speaker 1: who had the offensive rebound putback. He might very well
Speaker 1: have been sitting there going like, if they get a
Speaker 1: stop here, I'm just gonna do late whistle foul on
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. You know that kind of deal. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: kind of how I how I saw it to That
Speaker 1: was fine with it. A lot of people. A lot
Speaker 1: of people would say, like, I guess that is Devin
Speaker 1: Booker deciding the game by like doing that stupid play,
Speaker 1: But I like the discretion there, like with contest. Yes,
Speaker 1: if that was another player, that probably is a foul,
Speaker 1: but that's Devin Booker. Like there's a reason why that
Speaker 1: that play wasn't called. So so I'm fine with that,
Speaker 1: um not being a foul, I guess um, but but
Speaker 1: we'll see. He he had like two bad files to
Speaker 1: be honest, going late there. Um, he could have filed
Speaker 1: out twice. But I'm glad they kind of let that go,
Speaker 1: let the game kind of finish. You're right, Janice was
Speaker 1: trailing to play anyway. Um, that's where like it's so
Speaker 1: weird the game is so physical, but yet like those
Speaker 1: eight and foules were really confusing to me. It felt
Speaker 1: like Janice was just driving into his chest and he
Speaker 1: got like two of those that he kind of passed
Speaker 1: out of. So it's it's funny. Do you do you
Speaker 1: think like that will switch when they go to Phoenix,
Speaker 1: Like they'll kind of Phoenix will get a little bit
Speaker 1: more physical. I'm kind of interesting how they react to
Speaker 1: this because it feels like Milwaukee's figuring stuff out. Um.
Speaker 1: That's why I thought last night was so important. Like
Speaker 1: the longer the series goes, it's kind of edging towards
Speaker 1: Milwaukee here, who's like really figuring out what they're doing. Um.
Speaker 1: As soon as Bud kind of stops the jefteen minutes, UM,
Speaker 1: I feel like they can they can get even better.
Speaker 1: But what do you think going into Phoenix for game
Speaker 1: game five? So I tweeted this out two days ago.
Speaker 1: I believe or nose yesterday. But like I, I genuinely
Speaker 1: think officiating is going to be the biggest, uh, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest swing factors moving forward, because, like you said,
Speaker 1: if Janice is gonna lower his shoulder and try to
Speaker 1: run DeAndre and over and get get get two free
Speaker 1: throws out of it while at the while on the
Speaker 1: other end, Drew Holiday and Pat Connaughton and p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker are allowed to have their hands on ball handlers, which,
Speaker 1: for the record, I don't think is uh any sort
Speaker 1: of unfair type of of angle from the refs. I
Speaker 1: think it's just home court, home court reffing. My guess
Speaker 1: is that Phoenix is gonna get more calls in Game
Speaker 1: five and in Game seven because refs have a tendency
Speaker 1: to subconsciously play to the home crowd. That's it's There's
Speaker 1: been studies done on that actually, and it's a subconscious thing. Now.
Speaker 1: As far as the long term wear and tear, Chris
Speaker 1: Paul had two days off before that game. He didn't
Speaker 1: He didn't have trouble scoring on Drew Holiday because of
Speaker 1: the uh like like a progressive fatigue. That's not what
Speaker 1: it was. What it was is home court whistle, letting
Speaker 1: Drew be more physical. Also, as something that you and
Speaker 1: I have talked about at length, any sort of repetitive
Speaker 1: action that advance is an advantage to the defender. That
Speaker 1: to me is one of the main reasons why players
Speaker 1: are UH their efficiency tanks at the end of series
Speaker 1: and at the end of games, because if I'm guarding you,
Speaker 1: you might get me with moves early in the game
Speaker 1: that aren't going to get as much separation late in
Speaker 1: the game, And the same thing goes as the series progresses.
Speaker 1: At this point, Drew Holiday knows all of Chris Paul's
Speaker 1: little ticks and little trends and little tendencies at this
Speaker 1: point because he's been playing with him for two hundred minutes,
Speaker 1: you know, So I think as the series progress is
Speaker 1: it's gonna be harder for Chris Paul to get clean
Speaker 1: looks unless he starts getting calls to where Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: has to give him more space and can't use his
Speaker 1: hands as much. That could be the thing that kind
Speaker 1: of that kind of swings it. But again, Phoenix is
Speaker 1: at home in game five, They're probably gonna get a
Speaker 1: little bit more beneficial whistle. All I gotta do is
Speaker 1: win that game, and then there you go back to Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: where you know, I think we can safely say that
Speaker 1: the Phoenix appears to be the slightly better team, just slightly,
Speaker 1: because they won handily at home and then they lost
Speaker 1: a really close game in game four. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like clear, Phoenix win, Clear, Phoenix win Clear, Milwaukee win
Speaker 1: Rock Fight where Milwaukee barely won, so they got home
Speaker 1: court advantage. A couple of things go their way, I
Speaker 1: would give them, I would make them very slight favorites
Speaker 1: at this point, which is what Vegas has. I think
Speaker 1: they have the Bucks that plus plus one or something
Speaker 1: like that, so a very slight underdog right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was listening to like the Little I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I still have you next win this series. But they
Speaker 1: need better shot quality, Like I was listening to the
Speaker 1: low Post. They said six percent of their shots came
Speaker 1: from the mid range, and I think like fifteen or
Speaker 1: came from three. It's like nothing at the rim. So
Speaker 1: Milwaukee has pretty much shrunk the floor to where everything
Speaker 1: is isolation and everything is a mid range kind of
Speaker 1: contested pull up. I don't think you're beating the Bucks
Speaker 1: that way. Like I feel like that they have to
Speaker 1: get their ball. Remember they were such like a beautiful
Speaker 1: ball movement team. The gal gets into eid and kicks
Speaker 1: out corner corner and corner bridge corner three for Bridges,
Speaker 1: corner three for jay Crowder. All that's gone, like all
Speaker 1: the three point all that like beautiful wide open shots
Speaker 1: are all gone. Maybe that's part of it, Like, like
Speaker 1: you said, you kind of realized people's plays as the
Speaker 1: series goes on. Um they run that double kind of
Speaker 1: drag screen a lot, and it feels like that's been
Speaker 1: kind of schemed out, like they understand exactly how they
Speaker 1: want to defend it. And again it's like with the
Speaker 1: Honest at the five, all those guys are a lot
Speaker 1: more mobile. Chris Paul can't just pick on brook Lopez anymore,
Speaker 1: which I think both of us thought was clear from
Speaker 1: game one, so like, but now doing this in game three,
Speaker 1: game four, I thought that was pretty clear. But that's
Speaker 1: the main thing to me is like, are do where
Speaker 1: do Sphenis get better shots? Because there's no Chris Paul Camp.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's gonna beat pack content body Bobby Portis
Speaker 1: a few times, but like that, those aren't good shots
Speaker 1: to me and Brookly I mean, sorry, Devin Booker, those
Speaker 1: are tough shots as well. I'm just wondering, like their
Speaker 1: shot selection has to be better. I trust Monty to
Speaker 1: kind of figure that out, but to me, it's on
Speaker 1: eight and getting eight and being a force inside. They
Speaker 1: have to get stuff at the rim um, they're like
Speaker 1: Chris Milton as well doesn't get to the basket, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of his game. Phoenix is built around this
Speaker 1: rim attack that can like get out to their shooters.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm wondering where they go here to
Speaker 1: get better shots. With the way Milwaukee is defending, you
Speaker 1: have to draw that third defender in right. That's the
Speaker 1: problem is like you're you know, Drew Holiday is so
Speaker 1: effective on Chris Paul right now that they really don't
Speaker 1: have to bring any help. And Chris Paul's has to
Speaker 1: call the screen every time to get any separation. So
Speaker 1: as long as they can play two on two in
Speaker 1: that pick and roll, as long as they can play
Speaker 1: two on two in that pick and roll, the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: doesn't have to send those three other defenders too far
Speaker 1: into the paint. So Phoenix isn't getting any quality shots
Speaker 1: out of Chris Paul and then Devin Booker. It's all isolations.
Speaker 1: So like even when, uh, even when Devin Booker gets
Speaker 1: a good matchup, like you know, he got a couple
Speaker 1: of shots or a couple of possessions, it gets against
Speaker 1: Pat Connaughton and it's like, Okay, this is the weak
Speaker 1: link right, So you got you got Drew and p
Speaker 1: J and Janice and and Chris Middleton off the ball
Speaker 1: and Devin Bookers on an island with Pat Connatton. Well,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker is not getting good enough shots on Pat
Speaker 1: Conatton that they need to send help. Pat Connaton is
Speaker 1: doing a good job of making him shoot over the top.
Speaker 1: And if you're Milwaukee, you're not gonna overreact to Devin
Speaker 1: Booker making those crazy tough turnarounds. If he beats you
Speaker 1: like dad, he beats you like that. And guess what
Speaker 1: last or two nights ago wasn't enough. And so that
Speaker 1: that's kind of the thing. It's like in order to
Speaker 1: like this is the This is the lebron and a
Speaker 1: d factor that is so important when it gets into
Speaker 1: these types of off series, come come, hell or high water,
Speaker 1: they're gonna draw other defenders because if you let them
Speaker 1: on an island, it's not crazy fadeaways, it's physical dominance
Speaker 1: at the rim. It's like with the Honest, if you
Speaker 1: put your Honest on an island with these guys, he's
Speaker 1: probably gonna score. So you have to send extra defenders,
Speaker 1: which is a cascading effect that leads to better shot quality.
Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, if your team is getting better
Speaker 1: shot quality, probably unless you have some crazy all time
Speaker 1: Kobe ask forty eight point blow up, the team that's
Speaker 1: getting the better shots is going to eventually get hot
Speaker 1: and pull away and and and that's and that's what
Speaker 1: happened with Milwaukee. So I don't know, Like like Bookers
Speaker 1: not getting good enough shots to draw double teams right now,
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul literally can't get separation from Drew Holiday,
Speaker 1: So honest to god, I don't know what you do.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you do except for hope that
Speaker 1: the whistle gets a little tighter to where your guards
Speaker 1: are getting better shot because the defenders have to give
Speaker 1: more space and be less handsy. Yeah, well, to me,
Speaker 1: all roads lead back to eight and like he's the guy.
Speaker 1: He's a seven foot dude playing against a team that's
Speaker 1: going night. Yeah, Brook Lopez had eighteen minutes, which mean
Speaker 1: the rest of that is just all small, right, They
Speaker 1: have no other backup center that's really a sizeable center.
Speaker 1: It's all you, honest, and they're pretty much switching. So you,
Speaker 1: honest is ending up on Chris Paul ending up to
Speaker 1: have a book or a bunch of possessions here, Aidan
Speaker 1: has to dominate like he can't. He he's not a
Speaker 1: great passer, but he has to make better reads to Um,
Speaker 1: they're kind of digging in and coming out. Um, they're
Speaker 1: forcing mckel bridges to take dribble in mid range. Two
Speaker 1: is Jake Crowd was taking contested threes. He got a
Speaker 1: few foul calls which I thought weren't really foul when
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker kind of contested him at three point
Speaker 1: line when he falls down. Um, we're very familiar with that.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, but I feel like Aten kind of
Speaker 1: he's the key here. No free throws three for nine
Speaker 1: That just can't happen in forty minutes for me. For
Speaker 1: m he's too big, too physical, too skilled to like
Speaker 1: allow him to just push him off the block that easy.
Speaker 1: P J Tuck and Drew Holiday a strong dude, but
Speaker 1: still you gotta be able to get to your spot,
Speaker 1: jump hook whatever. He was like diving on on lane
Speaker 1: dunking in Phoenix like Game one A game two he
Speaker 1: was getting like roaring dunks like Crowd, kind of uplifting
Speaker 1: stuff and right now nothing at the basket. Everything's a
Speaker 1: mid reason, little jump hook everything. Stuff that they'll live
Speaker 1: with so all roads lead back to him. To me,
Speaker 1: if Chris Paul can't get separation room Drew Devin Booker
Speaker 1: taking these type of shots, it's it's Aton who has
Speaker 1: to be the third best player here. That's really interesting.
Speaker 1: Rog And and I think I agree with you because
Speaker 1: you know, he got physically dominated a little bit in
Speaker 1: that game, which is unusual. He's been better, He's been
Speaker 1: better in this postseason than he's ever been in his
Speaker 1: time in Phoenix. And he had a little moment where
Speaker 1: he got a block on Bobby Portis where he kind
Speaker 1: of got emotional and kind of screamed at the station,
Speaker 1: like you could tell it's in there that he knows
Speaker 1: that he needs to be better. He just needs to
Speaker 1: do it. There's there was a clip h during the
Speaker 1: game of Monty Williams in the in the huddle basically
Speaker 1: telling that basically saying like, you're playing hard right now,
Speaker 1: but you're not playing hard enough. And and and because
Speaker 1: the truth was as Milwaukee was playing harder and more
Speaker 1: physical in that game. Then after the game, like god,
Speaker 1: I can't remember what the exact line was, but Monty
Speaker 1: said again in the postgame locker of something to the
Speaker 1: effect of like what you want is there for the taking,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna have to play harder than you've ever
Speaker 1: played in your life. Like I think you said the
Speaker 1: quote was what you want is on the other side
Speaker 1: of hard, meaning like what you think you gotta do,
Speaker 1: there's a whole other level to where you need to go.
Speaker 1: So it's clear that Monty is really hammering home with
Speaker 1: them the fact that hey, you're smaller, you're thinner, so
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to make up for that with effort
Speaker 1: because if you match effort with them, they're going to
Speaker 1: physically dominate you because Milwaukee's bigger and stronger and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth. And that'll be the interesting thing
Speaker 1: moving forward. And and to your point, Aton is where
Speaker 1: that starts. Eighton being more physically dominant will trickle down
Speaker 1: the red to the roster and compensate for some of
Speaker 1: their thinness on the perimeter. Like I I don't know,
Speaker 1: man like, like Michail Bridges wasn't very good in that game,
Speaker 1: and I didn't think he did a very good job
Speaker 1: on Chris and and honestly, man, some of the shots
Speaker 1: Chris missed in that game were really good looks. There
Speaker 1: were got He had like two or three wide open
Speaker 1: fifteen footers at the start of the fourth quarter when
Speaker 1: Phoenix was up like nine, where I was like, man like,
Speaker 1: if he keeps getting that shot, like it's gonna start
Speaker 1: going in and and and so everybody just has to
Speaker 1: be better in the same way that Drew Holiday is
Speaker 1: trending towards being more physically imposing on Chris, those Phoenix
Speaker 1: swings have to trend towards being more physically imposing on
Speaker 1: on on Chris Middleton and and and have that kind
Speaker 1: of kind of swing back into their favor at the
Speaker 1: end of the series. Do you have any other thoughts
Speaker 1: on this series before we move on, Yeah, just a
Speaker 1: couple of doing quick things. On eight and he had
Speaker 1: like seventeen rebounds, but one was offensive, So to me, like,
Speaker 1: that's like that number looks awesome. And against seventeen rebounds
Speaker 1: and seventy rebounds, just when you get one offensive rebound,
Speaker 1: it's they're showing your force on the boards. To me,
Speaker 1: everything there's a defensive rebound. And mckill bridges, I thought
Speaker 1: Milwaukee found something. Um they were just like they were
Speaker 1: starting Chris in the corner. Then he would come up
Speaker 1: off of two screens to a dribble handoff with Your Honest,
Speaker 1: and that basically puts at in this like no man's
Speaker 1: land where now he has to cover you know, the
Speaker 1: Honest rolling and Middleton coming off this screen, and it
Speaker 1: also takes away with mckill Bridges is really good at right.
Speaker 1: Mckill bridges a super long, crazy wingstand, but he's crazy skinny.
Speaker 1: So him going through two screens, he's already like behind
Speaker 1: the play. He's still on like the first screen, and
Speaker 1: him and Aiden keep having this miscommunication. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's something Phoenix really has to clean up because they
Speaker 1: went to that down the stretch. Every single time they
Speaker 1: stopped this just Your Honest at the top trying to attack,
Speaker 1: going through Aten's chest, they went dribble hand off. Chris Milton,
Speaker 1: he got to his spots. Whether he makes him in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but those are great shots for him. Um.
Speaker 1: I wondered if they stop trapping and all that, But
Speaker 1: I thought that was really interesting to see Milwaukee figure
Speaker 1: that out, like to how to get him going Credit
Speaker 1: to coach, but I guess they're forgetting him going to
Speaker 1: get him going there. Um, that's kind of a pet play.
Speaker 1: I saw them run that. I think they really figured out.
Speaker 1: So I'm interested to see how they defend that as
Speaker 1: well going forward. Um, how they if they just live
Speaker 1: with Chris Milton taking those jumpers because he's not getting
Speaker 1: to the rim. Still he got eight free throws, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: but like it's six of those I think for like
Speaker 1: at the end of the game or something. So still
Speaker 1: he's not getting to the rim. Um, he's not getting
Speaker 1: to the line, he's not playmaking. So it's all still
Speaker 1: on these jumpers that as you talked about. Since he's
Speaker 1: a jumptioning guy, he has the it can. He has
Speaker 1: a tendency to have up and down games. So I mean,
Speaker 1: if they he was up, and I'm interesting to see
Speaker 1: if they adjust you. That's really interesting, rog And you know, uh,
Speaker 1: generally speaking, it's kind of like a common it's common
Speaker 1: knowledge in the basketball community that larger players that are
Speaker 1: taller and lankier have trouble fighting through screens. That's like
Speaker 1: a players that are smaller with a small center of
Speaker 1: gravity do much better, Like a p. J. Tucker is
Speaker 1: going to be better chasing guys off of screens than
Speaker 1: Lebron because Lebron is a little bit too upright, and
Speaker 1: that's a common way that teams attack Lebron is trying
Speaker 1: to get him to run through screens. He's just too big.
Speaker 1: It's it's too easy for him to get caught on it.
Speaker 1: We talked earlier about Drew holiday in his ability to
Speaker 1: run over screens. Um, when I played in college, most
Speaker 1: of the best UH defenders that I knew that played
Speaker 1: off of screens that chased shooters around or short stocky guys,
Speaker 1: they just they have this uncanny ability to kind of
Speaker 1: navigate those crazy screens. And you're right, like mcaial Bridges
Speaker 1: got caught way too much on those screens and gave
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton way too much space and let him get
Speaker 1: way too comfortable. That was a good call out on
Speaker 1: your part. Um anything else, I think that's it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: interested to see game five? All right, we got fourteen minutes,
Speaker 1: so let's talk Dame. So this this is all kind
Speaker 1: of new and fresh to me. In terms of the
Speaker 1: the the the imminent nature of the trade request. Everyone
Speaker 1: seemed to just assume it was going to happen. I
Speaker 1: was kind of more like Portland's has they got him
Speaker 1: under contract for three more years? Uh? They just hired
Speaker 1: a new coach, they'll probably make a trade on the periphery.
Speaker 1: I I didn't necessarily think it was gonna happen, But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like Dame has built
Speaker 1: up so much good equity with that franchise as someone
Speaker 1: who has year in and year out given them his
Speaker 1: best and been such a great leader that if he
Speaker 1: actually asks for a trade, I believe that Portland's would
Speaker 1: capitulate to his demand just out of good business, Like,
Speaker 1: ah like, uh, you know what, Dame, if this is
Speaker 1: what you want, will do this for you kind of
Speaker 1: I I and and so it seems like we're headed
Speaker 1: that way. Um, So what was your initial initial, uh
Speaker 1: like kind of impression on what you saw today? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of fight back and forth because we're in
Speaker 1: a new NBA where like stars kind of do pick
Speaker 1: their their team now, right Like James Harden said, I
Speaker 1: want to go to the nets and he ended up
Speaker 1: there a d with the Lakers. You can go down
Speaker 1: the line a bunch of stars that kind of pick
Speaker 1: their team. But also Dame is under contract for four
Speaker 1: more years, so this season plus three more, that's a
Speaker 1: ton that's a ton of leverage for the team. Um,
Speaker 1: and I feel like teams would throw a bunch of
Speaker 1: whatever assets or whatever picks for Dame. So it's really
Speaker 1: interesting on the teams that have kind of uh it
Speaker 1: hasn't been official, but it's like the Lakers, Warriors, and Nicks, which, um,
Speaker 1: I feel like one of those two isn't like the other.
Speaker 1: But it's but I have no idea, Like it's so weird.
Speaker 1: Dame has kind of build his brand kind of on this,
Speaker 1: like I don't want to go anywhere. I want to
Speaker 1: build it myself. Um So it's just a switch. Maybe
Speaker 1: the like, uh, he got the backlash for the bill
Speaker 1: up stuff and all that stuff, so and the team
Speaker 1: got kind of some backlash for that. Maybe that's so
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons that he can kind of
Speaker 1: push out. I have no idea, but him being with team,
Speaker 1: You'll say, I don't know if that helps a little bit.
Speaker 1: He's away from the situation, he can kind of request
Speaker 1: his trade and uh, it feels a little different than
Speaker 1: being you know, on the team having to deal with that. So,
Speaker 1: so where do you think what do you think this
Speaker 1: goes from here? Do you think like it eventually becomes
Speaker 1: like a full on trade request official. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: assume we're trending in that direction just based on the intel.
Speaker 1: I think it makes sense for Dame. You know, Dane,
Speaker 1: this is why it's always better to let other people
Speaker 1: do the talking for you when it comes to this
Speaker 1: type of stuff like uh, as a star in the
Speaker 1: n b A if it's better for you to plan
Speaker 1: your exit behind the scenes than to do what Dame did,
Speaker 1: which is basically outwardly say in trash talk to the Clippers,
Speaker 1: I'm mr loyal, stay in one place. I don't want
Speaker 1: to take the easy road. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: You know, well, well, dude, had you let us say
Speaker 1: that on your behalf, then it would have been fine
Speaker 1: for you to leave. But now you've realized that your
Speaker 1: loyalty was you know, kind of foolish in the sense
Speaker 1: that you were self sabotaging because you were a top
Speaker 1: ten NBA player who routinely was getting knocked out early
Speaker 1: in playoffs because your team wasn't very good, and there's
Speaker 1: no shame in wanting to leave. That. Loyalty to franchises
Speaker 1: is stupid in my opinion, because at this at those
Speaker 1: fans are the first ones to turn on you when
Speaker 1: when things aren't going well. You know, that's just the
Speaker 1: nature of of the way this stuff is. And so
Speaker 1: to be honest, like, you know, like we would have
Speaker 1: been on your side no matter what, had you just
Speaker 1: kind of let it progress naturally, and unfortunately now you're
Speaker 1: gonna have I wouldn't be surprised with how reckless Dame
Speaker 1: and c J have talked about this in the past.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if Patrick Beverley or or lou
Speaker 1: Williams are one of those guys, uh came out and
Speaker 1: and and tweeted something like like you're taking the easy road,
Speaker 1: you know, something like that. But you know, uh, when
Speaker 1: it comes to the destination, there are you see you
Speaker 1: hear all these different teams that could thrown out, and
Speaker 1: they have all these different cap issues that would have
Speaker 1: to Like for the Lakers, as we've talked frequently, like
Speaker 1: if they do a sen in trade, which is what
Speaker 1: they would have to do to get Dame. If they
Speaker 1: do assign in trade, they get hardcapped, and under the
Speaker 1: current hardcap situation, it would probably force them to lose
Speaker 1: a bunch of other free agents there. They would lose
Speaker 1: guys currently on the roster, so it really kind of
Speaker 1: it really kind of janks things up. So and then
Speaker 1: just in general, I think other teams have better trade packages,
Speaker 1: and I don't think Portland's gonna sit there and go,
Speaker 1: we'll take talent Horton Tucker and Kyle Kuzma just because
Speaker 1: we want to do Dame a favor, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So I would look more to teams like
Speaker 1: the Knicks, teams like Golden State, although I don't like
Speaker 1: the fit there. I don't think it makes a ton
Speaker 1: of sense to have Dame and Steph play together. But
Speaker 1: like I would look to the teams that have assets,
Speaker 1: just because I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: Portland's gonna they'll say, hey, Dame, we're gonna help you,
Speaker 1: but we gotta get we gotta get a fair return,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You're top seven, top eight player,
Speaker 1: yeah for sure. But to me, these these kind of
Speaker 1: things always become ugly anyway, right, These trade because are
Speaker 1: never clean. It's never like a oh, we had our
Speaker 1: time together and uh it's over now, and both teams,
Speaker 1: you know, uh seeing by to each other. It never
Speaker 1: happens like that. It's always ugly. It's always ugly breakup.
Speaker 1: You got to ask questions on both sides what happened,
Speaker 1: and you know that. I feel like that's how this goes.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, we're in the new league. To me,
Speaker 1: if Dames says I want to go to the the Lakers,
Speaker 1: like and only the Lakers, like, that's kind of what
Speaker 1: happens here, Like, I don't know, that's just the league.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're in leverage because he has three
Speaker 1: years that you usually leverage, Like I want to go
Speaker 1: to l A if you trade for me, I will
Speaker 1: go to l A as soon as my contracts gone. Well,
Speaker 1: guess what, that doesn't matter when I've got you for
Speaker 1: three seasons. You know what I mean? That is fair.
Speaker 1: But I guess like my only counterpoint is Dame is
Speaker 1: on a super max He's not on like a regular
Speaker 1: max contract. He's making the super max money, which I
Speaker 1: think is like of your cap or whatever that is.
Speaker 1: So that pretty much like puts you down to like
Speaker 1: you either are a title contender, right or like a
Speaker 1: team that's close, Like I don't think a bad team
Speaker 1: can like I don't think Oklahoma City can go and
Speaker 1: throw you know, a BA jillion draft picks at Dame
Speaker 1: because what does that do for them? They're not in
Speaker 1: position at all to win for Dame. The Knicks too,
Speaker 1: I don't understand the Knicks unless, like he just wants
Speaker 1: to build on a bigger brand, which I think Dame
Speaker 1: is a pretty big superstar already in this league. But
Speaker 1: I mean, they're not ready for him. But you're gonna
Speaker 1: sign and trade Julius Randall for Dame and you have
Speaker 1: Dame R J. Barrett? How is that better than Portland's? Like,
Speaker 1: I that's that's my my question here is like it's
Speaker 1: either a want to be one of these really good
Speaker 1: teams that can get for him, and it can that
Speaker 1: list shortens? It's Philly just again we talked about this
Speaker 1: last episode. Just Philly want Ben Simmons on a max contract.
Speaker 1: I don't know, do they want the Warriors package? Do
Speaker 1: they want Wiggins? Why isn't like that's where I think
Speaker 1: this will eventually get to because the list is so
Speaker 1: small for where like, it doesn't make sense if Dame
Speaker 1: goes to a worst team like that, that doesn't happen
Speaker 1: in these situations. Players don't leave for a worst team.
Speaker 1: It just can't. That's a horrible look on a on
Speaker 1: a guy that that you just can't have. Stars don't
Speaker 1: want that. Stars want this, even if they don't believe it,
Speaker 1: they want this, Like, Yeah, all I want to do
Speaker 1: is win, you know, like that has to be the
Speaker 1: motivation for leaving. So I'm interested to see how this
Speaker 1: plays out. Yeah, I agree with you, and and you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because like you got to think about I
Speaker 1: think about it from all the angles, right, because if
Speaker 1: I'm Portland and I'm giving up Damian Lillard, I'm going
Speaker 1: into the rebuild. So unless I'm extremely high on Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go for a package more along the lines
Speaker 1: of Wiseman or one of the high picks in this draft.
Speaker 1: And you're right, like, why would Oklahoma City get involved
Speaker 1: if that's gonna involve me getting Dame Lillard when I
Speaker 1: don't have the pieces around him to help him compete.
Speaker 1: And then there was that big report that came out
Speaker 1: in early July. Jason Maples tweeted tweeted it out today,
Speaker 1: so if you want to go find it, you can
Speaker 1: find it in uh UM in his feed. But there's
Speaker 1: some guy that claimed to have intel that said that
Speaker 1: Dame wanted to go to New York and he wanted
Speaker 1: to bring Kawhile entward with him. And this is when
Speaker 1: we knew coau I was hurt. And it's like, okay
Speaker 1: uh and and this guy was was of ahead of
Speaker 1: the ahead of the Clippers news, and he knew that
Speaker 1: there was some unrest between the Clippers and Kauai. But anyway,
Speaker 1: it's like, if I'm dame, It's like, why would I
Speaker 1: want to go to the Knicks when if I if
Speaker 1: all we know about Kauai tells us that he's probably
Speaker 1: not gonna play next year because Kauai doesn't mess around
Speaker 1: his body. He's gonna take at least a year to
Speaker 1: get healthy. He's certainly not going to come back two
Speaker 1: thirds of the way through the season to try to
Speaker 1: go to to try to help the Clippers go on
Speaker 1: a run when he's not feeling good. So like, and
Speaker 1: I'm dame, I'm already getting older and I'm a small guard.
Speaker 1: Why would I go to New York to flounder for
Speaker 1: a year while I wait for Kauai to maybe come back?
Speaker 1: And God knows, Kauai quite doesn't keep anybody in the loop.
Speaker 1: He doesn't tell you what's going on with his body.
Speaker 1: Or his knee and and dude, like I Kauai such
Speaker 1: a weird guy. I wouldn't be surprised if we never
Speaker 1: see him again. I literally wouldn't be surprised if he
Speaker 1: was like, I'm retiring. Both my knees are messed up.
Speaker 1: I'm stick and tired of trying to get my knees work,
Speaker 1: and when they both keep giving up on me, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm retiring. I wouldn't be surprised. Like it's just that
Speaker 1: seems so when I her dad and tell him like
Speaker 1: that doesn't make sense to me. So my guess is
Speaker 1: it's gonna be so either Philly or Golden State. Um,
Speaker 1: but I don't if I'm if I'm Portland's, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't want Ben Simmons, Like what am I gonna
Speaker 1: do with Ben Simmons? You know? But yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I guess Simmons could I guess sells seats. I guess
Speaker 1: and that, But I mean like Portland would sell out anyway.
Speaker 1: They're kind of like a one one sport kind of
Speaker 1: sitting there, but like I have no idea, Like I
Speaker 1: feel like Dame is gonna put out the teams, like
Speaker 1: we've seen how this kind of story goes. He puts
Speaker 1: out the teams and then he kind of there's like
Speaker 1: three teams on that list, and one of them doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. It's just how it goes to kind of
Speaker 1: throw it off, and then he gets to the team
Speaker 1: he wants, like that's the new league. I think this
Speaker 1: will happen with Bradley Beal eventually to like this's just
Speaker 1: how the cycle of the universe works. I want to
Speaker 1: ask you about the Kauai so because I think that's fascinating. Um,
Speaker 1: the news that's coming out Skip Bayliss isn't really a
Speaker 1: source of you know, high regard to me. But I
Speaker 1: like when I'm just watched when I'm hearing like the
Speaker 1: team didn't even know that he had like the surgery.
Speaker 1: I think that stuff is just weird. That stuff is strange,
Speaker 1: Like to me, that can't even be possible, Kenny, Like,
Speaker 1: how can the team not know that he was having surgery?
Speaker 1: Like that's christ been there two years. It's not like
Speaker 1: he's a stranger to these people, you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: that's that kind of stuff. When those stuff come out
Speaker 1: is really strange to me that we can release that
Speaker 1: kind of information like that kind of intail, you know,
Speaker 1: like you don't is that strange to you as well?
Speaker 1: Or like it's it's strange, but it reminds me of
Speaker 1: like a spurned X, like you know, like, uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a common thing that you'll see what you're dating.
Speaker 1: It's like the the the girl who whose ex boyfriend
Speaker 1: cheated on her a bunch of times, Like she tends
Speaker 1: to have trust issues, right, Like she just trust issues,
Speaker 1: and she's the one that's not going to let you
Speaker 1: go have a guy's night because she's gonna think you're off,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, doing god knows what well. I
Speaker 1: think that's what happened with Kauai. I think I think
Speaker 1: he legitimately had a serious issue with the medical staff
Speaker 1: with the spurs where he where he felt like he
Speaker 1: was wronged, where he was like, my knees screwed up,
Speaker 1: and these guys keep telling me my knees fine, and
Speaker 1: they keep and now you've got teammates going to the
Speaker 1: press and saying like that he's not playing when my
Speaker 1: knees hurt, you know. And I think that that screwed
Speaker 1: up his head a little bit to where he doesn't
Speaker 1: trust these teams medical staffs at all. And so I
Speaker 1: think as soon as he had the knee injury and
Speaker 1: the first medical opinion from the team doctors said you're fine,
Speaker 1: and then he went and got his second opinion, and
Speaker 1: as soon as the second opinion apparently revealed a partially
Speaker 1: torn a c L, I think he immediately was like,
Speaker 1: screw those guys with the Clippers like that. I can't
Speaker 1: trust him, you know, because he's gotta trust he's got
Speaker 1: trust issues. And I think from there you combine that
Speaker 1: with Kauai's general private mentality and and there's there was
Speaker 1: all sorts of intel that he had some off the
Speaker 1: book stuff with the Clippers anyway, where he's kind of
Speaker 1: like a kind of a guy who likes to flex
Speaker 1: his muscles and do his own thing and live in
Speaker 1: San Diego while playing for the Clippers and all this
Speaker 1: other stuff that I'm not I'm not surprised by that
Speaker 1: at all. Um, really quickly before you get out of here. Um,
Speaker 1: So I'm just interested to hear your thoughts on this,
Speaker 1: and and I'll really quickly lay mine out. You know.
Speaker 1: Pat Riley used to talk about this concept called the
Speaker 1: disease of more, which is the idea that you could
Speaker 1: win a title with a bunch of guys playing unselfishly.
Speaker 1: But then you guys get selfish as things progress, because
Speaker 1: they start to care more about self goals instead of
Speaker 1: team goals, and then things go south. And you know,
Speaker 1: the famous example everybody talks about is like two thousand four,
Speaker 1: Kobe is like, you know, they were weren't doing all
Speaker 1: this winning with Shack, but then by then he gets
Speaker 1: a little selfish. He's, you know, he allegedly shot them
Speaker 1: out of the series with the pistons and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. That's just one example, but that's what
Speaker 1: you hear. But this is so unusual because this is
Speaker 1: the first time I can remember where the disease of
Speaker 1: more is impacting the guys who didn't even win the title. Okay,
Speaker 1: like all the guys who won the title with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: you know, with like guys like Alex Cruzo, guys like Lebron,
Speaker 1: guys like Anthony Davis, all these guys, they're all kind
Speaker 1: of still chugging along with the unselfish nature of it all. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: all these new guys who weren't on the championship team,
Speaker 1: guys like Dennis Shrewder, guys like Montrez Harrold are coming
Speaker 1: out with all these comments and they're acting like they
Speaker 1: care more about their minutes and their role on the team,
Speaker 1: whether they're starting or They're like they care more about
Speaker 1: this stuff than than the guys who were won the title.
Speaker 1: And I've never seen anything like it. I I tend
Speaker 1: to think that those guys need to be dispensed with
Speaker 1: because I think it hurts the culture. That's just my opinion.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to hear your two cents on it
Speaker 1: before we get you out here. Yeah, you eat throughout Shrewder, Harold,
Speaker 1: even Andre Drummond right with his comments. Um, we're really
Speaker 1: interesting about you know, wanting if he would have got
Speaker 1: more minutes and all that these guys are in their
Speaker 1: mid twenties. Like we keep comparing it to the Lakers.
Speaker 1: You know, those dude had a bunch of dudes in
Speaker 1: the mid mid thirties, kind of Danny Green, Dwight Howard, Um,
Speaker 1: all those dudes, all those role players, really older guys
Speaker 1: who are kind of fit, who understand their role in
Speaker 1: this league. Danny Green isn't gonna ask for isn't gonna
Speaker 1: try to run ball screens. You know, he's not gonna
Speaker 1: be someone who isn't. Ntres Harroll is still trying to
Speaker 1: figure out Kenny be a number one or number two
Speaker 1: options you know in this league? Like what is he?
Speaker 1: You know, like an Dennis Shrewder I think is still
Speaker 1: trying to figure that out too. Is he a starting
Speaker 1: point guard? He wants to be paid like one, so
Speaker 1: he has to play like one. He has to put
Speaker 1: the numbers like one. UM, and he knows he didn't
Speaker 1: do that, And again you started getting these excuses kind
Speaker 1: of UM trickling down. And that's why to me, that
Speaker 1: team is still special. It's why it's special because that's rare.
Speaker 1: You don't get teams that click like this. Also, like
Speaker 1: I don't remember what CALVS team was, UM. I think
Speaker 1: Shannon Fry talked about it a lot that that team
Speaker 1: was super close, and I remember there was sixteen team
Speaker 1: maybe that won the title, but he he talked about
Speaker 1: how close and how everyone went out together and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. And I'm not saying you have to do that,
Speaker 1: um to win, but I'm like, that's part of why
Speaker 1: Lebron does these mini camps in Las Vegas, why he
Speaker 1: does the Dinners on the road try to like build
Speaker 1: that kind of camaraderie. And I don't know if the
Speaker 1: factors with COVID and all that stuff kind of impacted it,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you can tell these dudes in their mid
Speaker 1: twenties feel like they didn't get the fair shake on
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. Um, and again, I feel like
Speaker 1: the talent would have went out. But yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to hear all these things come out on
Speaker 1: a team that lost, you know, the players that lost,
Speaker 1: the players that weren't on the team from the title team.
Speaker 1: You don't hear k CP tong like this. You don't
Speaker 1: hear Kyle Kuzum a little bit. I guess um, Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzuma came out with a little bit. But yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: Is from the mid twenty dudes who were who felt
Speaker 1: like they were going to kind of break open here
Speaker 1: and that didn't really happen. Which individual breakout seasons don't
Speaker 1: happen on contenders like this when they're deep. I think
Speaker 1: this is a product of depth. And I'll do this,
Speaker 1: say this really quick, and then I'll get you out
Speaker 1: of here. You know, my team at Arizona Christian University,
Speaker 1: the last school I played, kind of had a similar thing.
Speaker 1: The year before, Uh, they finished second in their conference
Speaker 1: and they made it to the national tournament. And everybody
Speaker 1: came back and they had famously good chemistry, like to them,
Speaker 1: like they talked about how great that year was and
Speaker 1: and and how close all the guys were and how
Speaker 1: everybody bought into their roles and how and how great
Speaker 1: they were. Well, everybody came back, and they added me,
Speaker 1: and they added this guy named Matais who's a really
Speaker 1: good center who transferred from another school. And we added
Speaker 1: this guard named Rodney from Texas who was a really
Speaker 1: good two way defensive guard. And so all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: there eight man rotation became an eleven man rotation, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like you know, I took the
Speaker 1: starting spot of the guy who played the year before,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, we had guys that are nine, ten,
Speaker 1: eleven in the rotation that on any given night could
Speaker 1: have a d NP coaches decision. And it kind of
Speaker 1: became this deal where there was just a different attitude
Speaker 1: around the team because suddenly there were competing agendas. There
Speaker 1: were well, maybe this guy should play more, well, this
Speaker 1: guy's this guy is is taking away from my role
Speaker 1: or whatever it was, and it kind of it kind
Speaker 1: of we we were we were a better team than
Speaker 1: the previous year's team, but a lot of the guys
Speaker 1: talked about how the chemistry wasn't as good and that
Speaker 1: the guys weren't as close. And I think that's kind
Speaker 1: of like a similar version of what happened with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: is like it's a better team on paper, and injuries
Speaker 1: are what derailed them. Let's not confuse that. But but
Speaker 1: the the energy around the team was a little bit
Speaker 1: different this year because there were guys that had individual
Speaker 1: goals separate from the team, and I do think that
Speaker 1: that's something that they shouldn't want totor moving forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's why repeating it's hard. It's why three piece are hard. Um,
Speaker 1: things happen, you know, you get tired of people. Just
Speaker 1: it's just how life kind of works. Um. I always
Speaker 1: think about like that Warriors team, and that team was
Speaker 1: running through teams like that, that team was actolutely destroyer world,
Speaker 1: and it's still just could not keep together for more
Speaker 1: than three years. Like that's just how it happened. Things
Speaker 1: broke one way, broke another way. People said some things
Speaker 1: like it's just that's how it works, So I feel
Speaker 1: like this team had a chance. I love the new blood.
Speaker 1: I think the idea was right. Throwing a new blood
Speaker 1: into um into the team, I think was the right decision.
Speaker 1: I think that's what they will kind of go with
Speaker 1: this year as well. I just didn't work out, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it happens that way. But you're right at it's
Speaker 1: injuries is the reason why it never really got the chance.
Speaker 1: I think winning kind of solves a lot of this stuff,
Speaker 1: right Like, I feel like when you lose, this stuff
Speaker 1: kind of festers out even more. If the Lakers got
Speaker 1: to the Western Conference finals, I don't think I see
Speaker 1: Montrose Harold talking about, you know, there's no such thing
Speaker 1: as uh, what do you say, matchups? That there's no
Speaker 1: such thing as there's no such thing as matchups. You're yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, Tress. There's no such thing as matchups, like
Speaker 1: like like the matchups that are literally determining the championship
Speaker 1: right now exactly, or Dennis Shooter, you know, coming out
Speaker 1: with you know, talking about his contract and stuff like.
Speaker 1: I don't think those stuff happened on a team that
Speaker 1: wins you know, Western Conference Finals. I don't think you'll
Speaker 1: see this summer, like, I don't think you'll see mckel
Speaker 1: bridges be like, I should have got more shots. Honestly,
Speaker 1: we would have one in four or five. Like, no,
Speaker 1: that's not going to happen. Like you know, even though
Speaker 1: he's a young guy probably trying to make a name
Speaker 1: in his league, he gets it there are in the finals.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? Like if he said stuff
Speaker 1: like that when it makes sense, so that's kind of
Speaker 1: comparison that would make their yep. I agree with you,
Speaker 1: all right, brother, let's get you to work. We actually
Speaker 1: went five minutes long, so that that's my fault. But
Speaker 1: let's we got a game on Saturday. My guests as
Speaker 1: will probably end up doing the podcast on Monday, just
Speaker 1: because Sundays they're always crazy. But thank you all for
Speaker 1: listening in. I will be posting the podcast shortly. Also,
Speaker 1: for those of you who have Apple, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: episode sixty five just didn't get updated to Apple and
Speaker 1: and went everywhere else. I have no idea why. I'm
Speaker 1: working with Apple support trying to figure it out. If
Speaker 1: you haven't heard episode sixty five, that one's on. It'll
Speaker 1: be on Spotify or Google Podcasts or anywhere else. And
Speaker 1: then hopefully it will be on Apple Podcast soon and
Speaker 1: then I'll upload this one today and hopefully, if Apple
Speaker 1: has their stuff together, will be in good shape, and
Speaker 1: I'll tweet out the links once they're all active. All right, everybody,
Speaker 1: have a good weekend and we will see you later.
Speaker 1: Appreciate ever