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Speaker 2: Slash baseball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at
Speaker 2: the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody, but all of you guys
Speaker 2: had a great weekend. We had unexpected great basketball on
Speaker 2: Saturday as the team from South today and gave Team
Speaker 2: USA a hell of a battle and we ended up
Speaker 2: with the Lebron James game winner. And then Germany likewise
Speaker 2: takes a fourth quarter lead against USA today and once
Speaker 2: again Lebron James down the stretch eleven points in the
Speaker 2: final four minutes. I want to talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about Lebron and how him kind of rising to the
Speaker 2: top of the USA pile is super interesting and what
Speaker 2: that means and what makes it interesting. I want to
Speaker 2: talk about why this team has struggled a little bit,
Speaker 2: because I think there are some misconceptions about Foeba basketball
Speaker 2: and how tough these games actually are. But I think
Speaker 2: we can all agree they shouldn't be in you know,
Speaker 2: clutch time slugfest every single night either, So they're clearly
Speaker 2: underachieving a little bit. So we're gonna talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about what's going on with Team USA. After that,
Speaker 2: I have three big questions I want to hit. I
Speaker 2: want to talk a little bit more about Lebron in
Speaker 2: the big picture. I want to talk about Joel Embiid
Speaker 2: in his interview and some of those weird questions or
Speaker 2: weird answers that he gave. And then at the end,
Speaker 2: I got in a little trouble on Twitter the other
Speaker 2: day for saying that I thought that twenty twenty Lakers
Speaker 2: would beat the twenty twenty four Celtics in a series.
Speaker 2: So I want to dive into that. That's going to
Speaker 2: be a little segment we have where we go over
Speaker 2: three fake questions. You guys know the drill before we
Speaker 2: get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you
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Speaker 2: Remember it'd be really helpful if you guys leave a
Speaker 2: rating in a review on that front and then keep
Speaker 2: dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We are going
Speaker 2: to do a mail bag later this week as we
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Speaker 2: less announcement before we get started. I recorded an interview
Speaker 2: with Himahawk as junior like eleven days ago. Then it
Speaker 2: finally got approved, So that's gonna be airing on the
Speaker 2: feed tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna tweet out another reminder of it tonight, but it
Speaker 2: was really fun for my first time ever interviewing an
Speaker 2: NBA player. Heimahak has also just had a very productive
Speaker 2: Summer league, as he got named second Team All Summer League,
Speaker 2: dove into a bunch of stuff with the USA Select Team,
Speaker 2: his time with the Miami Heat, his development as a
Speaker 2: post score. I thought it was really interesting. I'm excited
Speaker 2: for you guys to see that that's gonna be on
Speaker 2: the feeds tomorrow morning at seven am. And again, thank
Speaker 2: you guys for your patience on that front. So why
Speaker 2: why is it such a big deal that in these
Speaker 2: big moments on Team USA that Lebron James seems to
Speaker 2: be the guy that is most comfortable taking things over
Speaker 2: and bringing the team home. And the reason why simple
Speaker 2: these are really high pressure moments, Like any loss for
Speaker 2: this team is a disaster. Imagine the news cycle this
Speaker 2: morning on all your favorite shows if South Sudan had
Speaker 2: won on Saturday. Imagine the news cycle tomorrow if they
Speaker 2: had barely escaped South Sudan on Saturday and then somehow
Speaker 2: blown well, I mean, they were trailing in the fourth
Speaker 2: quarter against Germany today, Like what if they had lost
Speaker 2: that game? Imagine the new cycle tomorrow. I like, for
Speaker 2: as far as the Lebron stuff goes, I have a
Speaker 2: lot of guys who listen to this show who are
Speaker 2: not Lebron fans, who are dislike Lebron. It's not not
Speaker 2: a huge shock. He's a very polarizing player, right, But
Speaker 2: there are a lot of you, I know that had
Speaker 2: Lebron gotten blocked on that right handed layup against South Sudan,
Speaker 2: or if he had settled for a pull up jump
Speaker 2: shot and missed it, you know, damn well, the kind
Speaker 2: of things you would have been saying. Right, these are
Speaker 2: high pressure moments. There's a lot to lose here. Obviously,
Speaker 2: they're not in the actual elimination games, and that will
Speaker 2: add another layer to things when they get to that point.
Speaker 2: But these are really high pressure moments, and Lebron is
Speaker 2: taking a personal responsibility in that situation. To be responsible
Speaker 2: for the outcome in high pressure moments on a basketball team,
Speaker 2: it requires a huge amount of confidence in your ability
Speaker 2: to grab the reins and take that personal responsibility in
Speaker 2: the outcome. And again we know what Lebron's abilities are.
Speaker 2: He's bigger and stronger and faster than the majority of
Speaker 2: players in the world, which is insane at his age,
Speaker 2: but it's the truth. I think this game against Germany
Speaker 2: was an excellent kind of showcase for Lebron's footwork. I
Speaker 2: always talk about the idea of a score getting to
Speaker 2: their spots right, and to get to your spots, there
Speaker 2: are multiple elements there. There's a floor vision piece. You
Speaker 2: got to be going at the right times when the
Speaker 2: spacing on the floor actually dictates that there's an opportunity
Speaker 2: for you to get to a spot on the floor.
Speaker 2: So there's like a basketball like Q element of it.
Speaker 2: You also have to pass yourself into those opportunities. As
Speaker 2: a primary ball handler, there is a massive brain and
Speaker 2: IQ element to it. The second piece of it is skill.
Speaker 2: You got to have the ball control to get to
Speaker 2: where you are where you're trying to get to while
Speaker 2: having enough control over the basketball to then get to
Speaker 2: a shot, whether it's a fade away over your right shoulder,
Speaker 2: a fade away over your left shoulder, or a float
Speaker 2: or a hook shot, or whatever it might be. There's
Speaker 2: a skill element.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: The third element to it is footwork. You actually have
Speaker 2: to be able to get there without traveling while also
Speaker 2: doing it against elite athletes. And the only way you're
Speaker 2: going to do it against elite athletes is if you
Speaker 2: have the footwork to be efficient with your movements while
Speaker 2: you go to that spot. So, for instance, if you
Speaker 2: waste energy with a negative step, if you waste energy
Speaker 2: by having to hop instead of getting to a one
Speaker 2: to two because you're uncomfortable getting your foot to that spot,
Speaker 2: if you can drop step towards the baseline but you
Speaker 2: only can shoot and you don't have a step through,
Speaker 2: then an athlete can beat you to that spot and
Speaker 2: put you into some trouble. There is a footwork piece
Speaker 2: to getting from point A to point B as well.
Speaker 2: How many times did you see in that fourth quarter
Speaker 2: run from Lebron where he would get into the lane
Speaker 2: and then pump, bake and wait for dudes around him
Speaker 2: to get out of position and then pivot without traveling
Speaker 2: and get to an easy spot underneath the basket for
Speaker 2: him to then unleash his size and strength for that
Speaker 2: little right handed bank shot. Right, Like, all of those
Speaker 2: elements are important for a player to get to their spots.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of guys in the league that
Speaker 2: are incredibly skilled, that have every dribble combination in the
Speaker 2: book and every pull up jump shot in the book,
Speaker 2: but they don't see the floor well enough to know
Speaker 2: when to go to their spots, or they don't pass
Speaker 2: the ball well enough to keep the help defense home,
Speaker 2: or maybe they don't have the footwork to get to
Speaker 2: that spot. There are a lot of guys that have
Speaker 2: all of the footwork and have all of the vision,
Speaker 2: but don't have the scoring ability.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: We've seen guys like Ben Simmons in the NBA that
Speaker 2: have struggled with that, right. It's very rare to have
Speaker 2: a player that actually kind of has it all, and
Speaker 2: that's part of what has made Lebron so good over
Speaker 2: his career. He's got the size and strength, he's got
Speaker 2: the footwork, he's got the skill shots that he needs
Speaker 2: to get to to finish those plays. The second half
Speaker 2: run against South Sudan. I want to kind of go
Speaker 2: through the specifics of the way he took over these
Speaker 2: two games. So in the South Sudan game, for instance,
Speaker 2: right around the start of the second half, things were
Speaker 2: getting a little ugly as they came out. They want
Speaker 2: a little run, but then so they pushed it right
Speaker 2: back up to sixteen and it looked like there was
Speaker 2: going to be some trouble, and Lebron actually kind of
Speaker 2: took over the offense for the majority of that second half,
Speaker 2: and he was kind of playing in that role that
Speaker 2: I talked about a lot after the Serbia game, which
Speaker 2: is like at the top of the key while there's
Speaker 2: off ball action happening around him. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: functioning similarly to the way that Draymond Green functions within
Speaker 2: the Golden State offense, except for Lebron's obviously a much
Speaker 2: higher level offensive player. But he was hitting a lot
Speaker 2: of back cuts and like getting into the lane and
Speaker 2: making drop off passes, kicks to shooters, hitting steph as
Speaker 2: he was running off of off ball action. He was
Speaker 2: kind of just functioning as the hub. Hit a couple
Speaker 2: of bit pull up threes, during that stretch as well.
Speaker 2: But then on the game winner, he just unleashed his
Speaker 2: superpowered again. That was crazy again after JT Thor at
Speaker 2: that step back three in the right corner, Sudan was
Speaker 2: up with twenty seconds left. If Lebron misses that shot,
Speaker 2: they lose the game. If Lebron settles for a jumper
Speaker 2: there and misses it, they lose the game. There was
Speaker 2: some real pressure there, and what was cool was like
Speaker 2: Lebron just went to old reliable. He went to that
Speaker 2: like hesitation har dribble to the left, clear out with
Speaker 2: that off arm to get separation, and then he's a
Speaker 2: big Lebron has a great left hand, but he's big
Speaker 2: right hand on the left side of the rim because
Speaker 2: he turns his back and he kind of like uses
Speaker 2: his back as a shield to prevent the player from
Speaker 2: coming over the top, and then he'll extend with that
Speaker 2: right hand and finish at the rim. Huge huge play.
Speaker 2: The late run against Germany a big part of it too,
Speaker 2: Like he ramped up as an athlete down the stretch
Speaker 2: of that game. He was kind of in chill mode
Speaker 2: for the middle portion of that Germany game. He had
Speaker 2: three huge defensive rebounds down the stretch where he just
Speaker 2: beat everybody to the back basketball right in between his
Speaker 2: cut off of the Joel Embid layup and the full
Speaker 2: court post up where he got the layup. The back
Speaker 2: to back layups he had right in between those two plays.
Speaker 2: He made the first layup, a lefty layup that sent
Speaker 2: him into the cameras he turned around and sprinted the
Speaker 2: floor and got a steel in transition as he beat
Speaker 2: everybody to a passing lane. Like he can scale up
Speaker 2: as an athlete when he needs to in these moments.
Speaker 2: Is he gonna do that for an eighty two game season. No,
Speaker 2: But in these singular moments, he can still elevate his
Speaker 2: game to a level that most people on the planet
Speaker 2: can't get to. And then again, like that, a Joel
Speaker 2: Embiid was posting on the right block, Lebron's man digged down.
Speaker 2: As soon as he dug down, Lebron just cut in
Speaker 2: that slot and beat nice pass and bead had a
Speaker 2: Embiad was getting getting torched on defense, but he had
Speaker 2: a much better offensive game in this particular game. Embiad
Speaker 2: also had a huge block at the rim that led
Speaker 2: to the Anthony Edwards dunk, which sneaky crazy move was
Speaker 2: that left to right cross over the transition that was
Speaker 2: super smooth, but Lebron cutting off the slot on the
Speaker 2: mbid post up. Then right after he gets the transition steal,
Speaker 2: he gives up the basketball and runs up the right
Speaker 2: side of the floor again doing your job. Like you
Speaker 2: got the steal, you're out of position to be the
Speaker 2: ball handler. Give it to the ball handler. Sprint up
Speaker 2: the wing. He gets inside position on his defenders, stays
Speaker 2: a little bit too much high and above him on
Speaker 2: his left shoulder side. Lebron catches, dribbles into the post,
Speaker 2: goes through him and Schroeder at the rim, and gets
Speaker 2: the layup. There was the right wing three. Daniel Tice
Speaker 2: was guarding Lebron and was digging way down into the lane.
Speaker 2: Most of these teams don't have guys that can guard Lebron,
Speaker 2: and so what they've been doing is just playing way
Speaker 2: off of him and daring him to shoot. But as
Speaker 2: we know, Lebron just had the best jump shooting season
Speaker 2: of his career. So Lebron hung out on that right wing,
Speaker 2: knocked down the huge three to put him up four,
Speaker 2: and then the late game possession. It was kind of
Speaker 2: a fascinating sequence because one of Germany's wings was on
Speaker 2: Steph and Schroeder was on Lebron, and Schroeder did not
Speaker 2: want to get switched off of Lebron. Steph was trying
Speaker 2: to screen him so that he could get so that
Speaker 2: he could get a slower defender on Lebron. And I
Speaker 2: get it, like Schroeder's quicker and can kind of hang
Speaker 2: out with Lebron laterally, but Lebron's just so much bigger
Speaker 2: than him, and Schroeder, for whatever reason, would not concede
Speaker 2: the switch. He stayed, fought through the screen, stayed with Lebron.
Speaker 2: Lebron just turned his back and like bullied him from
Speaker 2: the three point line, did that hardcore spin move towards
Speaker 2: the baseline, pump fake, then step through. Beautiful footwork. I
Speaker 2: clipped that play. I mean, you don't have to look
Speaker 2: at my feet. You can find it anywhere on social
Speaker 2: media right now, but beautiful footwork from Lebron to get
Speaker 2: it done. That was fun to watch. The crazy thing
Speaker 2: is he's clearly been the best player on this team.
Speaker 2: Now is he the best guy for an eighty two
Speaker 2: game regular season? Like, is Lebron going to be able
Speaker 2: to bring it as an athlete from early October to
Speaker 2: mid June the way these other guys can. No, obviously not.
Speaker 2: But if he gets to a playoff series, if he
Speaker 2: gets to a situation where it's a small sample size
Speaker 2: and everything is on the line and he is healthy, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's that Jokic tier. Jokic, Luca Jannis. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: Lebron can reach that level in those situations anymore, but
Speaker 2: everybody that's below that tier in a big spot, he's
Speaker 2: better than all those guys. And this is the latest
Speaker 2: example of that. Don't let the incompetence of Genie bust
Speaker 2: and the Lakers distract you from the fact that Lebron
Speaker 2: has been playing at a top five level late into
Speaker 2: his thirties. Don't don't let the issues that the Purple
Speaker 2: and Gold have been having, which are extensive and go
Speaker 2: well beyond things that Lebron James is doing, Don't let
Speaker 2: that distract you from the level of basketball that he's playing.
Speaker 2: Like it's insane that on a team that has all
Speaker 2: these guys that are in their twenties, in their early thirties,
Speaker 2: in their primes, that he is the guy that is
Speaker 2: able to meet this occasion and take control of the
Speaker 2: way that he has been. It's a testament to his greatness.
Speaker 2: It's a testament to the respect that these guys have
Speaker 2: for him, that they trust him, and he's not failing.
Speaker 2: It's not like he's hijacking the reins and failing. He's
Speaker 2: taking control and getting it done, getting it down resoundingly.
Speaker 2: It's insane. As a Lebron fan watching him with this
Speaker 2: team USA has been one of the cooler experiences rooting
Speaker 2: for him that I've had over the years. But let's
Speaker 2: talk about TMSA as a whole for a little bit.
Speaker 2: So what's going on with TMOSA. It's not a concern
Speaker 2: to me that they aren't beating teams by thirty. This
Speaker 2: is not the FOBA of nineteen ninety two. These are
Speaker 2: really good basketball teams, and this showcase cycle has been
Speaker 2: mostly really good teams. Serbia really good team, Germany really
Speaker 2: good team, Canada really good team, and Australia is tough
Speaker 2: and Sausudan. Their odds to win the gold medal improved
Speaker 2: ten times after that game because everyone saw like, oh,
Speaker 2: they might actually be the most athletic team in the tournament.
Speaker 2: They're super long, they play super hard, they've got a
Speaker 2: couple of really good guards, and they can play like
Speaker 2: these are real basketball teams. These are go if you
Speaker 2: were to go watch FOBA in nineteen ninety two, it's
Speaker 2: an entirely different level of competition. So like thinking that
Speaker 2: they're just gonna rip through everybody the way the Dream
Speaker 2: Team did, that's not going to happen. That said, should
Speaker 2: they be in real crunch time as frequently as they
Speaker 2: have been against these teams, No, So I think we
Speaker 2: can all agree that the team is underachieving to a
Speaker 2: certain extent. That goes without saying, But I think it
Speaker 2: primarily has to do with lineup construction. So, for instance,
Speaker 2: the starters in particular are really struggling to defensive rebound
Speaker 2: and to guard the ball. Like at the point of attack, Well,
Speaker 2: you have to run drop coverage because Joel Embiid can't
Speaker 2: guard on the perimeter. So you have a big man
Speaker 2: that forces you to chase over the top of screens.
Speaker 2: In a lineup with Devin Booker, who's an average athlete
Speaker 2: and not a guy who's known getting over screens, Lebron
Speaker 2: who's almost forty, and Steph who's almost thirty seven, that's
Speaker 2: what you have out there with the big that reques
Speaker 2: fires you to chase over at the top of the screen.
Speaker 2: That should be a switching unit, and you need Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis at center in order to do what you need
Speaker 2: to do to be a switching a switching unit. With
Speaker 2: that group, right, you're struggling to defensive rebound, but you're
Speaker 2: playing a three guard lineup. Not only three guards, but
Speaker 2: two of those guards are Steph who turns thirty seven
Speaker 2: next season, and Devin Booker, who's a mediocre athlete, and
Speaker 2: Lebron who's forty, and Joel Embiid, who is slow footed
Speaker 2: and out of shape. Of course, you can't rebound. That
Speaker 2: lineup is not a good rebounding lineup. If you put
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis in for Joel Embiid, you instantly become way
Speaker 2: faster and way longer, and you can start doing the
Speaker 2: switching that you need to make that unit work defensively.
Speaker 2: If you put Kevin Durant when he's healthy, in for
Speaker 2: Devin Booker, you immediately become a much better defensive rebounding team.
Speaker 2: And guess what, Kevin Durant struggles to chase over screen.
Speaker 2: So that needs to be a switching group. So literally,
Speaker 2: just Katie Healthy in for Devin Booker Ady and for
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid solves the majority of the issues for that lineup.
Speaker 2: They instantly become way better rebounding, They instantly become faster,
Speaker 2: and they instantly become a switching group, which is what
Speaker 2: they need to be to function defensively. Anyway, the bench
Speaker 2: groups are really struggling to execute offense. In the half court,
Speaker 2: They've been awesome defensively, The Bam Tatum ad front court
Speaker 2: has been insane defensively. Anthony Edwards has done his fair
Speaker 2: share of shot making, but overall in the half court
Speaker 2: they're just a little clunky. Well, Embiid is an offensive
Speaker 2: firepower machine. He's a hub that you can throw in there.
Speaker 2: Adding Joel Embiid to that group should really help. And
Speaker 2: Embiid is slow footed, but that lineup would have Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum, and bam Adebayo all really athletic. It can
Speaker 2: help hide the foot speed issues that you have, especially
Speaker 2: if you end up moving Devin Booker into that group
Speaker 2: right which I'm assuming he'd go into that spot and
Speaker 2: then probably Derek White would fall out of the lineup,
Speaker 2: or if it ends up being Derek White, who knows,
Speaker 2: But that group makes more sense offense. You've got these
Speaker 2: tunnel vision guys and aunt Joel Embiid, but let him
Speaker 2: play to tunnel vision basketball. Let them play your turn,
Speaker 2: my turn basketball in that unit. Oh, you need to
Speaker 2: run drop with Joel Embiid, well, Anthony Edwards and Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum and Bamba, they're just way more athletic. That's a
Speaker 2: group that is more equipped to run drop. You have
Speaker 2: Derek White in with your bench group right now, and
Speaker 2: Derek White are both substantially better athletes than Stephan Devin Booker,
Speaker 2: so it makes sense within that group. So again, like
Speaker 2: I think, just a couple of lineup tweaks will put
Speaker 2: this team right back on the right track. And here's
Speaker 2: the thing. We gotta be honest with ourselves here. It's
Speaker 2: very possible that Steve Kerr is under a directive from
Speaker 2: Team USA to make sure that Embiid is starting very well,
Speaker 2: maybe the reason why Embide is on this team for
Speaker 2: all we know, I haven't heard anything specific about that,
Speaker 2: but I mean, I put it like this, I believe
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr sees what we're seeing, and I think he's
Speaker 2: way too smart of a basketball mine to not know it,
Speaker 2: I would imagine he knows, which makes me think that
Speaker 2: there might be some sort of directive, a big giveaway
Speaker 2: there is. Today, in the final minutes in crunch time,
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis ended up getting in that five spot, which
Speaker 2: I thought was interesting as an indicator of Steve's like
Speaker 2: true belief system there. But if it is the case
Speaker 2: that embiid has a guaranteed starting spot and Kirk can't
Speaker 2: bump him and they have to continue these janky ass
Speaker 2: lineup groupings for the majority of these games, then this
Speaker 2: team is vulnerable, no question, because the current lineup groupings
Speaker 2: are funky and redundant, and they underachieve, And so yeah,
Speaker 2: I think they're a lot closer to being more dominant
Speaker 2: than we think just by making a couple of simple tweaks.
Speaker 2: It's weird to me that it's taken this long, but
Speaker 2: I would imagine there are some extraneous circumstances that are
Speaker 2: kind of influencing that in terms of the basketball politics
Speaker 2: at play.
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Speaker 2: All right, I've got three fake questions for you guys
Speaker 2: before we get out of here for the day. Question
Speaker 2: number one, Jason, you are a Lebron fan, but you
Speaker 2: still have MJ as your goat. Does Lebron's superstar play
Speaker 2: extending into his forties change that for you at all?
Speaker 2: It does? I did a bit on the Lebron MJ debate.
Speaker 2: I want to say it was at least two years ago.
Speaker 2: I think it was the summer after I first started
Speaker 2: with the volume. Might even have been earlier than that.
Speaker 2: But I made the case for both, and it was
Speaker 2: very simple. MJ's case is dominance. There was no player
Speaker 2: that was close to as good as him for so long,
Speaker 2: and they won so frequently in that window there in
Speaker 2: the nineties, that just the gap between him and the
Speaker 2: rest of the league. It almost looks like an outlier
Speaker 2: data point, right, And so that would be MJ's case dominance.
Speaker 2: Lebron's case is longevity. Lebron's case is, hey, you're there's
Speaker 2: thirty nbagms and you get to pick from every player
Speaker 2: in NBA history, like their whole careers. You get them
Speaker 2: from the day they're drafted to the day they hang
Speaker 2: them up. And this is just first pick, so it's
Speaker 2: not in the context of another team you have to
Speaker 2: draft a team around that guy. Who do you take?
Speaker 2: You take Lebron because with Lebron, I'm getting twenty two
Speaker 2: years of top five level play. Maybe if you're being
Speaker 2: picky and you're saying, like, oh, the twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: year he was kind of rough, and his rookie year
Speaker 2: he was kind of rough, and he was you know,
Speaker 2: injured in the twenty nineteen season. Okay, so nineteen seasons,
Speaker 2: nineteen seasons of top five play. That's insane at a
Speaker 2: certain point. By having that, I just give my team
Speaker 2: a really good chance to win a lot of championships
Speaker 2: because I have that level of consistent greatness at the top.
Speaker 2: Now am I ready to swap my pick? Because right
Speaker 2: now I do have MJ as the goat. I want
Speaker 2: to wait until after the Olympics before I make that
Speaker 2: sort of stand. But if Lebron continues to lead this
Speaker 2: team the way that he has and in the real
Speaker 2: elimination games again lifts this team avera over the top,
Speaker 2: that to me would be such a strong indicator that
Speaker 2: he's the best American player in the year twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four at age thirty nine years old, which is such
Speaker 2: an insane accomplishment that you're piggybacking on what was already
Speaker 2: insane two years ago. And so at that point I
Speaker 2: would have no choice, I think, but to acknowledge that.
Speaker 2: But again, I'm gonna wait until after the Olympics. But
Speaker 2: I used to be pretty pretty you know, entrenched on
Speaker 2: that MJ one Lebron two stance, and I'm starting to
Speaker 2: soften a little bit on that, just because this is
Speaker 2: getting ridiculous. Guys, Jason, what do you make of Joel
Speaker 2: Embiid's comments recently to the New York Times. So those
Speaker 2: of you guys who didn't see this, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: most of you did, but Joel Embiid had some comments
Speaker 2: about this isn't the same team that it looks to
Speaker 2: be on paper, and Lebron's not as good as he
Speaker 2: used to be, and Steph isn't as good as he
Speaker 2: used to be here, and he specifically said that this
Speaker 2: team doesn't have a talent advantage, which I think is ridiculous,
Speaker 2: like the score is notwithstanding, I think TAMSA does have
Speaker 2: a substantial talent advantage. Is it anywhere near as why
Speaker 2: does it wasn in nineteen ninety two? Obviously not. The
Speaker 2: global teams have gotten way better. We talked about that earlier.
Speaker 2: But I do think this team USA team is more talented.
Speaker 2: And so that comment is just strange because it's under
Speaker 2: selling your teammates to try to like out of like,
Speaker 2: to try to like. It's like a weird kind of
Speaker 2: like pressure deflecting type of comment that to me is silly.
Speaker 2: Like this team should win, it's a disaster. If they don't,
Speaker 2: they absolutely have a huge talent advantage. The second piece
Speaker 2: of it was in Beat said that he thought he
Speaker 2: could potentially have been the goat had he not been injured.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing. Yeah maybe, but like I've we've
Speaker 2: all been there. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend
Speaker 2: like I haven't tried to make an excuse in my life.
Speaker 2: I've had bad days at the gym where I'm in
Speaker 2: the car on the way home and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: dealing with XYZ and this is why I'm not playing well.
Speaker 2: Like the hell, Like, I get busy with work sometimes
Speaker 2: and I just don't get to go to the gym
Speaker 2: a lot. And then I'll go to the gym and
Speaker 2: I won't be as good as I usually and I'll
Speaker 2: be like, ah, I hate being this busy because I
Speaker 2: don't get to work on my game as much as
Speaker 2: I want to. Here's what I've discovered, and I guarantee
Speaker 2: you you guys have all discovered the same thing in
Speaker 2: your journeys. People don't care about excuses. They never have
Speaker 2: When you're at the gym and you're busting someone's ass
Speaker 2: and he says something about, oh, my legs are sore.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm dealing with this injury. You don't give a fuck, Like, no,
Speaker 2: no one cares about excuses, and that's that's why it's
Speaker 2: such a loser mentality, Like that's the thing. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe you were the goat. Maybe these injuries have derailed
Speaker 2: a potentially all time great type of career. But the
Speaker 2: reality is is time and time again, you get to
Speaker 2: those spots and you can't come through. And I guarantee you,
Speaker 2: as you're getting pull up threes put in your face
Speaker 2: by Jason Tatum in Game seven, or as you're that
Speaker 2: was just the deeve end of the floor as you
Speaker 2: look scared to make a post move against Al Horford,
Speaker 2: no one's sitting there going like that guy could have
Speaker 2: been the goat, but he just had some injuries. No,
Speaker 2: they're going, what the hell's wrong with Joel Embiid. People
Speaker 2: don't care about excuses, and that's the thing. Excuses are real.
Speaker 2: There are real reasons why things go the way that
Speaker 2: they go. Absolutely there are factors that can affect your performance.
Speaker 2: But expecting, like putting that energy into the public serves
Speaker 2: no purpose. You know what I'd like to hear. I'd
Speaker 2: like to hear nothing as Joel Embiid privately goes, I
Speaker 2: have unfulfilled potential, and this is the year that I
Speaker 2: get it all taken care of. I come in in
Speaker 2: crazy good shape and I figure it all out and
Speaker 2: I kick everyone's ass. If you're that type of talent,
Speaker 2: show us the world will rally around you as soon
Speaker 2: as you do. But like, yeah, putting that energy out
Speaker 2: there in that in the public that like, oh, like
Speaker 2: what if this? What if that? Nobody cares? Nobody cares.
Speaker 2: They never have if you go about life expecting to
Speaker 2: get pats on the back in support for what's going on,
Speaker 2: that's causing you problems. Like people don't care. They just don't.
Speaker 2: They only care about themselves and their family and advancing
Speaker 2: their own interests. That's the only thing people care about.
Speaker 2: I know it's kind of nihilistic, but it's just what
Speaker 2: I think is what I think to be the truth. Jason,
Speaker 2: you said on Twitter the other day that you think
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty Lakers would beat the twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: Celtics in a series. Can you explain why? So? I
Speaker 2: tweeted this out the other day and I didn't think
Speaker 2: it was that big of a deal. And then everyone
Speaker 2: freaked out. But I want to kind of get into
Speaker 2: some of the specifics here because I don't think it's
Speaker 2: as crazy as people are making it sound. First of all,
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty Lakers were also a dominant basketball team.
Speaker 2: The twenty twenty four Celtics were more dominant on paper.
Speaker 2: For sure, they won more games, they had a larger
Speaker 2: net rating, But there's context there. Playing in a historically
Speaker 2: weak Eastern Conference. The Western Conference won the vast majority
Speaker 2: of games and had to head matchups against the East.
Speaker 2: This last year's going to inflate net rating statistics. It
Speaker 2: just is you're playing more lesser teams in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2: That's going to inflate your advanced metrics. That's going to
Speaker 2: make things a little bit easier, right. But even though
Speaker 2: the Celtics were more dominant on paper than the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty Lakers, the twenty twenty Lakers were also insanely dominant.
Speaker 2: Here are some basic stats to express that for you.
Speaker 2: The twenty twenty Lakers started twenty four and three guys
Speaker 2: twenty four and three. They won twenty four of their
Speaker 2: first twenty seven games they won before the stoppage when
Speaker 2: the when COVID shut down the season they were winning
Speaker 2: at a sixty four win pace. Guess how many games
Speaker 2: the Celtics won sixty four and the Lakers did it
Speaker 2: in a substantially tougher conference. In this playoff run, the
Speaker 2: Celtics had a plus fifteen net rating in their sixteen wins,
Speaker 2: meaning they won by an average of fifteen points per
Speaker 2: one hundred possessions. The Lakers were plus twelve. That's also
Speaker 2: super dominant. So like, the idea that there is like
Speaker 2: this chasm between these two champions and what they accompt
Speaker 2: within their seasons is silly as far as like their
Speaker 2: playoff runs. Like, do I think that the Celtics played
Speaker 2: a tougher team in the NBA Finals? Absolutely, that Dallas
Speaker 2: Mavericks team was a tougher team than the banged up
Speaker 2: Miami Heat team that the Lakers played in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: But if you stack up all the teams, Dame and
Speaker 2: CJ McCollum in round one, James Harden at the peak
Speaker 2: of his powers in Russell Westbrook in the second round,
Speaker 2: Nikole Jokic and Jamal Murray, the same team that beat
Speaker 2: that Clippers team that everyone swore was the best team
Speaker 2: in the league like Lebron and the Lakers executed those
Speaker 2: guys put him out of there in five. So like
Speaker 2: I believe the Lakers played tougher teams overall in that
Speaker 2: playoff run, not that it matters. All I care about
Speaker 2: is the twenty twenty Lakers on a basketball court for
Speaker 2: a seven game series against the twenty twenty four Celtics.
Speaker 2: Who's gonna win. I've got the two best players in
Speaker 2: the series. Anthony Davis was a better basketball player in
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty playoffs than either of Jaylen Brown or
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum. He just was. Lebron James was the best
Speaker 2: basketball player alive in twenty twenty. Those are the two
Speaker 2: best players in the series. Okay, let's talk about matchups.
Speaker 2: What is Boston's biggest advantage that can space you out
Speaker 2: in drive and kick you to death? Well, what is
Speaker 2: the closing five for that Los Angeles Lakers team. Alex
Speaker 2: Crusoe elite perimeter defender with size, KCP elite perimeter defender
Speaker 2: with size, Danny Green very good perimeter defender with size.
Speaker 2: Lebron James, who in twenty twenty was still one of
Speaker 2: the best defensive players in the league, and that was
Speaker 2: one of his best defensive seasons. It was better than
Speaker 2: all of his seasons in Cleveland, and Anthony Davis, who
Speaker 2: was the best defensive player alive. That team is constructed
Speaker 2: to guard the Boston Celtics, all big, mobile perimeter defenders
Speaker 2: and a super versatile front line. And then on the
Speaker 2: other end of the floor. Yes, Boston was an elite
Speaker 2: perimeter defense team, but Lebron James and Anthony Davis are
Speaker 2: matchup nightmares for them. On the front line. Anthony Davis
Speaker 2: would have given Chris hop Sportzincis fits on the low block,
Speaker 2: especially in that twenty twenty season. Lebron James, there's not
Speaker 2: a guy on the Celtics that could have guarded him
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty. So like in my opinion, I've got
Speaker 2: the best players in this series. In terms of the
Speaker 2: x'es and o's, the Lakers match up extremely well. I
Speaker 2: just think that that twenty twenty Lakers team is the
Speaker 2: best basketball team that I've seen since the twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: Warriors with Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. I've said that consistently.
Speaker 2: We got to get a little bit into the basketball today.
Speaker 2: I understand. I expect you guys to disagree. If you're
Speaker 2: a Celtics fan, lay it out in the comments. You
Speaker 2: guys know I read the comments. Jason, Here's why you're wrong.
Speaker 2: Xyz basketball basketball basketball. If you just tell me, oh,
Speaker 2: they were the most dominant team this season, I don't
Speaker 2: care about that. There's not a metric that the Celtics
Speaker 2: did this year that is substantially more impressive than what
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty Lakers did. So like, if you have
Speaker 2: a basketball case, I want to hear it. Let's get
Speaker 2: into it, let's debate a little bit. But I believe
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty Lakers would beat the twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: Celtics in a playoff series. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 2: all I have for today. As always, to sincerely appreciate
Speaker 2: you guys for supporting the show. I again, we have
Speaker 2: the Himahakas interview coming up tomorrow, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 2: end up recording a mail bag later this week. I
Speaker 2: will see you guys then.
Speaker 1: The volume. What's up? Guys?
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
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