Speaker 1: The volume. You know the beautiful thing about being a
Speaker 1: sports fan, there's only like two days the whole year
Speaker 1: without a game. Two with so much happening and so
Speaker 1: much action, that makes just about every day game day.
Speaker 1: At DraftKings Sportsbook, it's super easy for first timers to
Speaker 1: get started. Try betting on something simple like picking a
Speaker 1: team to win. Go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app, select
Speaker 1: your team and place your first bet. It really couldn't
Speaker 1: be any easier or any simpler. Baseball, golf, UFC, there's
Speaker 1: something for every fan of every sport to bet on DraftKings.
Speaker 1: And I know it's early, but football season will be
Speaker 1: here before you know it. And the Kansas City Chiefs
Speaker 1: are currently the favorite to win the Super Bowl on
Speaker 1: DraftKings at plus five fifty. And if you're new to DraftKings,
Speaker 1: you got to check this out. New customers, bet five
Speaker 1: dollars and get one hundred and fifty in bonus bets instantly.
Speaker 1: Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app now and use code
Speaker 1: coops that's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to
Speaker 1: get one to fifty in bonus bets instantly when you
Speaker 1: bet just five dollars only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours.
Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or in West
Speaker 1: Virginia visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net.
Speaker 1: In New York, call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
Speaker 1: or text hope and why to four six seven three
Speaker 1: sixty nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.
Speaker 1: Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 1: seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on
Speaker 1: behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus.
Speaker 1: Age varies by jurisdiction. Bonus bets expire one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty eight hours after issuance. Deposit and eligibility restrictions apply.
Speaker 1: See terms and responsible gaming resources at DKG dot co.
Speaker 1: Slash Baseball all right, wellcome to you tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Friday, everybody, hope all if you guys
Speaker 1: have had an incredible week. We are going to do
Speaker 1: a mail bag today, but I want to mix it
Speaker 1: up a little bit from the mailbags we've been doing
Speaker 1: on every Friday. I want to start by going over
Speaker 1: the top five off seasons that I've seen so far
Speaker 1: around the NBA. So we're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the teams that really hit home runs over the
Speaker 1: summer to try to step up their chances to win
Speaker 1: or at least compete for the Larry O'Brian Trophy next year.
Speaker 1: And then we're gonna do a mail bag that bounces
Speaker 1: all around the league. You guys know the joke before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube
Speaker 1: channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter, underscore JSNLTS, you guys, don't miss
Speaker 1: show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping
Speaker 1: mail bag questions in those YouTube comments that we keep
Speaker 1: hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So before we actually get into
Speaker 1: the top five, the five teams that I put on
Speaker 1: that list are all teams that are in contention, teams
Speaker 1: that are at least close to competing for the Lario
Speaker 1: Brian Trophy. But I wanted to take a chance to
Speaker 1: shout out two other off seasons that are for teams
Speaker 1: that are not necessarily contending for Larry O'Brian, but teams
Speaker 1: that I think did a nice job revamping things and
Speaker 1: at least moving in that general direction despite being far
Speaker 1: away this summer. So the first of those two teams
Speaker 1: is the San Antonio Spurps. You know, obviously last year
Speaker 1: they just had this dreadful lack of ball handling, which
Speaker 1: made it really difficult to even get a good feel
Speaker 1: for what Victor Wembinyama is capable of playing on a
Speaker 1: real basketball team with real ball in player movement, with
Speaker 1: a real understanding of how to play alongside each other.
Speaker 1: And I think adding Harrison Barnes and Chris Paul to
Speaker 1: that roster, putting some legit shooting in the front court
Speaker 1: as well as a guy that can just kind of
Speaker 1: orchestrate things on the offensive end of the floor, I
Speaker 1: think that's super exciting. And then especially in light of
Speaker 1: what we saw over the course of FIBA, and obviously
Speaker 1: it's still going on, but in the Olympics, a lot
Speaker 1: of the stuff that Victor webbin Yama has been doing
Speaker 1: running four or five pick and rolls, where he's been
Speaker 1: running pick and rolls with another big I'm really interested
Speaker 1: to see him doing some of that inverted with Harrison Barnes.
Speaker 1: You can imagine with his shooting ability, that could be
Speaker 1: a really interesting action. I just like what the direction
Speaker 1: they moved in. It's just gonna make them entertaining in
Speaker 1: the short term, while also flexible in the long run
Speaker 1: to see what else you're gonna get out of these guys,
Speaker 1: guys like Devin Vessel, for instance, in the long run.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a really smart offseason approach from
Speaker 1: the San Antonio Spurs. Secondly the Atlanta Hawks. So first
Speaker 1: of all, getting Zachary Risache in the draft, so we're
Speaker 1: talking about essentially a three and D wing, a guy
Speaker 1: who specializes in off ball defense, a guy with a
Speaker 1: lot of length, a guy that can shoot the basketball.
Speaker 1: I really like him as a complimentary fit alongside Jalen Johnson.
Speaker 1: I do think it's gonna be interesting to see which
Speaker 1: of those two guys prioritizes playing on the perimeter, because again,
Speaker 1: like remember when you have a three and a four,
Speaker 1: there's basically two different roles there. There's the guy who's
Speaker 1: gonna guard the better offensive forward. That guy's job is
Speaker 1: tip if it's a wing player, to chase and navigate
Speaker 1: around screens to a certain extent, right, whereas the other
Speaker 1: of the two that's guarding the lesser offensive player is
Speaker 1: probably going to operate more as a low man, right,
Speaker 1: And so that's a guy that's going to be responsible
Speaker 1: for breaking up lob passes and pick and roll and
Speaker 1: closing out to the weak side shooter. Right. So like,
Speaker 1: those two roles are pretty different, and Jalen Johnson and
Speaker 1: Zachary Rissoschet have some similar skill sets there, So one
Speaker 1: of those two guys is going to have to develop
Speaker 1: into a little bit more of a screen navigating kind
Speaker 1: of perimeter chase guy, and I'm really curious to see
Speaker 1: which one of those two guys ends up doing that. However,
Speaker 1: I really like the offensive fit as kind of like
Speaker 1: that Jalen Johnson downhill, freaky athleticism transition attack. And then
Speaker 1: Zachary Rissasche a guy who likes to take and make
Speaker 1: and actively hunt three point shots off the catch and
Speaker 1: is a guy that has a lot of skill attacking
Speaker 1: closeouts and so I like that fit. And then I
Speaker 1: thought they nailed the Dejonte Murray trade. Obviously, as a
Speaker 1: Lakers fan, I really wanted him in LA, but I
Speaker 1: thought the Pelicans offer was really good. I mean, when
Speaker 1: you really dig into it. He hit the two first
Speaker 1: round picks, which obviously are on the table if you
Speaker 1: do the Laker deal. Now, I would argue the first
Speaker 1: round picks from the Lakers are probably a little more
Speaker 1: valuable just because of the incompetence of that franchise, and
Speaker 1: once Lebron James retires, I just have a hard time
Speaker 1: believing they're going to be competent. We'll see, but I
Speaker 1: thought the actual players that got back in the deal
Speaker 1: were better. So like, obviously you're gonna get one of
Speaker 1: those You're gonna get a one way guy back from
Speaker 1: the Lakers, Like you're gonna get somebody like a Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent or a like a Jared Vanderbilt type of guy.
Speaker 1: They got Dyson Daniels from New Orleans. He's a really
Speaker 1: interesting defensive two guard, and specifically an interesting guy to
Speaker 1: have next to Trey Young if we think of the
Speaker 1: typical kind of orientation of having a skill guard next
Speaker 1: to an athlete guard. Dejonte Murray was an athlete guard,
Speaker 1: but didn't focus as much on those details. Obviously is
Speaker 1: a more offensive minded player at this phase in his career,
Speaker 1: and Dyson Daniels slots really nicely in there is just
Speaker 1: like a traditional kind of three and D two guard,
Speaker 1: And so I thought that was really interesting. Larry Nants Junior,
Speaker 1: this is a type of big that Atlanta hasn't had yet.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously with Capella and Yakakongu. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of rebounding, it's a lot of athleticism, and Larry Nants
Speaker 1: brings athleticism to the table. But Larry Nants can shoot
Speaker 1: the ball a little bit. You can shoot the ball
Speaker 1: a little bit. He can drive close outs a little bit.
Speaker 1: He is a kind of a more quintessential modern kind
Speaker 1: of perimeter oriented big and has some ability to defend
Speaker 1: in switches. And obviously, like I just think you're getting
Speaker 1: two really high quality role players, guys that can help
Speaker 1: you on both ends of the floor, and you get
Speaker 1: the two draft picks that you were hoping for. So,
Speaker 1: like all things considered for the Hawks this summer, man,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty nice little turnaround there to get a
Speaker 1: really high quality role player in the draft, two more
Speaker 1: high quality role players in the trade, to bolster your
Speaker 1: draft compensation if you wanted to jump on a particular
Speaker 1: type of deal. Else, like if you're let's say you
Speaker 1: find yourself in a situation where Zachary Risache and Jalen
Speaker 1: Johnson can't really play together because they're both fours, for instance,
Speaker 1: as an example, and then Brandon Ingram becomes available and
Speaker 1: you want to jump in and make a deal, or
Speaker 1: if you want to go after a different star around
Speaker 1: the league, just that becomes available at some point, you're
Speaker 1: more well equipped to jump on that type of opportunity.
Speaker 1: Really liked the off season from the Atlanta Hawks. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get to our top five off seasons for our contenders.
Speaker 1: At number five, I have the Philadelphia seventy six Ers
Speaker 1: adding Paul George, Andre Drummond, Caleb Martin, Eric Gordon, and
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson, losing Nick Patom, Buddy Heel, d Anthony Melton,
Speaker 1: and Paul Reid. Now, obviously losing to Anthony Melton is
Speaker 1: one of those things where like when he's healthy, that's
Speaker 1: a substantial loss. I think d Anthony Melton is a
Speaker 1: quality starting two guard in this league, but there was
Speaker 1: health question there, and obviously they wanted to direct their
Speaker 1: cap space in other directions. I thought, you know, getting
Speaker 1: Caleb Martin is kind of that athletic wing to kind
Speaker 1: of play in that type of role at a discount
Speaker 1: was a nice move. Giving yourself Andre Drummond for the
Speaker 1: eighty two is going to be vitally important because again,
Speaker 1: I think you got to keep Joel and Beat around,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty games, and that's going to require a
Speaker 1: pretty substantial load management schedule throughout the season. And in
Speaker 1: order to do that, you just have to have an
Speaker 1: excellent backup center. And Andre Drummond's as good a backup
Speaker 1: center as you'll find around the league right now, and
Speaker 1: at least at the at the bare minimum, just eats
Speaker 1: up a lot of rebounds and just kind of takes
Speaker 1: those takes all that physical contact underneath the basket. I
Speaker 1: think he's a perfect fit there. Obviously, having Tyrese Maxi
Speaker 1: and Paul George as offensive initiators gives you a better chance.
Speaker 1: Like to put it simply, if you put a lineup
Speaker 1: out there with Tyrese Maxi, Caleb and Paul George, you know,
Speaker 1: Kelly u Bray and Andre Drummond, you give yourself a
Speaker 1: solid chance to win an NBA regular season game, Like
Speaker 1: you can go five hundred with that group without EMBIID
Speaker 1: And if you go five hundred without EMBIID and then
Speaker 1: you win, you know, seventy five percent of your games.
Speaker 1: With Embiid, you can be a top seeded team while
Speaker 1: resting your superstar for a third of the season. And
Speaker 1: so here's the thing. They took on some risk taking
Speaker 1: on Paul George long term at that number. There's some
Speaker 1: real risk there. However, you're not in a position where
Speaker 1: you can be risk averse having Joel Embiid, with his
Speaker 1: health history at his age, after a couple of disappointing seasons,
Speaker 1: you had no choice but to be aggressive. And I
Speaker 1: thought Darryl Mory did a nice job being aggressive. This
Speaker 1: is an interesting team that he has put together. I
Speaker 1: have the seventy six ers at number five, number four,
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks. After getting Spencer Dinwoodie too recently, they
Speaker 1: have now added a considerable amount of ball handling and
Speaker 1: movement shooting. So Klay Thompson obviously the signing of the summer,
Speaker 1: you get Quinton Grimes as well. Those are two movement shooters,
Speaker 1: particularly two movement shooters that Klay Thompson has a history
Speaker 1: of being able to defend. We'll see if he can
Speaker 1: still defend at this phase in his career. And I
Speaker 1: think Quinton Grimes is a pretty solid athletic perimeter defender,
Speaker 1: did a lot of work for the next two years
Speaker 1: ago in the playoffs as their primary point of attack
Speaker 1: guy that they would put on the other team's best player.
Speaker 1: And so you get two movement shooters that theoretically can defend,
Speaker 1: and then you add two additional guys that are really
Speaker 1: high quality ball handler. Spencer Dinwoody can handle the ball
Speaker 1: run action. Naji Marshall can handle the ball run action.
Speaker 1: And so two additional ball handlers, two additional movement shooters.
Speaker 1: You're losing Josh Green, who's a guy that struggled to
Speaker 1: put the ball on the floor and make plays. Derek
Speaker 1: Jones Junior, a guy who was not a great ball handler.
Speaker 1: And then Tim Hardaway Junior, who is a decent upside
Speaker 1: type of offensive player but a lot of ups and
Speaker 1: down is not a very good defensive player and just
Speaker 1: quite frankly, didn't make enough shots. Right, So what you
Speaker 1: did is you took some specialists and you turn them
Speaker 1: into some more versatile guys. There's some downsides, right, like
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwoodie a pretty bad catch and shoot guy. That's
Speaker 1: something that can be an issue, right, So you got
Speaker 1: to make sure the ball is in his hands, right
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson. At his age, obviously a little bit of
Speaker 1: defensive decline is to be expected. However, I like the
Speaker 1: two movement shooters and the two guys that can dribble.
Speaker 1: That to me is a clear sign from the Dallas
Speaker 1: front office that they want to lean into more ball
Speaker 1: in player movement. We talked a lot about this after
Speaker 1: the playoffs last year, but there's a certain ceiling to
Speaker 1: four out offense that's helio centric and centered around a star,
Speaker 1: especially in the modern MBA with how much groundcoverage these
Speaker 1: teams have, with the schematic approach that teams take the
Speaker 1: new strategy of just putting a forward on your opposing
Speaker 1: big man so you can switch ball screens and force
Speaker 1: lesser shooters to take above the break threes. That four
Speaker 1: out thing just it's a little easy to guard at
Speaker 1: this point, and so putting yourself in a position where
Speaker 1: you have more ball handling, you have guys that can
Speaker 1: come flying off a screen and shooting that just gives
Speaker 1: you more offensive resilience. It gives you a better chance
Speaker 1: of holding up in more matchups. Yes, it worked great
Speaker 1: in certain matchups, worked really really well against Minnesota, not
Speaker 1: so much against Oklahoma City. There are some struggles there. Right.
Speaker 1: As soon as you have multiple high quality perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: that can make your guys work really hard, it gets tough.
Speaker 1: But when there's lots of ball in player movement, you
Speaker 1: get the defense in rotation more, you have more opportunities
Speaker 1: to play with an advantage than those elite perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: can be mitigated to a certain extent. And so I
Speaker 1: just thought it was a really smart, kind of like
Speaker 1: philosophical approach from Dallas this summer to try to improve
Speaker 1: the overall offensive skill of the roster. Number three I
Speaker 1: have the Milwaukee Bucks, And again this is about grading
Speaker 1: on a curve, because there's nothing overly exciting here. The
Speaker 1: Bucks additorium prints, Gary Trent, junior Delon Wright, and they
Speaker 1: lost Maleague Beasley. Nothing like super exciting to talk about there.
Speaker 1: But this was a team that was in a tough spot.
Speaker 1: They kind of needed to run it back, but they
Speaker 1: needed to make some slight tweaks to the roster, particularly
Speaker 1: in guys that can play both ends of the floor. Right,
Speaker 1: And here's the deal. You're in that situation basically handcuffed
Speaker 1: to the mid level exception and veteran minimum deals, so
Speaker 1: you're not in a situation where you can really go
Speaker 1: out and be overly aggressive and bring in a high
Speaker 1: quality starter. That's that's not an option for you, right,
Speaker 1: But what you did is you turn Malik Beasley into
Speaker 1: a much better version of him and Gary Trent Junior
Speaker 1: at a veteran minimum contract that is a home run
Speaker 1: ten times out of ten. Gary Trent Junior last year's
Speaker 1: shot catch and shoot jump shots just as well as
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley did, except for he's a much better ball
Speaker 1: handler and he's more active with his hands at the
Speaker 1: point of attack, even though he leaves a lot to
Speaker 1: be desired on that end. Gary Trent Junior is capable
Speaker 1: of being a better perimeter defender than Malik Beasley and
Speaker 1: is at least going to be more disruptive. If Gary
Speaker 1: Trann Junior is a guy that gets a lot of deflections,
Speaker 1: a lot of strips at the point of attack, and
Speaker 1: so I just think that's an upgrade. Is Gary Trn
Speaker 1: Junior a perfect player? No. If he was, he'd be
Speaker 1: making a lot more than the three million a year
Speaker 1: or whatever he's gonna make next year. But at that number,
Speaker 1: you cannot do better. Than that substantial of an upgrade
Speaker 1: going from a league Beasley to Gary Tran junior Delon Wright,
Speaker 1: a professional point of attack defender. That's why he's in
Speaker 1: the league. A little older now, but that comes with
Speaker 1: better shooting as well. He shot the ball really well
Speaker 1: last year. If his body can hold up and if
Speaker 1: he can defend like he's capable of when he was younger,
Speaker 1: that's a really nice pickup. And then Torrian Prince, again
Speaker 1: I've said two Bucks fans, you don't want him starting
Speaker 1: in the moments when Chris Middleton is out of the
Speaker 1: lineup with an injury and Toring Prince has to start.
Speaker 1: He will leave some to be desired in the sense
Speaker 1: that like he struggles to hang athletically with starting forwards.
Speaker 1: But he's a good catch and shoot guy, a good
Speaker 1: closeout attacker, a good NBA player, And if he's in
Speaker 1: your rotation, as in a bench player who starts when
Speaker 1: he has to, you're good. If he use them the
Speaker 1: way the Lakers did is a full time starter, that's
Speaker 1: where it can get disappointing. And so as long as
Speaker 1: they use Tori imprints the way that I hope they
Speaker 1: will as a bench forward, which mainly is going to
Speaker 1: rely on Chris Middleton's health. That's three substantial rotation spot
Speaker 1: upgrades executed within the confines of a really tough situation
Speaker 1: with their cap. So I just got to say that's
Speaker 1: a damn good offseason. I have the Bucks at number three,
Speaker 1: number two, the New York Knicks, you had Michale Bridges.
Speaker 1: You lose Isaiah Hartenstein, a couple of bench guys, namely
Speaker 1: Alec Burkson, boy and mcdonovich. So here's the thing. The
Speaker 1: Hartenstein piece sucks. But a lot of this just has
Speaker 1: to do and we're going to talk about this when
Speaker 1: we get into the mailbag. A lot of this just
Speaker 1: has to do with the reality of the center market.
Speaker 1: Nick Claxton got twenty five million a year. Isaiah Hardenstein
Speaker 1: gets twenty seven million a year. Jared Allen, who's a
Speaker 1: what somewhere around the eighth to twelfth best starting center
Speaker 1: in the NBA, just got thirty one million a year
Speaker 1: in an extension. And so the market on centers is,
Speaker 1: if you're a starting center that is one of the
Speaker 1: top fifteen to twenty starting centers in the league, you're
Speaker 1: getting twenty five million. And so unfortunately the Knicks were
Speaker 1: kind of in a predicament where it was gonna be
Speaker 1: really difficult for them to retain Hertenstein under any circumstances.
Speaker 1: So that's not something I'm going to necessarily hold them
Speaker 1: accountable to. They got Michale Bridges. Did they give up
Speaker 1: a lot? Yes, But this is not going after Paul George.
Speaker 1: You're going after and in his prime, incredibly durable two
Speaker 1: way wing. So like anytime you're doing something like that,
Speaker 1: a guy who's in his late twenties notoriously available to play,
Speaker 1: and a guy that plays both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna overpay, you're gonna overpay for a guy
Speaker 1: like that. Mainly, we can see now that the Knicks
Speaker 1: are stocking up on guys that can play both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. Right, Dante DiVincenzo can play both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. Kale Bridges can play both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. O Jananobi can play both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: Deuce McBride can play both ends of the floor. That
Speaker 1: that is a really solid foundation when you need to
Speaker 1: get out of the Eastern Conference against the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: team that specifically targets weak points for you on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. We saw it with Dallas.
Speaker 1: It's like they got Derek Lively out there, he's sliding
Speaker 1: his feet. They got Derek Jones out there, he sliding
Speaker 1: his feet. They got PJ. Washington out there, he's sliding
Speaker 1: his feet. They got you know, Kyrie Irving out there,
Speaker 1: he's sliding his feet. But they just went after Luca, right,
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. Like Jalen Brunson is a guy
Speaker 1: that at least competes and does his job and he throws.
Speaker 1: He'll throw a hedge and recover if he needs to.
Speaker 1: Surrounding him with a bunch of guys that can play
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor gives you a solid chance
Speaker 1: to contain that Boston dribble penetration, keep your defense out
Speaker 1: of rotation, and have a better chance of holding up.
Speaker 1: I like the move, and again like the you're setup
Speaker 1: specifically for a bunch of different looks. You've got a
Speaker 1: Julius Randall at center. Look where you can go small
Speaker 1: and just play literally five good two way players. You've
Speaker 1: got a bench or a big group where you've got
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinson at the five. You held down a precious
Speaker 1: to Chua as an An additional kind of like kind
Speaker 1: of hybrid look where Precious can switch onto some guards.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of different looks they can go to.
Speaker 1: They've got a trade to make still because they've got
Speaker 1: Julius Randall. If he's an awkward fit. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: someone out there that will take advantage of what Julius
Speaker 1: Randall brings to the table, especially teams that are looking
Speaker 1: for size in the front court. So like they're in
Speaker 1: a really good spot, they're gonna be immediately good and
Speaker 1: they've got moves to make, like where the Knicks are at.
Speaker 2: Preparing for your upcoming fantasy football draft, do you wish
Speaker 2: that you could wave a magic wand and somehow know
Speaker 2: who exactly your league mates are going to take.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: With Draft Intel from Fantasy Pros, you'll know exactly how
Speaker 2: your league mats draft better than they do. Draft Intel
Speaker 2: will automatically analyze your league's history to see who rushes
Speaker 2: to the draft board first to take a quarterback, who
Speaker 2: takes too many rookies, and who is going to reach
Speaker 2: for their favorite teams players over and over again. Everybody
Speaker 2: hates a homer and every league has one of them.
Speaker 2: But right now you can put all that intel to
Speaker 2: the test by bringing those patterns directly into a mock
Speaker 2: draft and make your mock draft feel like the real thing.
Speaker 2: Check out fantasypros dot com slash volume today to get
Speaker 2: an edge over your league mates right now and forever.
Speaker 1: Number one though the Oklahoma City Thunder, they added Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe and Isaiah Hartenstein and lost Josh Giddy put it simply,
Speaker 1: you took the one guy in your rotation that didn't
Speaker 1: make sense last year. You turned him into a guy
Speaker 1: that can step in and immediately contribute on both ends
Speaker 1: with four and Alex Crusoe, and you addressed your biggest
Speaker 1: individual weakness as a team last year, which was your
Speaker 1: ability to hold up under physicality in the front court,
Speaker 1: including dealing with bigger bodied players and most importantly, defensive rebounding,
Speaker 1: as the Thunder one of the worst defensive rebounding teams
Speaker 1: in the league last year. Isaiah Hartenstein is a human
Speaker 1: wrecking ball and he's going to help so much in
Speaker 1: those areas. But most importantly, Isaiah Hartenstein is a player
Speaker 1: that is a wheel greaser so to speak, in five
Speaker 1: out offense. I talked about this a lot with Team
Speaker 1: USA as it pertains to Joel Embiid, But the five
Speaker 1: spot is the most important spot to have a guy
Speaker 1: who can make quick decisions and get the ball from
Speaker 1: side to side in five out. If you have a
Speaker 1: guy that struggles with that specifically, it comes things up
Speaker 1: for everybody because the center is the bridge to both
Speaker 1: sides of the floor in five out offense. He's the
Speaker 1: guy that, like when you run action on the right
Speaker 1: side and you throw the dribble handoff and then you
Speaker 1: short roll and you catch and nothing's open. He's the
Speaker 1: guy that's got to turn and go to a dribble
Speaker 1: handoff on the other side of the floor. He's the
Speaker 1: guy that's got to get up and down the floor
Speaker 1: and transition. He's the guy that's got to set those
Speaker 1: screens and the dribble handoffs, roll hard, but then also
Speaker 1: get back out for the next sequence. It is a
Speaker 1: motor position. It is a decision making position. It is
Speaker 1: a position where you can't have hesitation. You've got to
Speaker 1: be quick, and Isaiah Hartenstein is really really good at that.
Speaker 1: He can make all the back door passes, he can
Speaker 1: set good screens, he can make those floaters. Love the
Speaker 1: fit there. I think the thunder immediately addressed a couple
Speaker 1: of their biggest weaknesses. And they were already the one
Speaker 1: seed that already had an impressive second round showing that
Speaker 1: came this close to making it to the Western Conference finals,
Speaker 1: and they made themselves substantially better. And that didn't even
Speaker 1: count for the fact that all of their young stars
Speaker 1: have a lot more experience now after having two rounds
Speaker 1: of playoff basketball underneath their belt. Really really excited about
Speaker 1: the Thunder next season. I thought they had the best offseason. Small, simple,
Speaker 1: to the point, and addressed their needs. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the mailbag. Why is Jason Tatum not considered
Speaker 1: a top five player despite being selected First Team All
Speaker 1: NBA three years in a row. Had a bunch of
Speaker 1: Celtics fans bring this up to me. First of all,
Speaker 1: First Team All NBA is an award. It's something that
Speaker 1: is voted on and it typically has a lot more
Speaker 1: to do with team success than anything else. And so,
Speaker 1: as a result, like we commonly will see situations where
Speaker 1: First Team All NBA does not represent the top five
Speaker 1: players in the NBA. Like just a couple quick examples.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two, Devin Booker made First Team All NBA.
Speaker 1: I didn't think he was the top five player in
Speaker 1: the league. Last year, Nikola Jokic didn't make First Team
Speaker 1: All NBA. He was very clearly the first team in
Speaker 1: the best player in the NBA. That was back in
Speaker 1: That was twenty twenty three, not twenty twenty four. So
Speaker 1: like the first Team All NBA is not just a
Speaker 1: clear ranking of the top five players in the league. Secondly,
Speaker 1: anybody who followed me on the show knows I've been
Speaker 1: consistent ever since twenty twenty two, literally before the finals
Speaker 1: even started with Golden State, when I picked the Warriors
Speaker 1: to win that series, I still said I think Boston
Speaker 1: has the most talented roster in the league, that they
Speaker 1: had the most talented roster in the league in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, and then I thought they had by far
Speaker 1: the most talented roster in the league in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Boston has the most talent. They just do. They've had
Speaker 1: the most talent three years in a row now. And
Speaker 1: what ends up happening is when you have a lot
Speaker 1: of talent, you win a lot of games. When you
Speaker 1: win a lot of games, especially in a weak Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a lot of really favorable metrics, right,
Speaker 1: because those metrics are fed by the results that are
Speaker 1: taking place on the floor and a good percentage of
Speaker 1: the NBA voting pool, they legitimately make decisions based on
Speaker 1: numerical evidence over what they're seeing on their TV screens,
Speaker 1: which is something I personally disagree with. But I literally
Speaker 1: had voters tell me that. I've had voters tell me
Speaker 1: that they believe that numbers are less fallible. And I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about like count raw counting stats. I have
Speaker 1: talked to voters who believe that catch all metrics are
Speaker 1: more reliable than what we see on our TV screens,
Speaker 1: which is something I personally very much disagree with. I
Speaker 1: think catch all metrics are incredibly flawed. And so the
Speaker 1: point is Jason Tatum, while I do believe he's a
Speaker 1: top ten player, has benefited from being on the most
Speaker 1: talented rosters in the league, which has led to incredible
Speaker 1: team results, which has led to incredible individual metrics, which
Speaker 1: has led to him getting a lot of voting support
Speaker 1: in the all NBA voting. In my opinion, he is
Speaker 1: not one of the top five players in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He's not a good enough offensive engine in the half
Speaker 1: court to be that. I do think Tatum is underrated
Speaker 1: by a lot of his haters. And by the way,
Speaker 1: this is something that I understand where Celtics fans are
Speaker 1: coming from. I am one of those guys that, like
Speaker 1: I personally, very much value the offensive engine archetype. I
Speaker 1: think it's the most valuable skill a player can bring
Speaker 1: to the team. That's why a guy like Shay Gilders Alexander,
Speaker 1: for example, is better in my opinion, than adjacent Tatum.
Speaker 1: If I need a guy to lead my team for
Speaker 1: four playoff rounds while surrounded with a bunch of talent
Speaker 1: to just generate quality shots, give me Shay over Tatum
Speaker 1: every single time. Right. That's just my personal view of
Speaker 1: the game. Too often, and I know this is especially
Speaker 1: from Laker fans, and God knows that we've got a
Speaker 1: lot of Laker fans that we deal with on the show,
Speaker 1: because I am a Laker fan myself when we cover
Speaker 1: the Lakers very closely, and we got a lot of
Speaker 1: Lakers fans that follow me on Twitter and a lot
Speaker 1: of Lakers fans that are in the comments, and so
Speaker 1: I understand that there can be a lot of Tatum negativity,
Speaker 1: But like I just want to have an honest conversation
Speaker 1: about it. I think he's an underrated defensive player. I
Speaker 1: think his size and strength, even though it's led to
Speaker 1: some drawbacks, but his jump shot has allowed him to
Speaker 1: become one of the most versatile front court defenders in
Speaker 1: the league. His ability to guard a post centers was
Speaker 1: a huge part of what made Boston's defensive schemes work
Speaker 1: during their two month playoff run. I'm a huge believer
Speaker 1: in Jason Tatum. I think his offensive kind of like
Speaker 1: approach worked really well with this Celtics group that had
Speaker 1: so much talent. Big Jason Tatum fan, but he is
Speaker 1: just not the He is not the offensive force that
Speaker 1: the top players in the league are. That to me
Speaker 1: puts him below that top tier of superstars. And I
Speaker 1: do not think he's a top five player. That said,
Speaker 1: he's going to continue to make first team All NBA
Speaker 1: because he's on the most talented roster in the league.
Speaker 1: He'll make first team All NBA again next year, and
Speaker 1: I'm probably not going to think he's a top five player.
Speaker 1: And so again that's just my take. I know you
Speaker 1: Celtics fans disagree, doesn't mean you're wrong. Doesn't mean I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: These are just our opinions. That's why we're hashing him out.
Speaker 1: This was a direct message I got from Kevin. Hey Jason,
Speaker 1: longtime fan of listener, Please more Devin Booker. Love man.
Speaker 1: He's been so good defensively considering his skill set. He
Speaker 1: has been at the top of Team USA and play
Speaker 1: minus since the beginning of Camp. I want some Jason
Speaker 1: tim flove from a man the book. So the Devin
Speaker 1: Booker thing has been really fascinating to me. I actually
Speaker 1: was talking with the Spears n Aali. They're a local
Speaker 1: radio station here in Tucson. Actually I was on the
Speaker 1: on there this morning and we were talking. They specifically
Speaker 1: asked me, like, with the play of Devin Booker and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and the play of Anthony Davis and Lebron James,
Speaker 1: should Lakers fans and Suns fans be excited? And my
Speaker 1: answer was they should be annoyed. And the reason why
Speaker 1: they should be annoyed is the reason why the Sons
Speaker 1: and Lakers struggle is because outside of their stars, they
Speaker 1: don't have starting caliber NBA players that play both ends
Speaker 1: of the flour like Austin Reeves. Is the third best Laker.
Speaker 1: He's a very good offensive player, and he tries on defense,
Speaker 1: but because of his limitations, he's an average to slight
Speaker 1: lee above average defensive player. D'Angelo Russell very good offensive player,
Speaker 1: very bad defensive player. Ruey hat Chimura very good offensive player,
Speaker 1: very bad defensive player. Jared Vanderbilt very good defensive player,
Speaker 1: very bad offensive player. Gay Vincent decent offensive player or
Speaker 1: a defense A decent defensive player, pretty bad offensive player.
Speaker 1: As you can see, they got these one way guys,
Speaker 1: and so the Lakers are full of holes and they've
Speaker 1: had a bunch of issues, which is why I've been
Speaker 1: preaching they need upgrades at the two and three now
Speaker 1: for two years. Right, look at the Suns, same sort
Speaker 1: of thing. Beyond Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal,
Speaker 1: it's a bunch of guys who play one end of
Speaker 1: the floor. Usif Nurkic is a really useful five out
Speaker 1: folkrum Becoseet's good screens, that's good, dribble handoffs, can finish
Speaker 1: under the basket, can get offensive rebounds, can occasionally knock
Speaker 1: down in three and I. While I was impressed by
Speaker 1: his effort defensively, last year, he's limited. There. You know,
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon at this phase in his career not exactly
Speaker 1: a dominant two way player, right, Josha Kogi really good
Speaker 1: defense player, limited offensively. We can go on and on,
Speaker 1: but the reality is is the Suns and the Lakers
Speaker 1: are struggling because from the front office down and for
Speaker 1: the Suns it has more to do with their constraints
Speaker 1: after making the deals that they made. For the Lakers,
Speaker 1: it has more to do with organizational incompetence. But those
Speaker 1: teams are struggling because as we saw, having the Derek Whites,
Speaker 1: having the Drew Holidays, having the Al Horfords, having the
Speaker 1: role players that play both ends of the floor is
Speaker 1: what wins you an NBA championship. You've got to have
Speaker 1: superstar talent plus two way role players. And the Lakers
Speaker 1: and Sons have the superstar talent, they don't have the
Speaker 1: two way role players. And this is taking it back
Speaker 1: to the Jason Tatum thing. This is why that kind
Speaker 1: of conversation is stupid. I think Kevin Durant, Lebron James
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis are all better than Jason Tatum right now.
Speaker 1: I think they all are, but especially with Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: in this miserable shooting slump. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because their team has these limitations. Tatum's playing alongside
Speaker 1: good two way role players. His team's winning a shit
Speaker 1: ton of games and winning the title. Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Lebron and Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, they're playing against playing
Speaker 1: alongside one way role players. Their team is really struggling.
Speaker 1: Basketball is a team sport at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: And by the way, when I say Lebron, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Katie are better than Tatum, I'm mainly talking in
Speaker 1: a playoff context. I think for eighty two games, you
Speaker 1: still take Tatum over most guys just because of his durability.
Speaker 1: Lebron turns forty next year. But the point is is like,
Speaker 1: we did get a healthy Lebron in AD last year
Speaker 1: and they still underachieved. And a lot of people are
Speaker 1: going like, well, if Lebron and AD are that good,
Speaker 1: why aren't they winning more? And it's like, because it
Speaker 1: is better to win games to have the Drus and
Speaker 1: the Derek Whites and the al Horford's than it is
Speaker 1: to have the Ruby Hatcher, Muraz the D'Angelo Russells and
Speaker 1: the Jared Vanderbilts. It just is, it just is like
Speaker 1: two way role players win titles. That is what happens.
Speaker 1: And so I hope that we can kind of like
Speaker 1: see pass that as far as the Devin Booker part goes,
Speaker 1: and I want to take it back to the mailbag
Speaker 1: for a second. The fascinating thing to me is that
Speaker 1: those four guys have played well. If you were to
Speaker 1: rank the top five players with Team USA so far,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Lebron and Ad Booker and KD and
Speaker 1: it's probably Bam as the fifth guy. And I think
Speaker 1: that's really fascinating. Ad and Bam. Why have they succeeded?
Speaker 1: They are two traditional five out bigs, really good at
Speaker 1: flowing from side to side, multiple dribble handoffs in the
Speaker 1: same possession, the ability to be a scoring threat on
Speaker 1: the role while also being able to get up and
Speaker 1: down the floor and transition and defend in multiple ways.
Speaker 1: That's obviously why they've worked. Why has Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker worked so well. Kevin Durant Devin Booker have
Speaker 1: worked so well because they are the quintessential plug in
Speaker 1: play guys. Devin Booker has been asked to be Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson on this team, to guard on the perimeter, to
Speaker 1: chase over the top of screens, and to operate with
Speaker 1: an advantage created by others. He's done a masterful job
Speaker 1: of that, and then Kevin Durant the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: Obviously from the forward position he's benefiting from the attention
Speaker 1: of other guys are getting knocking down a ton of
Speaker 1: these perimeter jump shots, which are so valuable in FOBA
Speaker 1: with the defensive three second rule. And just one of
Speaker 1: the big reasons why book and Kdie in particular I
Speaker 1: have played so well is quick decision making. They are
Speaker 1: just guys that catch and quickly read the floor, make
Speaker 1: a read, keep it moving. That is really easy to
Speaker 1: play alongside. When you go play pick up and you're
Speaker 1: playing with a guy that you know what he's gonna do,
Speaker 1: it's easy because when you throw him that pass, if
Speaker 1: you know he's gonna shoot when he's open, or he's
Speaker 1: gonna drive when he's guarded, and he's gonna always make
Speaker 1: the right play out of it, it's easy to play
Speaker 1: when you throw it to the guy who catches and
Speaker 1: holds and jab steps and you don't know if he's
Speaker 1: gonna shoot, or if he's gonna randomly decide to io,
Speaker 1: or if he's gonna randomly decide to do something else.
Speaker 1: It's frustrating and difficult to play with the flip side
Speaker 1: of that coin. Why has a guy like Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: really struggled in the setting? He's a struggle. He's going
Speaker 1: to struggle to play five out basketball, flowing from side
Speaker 1: to side, getting up and down the floor, playing alongside
Speaker 1: other stars, quick decision making. I find that fascinating. And
Speaker 1: what Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are telling you is
Speaker 1: they are professional basketball players, meaning they can play many
Speaker 1: different styles of basketball. It's like a session guitarist who
Speaker 1: like plays blues for one guy, a little bit of
Speaker 1: classic rock for another guy, country lines for another guy.
Speaker 1: He's a professional. His job is what does the band need.
Speaker 1: The band needs me to do this, I'll do that right.
Speaker 1: That's what KD and Devin Booker are doing. They are
Speaker 1: slotting in two roles on this team because they are
Speaker 1: professional basketball players. Whereas a guy like Joel Embiid force
Speaker 1: of nature and by a literal definition of professional basketball player,
Speaker 1: but he needs to play a certain style and if
Speaker 1: I ask Himbiid to do something that's a little out
Speaker 1: of his comfort zone, he's going to struggle. And I
Speaker 1: find that to be fascinating. And again, and I said
Speaker 1: this on the radio this morning, like that, to me
Speaker 1: is what's so fascinating about basketball. It's more art than science.
Speaker 1: You don't just add talent and get talent benefit. You
Speaker 1: add talent and you get what's complimentary out of it.
Speaker 1: And Devin Booker and Kevin Durant have incredibly complimentary play
Speaker 1: styles that can fit alongside other good basketball players. For
Speaker 1: the mailbag, why does the media hate Bam? I don't
Speaker 1: think the media hate hates Bam. I think there's a
Speaker 1: certain limitation there offensively that has been baked in for
Speaker 1: a long time. And the three point shooting is exciting, right,
Speaker 1: and that is something that kind of changes the equation
Speaker 1: with Bam. Right, everyone's always been a huge fan of
Speaker 1: Bam on the defensive end of the forourd obviously everything
Speaker 1: he's capable of there, one of the probably the best
Speaker 1: switching big in the league, if not one of the
Speaker 1: best switching bigs in the league. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: is a really good passer on the short roll, a
Speaker 1: guy who's been a really good dribble handoff guy in
Speaker 1: five out offense. But there have been some limitations for
Speaker 1: him offensively in his career, namely last year guys for Miami.
Speaker 1: Last season, Bam shot below fifty percent on layups. That
Speaker 1: was a huge issue in the finals two years ago
Speaker 1: against Denver, his ability to make those short shots right
Speaker 1: by the basket. And so the reality is, is Bam
Speaker 1: as good as he is, there's still just a little
Speaker 1: bit of like an offensive limitation there that prevents him
Speaker 1: from getting to the next level. Right, But I still
Speaker 1: think Bam is incredibly valuable. I think he's underrated. I
Speaker 1: think he's showing what he can do at this level.
Speaker 1: I think, and here's the thing, if he's going to
Speaker 1: struggle to make layups, his ability to knock down three
Speaker 1: point shots would be an excellent counter to that. But,
Speaker 1: like I mean, I don't think I think hate is
Speaker 1: the wrong word. Bam flies under the radar because he
Speaker 1: has offensive limitations. That's really all it is. But like
Speaker 1: anybody who watches Bam and understands the game knows that
Speaker 1: he brings so much good to the table. And if
Speaker 1: he can mitigate some of his issues around the basket
Speaker 1: by knocking down three point shots. That goes a long
Speaker 1: way to incre raising his value. And he shot the
Speaker 1: ball really damn well in these FEBA games. And like
Speaker 1: one of the specific things that I've also liked, I'm
Speaker 1: pulling up BAM's jump shot numbers so i can show
Speaker 1: you guys real quick. But one of the other things
Speaker 1: that I've appreciated with Bam too is you're getting a
Speaker 1: good look at what it's like when he plays alongside
Speaker 1: another big, when he's been with Anthony Davis, And that's
Speaker 1: fascinating because one of the things we talk about is
Speaker 1: when you have to use your big to defend ball screens,
Speaker 1: it gets a little bit tougher for your smaller players
Speaker 1: on the back line to make the lowman rotations. Right,
Speaker 1: So that's the guy that has to step over on
Speaker 1: the ball screen to deflect lobs when Bam is up
Speaker 1: at the level, and then the guy gets back to
Speaker 1: the shooter when the ball gets worked to the opposite side. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: if you have another big in the equation, there's more
Speaker 1: opportunities for Bam to actually be in that situation. And
Speaker 1: we've seen more of that with Anthony Davis and so
Speaker 1: I think it'd be really cool just to get more
Speaker 1: opportunity to see Bam in that type of role. Bam
Speaker 1: has taken twelve catch and shoot jump shots so far
Speaker 1: with Team USA, and it's got fifteen points out of them.
Speaker 1: That's one point twenty five points per shot. That's really
Speaker 1: really quality shooting from Bam Adebayo.
Speaker 3: The NFL seasons right around the corner, we'll be breaking
Speaker 3: down all the off season storylines on the Colin Cowherd
Speaker 3: podcast My Best Takes. Guests like my buddy Nick Wright.
Speaker 3: Check out the Colin Coward podcast, part of the Volume Network,
Speaker 3: available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: All right, we have five more questions. The Warriors acquired
Speaker 1: Melton and Anderson both were on the Grizzlies in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. The Warriors won a shit, but had the
Speaker 1: toughest and most intense series against Memphis. Memphis challenged because
Speaker 1: they new Warrior basketball, hence the signings Clever move. I
Speaker 1: like them because they fit kind of traditional Golden State
Speaker 1: Warrior rolesd Anthony Melton is, in my opinion, like a
Speaker 1: poor man's version of KCP but he's a better ball
Speaker 1: handler than KCPKCP is more of a movement shooter type
Speaker 1: of archetype. Melton's got a little bit more off the
Speaker 1: dribble bounce like pop to be able to make plays
Speaker 1: on his own on the bounce. Kyle Anderson fits the
Speaker 1: other half of that Golden State Warriors mold. The Golden
Speaker 1: State five out mold typically kind of feeds around two
Speaker 1: folkrums and then three decision makers. Right, So, whether that's
Speaker 1: Draymond and Andrew Boget back in the day, or Draymond
Speaker 1: and Looney a couple of years ago, or if it's
Speaker 1: Draymon and Kaminga now, they have these two guys that
Speaker 1: function primarily as the guys that are set throwing the
Speaker 1: dribble handoffs while the other three guys are running action
Speaker 1: around them. And so you need three guys that can
Speaker 1: run action, that can all dribble and pass and make
Speaker 1: quick decisions, and then you need the guys that can
Speaker 1: set those screens into space flow into the next driple handoff,
Speaker 1: all that classic stuff for the Warrior offense. Kyle Anderson
Speaker 1: to me, fits wonderfully into one of those folkrum spots.
Speaker 1: He's a guy who's really good at operating with an
Speaker 1: advantage on the catch in that short area where he
Speaker 1: can make those little floaters and stuff like ten feet
Speaker 1: from the rim, he can make passes out of there,
Speaker 1: set good screens while also being a very very good
Speaker 1: defensive player on the other end of the flour And
Speaker 1: then d Anthony Meltin because of his ability to put
Speaker 1: the ball in the four, gives you another guy who
Speaker 1: can run action while also defending on the other end
Speaker 1: of the four. You added two two way guys that
Speaker 1: pretty seamlessly fit into the Golden State Warrior offense. I
Speaker 1: thought they were really nice additions. Can you briefly discuss
Speaker 1: how elite Derek White is at basketball? Where does he
Speaker 1: rank in the NBA on the impact value scale? So
Speaker 1: I don't have any real like impact lists for Derek White,
Speaker 1: but I do want to talk about his impact for
Speaker 1: a minute, because I talked a lot about Derek White
Speaker 1: when I went on with Ethan Strauss about we could
Speaker 1: go and we were discussing just kind of like what
Speaker 1: makes a winning basketball player, and we were discussing some
Speaker 1: tam Usa stuff, and one of the things that I
Speaker 1: found find really fascinating about Derek White, because Derek White
Speaker 1: made another game saving play the other day, and he's
Speaker 1: made plenty of him in his life right. He famously
Speaker 1: last year in Eastern Conference Finals gave the Celtics a
Speaker 1: chance to win in Game seven by stealing Game six
Speaker 1: in Miami with the offensive rebound put back right and
Speaker 1: against South Sudan, not in the Olympics, but in the exhibition.
Speaker 1: On the final possession, there's a play where Carlic Jones
Speaker 1: is working against Drew Holliday makes a really nice right
Speaker 1: to left move and kind of like ditches Drew and
Speaker 1: goes into a floater. Anthony Davis has no choice but
Speaker 1: to abandon his man and step up and try to
Speaker 1: block it, which forces Karlake to shoot a really high
Speaker 1: floater which goes way over the backside of the room
Speaker 1: and Anthony Edwards does not peel off of his man
Speaker 1: in back box. Anthony Davis's man out, Anthony Edwards makes
Speaker 1: a mistake. It's become something that could be an issue.
Speaker 1: When Yan Gabriel goes up, gets two hands on the
Speaker 1: basketball and is right there to tip dunk it in,
Speaker 1: Derek White comes flying in from out of the play,
Speaker 1: barely gets a piece of it and causes one Yan
Speaker 1: Gabriel to throw it into the front of the rim
Speaker 1: and Tmusa wins. And it's an example of what makes
Speaker 1: Derek White such an elite role player. The motor never stops.
Speaker 1: And I was talking about this with Ethan because the
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards Corolary on that same possession as he as
Speaker 1: he doesn't make that extra play. Is stars are always
Speaker 1: in the energy conservation business. They're trying to make sure
Speaker 1: they got the legs they need to make plays down
Speaker 1: the line. Role Players are always in the energy expending business.
Speaker 1: They know that their role is to constantly point and
Speaker 1: shoot their effort in all of these areas, knowing there's
Speaker 1: another guy that can step in and do their job
Speaker 1: when they're tired, and vice versa. And their job is
Speaker 1: to never leave any of that meat on the bone.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes Derek White the quintessential role player.
Speaker 1: He's got the tools, he's athletic, he's got long arms.
Speaker 1: He's a useful offensive player, very quick, accurate three point shot, release,
Speaker 1: makes quick reads, can play driving kick, can offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: But he's also but most importantly, he directs his six
Speaker 1: to six long armed frame into just constant effort and
Speaker 1: energy on the details, active as a rebounder, one of
Speaker 1: the best shot blocking guards in the league, a guy
Speaker 1: that fights over the top of screens consistently. That is
Speaker 1: what makes a good role player. It's having athletic gifts,
Speaker 1: but also being relentless in your attention to detail, in
Speaker 1: your effort and energy on every single possession, which is
Speaker 1: something that you can't expect out of stars, and that's
Speaker 1: what makes a really good role player. All Right, three more, Hi,
Speaker 1: Jason Bigfan. I really enjoy listening to you talk about
Speaker 1: the game. The situation with Jason Tatum's jump shot got
Speaker 1: me thinking, how do players get into these slumps where
Speaker 1: the mechanics are all out of whack. I imagine these
Speaker 1: guys are shooting hundreds of shots today, it's surprising that
Speaker 1: they all of a sudden lose rhythm in mechanics. So
Speaker 1: usually when you go work on your shot, you're you
Speaker 1: are working on some sort of mechanic thing. Right, A
Speaker 1: huge one for me is footwork. I rep footwork every
Speaker 1: single day because that's the part of my shot that
Speaker 1: I choose to focus on. But even with my release,
Speaker 1: like I have a specific thing that happens to me
Speaker 1: every once in a while where like every once in
Speaker 1: a while, my hand will drift a little bit in
Speaker 1: front of my face instead of getting my elbow tuck.
Speaker 1: It's just something that happens when I play for months
Speaker 1: and months, like there'll be a stretch where just my
Speaker 1: form gets a little out of whack and I gotta
Speaker 1: take time to go into the gym and like make
Speaker 1: sure I'm getting that elbow tuck so that I'm getting
Speaker 1: a good straight release every single time, right, Like everybody
Speaker 1: works on those those little details. I've listened to Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving talk about how he tweaks it, goes into the
Speaker 1: gym and works on his form. Steph Curry shoots form shooting,
Speaker 1: does form shooting for several minutes before he even gets
Speaker 1: into his shooting drill. So he I'll just shoot little
Speaker 1: five foot jumper until his form feels right. Like when
Speaker 1: you go work on your shot, you work on your form.
Speaker 1: And I think in a lot of cases, when you
Speaker 1: enter into a bad slump, it can cause you to
Speaker 1: over tinker with it. And it's very clear that because
Speaker 1: here's the thing. When you like just take that example
Speaker 1: I talked about with getting your elbow underneath so like,
Speaker 1: if you're like really hyper focused on getting that elbow in,
Speaker 1: you might start to exaggerate it and like add a
Speaker 1: little hitch into your shot. And you never want to
Speaker 1: do that because you want to have good energy transfer,
Speaker 1: You want to have good flow from the bottom of
Speaker 1: your shot to the top of your shot. And so,
Speaker 1: in all likelihood, my guess is that Jason just wasn't
Speaker 1: shooting well and it started to get to him mentally
Speaker 1: a little bit, and so he started to tinker with it.
Speaker 1: And now he's over tinkering with it, and now he's
Speaker 1: got some issues, is what happened. Anthony Davis, Like his
Speaker 1: release on his jump shot is way slower now than
Speaker 1: it was in the bubble, But he's probably tinkering with
Speaker 1: it a lot more because he just hasn't shot well
Speaker 1: in a long time. And so Tatum just needs to
Speaker 1: get out of this Olympic setting and he needs to
Speaker 1: get in the gym all day summer and polish that
Speaker 1: shit up and make sure it's ready for training camp.
Speaker 1: Two more Jason. If the Lakers got Jeremy Grant in
Speaker 1: a trade and couldn't get an athletic guard at the two,
Speaker 1: who would be the fifth starter? At the two for you,
Speaker 1: Max Christy, since you said for Max to start, you
Speaker 1: need an awesome wing at the three, or Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: to increase the length and size of the team, which
Speaker 1: would most likely most likely be a switching group. I
Speaker 1: think that we are going to see Max Christy do
Speaker 1: some starting this year, especially if they end up trading d'
Speaker 1: angelo Russell. The thing with Max Christy that makes it
Speaker 1: really hard for me is I just haven't seen him
Speaker 1: play a substantial NBA role for a large sample size.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff I'm really excited about. He's
Speaker 1: a very good athlete. I was actually watching some random
Speaker 1: footage of the Laker Warrior game earlier this year, is
Speaker 1: the one that went to double overtime and Lebron had
Speaker 1: like thirty six twenty and twelve. It was like one
Speaker 1: of his crazy games this season, and he hit all
Speaker 1: those pull up jump shots in overtime to win the game.
Speaker 1: But in that game, there was a play where like
Speaker 1: Max Christie said a quick pick on Lebron and then
Speaker 1: slipped into open space and Lebron like hit him with
Speaker 1: a perfect bounce pass and Max like caught in traffic
Speaker 1: and like elevated off to two feet and dunked on
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, and I was like, man Like, Max has
Speaker 1: like such great natural athletic gifts, excellent frame, excellent foot speed,
Speaker 1: competes at the point of attack, navigates screens well, active
Speaker 1: with his hands, absorbs contact, he's put on muscle, shoots
Speaker 1: the ball really well. My main concern with him is
Speaker 1: driving and kicking, Like how good is he at just
Speaker 1: like making decisions when he has to put the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor. But again, like I just got to
Speaker 1: see it, and I need to see a lot of it.
Speaker 1: And I hope that he gets a substantial role all
Speaker 1: season so that we just get a lot of time
Speaker 1: to see what Max Christy has. But bottom line, NBA
Speaker 1: history tells us young players struggle to contribute in the
Speaker 1: later rounds of the playoffs. And so if you're counting
Speaker 1: on Max to be your starting too, I think you'd
Speaker 1: have to be really good at the other four spots.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot. It's a lot to ask with
Speaker 1: where the Lakers are at at this point, and so
Speaker 1: we'll see, Like even Jeremy Grant like that. I like
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant. The thing that I like about Jeremy Grant
Speaker 1: is just the athletic waves. Jeremy is big and freaky athletic,
Speaker 1: and if you put him next to Lebron and Ad
Speaker 1: that's just a lot of a lot of size and athleticism.
Speaker 1: But Jeremy hasn't defended super well since he left left Denver.
Speaker 1: He's notoriously a guy that cares more about just making
Speaker 1: his money and playing chill basketball somewhere than playing a
Speaker 1: hard job for a winning team. That was kind of
Speaker 1: the story on him when he went to Detroit. And
Speaker 1: so like, I don't I don't know that we're gonna
Speaker 1: I don't know what Jeremy Grant we get. Like if
Speaker 1: we get the Jeremy Grant from the bubble who was
Speaker 1: really competing and guarding the other team's best player like that,
Speaker 1: that that's interesting to me. But I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: if that's what that's what we get if that deal
Speaker 1: ends up getting done. And obviously there's no guarantee that
Speaker 1: deal ends up getting done, and so we'll see. Like
Speaker 1: the Lakers are in a tough spot. I mean, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. There's been a lot of talk about gave Vincent,
Speaker 1: Max Christie and Jared Vanderbilt just kind of being the
Speaker 1: defense and athleticism that joins the team, by Max actually
Speaker 1: getting playing time without Darvin Hamm in the picture, and
Speaker 1: by Jared Vanderbilt and gave Vincent being healthy. I'm okay
Speaker 1: with the approach that you wait till the deadline at
Speaker 1: this point, because you already missed out on de Jontay Murray,
Speaker 1: and it looks like you weren't getting to de Jontay
Speaker 1: Murray unless you included Austin Reeves, which is a difficult
Speaker 1: decision to make. Right outside of that, I haven't seen
Speaker 1: like Donovan Mitchell was not a realistic target, So there's
Speaker 1: not really a great option out there right now. And
Speaker 1: so while I would like them to upgrade the role
Speaker 1: player spots, I'm okay with you at least taking it
Speaker 1: into camp and seeing what Max can do, seeing what
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt looks like from a health standpoint, seeing how
Speaker 1: Vincent looks. But come hell or high water, if it
Speaker 1: doesn't look right, you got to make a move at
Speaker 1: some point, because Lebron and eight are two good and
Speaker 1: you owe these guys a legitimate final chance, and I
Speaker 1: think you owe them the use of those two first
Speaker 1: round draft picks. To try to make that happen all right.
Speaker 1: Last one, Hi, Jason, I'm curious to hear your thoughts
Speaker 1: on the future of centers in relation to the new
Speaker 1: CBA and cap management. Obviously, the tier one guys Jokic,
Speaker 1: mbtn AD deserve the max and I'd assume if you
Speaker 1: didn't have one of those three guys, you'd want a
Speaker 1: basic rim protector or runner like a Lively, Jalen, Durant, etc.
Speaker 1: Or a genuine Stretch five if you were lucky like
Speaker 1: Matt Miles Turner or Christops porzingis The issue arises if
Speaker 1: you're someone like Sabonis or Bam, who are clearly more
Speaker 1: skilled than average centers, but aren't close to the Tier
Speaker 1: one guys, and when they are on max steals, both
Speaker 1: the ceiling for Miami and Sacramento are limited. If you
Speaker 1: were a GM looking for a center, would you just
Speaker 1: want them to simply rebound, slash, protect the rim, slash
Speaker 1: catch lobs or try to find the next Tier one center.
Speaker 1: Having that genuine Tier one center gives you a true
Speaker 1: advantage come playoff time, but the numbers suggest that this
Speaker 1: is way harder to find compared to a Tier one
Speaker 1: winger guard thanks as always for your content. Looking forward
Speaker 1: to disagreeing with your player rankings. So this got really
Speaker 1: fast for me after the Jared Allen deal because if
Speaker 1: you look at it, Jared Allen is probably a slightly
Speaker 1: above average starting center in the NBA, and he got
Speaker 1: over thirty million a year on his extension. Isaiah Hartenstein
Speaker 1: is an average starting center in this league twenty seven
Speaker 1: million a year. Nick Klaxton average starting center in this
Speaker 1: league twenty five million a year. And that's not even
Speaker 1: close to the top tier guys that you mentioned where
Speaker 1: you're getting into Jokic, embiid, Anthony Davis, bam Adebayo, you
Speaker 1: know you mentioned Sabonis, Like, there's so many of these
Speaker 1: guys too, Like what about Zubach, what about Cheded Holmgren, Like,
Speaker 1: like we can go on and on. There are so
Speaker 1: many of these like quality centers, and if the running
Speaker 1: rate on them is twenty five million a year at
Speaker 1: a minimum, a couple of things are interesting there. First
Speaker 1: of all, it's fascinating that it's fascinating that the league
Speaker 1: is telling us that that center position is so damn
Speaker 1: valuable now, which is telling you with the problem that Jokic,
Speaker 1: n Embid and Anthony Davis and all these guys present.
Speaker 1: You gotta have interior size. The second thing that's fascinating
Speaker 1: about it is, Okay, what do you do if you're
Speaker 1: a GM then And this is where I look at, like,
Speaker 1: who is it that Jalen Smith went to? Let me
Speaker 1: check real quick, but Jalen Smith, I saw, I went
Speaker 1: for like nine million a year? That bulls who went
Speaker 1: to the bulls? So like, that's where it gets difficult,
Speaker 1: Like would you be better off paying nine million a
Speaker 1: year for a guy like a Jalen Smith or you're
Speaker 1: thirty million a year or twenty seven million a year
Speaker 1: for a guy like Isaiah Hartenstein. And those are tough
Speaker 1: decisions to make. And that's where it comes down to
Speaker 1: what the rest of your roster looks like. Right. So
Speaker 1: if you're a team that doesn't have the ability from
Speaker 1: the same point of the cap to go after a
Speaker 1: higher level center, then you got to look at that
Speaker 1: lower tier, right, And it's just all about resource management.
Speaker 1: And so from there, I think it just depends on
Speaker 1: what your predicament is. Cleveland had to resign Jared Allen.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley's not big enough to play center. They had
Speaker 1: to appease Donovan Mitchell. They're in a little bit of
Speaker 1: a win now type of predicament, right the thunder. That's
Speaker 1: an interesting example, spending twenty seven million a year on
Speaker 1: a center when you already have Chet Holmgren on the roster.
Speaker 1: But they lined it up so that Isaiah Hartenstein's option
Speaker 1: is at the same time as Chet Holmgren's deal, so
Speaker 1: they can at least address that when they get into
Speaker 1: the future. My guess is that when they max Chet,
Speaker 1: they probably won't don't retain Isaiah Hartenstide at that point,
Speaker 1: they probably will go after a bigger forward, right, And
Speaker 1: so these are it's all about resource management. But the
Speaker 1: thing that's been fascinating to me is, just to put
Speaker 1: it simply, the centers in the league just costs a
Speaker 1: lot of money now, and I don't think there's such
Speaker 1: like if you on an average starting center, you're paying
Speaker 1: twenty five million a year and that that's just that's
Speaker 1: just a lot. That's a lot to deal with with
Speaker 1: the cap now. The one flip side there is when
Speaker 1: the new TV deal kicks in, twenty five million is
Speaker 1: kind of like the new fifteen million, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And so again like it might be one
Speaker 1: of those deals where when we get into the future,
Speaker 1: the teams that got in guys, the teams that locked
Speaker 1: up Claxton and Jared Allen and and and all these
Speaker 1: guys in that in that twenty five to thirty million range,
Speaker 1: they might be really happy a couple of years from
Speaker 1: now on the new CBA, or sorry, not the new CBA,
Speaker 1: the new TV deal, because that might be the new discount.
Speaker 1: A starting center might go for thirty five million a
Speaker 1: year in a few years, and so and so. Again,
Speaker 1: we're in a little bit of a transition period. But
Speaker 1: I do think it's really fascinating how much the league
Speaker 1: is valuing those guys. All right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for today and for the weekend. We're gonna
Speaker 1: take the rest of this weekend off. Probably gonna take
Speaker 1: Monday off too, because Team USA plays on Tuesday. In
Speaker 1: all likelihood, we'll do an episode on Tuesday that covers
Speaker 1: the quarterfinal game. From now to Tuesday, I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: working on player ranking stuff because I'm gonna have that
Speaker 1: player I go out of town next Thursday, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have I'm gonna have player ranking stuff that's gonna
Speaker 1: be releasing while I'm out of town, so I'll be
Speaker 1: working on that, but our next new episode will be
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting me in the show. I'll see you guys.
Speaker 3: Then the volume.
Speaker 1: Well, so, guys, as always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.