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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so

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Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your Wednesday to come

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Speaker 1: hang out with Tommy and I. And this is the

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Speaker 1: last time we're gonna call it the Jason Tip Podcast because,

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Speaker 1: as I mentioned in the Friday show with Raj, I,

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Speaker 1: now that I have Tommy and Rog coming on as

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Speaker 1: consistent guests, I would like to rebrand these as something

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Speaker 1: that would cover both of us. And Uh, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: talk about here in just a second, how we want

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Speaker 1: some suggestions. Uh, Tommy, do you have any suggestions? I'll

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Speaker 1: top of your head. I can only think of one. Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of ridiculous, but my thought was gunned to

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Speaker 1: my head. We'll see what the people think about that,

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Speaker 1: but that was the only thing that popped in my head.

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Speaker 1: At least. There's kind of like a playoff words. I

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Speaker 1: say a lot of stupid things. You bringing me on

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Speaker 1: this podcast is like kind of putting a gun to

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Speaker 1: your own head because you know what I'm you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm gonna say, So we'll see. Maybe it has

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Speaker 1: mois well, So for all of you who are listening,

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Speaker 1: and I'll tweet out something like this later and Tommy

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Speaker 1: can share it if you guys can think of anything

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Speaker 1: I would like to to rebrand this specific podcast. Um,

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Speaker 1: but I'm really excited to have Tommy on. I'm I'm

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Speaker 1: excited for this podcast because I think there are a

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Speaker 1: couple of things that are really interesting that are going

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Speaker 1: on around the league, and I think we're gonna be

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Speaker 1: able to bounce around to a bunch of teams as

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Speaker 1: a result. Um. I wanted to start with this, uh,

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Speaker 1: this thing with the All Star snubs because it kind

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Speaker 1: of gets brought up every year, and there's there's kind

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Speaker 1: of like an overarching opinion that I have that I

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Speaker 1: think explains how I feel about about all sorts of

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Speaker 1: snubs and a bunch of other topics around the NBA,

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Speaker 1: which is basically just that you know, everyone wants to

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Speaker 1: uh pretend like they're slighted when there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: really good basketball being played, and I think you have

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Speaker 1: to remember that it's not. We're not judging these types

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Speaker 1: of decision is based on are you playing good basketball?

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Speaker 1: We're judging these types of decisions based on are you

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Speaker 1: one of the best players in this league? And so,

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Speaker 1: for instance, it's something that always gets brought brought up

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Speaker 1: in the MJ Lebron debate. It's this idea that you know,

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Speaker 1: and I used to feel this way when I was younger,

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Speaker 1: before I really thought it through all the way, this

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Speaker 1: idea that like, oh, m J didn't play very good

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Speaker 1: competition or the players, you know, m J didn't have

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Speaker 1: to go against Steph and Katie or or all this

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And what I what I think is

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Speaker 1: important to remember is, you know, MJ's job wasn't to

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Speaker 1: be better than every player that would ever come in

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Speaker 1: the future. It was his job to be the best

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Speaker 1: player out of his peers, out of out of what

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Speaker 1: basketball resembled in his era. Um And as basketball progresses,

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Speaker 1: I think there will always be better players around, and

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Speaker 1: it's your job, in order to be remembered, to vault

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Speaker 1: yourself over those players, you know. Like that's the thing,

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Speaker 1: Like Lebron is playing in an era where a lot

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Speaker 1: of people are good at basketball, so he needs to

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Speaker 1: separate himself. And the same thing goes with these all

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Speaker 1: are as. You know, you and I before the show

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Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about Demarta Rozen, but the

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Speaker 1: same goes for for a lot of these guys, you know,

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Speaker 1: like Devin Booker was complaining like Colin Sexton was complaining.

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Speaker 1: It's like, you guys are great, You're great players. Are

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Speaker 1: you one of the top twenty four players in the league.

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Speaker 1: Are you one of the top twelve players in your conference?

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Speaker 1: Is more accurate because if you're not, then you're not

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Speaker 1: an All Star because the All Star is not are

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Speaker 1: you really good at basketball? The All Stars? Are you

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Speaker 1: one of the top twelve players in your conference? And

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Speaker 1: if you're not, then you don't deserve to be an

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Speaker 1: All Star. This is in a participation type of award.

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Speaker 1: This is strictly a ranking. You have to make the

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Speaker 1: top twelve. And so I have a problem with, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, over sympathizing, over sympathizing for that type of thing,

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Speaker 1: because the the extensive amount of talent in the league

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Speaker 1: just means you have to be better, uh, And so

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Speaker 1: that that's kind of where I land on it. What

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Speaker 1: are your thoughts. I can understand why Devin Booker feels

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Speaker 1: cited for not making it in front of like Julius Randall, right,

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Speaker 1: because Devin Booker is by any measure of better player

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Speaker 1: than Julius Randall. And I mean, that's an entirely different

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Speaker 1: conversation on the conference, on conference lines, and should we

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Speaker 1: even have conferences, especially with as easy as travels nowadays,

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Speaker 1: all these teams have private planes. There's probably a better

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Speaker 1: way to do it than strict conferences, especially when we're

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Speaker 1: talking all star teams. But I I don't really see

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Speaker 1: really any complaints or anybody besides maybe Devin Booker. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we had Julius Randall making an All Star team. And look,

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Speaker 1: I've been a Julius Randol fan. He's had a really

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Speaker 1: up and down career, and I'm glad that he's figuring

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Speaker 1: things out. I've always been a guy who really liked

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Speaker 1: who really liked his potential as a player. But Julius

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Speaker 1: Randall isn't one of the twenty four best players in

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Speaker 1: the league. And when we look back fifteen years from now,

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Speaker 1: we're probably gonna be like, whoa Julius Randall made an

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Speaker 1: All Star team? Like he's He's not. In my opinion,

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Speaker 1: he's probably not gonna matter in the history of basketball, right.

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Speaker 1: So the fact that people some people feel snubbed, like

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Speaker 1: a DeRozan or a book or it just it rings

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Speaker 1: a little bit hollow to me. When you're not like

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Speaker 1: making this huge night to night impact on the league. Like,

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Speaker 1: none of these guys who are complaining really have. Like

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Speaker 1: hall In Sexton, he's had a really nice year. He's

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Speaker 1: improved a ton since he's coming to the league. But dude,

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Speaker 1: you're not really impacting anything on a night to night basis,

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Speaker 1: especially because Cleveland hasn't been good for like a month now.

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Speaker 1: They were really good to start the year, and if

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Speaker 1: they kept up their level of play, maybe it does

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Speaker 1: make sense for calling Sexton to make an All Star team,

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Speaker 1: but he just hasn't been good enough lately to warrant

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Speaker 1: any type of complaining about not making it. Then the

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Speaker 1: winning is the most important part because and that's what's

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Speaker 1: kind of cool about this whole All Star snub. You know,

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Speaker 1: topic is like, you know, like Christian would, for instance,

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Speaker 1: tweeted out, you know what do you say, something like

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Speaker 1: casuals or something like that talking about the people who

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Speaker 1: voted for the All Star uh selections, And it's like Christian,

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Speaker 1: welcome to the modern NBA where you averaging ten doesn't matter,

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Speaker 1: Like it doesn't matter what you're doing with your numbers anymore.

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Speaker 1: It's are you doing? Are you putting up numbers in

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Speaker 1: an impactful way that's leading to team success. That's what's

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Speaker 1: gonna get you selected in all of these things. And

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Speaker 1: and and that's what's what I like about the selection

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Speaker 1: process now is for the most part with you know,

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be occasional, uh, you know, people who get missed,

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Speaker 1: But you know, the reality is, is the way you

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Speaker 1: can differentiate yourself from the pack when all these guys

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Speaker 1: are putting on the numbers. You know, Demarda Rosen's averaging

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Speaker 1: twenty points a game. You know, Colin Sexton's averaging twenty

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Speaker 1: points a game, Christian Wood's averaging twenty points a game.

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Speaker 1: The way you separate yourself is by doing it in

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Speaker 1: an impactful way that leads to your team winning basketball games.

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Speaker 1: And I'm okay with that as far as the selection

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Speaker 1: process goes. And and my thing is like, if you're

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Speaker 1: on that fringe, you put yourself at the risk of

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Speaker 1: a selection process going the other direction. That's just part

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Speaker 1: of the risk. And and so for in this case,

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Speaker 1: like you know, I think it's great for the league

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Speaker 1: that you have so many good players, but this is

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Speaker 1: you know, it's what pushes everybody to get better. And

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Speaker 1: I think I think that's the that's the way you

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Speaker 1: gotta approach it if you want to walk into next

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Speaker 1: season and be like, this is the year I make

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Speaker 1: the All Star team. Okay, it doesn't mean you have

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Speaker 1: to go put up twenty five points. You have to

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Speaker 1: be better than you know, all but eleven other guys

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Speaker 1: in the conference at a minimum in order to be

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Speaker 1: be able to make that list. And I'm okay with

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Speaker 1: a selection process. Yeah, And I mean Christian would specifically

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Speaker 1: complaining doesn't make any sense. He's played seventeen of twenty

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Speaker 1: nine games this year. But dude, you've missed half your

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Speaker 1: team's games. You're not an All Star, Like part of

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Speaker 1: part of being an All Star is being available almost

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Speaker 1: every single night. Like something about getting not selected as

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Speaker 1: like the hot thing to do every year. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: more and more guys every year who think that they're

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Speaker 1: deserving because they're putting up Like you're referencing twenty points

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Speaker 1: a game. More guys than ever scoring twenty points a game.

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Speaker 1: It's just the nature of how the games played, because

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Speaker 1: of pace and because of how space out offenses are,

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Speaker 1: it's just easy to score twenty points relative to past eras, like,

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Speaker 1: probably easier than any time since the nineteen sixties and

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Speaker 1: seventies when the skillet level just wasn't as high, so

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Speaker 1: it was harder for guys individually to go get that

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Speaker 1: many points. Um. Yeah, it's just I don't really feel

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Speaker 1: for guys who think they've been snubbed, like it just

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Speaker 1: will never really resonate with me, like like you're referencing.

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Speaker 1: If you want to make a team, go win games.

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Speaker 1: Draymond Green made like three or fourth straight All Star

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Speaker 1: Games when he was averaging most years single digit points.

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Speaker 1: That's because he was impacting when at such a high

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Speaker 1: level that his team was winning sixty plus games every year.

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Speaker 1: If you want to if you want to make an

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Speaker 1: All Star Game, go have your team on a on

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Speaker 1: a sixty win pace by the All Star break and

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Speaker 1: you've got a good chance. The Atlanta Hawks in two

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Speaker 1: thousand fifteen are a great example. That was a team

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Speaker 1: who won sixty games, and because they were on that pace,

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Speaker 1: they had four guys make the All Star team. And

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Speaker 1: they really have four who was it was fatigue? Yep,

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Speaker 1: those three and then got planking. That was it was

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Speaker 1: not Joe Johnson. This is all right, this is terrible podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna figure this out Atlanta Hawks, UM fifteen and

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Speaker 1: Tig Millsap. It was Millsap one of the one of

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Speaker 1: the more forgotten, like really good players of the past

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Speaker 1: ten years. If you would have been in the right situation,

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Speaker 1: I really think he could have helped the team win

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Speaker 1: a title, similar to Draymond. Different players, but similar type

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Speaker 1: of impact on a night to night basis. But they

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Speaker 1: went six d N twenty two that year. They had

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Speaker 1: probably thirty five plus wins at the All Star break,

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Speaker 1: and they had four guys make the All Star team,

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Speaker 1: Like if it really is that simple, and so many

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Speaker 1: of these teams are neck and neck this year in

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Speaker 1: both conferences, basically Utah, the Lakers and the Clippers have

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Speaker 1: separated themselves in the West, and then in the East.

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Speaker 1: It's like Philly and and Brooklyn kind of now, but

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Speaker 1: it's it's such a jumbled mess. Unless you're putting up

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Speaker 1: like Kevin Durant level numbers, Nazan Tatacumbo level numbers, Joe

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Speaker 1: l m b level numbers, Yo, catch all these guys

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Speaker 1: are the superstars of the league. You don't have any

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Speaker 1: case because there's so many guys averaging like twenty four

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Speaker 1: points a game. It's just Zack Lavine is averaging twenty

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Speaker 1: eight and people are still arguing whether he's impactful or not.

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Speaker 1: And he's doing it on shooting. That's how crazy the

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Speaker 1: league is right now. Yeah, no, I'm with you. And

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Speaker 1: like I said, you know, it's kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: there's it's like a basic societal concept. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: like when you know, as as the as the United

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Speaker 1: States of America, we choose to operate under the you know,

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Speaker 1: the idea that you're innocent until proven guilty instead of

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Speaker 1: guilty until proven innocent. When you choose one of those pasts,

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Speaker 1: you recognize something might slip through, Like if you if

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Speaker 1: you're innocent until proven guilty, there's a chance that you might,

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Speaker 1: uh let a guilty man go free, you know, and

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Speaker 1: and and or vice versa. And that's the that's the

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Speaker 1: way this goes. Like when you're you know, running your

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Speaker 1: All Star selection based on on winning mattering the most,

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Speaker 1: there's a chance that there's gonna be a really good

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Speaker 1: player that slips through the cracks because his team isn't winning.

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Speaker 1: But I would rather have it that way than the alternative,

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Speaker 1: which is some dude putting up numbers on a garbage

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Speaker 1: team getting in over a guy who's more impactful, like

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Speaker 1: a Rudy Gobert for instance. Yeah, so I think I

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Speaker 1: think that's just the it's the we have made a

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Speaker 1: decision with the way that we picked these awards that

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Speaker 1: we would rather have that happened than the alternative. And

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Speaker 1: I'm okay with that longs go ahead. Bambata Bio is

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Speaker 1: like clearly a better player than Julius Randall, but because

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Speaker 1: the Heat weren't winning games when Jimmy was out and

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Speaker 1: when a lot of guys were out, Julius Randall made

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Speaker 1: it over him. Like, I don't think any team in

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Speaker 1: the league right now would take Randall over Bam if

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Speaker 1: they're starting a playoff series tomorrow. But Randall might have

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Speaker 1: had a bigger impact on winning, you could. They're in

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Speaker 1: the playoff hunt. I think they're like a six seed

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Speaker 1: or something. So it's not like exactly garbage team. No, no,

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Speaker 1: not on a garbage team. But my point is, like

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Speaker 1: people thought that Randall made a bigger impact on winning

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Speaker 1: through games or whatever it is, and eat them in

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Speaker 1: the standings, aren't they that they are? Yeah, And and

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Speaker 1: a lot of that was Miami having a bunch of

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Speaker 1: COVID issues. They had half of their rosters only played

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Speaker 1: like less than twenty games, so that's part of it.

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Speaker 1: But you can make the argument that the Nicks don't

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Speaker 1: have a great roster either, and they're they're at five

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Speaker 1: D right now, so you can see the argument through

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Speaker 1: thirty games that Randall's had a higher impact on winning.

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Speaker 1: I do think that there's like a conversation to be

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Speaker 1: had about changing the NBA awards because I don't like

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Speaker 1: how so many awards are are regular season focused, and

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Speaker 1: there's basically one award that's playoff focused, and that's the

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Speaker 1: Finals MVP, which is a super flawed award because it

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Speaker 1: takes into account just a handful of games when a

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Speaker 1: playoff run is so much more complicated than that. And

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Speaker 1: in many cases the playoffs are one in the in

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Speaker 1: the conference playoffs, you know, especially in the past with

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Speaker 1: how weak the East has been, and so, you know,

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Speaker 1: what would be interesting to me is to kind of

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Speaker 1: cater a certain award to the regular season and then

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Speaker 1: to kind of flip it around for something else. What

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Speaker 1: I was thinking is, what if you did, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: All Star to represent who was the best in the

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Speaker 1: first half of the season. And then you did you know,

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Speaker 1: m v P for who was the most valuable during

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Speaker 1: the regular season, but then you did something like did

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Speaker 1: to all NBA selections after the playoffs so that you

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Speaker 1: at least have like a snapshot of the league for

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Speaker 1: the totality of the experience, counting the playoffs and the

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Speaker 1: regular season. Because I don't like the idea of a

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Speaker 1: playoffs m v P UM because I feel like the

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Speaker 1: playoffs m VP like it doesn't it should never go

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Speaker 1: to a loser so that it ends up being a

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Speaker 1: finals MVP anyway in my opinion, So like the idea

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Speaker 1: of like some sort of all NBA selection that kind

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Speaker 1: of takes place after the season would make sense to me,

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Speaker 1: because I do think that they need to recognize playoffs success.

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Speaker 1: I'm just not sure that there's a good answer. Quite frankly,

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Speaker 1: I don't think they'd ever actually change anything. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think you could do both. I mean, I think you

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Speaker 1: could keep the all NBA teams as they are to

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Speaker 1: take a snapshot of the regular season, and then you

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Speaker 1: pare it down for the playoffs. You just do ten guys,

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Speaker 1: or you do eight guys. You figure out some sort

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Speaker 1: of paired down version of the all m b A

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Speaker 1: just like you're saying, take a snapshot of what the

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Speaker 1: league look like look like in the playoffs. Um, I

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Speaker 1: think I would be in favor of a playoff MVP

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Speaker 1: just because it can like delineate who the best player

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Speaker 1: was through the playoffs and sometimes who the best player

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Speaker 1: was through the finals like two thousand four Pistons are

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Speaker 1: a great example to me. I don't know if Chauncey

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Speaker 1: Billips was like actually their best player, but he won

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Speaker 1: the finals MVP, you could probably make an argument that

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Speaker 1: Ben Wallace's overall impact was higher. Rip Hamilton's had a

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Speaker 1: really good playoffs if I'm remembering correctly, Like there are

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Speaker 1: years where it would be different, a lot of the

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Speaker 1: years it would be the same, and that would be

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Speaker 1: like I think, another notch on some of the greatest

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Speaker 1: players of all times belts right like Lebron would have

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Speaker 1: four finals MVP and four playoff m vps. You know,

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Speaker 1: like Jordan would probably have six and six like whereas

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Speaker 1: you know guys are maybe a little bit lesser of players,

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Speaker 1: they would only have one finals MVP and one playoff MVP.

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Speaker 1: I think it it would just be another way because

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Speaker 1: we the nature of basketball debates is like, we love

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Speaker 1: to argue this stuff. That's that's like most of the

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Speaker 1: conversation on Twitter, always arguing about who's better at a

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Speaker 1: specific time, or who's better overall, who's the greatest player

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Speaker 1: of all time? I think just adding more things like

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Speaker 1: that it makes it debate more fun. If we're going

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Speaker 1: to continuously have these debates, let's have more ways to

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Speaker 1: delineate them for sure. And yeah, whether it's the playoffs, MVP,

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Speaker 1: or changing the way you do all NBA, Like, I

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Speaker 1: do think that there needs to be some sort of

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Speaker 1: recognition for playoff performance, maybe maybe for more than one guy,

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Speaker 1: like and that's that. That's why, like a first Team

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Speaker 1: All Playoffs or something like that, because it's just like

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Speaker 1: there's too often in these debates the go to talking

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Speaker 1: point is like, well, it's a regular season awards, so

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Speaker 1: I don't care what his playoff pedigree is. And it's

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Speaker 1: like that can't be the answer to everything, and it

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Speaker 1: literally is, because all of these accolades are regular season related.

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Speaker 1: And then we would all agree that NBA playoff basketball

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Speaker 1: is by far the most entertaining aspect of the sport.

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Speaker 1: You know, the regular season could be you know, such

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Speaker 1: you know, monotonous, you know bullshit, that it makes more

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Speaker 1: sense to to kind of find some way to reward

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Speaker 1: people for performing on that stage to begin with. You can,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you could do a conference m VP for

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Speaker 1: each conference in the playoffs, like at the end of

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Speaker 1: the conference finals, and then you do you vote at

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Speaker 1: one to three like kai Is two thousand seventeen. Playoffs

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Speaker 1: are incredible, but they get kind of forgotten because Zazo

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Speaker 1: went under his ankle, he rolls his ankle, they get

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Speaker 1: swept in the conference finals. That dude had an unbelievable

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Speaker 1: series against Memphis, like legitimately was playing like one on five.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it felt like with what he was doing defensively,

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Speaker 1: kind of shutting down Memphisis offense and then going back

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Speaker 1: on the other end and scoring. But that it's like

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Speaker 1: a lost playoff run because there's nothing to really note it.

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Speaker 1: He probably gets second in the m v P voting

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Speaker 1: if they do a Western Conference playoff MVP before the

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Speaker 1: final starts, and it would just be a nice way

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Speaker 1: to remember specific years and specific instances where guys were awesome,

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Speaker 1: But it kind of falls by the wayside because we

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Speaker 1: only focus on the champion. UM. So this is actually

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Speaker 1: kind of an interesting topic that relates to our next

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Speaker 1: topic having to do with the m v P another award. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think this has been really interesting because you know,

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Speaker 1: I couldn't help but think, you know, you know, I

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Speaker 1: I think Lebron has been better this year than he

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Speaker 1: has last year. Like and that's something that you can

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Speaker 1: see in the measurables, in the in the you know,

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Speaker 1: the immeasurables. He's to me, he looks more athletic than

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Speaker 1: he has in the last couple of years, which who

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Speaker 1: knows what. That's the product of probably just being in

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Speaker 1: a consistent routine. Since July. His percentages are up from

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Speaker 1: every spot on the floor, you know, the his in

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Speaker 1: the paint percentage, his midrange percentages, three point percentage. He's

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Speaker 1: just been better. And I had him as the slight

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Speaker 1: favorite in the m v P, but he's had a

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Speaker 1: couple of rough games in a row. His last game

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Speaker 1: was one of the worst games I've seen him play,

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Speaker 1: and then even though he had monster numbers and then

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Speaker 1: the previous few games he wasn't bad, but he wasn't,

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Speaker 1: you know, mvy pe Lebron, And I remember thinking, like,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think Lebron might have slipped a little

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Speaker 1: bit in the MVP race, and then I went and

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Speaker 1: looked back at all of the other guys, and everybody's

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Speaker 1: slipping in the m v P race, and so I

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Speaker 1: wanted to quick read some of these things off. So

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Speaker 1: Lebron's lost three straight. Uh Damian Lillard's lost three straight,

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Speaker 1: and he had a case that was gaining steam when

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Speaker 1: the Portland and when Portland got up to eighteen and ten.

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Speaker 1: Yokich has lost three out of his last five and

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Speaker 1: continues to kind of hover around the middle of the conference.

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiad Philly is five and five in their last ten.

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Speaker 1: He just sat another game, and his last two games

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Speaker 1: he was six for twenty and three for thirteen. So

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Speaker 1: that's Joel Embiad, the guy who was hot on Lebron's heels,

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Speaker 1: has been just as bad, if not worse. Kauai Uh

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Speaker 1: Kauai probably is the best case to be kind of

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Speaker 1: moving up into that stratosphere. He's played four games in

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Speaker 1: the last two weeks. Yeah, he missed three games last

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Speaker 1: week and then the UH having uh Brooklyn was missing

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Speaker 1: and then Steph looks great, but he hasn't won three

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Speaker 1: games in a row all season, so it's hard to

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Speaker 1: to give it to him, and then Lucas on a

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Speaker 1: hot street but his team just got back to so

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Speaker 1: at this point, like everybody's slipping and it's anybody's to

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Speaker 1: grab and you know, everyone seems to notice that Lebron

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Speaker 1: is slipping, you know, because he's such a polarizing player.

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Speaker 1: But the reality is is like the award is as

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Speaker 1: up for grabs as it's ever been. Yeah, it's I mean,

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Speaker 1: Lebron and Steph are really the only ones in the

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Speaker 1: league right now, at least in my opinion, that experience

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Speaker 1: like a night to night referendum on their greatness and

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Speaker 1: who they are as players. Um and and we'll get

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Speaker 1: into the m v P thing, because I think it

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Speaker 1: is interesting, but they're the only ones in the league

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Speaker 1: who where it's like, oh my god, they just played

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Speaker 1: a bad game against the Washington Wizards. Are we sure

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Speaker 1: they're that great? You know what, Like every loss becomes

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Speaker 1: a huge referendum on who they've been for the past,

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Speaker 1: for Lebron, the past you know, fifteen years, for step

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Speaker 1: the past seven years, where I don't see any other

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Speaker 1: superstar in the league where they're like they're big game,

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Speaker 1: they're they're bad games. Excuse me? Goes so noticed, like

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Speaker 1: name has ad games all the time, but the one

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Speaker 1: time he scores forty. We get Bill Simmons and Chris

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Speaker 1: Haines talking about, well is Dame on Steph seals again,

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Speaker 1: like are they gone to the same well Dame has?

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Speaker 1: Dame has more responsibility as a playmaker, so you know,

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Speaker 1: he's he's probably better than Staff, which is just such

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Speaker 1: a ridiculous conversation, by the way, like step step is

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Speaker 1: a better playmaker than Dame. Anybody who doesn't know that

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Speaker 1: doesn't watch basketball correctly. I'm sorry. I just got to

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Speaker 1: that Mark Spire the Chris the Chris hains podcast with

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Speaker 1: Bill Simmons, and it was I'm trying to be nice

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Speaker 1: because I do believe that Steph fans are a little

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Speaker 1: un irrational to the gap between the two. I think

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Speaker 1: there is a clearly discernible gap between the two, but

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Speaker 1: I don't think it's very big. And that podcast did

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Speaker 1: a poor job of explaining the two, like in almost

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00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:50,840
Speaker 1: a way that seemed, you know, like they didn't really

429
00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,720
Speaker 1: understand what Steph does. But anyway, like I agree with you,

430
00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:59,080
Speaker 1: and like, you know, it's it's funny with the Lebron thing, Like, Uh,

431
00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:01,800
Speaker 1: I've been watching this guy his whole career. I've seen

432
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,480
Speaker 1: him have games like that before, even in his very

433
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:07,760
Speaker 1: best years, even in two thousand thirteen, even in two

434
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:10,760
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, even in two thousand eighteen, even last year,

435
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 1: with how good he was, Like every once in a

436
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:16,320
Speaker 1: while in the regular season, he just has a stinker man,

437
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:18,119
Speaker 1: Like I don't I don't know what to tell you,

438
00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:20,560
Speaker 1: Like he did it in the playoffs last year against

439
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:24,639
Speaker 1: the Nuggets. In Game four, he was horrible. Uh, had

440
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:26,560
Speaker 1: a couple of good defensive plays at the end on

441
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:28,960
Speaker 1: Jemal Murray, but was really bad in the second half,

442
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,480
Speaker 1: a lot of ugly turnovers, a lot of mistakes, and

443
00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:33,639
Speaker 1: then and then came back in Game five and looked

444
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:35,760
Speaker 1: like the best version of himself. Like this is just

445
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:38,720
Speaker 1: a thing that happens, and we have bad games every

446
00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:40,639
Speaker 1: but no one's immune to them. Like Steph had a

447
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,160
Speaker 1: bad shooting that a few a few nights ago. Uh.

448
00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:45,720
Speaker 1: Joel Embid goes three for thirteen. Now, I've been very

449
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,640
Speaker 1: busy in my personal life, so I haven't I haven't

450
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:51,800
Speaker 1: been as paying attention, but I haven't seen a lot

451
00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,359
Speaker 1: of people talking about Joel Embid. You know, it's really

452
00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:56,240
Speaker 1: getting locked up by the Raptors. I know they won

453
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 1: one of the games, but they lost the other. The

454
00:20:57,960 --> 00:20:59,960
Speaker 1: Raptors always do a nice job. The Raptors always do

455
00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:01,960
Speaker 1: nice job on him. That's they didn't surprise me that

456
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,920
Speaker 1: they did. Uh yeah, and the yeah. The point is

457
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,359
Speaker 1: is like like no one's immune to these these off games,

458
00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:10,600
Speaker 1: and you know, but that's just the nature of Twitter,

459
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:15,360
Speaker 1: especially with Stephen with Lebron, It's like we every single dribble,

460
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:18,480
Speaker 1: every single shot, every single mistake is like just a

461
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:22,000
Speaker 1: complete referendum on everything that they've accomplished in their life.

462
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 1: And it's it's super annoying. But I think it's just

463
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: it's amplified by the fact that we hold them to

464
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:30,840
Speaker 1: their past performances. Right, Like Steph isn't in the m

465
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:33,720
Speaker 1: VP conversation, probably because he's had his two MVP seasons

466
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:36,480
Speaker 1: where when his team won sixty seven and seventy three games,

467
00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,040
Speaker 1: like Lebron, when he won most of his m vps,

468
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:41,040
Speaker 1: or well what he did win his m vps, his

469
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,560
Speaker 1: teams were winning sixty plus games and he was like

470
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,040
Speaker 1: very very clearly the best player in the league. So

471
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:48,480
Speaker 1: when there isn't that same gap, it's like the same

472
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:50,600
Speaker 1: kind of fatigue that Michael Jordan went through with MVP

473
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:52,760
Speaker 1: voters why Barkley gets in the ninety three and why

474
00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:55,320
Speaker 1: Malone gets in ninety seven, Like you just you have

475
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 1: to almost outperform your past self if you've been so

476
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,560
Speaker 1: great before, whereas like Yokichen Embeat, it's they really haven't

477
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: been at this level before. So we're like, Wow, these

478
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:07,440
Speaker 1: guys are incredible. It's something new, it's something fresh. It's

479
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,640
Speaker 1: just human nature to not like really be as hard

480
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,840
Speaker 1: on those two guys because we haven't seen this level

481
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,359
Speaker 1: of play from them before. But I am interested to

482
00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:17,679
Speaker 1: see where you kind of have things stacked up right now,

483
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,760
Speaker 1: because I think we're probably gonna differ a little bit. Okay,

484
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:25,840
Speaker 1: So I mean I still I still am right kind

485
00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,240
Speaker 1: of where I was, like, I have I have Lebron

486
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: with a very slight lead even though he's been playing

487
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:35,480
Speaker 1: less well. Um, just strictly because Embad hasn't taken advantage

488
00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:38,879
Speaker 1: of that, Like Lebron left the door open four Embat

489
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,360
Speaker 1: to pass him and Embad hasn't been good enough. Um,

490
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:45,880
Speaker 1: I do think that Luca is very much gonna get

491
00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:48,119
Speaker 1: into the conversation here, because if you're going to factor

492
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:51,439
Speaker 1: in Steph in Yogis, which I do, I think, Uh,

493
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:54,320
Speaker 1: I think I'd probably have. I'd probably have you know,

494
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:56,760
Speaker 1: Steph and Dame fighting for that five spot and then

495
00:22:56,840 --> 00:22:59,439
Speaker 1: Luca kind of right behind the two of them, And

496
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 1: I I do think that those guys have kind of

497
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,639
Speaker 1: inched into the conversation as as Uh and Beat and

498
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,360
Speaker 1: Lebron have slipped. But I don't think I don't think

499
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,800
Speaker 1: anybody has made who like who's playing well enough right

500
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: now and their team succeeding well enough to to like

501
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 1: confidently step up and say they've changed the conversation. You know.

502
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 1: That's where I'm at. Nobody totally overall, but I'm almost

503
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:30,159
Speaker 1: leaning Yokis right now. He really that roster is like

504
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,200
Speaker 1: entirely depleted. They have like nobody healthy. Um they're there

505
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,400
Speaker 1: subs last night where Zeke Nanji, who's a rookie Facundo

506
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 1: Composo who's like a really nice player. I think he's

507
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:41,920
Speaker 1: a really good player. I think he could help some

508
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 1: teams as a backup point guard. But that's just a

509
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:45,880
Speaker 1: weird fit in Denver because they already have a good

510
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: backup point guard, and Monty Morris, he's just another tiny

511
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 1: guy who like makes really good decisions, but it's just

512
00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 1: a weird fit on that roster. And then the other

513
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 1: guy playing was like Isaiah Hartenstein, who's bounced around probably

514
00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,119
Speaker 1: four or five different teams. He can't stick anywhere he

515
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 1: gets the last three or the last two weeks. So

516
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: I broke down who my top three are right now,

517
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 1: it's still Yokich and beating Lebron. Not that's necessarily ordered,

518
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 1: but that is my top three. Yokich the last two

519
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:15,120
Speaker 1: weeks nine and eight on fifty ninety seven, his team

520
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,920
Speaker 1: is five and three, and beat is thirty one, thirteen

521
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 1: and four on forty seven eighty seven and his team

522
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 1: is four and three. Lebron is twenty six, eight and

523
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:27,960
Speaker 1: nine on fifty one nineteen sixty six and his team

524
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: is three and four. So for just narrowing down the

525
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 1: last two weeks, I think those other two guys have

526
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:36,480
Speaker 1: been better than Lebron. That doesn't necessarily voult them to

527
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:38,120
Speaker 1: the top of the race above him, because I think

528
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,160
Speaker 1: it's it still is all two jumbled right, especially because

529
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,320
Speaker 1: Denver hasn't really want enough games, even though they're only

530
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:47,200
Speaker 1: a game backup fifth and two games back of forth.

531
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,199
Speaker 1: So if they if they roll off a couple in

532
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,720
Speaker 1: a row, I think can beat or excuse me, Yokich

533
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 1: probably takes the lead in this thing because he has

534
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,119
Speaker 1: been incredible. Forty four last night, he had I think

535
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 1: close to fifty against Boston last week, He's I mean,

536
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:01,360
Speaker 1: he's been ridiculous. I call them the best offensive player

537
00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 1: in the league last night, and I don't think that's crazy.

538
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:08,400
Speaker 1: Um but it's if you honestly gut into my head

539
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: right now, I would say it's I would have Yokich

540
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 1: as my m v P at this moment, but that

541
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:15,880
Speaker 1: could easily change in the next week if Denver loses

542
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 1: a couple and you know, Philly starts playing well again,

543
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 1: or the Lakers start playing well again, especially if they

544
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: don't have a D. Yeah, I think I think I'm

545
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 1: okay with that. Um Uh, I'm okay with the case

546
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 1: for any player. I think the biggest opinion that I

547
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 1: would push back on right now is this idea that

548
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:37,239
Speaker 1: anybody is falling out of the race or giving up

549
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 1: their chance to win. When you factor in the fact

550
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 1: that everybody's case is getting weaker over the last couple

551
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 1: of weeks as opposed to you know, if we you know,

552
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: back up a little bit, and everybody's case looks so good,

553
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,080
Speaker 1: especially Kauai and Beat in Lebron, they just had these

554
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,439
Speaker 1: like iron clad classic m v P cases, and it

555
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: was being referred to as like this, you know, up

556
00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: for grabs m v P. But now it's like even

557
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 1: more up for grabs because the guys at the top

558
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 1: have kind of receded down, uh, into that other group.

559
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:06,919
Speaker 1: And so I'm more willing to hear a case for

560
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: Yokis now than I was a few weeks ago, just

561
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:12,199
Speaker 1: by virtue of the fact that the guys on the

562
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,199
Speaker 1: top of the are are getting worse. But we wouldn't

563
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:17,120
Speaker 1: have I wouldn't have made the cakes for Yokich last

564
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:18,680
Speaker 1: time we talked about. I think I had him third,

565
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: but I had Lebron and em Beat in their own tier.

566
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: Basically right now, I think I'd have those three kind

567
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 1: of in the same tire. And Kauai actually would be

568
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: there too if he hadn't missed four of the last

569
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 1: eight games, right he keeps missing games like you can't

570
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,000
Speaker 1: be in the conversation, especially for m v P if

571
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 1: you keep missing games, I agree, and and it's gonna

572
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:38,120
Speaker 1: end up being nit picked. All these cases are gonna

573
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 1: get nit picked like that at the end of the year.

574
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: Like at the end of the year, you're gonna see,

575
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: you know, like they're gonna be talking about Yoki's record,

576
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: They're gonna be talking about, oh, how did Lebron do

577
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:47,960
Speaker 1: when a D was out there, gonna be talking about

578
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 1: you know, uh Embiid and you know, uh him missing

579
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,160
Speaker 1: games and Kauai missing games, and it's all just gonna

580
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,160
Speaker 1: be kind of a jumble at the top, and they're

581
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 1: gonna be nitpicking between all these guys. Is like this. Yeah.

582
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: The thing that has been annoying to me about like

583
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 1: framing Lebron's MVP conversation is like, well, Schroeder and a

584
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: D are out. It's like, great man. Everybody every team

585
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,400
Speaker 1: this year has injuries and COVID issues, Like it doesn't matter.

586
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:12,439
Speaker 1: You still have to win games. The Warriors have been

587
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: playing without centers for like two and a half weeks,

588
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: and they found a way to like maintain and stay

589
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:18,520
Speaker 1: around five hundred. I don't think that makes Steph an

590
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 1: m v P, but there's certainly worse roster situations right

591
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: now than the l A Lakers. They still have a

592
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,120
Speaker 1: lot of really good players who are healthy. And yeah,

593
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:28,640
Speaker 1: you can argue that like Vogel should be playing Montres

594
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: a little bit more, especially in eighties absence, and he

595
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,440
Speaker 1: probably should have against Washington a couple of nights ago.

596
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:34,960
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, if Lebron really

597
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 1: really wants to be the m v P and make

598
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,520
Speaker 1: his case strong, way you don't lose to the Washington Wizards.

599
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 1: When Russell Westbrook is literally trying to throw the game

600
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 1: like six separate occasions in the last two minutes, That's

601
00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: it's hilarious watching him playing now because russ Brook, I mean,

602
00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 1: because he's like doing he's trying to do the same

603
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: things that he's doing five years ago, and he has

604
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:54,400
Speaker 1: like seventy of the same athleticism. It's it's like kind

605
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:56,439
Speaker 1: of sad, but you gotta get the guy credit, I

606
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 1: guess for just being mentally strong enough to try to

607
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:00,840
Speaker 1: be the same guy just the whole game or did

608
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 1: you just see the end of it. I'm pretty sure

609
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:05,520
Speaker 1: the Warriors were playing that night too, so I caught

610
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 1: like the end of the third and then all of

611
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:12,159
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and over time so quickly. In defense

612
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 1: of Russ. Uh, he was the reason they came back

613
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: and took the lead in that game. He did like

614
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: it kind of reminds me of what happened with him

615
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: with Houston last year. Uh huh yeah, Uh really m

616
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 1: h m hm hm m. Defensive personnel, but they do

617
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 1: have a lot of guys who can shoot, and that's

618
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: how you can kind of keep things open. And and Uh,

619
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 1: I really liked the job RUI had to marryed it

620
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 1: on Lebron. Uh, mainly just with ball pressure and the

621
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: big thing with ball pressures, it's fatiguing, and I feel

622
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 1: like over the course of the game it started to

623
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: get to Lebron and make it so that he was less.

624
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: He was more hesitant to drive because he was tired.

625
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 1: The I couldn't understand why they put Westbrook on um

626
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: Lebron on the last possession of regulation. I thought Murrah

627
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 1: switched the screen super easily on the NBA yeah him

628
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 1: down like they did a pin down and really just

629
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 1: grabbed the screener and Russ went with him because he

630
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 1: probably knew Russ was just gonna do that because that's

631
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: it's Russ, like you just know he's going to try

632
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: to take the assignment there. But I've argued this for

633
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 1: a little while now, I think because Murra is like

634
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: a guy that came into the NBA with defensive warts

635
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 1: um Like, the big selling point was his offense and

636
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: then but he had a ton of defensive deficiencies, so

637
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: draft people didn't love him that much. But he is big,

638
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: he has athletic and he is kind of long. I

639
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 1: think the key is slowing down Lebron at this point

640
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: is more guys like that, bigger bodies because he doesn't

641
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 1: have that same quickness advantage he used to have. Right

642
00:29:58,680 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: when you used to put a big guy on me,

643
00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:02,719
Speaker 1: just go right around him. It's not the same anymore.

644
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: If I was if I was trying to beat Lebron,

645
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: I would tend to put bigger bodies on him and

646
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 1: more worry more about him bullying in the post than

647
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,920
Speaker 1: him beating me off the dribble times because of his quickness.

648
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: And I think it is a regular season game against

649
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 1: the Washington Wizards. I'm not drawing any grand conclusion from it,

650
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:23,880
Speaker 1: but I think really kind of underscores an interesting um

651
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: way to kind of frame stopping Lebron because at the

652
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: end of the day, that's what the playoffs come down

653
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 1: to a lot of the time. Can you stop Lebron

654
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: James enough to win an NBA Championship? A lot of

655
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 1: teams can't. I think, Uh, there was a play at

656
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: the end of regulation where Lebron just did a basic

657
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: dribble drive move on Ruby Hodmerron got all the way

658
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: to the basket for a layup. It was with like,

659
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 1: I think a minute left. It was before the shot

660
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 1: that he had on Russ, and I think like it

661
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: just so, this is a good time to segue to

662
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 1: the Lakers because just in the way that they've been playing,

663
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: because I think, like, you know, there's a tendant that there.

664
00:30:58,360 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 1: I I talked about this on Twitter the other day.

665
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: They have all of these players that are excellent in

666
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: the role that they're being asked to fill. And the

667
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,480
Speaker 1: example I used on Twitter was the Morris Twins. So

668
00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 1: Markief Morris is a much better player for the Lakers

669
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 1: than he would be for another team because the Lakers

670
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: literally only need Markis Morris to shoot spot up threes,

671
00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: to be a ball mover, not a ball stopper. And

672
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 1: then on the other end to play his ass off. However,

673
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: like Marcus Morris is a better basketball player, He's more skilled,

674
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: he's more athletic, he does everything better than Markis Morris.

675
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: But Marky Marcus Morris would be a bad fit on

676
00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 1: the Lakers because he's a ball stopper, because he would

677
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:42,719
Speaker 1: be he would he would struggle to fit into what

678
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 1: the Lakers are explicitly asking him to do. Ironically, though,

679
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 1: with Dennis Shrewder out and with Anthony Davis out, and

680
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:52,840
Speaker 1: Zach Low talked about this on his podcast the other day,

681
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 1: like they basically have one guy who can coherently dribble,

682
00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 1: and so all of a sudden, these Golden State war

683
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 1: I I told about it, and for the record, I

684
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 1: agree with you in your point about like not complaining

685
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 1: because everybody has been screwed. But all I'm saying is, like,

686
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: when you're evaluating the long term, uh, you know, prospects

687
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: of this Laker team, this is pointless because literally all

688
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 1: of these guys are being asked Caruso is now being

689
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:22,280
Speaker 1: asked to run the offense, you know, like Montrose Harold

690
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:24,200
Speaker 1: is now being asked to use a be be a

691
00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: high usage guy, like literally a guy who's gonna be

692
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 1: average twenty plus points a game during this stretch? Like there,

693
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: this evaluating this Laker team now is pointless because guess

694
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: what if they don't have Dennis or a d they

695
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 1: might lose in the first round. Because they were never

696
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: constructed to have Lebron James literally run the entire offense

697
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 1: by himself and then have all these defensive minded role players.

698
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: They were constructed to have all of these guys that

699
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 1: would excel in tiny roles and to have Dennis Shrewder

700
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis carry the with Lebron carry the complicated

701
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 1: parts of the offense. And and so I just I

702
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: I agree Lebron has to find a way to win

703
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:03,920
Speaker 1: some of these games for his MVP case. However, in

704
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: all these games matter for the standings. However, about the Lakers,

705
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: because Dennis Shooter is gonna play, Okay, Denis Shooter is

706
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:15,320
Speaker 1: gonna play. Yeah, I'm not. No, I'm not drawing any

707
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 1: long term conclusions from that. That That would be stupid. My

708
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:19,959
Speaker 1: My point is, just like a lot of guys are

709
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 1: doing a lot with a little right now, just in

710
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: terms of offensive output and and winning enough games. And

711
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: the Lakers the last week have not looked great. That's

712
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: my that's my only point in Lebron's m v P

713
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 1: case is that you know, there's a lot of guys

714
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 1: who have really bad situations right now and are doing

715
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: a lot with those situations, like Dame is, Dame is down,

716
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 1: c J and and Dirk right now, right and they've

717
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: they've slid recently, but they were playing really well before

718
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 1: that without those guys. So asking Lebron to do the

719
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 1: same to bolster his m v P case is not

720
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 1: ridiculous at all in my opinion. I'm not making any

721
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: long term conclusions at all, like if this if this team,

722
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: like you're saying, doesn't have Shorter, and it either screwed

723
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:00,800
Speaker 1: the whole reason Shorter was brought in a lesson Lebron's

724
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 1: load in the regular season and to be insurance for

725
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 1: like an Anthony Davis injury in terms of just carrying

726
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 1: offensive load. The fact that both those guys are hurt

727
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 1: as definitely throwing a wrench in the Lakers season. But

728
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,399
Speaker 1: it's no reason to like freak out. There's there's too

729
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 1: many fan bases doing that this year, like Miami's fan

730
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 1: base freaking out when Jimmy and Avery Bradley and half

731
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 1: their rotation was hurt, Like, oh my god, light everything

732
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:25,800
Speaker 1: on fire. Trade everyone. It's like, guys, half your rotation

733
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: isn't playing right now. It's also a good right now.

734
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:30,440
Speaker 1: Celtics fans are like kind of doing the same thing

735
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: there without like maybe their second or third most important

736
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 1: player Marcus Smart and Kemba hasn't been great, which I

737
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:39,600
Speaker 1: think some people could have predicted. Um I was staying

738
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: that last year, Like, man, that contract looks kind of bad.

739
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 1: He's tiny. He if he lose his quickness, it's gonna

740
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 1: look really ugly. But they don't have like their second

741
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:50,439
Speaker 1: most important player, Like, quit drawing conclusions about the team

742
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: on a hole when some of your most important guys

743
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:54,520
Speaker 1: are missing. That's it was the same thing people were

744
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 1: doing about the Warriors four games into the season. Five

745
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,759
Speaker 1: games into this season, Draymond Green wasn't playing and people

746
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:00,759
Speaker 1: are saying, oh, man, this Warriors team might be the

747
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,000
Speaker 1: worst team in the league. It's like, no, their second

748
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:05,920
Speaker 1: best player isn't playing in the basketball games. One of

749
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:07,920
Speaker 1: those people, I know you were, I know you were.

750
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: My Like, most teams do not have the depth to

751
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 1: withstand their second best player not playing. It's just the facts,

752
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 1: like and unless you're the Lakers, unless you're the Clippers,

753
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:26,319
Speaker 1: unless you're Yeah, but they suck, Yeah, exactly Without both

754
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:27,839
Speaker 1: those guys, if it was just a d I think

755
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:29,799
Speaker 1: they look a lot better. I agree, and they did.

756
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,719
Speaker 1: They beat the Brooklyn has enough. Brooklyn has enough with

757
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:36,280
Speaker 1: with Kevin Durrant out, because they have two other incredible

758
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: offensive players and they can still score a hundred and

759
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:42,959
Speaker 1: twenty points a game. I do. I yeah, I think,

760
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 1: Like because Ramona Shelburn went on was Zach Low. It

761
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,800
Speaker 1: basically was like this, this three game losing streak matters,

762
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:51,799
Speaker 1: and a Laker Laker Twitter for the record, burned her

763
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:53,319
Speaker 1: to the ground when she did that, and she kind

764
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,719
Speaker 1: of deserved it because like that, like, evaluating this team

765
00:35:56,719 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 1: at this phase is pointless. Evaluating the heat outside of

766
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,240
Speaker 1: the context of all their guys is pointless because chances

767
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:04,920
Speaker 1: are by the time we get to late May um,

768
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:07,440
Speaker 1: things will look a little different and everyone will be

769
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:09,279
Speaker 1: healthy and put together for the most parted with the

770
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:12,200
Speaker 1: exception of maybe a handful of really unfortunate injuries. But

771
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 1: I don't know. I all I'm saying is like, like,

772
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 1: for instance, I think the Lakers are gonna get killed

773
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,720
Speaker 1: tonight by the Jazz. The line in Vegas is absurd.

774
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 1: There are nine point underdogs because freaking machine man. The

775
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 1: Dazz are a machine exactly in the in in Vegas knows, like,

776
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 1: guess what, they don't have a big that can get

777
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert out of the paint. So like it's gonna

778
00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 1: be a ship show. That game is going to be

779
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: a ship show. Like like people who don't know what

780
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:42,439
Speaker 1: they're seeing are gonna begging Lebron to do more tonight

781
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: and he's not gonna be able to do more. And

782
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:47,439
Speaker 1: uh but yeah, I just everything needs to be taken

783
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt for all of these teams

784
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 1: in the chaos that is the the COVID regular season exactly.

785
00:36:54,719 --> 00:36:56,440
Speaker 1: And that's what I don't think enough people are doing.

786
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: They're not people aren't paying credence to that, like on

787
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 1: one Himmer saying, oh, like COVID, it's the weirdest season ever.

788
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:02,960
Speaker 1: There's so many guys who are out and these fan

789
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,360
Speaker 1: bases turn around and flip out when half the rotation

790
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:10,239
Speaker 1: isn't playing, like and the regular season is so it

791
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 1: is so tricky with this kind of stuff, Like I

792
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:13,680
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit on the short pod

793
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:16,719
Speaker 1: that I did on Monday, But like Brooklyn running a

794
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 1: switching defense, like that's gonna that's gonna mess with a

795
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:22,799
Speaker 1: lot of teams in the regular season. Like it's just

796
00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: you know, because the Clippers, for instance, have actually been

797
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 1: playing really well. They've been one of the more impressive

798
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:31,080
Speaker 1: teams for me personally this season. They're super deep. That's

799
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,880
Speaker 1: what I still I think have the same overall concerns,

800
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:35,360
Speaker 1: but they're really really deep. They have a lot of

801
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,439
Speaker 1: good players, like even Terrence Man, who doesn't get playing

802
00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: time a lot of the Knights when they're healthy, He's

803
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:41,920
Speaker 1: an awesome NBA player. That's the guy who's gonna be

804
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 1: in the league for twelve years. They just have a

805
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 1: ton of lately. Yep, as he's honestly as he should be.

806
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: And that Luke and Art contract yikes. Yeah, I think

807
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 1: we'll still hear from Luca at some point eventually the

808
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:58,320
Speaker 1: I But like with the Clippers, what's fascinating is is like,

809
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:02,280
Speaker 1: like they've been playing really good basketball lately. I don't

810
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,919
Speaker 1: think that the Brooklyn Nets without Katie are that good

811
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,000
Speaker 1: of a team. However, they're just you're popping into a

812
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 1: random regular season game against a team that switches everything,

813
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,319
Speaker 1: which as of to my knowledge, there's not another team

814
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,080
Speaker 1: in the league that switches as much as them right now. Um,

815
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 1: I don't watch all thirty teams, but I don't know

816
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:20,719
Speaker 1: of any team that you'll you'll see a little bit

817
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 1: of switching. Some teams switch tow through three, two or four.

818
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: Some teams will you know as will switch specific actions.

819
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:30,160
Speaker 1: But the Brooklyn Nets literally switch everything, so every single

820
00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 1: action you run, and they literally do that because Kyrie

821
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 1: and James Harden famously die on every screen that's ever

822
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:36,640
Speaker 1: said on them. They have to. If they didn't run,

823
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:38,799
Speaker 1: if they ran a traditional defense, they would get lit

824
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: on fire. But the point is is like a team

825
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: like a team like the Clippers in particular, a team

826
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 1: like the Lakers, those kinds of teams. Uh. Philly is

827
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 1: actually a good example of this too, got with the

828
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: huge size advantage of Ben Simmons on those guards, Like

829
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to um do that for several games

830
00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:59,279
Speaker 1: in a row. And it kind of reminds me of

831
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 1: playing Houston in the past, where it was like in

832
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:04,320
Speaker 1: the regular season if you kind of played into their gimmick,

833
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:07,239
Speaker 1: you get beat. But if you if the teams that

834
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 1: really focused up and and and had a detailed attack

835
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,919
Speaker 1: to their defense had success. And I really do think

836
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:16,759
Speaker 1: like Brooklyn's kind of Uh. I believe in Brooklyn, but

837
00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:18,960
Speaker 1: I think some of this is smoking mirrors with their

838
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,839
Speaker 1: with their regular season kind of catching teams off guard

839
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 1: with their skime. I'm pretty sure when the trade first happened,

840
00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:29,200
Speaker 1: I predicted something like they were going to go on

841
00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:31,239
Speaker 1: a huge run. You know, they were just gonna be

842
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: blowing teams out and scoring a bunch of points and

843
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:34,879
Speaker 1: there everybody's gonna be like, oh my god, who can

844
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:38,799
Speaker 1: stop this Brooklyn team. The Wards still remain like they

845
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 1: very well might win the NBA Championship. I'm not gonna

846
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:44,279
Speaker 1: sit here and say they're not going to, especially with

847
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 1: injuries obviously finding a factor as they always do, and

848
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 1: if things keep looking how they're looking, where every team

849
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,440
Speaker 1: in the league seemingly at some point is going through

850
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,319
Speaker 1: these major injury issues, then yeah, I think Brooklyn has

851
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 1: a chance to win the title. But if everybody's healthy,

852
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: they still wouldn't be my pick. I like, if Harden

853
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,400
Speaker 1: is a very good post offender, so I think putting

854
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,080
Speaker 1: him on on like a Janice or an Embiede eight

855
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:10,279
Speaker 1: ten times a game isn't the worst option in the world.

856
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:13,520
Speaker 1: He's very sturdy. Um, he's really strong, Like he plays

857
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 1: angles well. He actually is good one on one in

858
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 1: the post. But if like you're doing that with Kyrie

859
00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:21,440
Speaker 1: as well, he's gonna get eaten alive. Like he has

860
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:23,239
Speaker 1: quick hands and I think he'll battle a little bit

861
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:25,920
Speaker 1: when push comes to shove. But the switching defense that

862
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:28,360
Speaker 1: like he succeeded in twenty sixteen, the Warriors didn't have

863
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,719
Speaker 1: a real post threat to like actually go at him,

864
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:32,400
Speaker 1: so they were able to switch those actions and it

865
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 1: was more perimeter perimeter oriented, whereas like Embiede and you

866
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,320
Speaker 1: honest will destroy him in the post, like honest. Besides,

867
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: like like four or five guys in the league, you

868
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: honest destroys everybody in the post. Same with him beat. Yeah.

869
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,040
Speaker 1: So what I think it's interesting is, you know, the

870
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors with Kevin Dury and Steph Curry, managed

871
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:54,880
Speaker 1: to solve the two thousand eighteen Rockets switching defense, and

872
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 1: they really lit him on fire in Game six and seven,

873
00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: especially in the second half, and that was when the

874
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,960
Speaker 1: switching defense included Trevor resa In, p J. Tucker and

875
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:07,239
Speaker 1: literally just like a bunch of Chris Paul was on

876
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 1: that team, Like they were much much much better with

877
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:15,760
Speaker 1: their defensive personnel. You're running a switching scheme with Kyrie

878
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 1: who is going to be an absolute liability in specific matchups,

879
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:22,600
Speaker 1: James Harden who is a good post offender but cannot

880
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 1: defend in space. Uh. Joe Harris is fine, He's fine,

881
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 1: but he's not as good as any of those guys

882
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 1: on the two thousand eighteen Rockets. Jeff Green is fine,

883
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: He's not as good as Trevor Reason was in two

884
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 1: thousand and eight Kevin Durant, and to be determined whether

885
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 1: or not he takes that on personally. But my point

886
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:40,879
Speaker 1: is is, like you know, there's you might you might

887
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,759
Speaker 1: see a team drop game one to them because they're

888
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:47,520
Speaker 1: just caught completely off guard, and that might that might

889
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:50,280
Speaker 1: very well end up being something that could swing a series.

890
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:52,359
Speaker 1: But the point is is like they're gonna sit down

891
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 1: and watch the tape and they're gonna play him a

892
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 1: second time, and they're gonna play him a third time,

893
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 1: and then they're suddenly going to realize like wait, if

894
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 1: we if we said this specific action, we can get

895
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 1: Kyrie onto Ben Simmons, and Ben Simmons can literally just

896
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 1: ripped through and go to the rim and it's a

897
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,399
Speaker 1: foul or layup every time and its wide open three

898
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 1: for Seth Curry or or Tobias Harris, Like they're gonna

899
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 1: get really good shots every single time. Because those Rockets

900
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:20,799
Speaker 1: teams were really good when things broke down, uh in

901
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:25,000
Speaker 1: their back end rotations and stuff that this team, it's

902
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:27,719
Speaker 1: like one or two extra passes and they're just gonna quit,

903
00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:31,680
Speaker 1: and so I I do. The Rockets. The Rockets were

904
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:34,399
Speaker 1: put together to be a switching team, like that's how

905
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:38,239
Speaker 1: they were constructed. Daryl Morey and his brain trust looked

906
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:40,840
Speaker 1: at the roster and they got as coach Jeff Bisdelic,

907
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:42,799
Speaker 1: who like really knew how to implement a switching scheme.

908
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,040
Speaker 1: They said, this is what we're going to do. That's

909
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 1: not how this booklyn Nets roster was put together exactly.

910
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 1: They they're they're switching out of necessity, having to do

911
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:54,400
Speaker 1: with the fact that their personnel literally cannot run a

912
00:42:54,440 --> 00:43:10,279
Speaker 1: traditional defensive scheme like DeAndre Jordan's would be on the

913
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 1: NBA let's see, we touched on UM Lebron the Portland

914
00:43:17,960 --> 00:43:20,120
Speaker 1: we can't really talk about because they're without c J.

915
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 1: C J. I think it is supposed to come back

916
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:25,839
Speaker 1: after the All Star break. Um, Philly has been hot

917
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 1: and cold. The thing with Philly is for me is

918
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:32,319
Speaker 1: like similar to the Utah thing. They haven't They don't

919
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:36,359
Speaker 1: really have that signature win outside of the Laker game,

920
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:40,239
Speaker 1: which they very well could have lost. Um, but the uh,

921
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 1: the same same thing with Utah. Just id I'd like

922
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 1: to see them put together some quality wins. They're five

923
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 1: and five in their last ten and they haven't really

924
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:50,160
Speaker 1: been playing that great competition, so I'm not really uh,

925
00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:53,640
Speaker 1: super impressed by them as of late. Um, did you

926
00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:57,120
Speaker 1: see that Warrior schedule that came out, Yeah, Jazz, Clippers,

927
00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:00,279
Speaker 1: Lakers to uh to start right after the All Star break.

928
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:02,839
Speaker 1: Well you saw the games before that too, right, Oh yeah,

929
00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, it's it's a pretty tough schedule coming

930
00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:06,759
Speaker 1: up to like this is a very crucial stretch for

931
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:08,800
Speaker 1: whether they're actually gonna even maybe make the play in

932
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: or not. So uh yeah, they're what they're two games

933
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 1: over of right now. They would if they go three

934
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:18,840
Speaker 1: and five over this next eight game stretch, which includes

935
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:22,920
Speaker 1: the Pacers, Hornets, Lakers, Blazers, Sons, Clippers, Jazz Lakers. Then

936
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:25,879
Speaker 1: you're looking at being a five hundred team through over

937
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 1: half the season. It's h they were talking about this morning.

938
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:31,479
Speaker 1: There's like a decent chance that you're going to see

939
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:34,080
Speaker 1: some crazy playing game that has like Luca don Che

940
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:37,040
Speaker 1: versus Steph Curry or something like that, I know, I know,

941
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: or shoot Luca versus Yoki Yoki versus Steph like these

942
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:44,560
Speaker 1: are all possibilities that could happen, which is just I

943
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 1: think it goes to something that we wanted to touch

944
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:50,400
Speaker 1: on the day, like the level of play in the league,

945
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:55,279
Speaker 1: you know it, the amount of offensive talent, like individual

946
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 1: offensive talent, and we've touched on this a little bit before,

947
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:03,320
Speaker 1: is probably higher than any point in league history. But

948
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:06,440
Speaker 1: I am interested to see what this eventually leads to,

949
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:07,719
Speaker 1: and I think we are seeing more of it with

950
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:10,839
Speaker 1: guys like Steph and guys with like Yokich. Can these

951
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 1: humongous offensive talents, like these absurdly dominant offensive talents learn

952
00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:18,800
Speaker 1: how to integrate into like a more team oriented system

953
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:20,360
Speaker 1: because a lot of the younger guys coming in they

954
00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:24,359
Speaker 1: don't really know how to do that. I should lose

955
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:33,759
Speaker 1: connection shoot there? Yeah, how much where did you lose

956
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:38,000
Speaker 1: me at? Uh? Didn't lose anything? You can Okay? Perfect? Perfect? No.

957
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:43,719
Speaker 1: So I just think, yeah, like you have guys like

958
00:45:43,719 --> 00:45:45,400
Speaker 1: Trey and Luca coming in the league who are like

959
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:49,600
Speaker 1: unreal offensive talents that they can do things with the

960
00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:52,200
Speaker 1: basketball that like literally maybe no twenty year olds in

961
00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:53,919
Speaker 1: the history of the game could have done in terms

962
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,520
Speaker 1: of just running an entire offense and making the correct

963
00:45:56,560 --> 00:45:59,800
Speaker 1: read almost every single time, knowing when to pass, dribbles, shoot,

964
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:03,080
Speaker 1: like all those things. But they're they're gonna be easy

965
00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 1: to stop in in a playoff series against great defenses

966
00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 1: because they only basically do this one thing. They play

967
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:10,160
Speaker 1: this one style, and if you can stop that, if

968
00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:12,400
Speaker 1: you're the right personnel to stop it, they're gonna falter.

969
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:16,319
Speaker 1: So I I think it's just interesting to see where

970
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 1: this entire thing eventually goes, because individual play can only

971
00:46:19,719 --> 00:46:22,960
Speaker 1: get you so far, it really can unless and Lebron

972
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,080
Speaker 1: doesn't play like those guys, but he has leaned that

973
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:27,879
Speaker 1: way in certain years. He can do it because he's

974
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 1: like the greatest athlete of all time and he makes

975
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:33,319
Speaker 1: the right decision, he doesn't get tired, he doesn't get

976
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 1: as tired, and and when he does get tired, he

977
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:37,759
Speaker 1: can go on the post, in the post and lean

978
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: on you for eight seconds to honestly rest and then

979
00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:43,000
Speaker 1: go get an easy shot anyway you can get a

980
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:45,879
Speaker 1: layup or kick out for a three. Like I've said

981
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:47,879
Speaker 1: this before, and I'm gonna say it's all on blue

982
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:51,080
Speaker 1: in the face. Basing your offensive system and like the

983
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: way that you want to play basketball off of the

984
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: way that Lebron James played basketball is maybe the most

985
00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 1: foolish thing of all time. We saw the same thing

986
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:01,240
Speaker 1: in the two thousand's though with the entire m J generation.

987
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 1: You know, guys like Kobe was able to do it

988
00:47:03,719 --> 00:47:06,880
Speaker 1: because Kobe was fremely talented, But like guys like Tracy McGrady,

989
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:08,440
Speaker 1: you're Vince Carter or like all these guys who just

990
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:10,000
Speaker 1: wanted to play out of the midpost and do a

991
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:12,480
Speaker 1: bunch of ISOs and score a bunch of points. That's

992
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:15,160
Speaker 1: not really gonna like lead to successful basketball if you're

993
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:17,359
Speaker 1: not the guy who's the most talented of all time

994
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,920
Speaker 1: at it. It just just seems to always happen when

995
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:22,920
Speaker 1: there's a super influential player, and it's the same things

996
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: gonna happen with Steph. You're gonna have all these guys

997
00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:27,400
Speaker 1: launching deep threes. So we've seen it already with Trey,

998
00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 1: and it's like you're you're not shooting from three, Like

999
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 1: you're not just you're not gonna be the same level

1000
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:35,760
Speaker 1: as if of effectiveness. That's actually a really interesting point

1001
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,720
Speaker 1: about how like Lebron's impact on the league is leading

1002
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:42,520
Speaker 1: to this like heliocentric style. Um I do think like

1003
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:44,279
Speaker 1: this is something that I told you I wanted to

1004
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:46,920
Speaker 1: talk about today because it's something that's been a popular

1005
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: topic as of late. Um U in in the Twitter circles,

1006
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 1: and like there's a lot of people complaining about the

1007
00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:57,040
Speaker 1: quality of the NBA for various reasons, and I'm not

1008
00:47:57,080 --> 00:47:59,920
Speaker 1: necessarily saying any of their specific opinions are wrong. Like

1009
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:02,560
Speaker 1: you know what, I agree. I think the broadcasts are

1010
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:04,919
Speaker 1: a little bit too much like podcasts and not enough

1011
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,439
Speaker 1: like basketball analysis that I agree with. Um, I think

1012
00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:11,719
Speaker 1: NBA Twitter is a toxic place. I think the uh,

1013
00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:14,359
Speaker 1: you know, all of the mainstream TV shows that cover

1014
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 1: the league are too caught up in narratives and and

1015
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,400
Speaker 1: you know, kind of teenager type behavior. I I agree

1016
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,399
Speaker 1: with that. I agree. I think that like you don't

1017
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 1: see that stuff with the NFL or even the MLB,

1018
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: Like they're actually most of those shows pregame, post game,

1019
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:30,120
Speaker 1: daytime shows, they're trying to analyze the game. That's just

1020
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,320
Speaker 1: not in the case with the NBA. No. I agree,

1021
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:37,839
Speaker 1: And I think you know, the uh everything about refereeing

1022
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:40,919
Speaker 1: is in is in a really dark place. There's too

1023
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:44,400
Speaker 1: many three point shot attempts. I agree with all of that,

1024
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 1: that's all true. I think where I pushed back with

1025
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:50,200
Speaker 1: people is like there are huge positives as well. There

1026
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 1: are more stars in the league than ever before. More

1027
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 1: and I'm not even just talking about like what we

1028
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier, like skilled players. I'm saying like

1029
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:59,480
Speaker 1: they're legitimately right now, three of the top twelve players

1030
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:01,399
Speaker 1: ever are playing in or at the top of their game.

1031
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,720
Speaker 1: You know, we have an absurd amount of talent shot

1032
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:06,919
Speaker 1: making is it an all time high? And I think

1033
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:09,799
Speaker 1: what we forget with this kind of stuff is like

1034
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 1: every era had huge glaring flaws, Like the late nineties

1035
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:17,759
Speaker 1: were so bad in terms of how stuck in the

1036
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,600
Speaker 1: mud they were that they literally had to change the rules,

1037
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: Like that's a thing that happened, you know, and uh,

1038
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:27,080
Speaker 1: if you if you go back and watch the nineteen eighties,

1039
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:29,239
Speaker 1: if you like, there was that clip that used to

1040
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:32,640
Speaker 1: fly around every once in a while about the seven Finals.

1041
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 1: Uh Celtics Lakers in that game seven or something and

1042
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 1: how trash. The first few minutes of the games were like, yeah,

1043
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:41,440
Speaker 1: like basketball was a little bit ugly back then, and

1044
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:43,600
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways it was pretty in some ways,

1045
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:45,239
Speaker 1: you know, some of the ball boom mid stuff, but

1046
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 1: the overall quality of the product wasn't great. And and

1047
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 1: so all I'm saying is, like I think part of

1048
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:52,200
Speaker 1: this has to do with just kind of the complaining

1049
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:55,960
Speaker 1: era we're in in us being so negative about what

1050
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,040
Speaker 1: we're what we're seeing. And all I would say is,

1051
00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:00,840
Speaker 1: should we talk about the issues, yeah? Should we strive

1052
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 1: to be better? Yeah? Or the things we can change? Yeah.

1053
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:06,880
Speaker 1: But like I'm loving watching the NBA this year, Like

1054
00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:09,120
Speaker 1: the Lakers have no chance of beating the Jazz, and

1055
00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:11,400
Speaker 1: I've stoked to watch it because you know, it's like

1056
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:13,839
Speaker 1: I get to check out a team that I've been

1057
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:17,359
Speaker 1: periolling in the Jazz, and I like watching Lebron James play.

1058
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 1: It's like I get Steph with a tough road game

1059
00:50:20,680 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 1: in India, the challenging game for him, Like there are

1060
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:28,560
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons to really enjoy it out parts

1061
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:30,680
Speaker 1: of the NBA, and we have fans coming back eventually.

1062
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:34,040
Speaker 1: So I just maybe I'm just being you know, Mr. Positive,

1063
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 1: but I I do. I do get a little frustrated

1064
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:38,440
Speaker 1: with people complaining a little too much about all of this.

1065
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:42,280
Speaker 1: I think what's important to note is, like we're basketball nerds.

1066
00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:43,960
Speaker 1: We talked about it all day on Twitter, we do

1067
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:46,200
Speaker 1: podcasts about it, like we live and breathe this stuff.

1068
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 1: The conversation is more about, Okay, how can we pull

1069
00:50:49,719 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: the more casual fan into the game, right, Like how

1070
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:54,480
Speaker 1: can we bring them back to booster ratings again? And

1071
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it really stems down to

1072
00:50:56,800 --> 00:51:00,760
Speaker 1: getting better analysis on the TV shows like these Almost

1073
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:03,000
Speaker 1: anybody who watches like knows these guys are jokes. Like

1074
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:05,120
Speaker 1: they don't actually want to analyze the game. They just

1075
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:06,960
Speaker 1: want to like get off a talking point, get off

1076
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:08,680
Speaker 1: an agenda, and then hop off and get a bunch

1077
00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:10,680
Speaker 1: of Twitter mentions and like just kind of fuel the

1078
00:51:10,719 --> 00:51:12,680
Speaker 1: cycle and then go back and do it again the

1079
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:16,480
Speaker 1: next day, and then the league also has to figure

1080
00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:19,719
Speaker 1: out how to like kind of buoy and market these

1081
00:51:19,719 --> 00:51:23,040
Speaker 1: other stars like besides like a Lebron or a Steph

1082
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:25,880
Speaker 1: or Kevin Durant, Like they gotta figure out a way

1083
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:28,080
Speaker 1: to to market these international guys. And I don't know

1084
00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:29,680
Speaker 1: if I'm smart enough to be like the guy to

1085
00:51:29,719 --> 00:51:31,799
Speaker 1: figure that out, but like, you gotta figure out a

1086
00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:34,920
Speaker 1: way to market honest better. I was watching yokis postgame

1087
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:37,720
Speaker 1: interview last night after he drops forty four points against

1088
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,239
Speaker 1: UM the Blazers has like an incredible performance, and he's

1089
00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:44,959
Speaker 1: like this super personal, hilarious dude. He's joking around with Shack,

1090
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:47,239
Speaker 1: He's joking around with d Wade, like he's given back

1091
00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:49,359
Speaker 1: and forth with all these guys, and you never hear

1092
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:52,080
Speaker 1: anything about him on like a national scale, Like what

1093
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 1: are we doing here? The dude is unbelievable. He's a

1094
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:57,000
Speaker 1: top three m VP candidate. He's got a really good personality.

1095
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:58,920
Speaker 1: And yeah, the English is a little bit broken and

1096
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 1: that makes it a little bit tough sometimes, but if

1097
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:02,399
Speaker 1: you get him just to talk for a couple of minutes,

1098
00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:04,520
Speaker 1: you like, he has a really good personality. The league

1099
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:06,239
Speaker 1: has to figure out like a better way to not

1100
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:09,680
Speaker 1: just have like this lebron centric like media complex to

1101
00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:12,040
Speaker 1: where like almost everything plays off him in a way.

1102
00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:14,759
Speaker 1: Like a lot of the Steph Curry conversation occurs because like, oh,

1103
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:17,720
Speaker 1: he's not better than Lebron, or like he doesn't measure

1104
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:19,760
Speaker 1: up to Lebron. It's like, yeah, but Steph is still amazing.

1105
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:21,760
Speaker 1: So is Kevin Durant. Maybe they don't measure up to Lebron.

1106
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 1: Maybe they don't, but they're still amazing players in their

1107
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:27,799
Speaker 1: own right. Not everything has to be framed in this

1108
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:31,200
Speaker 1: like oh my god, like is he is he at

1109
00:52:31,239 --> 00:52:32,759
Speaker 1: the same level as this guy? It's like, no, these

1110
00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:35,160
Speaker 1: guys are just incredible players. Let's like break them down

1111
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:37,200
Speaker 1: for what they are. And that's what the NFL does

1112
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:39,919
Speaker 1: an amazing job of the guys who are playing well,

1113
00:52:40,239 --> 00:52:42,960
Speaker 1: they get credit, they analyze their games, and they tell

1114
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:46,839
Speaker 1: you exactly what they're doing well in a very digestible way.

1115
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:50,359
Speaker 1: The NBA does not do that unequivocally. They do not,

1116
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:52,600
Speaker 1: and it hurts the product. And I will say that

1117
00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:54,759
Speaker 1: till I'm blue in the face, Like, yes, there are

1118
00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:56,799
Speaker 1: a lot of good things, but if you can't draw

1119
00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:59,479
Speaker 1: the casual fan in None of it matters really because

1120
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:01,880
Speaker 1: the league will ever being a good spot, especially with

1121
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:06,000
Speaker 1: all the COVID stuff. So I don't disagree with anything

1122
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:10,279
Speaker 1: you said. I think the NBA media coverage is to

1123
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:12,759
Speaker 1: Lebron centric, doesn't do a good job of developing its

1124
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 1: younger stars. I think analysis is at an all time low.

1125
00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:19,080
Speaker 1: I struggle with the broadcast and struggle with all this stuff.

1126
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:21,800
Speaker 1: I personally have been so deeply bothered by the refereeing

1127
00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:25,200
Speaker 1: in the league right now. I agree, so bad, it's

1128
00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:30,040
Speaker 1: so so bad. There was there was a clip like,

1129
00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:33,799
Speaker 1: oh it was our guy Bobby on Twitter, Lakers fan,

1130
00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:37,359
Speaker 1: but also a huge Steph fan. Step got absolutely way

1131
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:39,799
Speaker 1: laid on a three, like took a regular three, and

1132
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:41,440
Speaker 1: one of the New York's guys closed out on him

1133
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 1: and like basically knocked him over. This late in the

1134
00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:47,279
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, no foul call. Next possession, Steph comes down,

1135
00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:49,200
Speaker 1: He comes off a pick and roll and like kind

1136
00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:51,040
Speaker 1: of leans Intotaj Gibson as he gets to the free

1137
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:52,839
Speaker 1: throw line and flails a little bit and throws up

1138
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:54,400
Speaker 1: a floater and he makes it and he gets an

1139
00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:57,200
Speaker 1: end one. There's the issue right there, Like you're rewarding

1140
00:53:57,280 --> 00:54:01,480
Speaker 1: flopping over a guy like getting abso lutely crushed because

1141
00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:04,360
Speaker 1: he didn't accentuate or acted in the right way. I

1142
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:06,560
Speaker 1: don't know how you fix that like that. That is

1143
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,239
Speaker 1: a problem where it's like what do you do even

1144
00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 1: due to address it if the rests can't tell the

1145
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,719
Speaker 1: difference between like a clear guy getting run over and

1146
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:16,719
Speaker 1: then a guy flopping. So I I don't know how

1147
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:20,520
Speaker 1: you fix it either. If honestly, what I think the

1148
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:23,040
Speaker 1: only the only path that would make any sense to

1149
00:54:23,080 --> 00:54:27,960
Speaker 1: me is to get some former player to become the

1150
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:30,480
Speaker 1: new NBA head of referees, or to put a player

1151
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 1: panel together, a panel kind of like the NBA p A.

1152
00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:37,960
Speaker 1: Just get some group of highly influential players, like five

1153
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:40,120
Speaker 1: or six of them that you know, get on a

1154
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:42,520
Speaker 1: zoom call with the rest every week and talk about

1155
00:54:42,520 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 1: their concerns, you know, because that kind of thing would

1156
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:46,920
Speaker 1: that kind of thing would make more sense to me,

1157
00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 1: because I do think a lot of guards similar to

1158
00:54:49,719 --> 00:54:51,960
Speaker 1: Popovich a few years ago saying like, oh, I don't

1159
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:53,759
Speaker 1: want to shoot all these threes, but I'm doing it

1160
00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:56,680
Speaker 1: because that's the way you win games. Maybe maybe that's

1161
00:54:56,680 --> 00:54:59,160
Speaker 1: what it takes is getting you know, Chris Paul or

1162
00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:02,319
Speaker 1: that that's the name I was gonna bring up. Get Chris, Chris,

1163
00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:04,000
Speaker 1: Get Chris Paul in there. I think he'd be amazing

1164
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:06,239
Speaker 1: at something like that. Yeah, and haven't be like, look, man,

1165
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:08,160
Speaker 1: I'm doing this stuff because it works, but I don't

1166
00:55:08,160 --> 00:55:10,319
Speaker 1: want to do this stuff, you know, Like, dude, you

1167
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:12,680
Speaker 1: know that would be the biggest way because like at

1168
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:14,880
Speaker 1: the end of the day, Um, I I always think

1169
00:55:14,880 --> 00:55:18,440
Speaker 1: about it, like the spirit of the rule. Uh, you know,

1170
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:20,520
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the play that always gets debated

1171
00:55:20,520 --> 00:55:22,400
Speaker 1: having to do with the ball getting hit out of bounds,

1172
00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:25,560
Speaker 1: and like it very clearly the dude hits it out

1173
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:27,359
Speaker 1: of bounds, but if you look at it frame by frame,

1174
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:29,440
Speaker 1: it kind of grew, you know, grazes his finger on

1175
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:31,919
Speaker 1: the way out. It's like the spirit of the rule

1176
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:33,839
Speaker 1: is if the dude slaps the ball out of my hand,

1177
00:55:33,880 --> 00:55:36,920
Speaker 1: it's my ball, you know. Like that's more like two

1178
00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:38,719
Speaker 1: guys are going up for a rebound. The one guy

1179
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:40,680
Speaker 1: comes over the top of the other guy's hand, only

1180
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:43,000
Speaker 1: hits the guy's hand doesn't hit the ball, but he

1181
00:55:43,080 --> 00:55:45,640
Speaker 1: pushes the guy's hand and now the ball goes out

1182
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:47,759
Speaker 1: on the one guy because his hand got pushed. It's

1183
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: like the same type of thing. It's like, dude, just

1184
00:55:49,280 --> 00:55:51,480
Speaker 1: use your brain. You know what the right call is.

1185
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:55,239
Speaker 1: Just make the right call. Use discretion. Yeah, agree, and

1186
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:59,719
Speaker 1: like it that that, to me, is fixable essentially by

1187
00:55:59,719 --> 00:56:05,000
Speaker 1: trying to reframe the uh, the entire referee focus from

1188
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:09,440
Speaker 1: a really analytical, like uh, you know, rules based approach

1189
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:13,040
Speaker 1: to more of like, hey, our job here is to

1190
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:16,960
Speaker 1: is to keep a basketball game organized, not to not

1191
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:21,160
Speaker 1: to strictly follow these these specific rules. Because I think

1192
00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:24,759
Speaker 1: as soon as that kind of thing, uh, it takes place. Uh,

1193
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:26,960
Speaker 1: because that's what happens in a pickup game when we

1194
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:29,040
Speaker 1: play a pickup you know, I was playing basketball this morning.

1195
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:31,239
Speaker 1: Like there's just kind of a general understanding like if

1196
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:33,680
Speaker 1: I you know, if if I drive to the basket

1197
00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:36,719
Speaker 1: and i'm uh and I'm initiating a ton of contact

1198
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:39,360
Speaker 1: and some dude slaps me at the end, Like, I

1199
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:41,279
Speaker 1: don't know that I can call that because I'm the

1200
00:56:41,280 --> 00:56:43,760
Speaker 1: one who's initiating all the contact. And if I do,

1201
00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:46,080
Speaker 1: chances are everybody on the floor is gonna yell at

1202
00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:48,000
Speaker 1: me or look at me a certain way, and and

1203
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:50,279
Speaker 1: and and and There's a million other examples like that

1204
00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 1: that I don't want to get into. But the point

1205
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:55,239
Speaker 1: is is, like in a pickup game, it's the general

1206
00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:58,560
Speaker 1: set of rules that we're going by, is we need

1207
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:00,799
Speaker 1: to keep this a basketball game, you know, like we

1208
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:02,520
Speaker 1: need to like we need to kind of stick within

1209
00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:05,240
Speaker 1: this framework of the basketball game, whereas like the refs

1210
00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:07,319
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, well, he was chasing him over the

1211
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:09,160
Speaker 1: top of that pick and roll and technically he had

1212
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:10,839
Speaker 1: his hand on his arm as he was going up

1213
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:14,200
Speaker 1: or you know, uh, there's you get what I'm saying.

1214
00:57:14,200 --> 00:57:17,080
Speaker 1: It's just I think like it's it's an entire mind,

1215
00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:19,960
Speaker 1: Like it's an entire framework the way that the refs

1216
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 1: look at this, because if you watch refs, Ryan Rissilo

1217
00:57:23,640 --> 00:57:27,000
Speaker 1: had the lead ref guy on his podcast a couple

1218
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 1: like a couple of months ago, and uh, and he

1219
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:33,360
Speaker 1: was talking to him and and they're they're indignant about this.

1220
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:35,960
Speaker 1: Like the way they talk about it, it's like we're

1221
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,480
Speaker 1: we're doing our job, you know, Like like at one

1222
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:40,280
Speaker 1: point he literally looked at Ryan. He's like, well, Ryan,

1223
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:42,800
Speaker 1: is is it a foul? And Ryan's like, yeah, man,

1224
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:45,680
Speaker 1: but that's not what the that's not the way basketball

1225
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:49,080
Speaker 1: is supposed to be. It's like you have to understand

1226
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:52,080
Speaker 1: that that you're you're thinking about it too analytically and

1227
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:55,680
Speaker 1: too much on like a uh, you know, very like

1228
00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:59,080
Speaker 1: identifying certain types of contact as opposed to just like

1229
00:57:59,160 --> 00:58:01,960
Speaker 1: is that a basketball a yes? Is that defender playing

1230
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:04,960
Speaker 1: good clean you know, defensive basketball, or or is he

1231
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:07,600
Speaker 1: being over zealous? Like if I'm chasing Dame around the

1232
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:11,080
Speaker 1: screen and he and you don't let me chase him,

1233
00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:13,880
Speaker 1: then you're giving Dame too much of an advantage, and

1234
00:58:13,920 --> 00:58:15,720
Speaker 1: now all of the one on one elements of the

1235
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:18,240
Speaker 1: game are gone. And that's where I have a problem

1236
00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:20,040
Speaker 1: with it. I think it's I mean, there's a couple

1237
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 1: of things here. I think it's like anything in society

1238
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:26,200
Speaker 1: where like we overcorrect, right, like referring there probably was

1239
00:58:26,280 --> 00:58:28,160
Speaker 1: some issues with like we didn't get enough calls right,

1240
00:58:28,240 --> 00:58:31,200
Speaker 1: and like teams lost playoff series and championships because of that.

1241
00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:33,280
Speaker 1: And now we've like leaned so far in the other

1242
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:35,560
Speaker 1: direction where it's like everything has to be by the

1243
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,440
Speaker 1: letter of the law that there's like no room for

1244
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:42,120
Speaker 1: human interpretation. Um. And I think maybe the bigger issue,

1245
00:58:42,160 --> 00:58:44,680
Speaker 1: especially latent games and Bill Simmons and Ryan Risseilla talked

1246
00:58:44,680 --> 00:58:46,360
Speaker 1: about this, so I don't want to go on the

1247
00:58:46,360 --> 00:58:50,120
Speaker 1: same tangent that they did, but like the replace at

1248
00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:51,919
Speaker 1: the end of the games, it's like you're ruining all

1249
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:54,080
Speaker 1: of the tension and like all the excitement that goes

1250
00:58:54,120 --> 00:58:57,840
Speaker 1: into like any type of high climax like sport event,

1251
00:58:57,880 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: where it's like we don't know who's gonna win, Like

1252
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:01,600
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of tension here because the outcome is

1253
00:59:01,600 --> 00:59:03,520
Speaker 1: still in the balance, and then we do a replay

1254
00:59:03,560 --> 00:59:05,680
Speaker 1: for like four minutes and we try to figure out

1255
00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:08,200
Speaker 1: the correct fall. Easy. I think that specific play is

1256
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:09,840
Speaker 1: a is an easy fix. I think all you have

1257
00:59:09,880 --> 00:59:12,640
Speaker 1: to do is similar to like tennis or the NFL

1258
00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:15,320
Speaker 1: have a replay center, and that's what they brought up.

1259
00:59:15,680 --> 00:59:18,240
Speaker 1: Have them immediately start reviewing the play, Like if there's

1260
00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:20,920
Speaker 1: an out of balance call, have them immediately start reviewing

1261
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:23,080
Speaker 1: the play, because they should be reviewing every call in

1262
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:25,680
Speaker 1: the last two minutes automatically, like they're just they're in

1263
00:59:25,720 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 1: a replay center, just like it's already happening. So when

1264
00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:30,520
Speaker 1: the refs walk over, they get an immediate answer, right

1265
00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:33,120
Speaker 1: instead of like this long drawn out process. It doesn't

1266
00:59:33,120 --> 00:59:35,480
Speaker 1: even seem that hard to pull off, for sure. Figure

1267
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:39,440
Speaker 1: it out. Yeah, in the twenty seconds with our all

1268
00:59:39,480 --> 00:59:41,320
Speaker 1: pointing at each other and doing this, the dudes are

1269
00:59:41,320 --> 00:59:43,760
Speaker 1: already reviewing the tape. Now, it's just a call that

1270
00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:45,600
Speaker 1: literally the ref just has to go over to a

1271
00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:47,160
Speaker 1: phone pick it up. It's like, all right, what is it? Guys?

1272
00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:48,720
Speaker 1: All right, blue ball? Okay, here we go, you know,

1273
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,760
Speaker 1: make it quick and easy. But but I agree with

1274
00:59:51,760 --> 00:59:54,600
Speaker 1: you because it is like it's a Pandora's box thing, right,

1275
00:59:54,600 --> 00:59:56,680
Speaker 1: Like you can't put everything back in it. We already

1276
00:59:56,680 --> 00:59:59,160
Speaker 1: have replay, Like you can't be like, oh, we're gonna

1277
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:01,240
Speaker 1: like wind back play a little bit. It's already here.

1278
01:00:01,640 --> 01:00:04,160
Speaker 1: So since it is, let's figure out a system where

1279
01:00:04,160 --> 01:00:07,080
Speaker 1: we can actually do it correctly and it doesn't affect,

1280
01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:09,760
Speaker 1: like you're saying, the spirit of the game. As as

1281
01:00:09,800 --> 01:00:12,080
Speaker 1: basketball fans and even the casual fan, like the casual

1282
01:00:12,160 --> 01:00:14,520
Speaker 1: fan hates that kind of stuff. They hate watching a

1283
01:00:14,520 --> 01:00:17,240
Speaker 1: basketball game and then five minute replay and they're like, oh,

1284
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:18,920
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna turn this off. I really don't care

1285
01:00:18,960 --> 01:00:21,040
Speaker 1: about the outcome. You know, I'm not a if it's

1286
01:00:21,040 --> 01:00:23,320
Speaker 1: a Celtics late or you know, a Celtics. Let's say

1287
01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:26,760
Speaker 1: Wizard's game, and it's a really good game, but there's

1288
01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:28,960
Speaker 1: no like huge fan interest. They're just from kind of

1289
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:31,840
Speaker 1: like a normal standpoint. Somebody's you're just gonna flip the

1290
01:00:31,920 --> 01:00:33,440
Speaker 1: channel if there's a five minute review, like they just

1291
01:00:33,440 --> 01:00:35,680
Speaker 1: don't care about the outcome. That's how you bolster your

1292
01:00:35,720 --> 01:00:38,120
Speaker 1: ratings as you clean up all that little stuff. But

1293
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:41,960
Speaker 1: so to push back on what you originally said, though,

1294
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:44,080
Speaker 1: like because I do agree with all of those flaws,

1295
01:00:44,600 --> 01:00:47,080
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm saying is like if we had

1296
01:00:47,120 --> 01:00:51,480
Speaker 1: picked up the identical quality basketball in all of the

1297
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:56,120
Speaker 1: surrounding circumstances from the nineties and we dropped them today

1298
01:00:56,320 --> 01:01:00,160
Speaker 1: with today's public attitude to everything and social media and

1299
01:01:00,160 --> 01:01:03,680
Speaker 1: all that stuff, would we also be complaining? Because that's

1300
01:01:03,720 --> 01:01:07,000
Speaker 1: my question because like as far as like the viewership stuff,

1301
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:10,560
Speaker 1: it's like the viewership stuff is down across across the board,

1302
01:01:10,960 --> 01:01:14,920
Speaker 1: and if you're striving to reach these crazy NBA Finals

1303
01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:20,480
Speaker 1: numbers from the Jordan era, I'm sorry, that's unrealistic. Act

1304
01:01:20,880 --> 01:01:23,320
Speaker 1: that's a product of TV. Like sein Field episodes used

1305
01:01:23,320 --> 01:01:25,000
Speaker 1: to get better ratings in the Super Bowl, you or

1306
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:27,040
Speaker 1: the same ratings of the super Bowl and it was

1307
01:01:27,160 --> 01:01:30,920
Speaker 1: every week, So you gotta embrace like the And I

1308
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:34,400
Speaker 1: do think like I do think that, uh you know,

1309
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:36,840
Speaker 1: because I gotta do an argument with somebody about this

1310
01:01:36,880 --> 01:01:40,200
Speaker 1: a long time ago, but I really do think that, uh,

1311
01:01:40,240 --> 01:01:42,560
Speaker 1: there is something to be said about attention on the

1312
01:01:42,640 --> 01:01:45,760
Speaker 1: league and the ability to eventually monetize it. So for instance,

1313
01:01:45,800 --> 01:01:47,720
Speaker 1: like one of the things that the NBA does a

1314
01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:51,400
Speaker 1: great job with the social media impressions now right now,

1315
01:01:51,520 --> 01:01:54,040
Speaker 1: they they haven't quite figured out how to monetize or

1316
01:01:54,080 --> 01:01:56,440
Speaker 1: they they are monetizing it, but not as well as

1317
01:01:56,520 --> 01:01:59,240
Speaker 1: they could, uh as you know a typical TV viewer

1318
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:01,840
Speaker 1: for instance. Well what I what I think is like,

1319
01:02:02,920 --> 01:02:05,960
Speaker 1: I do think that the there's a reason why salary

1320
01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:10,360
Speaker 1: cap keeps uh ticking up. And when the new next

1321
01:02:10,400 --> 01:02:12,040
Speaker 1: round of TV deals go, I don't know how they're

1322
01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:13,360
Speaker 1: gonna do that. If it's gonna be some sort of

1323
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:15,600
Speaker 1: combination of streaming and TV or whatever it is they're

1324
01:02:15,600 --> 01:02:17,680
Speaker 1: gonna do, They're gonna be fine. They're finding a way

1325
01:02:17,720 --> 01:02:19,880
Speaker 1: to make money off this stuff. It's a different type

1326
01:02:19,920 --> 01:02:22,439
Speaker 1: of viewer. It's a different viewer of viewership experience. Part

1327
01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:26,040
Speaker 1: of it, too, is our generation prefers things in smaller doses.

1328
01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:28,200
Speaker 1: We don't have the same patients that we used to

1329
01:02:28,200 --> 01:02:30,880
Speaker 1: to sit down and watch eighty two regular season games,

1330
01:02:30,920 --> 01:02:32,640
Speaker 1: and I would imagine our kids are gonna be even

1331
01:02:32,680 --> 01:02:34,160
Speaker 1: worse in that regard. So a lot of this is

1332
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:37,200
Speaker 1: adapting and and trying to compare apples to oranges, and

1333
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:39,800
Speaker 1: so all I'm saying is like, I agree that all

1334
01:02:39,800 --> 01:02:41,680
Speaker 1: this stuff is a problem. I agree that all of

1335
01:02:41,680 --> 01:02:43,080
Speaker 1: it needs to be fixed. You and I just broke

1336
01:02:43,120 --> 01:02:45,960
Speaker 1: down potential ways to fix refereeing. All of it should

1337
01:02:45,960 --> 01:02:48,400
Speaker 1: be addressed, and I hope that they are going to

1338
01:02:48,440 --> 01:02:52,320
Speaker 1: eventually get to this stuff. However, I just this idea that,

1339
01:02:52,400 --> 01:02:55,720
Speaker 1: like the NBA is a dying sport and this is

1340
01:02:55,760 --> 01:02:58,040
Speaker 1: all the cancerous tumors that are on it. I would

1341
01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:00,680
Speaker 1: disagree with that personally. No, I mean, as long as

1342
01:03:00,720 --> 01:03:02,480
Speaker 1: I can make it through COVID here and get fans

1343
01:03:02,520 --> 01:03:04,600
Speaker 1: back in arenas and eventually have focal pacity. Again, I

1344
01:03:04,600 --> 01:03:06,480
Speaker 1: don't think it's a dying sport, but I think they're

1345
01:03:06,560 --> 01:03:08,840
Speaker 1: like things that need to be addressed. Like NBA Finals

1346
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:10,720
Speaker 1: was down I want to say sixty six percent year

1347
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:13,120
Speaker 1: over year. That wasn't in line with the other sports.

1348
01:03:13,480 --> 01:03:17,680
Speaker 1: So yes, everything, but all the other sports were compared

1349
01:03:17,720 --> 01:03:21,560
Speaker 1: to the same time frame, like the like the Super

1350
01:03:21,600 --> 01:03:25,120
Speaker 1: Bowl happened in February, but the Baseball happened in October.

1351
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:28,439
Speaker 1: The World seriously happened, the World Series in the NBA

1352
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:30,960
Speaker 1: Finals happened three weeks of each other. I know, but

1353
01:03:30,960 --> 01:03:33,160
Speaker 1: but the Major League Baseball does have a larger fan

1354
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:35,680
Speaker 1: base in the NBA that remember that, the larger regional

1355
01:03:35,680 --> 01:03:38,720
Speaker 1: fan base. Yeah, they'll get they're they're there. When the

1356
01:03:38,760 --> 01:03:40,520
Speaker 1: Cubs made the World Series, they were having like fifty

1357
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:43,480
Speaker 1: million people watching World Series games. That's the Cubs, though,

1358
01:03:43,680 --> 01:03:49,240
Speaker 1: that's different. I guess I'm just saying, like I I

1359
01:03:49,280 --> 01:03:52,640
Speaker 1: think that the NBA bubble. I would be more willing

1360
01:03:52,680 --> 01:03:55,120
Speaker 1: to hear that out next year, I think than I

1361
01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:59,120
Speaker 1: would this year. Is I guess my answer, I just

1362
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:01,680
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm just being too much of a glass

1363
01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:05,240
Speaker 1: half full kind of guy here, But like I I

1364
01:04:05,280 --> 01:04:09,080
Speaker 1: believe that if an average fan turns on an NBA

1365
01:04:09,160 --> 01:04:13,680
Speaker 1: game right now, they there are downsides, but they're experiencing

1366
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:16,680
Speaker 1: just as much positive as they would like. If you

1367
01:04:16,720 --> 01:04:18,920
Speaker 1: turn on the Pacers, literally, if you turned on a

1368
01:04:19,520 --> 01:04:22,880
Speaker 1: you know, like a Pacers Knicks game. You think that

1369
01:04:22,960 --> 01:04:27,160
Speaker 1: was a super entertaining experience in February. No, And and

1370
01:04:27,360 --> 01:04:30,120
Speaker 1: to defend the modern NBA, like that stuff was more

1371
01:04:30,160 --> 01:04:34,240
Speaker 1: of appointment television because we didn't have every game being broadcasted, right,

1372
01:04:34,280 --> 01:04:37,240
Speaker 1: So when you got in, when you're sitting on your

1373
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:40,320
Speaker 1: couch and it's a Tuesday night, or it's a Saturday,

1374
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:42,200
Speaker 1: or it's a Sunday, you're like, oh, shoot, we have

1375
01:04:42,320 --> 01:04:44,080
Speaker 1: NBA on today, and you only get to see the

1376
01:04:44,080 --> 01:04:47,480
Speaker 1: next twice a year. That's whereas now it's like super accessible.

1377
01:04:47,480 --> 01:04:48,840
Speaker 1: If I just want to pay like two U fifty

1378
01:04:48,840 --> 01:04:50,880
Speaker 1: bucks a year, I could watch every single New York

1379
01:04:50,920 --> 01:04:52,560
Speaker 1: Knicks game. And if I just want to watch the Knicks,

1380
01:04:52,640 --> 01:04:54,480
Speaker 1: I could be like, I think it's eighty bucks for

1381
01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:57,760
Speaker 1: the entire year or something for just one team. So like, yeah,

1382
01:04:57,800 --> 01:04:59,640
Speaker 1: there's a lot of factors that play into this stuff.

1383
01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:03,320
Speaker 1: What I don't think we should just totally totally dismissed

1384
01:05:03,320 --> 01:05:06,360
Speaker 1: the ratings, especially when it's not absolutely in line with

1385
01:05:06,400 --> 01:05:08,240
Speaker 1: everything else that's happening, Like there is a I just

1386
01:05:08,240 --> 01:05:11,200
Speaker 1: think there's a middle ground here between like the ratings,

1387
01:05:11,240 --> 01:05:14,080
Speaker 1: like the ratings people who think it's the most dire

1388
01:05:14,160 --> 01:05:16,040
Speaker 1: situation in the world, and then people who think that

1389
01:05:16,200 --> 01:05:18,840
Speaker 1: there's no issues at all. M I agree with, And

1390
01:05:19,080 --> 01:05:22,280
Speaker 1: that's a good point about the appointment television stuff. And

1391
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:23,520
Speaker 1: I guess that just kind of goes back to what

1392
01:05:23,560 --> 01:05:25,200
Speaker 1: I was saying earlier about it being kind of apples

1393
01:05:25,200 --> 01:05:28,400
Speaker 1: to oranges. It's just I think, I don't know, I

1394
01:05:28,440 --> 01:05:30,600
Speaker 1: think this stuff is hard, and like, you know what

1395
01:05:30,680 --> 01:05:33,480
Speaker 1: else to like we all are, you know, we kind

1396
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:36,120
Speaker 1: of surround us. We try. I try to surround myself

1397
01:05:36,160 --> 01:05:38,480
Speaker 1: with differing opinions. I followed fans from all these different

1398
01:05:38,520 --> 01:05:41,000
Speaker 1: fan bases, like I follow with with politics, I follow

1399
01:05:41,040 --> 01:05:43,800
Speaker 1: people from both sides. And that's how we started doing

1400
01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:45,840
Speaker 1: That's really how we started doing a podcast together because

1401
01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:48,080
Speaker 1: we had differing viewpoints and we were like, Okay, maybe

1402
01:05:48,080 --> 01:05:51,360
Speaker 1: there's maybe we can bring conflicting opinions to something and

1403
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:54,480
Speaker 1: making it making it entertaining exactly. I agree, and and

1404
01:05:54,560 --> 01:05:58,200
Speaker 1: so I think, like, but even with us trying to

1405
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:00,880
Speaker 1: do that, there's still a little of an echo chamber,

1406
01:06:00,920 --> 01:06:04,360
Speaker 1: at least I think generationally, because a lot of the

1407
01:06:04,400 --> 01:06:06,560
Speaker 1: people I follow are in this like twenty five to

1408
01:06:06,680 --> 01:06:10,040
Speaker 1: thirty five age group, guys who watch a lot of

1409
01:06:10,120 --> 01:06:13,680
Speaker 1: m B A, and I do think there's I would imagine,

1410
01:06:13,720 --> 01:06:16,000
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm wrong about this. I would imagine in

1411
01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:21,439
Speaker 1: the NBA League office there's some person you know, who's

1412
01:06:21,480 --> 01:06:23,320
Speaker 1: been in business for a long time in some in

1413
01:06:23,440 --> 01:06:26,080
Speaker 1: some aspect, who knows a lot of social media or whatever,

1414
01:06:26,080 --> 01:06:28,760
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, who's sitting down with Adam Silver and

1415
01:06:28,800 --> 01:06:33,560
Speaker 1: going like, listen, like you guys post a YouTube clip

1416
01:06:33,680 --> 01:06:35,400
Speaker 1: of a highlight from one of these players and it

1417
01:06:35,440 --> 01:06:39,959
Speaker 1: gets X number of views. This TikTok got seventy seven

1418
01:06:40,040 --> 01:06:41,480
Speaker 1: trillion views or whatever the heck it is. I'm just

1419
01:06:41,480 --> 01:06:43,680
Speaker 1: throwing numbers out, but you have to find a way

1420
01:06:43,680 --> 01:06:46,240
Speaker 1: to do this because this is where the next generation is.

1421
01:06:46,720 --> 01:06:50,200
Speaker 1: And for you and I, we're gonna be like that's bullshit,

1422
01:06:50,360 --> 01:06:52,600
Speaker 1: Like how that like the TikTok really? You know, we

1423
01:06:52,680 --> 01:06:54,160
Speaker 1: all made fun of them at the All Star break

1424
01:06:54,240 --> 01:06:56,360
Speaker 1: last year for doing that, and it's like no, no no, Like,

1425
01:06:56,400 --> 01:06:59,560
Speaker 1: the NBA literally has some super smart person who knows

1426
01:06:59,600 --> 01:07:02,160
Speaker 1: this stuff a lot better than us, who's sitting down

1427
01:07:02,160 --> 01:07:03,840
Speaker 1: with their the higher up saying like, this is what

1428
01:07:03,880 --> 01:07:06,760
Speaker 1: you gotta do. And I think, like, to your point,

1429
01:07:06,800 --> 01:07:09,640
Speaker 1: there's a middle ground, like you don't want to stray,

1430
01:07:09,720 --> 01:07:12,480
Speaker 1: you don't want to stray too far in any one direction.

1431
01:07:13,360 --> 01:07:16,000
Speaker 1: But I do think I do think we should give

1432
01:07:16,080 --> 01:07:17,840
Speaker 1: the NBA a little bit of the benefit of the

1433
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:21,680
Speaker 1: doubt as they're trying to adapt to literally like the

1434
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:23,720
Speaker 1: entire world getting turned over on its head in the

1435
01:07:23,760 --> 01:07:26,600
Speaker 1: way that we do everything on a day to day basis. No,

1436
01:07:26,800 --> 01:07:29,080
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't disagree. I'm I'm actually really interested

1437
01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:31,640
Speaker 1: to see how the next TV deal shakes out, because

1438
01:07:32,320 --> 01:07:34,440
Speaker 1: I would think it starts to lean more towards streaming,

1439
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:37,280
Speaker 1: especially with the way the NBA has begun to do stuff.

1440
01:07:37,320 --> 01:07:39,360
Speaker 1: They do want a social media presence, like they are

1441
01:07:39,400 --> 01:07:41,680
Speaker 1: really good on Twitter, they do a great job on YouTube,

1442
01:07:41,680 --> 01:07:44,680
Speaker 1: like they've basically taken over their own YouTube, like they

1443
01:07:44,760 --> 01:07:47,320
Speaker 1: won't let Praying the people post highlights anymore because they

1444
01:07:47,320 --> 01:07:50,320
Speaker 1: want all that for their piece of the pie. Right.

1445
01:07:50,320 --> 01:07:52,320
Speaker 1: They're trying to get on TikTok, which is still weird

1446
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:54,400
Speaker 1: to me, but it's probably something they have to do,

1447
01:07:54,680 --> 01:07:58,680
Speaker 1: as you're kind of noting. So yeah, I mean, I'm

1448
01:07:58,720 --> 01:08:00,800
Speaker 1: honestly just see was it to see where all this

1449
01:08:01,000 --> 01:08:02,600
Speaker 1: ends up, because I think it is a really crucial

1450
01:08:02,640 --> 01:08:04,800
Speaker 1: time like they can. If they do all of this correctly,

1451
01:08:04,840 --> 01:08:08,320
Speaker 1: I think they could really maybe um on the market

1452
01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:09,840
Speaker 1: within the next ten years. I mean, they're never going

1453
01:08:09,880 --> 01:08:11,960
Speaker 1: to overtake the NFL, but they could become the clear,

1454
01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:14,520
Speaker 1: clear clear number two again to where they're easily the

1455
01:08:14,560 --> 01:08:17,880
Speaker 1: second most popular sport in the country, and then globally

1456
01:08:17,920 --> 01:08:20,840
Speaker 1: they're gonna keep growing, Like NBA is the second most

1457
01:08:20,920 --> 01:08:22,639
Speaker 1: or not NBA basketball is, it's like the most popular

1458
01:08:22,680 --> 01:08:25,200
Speaker 1: sport in the world behind soccer, so I think crickets

1459
01:08:25,240 --> 01:08:28,240
Speaker 1: up there too, but that's kind of more regionalized. There's

1460
01:08:28,240 --> 01:08:29,760
Speaker 1: just a lot of people who like it because it's

1461
01:08:29,880 --> 01:08:32,640
Speaker 1: very popular in one region. But point being like basketball

1462
01:08:32,720 --> 01:08:34,559
Speaker 1: isn't a good place overall. They just have to figure

1463
01:08:34,600 --> 01:08:36,360
Speaker 1: out the right way to go about this, and it

1464
01:08:36,360 --> 01:08:38,920
Speaker 1: it feels like they keep making mistakes would make the

1465
01:08:38,960 --> 01:08:41,800
Speaker 1: product worse, and if you do that enough times, then

1466
01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:44,240
Speaker 1: eventually it becomes a problem. And I think that's probably

1467
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:46,080
Speaker 1: what more of kind of the alarmous stuff is about.

1468
01:08:46,520 --> 01:08:48,320
Speaker 1: We actually do the same thing on Warriors Twitter to

1469
01:08:48,360 --> 01:08:49,800
Speaker 1: kind of pull back the curtain a little bit. There's

1470
01:08:49,840 --> 01:08:52,200
Speaker 1: been some concerning moves by the front office. So every

1471
01:08:52,200 --> 01:08:55,720
Speaker 1: time there's another concerning move by the front office. You're like, oh, like,

1472
01:08:56,000 --> 01:08:58,080
Speaker 1: are these guys actually not who they who we thought

1473
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:00,240
Speaker 1: they were? And there's kind of the same feeling with

1474
01:09:00,240 --> 01:09:02,360
Speaker 1: the NBA. I think that's why Warriors fans have honed

1475
01:09:02,400 --> 01:09:04,479
Speaker 1: in on it so much, because we do see some

1476
01:09:04,520 --> 01:09:06,120
Speaker 1: of the cracks in the army with the front office,

1477
01:09:06,600 --> 01:09:09,160
Speaker 1: and we see a parallel with the league office where

1478
01:09:09,160 --> 01:09:11,679
Speaker 1: it's like, these guys keep making weird decisions and they're

1479
01:09:11,720 --> 01:09:14,960
Speaker 1: not really correcting the problems that need to be corrected. No,

1480
01:09:15,680 --> 01:09:19,000
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting, and like, I just I think, like

1481
01:09:19,600 --> 01:09:22,400
Speaker 1: I think things will shake out. Um, I feel the

1482
01:09:22,400 --> 01:09:24,800
Speaker 1: same way about just the on court product. Like it

1483
01:09:24,920 --> 01:09:29,479
Speaker 1: it's you know, at a certain point, the defenses will

1484
01:09:29,520 --> 01:09:32,000
Speaker 1: adapt and you won't see as many threes. You know,

1485
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:35,200
Speaker 1: at a certain point, the refs are gonna get sick

1486
01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:37,240
Speaker 1: of getting slandered and they'll try to get better hopefully,

1487
01:09:37,280 --> 01:09:39,000
Speaker 1: Like all this stuff I think just kind of organically

1488
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:41,679
Speaker 1: works itself out. And I just I love the league

1489
01:09:41,800 --> 01:09:44,920
Speaker 1: and you're right like that the casual fan it is

1490
01:09:45,479 --> 01:09:48,519
Speaker 1: an important part of their business strategy in heading into

1491
01:09:48,560 --> 01:09:52,080
Speaker 1: the future, and like the financial incentives are real, like

1492
01:09:52,160 --> 01:09:55,400
Speaker 1: the players know that for them to make more money,

1493
01:09:55,439 --> 01:09:58,519
Speaker 1: the league has to make more money. And so I

1494
01:09:58,560 --> 01:10:00,720
Speaker 1: think that I think that you and I touched on

1495
01:10:00,720 --> 01:10:02,760
Speaker 1: this earlier, but the idea of getting some sort of

1496
01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:06,720
Speaker 1: player panel from the NBA p A to work directly

1497
01:10:06,800 --> 01:10:10,559
Speaker 1: with refs to try to to try to figure out

1498
01:10:10,680 --> 01:10:13,840
Speaker 1: some common ground might be one of the easiest ways

1499
01:10:13,880 --> 01:10:17,240
Speaker 1: to improve that specific side of it. And maybe if

1500
01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:19,280
Speaker 1: you shouldn't just be like refereeing, it should just be

1501
01:10:19,360 --> 01:10:21,400
Speaker 1: like kind of spirit of the game type stuff, right,

1502
01:10:21,439 --> 01:10:24,280
Speaker 1: like it's just a more encompassing thing where yeah, refereeing

1503
01:10:24,360 --> 01:10:26,679
Speaker 1: is a part of it, but like what ways would

1504
01:10:26,680 --> 01:10:30,080
Speaker 1: make the game? And this would be tricky because players

1505
01:10:30,120 --> 01:10:32,320
Speaker 1: are always going to advocate for themselves in a way.

1506
01:10:32,360 --> 01:10:34,320
Speaker 1: But you know, what are some ways that you think

1507
01:10:34,320 --> 01:10:36,760
Speaker 1: the game could improve, And it might be better to

1508
01:10:36,800 --> 01:10:40,360
Speaker 1: do it with guys who were recently retired, like NFL

1509
01:10:40,520 --> 01:10:42,439
Speaker 1: Tony Rolmo has been a really good NFL analyst because

1510
01:10:42,439 --> 01:10:44,880
Speaker 1: he's recently retired, he still knows like all the lingo

1511
01:10:44,960 --> 01:10:46,400
Speaker 1: he saw, has a lot of connections in the league,

1512
01:10:46,479 --> 01:10:49,479
Speaker 1: so he can convey the game very very well. You

1513
01:10:49,479 --> 01:10:51,920
Speaker 1: should get guys like that in the NBA league office

1514
01:10:51,960 --> 01:10:54,880
Speaker 1: who are recently retired really know the game well. And

1515
01:10:54,920 --> 01:10:56,840
Speaker 1: there I think those guys would be more prone to

1516
01:10:56,880 --> 01:10:59,000
Speaker 1: advocate for the league on the whole instead of just

1517
01:10:59,040 --> 01:11:03,760
Speaker 1: advocating for the players, as active players would tend to do. Yeah,

1518
01:11:03,800 --> 01:11:06,360
Speaker 1: and and and that's the important balance is like you

1519
01:11:06,400 --> 01:11:08,439
Speaker 1: can't have the players making all the decisions because if

1520
01:11:08,439 --> 01:11:09,880
Speaker 1: it were up to the players, none of them would

1521
01:11:09,880 --> 01:11:12,000
Speaker 1: ever get criticized in the media, which is a completely

1522
01:11:12,360 --> 01:11:15,880
Speaker 1: like a completely impossible type of future for the league.

1523
01:11:15,920 --> 01:11:18,400
Speaker 1: And and you need but you need you. I think

1524
01:11:18,400 --> 01:11:20,760
Speaker 1: the idea there is like you get a bunch of

1525
01:11:20,760 --> 01:11:22,719
Speaker 1: the different sides in the room and you start bouncing

1526
01:11:22,760 --> 01:11:24,479
Speaker 1: ideas around and you find a way to make it work.

1527
01:11:24,520 --> 01:11:26,519
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like it's I

1528
01:11:26,560 --> 01:11:29,720
Speaker 1: would hope that they're already doing this stuff. Yeah they're not.

1529
01:11:29,760 --> 01:11:33,559
Speaker 1: They're definitely in trouble. Yeah exactly. Anyway, we are just

1530
01:11:33,680 --> 01:11:35,559
Speaker 1: over about an hour and ten minutes, so I'm gonna

1531
01:11:35,640 --> 01:11:37,640
Speaker 1: let you guys go. Everybody, thank you so much for

1532
01:11:37,680 --> 01:11:40,680
Speaker 1: tuning in. Like I said, we need a new show name.

1533
01:11:40,880 --> 01:11:45,920
Speaker 1: So I'll tweet this out with the Tommy's put a

1534
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:49,439
Speaker 1: gun to his head. I'll I'll send out a tweet

1535
01:11:49,479 --> 01:11:51,040
Speaker 1: that you can share here in a minute that just

1536
01:11:51,120 --> 01:11:54,519
Speaker 1: kind of asks for some ideas. But the podcast version

1537
01:11:54,520 --> 01:11:57,040
Speaker 1: of this will be out probably in about fifteen twenty minutes. Tommy,

1538
01:11:57,120 --> 01:11:59,000
Speaker 1: thank you as always, and I will see you next week.

1539
01:11:59,040 --> 01:12:00,680
Speaker 1: My friend sounds good man. Thank you