Speaker 1: Hey, welcome into All Ball, the All Basketball podcast here
Speaker 1: for you on the Heard podcast network. Make sure you
Speaker 1: get downloads, you subscribe, and you rate us. Got over
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand downloads just last week. Let's get that
Speaker 1: number up to a hundred fifty thousand downs. Give you
Speaker 1: a couple of my thoughts, get you into some great interviews,
Speaker 1: some interesting perspective on the NBA and UM. Maybe a
Speaker 1: couple of college basketball thoughts as well. Kind of interesting
Speaker 1: what has happened with UM with Condoleeza Rice. Here's my
Speaker 1: read on Conda Liza Rice deciding to do a one
Speaker 1: eighty or maybe not a complete one eighty, more of
Speaker 1: a ninety or a one twenty, saying after the night
Speaker 1: after the commission released their findings on college basketball. Only
Speaker 1: now she comes out and says, hey, I think I
Speaker 1: should be you know, able to be called and saying
Speaker 1: for their name and likeness. Two parts to it. One,
Speaker 1: she wasn't the entire committee. This is kind of Liza
Speaker 1: rightist thoughts as opposed to the committee's findings. Was well,
Speaker 1: their findings as a whole. Secondly, I think we've gotten
Speaker 1: this place where no one wants to be unpopular. That's it.
Speaker 1: No one wants to be unpopular. It's an unpopular narrative
Speaker 1: to say guys should be compensated, should not be compensated
Speaker 1: for their name and likeness. It's unpopular narrative. Sorry, because
Speaker 1: our college basketball coaches have told me that, Hey, look, man,
Speaker 1: I don't really care if they do, but there's so
Speaker 1: many We have a near perfect system. We have a
Speaker 1: really good system, and we're gonna try and find perfect
Speaker 1: out of it. It just doesn't exist. You're gonna open
Speaker 1: up a whole new can of worms. Last week, I
Speaker 1: was at University of Kansas and UM Kansas obviously somehow
Speaker 1: and broke a little bit in the FBI stuff, although
Speaker 1: they're not accused of any wrongdoing in the most recent
Speaker 1: FBI details. But what's fascinating to me is here's Kansas
Speaker 1: one of the top five programs in the country, Historic
Speaker 1: fall Gallen Field House. They produced one and duns and
Speaker 1: sometimes two, three, four or five and duns. And I
Speaker 1: watched Davontae Graham, who's just what an amazing career he
Speaker 1: had from a guy who originally committed to app State
Speaker 1: getting out, sitting out next year, coming to KU, going
Speaker 1: from being a combo guard and a bench player to
Speaker 1: a star starter in a star in the point guard
Speaker 1: this year in the Final four team, Like what an
Speaker 1: incredible career. And you know what he was doing when
Speaker 1: I was there. He had an autograph signing session in
Speaker 1: Lawrence and then he had one in Whichita and I
Speaker 1: would guess he was gonna bag grand or so and
Speaker 1: and so the idea is like look at the very
Speaker 1: very top the top of the heat because the only
Speaker 1: people who's who we think their name and likeness is
Speaker 1: really valuable is the guys at the very top of
Speaker 1: the heap. They're so well compensated, if you will, they
Speaker 1: don't really need the autograph session. They have MacArthur Hall
Speaker 1: right next to the gym. MacArthur Hall is a basketball dorm.
Speaker 1: They do have regular students in it. It has a
Speaker 1: three quarter court basketball court, has a full time chef,
Speaker 1: has all this other stuff they have that. They have
Speaker 1: a brand new locker room, They play in the best
Speaker 1: are in the country. They have cost of attendance, they
Speaker 1: have a beautiful practic facility. They have everything you could
Speaker 1: ever want there. You never there's you want them for nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing for nothing. And if you want to say and
Speaker 1: like look at what's fascinating me is guys like Jay Billis,
Speaker 1: who has had amazing career after his Duke career finished right,
Speaker 1: played professionally, some came back, was a grad student, got
Speaker 1: his law degree from Duke as a practicing lawyer partner firm,
Speaker 1: and is the lead analyst for ESPN. J Billis went
Speaker 1: to school for a Duke for seven years without ever
Speaker 1: opening a checkbook. And j BILLI is as good as
Speaker 1: he is an ANALYSTI is very very good. Those doors
Speaker 1: would not have been opening. And I played at Duke,
Speaker 1: not um. Jalen Rose? Who who? Who offered up the
Speaker 1: completely nonsensical they should boycott the final four? Like, dude,
Speaker 1: Jalen Who's you know, he's on get up, He's on
Speaker 1: the NBA. He had a he had a good NBA career.
Speaker 1: Jayalen Rose is known to the world because he was
Speaker 1: one of the two great players in the on the
Speaker 1: Fab five, actually one of the three best players in
Speaker 1: the Fab five. Jowan Howard's great player too, but he's like,
Speaker 1: I think, how many kids are named Jalen Now? Why
Speaker 1: it's not because of Jalen Rose. When he's playing with
Speaker 1: the pacers, you know, with the bulls, Jalen Rose with
Speaker 1: the Fab five dude. He was popular and we made
Speaker 1: him popular. But what's what's fascinating to me is this
Speaker 1: whole idea of well, it's not you're not allowing kids
Speaker 1: to choose, you know, one school above the other. Why
Speaker 1: can't you just do free market? It is it's one.
Speaker 1: It's not a free market. NBA is not a free market.
Speaker 1: By the way, you can't just pick on a whim
Speaker 1: where you go. There's the collectively Barkin Agreement. Now, if
Speaker 1: you to say they don't have any collective parting rights
Speaker 1: in college basketball, that's fair. On the other hand, all
Speaker 1: of the rights they do have would be what they
Speaker 1: would be fighting for collectively limited work hours twenty hours
Speaker 1: in season, eight hours out of season. You know they
Speaker 1: have for now, they have four year scholarships and oh yeah,
Speaker 1: by the way, postgraduate scholarships. If they leave their scholarship
Speaker 1: early to go play professionally, they can come back anytime
Speaker 1: beyond full scholarship and beyond the floor as a coach.
Speaker 1: Like that, the benefits are ridiculous. And if you say, well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't allow colleges to compete, why can't of course
Speaker 1: they compete. They compete with facilities, with academic help, with
Speaker 1: how they promote you, with who they play, the conference
Speaker 1: they play in. You know, look, if you if you're
Speaker 1: good enough as a basketball player, you're Do you want
Speaker 1: to go play a duke play for Mike Szchewski, who
Speaker 1: has a litany of coaches in college basketball and in
Speaker 1: the NBA and all these other NBA players and the
Speaker 1: commissioner of the NBA is a duke all um. Or
Speaker 1: do you want to go play Kentucky? They have their
Speaker 1: own kind of setup. Here's why you would play Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Or do you wanna play at u c l A
Speaker 1: where you become a name in the city, the Evangels.
Speaker 1: Do you want to play Arizona where you become a
Speaker 1: part of what they called a player's program. Do you
Speaker 1: want to go play at Indiana where you're part of
Speaker 1: history and wearing the candy stripe pants like they all
Speaker 1: have their It's no different than choosing between jobs. But
Speaker 1: the idea that well, they players don't get nothing, don't
Speaker 1: get anything. Anyone who's been through it knows that's not true.
Speaker 1: Anyone been through it knows that first of all, getting
Speaker 1: into college is really hard. We never calculate the cost
Speaker 1: of just getting in and like for Wendell Carter's mom
Speaker 1: to say, well, this is like only like slaves, like, no,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna stop it. That's that's embarrassing, really is
Speaker 1: it's embarrassing. I mean to get into Duke. Going to
Speaker 1: Duke gives a choice when car didn't have to go
Speaker 1: to Duke. And all we did was promote Duke and
Speaker 1: therefore freshman and Grayson Allen as a senior U should
Speaker 1: they end up getting they they gets. You gives you
Speaker 1: credibility that you played for Mike sa Chefski, that you
Speaker 1: played for Duke, did you play in the A SEC,
Speaker 1: get to play in in Cameren Indoor Stadium. All these
Speaker 1: are choices that you make. Slaves didn't have choices. They
Speaker 1: just didn't. They didn't go like, oh, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to transfer from this slave owner to that
Speaker 1: slave owner and still be on scholarship at the time.
Speaker 1: They didn't say like, oh hey, listen, um, the slave
Speaker 1: thing it was cool for a year, but I want
Speaker 1: to go play in the pro slave Like come on, dude,
Speaker 1: what what are we talking about. You get an unbelievable
Speaker 1: opportunity to make a name for yourself while getting an education,
Speaker 1: and you might not value education, but that's on you
Speaker 1: and to all of these people in our business you are,
Speaker 1: you're embarrassing yourselves because you know, the reality of it is,
Speaker 1: college basketball doesn't make all that much money for universities,
Speaker 1: doesn't It makes money for the n c A, which
Speaker 1: pays for all the other sports. And while you may
Speaker 1: that may be envy it, you may be envious of
Speaker 1: it's like whole the whole thing is a non not
Speaker 1: for profit, nonprofit deal where no one pays taxes on anything,
Speaker 1: and all of these things that you get in real life.
Speaker 1: You're like, well, it's like a job. Sure, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you it's a job limited the work hours. But here's
Speaker 1: a big thing. You don't pay taxes. And the people
Speaker 1: who say, well, that's not a big thing, bullshit. I
Speaker 1: pay taxes. Have you ever moved for work and they
Speaker 1: pay for it? Do you know what happens you gotta
Speaker 1: pay taxes on. Have you ever gotten your health care
Speaker 1: taken care of by your employer? Because that's what happens
Speaker 1: in college basketball. You know what else you have to
Speaker 1: do pay taxes on? You get academic services, they're free, right,
Speaker 1: now your employee can't pay for it. So any of
Speaker 1: these things you get, you get gifts. Like if you
Speaker 1: win on the prices right and you get a gift
Speaker 1: handed to you, you don't have to pay tax on. Right,
Speaker 1: The same thing would happen if you open it up
Speaker 1: and made pay for play, same thing pay tax on.
Speaker 1: So taxes are a big thing. The cost of admission
Speaker 1: is a good thing, um, And we don't charge anything
Speaker 1: for the cost of senseless and seamless promotion. We You know,
Speaker 1: ESPN made Trey Young and his unbelievable run to being
Speaker 1: the lead score and assist man in college basketball. He
Speaker 1: was part of every headline. Did that help them boost
Speaker 1: their numbers some, but it also made Trey Young a
Speaker 1: household name in college basketball. If anything, he should owe
Speaker 1: money to them, not vice versa. So look, um, I
Speaker 1: know that you're raised in a generation of people that
Speaker 1: are are wanted and expecting for everyone to always give
Speaker 1: them something. But here's the deal with college. Just like
Speaker 1: any other student, if you achieve something great in college,
Speaker 1: you have a great chance at an awesome first job.
Speaker 1: That's the same for athletics as it is for engineering.
Speaker 1: Colleges are hard to get into more expensive than ever. Um.
Speaker 1: By the way, that is the same with basketball, but
Speaker 1: not the same for basketball players in terms of they
Speaker 1: pay they pay nothing and actually get more back in return. Lastly,
Speaker 1: and maybe most importantly, you do realize that college students
Speaker 1: not only have to fight to get in, then once
Speaker 1: they get in, they gotta pay the freight and all
Speaker 1: that paying the freight. Like if you say, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I know, they say, Duke is seventy five dollars a year,
Speaker 1: but I can get a scholar You can get scholarships
Speaker 1: for grand Okay, fine, fifty grand. That's fifty grand post tax.
Speaker 1: So a parent has to just to pay for their
Speaker 1: kid to go to Duke, you gotta make eight profit
Speaker 1: gross in order to net out the fifty grand that
Speaker 1: you're gonna pay out. Oh and the second you walk
Speaker 1: away from your school as an along, you know what
Speaker 1: they're gonna do, hits you for more money. So I
Speaker 1: know that that that we we have, that we've we've
Speaker 1: raised a generation of people that expect others to just
Speaker 1: you're making money I'm supposed to make. But that ain't
Speaker 1: the way it works, dude. That way and the way
Speaker 1: it works. You know, you can think that you know.
Speaker 1: Here's the here's the best example I used for me personally. People,
Speaker 1: guys in the radio, and many of you listen to
Speaker 1: this podcast, I want you to search your soul for
Speaker 1: how difficult it was for you to get your first
Speaker 1: job first on air? Show how Harvard is that? It
Speaker 1: wasn't hard for me. I never took a broadcasting class,
Speaker 1: never took a journalism class. I'm not journalists. I know
Speaker 1: the laws of journalism. I studied something that I learned
Speaker 1: kind of fake it till you make it sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm not journalists. Many of you going to went
Speaker 1: to j school and your first job was making twelve
Speaker 1: an hour. Your first job made grand year. You had
Speaker 1: to grind through that and then hopefully grow. My first
Speaker 1: job was I made sixty year before endorsements in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City end up being about seventy five plus the money
Speaker 1: I made from ESPN, I was in the six figures
Speaker 1: without ever Why is that explaining college made a name
Speaker 1: for myself, used their promotion to benefit my brand. Period.
Speaker 1: That's the opportunity that's in front of you and most
Speaker 1: of us as former athletes, and j Billis knows this,
Speaker 1: and Jalen Rose knows this, and j. Williams knows this.
Speaker 1: So all these people that walk around and act like well,
Speaker 1: you know, they're getting more out of the Anglo than
Speaker 1: not another not schools I've been around for a hundred years. Yes,
Speaker 1: football is the driving force, and the volume of college
Speaker 1: basketball games is the driving force. But the ratings are
Speaker 1: not great. It's it's a more volume product. But the
Speaker 1: people who go, people who watch and go to college
Speaker 1: games are people who went to that school or live
Speaker 1: close to that school, and maybe they learn about a
Speaker 1: player along the way or while being recruited that they
Speaker 1: fall in love with. That's a very small number. Go
Speaker 1: into any college basketball arena and look around and say,
Speaker 1: why are these people at that game? Alums what they've
Speaker 1: always done. They go with their dad, they're from the area,
Speaker 1: kids from in state or there. It's more regionally based
Speaker 1: or based upon the heartstrings of having gone there. It's
Speaker 1: not based upon any one kid. It just isn't. Johnny
Speaker 1: Menzel's perfect example who will continue to benefit from being
Speaker 1: a high s and trophy winner and haven't when he
Speaker 1: graduates eventually from Texas and m A Texas and m
Speaker 1: lum And yeah it could, you could did they sell
Speaker 1: some jerseys in and make a little bit of money,
Speaker 1: a little bit, but they didn't make any money of
Speaker 1: the year he read shirted, not penny and Texas and
Speaker 1: M's stadiums have still been full there full before he
Speaker 1: got there, full after he got there. Why because Aggies
Speaker 1: go to Aggie games. Period. So I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: we shouldn't do our best to give quality education to
Speaker 1: the guys when they finished going to college, can't uh,
Speaker 1: you know, provide for themselves. Sure, I think there are
Speaker 1: some sensible discussion about it. But this idea that like
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't capitalize off my name and likes,
Speaker 1: you absolutely can't for the rest of your life. You
Speaker 1: can't your life. Everything you did in college, and thankfully
Speaker 1: things you didn't in the pros end up benefiting you
Speaker 1: when you wear the logo of your college going forward.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the NBA, shall we? As
Speaker 1: we get ready for the Western Conference finals. To me,
Speaker 1: the key element becomes Clint Capella. Can he stay on
Speaker 1: the floor on defense when the Warriors go small? You know,
Speaker 1: the interesting thing about the Warriors is they get credit
Speaker 1: for having the death lineup and they do the difference
Speaker 1: in their death lineup is that their center becomes Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: but they still have a rim protector in Kevin Durant. Now, look,
Speaker 1: Durant hasn't started year playing great defense and then took
Speaker 1: a good portion of the year off of playing defense. Reinvigorate,
Speaker 1: they need Draymond hit shots the mean, Andrea Goo Dolla
Speaker 1: to hit shots, and they need Kevin Durant not just
Speaker 1: make shots, but also defend the rim. I like the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors a little bit more, you know, like
Speaker 1: look in the individual matchups if you can, and they
Speaker 1: do a great job of forcing switches. But you know,
Speaker 1: I like the matchup of Clay versus h versus James
Speaker 1: Harden Steph curious. I don't know how his way, but
Speaker 1: he's definitely dominated Chris Paul in one on one matchups.
Speaker 1: And then who's the who's the other guy? If you will.
Speaker 1: For the Houston Rockets, that's gonna match up with Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: I don't love their matchups. Again, it's dependent upon Draymond
Speaker 1: and Andrea Guadala two um to make shots to keep
Speaker 1: that floor spread. But I do think that this matchup
Speaker 1: favors the Golden State Warriors. As for the other matchup,
Speaker 1: I look, I think that the two elements that are
Speaker 1: going to allow the Boston Celtics to be closer than
Speaker 1: say the Toronto Raptors, is that they can throw multiple
Speaker 1: defenders at Lebron. The problem with those defenders are with
Speaker 1: the exception of their big guy. You know, look Morris
Speaker 1: and Al Horford, the can guard him some in the
Speaker 1: post um and so he can't play bullyball when they
Speaker 1: go small. Secondarily, you have Jalen Brown, you have Jayson Tatum,
Speaker 1: but they're so young. I just I don't love matchup.
Speaker 1: Now here's the part, the other part that allows the Celtics.
Speaker 1: I think a Chance Rosier off the bounds, Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: off the bounds. Like those guys they have even a
Speaker 1: Marcus Smarty doesn't always hit shots. They have an extra
Speaker 1: gear that Cleveland defensively doesn't really have. And if Brad,
Speaker 1: which I think he'll do, can expose Kyle Kover as
Speaker 1: a mismatch or Kevin Love as a mismatch and attack them,
Speaker 1: attack George Hill against some quicker, more athletic perimeter players
Speaker 1: like I think you've got a real chance of seeing
Speaker 1: at least a longer series. Still favorite the Calves. It's
Speaker 1: not just because of Lebron. It's because this team is
Speaker 1: a bunch of shooters around Lebron that have hybrid defensive
Speaker 1: players that are just good enough. But they'll have a
Speaker 1: game or two in which they blow out the Celtics.
Speaker 1: I think the Celtics a winner game or two based
Speaker 1: on speed and athleticism. And then do you have Lebron
Speaker 1: who you feel I can carry a team, although you know,
Speaker 1: look he didn't shoot the vowel from three against Toronto
Speaker 1: and they were outscored on agg aggregate by the Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 1: I think the series is closer than people think, but
Speaker 1: I still think we'll have Calves and Warriors in the files.
Speaker 1: David Griffin joins the show. He was famously the general
Speaker 1: manager of the of the Cleveland Cavaliers Last and Uh.
Speaker 1: He has his own show on Serious x M and
Speaker 1: NBA also on NBA TV. He joined us in the
Speaker 1: Doug Gottliev Show. I knew everybody has you on to
Speaker 1: talk Lebron and the Calves. I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about the Sixers. Uh. There are some in in your business,
Speaker 1: some in my business, and some in the basketball business.
Speaker 1: I think, hey, go out adda Paul George, go out
Speaker 1: and add stars. I kind of think they're on the
Speaker 1: right path. I think this is good that they didn't
Speaker 1: use faults. He wasn't ready yet, but eventually he'll be good.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that you don't add more pieces, but
Speaker 1: I think this should be your core for a decade.
Speaker 1: You don't want to screw that thing up. Do you
Speaker 1: try and win the short term or you try and
Speaker 1: win the long term? If you're the general manager of
Speaker 1: the Sixers, David Well, I guess, I guess it just
Speaker 1: depends on how you know what you think long and
Speaker 1: short term is. So like, if you can say that
Speaker 1: Lebron is gonna play at an elite level for let's
Speaker 1: say five more years, I'd love to have the young
Speaker 1: kids learned from someone like that, you know, I'd love
Speaker 1: for him to raise the next generation of elite talent
Speaker 1: in your organization. So there's no downside to that. It's
Speaker 1: not like they need to jettison any of the other
Speaker 1: talent they have um relative to the Paul George piece,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's terribly likely. It sounds like Paul
Speaker 1: if he leaves, okay, So he's pretty much got his
Speaker 1: heart set on l a Um. What I think is
Speaker 1: interesting is would you break up that nucleus to bring
Speaker 1: into somebody's because that's really the only way you're going
Speaker 1: to attract, you know, those elite guys as they tend
Speaker 1: to want to to be together. So would you break
Speaker 1: up that group to have Kauai and Lebron? I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you would or wouldn't, but I
Speaker 1: think that's what it requires. Now. It's not just we
Speaker 1: have the caps for one superstar. Those guys tend to
Speaker 1: want to be together, would you you know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, I really don't. It's hard
Speaker 1: for me not holding the cards they're holding. I don't
Speaker 1: know exactly what they're thinking about the group they have.
Speaker 1: The thing that I thought they ran into in the
Speaker 1: playoffs that was tough Doug was Ben can't shoot, and
Speaker 1: because he can't space the court, and because the paint
Speaker 1: is going to be occupied because Joel is an elite
Speaker 1: player himself and the defense is going to be pretty
Speaker 1: keenly aware of him and the paint, then the driving
Speaker 1: lanes that Ben would have to take advantage of, and
Speaker 1: it would allow for him to play to the full
Speaker 1: bandwidth of his path. Thing don't exist. So I think
Speaker 1: it's just really really difficult to say that that nucleus
Speaker 1: is going to be elite until you know, if Ben's
Speaker 1: gotten to the point where he can shoot um, and
Speaker 1: that's that's always away and Mark l folks might be
Speaker 1: a ways away from being able to be elite. So
Speaker 1: I think you could make a pretty compelling argument if
Speaker 1: you could get Lebron, you should, But again, I don't
Speaker 1: know what they're looking at. That's that's that was actually
Speaker 1: I said. The only the only guy I would probably
Speaker 1: move out and for would be Lebron James. The one
Speaker 1: caveat with Lebron is he's now at the state of
Speaker 1: his career where he doesn't practice. You know, he does
Speaker 1: work in his game and his body, but he it
Speaker 1: ain't practicing. And I do think that, you know, culture wise,
Speaker 1: those young guys, I mean, Ben sim has got there's
Speaker 1: a lot of work to do, a lot of work
Speaker 1: to put in, and I think and Bead has to
Speaker 1: learn the game situations. You know what what winning shots
Speaker 1: look like, winning plays look like, and I think you
Speaker 1: only learned that over time and actually playing in big games.
Speaker 1: I hope he learned a lot from the series. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I just I think it's gonna be fasting
Speaker 1: to see what they do because they got a chance
Speaker 1: to do something special. But there have been other teams
Speaker 1: that have been in this situation and they've screwed it up,
Speaker 1: whether even even if they didn't try to, they screwed
Speaker 1: and haven't been able to as opposed to what Boston
Speaker 1: has done, which feels like they've been building for the
Speaker 1: long term and the short term thing has just happened
Speaker 1: in the meantime. Yeah, I agree with that, and I
Speaker 1: think it makes it even harder to be excited about
Speaker 1: your long term term nucleus when you're looking at the
Speaker 1: fact that Boston's as good as they are, they're as
Speaker 1: deep as they are in the playoff run. They've got
Speaker 1: the young assets on the roster, they have to have
Speaker 1: all the high variants assets in the in the stockpiles
Speaker 1: from the pick standpoint, and the guy that came into
Speaker 1: the year thinking was going to be their best player
Speaker 1: didn't even play a minute. So you can also get
Speaker 1: in trouble just in their own division. If you think,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's let's take our time, we're we're
Speaker 1: going to be the cream of the cross because Boston
Speaker 1: is gonna be damn good for a long time. So
Speaker 1: if you take your time and Joe l n B
Speaker 1: gets hurt in the meantime, now what I mean, you're
Speaker 1: you're not really truly elite even in your own division
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future. So that's why I think you
Speaker 1: could make the most compelling case for Hey, we don't
Speaker 1: know how long Joel is going to be healthy, and
Speaker 1: we better be damn good. Now. It's interesting what you
Speaker 1: said about Lebron not practicing. That part's true, but he's
Speaker 1: the very first one in the practice facility every morning
Speaker 1: and he works like a freak. And there's nobody better
Speaker 1: to teach Ben Simmons what this is about professionally than him.
Speaker 1: Whether he's actually taking part in the five on five
Speaker 1: that might take place, he's still going through all of
Speaker 1: the shell drill, he's still going through all of the
Speaker 1: defensive stuff, and he's far and away the earliest person
Speaker 1: into your practice facility getting a lift in doing the
Speaker 1: things he needs to do to take care of his body.
Speaker 1: When Kyrie was there, going through shooting games with Kyrie
Speaker 1: after practice, all of the things that then needs to
Speaker 1: learn how to do. Bron does that, and then in
Speaker 1: the off season Bron works way harder than Ben has
Speaker 1: ever worked on his shooting, and that would help Ben
Speaker 1: as well. Do you think Ben should shoot right handed?
Speaker 1: This is awesome. I've seen a lot of this. The
Speaker 1: thing for us with Tristan Thompson when we had him
Speaker 1: changed his hand was it was just his handedness was
Speaker 1: sort of up in the air. He himself didn't know
Speaker 1: which handy should use. He wasn't married to one or
Speaker 1: the other. And we got him to throw a football
Speaker 1: one day in the practice facility, and when he threw
Speaker 1: it left handed, which in theory would have been his
Speaker 1: natural hand, he threw it into the ground like I
Speaker 1: would throw with my off hand when I was eight
Speaker 1: years old, right, I mean it was he just sort
Speaker 1: of flailed it into the ground left handed and right handed.
Speaker 1: He's through like a sixty yard spiral. And you went, Tristan,
Speaker 1: you're you're right handed. So if I could see Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons throw a football, I'd have a better chance to
Speaker 1: tell you Ben Simmons, he shoots everything right handed. Inside
Speaker 1: the paint. The only thing that is left handed his
Speaker 1: free throws and and primimeter shots and didnt shoot perimeter shots.
Speaker 1: You know, he finishes everything was right hand, so I
Speaker 1: you know out well. And Tristan was exactly the same.
Speaker 1: By the way. He was incredibly deft with his right
Speaker 1: hand around the rim. The only jump hook he could
Speaker 1: make was right handed. But he was shooting his free
Speaker 1: throws left handed, and he would shoot like the you know,
Speaker 1: the short corner jump shot left handed and kind of like,
Speaker 1: what what are you doing? Whatever made you think you
Speaker 1: were left handed to begin with? In the case again,
Speaker 1: he can do all of those things right handed, and
Speaker 1: maybe that's because he's more naturally comfortable with it, but
Speaker 1: it could also be that that's just he's wired like that.
Speaker 1: And it's easy to tell by the way. I'm I
Speaker 1: know this sounds crazy, but it's easy to tell when
Speaker 1: you have somebody throw football throw the football challenge. I
Speaker 1: love that. Let's get to the Cavaliers, Um, have they
Speaker 1: figured something out or is this just who they are
Speaker 1: going to be right which is you know they're gonna
Speaker 1: space you with with Kevin Love at the five, and
Speaker 1: now that Kyl Kover is much more comfortable and he's
Speaker 1: making shots just create space for Lebron games, play through
Speaker 1: him and play with a bunch of shooters and then
Speaker 1: you know, switch everything defensively. Well, it's sort of who
Speaker 1: they've always been. Um, you know, we we had Kyrie
Speaker 1: at one time, so when the shot clock would run down,
Speaker 1: he could go get a shot and he could create
Speaker 1: offense when Lebron sat down. They don't have the ability
Speaker 1: to do that now, but they've always been a team
Speaker 1: that if you're going to take advantage of Lebron's full talents,
Speaker 1: you've got to be able to space the court and
Speaker 1: let him pick people apart from the center of the
Speaker 1: lane by being a driver and then making the right read.
Speaker 1: And fortunately in the last series, you know, the team
Speaker 1: had a three to one assist turnover ratio, which is
Speaker 1: a really really good situation. It's in part because of Lebron,
Speaker 1: but it's also because George Hill was present for a
Speaker 1: big part of that. And George Hill being healthy and
Speaker 1: being capable of playing significant minutes and starting makes it
Speaker 1: possible to keep orrid Or j R. Smith and Love
Speaker 1: altogether on the starting lineup. And those are the guys
Speaker 1: Lebron's one with. Those are the guys he's comfortable with.
Speaker 1: So fortunate, at least for Cleveland, that first series with
Speaker 1: Indiana took them seven games, so they got as many
Speaker 1: different opportunities as they could to figure out lineups and
Speaker 1: and figure out where Lebron was going to be the
Speaker 1: most comfortable. And I think because of that, they landed
Speaker 1: back with what they know best, which is the guys
Speaker 1: they're starting. You get Tristan Thompson a lot more opportunity
Speaker 1: to play. You know, this is one of the things
Speaker 1: I think from basketball analytics standpoint is is really a
Speaker 1: telling thing. And I don't know what the number is,
Speaker 1: and I would love for somebody significantly smarter than I
Speaker 1: am to tell me the right way to do this,
Speaker 1: but their effective field goal percentage on Tristan Thompson's offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds has got to be damn near. Well, it's just
Speaker 1: back there's just backbreakers, right. You're like your your your garden,
Speaker 1: Lebron your garden shooters. You're paying all attention els and
Speaker 1: the shot goes up, you start leaking out defensively, there's
Speaker 1: Tristan Thompson with the ball and he kicks it out.
Speaker 1: Now either you have to do it all over again
Speaker 1: or they shoot a three, which is those are backbreakers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you you know, if you if you look
Speaker 1: at Tristan when he plays significant minutes, that's five opportunities
Speaker 1: you have to make four more threes. That's twelve points. Link.
Speaker 1: That's winning and losing basketball games. And he also is
Speaker 1: your best big in terms of his ability to match
Speaker 1: up on the wing and switch and defensively be at present.
Speaker 1: So it's not surprising to me they wound up with him.
Speaker 1: I think it's a good thing they were healthy and
Speaker 1: that he was healthy enough to actually get back into
Speaker 1: the rotation. But I think this is who Cleveland has
Speaker 1: always been. They're going to have to outscore you. They're
Speaker 1: probably not going to get enough stops to be the
Speaker 1: team like Golden State four times, but I think they
Speaker 1: can get enough stops to to get past Boston. What's
Speaker 1: what's the deal with Brad and the rest of the
Speaker 1: league's coaches. I I I understand that there are a
Speaker 1: lot of good coaches that did Quinstider did magnificent things. Uh, look,
Speaker 1: Toronto had the best record the East. Like I can
Speaker 1: make an argument for a bunch of these guys, but
Speaker 1: there is something in there that other coaches are like
Speaker 1: he he gets a little bit too much credit. I
Speaker 1: think we did it. Like from a media perspective, I
Speaker 1: think we did it. I think it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where other coaches have probably had enough of Brad
Speaker 1: getting nothing but love and never taking any of the
Speaker 1: blame um. And I don't mean that Brad personally doesn't
Speaker 1: take any of the blame. I mean that the media
Speaker 1: never as signed him any blame um. And I think
Speaker 1: it's just made it so that there's I don't want
Speaker 1: to call it petty, but I think the petty is
Speaker 1: undefeated in some ways, and I think there's just a
Speaker 1: natural bias to feel, like, you know what, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure he's that good. And I think it makes you
Speaker 1: more critical of Brad as a coach because you're hearing
Speaker 1: from everywhere how good he is. And I think Dwayne
Speaker 1: Casey was a great selection as Coach of the Year
Speaker 1: from the Coaches Association's standpoint. That's I totally get it,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even gonna argue with it. It's been
Speaker 1: Quinn Snyder. I wouldn't argue with it. Put for eight
Speaker 1: guys to get a vote and Brad not to get one,
Speaker 1: that was pretty crazy. Am I crazy to think that
Speaker 1: as that Capella is super important to Houston. Yet I
Speaker 1: don't think Capella can be Capella much of this series
Speaker 1: because they'll go small and now he kind of like
Speaker 1: val and Chun is what happened with him with the Calves.
Speaker 1: Golden State stretches you out, goes small, and Capella becomes
Speaker 1: a lot less effective. Yeah. So I think he's so
Speaker 1: different from Jonah's because he defends in space so well. Um.
Speaker 1: I think Clint is actually if Houston is going to
Speaker 1: win the series, it's because not only does he hold
Speaker 1: his own when they go small, but his ability to
Speaker 1: roll and finish and be dynamic at the rim forces
Speaker 1: them to stay bigger. If if Golden has to play
Speaker 1: a traditional five to check Capella, that changes the whole series.
Speaker 1: I tend to favor Golden State pretty heavily. I think
Speaker 1: just from the standpoint of them having been through the
Speaker 1: wars together and they're now at a where they realize
Speaker 1: the amount of focus they have to play with to
Speaker 1: be successful. I think they have appropriate fear of Houston.
Speaker 1: You know, Kur really hinges a lot of what he
Speaker 1: does from a preparation standpoint on that appropriate fear, and
Speaker 1: I think they get it and I think because they do.
Speaker 1: They're just too deep and too good offensively. There's too
Speaker 1: many weapons that you can't take out of it. And
Speaker 1: in the Houston situation, they're so dependent upon you know,
Speaker 1: they played two guys defensively in Tucker and Areza Uh
Speaker 1: and Tucker and bomb Moute. When they're together, that defensive
Speaker 1: lineup is really predicated on Hardened and Paul either generating
Speaker 1: offense or Hardened getting you to the foul line quickly
Speaker 1: that he gets you into the bonus and you shoot
Speaker 1: far more free shows than anybody else. Well, the deeper
Speaker 1: you go into the playoffs, the less likely you are
Speaker 1: to get those calls, which means it might be harder
Speaker 1: to keep your defenders on the court. And if that's true,
Speaker 1: you're never gonna guard Golden States. So I think it's
Speaker 1: a five or six game series of close games. But
Speaker 1: I think in the end, Golden States just got too
Speaker 1: much great stuff. I can't tell how much I appreciate.
Speaker 1: Look forward to hearing you some more on serious sex
Speaker 1: and I'm watching on the NBA TV. Thanks for being
Speaker 1: our guests. We'll talk to us the playoffs for a
Speaker 1: long Thanks alright, pleasures mind David Griffin joining us. Former
Speaker 1: gentle manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Rick Bucker has a
Speaker 1: great podcast. It's called The Swirlds with NBA Vett Ryan Hollins.
Speaker 1: Rick also has his own national radio show on Sirius
Speaker 1: x M eighty Gosh, we're eighty three, he's eighty four.
Speaker 1: A two A two A two two. Rick Bucker joins
Speaker 1: us on the Doug Gottlieb Show. Just as we all thought,
Speaker 1: Celtics and Calves Warriors and Rockets. Oh there's this, the
Speaker 1: one plot twist. The Celtics wouldn't have Kyrie and wouldn't
Speaker 1: have Gordon Hayward outside of that, exactly as we thought
Speaker 1: it would go. Right, Yeah, No, it's uh. And this
Speaker 1: is what it always gets me when people say that,
Speaker 1: you know, there's no suspense in the NBA season, and uh,
Speaker 1: we already know it's gonna be Calves Warriors at the end.
Speaker 1: First of all, we don't know that. I still don't
Speaker 1: know that as of right now. And too, it's not
Speaker 1: so much the destination. It's the journey, isn't it, Doug.
Speaker 1: It's the journey, and it's a matter of how we
Speaker 1: got here, which was There's been plenty of unexpected twist
Speaker 1: and turns, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have
Speaker 1: a few more before all of a sudden done. Why
Speaker 1: don't other NBA coaches have the same affinity for Brad
Speaker 1: Stevens as the media has for Brad Stevens. Well, part
Speaker 1: of it is because he's still relatively new to the
Speaker 1: club and NBA coaches are a very clubby sort. We
Speaker 1: just I I said something about mccronin uh, the u
Speaker 1: C coach during the tournament. I thought the way he
Speaker 1: handled uh some questions about his team, UH where he
Speaker 1: didn't do it well, and brought that up with Seth
Speaker 1: Greenberg had him as a host or a guest on
Speaker 1: my show, and it was immediately you don't, you don't,
Speaker 1: you don't know what? Like where have you coached? Like that?
Speaker 1: They became that unless unless you're that's also Seth one
Speaker 1: on one right, well, but it's also he's not alone.
Speaker 1: I mean the the the number of coaches that I
Speaker 1: talked to, and look, there is a degree and probably
Speaker 1: a larger degree than not there's a larger degree of
Speaker 1: truth to people who armchair coach don't take into consideration
Speaker 1: all the things that they know because they can't possibly
Speaker 1: know them. So I get that, But I think there's
Speaker 1: a couple of things. One and I actually just had
Speaker 1: a talk. I had a conversation with a head coach
Speaker 1: in the league today about this subject. It wasn't this
Speaker 1: was the main thing, but I said, hey, I said, so,
Speaker 1: what's up. You know, Brad Stephens not a single vote,
Speaker 1: And he said, the way he looked at it is is,
Speaker 1: you know, Brad came in and he was supposed to
Speaker 1: have a good season, and yes they lost Kyrie, yes
Speaker 1: they lost Gordon Hayward, but the team kind of ended
Speaker 1: up where everybody expected them to end up as far
Speaker 1: as the regular season was concerned. Toronto made a change
Speaker 1: from last year and there was an uptick. So that
Speaker 1: was his explanation for me. And there's also there is
Speaker 1: that feeling like he's kind of been gifted a really
Speaker 1: good situation and he's straight out of college. I think
Speaker 1: the other part is is that there's this clubby nature
Speaker 1: to the to the NBA coaches, and they're very well
Speaker 1: aware of guys who've been in the club for a
Speaker 1: long time and maybe in a little bit of trouble,
Speaker 1: and and they look at it and I think it's
Speaker 1: unfair that that guy is in trouble. Dwayne Casey fits
Speaker 1: that description to a t as far as other NBA
Speaker 1: coaches are concerned. It's a great point. Well, what's also
Speaker 1: interesting is how many of the guys have gotten the
Speaker 1: Coach of the Year award and then been fired like
Speaker 1: a year later, which which which only proves that in
Speaker 1: their effort to help their buddy out, they actually end up,
Speaker 1: you know, well, creating something that they can't live up to.
Speaker 1: So the one thing, so the one that you're you're referencing,
Speaker 1: because this is a this is a relatively new award.
Speaker 1: This is only the second year. Last year it was
Speaker 1: D'Antoni and Erik Spoelstra that the coaches selected. They were
Speaker 1: co co head coaches and they sort of fit the profile.
Speaker 1: Even though Spoilster has been a head coach, he's been
Speaker 1: relatively at nine ten years now, but he's been in
Speaker 1: the NBA fraternity for a long time, so he fits
Speaker 1: and obviously d and D'Antoni does too. Um, this is
Speaker 1: a relatively new thing for them. But the one that's
Speaker 1: voted by the media, Yeah, we had a string of
Speaker 1: Mike Brown, Avery Johnson, George Carl and it seemed like
Speaker 1: there was about five or six guys in a row
Speaker 1: that one Coach of the year and a year later
Speaker 1: they were out. So yeah, it can be. It can
Speaker 1: be kiss of death. Be careful what exactly what they're
Speaker 1: they're touting their guys to be. Do the Celtics have
Speaker 1: a chance, I'm picking them to win? What are you
Speaker 1: talking about? Do they have a camp? Because I look
Speaker 1: at the pace of play, and I look at the
Speaker 1: intensity of the series that they had with the Sixers.
Speaker 1: I think, but and I maybe I may be wrong
Speaker 1: on this and maybe undervaluing the sweet spot that Lebron
Speaker 1: James finds himself in. But I look at the Raptors
Speaker 1: series and I can't all of the improvement that we're
Speaker 1: looking at with the Calves. I can't help but believe
Speaker 1: that the Toronto Raptors had a big hand in that
Speaker 1: they never really made Lebron James play in a crowd,
Speaker 1: and yet in spite of not putting additional attention toward him.
Speaker 1: Jeff Green and j R. Smith, this is going into
Speaker 1: Game four, We're both shooting seventies per sent plus in
Speaker 1: three point range. Jeff Green shot against the Pacers in
Speaker 1: the first round. He shot from three during the regular season.
Speaker 1: H J. R. Smith shot a little bit better during
Speaker 1: the regular season, but he shot against the Pacers. I
Speaker 1: look at guys like Terry Rosier and Jason Tatum, Al Horford,
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart. Those guys, in my mind, are all gamers
Speaker 1: who are not afraid Lebron James or the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: In fact, they come into this series thinking they have
Speaker 1: revenge in mind for what happened last year. They don't
Speaker 1: care that Kyrie Irving's not there, Gordon Hayward's not there,
Speaker 1: and and that they're not supposed to be here based
Speaker 1: on what everybody else thinks. They're looking at it going.
Speaker 1: We got back to the Eastern Conference Finals and are
Speaker 1: and and we still have unfinished business. So I just
Speaker 1: believe that they can push a tempo in a way
Speaker 1: that Toronto never did and that Indiana did that took
Speaker 1: that series to seven games. And if you're giving me
Speaker 1: Miles Turner or Al Horford at this point to make
Speaker 1: things difficult on Kevin Love, I'm taking Al Horford every day,
Speaker 1: all day, in spite of liking Miles Turner and his future.
Speaker 1: So I just think that that that Boston is going
Speaker 1: to do a much better job of limiting what the
Speaker 1: other pieces do, and Lebron James is going to have
Speaker 1: to come through with some of the virtuoso performances that
Speaker 1: he did against against the Indiana Pacers. And I just
Speaker 1: I think that the Celtics are a little bit better
Speaker 1: than the Pacers were, and they have the same guys
Speaker 1: that have the eye of the tiger and aren't going
Speaker 1: to be afraid to take and make a big shot
Speaker 1: when I needed. That's the voice of Rick Buker, of course,
Speaker 1: writes for Bleacher Report, has his own radio show on
Speaker 1: Sirious XM Channel two. Let's get out West Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: They back to where they should be. Uh, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're there. They are back to what they are capable of.
Speaker 1: My one question is can they sustain it. They've they've
Speaker 1: demonstrated that in periods they can play, they can get
Speaker 1: back to that level that that they can play at
Speaker 1: a level that nobody else can play at at both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. They still have and they still
Speaker 1: struggled even in these playoffs in sustaining that, you know,
Speaker 1: giving away a game, absolutely giving a game a game
Speaker 1: away against New Orleans was troubling. The way they closed
Speaker 1: out San Antonio was not convincing. They really there. They
Speaker 1: are measuring game in and game out how hard they
Speaker 1: have to play to win the game. And I don't
Speaker 1: think it's by overconfidence. I don't think it's by lack
Speaker 1: of attention to detail. I really think it's just kind
Speaker 1: of the physical and mental grind of how having been
Speaker 1: to three consecutive NBA finals and now trying to get
Speaker 1: to a four uh and and and a bench that's
Speaker 1: not quite as deep, that they're just feeling they're they're
Speaker 1: feeling that grind. So can the Rockets exploit the Warriors
Speaker 1: when they have those periods when they're not at their best,
Speaker 1: when the offense gets a little stagnant and they just
Speaker 1: lean on k D when the defense rotations work for
Speaker 1: fourteen fifteen seconds, but they get a little lax in
Speaker 1: the last four or five, Like, can the Rockets exploit that?
Speaker 1: And then on the other on the other end, can
Speaker 1: they maintain their focus in intensity? That to me is
Speaker 1: what's going to determine that the Rockets have demonstrated that
Speaker 1: they can take their foot off the pedal too, and
Speaker 1: they have less reason to do that. But um, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not completely out of the woods with the Warriors
Speaker 1: yet and saying that they have the requisitibility to play
Speaker 1: as well as they need to play as long as
Speaker 1: they need to play. Can they get back there and
Speaker 1: have they demonstrated that yet? Have played some of the
Speaker 1: best basketball that I've seen them play in months. But
Speaker 1: the big question is going to be can they sustain it?
Speaker 1: How many minutes can they play at that level? Um?
Speaker 1: What do you think Lebron plays next year? You know,
Speaker 1: it's so funny. I just in talking to this coach today,
Speaker 1: he goes, I've heard he's gonna play in Philadelphia. I've
Speaker 1: heard he might stay in Cleveland. Obviously there's there, you know,
Speaker 1: there's talk about like Kauai wants to go play in
Speaker 1: l A with Paul George and Lebron. Um, I'm I
Speaker 1: am going to stay with where I was at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year and everybody was telling me, which
Speaker 1: is that he's gonna wind up in l A. But
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, as of right now, I
Speaker 1: don't I've never had a dog in the fight, but
Speaker 1: I really don't know. I still don't think he's going
Speaker 1: to stay in Cleveland. He remember the other day, I
Speaker 1: forget what game it was. He went to the locker
Speaker 1: room and he had the he had the the cramps
Speaker 1: and and had to go to the locker room. And
Speaker 1: when he came back out and he walked out of
Speaker 1: the tunnel, he walked right right by Dan Gilbert and
Speaker 1: there was absolutely no acknowledgement, recognition, nothing from either one
Speaker 1: of them. It wasn't even Dan wouldn't even look at him,
Speaker 1: and certainly Lebron wasn't looking at him. You can't have
Speaker 1: from everything I've heard, that's just the latest little piece
Speaker 1: of that relationship is far from great, and I think
Speaker 1: ultimately that's going to be the difference super supping the
Speaker 1: Paul George knee surgery thing. Did everybody know that was
Speaker 1: going to happen? Uh No, they did not. But from
Speaker 1: everything I've heard, it's not something that people are, you know,
Speaker 1: taking a lot of concern with, or that it's gonna
Speaker 1: it's it's changing the dynamic as far as what people
Speaker 1: are expecting. Russell Westbrook look zek Low, and I want
Speaker 1: to be very careful because I like zach Low, and
Speaker 1: I do think that other people around the league will
Speaker 1: say We'll say that like, well, maybe maybe you gotta
Speaker 1: think about trade in Westbrook. But thinking about doing it
Speaker 1: and actually doing it are two completely different things, right,
Speaker 1: And and it's always the guy who doesn't have a
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook who talks about training Russell Westbrook. What do
Speaker 1: you think Olhoma City does? What? What do I uh,
Speaker 1: what do I think Oklahoma City does with Russell Westbrook?
Speaker 1: In general? UM, continue to thank they're they're stars that
Speaker 1: he signed a five year extension there. Uh, look too
Speaker 1: to find pieces that are going to build around him
Speaker 1: and and and ultimately, UM hope that his maturity and
Speaker 1: his decision making continue to improve. That will Billy, will
Speaker 1: Billy be able to Like I think that bringing Billy back,
Speaker 1: the next thing to do is sit him down and
Speaker 1: go like, hey, Billy, you gotta coach him, like you
Speaker 1: have to get some of the stuff out of him,
Speaker 1: because he has so much talent, but you got to
Speaker 1: get some of the one man possessions out of him. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I don't you know, I will say having been
Speaker 1: around that team a little bit, uh and just recently
Speaker 1: during the playoffs, I was encouraged by the interaction that
Speaker 1: Billy had with Russ And it is a negotiation as
Speaker 1: opposed to you know, a directive when it comes to
Speaker 1: the conversation between those two. Um. Then again, I thought
Speaker 1: that Billy showed great. I mean, it seems simple, but
Speaker 1: the fact that he sat, mellowed down and kept you know,
Speaker 1: and went back to him briefly and then didn't go
Speaker 1: back to him again, I think that says a lot
Speaker 1: about Billy's growing stature as a as an NBA head coach.
Speaker 1: I think that what they in short, short of moving
Speaker 1: Billy on, and I don't think I don't know that
Speaker 1: there's a coach out there that's gonna change that dynamic,
Speaker 1: is that you go get a what Tom Thibodeau was
Speaker 1: for Doc Rivers or what Ron Adams is for Steve
Speaker 1: kerr Uh. You go get that guy who is a
Speaker 1: no nonsense xs and os. This is how it needs
Speaker 1: to be. Hard ask who is the first assistant, and
Speaker 1: he's the guy who is you know, let's russ, No,
Speaker 1: this is the way we've got to do it. Um.
Speaker 1: Some people mentioned like a Steve Clifford. To me, it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be like you know, I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: you've got a star of that nature. It's not you're
Speaker 1: just gonna tell him it's my way of the highway,
Speaker 1: that those days are long gone. But a guy who's
Speaker 1: xs and o's are strong enough that he can say,
Speaker 1: this is the way we need to do it. If
Speaker 1: you want to win, this is the way we need
Speaker 1: to do it. And ideally it's somebody who has you know,
Speaker 1: has had a certain degree of success that Russ is
Speaker 1: going to to respect. But ultimately it's going to come
Speaker 1: down to this. Russ is going to have to be
Speaker 1: frustrated and set up enough with his own shortcomings and
Speaker 1: failures to say I'm willing to try to do it
Speaker 1: a different way, surreunding yourself to the process. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: really appreciate you join us, Rick Buker. The podcast is
Speaker 1: the Swirl with longtime NBA vett Ryan Hollins. All Right,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna wrap it up for all ball. I
Speaker 1: want to thank all of our guests, David Griffin, Rick Buker.
Speaker 1: Next week we'll start to prepare you for the NBA Draft.
Speaker 1: I'm currently concocting an article the ten most overrated, ten
Speaker 1: most underrated players in the upcoming NBA Draft. You have
Speaker 1: any questions or things that you want um in the
Speaker 1: next All Ball podcast. Tweet Abby at Gottlieb Show or
Speaker 1: hit me up on our Facebook page, which this will
Speaker 1: appear on. Make sure you're not only download it, rate it,
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Speaker 1: best fellow. So it was great this week. I'm Doug
Speaker 1: Gottlieb and this has been All Ball. H