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Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight,

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Speaker 1: present Fanuel here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody, hope

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Speaker 1: all if you guys are having a good weekend. We

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Speaker 1: are up in Breckon Ridge getting ready to hit the

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Speaker 1: slopes on the road. Yesterday. We had planned on doing

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Speaker 1: one show on this trip tomorrow morning, because there's a

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Speaker 1: jam packed slate tonight. We got the Lakers in New

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Speaker 1: Orleans against the Pelicans. We got the Warriors against the Mavericks,

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Speaker 1: that heat against the Bucks. A bunch of good games

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Speaker 1: to cover. But then Kyrie Irving decided to drop a

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Speaker 1: bomb on the entire NBA and the entire NBA trade

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Speaker 1: deadline right as I was pulling into Albuquerque yesterday. So

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Speaker 1: I've had a night to kind of marinate on it

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Speaker 1: and sleep on it, and I had some thoughts, and

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Speaker 1: then I have some quick thoughts on that Clippers Bucks

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Speaker 1: game from Thursday night, which I thought was super super

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Speaker 1: informative on a bunch of different levels. You guys know

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Speaker 1: the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes

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Speaker 1: YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you

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Speaker 1: guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last but

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Speaker 1: not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of

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Speaker 1: these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube

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Speaker 1: to finish them, you can find them wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your podcasts. Under hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball.

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Speaker 1: So first, my first instinct here is that this is

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Speaker 1: super fishy, and the main reason why is I had

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Speaker 1: put the Brooklyn Nets into my top tier of contenders

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Speaker 1: coming into before the season. I kind of had these

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Speaker 1: tears set up and I had the Clippers, the Bucks,

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Speaker 1: the Celtics, and the Warriors on the top. And then

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Speaker 1: the next two teams I had were two teams that

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Speaker 1: I thought were super talented, but that had a million

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Speaker 1: different things that could have knocked them off the rails.

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Speaker 1: And ironically, both of them have had seasons where things

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Speaker 1: have gone right. And I had at fifth the Philadelphia

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Speaker 1: seventy sixers and at six the Brooklyn Nets, and both

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Speaker 1: of them have stayed healthy. You know, James Harden has

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Speaker 1: had a great year, Kyrie Irving has rehabbed his image,

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiid for the most part, has been healthy, and

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Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's been arguably the best player in the world.

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Speaker 1: And so both of those teams have been kind of

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Speaker 1: whopping everyone's ass this season. And so what's really strange

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Speaker 1: about this is, you know, looking back at Kyrie Irving's

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Speaker 1: trade request last summer, the Nets were in shambles. They

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Speaker 1: had an incredibly disappointing loss in a sweet keep against

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Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics. Things looked really discouraging. You could see

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Speaker 1: why Kevin Durant might want a different basketball situation, why

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving might want a different basketball situation. But that's

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Speaker 1: not the case now. And what now we know that

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Speaker 1: Kyrie for good reason, was trying to plan his next destination.

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Speaker 1: This is just pre planning. We talked about this a

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Speaker 1: lot the other day when we were talking about Draymond

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Speaker 1: Green in his contract situation coming up. Acknowledge the realities

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Speaker 1: of the business and start prepping to advocate for yourself, right,

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Speaker 1: And what Kyrie is understanding now is that he needs

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Speaker 1: to start planning his next destination. If if it's Brooklyn, great,

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Speaker 1: If not, then he needs to start prepping somewhere else.

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Speaker 1: So he reaches out to the Nets about a contract

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Speaker 1: extension before the trade deadline, because if he can get

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Speaker 1: the deal he wants, then everything's great. He's with Brooklyn,

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Speaker 1: we just keep playing basketball. But if they can't give

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Speaker 1: him the deal that he wants, if there's too big

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Speaker 1: of a gap there, then he needs to start thinking

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Speaker 1: about where he's going to be next. And when it

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Speaker 1: comes to the summer, there's a lim atation with a

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Speaker 1: number of teams that have cap space. But if you

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Speaker 1: can trade for Kyrie Irving, then it's not a matter

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Speaker 1: of cap space anymore. It's a matter of matching outgoing salaries.

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Speaker 1: And once you do that, now he lists his list

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Speaker 1: of options of different places he can go becomes infinitely wider. So,

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Speaker 1: for instance, Kyrie really wants to go to the Lakers

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Speaker 1: to play with Lebron and Anthony Davis. We learned about

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Speaker 1: this last summer, but in free agency it's unrealistic. Even

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Speaker 1: last summer, if he wanted to do it, he would

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Speaker 1: have had to sign a mid level exception, which was

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Speaker 1: a little over six million a year. That's not going

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Speaker 1: to get the job done, right. But if it's a trade,

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Speaker 1: now it's a Russell westbrook for Kyrie Irving swap. Now

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Speaker 1: he can get a get to l a and they

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Speaker 1: will have the option to pay him exactly what he

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Speaker 1: made in Brooklyn plus a certain amount of There's there's

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Speaker 1: different cap machinations they have to work out, but the

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Speaker 1: point is that he can get more money long term

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Speaker 1: with the Lakers through a trade than he came through

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Speaker 1: free agency. So we can look at all of the

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Speaker 1: different elements of this trade demand as it pertains to

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Speaker 1: the offer that he got from Brooklyn, and he's upset

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Speaker 1: and whatever differences he might have between the front office,

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Speaker 1: but really this comes down to money. He's just trying

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Speaker 1: to set up his next deal, and it's clear that

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Speaker 1: he wants it to be a guaranteed deal. In Brooklyn,

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Speaker 1: they're looking at it more as an incentive based deal

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Speaker 1: for good reason, because Kyrie is literally time and time

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Speaker 1: again over the last couple of years, gone out of

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Speaker 1: his way to disrupt the continuity of the team. And

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Speaker 1: he's done this three years in a row now between

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Speaker 1: you know, straight up leaving the team for personal reasons

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Speaker 1: multiple times two years ago, to the COVID situation last year,

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Speaker 1: to the anti Semitism stuff this year, so they have

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Speaker 1: good reason to feel that way. Now, Kyrie irvings camp

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Speaker 1: is like, Hey, he's the top twenty player in the world,

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Speaker 1: and and that's the thing I want to say before

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Speaker 1: we get any further into this. We can say what

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Speaker 1: we want about Kyrie. And look, if you're one of

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Speaker 1: those fans that's like, I'm not touching this guy with

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Speaker 1: a ten foot poll, I get that. I'm with you.

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Speaker 1: I I have no problem him with that take. But

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Speaker 1: it can't be Kyrie sucks and I don't want him.

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Speaker 1: You have to understand that he's playing basketball at a

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Speaker 1: higher level than most of the players in the league

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Speaker 1: this season, and if you choose that you don't want him,

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Speaker 1: it's because of the off court stuff, not because of

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Speaker 1: his en court impact. To give you guys some examples,

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Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving this year and over four hundred pick and

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Speaker 1: rolls is averaging one point one point points per possession

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Speaker 1: including passes. There are forty five players in the NBA

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Speaker 1: this year that have run at least four hundred. He's

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Speaker 1: eight out of those forty five players, so he's been

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Speaker 1: one of the best pick and roll ball handlers, pick

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Speaker 1: and roll ball shot creators in the league this year.

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Speaker 1: Isolations Kyrie isolations are averaging one point one nine points

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Speaker 1: per possession including passes. That second out of eight teen

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Speaker 1: players in the league to run at least two hundred

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Speaker 1: this year, So he's been the second best isolation player

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Speaker 1: in the entire NBA this year spot up possessions, which

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Speaker 1: would be vitally important, alongside guys like Luca don Hitch

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Speaker 1: or Jimmy Butler and bamat a Bio or Lebron James

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Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis. One point one nine points per spot

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Speaker 1: up possession. That's third, you first out of a hundred

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Speaker 1: and nineteen players um that I've run at least that

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Speaker 1: have run at least I believe one hundred of them.

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Speaker 1: So if you don't want him, that's fine, but don't

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Speaker 1: act like he's not good. And there's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: lot of teams that are gonna talk him, talk themselves

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Speaker 1: into being interested. Now, my first instinct, to be clear

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Speaker 1: is I think cooler heads will prevail, and I think

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Speaker 1: that Kevin Durant will get involved and the Nets will

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Speaker 1: make him a better offer, and Kyrie Irving will sign

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Speaker 1: an extension, and I believe he will stay with the

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets. I believe there's reason to try to make

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Speaker 1: that work. I believe Kyrie has been good enough to

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Speaker 1: justify the deal. And in Brooklyn they have a great

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Speaker 1: basketball situation. They're not my championship favorite. There's some matchup

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Speaker 1: luck that they're gonna need to get, but they're certainly

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Speaker 1: capable of winning the title. There's good reason to try

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Speaker 1: to make that work. But if for whatever reason, it

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Speaker 1: degenerates and he needs to go elsewhere, I want to

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Speaker 1: quickly touch on a couple of teams uh that I

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Speaker 1: think he might end up because where he might end up,

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Speaker 1: because the risk here Kyrie Irving essentially just amounts to

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Speaker 1: a high risk proposition in terms of the talent He's

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Speaker 1: going to make your team a lot better. There's a

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Speaker 1: legitimate case to make that he's been a top twenty

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Speaker 1: player in the NBA this year. His specific skill set

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Speaker 1: would help a lot of teams that desperately need what

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Speaker 1: he does. There's a huge upside, and then there's the

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Speaker 1: downside of all of his antics and his unreliability. Right, so,

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Speaker 1: they're going to be teams like the Denver Nuggets, for instance,

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Speaker 1: where it's like, yeah, you could trade for Kyrie Irving

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Speaker 1: and he might make you a lot better, but the

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Speaker 1: risk doesn't make sense because they're very well established. The

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Speaker 1: same thing goes for teams like the Boston Celtics or

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Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy sixers or the Milwaukee Bucks. Right but

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Speaker 1: then we get to these other teams. They have a

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Speaker 1: lot of different pieces that they feel good about for

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Speaker 1: the chances to win the title, but they know they're

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Speaker 1: not good enough on the margins. Teams like the Lakers,

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Speaker 1: teams like the Mavericks, teams like the Heat, teams like

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Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns. Now for them, they're considering the risk

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Speaker 1: because right now they're not good enough and they some urgency,

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Speaker 1: whether that's Luca and his potential future with the Mavericks,

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Speaker 1: or it's Lebron James and his twentie season, Jimmy Butler

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Speaker 1: aging and has dealt with some injuries over the years,

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Speaker 1: they're experiencing some urgency. And then the same thing goes

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Speaker 1: with the Phoenix Suns with their current predicament with Chris

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Speaker 1: Paul and some of the stuff going on with him

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Speaker 1: so really quickly. I think the Lakers make the most sense,

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Speaker 1: and Kyrie wants to go there, and it's the most

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Speaker 1: likely to happen because of the behind the scenes ability

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Speaker 1: that Kyrie has to manipulate his way there, So Kyrie

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Speaker 1: should If you're Kyrie Irving and you're leaving Brooklyn, do

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Speaker 1: you want to go play with Luca don Chitch and

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Speaker 1: a roster that doesn't have much else? Do you want

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Speaker 1: to go to Miami where they're not going to put

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Speaker 1: up with anything that Kyrie does that's off the book

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Speaker 1: out like you know, off the beaten path, so to speak.

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Speaker 1: Or do you want to go to Phoenix where it's

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Speaker 1: kind of similar type of situation. They're gonna the team

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Speaker 1: and it has a funky chemistry. They've been dealing with

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Speaker 1: a bunch of issues all year. Or do you want

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Speaker 1: to go with the Lakers where it's Lebron James, Anthony Davis.

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Speaker 1: It's a little bit of a ship show anyway, so

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Speaker 1: you can Kyrie is gonna kind of feel like he's

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Speaker 1: got a little bit more freedom there. It's in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 1: the team automatically becomes like a top tier championship contender

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Speaker 1: with the three of them on the roster. I can

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Speaker 1: see why he wants that, and so then from there

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Speaker 1: he can behind the scenes have his agent manipulate the situation.

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Speaker 1: Go to Dallas and be like, don't trade for him.

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Speaker 1: If you do, he won't extend. Go to Miami and

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Speaker 1: say don't trade for him. If you do, he won't extend.

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Speaker 1: Go to Phoenix and say the same thing. So he

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Speaker 1: can do some things behind the scenes to push him

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Speaker 1: towards the Lakers. Now, for the Lakers, there's two elements

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Speaker 1: to it that make it vitally important. One, if I'm

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Speaker 1: breaking down the Lakers roster, they're incredibly physically imposing. We

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Speaker 1: saw that two nights agoing against the Indiana Pacers. They

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Speaker 1: have a massive front line with Lebron James, Anthony Davis Chimura.

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Speaker 1: They've got good uh guards that play good defense, guys

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Speaker 1: like Troy Brown j and your guys like Austin Reeves.

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Speaker 1: They have ball pressure guards, they've got downhill guards. They've

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Speaker 1: got all these things. But there's one thing that they

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Speaker 1: are missing, and it the real reason why the Lakers

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Speaker 1: have struggled so much. At the end of games. They

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Speaker 1: don't have anybody who likes to take in is good

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Speaker 1: at making jump shots, either on the catch or off

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Speaker 1: the dribble, and so because of that, at the end

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Speaker 1: of games, there's a lot of looking around, a lot

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Speaker 1: of teams packing the paint, and nobody feeling comfortable taking

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Speaker 1: the shots you need to win the game. Kyrie Irving

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Speaker 1: automatically fixes all of that. He gives you another great

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Speaker 1: ball handler at the end of games who loves to

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Speaker 1: shoot jump shots both off the dribble and off the catch,

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Speaker 1: that will be able to succeed in crunch time, alongside

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Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis off the ball or on

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Speaker 1: the ball. It's a no brainer. That automatically fixes their

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Speaker 1: biggest flaw. And then this is the biggest the second

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Speaker 1: side of it that is not being talked about enough.

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Speaker 1: What have I been talking about with Russell Westbrook all year?

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Speaker 1: He's been a net positive in the middle portions of games,

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Speaker 1: when the game is loose and it's up and down

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Speaker 1: and he's going against lower level bench players. But at

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Speaker 1: the end of games, for the most part, he's been

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Speaker 1: a disaster. And Darvin Ham wants to go to him,

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Speaker 1: and he will continue to go to him, and as

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Speaker 1: long as he's on the roster, there's a chance he'll

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Speaker 1: go to him in a playoff series and it will

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Speaker 1: get the Lakers beat. So there's the other element to this,

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Speaker 1: which is the the addition by subtraction element of getting

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Speaker 1: Russ off the roster, because he isn't net positive if

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Speaker 1: he's played properly in the rotation, but if he's played

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Speaker 1: in crunch time, he quickly becomes a net negative. So

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Speaker 1: that one of the one of the things that's become

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Speaker 1: an issue with the Lakers this year is they've got

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Speaker 1: so many rotation players now because of a lot of

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Speaker 1: their lower level rotation players that are playing well, that

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Speaker 1: if you flip Russell Westbrook for three players coming back

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Speaker 1: from the Charlotte Hornets or three players coming back from

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Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz, you start to have even more of

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Speaker 1: a log jam in your rotation. And so that kind

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Speaker 1: of made a Russell Westbrook trade unlikely. But Kyrie Irving

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Speaker 1: coming onto the scene makes a very simple one for

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Speaker 1: one swap. You can send Russ out, you can send

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Speaker 1: Lonnie Walker out, you can get back Kyrie Irving and

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Speaker 1: Joe Harris or whatever. The structure of that is. It's

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Speaker 1: fewer players coming back, which makes it a simpler swap,

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Speaker 1: and it gets Russell Westbrook off the roster. So for me,

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Speaker 1: the Lakers may the most sense. I think they should

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Speaker 1: throw everything at this to try to get it done. Yes,

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Speaker 1: Jennie Buss is gonna have to figure out some stuff

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Speaker 1: with the luxury tax. But Kyrie Irving, Ruby, Hodger Mura,

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Speaker 1: Lebron James, Anthony Davis. That's three really good players that

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Speaker 1: are thirty or younger and Lebron James, who is aging

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Speaker 1: very well. That's a good core for you to build

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Speaker 1: around in the future, even though it would be expensive.

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Speaker 1: With Dallas, the case is very simple. They don't have

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Speaker 1: any legit backup ball handling or a legit costar alongside

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Speaker 1: uh Luca don Che. Their team that I think should

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Speaker 1: be aggressive because I think Kyrie's game compliments Luca very well.

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Speaker 1: When we get to Miami, similar type of deal. We've

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Speaker 1: talked a lot about how Jimmy Butler is the only

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Speaker 1: guy who can create his own shot on that team.

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Speaker 1: Bam is making some improvements this year. He's getting better,

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Speaker 1: looking to score, looking to be more aggressive. But their guards,

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Speaker 1: when you get to Max Strus and Gabe Vincent and

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Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry, those guys are not doing a good job

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Speaker 1: this year of creating offense. Tyler Harrow ironically has been

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Speaker 1: very very good, especially when he's coming off of screening actions.

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Speaker 1: But they could really use one more guy that can

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So it makes sense. The one

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Speaker 1: team that I really don't understand, and I get it

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Speaker 1: because it's a new owner and he's coming in and

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Speaker 1: he wants to make that splashy move and he wants

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Speaker 1: to get his team on the stage is the Phoenix Suns.

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Speaker 1: But it's a redundancy thing. What's the one thing that

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Speaker 1: Devin Booker is better at than most people in the league,

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Speaker 1: creating his own shot off the dribble. What's the one

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Speaker 1: thing that Kyrie Irving is better at than most of

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Speaker 1: the players in the league. It's creating his own shot

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Speaker 1: off the dribble. You get the point. There's a redundancy there.

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Speaker 1: I don't think they necessarily need what he does. What

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Speaker 1: they need is someone who does what Chris Paul does

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Speaker 1: in a more reliable way on a playoff stage. So

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Speaker 1: I don't I understand the splashyness of it and the

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Speaker 1: new owner thing and the being aggressive thing, but I

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Speaker 1: just don't necessarily think that that team makes a ton

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Speaker 1: of sense as a fit. So again to tie a

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Speaker 1: bon on it, my guess is that he stays in Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: Cooler heads prevailed. They've got too good of a team.

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Speaker 1: They try to make this work. But if he ends

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Speaker 1: up going elsewhere, there's too much behind the scenes that

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Speaker 1: the Lakers and do. There's too much or that I

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Speaker 1: should say that Kyrie Irving can do. And there's too

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Speaker 1: much basketball sense with Kyrie Irving with the Lakers for

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Speaker 1: that not to happen. So I would consider that to

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Speaker 1: be the most likely outcomes should Kyrie actually get traded,

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Speaker 1: and then really quickly before we get out of here today.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to spend too much time on this,

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Speaker 1: but I watched that Celtic or the Clippers Bucks game

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Speaker 1: on Thursday night, and the reason why I thought it

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Speaker 1: was super interesting is if you guys remember last weekend,

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Speaker 1: Nicola Yokich and Joel Embiid had a battle on ABC

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Speaker 1: and Joel Embiad embarrassed him. And during that game, for

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Speaker 1: the first three and a half quarters, Luke Nikola Yokis

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Speaker 1: was the better player because his possession by possession impact

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Speaker 1: is higher than Joel Embiads and Joel his shot making

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Speaker 1: hadn't really taken off at that point in the game,

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Speaker 1: and the Nuggets were winning, and Yokichi stat line is

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Speaker 1: pretty pedestrian, but it was classic yokis ball and they

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Speaker 1: were winning. But then what happened. Joel Embiad got just

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Speaker 1: obnoxiously hot with his pull up junction and just barbecued

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Speaker 1: Nicola yo Ki every time down the floor. The end

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Speaker 1: of the game looked wildly better and the Sixers won. Well,

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Speaker 1: what happened in that Clippers Bucks game was the exact

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Speaker 1: opposite of that dynamic. For the first three and a

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Speaker 1: half quarters of that game, Kawai and Paul George were clicking,

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Speaker 1: knocking down all these tough pull up jump shots. The

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Speaker 1: entire Clippers roster just incredible shot making every time down

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Speaker 1: the floor. But then down the stretch they those shots

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Speaker 1: stopped falling. Janice kept barreling his way to the rim.

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Speaker 1: Janice kept generating offense and defense on both ends of

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Speaker 1: the floor. The Bucks slowly climbed back into the game.

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Speaker 1: And what did you see down the stretch. You saw

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Speaker 1: Paul George pull up jump shot top of the key shot.

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Speaker 1: He works really hard on airball short of the rent.

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Speaker 1: You saw Kawhi Leonard working on Wesley Matthews getting to

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Speaker 1: a couple of turnarounds and step backs and fadeaways and

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Speaker 1: they just didn't go in. And that's the other side

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Speaker 1: of that story. Like I told you guys after that

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Speaker 1: Yo Kitchen, bad game, those are just different archetypes, the

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Speaker 1: shot making and the possession to possession impact or two

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Speaker 1: different archetypes. And if you watch them on one night

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Speaker 1: and the shots are going in, the shot maker guy

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Speaker 1: looks better. But if you watch him on another night

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Speaker 1: and those tough shots that even though they work really

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Speaker 1: hard on are below fifty, usually sometimes they don't go in.

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Speaker 1: And when they don't go in, suddenly the other guy

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Speaker 1: looks better. And I thought that was a good indication

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Speaker 1: or a good example of the fact that it's not

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Speaker 1: always about that one game sample and who makes what

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Speaker 1: shot when you get to the postseason. That's why I

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Speaker 1: value those possession to possession guys, because in a seven

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Speaker 1: game sample, it's far more likely that they will be

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Speaker 1: able to make more impact then the guy who could

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Speaker 1: get hot in game two and get hot in game four,

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Speaker 1: maybe pretty mediocre outside of that and end up losing

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Speaker 1: this series. I said before the season that Janice was

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Speaker 1: my pick for m v P. I think he's the

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Speaker 1: best player in the league. He's been an absolute wrecking

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Speaker 1: ball over the last couple of the weeks. The Bucks

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Speaker 1: are on a run. I hope some of you guys

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Speaker 1: jumped on those odds when they were significantly higher, because

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Speaker 1: I do you think j honest has a chance to

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Speaker 1: kind of work his way back into this conversation. He

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Speaker 1: has the ability to hit the Jets for a month

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Speaker 1: or two average forty and fifteen, win every game, and

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Speaker 1: just look better than everybody else. And so that was

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Speaker 1: always something that could happen down the stretch of the season.

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Speaker 1: That's why I never gave up. Gave up on them

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Speaker 1: all right, guys, that is all I have for today.

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Speaker 1: Will be back tomorrow morning with some breakdown of those

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Speaker 1: three games that I mentioned. As always, I sincerely appreciate

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Speaker 1: your support and we'll see you guys next time. The

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Speaker 1: volume