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

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

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Speaker 1: hang out and talk some basketball with me and with Tommy. Tommy,

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Speaker 1: what's up man? How you doing, Same old man, same

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Speaker 1: old Just firing the people up on Twitter? You know,

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Speaker 1: you know how it goes. You got yourself in quite

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Speaker 1: a little ship storm that we've got to deal with. Yep, yep,

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Speaker 1: that's um. I didn't expect things to go that way.

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Speaker 1: But look, man, STEP's not gonna play well. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: call him out for So we are going to do

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Speaker 1: a serious, grown up podcast about the NBA Western Conference today.

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Speaker 1: But I do want to get started with this, this

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Speaker 1: situation you've gotten yourself into with with Warriors Twitter, because

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Speaker 1: I do actually think it's interesting and and before we

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Speaker 1: actually talk about it, I want to start by making

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Speaker 1: a point about being a fan of a player, because

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Speaker 1: I do think that it's important to acknowledge that that's

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Speaker 1: a normal part of the experience of being a fan.

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Speaker 1: If you're going to watch NBA basketball and you're a

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Speaker 1: fan of NBA basketball, you're gonna naturally gravitate towards certain players,

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Speaker 1: and you're gonna dislike other players. I'm a huge Lebron

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Speaker 1: James fan, and I greatly dislike James Harten for instance.

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Speaker 1: That's just two random examples and that sort of, you know,

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Speaker 1: bias I have to acknowledge. Otherwise I'm never gonna have

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Speaker 1: any hope of trying to come back and find my center.

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Speaker 1: And the reality is is that it's gonna cover, it's

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Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna have like rose colored glasses towards anything

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Speaker 1: that I originally see with Lebron and the exact opposite

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Speaker 1: to anything I see what James Harden and I think

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Speaker 1: we're obligated, if we're gonna try to be you know,

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Speaker 1: grown ups about this, to try to at least attempt

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Speaker 1: to see the other side of any of these sorts

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Speaker 1: of topics. And it's been interesting for me to see

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Speaker 1: you the last couple of days just saying like, hey,

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Speaker 1: like Steph hasn't played well in a little while. He's

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Speaker 1: a little guard you know, I'm a little bit worried

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Speaker 1: about what this means for him moving forward. And to

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Speaker 1: see people say ridiculous things that you're like, you know,

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Speaker 1: half joking, but people saying things that you're like some

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Speaker 1: sort of clutch operative and that you're a fake Golden

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Speaker 1: State fan, and clearly you're just you know that you

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Speaker 1: have some major problem because they can't fathom the idea

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Speaker 1: that you, as a Steph Curry fan, might say something

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Speaker 1: that they disagree with. And I hate I hate that.

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Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a terrible foundation for

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Speaker 1: any sort of conversation. And the reality is, it's like,

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Speaker 1: if you disagree, tell us why you disagree, and chances are,

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Speaker 1: if we're as crazy as you say we are, it's

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Speaker 1: gonna bear out in the results. And then have some

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Speaker 1: fun with it. Talk some trash. We're good sports. I mean,

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, this is sports. It's

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Speaker 1: not politics, it's not anything that's serious. Have some fun

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Speaker 1: with it. I had a classic example. This happened to

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Speaker 1: me last year in the playoffs. After Game four against Denver.

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Speaker 1: I made a comment that I thought lebron On had

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Speaker 1: lost some confidence in his jump shot. I thought that

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Speaker 1: he was starting to doubt himself as he was going up,

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Speaker 1: and I thought I could potentially be a problem for

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Speaker 1: them moving forward. And then I was proven wrong, Like

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Speaker 1: he shot the lights out in Game six and executed

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Speaker 1: a Game five and executed Denver and then literally shot

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Speaker 1: from three in the finals, and I had to own

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Speaker 1: up to the fact that I jumped the gun on

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Speaker 1: that and I was wrong. But who cares? Like no

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Speaker 1: one's perfect in this regard, and and it bothers me

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Speaker 1: that people have that sort of expectation. So for starters,

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Speaker 1: why don't you brief everybody on exactly what you were

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Speaker 1: trying to say about Steph and what got everybody is

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Speaker 1: so upset? So I think an important way to look

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Speaker 1: at it. And it's hard to convey like context and

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Speaker 1: tone over Twitter. I obviously was like feeding the beast

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Speaker 1: a little bit after a while when people kept coming

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Speaker 1: after me and saying, you know, you're an idiot, I'm like, okay,

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Speaker 1: I'll just I'll lean into this a little bit. But

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Speaker 1: my general point is that if Steph Curry isn't Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry two thousand fourteen to two thousand, seventeen eighteen Steph Curry,

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Speaker 1: then all of these roster editions on the margins, which

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Speaker 1: I think the Warriors did a very good job with

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Speaker 1: considering circumstances, considering Clay goes down, and then they add

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Speaker 1: Ubre bays Moore want to make a really nice veteran pieces.

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Speaker 1: They have some nice young guys. We'll see how Wiseman looks.

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Speaker 1: I'm a little bit um skeptical. I think there's gonna

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Speaker 1: be a bit of learning companies or rookie so let's

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Speaker 1: expect it. But point being, none of these moves matter

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Speaker 1: if Steph Curry isn't top three player Steph Curry, the

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Speaker 1: thing about as a fan is titles. I don't care

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Speaker 1: about anything else. I want to win NBA championships. And

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Speaker 1: if Steph Curry isn't the top three guy that he

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Speaker 1: used to be very clearly used to be, then all

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Speaker 1: these conversations are moot um. And I think it's you know,

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Speaker 1: people want to look at Lebron, how Lebron's aging, how

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Speaker 1: Durant may begin to age um. And you pointed this

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Speaker 1: out briefly. Steps a small guard, it's different for him, right.

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Speaker 1: His game is based on quickness and agility and being

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Speaker 1: able to create the slightest martins of separation because he

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Speaker 1: is that much shorter now, he does have maybe the

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Speaker 1: quickest release ever that we've seen from a jump shooter.

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Speaker 1: But if defenders are now six inches closers him, that

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Speaker 1: margin is a little bit smaller. And the shooting percentages

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Speaker 1: dropped maybe two to three points, which might not seem significant,

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Speaker 1: but it is significant when you're playing the best defenses

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Speaker 1: in the league. And so my point has really been

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Speaker 1: out of most of the stuff that we've seen from

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry after the Western Conference Finals, it hasn't looked great, right.

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Speaker 1: It still looked like, oh, he's probably a top ten

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Speaker 1: player right just through impact alone. But is he a

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Speaker 1: top three guy? I don't know. And when we did

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Speaker 1: our our player rankings, I still had him at two

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Speaker 1: UM and a lot of that was based off the

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Speaker 1: one Toronto game that he came and played UM in

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Speaker 1: the regular season, right before Covid hit. I thought he

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Speaker 1: looked awesome that night, and it had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with whether he was making or missing shots. He was

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Speaker 1: getting to his spots easily, he was creating he looks

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Speaker 1: super quick. To look cry and maybe look maybe him

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Speaker 1: looking slow in the first three season game a relatively

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Speaker 1: slow is him just not having played basketball in nine months.

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Speaker 1: That could easily be it. UM, But like I said,

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Speaker 1: it's hard to convey that stuff on Twitter, and as

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Speaker 1: soon as I say anything remotely that's not like Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry is the best player of the last twenty years,

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Speaker 1: then I'm gonna get crushed and I know that, um So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I lean into it sometimes. But my only point is

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Speaker 1: he needs to be a top three guy or a

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Speaker 1: top five guy that for them to have honestly any

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Speaker 1: shot even making like the Western Conference finals this year,

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Speaker 1: um and he would have to be the best player

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Speaker 1: in the league for them to even have a chance

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Speaker 1: of winning the championship. So those that's what my concern

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Speaker 1: is rooted in, right, and we just haven't seen it

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Speaker 1: in a while. And I think that's a lot of

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Speaker 1: it too. It's been you know, eighteen plus month since

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Speaker 1: we've actually seen him be that guy. So it's it's

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Speaker 1: tough to really project where he's gonna go, especially when

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Speaker 1: he turns thirty three and a couple of months now

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Speaker 1: turns three March. Yeah, agree with the premise of the

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Speaker 1: idea of what might be happening to Steph Curry smaller

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Speaker 1: guard aging. He's in a position where he's gonna have

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Speaker 1: more offensive responsibilities than he has basically since two thousand

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Speaker 1: thirteen or so. So I understand the pathway in which

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Speaker 1: you could, uh you know, eventually see a decline from

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry. Where I would push back is that I

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Speaker 1: I'm not really I'm not really thinking it's fair to

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Speaker 1: accept The most recent examples of him playing basketball is evidence.

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Speaker 1: For instance, in the two thousand nineteen finals, Steph was

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Speaker 1: kind of retooling on the fly as a result of injuries.

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Speaker 1: Very similar thing happened to Lebron in two thousand fifteen.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the reason why I think his efficiency

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Speaker 1: tanked in that finals is because he was accustomed to

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Speaker 1: playing basketball a certain way all season with Kevin Love

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Speaker 1: and Kyrie Irving, and then they dropped UH to injury,

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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden in the middle of an

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Speaker 1: NBA Finals against a sixty seven win team with the

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Speaker 1: m v P, against one of the best teams in

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Speaker 1: the league. He had to completely relearn how to play

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Speaker 1: with that team, and it took time and it's and

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Speaker 1: as a result, I think that he had some struggles

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Speaker 1: there on the offensive end. And then the same thing

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Speaker 1: happened with Stephen two thousand nineteen. You know, he missed

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Speaker 1: a lot of shots. UH, he struggled to get separation.

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Speaker 1: But he was playing against a really, really good defense,

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Speaker 1: and he was playing in a situation where he had

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Speaker 1: to play with different players than he was accustomed to

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Speaker 1: playing with all season long, So that would be where

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Speaker 1: I give him some some slack in that regard. You

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Speaker 1: had mentioned on a couple of occasions that his shooting

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Speaker 1: percentage since the two thousand finals, like over that span,

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Speaker 1: and I can't remember how many games it was. Do

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Speaker 1: you have some numbers on you, binny chance it was?

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Speaker 1: It's not significant, but I mean, so he shot forty

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Speaker 1: one percent from the field from three in the finals. Um.

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Speaker 1: He shot from three last year in five games. UM.

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Speaker 1: And then I think he had one good preseason game

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Speaker 1: last year out of you know, the four or five

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Speaker 1: day played. UM. Just in terms of the percentages, right, um,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of it in the finals. He was

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Speaker 1: missing open looks, which is weird for him. UM. So

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Speaker 1: you could just say, you know, it's a significantly small sample,

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Speaker 1: shouldn't look too much into it. But is it also

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Speaker 1: a sign of him when him getting older and now

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Speaker 1: his legs wearing out quicker in games and those open

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Speaker 1: looks don't go down the same clip that they used,

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Speaker 1: because that's a real thing, especially for jump shoters, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, especially as he takes on more offensive responsibility.

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Speaker 1: Is you're pointing to. And in those finals, he had

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Speaker 1: to take on more offensive responsibility. He was creating basically

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Speaker 1: everything because of how bad the roster was. Um And

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Speaker 1: I think that led him to be more tired and

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Speaker 1: to miss more open shots. Um And I don't see

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Speaker 1: if that is any indication he's gonna have almost as

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Speaker 1: much responsibility this year. Um Like, the Warriors have made

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Speaker 1: some nice editions and I and I liked a lot

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Speaker 1: of the additions they've made, but it's still not a

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Speaker 1: roster on the level of but he's played. But the

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Speaker 1: last you know, three years where he's been healthy. Um So,

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Speaker 1: I think that would be more of my cause can

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Speaker 1: than anything. It's just been so long since he had

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Speaker 1: to play this type of role where he's like he's

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Speaker 1: gotta do everything. It's gonna be him and Draymond basically

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Speaker 1: doing most of the creation. Um So, yeah, I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: your points are valid for sure. Right about comparing the

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Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen finals and two thousand nineteen finals, that

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Speaker 1: Worries roster was got awful. By the end of those finals,

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Speaker 1: they didn't have If you look up and down that roster,

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Speaker 1: it's like literally seven of the ten guys that we're playing,

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Speaker 1: if you're not including Clay, aren't in the league anymore.

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Speaker 1: And that includes young an old guys, so really bad roster, um,

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Speaker 1: and he should be given some grace for that. You know,

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Speaker 1: we shouldn't be looking too much into those numbers, um.

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Speaker 1: But look, you know the he's been struggling shooting recently,

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Speaker 1: which is we for the greatest shooter of all time,

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Speaker 1: and we only have twelve games over the last eighteen months.

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Speaker 1: So that's what I'm gonna look at, right, That's the

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Speaker 1: only way I can be fair. So when I'm so

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Speaker 1: essentially like I had. I got into a big argument

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Speaker 1: Lebron's downfall based on the idea that there was nobody

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Speaker 1: at age thirty five who had produced at that level.

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Speaker 1: And my counter to him was like, yeah, I get that,

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Speaker 1: but I mean, this is a guy who's used to

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Speaker 1: being the best at everything his whole life. So I

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Speaker 1: I what I always asked Jeremiah to do was wait

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Speaker 1: for evidence. Wait for evidence, wait for evidence. I tweeted

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Speaker 1: about this yesterday. The burden of proof is on other

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Speaker 1: people to prove why these guys have fallen off. We cannot,

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Speaker 1: you know, essentially project their downfall before it happens. So

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Speaker 1: when it comes to Steph, I guess what I would

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Speaker 1: say is the evidence that I would look for that

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Speaker 1: he has started that downward trajectory trajectory would be based

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Speaker 1: on a larger sample size over the course of the season.

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Speaker 1: And the example I would use would be what happened

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Speaker 1: to me in my second year of college. So the

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Speaker 1: summer between my first and second year pointing basketball, broke

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Speaker 1: my foot and as a result, I had to take

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Speaker 1: It wasn't even that significant of an injury. I was

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Speaker 1: out for I think three months, and I came into

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Speaker 1: training camp or whatever as my first basketball activity in

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Speaker 1: three months, which so it was tough because I was

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Speaker 1: going against guys who were in much better shape than

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Speaker 1: me and I and I had put on some weight

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Speaker 1: and I was getting back into the flow of things.

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Speaker 1: And I remember that season when we started playing games,

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Speaker 1: I got off to a really rough start, and there

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Speaker 1: was actually a stretch early in the season where the

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Speaker 1: coach took me out of the starting lineup for two

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Speaker 1: games based on the idea that I had not been rebounding,

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Speaker 1: which was something that I had done really well the

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Speaker 1: previous season, and he was doing it to send a

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Speaker 1: message I think to the team into myself that I

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Speaker 1: just just kind of light a fire under me and

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Speaker 1: to kind of get it going again. And I ended

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Speaker 1: up making the All Conference team that year. I played

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Speaker 1: really really well at the tail end of the season,

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Speaker 1: and I attribute a lot of my early season struggles

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Speaker 1: to just being away from the game for a while

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Speaker 1: and the time it takes and the rhythm that you

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Speaker 1: have to build through playing a lot of basketball games

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Speaker 1: over an extended period of time, so that so that

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Speaker 1: you really really get into your routine. I think I

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Speaker 1: think we see a lot of guys do this, Like

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Speaker 1: Lebron is famous for kind of trying to build up

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Speaker 1: into his postseason runs and things along those lines. So

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Speaker 1: if Steph Curry, you know, after two after two days rest,

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Speaker 1: in the twenty third game of the season against the

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Speaker 1: middle of the pack defense, when he should theoretically have

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Speaker 1: fresh legs and be in good shape and be ready

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Speaker 1: to go out and light him up, and he doesn't

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Speaker 1: do well, and it's part of a larger trend, That's

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Speaker 1: when I think we can start having that conversation. But

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Speaker 1: just that would be the that would be where I

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Speaker 1: would push back against what you're saying, but percent agree.

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Speaker 1: I see where the skepticism arises from. I understand I am.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the Warriors as a whole here

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Speaker 1: in a minute, and I'm gonna explain why I am

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Speaker 1: less optimistic about them than other people, And a lot

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Speaker 1: of that has to do with the fact that Steph

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Speaker 1: Curry is going about to go from basically not playing

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Speaker 1: competitive basketball for you know what, almost five days, but

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Speaker 1: basically not like, very inconsistently playing, and then now he's

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Speaker 1: going to hop into being in one of the biggest

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Speaker 1: offensive roles he's going to have carried in his entire career,

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Speaker 1: So that that could that that could very well end

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Speaker 1: up manifesting in him either breaking down. That's my big

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Speaker 1: thing that I'm looking out for with him, is not

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Speaker 1: so much that he'll play poorly, but that he'll succumb

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Speaker 1: to injuries, miss fifteen to twenty games, and end up

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Speaker 1: missing the playoffs just by virtue of a similar path

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Speaker 1: to what happened to the Lakers Lebron's first year. You

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Speaker 1: know what I mean totally? No, I mean, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think I do share some of those concerns. So we

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Speaker 1: want to move to more Warriors right now? Yeah, for sure. So, um,

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Speaker 1: I guess you know with that, with all these teams,

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Speaker 1: I wass look at it and through the lens of

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Speaker 1: you know, how it could go right and for how

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Speaker 1: it could go wrong. And you know, for instance, like

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Speaker 1: we look at Brooklyn and we'll talk about them on Friday,

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Speaker 1: like there's a million ways to perceive how that could

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Speaker 1: go extremely well and then the highest ceiling maybe, but

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Speaker 1: that they might also have the lowest floor if it

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Speaker 1: doesn't go well. They are a super interesting team exactly.

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Speaker 1: So So with the Warriors, I want you to start,

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Speaker 1: because you're you are an optimist, I want you to

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Speaker 1: start by telling me how this Golden say Warrior season

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Speaker 1: could go right and what their ceiling is. Um. So

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Speaker 1: I think just to kind of to prevace everything, I

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Speaker 1: think they probably will struggle a little bit out of

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Speaker 1: the gates, and a lot of that will probably be

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Speaker 1: based on Steph and Draymond too to a certain extent,

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Speaker 1: regaining rhythm. You know, those guys haven't played a lot

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Speaker 1: of Draymond played last year, but he wasn't playing serious

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Speaker 1: basketball um and Steff obviously hasn't played in a while. UM,

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Speaker 1: So I I've been saying this, you know, for a

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Now I think they will struggle out

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Speaker 1: of the gates. UM. The preseas, that first preseason game

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Speaker 1: actually did make me a little bit more optimistic from

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Speaker 1: a team standpoint. UM, I thought their defense looked really

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Speaker 1: good against a good offense. UM. I thought they looked

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Speaker 1: really good defensively. They're really long, they've been really active,

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Speaker 1: UM and I mean Draymond wasn't even out there and

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Speaker 1: they still looked, you know, pretty solid defensively. So I

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Speaker 1: think early they might actually have to win a lot

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Speaker 1: of games office strength of their defense, UM, which is

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Speaker 1: not what I would expect from this team. Kind of

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Speaker 1: entering the off season before they kind of made some

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Speaker 1: some moves. But looking at it now, I think they

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Speaker 1: actually do have a chance to be a top ten defense.

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Speaker 1: And both Steve Kerr and Draymond have kind of projected

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Speaker 1: that same energy. They said, you know, we've got a

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Speaker 1: long way to go, but we think we can go

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Speaker 1: and be really special. UM. So to be as entirely

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Speaker 1: office like as possible, I think the ceiling is a

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Speaker 1: title for this team. Right they would have to have

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Speaker 1: a lot of things go right. Basically everything you gotta

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Speaker 1: get at least sixty good steph Curry games to make

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Speaker 1: the playoffs. You gotta get healthy Draymond, and then all

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Speaker 1: of the are most of the young guys take a

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Speaker 1: step forward. Wiggins takes a meaningful step forward. UM. Uprais

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Speaker 1: that consistent second third score. Wiseman is able to give

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Speaker 1: you fifteen to twenty good minutes a game at the

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Speaker 1: center spot, even as a rookie. And then I actually

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Speaker 1: have a lot of faith in most of the role

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Speaker 1: guys off the bench. Bays Moore want to make her

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Speaker 1: pass goal. UM, even Damian Lee for spot minutes. UM.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of those guys can be rotation

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Speaker 1: level players for a playoff to team UM. So you

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Speaker 1: know they would, like I said, they would have to

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Speaker 1: have a lot go right. UM, they would probably have

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Speaker 1: to have some type of Lakers injury. UM. But if

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Speaker 1: if things do go how I think they can, meaning

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Speaker 1: that step is still a top five guy, UM, and

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Speaker 1: then all of the young guys, like I said, make

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Speaker 1: meaningful improvements. Nobody in the playoffs would scare me besides

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Speaker 1: the Lakers. That'd be the only team, especially out West. UM.

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Speaker 1: The East is a little bit more of a toss

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Speaker 1: up because I think a lot of the East teams

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Speaker 1: right now are wild cards and we'll get into that

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Speaker 1: on Friday. Um. But is if if the Lakers aren't

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Speaker 1: fully healthy. Um, I honestly don't see any team come

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Speaker 1: playoff time that would be better than the Warriors. Once again,

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Speaker 1: huge qualifier if Steph Curry is still a top five

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Speaker 1: player and it all comes down to at at the

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Speaker 1: end of day, because if he is, then great, this

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Speaker 1: guy is the limit and it always will be as

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Speaker 1: long as he's that guy. But that's where most of

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Speaker 1: my skepticism is held at this point. So yeah, so

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Speaker 1: I think I think this season, you know, the optimistic

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Speaker 1: view would be a version of what happened to the

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Speaker 1: two thou and eighteen Calves because I remember on Twitter

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Speaker 1: vividly around the time that the that the Rockets took

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Speaker 1: a three two series lead and Chris Paul got hurt.

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Speaker 1: I said that if the Rockets managed to knock out

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Speaker 1: the Warriors and they go into the finals to play

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Speaker 1: against Lebron's Calves with just James Harden, I think that

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Speaker 1: the Calves would have beat them. And I said that

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Speaker 1: in the moment, because I thought that Lebron was capable

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Speaker 1: of winning that head to head match up with James

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Speaker 1: Harden by such a wide margin that it would make

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Speaker 1: up for a lot of the other deficiencies on the

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Speaker 1: Cleveland roster. And you were No. CP three in those

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Speaker 1: finals three because hamstring injury. You know, like I've had

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Speaker 1: one hamstring injury in my life and I remember consistently

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Speaker 1: re injuring it and a lot of other issues, like

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Speaker 1: it's a huge pain in the butt. So but the

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Speaker 1: point is is that like there was a version as

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Speaker 1: flawed as that roster was, where the two thousand eighteen

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Speaker 1: Calves could have won the title based on the strength

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Speaker 1: of having in my opinion, the best player in the

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Speaker 1: world and some injury luck Chris Paul getting getting knocked

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Speaker 1: out and that team somehow upsetting the two thousand eighteen Warriors.

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Speaker 1: Now didn't happen, and they ended up getting absolutely railroaded

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Speaker 1: in the in the finals, and that very well maybe

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Speaker 1: end up end up being what happens to this Warrior's team.

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Speaker 1: But that would be the path steph Curry elevating himself

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Speaker 1: to that first or second best player in the league

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Speaker 1: type of level, playing that way consistently being the better

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Speaker 1: alpha in the early round playoffs series, allowing himself to

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Speaker 1: beat teams that had better records, and then ending up

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Speaker 1: in a late round playoff series against a team that's

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Speaker 1: worn out from some other fight and having a chance

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Speaker 1: to upset, which, for the record, is a completely legitimate

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Speaker 1: title because part of winning a title is winning the

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Speaker 1: war of attrition. So they'd have to win the war

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Speaker 1: of attrition. They'd have to have Steph Curry played an

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Speaker 1: extremely high level, and they're not going to be as

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Speaker 1: good offensively as the two thousand eighteen Caps in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: which I'll explain in a minute. So that means that

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Speaker 1: they would end up having to defend extremely well. And

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of that is depended on Draymon, right.

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Speaker 1: I Mean, I've been talking about step but a lot

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Speaker 1: of it's depended on Draymon too, And early indications are

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Speaker 1: that he looks really good. He looks like he's in

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Speaker 1: really good shape. Um, and as long as he's in

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Speaker 1: good shape, I don't really doubt his impact much, especially

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Speaker 1: with the length and they put around him. If they

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Speaker 1: hadn't put the necessary length in athleticism around him, I

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Speaker 1: would be a little bit worried about it, but he is.

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Speaker 1: He is such an outlier from a mental processing standpoint

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Speaker 1: in the defensive end, I think he'll be able to

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Speaker 1: get these guys to at least figure out rotations at

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Speaker 1: a at a capable enough level to where they they're

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Speaker 1: so disruptive that they're able to cause almost every NBA

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Speaker 1: team trouble in a half court offensive sense. Um. So

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Speaker 1: Draymond is Draymond. And that doesn't even necessarily mean two

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Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, But just give me two thousand nine

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Speaker 1: team wass or Conference finals Draymond, where you're the most

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Speaker 1: active guy on the floor, You're all over the place,

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Speaker 1: you're tripled up the machine, um, and you're the best

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Speaker 1: defensive player in almost every game they step on the floor.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, I agree, and and and they're do they

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Speaker 1: have the necessary components to at least have a closing

431
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:50,919
Speaker 1: five that can defend. That would be the thing to

432
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,720
Speaker 1: look at as like an optimistic view. So here's where

433
00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:57,760
Speaker 1: I could see it going off the rails the you know, uh,

434
00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:01,080
Speaker 1: actually it's pretty simple. We talked a earlier with injuries.

435
00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:03,480
Speaker 1: Injuries could be the first thing. Well, the other thing

436
00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,399
Speaker 1: is I'm a big believer in Steph Curry and Lebron

437
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:11,480
Speaker 1: James is offensive impact without scoring. It's something you and

438
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,800
Speaker 1: I have talked about at length in these in these forums,

439
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:17,879
Speaker 1: and one of the biggest reasons why it works is

440
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:21,000
Speaker 1: the rosters historically have been built around their strength. So

441
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:24,040
Speaker 1: for instance, you know Lebron when he was in Cleveland,

442
00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:26,760
Speaker 1: when he would captain those amazing offenses that didn't necessarily

443
00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,119
Speaker 1: have a ton of talent, they all could shoot the

444
00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 1: hell out of the ball. So it was built around

445
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:34,160
Speaker 1: this idea that Lebron would put pressure on the rim,

446
00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:37,199
Speaker 1: which would inevitably draw and defenders where he could kick

447
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:39,080
Speaker 1: out the threes and they shoot the lights out, and

448
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,200
Speaker 1: then it would invert and he'd be scoring at the

449
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,399
Speaker 1: rim all day long. And then the for Steph Curry,

450
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,360
Speaker 1: that was simply based on the idea that he would

451
00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:49,760
Speaker 1: attract attention away from the basket, which would leave your

452
00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:52,960
Speaker 1: offense perpetually playing four on three, which would allow you

453
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,120
Speaker 1: to get all sorts of dunks and easy corner threes

454
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:57,840
Speaker 1: and easy shots based on the gravity of Steph Curry

455
00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:01,040
Speaker 1: away from the basket. Now what I what I what

456
00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:03,159
Speaker 1: worries me about this team is something I'm going to

457
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:05,520
Speaker 1: talk about a lot today, especially when we get to

458
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,119
Speaker 1: talking about the Lakers and Clippers, and it's their collective

459
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,200
Speaker 1: i Q. So, for instance, Steph Curry is an extremely

460
00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:13,520
Speaker 1: high i Q player, Draymond Green is an extremely high

461
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:16,280
Speaker 1: i Q player. But when you go down the rest

462
00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:18,880
Speaker 1: of the roster, you're running into a lot of names

463
00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:22,200
Speaker 1: of guys that aren't the same level of basketball i

464
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 1: Q as Andrea Gudala was, or that Sean Livingston was,

465
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,800
Speaker 1: or that Kevin Durant was, or that lean Andrew Barbosa was,

466
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:33,400
Speaker 1: or that Andrew Boget was, or that any of those

467
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:37,399
Speaker 1: extremely smart, savvy veterans that could make really really quick

468
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,240
Speaker 1: and easy and simple and consistent reads in those four

469
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,120
Speaker 1: on threes to get easy shots. And so what worries

470
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,199
Speaker 1: me is that it's going to turn into Steph needing

471
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:49,600
Speaker 1: to shoot a lot because of the fact that his

472
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:53,400
Speaker 1: offense may not be able to capitalize on the attention

473
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,640
Speaker 1: that he's drawing. Because Andrew Wiggins, who has a ton

474
00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,840
Speaker 1: of talent, has not shown himself. Now. I know you've

475
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:01,840
Speaker 1: been pointing out in some film that he's made some

476
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,199
Speaker 1: good reads in some of these preseason games, and that

477
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:06,400
Speaker 1: would be the optimistic way of looking at it, But

478
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: looking back at his career, that has not been one

479
00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,879
Speaker 1: of his strengths. Kelly Yubre, same thing, a super athletic player,

480
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,320
Speaker 1: great in transition. He's been really good at defending at

481
00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: the four, great small ball four all around. But the

482
00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,399
Speaker 1: reality is that Kelly Yubre is not viewed around the

483
00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 1: league as a high i Q quick decision maker in

484
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: close out situations, which is something that he would need

485
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 1: to do. So that would be what would worry, I mean,

486
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: especially as you get into a postseason series, is that

487
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:34,879
Speaker 1: teams might be able to take the ball out of

488
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's hand relatively easily, and that the Warriors wouldn't

489
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:41,920
Speaker 1: be able to necessarily capitalize on that. Yeah, So I mean,

490
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:44,560
Speaker 1: I hear you there. There's definitely concerns Um. Like you

491
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:46,679
Speaker 1: pointed out, though, I am an optimist in terms of

492
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:49,920
Speaker 1: um wiggins projection as a play maker maker. UM, He's

493
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: shown and that's not just based on something limited. That's

494
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 1: based on his last year in Minnesota too, where he

495
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: was doing a lot more ball handling, UM and just

496
00:22:57,600 --> 00:22:59,280
Speaker 1: doing a lot more decision making overall, and he was

497
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,040
Speaker 1: actually making some at reads. He's never gonna be you know,

498
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:02,960
Speaker 1: he's never gonna be on Great Goudala Like, I'm not

499
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and tell you that. But he certainly

500
00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 1: made improvements, and I would assume that that just continues

501
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:11,040
Speaker 1: to get better UM in the Warrior system, because if

502
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 1: if Kur has shown anything, he doesn't develop shooters he

503
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,360
Speaker 1: actually developed that are playmakers, which is just a bizarre

504
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:18,159
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't make any sense because the guy

505
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 1: is one of the greatest shooters ever. UM. But I

506
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,199
Speaker 1: would be optimistic UM from that standpoint with Wiggins, and

507
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: I think what's important to note is the veterans they've added.

508
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 1: I want to make her in bays more specifically, those

509
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:33,120
Speaker 1: guys are actually pretty good passors. UM. So if Kerr

510
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 1: mix and matches lineups the right way, you don't have

511
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:36,919
Speaker 1: to have a ton of time where Wiggins and Uber

512
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,399
Speaker 1: are actually sharing the floor together, right, you can always

513
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:41,679
Speaker 1: have kind of you almost stagger those two guys are

514
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:44,720
Speaker 1: playing thirty minutes to night, and you're keeping more veteran

515
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,160
Speaker 1: presence on the floor guys for higher i Q better

516
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 1: decision makers UM. And I think Marquis Chris is actually

517
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: really good in that area. He's a really good short

518
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 1: role passer. Um. He understands the dripple handoff game really well. Um,

519
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:58,119
Speaker 1: and he showed that all of last year. Um and

520
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,159
Speaker 1: then UM. I feel the same way about Eric Passal actually, um,

521
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 1: he's actually a pretty good pastor as well. Um. And

522
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,159
Speaker 1: so well, I do understand the concerns for sure, like

523
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 1: they're those are totally avoid concerns. I'm a little bit

524
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 1: more optimistic in that area than I think that most

525
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 1: people are. And that's because I've watched way too much

526
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:18,400
Speaker 1: Warriors over the past nothing else to do. Um. Yeah,

527
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:21,200
Speaker 1: But if anybody's questioning my movement to being a Warriors fan,

528
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 1: I was scouting draft prospects for free. So let's relax

529
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 1: with that days and hour studying the twelve pick in

530
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,359
Speaker 1: the NBA draft. Okay, so let's let's relax with me

531
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:34,919
Speaker 1: not being a Warriors fan. I'm not putting all that

532
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:40,800
Speaker 1: time in for my health because I love Warriors. Yeah,

533
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 1: I mean I think, I think I mean to put

534
00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 1: a bone on it, like the I Almost every time

535
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:48,359
Speaker 1: I keep coming back to the Warriors this year, I

536
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: come back to almost like a coin flip type of

537
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,959
Speaker 1: outcome in the scenario where Steph Curry is healthy, I

538
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,160
Speaker 1: think that they're going to be a three or four seed,

539
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 1: and I think that they are going to be a

540
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,159
Speaker 1: team that is going to beat all of the teams

541
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 1: that are not from l A and be an absolute

542
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 1: upset threat to the l A teams based on injury luck,

543
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:11,119
Speaker 1: even and maybe even more than an upset threat against

544
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 1: the Clippers for reasons we'll talk about here in a minute,

545
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 1: But I just by judging, you know, when I was

546
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: building the the the itinerary for this podcast, it's it's

547
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: crazy to look at the level of talent in the

548
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 1: Western Conference. We are not even going to talk about

549
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, Memphis, San Antonio, and Minnesota today. In Minnesota

550
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: has Karl Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell and the number one

551
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,399
Speaker 1: overall pick. San Antonio has you know, la Marcus Aldridge

552
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: and Martin Rosen, two players who have made the playoffs

553
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 1: several times. In San Antonio and Memphis that did make

554
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 1: make it into the playing around last year and was

555
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 1: the eight seed before the bubble and has one of

556
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:51,480
Speaker 1: the more talents guards in the league. The point being

557
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: that there's so much talent in the Western Conference that

558
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 1: the reality is is if Steph goes down, it's gonna

559
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 1: be extremely difficult for them to win any game. And

560
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 1: that's what happened. More than five or time games. If

561
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:05,880
Speaker 1: he miss games, it's over. Especially with the condensed season,

562
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 1: it's only two. That actually is gonna be a big difference,

563
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,200
Speaker 1: especially with COVID. And and that's I mean, that's the

564
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 1: whole wrention all of this. Anyway, if a guy gets

565
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:15,680
Speaker 1: COVID and he's out for two or three weeks, kiss

566
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: your season goodbye. It's one of your best players. That's

567
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,320
Speaker 1: I mean, that's over, especially in the West because you

568
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 1: could go over in that time. And and and it's

569
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 1: it's true, and like you know, and the reality is

570
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: what The example I bring up all the time is

571
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: that the two thousand and nineteen Lakers had a winning

572
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 1: record when Lebron James played, and they missed the playoffs

573
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:33,760
Speaker 1: by a mile. And I can't remember exactly what the

574
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 1: numbers were, but they basically just about went winless when

575
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 1: he didn't play. So there were three games over when

576
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: he did play, I want to say, and it was

577
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:44,879
Speaker 1: one game over. I think it went twenty seven and

578
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 1: twenty six or something like that. When when he did

579
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 1: play and then I can't remember the exact numbers, but

580
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:51,199
Speaker 1: they were they were atrocious when he didn't play. At

581
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 1: the point being is that when you're in the Western Conference,

582
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: when you're playing that level of talent night in and

583
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,600
Speaker 1: night out, and you were reliant on one player to

584
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: to generate the varie eighty or the majority of your offense,

585
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: chances are you're gonna drop a lot of games when

586
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: someone gets hurted. So that would be the that would

587
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 1: be the the the the coin flip there for me,

588
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 1: And honestly, like as a basketball fan, I'm rooting for

589
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 1: Steph to stay healthy because I thought two thousand eighteen

590
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:18,639
Speaker 1: Lebron was one of the more fun seasons of my

591
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,320
Speaker 1: time rooting for him because he had to be great

592
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:23,400
Speaker 1: every night for them to win, and it was fun

593
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: to watch. And I look forward to to Steff having

594
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: some of those moments this year. I'm here, man, I'm

595
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:28,719
Speaker 1: rooting for it. I know people think that I'm not,

596
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 1: but I that I want nothing more than you have

597
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,959
Speaker 1: a throwback Steph Curry season. So now I was on

598
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: your side the whole time, Like, even though I disagreed

599
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:38,000
Speaker 1: with some of the elements of your point, I was

600
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,600
Speaker 1: on your side the whole time, because genuinely, I've been there,

601
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: and like I can't tell you how many times I

602
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: have people UH getting in my mentions was something crazy,

603
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,440
Speaker 1: over over something completely out of context, or not paying

604
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 1: attention to what I was trying to do, which was

605
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:53,679
Speaker 1: just trying to be fair, you know, and and and

606
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: it's it's one of the frustrating elements of that platform.

607
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:58,560
Speaker 1: But anyway, so we're gonna move on to the Lakers,

608
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna start with this one because I am

609
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 1: going to right now as part of the UH the

610
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:08,120
Speaker 1: season previews say that I predict the Lakers to win

611
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: the Western Conference and for the Lakers to win the

612
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: NBA Championship. And the reason why is really simple. So

613
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 1: first of all, all of the reasons that they won

614
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:17,960
Speaker 1: last year are still in play this year. They have

615
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: Lebron in a D two of the top in my opinion,

616
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:22,359
Speaker 1: four players in the league. I think Lebron's number one

617
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,400
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis is number four, and they are alpha's

618
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,600
Speaker 1: that on any at any given moment in an playoff

619
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: series can go toe to toe with any player in

620
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 1: the league and can come out on top or at

621
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 1: least play them to a drop too. They defend the

622
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: hell out of the basketball. As I said last year,

623
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 1: they I thought they were the best defense in the league.

624
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 1: There were a couple of Eastern Conference teams that defended

625
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,560
Speaker 1: better statistically, but the level of offensive talent in the

626
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: Western Conference doesn't even come close to resembling what's in

627
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, and so getting a stop in the

628
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 1: Western Conference to me is a little bit more impressive.

629
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: So I thought the Laker defense all year long was

630
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 1: the best defense in the league. And I believe they

631
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 1: showed that in those late round playoff series against Denver

632
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 1: and against Miami UH and just absolutely shutting down those

633
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,400
Speaker 1: offenses for stretches. And then, last but not least, they

634
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 1: had a really simple team construct where even though their

635
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 1: role players were less than perfect than what you would

636
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 1: hope for in your you know, three through fifteen on

637
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: a roster, they were players that had really really small roles,

638
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 1: roles that they were able to knock out of the park.

639
00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: And as a result of those three things, I believe

640
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 1: they won. And the reason why I'm even more optimistic

641
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: about this team than it was about last year's team

642
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: has to do with the fact that they they kept

643
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 1: those three core tenants of their championship identity, and they

644
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: fixed two key flaws that they had, flaws that never

645
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 1: actually amounted to anything in terms of their uh, you know,

646
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 1: ability to be knocked out of the playoffs, but the

647
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,000
Speaker 1: flaws that were still there nonetheless, and that was i

648
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: Q at the center position, something that I thought was

649
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 1: a huge problem. Javayal McGee and Dwight Howard brought athleticism

650
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the floor. Um Dwight Howard

651
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: brought i Q to the defensive end of the floor,

652
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: but both of them were really really bad on the

653
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 1: offensive end. They frequently didn't know where to stand. They

654
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: frequently messed with the Lakers spacing. Dwight Howard and JaVale

655
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: McGee almost entirely took Anthony Davis's post up game away

656
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: in the sense that he almost always had to fade away. Now,

657
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 1: he made a lot of those, but he was forced

658
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: into a lot of shots that weren't your traditional Anthony

659
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,280
Speaker 1: Davis power post up game because of the fact that

660
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: there was a guy sitting in the dunker spot and

661
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:27,239
Speaker 1: he never really had an opportunity to move around. I

662
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:31,600
Speaker 1: think Marcosol completely fixes that adds this huge high i

663
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:33,959
Speaker 1: Q element to the center position on the offensive end.

664
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 1: He'll bring enough on the defensive end to you know,

665
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:38,720
Speaker 1: he he's he's already better than JaVale who was a

666
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: low i Q defender. He may not quite be what

667
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 1: Dwight was, but he'll be some percentage of that. I

668
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 1: really do think that Marc Asol is a vast improvement

669
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:50,160
Speaker 1: at the center position. And then secondly, they had inconsistency

670
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 1: in backup ball handling. So Region Rondo when it looked good,

671
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 1: it was awesome, and and they were they looked unbeatable.

672
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,160
Speaker 1: But he was bad more than he was good in

673
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,200
Speaker 1: in the playoffs where he had this weird impression as

674
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,360
Speaker 1: a guy who had proved everybody wrong, you know, playoff

675
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 1: Rondo had come back. I thought he had a lot

676
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: of horrible basketball games in that playoff run. And I

677
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 1: thought there were games that the Lakers lost largely because

678
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 1: of inconsistency from from Region Rondo in that playoff run.

679
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: And I believe that adding the sixth man UH one

680
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 1: of the six Men of the Year candidates a guy

681
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 1: who is known for being a consistent bench producer out

682
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 1: of the guard position, and Dennis Shrewder is a massive,

683
00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 1: massive upgrade over the region Rondo experience, especially on the

684
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 1: defensive end. Rondo when he was dialed in, was a

685
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: decent defender, but he was so aloof half the time

686
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: because he overthinks the game on the defensive end, He's

687
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 1: always jumping out of position and trying to get steals

688
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: that put their entire defense in a compromised position. And

689
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,000
Speaker 1: having Shrewder taking over all of Rondo's minutes and then

690
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 1: some I think fills another hole in another weakness that

691
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 1: that Laker team has. So it's kind of a hybrid

692
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: between what they were last year and and they repaired

693
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 1: some of the potential flaws that they had last year,

694
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 1: and it makes me all the more optimistic that they're

695
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,320
Speaker 1: going to be really, really difficult to beat this year.

696
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 1: So just kind of at the start here, I basically

697
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: agree with you that they're probably gonna win the West

698
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 1: and then there probably the title favorite still. UM. That

699
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,880
Speaker 1: being said, I do have reservations about some of the

700
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:27,960
Speaker 1: moves they've made. UM. I thought Truder was a good edition. UM.

701
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:29,960
Speaker 1: But to push back on your point a little bit,

702
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 1: has he really been seen as a consistent bench guy

703
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,000
Speaker 1: before the last twelve to twenty four months. Um, the

704
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 1: reputation he had was more of always pretty hit or miss.

705
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 1: You know, you're not always sure what you're gonna get

706
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 1: get from him from an effort standpoint. Um, You're not

707
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: always sure if he's going to be mentally focused. And

708
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: now he had a really good year in Oklahoma City.

709
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:50,640
Speaker 1: Let's not to take anything away from him, UM, but

710
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: I know there was those concerns early in his career,

711
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: and maybe that's just the case of a young player

712
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 1: needing to figure out the NBA and needing to figure

713
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: out what he has to do to produce consistently. And

714
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: maybe he's ironed out out all those inserts, um, because

715
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 1: he's definitely a better player than he was a couple

716
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: of years ago. It's not you know, choice that at all,

717
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 1: But my concern would be with him and Tres are

718
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 1: definitely gonna boost those Bensho units, especially during the regular season.

719
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 1: I thought those are huge regular season additions for them,

720
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: especially with Lebron and a D coming off, carrying heavy

721
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:19,959
Speaker 1: loads into the finals and normally getting what was its

722
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: seventy days basically of rest between the end of the finals,

723
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: and I think, yeah, it's something it's I mean it's

724
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: the shortest span and I think league history, I don't

725
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,320
Speaker 1: see how there was ever a shorter off season. Um.

726
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 1: So I think between Treads and Shruder, those are really

727
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,840
Speaker 1: good regular season moves, and I think it will absolutely

728
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: help them as a regular season team. It will help

729
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 1: Lebron probably not have to do much the same with

730
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis um, and they'll go into the playoffs feeling fresher.

731
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 1: But what I would worry about is maybe some diminishing

732
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: returns in terms of how possessions look on the offensive end. Right,

733
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:52,840
Speaker 1: if you're taking possesions away from Lebron or Anthony Davis,

734
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,840
Speaker 1: your offense is probably gonna be worse for it. Um.

735
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:59,719
Speaker 1: So the things that you pointed out were definitely flaws.

736
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 1: I could just I see a path for it to

737
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: go wrong as well. And I mean that's the case

738
00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:06,040
Speaker 1: or any team. But I think I'm a little bit

739
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 1: less optimistic on their playoff ceiling um than um. I

740
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 1: think most are at this point. UM. I think it's

741
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 1: all is definitely a good addition. Obviously, I wanted this

742
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: Hall on the Warriors really badly, and I think he

743
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 1: might have ended up there if Quay doesn't go down.

744
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 1: How incredible was that preseason game. Oh my god, he's

745
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:25,240
Speaker 1: such He's such an insane passer. Um, he's just gonna

746
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,399
Speaker 1: he's gonna get the Lakers TENNESSI buckets or five easy

747
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,399
Speaker 1: buckets they just weren't getting last year, you know. Um. So, yeah,

748
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 1: he's an incredible player. UM. And he's obviously a really

749
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 1: good addition. But in terms of defense, I don't know

750
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 1: if he's as good as Dwight was in those situational

751
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 1: moments where I mean Dwight really frustrated Yogis for like

752
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:47,319
Speaker 1: a good portion of that Denver series, and nobody else

753
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 1: was really able to do that against you Oka go

754
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 1: there a little bit, but not at the level of

755
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 1: Dwight did um and Dwight got a little bit too

756
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,520
Speaker 1: crazy with it for a while. He was like instigating

757
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,879
Speaker 1: too much and not playing real basketball at a certain point.

758
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 1: But point being, the Lakers definitely made some improvements to

759
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: the roster in terms of if we're just looking player

760
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:06,799
Speaker 1: A for player B. You know, Sure's obviously a better

761
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 1: player than Rondo. Um. Tres is probably a better scoring

762
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 1: big than anybody they had on the roster last year

763
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: not named Anthony Davis and this always certainly a better

764
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: all around player than Dwight or Devel at this point,

765
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: so they did add better players of the roster. I

766
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: could just see, especially with the short off season not

767
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: a long training camp. Um, role delineation doesn't happen properly

768
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: and it kind of goes sideways. Um. Just in terms

769
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 1: of the playoffs, I think regular season they'll be totally

770
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 1: fine because I think, like I said, Treads and Shooder

771
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 1: were necessary moves for the regular season. They needed guys

772
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:37,200
Speaker 1: who could take the load away from Lebron and a

773
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 1: d especially after the short off season. Um. But yeah, playoffs,

774
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:43,399
Speaker 1: Like I said, I still think that's probably the best

775
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: team in the league. But I have more reservations than

776
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 1: most do. Yeah, So I I agree with you about Trudder.

777
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 1: His The concerns about him coming into the season were

778
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:57,239
Speaker 1: that the jump shooting performance in Oklahoma City was an

779
00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 1: outlier performance because he was a poor jump shooter in

780
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 1: the season's leading up to that. Uh. And you know,

781
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 1: to be honest, who knows, you know, we've seen examples

782
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: of guys learned how to shoot later in their career,

783
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:10,759
Speaker 1: like Tony Parker, and then we've seen examples of guys

784
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 1: who had outlier shooting performances and then never did it again,

785
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:16,840
Speaker 1: like how Kuzma. So the reality is that certainly you

786
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:19,719
Speaker 1: know that's a potential outcome there. What I would push

787
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:21,480
Speaker 1: back on at it is to say that you know,

788
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 1: Region Rondo was one of the most miserably inconsistent jump

789
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 1: shooting backup guards that I've ever add on a team

790
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 1: that forward in my life, so that that would be

791
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 1: part of that there. I am I where I've parted

792
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,239
Speaker 1: from a lot of Laker fans as I thought the

793
00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: Tread's move was a mistake for starters. Um a hard

794
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 1: cap the team, and as a result of that, you

795
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: know they may not have from what I understand, And

796
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,520
Speaker 1: this is so complicated because I've seen mixed things. I've

797
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:51,439
Speaker 1: seen some Laker fans say that they absolutely can add

798
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 1: a fifteenth player, and then I've seen Bobby Marks, who's

799
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:56,320
Speaker 1: a cap experts, say that they've already added their fourteenth

800
00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 1: player and they can't add another player. Hard caps are

801
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,520
Speaker 1: we go with a last year with Golden stated it's weird,

802
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 1: but um, if they actually are hardcaps, then they could

803
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:08,720
Speaker 1: only they actually can't add any money over that number

804
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:11,720
Speaker 1: not at all. Yeah, that's how the hardcap works, literally

805
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: a cap, so they might have to literally sign you know,

806
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 1: rookie players who don't you know, fall under the Vetoman

807
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:22,319
Speaker 1: veteran minimum scale, allowing them to stay under the cap,

808
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:24,479
Speaker 1: which takes them out. Like if you wanted to sign

809
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 1: pau Gasol as like a leadership role, you can't do that. Now.

810
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,399
Speaker 1: If Trevor Reason becomes available, you can't do that. Now

811
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:33,760
Speaker 1: some killer buyout guy comes up later in the season,

812
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 1: you can't go after him. Now. Those are those are

813
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: problems with the hardcap that I thought weren't necessarily worth

814
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,720
Speaker 1: the Montrese Harrold experience. I said from the very beginning

815
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:46,239
Speaker 1: that I thought the only player that was worth the

816
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 1: hardcap with Serge Baca, because I thought Sergebaca would have

817
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 1: been an amazing uh you know, a center to put

818
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,280
Speaker 1: alongside marcosol In in that front court. Uh. That said,

819
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:57,759
Speaker 1: it is what it is. He's in the picture. I

820
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 1: agree with you. He's absolutely a net positive during the

821
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:04,359
Speaker 1: regular season. Whether or not he can be, you know,

822
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 1: of any sort of positive impact in the in the

823
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: postseason is gonna come down to what he can do

824
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 1: on the defensive end. And the reality is is that

825
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 1: what you hope for is that in the playoffs last

826
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 1: year it was not pretty. It was not it was

827
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:20,760
Speaker 1: worse than not pretty. He was expectually hurting his team.

828
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 1: So the question becomes, does Frank Vogel, who you know

829
00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: by all accounts as an incredible defensive scout, uh, you know,

830
00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 1: his his his allegedly his scouting reports, would have U

831
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,000
Speaker 1: Laker players give him a round of applause after as

832
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,319
Speaker 1: weird as that, yeah, I heard that. I don't know.

833
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:39,719
Speaker 1: That sounds like a little bit of Lebron propaganda, but

834
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 1: Lebron approves of the coach. Uh yeah, and then uh

835
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:48,320
Speaker 1: and then you had um and then you have Lebron

836
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, who Anthony Davis is arguably the best

837
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,319
Speaker 1: defensive player in the league. And Lebron, who's a really

838
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,719
Speaker 1: really high i Q defensive player who at when he's

839
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:57,640
Speaker 1: really focused on that end, can still be a first

840
00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 1: team All Defense level player. So the reality is you

841
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: hope that those guys can bring the most out of him.

842
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 1: But the pushback there would be Paul George and Kawhi

843
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 1: Leonard were two first team All Defense level players, and

844
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: Doc Ruver's is famous for being a defensive coach. So

845
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: the reality is that they couldn't get it out of him.

846
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: I don't see how they expect, you know, Paul George

847
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:16,279
Speaker 1: and Kawai to get it out of him. But the

848
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:18,319
Speaker 1: reality is, and what I said from the beginning is

849
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 1: they don't need Montrese Harold, which so they don't need

850
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 1: Montres Harold to win. He doesn't like He doesn't even

851
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:27,839
Speaker 1: necessarily make sense in their closing lineup. I think they're

852
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:29,439
Speaker 1: closing line ups are gonna be eighty at the five

853
00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:30,920
Speaker 1: or Marcus All at the five with a D at

854
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: the four. And the reality is, and they might even

855
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:35,800
Speaker 1: they might even play a little bit of Markis Morris

856
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:37,839
Speaker 1: at the five like they did in the finals. So

857
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:42,680
Speaker 1: the reality is that Marquis Montrez is a luxury, not

858
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 1: a necessity. And if it if it works out, great,

859
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,160
Speaker 1: If it doesn't, who cares. But the point is is

860
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 1: why did you hardcap the team then for somebody that

861
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 1: wasn't that wasn't a necessity. That would be where I

862
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:58,080
Speaker 1: pushed back on that move. And they are hardcapped um

863
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,440
Speaker 1: at a hundred and thirty eight mill believe it is

864
00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: just a little over a hundred and thirty eight mill.

865
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:03,840
Speaker 1: They have a hundred thirties six million right now on

866
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:06,759
Speaker 1: the roster with Quinn Cook's contract, so it looks like

867
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:10,720
Speaker 1: they could maybe add somebody, um like at if somebody

868
00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:13,400
Speaker 1: gets bought out late. You know, the contracts shorter, it

869
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 1: doesn't cost as much, and you can probably do it

870
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:16,759
Speaker 1: at the biout deadline. I'm guessing that's how they tried

871
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,640
Speaker 1: to structure this um. But yeah, I don't think they'll

872
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:22,480
Speaker 1: be able to add any more veterans this preseason, so

873
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:24,719
Speaker 1: and like and so let's say so yeah, And for

874
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:27,280
Speaker 1: the record of the way, the way the veteran minimum works,

875
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 1: as far as I understand it is, it's a contract

876
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: for like two point six million and some change, but

877
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 1: it only hits your cap for one point six million

878
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 1: and some change in the league actually pays the remaining

879
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,280
Speaker 1: one million of the deal. It's like a special provision

880
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:41,359
Speaker 1: in the in the c b A. But like I said,

881
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:44,200
Speaker 1: what was weird about that was I saw a tweet

882
00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:46,400
Speaker 1: from Bobby Marks a while back that said that they

883
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 1: didn't have room for fifteen. So but regardless, let's say

884
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:50,719
Speaker 1: that let's say they can add one, then they can

885
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:53,560
Speaker 1: only add one. So if you know, if the Lakers

886
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: decided to cut Quinn Cook, if they decided to cut

887
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 1: whoever it is that they want to cut at some

888
00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 1: point down the line in the season, if it's a

889
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:03,560
Speaker 1: guaranteed tracked like, you just can't and Quinn Cook's NONI yeah,

890
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:06,640
Speaker 1: I think, and you're still trapped. So, like my question

891
00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:09,040
Speaker 1: was from the beginning was like, you know, unless you

892
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 1: thought this guy was gonna be a huge like Searchebaca

893
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,200
Speaker 1: unquestionably could have played crunch time in the finals for

894
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:17,719
Speaker 1: the Lakers as a five, that that to me, would

895
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 1: have been worth the risk of hardcapping the team. I

896
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: didn't agree with the idea of adding a player that had,

897
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 1: you know, as little impact on the ceiling of that

898
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:29,960
Speaker 1: team as Montre Montrez did to hardcap the team. That

899
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 1: was my one big push back there. Um, But yeah,

900
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 1: so yeah, like I I think they're gonna win. That's

901
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,760
Speaker 1: my pick. But agree with you, Like, there's absolutely scenarios

902
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 1: where can go south, most of which center around injuries,

903
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 1: which are certainly like if they're knock on wood, if

904
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,440
Speaker 1: there was a scenario where an injury could happen to

905
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 1: a player like Lebron and a D would be a

906
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:53,280
Speaker 1: scenario like this on a shortened off season with funky

907
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 1: circumstances in accelerated season. So I just think they need

908
00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:58,319
Speaker 1: to be very careful with their load managing and try

909
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:00,440
Speaker 1: to avoid that as much as possible. But the reality is,

910
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:02,879
Speaker 1: as as you and I both know, as anybody who's

911
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: played has ever known, like, the reality is, his injuries

912
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 1: aren't really associated with that. They're kind of flukey and

913
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 1: they just happen and there's not really anything you can

914
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:15,200
Speaker 1: do about it. Um. Alright, So the Clippers I am.

915
00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:18,640
Speaker 1: I am in the weird position of being lower on

916
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,239
Speaker 1: the Clippers than most people while simultaneously thinking they're the

917
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 1: biggest threat to knock out the Lakers. UM. The reality

918
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:27,480
Speaker 1: is is their biggest flaw coming out of last season,

919
00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:30,760
Speaker 1: which was low collective basketball i Q. In my opinion,

920
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, who's an extremely gifted player player, he's basically

921
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:38,239
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's without the high end basketball i Q, and

922
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:40,399
Speaker 1: I think that's the big difference between the two of them,

923
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:43,960
Speaker 1: and then Paul George, who has received plenty of slander

924
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: in the last week. So you don't need to hear

925
00:42:45,239 --> 00:42:47,880
Speaker 1: anything from me, but the realities is they were missing

926
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,880
Speaker 1: they were missing that they're missing that it factor in

927
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 1: terms of that that confident offensive decision maker that can

928
00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 1: consistently make good decisions decisions at the end of these games.

929
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:01,000
Speaker 1: And then they added Surgebok, who I actually think was

930
00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:04,640
Speaker 1: a legitimate improvements of the team. But but but it

931
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:08,960
Speaker 1: doesn't fix their fatal flaw. So what concerns me with

932
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:11,319
Speaker 1: them is regardless of how much talent they have, they

933
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:13,080
Speaker 1: have the exact same flaw they had last year. And

934
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:16,320
Speaker 1: what do they lose to an extremely smart basketball team

935
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:18,800
Speaker 1: with a really smart coach and a top ten player

936
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:21,080
Speaker 1: who's known for being one of the smarter players in

937
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:23,040
Speaker 1: the league. So that would be where I could see

938
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 1: them going off the rails. But their ceiling, to me,

939
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 1: is just the idea that they're built to beat the

940
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:31,520
Speaker 1: Lakers tons of switching wings, the ability to force Lebron

941
00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:33,400
Speaker 1: and a d to play a ton of io, and

942
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:35,360
Speaker 1: then they are built to attack the soft spot in

943
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:37,640
Speaker 1: the Lakers defense, which is the mid range area, because

944
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:39,759
Speaker 1: the Lakers like to chase everybody off the three point

945
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:42,359
Speaker 1: line and force them to drive into their size. Yep.

946
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 1: So I mean I'm with you. I I was lower

947
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: on the Clippers dating back to last you know, February

948
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 1: March before kind of COVID shut down. I just didn't.

949
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 1: I didn't see it, um, And I think it's a

950
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: lot of the stuff that you're referencing, kind of collective

951
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: low basketball I Q um and I didn't. I mean,

952
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:01,040
Speaker 1: the surgeon was a good move, for sure, but I

953
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:03,480
Speaker 1: didn't understand keeping Lou Williams on the roster. And I

954
00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:06,359
Speaker 1: don't understand not like trying to get somebody like Ricky

955
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 1: Rubille or I mean, Kyle Lowry would have been a

956
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 1: limit trickier because his contracts much bigger. But I don't

957
00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:13,399
Speaker 1: know how they didn't make a move for a legit

958
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:14,920
Speaker 1: point guard, Like are you gonna run back with Reggie

959
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: Jackson and Lou Williams good luck? Like those guys aren't

960
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:19,759
Speaker 1: gonna make good decisions at the end of playoff games.

961
00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:22,360
Speaker 1: We've Lou Williams is like one of the historically worst

962
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,239
Speaker 1: playoff players in NBA history, And if we're looking at

963
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:29,160
Speaker 1: regular season performance relative to playoff performance, he falls off

964
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 1: a cliff every single year. So expecting him to change

965
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,040
Speaker 1: that at age thirty four or thirty five or whatever,

966
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:37,399
Speaker 1: he is now that's not gonna happen. Um. So, like

967
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:39,480
Speaker 1: you said, I think they definitely could still beat the

968
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 1: Laker just because, Um, they have a ton of guys

969
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:45,479
Speaker 1: who are switchable who could give Lebron n D problems

970
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 1: at Let's say Lebron slows down two to three more, um,

971
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:53,239
Speaker 1: Kauai and PG can make give his life that much tougher. Um.

972
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:55,839
Speaker 1: But yeah, it looks like they really just built their

973
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:58,640
Speaker 1: team with how can we beat the Lakers? Right? And

974
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:00,800
Speaker 1: maybe that sends up it matters, but you've got to

975
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:02,960
Speaker 1: get to that matchup first. You have to be able

976
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:04,960
Speaker 1: to get to the Lakers to actually beat the Lakers.

977
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:07,719
Speaker 1: But I mean, I could see them becoming an even

978
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 1: better defense this year if they figure out the rotations correctly, um,

979
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:17,680
Speaker 1: because instead of playing Montrez Harrald minutes or playing Surge minutes, um.

980
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 1: And you could really just bank on becoming the best

981
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: defensive team in the league and beating the Lakers like that.

982
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,560
Speaker 1: But I just I don't see it, man, I don't

983
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: see it like you. I have all the same concerns,

984
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:28,520
Speaker 1: so we aligned too much on this one. I have

985
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:30,759
Speaker 1: no point back anything you said. It felt like it

986
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:33,440
Speaker 1: felt like they lost the postseason. And I know it

987
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:36,520
Speaker 1: seems like such a clean thing to say, I shouldn't

988
00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:39,439
Speaker 1: say the postseason the off season. I apologize. It felt

989
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:41,359
Speaker 1: like they lost the off season, like it felt like

990
00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:46,279
Speaker 1: they took a patient approach, looking for some sort of

991
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: big move that would that would flip the scales, and

992
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:52,920
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden there was there wasn't really anything,

993
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,360
Speaker 1: and they got Ibaka, which seems to be on the

994
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 1: strength of the relationship between him and Kwaieline or But

995
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 1: the reality is is that, like you know, if I

996
00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:06,279
Speaker 1: was a Clipper fan, I'd be sitting there like what

997
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:09,799
Speaker 1: are you guys doing? Like like these guys are better

998
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 1: than us, and they keep getting better and and we

999
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,759
Speaker 1: basically swapped a power forward for a better version of

1000
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,600
Speaker 1: the same exact position, and that wasn't really our problem,

1001
00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:20,440
Speaker 1: Like what in the world, what what in the world's

1002
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:22,759
Speaker 1: going on here? And and so that that would be

1003
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:24,359
Speaker 1: my thing if I if I was a Clipper fan,

1004
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 1: I'd just be extremely frustrated that they didn't do enough.

1005
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 1: But then again, at the same time, like you know,

1006
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:33,200
Speaker 1: Ricky Rubio, is that makes sense, that's like a solid

1007
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,000
Speaker 1: and for the record, they could still go after someone

1008
00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:36,920
Speaker 1: like that in Minnesota. If they fall out of the

1009
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,920
Speaker 1: playoff picture, they'll be they'll be sellers as we get

1010
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 1: into the into the trade season. But it's like creature.

1011
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:44,480
Speaker 1: Rubio is expiring or he has two years left on

1012
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: his deal, so he's definitely a movable contract. And he's

1013
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:49,759
Speaker 1: a good player. Yeah, he's a solid player. And he'd

1014
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 1: be the perfect example of a guy that if you

1015
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 1: put him in that lineup to basically run the offense

1016
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:56,839
Speaker 1: for Paul George and Kawhile Leonard and he can hold

1017
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 1: his own defensively. That's the kind of guy that would

1018
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:02,040
Speaker 1: have made a gitimate improvement to that roster. Now, it

1019
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,680
Speaker 1: still would have ended up coming down to Kauai and

1020
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 1: Paul George versus Lebron and a d I think that

1021
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:09,440
Speaker 1: kind of stuff usually does. But that would have taken

1022
00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:12,919
Speaker 1: away their fatal flaw, which is that low I q uh,

1023
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:15,799
Speaker 1: you know that that lack of decision making with the

1024
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:18,520
Speaker 1: start and filling in the hole that their stars had.

1025
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 1: And and so I guess I guess what I'm saying

1026
00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:25,360
Speaker 1: is like, why in the world isn't Rubio in with

1027
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:28,120
Speaker 1: the Clippers right now? Why wasn't that in pursuit, like

1028
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 1: what like and is it is it as simple as

1029
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:32,720
Speaker 1: they gave away all their draft picks for Marcus Morris

1030
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 1: and for Paul George, Like is it is it that simple?

1031
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:35,960
Speaker 1: I don't know. And that was the other thing and

1032
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 1: Marcus Morris contract, like and this is something we talked

1033
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:41,359
Speaker 1: about with with the Lakers a minute ago. But as

1034
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,880
Speaker 1: you said, any possession that doesn't run through Lebron and

1035
00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a wasted possession unless they are, you know,

1036
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 1: actively fatigued and they're trying to save their legs, which

1037
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:52,239
Speaker 1: is something that I think is you know, important, Like

1038
00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: you can't just run it through them, but you do

1039
00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:56,879
Speaker 1: need to have the lion's share of your offense run

1040
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: through your best players or you can have problems. And

1041
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: what Bob there me about Marcus Morris is it felt

1042
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:03,759
Speaker 1: like every time he touched the damn ball, he wanted

1043
00:48:03,760 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 1: to go do his damn his do his own thing.

1044
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:08,200
Speaker 1: And then you've got George. He thinks he actually is

1045
00:48:08,239 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 1: better than Paul George. So you can see it. You

1046
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:12,000
Speaker 1: can see it on his face. And that's not just

1047
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 1: us making like jokes like that's and that is I

1048
00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:17,759
Speaker 1: would bet my life that he thinks that and and

1049
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,719
Speaker 1: like it was basically reported that he said that about

1050
00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:23,880
Speaker 1: Paul George, like that he thought he was a better player. Yeah, exactly,

1051
00:48:23,960 --> 00:48:26,319
Speaker 1: and and and the reality is is like he he

1052
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:29,600
Speaker 1: is a player who is too good for the role

1053
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:32,040
Speaker 1: they're asking him to fill, which is basically a three

1054
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:34,600
Speaker 1: and D guy, and too often he breaks off from

1055
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:36,480
Speaker 1: the offense and too often he does his own thing.

1056
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: If you raise the collective i Q of your team

1057
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 1: with someone like Rubio, you get you get into a

1058
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:44,680
Speaker 1: position where that kind of stuff just happens less and

1059
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:47,520
Speaker 1: players just like it's kind of like a rising tide

1060
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:49,880
Speaker 1: that floats all boats kind of concepts. But when I

1061
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:52,640
Speaker 1: look at that offseason and I see you overpay Marcus Morris,

1062
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:55,919
Speaker 1: the only net positive move is the bringing in of Sergebaka.

1063
00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 1: You completely failed to fix the key flaw and the roster.

1064
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 1: It just I really don't understand what they're doing, especially

1065
00:49:02,680 --> 00:49:06,000
Speaker 1: from a friend, Like we're a long way away from

1066
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,440
Speaker 1: last offseason where the Lakers were considered a dumpster fire

1067
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 1: and the Clippers were considered one of the smarter franchises

1068
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:16,680
Speaker 1: in the league. Like that it was so bad that

1069
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:22,279
Speaker 1: like as as reporters like Wojan Shams were properly explaining

1070
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 1: the situation. Laker fans were like losing their mind, thinking

1071
00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:26,920
Speaker 1: they're bias, but it's like they looked like a tighter

1072
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:29,920
Speaker 1: run ship at the time and the Lakers, the Lakers

1073
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:33,239
Speaker 1: had their president of Basketball Operations going on first take,

1074
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,080
Speaker 1: burning down the GM and for the world to see.

1075
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:38,799
Speaker 1: And now we're one and a half years later in

1076
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:42,320
Speaker 1: the Lakers are just completely running circles around this franchise.

1077
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like it in my time. Following like,

1078
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 1: I've done an outstanding job, man, Like I have nothing

1079
00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:49,360
Speaker 1: about to say about point. He's every move and whether

1080
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:50,640
Speaker 1: some of it was luck or not. I mean a

1081
00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:53,160
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff with GM ng is and the

1082
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 1: movies made has seemed has better the franchise, you know,

1083
00:49:56,719 --> 00:50:00,200
Speaker 1: every roster move. So yeah, it really has been a

1084
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:03,320
Speaker 1: ridiculous about face and now the stuff about Jerry West,

1085
00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 1: like um, that guy paying him like two point five

1086
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:10,040
Speaker 1: million just to ensure that like like it's just it

1087
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:11,960
Speaker 1: doesn't even seem real at this point, like happens up

1088
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:13,279
Speaker 1: that's coming out was like this sounds like something out

1089
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:17,680
Speaker 1: of a movie. I know. It has been one of

1090
00:50:17,719 --> 00:50:20,120
Speaker 1: the most fascinating things I've seen in my life, like

1091
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:23,839
Speaker 1: from rioting outside a Staples Center because that because they're

1092
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:26,520
Speaker 1: sick and tired of the Laker front office to to

1093
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 1: this too. Just like you said, a complete about face,

1094
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:31,840
Speaker 1: it's really strange. But I mean again, matchups, you know,

1095
00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:34,759
Speaker 1: styles make fights. Matchups win playoff series. The Clippers have

1096
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:37,920
Speaker 1: some legitimate matchup advantages over the Lakers, and if it

1097
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:40,719
Speaker 1: can make a solid deadline move, if they can stay healthy,

1098
00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 1: they absolutely have a punch of chancer. But I would

1099
00:50:44,080 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 1: say they need to make that deadline move. They need

1100
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:47,440
Speaker 1: to bring in a point guard, and maybe the guy

1101
00:50:47,560 --> 00:50:49,440
Speaker 1: ends up being Kyle Lowry at the deadline, I don't

1102
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 1: know what that trade would be a huge addition, and

1103
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, the only way to make

1104
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:58,239
Speaker 1: the numbers work would be like Marcus Morris plus Pat

1105
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:00,400
Speaker 1: but Marcus Sports designed for four year sixty for millions,

1106
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:04,080
Speaker 1: where I was not taking on that contract. Yeah, would

1107
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:05,279
Speaker 1: have to give up. They'd have to give up four

1108
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:07,080
Speaker 1: first round picks. They don't have those anymore. They would

1109
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:09,960
Speaker 1: have traded him away so and people would just keep

1110
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:12,319
Speaker 1: you know, And I didn't like letting Jerry West go

1111
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:14,400
Speaker 1: as a warrior's stand. But what has heat what of

1112
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:16,279
Speaker 1: him and Lawrence Frank done in the past eighteen months

1113
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,080
Speaker 1: that's inspired any confidence, you know, ever since they signed

1114
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,720
Speaker 1: Kawai and Paul George, it's kind of been all downhill

1115
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 1: from there. That whole thing was like up to that

1116
00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:29,719
Speaker 1: point though, it was genius, like feeling zoobots from the Lakers. Uh,

1117
00:51:30,080 --> 00:51:35,360
Speaker 1: Like they they the whole trade um um with Houston

1118
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:37,520
Speaker 1: when they pulled in all of those role players that

1119
00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:40,319
Speaker 1: became key rollers, like Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams and

1120
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,920
Speaker 1: in Montrese Harold who all became key components of that

1121
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:46,520
Speaker 1: of that playoff team last year. Danilo Gallinari was a

1122
00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 1: great fit. They did such an amazing job over the

1123
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:53,520
Speaker 1: previous years. It's honestly so deeply confusing for me to

1124
00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:55,759
Speaker 1: see that happen and and like for your key move

1125
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,400
Speaker 1: to be bringing back Marcus Morris, who I don't know

1126
00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: how anybody was watching that team, and that he was

1127
00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:03,200
Speaker 1: bringing a positive impact aside from hitting shots. He hit

1128
00:52:03,239 --> 00:52:05,560
Speaker 1: shots like make no mistake, but like I'm a big

1129
00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:07,880
Speaker 1: believer and like it's it's all about like that'd be

1130
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:10,400
Speaker 1: like winning the battle to lose the war in my opinion,

1131
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:13,239
Speaker 1: and have him being overly aggressive. All right, So we

1132
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:16,560
Speaker 1: have hit all of the key important big teams that

1133
00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:18,799
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit so far with the West. So

1134
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:21,000
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do is we're gonna, like I said,

1135
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:24,080
Speaker 1: we're gonna ignore Okay, see Memphis, San Antonio, Minnesota all together.

1136
00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:28,440
Speaker 1: I'm going to quickly rapid fire through the remaining Western

1137
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:32,520
Speaker 1: Conference teams. I'm gonna quick go over their offseason moves,

1138
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: and I want you just to quick tell me your

1139
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 1: outlook on those teams. We're not gonna touch on them

1140
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:40,360
Speaker 1: too long, but we'll just briefly touch on them. So Denver,

1141
00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:43,400
Speaker 1: so they lost Tory Craig and Jeremy Grant, so they

1142
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:45,239
Speaker 1: lost both of their wing defenders that they put on

1143
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:48,719
Speaker 1: Lebron in last year's playoff series. And they signed a

1144
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:50,520
Speaker 1: guy who I actually or they drafted a guy I

1145
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:52,960
Speaker 1: actually really liked that Arizona named Zeke Naji. If that

1146
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:56,640
Speaker 1: there's a really really classic like hustle for who could

1147
00:52:56,640 --> 00:52:58,160
Speaker 1: shoot the ball a little bit, and he's got a

1148
00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:00,000
Speaker 1: super I know a lot of the draft knicks were

1149
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: we're pretty high on his projection is like you know,

1150
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:04,080
Speaker 1: a three and D guy hopefully. So yeah, he shoot,

1151
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:06,200
Speaker 1: he stretched forward, can defend really well, and he's got

1152
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:08,440
Speaker 1: a really tough mentality. He's really fun to watch here

1153
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:12,000
Speaker 1: in Tucson. Uh. And then you know the prospect of

1154
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:15,160
Speaker 1: of Michael Porter Jr. Potentially improving. But that's basically your

1155
00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:18,279
Speaker 1: Denver off season. They did not get discernibly better in

1156
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 1: my opinion, So that would be my concern there. The

1157
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:23,839
Speaker 1: question would be, is Jamal Murray from the bubble going

1158
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:26,360
Speaker 1: to be the real Jamal Jamal Murray moving for I mean,

1159
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:28,200
Speaker 1: if he's like, if he's just like eight or of

1160
00:53:28,239 --> 00:53:29,839
Speaker 1: that guy that's an amazing player, that's probably a top

1161
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:31,920
Speaker 1: twenty player. I mean, he doesn't have to be. If

1162
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:33,319
Speaker 1: he's the guy that was in the bubble. I keep

1163
00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 1: saying this, He's gonna be the greatest player of all time.

1164
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,400
Speaker 1: He was scoring thirty points a game and shooting like

1165
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:41,759
Speaker 1: that's literally the greatest player ever if he continues to

1166
00:53:41,800 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 1: do that. Um, But if I mean, if he could

1167
00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:46,120
Speaker 1: be eight percent of that guy where he's four game,

1168
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:49,640
Speaker 1: mid to high forties from the field, high thirties from three,

1169
00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:53,279
Speaker 1: and he's always shot three throws historically well like um,

1170
00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:55,200
Speaker 1: if he's that guy, then yeah, they're a problem. But

1171
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:57,640
Speaker 1: you kind of pointed out the guys they lost on

1172
00:53:57,640 --> 00:53:59,680
Speaker 1: the wing. Who's gonna guard Lebron or Kawhi or Paul

1173
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:02,719
Speaker 1: those guys in a playoff series. I thought Jeremy grat

1174
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:04,399
Speaker 1: was it was actually a difference maker for them against

1175
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:06,600
Speaker 1: the Clippers. You know, just his length and athleticism was

1176
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:09,359
Speaker 1: able to bother the Clippers wing players and they don't

1177
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 1: have that anymore. So yeah, I don't know, Like M

1178
00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:16,360
Speaker 1: PJ is obviously more talented than Jeremy Grant or Tory Craig,

1179
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:20,200
Speaker 1: but at that point, you're just betting on being incredible offensively,

1180
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:22,560
Speaker 1: which they might be. They might be unbelievable on offense,

1181
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 1: but can they stop anybody? If you're not, If you're

1182
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:27,760
Speaker 1: not a top ten defense, you can't win a title.

1183
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:31,000
Speaker 1: It does not happen. And it doesn't have Steph Curry, Lebron,

1184
00:54:31,080 --> 00:54:32,799
Speaker 1: James Clay thomp centers very hungry and that's the only

1185
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:34,840
Speaker 1: team that can do it. Or Shack Lenel at the

1186
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:38,040
Speaker 1: height of his power. So I think when the Warriors

1187
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:40,000
Speaker 1: won in twenty eighteen, they had fallen below the top

1188
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:44,480
Speaker 1: ten devens, but they're like, yeah, it was eleventh, and

1189
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:46,960
Speaker 1: it's like okay, but they still they were fatigued. They

1190
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:48,719
Speaker 1: were in their fourth rate finals. That had much more

1191
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:52,279
Speaker 1: to do with that than actually not being good defensively anymore. Um.

1192
00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:56,120
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just don't. I mean, maybe they're neutral

1193
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:57,920
Speaker 1: from last season. They probably still win a ton of

1194
00:54:57,920 --> 00:55:01,440
Speaker 1: regular season games. Um, they might be a second round team.

1195
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:04,640
Speaker 1: But like, if, like we talked about earlier, everything goes

1196
00:55:04,680 --> 00:55:07,040
Speaker 1: right for the Warriors, I'm picking the Warriors over then

1197
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:10,080
Speaker 1: gets a serious and that's if everything goes right. Like,

1198
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:13,560
Speaker 1: so they are probably third or fourth in the West

1199
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:15,240
Speaker 1: right now in terms of teams that I would expect

1200
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:17,080
Speaker 1: to go to the finals. I'd have the Lakers clearly

1201
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:20,239
Speaker 1: above them, um, and i'd probably have the Clippers and um,

1202
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:23,120
Speaker 1: Warriors about them at this point. Um, and then we'll

1203
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:25,719
Speaker 1: see how things go with Dallas or Phoenix. But I'd

1204
00:55:25,719 --> 00:55:27,879
Speaker 1: say it's probably comfortably fourth or fifth in the West

1205
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:30,360
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, so we're gonna get to Dallas in

1206
00:55:30,360 --> 00:55:31,880
Speaker 1: the second, but I would have them fourth, and then

1207
00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:34,719
Speaker 1: i'd have Dallas behind. I would say that Denver is

1208
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:37,440
Speaker 1: one of my favorite candidates for an outlier. James Harden

1209
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:40,760
Speaker 1: trade based on the idea that you can't beat the Lakers,

1210
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:43,600
Speaker 1: you can't beat the Warriors, or maybe they think they can,

1211
00:55:43,719 --> 00:55:46,080
Speaker 1: but they're they're they're not a good enough team to

1212
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 1: win the title right now. They have no, like, no

1213
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:52,960
Speaker 1: readily apparent prospects to potentially get good enough to do so.

1214
00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:56,520
Speaker 1: And and Michael Porter Jr. Would have to get so

1215
00:55:56,600 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 1: incredibly better than he is right now for that to

1216
00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 1: end up raising their ceiling. And this is a guy

1217
00:56:00,640 --> 00:56:03,200
Speaker 1: who literally has drop foot because he has massive back problems.

1218
00:56:03,200 --> 00:56:06,440
Speaker 1: So the question would be like, are you are you

1219
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:09,080
Speaker 1: so comfortable with your culture and your in your trajectory

1220
00:56:09,120 --> 00:56:11,240
Speaker 1: that you stick with this group or do you throw

1221
00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:15,240
Speaker 1: you know, MPJ and and Jamal Murray in some picks

1222
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:18,440
Speaker 1: at Houston bringing James Harden and be like, now I

1223
00:56:18,480 --> 00:56:20,200
Speaker 1: got two of the best ten players in the league.

1224
00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:22,400
Speaker 1: And now now I can sit there and be like, Okay,

1225
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 1: I have two of the top ten players in the

1226
00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:26,120
Speaker 1: league and the Clippers don't, so I can go to

1227
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:28,759
Speaker 1: the Clippers. Are the surrounding guys even good enough at

1228
00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 1: that point? Because around Yoga Chen Harden, what would you need?

1229
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:35,600
Speaker 1: You need guys who can defend for sure, you're not hardcaps,

1230
00:56:35,640 --> 00:56:37,279
Speaker 1: so you could try to bring in better medium guys.

1231
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:40,320
Speaker 1: They become they have lots of minutes available, they become

1232
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:43,880
Speaker 1: a destination because most as I've learned as someone who's

1233
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:46,920
Speaker 1: rooted for guys to join my favorite teams over the years,

1234
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:49,880
Speaker 1: in my experience, veteran minimum guys almost always go to

1235
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:51,719
Speaker 1: where they're gonna get more minutes because they like to

1236
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:55,760
Speaker 1: play basket. So I I think I'm a big believer

1237
00:56:55,840 --> 00:56:58,120
Speaker 1: and get your get your stars, and you'll figure it out.

1238
00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:01,480
Speaker 1: Like I mean last year, last year, everybody roasted everybody

1239
00:57:01,520 --> 00:57:03,759
Speaker 1: the Lakers signed, literally like there wasn't a guy they

1240
00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:05,359
Speaker 1: signed that everyone was like, oh, that was a good sign.

1241
00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:07,360
Speaker 1: Like they didn't like Rondo, they didn't like KCP, they

1242
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:09,520
Speaker 1: didn't like Javery Bradley, they didn't like Dwight Howard, didn't

1243
00:57:09,520 --> 00:57:11,840
Speaker 1: like JaVale McGee, and all of them ended up working

1244
00:57:11,840 --> 00:57:14,120
Speaker 1: out because of the strength of the two best players

1245
00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:16,240
Speaker 1: in the way that it made everything else work. So

1246
00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:20,640
Speaker 1: they're one of my outlier threats. So moving on to Houston, uh,

1247
00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:24,000
Speaker 1: John Wallen, DeMarcus Cousins. But what are we saying about

1248
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:25,680
Speaker 1: Harden at this point? First of all, I'm gonna take

1249
00:57:25,880 --> 00:57:29,320
Speaker 1: just a quick, little victory lap. Go ahead, just a

1250
00:57:29,400 --> 00:57:32,640
Speaker 1: quick one. I think people can see how I am

1251
00:57:32,680 --> 00:57:35,360
Speaker 1: now validated and not having in my top ten. It

1252
00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:37,720
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with his talent. It has nothing

1253
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:39,840
Speaker 1: to do with this talent, because he's one of the

1254
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:43,160
Speaker 1: most talented guys in the league still, But you are

1255
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:45,920
Speaker 1: retooling your roster every twelve to eighteen months if he

1256
00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:49,919
Speaker 1: is your best player, and it's because he's unhappy. So

1257
00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:52,760
Speaker 1: I don't have anything else to add. But is he

1258
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:54,800
Speaker 1: one of the most talented guys in the league. Yes,

1259
00:57:55,040 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 1: what I want to build my franchise around him. No,

1260
00:57:57,240 --> 00:57:59,360
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I wouldn't. I don't want to deal with

1261
00:57:59,360 --> 00:58:02,400
Speaker 1: the headaches. I would rather I'd rather have Dame because

1262
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:04,040
Speaker 1: I know where Dames. I know where Dame's heart is

1263
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:06,480
Speaker 1: always gonna be. If I'm doing the right things, I'm

1264
00:58:06,480 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: putting the right guys around Dame. He's gonna rally the

1265
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:09,720
Speaker 1: truth and he's gonna be one of the best leaders

1266
00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:14,040
Speaker 1: in the week. And the performance is small enough to

1267
00:58:14,040 --> 00:58:17,600
Speaker 1: where it's not super super significant. So yeah, and I agree,

1268
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:18,920
Speaker 1: And I think it's time for us to look back

1269
00:58:18,920 --> 00:58:21,080
Speaker 1: at the two thousand and eighteen rockets, and acknowledge the

1270
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:24,240
Speaker 1: impact of Chris Paul and acknowledge the impact of Jeff

1271
00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:26,760
Speaker 1: Pedgelic or whatever his name is, the guy who who

1272
00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 1: you know, came up with that defense that gave the

1273
00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:32,479
Speaker 1: Warriors so many problems, and and understand that there there's

1274
00:58:32,560 --> 00:58:36,560
Speaker 1: there's a deeper story to what happened there, especially when

1275
00:58:36,560 --> 00:58:38,560
Speaker 1: you start to look at how horrible James Harden played

1276
00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:41,720
Speaker 1: in that series. Uh. But the reality is is, uh,

1277
00:58:41,840 --> 00:58:44,600
Speaker 1: let's operate for the purposes of this as we get

1278
00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:47,360
Speaker 1: to these other teams and were especially when we do Friday,

1279
00:58:47,360 --> 00:58:49,320
Speaker 1: when we do the Eastern Conference pod, because I think

1280
00:58:49,320 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 1: they're the more likely destination for James Harden. Yeah, definitely,

1281
00:58:52,360 --> 00:58:53,840
Speaker 1: But as we get through these teams, we'll talk about

1282
00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:56,120
Speaker 1: where he might go. But for the purposes of right now,

1283
00:58:56,680 --> 00:58:59,240
Speaker 1: let's operate under the premise that James Harden is staying

1284
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:02,880
Speaker 1: in Houston with John Wall. John Wall I like him

1285
00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:05,840
Speaker 1: as a natural fit better than Russell Westbrook, just because

1286
00:59:05,840 --> 00:59:08,400
Speaker 1: of the fact that he's a little bit, a little

1287
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:11,280
Speaker 1: bit more high i Q and a little bit more willing.

1288
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:15,720
Speaker 1: He looked pretty good in that first part. I was

1289
00:59:15,800 --> 00:59:18,760
Speaker 1: shocked and so and I feel like he'll do a

1290
00:59:18,760 --> 00:59:20,960
Speaker 1: better job of the balance back and forth. But with

1291
00:59:21,040 --> 00:59:24,520
Speaker 1: him and James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins can shoot threes, which

1292
00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:26,760
Speaker 1: is an interesting element to them being able to play

1293
00:59:26,800 --> 00:59:30,440
Speaker 1: a center but continue their their space and attack offense.

1294
00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:34,480
Speaker 1: And Christian would I'm a big believer in not bullshitting

1295
00:59:34,480 --> 00:59:36,280
Speaker 1: you guys. I haven't seen enough of him to make

1296
00:59:36,280 --> 00:59:38,200
Speaker 1: an opinion, so that's just where I would say on that.

1297
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:40,640
Speaker 1: But I haven't heard enough good about him to think

1298
00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:42,600
Speaker 1: he could be that much of a ceiling Razors. So

1299
00:59:42,600 --> 00:59:44,439
Speaker 1: I view them as more or less the same type

1300
00:59:44,440 --> 00:59:47,320
Speaker 1: of threat that they were last year. Yep. Yeah, I

1301
00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:48,800
Speaker 1: mean I could they could get hot maybe for a

1302
00:59:48,840 --> 00:59:50,920
Speaker 1: playoff series and upset somebody. But I'm with you, and

1303
00:59:50,960 --> 00:59:52,920
Speaker 1: I think while its definitely a better fit, he's a

1304
00:59:52,920 --> 00:59:55,360
Speaker 1: little bit more fluid of a playmaker than Rush's just

1305
00:59:55,400 --> 00:59:57,680
Speaker 1: comes more natural to him, and I think that's a

1306
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:00,240
Speaker 1: good fit next to next to Harden, he's proba at

1307
01:00:00,240 --> 01:00:03,240
Speaker 1: this point. He's probably a better shooter too that Russ is,

1308
01:00:03,480 --> 01:00:06,680
Speaker 1: which is not saying much, but anybody's a better shooter

1309
01:00:06,720 --> 01:00:09,560
Speaker 1: than Rest, and I think we'll will commit maybe a

1310
01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:11,240
Speaker 1: little bit more to playing off ball, even though he

1311
01:00:11,240 --> 01:00:16,240
Speaker 1: didn't really show that in Washington. But we'll see, we'll see. Um,

1312
01:00:16,240 --> 01:00:21,480
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you there, bottom Tyre probably Western

1313
01:00:21,520 --> 01:00:24,480
Speaker 1: Conference playoff team. If Hardon stays, they're probably in the

1314
01:00:24,520 --> 01:00:26,280
Speaker 1: six eight range. And I could even see them falling

1315
01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:28,240
Speaker 1: out of some of these young teams pop Um at

1316
01:00:28,240 --> 01:00:30,360
Speaker 1: Memphis randomly, Pops. We're not gonna talk about them, but

1317
01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:32,360
Speaker 1: if they you know, if they look really good this year,

1318
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:34,360
Speaker 1: then you know teams are gonna start to fall out.

1319
01:00:34,400 --> 01:00:37,320
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm with you. I don't I don't see

1320
01:00:37,360 --> 01:00:39,320
Speaker 1: much of a ceiling for them at second round at best.

1321
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:43,160
Speaker 1: We've seen hard And slip in a random regular season

1322
01:00:43,360 --> 01:00:45,320
Speaker 1: and go forty one and forty one and get in

1323
01:00:45,360 --> 01:00:48,240
Speaker 1: as an eight seed. And it's something that because because

1324
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:50,320
Speaker 1: he's a bad attitude guy and because he's always on

1325
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:54,880
Speaker 1: the verge of decommitting mentally from a team. All right,

1326
01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:57,600
Speaker 1: so you tak for more more or less, they're the

1327
01:00:57,640 --> 01:01:01,360
Speaker 1: same team with Derrick Favors. Uh. I view them as

1328
01:01:01,480 --> 01:01:03,160
Speaker 1: just as flawed as they were last year, in the

1329
01:01:03,160 --> 01:01:05,560
Speaker 1: sense that they rely too much on Donovan Mitchell to

1330
01:01:05,600 --> 01:01:08,320
Speaker 1: create all their offense. They were hoping for Mike Conley

1331
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:10,280
Speaker 1: to be a relief in that regard, but he's way

1332
01:01:10,280 --> 01:01:14,240
Speaker 1: too inconsistent because he is actually on that down slope

1333
01:01:14,240 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 1: that we talked about with these smaller guards. So I

1334
01:01:16,480 --> 01:01:18,360
Speaker 1: view them as more or less a six or seven

1335
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:21,080
Speaker 1: seed in a non threat Yeah, I mean they're non threat.

1336
01:01:21,080 --> 01:01:22,880
Speaker 1: I could see them maybe being a little bit better

1337
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:25,960
Speaker 1: as a regular season team, um than some people expect,

1338
01:01:25,960 --> 01:01:27,600
Speaker 1: maybe sneaking into a top four seed, just from a

1339
01:01:27,600 --> 01:01:29,960
Speaker 1: continuity standpoint, like there has been a little bit it

1340
01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:32,280
Speaker 1: turned over in the roster. Conley is obviously relatively new,

1341
01:01:32,640 --> 01:01:35,400
Speaker 1: um Bogdanovitch to a certain extent, but their core guys

1342
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:38,640
Speaker 1: have been there, Gobert, Mitchell, uh Favors is coming back,

1343
01:01:38,680 --> 01:01:40,320
Speaker 1: so they I mean, they know what the deal is.

1344
01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:44,800
Speaker 1: Their angles are still there. Um. I think they could

1345
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:46,960
Speaker 1: be a good regular season team like they are a

1346
01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:48,440
Speaker 1: lot of the times, but I don't see it for

1347
01:01:48,480 --> 01:01:50,840
Speaker 1: the playoffs at all. You know, Um, it took it's

1348
01:01:50,960 --> 01:01:53,960
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell having then Jamal Mary had an amazing series too,

1349
01:01:53,960 --> 01:01:55,760
Speaker 1: but Mitchell had to have like his best series ever

1350
01:01:55,840 --> 01:01:57,560
Speaker 1: and they still lost in seven to Denver. You know,

1351
01:01:57,720 --> 01:02:00,560
Speaker 1: So yeah, non threat. Like I said that, they might

1352
01:02:00,600 --> 01:02:03,480
Speaker 1: have a little bit of a higher regular season ceiling

1353
01:02:03,960 --> 01:02:06,560
Speaker 1: um than some people expect just from a continuity standpoint,

1354
01:02:06,560 --> 01:02:09,000
Speaker 1: but I don't see it from a playoffs standpoint. They're not.

1355
01:02:09,480 --> 01:02:11,320
Speaker 1: They don't they should not scare any of the top

1356
01:02:11,320 --> 01:02:14,560
Speaker 1: tier teams. Yeah, and I mean honestly, like a big

1357
01:02:14,600 --> 01:02:17,440
Speaker 1: part of their projection moving forward, in my opinion, depends

1358
01:02:17,480 --> 01:02:19,760
Speaker 1: on Donovan Mitchell kind of getting a little bit more

1359
01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:23,040
Speaker 1: of a point guard mentality, feeling the flow of the game,

1360
01:02:23,160 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 1: understanding one aggressive and when to be passive, when to

1361
01:02:25,720 --> 01:02:28,040
Speaker 1: keep teammates involved, when to put his foot to the

1362
01:02:28,280 --> 01:02:30,600
Speaker 1: pedal to the metal. Are drawing fouls he he doesn't.

1363
01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:32,560
Speaker 1: He does not a lot of foul if he because

1364
01:02:32,560 --> 01:02:34,480
Speaker 1: he ends up shooting a lot of these weird floaters

1365
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:36,120
Speaker 1: in the middle of the lane where it's like, maybe

1366
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:39,040
Speaker 1: just take another drible. He's he's strong, he's athletic. Trying

1367
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:42,200
Speaker 1: to like your field goal percentage might drop a presenter too,

1368
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:43,880
Speaker 1: because you're trying more crazy shots to the rim. But

1369
01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:48,160
Speaker 1: if you're drawing more fouls, that invariably guys who are

1370
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:51,680
Speaker 1: high free throw rate guys helped create great offense um.

1371
01:02:51,800 --> 01:02:54,120
Speaker 1: So those would be the two areas of growth. I'd

1372
01:02:54,120 --> 01:02:57,040
Speaker 1: look for him at playmaking, which he has definitely improved on,

1373
01:02:57,160 --> 01:03:01,640
Speaker 1: and then drawing more fouls. So Dallas, they lost Seth Curry,

1374
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:03,840
Speaker 1: but they added James Johnson three and D wing that

1375
01:03:03,840 --> 01:03:06,600
Speaker 1: they didn't really have on the roster last year. Uh Um,

1376
01:03:06,600 --> 01:03:10,840
Speaker 1: what's his name? Kare and Phinney Smith I think is

1377
01:03:10,880 --> 01:03:13,000
Speaker 1: his name? Was? He was there three and D guy

1378
01:03:13,160 --> 01:03:16,720
Speaker 1: last year just wasn't really just wasn't really consistent enough

1379
01:03:16,760 --> 01:03:19,000
Speaker 1: in hy Q enough on the wing. James Johnson is

1380
01:03:19,040 --> 01:03:20,920
Speaker 1: just a much better version of him, in my opinion.

1381
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:24,680
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson is Seth Curry less, less of a shooter,

1382
01:03:24,720 --> 01:03:27,280
Speaker 1: but a much better defensive player. And he's really different.

1383
01:03:27,360 --> 01:03:29,439
Speaker 1: I think he's a really different and he makes more

1384
01:03:29,440 --> 01:03:31,680
Speaker 1: sense on this roster than he does in Philly because

1385
01:03:31,680 --> 01:03:33,920
Speaker 1: in Philly he was being asked to generate a lot

1386
01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:37,200
Speaker 1: of their offense, which just never has been his strength. Um.

1387
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:40,080
Speaker 1: And then they picked up that super athletic forward from

1388
01:03:40,200 --> 01:03:44,760
Speaker 1: Orlando West wound do but and then they they're returning

1389
01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:47,720
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell who has gone with an achilles injury, and

1390
01:03:47,840 --> 01:03:50,440
Speaker 1: Kristaps Porzingis who was gone with a knee Uh. I

1391
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:53,800
Speaker 1: think toss and I think I think Christapps is at

1392
01:03:53,880 --> 01:03:56,080
Speaker 1: least out until like the new year from what I've

1393
01:03:56,080 --> 01:03:58,600
Speaker 1: seen report Really yeah, that that's what I said the

1394
01:03:58,680 --> 01:04:00,400
Speaker 1: last time I saw. He's out until at least the

1395
01:04:00,400 --> 01:04:02,800
Speaker 1: new year. Let me double check that real quick. Um,

1396
01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:04,800
Speaker 1: But what do you feel about them? Where do you

1397
01:04:04,840 --> 01:04:07,200
Speaker 1: think they're gonna Endfinitely? It was a perfect I think

1398
01:04:07,200 --> 01:04:08,680
Speaker 1: it was a perfect off season for them in the

1399
01:04:08,720 --> 01:04:10,480
Speaker 1: sense that, you know, they didn't want to tie up

1400
01:04:10,480 --> 01:04:12,760
Speaker 1: their cap because they wanted to potentially wait for Janice,

1401
01:04:12,760 --> 01:04:15,960
Speaker 1: which apparently is off the table. But I mean they

1402
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:18,360
Speaker 1: were smart to try to wait for that because Janice

1403
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:21,880
Speaker 1: has been on the record that he really liked Luca. Uh.

1404
01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:24,720
Speaker 1: They they had a weakness on the wing defensively last year,

1405
01:04:24,720 --> 01:04:26,240
Speaker 1: and I think it hurt them against the Clippers. I

1406
01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:29,400
Speaker 1: think they remedied that with James Johnson, Josh Richardson and

1407
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:31,760
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell when he went down with his achilles tear

1408
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:33,560
Speaker 1: last year. Took away a lot of their front court

1409
01:04:33,600 --> 01:04:38,120
Speaker 1: that front court athleticism, and it hurt them. Uh yeah,

1410
01:04:38,400 --> 01:04:39,800
Speaker 1: they it hurt them. At the end of that season,

1411
01:04:39,840 --> 01:04:41,840
Speaker 1: West the woundo West and wound do is not as

1412
01:04:41,880 --> 01:04:44,120
Speaker 1: good as Dwight Powell, but he's in a similar mold

1413
01:04:44,160 --> 01:04:47,320
Speaker 1: in the sense that he gives them more athletic height,

1414
01:04:47,800 --> 01:04:51,680
Speaker 1: athletic more athleticism in their front court to help run

1415
01:04:51,720 --> 01:04:54,240
Speaker 1: that you know, pick and roll action with with Luca.

1416
01:04:54,320 --> 01:04:55,520
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, this team is

1417
01:04:55,520 --> 01:04:58,520
Speaker 1: all about Luca don chech. He's your prime m VP

1418
01:04:58,680 --> 01:05:00,560
Speaker 1: candidate because of the fact that he he's a bona

1419
01:05:00,600 --> 01:05:03,600
Speaker 1: fide number one on his team. As good as Christaps is,

1420
01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:05,200
Speaker 1: he's never going to be a guy that people look

1421
01:05:05,200 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 1: at as a guy who's taking away his MVP votes.

1422
01:05:07,600 --> 01:05:11,280
Speaker 1: Chris Christaps, by the way, January one on court activity

1423
01:05:11,320 --> 01:05:12,880
Speaker 1: return dates, so they're not even bringing him back to

1424
01:05:12,880 --> 01:05:15,280
Speaker 1: do any on court activity, is barely doing anything. So

1425
01:05:15,560 --> 01:05:18,800
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe he's ready by late January. Really, have

1426
01:05:18,840 --> 01:05:21,720
Speaker 1: you already started playing games? And that makes uh, they

1427
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:23,800
Speaker 1: have Willie Calli Stein is probably gonna be playing his

1428
01:05:23,840 --> 01:05:28,720
Speaker 1: minutes in the meantime. Uh really yeah, as you can speak.

1429
01:05:28,880 --> 01:05:31,520
Speaker 1: Oh my god, thirty games is enough. Get him off,

1430
01:05:32,120 --> 01:05:34,760
Speaker 1: Get him off my team. Nice enough guy, it seems like,

1431
01:05:34,840 --> 01:05:37,960
Speaker 1: but not a good player. Yeah, and but like and

1432
01:05:38,080 --> 01:05:40,560
Speaker 1: but the reality is is like the prime Luca type,

1433
01:05:40,640 --> 01:05:43,080
Speaker 1: MVP type of deal. Um, you know when we're talking

1434
01:05:43,080 --> 01:05:45,760
Speaker 1: when we're parsing out seeds with these teams we're talking about.

1435
01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:48,240
Speaker 1: But you know, between the three seed and the twelve seed,

1436
01:05:48,680 --> 01:05:51,000
Speaker 1: a lot of this honestly is going to be separated

1437
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:52,880
Speaker 1: by a handful of games. I wouldn't be surprised if

1438
01:05:52,880 --> 01:05:54,720
Speaker 1: the twelve seed was, you know, four and a half

1439
01:05:54,760 --> 01:05:56,600
Speaker 1: games back of the three seed. Like that's just the

1440
01:05:56,600 --> 01:06:01,160
Speaker 1: way that Especially if let's say, you know, the COVID

1441
01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:03,320
Speaker 1: stuff is fairly spread out, injuries are fairly spread out,

1442
01:06:03,320 --> 01:06:05,040
Speaker 1: and everybody kind of misses the same amount of time,

1443
01:06:05,200 --> 01:06:06,800
Speaker 1: it could definitely end up like that. I can see

1444
01:06:06,800 --> 01:06:09,479
Speaker 1: it happening very very easily. And the last two seeds

1445
01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:11,640
Speaker 1: are playings this year, the seven and eight play ins,

1446
01:06:11,640 --> 01:06:14,560
Speaker 1: so it makes it even more interesting for sure. And

1447
01:06:14,560 --> 01:06:16,440
Speaker 1: and so, but the bottom line is if Luke is

1448
01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:17,680
Speaker 1: going to be more or less the same guy that

1449
01:06:17,720 --> 01:06:19,360
Speaker 1: we saw in the first round of playoffs, which I

1450
01:06:19,400 --> 01:06:21,400
Speaker 1: think we all thought he'd be a good playoff player,

1451
01:06:21,400 --> 01:06:23,800
Speaker 1: but he proved us that he's not. H you know,

1452
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:26,200
Speaker 1: the type of player who who will you know, whose

1453
01:06:26,240 --> 01:06:29,480
Speaker 1: impact will lessen on that that level. But with them

1454
01:06:29,520 --> 01:06:32,120
Speaker 1: adding wing defense, with them adding a little bit more

1455
01:06:32,120 --> 01:06:34,760
Speaker 1: playmaking with Josh Richardson, and with them adding some front

1456
01:06:34,760 --> 01:06:38,480
Speaker 1: court front court athleticism. There absolutely in that like upset

1457
01:06:38,560 --> 01:06:41,760
Speaker 1: threat tier of the Western Conference, where a team that

1458
01:06:41,840 --> 01:06:44,520
Speaker 1: has some flaws, who comes into that series with them,

1459
01:06:44,520 --> 01:06:46,880
Speaker 1: who might have had a better record, could just as

1460
01:06:46,920 --> 01:06:50,520
Speaker 1: easily lose to them totally. And why the last thing

1461
01:06:50,520 --> 01:06:53,280
Speaker 1: I'd say about the Mavericks is I'm interested to see

1462
01:06:53,720 --> 01:06:56,600
Speaker 1: what direction they kind of go offensively, especially when Ports

1463
01:06:56,640 --> 01:06:59,200
Speaker 1: gets back. Do they really just lean into Luca picknroll?

1464
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:02,160
Speaker 1: Because they, I mean, they were super super heavy Luka

1465
01:07:02,200 --> 01:07:04,400
Speaker 1: pick and roll last year, and I thought it was

1466
01:07:04,400 --> 01:07:08,120
Speaker 1: almost detrimental sometimes. And he's incredible, but I was fairly

1467
01:07:08,200 --> 01:07:11,720
Speaker 1: vocal and critical about um them just like going to

1468
01:07:11,760 --> 01:07:13,440
Speaker 1: that too much too early in his career instead of

1469
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:15,480
Speaker 1: trying to develop other parts of his game, parts of

1470
01:07:15,520 --> 01:07:20,640
Speaker 1: hen need frankly if his team's ever gonna win championships.

1471
01:07:20,680 --> 01:07:25,760
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned this briefly before, basing how you build

1472
01:07:25,760 --> 01:07:27,400
Speaker 1: your team and how you play offense off of Lebron

1473
01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:29,200
Speaker 1: James is one of the dumbest things you can do,

1474
01:07:29,800 --> 01:07:31,479
Speaker 1: you know, And and Lebron doesn't lean into that stuff

1475
01:07:31,520 --> 01:07:32,880
Speaker 1: as much as he was in those late Calves Ears

1476
01:07:32,920 --> 01:07:35,520
Speaker 1: because he had to lower than people think it is.

1477
01:07:35,680 --> 01:07:37,680
Speaker 1: It is, it absolutely is, But some of those late

1478
01:07:37,720 --> 01:07:39,600
Speaker 1: Calves Ears, it was it was a lot of lebron

1479
01:07:40,480 --> 01:07:42,160
Speaker 1: rounded by shooters, and that's more of It's just you know,

1480
01:07:42,240 --> 01:07:43,960
Speaker 1: surround your best player of the shooters and let him

1481
01:07:43,960 --> 01:07:47,280
Speaker 1: do everything. It's not a sustainable model because you don't

1482
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:50,680
Speaker 1: have a top five player ever on your roster, even

1483
01:07:50,720 --> 01:07:54,640
Speaker 1: if Luca is on an incredible trajectory, but top five ever, like,

1484
01:07:54,720 --> 01:07:58,000
Speaker 1: I don't know, man like that. That's so ambitious. Um

1485
01:07:58,120 --> 01:08:00,960
Speaker 1: So I'd be interested to see if how many possessions

1486
01:08:00,960 --> 01:08:03,760
Speaker 1: prisoning is getting, how many jobs prichinsons are getting and Luca, Look,

1487
01:08:03,800 --> 01:08:05,640
Speaker 1: Lucas gotta be the end all be all at the

1488
01:08:05,720 --> 01:08:07,720
Speaker 1: end of the day. But I also don't want him

1489
01:08:07,800 --> 01:08:09,680
Speaker 1: running eighty pick and rolls because their offensive rating was

1490
01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:11,120
Speaker 1: so good with that him last year when he wasn't

1491
01:08:11,120 --> 01:08:13,120
Speaker 1: on the floor, there was obviously a drop off, but

1492
01:08:13,120 --> 01:08:16,080
Speaker 1: it wasn't anything significant. It was only four five points.

1493
01:08:16,120 --> 01:08:17,960
Speaker 1: They were still one of the top offenses in the league.

1494
01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:20,120
Speaker 1: With him off the floor. They were beating teams, but

1495
01:08:20,360 --> 01:08:22,439
Speaker 1: they were they were handling teams to that which he

1496
01:08:22,479 --> 01:08:25,479
Speaker 1: was always my example of the foolishness that that a

1497
01:08:25,560 --> 01:08:28,080
Speaker 1: high usage player is going to hurt your bench lineups,

1498
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:31,280
Speaker 1: and it never made any sense to me. Yep, yep exactly. So, Um,

1499
01:08:31,320 --> 01:08:32,960
Speaker 1: that'd be the only thing I'd be looking for with

1500
01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:36,080
Speaker 1: them this year, to see what their offense looks like. Um,

1501
01:08:36,120 --> 01:08:38,920
Speaker 1: but I think I'm basically with you on them being

1502
01:08:38,920 --> 01:08:40,680
Speaker 1: the potential upset there, Like if they if they're just

1503
01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:42,320
Speaker 1: better than the last year, maybe they beat the Clippers

1504
01:08:42,320 --> 01:08:44,639
Speaker 1: in a series, you know. Um, if Luca takes another

1505
01:08:44,680 --> 01:08:46,880
Speaker 1: step and if their role guys performed where they can,

1506
01:08:47,040 --> 01:08:48,880
Speaker 1: I could easily see them beating the Clippers and really

1507
01:08:48,920 --> 01:08:53,120
Speaker 1: anybody besides the Lakers. And if it all goes right well,

1508
01:08:53,160 --> 01:08:56,559
Speaker 1: I mean, and he took the Clippers to six without Powell,

1509
01:08:56,560 --> 01:08:59,240
Speaker 1: without Christops personas and without the wing defenders, He's gonna

1510
01:08:59,240 --> 01:09:01,639
Speaker 1: have this year. Ye all right, su Portland, they added

1511
01:09:01,720 --> 01:09:04,479
Speaker 1: enis cancer more or less to me, uh, just a

1512
01:09:04,479 --> 01:09:06,519
Speaker 1: bench player considering the fact that nar Kis is gonna

1513
01:09:06,560 --> 01:09:08,840
Speaker 1: play the five for the most part for them. Derrick

1514
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:12,960
Speaker 1: Jones Jr. Who even though even though Shams are I

1515
01:09:12,960 --> 01:09:14,760
Speaker 1: can't remember if it was shams Or, Woach said he

1516
01:09:14,800 --> 01:09:17,599
Speaker 1: was an important role player on the NBA finalist. He's

1517
01:09:17,640 --> 01:09:21,880
Speaker 1: not a very good basketball player, Roco. Roco Derrick Jones,

1518
01:09:21,920 --> 01:09:23,680
Speaker 1: Jor barely played in the playoff. Yeah, it was the

1519
01:09:23,720 --> 01:09:27,439
Speaker 1: most ridiculous thing I've ever read. But uh, Roco, I

1520
01:09:27,479 --> 01:09:30,160
Speaker 1: actually really really like. I think he's a unique wing

1521
01:09:30,240 --> 01:09:31,600
Speaker 1: in the sense that you can actually play him at

1522
01:09:31,640 --> 01:09:34,200
Speaker 1: the center because he's such a gifted shot blocker, and

1523
01:09:34,439 --> 01:09:36,519
Speaker 1: you know, his shooting is somewhat inconsistent, but he makes

1524
01:09:36,560 --> 01:09:38,120
Speaker 1: more than enough of them to make you pay if

1525
01:09:38,160 --> 01:09:40,080
Speaker 1: you leave him wide open all game long. And then

1526
01:09:40,080 --> 01:09:43,040
Speaker 1: they added Harry Giles, who, again, it's kind of similar

1527
01:09:43,080 --> 01:09:45,040
Speaker 1: to the mp J thing, where I haven't are not MPG.

1528
01:09:45,160 --> 01:09:47,599
Speaker 1: It's kind of similar to the Christian would thing, where

1529
01:09:47,600 --> 01:09:50,120
Speaker 1: I haven't necessarily seen enough enough of him to have

1530
01:09:50,240 --> 01:09:52,960
Speaker 1: a really strong take. But from what I understand, he's

1531
01:09:53,000 --> 01:09:57,439
Speaker 1: just your stereotypical like bullyball athletic four who it doesn't

1532
01:09:57,439 --> 01:09:59,000
Speaker 1: really bring a lot of skill to the table, but

1533
01:09:59,160 --> 01:10:01,360
Speaker 1: is extremely gift it around the basket as an athlete

1534
01:10:01,360 --> 01:10:03,360
Speaker 1: and just pretty good pass. It's a pretty good pastor

1535
01:10:03,400 --> 01:10:05,519
Speaker 1: if you're watch enough of him. He's like a canny

1536
01:10:05,560 --> 01:10:09,760
Speaker 1: little like high post passer. He's back cuts, can find shooters. Um.

1537
01:10:09,800 --> 01:10:13,200
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I honestly, and they added Rodney

1538
01:10:13,240 --> 01:10:15,760
Speaker 1: hood to right then they probably already on the roster.

1539
01:10:15,800 --> 01:10:18,760
Speaker 1: He's just back from his achilles there. Yeah, so I

1540
01:10:18,800 --> 01:10:21,240
Speaker 1: honestly thought they had one of them are overrated off

1541
01:10:21,280 --> 01:10:24,000
Speaker 1: seasons in recent memory, especially for the way, you know,

1542
01:10:24,000 --> 01:10:26,760
Speaker 1: relatively way people are talking about them. Bobby Marx is saying, oh,

1543
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:28,439
Speaker 1: they're going to be the third seed in the West. Yeah,

1544
01:10:28,479 --> 01:10:29,760
Speaker 1: I want to heard. I was like, wait, what did

1545
01:10:29,760 --> 01:10:32,640
Speaker 1: the was there signing? I missed in there somewhere that like,

1546
01:10:32,760 --> 01:10:35,040
Speaker 1: I just don't see that man like Broco is a

1547
01:10:35,160 --> 01:10:39,519
Speaker 1: nice player, Um, but I've been very critical of him,

1548
01:10:39,560 --> 01:10:41,439
Speaker 1: and that's more from a loser fit on like a

1549
01:10:41,439 --> 01:10:46,240
Speaker 1: Warriors standpoint. Um, he is a good player, like inarguably,

1550
01:10:46,439 --> 01:10:49,120
Speaker 1: but he's not a very good on ball defender. And

1551
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:51,680
Speaker 1: what are their Portland always has issues with all on

1552
01:10:51,720 --> 01:10:54,800
Speaker 1: boll defense against high level players in the playoffs. Damon

1553
01:10:55,240 --> 01:10:57,280
Speaker 1: aren't going to be improving in that area anytime soon.

1554
01:10:57,320 --> 01:11:00,719
Speaker 1: They're both small guards, um, and I still don't understand

1555
01:11:00,720 --> 01:11:02,920
Speaker 1: why they haven't moved see Jack for something. Um it

1556
01:11:03,000 --> 01:11:05,200
Speaker 1: still does not make sense to me, especially for guys

1557
01:11:05,200 --> 01:11:08,120
Speaker 1: that can fit around game. Um cancer makes zero sense.

1558
01:11:08,120 --> 01:11:10,800
Speaker 1: Why bring him back? He never does anything productive in

1559
01:11:10,840 --> 01:11:13,840
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Derrick Jones Jr. We just talked about. I mean,

1560
01:11:14,520 --> 01:11:16,040
Speaker 1: he played like I don't even know if he played

1561
01:11:16,080 --> 01:11:19,400
Speaker 1: a hundred minutes in the playoffs, Like he barely played.

1562
01:11:20,000 --> 01:11:22,840
Speaker 1: He was a non packer. He all remembers him checking

1563
01:11:22,840 --> 01:11:24,240
Speaker 1: in at the end of Game one of the finals

1564
01:11:24,240 --> 01:11:26,439
Speaker 1: and Lebron padding his stats against him in the in

1565
01:11:26,479 --> 01:11:29,920
Speaker 1: the post. But like Andrea couldn't make shots by the

1566
01:11:29,960 --> 01:11:32,200
Speaker 1: end of the finals, that like Miami had some injuries

1567
01:11:32,320 --> 01:11:35,719
Speaker 1: and he still wasn't getting minutes radically kind of played

1568
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:38,000
Speaker 1: him in a band roll just because they needed some

1569
01:11:38,040 --> 01:11:40,320
Speaker 1: type of rim gravity as a roller, and they didn't

1570
01:11:40,360 --> 01:11:42,080
Speaker 1: even really try to do that when Bam was out.

1571
01:11:42,360 --> 01:11:45,320
Speaker 1: UM So, I just they're gonna be fine. They're probably

1572
01:11:45,320 --> 01:11:48,160
Speaker 1: a fringe playoff team again in my opinion, even see

1573
01:11:48,200 --> 01:11:50,080
Speaker 1: them missing it. I wouldn't bet on that because I

1574
01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:52,040
Speaker 1: think the roster is better than last year, but the

1575
01:11:52,040 --> 01:11:54,519
Speaker 1: West is also better than last year. Um So, I

1576
01:11:54,560 --> 01:11:57,360
Speaker 1: think that they got better, But did they get better

1577
01:11:57,360 --> 01:11:58,880
Speaker 1: relative to what the rest of the West did, I

1578
01:11:58,960 --> 01:12:02,320
Speaker 1: don't know, but to me, the Dame off the ball,

1579
01:12:02,760 --> 01:12:06,080
Speaker 1: adding that steph element of off ball activity is the

1580
01:12:06,120 --> 01:12:09,160
Speaker 1: biggest potential ceiling razor for them. He said he's not

1581
01:12:09,160 --> 01:12:11,280
Speaker 1: gonna He already said he wasn't gonna do it. Yeah,

1582
01:12:11,400 --> 01:12:14,080
Speaker 1: which there's your answer. But I mean the reality is

1583
01:12:14,080 --> 01:12:16,960
Speaker 1: is that like like I saw the Lakers take the

1584
01:12:16,960 --> 01:12:19,760
Speaker 1: ball out of Dame's hand, Like I I saw that

1585
01:12:20,120 --> 01:12:21,880
Speaker 1: they chased him over the top of every screen. Then

1586
01:12:21,880 --> 01:12:24,040
Speaker 1: they started blitzing in because he killed them in Game

1587
01:12:24,080 --> 01:12:27,840
Speaker 1: one and and it basically neutralized their entire offense Like that,

1588
01:12:27,840 --> 01:12:30,360
Speaker 1: That's that's the reality of the Dame Lillard experience. It's

1589
01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:32,840
Speaker 1: the same thing that happened to happen to Jamal Murray.

1590
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:34,679
Speaker 1: It's the same thing that's going to happen to Luca

1591
01:12:34,800 --> 01:12:37,000
Speaker 1: as teams get better. Like if you don't find a

1592
01:12:37,000 --> 01:12:40,320
Speaker 1: way to become either well with Luca, he beat it

1593
01:12:40,360 --> 01:12:41,840
Speaker 1: with the past. But it's like, if you don't have

1594
01:12:41,960 --> 01:12:46,559
Speaker 1: either unbelievable supreme passing ability or the ability to remain

1595
01:12:46,600 --> 01:12:48,560
Speaker 1: a threat off the ball, who could also go on

1596
01:12:48,600 --> 01:12:51,479
Speaker 1: the post to Luke Damon and you know, guys like

1597
01:12:51,520 --> 01:12:55,160
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray can't do exactly, but like I always talk

1598
01:12:55,200 --> 01:12:59,519
Speaker 1: about how like, you know, someone shared link the other

1599
01:12:59,600 --> 01:13:01,840
Speaker 1: day it was one of your Warriors guys. I think

1600
01:13:01,840 --> 01:13:04,880
Speaker 1: it was bolteg if I'm announcing that correctly. You shared

1601
01:13:04,920 --> 01:13:08,719
Speaker 1: something about Zach Low from two thousand and thirteen, basically

1602
01:13:08,760 --> 01:13:11,599
Speaker 1: talking about how the Spurs were completely flu mixed by

1603
01:13:11,640 --> 01:13:14,680
Speaker 1: Steph Curry being such a deadly three point shooter off

1604
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:17,240
Speaker 1: the dribble because it was ruining their pick and roll coverages.

1605
01:13:17,280 --> 01:13:21,320
Speaker 1: There's I don't I don't think people were like really

1606
01:13:21,479 --> 01:13:24,559
Speaker 1: take into account how outrageous what he was doing during

1607
01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:26,439
Speaker 1: these playoffs was because nobody was shooting threes off the

1608
01:13:26,479 --> 01:13:28,880
Speaker 1: dribble at that point, Like it just wasn't a um.

1609
01:13:28,920 --> 01:13:31,679
Speaker 1: So I think where you're going with this as teams

1610
01:13:31,680 --> 01:13:35,040
Speaker 1: have caught up to that now. Yeah, if you look

1611
01:13:35,080 --> 01:13:38,559
Speaker 1: throughout NBA history, offensive ratings go up and they go down,

1612
01:13:38,600 --> 01:13:40,120
Speaker 1: and they go up and they go down. And the

1613
01:13:40,200 --> 01:13:43,640
Speaker 1: reason why, in my opinion, is offenses discover something that

1614
01:13:43,720 --> 01:13:47,760
Speaker 1: works and they start to exploit that, and then defenses

1615
01:13:48,120 --> 01:13:50,880
Speaker 1: catch up and then you're gonna see you're gonna see

1616
01:13:50,960 --> 01:13:54,000
Speaker 1: high volume three point shooting team high. You're gonna see

1617
01:13:54,360 --> 01:13:57,599
Speaker 1: teams that are heavily, heavily reliant on a pull up

1618
01:13:57,640 --> 01:14:00,519
Speaker 1: jump shooting guard. You're gonna see teams like that start

1619
01:14:00,600 --> 01:14:04,240
Speaker 1: to struggle as defenses get really really good. Because look

1620
01:14:04,280 --> 01:14:06,800
Speaker 1: at what the Lakers did last year. Every single team

1621
01:14:06,840 --> 01:14:09,280
Speaker 1: is going to start watching tape of that to these

1622
01:14:09,280 --> 01:14:12,040
Speaker 1: teams because they neutralized a lot of these really really

1623
01:14:12,080 --> 01:14:15,320
Speaker 1: good on the ball scores, and they're they're gonna find

1624
01:14:15,320 --> 01:14:18,439
Speaker 1: a way to to to mimic that, and all of

1625
01:14:18,479 --> 01:14:20,240
Speaker 1: a sudden, these teams are gonna struggle. But then what's

1626
01:14:20,240 --> 01:14:22,200
Speaker 1: gonna what's gonna happen is the offense is just gonna

1627
01:14:22,280 --> 01:14:24,360
Speaker 1: evolve again. But anyway, my point is is that like

1628
01:14:24,439 --> 01:14:26,799
Speaker 1: that would be one of the ways that the Portlands

1629
01:14:26,800 --> 01:14:29,000
Speaker 1: could raise their ceiling, and I, just as you said,

1630
01:14:29,080 --> 01:14:32,679
Speaker 1: Dame doesn't really seem interested in doing it. So Phoenix,

1631
01:14:32,960 --> 01:14:36,000
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, and Jay Crowder are the big ones, the

1632
01:14:36,040 --> 01:14:38,639
Speaker 1: big the big reason why I'm excited about this team,

1633
01:14:39,360 --> 01:14:41,080
Speaker 1: uh and the reason why I see them as someone

1634
01:14:41,120 --> 01:14:43,759
Speaker 1: who could get as high as the three seed centers

1635
01:14:43,800 --> 01:14:48,080
Speaker 1: around Jay Crowder, Cam Johnson and Michael Bridges. And the

1636
01:14:48,120 --> 01:14:50,639
Speaker 1: reason why is because we already know that Chris Paul

1637
01:14:50,640 --> 01:14:53,439
Speaker 1: can play alongside the ball dominant shooting guard. We we

1638
01:14:53,479 --> 01:14:55,360
Speaker 1: already know that Devin Booker can go toe to toe

1639
01:14:55,360 --> 01:14:56,600
Speaker 1: with some of the best players in the league and

1640
01:14:56,640 --> 01:14:58,439
Speaker 1: any given night and look better than then. We'll see

1641
01:14:58,479 --> 01:15:01,640
Speaker 1: how it works looks in the playoffs. He's a like

1642
01:15:01,680 --> 01:15:04,160
Speaker 1: an dark horse, so like maybe slide into the top

1643
01:15:04,200 --> 01:15:06,640
Speaker 1: ten this year, you know, con tem players like it

1644
01:15:06,680 --> 01:15:08,800
Speaker 1: could happen if he just keeps kind of going on

1645
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:11,360
Speaker 1: the same upper trajectory. I could easily see it happening

1646
01:15:11,360 --> 01:15:14,800
Speaker 1: because he is a supremely talented score like seven points

1647
01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:16,800
Speaker 1: a game efficiently, and they get into the three or

1648
01:15:16,800 --> 01:15:18,560
Speaker 1: four seed and they end up making the second or

1649
01:15:18,560 --> 01:15:20,800
Speaker 1: third round of the playoffs. He's topped hi player Like

1650
01:15:20,840 --> 01:15:24,320
Speaker 1: it's really but the key there is, as is the

1651
01:15:24,320 --> 01:15:26,439
Speaker 1: case with any of these teams, when you've got guys

1652
01:15:26,439 --> 01:15:28,679
Speaker 1: who aren't quite as good as the top tier players

1653
01:15:28,680 --> 01:15:31,200
Speaker 1: in the league, like Chris Paul, like Devin Booker, you

1654
01:15:31,240 --> 01:15:34,400
Speaker 1: need really really good supporting pieces around them, and having

1655
01:15:34,479 --> 01:15:38,600
Speaker 1: guys like Michael Bridges. Michael Bridges is a freaking is

1656
01:15:38,640 --> 01:15:41,920
Speaker 1: a freak of nature defensively, like I've never believable. Yeah,

1657
01:15:42,280 --> 01:15:44,320
Speaker 1: he was like giving Kawai fits in some of those

1658
01:15:44,320 --> 01:15:46,400
Speaker 1: Bubble games. But I wasn't really in great shape yet,

1659
01:15:46,640 --> 01:15:49,439
Speaker 1: but he was absolutely giving him fits. It was insane

1660
01:15:49,439 --> 01:15:52,960
Speaker 1: to watch. He's only a second year player. Yeah, it's ridiculous,

1661
01:15:52,960 --> 01:15:56,120
Speaker 1: and I watched I remember seeing similar him having similar

1662
01:15:56,160 --> 01:15:58,720
Speaker 1: effects against other big wings. He gave a lot of

1663
01:15:58,720 --> 01:16:01,000
Speaker 1: problems to bring, Like brandon Ingram. I'm so used to

1664
01:16:01,080 --> 01:16:03,320
Speaker 1: just bumping a guy off and shooting over the top

1665
01:16:03,360 --> 01:16:05,880
Speaker 1: and like, and he literally would get like brandon Ingram

1666
01:16:05,880 --> 01:16:08,680
Speaker 1: couldn't shoot over this guy. Bridges has like that that's

1667
01:16:08,720 --> 01:16:12,160
Speaker 1: stripped down thing that Andregod always does he like you

1668
01:16:12,360 --> 01:16:14,400
Speaker 1: can get two or three stripped down seals, like basically

1669
01:16:14,400 --> 01:16:17,599
Speaker 1: a game at this point. So I love Michael Bridges.

1670
01:16:17,680 --> 01:16:19,599
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder is just another big, strong guy to throw

1671
01:16:19,600 --> 01:16:21,760
Speaker 1: at those type of guys. And then what I like

1672
01:16:21,800 --> 01:16:25,639
Speaker 1: about Cam Johnson is he's a fearless gunning three point

1673
01:16:25,640 --> 01:16:28,080
Speaker 1: shooter who's got some size, so kind of like a

1674
01:16:28,120 --> 01:16:31,320
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson type mold. And the reality with him is

1675
01:16:31,320 --> 01:16:34,080
Speaker 1: is that that's an ideal type of player as a

1676
01:16:34,160 --> 01:16:37,200
Speaker 1: spacing role in his size makes him less of a

1677
01:16:37,200 --> 01:16:40,519
Speaker 1: defensive liability potentially over the course of the season. I

1678
01:16:40,560 --> 01:16:43,840
Speaker 1: like the supporting pieces that they have around Chris Paul

1679
01:16:44,160 --> 01:16:47,439
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker. It makes sense. I think Chris Paul

1680
01:16:47,760 --> 01:16:49,920
Speaker 1: is somewhere around the twelve or thirteenth best player in

1681
01:16:49,920 --> 01:16:53,439
Speaker 1: the league still to this day. If Devin Booker actually

1682
01:16:53,560 --> 01:16:55,320
Speaker 1: is the ninth or tenth best player in the league,

1683
01:16:55,640 --> 01:16:57,639
Speaker 1: they have a duo that's up there with the top

1684
01:16:57,680 --> 01:16:59,200
Speaker 1: two or three duos in the league, even though it

1685
01:16:59,200 --> 01:17:01,840
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like it because Devin Booker has been stuck

1686
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:04,000
Speaker 1: in in in sons hell for the last few years.

1687
01:17:04,000 --> 01:17:06,360
Speaker 1: So they're a team that I'm actually pretty optimistic about. Yeah,

1688
01:17:06,360 --> 01:17:08,559
Speaker 1: me too, um And I think a lot of this

1689
01:17:08,640 --> 01:17:12,120
Speaker 1: though it depends on DeAndre Ayton Um in my opinion,

1690
01:17:12,160 --> 01:17:15,760
Speaker 1: Like is he yeah defensively, Like is he the guy

1691
01:17:15,880 --> 01:17:17,720
Speaker 1: that we started to see kind of towards the end

1692
01:17:17,720 --> 01:17:19,880
Speaker 1: of last year where like, oh, man, he can be

1693
01:17:19,920 --> 01:17:22,080
Speaker 1: like an impact defensive player, you know, and and he's

1694
01:17:22,080 --> 01:17:24,200
Speaker 1: like to turn around the rim. He knows what he's doing.

1695
01:17:24,280 --> 01:17:26,400
Speaker 1: But his rookie year, it was really really bad for

1696
01:17:26,439 --> 01:17:28,840
Speaker 1: that man. He was possibly lost. He didn't understand picking

1697
01:17:28,920 --> 01:17:31,880
Speaker 1: roll coverages. He was jumping at shots that weren't even shots.

1698
01:17:31,880 --> 01:17:34,479
Speaker 1: It just shot bakes, just all like all the typical

1699
01:17:34,560 --> 01:17:36,920
Speaker 1: rookie stuff. So if he continues on the same trajectory,

1700
01:17:37,320 --> 01:17:40,000
Speaker 1: Chris Paul doesn't have too much of a decline, and

1701
01:17:40,000 --> 01:17:42,559
Speaker 1: then Devin Booker just kind of is the same guy. Almost. Yeah,

1702
01:17:42,600 --> 01:17:45,000
Speaker 1: I think I'm with you, Um, But I mean I

1703
01:17:45,040 --> 01:17:47,840
Speaker 1: think there are another team with a wide range of outcomes, right, Um,

1704
01:17:48,320 --> 01:17:51,280
Speaker 1: you know, Booker kind of stagnates, Chris Paul shows like

1705
01:17:51,360 --> 01:17:55,080
Speaker 1: actual decline, Ayton doesn't take the next step, Cam Johnson

1706
01:17:55,120 --> 01:17:57,240
Speaker 1: isn't as valuable as you know you would hope you

1707
01:17:57,240 --> 01:17:59,560
Speaker 1: would be. Um. And then Jake Crowder just kind of

1708
01:17:59,560 --> 01:18:01,040
Speaker 1: as a Jake Prouder year because he's had a very

1709
01:18:01,080 --> 01:18:03,040
Speaker 1: up and down career. If people look closer at it

1710
01:18:03,080 --> 01:18:05,599
Speaker 1: comes down and you make shots exactly. I mean, he's

1711
01:18:05,600 --> 01:18:07,080
Speaker 1: a good defender, like he's always going to be a

1712
01:18:07,120 --> 01:18:10,000
Speaker 1: good defender as long as a competitor. He's super competitive,

1713
01:18:10,040 --> 01:18:12,000
Speaker 1: like he's he's a guy that you wanted your roster, undoubtedly,

1714
01:18:12,240 --> 01:18:13,920
Speaker 1: But if he just kind of has like a so

1715
01:18:13,920 --> 01:18:15,720
Speaker 1: so year, it could also go really bad for him.

1716
01:18:16,680 --> 01:18:17,880
Speaker 1: That's just I think that's just the nature of the

1717
01:18:17,880 --> 01:18:19,679
Speaker 1: west Man. We said that about so many of these teams.

1718
01:18:20,280 --> 01:18:23,799
Speaker 1: It's just there's a huge range of potential outcome. Division

1719
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:28,920
Speaker 1: is insane, absolute nightmare. So good luck to anybody in

1720
01:18:28,960 --> 01:18:32,519
Speaker 1: that freaking division. Yeah, I know, um, unless but not least,

1721
01:18:32,520 --> 01:18:34,640
Speaker 1: and then we'll get you out of here. So Pelicans

1722
01:18:34,720 --> 01:18:37,719
Speaker 1: they added Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe, and they lost

1723
01:18:37,840 --> 01:18:43,759
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday, and they also lost favors. But so I actually,

1724
01:18:44,120 --> 01:18:46,800
Speaker 1: and Jason Maples has talked about this a lot. I

1725
01:18:46,880 --> 01:18:49,320
Speaker 1: like Drew Holiday as a player, don't get me wrong,

1726
01:18:50,320 --> 01:18:54,360
Speaker 1: but the I do think that his star and his

1727
01:18:54,439 --> 01:18:56,320
Speaker 1: career trajectory, he didn't really match up with the other

1728
01:18:56,320 --> 01:18:59,000
Speaker 1: players on the roster in the sense that, like, like I,

1729
01:18:59,000 --> 01:19:01,040
Speaker 1: I think you need to lean heavily on a Lonzo Lean,

1730
01:19:01,120 --> 01:19:04,360
Speaker 1: heavily on Zion, lean heavily on brandon Ingram to generate

1731
01:19:04,360 --> 01:19:05,960
Speaker 1: your offense, because they're gonna be the guys who are

1732
01:19:06,000 --> 01:19:08,240
Speaker 1: inevitably gonna carry you down the down at the end.

1733
01:19:08,520 --> 01:19:10,760
Speaker 1: And Drew Holiday was just a little too aggressive for

1734
01:19:10,840 --> 01:19:13,840
Speaker 1: my liking offensively with that roster, which they'll need him

1735
01:19:13,880 --> 01:19:16,080
Speaker 1: to be in Milwaukee. But I didn't really like it

1736
01:19:16,080 --> 01:19:19,479
Speaker 1: as a natural fit in uh in New Orleans, and

1737
01:19:19,600 --> 01:19:24,200
Speaker 1: Eric Bledsoe can bring of what Drew Holiday brought defensively

1738
01:19:24,840 --> 01:19:27,400
Speaker 1: in that role. Steven Adams doesn't make a ton of

1739
01:19:27,439 --> 01:19:29,960
Speaker 1: sense to me in terms of floor spacing with Zion,

1740
01:19:30,080 --> 01:19:31,800
Speaker 1: But you know, I'd like to see it a little

1741
01:19:31,800 --> 01:19:34,000
Speaker 1: bit more before I make a call. But they're a

1742
01:19:34,000 --> 01:19:36,479
Speaker 1: team that I think it entirely comes down to them defending,

1743
01:19:36,520 --> 01:19:39,559
Speaker 1: because the reality is is brandon Ingram in my opinion,

1744
01:19:40,120 --> 01:19:43,120
Speaker 1: has offensive talent that is up there with the top

1745
01:19:43,400 --> 01:19:46,240
Speaker 1: you know, twenty players in the league. Yeah, and offensively

1746
01:19:46,240 --> 01:19:49,720
Speaker 1: he's just as talented as Jason Tatum. Yeah, absolutely, what's

1747
01:19:49,720 --> 01:19:51,840
Speaker 1: the difference really, there isn't much of one effort is

1748
01:19:51,840 --> 01:19:54,800
Speaker 1: looking purely at the offensive then m and he now

1749
01:19:54,840 --> 01:19:58,719
Speaker 1: he's he had defensive flashes when he was with Lebron,

1750
01:19:59,720 --> 01:20:03,120
Speaker 1: but at has just about dissipated in New Orleans. And

1751
01:20:03,120 --> 01:20:07,839
Speaker 1: then Zion Williamson had defensive flashes at Duke that defensive

1752
01:20:07,840 --> 01:20:11,400
Speaker 1: flash that that is just about dissipated in New Orleans.

1753
01:20:11,479 --> 01:20:14,080
Speaker 1: So the reality is is if those guys can defend,

1754
01:20:14,560 --> 01:20:16,080
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna have much of a problem

1755
01:20:16,080 --> 01:20:18,360
Speaker 1: at all scoring, especially with J. J. Reddick helping them

1756
01:20:18,400 --> 01:20:21,479
Speaker 1: spacing the ball and uh and with the fact that

1757
01:20:21,479 --> 01:20:23,880
Speaker 1: they're gonna lean heavily on their young guy A. Lonzo

1758
01:20:23,920 --> 01:20:26,680
Speaker 1: looks pretty good last night too in my bed. But so.

1759
01:20:26,800 --> 01:20:27,880
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like this is

1760
01:20:27,880 --> 01:20:31,559
Speaker 1: a team like the I trust their the offensive talent

1761
01:20:31,680 --> 01:20:35,679
Speaker 1: of their key UH two players Brandon Ingerman Zian Williamson

1762
01:20:35,720 --> 01:20:38,479
Speaker 1: are going to score a a lot of points this year,

1763
01:20:39,320 --> 01:20:40,760
Speaker 1: but it's gonna come down to whether or not they

1764
01:20:40,760 --> 01:20:43,120
Speaker 1: can guard, which historically young teams don't because they don't

1765
01:20:43,200 --> 01:20:45,559
Speaker 1: understand the benefits of it, and they don't they haven't

1766
01:20:45,600 --> 01:20:48,240
Speaker 1: generated the NBA level instincts to be in the right

1767
01:20:48,240 --> 01:20:50,280
Speaker 1: places at the right time that allow you to be

1768
01:20:50,320 --> 01:20:54,519
Speaker 1: a good defense. Yeah, I think just to kind of

1769
01:20:54,600 --> 01:20:56,120
Speaker 1: at on top of their editions. I think stan Bond

1770
01:20:56,120 --> 01:20:58,519
Speaker 1: Gundy was a good higher I like him to. Yeah.

1771
01:20:58,600 --> 01:21:00,360
Speaker 1: I think he'll get them to play hard at the

1772
01:21:00,439 --> 01:21:02,120
Speaker 1: very least he's been shown to get team to do that.

1773
01:21:02,160 --> 01:21:04,200
Speaker 1: I think that the trade situation was just it's the

1774
01:21:04,240 --> 01:21:06,760
Speaker 1: Pistons right that didn't work out. And I think also

1775
01:21:06,800 --> 01:21:09,200
Speaker 1: because he had gm ro he was I think he

1776
01:21:09,240 --> 01:21:12,000
Speaker 1: was e v O P so I mean trying to

1777
01:21:12,040 --> 01:21:15,640
Speaker 1: do both. It never works. It never ever works there,

1778
01:21:15,760 --> 01:21:17,840
Speaker 1: especially in the NBA. There's been like no president for

1779
01:21:17,880 --> 01:21:19,880
Speaker 1: that ever working unless we're going back to like the

1780
01:21:19,880 --> 01:21:24,720
Speaker 1: sixties or seventies, which is entirely different conversations. But um,

1781
01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:26,960
Speaker 1: I understood the Adams moved from the standpoint of just

1782
01:21:27,040 --> 01:21:29,240
Speaker 1: like not absolutely killing Ziona, playing him too much of

1783
01:21:29,280 --> 01:21:31,760
Speaker 1: the five, But I didn't understand extending him, Like what

1784
01:21:31,880 --> 01:21:34,720
Speaker 1: why are you giving the at that number too? Yeah?

1785
01:21:34,720 --> 01:21:37,240
Speaker 1: It was it to fifty is it two years fifty million?

1786
01:21:38,560 --> 01:21:40,880
Speaker 1: I can't remember, but it was a lot, a lot,

1787
01:21:42,439 --> 01:21:44,040
Speaker 1: especially when you're gonna have young guys that you need

1788
01:21:44,080 --> 01:21:47,400
Speaker 1: to resign like Zions, and maybe his contract might be

1789
01:21:47,439 --> 01:21:50,240
Speaker 1: coming off the books right when Zion's extension eligible. Um

1790
01:21:50,320 --> 01:21:51,840
Speaker 1: so that I mean, I guess it could work from

1791
01:21:51,880 --> 01:21:55,200
Speaker 1: that standpoint, but yeah, I didn't love the move, especially

1792
01:21:55,240 --> 01:21:58,519
Speaker 1: because you have already some primary guys who aren't great

1793
01:21:58,520 --> 01:22:01,120
Speaker 1: shooters anyway, in terms of Zion and a Lonzo like

1794
01:22:01,160 --> 01:22:03,559
Speaker 1: Lonzo is really streaky. Um I think we've seen that.

1795
01:22:03,600 --> 01:22:05,599
Speaker 1: B I there's enough of example size that he can shoot.

1796
01:22:05,840 --> 01:22:07,599
Speaker 1: We can kind of confirm that. But if he's always

1797
01:22:07,680 --> 01:22:09,160
Speaker 1: driving into the paint with two or three guys there,

1798
01:22:09,160 --> 01:22:12,960
Speaker 1: that's it's just not gonna look pretty. Um So, I

1799
01:22:13,120 --> 01:22:15,000
Speaker 1: probably don't think they're a playoff team yet. I think

1800
01:22:15,000 --> 01:22:17,240
Speaker 1: there are a couple of years away, at least, um,

1801
01:22:17,360 --> 01:22:20,559
Speaker 1: at least in this West. I mean, yeah, if they're

1802
01:22:20,560 --> 01:22:23,920
Speaker 1: in the East, and I think it's an entirely different conversation. Um,

1803
01:22:23,960 --> 01:22:26,080
Speaker 1: but I don't. I don't see their path to the

1804
01:22:26,080 --> 01:22:29,320
Speaker 1: playoffs this year out West, especially if if Harden ends

1805
01:22:29,360 --> 01:22:31,920
Speaker 1: up staying in Houston, which it doesn't seem like it's

1806
01:22:31,920 --> 01:22:34,639
Speaker 1: gonna happen, but if it does, they're a playoff team,

1807
01:22:34,680 --> 01:22:37,800
Speaker 1: like they absolutely will be. We know, as much crap

1808
01:22:37,800 --> 01:22:39,400
Speaker 1: as I give Harden, if he's on your team, you're

1809
01:22:39,400 --> 01:22:42,840
Speaker 1: probably making the playoffs. I mean, everything about his career

1810
01:22:42,880 --> 01:22:45,559
Speaker 1: tells us that. Um. So, yeah, I mean I think

1811
01:22:45,600 --> 01:22:47,439
Speaker 1: New Orleans are. They're a fun team. They're an exciting team,

1812
01:22:47,520 --> 01:22:49,760
Speaker 1: especially if Zion and and b I and Lonzo stay

1813
01:22:49,800 --> 01:22:52,800
Speaker 1: healthy all year. Um, but they're not a playoff team

1814
01:22:52,840 --> 01:22:54,840
Speaker 1: yet in my opinion. Yeah. And the last thing I'll

1815
01:22:54,840 --> 01:22:56,760
Speaker 1: say about them that I thought was exciting is one

1816
01:22:56,800 --> 01:22:58,840
Speaker 1: of my favorite podcasts to listen to is J J

1817
01:22:58,960 --> 01:23:02,479
Speaker 1: Reddicks podcast. Because like, for a couple of reasons. One,

1818
01:23:02,520 --> 01:23:04,680
Speaker 1: he's a total junkie. Like this is a guy that

1819
01:23:05,200 --> 01:23:07,160
Speaker 1: he's a pro, but he's the opposite of the Darren

1820
01:23:07,160 --> 01:23:08,559
Speaker 1: Williams guy who just wants to go home and be

1821
01:23:08,600 --> 01:23:11,000
Speaker 1: with his family. Like this guy just live and breathes basketball,

1822
01:23:11,040 --> 01:23:12,880
Speaker 1: and he will play until they kick him out of

1823
01:23:12,880 --> 01:23:15,640
Speaker 1: the league. And but one of the other things is

1824
01:23:15,680 --> 01:23:17,640
Speaker 1: he actually likes talking about basketball. A lot of the

1825
01:23:18,479 --> 01:23:21,600
Speaker 1: a lot of the NBA, due to get into podcasting,

1826
01:23:21,680 --> 01:23:23,519
Speaker 1: like to talk about, you know, music, or they like

1827
01:23:23,560 --> 01:23:25,280
Speaker 1: to talk about, you know, business and that kind of

1828
01:23:25,280 --> 01:23:26,760
Speaker 1: thing because they just want to get breaks from it.

1829
01:23:26,800 --> 01:23:28,680
Speaker 1: But he's a junkie. And one of the things he

1830
01:23:28,680 --> 01:23:31,760
Speaker 1: said the other days, he's like, I am amazed by

1831
01:23:31,800 --> 01:23:36,160
Speaker 1: how good Zion's handle looks, and uh, you know, he

1832
01:23:36,160 --> 01:23:39,720
Speaker 1: he always had a good handle. Um, but it's when

1833
01:23:39,760 --> 01:23:42,160
Speaker 1: I was watching him last night, like he gets so

1834
01:23:42,240 --> 01:23:45,680
Speaker 1: incredibly low to the ground, and that, in conjunction with

1835
01:23:45,760 --> 01:23:48,439
Speaker 1: his size and the fact that he has really, really

1836
01:23:48,439 --> 01:23:51,720
Speaker 1: good control over the ball, makes him like one of

1837
01:23:51,720 --> 01:23:55,200
Speaker 1: the most deadly driving attack players that we've seen basically

1838
01:23:55,240 --> 01:23:58,160
Speaker 1: since Lebron when he was in his early twenties. And

1839
01:23:58,240 --> 01:24:02,200
Speaker 1: so like to me, would be leaning in on spacing

1840
01:24:02,240 --> 01:24:04,720
Speaker 1: didn't make any sense to me. Yeah, yeah, And I

1841
01:24:04,760 --> 01:24:07,120
Speaker 1: think just to do like a quick lebron co person.

1842
01:24:07,200 --> 01:24:10,280
Speaker 1: I think I remember watching early lebron and he actually

1843
01:24:10,320 --> 01:24:11,840
Speaker 1: kind of struggled with touch around the room early in

1844
01:24:11,920 --> 01:24:14,080
Speaker 1: his career, especially on like you know, kind of like

1845
01:24:14,200 --> 01:24:16,519
Speaker 1: finger rolls and flips and stuff. Zion is actually already

1846
01:24:16,520 --> 01:24:19,200
Speaker 1: really good at that stuff. He has incredible dexterity for

1847
01:24:19,240 --> 01:24:21,040
Speaker 1: a guy his size, and his ass isn't like it

1848
01:24:21,040 --> 01:24:25,439
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense. Um, so he's like, is ridiculous, It's insane.

1849
01:24:25,439 --> 01:24:28,160
Speaker 1: I don't think yesterday because they weren't letting him and

1850
01:24:28,200 --> 01:24:31,120
Speaker 1: he just kept like going around people's bodies and scooping

1851
01:24:31,160 --> 01:24:34,320
Speaker 1: and it's ridiculous, man, it's crazy. He's already one of

1852
01:24:34,360 --> 01:24:36,720
Speaker 1: the probably if he stays healthy, one of the three

1853
01:24:36,800 --> 01:24:38,679
Speaker 1: or four best guys finishing at the rim in the league.

1854
01:24:38,880 --> 01:24:42,280
Speaker 1: And he's one years old. So um, they definitely they

1855
01:24:42,280 --> 01:24:44,320
Speaker 1: have a bright future. But they've got to they've got

1856
01:24:44,320 --> 01:24:46,120
Speaker 1: to kind of figure out which direction they want to go,

1857
01:24:46,160 --> 01:24:48,680
Speaker 1: because they seem kind of aimless right now, right like

1858
01:24:48,920 --> 01:24:51,559
Speaker 1: moving off through holiday. Probably good bringing in Steve Adams

1859
01:24:51,600 --> 01:24:53,200
Speaker 1: and then adding a couple years to his contract. That

1860
01:24:53,200 --> 01:24:55,719
Speaker 1: doesn't really make sense to me, so especially at that number.

1861
01:24:55,800 --> 01:24:59,479
Speaker 1: So we'll see um. But generally I am optimistic about

1862
01:24:59,479 --> 01:25:01,679
Speaker 1: their future. I just don't see it this year. Yeah.

1863
01:25:01,720 --> 01:25:03,679
Speaker 1: I believe in the future, it just this isn't the year.

1864
01:25:03,720 --> 01:25:06,120
Speaker 1: And and that that's where I always say, like, like

1865
01:25:06,160 --> 01:25:09,400
Speaker 1: with these timelines, people have to be realistic and and

1866
01:25:09,520 --> 01:25:13,200
Speaker 1: understand like the teams that win are the teams that

1867
01:25:13,240 --> 01:25:15,640
Speaker 1: push all their chips into the middle. And when you

1868
01:25:15,640 --> 01:25:17,880
Speaker 1: push all your chips into the middle, it messes with

1869
01:25:17,960 --> 01:25:21,800
Speaker 1: your timeline. So chances are like the Golden State Warriors

1870
01:25:21,840 --> 01:25:24,160
Speaker 1: are the world teams that organically build to that. It

1871
01:25:24,280 --> 01:25:26,880
Speaker 1: requires a lot of good luck that usually doesn't break

1872
01:25:26,880 --> 01:25:29,439
Speaker 1: your way. Usually one of your draft picks won't pan out,

1873
01:25:29,520 --> 01:25:32,360
Speaker 1: or usually the time the timing won't work. And so

1874
01:25:32,760 --> 01:25:34,519
Speaker 1: my thing is like if you if you don't fit

1875
01:25:34,600 --> 01:25:37,200
Speaker 1: the draft picks just don't fit together. Yeah, the play

1876
01:25:37,200 --> 01:25:38,760
Speaker 1: styles don't match. They could all be really good in

1877
01:25:38,800 --> 01:25:41,439
Speaker 1: players individually, but they just don't mash. And that's why

1878
01:25:41,439 --> 01:25:43,200
Speaker 1: I love the Drew Holiday trade. That was that was

1879
01:25:43,280 --> 01:25:46,240
Speaker 1: David Griffin understanding like, hey, we're not gonna go win

1880
01:25:46,280 --> 01:25:49,280
Speaker 1: this thing this year, Drew doesn't match up with our timeline.

1881
01:25:49,320 --> 01:25:51,639
Speaker 1: I'm better off putting the ball Alonzo's hands a lot,

1882
01:25:51,800 --> 01:25:54,280
Speaker 1: brandon Ingram's hands a lot, and Zion's hands a lot,

1883
01:25:54,400 --> 01:25:56,479
Speaker 1: and just seeing how it goes and if they make laps,

1884
01:25:56,520 --> 01:25:58,280
Speaker 1: great to learn. But if not, you know who cares

1885
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:01,840
Speaker 1: there that that's not the timeline. Yep. Alright, dude, this

1886
01:26:01,960 --> 01:26:06,200
Speaker 1: was awesome. Uh. We will do the entire Eastern conference

1887
01:26:06,240 --> 01:26:08,400
Speaker 1: on Friday. I think we're shooting for the same time.

1888
01:26:08,439 --> 01:26:11,160
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I'll double check my schedule,

1889
01:26:11,160 --> 01:26:13,360
Speaker 1: but I think the same time should work perfect. Thank

1890
01:26:13,400 --> 01:26:15,240
Speaker 1: you guys all so much for listening. Tommy, I will

1891
01:26:15,240 --> 01:26:16,800
Speaker 1: see you in a couple of days. Man, all right, man,

1892
01:26:16,800 --> 01:26:17,920
Speaker 1: sounds good. Thanks for having me.