Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day to come
Speaker 1: hang out and talk some basketball with me and with Tommy. Tommy,
Speaker 1: what's up man? How you doing, Same old man, same
Speaker 1: old Just firing the people up on Twitter? You know,
Speaker 1: you know how it goes. You got yourself in quite
Speaker 1: a little ship storm that we've got to deal with. Yep, yep,
Speaker 1: that's um. I didn't expect things to go that way.
Speaker 1: But look, man, STEP's not gonna play well. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call him out for So we are going to do
Speaker 1: a serious, grown up podcast about the NBA Western Conference today.
Speaker 1: But I do want to get started with this, this
Speaker 1: situation you've gotten yourself into with with Warriors Twitter, because
Speaker 1: I do actually think it's interesting and and before we
Speaker 1: actually talk about it, I want to start by making
Speaker 1: a point about being a fan of a player, because
Speaker 1: I do think that it's important to acknowledge that that's
Speaker 1: a normal part of the experience of being a fan.
Speaker 1: If you're going to watch NBA basketball and you're a
Speaker 1: fan of NBA basketball, you're gonna naturally gravitate towards certain players,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna dislike other players. I'm a huge Lebron
Speaker 1: James fan, and I greatly dislike James Harten for instance.
Speaker 1: That's just two random examples and that sort of, you know,
Speaker 1: bias I have to acknowledge. Otherwise I'm never gonna have
Speaker 1: any hope of trying to come back and find my center.
Speaker 1: And the reality is is that it's gonna cover, it's
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna have like rose colored glasses towards anything
Speaker 1: that I originally see with Lebron and the exact opposite
Speaker 1: to anything I see what James Harden and I think
Speaker 1: we're obligated, if we're gonna try to be you know,
Speaker 1: grown ups about this, to try to at least attempt
Speaker 1: to see the other side of any of these sorts
Speaker 1: of topics. And it's been interesting for me to see
Speaker 1: you the last couple of days just saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: like Steph hasn't played well in a little while. He's
Speaker 1: a little guard you know, I'm a little bit worried
Speaker 1: about what this means for him moving forward. And to
Speaker 1: see people say ridiculous things that you're like, you know,
Speaker 1: half joking, but people saying things that you're like some
Speaker 1: sort of clutch operative and that you're a fake Golden
Speaker 1: State fan, and clearly you're just you know that you
Speaker 1: have some major problem because they can't fathom the idea
Speaker 1: that you, as a Steph Curry fan, might say something
Speaker 1: that they disagree with. And I hate I hate that.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a terrible foundation for
Speaker 1: any sort of conversation. And the reality is, it's like,
Speaker 1: if you disagree, tell us why you disagree, and chances are,
Speaker 1: if we're as crazy as you say we are, it's
Speaker 1: gonna bear out in the results. And then have some
Speaker 1: fun with it. Talk some trash. We're good sports. I mean,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, this is sports. It's
Speaker 1: not politics, it's not anything that's serious. Have some fun
Speaker 1: with it. I had a classic example. This happened to
Speaker 1: me last year in the playoffs. After Game four against Denver.
Speaker 1: I made a comment that I thought lebron On had
Speaker 1: lost some confidence in his jump shot. I thought that
Speaker 1: he was starting to doubt himself as he was going up,
Speaker 1: and I thought I could potentially be a problem for
Speaker 1: them moving forward. And then I was proven wrong, Like
Speaker 1: he shot the lights out in Game six and executed
Speaker 1: a Game five and executed Denver and then literally shot
Speaker 1: from three in the finals, and I had to own
Speaker 1: up to the fact that I jumped the gun on
Speaker 1: that and I was wrong. But who cares? Like no
Speaker 1: one's perfect in this regard, and and it bothers me
Speaker 1: that people have that sort of expectation. So for starters,
Speaker 1: why don't you brief everybody on exactly what you were
Speaker 1: trying to say about Steph and what got everybody is
Speaker 1: so upset? So I think an important way to look
Speaker 1: at it. And it's hard to convey like context and
Speaker 1: tone over Twitter. I obviously was like feeding the beast
Speaker 1: a little bit after a while when people kept coming
Speaker 1: after me and saying, you know, you're an idiot, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll just I'll lean into this a little bit. But
Speaker 1: my general point is that if Steph Curry isn't Steph
Speaker 1: Curry two thousand fourteen to two thousand, seventeen eighteen Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: then all of these roster editions on the margins, which
Speaker 1: I think the Warriors did a very good job with
Speaker 1: considering circumstances, considering Clay goes down, and then they add
Speaker 1: Ubre bays Moore want to make a really nice veteran pieces.
Speaker 1: They have some nice young guys. We'll see how Wiseman looks.
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit um skeptical. I think there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a bit of learning companies or rookie so let's
Speaker 1: expect it. But point being, none of these moves matter
Speaker 1: if Steph Curry isn't top three player Steph Curry, the
Speaker 1: thing about as a fan is titles. I don't care
Speaker 1: about anything else. I want to win NBA championships. And
Speaker 1: if Steph Curry isn't the top three guy that he
Speaker 1: used to be very clearly used to be, then all
Speaker 1: these conversations are moot um. And I think it's you know,
Speaker 1: people want to look at Lebron, how Lebron's aging, how
Speaker 1: Durant may begin to age um. And you pointed this
Speaker 1: out briefly. Steps a small guard, it's different for him, right.
Speaker 1: His game is based on quickness and agility and being
Speaker 1: able to create the slightest martins of separation because he
Speaker 1: is that much shorter now, he does have maybe the
Speaker 1: quickest release ever that we've seen from a jump shooter.
Speaker 1: But if defenders are now six inches closers him, that
Speaker 1: margin is a little bit smaller. And the shooting percentages
Speaker 1: dropped maybe two to three points, which might not seem significant,
Speaker 1: but it is significant when you're playing the best defenses
Speaker 1: in the league. And so my point has really been
Speaker 1: out of most of the stuff that we've seen from
Speaker 1: Steph Curry after the Western Conference Finals, it hasn't looked great, right.
Speaker 1: It still looked like, oh, he's probably a top ten
Speaker 1: player right just through impact alone. But is he a
Speaker 1: top three guy? I don't know. And when we did
Speaker 1: our our player rankings, I still had him at two
Speaker 1: UM and a lot of that was based off the
Speaker 1: one Toronto game that he came and played UM in
Speaker 1: the regular season, right before Covid hit. I thought he
Speaker 1: looked awesome that night, and it had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with whether he was making or missing shots. He was
Speaker 1: getting to his spots easily, he was creating he looks
Speaker 1: super quick. To look cry and maybe look maybe him
Speaker 1: looking slow in the first three season game a relatively
Speaker 1: slow is him just not having played basketball in nine months.
Speaker 1: That could easily be it. UM, But like I said,
Speaker 1: it's hard to convey that stuff on Twitter, and as
Speaker 1: soon as I say anything remotely that's not like Steph
Speaker 1: Curry is the best player of the last twenty years,
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna get crushed and I know that, um So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I lean into it sometimes. But my only point is
Speaker 1: he needs to be a top three guy or a
Speaker 1: top five guy that for them to have honestly any
Speaker 1: shot even making like the Western Conference finals this year,
Speaker 1: um and he would have to be the best player
Speaker 1: in the league for them to even have a chance
Speaker 1: of winning the championship. So those that's what my concern
Speaker 1: is rooted in, right, and we just haven't seen it
Speaker 1: in a while. And I think that's a lot of
Speaker 1: it too. It's been you know, eighteen plus month since
Speaker 1: we've actually seen him be that guy. So it's it's
Speaker 1: tough to really project where he's gonna go, especially when
Speaker 1: he turns thirty three and a couple of months now
Speaker 1: turns three March. Yeah, agree with the premise of the
Speaker 1: idea of what might be happening to Steph Curry smaller
Speaker 1: guard aging. He's in a position where he's gonna have
Speaker 1: more offensive responsibilities than he has basically since two thousand
Speaker 1: thirteen or so. So I understand the pathway in which
Speaker 1: you could, uh you know, eventually see a decline from
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. Where I would push back is that I
Speaker 1: I'm not really I'm not really thinking it's fair to
Speaker 1: accept The most recent examples of him playing basketball is evidence.
Speaker 1: For instance, in the two thousand nineteen finals, Steph was
Speaker 1: kind of retooling on the fly as a result of injuries.
Speaker 1: Very similar thing happened to Lebron in two thousand fifteen.
Speaker 1: A lot of the reason why I think his efficiency
Speaker 1: tanked in that finals is because he was accustomed to
Speaker 1: playing basketball a certain way all season with Kevin Love
Speaker 1: and Kyrie Irving, and then they dropped UH to injury,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden in the middle of an
Speaker 1: NBA Finals against a sixty seven win team with the
Speaker 1: m v P, against one of the best teams in
Speaker 1: the league. He had to completely relearn how to play
Speaker 1: with that team, and it took time and it's and
Speaker 1: as a result, I think that he had some struggles
Speaker 1: there on the offensive end. And then the same thing
Speaker 1: happened with Stephen two thousand nineteen. You know, he missed
Speaker 1: a lot of shots. UH, he struggled to get separation.
Speaker 1: But he was playing against a really, really good defense,
Speaker 1: and he was playing in a situation where he had
Speaker 1: to play with different players than he was accustomed to
Speaker 1: playing with all season long, So that would be where
Speaker 1: I give him some some slack in that regard. You
Speaker 1: had mentioned on a couple of occasions that his shooting
Speaker 1: percentage since the two thousand finals, like over that span,
Speaker 1: and I can't remember how many games it was. Do
Speaker 1: you have some numbers on you, binny chance it was?
Speaker 1: It's not significant, but I mean, so he shot forty
Speaker 1: one percent from the field from three in the finals. Um.
Speaker 1: He shot from three last year in five games. UM.
Speaker 1: And then I think he had one good preseason game
Speaker 1: last year out of you know, the four or five
Speaker 1: day played. UM. Just in terms of the percentages, right, um,
Speaker 1: and a lot of it in the finals. He was
Speaker 1: missing open looks, which is weird for him. UM. So
Speaker 1: you could just say, you know, it's a significantly small sample,
Speaker 1: shouldn't look too much into it. But is it also
Speaker 1: a sign of him when him getting older and now
Speaker 1: his legs wearing out quicker in games and those open
Speaker 1: looks don't go down the same clip that they used,
Speaker 1: because that's a real thing, especially for jump shoters, um,
Speaker 1: you know, especially as he takes on more offensive responsibility.
Speaker 1: Is you're pointing to. And in those finals, he had
Speaker 1: to take on more offensive responsibility. He was creating basically
Speaker 1: everything because of how bad the roster was. Um And
Speaker 1: I think that led him to be more tired and
Speaker 1: to miss more open shots. Um And I don't see
Speaker 1: if that is any indication he's gonna have almost as
Speaker 1: much responsibility this year. Um Like, the Warriors have made
Speaker 1: some nice editions and I and I liked a lot
Speaker 1: of the additions they've made, but it's still not a
Speaker 1: roster on the level of but he's played. But the
Speaker 1: last you know, three years where he's been healthy. Um So,
Speaker 1: I think that would be more of my cause can
Speaker 1: than anything. It's just been so long since he had
Speaker 1: to play this type of role where he's like he's
Speaker 1: gotta do everything. It's gonna be him and Draymond basically
Speaker 1: doing most of the creation. Um So, yeah, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: your points are valid for sure. Right about comparing the
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen finals and two thousand nineteen finals, that
Speaker 1: Worries roster was got awful. By the end of those finals,
Speaker 1: they didn't have If you look up and down that roster,
Speaker 1: it's like literally seven of the ten guys that we're playing,
Speaker 1: if you're not including Clay, aren't in the league anymore.
Speaker 1: And that includes young an old guys, so really bad roster, um,
Speaker 1: and he should be given some grace for that. You know,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't be looking too much into those numbers, um.
Speaker 1: But look, you know the he's been struggling shooting recently,
Speaker 1: which is we for the greatest shooter of all time,
Speaker 1: and we only have twelve games over the last eighteen months.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm gonna look at, right, That's the
Speaker 1: only way I can be fair. So when I'm so
Speaker 1: essentially like I had. I got into a big argument
Speaker 1: with Jeremiah about this last year because he was projecting
Speaker 1: Lebron's downfall based on the idea that there was nobody
Speaker 1: at age thirty five who had produced at that level.
Speaker 1: And my counter to him was like, yeah, I get that,
Speaker 1: but I mean, this is a guy who's used to
Speaker 1: being the best at everything his whole life. So I
Speaker 1: I what I always asked Jeremiah to do was wait
Speaker 1: for evidence. Wait for evidence, wait for evidence. I tweeted
Speaker 1: about this yesterday. The burden of proof is on other
Speaker 1: people to prove why these guys have fallen off. We cannot,
Speaker 1: you know, essentially project their downfall before it happens. So
Speaker 1: when it comes to Steph, I guess what I would
Speaker 1: say is the evidence that I would look for that
Speaker 1: he has started that downward trajectory trajectory would be based
Speaker 1: on a larger sample size over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: And the example I would use would be what happened
Speaker 1: to me in my second year of college. So the
Speaker 1: summer between my first and second year pointing basketball, broke
Speaker 1: my foot and as a result, I had to take
Speaker 1: It wasn't even that significant of an injury. I was
Speaker 1: out for I think three months, and I came into
Speaker 1: training camp or whatever as my first basketball activity in
Speaker 1: three months, which so it was tough because I was
Speaker 1: going against guys who were in much better shape than
Speaker 1: me and I and I had put on some weight
Speaker 1: and I was getting back into the flow of things.
Speaker 1: And I remember that season when we started playing games,
Speaker 1: I got off to a really rough start, and there
Speaker 1: was actually a stretch early in the season where the
Speaker 1: coach took me out of the starting lineup for two
Speaker 1: games based on the idea that I had not been rebounding,
Speaker 1: which was something that I had done really well the
Speaker 1: previous season, and he was doing it to send a
Speaker 1: message I think to the team into myself that I
Speaker 1: just just kind of light a fire under me and
Speaker 1: to kind of get it going again. And I ended
Speaker 1: up making the All Conference team that year. I played
Speaker 1: really really well at the tail end of the season,
Speaker 1: and I attribute a lot of my early season struggles
Speaker 1: to just being away from the game for a while
Speaker 1: and the time it takes and the rhythm that you
Speaker 1: have to build through playing a lot of basketball games
Speaker 1: over an extended period of time, so that so that
Speaker 1: you really really get into your routine. I think I
Speaker 1: think we see a lot of guys do this, Like
Speaker 1: Lebron is famous for kind of trying to build up
Speaker 1: into his postseason runs and things along those lines. So
Speaker 1: if Steph Curry, you know, after two after two days rest,
Speaker 1: in the twenty third game of the season against the
Speaker 1: middle of the pack defense, when he should theoretically have
Speaker 1: fresh legs and be in good shape and be ready
Speaker 1: to go out and light him up, and he doesn't
Speaker 1: do well, and it's part of a larger trend, That's
Speaker 1: when I think we can start having that conversation. But
Speaker 1: just that would be the that would be where I
Speaker 1: would push back against what you're saying, but percent agree.
Speaker 1: I see where the skepticism arises from. I understand I am.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the Warriors as a whole here
Speaker 1: in a minute, and I'm gonna explain why I am
Speaker 1: less optimistic about them than other people, And a lot
Speaker 1: of that has to do with the fact that Steph
Speaker 1: Curry is going about to go from basically not playing
Speaker 1: competitive basketball for you know what, almost five days, but
Speaker 1: basically not like, very inconsistently playing, and then now he's
Speaker 1: going to hop into being in one of the biggest
Speaker 1: offensive roles he's going to have carried in his entire career,
Speaker 1: So that that could that that could very well end
Speaker 1: up manifesting in him either breaking down. That's my big
Speaker 1: thing that I'm looking out for with him, is not
Speaker 1: so much that he'll play poorly, but that he'll succumb
Speaker 1: to injuries, miss fifteen to twenty games, and end up
Speaker 1: missing the playoffs just by virtue of a similar path
Speaker 1: to what happened to the Lakers Lebron's first year. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean totally? No, I mean, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I do share some of those concerns. So we
Speaker 1: want to move to more Warriors right now? Yeah, for sure. So, um,
Speaker 1: I guess you know with that, with all these teams,
Speaker 1: I wass look at it and through the lens of
Speaker 1: you know, how it could go right and for how
Speaker 1: it could go wrong. And you know, for instance, like
Speaker 1: we look at Brooklyn and we'll talk about them on Friday,
Speaker 1: like there's a million ways to perceive how that could
Speaker 1: go extremely well and then the highest ceiling maybe, but
Speaker 1: that they might also have the lowest floor if it
Speaker 1: doesn't go well. They are a super interesting team exactly.
Speaker 1: So So with the Warriors, I want you to start,
Speaker 1: because you're you are an optimist, I want you to
Speaker 1: start by telling me how this Golden say Warrior season
Speaker 1: could go right and what their ceiling is. Um. So
Speaker 1: I think just to kind of to prevace everything, I
Speaker 1: think they probably will struggle a little bit out of
Speaker 1: the gates, and a lot of that will probably be
Speaker 1: based on Steph and Draymond too to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: regaining rhythm. You know, those guys haven't played a lot
Speaker 1: of Draymond played last year, but he wasn't playing serious
Speaker 1: basketball um and Steff obviously hasn't played in a while. UM,
Speaker 1: So I I've been saying this, you know, for a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Now I think they will struggle out
Speaker 1: of the gates. UM. The preseas, that first preseason game
Speaker 1: actually did make me a little bit more optimistic from
Speaker 1: a team standpoint. UM, I thought their defense looked really
Speaker 1: good against a good offense. UM. I thought they looked
Speaker 1: really good defensively. They're really long, they've been really active,
Speaker 1: UM and I mean Draymond wasn't even out there and
Speaker 1: they still looked, you know, pretty solid defensively. So I
Speaker 1: think early they might actually have to win a lot
Speaker 1: of games office strength of their defense, UM, which is
Speaker 1: not what I would expect from this team. Kind of
Speaker 1: entering the off season before they kind of made some
Speaker 1: some moves. But looking at it now, I think they
Speaker 1: actually do have a chance to be a top ten defense.
Speaker 1: And both Steve Kerr and Draymond have kind of projected
Speaker 1: that same energy. They said, you know, we've got a
Speaker 1: long way to go, but we think we can go
Speaker 1: and be really special. UM. So to be as entirely
Speaker 1: office like as possible, I think the ceiling is a
Speaker 1: title for this team. Right they would have to have
Speaker 1: a lot of things go right. Basically everything you gotta
Speaker 1: get at least sixty good steph Curry games to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs. You gotta get healthy Draymond, and then all
Speaker 1: of the are most of the young guys take a
Speaker 1: step forward. Wiggins takes a meaningful step forward. UM. Uprais
Speaker 1: that consistent second third score. Wiseman is able to give
Speaker 1: you fifteen to twenty good minutes a game at the
Speaker 1: center spot, even as a rookie. And then I actually
Speaker 1: have a lot of faith in most of the role
Speaker 1: guys off the bench. Bays Moore want to make her
Speaker 1: pass goal. UM, even Damian Lee for spot minutes. UM.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of those guys can be rotation
Speaker 1: level players for a playoff to team UM. So you
Speaker 1: know they would, like I said, they would have to
Speaker 1: have a lot go right. UM, they would probably have
Speaker 1: to have some type of Lakers injury. UM. But if
Speaker 1: if things do go how I think they can, meaning
Speaker 1: that step is still a top five guy, UM, and
Speaker 1: then all of the young guys, like I said, make
Speaker 1: meaningful improvements. Nobody in the playoffs would scare me besides
Speaker 1: the Lakers. That'd be the only team, especially out West. UM.
Speaker 1: The East is a little bit more of a toss
Speaker 1: up because I think a lot of the East teams
Speaker 1: right now are wild cards and we'll get into that
Speaker 1: on Friday. Um. But is if if the Lakers aren't
Speaker 1: fully healthy. Um, I honestly don't see any team come
Speaker 1: playoff time that would be better than the Warriors. Once again,
Speaker 1: huge qualifier if Steph Curry is still a top five
Speaker 1: player and it all comes down to at at the
Speaker 1: end of day, because if he is, then great, this
Speaker 1: guy is the limit and it always will be as
Speaker 1: long as he's that guy. But that's where most of
Speaker 1: my skepticism is held at this point. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: I think I think this season, you know, the optimistic
Speaker 1: view would be a version of what happened to the
Speaker 1: two thou and eighteen Calves because I remember on Twitter
Speaker 1: vividly around the time that the that the Rockets took
Speaker 1: a three two series lead and Chris Paul got hurt.
Speaker 1: I said that if the Rockets managed to knock out
Speaker 1: the Warriors and they go into the finals to play
Speaker 1: against Lebron's Calves with just James Harden, I think that
Speaker 1: the Calves would have beat them. And I said that
Speaker 1: in the moment, because I thought that Lebron was capable
Speaker 1: of winning that head to head match up with James
Speaker 1: Harden by such a wide margin that it would make
Speaker 1: up for a lot of the other deficiencies on the
Speaker 1: Cleveland roster. And you were No. CP three in those
Speaker 1: finals three because hamstring injury. You know, like I've had
Speaker 1: one hamstring injury in my life and I remember consistently
Speaker 1: re injuring it and a lot of other issues, like
Speaker 1: it's a huge pain in the butt. So but the
Speaker 1: point is is that like there was a version as
Speaker 1: flawed as that roster was, where the two thousand eighteen
Speaker 1: Calves could have won the title based on the strength
Speaker 1: of having in my opinion, the best player in the
Speaker 1: world and some injury luck Chris Paul getting getting knocked
Speaker 1: out and that team somehow upsetting the two thousand eighteen Warriors.
Speaker 1: Now didn't happen, and they ended up getting absolutely railroaded
Speaker 1: in the in the finals, and that very well maybe
Speaker 1: end up end up being what happens to this Warrior's team.
Speaker 1: But that would be the path steph Curry elevating himself
Speaker 1: to that first or second best player in the league
Speaker 1: type of level, playing that way consistently being the better
Speaker 1: alpha in the early round playoffs series, allowing himself to
Speaker 1: beat teams that had better records, and then ending up
Speaker 1: in a late round playoff series against a team that's
Speaker 1: worn out from some other fight and having a chance
Speaker 1: to upset, which, for the record, is a completely legitimate
Speaker 1: title because part of winning a title is winning the
Speaker 1: war of attrition. So they'd have to win the war
Speaker 1: of attrition. They'd have to have Steph Curry played an
Speaker 1: extremely high level, and they're not going to be as
Speaker 1: good offensively as the two thousand eighteen Caps in my opinion,
Speaker 1: which I'll explain in a minute. So that means that
Speaker 1: they would end up having to defend extremely well. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that is depended on Draymon, right.
Speaker 1: I Mean, I've been talking about step but a lot
Speaker 1: of it's depended on Draymon too, And early indications are
Speaker 1: that he looks really good. He looks like he's in
Speaker 1: really good shape. Um, and as long as he's in
Speaker 1: good shape, I don't really doubt his impact much, especially
Speaker 1: with the length and they put around him. If they
Speaker 1: hadn't put the necessary length in athleticism around him, I
Speaker 1: would be a little bit worried about it, but he is.
Speaker 1: He is such an outlier from a mental processing standpoint
Speaker 1: in the defensive end, I think he'll be able to
Speaker 1: get these guys to at least figure out rotations at
Speaker 1: a at a capable enough level to where they they're
Speaker 1: so disruptive that they're able to cause almost every NBA
Speaker 1: team trouble in a half court offensive sense. Um. So
Speaker 1: Draymond is Draymond. And that doesn't even necessarily mean two
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, But just give me two thousand nine
Speaker 1: team wass or Conference finals Draymond, where you're the most
Speaker 1: active guy on the floor, You're all over the place,
Speaker 1: you're tripled up the machine, um, and you're the best
Speaker 1: defensive player in almost every game they step on the floor.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I agree, and and and they're do they
Speaker 1: have the necessary components to at least have a closing
Speaker 1: five that can defend. That would be the thing to
Speaker 1: look at as like an optimistic view. So here's where
Speaker 1: I could see it going off the rails the you know, uh,
Speaker 1: actually it's pretty simple. We talked a earlier with injuries.
Speaker 1: Injuries could be the first thing. Well, the other thing
Speaker 1: is I'm a big believer in Steph Curry and Lebron
Speaker 1: James is offensive impact without scoring. It's something you and
Speaker 1: I have talked about at length in these in these forums,
Speaker 1: and one of the biggest reasons why it works is
Speaker 1: the rosters historically have been built around their strength. So
Speaker 1: for instance, you know Lebron when he was in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: when he would captain those amazing offenses that didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: have a ton of talent, they all could shoot the
Speaker 1: hell out of the ball. So it was built around
Speaker 1: this idea that Lebron would put pressure on the rim,
Speaker 1: which would inevitably draw and defenders where he could kick
Speaker 1: out the threes and they shoot the lights out, and
Speaker 1: then it would invert and he'd be scoring at the
Speaker 1: rim all day long. And then the for Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: that was simply based on the idea that he would
Speaker 1: attract attention away from the basket, which would leave your
Speaker 1: offense perpetually playing four on three, which would allow you
Speaker 1: to get all sorts of dunks and easy corner threes
Speaker 1: and easy shots based on the gravity of Steph Curry
Speaker 1: away from the basket. Now what I what I what
Speaker 1: worries me about this team is something I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk about a lot today, especially when we get to
Speaker 1: talking about the Lakers and Clippers, and it's their collective
Speaker 1: i Q. So, for instance, Steph Curry is an extremely
Speaker 1: high i Q player, Draymond Green is an extremely high
Speaker 1: i Q player. But when you go down the rest
Speaker 1: of the roster, you're running into a lot of names
Speaker 1: of guys that aren't the same level of basketball i
Speaker 1: Q as Andrea Gudala was, or that Sean Livingston was,
Speaker 1: or that Kevin Durant was, or that lean Andrew Barbosa was,
Speaker 1: or that Andrew Boget was, or that any of those
Speaker 1: extremely smart, savvy veterans that could make really really quick
Speaker 1: and easy and simple and consistent reads in those four
Speaker 1: on threes to get easy shots. And so what worries
Speaker 1: me is that it's going to turn into Steph needing
Speaker 1: to shoot a lot because of the fact that his
Speaker 1: offense may not be able to capitalize on the attention
Speaker 1: that he's drawing. Because Andrew Wiggins, who has a ton
Speaker 1: of talent, has not shown himself. Now. I know you've
Speaker 1: been pointing out in some film that he's made some
Speaker 1: good reads in some of these preseason games, and that
Speaker 1: would be the optimistic way of looking at it, But
Speaker 1: looking back at his career, that has not been one
Speaker 1: of his strengths. Kelly Yubre, same thing, a super athletic player,
Speaker 1: great in transition. He's been really good at defending at
Speaker 1: the four, great small ball four all around. But the
Speaker 1: reality is that Kelly Yubre is not viewed around the
Speaker 1: league as a high i Q quick decision maker in
Speaker 1: close out situations, which is something that he would need
Speaker 1: to do. So that would be what would worry, I mean,
Speaker 1: especially as you get into a postseason series, is that
Speaker 1: teams might be able to take the ball out of
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's hand relatively easily, and that the Warriors wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to necessarily capitalize on that. Yeah, So I mean,
Speaker 1: I hear you there. There's definitely concerns Um. Like you
Speaker 1: pointed out, though, I am an optimist in terms of
Speaker 1: um wiggins projection as a play maker maker. UM, He's
Speaker 1: shown and that's not just based on something limited. That's
Speaker 1: based on his last year in Minnesota too, where he
Speaker 1: was doing a lot more ball handling, UM and just
Speaker 1: doing a lot more decision making overall, and he was
Speaker 1: actually making some at reads. He's never gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: he's never gonna be on Great Goudala Like, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and tell you that. But he certainly
Speaker 1: made improvements, and I would assume that that just continues
Speaker 1: to get better UM in the Warrior system, because if
Speaker 1: if Kur has shown anything, he doesn't develop shooters he
Speaker 1: actually developed that are playmakers, which is just a bizarre
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't make any sense because the guy
Speaker 1: is one of the greatest shooters ever. UM. But I
Speaker 1: would be optimistic UM from that standpoint with Wiggins, and
Speaker 1: I think what's important to note is the veterans they've added.
Speaker 1: I want to make her in bays more specifically, those
Speaker 1: guys are actually pretty good passors. UM. So if Kerr
Speaker 1: mix and matches lineups the right way, you don't have
Speaker 1: to have a ton of time where Wiggins and Uber
Speaker 1: are actually sharing the floor together, right, you can always
Speaker 1: have kind of you almost stagger those two guys are
Speaker 1: playing thirty minutes to night, and you're keeping more veteran
Speaker 1: presence on the floor guys for higher i Q better
Speaker 1: decision makers UM. And I think Marquis Chris is actually
Speaker 1: really good in that area. He's a really good short
Speaker 1: role passer. Um. He understands the dripple handoff game really well. Um,
Speaker 1: and he showed that all of last year. Um and
Speaker 1: then UM. I feel the same way about Eric Passal actually, um,
Speaker 1: he's actually a pretty good pastor as well. Um. And
Speaker 1: so well, I do understand the concerns for sure, like
Speaker 1: they're those are totally avoid concerns. I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: more optimistic in that area than I think that most
Speaker 1: people are. And that's because I've watched way too much
Speaker 1: Warriors over the past nothing else to do. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But if anybody's questioning my movement to being a Warriors fan,
Speaker 1: I was scouting draft prospects for free. So let's relax
Speaker 1: with that days and hour studying the twelve pick in
Speaker 1: the NBA draft. Okay, so let's let's relax with me
Speaker 1: not being a Warriors fan. I'm not putting all that
Speaker 1: time in for my health because I love Warriors. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think, I think I mean to put
Speaker 1: a bone on it, like the I Almost every time
Speaker 1: I keep coming back to the Warriors this year, I
Speaker 1: come back to almost like a coin flip type of
Speaker 1: outcome in the scenario where Steph Curry is healthy, I
Speaker 1: think that they're going to be a three or four seed,
Speaker 1: and I think that they are going to be a
Speaker 1: team that is going to beat all of the teams
Speaker 1: that are not from l A and be an absolute
Speaker 1: upset threat to the l A teams based on injury luck,
Speaker 1: even and maybe even more than an upset threat against
Speaker 1: the Clippers for reasons we'll talk about here in a minute,
Speaker 1: But I just by judging, you know, when I was
Speaker 1: building the the the itinerary for this podcast, it's it's
Speaker 1: crazy to look at the level of talent in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference. We are not even going to talk about
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, Memphis, San Antonio, and Minnesota today. In Minnesota
Speaker 1: has Karl Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell and the number one
Speaker 1: overall pick. San Antonio has you know, la Marcus Aldridge
Speaker 1: and Martin Rosen, two players who have made the playoffs
Speaker 1: several times. In San Antonio and Memphis that did make
Speaker 1: make it into the playing around last year and was
Speaker 1: the eight seed before the bubble and has one of
Speaker 1: the more talents guards in the league. The point being
Speaker 1: that there's so much talent in the Western Conference that
Speaker 1: the reality is is if Steph goes down, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be extremely difficult for them to win any game. And
Speaker 1: that's what happened. More than five or time games. If
Speaker 1: he miss games, it's over. Especially with the condensed season,
Speaker 1: it's only two. That actually is gonna be a big difference,
Speaker 1: especially with COVID. And and that's I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: whole wrention all of this. Anyway, if a guy gets
Speaker 1: COVID and he's out for two or three weeks, kiss
Speaker 1: your season goodbye. It's one of your best players. That's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's over, especially in the West because you
Speaker 1: could go over in that time. And and and it's
Speaker 1: it's true, and like you know, and the reality is
Speaker 1: what The example I bring up all the time is
Speaker 1: that the two thousand and nineteen Lakers had a winning
Speaker 1: record when Lebron James played, and they missed the playoffs
Speaker 1: by a mile. And I can't remember exactly what the
Speaker 1: numbers were, but they basically just about went winless when
Speaker 1: he didn't play. So there were three games over when
Speaker 1: he did play, I want to say, and it was
Speaker 1: one game over. I think it went twenty seven and
Speaker 1: twenty six or something like that. When when he did
Speaker 1: play and then I can't remember the exact numbers, but
Speaker 1: they were they were atrocious when he didn't play. At
Speaker 1: the point being is that when you're in the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: when you're playing that level of talent night in and
Speaker 1: night out, and you were reliant on one player to
Speaker 1: to generate the varie eighty or the majority of your offense,
Speaker 1: chances are you're gonna drop a lot of games when
Speaker 1: someone gets hurted. So that would be the that would
Speaker 1: be the the the the coin flip there for me,
Speaker 1: And honestly, like as a basketball fan, I'm rooting for
Speaker 1: Steph to stay healthy because I thought two thousand eighteen
Speaker 1: Lebron was one of the more fun seasons of my
Speaker 1: time rooting for him because he had to be great
Speaker 1: every night for them to win, and it was fun
Speaker 1: to watch. And I look forward to to Steff having
Speaker 1: some of those moments this year. I'm here, man, I'm
Speaker 1: rooting for it. I know people think that I'm not,
Speaker 1: but I that I want nothing more than you have
Speaker 1: a throwback Steph Curry season. So now I was on
Speaker 1: your side the whole time, Like, even though I disagreed
Speaker 1: with some of the elements of your point, I was
Speaker 1: on your side the whole time, because genuinely, I've been there,
Speaker 1: and like I can't tell you how many times I
Speaker 1: have people UH getting in my mentions was something crazy,
Speaker 1: over over something completely out of context, or not paying
Speaker 1: attention to what I was trying to do, which was
Speaker 1: just trying to be fair, you know, and and and
Speaker 1: it's it's one of the frustrating elements of that platform.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so we're gonna move on to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna start with this one because I am
Speaker 1: going to right now as part of the UH the
Speaker 1: season previews say that I predict the Lakers to win
Speaker 1: the Western Conference and for the Lakers to win the
Speaker 1: NBA Championship. And the reason why is really simple. So
Speaker 1: first of all, all of the reasons that they won
Speaker 1: last year are still in play this year. They have
Speaker 1: Lebron in a D two of the top in my opinion,
Speaker 1: four players in the league. I think Lebron's number one
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis is number four, and they are alpha's
Speaker 1: that on any at any given moment in an playoff
Speaker 1: series can go toe to toe with any player in
Speaker 1: the league and can come out on top or at
Speaker 1: least play them to a drop too. They defend the
Speaker 1: hell out of the basketball. As I said last year,
Speaker 1: they I thought they were the best defense in the league.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of Eastern Conference teams that defended
Speaker 1: better statistically, but the level of offensive talent in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference doesn't even come close to resembling what's in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, and so getting a stop in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference to me is a little bit more impressive.
Speaker 1: So I thought the Laker defense all year long was
Speaker 1: the best defense in the league. And I believe they
Speaker 1: showed that in those late round playoff series against Denver
Speaker 1: and against Miami UH and just absolutely shutting down those
Speaker 1: offenses for stretches. And then, last but not least, they
Speaker 1: had a really simple team construct where even though their
Speaker 1: role players were less than perfect than what you would
Speaker 1: hope for in your you know, three through fifteen on
Speaker 1: a roster, they were players that had really really small roles,
Speaker 1: roles that they were able to knock out of the park.
Speaker 1: And as a result of those three things, I believe
Speaker 1: they won. And the reason why I'm even more optimistic
Speaker 1: about this team than it was about last year's team
Speaker 1: has to do with the fact that they they kept
Speaker 1: those three core tenants of their championship identity, and they
Speaker 1: fixed two key flaws that they had, flaws that never
Speaker 1: actually amounted to anything in terms of their uh, you know,
Speaker 1: ability to be knocked out of the playoffs, but the
Speaker 1: flaws that were still there nonetheless, and that was i
Speaker 1: Q at the center position, something that I thought was
Speaker 1: a huge problem. Javayal McGee and Dwight Howard brought athleticism
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the floor. Um Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: brought i Q to the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: but both of them were really really bad on the
Speaker 1: offensive end. They frequently didn't know where to stand. They
Speaker 1: frequently messed with the Lakers spacing. Dwight Howard and JaVale
Speaker 1: McGee almost entirely took Anthony Davis's post up game away
Speaker 1: in the sense that he almost always had to fade away. Now,
Speaker 1: he made a lot of those, but he was forced
Speaker 1: into a lot of shots that weren't your traditional Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis power post up game because of the fact that
Speaker 1: there was a guy sitting in the dunker spot and
Speaker 1: he never really had an opportunity to move around. I
Speaker 1: think Marcosol completely fixes that adds this huge high i
Speaker 1: Q element to the center position on the offensive end.
Speaker 1: He'll bring enough on the defensive end to you know,
Speaker 1: he he's he's already better than JaVale who was a
Speaker 1: low i Q defender. He may not quite be what
Speaker 1: Dwight was, but he'll be some percentage of that. I
Speaker 1: really do think that Marc Asol is a vast improvement
Speaker 1: at the center position. And then secondly, they had inconsistency
Speaker 1: in backup ball handling. So Region Rondo when it looked good,
Speaker 1: it was awesome, and and they were they looked unbeatable.
Speaker 1: But he was bad more than he was good in
Speaker 1: in the playoffs where he had this weird impression as
Speaker 1: a guy who had proved everybody wrong, you know, playoff
Speaker 1: Rondo had come back. I thought he had a lot
Speaker 1: of horrible basketball games in that playoff run. And I
Speaker 1: thought there were games that the Lakers lost largely because
Speaker 1: of inconsistency from from Region Rondo in that playoff run.
Speaker 1: And I believe that adding the sixth man UH one
Speaker 1: of the six Men of the Year candidates a guy
Speaker 1: who is known for being a consistent bench producer out
Speaker 1: of the guard position, and Dennis Shrewder is a massive,
Speaker 1: massive upgrade over the region Rondo experience, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. Rondo when he was dialed in, was a
Speaker 1: decent defender, but he was so aloof half the time
Speaker 1: because he overthinks the game on the defensive end, He's
Speaker 1: always jumping out of position and trying to get steals
Speaker 1: that put their entire defense in a compromised position. And
Speaker 1: having Shrewder taking over all of Rondo's minutes and then
Speaker 1: some I think fills another hole in another weakness that
Speaker 1: that Laker team has. So it's kind of a hybrid
Speaker 1: between what they were last year and and they repaired
Speaker 1: some of the potential flaws that they had last year,
Speaker 1: and it makes me all the more optimistic that they're
Speaker 1: going to be really, really difficult to beat this year.
Speaker 1: So just kind of at the start here, I basically
Speaker 1: agree with you that they're probably gonna win the West
Speaker 1: and then there probably the title favorite still. UM. That
Speaker 1: being said, I do have reservations about some of the
Speaker 1: moves they've made. UM. I thought Truder was a good edition. UM.
Speaker 1: But to push back on your point a little bit,
Speaker 1: has he really been seen as a consistent bench guy
Speaker 1: before the last twelve to twenty four months. Um, the
Speaker 1: reputation he had was more of always pretty hit or miss.
Speaker 1: You know, you're not always sure what you're gonna get
Speaker 1: get from him from an effort standpoint. Um, You're not
Speaker 1: always sure if he's going to be mentally focused. And
Speaker 1: now he had a really good year in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1: Let's not to take anything away from him, UM, but
Speaker 1: I know there was those concerns early in his career,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's just the case of a young player
Speaker 1: needing to figure out the NBA and needing to figure
Speaker 1: out what he has to do to produce consistently. And
Speaker 1: maybe he's ironed out out all those inserts, um, because
Speaker 1: he's definitely a better player than he was a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. It's not you know, choice that at all,
Speaker 1: But my concern would be with him and Tres are
Speaker 1: definitely gonna boost those Bensho units, especially during the regular season.
Speaker 1: I thought those are huge regular season additions for them,
Speaker 1: especially with Lebron and a D coming off, carrying heavy
Speaker 1: loads into the finals and normally getting what was its
Speaker 1: seventy days basically of rest between the end of the finals,
Speaker 1: and I think, yeah, it's something it's I mean it's
Speaker 1: the shortest span and I think league history, I don't
Speaker 1: see how there was ever a shorter off season. Um.
Speaker 1: So I think between Treads and Shruder, those are really
Speaker 1: good regular season moves, and I think it will absolutely
Speaker 1: help them as a regular season team. It will help
Speaker 1: Lebron probably not have to do much the same with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis um, and they'll go into the playoffs feeling fresher.
Speaker 1: But what I would worry about is maybe some diminishing
Speaker 1: returns in terms of how possessions look on the offensive end. Right,
Speaker 1: if you're taking possesions away from Lebron or Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: your offense is probably gonna be worse for it. Um.
Speaker 1: So the things that you pointed out were definitely flaws.
Speaker 1: I could just I see a path for it to
Speaker 1: go wrong as well. And I mean that's the case
Speaker 1: or any team. But I think I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: less optimistic on their playoff ceiling um than um. I
Speaker 1: think most are at this point. UM. I think it's
Speaker 1: all is definitely a good addition. Obviously, I wanted this
Speaker 1: Hall on the Warriors really badly, and I think he
Speaker 1: might have ended up there if Quay doesn't go down.
Speaker 1: How incredible was that preseason game. Oh my god, he's
Speaker 1: such He's such an insane passer. Um, he's just gonna
Speaker 1: he's gonna get the Lakers TENNESSI buckets or five easy
Speaker 1: buckets they just weren't getting last year, you know. Um. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's an incredible player. UM. And he's obviously a really
Speaker 1: good addition. But in terms of defense, I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's as good as Dwight was in those situational
Speaker 1: moments where I mean Dwight really frustrated Yogis for like
Speaker 1: a good portion of that Denver series, and nobody else
Speaker 1: was really able to do that against you Oka go
Speaker 1: there a little bit, but not at the level of
Speaker 1: Dwight did um and Dwight got a little bit too
Speaker 1: crazy with it for a while. He was like instigating
Speaker 1: too much and not playing real basketball at a certain point.
Speaker 1: But point being, the Lakers definitely made some improvements to
Speaker 1: the roster in terms of if we're just looking player
Speaker 1: A for player B. You know, Sure's obviously a better
Speaker 1: player than Rondo. Um. Tres is probably a better scoring
Speaker 1: big than anybody they had on the roster last year
Speaker 1: not named Anthony Davis and this always certainly a better
Speaker 1: all around player than Dwight or Devel at this point,
Speaker 1: so they did add better players of the roster. I
Speaker 1: could just see, especially with the short off season not
Speaker 1: a long training camp. Um, role delineation doesn't happen properly
Speaker 1: and it kind of goes sideways. Um. Just in terms
Speaker 1: of the playoffs, I think regular season they'll be totally
Speaker 1: fine because I think, like I said, Treads and Shooder
Speaker 1: were necessary moves for the regular season. They needed guys
Speaker 1: who could take the load away from Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d especially after the short off season. Um. But yeah, playoffs,
Speaker 1: Like I said, I still think that's probably the best
Speaker 1: team in the league. But I have more reservations than
Speaker 1: most do. Yeah, So I I agree with you about Trudder.
Speaker 1: His The concerns about him coming into the season were
Speaker 1: that the jump shooting performance in Oklahoma City was an
Speaker 1: outlier performance because he was a poor jump shooter in
Speaker 1: the season's leading up to that. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 1: to be honest, who knows, you know, we've seen examples
Speaker 1: of guys learned how to shoot later in their career,
Speaker 1: like Tony Parker, and then we've seen examples of guys
Speaker 1: who had outlier shooting performances and then never did it again,
Speaker 1: like how Kuzma. So the reality is that certainly you
Speaker 1: know that's a potential outcome there. What I would push
Speaker 1: back on at it is to say that you know,
Speaker 1: Region Rondo was one of the most miserably inconsistent jump
Speaker 1: shooting backup guards that I've ever add on a team
Speaker 1: that forward in my life, so that that would be
Speaker 1: part of that there. I am I where I've parted
Speaker 1: from a lot of Laker fans as I thought the
Speaker 1: Tread's move was a mistake for starters. Um a hard
Speaker 1: cap the team, and as a result of that, you
Speaker 1: know they may not have from what I understand, And
Speaker 1: this is so complicated because I've seen mixed things. I've
Speaker 1: seen some Laker fans say that they absolutely can add
Speaker 1: a fifteenth player, and then I've seen Bobby Marks, who's
Speaker 1: a cap experts, say that they've already added their fourteenth
Speaker 1: player and they can't add another player. Hard caps are
Speaker 1: we go with a last year with Golden stated it's weird,
Speaker 1: but um, if they actually are hardcaps, then they could
Speaker 1: only they actually can't add any money over that number
Speaker 1: not at all. Yeah, that's how the hardcap works, literally
Speaker 1: a cap, so they might have to literally sign you know,
Speaker 1: rookie players who don't you know, fall under the Vetoman
Speaker 1: veteran minimum scale, allowing them to stay under the cap,
Speaker 1: which takes them out. Like if you wanted to sign
Speaker 1: pau Gasol as like a leadership role, you can't do that. Now.
Speaker 1: If Trevor Reason becomes available, you can't do that. Now
Speaker 1: some killer buyout guy comes up later in the season,
Speaker 1: you can't go after him. Now. Those are those are
Speaker 1: problems with the hardcap that I thought weren't necessarily worth
Speaker 1: the Montrese Harrold experience. I said from the very beginning
Speaker 1: that I thought the only player that was worth the
Speaker 1: hardcap with Serge Baca, because I thought Sergebaca would have
Speaker 1: been an amazing uh you know, a center to put
Speaker 1: alongside marcosol In in that front court. Uh. That said,
Speaker 1: it is what it is. He's in the picture. I
Speaker 1: agree with you. He's absolutely a net positive during the
Speaker 1: regular season. Whether or not he can be, you know,
Speaker 1: of any sort of positive impact in the in the
Speaker 1: postseason is gonna come down to what he can do
Speaker 1: on the defensive end. And the reality is is that
Speaker 1: what you hope for is that in the playoffs last
Speaker 1: year it was not pretty. It was not it was
Speaker 1: worse than not pretty. He was expectually hurting his team.
Speaker 1: So the question becomes, does Frank Vogel, who you know
Speaker 1: by all accounts as an incredible defensive scout, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: his his his allegedly his scouting reports, would have U
Speaker 1: Laker players give him a round of applause after as
Speaker 1: weird as that, yeah, I heard that. I don't know.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a little bit of Lebron propaganda, but
Speaker 1: Lebron approves of the coach. Uh yeah, and then uh
Speaker 1: and then you had um and then you have Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, who Anthony Davis is arguably the best
Speaker 1: defensive player in the league. And Lebron, who's a really
Speaker 1: really high i Q defensive player who at when he's
Speaker 1: really focused on that end, can still be a first
Speaker 1: team All Defense level player. So the reality is you
Speaker 1: hope that those guys can bring the most out of him.
Speaker 1: But the pushback there would be Paul George and Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard were two first team All Defense level players, and
Speaker 1: Doc Ruver's is famous for being a defensive coach. So
Speaker 1: the reality is that they couldn't get it out of him.
Speaker 1: I don't see how they expect, you know, Paul George
Speaker 1: and Kawai to get it out of him. But the
Speaker 1: reality is, and what I said from the beginning is
Speaker 1: they don't need Montrese Harold, which so they don't need
Speaker 1: Montres Harold to win. He doesn't like He doesn't even
Speaker 1: necessarily make sense in their closing lineup. I think they're
Speaker 1: closing line ups are gonna be eighty at the five
Speaker 1: or Marcus All at the five with a D at
Speaker 1: the four. And the reality is, and they might even
Speaker 1: they might even play a little bit of Markis Morris
Speaker 1: at the five like they did in the finals. So
Speaker 1: the reality is that Marquis Montrez is a luxury, not
Speaker 1: a necessity. And if it if it works out, great,
Speaker 1: If it doesn't, who cares. But the point is is
Speaker 1: why did you hardcap the team then for somebody that
Speaker 1: wasn't that wasn't a necessity. That would be where I
Speaker 1: pushed back on that move. And they are hardcapped um
Speaker 1: at a hundred and thirty eight mill believe it is
Speaker 1: just a little over a hundred and thirty eight mill.
Speaker 1: They have a hundred thirties six million right now on
Speaker 1: the roster with Quinn Cook's contract, so it looks like
Speaker 1: they could maybe add somebody, um like at if somebody
Speaker 1: gets bought out late. You know, the contracts shorter, it
Speaker 1: doesn't cost as much, and you can probably do it
Speaker 1: at the biout deadline. I'm guessing that's how they tried
Speaker 1: to structure this um. But yeah, I don't think they'll
Speaker 1: be able to add any more veterans this preseason, so
Speaker 1: and like and so let's say so yeah, And for
Speaker 1: the record of the way, the way the veteran minimum works,
Speaker 1: as far as I understand it is, it's a contract
Speaker 1: for like two point six million and some change, but
Speaker 1: it only hits your cap for one point six million
Speaker 1: and some change in the league actually pays the remaining
Speaker 1: one million of the deal. It's like a special provision
Speaker 1: in the in the c b A. But like I said,
Speaker 1: what was weird about that was I saw a tweet
Speaker 1: from Bobby Marks a while back that said that they
Speaker 1: didn't have room for fifteen. So but regardless, let's say
Speaker 1: that let's say they can add one, then they can
Speaker 1: only add one. So if you know, if the Lakers
Speaker 1: decided to cut Quinn Cook, if they decided to cut
Speaker 1: whoever it is that they want to cut at some
Speaker 1: point down the line in the season, if it's a
Speaker 1: guaranteed tracked like, you just can't and Quinn Cook's NONI yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, and you're still trapped. So, like my question
Speaker 1: was from the beginning was like, you know, unless you
Speaker 1: thought this guy was gonna be a huge like Searchebaca
Speaker 1: unquestionably could have played crunch time in the finals for
Speaker 1: the Lakers as a five, that that to me, would
Speaker 1: have been worth the risk of hardcapping the team. I
Speaker 1: didn't agree with the idea of adding a player that had,
Speaker 1: you know, as little impact on the ceiling of that
Speaker 1: team as Montre Montrez did to hardcap the team. That
Speaker 1: was my one big push back there. Um, But yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, like I I think they're gonna win. That's
Speaker 1: my pick. But agree with you, Like, there's absolutely scenarios
Speaker 1: where can go south, most of which center around injuries,
Speaker 1: which are certainly like if they're knock on wood, if
Speaker 1: there was a scenario where an injury could happen to
Speaker 1: a player like Lebron and a D would be a
Speaker 1: scenario like this on a shortened off season with funky
Speaker 1: circumstances in accelerated season. So I just think they need
Speaker 1: to be very careful with their load managing and try
Speaker 1: to avoid that as much as possible. But the reality is,
Speaker 1: as as you and I both know, as anybody who's
Speaker 1: played has ever known, like, the reality is, his injuries
Speaker 1: aren't really associated with that. They're kind of flukey and
Speaker 1: they just happen and there's not really anything you can
Speaker 1: do about it. Um. Alright, So the Clippers I am.
Speaker 1: I am in the weird position of being lower on
Speaker 1: the Clippers than most people while simultaneously thinking they're the
Speaker 1: biggest threat to knock out the Lakers. UM. The reality
Speaker 1: is is their biggest flaw coming out of last season,
Speaker 1: which was low collective basketball i Q. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, who's an extremely gifted player player, he's basically
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's without the high end basketball i Q, and
Speaker 1: I think that's the big difference between the two of them,
Speaker 1: and then Paul George, who has received plenty of slander
Speaker 1: in the last week. So you don't need to hear
Speaker 1: anything from me, but the realities is they were missing
Speaker 1: they were missing that they're missing that it factor in
Speaker 1: terms of that that confident offensive decision maker that can
Speaker 1: consistently make good decisions decisions at the end of these games.
Speaker 1: And then they added Surgebok, who I actually think was
Speaker 1: a legitimate improvements of the team. But but but it
Speaker 1: doesn't fix their fatal flaw. So what concerns me with
Speaker 1: them is regardless of how much talent they have, they
Speaker 1: have the exact same flaw they had last year. And
Speaker 1: what do they lose to an extremely smart basketball team
Speaker 1: with a really smart coach and a top ten player
Speaker 1: who's known for being one of the smarter players in
Speaker 1: the league. So that would be where I could see
Speaker 1: them going off the rails. But their ceiling, to me,
Speaker 1: is just the idea that they're built to beat the
Speaker 1: Lakers tons of switching wings, the ability to force Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d to play a ton of io, and
Speaker 1: then they are built to attack the soft spot in
Speaker 1: the Lakers defense, which is the mid range area, because
Speaker 1: the Lakers like to chase everybody off the three point
Speaker 1: line and force them to drive into their size. Yep.
Speaker 1: So I mean I'm with you. I I was lower
Speaker 1: on the Clippers dating back to last you know, February
Speaker 1: March before kind of COVID shut down. I just didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't see it, um, And I think it's a
Speaker 1: lot of the stuff that you're referencing, kind of collective
Speaker 1: low basketball I Q um and I didn't. I mean,
Speaker 1: the surgeon was a good move, for sure, but I
Speaker 1: didn't understand keeping Lou Williams on the roster. And I
Speaker 1: don't understand not like trying to get somebody like Ricky
Speaker 1: Rubille or I mean, Kyle Lowry would have been a
Speaker 1: limit trickier because his contracts much bigger. But I don't
Speaker 1: know how they didn't make a move for a legit
Speaker 1: point guard, Like are you gonna run back with Reggie
Speaker 1: Jackson and Lou Williams good luck? Like those guys aren't
Speaker 1: gonna make good decisions at the end of playoff games.
Speaker 1: We've Lou Williams is like one of the historically worst
Speaker 1: playoff players in NBA history, And if we're looking at
Speaker 1: regular season performance relative to playoff performance, he falls off
Speaker 1: a cliff every single year. So expecting him to change
Speaker 1: that at age thirty four or thirty five or whatever,
Speaker 1: he is now that's not gonna happen. Um. So, like
Speaker 1: you said, I think they definitely could still beat the
Speaker 1: Laker just because, Um, they have a ton of guys
Speaker 1: who are switchable who could give Lebron n D problems
Speaker 1: at Let's say Lebron slows down two to three more, um,
Speaker 1: Kauai and PG can make give his life that much tougher. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it looks like they really just built their
Speaker 1: team with how can we beat the Lakers? Right? And
Speaker 1: maybe that sends up it matters, but you've got to
Speaker 1: get to that matchup first. You have to be able
Speaker 1: to get to the Lakers to actually beat the Lakers.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I could see them becoming an even
Speaker 1: better defense this year if they figure out the rotations correctly, um,
Speaker 1: because instead of playing Montrez Harrald minutes or playing Surge minutes, um.
Speaker 1: And you could really just bank on becoming the best
Speaker 1: defensive team in the league and beating the Lakers like that.
Speaker 1: But I just I don't see it, man, I don't
Speaker 1: see it like you. I have all the same concerns,
Speaker 1: so we aligned too much on this one. I have
Speaker 1: no point back anything you said. It felt like it
Speaker 1: felt like they lost the postseason. And I know it
Speaker 1: seems like such a clean thing to say, I shouldn't
Speaker 1: say the postseason the off season. I apologize. It felt
Speaker 1: like they lost the off season, like it felt like
Speaker 1: they took a patient approach, looking for some sort of
Speaker 1: big move that would that would flip the scales, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden there was there wasn't really anything,
Speaker 1: and they got Ibaka, which seems to be on the
Speaker 1: strength of the relationship between him and Kwaieline or But
Speaker 1: the reality is is that, like you know, if I
Speaker 1: was a Clipper fan, I'd be sitting there like what
Speaker 1: are you guys doing? Like like these guys are better
Speaker 1: than us, and they keep getting better and and we
Speaker 1: basically swapped a power forward for a better version of
Speaker 1: the same exact position, and that wasn't really our problem,
Speaker 1: Like what in the world, what what in the world's
Speaker 1: going on here? And and so that that would be
Speaker 1: my thing if I if I was a Clipper fan,
Speaker 1: I'd just be extremely frustrated that they didn't do enough.
Speaker 1: But then again, at the same time, like you know,
Speaker 1: Ricky Rubio, is that makes sense, that's like a solid
Speaker 1: and for the record, they could still go after someone
Speaker 1: like that in Minnesota. If they fall out of the
Speaker 1: playoff picture, they'll be they'll be sellers as we get
Speaker 1: into the into the trade season. But it's like creature.
Speaker 1: Rubio is expiring or he has two years left on
Speaker 1: his deal, so he's definitely a movable contract. And he's
Speaker 1: a good player. Yeah, he's a solid player. And he'd
Speaker 1: be the perfect example of a guy that if you
Speaker 1: put him in that lineup to basically run the offense
Speaker 1: for Paul George and Kawhile Leonard and he can hold
Speaker 1: his own defensively. That's the kind of guy that would
Speaker 1: have made a gitimate improvement to that roster. Now, it
Speaker 1: still would have ended up coming down to Kauai and
Speaker 1: Paul George versus Lebron and a d I think that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff usually does. But that would have taken
Speaker 1: away their fatal flaw, which is that low I q uh,
Speaker 1: you know that that lack of decision making with the
Speaker 1: start and filling in the hole that their stars had.
Speaker 1: And and so I guess I guess what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is like, why in the world isn't Rubio in with
Speaker 1: the Clippers right now? Why wasn't that in pursuit, like
Speaker 1: what like and is it is it as simple as
Speaker 1: they gave away all their draft picks for Marcus Morris
Speaker 1: and for Paul George, Like is it is it that simple?
Speaker 1: I don't know. And that was the other thing and
Speaker 1: Marcus Morris contract, like and this is something we talked
Speaker 1: about with with the Lakers a minute ago. But as
Speaker 1: you said, any possession that doesn't run through Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a wasted possession unless they are, you know,
Speaker 1: actively fatigued and they're trying to save their legs, which
Speaker 1: is something that I think is you know, important, Like
Speaker 1: you can't just run it through them, but you do
Speaker 1: need to have the lion's share of your offense run
Speaker 1: through your best players or you can have problems. And
Speaker 1: what Bob there me about Marcus Morris is it felt
Speaker 1: like every time he touched the damn ball, he wanted
Speaker 1: to go do his damn his do his own thing.
Speaker 1: And then you've got George. He thinks he actually is
Speaker 1: better than Paul George. So you can see it. You
Speaker 1: can see it on his face. And that's not just
Speaker 1: us making like jokes like that's and that is I
Speaker 1: would bet my life that he thinks that and and
Speaker 1: like it was basically reported that he said that about
Speaker 1: Paul George, like that he thought he was a better player. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: and and and the reality is is like he he
Speaker 1: is a player who is too good for the role
Speaker 1: they're asking him to fill, which is basically a three
Speaker 1: and D guy, and too often he breaks off from
Speaker 1: the offense and too often he does his own thing.
Speaker 1: If you raise the collective i Q of your team
Speaker 1: with someone like Rubio, you get you get into a
Speaker 1: position where that kind of stuff just happens less and
Speaker 1: players just like it's kind of like a rising tide
Speaker 1: that floats all boats kind of concepts. But when I
Speaker 1: look at that offseason and I see you overpay Marcus Morris,
Speaker 1: the only net positive move is the bringing in of Sergebaka.
Speaker 1: You completely failed to fix the key flaw and the roster.
Speaker 1: It just I really don't understand what they're doing, especially
Speaker 1: from a friend, Like we're a long way away from
Speaker 1: last offseason where the Lakers were considered a dumpster fire
Speaker 1: and the Clippers were considered one of the smarter franchises
Speaker 1: in the league. Like that it was so bad that
Speaker 1: like as as reporters like Wojan Shams were properly explaining
Speaker 1: the situation. Laker fans were like losing their mind, thinking
Speaker 1: they're bias, but it's like they looked like a tighter
Speaker 1: run ship at the time and the Lakers, the Lakers
Speaker 1: had their president of Basketball Operations going on first take,
Speaker 1: burning down the GM and for the world to see.
Speaker 1: And now we're one and a half years later in
Speaker 1: the Lakers are just completely running circles around this franchise.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like it in my time. Following like,
Speaker 1: I've done an outstanding job, man, Like I have nothing
Speaker 1: about to say about point. He's every move and whether
Speaker 1: some of it was luck or not. I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff with GM ng is and the
Speaker 1: movies made has seemed has better the franchise, you know,
Speaker 1: every roster move. So yeah, it really has been a
Speaker 1: ridiculous about face and now the stuff about Jerry West,
Speaker 1: like um, that guy paying him like two point five
Speaker 1: million just to ensure that like like it's just it
Speaker 1: doesn't even seem real at this point, like happens up
Speaker 1: that's coming out was like this sounds like something out
Speaker 1: of a movie. I know. It has been one of
Speaker 1: the most fascinating things I've seen in my life, like
Speaker 1: from rioting outside a Staples Center because that because they're
Speaker 1: sick and tired of the Laker front office to to
Speaker 1: this too. Just like you said, a complete about face,
Speaker 1: it's really strange. But I mean again, matchups, you know,
Speaker 1: styles make fights. Matchups win playoff series. The Clippers have
Speaker 1: some legitimate matchup advantages over the Lakers, and if it
Speaker 1: can make a solid deadline move, if they can stay healthy,
Speaker 1: they absolutely have a punch of chancer. But I would
Speaker 1: say they need to make that deadline move. They need
Speaker 1: to bring in a point guard, and maybe the guy
Speaker 1: ends up being Kyle Lowry at the deadline, I don't
Speaker 1: know what that trade would be a huge addition, and
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, the only way to make
Speaker 1: the numbers work would be like Marcus Morris plus Pat
Speaker 1: but Marcus Sports designed for four year sixty for millions,
Speaker 1: where I was not taking on that contract. Yeah, would
Speaker 1: have to give up. They'd have to give up four
Speaker 1: first round picks. They don't have those anymore. They would
Speaker 1: have traded him away so and people would just keep
Speaker 1: you know, And I didn't like letting Jerry West go
Speaker 1: as a warrior's stand. But what has heat what of
Speaker 1: him and Lawrence Frank done in the past eighteen months
Speaker 1: that's inspired any confidence, you know, ever since they signed
Speaker 1: Kawai and Paul George, it's kind of been all downhill
Speaker 1: from there. That whole thing was like up to that
Speaker 1: point though, it was genius, like feeling zoobots from the Lakers. Uh,
Speaker 1: Like they they the whole trade um um with Houston
Speaker 1: when they pulled in all of those role players that
Speaker 1: became key rollers, like Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams and
Speaker 1: in Montrese Harold who all became key components of that
Speaker 1: of that playoff team last year. Danilo Gallinari was a
Speaker 1: great fit. They did such an amazing job over the
Speaker 1: previous years. It's honestly so deeply confusing for me to
Speaker 1: see that happen and and like for your key move
Speaker 1: to be bringing back Marcus Morris, who I don't know
Speaker 1: how anybody was watching that team, and that he was
Speaker 1: bringing a positive impact aside from hitting shots. He hit
Speaker 1: shots like make no mistake, but like I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer and like it's it's all about like that'd be
Speaker 1: like winning the battle to lose the war in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and have him being overly aggressive. All right, So we
Speaker 1: have hit all of the key important big teams that
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit so far with the West. So
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do is we're gonna, like I said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna ignore Okay, see Memphis, San Antonio, Minnesota all together.
Speaker 1: I'm going to quickly rapid fire through the remaining Western
Speaker 1: Conference teams. I'm gonna quick go over their offseason moves,
Speaker 1: and I want you just to quick tell me your
Speaker 1: outlook on those teams. We're not gonna touch on them
Speaker 1: too long, but we'll just briefly touch on them. So Denver,
Speaker 1: so they lost Tory Craig and Jeremy Grant, so they
Speaker 1: lost both of their wing defenders that they put on
Speaker 1: Lebron in last year's playoff series. And they signed a
Speaker 1: guy who I actually or they drafted a guy I
Speaker 1: actually really liked that Arizona named Zeke Naji. If that
Speaker 1: there's a really really classic like hustle for who could
Speaker 1: shoot the ball a little bit, and he's got a
Speaker 1: super I know a lot of the draft knicks were
Speaker 1: we're pretty high on his projection is like you know,
Speaker 1: a three and D guy hopefully. So yeah, he shoot,
Speaker 1: he stretched forward, can defend really well, and he's got
Speaker 1: a really tough mentality. He's really fun to watch here
Speaker 1: in Tucson. Uh. And then you know the prospect of
Speaker 1: of Michael Porter Jr. Potentially improving. But that's basically your
Speaker 1: Denver off season. They did not get discernibly better in
Speaker 1: my opinion, So that would be my concern there. The
Speaker 1: question would be, is Jamal Murray from the bubble going
Speaker 1: to be the real Jamal Jamal Murray moving for I mean,
Speaker 1: if he's like, if he's just like eight or of
Speaker 1: that guy that's an amazing player, that's probably a top
Speaker 1: twenty player. I mean, he doesn't have to be. If
Speaker 1: he's the guy that was in the bubble. I keep
Speaker 1: saying this, He's gonna be the greatest player of all time.
Speaker 1: He was scoring thirty points a game and shooting like
Speaker 1: that's literally the greatest player ever if he continues to
Speaker 1: do that. Um, But if I mean, if he could
Speaker 1: be eight percent of that guy where he's four game,
Speaker 1: mid to high forties from the field, high thirties from three,
Speaker 1: and he's always shot three throws historically well like um,
Speaker 1: if he's that guy, then yeah, they're a problem. But
Speaker 1: you kind of pointed out the guys they lost on
Speaker 1: the wing. Who's gonna guard Lebron or Kawhi or Paul
Speaker 1: those guys in a playoff series. I thought Jeremy grat
Speaker 1: was it was actually a difference maker for them against
Speaker 1: the Clippers. You know, just his length and athleticism was
Speaker 1: able to bother the Clippers wing players and they don't
Speaker 1: have that anymore. So yeah, I don't know, Like M
Speaker 1: PJ is obviously more talented than Jeremy Grant or Tory Craig,
Speaker 1: but at that point, you're just betting on being incredible offensively,
Speaker 1: which they might be. They might be unbelievable on offense,
Speaker 1: but can they stop anybody? If you're not, If you're
Speaker 1: not a top ten defense, you can't win a title.
Speaker 1: It does not happen. And it doesn't have Steph Curry, Lebron,
Speaker 1: James Clay thomp centers very hungry and that's the only
Speaker 1: team that can do it. Or Shack Lenel at the
Speaker 1: height of his power. So I think when the Warriors
Speaker 1: won in twenty eighteen, they had fallen below the top
Speaker 1: ten devens, but they're like, yeah, it was eleventh, and
Speaker 1: it's like okay, but they still they were fatigued. They
Speaker 1: were in their fourth rate finals. That had much more
Speaker 1: to do with that than actually not being good defensively anymore. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just don't. I mean, maybe they're neutral
Speaker 1: from last season. They probably still win a ton of
Speaker 1: regular season games. Um, they might be a second round team.
Speaker 1: But like, if, like we talked about earlier, everything goes
Speaker 1: right for the Warriors, I'm picking the Warriors over then
Speaker 1: gets a serious and that's if everything goes right. Like,
Speaker 1: so they are probably third or fourth in the West
Speaker 1: right now in terms of teams that I would expect
Speaker 1: to go to the finals. I'd have the Lakers clearly
Speaker 1: above them, um, and i'd probably have the Clippers and um,
Speaker 1: Warriors about them at this point. Um, and then we'll
Speaker 1: see how things go with Dallas or Phoenix. But I'd
Speaker 1: say it's probably comfortably fourth or fifth in the West
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, so we're gonna get to Dallas in
Speaker 1: the second, but I would have them fourth, and then
Speaker 1: i'd have Dallas behind. I would say that Denver is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite candidates for an outlier. James Harden
Speaker 1: trade based on the idea that you can't beat the Lakers,
Speaker 1: you can't beat the Warriors, or maybe they think they can,
Speaker 1: but they're they're they're not a good enough team to
Speaker 1: win the title right now. They have no, like, no
Speaker 1: readily apparent prospects to potentially get good enough to do so.
Speaker 1: And and Michael Porter Jr. Would have to get so
Speaker 1: incredibly better than he is right now for that to
Speaker 1: end up raising their ceiling. And this is a guy
Speaker 1: who literally has drop foot because he has massive back problems.
Speaker 1: So the question would be like, are you are you
Speaker 1: so comfortable with your culture and your in your trajectory
Speaker 1: that you stick with this group or do you throw
Speaker 1: you know, MPJ and and Jamal Murray in some picks
Speaker 1: at Houston bringing James Harden and be like, now I
Speaker 1: got two of the best ten players in the league.
Speaker 1: And now now I can sit there and be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have two of the top ten players in the
Speaker 1: league and the Clippers don't, so I can go to
Speaker 1: the Clippers. Are the surrounding guys even good enough at
Speaker 1: that point? Because around Yoga Chen Harden, what would you need?
Speaker 1: You need guys who can defend for sure, you're not hardcaps,
Speaker 1: so you could try to bring in better medium guys.
Speaker 1: They become they have lots of minutes available, they become
Speaker 1: a destination because most as I've learned as someone who's
Speaker 1: rooted for guys to join my favorite teams over the years,
Speaker 1: in my experience, veteran minimum guys almost always go to
Speaker 1: where they're gonna get more minutes because they like to
Speaker 1: play basket. So I I think I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: and get your get your stars, and you'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: Like I mean last year, last year, everybody roasted everybody
Speaker 1: the Lakers signed, literally like there wasn't a guy they
Speaker 1: signed that everyone was like, oh, that was a good sign.
Speaker 1: Like they didn't like Rondo, they didn't like KCP, they
Speaker 1: didn't like Javery Bradley, they didn't like Dwight Howard, didn't
Speaker 1: like JaVale McGee, and all of them ended up working
Speaker 1: out because of the strength of the two best players
Speaker 1: in the way that it made everything else work. So
Speaker 1: they're one of my outlier threats. So moving on to Houston, uh,
Speaker 1: John Wallen, DeMarcus Cousins. But what are we saying about
Speaker 1: Harden at this point? First of all, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: just a quick, little victory lap. Go ahead, just a
Speaker 1: quick one. I think people can see how I am
Speaker 1: now validated and not having in my top ten. It
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with his talent. It has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with this talent, because he's one of the
Speaker 1: most talented guys in the league still, But you are
Speaker 1: retooling your roster every twelve to eighteen months if he
Speaker 1: is your best player, and it's because he's unhappy. So
Speaker 1: I don't have anything else to add. But is he
Speaker 1: one of the most talented guys in the league. Yes,
Speaker 1: what I want to build my franchise around him. No,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I wouldn't. I don't want to deal with
Speaker 1: the headaches. I would rather I'd rather have Dame because
Speaker 1: I know where Dames. I know where Dame's heart is
Speaker 1: always gonna be. If I'm doing the right things, I'm
Speaker 1: putting the right guys around Dame. He's gonna rally the
Speaker 1: truth and he's gonna be one of the best leaders
Speaker 1: in the week. And the performance is small enough to
Speaker 1: where it's not super super significant. So yeah, and I agree,
Speaker 1: And I think it's time for us to look back
Speaker 1: at the two thousand and eighteen rockets, and acknowledge the
Speaker 1: impact of Chris Paul and acknowledge the impact of Jeff
Speaker 1: Pedgelic or whatever his name is, the guy who who
Speaker 1: you know, came up with that defense that gave the
Speaker 1: Warriors so many problems, and and understand that there there's
Speaker 1: there's a deeper story to what happened there, especially when
Speaker 1: you start to look at how horrible James Harden played
Speaker 1: in that series. Uh. But the reality is is, uh,
Speaker 1: let's operate for the purposes of this as we get
Speaker 1: to these other teams and were especially when we do Friday,
Speaker 1: when we do the Eastern Conference pod, because I think
Speaker 1: they're the more likely destination for James Harden. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: But as we get through these teams, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: where he might go. But for the purposes of right now,
Speaker 1: let's operate under the premise that James Harden is staying
Speaker 1: in Houston with John Wall. John Wall I like him
Speaker 1: as a natural fit better than Russell Westbrook, just because
Speaker 1: of the fact that he's a little bit, a little
Speaker 1: bit more high i Q and a little bit more willing.
Speaker 1: He looked pretty good in that first part. I was
Speaker 1: shocked and so and I feel like he'll do a
Speaker 1: better job of the balance back and forth. But with
Speaker 1: him and James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins can shoot threes, which
Speaker 1: is an interesting element to them being able to play
Speaker 1: a center but continue their their space and attack offense.
Speaker 1: And Christian would I'm a big believer in not bullshitting
Speaker 1: you guys. I haven't seen enough of him to make
Speaker 1: an opinion, so that's just where I would say on that.
Speaker 1: But I haven't heard enough good about him to think
Speaker 1: he could be that much of a ceiling Razors. So
Speaker 1: I view them as more or less the same type
Speaker 1: of threat that they were last year. Yep. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I could they could get hot maybe for a
Speaker 1: playoff series and upset somebody. But I'm with you, and
Speaker 1: I think while its definitely a better fit, he's a
Speaker 1: little bit more fluid of a playmaker than Rush's just
Speaker 1: comes more natural to him, and I think that's a
Speaker 1: good fit next to next to Harden, he's proba at
Speaker 1: this point. He's probably a better shooter too that Russ is,
Speaker 1: which is not saying much, but anybody's a better shooter
Speaker 1: than Rest, and I think we'll will commit maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit more to playing off ball, even though he
Speaker 1: didn't really show that in Washington. But we'll see, we'll see. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you there, bottom Tyre probably Western
Speaker 1: Conference playoff team. If Hardon stays, they're probably in the
Speaker 1: six eight range. And I could even see them falling
Speaker 1: out of some of these young teams pop Um at
Speaker 1: Memphis randomly, Pops. We're not gonna talk about them, but
Speaker 1: if they you know, if they look really good this year,
Speaker 1: then you know teams are gonna start to fall out.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm with you. I don't I don't see
Speaker 1: much of a ceiling for them at second round at best.
Speaker 1: We've seen hard And slip in a random regular season
Speaker 1: and go forty one and forty one and get in
Speaker 1: as an eight seed. And it's something that because because
Speaker 1: he's a bad attitude guy and because he's always on
Speaker 1: the verge of decommitting mentally from a team. All right,
Speaker 1: so you tak for more more or less, they're the
Speaker 1: same team with Derrick Favors. Uh. I view them as
Speaker 1: just as flawed as they were last year, in the
Speaker 1: sense that they rely too much on Donovan Mitchell to
Speaker 1: create all their offense. They were hoping for Mike Conley
Speaker 1: to be a relief in that regard, but he's way
Speaker 1: too inconsistent because he is actually on that down slope
Speaker 1: that we talked about with these smaller guards. So I
Speaker 1: view them as more or less a six or seven
Speaker 1: seed in a non threat Yeah, I mean they're non threat.
Speaker 1: I could see them maybe being a little bit better
Speaker 1: as a regular season team, um than some people expect,
Speaker 1: maybe sneaking into a top four seed, just from a
Speaker 1: continuity standpoint, like there has been a little bit it
Speaker 1: turned over in the roster. Conley is obviously relatively new,
Speaker 1: um Bogdanovitch to a certain extent, but their core guys
Speaker 1: have been there, Gobert, Mitchell, uh Favors is coming back,
Speaker 1: so they I mean, they know what the deal is.
Speaker 1: Their angles are still there. Um. I think they could
Speaker 1: be a good regular season team like they are a
Speaker 1: lot of the times, but I don't see it for
Speaker 1: the playoffs at all. You know, Um, it took it's
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell having then Jamal Mary had an amazing series too,
Speaker 1: but Mitchell had to have like his best series ever
Speaker 1: and they still lost in seven to Denver. You know,
Speaker 1: So yeah, non threat. Like I said that, they might
Speaker 1: have a little bit of a higher regular season ceiling
Speaker 1: um than some people expect just from a continuity standpoint,
Speaker 1: but I don't see it from a playoffs standpoint. They're not.
Speaker 1: They don't they should not scare any of the top
Speaker 1: tier teams. Yeah, and I mean honestly, like a big
Speaker 1: part of their projection moving forward, in my opinion, depends
Speaker 1: on Donovan Mitchell kind of getting a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a point guard mentality, feeling the flow of the game,
Speaker 1: understanding one aggressive and when to be passive, when to
Speaker 1: keep teammates involved, when to put his foot to the
Speaker 1: pedal to the metal. Are drawing fouls he he doesn't.
Speaker 1: He does not a lot of foul if he because
Speaker 1: he ends up shooting a lot of these weird floaters
Speaker 1: in the middle of the lane where it's like, maybe
Speaker 1: just take another drible. He's he's strong, he's athletic. Trying
Speaker 1: to like your field goal percentage might drop a presenter too,
Speaker 1: because you're trying more crazy shots to the rim. But
Speaker 1: if you're drawing more fouls, that invariably guys who are
Speaker 1: high free throw rate guys helped create great offense um.
Speaker 1: So those would be the two areas of growth. I'd
Speaker 1: look for him at playmaking, which he has definitely improved on,
Speaker 1: and then drawing more fouls. So Dallas, they lost Seth Curry,
Speaker 1: but they added James Johnson three and D wing that
Speaker 1: they didn't really have on the roster last year. Uh Um,
Speaker 1: what's his name? Kare and Phinney Smith I think is
Speaker 1: his name? Was? He was there three and D guy
Speaker 1: last year just wasn't really just wasn't really consistent enough
Speaker 1: in hy Q enough on the wing. James Johnson is
Speaker 1: just a much better version of him, in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson is Seth Curry less, less of a shooter,
Speaker 1: but a much better defensive player. And he's really different.
Speaker 1: I think he's a really different and he makes more
Speaker 1: sense on this roster than he does in Philly because
Speaker 1: in Philly he was being asked to generate a lot
Speaker 1: of their offense, which just never has been his strength. Um.
Speaker 1: And then they picked up that super athletic forward from
Speaker 1: Orlando West wound do but and then they they're returning
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell who has gone with an achilles injury, and
Speaker 1: Kristaps Porzingis who was gone with a knee Uh. I
Speaker 1: think toss and I think I think Christapps is at
Speaker 1: least out until like the new year from what I've
Speaker 1: seen report Really yeah, that that's what I said the
Speaker 1: last time I saw. He's out until at least the
Speaker 1: new year. Let me double check that real quick. Um,
Speaker 1: But what do you feel about them? Where do you
Speaker 1: think they're gonna Endfinitely? It was a perfect I think
Speaker 1: it was a perfect off season for them in the
Speaker 1: sense that, you know, they didn't want to tie up
Speaker 1: their cap because they wanted to potentially wait for Janice,
Speaker 1: which apparently is off the table. But I mean they
Speaker 1: were smart to try to wait for that because Janice
Speaker 1: has been on the record that he really liked Luca. Uh.
Speaker 1: They they had a weakness on the wing defensively last year,
Speaker 1: and I think it hurt them against the Clippers. I
Speaker 1: think they remedied that with James Johnson, Josh Richardson and
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell when he went down with his achilles tear
Speaker 1: last year. Took away a lot of their front court
Speaker 1: that front court athleticism, and it hurt them. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: they it hurt them. At the end of that season,
Speaker 1: West the woundo West and wound do is not as
Speaker 1: good as Dwight Powell, but he's in a similar mold
Speaker 1: in the sense that he gives them more athletic height,
Speaker 1: athletic more athleticism in their front court to help run
Speaker 1: that you know, pick and roll action with with Luca.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, this team is
Speaker 1: all about Luca don chech. He's your prime m VP
Speaker 1: candidate because of the fact that he he's a bona
Speaker 1: fide number one on his team. As good as Christaps is,
Speaker 1: he's never going to be a guy that people look
Speaker 1: at as a guy who's taking away his MVP votes.
Speaker 1: Chris Christaps, by the way, January one on court activity
Speaker 1: return dates, so they're not even bringing him back to
Speaker 1: do any on court activity, is barely doing anything. So
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe he's ready by late January. Really, have
Speaker 1: you already started playing games? And that makes uh, they
Speaker 1: have Willie Calli Stein is probably gonna be playing his
Speaker 1: minutes in the meantime. Uh really yeah, as you can speak.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, thirty games is enough. Get him off,
Speaker 1: Get him off my team. Nice enough guy, it seems like,
Speaker 1: but not a good player. Yeah, and but like and
Speaker 1: but the reality is is like the prime Luca type,
Speaker 1: MVP type of deal. Um, you know when we're talking
Speaker 1: when we're parsing out seeds with these teams we're talking about.
Speaker 1: But you know, between the three seed and the twelve seed,
Speaker 1: a lot of this honestly is going to be separated
Speaker 1: by a handful of games. I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: the twelve seed was, you know, four and a half
Speaker 1: games back of the three seed. Like that's just the
Speaker 1: way that Especially if let's say, you know, the COVID
Speaker 1: stuff is fairly spread out, injuries are fairly spread out,
Speaker 1: and everybody kind of misses the same amount of time,
Speaker 1: it could definitely end up like that. I can see
Speaker 1: it happening very very easily. And the last two seeds
Speaker 1: are playings this year, the seven and eight play ins,
Speaker 1: so it makes it even more interesting for sure. And
Speaker 1: and so, but the bottom line is if Luke is
Speaker 1: going to be more or less the same guy that
Speaker 1: we saw in the first round of playoffs, which I
Speaker 1: think we all thought he'd be a good playoff player,
Speaker 1: but he proved us that he's not. H you know,
Speaker 1: the type of player who who will you know, whose
Speaker 1: impact will lessen on that that level. But with them
Speaker 1: adding wing defense, with them adding a little bit more
Speaker 1: playmaking with Josh Richardson, and with them adding some front
Speaker 1: court front court athleticism. There absolutely in that like upset
Speaker 1: threat tier of the Western Conference, where a team that
Speaker 1: has some flaws, who comes into that series with them,
Speaker 1: who might have had a better record, could just as
Speaker 1: easily lose to them totally. And why the last thing
Speaker 1: I'd say about the Mavericks is I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: what direction they kind of go offensively, especially when Ports
Speaker 1: gets back. Do they really just lean into Luca picknroll?
Speaker 1: Because they, I mean, they were super super heavy Luka
Speaker 1: pick and roll last year, and I thought it was
Speaker 1: almost detrimental sometimes. And he's incredible, but I was fairly
Speaker 1: vocal and critical about um them just like going to
Speaker 1: that too much too early in his career instead of
Speaker 1: trying to develop other parts of his game, parts of
Speaker 1: hen need frankly if his team's ever gonna win championships.
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned this briefly before, basing how you build
Speaker 1: your team and how you play offense off of Lebron
Speaker 1: James is one of the dumbest things you can do,
Speaker 1: you know, And and Lebron doesn't lean into that stuff
Speaker 1: as much as he was in those late Calves Ears
Speaker 1: because he had to lower than people think it is.
Speaker 1: It is, it absolutely is, But some of those late
Speaker 1: Calves Ears, it was it was a lot of lebron
Speaker 1: rounded by shooters, and that's more of It's just you know,
Speaker 1: surround your best player of the shooters and let him
Speaker 1: do everything. It's not a sustainable model because you don't
Speaker 1: have a top five player ever on your roster, even
Speaker 1: if Luca is on an incredible trajectory, but top five ever, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, man like that. That's so ambitious. Um
Speaker 1: So I'd be interested to see if how many possessions
Speaker 1: prisoning is getting, how many jobs prichinsons are getting and Luca, Look,
Speaker 1: Lucas gotta be the end all be all at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. But I also don't want him
Speaker 1: running eighty pick and rolls because their offensive rating was
Speaker 1: so good with that him last year when he wasn't
Speaker 1: on the floor, there was obviously a drop off, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't anything significant. It was only four five points.
Speaker 1: They were still one of the top offenses in the league.
Speaker 1: With him off the floor. They were beating teams, but
Speaker 1: they were they were handling teams to that which he
Speaker 1: was always my example of the foolishness that that a
Speaker 1: high usage player is going to hurt your bench lineups,
Speaker 1: and it never made any sense to me. Yep, yep exactly. So, Um,
Speaker 1: that'd be the only thing I'd be looking for with
Speaker 1: them this year, to see what their offense looks like. Um,
Speaker 1: but I think I'm basically with you on them being
Speaker 1: the potential upset there, Like if they if they're just
Speaker 1: better than the last year, maybe they beat the Clippers
Speaker 1: in a series, you know. Um, if Luca takes another
Speaker 1: step and if their role guys performed where they can,
Speaker 1: I could easily see them beating the Clippers and really
Speaker 1: anybody besides the Lakers. And if it all goes right well,
Speaker 1: I mean, and he took the Clippers to six without Powell,
Speaker 1: without Christops personas and without the wing defenders, He's gonna
Speaker 1: have this year. Ye all right, su Portland, they added
Speaker 1: enis cancer more or less to me, uh, just a
Speaker 1: bench player considering the fact that nar Kis is gonna
Speaker 1: play the five for the most part for them. Derrick
Speaker 1: Jones Jr. Who even though even though Shams are I
Speaker 1: can't remember if it was shams Or, Woach said he
Speaker 1: was an important role player on the NBA finalist. He's
Speaker 1: not a very good basketball player, Roco. Roco Derrick Jones,
Speaker 1: Jor barely played in the playoff. Yeah, it was the
Speaker 1: most ridiculous thing I've ever read. But uh, Roco, I
Speaker 1: actually really really like. I think he's a unique wing
Speaker 1: in the sense that you can actually play him at
Speaker 1: the center because he's such a gifted shot blocker, and
Speaker 1: you know, his shooting is somewhat inconsistent, but he makes
Speaker 1: more than enough of them to make you pay if
Speaker 1: you leave him wide open all game long. And then
Speaker 1: they added Harry Giles, who, again, it's kind of similar
Speaker 1: to the mp J thing, where I haven't are not MPG.
Speaker 1: It's kind of similar to the Christian would thing, where
Speaker 1: I haven't necessarily seen enough enough of him to have
Speaker 1: a really strong take. But from what I understand, he's
Speaker 1: just your stereotypical like bullyball athletic four who it doesn't
Speaker 1: really bring a lot of skill to the table, but
Speaker 1: is extremely gift it around the basket as an athlete
Speaker 1: and just pretty good pass. It's a pretty good pastor
Speaker 1: if you're watch enough of him. He's like a canny
Speaker 1: little like high post passer. He's back cuts, can find shooters. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I honestly, and they added Rodney
Speaker 1: hood to right then they probably already on the roster.
Speaker 1: He's just back from his achilles there. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: honestly thought they had one of them are overrated off
Speaker 1: seasons in recent memory, especially for the way, you know,
Speaker 1: relatively way people are talking about them. Bobby Marx is saying, oh,
Speaker 1: they're going to be the third seed in the West. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to heard. I was like, wait, what did
Speaker 1: the was there signing? I missed in there somewhere that like,
Speaker 1: I just don't see that man like Broco is a
Speaker 1: nice player, Um, but I've been very critical of him,
Speaker 1: and that's more from a loser fit on like a
Speaker 1: Warriors standpoint. Um, he is a good player, like inarguably,
Speaker 1: but he's not a very good on ball defender. And
Speaker 1: what are their Portland always has issues with all on
Speaker 1: boll defense against high level players in the playoffs. Damon
Speaker 1: aren't going to be improving in that area anytime soon.
Speaker 1: They're both small guards, um, and I still don't understand
Speaker 1: why they haven't moved see Jack for something. Um it
Speaker 1: still does not make sense to me, especially for guys
Speaker 1: that can fit around game. Um cancer makes zero sense.
Speaker 1: Why bring him back? He never does anything productive in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Derrick Jones Jr. We just talked about. I mean,
Speaker 1: he played like I don't even know if he played
Speaker 1: a hundred minutes in the playoffs, Like he barely played.
Speaker 1: He was a non packer. He all remembers him checking
Speaker 1: in at the end of Game one of the finals
Speaker 1: and Lebron padding his stats against him in the in
Speaker 1: the post. But like Andrea couldn't make shots by the
Speaker 1: end of the finals, that like Miami had some injuries
Speaker 1: and he still wasn't getting minutes radically kind of played
Speaker 1: him in a band roll just because they needed some
Speaker 1: type of rim gravity as a roller, and they didn't
Speaker 1: even really try to do that when Bam was out.
Speaker 1: UM So, I just they're gonna be fine. They're probably
Speaker 1: a fringe playoff team again in my opinion, even see
Speaker 1: them missing it. I wouldn't bet on that because I
Speaker 1: think the roster is better than last year, but the
Speaker 1: West is also better than last year. Um So, I
Speaker 1: think that they got better, But did they get better
Speaker 1: relative to what the rest of the West did, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but to me, the Dame off the ball,
Speaker 1: adding that steph element of off ball activity is the
Speaker 1: biggest potential ceiling razor for them. He said he's not
Speaker 1: gonna He already said he wasn't gonna do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which there's your answer. But I mean the reality is
Speaker 1: is that like like I saw the Lakers take the
Speaker 1: ball out of Dame's hand, Like I I saw that
Speaker 1: they chased him over the top of every screen. Then
Speaker 1: they started blitzing in because he killed them in Game
Speaker 1: one and and it basically neutralized their entire offense Like that,
Speaker 1: That's that's the reality of the Dame Lillard experience. It's
Speaker 1: the same thing that happened to happen to Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing that's going to happen to Luca
Speaker 1: as teams get better. Like if you don't find a
Speaker 1: way to become either well with Luca, he beat it
Speaker 1: with the past. But it's like, if you don't have
Speaker 1: either unbelievable supreme passing ability or the ability to remain
Speaker 1: a threat off the ball, who could also go on
Speaker 1: the post to Luke Damon and you know, guys like
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray can't do exactly, but like I always talk
Speaker 1: about how like, you know, someone shared link the other
Speaker 1: day it was one of your Warriors guys. I think
Speaker 1: it was bolteg if I'm announcing that correctly. You shared
Speaker 1: something about Zach Low from two thousand and thirteen, basically
Speaker 1: talking about how the Spurs were completely flu mixed by
Speaker 1: Steph Curry being such a deadly three point shooter off
Speaker 1: the dribble because it was ruining their pick and roll coverages.
Speaker 1: There's I don't I don't think people were like really
Speaker 1: take into account how outrageous what he was doing during
Speaker 1: these playoffs was because nobody was shooting threes off the
Speaker 1: dribble at that point, Like it just wasn't a um.
Speaker 1: So I think where you're going with this as teams
Speaker 1: have caught up to that now. Yeah, if you look
Speaker 1: throughout NBA history, offensive ratings go up and they go down,
Speaker 1: and they go up and they go down. And the
Speaker 1: reason why, in my opinion, is offenses discover something that
Speaker 1: works and they start to exploit that, and then defenses
Speaker 1: catch up and then you're gonna see you're gonna see
Speaker 1: high volume three point shooting team high. You're gonna see
Speaker 1: teams that are heavily, heavily reliant on a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting guard. You're gonna see teams like that start
Speaker 1: to struggle as defenses get really really good. Because look
Speaker 1: at what the Lakers did last year. Every single team
Speaker 1: is going to start watching tape of that to these
Speaker 1: teams because they neutralized a lot of these really really
Speaker 1: good on the ball scores, and they're they're gonna find
Speaker 1: a way to to to mimic that, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, these teams are gonna struggle. But then what's
Speaker 1: gonna what's gonna happen is the offense is just gonna
Speaker 1: evolve again. But anyway, my point is is that like
Speaker 1: that would be one of the ways that the Portlands
Speaker 1: could raise their ceiling, and I, just as you said,
Speaker 1: Dame doesn't really seem interested in doing it. So Phoenix,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, and Jay Crowder are the big ones, the
Speaker 1: big the big reason why I'm excited about this team,
Speaker 1: uh and the reason why I see them as someone
Speaker 1: who could get as high as the three seed centers
Speaker 1: around Jay Crowder, Cam Johnson and Michael Bridges. And the
Speaker 1: reason why is because we already know that Chris Paul
Speaker 1: can play alongside the ball dominant shooting guard. We we
Speaker 1: already know that Devin Booker can go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with some of the best players in the league and
Speaker 1: any given night and look better than then. We'll see
Speaker 1: how it works looks in the playoffs. He's a like
Speaker 1: an dark horse, so like maybe slide into the top
Speaker 1: ten this year, you know, con tem players like it
Speaker 1: could happen if he just keeps kind of going on
Speaker 1: the same upper trajectory. I could easily see it happening
Speaker 1: because he is a supremely talented score like seven points
Speaker 1: a game efficiently, and they get into the three or
Speaker 1: four seed and they end up making the second or
Speaker 1: third round of the playoffs. He's topped hi player Like
Speaker 1: it's really but the key there is, as is the
Speaker 1: case with any of these teams, when you've got guys
Speaker 1: who aren't quite as good as the top tier players
Speaker 1: in the league, like Chris Paul, like Devin Booker, you
Speaker 1: need really really good supporting pieces around them, and having
Speaker 1: guys like Michael Bridges. Michael Bridges is a freaking is
Speaker 1: a freak of nature defensively, like I've never believable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was like giving Kawai fits in some of those
Speaker 1: Bubble games. But I wasn't really in great shape yet,
Speaker 1: but he was absolutely giving him fits. It was insane
Speaker 1: to watch. He's only a second year player. Yeah, it's ridiculous,
Speaker 1: and I watched I remember seeing similar him having similar
Speaker 1: effects against other big wings. He gave a lot of
Speaker 1: problems to bring, Like brandon Ingram. I'm so used to
Speaker 1: just bumping a guy off and shooting over the top
Speaker 1: and like, and he literally would get like brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: couldn't shoot over this guy. Bridges has like that that's
Speaker 1: stripped down thing that Andregod always does he like you
Speaker 1: can get two or three stripped down seals, like basically
Speaker 1: a game at this point. So I love Michael Bridges.
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder is just another big, strong guy to throw
Speaker 1: at those type of guys. And then what I like
Speaker 1: about Cam Johnson is he's a fearless gunning three point
Speaker 1: shooter who's got some size, so kind of like a
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson type mold. And the reality with him is
Speaker 1: is that that's an ideal type of player as a
Speaker 1: spacing role in his size makes him less of a
Speaker 1: defensive liability potentially over the course of the season. I
Speaker 1: like the supporting pieces that they have around Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker. It makes sense. I think Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is somewhere around the twelve or thirteenth best player in
Speaker 1: the league still to this day. If Devin Booker actually
Speaker 1: is the ninth or tenth best player in the league,
Speaker 1: they have a duo that's up there with the top
Speaker 1: two or three duos in the league, even though it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like it because Devin Booker has been stuck
Speaker 1: in in in sons hell for the last few years.
Speaker 1: So they're a team that I'm actually pretty optimistic about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: me too, um And I think a lot of this
Speaker 1: though it depends on DeAndre Ayton Um in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Like is he yeah defensively, Like is he the guy
Speaker 1: that we started to see kind of towards the end
Speaker 1: of last year where like, oh, man, he can be
Speaker 1: like an impact defensive player, you know, and and he's
Speaker 1: like to turn around the rim. He knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1: But his rookie year, it was really really bad for
Speaker 1: that man. He was possibly lost. He didn't understand picking
Speaker 1: roll coverages. He was jumping at shots that weren't even shots.
Speaker 1: It just shot bakes, just all like all the typical
Speaker 1: rookie stuff. So if he continues on the same trajectory,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul doesn't have too much of a decline, and
Speaker 1: then Devin Booker just kind of is the same guy. Almost. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'm with you, Um, But I mean I
Speaker 1: think there are another team with a wide range of outcomes, right, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Booker kind of stagnates, Chris Paul shows like
Speaker 1: actual decline, Ayton doesn't take the next step, Cam Johnson
Speaker 1: isn't as valuable as you know you would hope you
Speaker 1: would be. Um. And then Jake Crowder just kind of
Speaker 1: as a Jake Prouder year because he's had a very
Speaker 1: up and down career. If people look closer at it
Speaker 1: comes down and you make shots exactly. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: a good defender, like he's always going to be a
Speaker 1: good defender as long as a competitor. He's super competitive,
Speaker 1: like he's he's a guy that you wanted your roster, undoubtedly,
Speaker 1: But if he just kind of has like a so
Speaker 1: so year, it could also go really bad for him.
Speaker 1: That's just I think that's just the nature of the
Speaker 1: west Man. We said that about so many of these teams.
Speaker 1: It's just there's a huge range of potential outcome. Division
Speaker 1: is insane, absolute nightmare. So good luck to anybody in
Speaker 1: that freaking division. Yeah, I know, um, unless but not least,
Speaker 1: and then we'll get you out of here. So Pelicans
Speaker 1: they added Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe, and they lost
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday, and they also lost favors. But so I actually,
Speaker 1: and Jason Maples has talked about this a lot. I
Speaker 1: like Drew Holiday as a player, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: but the I do think that his star and his
Speaker 1: career trajectory, he didn't really match up with the other
Speaker 1: players on the roster in the sense that, like, like I,
Speaker 1: I think you need to lean heavily on a Lonzo Lean,
Speaker 1: heavily on Zion, lean heavily on brandon Ingram to generate
Speaker 1: your offense, because they're gonna be the guys who are
Speaker 1: inevitably gonna carry you down the down at the end.
Speaker 1: And Drew Holiday was just a little too aggressive for
Speaker 1: my liking offensively with that roster, which they'll need him
Speaker 1: to be in Milwaukee. But I didn't really like it
Speaker 1: as a natural fit in uh in New Orleans, and
Speaker 1: Eric Bledsoe can bring of what Drew Holiday brought defensively
Speaker 1: in that role. Steven Adams doesn't make a ton of
Speaker 1: sense to me in terms of floor spacing with Zion,
Speaker 1: But you know, I'd like to see it a little
Speaker 1: bit more before I make a call. But they're a
Speaker 1: team that I think it entirely comes down to them defending,
Speaker 1: because the reality is is brandon Ingram in my opinion,
Speaker 1: has offensive talent that is up there with the top
Speaker 1: you know, twenty players in the league. Yeah, and offensively
Speaker 1: he's just as talented as Jason Tatum. Yeah, absolutely, what's
Speaker 1: the difference really, there isn't much of one effort is
Speaker 1: looking purely at the offensive then m and he now
Speaker 1: he's he had defensive flashes when he was with Lebron,
Speaker 1: but at has just about dissipated in New Orleans. And
Speaker 1: then Zion Williamson had defensive flashes at Duke that defensive
Speaker 1: flash that that is just about dissipated in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: So the reality is is if those guys can defend,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna have much of a problem
Speaker 1: at all scoring, especially with J. J. Reddick helping them
Speaker 1: spacing the ball and uh and with the fact that
Speaker 1: they're gonna lean heavily on their young guy A. Lonzo
Speaker 1: looks pretty good last night too in my bed. But so.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like this is
Speaker 1: a team like the I trust their the offensive talent
Speaker 1: of their key UH two players Brandon Ingerman Zian Williamson
Speaker 1: are going to score a a lot of points this year,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna come down to whether or not they
Speaker 1: can guard, which historically young teams don't because they don't
Speaker 1: understand the benefits of it, and they don't they haven't
Speaker 1: generated the NBA level instincts to be in the right
Speaker 1: places at the right time that allow you to be
Speaker 1: a good defense. Yeah, I think just to kind of
Speaker 1: at on top of their editions. I think stan Bond
Speaker 1: Gundy was a good higher I like him to. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think he'll get them to play hard at the
Speaker 1: very least he's been shown to get team to do that.
Speaker 1: I think that the trade situation was just it's the
Speaker 1: Pistons right that didn't work out. And I think also
Speaker 1: because he had gm ro he was I think he
Speaker 1: was e v O P so I mean trying to
Speaker 1: do both. It never works. It never ever works there,
Speaker 1: especially in the NBA. There's been like no president for
Speaker 1: that ever working unless we're going back to like the
Speaker 1: sixties or seventies, which is entirely different conversations. But um,
Speaker 1: I understood the Adams moved from the standpoint of just
Speaker 1: like not absolutely killing Ziona, playing him too much of
Speaker 1: the five, But I didn't understand extending him, Like what
Speaker 1: why are you giving the at that number too? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was it to fifty is it two years fifty million?
Speaker 1: I can't remember, but it was a lot, a lot,
Speaker 1: especially when you're gonna have young guys that you need
Speaker 1: to resign like Zions, and maybe his contract might be
Speaker 1: coming off the books right when Zion's extension eligible. Um
Speaker 1: so that I mean, I guess it could work from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, but yeah, I didn't love the move, especially
Speaker 1: because you have already some primary guys who aren't great
Speaker 1: shooters anyway, in terms of Zion and a Lonzo like
Speaker 1: Lonzo is really streaky. Um I think we've seen that.
Speaker 1: B I there's enough of example size that he can shoot.
Speaker 1: We can kind of confirm that. But if he's always
Speaker 1: driving into the paint with two or three guys there,
Speaker 1: that's it's just not gonna look pretty. Um So, I
Speaker 1: probably don't think they're a playoff team yet. I think
Speaker 1: there are a couple of years away, at least, um,
Speaker 1: at least in this West. I mean, yeah, if they're
Speaker 1: in the East, and I think it's an entirely different conversation. Um,
Speaker 1: but I don't. I don't see their path to the
Speaker 1: playoffs this year out West, especially if if Harden ends
Speaker 1: up staying in Houston, which it doesn't seem like it's
Speaker 1: gonna happen, but if it does, they're a playoff team,
Speaker 1: like they absolutely will be. We know, as much crap
Speaker 1: as I give Harden, if he's on your team, you're
Speaker 1: probably making the playoffs. I mean, everything about his career
Speaker 1: tells us that. Um. So, yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 1: New Orleans are. They're a fun team. They're an exciting team,
Speaker 1: especially if Zion and and b I and Lonzo stay
Speaker 1: healthy all year. Um, but they're not a playoff team
Speaker 1: yet in my opinion. Yeah. And the last thing I'll
Speaker 1: say about them that I thought was exciting is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite podcasts to listen to is J J
Speaker 1: Reddicks podcast. Because like, for a couple of reasons. One,
Speaker 1: he's a total junkie. Like this is a guy that
Speaker 1: he's a pro, but he's the opposite of the Darren
Speaker 1: Williams guy who just wants to go home and be
Speaker 1: with his family. Like this guy just live and breathes basketball,
Speaker 1: and he will play until they kick him out of
Speaker 1: the league. And but one of the other things is
Speaker 1: he actually likes talking about basketball. A lot of the
Speaker 1: a lot of the NBA, due to get into podcasting,
Speaker 1: like to talk about, you know, music, or they like
Speaker 1: to talk about, you know, business and that kind of
Speaker 1: thing because they just want to get breaks from it.
Speaker 1: But he's a junkie. And one of the things he
Speaker 1: said the other days, he's like, I am amazed by
Speaker 1: how good Zion's handle looks, and uh, you know, he
Speaker 1: he always had a good handle. Um, but it's when
Speaker 1: I was watching him last night, like he gets so
Speaker 1: incredibly low to the ground, and that, in conjunction with
Speaker 1: his size and the fact that he has really, really
Speaker 1: good control over the ball, makes him like one of
Speaker 1: the most deadly driving attack players that we've seen basically
Speaker 1: since Lebron when he was in his early twenties. And
Speaker 1: so like to me, would be leaning in on spacing
Speaker 1: didn't make any sense to me. Yeah, yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think just to do like a quick lebron co person.
Speaker 1: I think I remember watching early lebron and he actually
Speaker 1: kind of struggled with touch around the room early in
Speaker 1: his career, especially on like you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: finger rolls and flips and stuff. Zion is actually already
Speaker 1: really good at that stuff. He has incredible dexterity for
Speaker 1: a guy his size, and his ass isn't like it
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense. Um, so he's like, is ridiculous, It's insane.
Speaker 1: I don't think yesterday because they weren't letting him and
Speaker 1: he just kept like going around people's bodies and scooping
Speaker 1: and it's ridiculous, man, it's crazy. He's already one of
Speaker 1: the probably if he stays healthy, one of the three
Speaker 1: or four best guys finishing at the rim in the league.
Speaker 1: And he's one years old. So um, they definitely they
Speaker 1: have a bright future. But they've got to they've got
Speaker 1: to kind of figure out which direction they want to go,
Speaker 1: because they seem kind of aimless right now, right like
Speaker 1: moving off through holiday. Probably good bringing in Steve Adams
Speaker 1: and then adding a couple years to his contract. That
Speaker 1: doesn't really make sense to me, so especially at that number.
Speaker 1: So we'll see um. But generally I am optimistic about
Speaker 1: their future. I just don't see it this year. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I believe in the future, it just this isn't the year.
Speaker 1: And and that that's where I always say, like, like
Speaker 1: with these timelines, people have to be realistic and and
Speaker 1: understand like the teams that win are the teams that
Speaker 1: push all their chips into the middle. And when you
Speaker 1: push all your chips into the middle, it messes with
Speaker 1: your timeline. So chances are like the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 1: are the world teams that organically build to that. It
Speaker 1: requires a lot of good luck that usually doesn't break
Speaker 1: your way. Usually one of your draft picks won't pan out,
Speaker 1: or usually the time the timing won't work. And so
Speaker 1: my thing is like if you if you don't fit
Speaker 1: the draft picks just don't fit together. Yeah, the play
Speaker 1: styles don't match. They could all be really good in
Speaker 1: players individually, but they just don't mash. And that's why
Speaker 1: I love the Drew Holiday trade. That was that was
Speaker 1: David Griffin understanding like, hey, we're not gonna go win
Speaker 1: this thing this year, Drew doesn't match up with our timeline.
Speaker 1: I'm better off putting the ball Alonzo's hands a lot,
Speaker 1: brandon Ingram's hands a lot, and Zion's hands a lot,
Speaker 1: and just seeing how it goes and if they make laps,
Speaker 1: great to learn. But if not, you know who cares
Speaker 1: there that that's not the timeline. Yep. Alright, dude, this
Speaker 1: was awesome. Uh. We will do the entire Eastern conference
Speaker 1: on Friday. I think we're shooting for the same time.
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I'll double check my schedule,
Speaker 1: but I think the same time should work perfect. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys all so much for listening. Tommy, I will
Speaker 1: see you in a couple of days. Man, all right, man,
Speaker 1: sounds good. Thanks for having me.