Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward Podcast.
Speaker 2: So I saw the story where Tua quarterback Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 2: acknowledged and admitted that he strongly considered retirement this past
Speaker 2: year when he dealt with concussions, and that's something. Had
Speaker 2: it happened to me, it happened to a family member,
Speaker 2: you should consider retirement. You know, we get into these
Speaker 2: things in sports, these tunnels where everybody's afraid to get
Speaker 2: canceled and called out, and so people don't acknowledge stuff
Speaker 2: which is like obvious. And I felt like three or
Speaker 2: four years ago when I brought up that Kyler Murray
Speaker 2: was a little too small for my taste or that
Speaker 2: size mattered at quarterback, I got a lot of pushback
Speaker 2: on this stuff. And it's like, now, can we all
Speaker 2: admit it that Bryce young size is a little concerning
Speaker 2: out of Alabama, and it should be. That Tua is
Speaker 2: small and Jalen Hurts is not ideal, though I wouldn't
Speaker 2: classify him as small. He's been dinged up. And that
Speaker 2: Baker Mayfield, you know, for a number one pick, Baker's
Speaker 2: six feet tall and not a great athlete. Tried to
Speaker 2: size up a safety after an interception, banged on his shoulder,
Speaker 2: got hurt. Never the same quarterback. We have to be
Speaker 2: honest about this stuff. Is that Mahomes and Herbert and
Speaker 2: Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. These are
Speaker 2: bigger than average men. It matters. Go look at the
Speaker 2: list of Hall of Fame quarterbacks. You're John Elways, your Brady's,
Speaker 2: your Peyton Mannings, your big Bends, You're Joe Montana's, and
Speaker 2: Steve Young's not a lot of five ten guys there.
Speaker 2: So and I think it's a I think it's a
Speaker 2: real concern about Bryce Young. It's why there's a quarterback
Speaker 2: for Tennessee that may go in the second round, Hendon Hooker.
Speaker 2: The knock on him is that he had an ACL injury.
Speaker 2: But he's a big, strong kid who throws a beautiful football.
Speaker 2: He may be your best bet. He may be your
Speaker 2: best bet in this draft. I don't know that to
Speaker 2: be true. But he is big, he's strong, he's got
Speaker 2: a big arm, and you know he's older. So he's
Speaker 2: a more mature kid, right than your average twenty one
Speaker 2: twenty two year old quarterback coming in. He's you know,
Speaker 2: he's been around a while. So this stuff with Tua
Speaker 2: is you know, he's got an extension possibility coming up.
Speaker 2: I just I couldn't give it to him. I just couldn't,
Speaker 2: you know the way I look at Tua, great kid,
Speaker 2: great high school and college career, limitations at the pro level,
Speaker 2: and I said, we're to a point now where the
Speaker 2: media is not going to give you a pass on concussions.
Speaker 2: And not only are they not going to give you
Speaker 2: a pass concussions, the opinions will be swift, they'll be punitive.
Speaker 2: And I think the Miami Dolphins, if Tua has a concussion,
Speaker 2: you can't plan for a month minimum. I mean if
Speaker 2: third week of the year, September concussion, if you plan
Speaker 2: before Thanksgiving, you're going to get hammered by people. It's
Speaker 2: the one injury where the media is relentless, and no
Speaker 2: company wants to get banged on by the media for
Speaker 2: eight to ten weeks. They don't all right, So it's
Speaker 2: a bummer like some guys, you know, I've seen it
Speaker 2: at every position in the NFL. Some guys are built
Speaker 2: for high school and college. It's not quite built for
Speaker 2: the NFL. And I don't know if Twua is I mean,
Speaker 2: he has admitted before. Now he's admitting he thought about retirement,
Speaker 2: and he's admitted before he struggles at times to see
Speaker 2: over the offensive line. It's okay, we can acknowledge this
Speaker 2: right like it's an adult conversation now. And it's why
Speaker 2: Sean Payton came on my show and said, be very
Speaker 2: very careful about not going prototype in the first ten
Speaker 2: to fifteen picks. Do not get an offensive tackle that's
Speaker 2: six two or sixty three. You got to be six
Speaker 2: five and a half minimum, you know. Don't take a
Speaker 2: small corner, don't take a smaller quarterback. So I think
Speaker 2: the Dolphins are in a really tricky situation. Two is
Speaker 2: a really good guy. They want to protect him. They should.
Speaker 2: Tua also needs to be protected, like most pro athletes
Speaker 2: from themselves, because they're all competitors and all want to play.
Speaker 2: But that news that Tua considered retirement, how do you
Speaker 2: not consider that? If you're the Miami Dolphins going forward,
Speaker 2: how do you not Now, we bring in the great
Speaker 2: Marcus Thompson. We use him as often as we can.
Speaker 2: He's a busy guy. I came out last week and
Speaker 2: I thought Sacramento would win the opener. I'll take the
Speaker 2: Warriors in six. My question was how much do you
Speaker 2: get out of Andrew Wiggins? Were you surprised how effective
Speaker 2: Andrew Wiggins was having not played for three months?
Speaker 1: I was, I mean, he's such a freak athlete that
Speaker 1: how do you do that. He's bouncing around, he had
Speaker 1: three blocks, he's playing defense, he's rebounding, he's getting to
Speaker 1: his spots and it looks like normal. It is wasa
Speaker 1: even if you know, like this dude is a unique athlete,
Speaker 1: Like really he is special in a very like created
Speaker 1: in a lab kind of way. Right, he could run
Speaker 1: all day before this year, he never missed games, Like
Speaker 1: he's just a guy who could just play all day.
Speaker 1: And he looked like that it did catch up with him, right,
Speaker 1: he was winded. I think it was one for eight
Speaker 1: from three. He missed the three that would have won
Speaker 1: the game, basically wide open from the corner. So you
Speaker 1: could see like the effects of it. But man, let
Speaker 1: me let me tell you Kyler. After the game in
Speaker 1: a loss, you could feel that they're like, oh we
Speaker 1: got wigkets back. Oh oh okay, Like even after the loss,
Speaker 1: it we're like, oh we got we got wigkets back.
Speaker 1: And that was kind of the sentiment like we're jet
Speaker 1: we're fine, our whole squad is here, and Wiggins looks
Speaker 1: like that already, Okay, we're pretty good. That's one of
Speaker 1: the words to never get down. They very rarely get down.
Speaker 1: That's still one of the higher moments I felt in
Speaker 1: locker room after a loss where they felt like brooding confidence.
Speaker 2: Well, now with Kaminga and Wiggins, Peyton will get to
Speaker 2: him in a second, and Dante DiVincenzo. They do have
Speaker 2: a seven to an eight man rotation here of you
Speaker 2: know veteran players. You know a player the Warriors don't
Speaker 2: have to mention Jordan Poole by name, but it's pretty obvious.
Speaker 2: Kerr and Draymond take turns, you know, firing shots at
Speaker 2: him defensively, Marcus, he's it's a problem, like he's not engaged.
Speaker 2: I thought he had three or four lapses defensively, and
Speaker 2: I honestly thought it cost them the game. Are his minutes?
Speaker 2: I mean last year in the playoffs, Marcus, the longer
Speaker 2: they went, the fewer minutes he played like there was there.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's real concern about what he gives
Speaker 2: up on the defensive end? He's just not engaged a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it matters if he's engaged or not.
Speaker 1: He's just not very good at it, so it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter at this level, right, Like you could be as
Speaker 1: intuite as you wanted. He made a few good plays,
Speaker 1: but in the end, he's not guard deer in Fox.
Speaker 1: So what he's not guarding Malik Monk. So the thing
Speaker 1: that is important for him is to be able to
Speaker 1: go back at you, Like they need somebody to go
Speaker 1: back at it. They don't have a guy outside of
Speaker 1: Steph Curry who can catch the ball at the three
Speaker 1: point line and end up at the rim. He's the
Speaker 1: only other guy who can do it. He's the only
Speaker 1: guy who can dribble well enough and create, so they
Speaker 1: need him for that. But he also gives up stuff
Speaker 1: on defense, and that's kind of to catch twenty two
Speaker 1: with Jordan Poole. If he's rolling and his shot is falling,
Speaker 1: all right, you broke with him. Like there was a
Speaker 1: stretch where they couldn't score and it was him and
Speaker 1: Milik Monk going at each other, and it was like,
Speaker 1: what the heck is this is this Michigan verus Kentucky?
Speaker 2: Like I know, but.
Speaker 1: Crunch time, you just get the sense in this series
Speaker 1: against the most efficient offense team that could explode like this.
Speaker 1: He probably won't be playing down the stretch, not that much.
Speaker 1: He didn't play that much this game, Like he just
Speaker 1: wasn't there. And Steve Kerr is going to leave defense,
Speaker 1: He's going to lean defense. Every time they scored one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty three points, they should win that game.
Speaker 1: They gave up one twenty six. That was the problem.
Speaker 2: What are they going to get now from Peyton who
Speaker 2: left the game some sort of core injury. What's the
Speaker 2: latest on him?
Speaker 1: He seemed to be fine. He said he felt good.
Speaker 1: He came back in. He just you know, Peyton is
Speaker 1: one of them, dudess. He's like a football player in
Speaker 1: that sense, like a running back, Like he's all his
Speaker 1: whole bodies on the line. He's running, he's jumping, he's falling,
Speaker 1: he's playing big right, and you just feel like he's
Speaker 1: got a few years of this, So you need to
Speaker 1: get him because there's always something with him, right. He's
Speaker 1: just he's so physical with the way he plays. He's
Speaker 1: a revelatory. He changes everything to them. He gives him something.
Speaker 1: I feel like he might get a lot of Pool mints.
Speaker 1: If it's not Wiggins, it'll be Gary Payton. I honestly
Speaker 1: think that Peyton's a better fit. I think when I
Speaker 1: watch Pool on the floor with the Warriors can I
Speaker 1: feel like Draymond's body language isn't great sometimes Kurt isn't.
Speaker 1: I feel like they hold their breath a little with
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole. They don't trust him. They know he's gifted,
Speaker 1: but they don't trust him. I think they trust Peyton
Speaker 1: though he's limited. Yeah, the problem with Jordan is he's
Speaker 1: just very young, and the mistakes and the stuff he's
Speaker 1: got to learn, there's literally no other way around it.
Speaker 1: Like he gets the ball at the end of the
Speaker 1: quarter in the game and Steph is on a court
Speaker 1: and it's Jordan Poole and he goes one on one
Speaker 1: with Fox and he turns it over and it's like,
Speaker 1: you got to get a ball to Stephan in that situation, right,
Speaker 1: But in the same vein, he's taking that play and
Speaker 1: he's gotten the bucket out of it. He just does
Speaker 1: so many things that nobody else on the team can do.
Speaker 1: So they gotta live with it. And you know what,
Speaker 1: here's the reality. They created that monster, right, they taught
Speaker 1: him out to play. So if he's taking bad shots,
Speaker 1: he watched him take bad shots. He learned from them, right.
Speaker 1: He his swagger, his confidence, they reeded it. So this
Speaker 1: is just part of it. Like it reminds me of like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're messing with a teenager, right, Like you're
Speaker 1: raising a teenager. Like there's just parts of raising a
Speaker 1: teenager that are tough. You got a young dude with
Speaker 1: that much talent, that much confidence, that much arrogance, that
Speaker 1: much belief in himself and also that many flaws. You
Speaker 1: just gotta live with it because they can't without him.
Speaker 1: But also it's some things on the court that frustrates you.
Speaker 1: And they're all thirty thirty plus years old, they've got
Speaker 1: four championships, they're veterans, right, you know, they make mistakes too,
Speaker 1: so they just have to live with it. I feel
Speaker 1: like they just have to live with it no matter what,
Speaker 1: because bottom line, if Gary Payton's out there, that's one
Speaker 1: less score. And if Klay's not making his shots like
Speaker 1: he wasn't, especially down the stretch. Now, it's just all
Speaker 1: on Steph. They run a boxing one on Steph. Who
Speaker 1: creates offense at that point. Now it's like, yo, you
Speaker 1: kind of need your pool of the game, so figure
Speaker 1: out what to do on defense. But that dude could
Speaker 1: go get a bucket.
Speaker 2: So Draymond does podcasts right after the games he did
Speaker 2: last year. You know, it's I see people take shots
Speaker 2: head him. It's not like he divulges game plans. How
Speaker 2: does it sit though with the team? I mean, Draymond
Speaker 2: gives you insight that literally nobody in basketball gives you.
Speaker 2: He's off the floor for the dynasty. Does it sit
Speaker 2: uncomfortably with a team? How do they feel about it?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Number, if there's one thing the
Speaker 1: I mean, first off, the only people who could possibly
Speaker 1: say something are like the Ogs, right, Steph Curry, Clayton Thompson,
Speaker 1: andre right, But anybody else, it probably doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: they say. Is there any team more brand conscious than
Speaker 1: the Warriors? Right there? Any that spends as much time
Speaker 1: building like who they are? I mean Clay's riding boats
Speaker 1: to games, right like, he's got his whole shtick. Steph,
Speaker 1: you know, has his thing, like even andre Igandala is
Speaker 1: the super smart tech guy, right Like they look at
Speaker 1: Draymond as that's Draymond's thing. As long as he's playing, well,
Speaker 1: it's fine. I haven't heard anything negative about it, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, Draymond is a guy who will do some
Speaker 1: things that irritates people. The podcast ain't one of them.
Speaker 1: From what I can hear, it's just Draymond. Plus, I
Speaker 1: don't know how much of this is Like, Yo, this
Speaker 1: is Draymond. We've known he's dude for ten years now.
Speaker 1: Like why we get mad about the sky being blue?
Speaker 1: Like Draymond likes to talk. He's gonna talk. He's pretty smart,
Speaker 1: so he knows what he's doing. It's gonna be calculated. Why, Like,
Speaker 1: why worry about it? I think the fans don't like
Speaker 1: it more than the players don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think he's very
Speaker 2: measured and calculated. He knows exactly what he's saying. I
Speaker 2: love it. I find the accents us fascinating.
Speaker 1: But there's a there's like an other element to to it.
Speaker 1: I think that people should probably know, like like he's
Speaker 1: essentially putting his team on notice, right, Like if he's
Speaker 1: out there talking, they they kind of got to go
Speaker 1: back him up, right, And the only reason you would
Speaker 1: complain about him doing that is if you are afraid,
Speaker 1: you can't back it up. And that's just not worries basketball. Right,
Speaker 1: They're gonna go into arena and they're gonna talk, and
Speaker 1: then they're all going to back up the one who's talking.
Speaker 1: Like that's just how it is. So I do think
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of it, like an ulterior motives,
Speaker 1: like all right, I'm gonna put us on notice and
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to live. We're gonna have to rise
Speaker 1: up to the occasion because nobody else on the team
Speaker 1: will do that. I do feel like this is a
Speaker 1: little bit of team chemistry situation as well.
Speaker 2: Outside of the Warriors. Was there any takeaway for you
Speaker 2: this weekend, Marcus? That was anything you took a step
Speaker 2: back and went, you know, once Giannis got hurt, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be a different game. Celtics are going to dispose
Speaker 2: very quickly. Uh, Philadelphia is going to dispose of Brooklyn
Speaker 2: very quickly. Anything surprised you at all? Not necessarily surprising.
Speaker 2: I thought Memphis would be a tougher fight for the
Speaker 2: like the Lakers kind of wax them.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like the Ruy and and re right,
Speaker 1: like they were cooking the Lakers look like, uh oh,
Speaker 1: but if you're reminded of the ceiling they had, right,
Speaker 1: they've played below it for so long you forget they
Speaker 1: have it. But it's like, wait a second, if this
Speaker 1: thing clicks, it might click click right. They could like
Speaker 1: if Memphis doesn't put up a fight here and the
Speaker 1: Warriors Kings go six or seven of a brawl, the
Speaker 1: right track race right now, whoever comes out of it.
Speaker 1: You got to deal with the size of Phillip, physicality
Speaker 1: of the Lakers. Well, you could see this kind of
Speaker 1: kind of shaping up for them in a way that's
Speaker 1: a little bit like, wow, we just would have never
Speaker 1: thought this two months ago. We would have ever thought this,
Speaker 1: like they would have this ride to the you know,
Speaker 1: to the Western Conference Finals. I was I'm interested in
Speaker 1: the Miami Milwaukee series. I think this was more of
Speaker 1: a blue kind of game. One like I think even
Speaker 1: without Giannis, the Bucks are so used to playing without
Speaker 1: them that they might figure something out. So I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see what they have left. I think this is
Speaker 1: a phenomenon. The team that comes in off the playing
Speaker 1: usually a little bit rolling and and now you know,
Speaker 1: I remember I think it was Memphis got Game one
Speaker 1: against Utah afterday, if you win two games to get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs, your nice little rhythm, and you're playing
Speaker 1: a team that was just sitting, was just rested. I
Speaker 1: think that's a little bit of thing. So I really
Speaker 1: want to see what Miami has. Actually they lost one
Speaker 1: in World One, but I want to see if Miami
Speaker 1: is legit. If they could really extend the series, that
Speaker 1: changes the entire East. And for Walking he's out entire East.
Speaker 1: It blows everything up. Now, another team could sneak in,
Speaker 1: like like the Knicks to the East Finals.
Speaker 2: I don't think they will, but you know, going back
Speaker 2: to what you said about the Lakers, I thought they'd
Speaker 2: beat Minnesota and I thought they'd beat Memphis. But I
Speaker 2: did feel like the longer it goes, it's more of
Speaker 2: a disadvantage. Because if you could get in and out
Speaker 2: of this series with Memphis in five games and Lebon
Speaker 2: gets like four days to rest, then you have a
Speaker 2: real chance to win Game one. It gets whoever you
Speaker 2: play like I think play. There is a path that
Speaker 2: the Lakers need to hit to win the Warriors. Don't
Speaker 2: you know a lot of the good teams don't the
Speaker 2: Lakers do. There's a path to success, and it's getting
Speaker 2: rid of Memphis fast.
Speaker 1: But doesn't look feasible. I mean, like even like Joh
Speaker 1: got hurt and this is becoming a thing. Joh gets hurt, right,
Speaker 1: this is obviously a thing where this is now the
Speaker 1: second playoffs and he got hurt. And remember before they
Speaker 1: were like better without him, They like played in a
Speaker 1: way where it was like, yo, they actually lock in
Speaker 1: on defense, right, But no Steven Adams, no Brandon Clark.
Speaker 1: That that that's a problem. Missles might be in trouble
Speaker 1: even if Josh somehow plays. You're down one and they've
Speaker 1: got Anthony Davis, Huka at any moment just dropped forty
Speaker 1: on you, right, well, like they got the guy who
Speaker 1: can do it, lebron Can just dropped forty on you,
Speaker 1: and you're in trouble.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they were trailing by four. That was
Speaker 2: an offensive foul on jaw. The Lakers were getting the
Speaker 2: ball and were hot. And by the way, the Lakers
Speaker 2: had their best quarter of the season and the third
Speaker 2: quarter and John was on the floor, so's he wasn't
Speaker 2: stopping anybody. I thought the Lakers got so many good looks.
Speaker 2: I mean the first half, the whole game. They got him,
Speaker 2: They just didn't hit him in the first half.
Speaker 1: But they were.
Speaker 2: Getting fun nominal looks. Their ball movement was excellent. That's
Speaker 2: the part though, that makes you think, how real is this?
Speaker 2: I mean, it is Ruy hitting all those the whole series.
Speaker 1: He won't No, you know, you not sold on the
Speaker 1: Hotchi Bower bandwagon, not hop it on? You not ready
Speaker 1: for the twenty four average of twenty four for the
Speaker 1: series for Hottie Bower. You ate, I'm signing up Ruy
Speaker 1: hotchiburrs average of twenty four for the entire series. Put
Speaker 1: me down, I got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I will say their third leading score Russell
Speaker 2: Ruy reeves. They've got a collection of guys who are
Speaker 2: all I mean, D'Angelo Russell is capable of drop twenty six,
Speaker 2: going to give you a game, right, yeah, no question,
Speaker 2: no question. He can be a little yep. Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 2: by the way the playing game, Dennis shrewder was their
Speaker 2: third guy. So they don't have a they don't have
Speaker 2: a nail down three. But I mean, listen to Celtics
Speaker 2: got to the finals last year and Marcus Smart is
Speaker 2: hot and cold. You don't know exactly what you're getting
Speaker 2: offensively from Marcus Smart. So I mean, if you have
Speaker 2: two legitimate scores, I mean, what's impressible. We can do
Speaker 2: the number three by committee, right, you can kind of
Speaker 2: do it by committee. So all right, So you still
Speaker 2: feel good about the Warriors before we let you go.
Speaker 2: I still think they went it in six.
Speaker 1: I mean this is how I played it out, like
Speaker 1: I think they lose the first game. I just felt
Speaker 1: like Sacramentdo is gonna make everything. This was like everybody
Speaker 1: to be like Sherman Club, Right, this is thirty five
Speaker 1: years of wanting and won't it Like they've been waiting
Speaker 1: for this moment forever. I feel like they were going
Speaker 1: to make every shot, and there was a stretch when
Speaker 1: they did, and now the adjustments happened. Let's see if
Speaker 1: they can handle it. I feel like Warriors get game
Speaker 1: to hold Servant home and we go back. We either
Speaker 1: go back to Sacramento tie to too, or we go
Speaker 1: back to Sacramento with them playing for their lives to
Speaker 1: stay alive. That's how I'll see it shaking out. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked though, if Sacramento one.
Speaker 2: I think any Laker fans saw it coming, like you
Speaker 2: gotta win. In Memphis, energy was low early and this
Speaker 2: team isn't you know, they're not Sacramento young, They're not
Speaker 2: you know, they're one of those teams like they got
Speaker 2: to be engaged. Like, is Lebron over the last two
Speaker 2: or three years really lets the game come to him?
Speaker 1: He didn't.
Speaker 2: I mean the first quarters for Lebron, it's like a
Speaker 2: boxer in the first three rounds, like he feels the
Speaker 2: game out right, He's basically hoping somebody else does the
Speaker 2: heavy lifting early he's conserving energy. So when Anthony Davis
Speaker 2: can't hit shots and Lebron's sort of working his way
Speaker 2: into a game and it's like, oh, we trailed by fifteen, okay,
Speaker 2: Like that's where the game became very quickly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you put it perfectly. Every Laker fan saw this coming.
Speaker 3: This has been it. You know, this Lakers season has
Speaker 3: been such a bizarre journey, Colin, because everyone's going to
Speaker 3: focus on the fact that they've been really good since
Speaker 3: the deadline, and they have and like so good that
Speaker 3: they've deserved the attention that they've received in a way
Speaker 3: that they may not have deserved the attention they've received
Speaker 3: in the previous year. And a half. It was more
Speaker 3: of just like everyone watching the ship crash and burn,
Speaker 3: you know. But there have been two really interesting stretches
Speaker 3: this season that I think are very very under discussed,
Speaker 3: I should say, to get the Lakers where they were.
Speaker 3: There's a stretch where Lebron James missed extended time and
Speaker 3: Anthony Davis carried the team. Actually two stretches like that,
Speaker 3: but the big one the foot issue towards the end
Speaker 3: of the year. And then there was the stretch where
Speaker 3: Anthony Davis missed a ton of time and Lebron James
Speaker 3: stepped in. And in each of those stretches, Lebron and
Speaker 3: ad the one that was available put forth incredibly desperate basketball,
Speaker 3: playing at the absolute top of their games to drag
Speaker 3: the team to wins, just to float things long enough
Speaker 3: until the trade deadline could happen, or until Lebron James
Speaker 3: could return, right, And every single time there has been
Speaker 3: a return, they've collectively exhaled, and they I don't play
Speaker 3: well as the favorite. It's basically what I'm saying. When
Speaker 3: Lebron James came back, they immediately lost to Chicago because
Speaker 3: they didn't think they had to play as hard as
Speaker 3: they did they lost that desperation and yeah, this game textbook.
Speaker 3: They go out there in Game one, they dominate that game,
Speaker 3: and it was I heard a lot of people saying
Speaker 3: it wasn't as close as it looked. I agree, But
Speaker 3: did anybody think Memphis was winning Game one or did
Speaker 3: it feel like the Lakers controlled it throughout? They controlled
Speaker 3: it throughout right, But then after that game they flipped
Speaker 3: from being a slight underdog in the series to being
Speaker 3: a slight favorite in the series than John Morant's out
Speaker 3: and Lebron James and Anthony Davis are two players that
Speaker 3: liked to do the absolute bare minimum to win basketball games.
Speaker 3: They tried that tonight. And that's a young, scrappy Memphis
Speaker 3: team that's always played super well at home. They played
Speaker 3: super physical, really bothered the Lakers, particularly around the rim,
Speaker 3: and they got a big win.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is they are a better defensive team.
Speaker 2: Memphis is when jaws not on the floor and the
Speaker 2: ball moves better. And I've said this before, I said
Speaker 2: it today on FS one. I said, flashy point guards
Speaker 2: like sports cars. They're not built for bad weather or
Speaker 2: a trip cross country, but god, they're fun, really fun.
Speaker 2: Trey Young, you'll throw even Steph Curry and Steph Curry,
Speaker 2: Trey Young, John Wall, John Morant, Dereck Rose. They are
Speaker 2: players that get exposed defensively. They're usually a little I mean,
Speaker 2: they're all a little thin, a little light. Westbrook was
Speaker 2: more stocky, but again he plays defense when he feels
Speaker 2: like it. But when you get these Jahn Morant type players,
Speaker 2: is they're exhilarating and ball movement slows down. You kind
Speaker 2: of stare, you, kind of watch Derrick Rose perform, watch
Speaker 2: John Wall, and they're not great. They give you so
Speaker 2: much energy on the offensive end, they don't give you
Speaker 2: a ton on the defensive end. Now, Steph Curry and
Speaker 2: the Warriors, they've built the team Draymon Clay when he
Speaker 2: was a great defender. They bring in Gary Payton, they
Speaker 2: see his weaknesses and they build around him. But when
Speaker 2: I watch Memphis, and I've seen this now three years,
Speaker 2: Tyas Jones played better defense. I've seen this the last
Speaker 2: you know, ten times that he's played. They're a better
Speaker 2: defensive team. He's not a great scorer, but the forwards
Speaker 2: and the wings move the ball really, really, really well.
Speaker 2: And by the way, I remember John Wall years ago
Speaker 2: a missing games for the Wizards. They won like nine
Speaker 2: or ten straight. It doesn't mean Wall's not great, but
Speaker 2: you know, everybody then feels like when the flashy point
Speaker 2: guards out, hey, I'm gonna get touches tonight, like I'm
Speaker 2: going to be included in this game plan, and you
Speaker 2: really want to play well, showing the coaches Okay, when
Speaker 2: the guy comes back, I want touches. And I think
Speaker 2: Memphis tonight played a lot of energy, moved it really
Speaker 2: really well. Everybody just the ball moves better. And it's
Speaker 2: not a knock on John Rant. He's exhilarating. But I
Speaker 2: see this sometimes even with the Warriors, Like sometimes if
Speaker 2: Draymond's not setting screens, it's a lot of guys watching
Speaker 2: Steph do is you know, Harlem globetrotter ball movement flying
Speaker 2: around And I just I looked at me Emphis tonight,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, they're a good team without Jaw. They're
Speaker 2: a different team, but they're a good team without him.
Speaker 3: The way you broke it down is perfect, Like it's
Speaker 3: a there's a baseline kind of like fundamental list of
Speaker 3: things that if you do well as a basketball team,
Speaker 3: you have a chance to win no matter what right, Like,
Speaker 3: even without a top tier superstar, if you can protect
Speaker 3: the rim really well, if you compete really hard in
Speaker 3: all of the effort and energy parts of the game,
Speaker 3: like sliding your defensively on the perimeter, beating guys to
Speaker 3: the to the rim on help situations, crashing the offensive glass,
Speaker 3: crashing the defensive glass. Just by playing super hard and
Speaker 3: having a couple of baseline pieces that you need, you
Speaker 3: can win in the NBA, especially since a lot of
Speaker 3: these NBA players are good. Like we spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time talking about role players in the Shortcomings, but
Speaker 3: a lot of these guys were all conference dudes in
Speaker 3: college and guys who average twenty five thirty points a
Speaker 3: game in high school. So if you give them close
Speaker 3: out situations, even against good NBA defenses, they're gonna be
Speaker 3: able to score. And so if you don't guard the
Speaker 3: ball and you give give up dribble penetry, the guys
Speaker 3: are attacking closeouts all night long, they're going to score.
Speaker 3: That's why, Like, honestly, from a schematic standpoint, watching this game,
Speaker 3: I remain extremely confident that the Lakers are going to
Speaker 3: win the series. The only thing that really stood out
Speaker 3: to me schematically was the Jared Vanderbilt problem, and it too,
Speaker 3: it's twofold. Half of it is Jared Vanderbilt and the
Speaker 3: fact that he's such a non threat offensively that Memphis
Speaker 3: can stick Jared Jackson on him and just muck everything
Speaker 3: up underneath the basket. But the flip side of it
Speaker 3: is Ruey Hatchimura is ascending in front of us. This
Speaker 3: is something that has We've seen the two twenty point
Speaker 3: point game, the two twenty plus point games in this series,
Speaker 3: but it actually extends backwards a few weeks now. His
Speaker 3: original His initial tenure with the Lakers went a little
Speaker 3: bit rough. He got moved to the bench after the trade.
Speaker 3: But Phil hand he's been working with him relentlessly before
Speaker 3: games and in practice on polishing up some things in
Speaker 3: his skill set. He's been working with Darvin Ham really
Speaker 3: hard to find little areas of the game where he
Speaker 3: can impact the game. Defensively, He's become kind of a sneaky,
Speaker 3: solid help defender under the rim, blocking shots, grabbing contested rebounds.
Speaker 3: They're gonna he's big. He's big, he's huge. They're gonna
Speaker 3: slide him into that starting lineup at some point in
Speaker 3: this playoff run, maybe even in Game three of this series,
Speaker 3: and I think they're gonna cut way back on Jared
Speaker 3: Vanderbilt's minutes. That was really the only schematic thing that
Speaker 3: bothered me, uh or concerned me. I should say about
Speaker 3: the Lakers, Yeah.
Speaker 2: But I will say they didn't play well. Started slow,
Speaker 2: were on the road, ad didn't give you much offensively,
Speaker 2: and they were in the game with two minutes ago.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, when the Knicks play poorly, they
Speaker 2: get rolled Miami, not even Yannis on the Florida Nights
Speaker 2: getting rolled. Lakers were on the road without or with
Speaker 2: John Morant. Memphis is a very upper echelon team, and
Speaker 2: they competed, and they really didn't play their best basketball.
Speaker 2: It was like, I since the trade, I think they're
Speaker 2: much more competitive team. I think they have more options.
Speaker 2: I like, I watched the night and I thought, you
Speaker 2: very early, it's like, it's not going to be their night.
Speaker 2: It's not going to be their night. But they competed,
Speaker 2: they hung in the game. You know, it wasn't a blowout.
Speaker 2: They were you know, there was a little brief moment
Speaker 2: with about four and a half five left, You're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: we got it. It's six. So My takeaway is go
Speaker 2: back home, win both games. Jaw's not going to be
Speaker 2: playing much in this series, and the faster you can
Speaker 2: close it out the better because this is this is Lebron.
Speaker 2: James is old and you can see it like he
Speaker 2: can't go seven game series or they'll pay for it
Speaker 2: next series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the way you broke it down is perfect.
Speaker 3: Like the there's a competitiveness that you'd like to see
Speaker 3: when a team loses that shows them that they're just
Speaker 3: a victim of victims, not even the right word, but
Speaker 3: just shows them that this is a natural ebb and
Speaker 3: flow in the series. From the point that the Grizzlies
Speaker 3: went up sixty six to forty six, they were up twenty.
Speaker 3: This was the early third quarter. I thought the Lakers
Speaker 3: really controlled the rest of that game. They just were
Speaker 3: a little bit too far away, especially with Dangel Russell
Speaker 3: being incapable of making a shot. Anthony Davis was missing
Speaker 3: everything around the basket. They just didn't quite have the
Speaker 3: offensive firepower tonight to make up for the hole that
Speaker 3: they dug themselves. But once they locked in defensively in
Speaker 3: that second half, they got plenty of stops. Now the
Speaker 3: problem is and you just said this, and this is
Speaker 3: so important this particular Lakers team. Rest is going to
Speaker 3: be key for them, and dying this series quickly is
Speaker 3: so important because there will be long series ahead. The
Speaker 3: next series against Sacramento of Golden State probably a longer
Speaker 3: series because the Lakers struggle with transition defense and the
Speaker 3: way that they run their coverage is going to leave
Speaker 3: some things open for the Kings guards and the Warriors guards.
Speaker 3: In the conference finals against a team like Phoenix or
Speaker 3: the Clippers or Denver, they're going to be in for
Speaker 3: a long series. Whoever comes out of the West or East.
Speaker 3: That's a six or seven game series. So if they
Speaker 3: could buy little tiny chunks of like three or four
Speaker 3: days off here or there for Broughn and Anthony Davis
Speaker 3: to rest ending this series in five would go a
Speaker 3: long way towards that. So, Colin, everyone was accusing us
Speaker 3: of backing up our volume guy, which I think is
Speaker 3: ridiculous because it's just.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's gotten into everybody, Colin, because I
Speaker 3: feel like this is the most reasonable opinion in the world,
Speaker 3: and everyone's calling me immoral. You know how it goes.
Speaker 3: But I could see the case for the I could
Speaker 3: see the case for the ejection. Now I disagreed with it,
Speaker 3: but I could see the case, and the case was
Speaker 3: Draymond's history fair. I thought the decision to suspend him
Speaker 3: was completely outrageous. Where did you land on that?
Speaker 2: The reality is if I went up and punched you,
Speaker 2: and you punched me back, and you knocked me out
Speaker 2: and I just grazed you, you could say, well, he
Speaker 2: started it, and that's a real defense. If you broke
Speaker 2: into my house and I shot you and you had
Speaker 2: a terrible injury, and maybe maybe I didn't need to
Speaker 2: be as violent. Again to you, I would say, he
Speaker 2: broke into my house, right, Sabonis got a technical and
Speaker 2: initiated the circus. Draymond pulling out then added to it.
Speaker 2: But that's a real defense, which is you know, he's
Speaker 2: swung first, or he broke in, or he grabbed my leg.
Speaker 2: So to me, that's not why they threw him out
Speaker 2: for the next game. I believe at my core because
Speaker 2: Sabonis a started it and played the remaining seven and
Speaker 2: a half minutes. He was fine. And you know, again,
Speaker 2: if there would have been an injury, then there's a
Speaker 2: different component. But I think and I don't blame Adam
Speaker 2: Silver for this. Deep in the DNA of the NBA,
Speaker 2: the Malice at the Palace was their darkest moment. And
Speaker 2: when Draymond got up as a road player and started
Speaker 2: taunting the crowd and Adam Silver's in the building, I
Speaker 2: think that's a non starter. If you're at Chase Center,
Speaker 2: it's different. But if you're on the road, Adam's there,
Speaker 2: he hears those fans, he sees the double birds. He
Speaker 2: It's like, no way, we're not going there. That even
Speaker 2: though I defended the players in Malice of the Palace
Speaker 2: because if you went back and looked at the people
Speaker 2: and the fans involved, many of them had criminal records.
Speaker 2: They were just there to be trouble. I defended run
Speaker 2: our Test. I defended the players because I would have
Speaker 2: been terrified to be in an arena, an opposing arena.
Speaker 2: But it does matter what arena it is. You can't
Speaker 2: do that on the road in a hostile playoff environment, Jason,
Speaker 2: you just can't do it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: There's the old saying you can't yell fire in a
Speaker 2: crowded theater. You can't. So I think Silver being there,
Speaker 2: and cause you know, when Draymond's doing that. Adam's hearing
Speaker 2: those fans and he's seeing those double birds and he's like,
Speaker 2: I'm not going there repercussions. Again, Draymond's a veteran, He's
Speaker 2: not a rookie. Like you could see a rookie losing
Speaker 2: their shit.
Speaker 1: You could.
Speaker 2: I mean, seriously, a nineteen year old kid gets worked up.
Speaker 2: This is a wise NBA sage. You know, Draymond's been
Speaker 2: in these wars forever. So I think it's like resume
Speaker 2: road insiding. Because I'm with you, if you do something first,
Speaker 2: you do have a right a cheap shot. To me,
Speaker 2: you do have a right to cheap shot back. And
Speaker 2: that would have easily been two technicals keep playing. But
Speaker 2: that that crowd and that even somebody said it today
Speaker 2: on my show. I forget who it was, but it
Speaker 2: was me. Have been Sam Amick. He just said, you know,
Speaker 2: if he'd just run through the tunnel, it would have
Speaker 2: felt different. Just I'm out out.
Speaker 1: It was like.
Speaker 2: Ninety seconds of come on, you want a piece of me.
Speaker 1: I didn't like it.
Speaker 3: Well, there are things that are debatable about this, and
Speaker 3: there are things or not debatable, Like the debatable side
Speaker 3: of it is should he have been suspended. Sure, you know,
Speaker 3: like we can go back and forth about that. Here's
Speaker 3: what's not debatable. Draymond brought this on himself and his team.
Speaker 3: That goes like, regardless of what the decision making process was,
Speaker 3: the risk was willingly took on by Draymond with his
Speaker 3: behavior and especially what you're talking about after the timeout,
Speaker 3: because again, like and I think I think it's a
Speaker 3: complicated topic, and I know you've talked about this a
Speaker 3: little bit on your show, yeaally, but like the dynamic
Speaker 3: between the fans and players is super complicated because like,
Speaker 3: you're heated, you're super competitive, and you're riled up, and
Speaker 3: now some dudes saying some wildly disrespectful stuff from to you,
Speaker 3: like twenty feet away, and there's really like this barrier
Speaker 3: between you that extends beyond the distance. It's also like
Speaker 3: Adam Silver standing there between you because it could literally
Speaker 3: mess up your entire season and everything that you and
Speaker 3: your team are trying to build towards. But again, like
Speaker 3: there's a difference between like I think I personally would
Speaker 3: not have suspended him. That said, that's a debate, that's
Speaker 3: a fair debate. There's no question that Draymond brought it
Speaker 3: on himself at least through his decision making process and
Speaker 3: knowing what kind of history he had. Now with this
Speaker 3: series gets really interesting from here. I don't think it's
Speaker 3: overcallin and I'm still pretty confident that Golden State's gonna win.
Speaker 3: I know it sounds crazy, but a couple of different things.
Speaker 3: They kind of started to figure out some stuff in
Speaker 3: Game two that I believe might have led them to
Speaker 3: a victory had Draymond been able to stay in the game.
Speaker 3: When Andrew Wiggins is on the floor and when Gary
Speaker 3: Payton is on the floor, they have straightforward matchups for
Speaker 3: Fox and Monk and they're actually doing a decent job
Speaker 3: containing him there. Then they have to go to pick
Speaker 3: and roll to get rid of the on ball defender,
Speaker 3: and Draymond is blowing all of that stuff up as
Speaker 3: the screen defender. At the end of the game, they
Speaker 3: had to go to Looney and then they went to
Speaker 3: pick and roll, and Looney couldn't stop anybody at the rim,
Speaker 3: so that ended up being the problem problem. But functionally
Speaker 3: from the lineup, you can kind of see the two
Speaker 3: teams finding their five that works. The Kings are going
Speaker 3: with Davion Mitchell because he can guards death credibly right.
Speaker 3: And then they're going with Malik Monk and Deer and
Speaker 3: Fox with Harrison Barnes and Demanta Sabonis. With the Warriors,
Speaker 3: it's Draymond with Andrew Wiggins and then Gary Payton Stephen Clay.
Speaker 3: That's where they've got their lineups that are working. That's
Speaker 3: where these two teams are going to go down with
Speaker 3: the ship. If the Warriors can survive Game three, which
Speaker 3: is totally possible with how well they play in front
Speaker 3: of their home crowd even without Draymond, especially against the
Speaker 3: King's team that cannot be overly physical sometimes. If they
Speaker 3: can survive Game three, Draymond comes back for Game four,
Speaker 3: I believe they will win that game on the road.
Speaker 3: In Game five, as long as they can stay in
Speaker 3: it long enough to get to their core lineup at
Speaker 3: the end, I think they have a really good chance
Speaker 3: to win this series. As bad as Golden State was
Speaker 3: on the road in Sacramento, expects Sacramento to look just
Speaker 3: as bad in Golden State.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, Well, what I worry about without draim
Speaker 2: On He's a great passer on the offensive end. He's
Speaker 2: also a great screen setter, and he's now they have
Speaker 2: plenty of smart players, but he does add an intellect.
Speaker 2: He's just got a real good sense. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: all this sort of intellectual bandwidth the Celtics play with.
Speaker 2: When you've got four guys who are on the floor
Speaker 2: for six years, Like the Celtics passing is excellent. Whereas
Speaker 2: Atlanta's got a new GM, a new coach, a new system.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just a bunch of new parts. And
Speaker 2: I think, I think when I watch the Warriors with
Speaker 2: Draymon's Steph Clay on the floor, Man, there are times
Speaker 2: it's just they can really read each other's minds. And
Speaker 2: that's the kind of capital that load management eats away at.
Speaker 2: It's what I mean. We've talked about this. It's why
Speaker 2: the Clippers sometimes in a half court set are amful
Speaker 2: to watch. There's no play together. So if they can
Speaker 2: get through this game, I agree with you. But man,
Speaker 2: sometimes without Draymond, the passing's not as the ball movements
Speaker 2: not quite as good. You know, Clay is not a
Speaker 2: great ball handler, and now he's not a great defender,
Speaker 2: so you get two different versions of Clay. There's catch
Speaker 2: and shoot, and he's hot at home, Clay great, and
Speaker 2: then there's on the road struggling handling the ball, guys
Speaker 2: blowing by him. You know, you used to kind of
Speaker 2: know with Clay that if he wasn't on, you got
Speaker 2: a great defender. Now and he's not on, you get
Speaker 2: a sometimes a suboptimal ball handler and defender. So his
Speaker 2: game doesn't necessarily you'd think, because he's a catch and
Speaker 2: shoot guy, his game would age well. But he's got
Speaker 2: to play better. He and Jordan Poole have got to
Speaker 2: help Steph. Jordan Pool's been awful in the series. Awful.
Speaker 3: I agree, you're the Draymon thing is certainly a threat.
Speaker 3: And this is where I fundamentally disagree with the suspension, Like,
Speaker 3: make the Kings go earn the damn series, make them
Speaker 3: go beat Golden State in Golden State, make them beat
Speaker 3: him with Draymond, like especially on it, like especially I've
Speaker 3: been getting on my soapbox again. I didn't like that
Speaker 3: that suspension at all, Like because now if the Kings
Speaker 3: win the series, it's gonna feel a little cheap, but
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 2: You know, Jason, I've always felt I will always give
Speaker 2: an athlete a pass in the moment. Tom Brady yelling
Speaker 2: at a coach, Peyton Manning barking, I'll always give an
Speaker 2: athlete they can leave their body. It's an out of
Speaker 2: body experience. Emotionally, I mean, your testosterone's going you've been putting.
Speaker 2: So the Draymond kick, it's like, I get it. That's
Speaker 2: his style. He's the bouncer at the night club. He's
Speaker 2: a tough guy. It's the Okay, I've been ejected. Now
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go and taunt the crowd. Come on, you're
Speaker 2: a mid thirty year old player, Like, like, I have
Speaker 2: a right to be mad if I'm on the air
Speaker 2: and somebody doesn't roll the tape and I'm barking, But
Speaker 2: three minutes later, I've got to go, Okay, we have
Speaker 2: a show to do. Take a deep breath, get over yourself.
Speaker 2: Let's do the show. So I that part, I'll defend
Speaker 2: Draymond in the moment guy grabs your foot, you stomp
Speaker 2: him back. I'll defend him forever on that. But you
Speaker 2: got to know better already, four to thirty five year
Speaker 2: old guy on the road to get that crowd riled up, Like,
Speaker 2: that's just not the play.
Speaker 3: I can't argue with anything. You're saying, Colin, So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna change. I'm gonna change my take as a basketball fan.
Speaker 3: I'm annoyed that Draymond's not playing in Game three. How
Speaker 3: about that? Right, We'll just go with that.
Speaker 1: So that's I do.
Speaker 3: I do still think. I think that if the Warriors
Speaker 3: can survive the Draymond suspension in Game three, I think
Speaker 3: they still have a very good chance to win the series.
Speaker 3: So Clippers versus Suns, this is the series that I
Speaker 3: have been most wrong about in my pre playoffs previews.
Speaker 3: I expected the Clippers to get swept. They very much
Speaker 3: did not, as they went into Phoenix and stole game one.
Speaker 3: You know what's interesting about this series, Colin? The numbers
Speaker 3: coming out of of the like kind of shot profile
Speaker 3: stuff does not look good for Phoenix. This is wild.
Speaker 3: So the Suns have attempted just seventeen shots excuse me,
Speaker 3: nineteen shots in the restricted area in this series, and
Speaker 3: the Clippers have attempted thirty seven, so like almost double
Speaker 3: and then in wide open threes, which by NBA dot
Speaker 3: Com is factored in as defender at least six foot
Speaker 3: six feet away. The Clippers have also generated about twice
Speaker 3: as many as the Suns. The reasons why this, the
Speaker 3: reason why the Suns won Game two is what's the
Speaker 3: other shot that's available. So, if you're not scoring at
Speaker 3: the rim and you're not making these kickout threes to
Speaker 3: guys that are wide open, it's contested pull up off
Speaker 3: the dribble long jump shots in the mid range.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: What's crazy is the Suns shot thirty five percent in
Speaker 3: effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots in
Speaker 3: game one and they lost. They shot sixty one percent
Speaker 3: effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots off
Speaker 3: the dribble in Game two and they won. And so
Speaker 3: everything for me for the Suns comes down to can
Speaker 3: they continue to knock down these tough, contested pull up
Speaker 3: jump shots.
Speaker 1: And I'm just not.
Speaker 3: I believe they'll make enough to beat the Clippers, but
Speaker 3: I after two games feel less confident than ever that
Speaker 3: the Sons can get out of the conference because they're
Speaker 3: just not generating enough easy shots.
Speaker 2: Well, I feel these are opposite teams. The Clippers have
Speaker 2: depth but are missing a star. The Sons have stars
Speaker 2: and are missing depth. And when they made the move
Speaker 2: to get KD, you had to give up Michale Bridges.
Speaker 2: That was the gem but they gave up two other players,
Speaker 2: and one of those players had twenty eight the other
Speaker 2: night for Brooklyn against Philadelphia. And when I watch the Suns,
Speaker 2: I feel I said this on TV today, they're a
Speaker 2: guy shy. If I just said Norman Powell's on the Suns,
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, they're a finals team. I almost think
Speaker 2: they're tentative defensively because they know they can't get into
Speaker 2: foul trouble. Chris Paul's backup is hurt and he may
Speaker 2: not play in Game three. Booker doesn't really have a backup.
Speaker 2: They don't really have have backups for their stars, and
Speaker 2: it almost makes them a little tentative defensively, Whereas the
Speaker 2: Clippers have depth, play really hard defensively. Westbrook gets in
Speaker 2: foul trouble, you can throw in man Norman Powell, they go.
Speaker 2: They've got depth. So I think it makes them play
Speaker 2: a little more tentative defensively. Monty Williams knows that we
Speaker 2: can't go to the bench early. We just can't. And
Speaker 2: the other thing is Chris Paul's the one guy that
Speaker 2: needs a break and until his backup comes in who's
Speaker 2: been out, that's I know he may play in Game three.
Speaker 2: But I think that's a big thing. Like Chris at
Speaker 2: this point in his career need to spell. And so
Speaker 2: when I've been watching Chris Paul in the second half,
Speaker 2: his jumpers are short. His just stuff that went in
Speaker 2: three years ago is just not there, and it's I
Speaker 2: mean it was the other night he missed a couple
Speaker 2: seventy eight footage. I'm like, that was a seventy percent
Speaker 2: shot three years ago, Like just Chris didn't miss those.
Speaker 2: So I feel like I feel like to get Kevin Durant,
Speaker 2: they had to give away a bunch of picks and
Speaker 2: three dudes. If they give away two, they can be
Speaker 2: more aggressive on the defensive end. You could rest guys.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're gonna have to play Durant and Booker,
Speaker 2: They're gonna have to play them forty minutes. That's who
Speaker 2: they are now, That's who they are.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I said this before the playoffs, and I still feel
Speaker 3: very strongly about this, Like I have no idea what's
Speaker 3: gonna happen with this Sun's team, but I do know
Speaker 3: what's gonna happen this summer. They're gonna sign somebody and
Speaker 3: it's gonna be like, hey, listen, do you want to
Speaker 3: be a start the starting forward, like guaranteed starting spot
Speaker 3: alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul Deandraton. They're gonna
Speaker 3: be able to pitch that position like that using the
Speaker 3: mid level exception or whatever contract they decide to offer,
Speaker 3: and they are going to get some massively underpaid forward
Speaker 3: that can play on both ends of the floor that
Speaker 3: wants to just go win a championship next to the
Speaker 3: two of them. They're gonna get two or three more
Speaker 3: veteran minimum contracts that kind of follow a similar similar mold,
Speaker 3: and they're gonna be awesome next year. I feel very
Speaker 3: strongly about that. This team is kind of playing with
Speaker 3: house money a little bit because I think I think
Speaker 3: the expectations are a little lower on them because of that.
Speaker 3: The minutes thing is complicated because I'm less concerned about
Speaker 3: it on the offensive end, because workload matters, Like splitting
Speaker 3: a heavy duty shot creation workload between just Kyrie and Lebron.
Speaker 3: That can get a little fatiguing and you need an
Speaker 3: other worldly athlete like Lebron to survive that. But like
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, you throw a third guy in there,
Speaker 3: and it's like they're haters. Splitting those duties three ways,
Speaker 3: it becomes a little more achievable. The defensive end is
Speaker 3: where is where you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 3: You can't win a title in the NBA without playing
Speaker 3: elite defense. You can't play elite defense without committing to
Speaker 3: devote physical resources to it. And when you devote physical
Speaker 3: resources to it to the tune of forty four minutes
Speaker 3: a night, one of two things is going to happen.
Speaker 3: They're either going to not devo the necessary physical resources
Speaker 3: to it and coast and not reach the defensive ceiling
Speaker 3: they need to reach. Or they're going to pour in
Speaker 3: the necessary effort for forty four minutes to get stops
Speaker 3: and they're gonna suffer on the offense and end when
Speaker 3: they're fatigued. So like, that's where it gets difficult, and
Speaker 3: I don't really have a good answer for them. Kevin
Speaker 3: Durant famously said this after they lost to the to
Speaker 3: the Bucks in at Crazy Game seven, that won't his
Speaker 3: toe is on the line. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: remember the turner on tipper he said that.
Speaker 1: Of course he said this.
Speaker 3: After the series he goes, everyone thinks if I was
Speaker 3: won the inch further back, we would have won the championship.
Speaker 3: He's like, that was the second round. He's like, he's
Speaker 3: like we had He's like James Harden was playing on
Speaker 3: a bad hamstring. Kyrie was completely unavailable. I had to
Speaker 3: create every single shot. He's like, we were winning the
Speaker 3: title that year. Like it's just too much to ask
Speaker 3: a guy to do that that much without any depth
Speaker 3: behind it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if they get paying the backup to
Speaker 2: Chris Paul, I think if they get him back, I
Speaker 2: think that helps, you know, like there's like I don't
Speaker 2: know what he plays eighteen minutes, sixteen minutes. That helps
Speaker 2: a little bit. But I to your point, they'll get
Speaker 2: a couple of mid level exemptions, and they'll get a
Speaker 2: couple of veterans that want to win, you know, like
Speaker 2: the Heat did when they went and grabbed like Ray Allen.
Speaker 2: You'll get a guy like that that's like, man, I
Speaker 2: just want a title. When David West came to the Warriors,
Speaker 2: there's a guy out there that like can give you
Speaker 2: like twelve really good minutes in the postseason. Jay Crowder's
Speaker 2: bounced around and become kind of like that guy. At
Speaker 2: the end of his career, so, and they Jay Crowder
Speaker 2: got moved in that Brooklyn deal. So it's like, so,
Speaker 2: you know Michale Bridges, yes, And then you start moving
Speaker 2: a couple other pieces and you look up and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: Cam Johnson dropped almost thirty against Holy and you're like,
Speaker 2: they need that so bad. The volume. Make sure to
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