Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far. We are live on AMP,
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Speaker 1: to the nitty gritty of our top twenty five players
Speaker 1: of the last twenty five years today with number two
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan, and then I've got two mail bag questions
Speaker 1: for the end of the show as well. You guys
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Speaker 1: back questions for tomorrow as well as moving into the future.
Speaker 1: We're gonna continue that into next week and bear with
Speaker 1: me today. I'm still dealing with some some stuff with
Speaker 1: my voice so struggling a little bit there. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. Number two, Tim Duncan zaccholades, five
Speaker 1: time NBA champion, best player on five championship teams. Now
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, he wasn't the same top tier superstar
Speaker 1: that he was in the earlier part of his career.
Speaker 1: But I still believe he was the best and most
Speaker 1: important player on that Spurs team. But at that point,
Speaker 1: Tony Parker was basically right underneath him and kind of
Speaker 1: at the same level. Right, But when you think of
Speaker 1: Duncan as the defensive full crum of the team as well,
Speaker 1: especially the role he played in soling down those heat
Speaker 1: teams over those two years with his rim protection, I
Speaker 1: still think he was the best player on that team.
Speaker 1: Ten time First Team All NBA, that's second most in
Speaker 1: NBA history. Fifteen times All NBA overall. That's tied with
Speaker 1: Kobe and Kareem for second most all time. Fifteen All
Speaker 1: Defense selections most all time. We're gonna get to that
Speaker 1: in a minute. Two regular season MVPs in two thousand
Speaker 1: and two and two thousand and three, three NBA Finals
Speaker 1: MVPs in nineteen ninety nine, two thousand and three and
Speaker 1: two thousand and five. His two thousand and seven season
Speaker 1: should have one finals MVP as well, not as egregious
Speaker 1: as the ones that we saw in twenty fourteen. In
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, which we're going to role players, right, because
Speaker 1: Tony Parker was considered one of the folkrums of that team.
Speaker 1: But I thought that Tony Parker kind of got the
Speaker 1: benefit of box score watching again because he put up
Speaker 1: big numbers against the Cavs. But I thought Tim Duncan
Speaker 1: was far and away the best player on the two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven Spurs and deserved Finals MVP that year
Speaker 1: as well. We've gone into that in the past, But basically,
Speaker 1: to me, finals MVP should be more representative of the
Speaker 1: best player on the team rather than who played the
Speaker 1: best in that two week period. It just doesn't make
Speaker 1: any sense to me personally. Tim duncans claim to fame
Speaker 1: he's the greatest power forward to ever touch a basketball court.
Speaker 1: We're gonna dive into it on both ends of the
Speaker 1: four starts. On the defensive end, he was the very
Speaker 1: best rim protector in the league during his era. He
Speaker 1: averaged at least two blocks per game for ten consecutive
Speaker 1: seasons starting right when he was a rookie, so he
Speaker 1: came in the league and immediately put up a decade
Speaker 1: straight of at least two blocks per game. He finished
Speaker 1: his career averaging two point two blocks per game, and
Speaker 1: then he averaged two blocks a game again as a
Speaker 1: thirty eight year old in twenty fifteen, which is crazy
Speaker 1: when you factor in that was in the more spread
Speaker 1: out and higher pace NBA in the time that this
Speaker 1: list covers, which again goes from nineteen ninety nine to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. Tim Duncan leads everyone in blocks by
Speaker 1: a mile. He has twenty eight hundred and fourteen blocks
Speaker 1: in that span. Second place is Dwight Howard with twenty
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty eight, so almost six hundred more
Speaker 1: blocks than anybody else during the time period of this list,
Speaker 1: and his fifteen all defense selections is the most in
Speaker 1: NBA history and it's probably an unbreakable record. KG and
Speaker 1: Kobe are in second place with twelve, but at this
Speaker 1: point it's hard to even imagine a potential player getting
Speaker 1: that many. Maybe Victor Womenyama can come in and do it,
Speaker 1: but at fifteen all t defense elections may very well
Speaker 1: end up being a record that stands the test of time.
Speaker 1: He's one of the very best defensive players in NBA history,
Speaker 1: and him being able to anchor that spurs defense kept
Speaker 1: them consistently relevant basically from nineteen ninety nine all the
Speaker 1: way through to two thousand and sixteen. It's as impressive
Speaker 1: a or twenty fifteen, excuse me, as as impressive a
Speaker 1: streak of consistency and longevity that you'll find in the NBA. Now.
Speaker 1: On offense, there was a very specific reason that they
Speaker 1: called Tim Duncan the Big Fundamental. There wasn't anything particularly
Speaker 1: exciting about it. Tim Duncan post up. It wasn't, you know,
Speaker 1: extravagant footwork, It wasn't extravagant shot making, but it still
Speaker 1: worked every single time. It started with his size and strength.
Speaker 1: It was six feet eleven. He weighed over two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifteen pounds, so other post defenders had two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty pounds excuse me. Other post defenders did not
Speaker 1: have any luck pushing him off of his spot. It
Speaker 1: was very difficult to disrupt his BA. Remember, when it
Speaker 1: comes to postplay, disrupting the base is arguably the most
Speaker 1: important thing. These big guys are working on. These shots
Speaker 1: over the top and in post offense. They're used to contests.
Speaker 1: Contests barely bother them. But if you can push them
Speaker 1: off their base, it disrupts their lift, it disrupts their
Speaker 1: energy transfer. They don't get to their release the way
Speaker 1: they want to, and that's where you can force missus
Speaker 1: and Tim Duncan was an incredibly sturdy player at his
Speaker 1: six ' eleven two hundred and fifty pounds. His foundational
Speaker 1: skill was his right handed hook shot. He had the
Speaker 1: best hook shot in the league during the two thousands.
Speaker 1: It was jokic Esk. He made it damn near two
Speaker 1: out of three times. Now, it's tough to find tracking
Speaker 1: data for this because Synergy didn't start tracking hook shots
Speaker 1: until two thousand and seven, which was more towards the
Speaker 1: end of Tim Duncan's prime. But even at that point
Speaker 1: he was still the best hookshooter in the league. He
Speaker 1: led the leagues in hook shots. He led the league
Speaker 1: in hook shots made in two thousand and seven and
Speaker 1: made sixty five percent of them. He led the league
Speaker 1: and hooks made again in two thousand and eight. He
Speaker 1: was second place in two thousand and nine. So now
Speaker 1: from there there was a little bit of a decline
Speaker 1: as he entered into that second phase of his late
Speaker 1: prime right, but he was the very best player in
Speaker 1: the league at making that right handed hook shot. Now,
Speaker 1: it wasn't out of complicated footwork like Nikola Jokich is
Speaker 1: kind of more of an extravagant footwork type of player.
Speaker 1: With Tim Duncan, it was very simple. From that right block,
Speaker 1: he would dribble with his left hand, drop towards the
Speaker 1: baseline and make that hook shot along the baseline. From
Speaker 1: the left block, he would make that drop step towards
Speaker 1: the middle of the lane and shoot that right handed
Speaker 1: hook in the lane. That was the vast majority of
Speaker 1: his hook shots. He would occasionally mix in something more
Speaker 1: complicated right like occasionally from the left block he'd come
Speaker 1: across with a sweeping right handed hook off of one foot.
Speaker 1: Occasionally from the left block he'd do a rip through
Speaker 1: to the baseline and then spin back towards the middle
Speaker 1: and make a right handed hook, but those were somewhat rare.
Speaker 1: For the most part, it was just pretty standard drop
Speaker 1: step hook shots over his left shoulder, either towards the
Speaker 1: baseline or towards the middle, depending on which block he
Speaker 1: was on. It's kind of like I talked about Nikola
Speaker 1: Yokich all the time. There's a simplicity to that hook
Speaker 1: shot like Yokic makes it at damn near seventy percent,
Speaker 1: and that just fundamentally causes problems for the defense. They
Speaker 1: have to either accept a points per shot around one
Speaker 1: point three, or they can send drastic measures like send
Speaker 1: multiple defenders right, which then brings the passing into the equation.
Speaker 1: And that was the thing with Duncan. It wasn't anything
Speaker 1: exceptional looking, but in terms of effectiveness, it could be
Speaker 1: downright damaging to a defense. Can you believe we've had
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Speaker 1: restrictions apply. Now one of the most Now he had
Speaker 1: a couple of other little counters. He had a really
Speaker 1: nice face up bank shot, particularly from the left block.
Speaker 1: When he would get pushed further away from the basket,
Speaker 1: he would turn in face and he had a little
Speaker 1: bank shot there. Also, his counter to his right handed
Speaker 1: hook shot was a right handed fade away over his
Speaker 1: right shoulder. When he was further away from the basket,
Speaker 1: it looked more like a jump shot. When he was
Speaker 1: closer to the basket, it looked more like that shaquill
Speaker 1: O'Neal like kind of one handed push shot, turnaround jump
Speaker 1: shot thing. But that was kind of his counter. But again,
Speaker 1: he liked to try to get to his hook shot
Speaker 1: if he could. Now, one of the most important parts
Speaker 1: of the Spurs offense was cutting off of the post.
Speaker 1: You may have heard this referred to as a Spurs
Speaker 1: cut by you know, one of your coaches growing up,
Speaker 1: or something along those lines. But basically, Duncan would catch
Speaker 1: the ball. Let's just envision Duncan catching the ball about
Speaker 1: ten feet away from the basket, or anywhere from ten
Speaker 1: feet away from the basket to the high post, because
Speaker 1: would play from the high post sum as well and
Speaker 1: catching and just holding with his back to the basket. Now,
Speaker 1: the person who makes the post entry from the right wing,
Speaker 1: let's call it Tony Parker. He makes the post entry
Speaker 1: from the right wing. Duncan catches from there. The Spurs
Speaker 1: were really good about cutting off of the post, so
Speaker 1: Tony would basically fake a cut towards the middle and
Speaker 1: then cut off of Tim Duncan on the baseline side
Speaker 1: off of his left hand. Now just imagine Tony Parker's defender,
Speaker 1: here's Duncan, Here's Tony Parker. Tony Parker's defenders right in
Speaker 1: the middle, and so as he cuts off, Tim Duncan
Speaker 1: has an opportunity to set a screen there. One of
Speaker 1: the things he would do is he would establish his
Speaker 1: left foot as a pivot foot, and then as Tony
Speaker 1: Parker's cutting, he would pivot back this way with his
Speaker 1: right foot, effectively shutting the door on that defender, and
Speaker 1: then Tony would find an opening on the backside. And
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan was really good at after he kind of pivoted,
Speaker 1: just throwing that over the top pass to a mana
Speaker 1: Ginobili or to a Tony Parker as he's cutting off
Speaker 1: of the post. One of the reasons why it's so
Speaker 1: important to cut off the post is it makes it
Speaker 1: harder to double team. So if you make a pass
Speaker 1: from the right wing into the post on the right
Speaker 1: block and Timmy's there and you just stand there. Then
Speaker 1: we have that same dynamic right Timmy Tony defender in
Speaker 1: the middle. That defender is in a really easy position
Speaker 1: to be able to dig down and cause problems for
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan and still be in a position to close
Speaker 1: out to Tony Parker once you cut through, and the
Speaker 1: defense and your offensive the other three offensive players kind
Speaker 1: of rotate around when that happens. It makes it harder
Speaker 1: to double team because the defender that's supposed to double
Speaker 1: is coming from another spot on the floor and is
Speaker 1: more interested in chasing his shooter to where he's going
Speaker 1: before he can get into a double right that was
Speaker 1: you know, moving and cutting off of the post is
Speaker 1: vital for post up spacing. You've seen a kind of
Speaker 1: an inverted version of this with the Warriors in recent
Speaker 1: years of split cuts right, and it's less about actually
Speaker 1: trying to score out of the post than it is
Speaker 1: taking advantage of that spacing dynam that defender in between
Speaker 1: the guy in the post and the guard. It makes
Speaker 1: it really hard to see the ball behind you while
Speaker 1: tracking the shooter in front of you. And then the
Speaker 1: Warriors just add screening actions off of the post, so
Speaker 1: like instead of using the post up player as the screener,
Speaker 1: they'll bring a second player over and they'll screen across
Speaker 1: and try to find a shot or vice versa, and
Speaker 1: then the guy who sets the screen will slip to
Speaker 1: the basket. That's how the Warriors do it. But there
Speaker 1: it's really hard to guard screening actions out of the post,
Speaker 1: and the Spurs did it more using the post up
Speaker 1: as the threat. The Warriors do it more using the
Speaker 1: shooters as the threat. But the fundamental concept of having
Speaker 1: to identify man and ball and when they're on opposite
Speaker 1: sides of you, which makes it hard to see, is
Speaker 1: what makes it so hard to guard. But to make
Speaker 1: a long story short, that combination of the Spurs movement
Speaker 1: and cutting, Tim Duncan's passing and his unstoppable post moves
Speaker 1: made him an incredible anchor for the Spurs on the
Speaker 1: offensive end. We already talked about how he was an
Speaker 1: incredible anchor on the defensive end, and that's how the
Speaker 1: Spurs won. To make it simple, they were consistently great
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor year in and year
Speaker 1: out from nineteen ninety nine to twenty fifteen. So as
Speaker 1: a result, were they as dominant as some of the
Speaker 1: other teams, or they as dominant as the Lakers. No,
Speaker 1: were they as dominant as the Lakers again in the
Speaker 1: late twenty ten tens. No, were they as dominant as
Speaker 1: the Minumi Heat. No, they never won two championships in
Speaker 1: a row. But they were always there and that's the key.
Speaker 1: When things broke up, broke right, excuse me, they would
Speaker 1: end up on top. And that's the value of longevity
Speaker 1: and consistency. It's like, there's odds at play, right, Like
Speaker 1: winning money on the slot machine is not easy, but
Speaker 1: if I give you a million chances at it and
Speaker 1: it doesn't cost you anything, you're gonna eventually win. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of the thing. Like the Spurs were just
Speaker 1: always there and so when things broke right, they would win.
Speaker 1: That's why they never won two in a row, but
Speaker 1: that is why they won five. The last thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to hit here was Tim Duncan's leadership compaired him
Speaker 1: a lot on this show to Steph Curry. Obviously they're
Speaker 1: very different players, but in terms of consistency within the organization,
Speaker 1: a complete lack of ego, only caring about winning and
Speaker 1: keeping an even keel emotionally, not getting down when things
Speaker 1: are bad, not getting too high when things are good.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's the best player in the NBA at that
Speaker 1: right now. That was Tim Duncan, though in his era
Speaker 1: he was as stoic as it got, as unexpressive as
Speaker 1: it got, but he was dependable and consistent, and as
Speaker 1: a result, he was able to maintain organizational consistency over
Speaker 1: a decade and a half, which directly led to their success.
Speaker 1: His crowning achievement. It's tough to pick just one for
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan, but I'm gonna go with the two thousand
Speaker 1: and three season, he averaged twenty three points, thirteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: and four assists with three blocks per game. He made
Speaker 1: First Team All NBA, made First Team All Defense, won
Speaker 1: regular season MVP, then went up to twenty five fifteen
Speaker 1: to five with three point three blocks per game. In
Speaker 1: the playoffs, he dropped thirty seven and sixteen on the
Speaker 1: Lakers in the Western Conference SEMIS to knock out Kobe
Speaker 1: and Shack. This was back in the Twin Towers era
Speaker 1: and they were using Shack to guard David Robinson, and
Speaker 1: so Tim Duncan just absolutely abused Robert Orri in that
Speaker 1: series and put up thirty seven and sixteen to win
Speaker 1: that series. In advance, they end up winning over the
Speaker 1: New Jersey Nets in the NBA Finals. Tim ties it
Speaker 1: off with his second Finals MVP. Hard to put together
Speaker 1: a more dominant season from start to finish than that.
Speaker 1: The biggest what if of Tim Duncan's career. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with the Ray Allen shot in the corner of
Speaker 1: Game six of the twenty thirteen NBA Finals. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of set the stage here. One of the
Speaker 1: best indicators, in my opinion, of an NBA player's greatness
Speaker 1: is how well he performs against his peers. It's really
Speaker 1: hard to gauge across position. I mean, we've run into
Speaker 1: this problem with Lebron and Steph. It's like it's hard
Speaker 1: to argue their basketball skill sets because they're so different.
Speaker 1: Like obviously, Steph's perimeter gravity in his three point shooting
Speaker 1: and his shot value is so much higher than what
Speaker 1: Lebron does from the perimeter. But Lebron's downhill dominance and
Speaker 1: his incessant rim pressure and his passing ability, what he
Speaker 1: can do defensively and as a rebounder is something that
Speaker 1: Steph can't touch, right, and so like you're arguing apples
Speaker 1: and oranges, and it really is just about personal preference, right,
Speaker 1: But when you start to look positioned to position like
Speaker 1: you can you can look directly at the way Steph
Speaker 1: Curry has performed compared to Russell Westbrook, or compared to
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, or compared to Damian Lillard, some of his
Speaker 1: peers in the league. They play the same position, they
Speaker 1: do a lot of the same things, and Steph's just
Speaker 1: better at all those things. Right, So that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of position to position in the way that those comparisons
Speaker 1: can actually help us see the greatness of a player. Well,
Speaker 1: let's look at the twenty thirteen twenty fourteen NBA finals.
Speaker 1: Like Chris Bosh was one of the best power forwards
Speaker 1: in the league at the time. Not only that he
Speaker 1: was in the heart of his prime, he was twenty
Speaker 1: eight years old at the most athletic version of himself
Speaker 1: who had the experience to understand he had already won
Speaker 1: a championship and had two deep playoff runs at that
Speaker 1: point in his career. Tim Duncan was thirty six and
Speaker 1: had a bad knee and whooped his ass like absolutely
Speaker 1: cooked Chris Bosh on both ends of the floor in
Speaker 1: those two NBA Finals series, just threw him around like
Speaker 1: a rag doll. But as we look at a particular game,
Speaker 1: it's game six of the twenty thirteen NBA Finals. The
Speaker 1: Spurs are up three games to two on the road
Speaker 1: in Miami. Right, Miami's feeling a good amount of pressure,
Speaker 1: but they're obviously gonna come out desperate. They've lost a
Speaker 1: game six at home to lose an NBA Final series
Speaker 1: before in twenty eleven, Right, so it's a tough game
Speaker 1: to win. Tim Duncan goes throwback. Timmy drops thirty and
Speaker 1: seventeen in Game six, has them in position to win,
Speaker 1: but a miss Kawhi Leonard free throw, a Mismaan wher
Speaker 1: Genobli free throw, and a maid Lebron James three and
Speaker 1: a made Ray Allen three send it to ot where
Speaker 1: they end up winning. Then he almost does it again
Speaker 1: in game seven. He had twenty four and twelve. In
Speaker 1: Game seven, he had an easy hook shot in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor at the end that could have
Speaker 1: tied it that he smoked. That's the one where Tim
Speaker 1: Duncan got super mad at himself and slapped the floor
Speaker 1: if you guys remember, Obviously, I'm sure it felt great
Speaker 1: for him to come back and win the title the
Speaker 1: following season, But man, he everged eighteen and ten in
Speaker 1: that playoff run, which is pretty standard. Tim Duncan dominant
Speaker 1: numbers thirty and seventeen and what would have been a
Speaker 1: closeout game to win the trophy, that would have been
Speaker 1: a hell of a feather for him to add to
Speaker 1: his cap. It's kind of tied it all together. Look,
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan wasn't the most exciting player in NBA history.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me even to sit down and break
Speaker 1: down his skill set because I was more of a
Speaker 1: perimeter player, right and so like as a kid, I
Speaker 1: wasn't watching Duncan trying to learn how to play right. Like.
Speaker 1: I appreciated how good he was, but he wasn't one
Speaker 1: of the players that you love to talk about or
Speaker 1: love to watch right. But make no mistake, he was
Speaker 1: one of the most dominant players at his position in
Speaker 1: NBA history. In his consistent greatness in leadership led to
Speaker 1: his franchise consistently being relevant for far fifteen years, which
Speaker 1: led to them having the opportunity to win five NBA championships.
Speaker 1: It is hard to ignore those results. So I have
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan as the second best player of the last
Speaker 1: twenty five years. All right, two mailback questions before we
Speaker 1: get out of here. This is from Freeman. What is
Speaker 1: your honest analysis on Victor Webbin Yama and what would
Speaker 1: your prediction be for his performances this season? For example?
Speaker 1: Do you agree with Draymond and others who said he
Speaker 1: will struggle with strength, etc. So Draymond's right, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people are right. He's going to struggle with
Speaker 1: strength stuff. I think he also is going to get
Speaker 1: exposed a little bit in that first season, is needing
Speaker 1: to go up a level as a jump shooter. He's
Speaker 1: not a perfect basketball player. He's one of the most
Speaker 1: interesting prospects in NBA history, but obviously it has more
Speaker 1: to do with what he's capable of than what he
Speaker 1: is right now. I'm not expecting him to come in
Speaker 1: and be an All Star. I'm not expecting him to
Speaker 1: come in and lead the San Antonio Spurs to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But he has elite skills right off the bat. He's
Speaker 1: already more skilled than most bigs in the NBA. That's
Speaker 1: a great foundation right, He's already going to be one
Speaker 1: of the five best rim protectors in the NBA, right so,
Speaker 1: right off the bat. That makes him a very good
Speaker 1: role player, and especially at that specific position, which is important,
Speaker 1: excuse me, which is important for his ability to anchor
Speaker 1: a defense in the NBA. Having a defensive anchor is
Speaker 1: one of the most important elements to constructing an NBA team.
Speaker 1: I expect him to immediately make the Spurs better. I'd
Speaker 1: expect him to average somewhere around seventeen points and ten
Speaker 1: rebounds a game. I expect him to average two to
Speaker 1: two and a half blocks per game, potentially even more.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't be surprised if he led the league's in league
Speaker 1: in blocks right away. He's going to be at least
Speaker 1: in the conversation to make an all defense team, that'll
Speaker 1: one hundred percent come down to the statistical performance, because
Speaker 1: I think if he puts up, you know, three blocks
Speaker 1: per game, I think it could happen. Here's the reality.
Speaker 1: Regardless of how good or polished he is, he is
Speaker 1: a freak in terms of his length and mobility In
Speaker 1: the NBA. That's just a fact, and so NBA players
Speaker 1: will struggle to adjust to what it's like to play
Speaker 1: against Victor webbin Yama, and they're not gonna see him
Speaker 1: every single night. They're gonna see him on a random
Speaker 1: Tuesday in the regular season, and so they won't have
Speaker 1: time to get used to it, right like they're over
Speaker 1: a playoff series. You might be able to figure out
Speaker 1: some of his quirks defensively, but in the regular season,
Speaker 1: I expect him to be pretty damn impactful. All Right,
Speaker 1: One last mail back question. How much emphasis do you
Speaker 1: put on repeats? You spoke about journeys and sacrifices. How
Speaker 1: much credit do you think you should give to those
Speaker 1: who repeat or threepeat? So here's the deal. I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily think it should earn bonus points in these discussions, because,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, a championship is a championship is a championship.
Speaker 1: Like if you win four of them in an eight
Speaker 1: year span by going win loss, win loss, win loss
Speaker 1: win loss, versus going loss loss, win, win, win, win
Speaker 1: lost loss like, that doesn't matter to me at all.
Speaker 1: It's four championships as four championships. But there is an
Speaker 1: interesting element to winning an NBA championship. After winning an
Speaker 1: NBA championship one, it's there's a luck element. Like it's
Speaker 1: really hard. You know, a lot of things have to
Speaker 1: go right for you to win a championship. I talked
Speaker 1: about this in the stapt video. But like every championship
Speaker 1: team catches a break, right, Like even as you look
Speaker 1: at this year's Nuggets team, like they didn't have to
Speaker 1: face Milwaukee or Boston, the two best teams out East,
Speaker 1: because of a ankle injury to Jason Tatum and some
Speaker 1: overall dysfunction with the Celtics, and with the Bucks, you
Speaker 1: had the Yannis injury, right, and so you get to
Speaker 1: face a lesser Miami Heat team. You also caught the
Speaker 1: Lakers and the Suns in kind of transition seasons, right, Like,
Speaker 1: the Lakers and Suns both got significantly deeper on the margins.
Speaker 1: This summer might be a little bit harder next year, right,
Speaker 1: those that's the break that the Nuggets cost you go
Speaker 1: into last season, and the break that the Warriors caught
Speaker 1: by once again getting to face the Dallas Mavericks and
Speaker 1: their limited roster in the Western Conference Finals versus a
Speaker 1: more talented Phoenix Suns team because they all caught COVID
Speaker 1: and they all crumbled under Luca's personality, right, like these
Speaker 1: are just examples, or the Warriors caught Denver Nuggets team
Speaker 1: in the first round that didn't have two of their
Speaker 1: top four players. You go back to twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and he gets to Giannis gets to face Paul George
Speaker 1: in the conference finals as the best player on his
Speaker 1: team in the lone star and gets to face or
Speaker 1: excuse me, I'm sorry, I butchered that he gets to
Speaker 1: face the Atlanta Hawks and Trey Young in the conference
Speaker 1: finals on one end, and then in the on the
Speaker 1: other end of the bracket, you have a team where
Speaker 1: the best player on the team on the team is
Speaker 1: Devin Booker, who's not a top ten player in the league.
Speaker 1: So in your conference finals and NBA Finals, you didn't
Speaker 1: have to play a single top ten player. That's a
Speaker 1: pretty big break, right. Going to twenty twenty, you got
Speaker 1: a older, aging superstar who got to take a few
Speaker 1: months off before the playoffs. He got to play a
Speaker 1: playoff run that did not include Steph Curry and Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: the other two best players in the league at the time,
Speaker 1: because they were both on their couches for various reasons. Right,
Speaker 1: KD was hurt Steph Curry was hurt, right, So that's
Speaker 1: a break, right, that doesn't take away the championship. Lebron
Speaker 1: still had to go through a lot of really good teams.
Speaker 1: So did Giannis, so did Steph, so did Nikole Jokic.
Speaker 1: I'm not undercutting them, but the point is is you
Speaker 1: catch breaks when you win an NBA Championship. The twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen Raptors got to play their NBA Finals series against
Speaker 1: a Warriors team that lost Kevin Durant. The ty eighteen
Speaker 1: Warriors got pushed up against the wall by the Rockets
Speaker 1: and then Chris Paul gets hurt. Right, twenty seventeen Warriors,
Speaker 1: obviously they would have won no matter what, but they
Speaker 1: were down, down big in Game one against San Antonio
Speaker 1: before before Kawhi Leonard Sprains's ankle. Twenty sixteen you have
Speaker 1: the Draymond Green suspension in Game five of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: You know, twenty fifteen you have Kyrie Irving and Kevin
Speaker 1: Love getting hurt. Like I could go on and on
Speaker 1: and on and on, but the reality is is you
Speaker 1: have to catch breaks to win an NBA championship, and
Speaker 1: so catching breaks two years in a row hard to do,
Speaker 1: and That's why I don't necessarily attribute you repeats or
Speaker 1: three peats as extra credit. They are impressive because it's
Speaker 1: a motivational thing. All of the other twenty nine teams
Speaker 1: are more motivated than you because you're currently sitting on
Speaker 1: the mountain top. It's a fatigue thing. You played a
Speaker 1: really long playoff run the previous year. There are definitely
Speaker 1: things you have to overcome. But generally speaking, as we
Speaker 1: go back through NBA history, the teams that repeat were
Speaker 1: freakishly talented. The last team that repeated was the most
Speaker 1: talented roster in NBA history, the Golden State Warriors. The
Speaker 1: team before that was by far the most talented team
Speaker 1: in that era, the Miami Heat with Dwayne Way, Chris
Speaker 1: Bosh and Lebron James. The team before that was a
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers with Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum.
Speaker 1: Right like, that was a really talented basketball team. Before that,
Speaker 1: we have the Kobe Shack Lakers. Before that, we have
Speaker 1: the MJ. Pippin' Bulls. Before that, we have Hakim Olajuan
Speaker 1: right who was the best player in the league at
Speaker 1: the time not named Michael Jordan, who was retired before that,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan. Again, you guys get at the point, you know,
Speaker 1: so like you're gonna have to be a pretty damn
Speaker 1: talented team to repeat, especially in the modern era with
Speaker 1: how much talent there is in the league. So it's
Speaker 1: an impressive accomplishment, but impressive in a different way. And
Speaker 1: generally speaking, I'm not going to factor that in as
Speaker 1: any sort of, you know, differentiator between players, because in
Speaker 1: my opinion, a championship is a championship is a championship,
Speaker 1: regardless of when or how you won it. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today is always I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. One last
Speaker 1: guy tomorrow, mister Lebron James, my favorite player in NBA history.
Speaker 1: I'm very very excited to put that video together for
Speaker 1: you guys. And then next week we're gonna get started
Speaker 1: with our season previews for the top twenty teams in
Speaker 1: the NBA. How so, you guys Tomorrow the volume