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Speaker 1: welcome to hoop Tonight here at the volume heavy Friday.
Speaker 2: Everybody ol ball.
Speaker 1: If you guys have had a great week or doing
Speaker 1: a mail bag today, got about a dozen questions. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be bouncing all around the league of a bunch
Speaker 1: of interesting stuffs to get into. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: fun one. You guys are the joe before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't
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Speaker 1: you leave a rating and a review on our podcast feed.
Speaker 1: We also have new social media feeds on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram for the Hoops Tonight channel. We're releasing reels
Speaker 1: and things along those lines, so make sure you follow
Speaker 1: those feeds as well. In the last not at least,
Speaker 1: keep roping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have.
Speaker 1: Mail bags on every Friday throughout the season, so keep
Speaker 1: dropping them and we'll be grabbing them from those comments.
Speaker 1: I go through the entire week's episode, so you can
Speaker 1: drop them in any of those and I'll just kind
Speaker 1: of go back through them and pick out questions for
Speaker 1: us to hit on Fridays. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: First question, you ready to apologize to Tatum yet? Like yourself,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge ant fan, but the number five slot
Speaker 1: belongs to Jason, and you know it. Tatum is averaging
Speaker 1: more points per game, assists per game, rebounds per game,
Speaker 1: steals per game, fewer turnovers, higher true shooting percentage. It's
Speaker 1: significantly higher pr than Anthey Ander and what then Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards while remaining the better all around defender. Not to mention,
Speaker 1: he's the only player in the NBA currently averaging the
Speaker 1: most points, assists, rebounds, and steals on his team.
Speaker 2: A couple things.
Speaker 1: Apology is a really strong word to use. For I
Speaker 1: had one guy fifth and one guy seventh on a
Speaker 1: list where I told you, guys from five to eleven,
Speaker 1: I view almost no gap. I had one through four
Speaker 1: as kind of their own thing, and I said five
Speaker 1: through eleven or all this close to each other. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think apology is a little dramatic. That said, there's
Speaker 1: no doubt that Tatum has played like the guy that's
Speaker 1: the best of that next tier of stars to start
Speaker 1: this year. I think Joki just rock solid at number one.
Speaker 1: Luca's off to a bad start this year, but you're
Speaker 1: not gonna like supplant him over a dozen games when
Speaker 1: he missed training camp with a calf injury. Like Luca's
Speaker 1: gonna play a lot better over the large sample. And
Speaker 1: then Giannis is playing some of the best basketball of
Speaker 1: his career, and Jacobs Alexander is really starting to pick
Speaker 1: up steam here in recent weeks. So like, that tier
Speaker 1: to me is still more or less what it was.
Speaker 1: But if you're looking at the next tier of teams
Speaker 1: or next tier of players, the two guys that have
Speaker 1: really separated, I'll say three guys. The three guys that
Speaker 1: have Honestly, there are a lot of guys that are
Speaker 1: playing good basketball right now. Anthony Davis has really separated himself.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum has really separated himself. Kevin Durant has really
Speaker 1: separated himself. Steph Curry hasn't had the overall counting stats
Speaker 1: that he needs in that department, but he's had some
Speaker 1: of the most impressive individual performances this season, and he's
Speaker 1: outplayed multiple guys that are above him in the rankings.
Speaker 1: He outplayed Tatum head to head, he outplayed Shakis As
Speaker 1: Alexander had to head, he outplayed Nikole Jokic had to head, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: those are the guys that.
Speaker 2: Are separating from that lower group.
Speaker 1: But I'd say night tonight, in overall production and like
Speaker 1: all of the little things that impact winning, the best
Speaker 1: player that I've seen from that next tier of teams
Speaker 1: to start this season is Jason Tatum, and so there's
Speaker 1: no doubt that he has been the guy that has,
Speaker 1: at least through this small sample to start the year,
Speaker 1: taken that five spot. He's it's been a bunch of
Speaker 1: different things. The jump shot, which I mean, I've been
Speaker 1: on this this entire summer. Like I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people were just like, oh, he's too buff, now
Speaker 1: he's not gonna shoot. And like anybody who's played basketball
Speaker 1: for any significant amount of time knows, like, sometimes you
Speaker 1: just go into shooting slump sometimes. You Like I think
Speaker 1: about even in my adult life, I had shooting slumps
Speaker 1: when I was in college, where like there are stretches
Speaker 1: where I shot the ball really well, and then I
Speaker 1: had stretches where I like, I had a season in
Speaker 1: conference play where I shot damn near fifty percent from three,
Speaker 1: and then the very next season at the start in
Speaker 1: non conference play, I had a week where I missed
Speaker 1: twenty two straight threes in a single week. So like
Speaker 1: they're like, sometimes you just go into a slump. But
Speaker 1: even in my adult life, and I work on my
Speaker 1: jump shot a lot of probably more than I should
Speaker 1: as someone who doesn't get paid to play basketball. Like
Speaker 1: I have stretches where it's like, oh, for the like
Speaker 1: sometimes for two three months I'm just not quite shooting
Speaker 1: the ball as well, And then I have other stretches
Speaker 1: for two three months it's like I can't fucking miss
Speaker 1: to save my life. Like there's different kind of just
Speaker 1: oscillations that take place for jump shooters. It's kind of
Speaker 1: part of the way it goes. And I thought Tatum
Speaker 1: was just in a slump last year, and I thought
Speaker 1: that he was gonna come out of it in a
Speaker 1: big way to start the season, and he has. One
Speaker 1: of the big things I was talking about in yesterday's
Speaker 1: show was he's been doing a really nice job of
Speaker 1: hitting contested catch and shoot threes by just kind of
Speaker 1: hesitating and waiting for the close out to come and
Speaker 1: for the guy to sit in a stance to try
Speaker 1: to slide his feet, and then right in that gap
Speaker 1: when the defender kind of like closes out high and
Speaker 1: then sits, he's rising and firing, and he's hitting a
Speaker 1: lot of shots in those situations. But I also think
Speaker 1: he's made a significant step forward as a passer this year.
Speaker 1: He's had four straight games with at least six assists.
Speaker 1: He's averaging your career high in assists. He's getting his
Speaker 1: assists in all these different ways that you see from
Speaker 1: some of the best playmakers in the league. And as
Speaker 1: you pointed out, he is the better all around defender,
Speaker 1: not just than Anthony Edwards, but he's one of the
Speaker 1: best all around defenders in the league. So here's the
Speaker 1: thing going into the season. Yes, I ranked Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: at five and Tatum at seven in a tier of
Speaker 1: players that was seven players big that I viewed all
Speaker 1: more or less on the same level. So like, am
Speaker 1: I gonna be like, I'm so sorry Jason. No, of
Speaker 1: course not. That's stupid, that's foolish, that's dramatic. But yeah,
Speaker 1: if Jayson Tatum has been the best of that tier
Speaker 1: of seven guys in my opinion to start the season.
Speaker 1: One last thing on Anthony Edwards brought up by Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards optimism SEMs on the fact that I just think
Speaker 1: he's an awesome jump shooter and I think that that's
Speaker 1: real and we're on a massive sample size now of
Speaker 1: him doing that. And by the way, Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: averaging twenty eight points per game on sixty percent through
Speaker 1: shooting to start the year. So he's not having a
Speaker 1: bad season either. They're just guys in that tier that
Speaker 1: have been playing better than him. And one thing I
Speaker 1: would give Aunt a little bit of slack on is
Speaker 1: the roster is a little jankie because the front office
Speaker 1: threw a massive curveball at them a week before training
Speaker 1: camp and now they're like the Knicks, trying to like
Speaker 1: figure out how to be a new team on the fly.
Speaker 1: So and we have a question about that later on
Speaker 1: in the mailbag. But for the Nixon Wolves, I think
Speaker 1: it's foolish to jump to like sweeping declarations about them
Speaker 1: until we're much, much, much much further into the season.
Speaker 1: But again shout out to Jayson Tatum again, a lot
Speaker 1: of it. There's a question about this. I'll actually fast
Speaker 1: forward and get to this one if I can. Oh,
Speaker 1: we'll get to when we get there, because I don't
Speaker 1: want to waste a bunch of time searching through this
Speaker 1: right now. But like there's a lot of people that
Speaker 1: like take these like kind of pretty mild stances that
Speaker 1: I take and turn them into like Jason hates that guy,
Speaker 1: and that I just don't understand, because like that's just
Speaker 1: not the case like, just because I have a slightly
Speaker 1: different opinion than a specific fan base on a player
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I dislike a player. I think that that
Speaker 1: sometimes is once again kind of dramatic and unfair. Let's
Speaker 1: get to the next question. Sorry to see this as
Speaker 1: a fan since day one, but it hurts me to
Speaker 1: notice that you can't talk about the Nuggets success without
Speaker 1: acknowledging Westbrook's impact in their wins. Bad to see that
Speaker 1: you look biased about this issue. Again, this is another
Speaker 1: battle that I can't win where it's like, yes, I have,
Speaker 1: multiple times and multiple different episodes, credited Russell Westbrook for
Speaker 1: the job he's done with the Nuggets. I talked about
Speaker 1: the job he did when Joel Murray was out in
Speaker 1: some of the huge games that he had. I talked
Speaker 1: about little moments like the individual defense that he played
Speaker 1: on RJ Barrett on that huge zession at the end
Speaker 1: of the Rafters game. He had a similar possession on
Speaker 1: Shae Gills Alexander where he took away his pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot and funneled him into a drive. Like I
Speaker 1: have complimented Russ and so I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1: This is another thing that happens to me pretty commonly,
Speaker 1: where like people will watch some of the content that
Speaker 1: I produce, but not all of it, and then make
Speaker 1: sweeping declarations about all of my content even though they
Speaker 1: didn't watch all of my content. Like I talk about
Speaker 1: basketball for the better part of five six hours a week,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of words, a lot of
Speaker 1: sentences in there, and there's a lot of opportunity for
Speaker 1: me to hit other teams and other players that you
Speaker 1: might not hear if you only catch an episode here
Speaker 1: or there, if that makes sense, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: I don't blame you guys, there's a ton of really
Speaker 1: good basketball content out there. I know that there are
Speaker 1: some of you guys that listen to every episode, and
Speaker 1: I know there are some of you guys that are
Speaker 1: like I only listen to my favorite team, and there
Speaker 1: are some of you guys that you only listen every
Speaker 1: once in a while depending on what we release. I
Speaker 1: understand that that's the case, But like, I do a
Speaker 1: ton of content every week, So if you're one of
Speaker 1: the people that stops by every once in a while,
Speaker 1: you're probably missing some of the stuff.
Speaker 2: That I hit.
Speaker 1: In the big picture, Russell Westbrook has had really high
Speaker 1: ceiling moments for the Nuggets this year, and I've talked
Speaker 1: about it on many occasions. If the playoffs started today, this.
Speaker 2: Is Warriors fans.
Speaker 1: I had a male bag question at the tail end
Speaker 1: of Tuesday show and talk about a fucking meltdown from
Speaker 1: some of these four years fans in the mentions if
Speaker 1: the playoffs started today, taking Luca over Steph is a
Speaker 1: wild take. Steph not only outscored, but outplayed Shay and Luca,
Speaker 1: but can't give him the nod over them. Guys like
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic had a very impressive playoff run last year.
Speaker 1: He did something that I haven't seen anybody do last season,
Speaker 1: and that even Nicole Yoka struggled which with which was
Speaker 1: he like single handedly eviscerated the Minnesota Timberwolves defense. It
Speaker 1: just took one of the best perimeter defenders in the
Speaker 1: league and just basically treated him like a rag dollars.
Speaker 1: He threw him around and got whatever he wanted. He
Speaker 1: took his team to the NBA Finals. Luca has not
Speaker 1: been very good to start this year. He got injured
Speaker 1: in training camp, miss training camp, and he's trying to
Speaker 1: get his way back into shape. In the middle of
Speaker 1: the season. Here's the thing. Yes, if we're fifty games
Speaker 1: into this thing and Steph's playing like an MVP, then yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna reevaluate things and I'm probably gonna put Steph
Speaker 1: in that top tier. And I might put him ahead
Speaker 1: of a Shay, I might put him ahead of a Luca,
Speaker 1: But it would be irresponsible of me over a small
Speaker 1: regular season sample at the start of the year to
Speaker 1: be like, Yeah, this guy's better than a player who
Speaker 1: just went on a deep playoff runt last year, or
Speaker 1: like Shay Gills of Alexander who once again like deservedly
Speaker 1: got a lot of MVP consideration last year and took
Speaker 1: his team to within one foul of making it to
Speaker 1: the conference finals and eliminating Luka Doncicch. So, like, that's
Speaker 1: the thing. I am a huge believer in Steph. I
Speaker 1: think what he's shown at the start of the year
Speaker 1: in terms of his ability to get to that superstar upside,
Speaker 1: should be super encouraging for Warriors fans. But yeah, like,
Speaker 1: there are players at the top of the league that
Speaker 1: have been really dominant consistently over the course of the
Speaker 1: last couple of years that right now feel like safer
Speaker 1: bets and I would never change that over a small
Speaker 1: sample size. I had a lot of guys in the
Speaker 1: comments like he just outplayed this guy. He just outplayed
Speaker 1: that guy. That's great. I have seen a ton of
Speaker 1: stars outplay other stars in regular season games. I've seen
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid outplay Jokis several times. I've seen guys out
Speaker 1: play Luca. I've seen guys outplay Shay. I've seen guys
Speaker 1: outplay Giannis. I've seen guys outplay Steph, Lebron Ad Tatum.
Speaker 1: I've seen guys outplay everybody right on any given one
Speaker 1: game in the regular season. It's important because it's a
Speaker 1: sign to Warriors fans and to the rest of the league, like, hey,
Speaker 1: Steph still has it, Steph can still do this right.
Speaker 1: But there's a much larger sample that we're going to
Speaker 1: see over the course of this season. And before I
Speaker 1: go claiming that Steph is better than Luca, are better
Speaker 1: than Shay, I'm gonna need to see more than a
Speaker 1: dozen games. And honestly, like, even though Steph has had
Speaker 1: some really big games this year, his counting stats just
Speaker 1: aren't even in the same stratosphere as those guys at
Speaker 1: the top of the league. And so let's see more
Speaker 1: before we supplant guys that have been playing really, really
Speaker 1: well for a long time at the top of the league.
Speaker 1: Next question, Steph definitely looked like a top ten player
Speaker 1: to end to end the season last year. What was
Speaker 1: you watching bro last twenty five games for Steph last year,
Speaker 1: twenty two point eight points per game, four point five
Speaker 1: rebounds per game, five point five assists per game, forty
Speaker 1: two percent from the field, and thirty eight percent from three.
Speaker 1: He wasn't good the end last year, not by STEPH standard. Now, yes,
Speaker 1: there were factors at play. He was worn down, the
Speaker 1: roster was weak, there was a lot less fast, a
Speaker 1: lot of Klay Thompson and Chris Paul instead of really
Speaker 1: fast young players. There are a lot of reasons for that.
Speaker 1: But to be clear, going into the player rankings that
Speaker 1: I did this summer, Steph didn't even deserve to be
Speaker 1: considered top ten. There were several plays. Donovan Mitchell deserved
Speaker 1: to be ranked over him. Jalen Brunson deserved to be
Speaker 1: ranked over him. I kept him in the top ten
Speaker 1: as a sign of respect and because if you guys
Speaker 1: remember in that video, I said, I think this is
Speaker 1: a slump, and I think Steph will bounce back. But
Speaker 1: like there's a lot this This happens a lot uh
Speaker 1: uh with NBA fans, where like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: evidence that one thing's gonna happen, and then something different happens,
Speaker 1: and then everyone wants to be like I fucking told you,
Speaker 1: and it's like, actually, like this is a change, this
Speaker 1: is new information, This is new. So like you're like
Speaker 1: people that made educated guesses based on stuff that was
Speaker 1: actually happen happening. Everyone else is making hopeful guesses on
Speaker 1: what they think maybe will happen, Like and yeah, the
Speaker 1: thing that was hopeful and maybe ended up happening, and
Speaker 1: that's great and you guys should be very very excited
Speaker 1: about that. But like, again, like there's a reason why
Speaker 1: there was some skepticism surrounding the Warriors and what ended
Speaker 1: up happening, right, what ended up happening was you swapped
Speaker 1: out Clay and Chris Paul and all of the minutes
Speaker 1: they play and I don't remember the exact number off
Speaker 1: the top of my head, it was like fifty something
Speaker 1: minutes a game. You took fifty something minutes a game
Speaker 1: and turned it into super fast younger players. And then
Speaker 1: in addition to that, like you had a new training camp,
Speaker 1: you hit on a couple of signings this summer. Steph
Speaker 1: Curry is playing like a superstar again, and now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you look like a contender. It's a
Speaker 1: combination of a ton of factors, a ton of new information.
Speaker 1: Did anybody think when Buddy Held got signed that he
Speaker 1: was going to play as well as he did? No?
Speaker 1: A lot of you like it was a good fit,
Speaker 1: an obvious fit. I think everyone thought he'd hit shots.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody thought he'd be as good as
Speaker 1: he's been. This has been a surprise, and so again
Speaker 1: it's like, appreciate it for what it is. It's exciting.
Speaker 1: I'm excited too. Steph's my second favorite player in the
Speaker 1: league behind Lebron James.
Speaker 2: Like I am excited.
Speaker 1: I root for this team, Like this is something that
Speaker 1: I enjoy I said the other day in a mail bag.
Speaker 1: The team that I enjoy watching the most is the Warriors.
Speaker 1: They play an incredibly fun brand of basketball.
Speaker 2: This is great.
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled, But I'm not going to like apologize for
Speaker 1: the things that I said over the summer that were
Speaker 1: based on evidence that were based on the actual basketball
Speaker 1: that was being played. The Warriors have flipped the script.
Speaker 1: They've been a surprise, so have the Cleveland Cavaliers. How
Speaker 1: many of you Warriors fans were saying that the Calves
Speaker 1: would start the season thirteen to zero and look like
Speaker 1: the best team in the league. Probably none of you. Right,
Speaker 1: it's a surprise, But what you should do is acknowledge it.
Speaker 1: Acknowledge the new information, be excited about it, try to
Speaker 1: learn about them. We did a whole hour breakdown with
Speaker 1: Carter Rojiguez from the Chase Down podcast on Wednesday where
Speaker 1: we went into a bunch of the different things that
Speaker 1: the Calves are doing different and then we learned and
Speaker 1: we move on the same thing. On the negative side,
Speaker 1: like I had the Sixers is like my sixth championship contender.
Speaker 1: Now it looks like a lot of their veteran minimum
Speaker 1: guys are pretty limited and they can't keep their three
Speaker 1: stars on the floor healthy, and so they look like
Speaker 1: a team that's a hell of a lot worse than
Speaker 1: I thought to start the year. There are things that
Speaker 1: are going to be right about there's things are going
Speaker 1: to be wrong about there's things you're gonna be spot
Speaker 1: on about. I had a feeling that the Clippers would
Speaker 1: be really feisty this year. They've been really feisty this year.
Speaker 1: I had a feeling that the Lakers would be a
Speaker 1: pretty solid and like more professional looking team than they
Speaker 1: looked last year. They have to start this year like,
Speaker 1: there are things that I'm right about. There's things that
Speaker 1: I'm wrong about. That's kind of part of the journey.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like Steph wasn't playing at a top ten
Speaker 1: level to end the year last year. I had a
Speaker 1: feeling it was a slump. That's something that I was
Speaker 1: right about to start this season. Down Playing the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two championship is hilarious when you support the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty championship. This is the biggest thing that Warriors fans
Speaker 1: got pissed off at in the mailbag. All I was
Speaker 1: trying to say is this is not like twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two because the teams are better now. So let's first
Speaker 1: of all, I am not downplaying the twenty twenty two championship.
Speaker 1: I think it's the crowning achievement of Steph Curry's career.
Speaker 1: It's one of the most impressive championships that I've seen.
Speaker 1: I am not undercutting that at all. All I was
Speaker 1: trying to talk about is the concept of the Warriors
Speaker 1: needing more firepower on a real basic level. You guys,
Speaker 1: tell me if you disagree in the comments, tell me,
Speaker 1: Jason you're wrong, Jason, you're right. Tell me if you agree.
Speaker 1: Are the Celtics this year better than they were in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two?
Speaker 2: Yes? They are.
Speaker 1: Are the Luca Kyrie MAVs that just went to the
Speaker 1: finals going to be a more difficult opponent than the
Speaker 1: Luca Jalen Brunson MAVs that you ran into in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference finals in twenty twenty two. I think that
Speaker 1: yes they are. They're deeper, they have a much better
Speaker 1: secondary shot, greater. Luca's better. Now they're better. They're just
Speaker 1: better like the Denver Nuggets that you beat in the
Speaker 1: first round. Are they going to be a little bit
Speaker 1: different this year with Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Junior healthy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they are. It's going to be different. It's going to
Speaker 1: be better. Oklahoma City is a much better team, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, than that Phoenix Suns team that ran away
Speaker 1: with the top of the Western Conference in twenty twenty two, Like,
Speaker 1: there's the teams at the top of the league are better.
Speaker 1: Do you disagree? Because if they are better, then the
Speaker 1: team that won in twenty twenty two might not be
Speaker 1: enough anymore. And so that's why I was talking about, Like,
Speaker 1: that's why I look at them as a team that
Speaker 1: could use some more top end firepower. I don't want
Speaker 1: to see the Warriors go down in a second or
Speaker 1: third round series because Kyrie Irving is spelling Luca with
Speaker 1: twenty seven to twenty eight points a game efficiently, or
Speaker 1: because Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren are getting buckets off
Speaker 1: of Shae Gills, of Alexander and Buddy Healed goes cold
Speaker 1: and Andrew Wiggins goes cold. That I don't want to
Speaker 1: see them. I want to see Steph flanked by a
Speaker 1: guy that you can reliably count on to produce twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five points a game efficiently at the forward spot.
Speaker 1: That's all I was trying to say. Like a lot
Speaker 1: of times like this goes back to what I was
Speaker 1: saying earlier, Like a lot of times like everything gets
Speaker 1: turned into some massive, sort of big picture thing when
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to hammer a specific point home. I
Speaker 1: was trying to hammer home that you guys need more firepower,
Speaker 1: not that the twenty twenty two championship. Not trying to
Speaker 1: downplay the twenty twenty two championship.
Speaker 2: That's silly.
Speaker 1: All I'm saying is, well, you guys admit it. Will
Speaker 1: you admit that the league is better now? Because it is?
Speaker 1: It just flatly is. You're lying to yourself if you
Speaker 1: won't admit that the league is better now. So, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you the league is better.
Speaker 1: I would like to see this Warriors team with more firepower,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna apologize for that. Next question, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: could you explain why AD's defensive RFG percentage is around
Speaker 1: the middle of the pack for centers. When I watch him,
Speaker 1: it feels like a presence, just like a go Beart,
Speaker 1: Chet Wemby, etc. But the numbers just don't reflect it.
Speaker 1: AD's defensive RFG percentage is at fifty eight percent, where
Speaker 1: Chets and Wemby's is around forty percent. Love your work
Speaker 1: a couple different things here. First of all, defensive metrics
Speaker 1: are incredibly flawed on a bunch of different levels, and
Speaker 1: that's pretty much widely accepted, even by the stat nerds
Speaker 1: that like lean on that kind of stuff all the time.
Speaker 1: And so I always like take those sorts of things
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt. Secondly, it's about the team.
Speaker 1: Like go Bear is playing with substantially better perimeter defense talent,
Speaker 1: chet Holmgren is playing with substantially better perimeter defense talent.
Speaker 1: Even Wemby, who doesn't have the type of talent that
Speaker 1: OKAYC in Minnesota has on the perimeter, is playing with
Speaker 1: better perimeter athletes than the Lakers. If a drive is
Speaker 1: flattened out before it gets to the rim, it's easier
Speaker 1: to defend. When you've got guys like Austin and Ruy
Speaker 1: and d Low giving up like straight line drive after
Speaker 1: straight line drive with like real momentum towards the rim,
Speaker 1: it's just harder to stop. And so again with Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: A lot of people underrate Anthony Davis defensively because of
Speaker 1: the team metrics that come out of the Lakers, but
Speaker 1: it's just not realistic because they play with there there's
Speaker 1: literally not a guy in the rotation who's like an
Speaker 1: elite defensive player other than Anthony Davis. There's just not
Speaker 1: one It's like there's guys who are solid. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: Gabe can kind of slide his feet and kind of
Speaker 1: do his thing. Austin Reeves is solid, he can do
Speaker 1: his thing. Like there are guys that have specific skills,
Speaker 1: like Ruey can do some help defense stuff. You can
Speaker 1: defensive rebound a little bit, like you know, Max can
Speaker 1: slide his feet. He's just a little thin. You know,
Speaker 1: Cam Reddish has got long arms and can move his feet.
Speaker 1: But like, there's just not a guy on the roster
Speaker 1: who's like even the same level as like a Nikhil
Speaker 1: Alexander Walker, as a like elite guard defender. The only
Speaker 1: guy in the Lakers who is is Jared Vanderbilt, and
Speaker 1: he hasn't played basketball and damn near year, so it's
Speaker 1: hard to even like, Like Vanderbilt is practically just a
Speaker 1: theoretical thing for me at this point.
Speaker 2: So it is what it is.
Speaker 1: But I wouldn't pay too much attention to defensive metrics
Speaker 1: surrounding Anthony Davis. I don't think they properly reflect his impact.
Speaker 1: Thank you for giving Tatum his credit. This was the
Speaker 1: question I was looking for earlier. Thank you for giving
Speaker 1: Tatum his credit. In years past. I feel like you've
Speaker 1: disregarded a lot of what he does because of your
Speaker 1: own admission he's not one of your favorite players. But
Speaker 1: I appreciate not only your objectivity, but also how you
Speaker 1: went into depth about how his play style shifted this
Speaker 1: season this season, I think I've been the most impressed
Speaker 1: by him this season, understanding when it's him that really
Speaker 1: needs to take over every Celtics game. This season, it
Speaker 1: feels like there are one to two stretches per game
Speaker 1: where Tatum alone will go down and score eight, twelve
Speaker 1: consecutive points for the Celtics when he's out there with
Speaker 1: the bench unit. Usually it happens towards the end of
Speaker 1: the first quarter or the middle of the third quarter.
Speaker 1: This is kind of what I was getting at earlier,
Speaker 1: where it's like I argue Tatum is seven instead of five,
Speaker 1: and everyone thinks I hate the guy, Like, yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: he's not my favorite player, but I don't like dislike
Speaker 1: him that much either, Like there are basketball players that
Speaker 1: I watch where like I don't like watching them, Like
Speaker 1: Luca's like that, Joel Embiid is.
Speaker 2: Like that for me.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson's getting a little there for me, with some
Speaker 1: of the grifty stuff. But even then, even when I
Speaker 1: don't like the guys, I have such a love and
Speaker 1: respect for the game of basketball that, Like I still
Speaker 1: watch Luca and it's like, even though he irritates me,
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm like, God, that's impressive. God, this is impressive.
Speaker 1: Like I still look at what they do and have
Speaker 1: appreciation for it. Same go those for Joel Embiid, saying
Speaker 1: like the footwork and the skill is impressive, Like Joe
Speaker 1: Embiid is like legitimately like a good three point shooter.
Speaker 1: Now it's crazy, you know how hard he's had to
Speaker 1: work to do that. Like I feel like if he's
Speaker 1: open and gets a good look, I feel like it's
Speaker 1: going in Like that. There's a lot that I appreciate
Speaker 1: about those guys too. Now Tatum isn't like my favorite player,
Speaker 1: but I don't actively dislike him either, but I've always
Speaker 1: had an appreciation for everything he does well. And a
Speaker 1: lot of times it turns into the thing where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have this guy at five instead of of seven,
Speaker 1: and I have this guy at seven instead of five,
Speaker 1: and people interpret that as like you hate this guy
Speaker 1: or you're thinking he's the seventeenth best player, the twenty
Speaker 1: fourth best player.
Speaker 2: That's silly. I've always viewed.
Speaker 1: Tatum as like one of the guys that's in that
Speaker 1: second tier of stars, right below the top of the league.
Speaker 1: Most Celtics fans actually agree with me. That's the crazy part.
Speaker 1: Most Celtics fans agree with me. There's a segment of
Speaker 1: Celtics fans that think he's in the Jannis Luka Jokic tier.
Speaker 1: And look, here's the thing, with the way he's starting
Speaker 1: this season, like he's getting certainly closer to that pier.
Speaker 1: As I said in the beginning of the mailbag, I
Speaker 1: think he's at the top of that second tier at
Speaker 1: the start of this season.
Speaker 2: But like, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Feel like I've always talked about Tatum being a versatile defender.
Speaker 1: I think I've always talked about Tatum being a guy
Speaker 1: who's made strides as a playmaker in recent years. I've
Speaker 1: just also pointed out things like, yeah, dude, you rely
Speaker 1: a lot on tough jump shot making, and this year
Speaker 1: he's making them, which is making him look like a
Speaker 1: better player. But in years past he's relied on tough
Speaker 1: jump shot making and not made them, and it's been
Speaker 1: an issue for him, it's been an issue that's extended
Speaker 1: to even the Olympic team not wanting him in the rotation.
Speaker 1: There's I feel like the criticism that I levied was fair,
Speaker 1: and so that's kind of where that comes from. And
Speaker 1: I just I want people to understand when I talk
Speaker 1: about a player's like upsides and downsides, I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to do my job. And when I ranked players in
Speaker 1: specific spots, it doesn't mean a lot of times if
Speaker 1: I'm arguing for a couple spots lower, I'll bring up
Speaker 1: some negatives, but that doesn't mean I think the guys
Speaker 1: fifteenth or something along those lines. And honestly, like one
Speaker 1: of the things that I've seen a lot with Tatum
Speaker 1: fans too, is they'll be like, why don't you ever
Speaker 1: criticize so and so for this? Why don't you ever
Speaker 1: criticize so and so for that? And like, I feel like,
Speaker 1: if you watch this show, you can tell I do
Speaker 1: criticize even the top players in the league. I'd argue
Speaker 1: I criticized the top players in the league. More.
Speaker 2: Ask jok fans.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Jokic fans that get upset with
Speaker 1: me because last year I said he couldn't shoot, and
Speaker 1: he had a shitty defensive season. Like, that's the guy
Speaker 1: that I think is the best player in the league,
Speaker 1: and I was openly criticizing his shooting in his defense
Speaker 1: throughout the entire second half of the season and in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Luka Doncic, I've been I told him. I
Speaker 1: said that the defensive performance he had in the finals
Speaker 1: was the worst defensive performance I've ever seen in the finals. Giannis,
Speaker 1: I talk all the time about how in the half
Speaker 1: court he can really struggle to be as decisive and
Speaker 1: efficient as his teammates at as his peers at the
Speaker 1: top of the league. I've talked about how he hasn't
Speaker 1: as good of a defensive season as he did last year.
Speaker 1: Shak gilges Alexander, I've criticized him for not being as
Speaker 1: much of a willing passer or surgical half court passer
Speaker 1: as he needs to be.
Speaker 2: Like, I am.
Speaker 1: Critical of all the players at the top of the league,
Speaker 1: not just Jason Tatum. If you think I'm only being
Speaker 1: critical of Jason Tatum, then you're only listening to my
Speaker 1: Celtics content and you're only reacting to the stuff I'm
Speaker 1: saying about Jason Tatum, So again, I wanted to clarify
Speaker 1: that because I think it's become something that has slipped
Speaker 1: through the cracks a little bit. Could you explain what
Speaker 1: you define as athleticism. One of your main gripes with
Speaker 1: the Lakers has been a lack of athleticism in the backcourt.
Speaker 1: And of course I can understand that players liked Lo
Speaker 1: and Reeves aren't particularly muscular or bouncy, but I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm missing the point of why that matters so
Speaker 1: much to the success of the team, not even being
Speaker 1: specific to the Lakers, what qualities do you point to
Speaker 1: when referring to athleticism or lack thereof in the big picture?
Speaker 1: Love the show Man, Thanks for keeping me entertained at
Speaker 1: work when I can't watch the games. Thank you for
Speaker 1: the kind words and for supporting the show. When it
Speaker 1: comes to athleticism, it's combination of factors, So I think
Speaker 1: size strength. There's like speed right like like foot speed
Speaker 1: and coordination. There's actual speed, like straight line speed when
Speaker 1: you get going full speed start stop ability, there's conditioning
Speaker 1: is a major one that I think. It's a gloss
Speaker 1: over a lot, like more physical tools like how long
Speaker 1: are your arms where's your center of gravity? Is it
Speaker 1: higher where you can get bumped off your line? Is
Speaker 1: it lower where you better at holding your ground? All
Speaker 1: of those factors get baked into athleticism, but like I mean,
Speaker 1: it all kind of comes together in a big way.
Speaker 1: Like there are guys like that, like, for instance, the
Speaker 1: Lakers front court players Lebron and Ad get burned in
Speaker 1: transition all the time. Nikola Jokich is not as like
Speaker 1: fast or quick as Ad or Lebron, but he plays
Speaker 1: more consistently hard like. Jokich's conditioning is so top tier
Speaker 1: that the dude just sprints up and down the floor
Speaker 1: all the time, and so he doesn't get taken advantage
Speaker 1: of in transition as much as some of his more
Speaker 1: athletic peers At the center position. Steph is a guy
Speaker 1: that doesn't necessary have the athletic tools of some of
Speaker 1: the guys at the top of the league, but his
Speaker 1: conditioning is better than everybody, and he just runs and
Speaker 1: circles the entire damn game and he catches you slipping
Speaker 1: every single time you relax. That's a factor of athleticism, right.
Speaker 1: Draymond Green's long arms. He's an undersized big sure, but
Speaker 1: he can meet guys up top at the rim, like
Speaker 1: he did with Daniel Gafford, or close out to the
Speaker 1: three point line like he did on I think it
Speaker 1: was Naugie Marshall in the game on Tuesday. He can
Speaker 1: get there and he can get great contests and sometimes
Speaker 1: even black shots because he's got super long arms. All
Speaker 1: of that stuff combines into athleticism, and there's just way
Speaker 1: too many guys on the Lakers where it's like it's
Speaker 1: like Ruy or excuse me, let's say Dlo. It's like
Speaker 1: Delo is like slow footed, not particularly fast, not particularly big,
Speaker 1: not particularly strong, and not particularly well conditioned. He's a
Speaker 1: bad athlete, gets burned all over the floor all game long.
Speaker 1: Ruey big, strong, long, that's good, right, but slow footed
Speaker 1: loses side with his conditioning. And I also even think
Speaker 1: there's like a mental athletics as an aspect, which is like.
Speaker 2: How well are you at? How good are you at?
Speaker 1: Like staying attentive and focused on the details, because that's
Speaker 1: such an important thing. I think all of those are
Speaker 1: parts of the game of basketball. Curious to hear your
Speaker 1: reaction on Bronnie only playing home games in the G League.
Speaker 1: I do not see how this could be good for Bronnie.
Speaker 1: Totally agree. I think most of the compliment, the complaining
Speaker 1: about the Bronni situation has been like straight up people
Speaker 1: who just don't like Lebron irrationally and like are taking
Speaker 1: it out on the Bronnie situation. That's most of it.
Speaker 1: But this is something that I genuinely don't understand. Like
Speaker 1: the kid needs reps, he needs to play basketball, and
Speaker 1: like there's this thing where it's like, oh, they don't
Speaker 1: want him flying delta because he's too famous. Okay, I
Speaker 1: understand that. I get that, Like I get I get
Speaker 1: how Lebron James could be, Like I don't want Bronnie
Speaker 1: like sitting on a delta playing with a bunch of
Speaker 1: like you know, like American citizens right where, like just
Speaker 1: just because it's a little uncomfortable. He's such a public
Speaker 1: figure and he's become slandered so much and all this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, Right, I get that, totally understand, But
Speaker 1: like figure it out, man, figure out the transportation piece,
Speaker 1: because like it's not gonna work for anybody if one,
Speaker 1: Bronni's not getting the reps he needs because he's only
Speaker 1: playing in half the games. Two Bronni's with the actual
Speaker 1: big team when the G league's on the road, but
Speaker 1: he can't actually play because he's not in the rotation.
Speaker 1: And three, the G League team is trying to actually
Speaker 1: put together a cohesive roster, and they've got a guy
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup who's in and out of the
Speaker 1: lineup based on whether or not they're at home or
Speaker 1: on the road. Like that's not working for anybody. And
Speaker 1: like just because of transportation, Like, dude, you're a billionaire, Lebron,
Speaker 1: get Bronni to the games. I don't know what to
Speaker 1: tell you. Get Bronnie to the games. Like, there's gotta
Speaker 1: be a way to do it that doesn't involve this
Speaker 1: sort of like shuttling back and forth and only having
Speaker 1: a playing road home games. Like again, like Lebron James
Speaker 1: is the most polarizing basketball player of my lifetime. Half
Speaker 1: the world absolutely hates the guy. I will never understand it.
Speaker 1: I feel like in his older age it's gotten a
Speaker 1: little better, but there's still a big chunk out there
Speaker 1: that just hates the guy for whatever reason. And the
Speaker 1: majority of the criticism of Bronni is completely ridiculous. There's
Speaker 1: nepotism all over the league. None of you guys gave
Speaker 1: a shit when it was anything that had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with Lebron. Now that Lebron's involved, you got your
Speaker 1: panties all in a bunch. I don't understand what it is.
Speaker 1: It is what it is, but this specific thing is
Speaker 1: something that I disagree with. I don't understand. I don't
Speaker 1: understand how this could be good for Bronnie under any circumstances.
Speaker 1: Is it high time the Lakers look at Vanderbilt as
Speaker 1: a trade asset now, given that he's always out, and
Speaker 1: get a three and DP player by trading him in
Speaker 1: d Love. So I would be okay with trading Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt as long as you got someone of equal athletic
Speaker 1: a capability, that has a starting caliber player. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: if you have the opportunity, let's say that the Lakers
Speaker 1: decide to go after Zach Levine, if you gave up
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt and Zach Lavine trade, that would make no sense
Speaker 1: to me, because now you're giving up You're giving up
Speaker 1: one of the few good athletes you have on the
Speaker 1: roster while getting back an athletic player, but not an
Speaker 1: athletic player that's functionally athletic. In the areas you need,
Speaker 1: like defense and rebounding, right, But let's say that you're
Speaker 1: going to get an actual, real elite perimeter athlete into
Speaker 1: Like let's say, for instance, you got you called the
Speaker 1: Clippers up and you were like, let's take Derrek Jones
Speaker 1: Junior and James Harden in a deal or something like that.
Speaker 1: If that ended up being the type of deal that
Speaker 1: the Lakers went after, if it took Jared Vanderbilt to
Speaker 1: get Derek Jones junior, hell yeah, include him in the deal.
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior is a better basketball player and does
Speaker 1: all the same stuff. That's who I would want, right,
Speaker 1: But like, it all just depends on what you're getting back.
Speaker 1: If you're not getting a supreme athlete back that can
Speaker 1: start games, I don't want to give up Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: in a deal. I know you didn't cover this game,
Speaker 1: but Wemby was six for nine from three last night
Speaker 1: against the Jazz. It was the most threes he's made
Speaker 1: in his career. When Wemby was told of this, Wemby
Speaker 1: was surprised. Wenby is currently averaging seven three point three
Speaker 1: pointers a game, which is about half his overall field
Speaker 1: goal attempts. Do you think this style of play from
Speaker 1: Wemby will be successful in the long run. Well, he
Speaker 1: followed this up with an eight to three game last
Speaker 1: night against the Washington Wizards when he dropped fifty. Right,
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. I talked about this in the
Speaker 1: show that aired on Thursday. But like, one of the
Speaker 1: things that's been really fascinating to me is these like
Speaker 1: younger pretty athletic stars, guys like Anthony Edwards, Supreme athlete,
Speaker 1: Victor Webbin yamo Is, some of the best athletic gifts
Speaker 1: in the league, Jason Tatum one of the bigger, stronger
Speaker 1: forwards in the league, Jalen Green dearon Fox, A couple
Speaker 1: of like really fast athletic guards that are taking ten
Speaker 1: plus jump shots a game. And I think it really
Speaker 1: just comes down to the math. Like, like Wenby takes
Speaker 1: eight threes or makes eight threes on sixteen tries, it's
Speaker 1: twenty four points on sixteen shots. What is it like
Speaker 1: that that's one point five points per attempt. Like, when
Speaker 1: you're hitting at that rate, the math is just so
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly your favor He'd have to hit seventy five percent
Speaker 1: of his shots around the paint to be equally as efficient,
Speaker 1: so I think it's leaning into the large sample. Here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I'm one hundred percent okay with it as
Speaker 1: long as they're continuing to hit shots at a percentage
Speaker 1: or the math makes sense, But there is one caveat
Speaker 1: in late game situations when you get into the small sample,
Speaker 1: getting that extra point per make doesn't matter if you
Speaker 1: can't make the damn shot. So like all these guys,
Speaker 1: I want to see them have something close to the
Speaker 1: rim that they feel like they can make at least
Speaker 1: fifty percent of the time. If that's a turnaround, fade away,
Speaker 1: if it's a left shoulder hooked, whatever it is that
Speaker 1: you go to, you gotta have something close to the
Speaker 1: rim that you can rely on in small sample size
Speaker 1: situations when you can't rely on the math to benefit
Speaker 1: you over the large sample. All right, three more questions
Speaker 1: in your opinion, Jason. Should the Pacers continue to start
Speaker 1: Mathriin even when Nemhard comes back from his knee injury.
Speaker 1: Matherin looks fantastic this season, and if they make a trade,
Speaker 1: I could see a Nemhard Nie Smith for Jad McDaniels
Speaker 1: for the perimeter defense they need. Thoughts Absolutely, I think
Speaker 1: Andrew Nempard when Andrew Nemhard comes back, that Ben Mathern
Speaker 1: should keep starting. First of all, he's shooting the lights,
Speaker 1: like shooting the laces off the basketball, both off the
Speaker 1: dribble and off the catch, but especially off the catch.
Speaker 1: They had already been closing with him sometimes before then
Speaker 1: Mhard injury, they close like with him over Nie Smith
Speaker 1: or something like that. But they've struggled so much with
Speaker 1: defense and rebounding that I do agree that they need
Speaker 1: something at the three. So like the ideal kind of
Speaker 1: configuration to me would be, you know, you have Tyrese Halliburton,
Speaker 1: you have Ben Matherrin, you have Pascal, you have Miles Turner,
Speaker 1: and then somebody who's basically just like a bigger, like, longer,
Speaker 1: better version of aaron Nie Smith at the three. I
Speaker 1: think would make this team a lot more interesting. Maybe
Speaker 1: they're the kind of team that should be looking at
Speaker 1: like a Dorian Finney Smith out of Brooklyn as a
Speaker 1: potential target for them. Hello Jason, how many more games
Speaker 1: do we need for the Knicks to find their chemistry?
Speaker 1: Although some of their depth pieces off the bench are
Speaker 1: injured and haven't played a single game yet, and when
Speaker 1: they do. Do you think the defense will click along
Speaker 1: with their offense? So I would say with both the
Speaker 1: Knicks and the Wolves, I would wait a lot. Like
Speaker 1: both of them have been really clunky to start the year.
Speaker 1: The Wolves just drop back to back games in Portland
Speaker 1: where they couldn't score and were turning the basketball over
Speaker 1: a ton, And like the Knicks, that's like impressive game,
Speaker 1: huge dud. Impressive game, huge dud. Like they're just up
Speaker 1: and down like crazy right now. These are two teams
Speaker 1: that completely change their identity a week before training camp
Speaker 1: and undid a lot of the continuity that they built
Speaker 1: over the previous seasons. I wouldn't take any sort of
Speaker 1: hardline stance on the Knicks or the Wolves until we're
Speaker 1: at least halfway through this season. If we get to
Speaker 1: the trade deadline and they have these clear flaws, then
Speaker 1: it's a different kind of conversation to have. But I'm
Speaker 1: not going to worry about anything until we get to
Speaker 1: that point. Last question, they have a seven and four
Speaker 1: record with only Lebron. This was in reference to a
Speaker 1: Lakers tweet that I sent out this morning. They have
Speaker 1: seven and four record with only Lebron, Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves giving them anything night tonight. Those three do
Speaker 1: it all, getting almost nothing night tonight from most of
Speaker 1: the roster, zero front core depth. Makes some changes and
Speaker 1: quickly this team will be something. This was in relation
Speaker 1: to the Lakers getting off to a seven and four
Speaker 1: start but barely having a positive point differential, And obviously
Speaker 1: there's a couple of big blowouts in there. They got
Speaker 1: rolled by the Grizzlies on a night when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: didn't play, and then they had that catastrophe when they
Speaker 1: went to Cleveland and just got the shit beat out
Speaker 1: of them. But for the most part, they've been a
Speaker 1: team that I'm actually like, weirdly down on, even though
Speaker 1: they're off to a decent start in the standings, And
Speaker 1: the main reason why is they've looked so inconsistent down
Speaker 1: the roster. But like all these teams are figuring out
Speaker 1: with the Lakers that if you pressure the ball and
Speaker 1: you run on them and transition, you can cause them
Speaker 1: all sorts of problems because of their lack of athletes.
Speaker 1: And so to me, like Austin, Lebron and ad are
Speaker 1: a rock solid foundation. They continue to demonstrate that again
Speaker 1: to start this season. There is a ton of skill
Speaker 1: down the roster. De Loo is skilled, Ruy is skilled,
Speaker 1: Dalton connect is skilled. They have skilled players. They have
Speaker 1: to find a way to balance that out with athleticism
Speaker 1: down the roster in order to capital ey on it.
Speaker 1: But I agree if you're looking for a silver lining
Speaker 1: as a Lakers fan other than the top three guys,
Speaker 1: there's been no consistent good play down the roster. If
Speaker 1: you start to get that, either through just guys playing better,
Speaker 1: or through the trade market, or through guys getting healthy
Speaker 1: like Jared Vanderbilt, that's where there's some potential upside with
Speaker 1: this Laker team because their top end is so good.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today
Speaker 1: is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
Speaker 1: supporting the show. I hope you all have an amazing weekend.
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday with some game reactions and
Speaker 1: some power rankings.
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume.
Speaker 2: What's so guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.