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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume Happy Tuesday, everybody,
Speaker 1: we actually got I. I guess you could technically call
Speaker 1: that not a blowout in the sense that the starters
Speaker 1: were all in the game there at the end, although
Speaker 1: technically that was as boring a basketball game as you
Speaker 1: could have had on a night like tonight. I had
Speaker 1: I had seen this game coming. Based on a couple
Speaker 1: of specific details. We're gonna get into all of that.
Speaker 1: We're going to break this game down a little bit,
Speaker 1: not gonna get too far into the details because it
Speaker 1: was a textbook. Mail in effort from the Warriors on
Speaker 1: a bunch of different levels. Uh, we're gonna bring my
Speaker 1: guy Carson on in a little bit and we're going
Speaker 1: to dive a little bit deeper into some of the
Speaker 1: implications of tonight and looking forward into this postseason run,
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the all NBA teams that
Speaker 1: got announced today, and just have some fun talking about
Speaker 1: some macro topics around the NBA. Before we get started,
Speaker 1: all of you guys who are tuning in, if you
Speaker 1: could please take the time to like this video, I
Speaker 1: would very much appreciate that. If you guys could subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our shows, that would be awesome. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, follow me on Twitter at Underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt so that you guys can see the video
Speaker 1: breakdowns that I do um routinely on there. Just you
Speaker 1: can see some video examples of some of the things
Speaker 1: and the concepts that I talked on the show. So
Speaker 1: I did a whole thing last night might have been
Speaker 1: last night two nights ago, where I talked about how
Speaker 1: the aura that surrounds the Golden State Warriors caused Dallas
Speaker 1: players who were very good shooters and had demonstrated the
Speaker 1: ability to shoot the ball consistently well, especially when open
Speaker 1: on kickouts from the Dallas offensive system. How they would
Speaker 1: suddenly strung goal and lose their confidence under the weight
Speaker 1: of what the Warriors bring to the table as a personality,
Speaker 1: as a dynasty, and I talked about how I've seen
Speaker 1: this many times over the years. I remember watching every
Speaker 1: single player in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform not named Lebron James,
Speaker 1: and even a little bit Lebron himself freak out on
Speaker 1: a big stage against the Boston Celtics in the two
Speaker 1: thousand ten NBA Playoffs, despite the fact that they were
Speaker 1: the better team that had won over sixty games back
Speaker 1: to back seasons, had all the tools in the toolbox needed.
Speaker 1: But here came the grizzly old Boston Celtics, who had
Speaker 1: done had a couple of deep playoff runs laid in
Speaker 1: with veterans, had just won a championship in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, and probably would have won one in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine had Kevin Garnett not gotten hurt. They're actually
Speaker 1: a lot better that year to start that season than
Speaker 1: they were in the previous season, and they walked into
Speaker 1: that gym, and they had a psychological effect on the
Speaker 1: Cavaliers and they crumbled. I watched Lebron in two thousand
Speaker 1: fifteen and two thousand sixteen have a similar effect on
Speaker 1: the Warriors. They were the up and comers, they were
Speaker 1: the more talented team. But Lebron had been in the
Speaker 1: finals so many times that he brought that aura and
Speaker 1: that confidence, and all of a sudden, a lot of
Speaker 1: really good players Clay Thompson didn't shoot well in either
Speaker 1: of those NBA Finals series two thousand fifteen or two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen. Harrison Barnes completely combusted. Ironically, there was a
Speaker 1: chance that had things gone a certain way in Game seven,
Speaker 1: that Draymond Green might have won Finals MVP, which I
Speaker 1: would have disagreed with. You guys know how I feel
Speaker 1: about Stephen Finals MVPs. He already has one in my book,
Speaker 1: and had they won in two thousand sixteen, I would
Speaker 1: have given it to him there too. But you saw
Speaker 1: that psychological effect impact them, and it may or may
Speaker 1: not have cost them in two thousand sixteen, and almost
Speaker 1: did in two thousand fifteen. But now the Warriors are
Speaker 1: in that position where they are the team that is
Speaker 1: supremely confident in a huge road Game three against a
Speaker 1: very good basketball team. And now the Dallas Mavericks are
Speaker 1: the team that hadn't been there, that was new on
Speaker 1: the block, role players that hadn't been on that stage before,
Speaker 1: and they all crumbled in Game three. And it's a
Speaker 1: huge part of why I'm such a huge believer in
Speaker 1: the Warriors moving forward, which we'll talk about in a minute.
Speaker 1: But I had a feeling about tonight. I went on
Speaker 1: with Live Moods, who's one of our huge gambling people
Speaker 1: here at the volume. You guys should follow her if
Speaker 1: you don't already, And she asked me when I came
Speaker 1: on her Instagram live today to kind of help her
Speaker 1: piece together the same game part way for tonight. And
Speaker 1: my thought process immediately as soon as as soon as
Speaker 1: we went down that path was the pressure is off
Speaker 1: in this series. You're down three, Oh you're you're not
Speaker 1: gonna win. Guys like I don't care what you saw tonight.
Speaker 1: Golden States win in this series. All you Warriors fans
Speaker 1: know it all. You never fact, Mavericks fans know it all.
Speaker 1: The other twenty eight teams and their fans, they know it.
Speaker 1: The Warriors are gonna win. So what does that do
Speaker 1: psychologically to all of those same shooters. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the fear that was running through them when they were
Speaker 1: taking those same shots in game three was gone. And
Speaker 1: by the way, they were wide open in game three,
Speaker 1: I tweeted this out earlier. Game one, the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: generated eight wide open threes, only managed to make eight
Speaker 1: of them. Game two they generated twenty four more, Game three,
Speaker 1: twenty eight wide open threes again in game three, so
Speaker 1: they've consistently gotten wide open shots. This series swung on
Speaker 1: Dallas not being able to shoot the way they did
Speaker 1: in the previous two rounds, step out playing Luca, and
Speaker 1: the Mavericks being completely incapable of getting a stop. Those
Speaker 1: were the three major factors that turned this from two
Speaker 1: really good teams playing each other to it looking like
Speaker 1: one team was significantly better than the other. So I
Speaker 1: told Live, I said, I think our best bet here
Speaker 1: is Dallas starts making shots tonight because the pressure is off.
Speaker 1: And you could tell that immediately in that first quarter.
Speaker 1: You could just see it in the body language. You
Speaker 1: could see it in the way that the guys were
Speaker 1: rising into the shots. MAXI Kleiba, who was a complete
Speaker 1: in total headcase in Game three, was stepping into shots
Speaker 1: like he was the best player on the floor in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. That was super predictable, and so my
Speaker 1: guess was, Hey, Dallas is gonna make a bunch of
Speaker 1: shots that inherently is going to lead to Luca getting
Speaker 1: assists and the MAVs are gonna win the game because
Speaker 1: the Warriors just don't take these, uh these road close
Speaker 1: out games seriously. So we built parlay and it was Warriors,
Speaker 1: it was MAVs money line, Luca over seven and a
Speaker 1: half assists and Dorian Phinney Smith and Reggie Bulog both
Speaker 1: over ten and a half points, and it hit tonight
Speaker 1: at a plus eight forty four uh odds there, which
Speaker 1: was insane. But again, like and you guys have the
Speaker 1: deal with gambling. Sometimes it works, sometime time it doesn't.
Speaker 1: I also bet a alternate spread tonight minus fourteen and
Speaker 1: a half for Dallas because I figured Dallas would blow
Speaker 1: them out, and I was staring at the cash out
Speaker 1: for like a solid couple of minutes during the commercial
Speaker 1: break at the end of the third quarter. Didn't take it,
Speaker 1: so I lost that. But the beauty of that was
Speaker 1: Luca checked back in, and he played so well early
Speaker 1: that he wasn't gonna play in the fourth quarter, and
Speaker 1: so him getting back in helped us to get over
Speaker 1: that assist marker. So my point is the reason why
Speaker 1: I bring that all up is there was a basketball
Speaker 1: thought process for how I put that parlay together with Live.
Speaker 1: It was pressures off. Dallas is a team that relies
Speaker 1: heavily on three point shooting from role players. They're gonna
Speaker 1: shoot better tonight, and they did. I thought it was
Speaker 1: appallingly interesting slash annoying that Dallas fell apart the way
Speaker 1: they did in that fourth quarter against Golden States three
Speaker 1: to zone. They were completely and utterly flum mixed by it,
Speaker 1: which is frustrating because that's a zone constructor that's been
Speaker 1: around in the game of basketball for a half a
Speaker 1: cent tree um. They were completely content to just go
Speaker 1: five out against the three two zone and pass the
Speaker 1: ball around the perimeter when the middle of the floor
Speaker 1: was wide open, which is insane to me because they
Speaker 1: kept swinging ball. There was no close out necessary for
Speaker 1: the Warriors guys, because they're already in the right spots
Speaker 1: to guard a five out unit there, and they just
Speaker 1: weren't doing anything to try to get the ball into
Speaker 1: the middle of the zone, which is how it dragged
Speaker 1: out the way it did. And obviously the Warriors we
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit last night. The Warriors
Speaker 1: are incredibly deep. They have a lot of guys in
Speaker 1: their rotation that would be playing for other NBA teams
Speaker 1: that don't get minutes for the Warriors when they're healthy, right,
Speaker 1: Like Moses Moody, really solid wing doesn't even play for
Speaker 1: the Warriors for the most part, Johnathan Comingo, really solid,
Speaker 1: up and coming young wing doesn't even play to Wantaskano
Speaker 1: Anderson doesn't even play. They have a ton of talent.
Speaker 1: And so when those guys got into that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: and they were engaged and they were focused, and Dallas
Speaker 1: wasn't taken it seriously, they fell apart the way that
Speaker 1: they did. I'm not worried at all about the Warriors
Speaker 1: moving forward in the series. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I wanted to take this opportunity. You know, I've kind
Speaker 1: of been you guys know me, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: married to a take. I'm gonna have a take based
Speaker 1: on whatever the available information is to me at the time,
Speaker 1: and if the information changes, I'm gonna change my take
Speaker 1: because I don't have an ego big enough to be
Speaker 1: obsessed with going down with the ship for whatever reason. Um,
Speaker 1: I think the Warriors are the best team left and
Speaker 1: I think they're going to win the championship. I have
Speaker 1: been really high on Boston through this entire stretch, but
Speaker 1: they're inconsistent effort and they're inconsistent focus. Even though it
Speaker 1: hasn't burned them yet, it almost did against Milwaukee, and
Speaker 1: there two two in a series against Miami that they've
Speaker 1: utterly dominated. And the reason why they're too too is
Speaker 1: because of that that like complete and total lack of
Speaker 1: consistent focus and effort. You know, there is a town.
Speaker 1: There may or may not be a talent gap there
Speaker 1: between Boston and Golden State, depending on how you feel
Speaker 1: at the defensive end. If you favor offense more, you're
Speaker 1: gonna think Golden States better. I leaned slightly towards Boston
Speaker 1: in terms of overall two way talent, just because I
Speaker 1: think they have better defensive players. But I think Golden
Speaker 1: State would win that series because the of the the
Speaker 1: consistent commitment to the details that Golden State has, and
Speaker 1: there they do have a significantly better offensive engine in Steph,
Speaker 1: and they do have a lot of offensive talent surrounding
Speaker 1: step which is gonna test that Boston defense in a
Speaker 1: way that none of these teams that they've played so
Speaker 1: far have except for maybe Brooklyn, who just didn't have
Speaker 1: the defensive chops to keep up. So as of right now,
Speaker 1: at this moment in time, like I think, I think
Speaker 1: Golden States the best team and all. It sounds crazy
Speaker 1: to say on a night like tonight, but as the
Speaker 1: information has been coming in, I expected Golden State to
Speaker 1: lose tonight. You guys, remember I expected them to lose
Speaker 1: Game five in Memphis. I told you guys, they get
Speaker 1: blown out that night. It's just they're They're bad and
Speaker 1: road closeout games. They're much more comfortable closing out at home,
Speaker 1: And it was predictable that both of those teams would
Speaker 1: just be more confident on their home floor in a
Speaker 1: situation where the pressure is off of them, which is
Speaker 1: what happens when you fall far that far behind in
Speaker 1: a series. So we're gonna get a bunch further into
Speaker 1: the weeds here. I'm gonna bring my guy Carson on
Speaker 1: and he's gonna start asking a bunch of questions about
Speaker 1: not just tonight, but the rest of the stuff going
Speaker 1: on around the league. That's correct, Jason, That is often
Speaker 1: what I tend to do here. So obviously Doubs fall
Speaker 1: short tonight. But we asked him the chat se of
Speaker 1: people said they thought that this series would be over
Speaker 1: after Game five. What do you think, Jason, do you
Speaker 1: think the Golden State closes out on Thursday? And what's
Speaker 1: your reaction to that? Really strong consensus we got. I
Speaker 1: would be stunned if Golden State didn't win on Thursday. Um,
Speaker 1: Now let's look at it from Dallas's perspective. First, you
Speaker 1: just gotta win one game. You go down to Golden
Speaker 1: State and you win a road game, which you knew
Speaker 1: you were going to have to do to win the
Speaker 1: series anyway, If you do, you send it back home
Speaker 1: for Game six, where you'll be favored, just like they
Speaker 1: were favored tonight. And then if you win that game,
Speaker 1: you it's Game seven and anything can happen. And we
Speaker 1: literally saw what happened with that with Luca against Phoenix.
Speaker 1: Now do I think that's gonna happen. No, But that's
Speaker 1: the approach that Dallas has to have go to Golden
Speaker 1: State and win one basketball game. What do I think
Speaker 1: is gonna happen. I think that Dallas is going to
Speaker 1: go into Golden State. The pressure is going to be
Speaker 1: back on the guys to make shots, especially if Golden
Speaker 1: State makes some shots early and gets a little bit
Speaker 1: of a lead and all of a sudden, Maxi Kleiba
Speaker 1: and Reggie Bullock and Dorian Phinney Smith and all the
Speaker 1: guys that have been tentative throughout the series when they're
Speaker 1: when they've been open, we'll go back to being tentative.
Speaker 1: That's what I expect to happen. The other thing, too,
Speaker 1: here is I didn't think Luca was very good tonight. Again.
Speaker 1: I thought he was horrible on defense again. I thought
Speaker 1: he was forcing the action into the teeth of the
Speaker 1: defense and missing easy reads again. And I just don't
Speaker 1: think he's sharp enough right now to go down into
Speaker 1: Golden State and lead them to a win. So I
Speaker 1: will be I will be on Golden State big in
Speaker 1: Game five. If the MAVs do extend the series, how
Speaker 1: do you think they pull that off? So a couple
Speaker 1: of things, Uh, Luca has to play better than Staff
Speaker 1: in Game five. Um, so you know, doesn't it. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you notice this, Carson, but Andrew Wiggins.
Speaker 1: It's not just Wiggins, it's everybody on Golden State. Luca
Speaker 1: is not getting great looks for himself in this series.
Speaker 1: His step backs feel a little bit more contested than
Speaker 1: they've been in the earlier rounds, all of those like
Speaker 1: herky jerky shots around the lane. Colin Coward did a
Speaker 1: really nice job of calling this out on Sunday Night
Speaker 1: on his show. The discipline that Golden State has shown
Speaker 1: to not go for shot fakes, and what it usually
Speaker 1: ends up happening is when you, as an offensive player,
Speaker 1: the advantage of the shot face because if you get
Speaker 1: a guy off his feet, you're at a great advantage. Obviously.
Speaker 1: The problem is is once you've made the shot fake,
Speaker 1: you lose all of your physical momentum and so it
Speaker 1: gets way way harder to get lift from the dead
Speaker 1: stop that you put yourself in in the pump fake.
Speaker 1: I remember watching Kobe when he was younger, and he'd
Speaker 1: do those like triple pump bakes before he rise up
Speaker 1: into a jump shot, and I was always like blown
Speaker 1: away that he was able to get the lift that
Speaker 1: you would need after doing that to rise up and
Speaker 1: knock the shot down. But what's happening is Lucas pump
Speaker 1: getting into the lane and pump aking. Golden State's not
Speaker 1: going for it, and he's not getting great looks around
Speaker 1: the rim, and he's not seeing the defense super well. Steve,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about this. Steve cur has just
Speaker 1: done an amazing job of disguising coverages and mixing up
Speaker 1: coverages and making it so that Luca doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: really understand where his opportunities are or where his open
Speaker 1: teammates are. It's it's clearly throwing him for a loop.
Speaker 1: But that all needs to be cleaned up for Dallas
Speaker 1: if they won't have any chance in game five, you
Speaker 1: need Luca to come out and play and excellent two
Speaker 1: way game. Secondly, you need the role players to knock
Speaker 1: down threes, just like they did tonight in Game four,
Speaker 1: and just like they did in the first half of
Speaker 1: Game two and then last but not least defensive contained.
Speaker 1: Everybody not named Luca was really good tonight and I
Speaker 1: was impressed by that. But outside of Luca or but Luca,
Speaker 1: like when you go on the road to Golden State,
Speaker 1: they'll be sharper and Luca will also have to be
Speaker 1: sharper on the defensive end there. But if they defend
Speaker 1: well and they knocked down shots, and if Luca plays well,
Speaker 1: they have a chance. I just, I just I think
Speaker 1: that all three of those things will probably go south
Speaker 1: for Dallas. All right, let's pivot to the other Game
Speaker 1: five that is coming up, obviously in a series that
Speaker 1: feels more up in the air right now, perhaps has
Speaker 1: certainly been unlike really any other that I can kind
Speaker 1: of remember in recent Conference Finals history. So as we
Speaker 1: look to heat Celtics, Jason, what is the biggest factor
Speaker 1: in their Game five upcoming tomorrow? That's interesting? So I
Speaker 1: I this game I think will end up being our
Speaker 1: first close game of the of the Conference Finals. As
Speaker 1: as as awful as that is, so, I expect both
Speaker 1: teams to come out focused. Um. As much as I've
Speaker 1: credited Miami for being really well coached and dialed in
Speaker 1: on the details, I thought they were a little flat
Speaker 1: in Game four. Now, don't get me wrong, Boston came
Speaker 1: out and played a hell of a game in Boston's
Speaker 1: better than them on both ends of the floor, But
Speaker 1: Miami lacks some of that intensity all of that aggression
Speaker 1: that Bamata Bio had in Game three was just gone
Speaker 1: like like it was like, I don't it was like
Speaker 1: he was possessed in Game three by someone else's consciousness.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like it, like because if you
Speaker 1: take the three games surrounding that and juxtaposed them with
Speaker 1: Game three, it just doesn't even make any sense. So
Speaker 1: I expect both teams to come out dialed in in
Speaker 1: a way that they haven't consistently been throughout this series.
Speaker 1: The key the key from Miami is going to be shooting,
Speaker 1: particularly three point shooting. They just can't afford to not
Speaker 1: shoot extraordinarily well from the perimeter with their talent disadvantage.
Speaker 1: For Boston, it once again is going to come down
Speaker 1: to offensive execution. We've talked a lot about playing with force.
Speaker 1: When Miami comes out at the opening tip um in
Speaker 1: Game five, you can bet on them to apply a
Speaker 1: ton of ball pressure and to be sharpened their defensive rotations,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be imperative early on for Tatum. I
Speaker 1: don't know if Marcus Smart is gonna play yet, that's
Speaker 1: up in the air as of right now, But for
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown to make a deliberate effort to get
Speaker 1: into the teeth of the defense and then kick two
Speaker 1: shooters rather than settling for their pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: like they do most often. One of the tricks for
Speaker 1: Boston is when Jalen Brown gets it going as a
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooter, he doesn't miss much, like he's
Speaker 1: a uber confident step back jump shooter. And the problem
Speaker 1: with that, and I run into this problem myself my
Speaker 1: in the in my basketball exhibitions here around the city
Speaker 1: of Tucson. Like I'm six ft seven with basketball shoes on,
Speaker 1: i have six ten wingspan, and I can jump so
Speaker 1: like I can get to a step back three anytime
Speaker 1: I want. And that's a blessing and a curse because
Speaker 1: it's a blessing because I get to that shot anytime
Speaker 1: I need it. And I in my head, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm knocking down half of these like they're gonna go
Speaker 1: in half the time. That's the way I feel mentally.
Speaker 1: The problem is is like with my size and athleticism,
Speaker 1: if I go to the basket, I have more efficient
Speaker 1: especially playing against amateurs, right, But like I just it's
Speaker 1: it's a laziness factor. It's so easy to stare at
Speaker 1: your defender and to know, like if I hit him
Speaker 1: with this hard through the legs, dribble into step back,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get enough separation and it's it's a shot
Speaker 1: that I know it can make. And both Tatum and
Speaker 1: Brown fall into that trap often where they just they're
Speaker 1: almost too good for their own good. And if they
Speaker 1: if they didn't have a pull up three point shot
Speaker 1: in their bag, you'd almost expect them to be more
Speaker 1: uh more, you know, persistent in or attempts to get
Speaker 1: into the paint. But that's gonna early on him to
Speaker 1: be watching Miami's three point shooting, how Jimmy Butler looks physically,
Speaker 1: if he's healthy enough to be enough to be up
Speaker 1: to the task. And then with Boston, are they making
Speaker 1: a deliberate attempt early to try to get into the paint. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just say, first of all, Jason, that's huge
Speaker 1: that you got the positive wings fan. I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1: I think that really is gonna lead you to project
Speaker 1: well at the next level. Is gonna move you up. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: what percentage do you think you are shooting on step
Speaker 1: back threees? You feel like you're gonna make half of
Speaker 1: them if you had to guess, though, what do you
Speaker 1: think you actually shoot there? So the reason why I
Speaker 1: make half of them is I'm playing against amateurs and
Speaker 1: I have a huge size of atlace as an advantage.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, but I mean again, if I was taking
Speaker 1: those shots against NBA defenders, I might not even be
Speaker 1: able to get him off. So it's it's it's all relative.
Speaker 1: But yeah, against against other dudes who just work around
Speaker 1: the city of Tucson who aren't professional basketball players, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can shoot fifty on stetback threes. That's yeah, that's
Speaker 1: pretty good. I don't know that you need to play
Speaker 1: that down, all right. I work extremely hard on it.
Speaker 1: You see that. You see the footage cars I make.
Speaker 1: I make thousands of shots every week and practic I'm weird.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense, But I prep like a
Speaker 1: professional even though I'm not, simply because I love the
Speaker 1: game of basketball. It's the damn shame of it all.
Speaker 1: As I wish I would have prepped like this when
Speaker 1: I was playing in college, because I'd probably be somewhere
Speaker 1: far away from here by now. But it is what
Speaker 1: it is, hey, I mean, being a tough bucket is
Speaker 1: worth million dollars in joy and Cloud in my Okay,
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right, Carson, I think. So okay, we uh,
Speaker 1: We're gonna quickly come back to a Math's Warriors topic
Speaker 1: here just because we have this post game quote from
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd, want to get your thoughts on it. He says,
Speaker 1: the biggest compliment we've gotten is that they have to
Speaker 1: play zone because they can't guard us one on one.
Speaker 1: What do you think about that, Jason, I think that's
Speaker 1: foolish arrogance. Here's what actually happened. The game was over
Speaker 1: and Steve Kerr played all of his young players. He
Speaker 1: even played Nomania be Eliza has been out of the
Speaker 1: rotation entirely because he's a traffic cone on defense. They
Speaker 1: what it was, Moses Moody, Jonathan Comingau, it was, uh,
Speaker 1: Nomania be Eliza, Jordan's pool and I can't remember who
Speaker 1: the fifth guy in that lineup was, oh, Damian Lee.
Speaker 1: So all guys that are out of the rotation basically
Speaker 1: except for Jordan Poole. And I thought Steve Kerr was
Speaker 1: just like, hey, guys, run three two zone on the
Speaker 1: entire fourth, Like, just work on it, you know, just
Speaker 1: work on being in the right spots. You guys already.
Speaker 1: I thought that was literally what that was. I thought
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr was using the fourth quarter as a practice. Now,
Speaker 1: what's actually happening over the course of the series is
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr is repeatedly bouncing back and forth between zone
Speaker 1: and man. He mixes it up routinely, and if he
Speaker 1: actually stayed in a three two zone consistently against Dallas's starters,
Speaker 1: they'd burn it. They'd light it on fire like because
Speaker 1: eventually every zone. There's a reason why NBA teams don't
Speaker 1: run zone is a base defensive I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think we've ever seen one. And can you remember a
Speaker 1: single team in recent NBA history run zone as a
Speaker 1: base look, I can't think of a single one. So
Speaker 1: the reason why is because professional basketball players are too
Speaker 1: good to play his own against Zones are designed to
Speaker 1: do one of two things. At three two zone or
Speaker 1: pretty much any odd front zone is designed to take
Speaker 1: away three point shooting, and he even front zone is
Speaker 1: designed to take away the paint. That's that's generally the
Speaker 1: concept of his zone, and against each of them, they're
Speaker 1: the there's the coaching is too high level, the offensive
Speaker 1: execution is high too high level. And the skill level
Speaker 1: of the players is too high level for any of
Speaker 1: those zones to work if they get repeated looks at it.
Speaker 1: The genius of Steve Kurd using the zone as he
Speaker 1: mixes it up now I was critical of them earlier
Speaker 1: in the show. Jason Kidd has done a terrible job
Speaker 1: of navigating the UH against the three two zones. So uh,
Speaker 1: Carson as you as you probably know, offensively against his zone,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to go the opposite of whatever the front is.
Speaker 1: So against a two three zone, so an even front,
Speaker 1: you want to have an odd dispersion, So you want
Speaker 1: to have one guy up top, two guys on the wing.
Speaker 1: That makes those two guys on the top of the
Speaker 1: zone have to constantly make decisions about who they're guarding, right.
Speaker 1: And then if it's the opposite, if it's a three
Speaker 1: two zone, you want to go two guys out front,
Speaker 1: and you want to go one in the middle, almost
Speaker 1: like a dice, like I think of like a dice,
Speaker 1: the number five on a dice. You want a guy
Speaker 1: in the middle of flour, a guy in both deep corners,
Speaker 1: and two guys at the top. And that's just not
Speaker 1: what they were doing. Dallas was literally running like a
Speaker 1: five out concept against their three two zone. They were
Speaker 1: screening the top man of the three two zone, which
Speaker 1: is like ridiculous because what happens if you come off
Speaker 1: that screen the other dude in the zone is just
Speaker 1: right there. It literally accomplishes nothing. And so I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's just because they haven't seen the look
Speaker 1: enough that Jason Kidd hasn't really employed a good zone
Speaker 1: offense again against it. What I actually think is happening
Speaker 1: in the flow of the game is by the time
Speaker 1: they identify there in his zone, there's already like twelve
Speaker 1: seconds left on the shot clock, and they just don't
Speaker 1: have enough time to really get set up um And
Speaker 1: and part of the issue here too is like the
Speaker 1: pace of the game that Luca plays at, you just
Speaker 1: don't have enough time to adjust once you get across
Speaker 1: half court. There's just never enough time left. The playoffs
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Speaker 1: game parlay during the playoffs doesn't win. Faanduel Sports Book
Speaker 1: an official partner of the NBA. It is a hilarious
Speaker 1: quote from j Kid. I think given the top context,
Speaker 1: given the way the series has gone overall, and given
Speaker 1: how they handled the zone, but also their man man
Speaker 1: has looked fantastic. Yeah, I know, it's it's great points
Speaker 1: all around, ja kids living on his own planet, you
Speaker 1: gotta have some of that foolish arrogance maybe to succeed
Speaker 1: at the level he has. I don't know a lot
Speaker 1: of guys see him too. Okay, so we talked about
Speaker 1: some of the biggest factors overall coming up in Celtics heat.
Speaker 1: Let's look specifically at the star matchup that we have
Speaker 1: between Jimmy Butler and Jayson Tatum. Jason, Who do you
Speaker 1: think is under more pressure to perform in Game five
Speaker 1: between those two? Uh? Jason Tatum, no question. A couple
Speaker 1: of things. Jimmy Butler, his legacy is kind of in
Speaker 1: stone at this point. He's just he's considered one of
Speaker 1: the best non superstars of all time. Like he's just
Speaker 1: he's your textbook non super perstar that in any environment
Speaker 1: can rise to the level of a superstar and potentially
Speaker 1: carry a team, you know, to the next level. A
Speaker 1: couple of things. Tatum is newly inflicted with superstar expectations.
Speaker 1: And then too, like Boston's way better. Boston is so
Speaker 1: much better. Like if both if you played, if this
Speaker 1: was if there was a single elimination game on a
Speaker 1: neutral court and both teams were guaranteed to bring one effort.
Speaker 1: I picked Boston by at least fifteen. Like they're just
Speaker 1: they're just better, They're just way better. They're just so
Speaker 1: much better. So like the pressure here is like and
Speaker 1: by the way, Boston is not out of the woods yet.
Speaker 1: I think Boston's gonna win tomorrow, and I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna win game five or six. That's where I expect
Speaker 1: to happen. But like, would you be the least bit
Speaker 1: shocked if they went into Miami tomorrow, came out a
Speaker 1: little bit slow, Miami shot well, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the're up fifteen. All of a sudden, the Poems get sweaty.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, they get a little sloppy, the
Speaker 1: crowd gets into it. It's close game, you know, a
Speaker 1: couple of guys make some shots at the end and
Speaker 1: they win. No, I wouldn't be shocked. And then you're
Speaker 1: looking at a guaranteed game seven, even if you win
Speaker 1: game six. Right, So, like they're not out of the
Speaker 1: woods yet, and and so Tatum has to close this deal,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, if he doesn't, this is a massive
Speaker 1: black mark on his resume as a guy who is
Speaker 1: now at the superstar level. You're not Luca. You've been
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference finals twice before this. Okay, you've
Speaker 1: gone against Lebron James. I've gone against the same Miami
Speaker 1: Heat team. You don't get that I'm new on the block.
Speaker 1: Excuse you don't get any of that now. I expect
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum to rise to the to the occasion and
Speaker 1: to close this deal. But there's no question that Jayson
Speaker 1: tatums under more pressure. How much swing do you think
Speaker 1: there is and the potential for how we view Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum depending on just how the remainder of his post
Speaker 1: season goes, like best to worst case scenario, what is
Speaker 1: the variation there and how could that potentially change, like
Speaker 1: the conversations that we're having about out him. So the
Speaker 1: worst case scenario we just went over that it's a
Speaker 1: big black mark on his resume. And then and then
Speaker 1: essentially you know how that goes, Like from that point forward,
Speaker 1: everyone like you're just constantly clawing yourself out of that hole.
Speaker 1: You're no longer the you know, there's kind of like
Speaker 1: a pathway in uh in the in the career trajectory
Speaker 1: of an NBA superstar, it's like you're the darling and
Speaker 1: then you know, you have some losses and your get
Speaker 1: cut slack for them. But then there's like the loss
Speaker 1: that's like one loss too many, and then like everyone
Speaker 1: turns on you, and then suddenly the flash like gets
Speaker 1: shined on all of your weaknesses. Right, we're kind of
Speaker 1: starting we might this. I don't think this is it
Speaker 1: yet for Luca, but we're like one playoff exit from
Speaker 1: Luca away. Like if he if he if he lost
Speaker 1: in the second round next year, I think that I
Speaker 1: think the public would turn on Luca pretty quick as
Speaker 1: a guy who's to helleocentric and doesn't defend well enough. Um.
Speaker 1: But like that's kind of the situation that Tatum's in.
Speaker 1: I think Tatum's kind of at that point now, Like
Speaker 1: if he loses this series to Miami, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of people calling him a fraud. Now, what
Speaker 1: what him winning a title this year would remind me
Speaker 1: of is kind of like what Kawhi Leonard did with
Speaker 1: the Raptors in two thousand nineteen. Now, Kauai has demonstrated
Speaker 1: that he's been a better regular season player. He was
Speaker 1: an m VP candidate in previous seasons, may or may
Speaker 1: not have been the rightful winner in the two thousand
Speaker 1: seventeen year when when Russell Westbrook won. So like I
Speaker 1: it's they're not a it's not a perfect apples apples comparison,
Speaker 1: But what it would remind me of is like, because like,
Speaker 1: what is the two thousand, twenty two thousand nine UH
Speaker 1: title for Kawhi Leonard? Like if you look at it
Speaker 1: in isolated by itself, it's a supreme accomplishment, like unquestionably
Speaker 1: the best player on the team that won the championship
Speaker 1: against a good team and unquestionably deserved finals MVP in
Speaker 1: superstar fashion. Right, but every everyone around that not like
Speaker 1: there was some Kauai is the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: Buzz I never bought into that. I I didn't think
Speaker 1: he was nearly good enough of a playmaker. What I
Speaker 1: thought he was in twenty nineteen was the tip of
Speaker 1: a spear, and the spear was arguably one of the
Speaker 1: most talented spears in the league, right, And as the
Speaker 1: tip of the spear, he was clearly the best player
Speaker 1: and he was able to push them over the top.
Speaker 1: But I don't think I didn't think he was close
Speaker 1: to as good as Kevin Durant or Lebron and that
Speaker 1: was proven to be true in the in the subsequent seasons.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, like he's to me, he's clearly just
Speaker 1: just not quite as good as those guys. Right, that's
Speaker 1: kind of where I would see Tatum at here, Like,
Speaker 1: if you want a title, it'd be an it would
Speaker 1: be an unassailable, definitively best player on the best team,
Speaker 1: in the league finals, MVP, all of that stuff. But
Speaker 1: is anybody gonna think Tatum is the best player in
Speaker 1: the league now? You know? So you might have your
Speaker 1: Boston fans will, but like, so that's kind of the
Speaker 1: way I see it is, like, I Jason Tatum to
Speaker 1: me is having a two thousand nineteen Kauai asked a
Speaker 1: playoff run if he closes the deal. I think it's
Speaker 1: a great comparison, and we've thrown that out there before
Speaker 1: a couple of times. But stylistically, in terms of the
Speaker 1: role the prototype they are as players, the two way
Speaker 1: impact and the incredibly talented supporting cast, but not having
Speaker 1: that second, you know, remotely superstar caliber guy. There's definitely
Speaker 1: a lot of commonalities there. So another story with Tatum
Speaker 1: today is that he is first team All n b
Speaker 1: A and he is part of an incredibly young group
Speaker 1: there all five guys that being Tatum, Luca, Book, Janice,
Speaker 1: and Yoki t seven or younger. So Jason, with that
Speaker 1: youth movement that we have seen and we've talked about
Speaker 1: the transition of eras that we're kind of witnessing in
Speaker 1: these playoffs as well. Out of those five guys, you
Speaker 1: get one of them for the rest of their career,
Speaker 1: Who are you taking? It's such a good question, So
Speaker 1: I think the answer is Jannie. But I have one caveat.
Speaker 1: I think I think Janice is almost guaranteed to be
Speaker 1: the best player out of that group for the rest
Speaker 1: of his career, but that it was I would say
Speaker 1: that irrespective of general management, meaning irrespective of roster around him.
Speaker 1: But if I was told that I had a team
Speaker 1: full of amazing role players that could defend and shoot,
Speaker 1: and I needed one guy, I would probably take Luca strictly,
Speaker 1: because I think his half court surgery is such a
Speaker 1: ceiling razor for already talented teams. We talked about this
Speaker 1: last night, Like this Dallas construct is kind of genius
Speaker 1: for me in the sense that the way they space
Speaker 1: the floor, the way that they attack matchups, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like built to succeed in the playoffs, right, So
Speaker 1: I do think that I would want Janice if I
Speaker 1: was building from scratch, if I was told that I
Speaker 1: already had like the two thousand nineteen Raptors, and I
Speaker 1: needed one guy. I think I would take Luca because
Speaker 1: I think the way that he could elevate the team
Speaker 1: in the half court while carrying water for them on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, but covered for Actually, Carson, you brought
Speaker 1: this up last night, and we were already in the
Speaker 1: weeds on something else, so I didn't want to get
Speaker 1: into it. But you said, you said I favor offense
Speaker 1: over defense a little bit, so I do too. For
Speaker 1: the record, I I where I draw the line is
Speaker 1: defensive liability. But if I could have a supremely talented
Speaker 1: offensive player who could hold his own on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: or a less talented offensive player who was a great
Speaker 1: defensive player, I would take the offensive player. And and
Speaker 1: the reason why is you can it's so much easier
Speaker 1: to coach up the defensive end of the floor. Look
Speaker 1: at what Dallas has done. Look at how they've convinced
Speaker 1: this mediocre defensive team to defend pretty well. Although they've
Speaker 1: got they've been exposed by Golden State as lacking personnel
Speaker 1: in this series. But the point is is, like there's
Speaker 1: I can't coach guys into making shots, you know, like
Speaker 1: we I would even say that you can't even coach
Speaker 1: guys in terms of running sets to get good like
Speaker 1: to get good looks in the playoffs because of scouting
Speaker 1: in the way that physicality is allowed off the ball
Speaker 1: and how much team switch. It's just sets are far
Speaker 1: less effective than they are in the regular season. That
Speaker 1: what what works in the playoffs offensively is how how
Speaker 1: much your top end talent can absorb at tension, you know.
Speaker 1: And so from that standpoint, like UH, in the in
Speaker 1: the specific environment of that top end UH defensive talents
Speaker 1: already on the roster, I think a guy like Luca
Speaker 1: would raise a ceiling higher than a guy like Janice would.
Speaker 1: But that's that dude, Like, how often do we see
Speaker 1: teams that are perfectly put together? Not very often, so
Speaker 1: like I guess, I guess another way to frame that
Speaker 1: answer would be to say, I think Luca could beat
Speaker 1: your honest in a playoff series if he had a
Speaker 1: really good defense behind him because of the fact that
Speaker 1: his he could raise the ceiling on offense. But I
Speaker 1: do think you honest is the better overall basketball player.
Speaker 1: That's a super interesting perspective, I think, and to me,
Speaker 1: those are the two choices as well, as much as
Speaker 1: I love Niko Yokis, you have the best player in
Speaker 1: the world in Janice, and I think the guy who
Speaker 1: has the highest offensive ceiling in Luca, and is also
Speaker 1: four years younger than Janice, so there is an advantage there.
Speaker 1: So that's again interesting because I thought for a time
Speaker 1: with The Honest that there was an argument that maybe, well,
Speaker 1: definitely he needed more around him offensively, right, and that
Speaker 1: we've seen what Luca can do with shooting and just
Speaker 1: you know, like competent secondary creation and how he can
Speaker 1: propel that to an elite offense. I mean, his second
Speaker 1: year in the league, he led the MAVs to have
Speaker 1: the highest offensive rating ever at the time, like it
Speaker 1: was an unbelievable accomplishment. Whereas Janice we saw some of
Speaker 1: the areas in which he could be exploited as a
Speaker 1: half court creator and whatnot, and he does need some
Speaker 1: of that permanent creation and big time shot making alongside him.
Speaker 1: So you think Luca needs more right around him, needs
Speaker 1: more talent around him to be like best guy on
Speaker 1: a title team than The Honest does. Yeah. Absolutely, But
Speaker 1: at the same time, like we talked about earlier, which
Speaker 1: I think we talked about how Luca was vying to
Speaker 1: pass Lebron and Steph as the best offensive engine in
Speaker 1: the league, right, and Steph I think has proven in
Speaker 1: this series that he's a better offensive engine still, so
Speaker 1: Luca hasn't quite gotten to that point. But again we're
Speaker 1: step is not an option in this list, and we're
Speaker 1: looking forward with this group of five players, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, it's super cool that all these young guys
Speaker 1: made first team All NBA. I think that's such a
Speaker 1: cool indicator of where the league is going and that
Speaker 1: it's healthy and in good hands. Um. But the point is,
Speaker 1: like Luca as an offensive engine here this perfect example,
Speaker 1: Janice averaged with the Bucks eight two points per one
Speaker 1: d half court possessions against Boston. Do you think there's
Speaker 1: any chance in the world that Luca doesn't manage at
Speaker 1: least a ninety or hundred offensive rating against Boston, Like
Speaker 1: I think they'd lose. Still, you know, I think janice
Speaker 1: Is overall impact in that series was better. But like
Speaker 1: in terms of strictly uh a strictly half court offensive creation,
Speaker 1: what Luca brings to the table I think is superior
Speaker 1: to what Janice brings. Yeah, with you there completely and
Speaker 1: you mentioned how cool it is to have such young
Speaker 1: representation on this first team Listen, I think that's kind
Speaker 1: of undeniable. But as you look at these five, do
Speaker 1: you have any issues with it? Anything you would change
Speaker 1: about the first Team All NBA this year? Oh? I
Speaker 1: hated it. So I think it's cool that the that
Speaker 1: the young guys got on in terms of this, like,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a cool moment in NBA history. But
Speaker 1: I thoroughly disagree with the list. Like you know, I
Speaker 1: I tend to follow the Bill Simmons ideology that the
Speaker 1: All NBA teams should just strictly be essentially player rankings.
Speaker 1: Like I think they should be a snapshot of like
Speaker 1: first Team All NBA is, who are the five best
Speaker 1: players in basketball that season? Second Team All NBA's who's
Speaker 1: the you know, ten best players in basketball that season.
Speaker 1: That's that's the way that I would do that. So
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody thought Devin Booker was a top
Speaker 1: five player in the NBA this year. I think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I think even like, like even if we look past
Speaker 1: that too to Steph. So for instance, like Steph, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, even though he didn't shoot as well as
Speaker 1: he did in previous years. There's even his diminished self
Speaker 1: this season was significantly better overall as a basketball player
Speaker 1: in my opinion, And Devin Booker, so I think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I could go further, like Lebron James was. Yes, he
Speaker 1: played on a terrible team. Yes he wasn't as good
Speaker 1: defensively as he was in previous seasons, but he was
Speaker 1: a top ten player this year. Like I thought, he
Speaker 1: played better basketball overall than DeMar de Rosen did. Now,
Speaker 1: DeMar de Rosen had a great season, had some good
Speaker 1: playmaking was it was great, and clutch time had an
Speaker 1: amazing scoring season. His team was better. I hundred percent
Speaker 1: agree with you there. I didn't think Tomarta Rosen was
Speaker 1: better at basketball than Lebron James this season. That's just
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous to me. Jayson Tatum as great as he was,
Speaker 1: and again there's there's a game's played thing here happening
Speaker 1: that gets complicated where I could see why Tatum was
Speaker 1: above Kevin Durant. But when I put my list together,
Speaker 1: I had Kevin Durant first team. Why because that Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant was one of the top five players in the
Speaker 1: NBA this year. When he was available. Now, the one
Speaker 1: thing that gets tricky is the center issue that the
Speaker 1: Yoki Chen beat thing. And and I do believe that
Speaker 1: you should at least try to functionally have basketball lineups
Speaker 1: represented in this list, But yeah, like those are those
Speaker 1: are just like I just tend to think that these
Speaker 1: should more reflect essentially player rankings rather than like, you know,
Speaker 1: team achievement awards, Like there has to be something separate
Speaker 1: from team accomplishment in the NBA, and I thought that
Speaker 1: this would be. I could think that this is where
Speaker 1: that should reside unequivocally agree with you there. And the
Speaker 1: book Steph one, I think is pretty glaring to me
Speaker 1: because it's such a product of arrative. Like if you
Speaker 1: sit down and think critically, their raw production is like
Speaker 1: effectively identical Steph even with his downshooting years more efficient
Speaker 1: by true shooting percentage. The on off dat is so overwhelming.
Speaker 1: It's so obvious how fundamentally important he is as an
Speaker 1: offensive engine to just a different level than Book. But
Speaker 1: you know, the Sons are the best team. Book didn't
Speaker 1: even have a significant games played advantage, and that did
Speaker 1: make this year weird because it's like everybody missed at
Speaker 1: least ten games pretty much, but it feels like you
Speaker 1: can adjust for that and maybe just say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: if everybody's missing games, maybe it doesn't matter quite as much.
Speaker 1: I think that last point that you made is interesting
Speaker 1: though about trying to have a functional basketball lineup, because
Speaker 1: I think I'm even more all in on the philosophy
Speaker 1: of this should be who are the best players in basketball?
Speaker 1: I think that there have been a ton of times
Speaker 1: throughout history, you know, where you have two fours together, right,
Speaker 1: because how could you avoid that? Throughout the two thousand
Speaker 1: you gotta have some combination of KG, Tim, Duncan, and
Speaker 1: Dirk on the first team every single year. That's a
Speaker 1: really weird, clunky kind of lineup. So I just think
Speaker 1: and Bead should have been here, Like Jayson Tatum first
Speaker 1: twenty something games sucked and then he was phenomenal post
Speaker 1: All Star Break, but Embid was consistently clear top five guy.
Speaker 1: To not have him here because of a dated, you know,
Speaker 1: positional system, I feel it's dated is really another complaint
Speaker 1: I would have. That's fair, and that's definitely not something
Speaker 1: I'm as passionate about, So I would be I would
Speaker 1: be with you in that regard, and I guess at
Speaker 1: that point you could even argue that embiad should be
Speaker 1: in over Steph. Um. But like I thought, another big
Speaker 1: thing that on the step another big thing on the
Speaker 1: Steph Booker thing, like like the Phoenix Suns stayed healthy
Speaker 1: all season, they were a machine, with the exception of
Speaker 1: the end of the season when Chris Paul was out,
Speaker 1: and even then they were great because, as we said
Speaker 1: frequently on the show, I thought the Sun's top to bottom,
Speaker 1: I had the most talent in the league, obviously not
Speaker 1: counting the superstars, right, And so from that standpoint, like
Speaker 1: when you talk about what Steph had to weather through
Speaker 1: this season, like what he had to deal with in
Speaker 1: terms of guys being in and out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: trying to work Clay back into the system, trying to
Speaker 1: work Jordan's Pool back into the system in a bigger
Speaker 1: role that he had rightfully earned. Like I thought, Steph
Speaker 1: did an amazing job navigating a really, really difficult season
Speaker 1: and did do. The degree of difficulty to what Steph
Speaker 1: had to do this year was significantly higher than what
Speaker 1: Devin Booker did, and that's never factored in enough we
Speaker 1: the winning culture. I totally get and I think it's
Speaker 1: so important to not lose sight of that, Like you can't.
Speaker 1: You can't just walk through life making excuses about uh
Speaker 1: results in winning and losing, because that's you're you're just
Speaker 1: not doing yourself any favors there. I get that. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, like I do think it's important
Speaker 1: context and it is worth having that conversation. Like, like,
Speaker 1: to me, the conversation surrounding Lebron and the Lakers is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Lebron's a terrible GM. Him pushing for the Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: move was a terrible decision. He also dropped fifty a
Speaker 1: few times this year and was one of the best
Speaker 1: offensive players in the league. Like it just that has
Speaker 1: to be. That has to be, Like, it's Lebron didn't
Speaker 1: stop playing good basketball Like that not to me, Like
Speaker 1: we we too often allow ourselves to and it I
Speaker 1: understand it. Winning is is why we do this. We
Speaker 1: play the game to win. You play to win the game,
Speaker 1: as as the cliche goes, right, But at the same time, like,
Speaker 1: especially with these kinds of lists, I do think it's
Speaker 1: important to apply the appropriate context. Like had had the
Speaker 1: Warrior stayed healthy, guess what they would have beat the
Speaker 1: Suns in the standings in my opinion, so like to me,
Speaker 1: it's that simple. Yeah, And I think their record when
Speaker 1: Stephan Draymond was healthy reflects that. So you mentioned Lebron.
Speaker 1: He was honored just third team, as you said. But
Speaker 1: do you think this will be the last All NBA
Speaker 1: team that Lebron makes Jason, If so, it'll be because
Speaker 1: of injury. I think Lebron has one fine, anal truly
Speaker 1: great m v P caliber season in him. A couple
Speaker 1: of reasons why. One, he still looked great athletically this year. Two,
Speaker 1: I think I think we are going to see a
Speaker 1: motivated Lebron that we saw in two thousand twenty, Like
Speaker 1: consistently in Lebron's career, when you put a couple of
Speaker 1: factors together, recent humiliation combined with appropriate talent surrounding him,
Speaker 1: that that allows Lebron to believe in the mission. Those
Speaker 1: things mixed together to make I motivated Lebron. Lebron was
Speaker 1: humiliated in two thousand nineteen to the point where I
Speaker 1: keep blanking on his name every time I try to
Speaker 1: bring it up. So Carson, if you can remember, tell me.
Speaker 1: But that swing forward to the Europeans swing forward from
Speaker 1: the Knicks that blocked him on the game winner in
Speaker 1: Madison Square. Garden Um, he remember the do you remember
Speaker 1: how to talk about I can't think of his name,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember who it was. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is gonna kill me. So anyway, he blocked Lebron.
Speaker 1: He got in trouble for bringing Wine to the bench.
Speaker 1: He you know, said I'm activating playoff mode. Remember the
Speaker 1: whole Instagram post that he did. And then immediately they
Speaker 1: went like two and thirteen to end the season or
Speaker 1: something like that. Like like so the way I see it,
Speaker 1: like he came out of that got Anthony Davis. So
Speaker 1: he saw a championship opportunity and was motivated by his
Speaker 1: recent failures and it amounted in such a dominant like
Speaker 1: that Lebron season was such an incredible start to finish
Speaker 1: dominant season. I'm on the record that I thought he
Speaker 1: absolutely deserved the m v P over Janice. That was
Speaker 1: a incredibly weak Eastern Conference that massively inflated all of
Speaker 1: Janice's advanced metrics and massively inflated the record for the Bucks.
Speaker 1: The Lakers were basically right there with them in the
Speaker 1: standings in the significantly tougher conference. You know that. Like, remember, guys,
Speaker 1: you play thirty games against the other conference, you play
Speaker 1: fifty two against your own conference. Okay, so the conferences
Speaker 1: are a huge impact on things like metrics on things
Speaker 1: and the standings. Like you can't just take it at
Speaker 1: face value. Right, So, like that was as dominated season
Speaker 1: as it gets. This coming year, you have humiliated missed
Speaker 1: the playoffs, literally missed the playoffs. When twenty of the
Speaker 1: thirty teams get in, Okay, you have Lebron and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the roster. I think they're gonna flip Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook for quality role players like and we literally saw
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, who was a massively overplayed role player in
Speaker 1: Minnesota a contract that nobody wanted, suddenly playing well in
Speaker 1: a as a super functional two way wing in the
Speaker 1: Warrior system. That's the kind of guy that that the
Speaker 1: Lakers need to be targeting, like inflated contracts for role
Speaker 1: players that were missed cast as stars. Try to get
Speaker 1: those types of guys back. I think the Lakers are
Speaker 1: gonna come back and have a good amount of talent,
Speaker 1: and I think they're gonna have one last final super
Speaker 1: motivated Lebron season. Here's the problem. If his knee inflates
Speaker 1: on him for no particular reason and he only plays
Speaker 1: fifty two games, then he might not make an All
Speaker 1: NBA team. So if the question is is he going
Speaker 1: to make an All NBA team if he stays healthy
Speaker 1: for one more year, I believe he'll be first team
Speaker 1: All NBA next year. I think that that's perfectly logical.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it was the great Maria Hasnia
Speaker 1: who made Mario All time draft bust. Of course, gotta
Speaker 1: love that guy. I'm with you completely, and I just
Speaker 1: think you look at all the complaints about Lebron this
Speaker 1: year in the areas in which he fell short, and
Speaker 1: it's you know, consistent defensive engagement, rights, leadership stuff, stuff
Speaker 1: that you harped on a bunch in terms of offensive versatility,
Speaker 1: in terms of his scoring peak and efficiency, and what
Speaker 1: he can still do as a playmaker, Like there's no
Speaker 1: question that Lebron win motivated plays at a top five level,
Speaker 1: and so like you said, if he just does that
Speaker 1: for a full year, then he should be recognized accordingly.
Speaker 1: And I think you never know with like just how
Speaker 1: prolonged peaks have become in modern sports, but I'm tentative
Speaker 1: to even say to put a hard limit at one
Speaker 1: more year, Like we just don't know. I don't know
Speaker 1: when Lebron is gonna fall off because we have never
Speaker 1: seen guys playing for as long at this high level
Speaker 1: period and have never seen anybody playing individually close to
Speaker 1: the level that Lebron is at in year nineteen and
Speaker 1: at his age. So I think we will certainly see
Speaker 1: all NBA Lebron again. Yeah, I feel confident that there
Speaker 1: will be one more. But yeah, I'm with you, Like,
Speaker 1: would I'd be shocked if in year twenty one Lebron was,
Speaker 1: you know, averaging seven and seven. No, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: shocked at all. And you know, the motivation thing is
Speaker 1: going to be, Yeah, it's insane, but like the the
Speaker 1: the big indicator will be training camp and you'll know
Speaker 1: right away. And like people act like that stuff doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It does, like the preseason doesn't matter. Well, guess what
Speaker 1: the twenty and everybody's asked in the preseason and the
Speaker 1: Lakers were losing literally to everybody in the preseason. It's
Speaker 1: just to me, like, even if the stars aren't playing,
Speaker 1: it's an indicator of the level of focus you have
Speaker 1: in training camp in practice, because even if Lebron and
Speaker 1: Russ and Anthony Davis didn't play in all the preseason games,
Speaker 1: if you were approaching practice with the right level of
Speaker 1: intensity every single day, you would have won two or
Speaker 1: three of those preseason games just by playing hard and
Speaker 1: just by defending really well. And they just did it,
Speaker 1: and and it was predictable that they'd come out the
Speaker 1: gates in the regular season and do the same thing.
Speaker 1: So I expect a locked in Lebron to start next season,
Speaker 1: and I think the Lakers will have one last great run.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all we have for tonight.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your support all of you
Speaker 1: guys who are listening. If you guys could take the
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Speaker 1: It helps us a lot. If you could also subscribe
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Speaker 1: If you can follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason
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Speaker 1: stuff there. We will be back tomorrow night after Game
Speaker 1: five of Boston Miami, and I will see you guys
Speaker 1: right after final Buzzard the Volume