Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had an incredible week. We are live on AMPS,
Speaker 1: so if you're watching on YouTube or listening on the
Speaker 1: podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the very first
Speaker 1: place that you guys can get these shows. Continuing our
Speaker 1: top twenty five players for the last twenty five years
Speaker 1: today with number six Kevin Durant. We're also gonna hit
Speaker 1: three mail bag questions off the top. You guys know
Speaker 1: the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes
Speaker 1: YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts. You guys
Speaker 1: don't miss any show announcements. And if, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: you miss one of these videos and you can't get
Speaker 1: back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can
Speaker 1: find them wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: last but not least, before we get started, mail bag questions.
Speaker 1: Got another week full of them next week and then
Speaker 1: maybe even into the future from there. I've kind of
Speaker 1: had some fun with it this week, so don't forget
Speaker 1: to drop your questions in the YouTube comments. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So first mail bag question from
Speaker 1: Charles Hey, Jason huge fan, I've always wondered how you
Speaker 1: felt about older players like Charles Barkley calling today's NBA
Speaker 1: soft and how nobody plays any real defense anymore. So
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna target Charles specifically specifically here, but just
Speaker 1: in general some of the older generation of players. I
Speaker 1: understand why there's a little bit of saltinis there. Like,
Speaker 1: think about it, it's objectively a way better time to
Speaker 1: be an NBA player now than thirty years ago. I
Speaker 1: think we can say that without much debate, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: they make a lot more money, the way they travel
Speaker 1: is much better, the access to medical care that they
Speaker 1: have is much better. In general, the I would guess
Speaker 1: you call it the traditions or the expectations, the unwritten
Speaker 1: kind of like life of an NBA players easier in
Speaker 1: the sense of like, hey, if you're dealing with anagging injury,
Speaker 1: just take a rest instead of like that, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like societal pressure so to speak, within the
Speaker 1: NBA to play through all of that like there was
Speaker 1: thirty years ago. The social media presence, the ability to
Speaker 1: make money off the court. It's just way better to
Speaker 1: be an NBA player now compared to the way it
Speaker 1: used to be. And so I think a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys are kind of passive aggressive about it from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of being a little bit jealous. That said, like,
Speaker 1: it kind of bums me out, because what I don't
Speaker 1: understand from it is, I would imagine, just from sheerly,
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of loving the game, you would enjoy
Speaker 1: watching the next generation and seeing the direction they're taking
Speaker 1: the game. And I want to be clear, it's not everybody.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of older guys that do pay
Speaker 1: the appropriate respect. Alan Iverson is a guy who pays
Speaker 1: a ton of respect to this generation. Jerry West is
Speaker 1: a guy who pays a ton of respect to this generation.
Speaker 1: So there are guys like that out there. They're just
Speaker 1: few and far between, And I think it sucks because
Speaker 1: the future of basketball to me is bright, especially as
Speaker 1: you start to look around the world and the way
Speaker 1: that the NBA is appealing to other countries and people
Speaker 1: all around the globe. So like, it's a bummer, but
Speaker 1: I understand it. It just mostly has to do with
Speaker 1: how much better it is to be an NBA player
Speaker 1: now compared to the way it used to be. All right,
Speaker 1: next mail back question from Ace, seeing how the league
Speaker 1: is is becoming more positionless every year, What really is
Speaker 1: a power forward or a small forward? How would you
Speaker 1: redefine positions if you could so? I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: that there are positions, so to speak. There are archetypes,
Speaker 1: But your position is what job you can fulfill on
Speaker 1: the court. And like I've always said, there's just a
Speaker 1: ton of jobs to fill right on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: Is there a big man that can guard and pick
Speaker 1: and roll or a big man that can switch onto
Speaker 1: a guard if you needed to switch and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: How many players on your roster are capable of banging
Speaker 1: with a post player? Right Like? It was nice to
Speaker 1: have Ruey Hachamura to throw at a guy like Nikola Jokic,
Speaker 1: Right Like, those are those bigger forwards sometimes that can
Speaker 1: bang with the post player. That's an advantage. Who can
Speaker 1: lock and trail, meaning who can like chase a shooter
Speaker 1: around screens without constantly getting caught up and giving up separation.
Speaker 1: Who can guard at the point of it time that
Speaker 1: involves containing dribble penetration in one on one situations and
Speaker 1: the ability to chase over the top of screens and
Speaker 1: funnel guards into the paint. Right, those are all parts
Speaker 1: of point of attack defense. How many guys can bother
Speaker 1: a pull up shooting wing. We have a lot of
Speaker 1: guys like Jeremy Grant, Paul, George Brandon, Ingram, Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: They're all over the league, These guys that are six
Speaker 1: seven to six ' ten that have a dribble hand,
Speaker 1: a crazy dribble package and footwork package to get to
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots. How many guys can actually bother
Speaker 1: them versus guys that you know, those guys just see
Speaker 1: over the top of and don't even think about when
Speaker 1: they rise up to shoot. Then we have low man responsibilities,
Speaker 1: right like can you guard in the weak side corner,
Speaker 1: help at the rim, and rotate out to bother a shooter?
Speaker 1: How many guys can fulfill that responsibility? Now, as we
Speaker 1: go to archetypes, certain archetypes are better at fulfilling certain
Speaker 1: of those responsibilities. So, for instance, like a big forward
Speaker 1: think of like the Ruby Hachimura type, that Thattius Young type,
Speaker 1: that big strong forward, right, that type of guy usually
Speaker 1: is gonna thrive in lowmn situations because they're big enough
Speaker 1: to help and they're usually athletic enough to bother a shooter.
Speaker 1: They're usually capable of banging with post players, and usually
Speaker 1: they're big and strong enough to bother pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooting wings. But they're not gonna be as good chasing
Speaker 1: over the top of screens, right, So they're not gonna
Speaker 1: be as good at the point of attack. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna be good chasing shooters around. Right. That's why a
Speaker 1: guy like ruiy Hachimura wasn't as valuable in the Golden
Speaker 1: State Series as he was in the next round against Denver. Right.
Speaker 1: So different archetypes of players will struggle with different responsibilities
Speaker 1: and succeed with others. The skinnier forwards the Jaden McDaniel's type.
Speaker 1: They're usually great at locking and trailing because they're slender
Speaker 1: and nimble, and they're good at avoiding screens. They're usually
Speaker 1: great at the point of attack because they have quicker
Speaker 1: feet than bigger forwards, and they have that length and
Speaker 1: athleticism to bother people and again sidling over the top
Speaker 1: of screens. They're also usually pretty good at bothering pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting wings as well. Because they've got the
Speaker 1: length and size. Right, then we have like the shorter,
Speaker 1: stockier wings, right, or bigger athletic guards, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call them. Is your Bruce Brown type. You're you know,
Speaker 1: Alex Cruso type of guard, right. That type of guy
Speaker 1: is usually outstanding locking and trailing because they've got low
Speaker 1: center of gravity and they're good athletes, so they're really
Speaker 1: difficult to screen. They're usually great at the point of
Speaker 1: attack for the same reason. And then there are a
Speaker 1: different type of you know, it depends. Some of them
Speaker 1: are good at bothering pull up jump shooting wings when
Speaker 1: they bother their base, but then there are others of
Speaker 1: them where they can get a shot off over the top.
Speaker 1: Those of you guys who are Lakers fans a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago might remember, you know, Tobias Harris getting
Speaker 1: a turnaround fade away over Alex Caruso at the left
Speaker 1: elbow that he didn't even see Alex Crusoe. Why because
Speaker 1: as good as he is defensively, he's just a little
Speaker 1: too short. And so I can go on and on
Speaker 1: and on. We can talk about the difference between bigger,
Speaker 1: slower centers versus smaller, more athletic centers and the pros
Speaker 1: and cons of each of them. But the reality is
Speaker 1: is when you are on a basketball team, when you're
Speaker 1: let's put it this way from the same point of
Speaker 1: the coach or the GM, I've got a list of
Speaker 1: responsibilities that need to be filled, and I need to
Speaker 1: have players in that lineup. Any given five man lineup
Speaker 1: needs to be able to fulfill all those responsibilities. So ideally,
Speaker 1: if I was building a basketball team from scratch, I'd
Speaker 1: like to have a, you know, an athletic center that's
Speaker 1: versatile enough to work in different coverages. I'd want a big,
Speaker 1: strong forward. I'd want a slender athletic forward. I'd want
Speaker 1: a stocky athletic guard, and then preferably another stocky athletic guard.
Speaker 1: If I could pull that off with having all the
Speaker 1: offensive skill necessary. We just talked about defense, we take
Speaker 1: it to the offensive end of the floor. A lot
Speaker 1: of similar responsibilities have to be filled, right. You gotta
Speaker 1: have ball handling. You gotta have guys that can catch
Speaker 1: and shoot or catch and attack closeout. So you got
Speaker 1: to have guys that can screen and roll hard to
Speaker 1: the rim. Maybe a guy who can dunk quickly out
Speaker 1: of the dunker spot, provide vertical spacing, right, like a
Speaker 1: guy that can run second side action when your primary
Speaker 1: ball handler needs a rest. There's a bunch of different
Speaker 1: elements there that need to be filled, and different archetypes
Speaker 1: of players can take certain responsibilities off of that list.
Speaker 1: That's a really long way of saying like it's super complicated,
Speaker 1: and nobody's no one's going to be able to like
Speaker 1: shrink basketball down to four or five positions. There's a
Speaker 1: million different archetypes of players. Maybe not a million, but
Speaker 1: there's probably about a dozen different archetypes of players, and
Speaker 1: it you know, so many different players fill you know,
Speaker 1: kind of different spots from each of those sets of responsibilities.
Speaker 1: And so it's infinitely complicated. As I say all the time,
Speaker 1: that's saying that I stole from mark Titis, like basketball
Speaker 1: is an art, not a science, like it's it's it's
Speaker 1: not something that you can really quantify most of the time.
Speaker 1: All right, last mail back question today from Pierce. Do
Speaker 1: you think it's more difficult for a singular player in
Speaker 1: the modern NBA to amass as many accolades as players
Speaker 1: in the past. In the eighties and nineties, due to
Speaker 1: an increase in parody and league wide talent. If so,
Speaker 1: should that be factored into all time debates? Here's the thing, Yeah, probably,
Speaker 1: Like there's just a lot more talent in the league now,
Speaker 1: Like how many like think about think of it this way,
Speaker 1: Like Lebron has managed to, you know, kind of scrounge
Speaker 1: together a certain reputation in this era and he's had
Speaker 1: to go up against Kevin Durant and Steph Curry and
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and Gianna Santanakupo. You get the point, Like
Speaker 1: it's been a stacked era and so yeah, the dominance
Speaker 1: isn't there that you see from earlier eras where maybe
Speaker 1: there wasn't as much talent in the league. Is that true? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But here's reality. And like I had, I have so
Speaker 1: many people in the comments the last few weeks really
Speaker 1: since we started doing the top twenty five players for
Speaker 1: this season, so it's at almost five weeks now, so
Speaker 1: many people are like Jason's obsession with winning, Jason's winning bias.
Speaker 1: As someone literally said, winning bias in a comment yesterday.
Speaker 1: I was like, what does that even mean? Winning bias? Like,
Speaker 1: but like, my obsession with winning is not an obsession
Speaker 1: with winning it's an obsession with what actually happened. Hypotheticals
Speaker 1: and context might help you plan for the future. Think
Speaker 1: of it, forget about basketball for a second, think about
Speaker 1: your life. Maybe I could do this, maybe I might
Speaker 1: do this, Maybe this could happen, maybe this won't happen.
Speaker 1: Those things can help you plan for the future. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, I will think about hypotheticals and context from
Speaker 1: the same point, Like if I was building an NBA team,
Speaker 1: if I was a GM, I'm not gonna care as
Speaker 1: much about team result as how each individual player contributed,
Speaker 1: because I'm planning for the future, and maybe I can
Speaker 1: get a discount by taking a winning player out of
Speaker 1: a losing situation, right Like, as a GM, you might
Speaker 1: think that way, but when we're talking about the history,
Speaker 1: that's pointless you saying maybe I should have done that,
Speaker 1: maybe this didn't what would have happened if this didn't happen.
Speaker 1: Thinking about hypotheticals in context for the past accomplishes nothing
Speaker 1: for you in your life. All it does is lead
Speaker 1: to regret. Right, So that's kind of the way I
Speaker 1: feel about basketball, Like, maybe could Lebron have dominated in
Speaker 1: it to a higher extent in a different era? Maybe,
Speaker 1: but he didn't play in the eighty four to ninety
Speaker 1: eight stretch, right, he played from two thousand and three
Speaker 1: to the present. So like it doesn't serve any purpose
Speaker 1: or doesn't accomplish anything to go back and do that. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with talking about
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And there are a lot of
Speaker 1: shows out there and a lot of people out there
Speaker 1: who love to talk about hypotheticals in context for the past,
Speaker 1: and the hypotheticals in the context do exist. I just
Speaker 1: find them to be of low value in this type
Speaker 1: of situation. Like like, oh, maybe if Katie and Steph
Speaker 1: didn't team up, has five championships or six championships, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great, But Katie and Steph did team up, and
Speaker 1: Katie and Steph beat Lebron twice. So what exactly are
Speaker 1: you wanting? Do you want to like, do you want
Speaker 1: to give Lebron a hypothetical championship? Like it's just what
Speaker 1: are we gonna do, like just start giving out a
Speaker 1: hypothetical trophy every year? Like it just to me, it
Speaker 1: doesn't serve any purpose. And so with me in this show,
Speaker 1: and again, like you guys can do it however you want,
Speaker 1: But on this particular show, like, I'm gonna focus on
Speaker 1: hypotheticals and context when planning for the future in reality
Speaker 1: and what actually happened in the past, and that's just
Speaker 1: the way that things are gonna work on this particular show,
Speaker 1: all right, Moving on to number six in our top
Speaker 1: twenty five players the last twenty five years, Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: accolades the best or second best player on a championship
Speaker 1: team twice. Both Katie and Steph were playing at a
Speaker 1: ridiculous level in those years. Like the reality was is
Speaker 1: there was a top tier of superstars that was three players.
Speaker 1: It was Lebron, Steph, and KD. They were all on
Speaker 1: the same tier. I think Lebron was slightly better than them,
Speaker 1: but the two of them were right there and they
Speaker 1: were on the same team. So like, I don't feel
Speaker 1: comfortable calling any of them, you know, the best player
Speaker 1: or on the championship team, or the second best player
Speaker 1: on the championship team, because it kind of feels unfair
Speaker 1: to the other guy, no matter how you put it right,
Speaker 1: So you can rank them however you want. For the era,
Speaker 1: I generally view Steph as slightly better than KD. Why
Speaker 1: because he beat KD had to head in twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: and he has two championships without KD. So, like like
Speaker 1: we talked about in the last topic, I can't deny
Speaker 1: what actually happened in NBA history. I think Steph has
Speaker 1: a slight edge, but for the purposes of this particular list,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna keep it vague. Best or second best
Speaker 1: player on two championship teams, six time first Team All NBA,
Speaker 1: ten time All NBA overall, four time scoring champion. He
Speaker 1: had two fifty forty ninety seasons, and he won the
Speaker 1: regular season MVP in twenty fourteen and won back to
Speaker 1: back NBA Finals MVPs in twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: his claim to fame, he's the best score of all time.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, his twenty seven point three points per
Speaker 1: game is the fourth highest career points per game average
Speaker 1: in NBA history. Michael Jordan is number one, Wilt Chamberlain
Speaker 1: is number two. Both of those guys are just over
Speaker 1: thirty points per game, and then Elgin Baylor is number
Speaker 1: three at twenty seven point four points per game. So
Speaker 1: Katie actually has a chance to pass him in the
Speaker 1: coming years, especially if he continues his twenty nine point
Speaker 1: per game regular season average that he's had post Achilles.
Speaker 1: But Kadi's career fifty percent field goal percentage thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent from three seven made free throws a game at
Speaker 1: eighty nine percent. That's again, he's literally like a career
Speaker 1: fifty to forty ninety guy. That puts him at a
Speaker 1: career sixty two percent true shooting. So to give you
Speaker 1: an idea, that's five percent higher than Michael Jordan's career
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage of fifty seven percent. But here's the thing. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's eras at play there. Katie has the benefit of
Speaker 1: the knowledge of this era and the value of three
Speaker 1: point shooting, which was clearly promoted in a way differently
Speaker 1: in this era than it was in MJ's era. Right,
Speaker 1: But here's why I'd put KD over MJ as a
Speaker 1: score all time anyway. KD did most of this by
Speaker 1: staying in the flow of an offense. MJ was a gunner.
Speaker 1: This is a crazy stat. Michael Jordan attempted thirty one
Speaker 1: shots per one hundred possessions in his career. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: attempted twenty six shots per one hundred possessions in his career.
Speaker 1: So again, like there are two players the top two
Speaker 1: scores among players who didn't retire before nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: right because Wilt and Elgin Baylor both retired in I
Speaker 1: think seventy two, seventy three, seventy four around that time.
Speaker 1: So aside from those guys, MJ and KD are the
Speaker 1: top of the league. MJ's at thirty points per game,
Speaker 1: kd's at twenty seven points per game, far more efficient,
Speaker 1: and he did it on twenty five shots per one
Speaker 1: hundred possession twenty six shots per one hundred posessions. MJ
Speaker 1: did it on thirty one shots per one hundredossessions. So
Speaker 1: literally MJ shot about twenty percent more frequently as KD did,
Speaker 1: And so that's not a downside to Michael Jordan. Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time in
Speaker 1: my opinion. But in my opinion, KD somehow managed to
Speaker 1: put up one of the best career points per game
Speaker 1: scoring averages in NBA history on outrageous and did it
Speaker 1: all without really rocking the boat anywhere that he was,
Speaker 1: which is why he's arguably the most plug and playable
Speaker 1: superstar in the history of the NBA, right, and that's
Speaker 1: what allowed him to go wherever he went and immediately
Speaker 1: fit in and be a great player on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. So it's up for debate, but for
Speaker 1: me personally, I think Kevin Durant goes down as the
Speaker 1: best scorer of all time. His claim to fame was
Speaker 1: winning back to back finals MVPs in twenty seventeen. In
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, the thunder years were really weird. There was
Speaker 1: this like rapid ascent, right. So they end up in
Speaker 1: this war with the Lakers in twenty ten where they
Speaker 1: go to six in the first round against the team
Speaker 1: that went on to win a championship. By the way,
Speaker 1: Katie and Russ were twenty one years old in that series.
Speaker 1: By the way, twenty eleven, they end up in the
Speaker 1: conference finals and lose to that ridiculous Dallas Mavericks team.
Speaker 1: Then suddenly they're in the NBA Finals in twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: so like it was like rapid ascension, right, They're up
Speaker 1: one zero, but Lebron was on a mission that year.
Speaker 1: He closes the deal KD in the loss in the
Speaker 1: twenty twelve finals puts up a stupid thirty one points
Speaker 1: per game on fifty five percent from the field, thirty
Speaker 1: nine percent from three, and eighty four percent from the line.
Speaker 1: That's a sixty five percent true shooting percentage. But then
Speaker 1: the Thunder trade James Harden away that summer, which turned
Speaker 1: out to be kind of like a catastrophic mistake that
Speaker 1: crippled the Thunder in their progress over the coming years.
Speaker 1: So then twenty thirteen we get the Patrick Beverley dive
Speaker 1: at Russell Westbrook's knee which causes him to terry his meniscus,
Speaker 1: which causes him to miss the rest of the playoff run.
Speaker 1: And then Katy basically loses to the Memphis Grizzlies by himself. Now,
Speaker 1: don't forget that was when we had the mister unreliable
Speaker 1: headline in the in the newspaper. How ridiculous is this?
Speaker 1: KD was twenty four years old, lost Harden and Westbrook
Speaker 1: lost to an out standing Memphis Grizzlies team in his
Speaker 1: hometown paper called a mister unreliable? Is that not the
Speaker 1: most ridiculous headline in the history of sports? But then
Speaker 1: KD has his breakout season in twenty fourteen, wins the
Speaker 1: MVP Award, kind of starts to enter into conversations with Lebron,
Speaker 1: although I don't think Katie really got to that level
Speaker 1: for another couple of years after that. But then they
Speaker 1: lose in six games to that ridiculous San Antonio team
Speaker 1: that basically perfected team basketball and was just unbeatable that year.
Speaker 1: Then Katie hurts his foot in twenty fifteen and they
Speaker 1: missed the playoffs. So again, like you're at the title
Speaker 1: you're right there, you know, game two, you have a
Speaker 1: late lead, like so many things could go your way,
Speaker 1: and the next thing you know, it's like like one
Speaker 1: bad decision from the front office, an unfortunate injury, a
Speaker 1: really good team in twenty fourteen, and then another injury,
Speaker 1: and it's like all all of a sudden, it's twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen and they hadn't won a title yet. But then
Speaker 1: we have that ridiculous twenty sixteen Thunder team which was
Speaker 1: like outrageously big. This was how This was their starting lineup,
Speaker 1: Steven Adams, Sergebaka in his athletic prime, Andre Roberson, one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive wings in the league, and Kevin
Speaker 1: Duran at seven foot at the two next to Russell
Speaker 1: Westburg or maybe Roberson at the two. However you want
Speaker 1: to call it, but they were just absurdly big and athletic,
Speaker 1: and as a result, they were kind of a pain
Speaker 1: in the ass and they caused some problems for Golden State.
Speaker 1: They go up three to one Game one, Katie has
Speaker 1: a miserable shooting night Final gets a huge shot to
Speaker 1: go HiT's the biggest shot of the game, a pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot with thirty one seconds left that puts
Speaker 1: ok up by five. Warriors win Game two. Then Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City just dominates Game three and four, just absolute landslide victories.
Speaker 1: Their size, athleticism, and strength combined with the home crowd
Speaker 1: energy that Oklahoma City had just made them really tough
Speaker 1: to beat at home that year. So they're up three
Speaker 1: games to one. Game five was closer than people remember.
Speaker 1: KD hits a three with four and a half minutes
Speaker 1: left to bring Oklahoma City within five, but Golden State
Speaker 1: does end up holding serve as was to be expected.
Speaker 1: Then in Game six, Clay Thompson goes crazy as twenty
Speaker 1: five points in the second half can't seem to miss
Speaker 1: a three, but the thunder are still up by five
Speaker 1: with four and a half minutes left, But the thunder
Speaker 1: just fall apart down the stretch. KD over the final
Speaker 1: four and a half minutes of Game six, goes oh
Speaker 1: for three from the field with two turnovers. Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: has four turnovers in the final two minutes, the first
Speaker 1: of which happened when the game was tied. KD gets
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson on a switch, Russ looks him off, tries
Speaker 1: to iso Andre Gudala, gets stripped, and then Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: goes down and hits basic what ended up being the
Speaker 1: game winner along the right wing. And then Russ followed
Speaker 1: that up with three back to back to back turnovers.
Speaker 1: Not the brightest moment, but that was a weird Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City team. And I've said this before, like I loved
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook when he was his athletic prime. Is so
Speaker 1: much fun to watch, but really difficult player to win
Speaker 1: playoff series with because of his decision making, especially in
Speaker 1: late game situations. And so honestly, like I understood why
Speaker 1: KD wanted to leave. It made perfect sense to me.
Speaker 1: I just none of us ever thought he would have
Speaker 1: gone to Golden State. That was the crazy party completely
Speaker 1: shocks the basketball world by signing as a free agent
Speaker 1: with Golden State, and it's like I put in my
Speaker 1: notes just all caps crazy because like I like, when
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it again this afternoon, like it
Speaker 1: really is crazy. I mean, like, you guys know, I
Speaker 1: love KD, but I'm not sure what exactly he was
Speaker 1: expecting to happen when he made that decision. It was
Speaker 1: like almost guaranteed to have everybody go like come on, dude,
Speaker 1: Like and you know what's funny is like I admired
Speaker 1: the move from KD from a basketball perspective because I
Speaker 1: genuinely believe that KD looked at Golden State and thought,
Speaker 1: this is the best place for me to become the
Speaker 1: best basketball player that I can be, with one of
Speaker 1: the best coaches in the league, in a ball movement system,
Speaker 1: with a bunch of really smart high IQ basketball players.
Speaker 1: That's what I think KD was thinking. I don't think
Speaker 1: he was looking at Golden State like shit, man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get easy titles over there. I don't think he
Speaker 1: was thinking about that. I think KD at his core,
Speaker 1: is a person who loves basketball, and I think he's
Speaker 1: obsessed with becoming the best basketball player that he can be.
Speaker 1: And I think he viewed Golden State as the place
Speaker 1: for that to happen for him. That said, I think
Speaker 1: it was an error in judgment from the standpoint that
Speaker 1: I don't think he realized at the time just how
Speaker 1: ridiculous the backlash would be. But it's not hard to
Speaker 1: figure out. It's like, dude, you lost to a seventy
Speaker 1: three win team in the conference finals, when you had
Speaker 1: a three to one lead, you left your team to
Speaker 1: join that team, the greatest team of all time, with
Speaker 1: one of the few guys in the league that's on
Speaker 1: the same level as Lebron, And then suddenly it's like,
Speaker 1: the three best players in the league are Lebron, Katy
Speaker 1: and Steph, and Katie and Steph play together. Like of course,
Speaker 1: they won a bunch of championships after that, right, So
Speaker 1: I think there was I think Kd's kind of narrow
Speaker 1: minded focus on basketball was admirable but foolish at the
Speaker 1: same time, in the sense that it kind of put
Speaker 1: him in a position where his reputation kind of suffered
Speaker 1: as a result. I do think Kadi's recovered that reputation
Speaker 1: a lot just by virtue of how amazing he is,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people overlooked, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like he won some easier championships, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: he's not a great basketball player. Like why were those
Speaker 1: championships easy? Because Kevin Durand's so freaking good at basketball, right,
Speaker 1: So I do think that he won people over in
Speaker 1: the long run, but I mean, predictably, they whooped everyone's ass.
Speaker 1: They immediately won sixty seven games, They won fifteen consecutive
Speaker 1: playoff games in the ridiculous Western Conference, finished off the
Speaker 1: Cavs in five to win Katie's first NBA championship. I
Speaker 1: had a cool moment in Game three, they pull up
Speaker 1: three over Lebron. One of the things I really appreciate
Speaker 1: about that specific shot is that was a shot that
Speaker 1: Katie worked on his entire career. That high hesitation out
Speaker 1: of the left hand pull up three in transition has
Speaker 1: been a go to move for KD his entire career.
Speaker 1: He's probably practiced it thousands and thousands and thousands of times,
Speaker 1: and so to see it come to fruition for him
Speaker 1: on the biggest stage, it is a really cool moment.
Speaker 1: I think I would imagine that KD looks back on
Speaker 1: that moment with a lot of funness, but The Warriors
Speaker 1: went again the following season, and in my opinion, they
Speaker 1: would have won again in twenty nineteen at KD not
Speaker 1: torn his achilles. KT finishes his Golden State tenure averaging
Speaker 1: twenty six points, seven rebounds, and five assists per game
Speaker 1: on sixty four percent true shooting. I thought twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: was also the best defensive season of his career. He
Speaker 1: kind of functioned as the low man in Golden State's defense,
Speaker 1: like Draymond would defend and pick and roll, and Katie
Speaker 1: would kind of fill that Giannis role where he's guarding
Speaker 1: the man in the weakside corner but primarily operating as
Speaker 1: a rim protector. Did a lot of damage at the
Speaker 1: rim that year. But then he tears his achilles easily
Speaker 1: the scariest injury for any basketball player, and he just
Speaker 1: got through it and made the most impressive return from
Speaker 1: that injury that any of us have ever seen. One
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty seven regular season games since coming back
Speaker 1: from his achilles injury, twenty nine to seven and six
Speaker 1: on sixty six percent through shooting, which is just fucking ridiculous. Man,
Speaker 1: one great playoff moment, he damn near stole the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference semis against Milwaukee with Kyrie Irving out with an
Speaker 1: ankle injury and James Harden on a Ben Hammy that
Speaker 1: turnaround jumps out with toe just barely on the line,
Speaker 1: won two inches back. He is in the Conference finals
Speaker 1: and probably beats Atlanta and probably has a good chance
Speaker 1: to beat Phoenix as well. So it's kind of especially
Speaker 1: if you factor in the ability of Kyrie and James
Speaker 1: Harden to return to the lineup at full strength at
Speaker 1: some point over the next month. But then he had
Speaker 1: two rough shooting series in the last couple of years
Speaker 1: against Denver and Boston really quickly before we go to
Speaker 1: his biggest what if Kevin Durant completely mastered theull up
Speaker 1: jump shot? I think that would be Kevin Durant's like
Speaker 1: kind of like skill imprint on the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: KD shot fifty five percent on pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: this year, like well over half of them. To give
Speaker 1: you an idea of how outrageous that is. Among players
Speaker 1: in the NBA who made at least three pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots per game, nobody in the entire NBA shot
Speaker 1: over fifty percent on him, and KD was at fifty
Speaker 1: five percent. So in like the same way that Steph
Speaker 1: is miles above the rest of the league is at
Speaker 1: three point shooter. KD is miles above the rest of
Speaker 1: the league as a pull up jump shooter. And I think
Speaker 1: I think if you asked KD, what he would tell
Speaker 1: you was what he would credit for that is his
Speaker 1: workout routine. And he has a a kind of thing
Speaker 1: that he says all the time, talking about talking about
Speaker 1: taking those shots at game speed. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: funny because I relay that message to the high school
Speaker 1: players that I coach all the time. But like, if
Speaker 1: you do not do reps at game speed, then when
Speaker 1: you get into a game and the physicality goes up
Speaker 1: a level and things get quicker, just because of the intensity,
Speaker 1: you will miss shots. And I think a big part
Speaker 1: of why KD makes as many of the pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots as he does is when he goes to
Speaker 1: the gym tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon or whatever to
Speaker 1: do his shooting workout, He's going to be bringing an
Speaker 1: intensity to that workout that matches the intensity that he
Speaker 1: brings in an NBA playoff game, which allows that skill
Speaker 1: to translate when he gets there maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: less under physicality, but like because you're not obviously gonna
Speaker 1: get yourself fouled like crazy in a workout, But he
Speaker 1: gets the most out of every workout because of the
Speaker 1: intensity that he approaches it with. And just go look
Speaker 1: up KDE shooting workouts. You can see it. It just
Speaker 1: looks different with the intensity that he brings to workouts.
Speaker 1: Biggest one if of KDE's career what if Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: had kept James Harden. Had they done so, they would
Speaker 1: have had three of the top ten players in the league,
Speaker 1: all in their primes. And then again, like now you
Speaker 1: run into that question about talent and how easy a
Speaker 1: championship looks, right, like because people fans, the general public
Speaker 1: wants to see a struggle. That's just something that they
Speaker 1: give extra credit for, you know, fair or not. That's
Speaker 1: just the way it works. But the thing is is
Speaker 1: like there's this other thing with public perception where when
Speaker 1: you dominate but it's homegrown talent, you're off the hook
Speaker 1: and people just look at that as dominance. It's the
Speaker 1: It's like the Denver Nuggets, they were the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: were way better than everybody this year. They literally kicked
Speaker 1: everyone's ass and had they like signed Jamal Murray as
Speaker 1: a free agent this summer, and signed Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: as a free agent this summer, and like traded for
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon and then just did it all this year.
Speaker 1: There'd be this weird like, Oh, of course they kicked
Speaker 1: everyone's ass. They you know, went out this summer and
Speaker 1: spent a bunch of money, Right, But that's not what happened.
Speaker 1: They were homegrown players, and so Denver whoops everyone's ass
Speaker 1: and gets all the credit in the world for it, right,
Speaker 1: And that's the thing is, I don't think. I think
Speaker 1: if KD stays didn't if James Harden stays in OKCE,
Speaker 1: KD stays in OKAC, they probably win multiple championships, and
Speaker 1: there's probably an entirely different perception surrounding his career. So
Speaker 1: it's an interesting what if. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for today. I hope you guys all
Speaker 1: have an amazing weekend. Don't forget to drop some mailback
Speaker 1: questions in there. We will be back on Monday with
Speaker 1: number five the volume