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Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you are having a great week.
Speaker 1: A couple of interesting Game two is today predictable Game
Speaker 1: two is these You know, these two series are definitively
Speaker 1: less interesting than the other two series is the Boston
Speaker 1: Bucks series and that Warriors Grizzly series. But there's still
Speaker 1: a lot going on. It's just hard because with Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid being out, there's just not a whole lot that
Speaker 1: you can learn from the games taking place in Miami
Speaker 1: right now. I think, hopefully if he comes back in
Speaker 1: game three, we'll get a little bit more out of
Speaker 1: that series. And then you know, Dallas, I love Dallas,
Speaker 1: I love Luca is one of my favorite players to watch.
Speaker 1: But they're playing the team that might be the best
Speaker 1: team in the NBA, or at least in that conversation
Speaker 1: with the likes of Boston and so as a result,
Speaker 1: as much as I love rooting for that team and
Speaker 1: I've I'm so interested to see what they can accomplish
Speaker 1: over the course the next five to ten years, they're
Speaker 1: just up against it right now, against a really, really
Speaker 1: good team. Today is gonna be a little bit different
Speaker 1: than some of our recent shows. We're going to break
Speaker 1: down these two games a little bit. We'll spend fift
Speaker 1: twenty minutes on it, but we're gonna spend the latter
Speaker 1: half of the show kind of zooming out a little
Speaker 1: bit and talking a little bit more about some of
Speaker 1: the macro topics around the n b A. I think
Speaker 1: this is a good time, especially with no games tomorrow,
Speaker 1: we'll have a good opportunity here to just kind of
Speaker 1: take stock of how this playoff, uh, this this set
Speaker 1: of playoffs has gone so far, and what we've learned
Speaker 1: about the players involved in the teams involved, and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth. Before we get started, make sure
Speaker 1: you like this video and subscribe to the YouTube channel
Speaker 1: um check out our newsletter. There's a link in the
Speaker 1: description of this video. It's a great way to stay
Speaker 1: up to speed on all of our content. And as always,
Speaker 1: don't forget to follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason
Speaker 1: lt I do video breakdowns every morning. That's a great
Speaker 1: place to see some film that backs up the things
Speaker 1: that I say on the show. But let's start with
Speaker 1: the MAVs in the sun. So CP three went ahead
Speaker 1: and performed open Maverick surgery on Luca and Dallas there
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, which is, you know, not not
Speaker 1: exactly the most shocking thing in the world. Uh. Ryan,
Speaker 1: our lead producer, the guy who's the real m v
Speaker 1: P of the show, said, I thought it was genius.
Speaker 1: He goes, He goes, how unfair is that that Phoenix
Speaker 1: is so good that Chris Paul gets to basically be
Speaker 1: Mariana Rivera for this team And it's it's the reality.
Speaker 1: Because say what you want about CP three's longevity, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit more about that later on
Speaker 1: in the show. Like the advantage of being able to
Speaker 1: basically use him in short bursts, basically taking superstar duties
Speaker 1: and splitting them evenly between the likes of Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul. It's just an incredible luxury to have
Speaker 1: in a playoff series, because either of them on their
Speaker 1: own might be overmatched in a in a matchup with
Speaker 1: a guy like Luca, or overmatched in a matchup even
Speaker 1: with a guy like Brandon Ingram who's coming into his
Speaker 1: own as a star player in this league, and certainly
Speaker 1: as you get deeper into the playoffs. But like what
Speaker 1: intrigues me the most is why is CP three so good?
Speaker 1: How is it that a six foot tall guard that
Speaker 1: is turning thirty seven, I believe in the next week
Speaker 1: or so. How is it that he can be this
Speaker 1: incredibly impactful at this point of his career on the
Speaker 1: best team in the NBA by record, arguably overall anyway?
Speaker 1: How does he pull that off? And to me, it
Speaker 1: comes down to some basic core basketball philosophies that I
Speaker 1: have and the fact that Chris Paul checks those boxes resoundingly.
Speaker 1: You've heard me talk about a bunch of different things
Speaker 1: over the course the last couple of years on the show,
Speaker 1: I've talked about let's focus on his scoring for a minute.
Speaker 1: I've talked about variety, how the difference between guys who
Speaker 1: are very repetitive in the way they attack, guys like
Speaker 1: James Harden, and guys who have variety in the way
Speaker 1: they attack, guys like Chris Paul, the ability to score
Speaker 1: in different spots on the floor. Chris Paul can come
Speaker 1: off of ball screens and shoot threes all day long.
Speaker 1: If he gets a big on switches, he can take
Speaker 1: threes all day long. He was hitting pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots over Luca and switches a bunch in this game.
Speaker 1: If he gets over the top of screens, he can
Speaker 1: get into the mid range. He can snake to pick
Speaker 1: a roll, take those fade away twos. If he gets
Speaker 1: bigs on switches, he can you you know, work your
Speaker 1: side to side and take step back twos. He can
Speaker 1: get deeper into the lane and make floaters and push
Speaker 1: shots and crafty finishes around the rim. And then if
Speaker 1: the floor is spaced properly. That doesn't happen all the time,
Speaker 1: because they do you know, traditional screen and roll attacks,
Speaker 1: so you usually have a big man underneath the basket.
Speaker 1: So he's not getting a ton of layups, but in
Speaker 1: a five out system he'd be able to beat you
Speaker 1: that way too. So as a score, he has that
Speaker 1: peak variety, which is something that I've always talked about
Speaker 1: being super super important, especially when you get to the postseason.
Speaker 1: Then we look at the playmaking side of things. You know,
Speaker 1: you're seeing this on display with Luca. Part of the
Speaker 1: reason why Lucas putting up months st scoring numbers in
Speaker 1: this series is Phoenix knows that they can't handle him
Speaker 1: if they double team him, because he's just gonna spray
Speaker 1: it around the shooters all night long. So they actually
Speaker 1: are in a predicament where their best bet is to
Speaker 1: let Luca try to attack guys in single coverage, and
Speaker 1: he's really getting just about whatever he wants. Their offense
Speaker 1: has not been the issue for the Mavericks in this
Speaker 1: series for the most part, but for Chris Paul it's
Speaker 1: the exact same dynamic. His ability to consistently and surgically
Speaker 1: make the right read anytime you send additional defensive attention
Speaker 1: his way is what makes him so versatile in these environments.
Speaker 1: I've talked about how you know, playmaking in particular has
Speaker 1: always been one of my skills, the skills that I
Speaker 1: value the most when I'm watching the NBA. And part
Speaker 1: of the reason why is it's such a unique skill.
Speaker 1: Like when we look at high level three level scores,
Speaker 1: there's a ship ton of them in the league. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a guy in Devin Booker. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: him in a little bit, Like Devin Booker is so
Speaker 1: unbelievably good, and he's in a tier with a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys that do similar stuff as three level scores. Right,
Speaker 1: But when we're talking like true high level playmaking, it's
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, it's Luca don Chich, it's Lebron James, it's
Speaker 1: Nicola Yokich, and then it's a massive drop off before
Speaker 1: you get to that fifth guy. That's what makes that
Speaker 1: skill so valuable. It comes out of premium in this league.
Speaker 1: There just aren't a lot of guys that can do it.
Speaker 1: And that ability to make those raids consistently and to
Speaker 1: even see what's not yet developed, that is what keeps
Speaker 1: Chris Paul in an island. That, in combination with his
Speaker 1: ability to score from all three spots on the floor,
Speaker 1: makes him the devastating offensive player that he is, even
Speaker 1: at age thirty seven, even at six ft tall, he's
Speaker 1: breaking everything that we understand about small guards in this league.
Speaker 1: Now there's a ceiling there. We saw that last year
Speaker 1: against Milwaukee in the in the finals. If he runs
Speaker 1: into the right kind of defensive matchup with another guard,
Speaker 1: that's you know, especially a guy like Drew Holiday, who
Speaker 1: can deal with any ball screen that Chris Paul throws
Speaker 1: his way and handle him. In isolation scenarios, we can
Speaker 1: see him be limited. But that's why he's not the
Speaker 1: best player in the league, you know, That's why he's
Speaker 1: closer to the tenth best player in the league. Right,
Speaker 1: But all of that is what makes him so devastating
Speaker 1: offensively at this point in his career. And then last
Speaker 1: but not least, he competes defensively. I was watching the
Speaker 1: film from Game one this morning, and Chris Paul just
Speaker 1: doesn't die on any screen. He's a bulldog. He's incredibly
Speaker 1: difficult to deal with because he's so crafty, and even
Speaker 1: when Lucas trying trying to position him on certain parts
Speaker 1: of his body so that he can get to his
Speaker 1: moves in the post, Chris Paul will like detach from
Speaker 1: his body and then like fake lunge around one side
Speaker 1: and to come around the other way. Like he's just
Speaker 1: so committed to being an impact player on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor that all of that rounds out
Speaker 1: into a thirty seven year old, six foot tall guy
Speaker 1: who's absolutely in the conversation to be a top ten
Speaker 1: player in basketball. That's unbelievable and it's a credit to him.
Speaker 1: I we just talked about him after that Pelican series.
Speaker 1: I thought his Game six closeout game was one of
Speaker 1: the best playoff performances in NBA history. It's on the
Speaker 1: list of you know, twenty or thirty great games that
Speaker 1: you'll see in NBA history. To go fourteen for fourteen
Speaker 1: with your star on a bad hamstring against a team
Speaker 1: that's been giving you a lot of problems. Chris Paul
Speaker 1: seems poised to have one of those playoff runs that
Speaker 1: he races a bad memory from last year, and that's
Speaker 1: a credit to him. I want to talk about Devin
Speaker 1: Booker for a second, because you see a lot of
Speaker 1: guys like this in the league. You know, guys like
Speaker 1: Bradley Beald, guys like c J. McCollum, where if you
Speaker 1: catch them on the right night, they look like they
Speaker 1: can go toe to toe with any star in this league.
Speaker 1: But there's a consistency that separates the greats from the goods,
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker is starting to show night in night
Speaker 1: out consistency on both ends of the floor as a
Speaker 1: two guard that puts you in that upper echelon. He
Speaker 1: is another one of those guys. You know. One of
Speaker 1: the big reasons why I was pessimistic about Phoenix over
Speaker 1: the course last couple of years is I'm like, they
Speaker 1: don't really have a superstar, have two guys that kind
Speaker 1: of combined into a superstar. But Chris Paul's late career
Speaker 1: surge and Devin Booker's flat out improvement, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor and with his consistency on offense,
Speaker 1: both of those guys are kind of vying for Like
Speaker 1: I think I have Jayson Tatum and John Morant kind
Speaker 1: of closer to that ten spot, but you could argue
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and Chris Paul are both like right there
Speaker 1: at eleven and twelve, and especially in the league this
Speaker 1: deep eleven and twelve is there's not a huge gap
Speaker 1: between those guys and the sixth and the seventh guys.
Speaker 1: That's the type of talent that we have at the
Speaker 1: top of the league right now, and those two guys
Speaker 1: together are what make this team so incredibly dangerous. I'm
Speaker 1: still a little bit blower on them than I am
Speaker 1: on Boston, but you know, it's it's very, very close
Speaker 1: between those two teams. This is why I've been picking
Speaker 1: Phoenix to get out of the West. You know, they've
Speaker 1: showed us who they are consistently over the course of the
Speaker 1: the last two years, and people need to pay attention.
Speaker 1: A couple other quick notes on this game. You know,
Speaker 1: Michael Bridges is becoming such a problem for Dallas. I
Speaker 1: did a whole video this morning. You find it on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed talking about the way that Michael Bridges
Speaker 1: has been blowing up Dallas is picking rolls by fighting
Speaker 1: over the top of screens and applying back pressure on
Speaker 1: Luca don Chitch and the problems that come with that,
Speaker 1: and so I laid down some ways that they could
Speaker 1: counter it, the least of which is getting switches before
Speaker 1: the pick and roll so that it's not Michael Bridges
Speaker 1: on Luca before he goes over that screen. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: just having Maxi Kleiba set the screen so that when
Speaker 1: he pops to the three point line, Micail Bridges has
Speaker 1: no choice but to relocate out to the shooter. And
Speaker 1: that's been and so Dallas came into this game and
Speaker 1: immediately implemented all of that, and they were getting Michael
Speaker 1: off of Luca. But then the problem with Michael Bridges,
Speaker 1: and it's a problem that I'm not sure that they're
Speaker 1: gonna have a solution for in this series. And that's
Speaker 1: the that's what separates the truly great teams from the
Speaker 1: good teams, as they have problems that you just can't
Speaker 1: deal with. But Michael Bridges, you know, when we when
Speaker 1: we teach traditional shell drill defense to our high school
Speaker 1: kids at the school that I coach at, you you
Speaker 1: you tell him to get in the passing lane and
Speaker 1: to position in themselves somewhere where they feel comfortable that
Speaker 1: if a swing pass was made to their man, that
Speaker 1: they'd be able to get there in time to contest
Speaker 1: a shot. And so it depends on your athleticism. If
Speaker 1: you're a bigger athlete, you can come further off the shooter.
Speaker 1: If you're less athletic, you have to stay closer to
Speaker 1: the shooter right, well, Michael Bridges, his ability to close
Speaker 1: out is so ridiculous that like, if this guy's the
Speaker 1: ball handler and this guy's the shooter, he can position himself. Damn,
Speaker 1: You're all the way at the ball handler and still
Speaker 1: close out. And you saw that a lot when Luca
Speaker 1: would get the switches and get off of Michael. Mchael's
Speaker 1: damn near in a double team, like sitting on one
Speaker 1: of the sides of Luca that he would like to
Speaker 1: drive through, drive to and there's a shooter open, but
Speaker 1: Michael's like, go ahead, throw it. I'm just gonna be there.
Speaker 1: It's not an open shot. And that's the advantage of
Speaker 1: having basically a defensive player of the Year type of
Speaker 1: level of of wing defender alongside your stars. And then
Speaker 1: most importantly, when Phoenix locked in, you saw a stretch
Speaker 1: like this in that third quarter and then again in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. With all of the defensive talent that
Speaker 1: Phoenix has, especially with Devin Booker being as committed as
Speaker 1: he is, with DeAndre Ayton on the back line, Jay Crowder,
Speaker 1: as you're bigger, more physical wing defender, they go through
Speaker 1: these they go through these stretches of defense where it's
Speaker 1: just you're hopeless. There's not really anything you can do,
Speaker 1: you know, like, there's no such thing as a great
Speaker 1: look like you can you have to settle for an
Speaker 1: okay look. And yeah, there are gonna be times when
Speaker 1: guys that are the caliber of Luca are gonna be
Speaker 1: able to score over that. But having that defensive ceiling
Speaker 1: which is similar, no, I think Boston's defensive ceiling is
Speaker 1: considerably higher. But at the same time, having that type
Speaker 1: of defensive ceiling gives you the ability to squeeze teams
Speaker 1: like this, and it's a great thing to lean on,
Speaker 1: especially when you go through cold shooting stretches. Phoenix didn't
Speaker 1: shoot particularly well from three in this game until the
Speaker 1: basically till the second half of the fourth quarter, and
Speaker 1: having your defense to lean on there, that's a far
Speaker 1: more dependable thing. A couple of quick notes on on Dallas.
Speaker 1: They defended better at certain stretches and stops are so
Speaker 1: for this Dallas team because attacking Phoenix is defense when
Speaker 1: it's set is extremely difficult. Every time they got a
Speaker 1: stop and they quickly pushed the ball up the floor.
Speaker 1: Most of the time they were able to get cross matches,
Speaker 1: so a cross matches. In transition defense, we've talked about
Speaker 1: how you're supposed to split back to the paint and
Speaker 1: then you spread out to shooters right. Well, typically that
Speaker 1: leads to cross matches because if you're in a transition
Speaker 1: defensive defense situation where you're just grabbing the nearest guy,
Speaker 1: typically you're not guarding your usual matchup. And so when
Speaker 1: when Dallas was able to get stops and then push
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor, they get Luca onto other
Speaker 1: defensive players and not have to go through all of
Speaker 1: the jankie stuff to get Michael Bridges switched off. And
Speaker 1: one of the issues that they were having is in
Speaker 1: set defense situations, by the time they got Micaal Bridges
Speaker 1: off Luca, there'd be like eight seconds on the shot clock.
Speaker 1: So then even if Luca generated an advantage, if he
Speaker 1: had to kick it out, the only option is a
Speaker 1: catch and shoot. There's no opportunity to continue to further
Speaker 1: the advantage. Whereas when they got stops, Luke could be
Speaker 1: able to get an advantage early in the clock. Now
Speaker 1: he's made can kick out with like seventeen seconds on
Speaker 1: the shot clock. Now that guy can attack the close
Speaker 1: out and kick it to another guy who maybe he
Speaker 1: has time to attack close out. Now that's when you
Speaker 1: get great shots. And so the issue for Dallas in
Speaker 1: this series is are they ever going to be able
Speaker 1: to get to a point where they can get a
Speaker 1: significant amount of stops. And you know, a huge part
Speaker 1: of this right now is the problem with Luca. And
Speaker 1: you know, Luca is one of my favorite players, but
Speaker 1: you know, you're he's venturing into that range where he's
Speaker 1: being considered with the best players in the league, and
Speaker 1: there's a standard that comes with that. Carson and I
Speaker 1: have talked a lot about Lucas conditioning and how that's
Speaker 1: the next step for him. Right now, you can tell
Speaker 1: there's two things that are hurting Luca on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. One thing is, obviously he's saving energy,
Speaker 1: has so much that he has to do on the
Speaker 1: offensive end that there's a certain amount of like, here's
Speaker 1: my opportunity to rest, I will concede x number of
Speaker 1: defensive breakdowns for the sake of having the legs to
Speaker 1: carry us offensively. That's related to conditioning. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: some of it his physical tools right like it just
Speaker 1: doesn't quite have the foot speed to cover enough ground
Speaker 1: to be a really effective defensive player. That's also related
Speaker 1: to his physical conditioning. You know, Luca don Chech is
Speaker 1: an example of a guy that, throughout his career has
Speaker 1: always been the best player in every setting that he's
Speaker 1: been in, and then he comes into the n b
Speaker 1: A and he's already damn near the best player. But
Speaker 1: in order to win an NBA championship, you have to
Speaker 1: be able to go against guys that are taking it
Speaker 1: another level of serious. Chris Paul literally, the way he
Speaker 1: takes care of his body, the way that guys like
Speaker 1: Janice take care of his body, the way that guys
Speaker 1: like Lebron take care of their body. There's this other
Speaker 1: level that Lucas still has to get to in terms
Speaker 1: of his own peak physical conditioning, and if he doesn't
Speaker 1: embrace that, it will consistently hold him back in this
Speaker 1: specific area of the game on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. If he embraces the fact that he needs
Speaker 1: to get into peak physical condition, show up into training
Speaker 1: camp already at your mid season weight, show up into
Speaker 1: training camp even maybe a step above that, reaching whatever
Speaker 1: your individual physical ceiling is. That's what's gonna allow him
Speaker 1: to not need to conserve energy on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, to have the foot speed to be
Speaker 1: able to cover ground and be more impactful in the
Speaker 1: defensive end. And most importantly, he's already this good on
Speaker 1: the offensive end with all that extra weight that he's
Speaker 1: carrying around basically wearing a weight vest. So imagine how
Speaker 1: good he could be offensively if he replaced a certain
Speaker 1: amount of that with lean muscle and reached his peak
Speaker 1: physical conditioning. There was a play in that second half
Speaker 1: where like he had a sloppy close out on Jay
Speaker 1: Crowder and Jay Crowder just went right around him and
Speaker 1: dropped it off to I think JaVale McGee forer dunk
Speaker 1: into the basket, and I'm watching him like, look, man,
Speaker 1: I know you're resting, but that's way too easy. Like
Speaker 1: you gotta at least be able to hold Jay Crowder
Speaker 1: in this role, like Luca simply has to be better defensively.
Speaker 1: If there's one silver lining that I would point to
Speaker 1: if I was a Dallas fan, they did defend a
Speaker 1: little better for specific stretches. But most importantly we saw
Speaker 1: some signs of life out of Spencer Dinwoodie. That's the
Speaker 1: guy that's been their least consistent perimeter initiator in this
Speaker 1: playoff run. They need him to be great in order
Speaker 1: to have any chance to win this series. And he
Speaker 1: played a lot better tonight. So you have a couple
Speaker 1: of things to build on going back to Dallas. But
Speaker 1: this is the predicament. Now. If you do not get
Speaker 1: both games in Dallas, you're coming back to Phoenix down
Speaker 1: three one. So there's a lot of pressure on Dallas.
Speaker 1: I picked uh Phoenix to win this series, but I
Speaker 1: picked them in six because I thought Dallas would push
Speaker 1: the series out. I still believe Luca will find a
Speaker 1: way to get at least one game. Could be wrong,
Speaker 1: but I just have too much confidence in that dude,
Speaker 1: in his ability to create things offensively and to strangle
Speaker 1: the pace of a game to not get one. But
Speaker 1: we are going to find out really quickly. We're gonna
Speaker 1: move on to this Philadelphia Miami game. Not gonna talk
Speaker 1: too much about this one because again there's just no
Speaker 1: point and really dwell dwelling on it, because these are
Speaker 1: fake basketball games. These two games involve, you know, thirty
Speaker 1: eight to forty two minutes of Joel Embid not taking place, right,
Speaker 1: So Joel Embid are there's some intel I've no idea
Speaker 1: if it's legitimate or not, but there's some intel that
Speaker 1: Joel Embiad is potentially gonna be handed the League m
Speaker 1: v P Trophy in in his home games. I had
Speaker 1: heard some reports about league executives that are going to
Speaker 1: potentially be at the game. Confusing to me because I
Speaker 1: thought Yokos was gonna win. But either way, Joel embiid
Speaker 1: it was in that conversation and is in the conversation
Speaker 1: for potentially being the best player in the world. So
Speaker 1: him missing from these two games, especially when Philly has
Speaker 1: basically no options else to go to at the center position,
Speaker 1: just makes it so there's not a whole lot to
Speaker 1: learn here, Miami fans. Again, I keep telling you there
Speaker 1: will be a point when we will do more deep
Speaker 1: dives into your team. It's just right now they have
Speaker 1: that they've had by far the easiest path to this point,
Speaker 1: and the type of competition they've been playing makes it
Speaker 1: really difficult to learn about them. So we're gonna wait.
Speaker 1: One quick note on this. They get fifty five points
Speaker 1: at the Tyres ACiE and Tobias Harris, which I said
Speaker 1: was what they needed to try to steal a game,
Speaker 1: but again, and this is what's been killing them. It's
Speaker 1: the it's Doc Rivers and his insistence on using centers.
Speaker 1: Look around the league. How many traditional centers right now
Speaker 1: are being played in these playoff series? Like Phoenix is
Speaker 1: playing three of them, but one of them is like
Speaker 1: a future All Star in DeAndre Aton and JaVale McGee
Speaker 1: and Bismack Biyombo are both extremely mobile. They move their
Speaker 1: feet really well. JaVale McGee doesn't if for his lack
Speaker 1: of foot speed, he makes up for it with ridiculous
Speaker 1: length and athleticism. Right, So, like they can get away
Speaker 1: with playing guys like that in today's NBA, but you wouldn't,
Speaker 1: you know. Essentially, there's a baseline of either offensive skill
Speaker 1: or defensive capability with mobility that you have to hit
Speaker 1: to be playable as a center in this league. Maxie
Speaker 1: Cleeb is not great defensively, but he brings this perimeter
Speaker 1: shooting element in the ability to attack close outs a
Speaker 1: little bit, so he can play right. You know, like
Speaker 1: Golden State they barely played Kevin Looney in Game two.
Speaker 1: They played him, I think just under nine minutes. You know,
Speaker 1: like they're airing towards using him less and less you know,
Speaker 1: Memphis has completely dropped Steven Adams out of the rotation.
Speaker 1: Boston just DMP coach decision Daniel Tys, so they're not
Speaker 1: playing him anymore, and he can even shoot threes right Like,
Speaker 1: You're literally seeing all these coaches around the league ditch
Speaker 1: their traditional centers. Why because they're paying attention to what's
Speaker 1: happening directly in front of their eyes, and DC Rivers
Speaker 1: just doesn't see it. In that first half, DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: was like minus nine or whatever he was and and
Speaker 1: uh and Paul Reid was like minus four, minus seven
Speaker 1: or something like that. I can't remember. But then right
Speaker 1: at the end of the second quarter, here here he
Speaker 1: goes and plays five guards and they immediately are plus six,
Speaker 1: and they went into the half down eight after being
Speaker 1: down big the rest of the half, and then he
Speaker 1: didn't play that group at all until about halfway through
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter when the game was already over. It's
Speaker 1: just it's incredibly frustrating because, like again, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter, like this little, this whole DeAndre jordan conversation
Speaker 1: is a fake problem that was brought up by the
Speaker 1: Joe and Beads situation. But look, man, if Joel Embiad's
Speaker 1: gonna miss Games one, in game two, you have an
Speaker 1: obligation to try to go down to Miami and attempt
Speaker 1: to steal a game. And the best way to do
Speaker 1: it is not to play the same way you play,
Speaker 1: but to ditch your best player in the world candidate
Speaker 1: for arguably the worst center in all of basketball. The
Speaker 1: best way to do it is to jank things up,
Speaker 1: go wild card, dude, really weird stuff, and just try
Speaker 1: to squeeze a fake win out. And I thought their
Speaker 1: best opportunity to do that was by playing five perimeter players,
Speaker 1: and Doc just every time he did it in the
Speaker 1: first two games it went well for him, with exception
Speaker 1: of that stretch right there in the fourth quarter tonight
Speaker 1: when the game was already over. But he just never
Speaker 1: leaned on it enough for it to matter. And that's
Speaker 1: a damn shame because he got fifty five points out
Speaker 1: of Tyres Maxie to buy his Harris and it just
Speaker 1: wasn't enough. One last note, Jimmy Butler was incredible against
Speaker 1: tonight and twelve. Just the same things that I was
Speaker 1: saying about Chris Paul relate to Jimmy Butler. The reason
Speaker 1: why he's so impactful in the playoffs is he has
Speaker 1: that three levels boring in variety, right, so he doesn't
Speaker 1: come at you the same way every time. That makes
Speaker 1: that keeps you on your toes. He has a back
Speaker 1: to the basket game. He has a lot of like purouetting,
Speaker 1: like using his body position type of like floaters and
Speaker 1: turnarounds in the post that make him extremely difficult to guard.
Speaker 1: And yeah, he's got a great three point shooter, but
Speaker 1: if you leave him out there, he has the capability
Speaker 1: to burn you. And then he's a great playmaker to
Speaker 1: alve assists again tonight. Consistently he's had that point forward capability,
Speaker 1: That big, strong guy from the perimeter that can initiate
Speaker 1: offense both as a score and as a passer, just
Speaker 1: brings so much value in the NBA playoffs. And then
Speaker 1: he brings that defensive you know, weapon that that is
Speaker 1: so important at this level. And so I just don't
Speaker 1: think it's a coincidence that we see guys like Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler and Chris Paul succeed in this environment. And guys,
Speaker 1: that's why I value those skills so much. That's why
Speaker 1: value playmaking, that's why value offensive variety. That's why value
Speaker 1: commitment to defense, That's why I value your physical conditioning.
Speaker 1: Those are all things that are consistently, year in and
Speaker 1: year out demonstrated to be incredibly important. In the NBA Playoff,
Speaker 1: we have to pay attention to that, and we definitely
Speaker 1: need to put additional value on those things when we're
Speaker 1: evaluating basketball players really quickly before we bring my guy
Speaker 1: Carson on, make sure you like this video. Make sure
Speaker 1: you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel. Make sure you
Speaker 1: check out our newsletter. There's a link in the description
Speaker 1: of this video underneath. It's a great way to keep
Speaker 1: up with all our content, and don't forget to follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt. The Playoffs are
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Speaker 1: that's promo code Jason T. To see all the video breakdowns.
Speaker 1: I do that back up the things that we talked
Speaker 1: about on the show. All Right, we're gonna bring my
Speaker 1: at Carson on. We're gonna zoom out, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about some more macro topics around the league. What's up, Carson.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great, Jason, how are you? I can't complain, man,
Speaker 1: I can't complain. We're talking about basketball. That's fantastic. We
Speaker 1: certainly are. In fact, we've got the five biggest questions
Speaker 1: of the night that we're gonna talk about here, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna start with that game that you just briefly
Speaker 1: touched on, that being, of course, Sixers Heat Game two.
Speaker 1: I think one of the major storylines that we have
Speaker 1: seen throughout this season, in particularly throughout this playoff runs,
Speaker 1: something you've talked about a lot, is the obvious decline
Speaker 1: of James Harden, where he's averaging under nineteen a game
Speaker 1: in these playoffs on shooting. It was a subpar finish
Speaker 1: to the regular season. He hasn't scored more than twenty
Speaker 1: two points and since March twenty nine. That's over a
Speaker 1: month of basketball, which is crazy for a guy who
Speaker 1: averaged thirty five a game and consecutive seasons. So another
Speaker 1: underwhelming performance tonight, Jason. Is James Harden just cooked? You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say because there is the hamstring excuse me,
Speaker 1: the hamstring element in this um. But the hamstring element
Speaker 1: feels like it's been around for years now. Um, you
Speaker 1: know this? This is the thing. I saw an article
Speaker 1: that showed up on you know that like Twitter discover
Speaker 1: page that I scrolled through sometimes, and and it it
Speaker 1: was like it was just like a health based article,
Speaker 1: and it was talking about like the difference between your
Speaker 1: chronological age and your biological age, essentially the difference between
Speaker 1: you aging simply on the calendar versus like wear and tear,
Speaker 1: not just physically in terms of like joint injuries and
Speaker 1: things like that, but like like how much time do
Speaker 1: you spend absorbing UV race? So like how how much
Speaker 1: alcohol do you consume? How many other drugs do you consume?
Speaker 1: Like what kind of food do you eat? Like how
Speaker 1: do you take care of in terms of like your cholesterol,
Speaker 1: your blood pressure and all those things, like you age
Speaker 1: in different ways, and you know, there was a just
Speaker 1: there was a definitive thing that happened at definitive moment
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul's career. I think juxtaposing Chris and James
Speaker 1: is super interesting because they have personal beef. But like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Chris Paul, he pulls his hamstring in one
Speaker 1: of the most pivotal moments of his basketball career, right
Speaker 1: and it costs him. Well, there's no guarantee that Golden
Speaker 1: State doesn't come out and win those last two games.
Speaker 1: I hate when people talking guarantees. There's no guarantee that
Speaker 1: the Warriors win Game five if Draymond plays in the
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen finals. There's no guarantee that the Rockets
Speaker 1: lose in two thousand eighteen or win in two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen based on a Chris Paul injury. You still have
Speaker 1: to play the games. The games are different based on
Speaker 1: who's on the floor. But Chris Paul, had he won
Speaker 1: that series, they would have beat the Calves. If he
Speaker 1: was healthy, he would be a championship. A champion right now.
Speaker 1: Well after that year, there was a very well documented
Speaker 1: change in Chris Paul's approach to his own health, because
Speaker 1: from two thousand and twelve to two thousand and eighteen,
Speaker 1: it was frequent that Chris Paul dealt with injuries at
Speaker 1: a bunch of different points in playoff series. Is that
Speaker 1: cost him chances? Right, and so he becomes a vegan.
Speaker 1: There was a bunch of a consistent video footage that
Speaker 1: he would do additional workouts after games to continue to
Speaker 1: strengthen his conditioning. Right, and what do you know, Like
Speaker 1: the dude hasn't he broke his hand during the regular
Speaker 1: season this year, but that's an impact injury. The dude
Speaker 1: has been available in all the big moments since then,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's not rocket science, Like you you
Speaker 1: get what you put into whatever. What you get out
Speaker 1: of your body is what you put into your body.
Speaker 1: You have to take care of it. You only get
Speaker 1: one of them, right. We juxtaposed that with James Harden,
Speaker 1: who is literally so famous for attending strip clubs that
Speaker 1: at one point there was a viral chart that went
Speaker 1: out where someone juxtaposed his stats with the cities that
Speaker 1: he would play in based on their like like zagged
Speaker 1: guide strip clubs, and there was like a clear line
Speaker 1: in that show that he would play better and when
Speaker 1: he played in cities that had were strip clubs and like,
Speaker 1: and obviously that's a joke and there's probably just that's
Speaker 1: probably just coincidental. But the point is is James Harden
Speaker 1: hasn't taken good care of his body. And the wild
Speaker 1: thing is we we tweeted out the volume, tweeted out
Speaker 1: our little rant the other night about when we the
Speaker 1: last time we juxtaposed these two guys with each other,
Speaker 1: and someone that I follow actually commented underneath it and
Speaker 1: was complaining, like, it's unfair for you to jump on
Speaker 1: James now that he's on the decline, like you're forgetting
Speaker 1: about how good he was at his peak. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to be like, he's thirty two, He's thirty two
Speaker 1: years old. Like, dude, he is in the prime of
Speaker 1: his career. There is absolutely no excuse for him to
Speaker 1: have declined this far. He has not suffered to torn
Speaker 1: a c l, he has not suffered to torn achilles.
Speaker 1: He's have soft tissue issues, he's there's, there's there's in
Speaker 1: soft tissue issues typically come down to conditioning and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff anyway, Right, So it's like there's just
Speaker 1: absolutely no excuse for James Harden to have declined as
Speaker 1: much as he had. Literally in this playoff front. He's
Speaker 1: averaging eighteen point eight points, five point four rebounds, nine
Speaker 1: point four assists on shooting thirty five percent from the field.
Speaker 1: From the free throw line's obviously still good there. He
Speaker 1: just can't get there nearly as frequently as he used to.
Speaker 1: It's just this, we're not talking about a max contract
Speaker 1: play anymore, if we're not even talking about a star anymore.
Speaker 1: Let's just let's just let's cut the ship. Guys. He's
Speaker 1: a lot closer to D'Angelo Russell than he is to
Speaker 1: Luca don Chich at this point. That's the that's the
Speaker 1: reality of the James Harden problem at this point. I
Speaker 1: don't you know, we talked a lot about a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago about what the Sixers should do with
Speaker 1: them after this playoff run, like do you maxim or
Speaker 1: do you not? And don't get me wrong, I still
Speaker 1: think you gotta try to find a way to keep
Speaker 1: him for the sake of the asset. But like, we're
Speaker 1: dangerously near the territory of like is any of the
Speaker 1: thirty teams in the league gonna offer this guy a
Speaker 1: max contract for for a D'Angelo Russell type of player.
Speaker 1: I mean, again, he's better than D'Angel Russell. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying he's closer to that than he is to the
Speaker 1: stars of the top of the league. It's a real problem.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't know what you do
Speaker 1: at this point, but like when you're pointing the finger,
Speaker 1: you point the point, you point the finger at James.
Speaker 1: He didn't take care of his body. He aged himself
Speaker 1: way faster than athletes for normally do. He's the Alan
Speaker 1: Iverson of this era. And this is the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that happens when you do that. It is remarkable.
Speaker 1: I mean, just when you put in a context that
Speaker 1: it was literally two years ago that the average thirty
Speaker 1: four game, and a year before that that the average
Speaker 1: thirty six a game. And I think, obviously you've touched
Speaker 1: on a lot of it, but it really is obvious
Speaker 1: the physical deterioration and hamstring or not, he just doesn't separate.
Speaker 1: And obviously his game has never been explosiveness. It's always
Speaker 1: been changing pace in those little bursts of acceleration and
Speaker 1: deception and craftiness. But I mean outside of the step
Speaker 1: back three. It's tough for him to create a clean
Speaker 1: look for himself in the pain. It feels like everything
Speaker 1: is tough. And as you said, I mean, he's just
Speaker 1: not getting there as much. So it's obviously a major problem.
Speaker 1: And when he can't step up and assert himself like that,
Speaker 1: when Embat isn't even out there, it kind of leaves
Speaker 1: this Sixers team just in a brutal spot. I think
Speaker 1: the Delo common is interesting. I want to play a
Speaker 1: little game within the game here for you and just
Speaker 1: throw out some guys and you tell me if right
Speaker 1: now you would rather have them or James Harden. Let's
Speaker 1: start with Shay Gil just Alexander. Would you rather have
Speaker 1: him or James Harden. Oh gosh, I think I'd still
Speaker 1: go with James Harden there, just because we don't know
Speaker 1: what Shay looks like in h I mean what we
Speaker 1: do know what he looks like in a playoff environment.
Speaker 1: He was not great in the bubble, but like in
Speaker 1: terms of and I still value play making a great deal.
Speaker 1: The one the one thing that James Harden does still
Speaker 1: bring to the table at this point is like he's
Speaker 1: in that tier of playmakers right below the top, and
Speaker 1: there's a great deal of value in that specifically. It's
Speaker 1: just you can't have your team built around him as
Speaker 1: an offensive folk rum anymore. But you can't do that
Speaker 1: with Shay either, So I man like like in terms
Speaker 1: of building my franchise around him, Like, yeah, I take Shay,
Speaker 1: But like, if I had it, if I had to
Speaker 1: pick a guy for a playoff series tomorrow, I'd still
Speaker 1: take James. Okay, what about c J McCallum or James Harden.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a lot closer. You had to go to
Speaker 1: a your zen place there for a moment. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I think I think I'd go c J. But
Speaker 1: it's very close. I think I think CJ is a
Speaker 1: little bit better defensively at this point because James is
Speaker 1: still like he's still just all over the place on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. Um, that three level scoring,
Speaker 1: I think is something you can still need because I'm
Speaker 1: accepting the reality that at this point neither of those
Speaker 1: guys are number one. But I think if I had
Speaker 1: a good number one, i'd rather have CJ as my
Speaker 1: number two than James is my number two. Okay, last one,
Speaker 1: I think that you've probably already given away your answer
Speaker 1: based on the CJ one, But you did have some
Speaker 1: gripes with this guy in the last series. Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: or James Harden. Oh, James Harden easily Donovan Mitchell. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The thing I think Donovan Mitchell is his decision making
Speaker 1: is so poor as an offensive fulcrum. When you combine
Speaker 1: that with his like his defensive issues, and then the
Speaker 1: fact that his jump shot is so streaky, I just
Speaker 1: I think that James Harden. I think Donovan Mitchell is.
Speaker 1: I think Donovan Mitchell is having a wake up call
Speaker 1: this year, and I act him to have some sort
Speaker 1: of significant improvement in the coming years. But if I
Speaker 1: was picking a guy for a playoff series tomorrow'd rather
Speaker 1: have James because at least I can trust James to
Speaker 1: at least organize guys and put people in the right spots,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, like you said,
Speaker 1: his command of the game, his poises, playmaking is still
Speaker 1: unequivocally top level the pace that he plays with, but
Speaker 1: the scoring regression has obviously been stark. Okay, let's move
Speaker 1: on from this little hardened hate party and let's talk
Speaker 1: about Grizzlies Warriors, which I think is obviously a really
Speaker 1: fun series, maybe the most interesting one going right now.
Speaker 1: We saw a monster John Moran performance last night piece,
Speaker 1: So Jason, given that level that he's playing right now,
Speaker 1: is Jaw the best player in that series? Oh No,
Speaker 1: but it's close, and I never would have thought that
Speaker 1: it would be close. Steph is playing pretty well in
Speaker 1: this playoff run so far. Twenty seven point three points,
Speaker 1: four point one rebounds, five point six assists, percent from
Speaker 1: the field, thirty percent from three s from the line. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you know with with Steph, his like his playoff three
Speaker 1: point percentage is always kind of been just just to
Speaker 1: touch under forties. So like you could make a case that,
Speaker 1: you know, after that slump that he had earlier in
Speaker 1: this season and and him coming back from this injury,
Speaker 1: he actually looks pretty close to what he was before.
Speaker 1: The thing was the one leg up that Jaw has.
Speaker 1: Because step has a bunch of clear advantages over John Moran.
Speaker 1: I think that even though even though Jaws averaging over
Speaker 1: tennisis per game in this postseason, I think that Steph
Speaker 1: is better at generating quality looks first teammates Steph. Steph's
Speaker 1: playmaking doesn't manifest in terms of assists steps playmaking manifests
Speaker 1: in terms of defensive attention that he absorbs and consistent
Speaker 1: four on three opportunities first teammates. Right. So, like I
Speaker 1: think that Steph still is a definitively better offensive engine
Speaker 1: in terms of creating shots for his teammates, I think
Speaker 1: that Steph is a significantly better defensive player and that's
Speaker 1: a huge uh factor here. Like Golden State, Golden State
Speaker 1: has really struggled with finding places to ways to attack Jaw.
Speaker 1: That's something they're gonna have to figure out as the
Speaker 1: series progresses. They've been hiding him. But the problem is
Speaker 1: is Golden State's not a great rim pressuring team in
Speaker 1: terms of like isolation situations. They get rim pressure off
Speaker 1: of attacking closeouts when their guards gather attention. So they
Speaker 1: don't have a guy that's just gonna consistently stair Job
Speaker 1: Moran in the face and drive to the basket on
Speaker 1: him the way that Anthony Edwards did in the last round, right,
Speaker 1: So that's their issue right now. But Jaws Jaws defensive
Speaker 1: issues are real issues, and I expect Steve Kerr to
Speaker 1: find ways to attack him over the course of the series.
Speaker 1: So Steph has a bunch of clear advantages there, his experience,
Speaker 1: his decision making. I'm always going to favor, especially guys
Speaker 1: that have been there a bunch of time times. So
Speaker 1: Steph is the best player in this series. But the
Speaker 1: one swing factor and the one thing that Jaw has
Speaker 1: on step right now, and it also happens to be
Speaker 1: their best chance to win the series, is what you
Speaker 1: saw last night, that supreme unguardability in single coverage situations.
Speaker 1: Not that Steph doesn't have some of that. He does,
Speaker 1: But even when Steph was at his absolute peak, his
Speaker 1: individual shot creation in isolation situations, especially in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: was not quite at the level of some of his
Speaker 1: peers at the top of the league. Kevin Durance, the Lebrons,
Speaker 1: guys like that, right So, and again that's not a
Speaker 1: slander to Steff. He's very good at that specific skill.
Speaker 1: He's just a touch below his peers at the top
Speaker 1: of the league. Well, Jaw literally just walked down one
Speaker 1: of the best defenses in the league last night, every
Speaker 1: single possession top of the key one four low isolation
Speaker 1: and won a game doing it and getting whatever shot
Speaker 1: he wanted in the process. And during that whole stretch
Speaker 1: he could have just pulled up at three every time
Speaker 1: if he wanted to, and there will be a point
Speaker 1: in his career where he adds that to his game
Speaker 1: and it becomes even more problematic. So again, STEP's the
Speaker 1: best player in the series, but it's close. And the
Speaker 1: reason why it's close his jaw is flashing that supreme
Speaker 1: unguardability in individual situations, even at the top levels of
Speaker 1: playoff basketball, and I do think that that's a very
Speaker 1: valuable asset. But again, his decision makings and issues from
Speaker 1: the field from three, um, that's a big part of
Speaker 1: that is just he takes tough shots. Sometimes he settles.
Speaker 1: A lot of the time he gets off, he gets
Speaker 1: a little too like caught up in the moment. We'll
Speaker 1: try crazy stuff from time to time. That's all inexperience,
Speaker 1: and those are all advantages that go to Steph. But
Speaker 1: again that's the one area where jaw has an advantage.
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you being on the Step side
Speaker 1: of this, but I also totally agree with you on
Speaker 1: the jaw advantage. And I think that's always been one
Speaker 1: of the most interesting things engaging steps value. It's that
Speaker 1: he can have such a tremendous impact without even having
Speaker 1: to touch the ball right by just existing his gravity
Speaker 1: the attention he demands at all times. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, it's like you said, some guys are just
Speaker 1: much better at direct imposing themselves, and very few people
Speaker 1: right now are better than at that than Jaw, who
Speaker 1: can just go at you athletically over and over and
Speaker 1: over again and challenge your best on the perimeter and
Speaker 1: win that matchup and force your defense to bring help.
Speaker 1: And now guys have to rotate, and it's just like
Speaker 1: every time he drives, it feels like he can kick
Speaker 1: out to somebody. But I totally agree. I mean, these
Speaker 1: have been two really impressive games from Jaw, but there's
Speaker 1: some things that are unsustainable. I mean, he can really
Speaker 1: get into the lane at will. But he's made nine
Speaker 1: threes in these two games. You know when he's doing that,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, he probably is the best player in
Speaker 1: the series. Because Jaw makes four and a half threes
Speaker 1: a game, it's like, what could be missing there? But
Speaker 1: I guess the table was the guy shot sub thirty
Speaker 1: nine percent from the field, he was from three. He
Speaker 1: had some issues with turnovers, So I would say it's
Speaker 1: still comp in my mind, just over a larger sample size,
Speaker 1: but like, there's no denying that Gays point blank one
Speaker 1: of the most unguardable guys one on one in league
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, you know, the Minnesota thing was interesting
Speaker 1: because we saw the Pat Beverley the tweet where he's
Speaker 1: like where you can see him score forty seven against
Speaker 1: us and like, which is like, dude, like like you
Speaker 1: have to understand, like you have to understand that doesn't
Speaker 1: come off with the public the way you think it does,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But again, we talked about
Speaker 1: it a lot on the show. Minnesota it was one
Speaker 1: of the best perimeter contained teams in this league, and
Speaker 1: so they did a much better job of positioning themselves
Speaker 1: between Jaw and the basket, and he struggled and so
Speaker 1: you know, and that's that kind of like versatility and
Speaker 1: being immune to specific situations is what separates a guy
Speaker 1: like Steph from a guy like Jaw. It's what separates
Speaker 1: the the top tier guys from the guys that are
Speaker 1: in the tier right below, you know, like like, for instance,
Speaker 1: like Steph will encounter defensive matchups that make him struggle
Speaker 1: in certain ways, just like Jaw did in the first round.
Speaker 1: But that's where his all world gravity in addition to
Speaker 1: what he does on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and in his addition to like his ability to have
Speaker 1: these little flurries where teams lose track of him and
Speaker 1: then he'll get hot and make you know, twelve points
Speaker 1: in four minut it's or whatever it is. Those kinds
Speaker 1: of things are would allow him to heavily impact the
Speaker 1: game when he's struggling, Whereas, like when you're watching that
Speaker 1: that series in the first round with Jaw, like he
Speaker 1: looked straight up flum mix at certain points in the series.
Speaker 1: Now he did what it was necessary to win the series.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to undercut that at all. But again,
Speaker 1: like that versatility goes in a long way. But that's
Speaker 1: what you're excuse me, what you're talking about with that
Speaker 1: supreme offensive unguardability. It's the same thing with Joel Embide, Like,
Speaker 1: look at how much different that Philadelphia team looks when
Speaker 1: everybody's operating in traditional coverages, Whereas when Joel Embide is
Speaker 1: on the floor, he just is such a problem with
Speaker 1: unguardability that he's consistently warping your defense with the way
Speaker 1: you have to guard him. So job gives you some
Speaker 1: of that as well, and that's again it's a great
Speaker 1: foundational skill. But the difference between this jaw and Pique
Speaker 1: Jaw in his prime is Job will be a better
Speaker 1: decision maker, a much better defensive player, will have a
Speaker 1: little bit more heft to him him, so he doesn't
Speaker 1: have issues with strength, and he's going to fill those
Speaker 1: things out just like step did as he got older.
Speaker 1: But right now the step is just the smarter you know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna I expect, especially as this series progresses, for
Speaker 1: Steff to have more impact than Job. Yeah, I would agree,
Speaker 1: But it is remarkable how Jaw just I mean we
Speaker 1: saw it in last year's playoffs. Really he is just
Speaker 1: willing to go such absolute takeover mode for an entire game.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously scored thirty a game in last year's playoffs,
Speaker 1: but like his playmaking impact is up in these playoffs.
Speaker 1: He's over tennisis a game. I think he's taken thirty
Speaker 1: shots in each of the last two games, or like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure thirty one in each. So it's just
Speaker 1: a crazy willingness to just keep coming at you. Like
Speaker 1: we talked about, let's flip this to Steph for a
Speaker 1: second though, because obviously the Warriors have emerged as a
Speaker 1: very legitimate title contender, which I don't know if a
Speaker 1: lot of people were expecting that. A year ago obviously
Speaker 1: was such a roller coaster from the Katie and Clay
Speaker 1: injuries and the twenty team Finals loss to actually getting
Speaker 1: back to the start of the season. But now that
Speaker 1: they are firmly in that conversation, we have to ask,
Speaker 1: I think, Jason, what would a fourth title mean for
Speaker 1: steps legacy? Well, first of all, that part you brought
Speaker 1: up is super interesting, d the need to have like
Speaker 1: the difference between last year's Warrior's team and this year's
Speaker 1: Warriors team is really just role players, Like Steph was better.
Speaker 1: Steph was better last year, Like this year I think
Speaker 1: was the first year of his physical decline. Steph was
Speaker 1: I thought, I thought Steph was had a legitimate case
Speaker 1: to be the best player in all of basketball last year.
Speaker 1: Obviously that deflated when he missed the playoffs. But like
Speaker 1: Draymond Green was a monster last year, and it just
Speaker 1: wasn't enough because they didn't have any veterans. It was
Speaker 1: all young players, and like Kent Baysmore, and that lack
Speaker 1: of like savvy from the the perimeter role players ended
Speaker 1: up really hurting them, especially in their system, were this
Speaker 1: acision making off of attention from step is so important.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to this year, it's like you upgrade to
Speaker 1: an Auto Porter Jr. You upgrade to an Andre Guadala.
Speaker 1: You bring you know, just more veteran presences into the room.
Speaker 1: Obviously Jordan's pool massively improved, but like you, you bring
Speaker 1: in like quality role players alongside Stephan Draymond, and then
Speaker 1: even with the decline from Steph, they look significantly better
Speaker 1: than they were last year. That's just why that stuff
Speaker 1: is so important. And that's the silver lining if you're
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan, by the way, because Lron and A
Speaker 1: d are still there. If you make the right moves
Speaker 1: this offseason, you can go a long way towards improving
Speaker 1: the situation as far as the the championship goes. Because
Speaker 1: there's a realistic chance and I can already see this
Speaker 1: coming because if Steph wins a fourth championship, a lot
Speaker 1: of conversations are gonna start taking place because a fourth
Speaker 1: championship for Steph would mean that he has as many
Speaker 1: championships as Lebron James twice as many championships as Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: all in the same jersey, spanning a time period from
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen to two thousand twenty two be a
Speaker 1: remarkable accomplishment. Now you're gonna have some Warriors fans that
Speaker 1: are gonna take if that happens, that are gonna take
Speaker 1: that and run with it, like like it's the end
Speaker 1: of the world. Right. You're gonna have comments like he's
Speaker 1: the best player of this era, he's better than Lebron,
Speaker 1: He's in the Goat conversation, all this stuff. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: go that farm because I think there's a difference between
Speaker 1: like steps titles in two thousand seventeen and two thou
Speaker 1: eighteen alongside Kevin Durant don't match the degree of difficulty
Speaker 1: of any of Lebron's four championships, So I wouldn't put
Speaker 1: him on that level. However, you gotta put him ahead
Speaker 1: of Larry Bird at that point. You gotta put him firmly.
Speaker 1: You gotta put him firmly in the conversation with like
Speaker 1: Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant. Now, for me, these lists
Speaker 1: get weird because I don't keep bigs on the same
Speaker 1: list as a guard to me, they play a completely
Speaker 1: different sport. You're right, like, you can't dribble the ball
Speaker 1: up beflore an initiate offense. I don't think you should
Speaker 1: be in the same list as guys that do that.
Speaker 1: So I keep a separate list for all the greatest
Speaker 1: bigs of all time, and then my list for the
Speaker 1: greatest players of all time is like I've MJ at
Speaker 1: number one, I have Lebron at number two, I have
Speaker 1: Kobe at number three, then I've Magic and I have
Speaker 1: Larry Bird. I think you easily pushed Steph over Larry
Speaker 1: Bird for number five, and I think you could make
Speaker 1: a solid case to put him even at three up
Speaker 1: there with with ahead of Magic and had a Kobe.
Speaker 1: But the problem is is, I think there's a pretty
Speaker 1: big gap between two and three on that list. I
Speaker 1: think Lebron. I think Lebron and MJ are on a
Speaker 1: tier by themselves the top of the league. And I
Speaker 1: even you could even make the case that there's a
Speaker 1: little gap between MJ and Lebron. But like, that's that's
Speaker 1: an amazing case for a guy that was for a
Speaker 1: guy that came up through Davidson, for a guy that
Speaker 1: had his the beginning of his career marred by injuries.
Speaker 1: To definitively have a case is a top five perimeter
Speaker 1: player in the story of basketball would be an unbelievable accomplishment. Obviously,
Speaker 1: still has to do it, but like dude, it's there,
Speaker 1: it's the potential is there. They have the pieces they
Speaker 1: need to do. It's a big part of it's gonna
Speaker 1: come down to matchups. Phoenix played three really good centers tonight, right,
Speaker 1: Like three centers that had a deep impact against Dallas, Right,
Speaker 1: So obviously they're gonna be matchup problems for Golden State
Speaker 1: along the way, but they absolutely have a chance to
Speaker 1: do it there. During that I'd say Boston one, I'd
Speaker 1: say Phoenix too, and then i'd probably say Milwaukee. Golden
Speaker 1: State tied for three. So all four of those teams
Speaker 1: have a real chance. And if Steph does it, like man,
Speaker 1: he's got one hell of a resume at that point.
Speaker 1: So I can't help. But notice that you didn't bring
Speaker 1: up Kevin Durant at all in terms of the hierarchy.
Speaker 1: That's where my mind goes first is comparing those two
Speaker 1: in this context. So do you think that step is
Speaker 1: just definitively pass Katie if he wins another title, like comfortably,
Speaker 1: so I think STEP's definitively pass Katie. You right now, interesting,
Speaker 1: Katie's Katie. The issue with Katie's legacy is he got
Speaker 1: strapped to a really poor decision maker to start his
Speaker 1: career in Russell Westbrook. You guys all know how I
Speaker 1: feel about him. We don't have to get any further
Speaker 1: into that. Then he won, He won two championships, but
Speaker 1: they had an optic appear like their optics, So those
Speaker 1: two championships were poor. They just you didn't he didn't
Speaker 1: see Kevin Durant have to dig deep down three two
Speaker 1: in a series to pull out a tough game on
Speaker 1: the road. It was like the iconic moment of Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant winning his UH in those two years, the iconic
Speaker 1: moment is him hitting a shot over Lebron James that
Speaker 1: was their fifteen consecutive playoff win. Okay, Like that just
Speaker 1: doesn't carry weight with the masses, the way that Lebron
Speaker 1: having a chase down in a game seven UH tie
Speaker 1: three three when they were down three games to one,
Speaker 1: or you know, like Steph Curry coming back from down
Speaker 1: three one or down to one in the year he
Speaker 1: won the title against against Memphis or against Cleveland in
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, Like all of these guys that
Speaker 1: are ahead of him on the list, they have these
Speaker 1: like definitive moments of struggle. And then the problem was
Speaker 1: is after Katie wins these two relatively easy championships, he
Speaker 1: moves on to this Brooklyn situation where he hitched his
Speaker 1: wagon to another vagabond and now he's dealing with Kyrie
Speaker 1: and he's not available and he can't he's not winning here.
Speaker 1: So it's like, I think I've said this on the
Speaker 1: show several times, and I mean it, like there's a
Speaker 1: version of Kadi's story where he's the goat and pretty
Speaker 1: much all it involves is being in better situations and
Speaker 1: a little bit better commitment to defense. Those two things
Speaker 1: would have definitively put him in that conversation. The issue
Speaker 1: because Kadi's ceiling as a three level score and as
Speaker 1: a defensive rim protector is as high as any player
Speaker 1: who's ever played the game. Like that's how good that
Speaker 1: guy is. But his resume just doesn't even come close
Speaker 1: to touching stephor Lebron, not even in the city, Like
Speaker 1: it's not close in my opinion, the year in year out,
Speaker 1: offensive engine stuff, the the consistent competition for championships. He
Speaker 1: just doesn't compete with ten trips to the finals or
Speaker 1: everything that's Steph's done in a Golden State Jersey. It's
Speaker 1: just not I love Katie's one of my favorite players,
Speaker 1: and I don't understand why so many people dislike him
Speaker 1: so much because I actually find him to be one
Speaker 1: of the most likable players in the NBA. Like he's
Speaker 1: so authentic. He doesn't bullshit you the way that Lebron
Speaker 1: does it. Like Lebron is literally tweeting out like, oh,
Speaker 1: ask me anything during the game tonight. It's like, dude,
Speaker 1: they're playing playoff games right now, Like you're this isn't
Speaker 1: about you anymore, you know what I mean? Like I
Speaker 1: find Lebron is my favorite player. I find him to
Speaker 1: be unlikable a lot of times off the court, Like
Speaker 1: k D is super likable, super authentic. For whatever reason,
Speaker 1: he just doesn't resonate with people and that's a huge bummer.
Speaker 1: But like that, the reality of the situation is this
Speaker 1: is basketball. Resume just doesn't touch stuff for Lebron's well,
Speaker 1: first of all, Jason, I would just like to say,
Speaker 1: I loved your use of the word vagabond, and I
Speaker 1: think that's a word that goes dramatically underutilized today. That's
Speaker 1: really interesting. Do you think it's so decisive, because what
Speaker 1: I always find difficult to assess is like, yeah, obviously
Speaker 1: Steph checks a couple more boxes in terms of I
Speaker 1: think resume when you're talking about really winning the solo
Speaker 1: solo title and elevating a team that didn't have another
Speaker 1: true superstar, although it was an incredibly complete team, but
Speaker 1: obviously such a massively important offensive engine, one of the
Speaker 1: best that we've ever seen in terms of amplifying other talent,
Speaker 1: a phenomenal score in every way, like just an unbelievable
Speaker 1: offensive player. What's difficult for me is that I just
Speaker 1: don't know how many years of their careers I have
Speaker 1: thought Steph Curry is a better basketball player than Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: Like when they were taking you know, there was always
Speaker 1: the information about how without Katie they would still cruise
Speaker 1: and they would be utterly dominant, and without Steph things
Speaker 1: would kind of fall apart, right, And I think that's
Speaker 1: obviously true when you see that with the on off
Speaker 1: numbers throughout Steph's career, like he is utterly vital in
Speaker 1: a way that Katie is a one on one score
Speaker 1: maybe can't replicate. At the same time, there was just
Speaker 1: always that feeling of like, Okay, well we know who
Speaker 1: can go to takeover mode and just a completely different way.
Speaker 1: We know who can average thirty five a game in
Speaker 1: the finals, and you know, if we're slipping against the
Speaker 1: Clippers a little bit inexplicably, Katie is gonna be the
Speaker 1: one average thirty five a game and just completely cut
Speaker 1: this team's throat. And I just feel like he obviously
Speaker 1: has more longevity because Steph's peak came a little later.
Speaker 1: He is, to me, maybe the most skilled score of
Speaker 1: all time. I think he's certainly got to be in
Speaker 1: the top two. I think he's the most complete, given
Speaker 1: that just in Jordan's are obviously, I mean the three
Speaker 1: just wasn't as valued and wasn't a significant part of
Speaker 1: his arsenal. I mean, I do think he's the better
Speaker 1: defensive player throughout their careers. I think in terms of
Speaker 1: individual playmaking, step has a slight edge, but it's not massive.
Speaker 1: So it's just like the skill set thing for me
Speaker 1: and just comparing them in my individual year to year,
Speaker 1: who do I think is the better basketball player? I
Speaker 1: feel like most years I come up with Katie, So
Speaker 1: I don't know does that resonate with you at all?
Speaker 1: Like is that a factor or do you just disagree?
Speaker 1: Dude that that all makes perfect sense, Like and I
Speaker 1: and I get it. Like, here's the thing, dude, Like
Speaker 1: there are knights where I watched Kevin Durant play basketball.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, that's the best basketball player
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. There are Knights, there are Knights that
Speaker 1: I feel that way, you know, in terms of like
Speaker 1: his complete otherworldly unguardability. But the reality of the situation is,
Speaker 1: and for the record, when I'm that when I'm ranking
Speaker 1: basketball players, that's different than like an all time ranking.
Speaker 1: Like I told you guys, I thought Kevin Durant was
Speaker 1: the best player in the world this year. I had
Speaker 1: to relent after he struggled so much against Boston. But like, like,
Speaker 1: that's how much I value what Katie brings to the
Speaker 1: table as a basketball player on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: That's how much I value. But resumes the the all
Speaker 1: time rankings of players are strictly about results. It's just
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation. Now again he's had bad luck,
Speaker 1: like he didn't pick us, you know, and like, like,
Speaker 1: how many playoff games did Russ take more shots than
Speaker 1: Kevin Durray in a big moment? Happened all the time
Speaker 1: like Russ's. You can make a serious case that Russ's
Speaker 1: decision making hampered Kevin Durant in the in his early
Speaker 1: playoff career. But like the reality of Katie's playoff resume
Speaker 1: is he struggled with a player that I thought hold
Speaker 1: It held him back in a lot of ways. And
Speaker 1: then he won two championships uh In on a team
Speaker 1: that had won seventy three games without him, and so
Speaker 1: there was a level of ease that made that undercut
Speaker 1: the quality of that accomplishment. And then he hitched his
Speaker 1: wagon to Kyrie Irving and it hasn't been enough talent
Speaker 1: for him to win a title. And so like the
Speaker 1: reality is, as as much as I value his individual
Speaker 1: skill set, he doesn't bring the results to the table
Speaker 1: that justified putting him in the conversations with guys like
Speaker 1: Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, whereas Lebron's ahead of those
Speaker 1: guys and Steph is trending in the direction of being
Speaker 1: in that conversation, you know that that's just it's just
Speaker 1: the reality, reality, the situation and like and again, like
Speaker 1: it's tough because I've talked about this before, but like
Speaker 1: Lebron any partner with Dwayne Wade, I think he intended
Speaker 1: for that to be as easy as it was for
Speaker 1: k D and Golden State. It just happened to not
Speaker 1: It happens to not be and so Lebron had to
Speaker 1: reach back. Like thinking the summer after Lebron went to
Speaker 1: Miami was the summer when he became the better basketball player.
Speaker 1: Like he he he went to Miami in was humbled
Speaker 1: into having to make significant improvements. And you know that
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Like, that's that always resonate, That always
Speaker 1: resonates with the fans. The struggle resonates with fans. It's
Speaker 1: just the reality. It's why we root for underdogs. That's
Speaker 1: why you don't like it. That's why when there's a
Speaker 1: favorite every year that like like when two thousand seventeen
Speaker 1: two eighteen Warriors were around, everybody hated him. People don't
Speaker 1: like to root for the guy on top. They like
Speaker 1: to root for the underdog. They like to root for
Speaker 1: teams that are at a disadvantage, and so when they
Speaker 1: see a star with their back against the wall and
Speaker 1: they have to reach down deep and they have to
Speaker 1: pull something out of like the deepest, like like the
Speaker 1: their deepest reserves as a basketball layer in order to
Speaker 1: come out on top. That just that buys you so
Speaker 1: much cash with the general public. And Katie either has
Speaker 1: fallen short or accomplished it in a manner that appeared
Speaker 1: to be easy, and and that just hurts you in
Speaker 1: the court of public opinion. We've talked about on the
Speaker 1: show before. But again, you make a very good case, Carson,
Speaker 1: and you're right there. There are a lot of years
Speaker 1: where I've been like, man, Katie might be that guy,
Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, the results aren't there. And the
Speaker 1: specific conversation about all time rankings, that's where the results
Speaker 1: matter the most. It is so tough because obviously there's
Speaker 1: no room for theoreticals. I think you're totally right on that,
Speaker 1: but it is for me still just like I think
Speaker 1: maybe I see maybe, I don't see it quite as absolutely,
Speaker 1: just because it's like, obviously people talk about the ring
Speaker 1: culture and whatnot, and it's just when a guy plays
Speaker 1: basketball for fifteen years eight two games every year and
Speaker 1: then the playoffs. Sometimes it's like we view whether or
Speaker 1: not you win a game seven as being totally determinative
Speaker 1: and your value as a basketball player, and that's just tough. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that you're doing that, but it's just
Speaker 1: like results are unquestionably the most important thing, but there
Speaker 1: is an element of that skill set and just you know,
Speaker 1: believing what did I see night tonight that I feel
Speaker 1: like hast a factor in there somewhere. But either way,
Speaker 1: I think they're very for me, they're very close all time.
Speaker 1: But I honestly think as things stand now, I would
Speaker 1: still lean Katie because of what I laid out there. Okay,
Speaker 1: last question here, Jason. We're moving on. Although I thought
Speaker 1: that was a very fun debate. Let's talk a little
Speaker 1: Buck Celtics because Boston is favored on failed FanDuel right now,
Speaker 1: even though the Bucks obviously have regained home court by
Speaker 1: splitting games in Boston, are you picking them to win
Speaker 1: the series? I'm still picking Boston. I mean again, my
Speaker 1: biggest takeaway from the first two games was that it's
Speaker 1: not gonna be easy, not that I thought it would
Speaker 1: be easy. Easy is the wrong word, But it's not
Speaker 1: gonna be quick. I thought it would. I thought Boston
Speaker 1: would win games one and two, and I thought they'd
Speaker 1: lose Game three, then I thought they'd win games four
Speaker 1: and five. Well, losing game one just puts you in
Speaker 1: the predicament where now, if you lose Game three, you
Speaker 1: have to go back to Milwaukee for Game six and
Speaker 1: next thing you know, this could very easily be a
Speaker 1: seven game series. So I think it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: longer series. However, I think Boston through the first two
Speaker 1: games has demonstrated that they are still the better team.
Speaker 1: It's just a closer gap than we originally thought. So
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's half court offense was a little bit better. In
Speaker 1: Game two, they were at zero point seven six points
Speaker 1: per play in game one. They were at zero point
Speaker 1: nine one points per playing game two, which is a
Speaker 1: decent number. The problem is is Boston's offense also got
Speaker 1: better in the half court from Game one to Game two,
Speaker 1: as you saw. And yes, there were some shooting results,
Speaker 1: like specifically in uh contested shots they made five tightly
Speaker 1: guarded threes out of seven tries. But the thing is is, like,
Speaker 1: if you're a Milwaukee fan, you can't take that to
Speaker 1: the bank, because you were down sixty five to forty
Speaker 1: at halftime. So like, okay, let's pretend they Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: misses a couple of those threes that he made in
Speaker 1: the first half, and like, you know, couple plays go
Speaker 1: your way. Okay, So now you're down fifty seven to forty. Like,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't make that much of a difference, Like
Speaker 1: you got your ass kicked. You don't get to point
Speaker 1: at shooting when you get your ass kicked, Okay, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: you made a little run in the second half, but
Speaker 1: I thought Boston was just trying to get out of
Speaker 1: that arena, you know, Like I think they would have
Speaker 1: held up better physically if the game was in question
Speaker 1: in a way that it wasn't. Overall in this series
Speaker 1: so far, Boston is averaging about seven more points per
Speaker 1: one half court possessions. That's something you can flat out
Speaker 1: take to the bank. Obviously, my biggest concern and the
Speaker 1: reason why Boston will probably lose another game at some
Speaker 1: point in the series, at least one more game, is
Speaker 1: they go through stretches where they lose their offensive identity.
Speaker 1: They go through stretches where they forget what has worked
Speaker 1: for them. This is the advantage of again, those top
Speaker 1: four guys I was talking about Chris Paul's, the Lucas,
Speaker 1: the Lebrons, and the CP three's or the yokich Is,
Speaker 1: they never lose their offensive identity. They're relentless with being smart.
Speaker 1: You know, that's their advantage. Their chest masters, well pretty
Speaker 1: much everybody else in the league goes through like waxing
Speaker 1: and waning with their decision making. Well, you know, Tatum
Speaker 1: in particular and especially Jalen Brown can both do that
Speaker 1: where they just go through these phases where they start
Speaker 1: taking bad shots. There were some spots in the second
Speaker 1: half where uh, Jayson Tatum was over dribbling a little bit.
Speaker 1: Like there's times where they lose their offensive identity. So
Speaker 1: they will have stretches where they go very cold, and
Speaker 1: when they do, Milwaukee will beat them because they're the
Speaker 1: defending champs and they're very good team. But like right now,
Speaker 1: it's one one, they're gonna the biggest challenges. They're gonna
Speaker 1: have to win a game in Milwaukee. My guess is
Speaker 1: it will probably be Game four. But the advantage for
Speaker 1: Boston and the reason why I wouldn't count them out
Speaker 1: for Game three is physical wear and tear is one
Speaker 1: of the biggest impacts in this series. It will heavily
Speaker 1: favor Milwaukee as things progress. But Boston is three days
Speaker 1: off between Game two and Game three. They'll play until Saturday.
Speaker 1: So what a great opportunity to go into Milwaukee with
Speaker 1: fresh legs, get getting Marcus Smart back and steal back
Speaker 1: home court advantage. That's a great opportunity for them. So
Speaker 1: Game three will be an interesting game to watch. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like I mean, it's a lot closer than than it looked. Um,
Speaker 1: Milwaukee fans should if you're a Milwaukee fan, you should
Speaker 1: absolutely think that you have a chance to win the series,
Speaker 1: because you absolutely do. You honest is far and away
Speaker 1: the best player on in the series, far and away
Speaker 1: the best player in this entire playoff run. He absolutely
Speaker 1: deserves to to have that that level of confidence, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But Boston's better team. They've demonstrated
Speaker 1: that they're scoring better in the half court. As long
Speaker 1: as they can keep the game in the half court
Speaker 1: three more times this series, they should win. And and
Speaker 1: obviously there are weapons to like Grant Williams and al Hordford.
Speaker 1: Regarding Janese in single coverage, well, there. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of things that are going Boston's way, but there
Speaker 1: were some things that when Milwaukee's win in that second half,
Speaker 1: it's just a question of whether or not that stuff
Speaker 1: was real or whether it was related to Boston letting
Speaker 1: their foot off the gas. You mentioned the impressive job
Speaker 1: that the Celtics have done on your Honest with kind
Speaker 1: of their multiple options there, and he's shooting sub in
Speaker 1: the series so far, really struggling to score fitly. How
Speaker 1: confident are you in Boston's ability to sustain that level
Speaker 1: and do you feel like they've kind of solved the
Speaker 1: Honest in this series? No one's gonna solve Janice Um.
Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is is like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought that Milwaukee. I thought the Boston did a good
Speaker 1: job of making Johannae settle early on, like Great Williams
Speaker 1: and Al Horford both basically tried to stonewall Janice on
Speaker 1: his on his drop steps, basically when you get him
Speaker 1: in the post and try to back them down, or
Speaker 1: when he would try to get ahead of steam and go.
Speaker 1: But I thought Janice was too quick to give up
Speaker 1: on that, and especially in the first half, you settling
Speaker 1: for a lot of jump shots and turnarounds and things
Speaker 1: like that. In the post threes, stuff like that, Janice
Speaker 1: has accumulative, accumulative wear and terriffacts. So the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is is no matter what, no matter what
Speaker 1: Boston does, even if they do everything perfectly, if your
Speaker 1: Honest keeps dropping his head and trying to run people over,
Speaker 1: eventually he's gonna break through that wall he just did.
Speaker 1: So I don't think it's possible to solve your Honest.
Speaker 1: But again, I think that Boston is the best defensive
Speaker 1: team of this era. I think that they're uniquely equipped
Speaker 1: to have bodies that can throw its single coverage at him.
Speaker 1: That one of Boston's big defensive mistakes in game or
Speaker 1: Game two was when when they would get Johannae switched
Speaker 1: on to someone else, whether that was Rob Williams or
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, those were the two matchups that Janice was
Speaker 1: attacking the most off of the other two guys. In
Speaker 1: those situations, Boston was too quick to leave him in
Speaker 1: single coverage. I'd have a really say simple rule, he's
Speaker 1: on Grant single coverage, he's on ol single coverage. Anybody
Speaker 1: else doubling the ship out of him? Right? Away, get
Speaker 1: it out of his hands. That's gotta be the strategy.
Speaker 1: But and I think you'll see that as the series progresses.
Speaker 1: But overall, he's an unsolvable player. But Boston's gonna do
Speaker 1: as good of a job on it and as anybody
Speaker 1: else will be able to. Yeah, I mean it feels
Speaker 1: like we've seen that. But like you said, you can't
Speaker 1: really solve a guy who's six eleven to forty and
Speaker 1: an absolute freak athlete in every way. But I mean
Speaker 1: they are doing as good of a job as anybody could. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you know what's ironic is I would argue
Speaker 1: that the best defensive player in the world to put
Speaker 1: on your honest would be Lebron because he has like
Speaker 1: the perfect combination of sturdiness and lateral quickness and just
Speaker 1: savvy and understanding of how to position himself between your
Speaker 1: honest and Lebron and or between your honest and the rim.
Speaker 1: And I mean, obviously we got to go back to
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty for this, which is at this point
Speaker 1: two years ago. But that performance that Lebron put on
Speaker 1: him in Staples Center right before the right before COVID
Speaker 1: shut the league down, was like one of the best
Speaker 1: defensive performances I've seen on Janice just just consistently, like
Speaker 1: and Lebron is really good with his hands to it,
Speaker 1: like reaching without fouling and stuff like that. Like that's
Speaker 1: the irony is he's the best player in the league
Speaker 1: to have that type of matchup. But that's that's that's Lebron.
Speaker 1: He's the second best player of all time. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all we have for tonight. What go ahead?
Speaker 1: I was just gonna ask, um, here's the thing with
Speaker 1: IQUI did a good job on your honest in two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen was a long time ago, and Jannest wasn't
Speaker 1: the same level of perimeter initiator that he is now.
Speaker 1: The other thing, too, is like he just doesn't have
Speaker 1: that same level of sturdiness as Lebron. Lebron's like a fridge.
Speaker 1: You're just not moving him off of his spot. Al Right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all we have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: your support. There are no games tomorrow, so I'm taking
Speaker 1: a day off. We're also going to take Friday off.
Speaker 1: We will be back Saturday night for Game three of
Speaker 1: Warriors Grizzlies and of Buck Celtics, couple of really really important,
Speaker 1: really really exciting games news change of scenery to going
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