Speaker 1: The Volume. Hi everybody, and welcome in to the Thursday
Speaker 1: Morning podcast. My buddy Jason Timpf. We're going to just
Speaker 1: talk about the Lakers loss, talk about the Draymond Green suspension,
Speaker 1: and a host of other things about the NBA. Jason
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight podcaster at the Volume does a great job.
Speaker 1: Some really cool new stuff about the Volume coming up
Speaker 1: in about seven or eight days too. So I saw
Speaker 1: the story where Tua quarterback Miami Dolphins acknowledged and admitted
Speaker 1: that he strongly considered retirement this past year when he
Speaker 1: dealt with concussions, and that's something Had it happened to me,
Speaker 1: it happened to a family member, you should consider retirement.
Speaker 1: You know, we get into these things in sports, these
Speaker 1: tunnels where everybody's afraid to get canceled and called out,
Speaker 1: and so people don't acknowledge stuff which is like obvious.
Speaker 1: And I felt like three or four years ago when
Speaker 1: I brought up that Kyler Murray was a little too
Speaker 1: small for my taste or that size mattered at quarterback,
Speaker 1: I got a lot of pushback on this stuff, and
Speaker 1: it's like, now, can we all admit it that Bryce
Speaker 1: Young size is a little concerning out of Alabama, and
Speaker 1: it should be that Tua is small and Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: is not ideal, though I wouldn't classify him as small,
Speaker 1: he's been dinged up. And that Baker Mayfield, I know
Speaker 1: for a number one pick. Baker's six feet tall and
Speaker 1: not a great athlete. Tried to size up a safety
Speaker 1: after an interception, banged on his shoulder, got hurt. Never
Speaker 1: the same quarterback. We have to be honest about this stuff.
Speaker 1: Is that Mahomes and Herbert and Trevor Lawrence and Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow and Josh Allen, these are bigger than average men.
Speaker 1: It matters. Go look at the list of Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame quarterbacks. You're John Elways, your Brady's, your Peyton Manning's,
Speaker 1: your Big Bends, your Joe Montana's, and Steve Young's. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of five ten guys there. So and I
Speaker 1: think it's a I think it's a real concern about
Speaker 1: Bryce Young. It's why there's a quarterback for Tennessee that
Speaker 1: may go in the second round, Hendon Hooker. The knock
Speaker 1: on him is that he had an ACL injury. But
Speaker 1: he's a big, strong kid who throws a beautiful football.
Speaker 1: He may be your best bet. He may be your
Speaker 1: best bet in this draft. I don't know that to
Speaker 1: be true. But he is big, he's strong, he's got
Speaker 1: a big arm, and you know, he's older, so he's
Speaker 1: a more mature kid, right than your average twenty one
Speaker 1: twenty two year old quarterback coming in. He's he's you know,
Speaker 1: he's been around a while. So this stuff with Tua
Speaker 1: is you know, he's got an extension possibility coming up.
Speaker 1: I just I couldn't give it to him. I just couldn't.
Speaker 1: You know the way I look at Tua, great kid,
Speaker 1: great high school and college career, limitations at the pro level,
Speaker 1: and I said, we're to a point now where the
Speaker 1: media is not going to give you a pass on concussions.
Speaker 1: And not only are they not going to give you
Speaker 1: a pass concussions, the opinions will be swift, they'll be punitive.
Speaker 1: And I think the Miami Dolphins, if Tua has a concussion,
Speaker 1: you can't plan for a month minimum. I mean if
Speaker 1: third week of the year, September concussion, if you plan
Speaker 1: before Thanksgiving, you're going to get hammered by people. It's
Speaker 1: the one injury where the media is relentless and no
Speaker 1: company wants to get banged on by the media for
Speaker 1: eight to ten weeks. They don't, all right, So it's
Speaker 1: a bummer like some guys. You know, I've seen it
Speaker 1: at every position in the NFL. Some guys are built
Speaker 1: for high school and college. It's not quite built for
Speaker 1: the NFL. And I don't know if Tua is. I mean,
Speaker 1: he has admitted before. Now he's admitting he thought about retirement,
Speaker 1: and he's admitted before he struggles at times to see
Speaker 1: over the offensive line. It's okay, we can acknowledge this
Speaker 1: right like it's an adult conversation now. And it's why
Speaker 1: Sean Payton came on my show and said, be very
Speaker 1: very careful about not going prototype in the first ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen picks. Do not get an offensive tackle that's
Speaker 1: six two or sixty three. You've got to be six
Speaker 1: five and a half minimum, you know. Don't take a
Speaker 1: small corner, don't take a smaller quarterback. So I think
Speaker 1: the Dolphins are in a really tricky situation. Two is
Speaker 1: a really good guy.
Speaker 2: They want to protect him. They should.
Speaker 1: Tua also needs to be protected, like most pro athletes,
Speaker 1: from themselves, because they're all competitors and all want to play.
Speaker 1: But that news that Tua considered retirement. How do you
Speaker 1: not consider that? If you're the Miami Dolphins going forward,
Speaker 1: how do you not The NBA Playoffs are upon us.
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Speaker 1: ticket deals, lowest prices guaranteed. Colin how are you, man, Well,
Speaker 1: we saw that. I think any Laker fans saw it coming,
Speaker 1: like you gotta win in Memphis, energy was low early
Speaker 1: and this team isn't you know, they're not Sacramento Young,
Speaker 1: They're not you know, they're one of those teams like
Speaker 1: they got to be engaged, like because Lebron over the
Speaker 1: last two or three years really lets the.
Speaker 2: Game come to him. He didn't.
Speaker 1: I mean the first quarters. For Lebron, it's like a
Speaker 1: boxer in the first three rounds, like he feels the
Speaker 1: game out right, he's basically hoping somebody else does the
Speaker 1: heavy lifting. Early he's conserving energy. So when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can't hit shots and Lebron's sort of working his way
Speaker 1: into a game and it's like, oh we trailed by fifteen, okay,
Speaker 1: Like that's when the game became very quickly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you put it perfectly. Every Laker fan saw this coming.
Speaker 3: This has been it. You know, this Laker season has
Speaker 3: been such a bizarre journey, Colin, because everyone's gonna focus
Speaker 3: on the fact that they've been really good since the deadline,
Speaker 3: and they have and like so good that they've deserved
Speaker 3: the attention that they've received. In a way that they
Speaker 3: may not have deserved the attention they received in the
Speaker 3: previous year and a half. It was more of just
Speaker 3: like everyone watching the ship crash and burn, you know.
Speaker 3: But there have been two really interesting stretches this season
Speaker 3: that I think are very very under discussed, I should say,
Speaker 3: to get the Lakers where they were, there's a stretch
Speaker 3: where Lebron James missed extended time and Anthony Davis carried
Speaker 3: the team. Actually two stretches like that, but the big
Speaker 3: one the foot issue towards the end of the year.
Speaker 3: And then there was the stretch where Anthony Davis missed
Speaker 3: a ton of time and Lebron James stepped in. And
Speaker 3: in each of those stretches, Lebron and ad the one
Speaker 3: that was available put forth incredibly desperate basketball, playing at
Speaker 3: the absolute top of their games to drag the team
Speaker 3: to wins, just to float things long enough until the
Speaker 3: trade deadline could happen, or until Lebron James could return, right,
Speaker 3: And every single time there has been a return, they've
Speaker 3: collectively exhaled and they don't play well as the favorite.
Speaker 3: It's basically what I'm saying. When when Lebron James came back,
Speaker 3: they immediately lost to Chicago because they didn't think they
Speaker 3: had to play as hard as they did. They lost
Speaker 3: that desperation and yeah, this game textbook. They go out
Speaker 3: there in Game one, they dominate that game, and it
Speaker 3: was I heard a lot of people saying it wasn't
Speaker 3: as close as it looked. I agree, But did anybody
Speaker 3: think Memphis was winning Game one or did it feel
Speaker 3: like the Lakers controlled it throughout? They controlled it throughout right,
Speaker 3: But then after that game they flipped from being a
Speaker 3: slight underdog in the series to being a slight favorite
Speaker 3: in the series than John Morant's out and Lebron James
Speaker 3: and Anthony Davis are two players that like to do
Speaker 3: the absolute bare minimum to win basketball games. They tried
Speaker 3: that tonight. And that's a young, scrappy Memphis team that's
Speaker 3: always played super well at home. They played super physical,
Speaker 3: really bothered the Lakers, particularly around the rim, and they
Speaker 3: got a big win.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: And the other thing is they are a better defensive team.
Speaker 1: Memphis is when jaws not on the floor and the
Speaker 1: ball moves better. And I've said this before. I said
Speaker 1: today on FS one, I said, flashy point guards like
Speaker 1: sports cars. They're not built for bad weather or a
Speaker 1: trip cross country. But god, they're fun, really fun. Trey Young,
Speaker 1: You'll throw even Steph Curry and Steph Curry, Trey Young,
Speaker 1: John Wall, John Morant, Derreck Rose. They are players that
Speaker 1: get exposed defensively. They're usually a little I mean they're
Speaker 1: all a little thin, a little light. Westbrook was more stocky,
Speaker 1: but again he plays defense when he feels like it.
Speaker 1: But when you get these Jahn Morant type players, is
Speaker 1: they're exhilarating and ball movement slows down. You kind of stare,
Speaker 1: you kind of watch Derreck Rose perform, watch John Wall,
Speaker 1: and they're not great. They give you so much energy
Speaker 1: on the offensive end. They don't give you a ton
Speaker 1: on the defensive end. Now, Steph Curry and the Warriors,
Speaker 1: they've built the team Draymon Clay when he was a
Speaker 1: great defender. They bring in Gary Payton. They see his
Speaker 1: weakness as they build around him. But when I watch Memphis,
Speaker 1: and I've seen this now three years, Tyas Jones plays
Speaker 1: better defense. I've seen this the last you know, ten
Speaker 1: times that he's played. They're a better defensive team. He's
Speaker 1: not a great scorer, but the forwards and the wings
Speaker 1: move the ball really really really well. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I remember John Wall years ago a missing games for
Speaker 1: the Wizards. They won like nine or ten straight. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean Wall's not great, but you know, everybody then
Speaker 1: feels like when the flashy point guards out, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get touches tonight, like I'm going to be included
Speaker 1: in this game plan, and you really want to play
Speaker 1: well showing the coaches, Okay, when the guy comes back,
Speaker 1: I want touches. And I think Memphis tonight played a
Speaker 1: lot of energy, moved it really really well. Everybody just
Speaker 1: the ball moves better. And it's not a knock on
Speaker 1: John Rant. He's exhilarating. But I see this sometimes even
Speaker 1: with the Warriors, like sometimes if Draymond's not setting screens,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of guys watch and Steph do is
Speaker 1: you know Harlem globetrotter ball movement flying around And I
Speaker 1: just I looked at Memphis tonight and I'm like, they're
Speaker 1: a good team without Jaw. They're a different team, but
Speaker 1: they're a good team without him.
Speaker 3: The way you broke it down is perfect, Like it's
Speaker 3: a there's a baseline kind of like fundamental list of
Speaker 3: things that if you do well as a basketball team,
Speaker 3: you have a chance to win no matter what, right, Like,
Speaker 3: even without a top tier superstar, if you can protect
Speaker 3: the rim really well, if you compete really hard in
Speaker 3: all of the effort and energy parts of the game,
Speaker 3: like sliding your feace defensively on the perimeter, beating guys
Speaker 3: to the to the rim on help situations, crashing the
Speaker 3: offensive glass, crashing the defensive glass. Just by playing super
Speaker 3: hard and having a couple of baseline pieces that you need,
Speaker 3: you can win in the NBA, especially since a lot
Speaker 3: of these NBA players are good. Like we spend a
Speaker 3: lot of time talking about role players in the Shortcomings,
Speaker 3: but a lot of these guys were all conference dudes
Speaker 3: in college and guys who average twenty five thirty points
Speaker 3: a game in high school. So if you give them
Speaker 3: close out situation, even against good NBA defense, is they're
Speaker 3: gonna be able to score. And so if you don't
Speaker 3: guard the ball and you give give up dribble penetration,
Speaker 3: the guys are attacking closeouts all night long, they're gonna score.
Speaker 3: That's why, Like, honestly, from a schematic standpoint, watching this game,
Speaker 3: I remain extremely confident that the Lakers are gonna win
Speaker 3: the series. The only thing that really stood out to
Speaker 3: me schematically was the Jared Vanderbilt problem. And it's too
Speaker 3: it's twofold. Half of it is Jared Vanderbilt and the
Speaker 3: fact that he's such a non threat offensively that Memphis
Speaker 3: can stick Jared Jackson on him and just muck everything
Speaker 3: up underneath the basket. But the flip side of it
Speaker 3: is Ruy Hachimura is ascending in front of us. This
Speaker 3: is something that has We've seen the two twenty point
Speaker 3: point game at the two twenty plus point games in
Speaker 3: this series, but it actually extends backwards a few weeks now.
Speaker 3: His original his initial tenure with the Lakers went a
Speaker 3: little bit rough. You got moved to the bench after
Speaker 3: the trade. But Phil Hand he's been working with him
Speaker 3: relentlessly before games and in practice on polishing up some
Speaker 3: things in his skill set. He's been working with Darvin
Speaker 3: Ham really hard to find little areas of the game
Speaker 3: where he can impact the game. Defensively, He's become kind
Speaker 3: of a sneaky, solid help defender under the rim, blocking shots,
Speaker 3: grabbing contested rebounds.
Speaker 2: They're gonna He's big.
Speaker 3: He's big. He's huge. They're gonna slide him into that
Speaker 3: starting lineup at some point in this playoff run, maybe
Speaker 3: even in Game three of this series. And I think
Speaker 3: they're gonna cut way back on Jared Vanderbilt's minutes. That
Speaker 3: was really the only schematic thing that bothered me or
Speaker 3: concerned me. I should say about the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I will say they didn't play well. Started slow,
Speaker 1: were on the road, ad didn't give you much offensively,
Speaker 1: and they were in the game with two minutes ago.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, when the Knicks play poorly, they
Speaker 1: get rolled Miami, not even Yannis on the Florida Knights
Speaker 1: getting rolled. Lakers were on the road without or with
Speaker 1: John Morant. Memphis is a very upper echelon team, and
Speaker 1: they competed, and they really didn't play their best basketball.
Speaker 1: It was like, I since the trade, I think they're
Speaker 1: a much more competitive team. I think they have more options.
Speaker 1: I like, I watched the night and I thought, you
Speaker 1: very early, it's like it's not going to be their night.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be their night. But they competed,
Speaker 1: they hung in the game. You know, it wasn't a blowout.
Speaker 1: They were you know, there was a little brief moment
Speaker 1: with about four and a half five left, you're.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, okay, we got it. It's six.
Speaker 1: So my takeaway is go back home, win both games.
Speaker 1: Jaw's not going to be playing much in this series,
Speaker 1: and the faster you can close it out the better
Speaker 1: because this is this is Lebron James is old and
Speaker 1: you can see it like he can't go seven game
Speaker 1: series or they'll pay for it next series.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the way you broke it down is perfect.
Speaker 3: Like the there's a competitiveness that you'd like to see
Speaker 3: when a team loses that shows them that they're just
Speaker 3: a victim of victims, not even the right word, but
Speaker 3: just shows them that this is a natural. I've been
Speaker 3: low in the series from the point that the Grizzlies
Speaker 3: went up sixty six to forty six. They were up twenty.
Speaker 3: This was the early third quarter. I thought the Lakers
Speaker 3: really controlled the rest of that game. They just were
Speaker 3: a little bit too far away, especially with Dangel Russell
Speaker 3: being incapable of making a shot. Anthony Davis was missing
Speaker 3: everything around the basket. They just didn't quite have the
Speaker 3: offensive firepower tonight to make up for the hole that
Speaker 3: they dug themselves. But once they locked in defensively in
Speaker 3: that second half, they got plenty of stops. Now the
Speaker 3: problem is, and you just said this, and this is
Speaker 3: so important this particular Lakers team, rest is going to
Speaker 3: be key for them, and andying this series quickly is
Speaker 3: so important because there will be long series ahead. The
Speaker 3: next series against Sacramento or Golden State probably a longer
Speaker 3: series because the Lakers struggle with transition defense and the
Speaker 3: way that they run their coverage is going to leave
Speaker 3: some things open for the Kings guards and the Warriors guards.
Speaker 3: In the conference finals against a team like Phoenix or
Speaker 3: the Clippers or Denver, they're going to be in for
Speaker 3: a long series. Whoever comes out of the West or East.
Speaker 3: That's a six or seven games. So if they could
Speaker 3: buy it little tiny chunks of like three or four
Speaker 3: days off, you're there for Lebron and Anthony Davis to
Speaker 3: rest ending this series in five would go a long
Speaker 3: way towards that. So, Colin, everyone was accusing us of
Speaker 3: backing up our volume guy, which I think is ridiculous
Speaker 3: because it's just I don't I don't know what's gotten
Speaker 3: into everybody, Colin, because I feel like this is the
Speaker 3: most reasonable opinion in the world, and every everyone's calling
Speaker 3: me immoral. You know how it goes. But I could
Speaker 3: see the case for the I could see the case
Speaker 3: for the ejection. Now I disagreed with it, but I
Speaker 3: could see the case, and the case was Draymond's history fair.
Speaker 3: I thought the decision to suspend him was completely outrageous.
Speaker 3: Where did you land on that?
Speaker 1: The reality is if I went up and punched you,
Speaker 1: and you punched.
Speaker 2: Me back, and you knocked me out and I.
Speaker 1: Just grazed you, you could say, well, he started it,
Speaker 1: and that's a real defense. If you broke into my
Speaker 1: house and I shot you and you had a terrible injury,
Speaker 1: and maybe maybe I didn't need to be as violent
Speaker 1: against you, I would say he broke into my house, right,
Speaker 1: Sabonis got a technical and initiated the circus Draymond pulling
Speaker 1: out then added to it. But that's a real defense,
Speaker 1: which is you know, he swung first, or he broke in,
Speaker 1: or he grabbed my leg. So to me, that's not
Speaker 1: why they threw him out for the next game. I
Speaker 1: believe at my core because Sabonis a started it and
Speaker 1: played the remaining seven and a half minutes.
Speaker 2: He was fine.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, if there would have been an injury,
Speaker 1: then there's a different component. But I think and I
Speaker 1: don't blame Adam Silver for this. Deep in the DNA
Speaker 1: of the NBA, the Malice at the Palace was their
Speaker 1: darkest moment. And when Draymond got up as a road
Speaker 1: player and started taunting the crowd and Adam Silver's in
Speaker 1: the building, I think that's a non starter. If you're
Speaker 1: at Chase Center, it's different. But if you're on the road,
Speaker 1: Adam's there, he hears those fans, he sees the double birds.
Speaker 1: He It's like, no way, we're not going there. That
Speaker 1: Even though I defended the players in Malice of the
Speaker 1: Palace because if you went back and looked at the
Speaker 1: people and the fans involved, many of them had criminal records.
Speaker 1: They were just there to be trouble. I defended run
Speaker 1: our test. I defended the players because I would have
Speaker 1: been terrified to be in an arena, an opposing arena.
Speaker 1: But it does matter what arena it is. You can't
Speaker 1: do that on the road in a hostile playoff environment, Jason,
Speaker 1: you just can't do it. You know, there's the old
Speaker 1: saying you can't yell fire in a crowded theater, you can't.
Speaker 1: So I think silver being there, And because you know,
Speaker 1: when Draymond's doing that, Adam's hearing those fans and he's
Speaker 1: seeing those double birds and he's like, I'm not going
Speaker 1: there repercussions. And again, Draymond's a veteran, he's not a rookie.
Speaker 1: Like you could see a rookie losing their shit.
Speaker 2: You could.
Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, a nineteen year old kid gets worked up.
Speaker 1: This is a wise NBA sage. You know, Draymond's been
Speaker 1: in these wars forever. So I think it's like resume
Speaker 1: road insiding. Because I'm with you, if you do something first,
Speaker 1: you do have a right a cheap shot. To me,
Speaker 1: you do have a right to cheap shot back. And
Speaker 1: that would have easily been two technicals keep playing. But
Speaker 1: that crowd and that even somebody said it today on
Speaker 1: my show. I forget who it was, but it was
Speaker 1: may have been Sam Amck. He just said, you know,
Speaker 1: if he's just run through the tunnel, it would have
Speaker 1: felt different.
Speaker 2: Just I'm out out.
Speaker 1: It was like ninety seconds of come on, you want
Speaker 1: a piece of me.
Speaker 2: I didn't like it.
Speaker 3: Well, there are things that are debatable about this, and
Speaker 3: there are things that are not debatable. Like the debatable
Speaker 3: side of it is should he have been suspended? Sure,
Speaker 3: you know, like we can go back and forth about that.
Speaker 3: Here's what's not debatable. Draymond brought this on himself and
Speaker 3: his team. That goes like regardless of what the decision
Speaker 3: making process was, the risk was willingly took on by
Speaker 3: Draymond with his behavior and especially what you're talking about
Speaker 3: after the time out, because again, like and I think
Speaker 3: I think it's a complicated topic, and I know you've
Speaker 3: talked about this a little bit on your show, really,
Speaker 3: but like the dynamic between the fans and players is
Speaker 3: super complicated because like, you're heated, you're super competitive, and
Speaker 3: you're riled up, and now some dudes saying some wildly
Speaker 3: disrespectful stuff from to you, like twenty feet away, and
Speaker 3: there's really like this barrier between you that extends beyond
Speaker 3: the distance. It's also like Adam Silver standing there between
Speaker 3: you because it could literally mess up your entire season
Speaker 3: and everything that you and your team are trying to
Speaker 3: build towards. But again, like there's a difference between I
Speaker 3: think I personally would not have suspended him that said,
Speaker 3: that's a debate. That's a fair debate. There's no question
Speaker 3: that Draymond brought it on himself, at least through his
Speaker 3: decision making process and knowing what kind of history he had.
Speaker 3: Now with this series gets really interesting from here. I
Speaker 3: don't think it's overcallin and I'm still pretty confident that
Speaker 3: Golden State's gonna win. I know it sounds crazy, but
Speaker 3: a couple of different things. They kind of started to
Speaker 3: figure out some stuff in Game two that I believe
Speaker 3: might have led them to a victory had Draymond been
Speaker 3: able to stay in the game. When Andrew Wiggins is
Speaker 3: on the floor and when Gary Payton is on the floor,
Speaker 3: they have straightforward matchups for Fox and Monk and they
Speaker 3: are actually doing a decent job containing him there. Then
Speaker 3: they have to go to pick and roll to get
Speaker 3: rid of the on ball defender, and Draymond is blowing
Speaker 3: all of that stuff up as the screen defender. At
Speaker 3: the end of the game, they had to go to
Speaker 3: Looney and then they went to pick and roll, and
Speaker 3: Looney couldn't stop anybody at the rim, so that ended
Speaker 3: up being the problem. But functionally from the lineup, you
Speaker 3: can kind of see the two teams finding their five
Speaker 3: that works. The Kings are going with Davion Mitchell because
Speaker 3: he can guard Steath credibly right, and then they're going
Speaker 3: with Malik Monk and Deer and Fox with Harrison Barnes
Speaker 3: and Demanta Sabonis. With the Warriors, it's Draymond with Andrew
Speaker 3: Wiggins and then Gary Payton Stephen Clay. That's where they've
Speaker 3: got their lineups that are working. That's where these two
Speaker 3: teams are going to go down with the ship. If
Speaker 3: the Warriors can survive Game three, which is totally possible
Speaker 3: with how well they play in front of their home
Speaker 3: crowd even without Draymond, especially against the King's team that
Speaker 3: cannot be overly physical sometimes. If they can survive Game three,
Speaker 3: Draymond comes back for Game four, I believe they will
Speaker 3: win that game on the road. In Game five, as
Speaker 3: long as they can stay in it long enough to
Speaker 3: get to their core lineup at the end, I think
Speaker 3: they have a really good chance to win this series.
Speaker 3: As bad as Golden State was on the road in Sacramento,
Speaker 3: expect Sacramento to look just this is bad in Golden
Speaker 3: State in my opinion, Well.
Speaker 1: What I worry about without Draymon. He's a great passer
Speaker 1: on the offensive end. He's also a great screen setter,
Speaker 1: and he's now they have plenty of smart players, but
Speaker 1: he does add an intellect. He's just got a real
Speaker 1: good sense. I mean, it's all this sort of intellectual
Speaker 1: bandwidth the Celtics play with. When you've got four guys
Speaker 1: who are on the floor for six years, like the Celtics,
Speaker 1: passing is excellent. Whereas Atlanta's got a new GM, a
Speaker 1: new coach, a new system. I mean, it's just a
Speaker 1: bunch of new parts. And I think, I think when
Speaker 1: I watch the Warriors with Draymon's Steph Clay on the floor, man,
Speaker 1: there are times.
Speaker 2: It's just they can really read each other's minds.
Speaker 1: And that's the kind of capital that load management eats
Speaker 1: away at.
Speaker 2: It's what I mean.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this. It's why the Clippers sometimes in
Speaker 1: a half court set.
Speaker 2: Are painful to watch. There's no play together.
Speaker 1: So if they can get through this game, I agree
Speaker 1: with you. But man, sometimes without Draymond, the passing's not
Speaker 1: as crisp, the ball movements not quite as good. You know,
Speaker 1: Clay is not a great ball handler, and now he's
Speaker 1: not a great defender. So you get two different versions
Speaker 1: of Clay. There's catch and shoot and he's hot at home,
Speaker 1: Clay great, and then there's on the road struggling handling
Speaker 1: the ball, guys blowing by him. You know, you used
Speaker 1: to kind of know with Clay that if he wasn't on,
Speaker 1: you got a great defender. Now and he's not on,
Speaker 1: you get him sometimes a suboptimal ball handler and defender.
Speaker 1: So his game doesn't necessarily you'd think, because he's a
Speaker 1: catch and shoot guy, his game would age well.
Speaker 2: But he's got to play better.
Speaker 1: He and Jordan Poole have got to help Steph.
Speaker 2: Jordan Poole's been awful in the series. Awful.
Speaker 3: I agree, you're the Draymond thing is certainly a threat.
Speaker 3: And this is where I fundamentally disagree with the suspension, Like,
Speaker 3: make the Kings go earn the damn series, make them
Speaker 3: go beat Golden State in Golden State, make them beat
Speaker 3: them with Draymond, like especially on it, like especially I've
Speaker 3: been getting on my soapbox again. I didn't like that
Speaker 3: that suspension at all, Like because now if the Kings
Speaker 3: win the series, it's gonna feel a little cheap, but
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: You know, Jason, I I've always felt I will always
Speaker 1: give an athlete a pass in the moment. Tom Brady
Speaker 1: yelling at a coach, Peyton Manning barking, I'll always give
Speaker 1: an athlete they can leave their body. It's an out
Speaker 1: of body experience. Emotionally, I mean, your testosterone's going, you've
Speaker 1: been putting. So the Draymond kick, it's like, I get it.
Speaker 1: That's his style. He's the bouncer at the night club.
Speaker 1: He's a tough guy. It's the Okay, I've been ejected.
Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna go and taunt the crowd. Come on,
Speaker 1: you're a mid thirty year old player, like like, I
Speaker 1: have a right to be mad if I'm on the
Speaker 1: air and somebody doesn't roll the tape and I'm barking,
Speaker 1: But three minutes later, I've got to go, Okay, we
Speaker 1: have a show to do. Take a deep breath, get
Speaker 1: over yourself. Let's do the show. So I that part,
Speaker 1: I'll defend Draymond in the moment one guy grabs your foot,
Speaker 1: you stomp him back. I'll defend him forever on that.
Speaker 1: But you got to know better as a thirty four
Speaker 1: to thirty five year old guy on the road to
Speaker 1: get that crowd riled up, Like, that's just not the play.
Speaker 3: I can't argue with anything you're saying, Colin, So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna change. I'm gonna change my take as a basketball fan.
Speaker 3: I'm annoyed that Draymond's not playing in Game three. How
Speaker 3: about that, right, We'll just go with that. So that's
Speaker 3: I do. I do still think. I think that if
Speaker 3: the Warriors can survive the Draymond suspension in Game three,
Speaker 3: I think they still have a very good chance to
Speaker 3: win the series. So Clippers versus Suns, this is the
Speaker 3: series that I have been most wrong about in my
Speaker 3: pre playoffs previews. I expected the Clippers to get swept.
Speaker 3: They very much did not, as they went into Phoenix
Speaker 3: and stole game one. You know what's interesting about this series, Colin.
Speaker 3: The numbers coming out of of the like kind of
Speaker 3: shot profile stuff does not look good for Phoenix. This
Speaker 3: is wild. So the Suns have attempted to seventeen shots
Speaker 3: or excuse me, nineteen shots in the restricted area in this series,
Speaker 3: and the Clippers have attempted thirty seven, so like almost
Speaker 3: double and then in wide open threes, which by NBA
Speaker 3: dot Com is factored in as defender at least six
Speaker 3: foot six feet away. The Clippers have also generated about
Speaker 3: twice as many as the Suns. The reasons why this,
Speaker 3: the reason why the Suns won Game two is what's
Speaker 3: the other shot that's available. So, if you're not scoring
Speaker 3: at the rim and you're not making these kickout threes
Speaker 3: to guys that are wide open, it's contested pull up
Speaker 3: off the dribble long jump shots in the mid range.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: What's crazy is the Suns shot thirty five percent in
Speaker 3: effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots in
Speaker 3: game one and they lost. They shot sixty one percent
Speaker 3: effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots off
Speaker 3: the dribble in Game two and they won. And so
Speaker 3: everything for me for the Suns comes down to can
Speaker 3: they continue to knock down these tough, contested pull up
Speaker 3: jump shots. And I'm just not. I believe they'll make
Speaker 3: enough to beat the Clippers, But I after two games,
Speaker 3: feel less confident than ever that the Sons can get
Speaker 3: out of the conference because they're just not generating enough
Speaker 3: easy shots.
Speaker 1: Well, I feel these are opposite teams. The Clippers have
Speaker 1: depth that are missing a star. The Sons have stars
Speaker 1: and are missing depth. And when they made the move
Speaker 1: to get KD, you had to give up Michale Bridges.
Speaker 1: That was the gem, but they gave up two other players,
Speaker 1: and one of those players had twenty eight the other
Speaker 1: night for Brooklyn against Philadelphia. And when I watch the Suns,
Speaker 1: I feel, I said this on TV today, they're a
Speaker 1: guy shy. If I just said Norman Powell's on the Suns,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, they're a finals team. I almost think
Speaker 1: they're tentative defensively because they know they can't get into
Speaker 1: foul trouble. Chris Paul's backup is her and he may
Speaker 1: not play in Game three. Booker doesn't really have a backup.
Speaker 1: They don't really have backups for their stars, and it
Speaker 1: almost makes them a little tentative defensively, Whereas the Clippers
Speaker 1: have depth, play really hard defensively. Westbrook gets in foul trouble,
Speaker 1: you can throw in man Norman Powell, they go. They've
Speaker 1: got depth, So I think it makes them play a
Speaker 1: little more tentative defensively. Monty Williams knows that we can't
Speaker 1: go to the bench early.
Speaker 2: We just can't.
Speaker 1: And the other thing is Chris Paul's the one guy
Speaker 1: that needs a break and until his backup comes in
Speaker 1: who's been out. I know he may play in Game three,
Speaker 1: but I think that's a big thing. Like Chris at
Speaker 1: this point in his career needs to spell. And so
Speaker 1: when I've been watching Chris Paul in the second half,
Speaker 1: his jumpers are short. His just stuff that went in
Speaker 1: three years ago is just not there, and it's I
Speaker 1: mean it was the other night he missed a couple
Speaker 1: seventy eight. I'm like, that was a seventy percent shot
Speaker 1: three years ago, Like just Chris didn't miss those. So
Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like to get Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: they had to give away a bunch of picks and
Speaker 1: three dudes. If they give away two, they could be
Speaker 1: more aggressive on the defensive end. You could rest guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're gonna have to play Durant and Booker,
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to play them forty minutes. That's who
Speaker 1: they are now, that's who they are.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I said this before the playoffs, and I still
Speaker 3: feel very strongly about this, Like I have no idea
Speaker 3: what's gonna happen with this Sun's team, but I do
Speaker 3: know what's gonna happen this summer, they're gonna sign somebody
Speaker 3: and it's gonna be like, hey, listen, do you want
Speaker 3: to be a start the starting forward? Like guaranteed starting
Speaker 3: spot alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul Deandraton. They're
Speaker 3: gonna be able to pitch that position like that using
Speaker 3: the mid level exception or whatever contract they decide to offer,
Speaker 3: and they are going to get some massively underpaid forward
Speaker 3: that can play on both ends of the floor that
Speaker 3: wants to just win a championship next to the two
Speaker 3: of them. They're gonna get two or three more veteran
Speaker 3: minimum contracts that kind of follow a similar, similar mold,
Speaker 3: and they're gonna be awesome next year. I feel very
Speaker 3: strongly about that this team is kind of playing with
Speaker 3: house money a little bit because I think that I
Speaker 3: think the expectations are a little lower on them because
Speaker 3: of that. The minutes thing is complicated because I'm less
Speaker 3: concerned about it on the offensive end, because workload matters,
Speaker 3: like splitting a heavy duty shot creation workload between just
Speaker 3: Kyrie and Lebron that can get a little fatiguing, and
Speaker 3: you need an other worldly athlete like Lebron to survive that.
Speaker 3: But like all of a sudden, you throw a third
Speaker 3: guy in there, and it's like they're hand they're splitting
Speaker 3: those duties three ways, it becomes a little more suitable.
Speaker 3: The defensive end is where is where you hit the
Speaker 3: nail on the head. You can't win a title in
Speaker 3: the NBA without playing elite defense. You can't play elite
Speaker 3: defense without committing to devote physical resources to it. And
Speaker 3: when you devote physical resources to it, to the two
Speaker 3: forty four minutes a night, one of two things is
Speaker 3: going to happen. They're either going to not devote the
Speaker 3: necessary physical resources to it and coast and not reach
Speaker 3: the defensive ceiling they need to reach, or they're going
Speaker 3: to pour in the necessary effort for forty four minutes
Speaker 3: to get stops and they're gonna suffer on the offense
Speaker 3: and end when they're fatigued. So like, that's where it
Speaker 3: gets difficult, and I don't really have a good answer
Speaker 3: for them. Kevin Durant famously said this after they lost
Speaker 3: to the to the Bucks in a crazy Game seven,
Speaker 3: that well, where he took his toe is on the line.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember the turnar on Tipper
Speaker 3: he said that. He said this after the series. He goes,
Speaker 3: everyone thinks, if I was won inch further back, we
Speaker 3: would have won the championship. He's like, that was the
Speaker 3: second round. He's like, He's like we had He's like
Speaker 3: James Harden was playing out a bad hamstring. Kyrie was
Speaker 3: completely unavailable. I had to create every single shot. He's like,
Speaker 3: we were winning the title that year. Like it's just
Speaker 3: too much to ask a guy to do that that
Speaker 3: much without any depth behind him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if they get pain the backup to
Speaker 1: Chris Paul. I think if they get him back, I
Speaker 1: think that helps, you know, like there's like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what he plays eighteen minutes, sixteen minutes.
Speaker 2: That helps a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I to your point, they'll get a couple of
Speaker 1: mid level exemptions, and they'll get a couple of veterans
Speaker 1: that want to win, you know, like the Heat did
Speaker 1: when they went and grabbed like Ray Allen. You'll get
Speaker 1: a guy like that that's like, man, I just want
Speaker 1: a title. When David West came to the Warriors, you
Speaker 1: know there's a guy out there that like can give
Speaker 1: you like twelve really good minutes in the postseason. Jay
Speaker 1: Crowder's bounced around and become kind of like that guy
Speaker 1: at the end of his career. So and they Jay
Speaker 1: Crowder got moved in that Brooklyn deal. So it's like, so,
Speaker 1: you know Michale Bridges, yes, and then you start moving
Speaker 1: a couple other pieces and you look up and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson dropped almost thirty against Holly, and you're like,
Speaker 1: they need that so bad. But you know, interestingly, here's
Speaker 1: Denver playing tonight and nobody's watching and we're all just like, ah, God.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because the NBA knows by putting him
Speaker 1: on late at night, they're not going to get East
Speaker 1: Coast viewers. And I said, Denver reminds me of the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee team before they want a title an NBA. They
Speaker 1: got on the noon NBA TV game during the bubble.
Speaker 1: It's like the league's like, where can we hide them?
Speaker 1: And I feel like the NBA is doing the same
Speaker 1: with Denver.
Speaker 2: They like, yeah, we know they're good.
Speaker 1: Let's just wait until they play like the Warriors or
Speaker 1: Sun so we can get any audience. But I think
Speaker 1: they're like that Milwaukee team. They're kind of sitting in
Speaker 1: the weeds a little bit. Nobody believes in them a
Speaker 1: lot of depth. They're winning in routes. You know, Denver
Speaker 1: may just come out of this thing, after all.
Speaker 3: They might. I mean, I will say in our defense,
Speaker 3: these these top seeds, the one in two versus seven
Speaker 3: and eight matchups, with exception of the Lakers Grizzlies have
Speaker 3: been so boring, and that feely Net series has been
Speaker 3: really boring. That said, I think we'll all be rewarded
Speaker 3: in the second round because Denver versus Phoenix. You know,
Speaker 3: whoever comes out of those two Lakers Warriors series, the
Speaker 3: Sixers versus Celtics is going to be an all timer.
Speaker 3: I think whoever comes out of this great Yeah, whoever
Speaker 3: comes out of this next series will be an interesting
Speaker 3: challenge for for Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: I do want it.
Speaker 3: Before we get out of here, I wanted to I
Speaker 3: wanted to point out two things that I find very interesting,
Speaker 3: one of which Colin I think you might find interesting.
Speaker 3: Kevin Kawhi Leonard has soundly outplayed KD through two games.
Speaker 3: Now it's not over. And Kevin Durant very well. I
Speaker 3: expect Kevin Durant to play better, and I expect the
Speaker 3: Suns to win this series. But I think it's been
Speaker 3: a really interesting indicator of the way playoff basketball changes
Speaker 3: and one of the biggest things that I've noticed over
Speaker 3: the last couple of years. And I wonder if you've
Speaker 3: noticed the same thing. Strength seems to matter so much
Speaker 3: on this stage for two reasons. It's what allows you
Speaker 3: to play through uncalled fouls which are occurring on every
Speaker 3: single possession in the NBA playoffs, like hand checking, grabbing, holding, chucking,
Speaker 3: all that stuff. Playing through that require strength, and then
Speaker 3: it allows you to inflict uncalled offensive fouls, you know,
Speaker 3: by using your off arm and bumping people off with
Speaker 3: your shoulder and things along those lines. Kawhi Leonard is
Speaker 3: getting wherever he wants on the floor in this series,
Speaker 3: and it's because he's throwing these dudes around like rag
Speaker 3: dolls and kd He's incredibly skilled and he's going to
Speaker 3: make shots. He made shots in Game two. I expect
Speaker 3: him to make shots the rest of the series. I
Speaker 3: think Kadi's a better player than Kawhi, but it's so
Speaker 3: interesting to me that Kawhi has been more impactful so
Speaker 3: far through two games, and I think that strength plays
Speaker 3: a huge role in it.
Speaker 1: Kawhi is a big time old school player. I said
Speaker 1: this years ago, and I believe it, and I haven't
Speaker 1: heard anybody else say it, so I'll give myself credit.
Speaker 1: I said, if you'd never seen, never seen Michael Jordan play,
Speaker 1: people say, well, it was Kobe Bryant, and I'd be like, no,
Speaker 1: it's not Kobe plus Kawhi Leonard is Michael Jordan because
Speaker 1: Kobe wasn't as strong as Michael. Like if you look
Speaker 1: at the size of Lebron's hands and Kawhi's hands, Kobe
Speaker 1: doesn't have that. Kawhi is country strong, you know, Mike,
Speaker 1: Mike North Carolina strong, you know, like where you work
Speaker 1: on your own car right, Like that's different, Like Kobe
Speaker 1: grows up in Italy, it's Kawhi Leonard. If you gave
Speaker 1: Kobe Kawhi Leonard's hand size and strength, that's Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1: That's what Michael always had. Now, Kobe always had better
Speaker 1: range than Michael and at a better ball handler, I think,
Speaker 1: and I think he Kobe could have been a great passer,
Speaker 1: but he shot. But Kobe never had Michael's raw strength
Speaker 1: or his hand size to be able to palm the
Speaker 1: ball in the air. And I think if you gave
Speaker 1: if you gave Kawhi a little better ball handling skills
Speaker 1: and a little better range on his jumper, a little quicker,
Speaker 1: slightly twitchier, he's Kobe. He's not as twitchy as Kobe
Speaker 1: without the range, and Kobe's not as strong with the
Speaker 1: hand size as Kawhi. But Kawhi is I mean, I
Speaker 1: would have loved Kawhi is the kind of guy that
Speaker 1: if Kawhi would have guarded Michael Jordan in his prime,
Speaker 1: Michael would have been like, yeah, that's a dog. Because Michael,
Speaker 1: you know, Kawhi is like a little bit like Ron
Speaker 1: Harper where because Ron on the Bulls became kind of
Speaker 1: a third fourth score. Ron was a great scorer in
Speaker 1: Cleveland with the Clippers. Ron didn't have sort of that
Speaker 1: that quite the hand size of Kawhi. But Michael always
Speaker 1: respected Ron Harper because he knew he basically came. He
Speaker 1: gave up his offense to be Michael's partner, right and
Speaker 1: be a defensive guy. I said a few years ago,
Speaker 1: and I and I believed it. Then Kawhi sort of disappeared.
Speaker 1: Kawhi four years ago in the NBA was the best
Speaker 1: get a bucket, get a stop guy in the league.
Speaker 1: If you just said I just need I don't need
Speaker 1: a three, I need a bucket. About four years ago,
Speaker 1: I thought he was as good as the league had
Speaker 1: I need a stop.
Speaker 2: I definitely felt he was the best in the league.
Speaker 1: So the only reason we've all kind of sold some
Speaker 1: stock on Kawhi is is not available, it's not because
Speaker 1: his game's not great.
Speaker 3: Well, the same thing with Anthony Davis, Like we conflate
Speaker 3: these two issues, but like you don't judge a player
Speaker 3: by a ceiling, you judge him by his total contributions
Speaker 3: to your team throughout the entire NBA calendar, and that's
Speaker 3: where the issue has been. Defensively, I think he's been
Speaker 3: every bit as good as he's ever been in this series.
Speaker 3: You can tell he's taken it personally. I wanted to
Speaker 3: the last guy. I want to shout out and then
Speaker 3: we can get out of here, and I don't want
Speaker 3: to go through the whole Like fit is part of it,
Speaker 3: There's no doubt that fit is part of it. The
Speaker 3: Lakers fit was clunky. That goes without saying. The Clippers
Speaker 3: fit is much more natural, But Russell Westbrook's commitment to
Speaker 3: the effort and energy plays in this game, his point
Speaker 3: of attack defense on both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker,
Speaker 3: and what he's been doing on the glass. Here's the thing,
Speaker 3: it's it's for no reason other than he's finally devoting
Speaker 3: his entire effort and focus to it, which good for him.
Speaker 3: But that's why it's finally working out. That said, this
Speaker 3: is what all Laker fans were screaming for when he
Speaker 3: was in LA. If he could have just done this,
Speaker 3: if he could have devoted his resources to the defensive
Speaker 3: end of the floor trying to erase a player from
Speaker 3: the game with this point of attack defense, push the
Speaker 3: pace and just make plays for his teammates and rain
Speaker 3: in his decision making, he could be this massive positive
Speaker 3: player for the Lakers, and it just never happened because
Speaker 3: he didn't want to devote his resources towards those things.
Speaker 3: That said, as a basketball fan, it has been so
Speaker 3: much fun watching him in this series and watching him
Speaker 3: impact winning. I don't know if he saw that play
Speaker 3: where he tried to deflect the post entry pass to
Speaker 3: KD and he kind of got out of position, yes,
Speaker 3: and Kdi took like two dribbles to the foul line,
Speaker 3: and Rush just went flying in off one leg. It
Speaker 3: just like like a humiliating defensive play from Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 3: Like that's he's always been capable of that. He could
Speaker 3: have been the best defensive guard in the history of
Speaker 3: the league if he wanted to, just because he's that
Speaker 3: type of athlete. It just it's partially impressive to watch
Speaker 3: him in the series and partially disappoint that it took
Speaker 3: so long to see it. But shout out to Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Well, when he first came to the Lakers, and I
Speaker 1: remember this during the summer, I said, I don't love
Speaker 1: him as a player, but with Lebron's age and the
Speaker 1: brittleness of ad, he'll give you twenty nine minutes of
Speaker 1: terror a night. He'll just give you a production. He
Speaker 1: like plays Downhill like and for some reason, he was
Speaker 1: just an awful defensive player for the Lakers. Totally disengaged
Speaker 1: with Darvin Ham. It's almost like Darvin pissed him off,
Speaker 1: asked him to play a certain role, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm out. And then ty Lou, who was you know,
Speaker 1: tis confrontationals, like, Bro, you gotta play defense here, And
Speaker 1: then he just said, Okay, I'm gonna play defense because
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. I mean, he just he just didn't
Speaker 1: want to play defense. And you're like, he's such a
Speaker 1: great athlete. But I watched him the end of night.
Speaker 1: He's completely disruptive. He's like the guy in the YMCA
Speaker 1: you don't want guarding you. It's like, dude, you're sweating
Speaker 1: all over me. He's in your grill. You're just like,
Speaker 1: he's just unconventional and he's just going a thousand miles
Speaker 1: an hour and it's oh those guys, I mean, oh god,
Speaker 1: it's just relentless. And Kd's just you know, Patrick Beverly
Speaker 1: did that before a couple of years ago. Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: got into Remember when Kad was a Warrior and Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley the first couple of games, just like and Katy's.
Speaker 2: Like, you know who I am? You know who I am.
Speaker 1: Then he came out and average forty one for the
Speaker 1: rest of the series. But you can get in KD
Speaker 1: for a game or two and you can get him
Speaker 1: out of his rhythm. He'll come back and be fine.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for the record, everything I said, Kawi has
Speaker 3: been great, Residen great. Kad is the best player in
Speaker 3: the series. He's going to close the deal.
Speaker 1: The volume, make sure to check out The Draymond Green Show.
Speaker 1: I brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of
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