Speaker 1: The volume. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season?
Speaker 1: You are with all of the new ways to get
Speaker 1: in on the action at Draft Kings sports Book, an
Speaker 1: official sports betting partner of the NBA. For monster slams
Speaker 1: to dishing the rock to cleaning the glass, get behind
Speaker 1: your favorite players and the prop bets you can make
Speaker 1: on DraftKings, the home of NBA player props. Ready to
Speaker 1: place your first bet? Try betting on something simple like
Speaker 1: picking how many points your favorite player will have. Go
Speaker 1: to the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and make your pick.
Speaker 1: The Oklahoma City Thunder have pulled away as a substantial
Speaker 1: favorite right now in DraftKings to win the title at
Speaker 1: plus one forty five. The Celtics if you believe in them,
Speaker 1: they're all the way up at plus two point fifteen
Speaker 1: right now. Some interesting value there first time. Here's something
Speaker 1: special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars
Speaker 1: to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets.
Speaker 1: Instantly take it to the rack with Draft Kings sports Book,
Speaker 1: Every point counts. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use
Speaker 1: code hoops. That's hoops, that's code hoops For new customers
Speaker 1: to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets
Speaker 1: when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The
Speaker 1: crown is yours. Gambling problem called one hundred gambler In
Speaker 1: New York call eight seven seven eight hope and y
Speaker 1: or text hope and why to four six seven three
Speaker 1: six nine. In Connecticut, help us available for problem gambling
Speaker 1: called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 1: seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on
Speaker 1: behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus.
Speaker 1: Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus
Speaker 1: bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance.
Speaker 1: For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co.
Speaker 1: Slash b ball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're
Speaker 1: at the ball. You've had me Tuesday, everybody. I hope
Speaker 1: all of you guys are having an incredible week. This
Speaker 1: is my second time recording this intro because in the
Speaker 1: middle of our mail bag, the Denver Nuggets fired Calvin
Speaker 1: Booth and Mike Malone on April eighth, less than a
Speaker 1: week before we get through the end of the regular season.
Speaker 1: If you guys want to hear specifically my reaction to that,
Speaker 1: fast forward about seven minutes into this video. Jackson, our producer,
Speaker 1: is also going to put a little link in the
Speaker 1: description so that you can fast forward to that. So
Speaker 1: if you want the reactions specifically to the Nuggets news,
Speaker 1: you'll have to fast forward a little bit. Otherwise, it's
Speaker 1: our weekly mail bag. We got about a dozen questions
Speaker 1: from you. Guys. Are gonna be bouncing all around the
Speaker 1: league lots of interesting stuff. Remember, if you guys want
Speaker 1: to get questions into our mail bag, just go to
Speaker 1: our full episodes on YouTube, go into the comments type
Speaker 1: mail bag with a coll in and write your question.
Speaker 1: That's how I can find it in the mix. Relatively
Speaker 1: easy drop those questions in there. We're going to be
Speaker 1: doing mail bags about once a week moving forward throughout
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. You guys are the drip
Speaker 1: for We get started to subscribe to the Hoops Tonight
Speaker 1: YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys, don't
Speaker 1: miss you announcements. Some forget about our podcast feed where
Speaker 1: we get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also
Speaker 1: super helpful if you leave a rating and review on
Speaker 1: that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our new social
Speaker 1: media feed. So go to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and
Speaker 1: look up Hoops Tonight for more content throughout the season.
Speaker 1: And the last but not least, like I mentioned at
Speaker 1: the top, keep dropping mail bag questions in YouTube comments
Speaker 1: that we can hit them through our weekly mail bags
Speaker 1: throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So at the little context before this first question,
Speaker 1: at the tail end of the Steph Lebron segment that
Speaker 1: we did yesterday, I talked about how I would rank
Speaker 1: my top players of all time, with Lebron and MJ
Speaker 1: kind of on a tier at by themselves at the top,
Speaker 1: and then I'd go Kobe, Magic, Steph, and then Larry Bird.
Speaker 1: And so that's the context before we get to this question.
Speaker 1: Big fan of Jason in the show, did I miss
Speaker 1: where Jason said these were his top six non centers
Speaker 1: of all time? Oh good? I was afraid someone whose
Speaker 1: NBA opinions I greatly respect, I'd left Kareem and Bill
Speaker 1: out of his top six players. Wilton, Shack and the
Speaker 1: team deserve consideration in one day, Yokic might, but no
Speaker 1: Kareem is in the top six. Is the big one?
Speaker 1: Maybe centers are in a separate category. For Jason, I
Speaker 1: believe he's a forwarder guard himself. Yeah, so the last
Speaker 1: time we did this stuff was two summers ago, I think,
Speaker 1: And this year, because we don't have a team USA
Speaker 1: or any sort of Olympic basketball, we might do a
Speaker 1: little bit more WNBA stuff, and we might do a
Speaker 1: little bit more of this kind of like all time
Speaker 1: big picture NBA stuff as well, And so we might
Speaker 1: dig into some of these concepts a little bit further.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like for me personally, it's just really difficult
Speaker 1: to rank, Like how do you rank a Kareem up
Speaker 1: Duel Jabbar against a Steph Curry for instance. They just
Speaker 1: their jobs are so fundamentally different, and you could argue
Speaker 1: that they're the greatest ever at their specific jobs. And
Speaker 1: now we're discussing like which job is more valuable in
Speaker 1: its respective era, right, And so that's where it gets
Speaker 1: really complicated. And so for me personally, I've been keeping
Speaker 1: centers on a separate list. Now, where that gets complicated
Speaker 1: is a guy like Jokic, right, a guy like Jokic
Speaker 1: being a guy that is more perimeter oriented as center.
Speaker 1: But even then, I think that I would rank Jokic
Speaker 1: among centers. There's a simple concept like for instance, NIKOLEA.
Speaker 1: Jokic cannot switch onto the perimeter in guard one on
Speaker 1: one like he's horrible at it, So he's trapped into
Speaker 1: these specific coverages, like at the level coverages in deeper
Speaker 1: drop coverages, and so to me, that's like Joki is
Speaker 1: still clearly the best player in the league even though
Speaker 1: he can't fundamentally do one of the most basic tasks
Speaker 1: that a perimeter player does. So with that being the case,
Speaker 1: like even with Jokic, I might keep him in a
Speaker 1: separate list when the time comes. But again, that was
Speaker 1: the only reason why I had the list look the
Speaker 1: way it did yesterday when I was referring to it.
Speaker 1: To me, Steph's title in twenty twenty two vaulted him
Speaker 1: over Larry Bird. I still think he's got some ground
Speaker 1: to cover in terms of Magic and Kobe in terms
Speaker 1: of like overall big picture accomplishments. And I don't think
Speaker 1: Steph ever had a ceiling relative to his peers the league,
Speaker 1: meaning like Oh my god. STEP's obviously just better than
Speaker 1: everybody type of moment to be able to enter into
Speaker 1: that MJ. Lebron tier that they're in there at the top.
Speaker 1: But again, I think he could still potentially move up,
Speaker 1: Like if the Warriors won this year, he'd have a
Speaker 1: good chance to move ahead of guys like Kobe and
Speaker 1: Magic for me. But yeah, more fun on that front
Speaker 1: when we get to the summer. Hey, Jason, much love
Speaker 1: from Brazil. So over the last few games, Tatum's three
Speaker 1: point shooting has been rough. He's been at twenty one
Speaker 1: percent over the last three and when one for nine
Speaker 1: in the most recent one at the time of recording.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, He's still playing really well overall.
Speaker 1: But I feel like I've seen this movie before. Right
Speaker 1: around playoff time, Tatum has a cold stretch from deep
Speaker 1: and it seems to just follow him into the postseason,
Speaker 1: kind of like last year. The competition's only getting tougher,
Speaker 1: and honestly, I don't think we can win it all
Speaker 1: unless Tatum is firing on all cylinders. Am I overthinking
Speaker 1: this or is this something we should be worried about?
Speaker 1: Worried is a strong word, because the Celtics have a
Speaker 1: lot of margin for error, and Tatum frankly shot like
Speaker 1: shit last year and they won the title. Now there
Speaker 1: are some obvious things that you need to take into consideration.
Speaker 1: Like I talked about this with Celtics fans a lot
Speaker 1: over the summer when we were debating the Celtics in
Speaker 1: their place all time. I don't think that that MAVs
Speaker 1: team was a you know, traditional powerhouse contender, nor the Pacers,
Speaker 1: nor the Cavs, nor that Heat team that was injured
Speaker 1: at the start of last year's postseason. So like I
Speaker 1: think we can all freely admit that if you face
Speaker 1: Knicks or Pacers in round two, that's about the same
Speaker 1: quality of opponent that you faced in the conference finals
Speaker 1: last year, maybe a little better because the Pacers are
Speaker 1: a little better and the Knicks are I would argue,
Speaker 1: even more talented than the Pacers. So your second round
Speaker 1: opponent could arguably be as tough as your conference finals opponent.
Speaker 1: Your finals opponent, Cleveland, in my opinion, is better than
Speaker 1: probably both of the teams you played in the conference
Speaker 1: finals and finals last year, better than that Dallas team,
Speaker 1: better than that Indiana Pacers team. And then your reward
Speaker 1: if you get out of the West could be he
Speaker 1: Shay Gilders Alexander in a sixty five plus win Thunder team,
Speaker 1: which would be dramatically better than any team you faced
Speaker 1: in the postseason last year. A Lebron Luca Austin Lakers
Speaker 1: team that is gonna be better than any team you
Speaker 1: faced last year. A Kauai Zuboch hardened team like those
Speaker 1: teams that are in the Western Conference that are below
Speaker 1: that tier are all every bit as good as Dallas
Speaker 1: was last year. So you have a very difficult path
Speaker 1: laying in front of you relative to last year. Now,
Speaker 1: as far as Tatum's shooting goes, it goes a little
Speaker 1: deeper than what you talked about over the last week
Speaker 1: or so. I had looked yesterday or two days ago,
Speaker 1: something like that twenty game span where he was shooting
Speaker 1: right around thirty percent from three. Now, U Celtics fans
Speaker 1: can probably relate to this as having watched the team
Speaker 1: even closer than I have this year. But that's kind
Speaker 1: of been Tatum's shooting all year. Like he'll have these
Speaker 1: like three four game stretches where he's fifty five percent
Speaker 1: from three and sixty five percent from the field, and
Speaker 1: then he'll have two or three games in a row
Speaker 1: where he's one for nine, two for eleven, like those
Speaker 1: kinds of games from three and so he's generally been streaky.
Speaker 1: And so I want to say, like I told you to,
Speaker 1: like discount the word worried, like set the word worried
Speaker 1: to the side. It's not worried so much as like
Speaker 1: you're trimming into your margin for error. I'd argue there's
Speaker 1: two potential outcomes for Tatum in this postseason. He could
Speaker 1: enter into one of those hot streaks that we talked
Speaker 1: about and shoot the jump shot extremely well all postseason.
Speaker 1: And if that happens, I mean, I think I would
Speaker 1: just say Boston's gonna win it all, Like I don't
Speaker 1: think if Tatum's gonna legitimately play at that because that's
Speaker 1: the thing. When Tatum's jump shot is going at a
Speaker 1: super high level, he is a bona fide top tier
Speaker 1: superstar in this league, at the same level as the
Speaker 1: guys like Shay and Jokic and Luca and Giannis. Right,
Speaker 1: he's not as good in their peak offensively as those guys,
Speaker 1: but he's extremely versatile and has enough offensive upside to
Speaker 1: impact the game as much as those guys do. When
Speaker 1: his jump shots not going, he drops into that second
Speaker 1: tier of stars. And so because then he's super versatile,
Speaker 1: a great defender, great rebounder, all these different things, great playmaker,
Speaker 1: matchup attack or all that kind of stuff, but he
Speaker 1: just lacks the offensive upside he has when he has
Speaker 1: his jump shot going. So again, I think there's a
Speaker 1: certain amount of margin for error that gets clipped off
Speaker 1: if Tatum shows up into the postseason and shoots poorly,
Speaker 1: And I think it's absolutely something that will make things tougher.
Speaker 1: But then I'd also argue that this was going to
Speaker 1: be tougher for them no matter what, Like if I've
Speaker 1: talked about it last summer, if you want to be
Speaker 1: remembered as an all time great team, this is the
Speaker 1: year you have to win. I mean, look at how
Speaker 1: many we have two more sixty win teams this year
Speaker 1: with Cleveland and OKC. You're not going to get that
Speaker 1: credit for being one of the all time greats unless
Speaker 1: you can combine multiple years of success against different types
Speaker 1: of playoff opponents. That it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: like if you ripped through New York, Cleveland and oakse
Speaker 1: this year, all of a sudden, it adds a layer
Speaker 1: of legitimacy to last year's playoff run that wasn't there,
Speaker 1: because now it's like, well, we just proved we would
Speaker 1: have beaten all those teams anyway if we would have
Speaker 1: played them last year. And so again this is it's
Speaker 1: gonna be tougher no matter what I think. Without Tatum
Speaker 1: shooting well, it will be especially tough. But I also
Speaker 1: think it's just as likely that he goes in there
Speaker 1: and shoots really well. I'm gonna say the same exact
Speaker 1: thing that I said about Jokic last year with his
Speaker 1: three point shot and his three point shots tailing off
Speaker 1: a little bit this year as well. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: the same thing though, which is just keep an eye
Speaker 1: on it. It's just something to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: because if Boston loses to somebody and Tatum shoots like shit,
Speaker 1: we can look back and go, well, he shot really
Speaker 1: poorly going into the postseason and that ended up being
Speaker 1: the trend that shot them in the foot. This Mike Malone' stuff. Jackson,
Speaker 1: if you could do me a favor, and just as
Speaker 1: I'm kind of working through this, if we get any
Speaker 1: sort of additional intel, as to what of what might
Speaker 1: have happened. I saw a clip going around this morning
Speaker 1: of Mike Malone in a press conference talking about how
Speaker 1: he basically has a group of guys in the locker
Speaker 1: room that is in denial about some of the situations
Speaker 1: that they're dealing with. I heard him say that, you know,
Speaker 1: these realities are on tape, and he accused his players
Speaker 1: of not watching the tape and about how he was
Speaker 1: going to have to basically put the tape in their
Speaker 1: face to try to get them to acknowledge those realities.
Speaker 1: I'm going to assume he's referring to the defensive end,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna assume he's referring to a combination of things,
Speaker 1: whether it be Jokic's at the level coverage, some of
Speaker 1: the backside rotation stuff, some of the just defensive mistakes
Speaker 1: made in terms of box outs and rotations on the backside.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to say the same thing that I
Speaker 1: said after we saw Taylor Jenkins get fired, which is like,
Speaker 1: this is just a bizarre time to make a dramatic
Speaker 1: shift like this. Now it gets a little bit more tricky,
Speaker 1: is I don't think Denver would make a move like
Speaker 1: this unless the belief was gone. And what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is you're tailing off. You've lost what nine
Speaker 1: of your last fourteen games. Jamal Murray may or may
Speaker 1: not be ready for the postseason. I thought that game
Speaker 1: against Indiana was their most pitiful defensive effort of the
Speaker 1: last of this last chunk of games that they've played,
Speaker 1: where there were some plays where there were some truly
Speaker 1: embarrassing efforts and defensive rotations on the backside. So I
Speaker 1: think it might have just spiraled to the point where
Speaker 1: they looked at the situation and thought, this year's basically done.
Speaker 1: We might as well begin this process of hunting out
Speaker 1: our next option right away. But I will get more
Speaker 1: intel on that. I have a we're going again on
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning, so as we get more information about what's
Speaker 1: coming out from the Mike Malone firing, we'll get to
Speaker 1: it at that point. But my initial gut reaction is
Speaker 1: like it might be time for a gigantic pivot for
Speaker 1: the Nuggets in addition to changing their coaching staff. I
Speaker 1: talked with Kevin O'Connor last night, and I talked on
Speaker 1: my show yesterday about the idea that this team might
Speaker 1: need to fundamentally rebuild around Yokich. I would keep Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon because of his jump shooting and how I think
Speaker 1: that gives you a ton more flexibility in terms of
Speaker 1: how to build around him. But I think it might
Speaker 1: be worth considering a complete shuffling of the deck around
Speaker 1: your athletes, keeping Peyton wattson, keeping Aaron Gordon, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe like a jam Pickett or something like that. But
Speaker 1: then like all of these, like skill oriented offensive players
Speaker 1: that have been inconsistent and not as productive as they've
Speaker 1: needed him to be, they need to be flipped for
Speaker 1: offensive players they are defensive players. I'd like I'd be
Speaker 1: looking for a move along the lines of a Michael
Speaker 1: Porter junior, for a Jaden McDaniels or a Herb Jones
Speaker 1: or something along those lines. I'd be looking for someone
Speaker 1: that you can put to make this defensive job easier.
Speaker 1: I think as Jokic ages too, you could make the
Speaker 1: case that offense will be easier for him and defense
Speaker 1: will be harder because he's a groundbound player that doesn't
Speaker 1: take a lot of impact when he's playing offense. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of footwork, pivoting, reading the floor using his
Speaker 1: size that should translate deep into his late thirties if
Speaker 1: he wants to, and so our mid thirties, I should
Speaker 1: say so. With that being the case, I would build
Speaker 1: more around the idea of defense around Jokic than offense
Speaker 1: around Jokic at this point. But again, we'll get into
Speaker 1: more nuggets tomorrow once we get more information on the firing.
Speaker 1: Woah fired Calvin Booth. They've completely flipped everything over in Denver.
Speaker 1: That is crazy. I think that's a pretty strong indicator
Speaker 1: that we're going to end up having a some sort
Speaker 1: of substantial rebuild for Denver. But I mean, I literally
Speaker 1: talked about this last night with Kevin O'Connor. There's a
Speaker 1: clip of it on social right now that you guys
Speaker 1: can find on my twitter feed. But like I, to me,
Speaker 1: this feel like a dramatic pivot after this season, like
Speaker 1: a complete and total reconstruction of how you win around Yokic.
Speaker 1: If you acknowledge the reality that you have to bring
Speaker 1: Yokic up to the level, then you need to be
Speaker 1: two things. You need the on ball guy to be
Speaker 1: a guy that is really good with ball pressure and disruption,
Speaker 1: because if Yokic isn't going to be super active with
Speaker 1: his hands up there. The guy trailing the play, the
Speaker 1: guy chasing over the top has to be super active
Speaker 1: with his hands to make those passes uncomfortable. On the backside,
Speaker 1: you've got to be really sharp in your rotations. We've
Speaker 1: seen Yokic be able to weaponize athleticism on offense in
Speaker 1: the form of cutting. I've been so fascinated by the
Speaker 1: Westbrook Brown groups this year and how you see like
Speaker 1: at various points, sometimes separate from each other, sometimes together,
Speaker 1: where you see the two of them being able to
Speaker 1: layer the waves of their cuts to maintain spacing even
Speaker 1: though they aren't necessarily shooters. So I think that is
Speaker 1: the build that I would look for is just overwhelming
Speaker 1: defense and athleticism around Jokic. Smart athleticism around Jokic so
Speaker 1: that you can have a high enough defensive floor. Again, guys,
Speaker 1: defensive rating with Yokic on the floor since going all
Speaker 1: the way back to January, I think it's like January tenth,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, the defensive rating with Yokic on
Speaker 1: the floors of one to twenty. That's that's not just bad,
Speaker 1: that's your disqualified from any sort of potential playoff success.
Speaker 1: Like you're not you're not beating anybody. Like I'll go
Speaker 1: a step further. I have felt strongly ever since that
Speaker 1: game that that Luca and the Lakers put on Denver
Speaker 1: in Denver that I think I think the Lakers would
Speaker 1: kick Denver's ass in a playoff series because they would
Speaker 1: have absolutely no chance to stop them from generating wide
Speaker 1: open threes every single time down the floor. Kind of
Speaker 1: a wild difference between the way it felt when Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis was on the team, where I felt like the
Speaker 1: Lakers had absolutely no chance. So it's just a it
Speaker 1: come down to that basic concept of defense, and like
Speaker 1: there's just too many guys like that that draw that coverage.
Speaker 1: I saw a clip this morning on Twitter talking about
Speaker 1: different players that bring two to the ball blitzes, and
Speaker 1: it's like, Steph, you know, Dame Luca, Anthony Edwards ironically
Speaker 1: draws the most blitzes in the entire league, which I
Speaker 1: think has more to do with his lack of passing
Speaker 1: ability than anything else. But like, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that you have to face in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: that are going to bring to the ball, so you
Speaker 1: better be set up to handle that defensively. And Denver
Speaker 1: is just not and things were crumbling and they decided
Speaker 1: to make a pivot. Hey, Jason Hues, fan of the show.
Speaker 1: I say this as a diehard Laker fan and Luca fan.
Speaker 1: I personally don't see the same player from years past
Speaker 1: when I'm watching it. He has no bursts to beat
Speaker 1: people and get into the rim, plays zero defense, and
Speaker 1: relies on a tough step back three to score. I
Speaker 1: remember when you talked about the nerd Sash guys, you
Speaker 1: said he was definitely top two or three, comfortably better
Speaker 1: than Shay. I was curious to see if your stance
Speaker 1: has changed, because I can't put him over any of
Speaker 1: the people he's being compared to. Right now. He's been
Speaker 1: back for like two months from an injury that was
Speaker 1: the most significant injury he suffered as a pro, So
Speaker 1: I think there's a certain amount of like, he's obviously
Speaker 1: not quite where he's gonna be yet. The big piece
Speaker 1: is the mid range and short range shot making. He's
Speaker 1: pump faking that shot a lot. He's not making it
Speaker 1: at nearly the same clip he did last year in
Speaker 1: the postseason. The step back three. It was cold in
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, but overall in the last
Speaker 1: month or so, Like he's been shooting it pretty well.
Speaker 1: He more or less looks like Luca to me, with
Speaker 1: exception of that short to mid range shot making. It's
Speaker 1: worth mentioning last year in the postseason, he was banged up,
Speaker 1: he had that bulky knee, he was limping around a lot.
Speaker 1: He wasn't exactly moving super well in the postseason last year.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of what I refer to as the
Speaker 1: upside with this Lakers team is like where can Luca
Speaker 1: get from now April eighth to May first? It was like,
Speaker 1: let's say that they get into a first round series
Speaker 1: with a you know, a Minnesota or something like that,
Speaker 1: and they get out of that series and it's a
Speaker 1: second round series where they got to go on the
Speaker 1: road to Houston. Like that's a series where like I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna need Luca because of just how big
Speaker 1: and physical and good their defense is. You're gonna need
Speaker 1: Luca to be a better version of himself. Well, you
Speaker 1: got three weeks to kind of iron that out as
Speaker 1: you try to get him ready for that type of series.
Speaker 1: So again, like here's the thing, Like, do I think
Speaker 1: Shay is better than Luca right this point? In time, yes,
Speaker 1: but like I think it's very possible, but by the
Speaker 1: time they get to a conference final series that Luca
Speaker 1: could overtake him because he's still getting back to form
Speaker 1: from an injury. And to me, fundamentally their ceilings like
Speaker 1: take say Luca in the postseason last year and Shaye
Speaker 1: right now. To me, I'm always partial to the big
Speaker 1: playmaking forward. I've been talking to you guys about this forever.
Speaker 1: It's why I've been drawn to Jokic, drawn to Lebron.
Speaker 1: I've had my frustrations with Luca over the years as
Speaker 1: some of his stuff complaining to refs and some of
Speaker 1: the stuff on defense, But I do like that archetype
Speaker 1: of player a lot. I think that there is a
Speaker 1: extra value to solving playoff puzzles, solving playoff defensive schemes,
Speaker 1: and I think lucas substantially better at that than a
Speaker 1: guy like Shay. Shay's a better defender, Shay's a better
Speaker 1: like straight up on an island score in volume. But
Speaker 1: then I also think you could make the case that
Speaker 1: Luca's size gives him more resilience as a score as
Speaker 1: you get into later rounds in the postseason. So like
Speaker 1: for instance, like could Luke could Shay do to Jaden
Speaker 1: McDaniels what Luca did to Jaden McDaniels in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals. I'm not sure you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like could, Like we're gonna see the Lakers play the
Speaker 1: Rockets again, we could most likely see them play a
Speaker 1: second round series if they both advance, Like who would
Speaker 1: do better against the men Thompson, Shay Gilders Alexander who
Speaker 1: really struggled with him the other night, or a Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic who has such an overwhelming size advantage there that
Speaker 1: over the course of a series he should be able
Speaker 1: to wear them down a little bit. So again, I
Speaker 1: think the theoretical version of Luca at his best is
Speaker 1: a better player than Shay. Historically, home court has been
Speaker 1: a huge advantage in the play Yeah, some court team
Speaker 1: winning eighty six percent? Has that advantage decreased in the
Speaker 1: modern NBA with load management and strong teams limping into
Speaker 1: the playoffs? How much do you value home court of
Speaker 1: the show? I value it more than ever because of
Speaker 1: the confidence that role players have at home shooting, because
Speaker 1: of how much more of the game takes place in
Speaker 1: the open floor, which is where energy is such a
Speaker 1: huge part of the game. I for the record, like
Speaker 1: I see that the Lakers are considering punting the game
Speaker 1: tonight in Okay. See, they only need to go two
Speaker 1: and two over the last four to get the three seed.
Speaker 1: But if they win tonight and they beat Houston on
Speaker 1: a little bit later this week, then they just need
Speaker 1: Houston to lose to the Clippers for the Lakers to
Speaker 1: jump up to the two seed and have home court
Speaker 1: for a second round series in Houston. I'll be honest
Speaker 1: with you. Like to me, like, I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: at all if the Lakers played a three to two
Speaker 1: matchup with Houston and didn't have home court, if they
Speaker 1: went on the road in game one and got their
Speaker 1: ass kit as they struggled dealing with just the energy
Speaker 1: and physicality and had to adjust to it. So like
Speaker 1: fall down one zero in a series, now you got
Speaker 1: to win four the next six games, it gets a
Speaker 1: little tougher. So like I think it matters, I think
Speaker 1: teams should absolutely be fighting for it. In general, I'm
Speaker 1: of the opinion that the especially when you're out of
Speaker 1: the play in, when you've got that Monday through Friday
Speaker 1: guaranteed off next week, there's time off baked in that
Speaker 1: it's more important for you to be playing your best
Speaker 1: basketball than it is for you to be rested or
Speaker 1: I mean, health is one thing. You don't want guys
Speaker 1: playing hurt, but I'd be more I'd value rhythm and
Speaker 1: spot in the standings over anything having to do with rest.
Speaker 1: Hi Jason Love listening to your show all the way
Speaker 1: from Australia. As a suffering Pelicans fans, I would like
Speaker 1: your thoughts on their predicament. Do you think they should
Speaker 1: completely gut the roster and rebuild or stay the course
Speaker 1: back in, bring back in the young core of Zion,
Speaker 1: Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, and He's Missy, who are dynamic,
Speaker 1: but if not stayed healthy together, they're healthy starting floor
Speaker 1: of Murray Jones, Murphy's Ion and Missy has a lot
Speaker 1: of upside. You know, I was thinking about this this
Speaker 1: morning when I read your question, and you know, I
Speaker 1: have this like kind of basic basketball philosophy for how
Speaker 1: to build a team out of like replacement level players
Speaker 1: in terms of just like their athletic archetype. And the
Speaker 1: way I've always put that together is I think you
Speaker 1: need a skill guard, a guard who's just a pro
Speaker 1: at creating shots. And then I think you need an
Speaker 1: athlete guard, a guard who's a rim pressure guy who
Speaker 1: also can guard the ball. And then on the wings,
Speaker 1: I think you need a longer, athletic like ground coverage
Speaker 1: type of wing that's really fast and has some length.
Speaker 1: And then I think you need more of a big forward,
Speaker 1: a bigger, stronger player at the four, who is a
Speaker 1: guy that can play a lot of help side defense
Speaker 1: like low man possessions, but has the size to tag
Speaker 1: rollers and bother stuff at the rim, and that can
Speaker 1: help your team on the defensive glass. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: I think you need a big man a center that
Speaker 1: can play in multiple coverages, a guy that can switch
Speaker 1: ball screens, but that can also blitz high drop, low drop,
Speaker 1: hedge and recover whatever it is. The You need some
Speaker 1: scheme versatility out of the center spot as you go
Speaker 1: from team to team. Right now, there are weird things
Speaker 1: with the Pelicans, like we need to take Zion out
Speaker 1: because he's kind of just a different type of player.
Speaker 1: But if I had to call him a certain type
Speaker 1: of player, I would call him a four traditionally in
Speaker 1: the sense that like I like him better as an
Speaker 1: off ball, help side defender, low man rebounder, even though
Speaker 1: he's not good at that stuff, but that's theoretically the
Speaker 1: stuff that when I've seen Zion be at his best defensively,
Speaker 1: that's where he's being deployed. And I don't want him
Speaker 1: as that ground coverage wing as at the three, and
Speaker 1: he obviously can't play center. So as you look around it,
Speaker 1: de jontey Murray is that stereotypical athletic guard. Can pressure
Speaker 1: the rim, can guard the ball theoretically when he's engaged
Speaker 1: on that end of the floor. Now, his achilles injury
Speaker 1: might put a damper on that a little bit, but
Speaker 1: you've got all these guys locked up on contracts for
Speaker 1: a long time. To answer your question before we get
Speaker 1: a little bit further, like I would bring everybody back
Speaker 1: for one year because you don't really have a choice.
Speaker 1: You're not trading de Jonte Murray off of achilles injury
Speaker 1: with that contract you uh CJ McCollums an expiring thirty
Speaker 1: ish million dollars a deal. You might try to trade him,
Speaker 1: but you're certainly gonna end up but you're most likely
Speaker 1: going to end up bringing him back to Camp. Herb
Speaker 1: Jones is locked up, Trey Murphy is locked up. These
Speaker 1: guys are locked up, and you had a truly awful
Speaker 1: year in terms of injury luck. So like, I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna kind of have to bring everybody back, But
Speaker 1: at the same time, it's worth it to at least
Speaker 1: get a look at everybody before you decide how to
Speaker 1: build moving forward. Now again going back to the construct
Speaker 1: skill guard, a CJ athletic guard in theory is to
Speaker 1: Johnte Murray, Herb Jones is arguably the one of the
Speaker 1: best at that rangey type of wing position that I
Speaker 1: talked about, And so really it's about finding a center
Speaker 1: and a center that can fit in the context of Zion,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that's going to take reps. Like
Speaker 1: you know, he's missed. He's got some vertical spacing capability.
Speaker 1: If you can get to a position where he can
Speaker 1: share the flow with Zion as a vertical spacer and
Speaker 1: Zion can figure out some of the reads as he's
Speaker 1: generating dribble penetration, there's a version of that that can
Speaker 1: work as long as everyone else shoots well enough. So again,
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna end up bring everybody back because
Speaker 1: they kind of have to. I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: they at least shop. Like, here's the thing, Like in
Speaker 1: terms of Zion, if someone calls you this summer and goes,
Speaker 1: we want Zion, here's a bunch of cool shit, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, you got to think about taking it, But
Speaker 1: like I just don't think you need to be urgent
Speaker 1: and fire sale everybody at a discount, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Speaking is a fun one speaking of Aaron Gordon building
Speaker 1: a gym in his house. If you could ever have
Speaker 1: a person your own personal basketball court, how would you
Speaker 1: design it? It's an ultimate goal of mine for several reasons.
Speaker 1: One I love to play to. One of my biggest
Speaker 1: pet thieves is basketball court like uh, gatekeeping, and most
Speaker 1: of it's done by the government, like in schools and
Speaker 1: like it's all for safety reasons and liability and stuff.
Speaker 1: But it always drives me crazy that like everyone wants
Speaker 1: to play basketball, but like there's fifteen locked up high
Speaker 1: school gyms around your city that are like just unused
Speaker 1: or various you know, community gyms that are locked up
Speaker 1: and unused. Like I go play on every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go play, right when I'm done here
Speaker 1: at this place called Sporting Chance, and it's this huge,
Speaker 1: this huge facility that has five full courts, And when
Speaker 1: I go in there and play, there's a dude who
Speaker 1: hosts the run, who pays a lot of money to
Speaker 1: rent out the gym, and we go in there and
Speaker 1: we play, and all the other four courts are just
Speaker 1: empty and dark, and I always just feel like it's
Speaker 1: a waste. I feel like the world is a better
Speaker 1: place when people have the ability to go play basketball,
Speaker 1: the ability to go use these facilities, and so like,
Speaker 1: I've always just wanted to have access to a basketball
Speaker 1: court whenever I want. I kind of do right now
Speaker 1: with being a high school coach, I can get in,
Speaker 1: but I have obviously some restrictions in terms of when
Speaker 1: I'm allowed to use the gym. So ultimately what I'd
Speaker 1: like to do is build a full size indoor court.
Speaker 1: It's just so outrageously expensive that it's beyond the scope
Speaker 1: of what I'm capable of by now by such a
Speaker 1: large amount that it's like basically a pipe dream. But like,
Speaker 1: let's just put it this way, like maybe I won't
Speaker 1: get to enjoy it, but if I was lucky enough
Speaker 1: in my older age. To have a court where I
Speaker 1: could let my kids and my friends and some of
Speaker 1: the other people in the community use it. That'd be
Speaker 1: the dream of mine if I had to design it.
Speaker 1: I'm a big mountain view guy. I think it'd be
Speaker 1: sick to have like a big gym with a bunch
Speaker 1: of windows, got some views of a mountain out the side.
Speaker 1: That would be my dream as a basketball slash mountain fan.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are in a pretty good position to make
Speaker 1: impactful moves to the roster in the off season. The
Speaker 1: popular answer is to go after a big like Claxton
Speaker 1: and to sign Nikhil Alexander Walker. Although I am in
Speaker 1: favor of signing Alexander Walker with the MLE, I'd rather
Speaker 1: retain Hayes on a team friendly salary and move expirings
Speaker 1: for players that enhance the Lakers small ball lineups with
Speaker 1: guys like Jonathan Isaac or other highlight wings. I would
Speaker 1: also try to sign a decent, bruising big like Drummond
Speaker 1: or Capella at the biannual exception. I think that defensive
Speaker 1: versatility is the only path to making a deep run.
Speaker 1: With his configuration of the roster and committing a lot
Speaker 1: of salary to one big would limit that. We'd love
Speaker 1: to know what you think. Love the show. So there's
Speaker 1: some realities, right Like, if you want a trade for
Speaker 1: a Nick Claxton, now we've got to include multiple ten
Speaker 1: plus million dollar salaries. Okay, let's say Maxi Kleeb is
Speaker 1: one of them. And by the way, Maxi Kleba could
Speaker 1: end up coming back and playing for the Lakers in
Speaker 1: this postseason run, and maybe he ends up being the
Speaker 1: small ball center that they've always wanted, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But like, let's say they package Kleba. Who
Speaker 1: you giving up? You want to give up Gabe. He's
Speaker 1: one of your best guard defenders that can hit a shot.
Speaker 1: You want to give up Van Doh. He's literally been
Speaker 1: your small ball kind of like power forward center guy
Speaker 1: for a good chunk of this. You want to give
Speaker 1: up Rui Hachimura. You want to give up Austin Reeves. Like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, like you're gonna have a really hard time
Speaker 1: coming up with a player that makes sense to packaging
Speaker 1: a deal like that. I've seen Nick Claxton's name get
Speaker 1: thrown around. I like Nick Claxton. He fits the mold
Speaker 1: of what the Lake would want to do for several
Speaker 1: specific reasons. One, Nick Claxton is a good switching big
Speaker 1: so it fits naturally within JJ Reddick's defensive scheme. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, you could have some flexibility in
Speaker 1: terms of running drop or having him roam and protect
Speaker 1: the rim if you need to. He's not the best
Speaker 1: rebounding center in the world, but he's decent at it,
Speaker 1: and in general I've been I've been less worried about
Speaker 1: the Lakers rebounding than other people. I think they hold
Speaker 1: up a little better than people give him credit for
Speaker 1: since the ad trade. Claxton also is your stereotypical vertical spacer,
Speaker 1: a guy that can roll to the rim and be that,
Speaker 1: you know, that outlet for Luca in ballscreen actions and
Speaker 1: out of the dunker spot. Right. So, like, I want
Speaker 1: to be clear that I think Claxton is a is
Speaker 1: a good fit in a vacuum. But it's like, do
Speaker 1: I like Claxton enough to sacrifice a like a ruy Hachamura. No?
Speaker 1: Do I like Claxon enough to sacrifice a Gabe Vincent?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. So, like it would have to be
Speaker 1: Van do in order to make any sense, because then
Speaker 1: in theory, you have Claxton with the starters, your small
Speaker 1: ball look would be could still exist in a different
Speaker 1: configuration with Ruey Lebron and Dorian Finney Smith with Luca like,
Speaker 1: you still have some of those looks. But it's like
Speaker 1: will the Nets take Van do in a deal like
Speaker 1: that or do they want a better player back? And
Speaker 1: so most of this to go back to your question
Speaker 1: like should they use the mid Level Exception on Nikhil
Speaker 1: Alexander Walker or should they use it on a different center,
Speaker 1: Like all of it comes down to the caliber of
Speaker 1: player that you can get. So if you feel like
Speaker 1: you can get a center that can really play playoff
Speaker 1: minutes at the mL and you don't need to trade
Speaker 1: any guys, I think you go after that. If you
Speaker 1: can't get a center with the mL E. If it's
Speaker 1: a guy like Drummond, who I see as a guy
Speaker 1: that would be not worth the MLEE, that would have
Speaker 1: too many shortcomings to be justifiable in that slot, then
Speaker 1: I'd rather use it on a guy like Nikkeil Alexander Walker.
Speaker 1: I think k Kile Alexander Walker would be a dream
Speaker 1: fit with this Lakers team. A guard that can switch
Speaker 1: and he just had a really really nice season as
Speaker 1: a catch and shoot player, which is so vitally important
Speaker 1: within the Lakers offensive system. So, like I would prioritize
Speaker 1: center first because you have your starting four right like
Speaker 1: you're going down in a big playoff series with Luca,
Speaker 1: Austin Lebron and Ruey, and so you don't want to
Speaker 1: waste a big asset on a player that's coming off
Speaker 1: the bench if you can spend it on an asset
Speaker 1: that would start, Like for instance, like if it turns
Speaker 1: into a thing where you have the assets to make
Speaker 1: a trade for Nick Claxton, that should be your number
Speaker 1: one priority if you can pull it off while giving
Speaker 1: up a guy like Van doh and Kliba, because you
Speaker 1: maintain the integrity of the starting four one through four
Speaker 1: and you add somebody significant to that starting role. But
Speaker 1: like if it's the MLI like, let's take Claxton out
Speaker 1: of the equation and it's like Nikhil Alexander Walker or
Speaker 1: a good starting caliber center that is someone that you
Speaker 1: trust to play in the postseason. I use the mL
Speaker 1: on that because he would start, whereas Nikhil Alexander Walker
Speaker 1: is a shoe in bench player. In this construct of
Speaker 1: the team, But in the dream scenario, you end up
Speaker 1: getting a guy like Nikhil Alexander Walker with the mid
Speaker 1: level exception, and you can pull off a trade for
Speaker 1: Nick Claxton without giving up a Ruy hatcha Murrow, without
Speaker 1: giving up a Gabe Vincent, without giving up a Dorian
Speaker 1: Finney Smith, without giving up an Austin reeves So and Austin.
Speaker 1: Obviously you're not giving him up for Claxton, but you
Speaker 1: get the point. Like, I would do the Claxton trade
Speaker 1: as long as it's just Vando and Klieba, maybe another minimum,
Speaker 1: whatever the money takes, but I would not give up
Speaker 1: one of those other forwards in a deal for a
Speaker 1: guy like Claxton. Hey, Jason, big fan of the show,
Speaker 1: Keep up the spectacular work. My friends and I have
Speaker 1: constantly bickered about Yokach's placement on the all time lists
Speaker 1: as of today and where he would be in comparison
Speaker 1: to some of the all time greats. The player we
Speaker 1: argue the most about is Kevin Durant. I personally believe
Speaker 1: kde is a top fifteen to twenty player, but with
Speaker 1: Jokic being unlikely to truly surpass that entire tier. However,
Speaker 1: my friends disagree. How much weight does the difficulty of
Speaker 1: a championship run the team you have in the era
Speaker 1: in the era have in all time lists. When talking
Speaker 1: about the talents like Adie and Jokic, all that stuff,
Speaker 1: I think plays a certain role. It's like, it's also,
Speaker 1: you know, think about what you're trying to convince. Convincing
Speaker 1: me of something is going to be different of convincing
Speaker 1: you of something. That's when we talk about the court
Speaker 1: of public opinion. It's kind of like a Shmortgish board
Speaker 1: of different philosophies, and people are going to interpret things differently.
Speaker 1: It's no different than like everyone watches the exact same
Speaker 1: film that everyone else watches, and like a lot of
Speaker 1: people think Giannis is the second best player in the world,
Speaker 1: a lot of people think Shay is the second best
Speaker 1: player in the world. It's because they value different things,
Speaker 1: they interpret information differently. Now, one of the things that
Speaker 1: I would talk about is you could put together a
Speaker 1: stretch of games this year where Jokics played and be like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this guy is one of the worst
Speaker 1: defensive players in the history of the world. You could
Speaker 1: pick up a stretch of games from Kevin Durant or
Speaker 1: Steph or Lebron this year and be like, oh man,
Speaker 1: completely washed, no chance. But now Steph looks like the
Speaker 1: bona fide head of the Snake on a real championship contender.
Speaker 1: Lebron uh with exception of the brief stretch coming back
Speaker 1: from his groin injury. Like before he got hurt, Lebron
Speaker 1: is playing at a top five level on a serious team.
Speaker 1: Don't be surprised, guys if Minnesota makes a trade for
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant this summer and then suddenly you start seeing
Speaker 1: all these takes at the beginning of next year, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, AD's playing the best basketball he's played
Speaker 1: in five years. And it's like is he or is
Speaker 1: it just that he's on a better team now, Like Steph,
Speaker 1: You're getting a different version of Steph now because he
Speaker 1: believes in what the team can do and the team
Speaker 1: around him is better. Lebron is playing better than he
Speaker 1: did in December because he believes in what the team
Speaker 1: is doing and the team is better. Kevin Durant hasn't
Speaker 1: looked as good this year with Phoenix because the team
Speaker 1: sucks and he doesn't believe in what they're doing. Jokic
Speaker 1: is playing his worst defense of the season. You know why,
Speaker 1: because their team doesn't really have a chance. He knows it,
Speaker 1: they all know it. They just fired their head coach
Speaker 1: and their GM. So like at a certain point, a
Speaker 1: lot of this, like a lot of this stuff right now,
Speaker 1: has to do with the surrounding circumstances. I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: the least bit surprised if there's this whole take about
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's renaissance of in his career next year just
Speaker 1: because he gets traded to a better situation and so
Speaker 1: moving back to like one of the earlier points in
Speaker 1: your question, where does Jokic place all time? It's so
Speaker 1: difficult for me to rank Jokic because of the fact
Speaker 1: that he's so just right at the start of really
Speaker 1: telling his story. I shouldn't say at the start, but
Speaker 1: he's right in the middle of telling his story. And
Speaker 1: you know, right now he has one championship, one finals, MVP,
Speaker 1: three MVPs, so much of where he lands all time,
Speaker 1: he's demonstrated the ceiling. Yokich has done something that very
Speaker 1: few players in NBA history have done. He's had a
Speaker 1: multi year run of being the undisputed best player in
Speaker 1: the world. The only players recently that have done that
Speaker 1: is Lebron in like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. Even even
Speaker 1: Kobe in the late twenty tens, it was a debate
Speaker 1: is it Kobe or Lebron? Is it Kobe? You know?
Speaker 1: In the early twenty tens, it was was it Kobe
Speaker 1: Shack or Tim Duncan. If you if you go back,
Speaker 1: there's all these debates surrounding those guys that felt like
Speaker 1: lots of guys on the same tier. It's Jo Kitchen
Speaker 1: these couple of years, it's Lebron in twenty twelve, twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: it's Michael Jordan back in the nineties. Like there are
Speaker 1: very few examples of like a this guy's just obviously
Speaker 1: better than everybody type of guy. Jo Kicch has demonstrated
Speaker 1: that that automatically stamps him in a certain way as
Speaker 1: it pertains to all time discussions. I already think he's
Speaker 1: reached the highest level offensively that I've ever seen a
Speaker 1: player reach. So that is his feather in his cap.
Speaker 1: Now it's about accumulating the accolades, and that's where it
Speaker 1: just gets tough, because like guys like it's just it's
Speaker 1: crazy to think about. Like, imagine you Denver fans, Imagine
Speaker 1: how happy you were when Yoka choisted the trophy. Imagine
Speaker 1: that feeling of euphoria that you felt. Now imagine doing
Speaker 1: it again, and then doing it again, and then doing
Speaker 1: it again. That's what Steph did, That's what Lebron did.
Speaker 1: Now imagine doing it again. That's what Magic Johnson did.
Speaker 1: That's what Kobe Bryant did. Now imagine doing it again.
Speaker 1: That's what Michael Jordan did. So the point being like
Speaker 1: there's in order to really gain ground. It's about the
Speaker 1: accumulation of accolades now, but Jokic is ceiling that he
Speaker 1: reached has already given him such a strong foundation for
Speaker 1: his all time case. Why oh this is so fun?
Speaker 1: Why is it that players like Lebron and Katie can
Speaker 1: basically average the same stats that they averaged ten years
Speaker 1: ago but can't have the same impact on winning that
Speaker 1: they did ten years ago. Obviously, defense and athleticism is
Speaker 1: a big part of it, but why don't their stats
Speaker 1: take a hit? This is where I intended to unleash
Speaker 1: that take that I unleashed a second ago, which is
Speaker 1: basically that like to me, Lebron and KD are still
Speaker 1: every bit as good as bad at basketball as they've
Speaker 1: mostly been over the last five years. Same thing goes
Speaker 1: with Steph and I think a lot of times we
Speaker 1: discount the obvious reality that basketball is a team sport
Speaker 1: and it's really difficult to win when you don't have
Speaker 1: good basketball players on your team. And what has happened
Speaker 1: with Lebron and Steph is they've gotten more good basketball
Speaker 1: players on their team, and now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: everyone's like, look at Lebron and Steph. They're resuscitated, and
Speaker 1: it's like, actually, they just believe and their team is better.
Speaker 1: And I firmly believe that we are going to get
Speaker 1: a complete, like a complete just reopening of KD and
Speaker 1: where his status is in the league as a player
Speaker 1: once he gets moved to a better team this summer. Now,
Speaker 1: if he gets moved to another team and they continue
Speaker 1: to struggle, that's where it'll probably become a hard thing
Speaker 1: for him to overcome in the court of public opinion.
Speaker 1: Since it was reported that there is a chance that
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray doesn't start the playoffs because of his hamstring.
Speaker 1: If the Nuggets have an early exit in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Do you think it'd be more valuable for the Nuggets
Speaker 1: to seek with Jamal Murray trade to improve the team instead
Speaker 1: of MPJ due to the fact that MPJ has been
Speaker 1: more available than Jamal over the last five years. We
Speaker 1: already hit that earlier in the show, so I won't
Speaker 1: go any deeper, but I wouldn't I think all. I
Speaker 1: think both of them should be on the table. I'd
Speaker 1: consider trading both of them for players that have more
Speaker 1: of a two way type of impact because of the
Speaker 1: direction that I think this team needs to go. I
Speaker 1: don't think you can play Jamal Murray and Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior next to Yokic anymore. I think that ship has sailed.
Speaker 1: Last question on the Rockets game with the Warriors. All
Speaker 1: game long, they were three quarter clutching Steph like both
Speaker 1: arms out around Steph, not just around his back for
Speaker 1: a total wrap round. The only play Steph could go
Speaker 1: was backwards to get out of the clutch. Isn't that
Speaker 1: a hold or something? I must be naive because they
Speaker 1: didn't call it all game long? Am I missing something?
Speaker 1: The game plan for dealing with death has been the
Speaker 1: same since the Calves did it way back in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: Grab hold, be physical, try to wear him down so
Speaker 1: that he doesn't have the legs to make his shots. Now,
Speaker 1: this is the smart strategy to deal with Steph because
Speaker 1: his one big weakness is that he's not a truly
Speaker 1: imposing athlete, and so that's the place where you can
Speaker 1: attack him most frequently. I don't think Warriors fans should
Speaker 1: complain about their officiating for several reasons. The biggest one
Speaker 1: is they're a team that is an extremely physical defense.
Speaker 1: I promise you when I watched the Warriors, they're one
Speaker 1: of the most physical defenses that I watch. Draymond's hands
Speaker 1: are on everybody, Moses Moody's hand check in full court
Speaker 1: all game long. Pods is hitting people, Looney's hitting people,
Speaker 1: Jimmy's hitting people. That is an incredibly physical defense. Part
Speaker 1: of their identity is beating the shit out of people. Okay,
Speaker 1: Draymond literally beats the shit out of peace people every
Speaker 1: single game. That is their identity. That is why that
Speaker 1: dynamic of allowing physicality in the aggregate actually benefits Golden State. However,
Speaker 1: it's going to manifest in teams in terms of game
Speaker 1: plan being very physical with Steph. You just should get
Speaker 1: ready for that, because it's exactly what happened last year
Speaker 1: or two years ago when they played in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three in the postseason, even happened the year they won
Speaker 1: the title, happened every single time Steph has played in
Speaker 1: the postseason. It's just kind of like part of the deal.
Speaker 1: In terms of defensive game planning, every guy has like
Speaker 1: a thing that they do to attack that person. How
Speaker 1: do you attack Jokic. You gotta swarm him and double
Speaker 1: team him, keep all the coverages weird to try to
Speaker 1: keep him off balance, and you need to attack him
Speaker 1: in ball screens as much as possible by bringing him
Speaker 1: up to the level. How do you attack Luca ball
Speaker 1: pressure with big, strong wings. Probably better to the blitz
Speaker 1: than to let him lead on an island. Right. How
Speaker 1: do you attack Giannis? Build a wall in transition, try
Speaker 1: to make him beat you as a passer or as
Speaker 1: an o for the top shot maker. Right, Like these
Speaker 1: are all like even Shay, the game plan is starting
Speaker 1: to come together. It's like, oh, Shay's not the best
Speaker 1: passer in the world, so if we overload on him
Speaker 1: and try to make him a surgical playmaker, he can
Speaker 1: have his limitations Lebron over the year. It was he
Speaker 1: can't shoot, or he's not a reliable consistent shooter. Let's
Speaker 1: back off of him and dare him to shoot. That
Speaker 1: was the thing he had to overcome with the Spurs
Speaker 1: back in twenty thirteen. Right like every player has their
Speaker 1: thing they have to overcome. For Steph, it's physicality. For Steph,
Speaker 1: it's attacking him when he's on defense, and then when
Speaker 1: he's on offense, being as physical as possible to try
Speaker 1: to wear his legs down so that he can't make
Speaker 1: shots when he needs to make them. That's just how
Speaker 1: it is with all the stars in the league. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: That's all I have for today. Is always as sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow morning with game reactions to a bunch
Speaker 1: of good games that we have in today's slate. We
Speaker 1: also have more Michael Malone news hopefully that we can
Speaker 1: dig into at that point. As always, as sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I'll
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow. What's up, guys, There's always I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening. To and supporting Oops tonight. They would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. The volume