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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume.
Speaker 2: Happy Wednesday again everybody. For those of you guys who
Speaker 2: weren't here earlier.
Speaker 1: Today we did a breakdown of King's suns as well
Speaker 1: as well as a mail bag. In tonight's show, We're
Speaker 1: Gonna do It Old Fashion episode of Hoops Tonight, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be breaking down a bunch of games from around
Speaker 1: the league. Clippers, Warriors, Warriors looked like they had that
Speaker 1: one in the bag. And then a crazy offensive run
Speaker 1: in the second half from the Clippers comes back from
Speaker 1: behind to steal that one. In Golden State, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk heat sixers and a little bit about Miami's leaning
Speaker 1: into zone defense this season. And then after that Lakers Jazz.
Speaker 1: Lakers finish off the stretch before the All Star Break
Speaker 1: with a big couple of wins in a back to
Speaker 1: back going into Utah. Utah is a tough team to
Speaker 1: beat at home without Lebron James, they go in there
Speaker 1: and get a big win. The offense looks great again.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk a little bit early returns from the
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwiddie buy out signing and how that is panned out.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, tonight, we're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the report that came out this morning that the
Speaker 1: Warriors tried to pay Lebron James with Steph Curry on
Speaker 1: the Warriors in the middle of this trade deadline cycle,
Speaker 1: I guess, in the final twenty hours before the deadline.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk a little bit about that at
Speaker 1: the end of the show. Unlike what we did last time,
Speaker 1: instead of doing a mail bag at the end of
Speaker 1: the show, I really really want to dive into a
Speaker 1: game I did not get to see tonight, which was
Speaker 1: King's Nuggets.
Speaker 2: Says the King's got another win over Denver.
Speaker 1: They're second in a row, and I just kind of
Speaker 1: want to dive into that film at some point before
Speaker 1: before we go off for the All Star break. So
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning, I'm gonna do just a breakdown of King's Nuggets,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna do the mail bag at the
Speaker 1: tail end of that show before we do the Nerd
Speaker 1: Sash guys on Friday. So drop mailbag questions in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments of this video and we will hit them
Speaker 1: at the tail end of tomorrow morning's show. You guys
Speaker 1: know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to our
Speaker 1: brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second to scroll down
Speaker 1: and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast
Speaker 1: feed wherever you'ture podcast under Hoop tonight. It's also really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you leave a rating and a
Speaker 1: review on that front. Don't forget about my Twitter feed
Speaker 1: at Underscore Jason lt. So you guys don't miss show
Speaker 1: announcements as well as film threads. And then last, but
Speaker 1: not least, like I mentioned earlier, keep dropping mail bag
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments, All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 2: So huge win for the Clippers.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was a tough game against a red
Speaker 1: hot Warriors team in Golden State. Kwhi Leonard out. And
Speaker 1: you know, one of the big things that stood out
Speaker 1: to me is it reminded me a lot of what happened,
Speaker 1: especially that offensive run that they went on there down
Speaker 1: the stretch where they were just consistently generating these good
Speaker 1: looks for good three point shooters in the corner. It
Speaker 1: reminded me of the stretch that the Clippers went on
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one after Kawhi Leonard went down, when
Speaker 1: Paul George and Reggie Jackson kind of led a similar
Speaker 1: type of run where they were just able to consistently
Speaker 1: either beat their man off the dribble and get all
Speaker 1: the way to the basket, or draw in that help
Speaker 1: defender and make the kickout passes that would lead to
Speaker 1: the driving kick basketball that would lead to a wide
Speaker 1: open op opportunity for a high level spot up player.
Speaker 1: And like, this is where I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the upside of building a system versus relying solely on talent.
Speaker 1: This is where we got to give some credit to
Speaker 1: tyl Lou. You know, when we talk about the best
Speaker 1: coaches in the league, we typically talk about Eric Spolstra,
Speaker 1: We typically talk about Steve Kerr. But to me, ty
Speaker 1: Lou is pretty close to those guys. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that I've consistently talked about with ty Lou
Speaker 1: in his time in the NBA is I think he
Speaker 1: has some of the best spacing principles in the league.
Speaker 1: He knows the best way to put his stars in
Speaker 1: a position where they can play easy basketball, where they're
Speaker 1: either on an island having an opportunity to take advantage
Speaker 1: of their great gifts, or the same types of kickout
Speaker 1: opportunities are there throughout the season. Everything is so well
Speaker 1: established that it almost becomes second nature to these guys.
Speaker 1: And again that's what happens. You lose Kawhi Leonard in
Speaker 1: the middle of a playoff series against the Jazz, and
Speaker 1: Paul George and Reggie Jackson are able to lead them
Speaker 1: through anyway. And then they even got within two wins
Speaker 1: of the NBA Finals And what did they lose a
Speaker 1: close game on? Didn't they lose a close game on
Speaker 1: like a deandreton lob at one point in that in
Speaker 1: that series, Like that series was really close. They were
Speaker 1: that close to being a team that made it to
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals without Kawhi Leonard, and that that to me,
Speaker 1: it's a credit to Tylu. This is a team that
Speaker 1: has a certain brand of basketball that they play night
Speaker 1: in and night out, regardless if it was in the lineup.
Speaker 1: This is one of the upsides by the way of
Speaker 1: having a plethora of shot creation, one of the upsides
Speaker 1: of bringing a James Harden into the equation if everything
Speaker 1: is slotted differently, like, for instance, not a lot of
Speaker 1: Russ on the ball at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: He did have a big offensive rebound crashing along the baseline,
Speaker 1: and he had a big driving kick driving kick play
Speaker 1: where he hit a mere coffee in the right corner
Speaker 1: for a three. So like he had a couple of
Speaker 1: possessions where he impacted winning down the stretch, but like
Speaker 1: he didn't have to do a ton with the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands. If James Harden is not in the equation,
Speaker 1: maybe Russ is getting a lot of those possessions. Maybe
Speaker 1: it goes differently, right, like bringing in James Harden just
Speaker 1: gives you another layer of a It's an example of
Speaker 1: where redundancy can be a good thing, because then when
Speaker 1: one of those stars has to miss, it's like, hey, Paul, George,
Speaker 1: James Harden, we need you guys to consistently break down
Speaker 1: the defense possession after possession after possession. They can do that.
Speaker 1: That is not asking them to do too much. A
Speaker 1: lot of times in the league, when you see a
Speaker 1: star go down, all of a sudden, everyone has to
Speaker 1: step into a role that they're not qualified for, and
Speaker 1: then you can start to see a lot of downturn.
Speaker 1: You start to see role players struggle even at role
Speaker 1: player things as they are asked to do more offensively.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the upside of adding James Harden too.
Speaker 2: This system.
Speaker 1: Down the stretch, he's able to break Brandon Pitzemski off
Speaker 1: with the crossover and get the defense in rotation that
Speaker 1: generates a wide open Norman pal three. And then the
Speaker 1: second half of it. And again, like we talk about
Speaker 1: all the three phases of offense, when it comes to
Speaker 1: like advantage creation, there's the initial advantage, then there's extending
Speaker 1: the advantage, and then there's play finishing The initial advantage
Speaker 1: is getting the defense into rotation. That can be done
Speaker 1: by either running pick and roll in a way that's
Speaker 1: successful enough that you have to bring a third defender over.
Speaker 1: It could be running a post up where you bring
Speaker 1: a second defender over, or double team.
Speaker 2: It could be a face up or an.
Speaker 1: ISO where you have guys digging down really hard and
Speaker 1: you're able to make a swing passer generate a spot
Speaker 1: up opportunity. Don't really matter how you do it, but
Speaker 1: that first step is getting the defense into rotation. What
Speaker 1: that means is somebody's got to leave their man to
Speaker 1: guard a different man, and now everybody's running around. Everybody
Speaker 1: is basically in this like chaos form of defense, and
Speaker 1: you know, they're really good defenses in the league can
Speaker 1: still have some success defensively in rotation. But even the
Speaker 1: best defenses in the league are not as good in
Speaker 1: rotation as they are when they're actually able to stay
Speaker 1: on an island and stay with their man. And so
Speaker 1: step one is getting that defense into rotation. Step two
Speaker 1: is the vantage extension, which is basically getting the ball
Speaker 1: to the finishing play. That means if you don't have
Speaker 1: an open three, if you don't have a wide open
Speaker 1: driving layup, it's your job to extend the advantage by
Speaker 1: ripping through and getting into the lane and drawing another
Speaker 1: defender in so that you can maybe get a higher
Speaker 1: quality spot up opportunity. But that last piece is arguably
Speaker 1: the most important one. It's the play finishing piece. You
Speaker 1: gotta have people, whether it's a vertical spacer that can
Speaker 1: dunk a lob above the rim, whether it's a guy
Speaker 1: that can beat a specific matchup because a team you
Speaker 1: know in rotation ended up with a small guard on
Speaker 1: a big player and he has an opportunity to go
Speaker 1: one on one around the basket, or it's an elite shooter,
Speaker 1: you gotta have a guy that can finish that playoff right.
Speaker 1: This has been a huge part of what's made the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets so successful over the years. It's not just
Speaker 1: the Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic two man game or their
Speaker 1: ability as individuals to beat switches in one on one coverages.
Speaker 1: It's their ability to when those extra defenders come into
Speaker 1: the equation, to get the ball to players that can
Speaker 1: convert those spot up opportunities at an incredibly high rate.
Speaker 1: That's what creates the real pick your poison type of
Speaker 1: problems that the elite offenses in the league can cause.
Speaker 2: Norman Powell is the very.
Speaker 1: Best spot up player in the league this year. Among
Speaker 1: forty eight qualifying players who have had at least two
Speaker 1: hundred spot up opportunities, he's number one. He's converting them
Speaker 1: at one point four points per possession. That's insane. That's
Speaker 1: like off the charts good. Michael Porter Junior was the
Speaker 1: guy who's basically the best in the league at it.
Speaker 1: Last year he was about one point three, so he's
Speaker 1: another level even above that ten percent rough a little
Speaker 1: bit less than ten percent. That's a significant that's a
Speaker 1: significant weapon to have on the weak side. A mere
Speaker 1: coffee hits that corner three out of the right corner
Speaker 1: on the Russell Westbrook kickout. He's at one point two
Speaker 1: to three points per possession in spot up situations this year.
Speaker 1: That's really really good. That's what the Clippers do best.
Speaker 1: They convert those opportunities. But there's the two phases to it.
Speaker 1: You've seen it before SOT against Minnesota when they don't
Speaker 1: have good advantage creation games, the spot up opportunities aren't
Speaker 1: a high quality and those numbers can take a hit
Speaker 1: but if they can get those, if they can get
Speaker 1: guys like Paul George and James Harden to get the
Speaker 1: defense in rotation, they don't have just guys who can
Speaker 1: make plays on the weak side. They have absolutely deadly
Speaker 1: you cannot afford to leave this guy open type of guys.
Speaker 1: That's the problem that Denver presents for teams. And now
Speaker 1: you're seeing the Clippers do the same thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: those last two threes that Norman Powell hit, look at
Speaker 1: the close out. There was one from Brandon Pitzemski in
Speaker 1: the left corner and one from Draymond Green in the
Speaker 1: right corner, where literally they were flying into the play
Speaker 1: because they knew if I don't chase him off the line,
Speaker 1: he is going to make it. And he had to
Speaker 1: where withal the somehow like pump bait and then like lean.
Speaker 2: Forward and make those shots.
Speaker 1: It's just again, that's the that's the kind of combination,
Speaker 1: that's the secret sauce there for the Clippers. Elite advantage creators,
Speaker 1: the total aggregate ball handling on the floor to extend advantages,
Speaker 1: and then top tier play finishers that can convert those
Speaker 1: the end of that sequence at an incredibly high rate.
Speaker 1: And head coach that puts them all in the right positions.
Speaker 1: And I mean, hell, half the time, when Kawhi Leonards
Speaker 1: out there and they're all healthy, a lot of those
Speaker 1: spot up opportunities are coming to James Harden, to Paul George,
Speaker 1: to Kawhi himself, and that's what makes this team so special.
Speaker 1: And then there was one other key stretch in this
Speaker 1: game that I wanted to talk about. It was right
Speaker 1: at the end of the first half. Lawyers won up
Speaker 1: fifteen and James Harden led a little mini like eight
Speaker 1: to zero run that completely changed the dynamic of the game.
Speaker 1: Had a setup and pick and roll for Zubox that
Speaker 1: got him to free throws. He actually blocked Steph Curry
Speaker 1: on a step back three, and then he himself hit
Speaker 1: his step back three. Turned a fifteen point game into
Speaker 1: an eight point or into a seven point game going
Speaker 1: into halftime. Completely changed the dynamic. Made a couple plays
Speaker 1: early in the third quarter. I think Paul George got
Speaker 1: an and one at the start third quarter. Next thing
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's kind of a dog fight, and
Speaker 1: I know the Warriors made their run, and like here's
Speaker 1: the thing, Like there's a there's a harsh reality when
Speaker 1: it comes to winning these types of games. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of fans in particular, have a certain expectation, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're better, why don't we just go in there and
Speaker 1: kick their ass? But that's just not how it works.
Speaker 1: The Clippers have one of the best records in basketball
Speaker 1: this year. They basically have been the best team since
Speaker 1: the zero to six stretch after the hard In trade,
Speaker 1: and so they can't afford to lose in Golden State tonight.
Speaker 1: And it's not a big deal. You drop that game,
Speaker 1: you go home, You're like, hey, we gave them a
Speaker 1: good fight. You know, we had that little run there
Speaker 1: at the middle of the game where we kind of
Speaker 1: made it close. They they got us at the end
Speaker 1: of the third quarter. Whatever, Like, it is what it is, right,
Speaker 1: get Kawi land or was out. We live to fight
Speaker 1: another day. The Warriors needed this game, like they they
Speaker 1: are trying to claw out of the ten seed and
Speaker 1: so like, and you're on the road, so like, it's
Speaker 1: unrealistic to expect a Clippers team to just walk in
Speaker 1: there and to just dominate. You have to do what
Speaker 1: really good teams do in these situations, which is weather runs,
Speaker 1: stay invested, emotionally and physically in the game so that
Speaker 1: when you see your opportunities, you could take advantage. Kawhi
Speaker 1: is the force multiplier that makes you a champion. But
Speaker 1: like that, that level of commitment from the top down,
Speaker 1: whether it's the perimeter defense, whether it's the the Kawhi
Speaker 1: and or excuse me, Paul Georgian and James Harden, just
Speaker 1: staying emotionally invested even when they're down double digits on
Speaker 1: the road in Golden State. Even just the emotion you
Speaker 1: saw from the coaching staff or from Mason Plumley in
Speaker 1: this game. Like, those are the kinds of things that
Speaker 1: I think are really important benchmarks for championship contenders.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I talked about this when we talked about the Clippers
Speaker 1: in the past, but like generally speaking in NBA history,
Speaker 1: there are these check marks that you want to see
Speaker 1: for a team that has a real chance to win
Speaker 1: a championship. It's like, can they really defend? Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a big one. Do they have versatile shot creation, meaning
Speaker 1: like they don't rely on one kind of shot creation,
Speaker 1: like where if that starts to fail, they fall apart.
Speaker 1: You want versatile shot creation, You want multiple high level
Speaker 1: role players, that are good at the little things they
Speaker 1: have that too, you want to coach is great with
Speaker 1: adjustments and with setting your players up to succeed and
Speaker 1: can bring the best out of that roster. That's great too.
Speaker 1: But one of the big check marks is are they
Speaker 1: attacking the regular season on a night in a night
Speaker 1: out basis, even on nights where it seems like it's
Speaker 1: okay to kind of let go of the rope a
Speaker 1: little bit. And again, like I just I just think
Speaker 1: that the Clippers keep passing these tests with flying colors,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be really interesting to see if they
Speaker 1: can actually put it all together this year when they
Speaker 1: get to the postseason. All the Warriors front, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest driving forces of their recent success
Speaker 1: has been their defense, and a big part of that
Speaker 1: has been, like I've been talking about, wave after wave
Speaker 1: of perimeter athleticism, whether it's a guy like Brandon Pizemski
Speaker 1: is pretty good guard defender for a young player, right,
Speaker 1: or even all these wing athletes that they have, guys
Speaker 1: like Jonathan Kaminga, guys like Andrew Wiggins, guys like Moses
Speaker 1: Moody bringing Gary Payton into the equation. When you Combine
Speaker 1: that with the ability that Draymond Green has to be
Speaker 1: a back line anchor for you, you can be an
Speaker 1: excellent defense, and we've seen that consistently from the Warriors.
Speaker 1: But in this game, they just completely lost control of
Speaker 1: the of the point of attack and they were just
Speaker 1: constantly in rotation, just breakdown after breakdown, and it's just
Speaker 1: I don't care how hard you're rotating. I saw Brandon
Speaker 1: Pazemski and Draymond Green make just ferocious rotations to try
Speaker 1: to chase Norman Palel off the line, but they're just
Speaker 1: too out of position, and they're out of position because
Speaker 1: they're having breakdowns at the point of attack. And like, again,
Speaker 1: like it's hard to be too critical because that's specifically
Speaker 1: been a thing they've been good at as of late. Again,
Speaker 1: like that's part of the thing is it's one thing
Speaker 1: to do it against the lower level competition, You've got
Speaker 1: to do it against the best teams in the league.
Speaker 1: And in a big way, the Warriors perimeter defense kind
Speaker 1: of failed to test today. But like the question is,
Speaker 1: do you think Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton and Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga and Moses Moody and Brandon Pitzemski, Do you think
Speaker 1: these guys are capable of defending well enough on the
Speaker 1: perimeter to succeed at the highest levels. I think they are.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Warriors are going to lose this
Speaker 1: year in the playoffs because of perimeter defense. I think
Speaker 1: if they do, it'll probably be because offensive creation after
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. That like drop off whenever Steph isn't making
Speaker 1: everything is pretty significant for this team, and I think
Speaker 1: that will end up if they end up losing at
Speaker 1: some point this season, that will be what ends up
Speaker 1: doing it. And so in a lot of ways, like
Speaker 1: you kind of just have to cross it off as
Speaker 1: a bad day, but it certainly is disappointing when you
Speaker 1: have a test like this, and not only that, you
Speaker 1: build yourself a significant margin and you have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to put them away with your textbook Warriors third quarter
Speaker 1: run and you can't do it. So definitely a discouraging day.
Speaker 1: They'll live to fight another day. Obviously, the Jazz lost today,
Speaker 1: so it's not like they're in some sort of troubling
Speaker 1: position in the standings, but like it's just it's just
Speaker 1: it's definitely discouraging. But I don't think perimeter defense is
Speaker 1: going to be a big issue for this Warriors team
Speaker 1: in the long run, and there was there was some
Speaker 1: encouraging stuff in there as well, Like I I really
Speaker 1: do see upside in the athleticism that the Warriors have.
Speaker 1: Like how many threes did Steph Curry hit tonight that
Speaker 1: were off of these like chaotic plays where like Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins or Poziemski or Jonathan Mingo would get a deflection
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the ball would just be
Speaker 1: rolling around on the floor and guys are diving on
Speaker 1: the floor and next thing you know, Steph has a
Speaker 1: wide open three. And Steph is like the best player
Speaker 1: in the world at converting chaos into into offensive success.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's like he like turns chaos into lemonade
Speaker 1: or whatever the hell the basketball version of that expression is, like,
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of upside there. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of good tonight, But you gotta close the deal. Got
Speaker 1: to play off forty eight minutes, especially against the best
Speaker 1: teams in the league, and they let go of the
Speaker 1: rope at the worst possible time, and they just could
Speaker 1: never regain control of it. After that run to start
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, all right, So we're gonna hit on
Speaker 1: two additional games from tonight. We're gonna hit he hit
Speaker 1: the Heat Sixers and Lakers Jazz So Heat Sixers. I
Speaker 1: wanted to zoom in on the zone defense. This is
Speaker 1: a big zone game for the Miami Heat. They ran
Speaker 1: thirty seven possessions of zone, holding the Sixers to just
Speaker 1: twenty seven points on those possessions, which is zero point
Speaker 1: seven to three points per possession. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that Eric Spolser will do because they run zone
Speaker 1: I believe I was looking it up earlier tonight. I
Speaker 1: think they've run it. They run it about eleven times
Speaker 1: per game on average, and they've leaned into zone a
Speaker 1: lot more this year. Miami Heat teams under Eric Spolser
Speaker 1: have typically used a lot of zone. It's been a
Speaker 1: big part of Eric Spolser's kind of coaching strategy of
Speaker 1: keeping teams off balance. And we're gonna talk more about
Speaker 1: that in a minute, but like one of the things
Speaker 1: that specific specifically has led the Heat to lean so
Speaker 1: much into his zone. This year's personnel, you know, like
Speaker 1: you they're playing a lot of guys between guys like
Speaker 1: Kevin Love and Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson, guys that
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have a ton of defensive talent, right, and
Speaker 1: so putting them in a position where they have a
Speaker 1: more achievable role within a zone scheme where you're kind
Speaker 1: of counting a lot on the intellectual side disrupting the offense,
Speaker 1: like you can kind of get some good results there.
Speaker 1: And to give you an idea, the Heat of runs
Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty five possessions of zone this year.
Speaker 1: Only the Jazz have run more seven hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: six And obviously the Jazz have a very kind of
Speaker 1: different team as well in terms of the amount of
Speaker 1: guards that they play, and they're kind of in a
Speaker 1: similar predicament with defensive personnel. But to give you an idea,
Speaker 1: the third most frequent zone team is the Philadelphia seventy
Speaker 1: six ers at three hundred and forty possessions, which is
Speaker 1: about half what the Heat run. And for them, similar
Speaker 1: type of thing. They're trying to keep em beat at
Speaker 1: the rim and their two to three and they're dealing
Speaker 1: with some difficult, you know, perimeter personnel that they're trying
Speaker 1: to get stops with. But like especially now with Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler out with Terry Rozier out, hopefully his knees okay.
Speaker 1: With Josh Richardson out, like most of your perimeter defense
Speaker 1: talent is unavailable, and so leaning into that is is
Speaker 1: kind of a necessity and one of the things that
Speaker 1: Spolster will do too. And I learned this firsthand in
Speaker 1: the Lakers game a few weeks ago. But like when
Speaker 1: he smells blood in the water, like when he goes like, oh,
Speaker 1: these guys can't handle this, like when he identifies like
Speaker 1: they don't know how to score against the zone, because
Speaker 1: Philly scored just fine against Miami's man demand defense tonight.
Speaker 2: They were up over up over a point per.
Speaker 1: Possession in the half court, which is, you know, not
Speaker 1: a great number for a defense, but in the half
Speaker 1: court with their zone base, they did a really good job.
Speaker 1: And he ran look what is it, twenty two possessions
Speaker 1: of zone in the second half, which is like a
Speaker 1: crazy frequency, and and just.
Speaker 2: It held the Sixers to just forty two.
Speaker 1: Points in that period. It was like a now Sposer's
Speaker 1: run a bunch of different types of zone this year.
Speaker 1: He's run some odd band fronts, he's run some even
Speaker 1: man fronts, a lot of two three in this particular game,
Speaker 1: but the way he was doing it, which I thought
Speaker 1: was interesting, is he was really active out of the corners,
Speaker 1: so it almost like takes on like a four to
Speaker 1: one type of look where they're trying to keep Bam
Speaker 1: at the basket no matter what, and even when the
Speaker 1: ball would go to the high post, they would keep
Speaker 1: Bam back in a lot of cases, and if they
Speaker 1: did rotate to the middle of the floor, they would
Speaker 1: do it out of the corners, which just kind of
Speaker 1: allowed them to help them rebound because Bam was closer
Speaker 1: to the basket, and in general, it just kind of
Speaker 1: disrupted Philly's flow because they didn't really know how to
Speaker 1: attack it from there without active they were being out
Speaker 1: of the corners. Even when they tried to screen the
Speaker 1: top man of the zone, instead of getting into an
Speaker 1: open space in the middle, they were running into one
Speaker 1: of the lower guys, and I thought it was really interesting.
Speaker 1: And you know, from there they just made enough shots.
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow hit a couple of huge pull up two
Speaker 1: point shots going to his right hand side. Duncan Robinson
Speaker 1: hit a couple of massive threes. Jimi haw Kez had
Speaker 1: this really smart offensive re down where he was in
Speaker 1: the dunker spot on the right side of the floor,
Speaker 1: and Kelly Eubray had his back turn and he just
Speaker 1: kind of snuck right around the backside and went on
Speaker 1: the other side of the room. He's basically playing the
Speaker 1: odds there. It's like, well, Kelly'll get the ball if
Speaker 1: it goes to the right, but if it goes to
Speaker 1: the left, it'll go to me. And the miss came
Speaker 1: to the left, it fell right into his hands and
Speaker 1: he popped it right into the basket and put him
Speaker 1: up one h three ninety seven. It was a huge
Speaker 1: play in this game because no one could score the
Speaker 1: damn basketball. And like in this Rock Fight game where
Speaker 1: Philly struggling to score against the zone, and you know,
Speaker 1: obviously Miami has some shot creation issues without Terry Rogier
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Jimmy Butler, you know, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson just flying around screens and
Speaker 1: getting into the lay, running into better athletes and having
Speaker 1: to make kickout passes.
Speaker 2: And like, like.
Speaker 1: A small play like that from Hyde Hawkas ends up
Speaker 1: being a gigantic swing in the game and ended up
Speaker 1: being enough for them to win. But like I thought
Speaker 1: it was really interesting because they only ran three possessions
Speaker 1: of zone against the Bucks, but then they ran thirty
Speaker 1: seven against the Sixers. And it's a great example of
Speaker 1: like you know, it's a tool that you can use
Speaker 1: in two different ways. You can use it as a
Speaker 1: method with which to win individual regular season games based
Speaker 1: on matchups, which is smart right now. Not only do
Speaker 1: you get thirty seven reps of practice to get all
Speaker 1: your guys kind of more locked in on the details
Speaker 1: of how to work inside their two three, but you
Speaker 1: also are giving yourself an opportunity to win a regular
Speaker 1: season game against a tough team like the Sixers, especially
Speaker 1: when they're at home, like they got a lot of speed,
Speaker 1: like Buddy Heald and Tyree Smacks. You're flying around shooting shots.
Speaker 1: You know, Paul Reid I had an efficient scoring game
Speaker 1: in this one. Like they have guys. They have guys
Speaker 1: they can cause problems for you if you're not, especially
Speaker 1: in Philly in a regular season setting. And it was
Speaker 1: just a great way to kind of squeeze a win out.
Speaker 1: And then the second piece of it is as a
Speaker 1: rhythm breaker, and like you know, Eric Sposter is so
Speaker 1: good at this. He practices the zone again, six and
Speaker 1: twenty five possessions over the of the season, like almost
Speaker 1: a dozen after tonight. I'm sure it's close to a
Speaker 1: dozen possessions per game. Those guys are practicing it so
Speaker 1: much that when they end up in a first round
Speaker 1: series and it's Game one in the middle of the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter and it's you know, eighty two to seventy
Speaker 1: seven and the heat are down, he'll go to zone
Speaker 1: for six possessions and just throw a giant wrench into things,
Speaker 1: disrupt the rhythm. Maybe he can turn a five point
Speaker 1: deficit into do a two point lead. Then he'll switch
Speaker 1: back to man and his team is more engaged and
Speaker 1: has momentum, and he'll ride that home and then randomly
Speaker 1: he'll bring it out out of a timeout and he'll
Speaker 1: disrupt and like that to me is like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of meat on the bone on the coaching side
Speaker 1: of things that a lot of coaches around the league
Speaker 1: don't really tap into. And Eric Spolser is just the
Speaker 1: very best in the league when it comes to finding
Speaker 1: all those tiny little advantages that a coach can find
Speaker 1: in a game through through the tactical side of things
Speaker 1: to bring the best out of his rosters or I
Speaker 1: thought it was just a fun, fun example of that
Speaker 1: on the Miami Heat side Jazz so a Laker offense
Speaker 1: came out red hot again in this game. They built
Speaker 1: a pretty significant lead in the first quarter, and then
Speaker 1: in the second quarter they just kind of let go
Speaker 1: of the rope defensively and it turned to this very
Speaker 1: up and down game. But they're able to stay in
Speaker 1: the games because they can score the basketball. They had
Speaker 1: seventy points in the first half of this particular game.
Speaker 1: And like, you know, we talked about this earlier with
Speaker 1: the Clippers, this concept of advantage creation, advantage extension, and
Speaker 1: play finishing. The Lakers, they those guys for them don't
Speaker 1: have a ton of defensive talent the way the Clippers do.
Speaker 1: Like the Clippers are getting that and Paul George is
Speaker 1: an excellent wing defender, and Kawhi Leonard is an excellent
Speaker 1: wing defender, right like, they have wave after wave of
Speaker 1: offensive talent that also can play on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. And that's why the Clippers are one of
Speaker 1: the best teams in the league, and that's why the
Speaker 1: Lakers are thirty and twenty six. But like I did think,
Speaker 1: you know, that game was really just this recent stretch
Speaker 1: from the Lakers is an excellent example of just how
Speaker 1: gifted this team is offensively when they have the type
Speaker 1: of rhythm and flow in the in the ball movement
Speaker 1: and player movement that they've had over the course of
Speaker 1: this last month. And like you know, uh Ruy and
Speaker 1: Ruey Hachimura in particular was one of the big benefit
Speaker 1: beneficiaries of this time. He had a career high I
Speaker 1: think thirty two. I think his previous career high was thirty.
Speaker 1: But like he kept getting small guards on matchups. You'd
Speaker 1: get Keyante George or Jordan Clarkson on a on a
Speaker 1: post up and the lake like the Lakers would break
Speaker 1: away from their five out stuff to give the ball
Speaker 1: to Rui. They clear the side for him, so he's
Speaker 1: working with an empty block so that he doesn't have
Speaker 1: to worry about seeing too much of the floor. That's
Speaker 1: a concept I've talked a lot about with the Celtics
Speaker 1: and and and to to uh Ruy's credit, he didn't settle.
Speaker 1: He's making physically aggressive moves towards the basket, using his
Speaker 1: physical advantages to get easy shots at the rim. And
Speaker 1: and you know, in general, I've talked about this before,
Speaker 1: but like for the Laker offense in particular, I've been
Speaker 1: completely blown away by how much things have turned around
Speaker 1: for them over the course of the last month or so,
Speaker 1: because like literally early in the season, when they would
Speaker 1: run their.
Speaker 2: Five out stuff, they were so so.
Speaker 1: Bad, and then they kind of leaned more into the
Speaker 1: four out stuff, and they kind of a lot of
Speaker 1: the same stuff they were running last year, right, like
Speaker 1: a lot of heavy Lebron James Anthony Davis post up attack,
Speaker 1: a lot of spread pick and roll for Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: to get into the middle of the floor and make
Speaker 1: plays like and then suddenly, out of nowhere, they went
Speaker 1: back into this like heavy, heavy five out attack here
Speaker 1: in January, and it's just clicked for whatever reason. And
Speaker 1: like I'm sure continuity plays a part in it. I'm
Speaker 1: sure just like repetition and practices played a part in it,
Speaker 1: but like it's really come around in a big way.
Speaker 1: I think part of it too is at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the season, D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves in particulars
Speaker 1: just weren't playing well. And now both guys are just
Speaker 1: playing at a significantly higher level. And like when your
Speaker 1: two skill guards that are on the roster for the
Speaker 1: sole purpose of being skill guards, and they're not giving
Speaker 1: you high level offense. Like, obviously your team is gonna
Speaker 1: be in a position where they underachieved because all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the thing you're supposed to be good at,
Speaker 1: you're bad at.
Speaker 2: Right And like one.
Speaker 1: Of the things I kept saying at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season, I'm like, there is shooting on this roster,
Speaker 1: Like Torrian Prince can shoot, Austin Reeves can shoot, Danzel
Speaker 1: Russell can shoot, the Riuyhachramura can shoot. These guys can shoot.
Speaker 1: They're just not playing good offense. And now you're kind
Speaker 1: of seeing it all come together in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: I thought Spencer Dinwoody's first two games were really, really impressive.
Speaker 1: I didn't like the way that Darvin used him in
Speaker 1: some rotation situations today, which we'll talk about in a minute,
Speaker 1: but the actual basketball fit makes a ton of a
Speaker 1: ton of sense right away. At a couple of lobs
Speaker 1: tonight to Anthony Davis and to Jackson Hayes, he had
Speaker 1: two self created threes. He had a jab step three
Speaker 1: out of the right corner that he hit and then
Speaker 1: in the second half, he had to pull up three
Speaker 1: and pick and roll where he got the defender kind
Speaker 1: of pinned on his backside and rose up right at
Speaker 1: the top of the key and knocked it down.
Speaker 2: You're seeing some of.
Speaker 1: That like higher level athlete shot creation, just something that
Speaker 1: like Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russell are coverage based shot makers.
Speaker 1: What that means is like they can hit shots when
Speaker 1: the coverage dictates it, like they get a defender pinned
Speaker 1: on the screen, they're working in the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: The team's guarding it two on two instead of three
Speaker 1: on two, So the big man's in a drop coverage
Speaker 1: and he's going back towards the rim to worry about
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and here's this opening in the middle of
Speaker 1: the floor that he can capitalize on, you know. And
Speaker 1: then like Austin Reeves has some grift in him where
Speaker 1: he can get some stuff done in ISO just by
Speaker 1: getting defenders out of position and making plays. But they
Speaker 1: don't really have like a guy that can like get
Speaker 1: to his spots on the perimeter and like rise up
Speaker 1: and knock down shots other than Lebron James and where
Speaker 1: that's where Spencer Dinwoody is like a huge addition. And
Speaker 1: then secondly, he can just beat people off the dribble,
Speaker 1: like the Anthony Davis lob in the first half. That
Speaker 1: was an ISO play where he just kind of powered
Speaker 1: through his man and then got the rim protector to
Speaker 1: step up, got the I think it was Lori markin
Speaker 1: and got the over the top and Ad was able
Speaker 1: to dunk it in. Like that's an element to the
Speaker 1: offense that just hasn't really been there, having a guard
Speaker 1: that can just beat his man off the dribble to
Speaker 1: then draw in that help defender to then make a play,
Speaker 1: and I think in specific situations that'll be really valuable.
Speaker 1: Like we've talked about this a lot last year. Remember
Speaker 1: in the Dallas Mavericks game where Lebron hurt his foot,
Speaker 1: how the Dallas Mavericks were doing a ton of switching
Speaker 1: and in the first half Lebron and Ad weren't being
Speaker 1: super physically aggressive, so it wasn't working. But in the
Speaker 1: second half it was like Lebron eighty post ups every
Speaker 1: time down the floor, bullying their.
Speaker 2: Way to the rim.
Speaker 1: Like this gives you another option there, Like now in
Speaker 1: the switching scheme, you can use Spencer to help beat switches,
Speaker 1: because again Austin and dil are more they do better
Speaker 1: in screening actions. It's kind of similar thing to like
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson and Tyler Harrow. Like Duncan Robinson and Tyler Harrow,
Speaker 1: when they can come off of screens and kind of
Speaker 1: take advantage of the stuff that's baked into.
Speaker 2: The coverage, they're really really good.
Speaker 1: But then against a switching scheme where it's more important
Speaker 1: for them to beat people bull off the bounce, they
Speaker 1: can struggle a little bit. Danngela Russell and Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: kind of fall into that same category, and Spencer Dinwiddie
Speaker 1: to me, is just a more physically imposing version of
Speaker 1: that type of guard. Darvin Ham. There's a stretch in
Speaker 1: this game where I thought the Lakers were gonna blow it.
Speaker 1: They were a big most of the first half, and
Speaker 1: then in that second quarter stretch they kind of let
Speaker 1: go of the rope defensively, but they were at least
Speaker 1: scoring most of the time down the floor. And one
Speaker 1: of the things that I talked about in the Spencer
Speaker 1: Dinwoody signing video that I did was the idea of
Speaker 1: the potential of a three guard lineup, and specifically Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: d Angela Russell, Spencer, Dinwiddie in combination to Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis is just a ton of offensive skill.
Speaker 1: But specifically what makes that work is the Lakers don't
Speaker 1: really have a great option at the three because Jerry
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt's out right like Torrian Prince is not that good defensively,
Speaker 1: Like there will be Knights where it makes sense to
Speaker 1: play him there, but like there'll be Knights where it doesn't. Right, then,
Speaker 1: Ruby Hachimura certain matchup, especially against switching schemes or teams
Speaker 1: that don't have a ton of perimeter talent on offense,
Speaker 1: where he doesn't have to chase a ton of players
Speaker 1: over to the top of screens, he could be useful there.
Speaker 1: But maybe in a different matchup you want Max Christi
Speaker 1: there because maybe you're playing against a team and you
Speaker 1: need someone to chase Steph Curry.
Speaker 2: Around all night long.
Speaker 1: Right, Like, that three man is gonna be very matchup dependent,
Speaker 1: but you can get away with a smaller player there
Speaker 1: in certain matchups when you have Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the floor. In this particular game, Lakers started
Speaker 1: Ruby at the four, Torrian Prince at the three, and
Speaker 1: then Darvin in the late second quarter, right before the half,
Speaker 1: he tried to go find a reason to get Spencer
Speaker 1: Dinwoodie on the floor in a three guard lineup. Now,
Speaker 1: the obvious solution there is put Spencer in for Torrian Prince.
Speaker 1: You put Spencer Infentorian Prince. You maintain your size on
Speaker 1: the front line. Ruby Hotcha Mura is a huge forward
Speaker 1: that can help you on the g I can help
Speaker 1: you just in general with your overall physicality, and you
Speaker 1: have Anthony Davis right and against a smaller Jazz team
Speaker 1: that can work. And I mean, here's the thing, the
Speaker 1: Jazz are actually bigger than you'd think because they were
Speaker 1: going massive in the front line with like John Collins,
Speaker 1: Lori Markinen and Walker Kessler in this game and in
Speaker 1: this particular lineup stretch, I think Kessler and Marketing we're
Speaker 1: both on the floor. But what ended up happening is
Speaker 1: instead Darvin goes, no, we're gonna take Ruey out of
Speaker 1: the game, and so we're gonna play this three guard
Speaker 1: lineup with one of the least physically imposing wings in
Speaker 1: the league and Torrian prints at the four. Now you're
Speaker 1: just preposterously small. You have no chance. Torrian had just
Speaker 1: finished getting barbecued by Jordan Clarkson in the middle of
Speaker 1: the second quarter. Now he's in this matchup with Lauri
Speaker 1: Markinen where he has absolutely no chance. Laurie gets a
Speaker 1: quick four points and all of a sudden, it's a
Speaker 1: one point game going into halftime. And there was absolutely
Speaker 1: no case for it. Like Torrian was not having a
Speaker 1: good game. He had this weird play where he was
Speaker 1: driving along the right side of the floor in transition
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwidy was completely unguarded in the right corner, just
Speaker 1: like completely unguarded, and instead he drove through to the
Speaker 1: left side, ignored Spencer and turned the ball up. Uh
Speaker 1: either turned it over to threw a bad shot it,
Speaker 1: but like basically no advantage was created. He Uh had
Speaker 1: several other offensive possessions where he made poor reads and
Speaker 1: then on the defense of the end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and he was just not playing well, Like he wasn't
Speaker 1: playing well on either end of the floor. There was
Speaker 1: no case at all whatsoever for Torrian to be given
Speaker 1: that opportunity at the four over Ruey, who by the way,
Speaker 1: had like it was literally walking around in gulfed in flames.
Speaker 1: He was red hot in that first half, career high
Speaker 1: scoring night, and in a stretch to end a half,
Speaker 1: Darvin goes like, actually, we're gonna go with Torrian at
Speaker 1: the four when there's no reason he hasn't been playing
Speaker 1: well enough to deserve that opportunity. Makes no sense from
Speaker 1: the stand point of lineup construction. You have Lori Markinen
Speaker 1: and Walker Kessler on the floor, You're way too small
Speaker 1: on the front line. It was one of the most
Speaker 1: confounding lineup decisions that I've ever seen. And at one
Speaker 1: point in the second half, the Lakers were up by
Speaker 1: like twelve and Torreon Prince was a minus six, and like,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why it concerns me is like
Speaker 1: Darvin is, and this has been something we talked about
Speaker 1: all season. Darvin very clearly is attached to Torrian Prince.
Speaker 1: Not the most unheard of thing in the world. Every
Speaker 1: coach has like a specific player there that they're very
Speaker 1: invested in. I had Warriors fans telling me on Twitter
Speaker 1: today like it reminded them of Anthony Lamb with the
Speaker 1: Warriors last year, where Steve Kerr would just play him
Speaker 1: all the time. And like, so it's not entirely unheard of.
Speaker 1: But the problem is in this particular situation is Torrian's
Speaker 1: consistently playing over way better players and when that happens,
Speaker 1: you're cutting into your margin, and this is not a
Speaker 1: team that has a significant margin for error. One of
Speaker 1: the things to talk about all the time is like
Speaker 1: playoff series swing on tiny sequences that like even a
Speaker 1: five games a gentleman sweep, or a six game series
Speaker 1: can can actually kind of come down to a handful
Speaker 1: of tiny sequences where games swing one way or another
Speaker 1: in the tire dynamic of the series changes. That type
Speaker 1: of mistake made against a good team could cost you
Speaker 1: a series, or rather it could cost you a game,
Speaker 1: which could in turn cost you a series. And like,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I talked about a lot
Speaker 1: around the trade deadline is like, I don't know, even
Speaker 1: if the Lakers were to make a deal, if Darvin
Speaker 1: wouldn't just play Torrian Prince anyway, He started him more
Speaker 1: than twice as many times this year as he did
Speaker 1: in the previous as other teams did in the previous
Speaker 1: three years combined. It's very clear this is an outlier
Speaker 1: type of relationship that we're seeing from these particular two
Speaker 1: and like one of do you guys remember when I
Speaker 1: did that rant? God, I can't even remember which team
Speaker 1: I think it was with the Kings, might have been
Speaker 1: this morning, But I was talking about like falling back
Speaker 1: on habits like you have these, like your deeper elements
Speaker 1: of your character are what shine through when the shit
Speaker 1: hits the fan. It's a big part of why I
Speaker 1: talk about habits and discipline in the regular season, because,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, if you're a team where your habit
Speaker 1: is to play defense, a certain way to communicate, to
Speaker 1: make extra efforts, to play with physical force, when that
Speaker 1: is your habit, then all of a sudden, when it's
Speaker 1: Game three of a one to one series and it's
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, your team gets punched in the
Speaker 1: mouth by a run and you're down by seven in
Speaker 1: the early fourth quarter, when the shit hits the fan,
Speaker 1: you guys will look around at each other and you'll defend,
Speaker 1: and you'll lean on those habits. That's why I think
Speaker 1: that stuff matters so much. Those things are what carry
Speaker 1: you when you get into the precarious situations down the line.
Speaker 1: What scares me for the Lakers is Darvin his default.
Speaker 1: When he doesn't know what to do, he goes to Torrian,
Speaker 1: and Torrian is not one of the Lakers' five best players.
Speaker 1: And so that will in some situations on the matchups,
Speaker 1: it'll work, but in a lot of situations it won't,
Speaker 1: and it could cut It could cut into the margin
Speaker 1: for air for a Lakers team that is already super thin.
Speaker 1: Last note on the Lakers, they've got to find a
Speaker 1: way to connect this offensive success they're having with the
Speaker 1: defensive potential we know they need to have. As good
Speaker 1: as this Laker offense has been, it's not as good
Speaker 1: as the Denver Nuggets were last year. And if you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be as good as the Denver Nuggets were
Speaker 1: last year, By the way, for all to talk about
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets defense, they defended pretty damn well when
Speaker 1: they got into the postseason, and they've been an even
Speaker 1: better defense this year than they were last year in
Speaker 1: the regular season.
Speaker 2: But like the.
Speaker 1: Lakers, don't even have as much margin for air, don't
Speaker 1: even have close to as much margin for era on
Speaker 1: defense as the Nuggets have. They have to be a
Speaker 1: good defense in addition to being a good offense, and
Speaker 1: so post All Star Break really really gonna be zeroing
Speaker 1: in on the defensive end of the four for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to see if they can make the necessary strides
Speaker 1: there before they get to the postseason, all right, before
Speaker 1: we get out of here, so we I think it
Speaker 1: was a Ramota Shelbourne for ESPN reported this morning with
Speaker 1: Adrian Morrisonowski that basically the Warriors had some pretty high
Speaker 1: level conversations to the point where the owners were involved
Speaker 1: about potentially trading Lebron James to the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: Apparently Genie buss Or did the Warriors to Rich Paul,
Speaker 1: Lebron's agent, and apparently Lebron and his team were like no,
Speaker 1: and so it ended up not happening. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of dive into it a little bit because
Speaker 1: obviously I think that Lebron is going to stay with
Speaker 1: the Lakers, but there is some small chants this summer.
Speaker 1: We don't know what, but there is some small chants
Speaker 1: this summer, whether it's through free agency, opting out, you know,
Speaker 1: signing for a mid level exception somewhere, or it's a
Speaker 1: trade or who knows what the dynamic will be, but
Speaker 1: there's some small amount of chance that Lebron, if things
Speaker 1: go really south this year for the Lakers, that he
Speaker 1: could decide that he wants to play elsewhere, And the
Speaker 1: Warriors are on the list of teams that would be
Speaker 1: considered there. There are other teams on that list as well,
Speaker 1: some other teams that might even be more realistic, but
Speaker 1: the Warriors were on that list. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of dive into the concept for just a minute
Speaker 1: because it's not a lot of people kind of talking
Speaker 1: about it online today, and like, to me, this is
Speaker 1: not something that needs to be overthought. The basketball fit
Speaker 1: is very simple. You're taking Steph Curry, who is probably
Speaker 1: like the only player in the league that will consistently
Speaker 1: draw blitz and pick and roll like like, he gets
Speaker 1: two to the basketball every single time. Even down the
Speaker 1: stretch against the Clippers tonight, Draymond Green ball screens, He's
Speaker 1: rolling off to the weak side, both Clippers are running
Speaker 1: With Steph. You are combining a player that consistently draws
Speaker 1: multiple defenders away from the basket with Lebron James, who,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, even at this age, is the best
Speaker 1: combination of downhill force and playmaking that we have in
Speaker 1: the league. There are other great playmakers in the league.
Speaker 1: N Cooleyokich is the best in my opinion, Luka Doncic incredible,
Speaker 1: right Trey Young incredible. None of those guys bring like
Speaker 1: actual straight line, downhill force the way that Lebron does.
Speaker 1: And so when I envision like an offense centered around
Speaker 1: Lebron James, Steph Curry ball screens, it is frightening to me.
Speaker 1: You can't switch it because anybody who's strong enough to
Speaker 1: stay with Lebron has no help and no hope in
Speaker 1: hell of staying in front of Steph Curry off the dribble.
Speaker 1: Anybody who's fast enough to stay in front of Steph
Speaker 1: Curry off the dribble has no hope in hell of
Speaker 1: staying in front of Lebron James posting them up on
Speaker 1: the weak side, you know, like if they kick it
Speaker 1: back around and he posts up right, Like if you
Speaker 1: trap Steph Curry, Lebron James is going to be the
Speaker 1: best short role player that Steph has ever played with.
Speaker 1: And then if you run a traditional coverage, Steph is
Speaker 1: gonna pick you apart with pull up shooting. Like I
Speaker 1: can't imagine a more devastating two man game than Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and Lebron James except for maybe Steph Curry and
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic, which literally is just because Lebron's old. But like,
Speaker 1: I don't think we need to galaxy bray in ourselves
Speaker 1: around what the obvious basketball fit is, which is nearly perfect. Like,
Speaker 1: the only rub you could put on the basketball fit
Speaker 1: is Lebron is old.
Speaker 2: That's it. And here's the reality.
Speaker 1: Even at Lebron's old age, he is still firmly playing
Speaker 1: at an all NBA level. Like, we don't need to
Speaker 1: overthink that side of it. The second piece of it,
Speaker 1: to me, you would be combining the two greatest competitors
Speaker 1: of this era. I've talked about this before in the show,
Speaker 1: but I think there's a big difference between loving basketball
Speaker 1: and hating losing, and specifically hating losing. I think push
Speaker 1: is a human being to make extra efforts when they're
Speaker 1: completely and utterly exhausted that other people aren't willing to make.
Speaker 1: A Love of basketball might get you in the gym
Speaker 1: a lot, might have you working on your game, might
Speaker 1: make a very polished and skilled basketball player. But a
Speaker 1: hatred of losing makes the type of savage competitor that
Speaker 1: is impossible to beat when you get into these situations
Speaker 1: and like, to me, you're taking not just the two
Speaker 1: greatest competitors of this era, but basically the two most
Speaker 1: successful basketball players of this era, and you're putting them together.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'd love to see it. It'd be so
Speaker 1: much fun. And if you're a basketball fan and you're not, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Steph Curry playing together, that would be fun.
Speaker 1: I can't relate to you. Like and even if there's
Speaker 1: some unrealistic element to it, like, it's like, it's really
Speaker 1: that's simple.
Speaker 2: To me.
Speaker 1: The basketball fit is easy, and you're combining the two
Speaker 1: greatest competitors of this era. I have a hard time
Speaker 1: believing that it wouldn't work out for a positive basketball result,
Speaker 1: even with Lebron's old age, even if we can agree
Speaker 1: that it's unlikely at this point. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for tonight. Like I said, tomorrow morning,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hit King's Nuggets and a mailbag. Make sure
Speaker 1: you guys get some mailbag questions into the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys in the morning. The volume