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Speaker 2: Wellcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Everybody hope all if you guys are having a great
Speaker 2: start to your week. Well, just like we did after
Speaker 2: game one, we are going to do a mail bag
Speaker 2: that covers all your guys's questions about the NBA Finals,
Speaker 2: some stuff around the rest of the league as well.
Speaker 2: We've got a question about where Lebron's next best chance
Speaker 2: to win the title would be. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: about some potential trades for the Cleveland Cavaliers, some big
Speaker 2: picture basketball stuff. We might even go into some different
Speaker 2: sports down at the tail end of the mail bag
Speaker 2: where we're gonna hit all of the NBA Finals related
Speaker 2: stuff off the top. You guys know the drill before
Speaker 2: we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channels.
Speaker 2: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
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Speaker 2: if you leave a rating and review on that front.
Speaker 2: Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 2: and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there, and then,
Speaker 2: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in
Speaker 2: the chats that we can get to them in our
Speaker 2: mail bags at the tail end of our live streams.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball. So our first question
Speaker 2: is kind of a big picture question surrounding the thunder
Speaker 2: in their future. Do you pay J dub and Chet
Speaker 2: the Supermax if they qualify next year. Now, in terms
Speaker 2: of the details surrounding the super Max, it obviously depends
Speaker 2: on you know, whether or not Chet mix and all
Speaker 2: NBA team next year, things along those lines. But I'm
Speaker 2: gonna try to reframe this question around the idea of
Speaker 2: let's just say max contracts in theory, if you're building
Speaker 2: a roster, as we've seen around the NBA, it can
Speaker 2: get a little tough once you have three max contract
Speaker 2: players to fill the rest of the roster, and like
Speaker 2: even just in the big picture, it's about whether or
Speaker 2: not they can continue to surround these guys with enough talent. Now,
Speaker 2: I am generally of the belief that it's not so
Speaker 2: much whether or not you can build a roster around
Speaker 2: three max players, it's are these three players the kinds
Speaker 2: of max players that are good enough to justify that
Speaker 2: type of resource distribution? And the short answer is yes,
Speaker 2: I absolutely think they are. When we talk about team build,
Speaker 2: I tend to focus on these different archetypes at each
Speaker 2: position group, right, and when I look at everything in
Speaker 2: a vacuum, like irrespective of stars, because stars bring kind
Speaker 2: of unicorn traits to the table right Like Jokis doesn't
Speaker 2: look like any other center around the league. Steph Curry
Speaker 2: doesn't look like any other point guard around the league.
Speaker 2: Jana Santena Kumpo or Luka Doncic. These guys don't look
Speaker 2: like traditional players. Even Shay in and of himself as
Speaker 2: like an old school mid range scoring two guard is
Speaker 2: very rare around the NBA. But one of the concepts
Speaker 2: that I always talk about is like, ideally I want
Speaker 2: to have like a skill guard, a guard that is
Speaker 2: an excellent passer, shot creator, floor general, all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. An athlete guard, a guard that can guard
Speaker 2: the other team's best guard but also can drive close
Speaker 2: outs and bring you know, some more of the power
Speaker 2: element to that position group. And then at the forward spots,
Speaker 2: I like having like a big, physical forward, and then
Speaker 2: I'll having more of a slender, wiry, perimeter oriented forward.
Speaker 2: And then you want to big that can defend in
Speaker 2: multiple coverages, a big that brings defensive versatility. And so
Speaker 2: as I go down the list, if Shay and Jadab
Speaker 2: and chet are my core, I think all three of
Speaker 2: those don't just fit into those groups but legitimately bring
Speaker 2: more to the table, like Shay is very much the
Speaker 2: pro typical skill guard in that he is a guy
Speaker 2: that can be the offensive engine for a team. We
Speaker 2: saw him have one of his best offensive engine types
Speaker 2: of games of his career in Game two of the Finals, right,
Speaker 2: But Shay also brings legitimate athletic traits to the table.
Speaker 2: Shay is a very good defensive player when he's engaged, right,
Speaker 2: so like he doesn't bring a lot of the shortcomings
Speaker 2: that typically come with skill guards. Jadub think of him
Speaker 2: as like a combination of a bunch of different things.
Speaker 2: He is a guy that can do some of that
Speaker 2: athletic guard stuff in terms of guarding elite guards and
Speaker 2: bringing more power to that position. But at the same
Speaker 2: time he can be a lot like what we see
Speaker 2: from a lot of four men in terms of bringing
Speaker 2: like power ball handling to the table. I even think
Speaker 2: there's a lot of big picture potential for JDub as
Speaker 2: like kind of a bully ball matchup attacker that he's
Speaker 2: still just barely scratching the surface of what he's capable
Speaker 2: of being. And then Chet he is the prototypical big
Speaker 2: man that can defend and low drop defend and high
Speaker 2: drop defendant. Switches defend in zone. His defending in switches
Speaker 2: was a huge part of Oklahoma City's defensive success in
Speaker 2: Game two against the Pacers. But also Chet brings the
Speaker 2: ability to be a legitimate perimeter offensive weapon while still
Speaker 2: being the same vertical spacing threat that so many of
Speaker 2: his peers are at the center position. So, to make
Speaker 2: a long story short, I think Shay, J, Dub and
Speaker 2: Chet compliment each other extremely well. They're all on the
Speaker 2: same age timeline. All three of them have traits that
Speaker 2: extend out from what you would expect from their specific
Speaker 2: position group. I absolutely think that you can commit long
Speaker 2: term money to all three of those guys and still
Speaker 2: will build a championship roster around him. Again, when you
Speaker 2: have players that play the way that these guys do
Speaker 2: and that check all the boxes that these guys check,
Speaker 2: it actually just makes for smaller and more achievable roles
Speaker 2: down the roster for your teammates, and that just makes
Speaker 2: the general manager's job that much easier. Next question. After
Speaker 2: Game two, you talked about how SGA did a much
Speaker 2: better job of playing the floor game. He invested in
Speaker 2: his own teammates, which allowed for people like Chet to
Speaker 2: get going. Do you expect Shaye to keep that good
Speaker 2: floor game going as they go to Indiana. Love the show. So,
Speaker 2: first of all, this has been a subject of some
Speaker 2: of the debate after the first two games, right we in.
Speaker 2: I noticed some of you guys disagreed after my Game
Speaker 2: two instant reaction for the way I characterized Shay's Game one.
Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connor came on the show yesterday and similarly said
Speaker 2: the same thing. And I want to clarify in the
Speaker 2: sense that I shouldn't be saying Shaye played bad in
Speaker 2: game one. He didn't play bad in game one. That's
Speaker 2: over dramatic. That said, I did think the box score
Speaker 2: was not necessarily a very accurate reflection of the way
Speaker 2: that he played like. I did think Shae played substantially
Speaker 2: better in game two, and he had thirty eight points
Speaker 2: in game one. But the big giveaway to me is
Speaker 2: we talked about in that show. If you remember, off
Speaker 2: the top, I discussed the concept of floor game being
Speaker 2: a job that a ball handler does, or that ball
Speaker 2: handler has. The responsibility he has that extends beyond assists
Speaker 2: and extends beyond points and goes to your the engine
Speaker 2: of the offense. You are responsible for the rhythm and
Speaker 2: flow of your team's offense as the primary ball handler, right,
Speaker 2: and the Thunder scored twenty more points per one hundred
Speaker 2: possessions in the half court in game two than they
Speaker 2: did in Game one. Does variants play a role in that?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: But what do I always say for me, variants is
Speaker 2: going to be pretty far down the list behind basketball dynamics.
Speaker 2: And even though the box score showed a very productive
Speaker 2: offensive night in game one for Shay, I thought, specifically
Speaker 2: early in the game, he shot his team out of
Speaker 2: rhythm by taking a lot of mediocre, contested pull up
Speaker 2: jump shots early in the clock. In game two, I
Speaker 2: thought he made the appropriate investments in rhythm and flow
Speaker 2: early and it manifested in better ball movement, better rhythm
Speaker 2: and flow for his offense, and twenty more points per
Speaker 2: one hundred half court possessions. And so again, I just
Speaker 2: wanted to clarify that because I did use the word
Speaker 2: he played bad in game two, and that's just dumb.
Speaker 2: He didn't play bad, he just compared on the range
Speaker 2: of potential outcomes for Shay games, I thought that trended
Speaker 2: more towards the low end. And before you tell me, oh, well,
Speaker 2: he had thirty eight points. You go look at his
Speaker 2: scoring totals. He always gets He's one of the most reliable,
Speaker 2: high volume scorers in the league. But there are differing
Speaker 2: outcomes for Shae in terms of his floor game, in
Speaker 2: terms of just the way he manages the way his
Speaker 2: offense is flowing. And I did think that Shaye played
Speaker 2: substantially better in Game two. Now do I expect Shaye
Speaker 2: to keep that going? Yes, Shae, you know, is a
Speaker 2: little bit more old, is a little bit older and
Speaker 2: more experienced than people think. I talked about this concept
Speaker 2: last night. The thing with young basketball players is they
Speaker 2: struggle to identify failures and minimize them, and they struggle
Speaker 2: to identify successes and repeat them. Right, But with each
Speaker 2: passing series, with each passing moment, for this Oklahoma City team,
Speaker 2: they seem to be growing and to be learning from
Speaker 2: their mistakes. And I do think that Shaye learned quickly
Speaker 2: after Game one that that's not the way that he
Speaker 2: needs to attack, and I think he made that adjustment,
Speaker 2: and I expect him to attack Game three in a
Speaker 2: very similar manner. Now that said, Indiana's really good and
Speaker 2: they could go up by twelve fifteen points at some
Speaker 2: point during Game three, and it's possible that at that
Speaker 2: point Shay reverts back to some hero ball, but that's
Speaker 2: just part of his archetype as a scoring guard. I
Speaker 2: think overall, I think I can expect or we can
Speaker 2: expect his floor game to more closely mimic Game two
Speaker 2: moving forward in the series. Next question with jaris Walker out.
Speaker 2: Do you think Rick Carlisle? Who do you think Rick
Speaker 2: Carlisle turns to as the next opportunity to give them something.
Speaker 2: I don't think this is a dig deeper in the
Speaker 2: bench type of series. I think this is on the
Speaker 2: guys that are playing right now, and a lot of
Speaker 2: it with the bench guys is about making better decisions.
Speaker 2: You know, Obi Toppin not as good a game in
Speaker 2: Game two, some aggressive forces in traffic against rim protection
Speaker 2: instead of moving the ball. Ben matherin several examples of
Speaker 2: plays where he got into the teeth of the defense
Speaker 2: instead of taking easy reads that were available to him.
Speaker 2: Guys just have to play better and then as a group,
Speaker 2: the pacers kind of in this series have a tug
Speaker 2: of war in terms of their offensive execution. When they
Speaker 2: take care of the ball and they get the ball
Speaker 2: to the floor, quickly, and they run multiple actions on
Speaker 2: the same possession. They break Oklahoma City's defense down incrementally,
Speaker 2: and they get good looks. When they get stagnant, when
Speaker 2: they start turning the ball over, things start to fall
Speaker 2: apart for them. And so I don't think this is
Speaker 2: like a dig deeper in the roster. We need a
Speaker 2: different player to solve our problems. I think it's on
Speaker 2: the group to just play better. Next question, do you
Speaker 2: think Pascal comes out more aggressive to score tonight? Obviously,
Speaker 2: I'm assuming you mean Wednesday night. They need him playing
Speaker 2: like he did in the next series, and it feels
Speaker 2: like he's just gotten off to slow starts this far.
Speaker 2: I do think that we'll see an aggressive Pascal in
Speaker 2: game three. I think in general, the Pacers kind of
Speaker 2: got away from some of the success they had in
Speaker 2: Game one hunting size mismatches with their bigs in the post,
Speaker 2: and I thought it just was a lack of intentionality
Speaker 2: in terms of the way that they were hunting shots.
Speaker 2: I thought that they were a little too quick to
Speaker 2: take early clock decent reason. I'm not opposed to those shots.
Speaker 2: We all know the Pacers can make those shots, but
Speaker 2: I didn't think they did enough of a job establishing
Speaker 2: the post early and often in game two, and Pascal
Speaker 2: is just the obvious pathway to make that happen. And
Speaker 2: so I do think that we will see a more
Speaker 2: aggressive Pascal, a more aggressive turner, a lot more damage
Speaker 2: being done in the paint in game three. You've talked
Speaker 2: about how Okay Okac's offense isn't really the main force
Speaker 2: of this team. My question is is the Pacers defense
Speaker 2: able to make some significant adjustments to take game to
Speaker 2: take one or two games at home. So I'm really
Speaker 2: curious to see how Rick Carlisle comes out to guard
Speaker 2: in game three. We talked about this concept in depth
Speaker 2: with Kevin O'Connor yesterday, so I won't go into too
Speaker 2: much detail today. If you guys haven't had a chance
Speaker 2: to check that pot out, I highly recommend it. Kevin
Speaker 2: was fantastic and we got into a bunch of the
Speaker 2: details in the series. But I'm really curious to see
Speaker 2: how they come out and guard. I thought that the
Speaker 2: at the level coverages for the Pacers didn't want work
Speaker 2: very well through the first two games. Again, like they're
Speaker 2: not going up to the level to take away the
Speaker 2: pull up jump shot. They're not worried about Shae coming
Speaker 2: off and rising up from three doesn't make enough of
Speaker 2: them for that really to be the issue. They're bringing
Speaker 2: the man up to the level to try to stop
Speaker 2: Shae from getting ahead of steam. But what ends up
Speaker 2: happening is when you come up to the level of
Speaker 2: the screen, you pick a side. So in a drop coverage,
Speaker 2: imagine this like as Shaye's coming off of a screen.
Speaker 2: If you're in a drop coverage, you're sitting lower, and
Speaker 2: if he comes off the screen this way, you're ready.
Speaker 2: If he rejects the screen and goes off the other way,
Speaker 2: you're ready, right, But if you're up at the level,
Speaker 2: you're picking a side of the screen that you're coming
Speaker 2: up to the level to show. And so if you
Speaker 2: come up to the level and then Shae decides to
Speaker 2: drive the opposite direction, suddenly, if he beats that man,
Speaker 2: there's nobody behind in that two on two right now,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you're in rotation. You've now put
Speaker 2: yourself into a four on three, and it was a
Speaker 2: lot of rejecting screens, and all of a sudden, no
Speaker 2: one's there to help coming off the screen and splitting
Speaker 2: the action. So if you come up to the level
Speaker 2: and you show and shake, but he just splits right
Speaker 2: in between you two. Same sort of thing. It's a
Speaker 2: four on three. You come up to the level and
Speaker 2: the screener slips, you pitch it over the top, same
Speaker 2: thing four on three. I just thought that the Thunder
Speaker 2: were operating in a four on three far too often
Speaker 2: in that game, and so I'm really curious to see
Speaker 2: if for Carlisle makes the adjustment of either doing some
Speaker 2: more soft switching, meaning like have the defender that switches
Speaker 2: switch a little bit further back to try to bait
Speaker 2: them into some early pull up threes, or in more
Speaker 2: of a deeper drop coverage in ball screen so that
Speaker 2: when Shay comes off, Like this is the way I
Speaker 2: look at it. If Shane's gonna get downhill anyway, Like,
Speaker 2: if you're gonna get beat anyway, then you might as
Speaker 2: well have a fourth defender in the action rather than
Speaker 2: have three defenders in the action trying to rotate out
Speaker 2: of that situation. Right, So, like we'll see I think
Speaker 2: I think we could see Carlisle come out with the
Speaker 2: same coverage to start game three and just banking on
Speaker 2: the crowd and the intensity and the urgency kind of
Speaker 2: just bringing a better on ball effort from the Pacers,
Speaker 2: and maybe that's what he ends up doing. But I
Speaker 2: also think that it's the cards that Carlisle's gonna have
Speaker 2: to tweak the coverage to deeper drop coverage, softer switching,
Speaker 2: something more of a contain the ball approach to try
Speaker 2: to keep things in front. Might even see some zone
Speaker 2: as well. I'll be curious to see how they guard
Speaker 2: now on the other end of the floor, the Pacers
Speaker 2: defense in there, or excuse me, with the on that
Speaker 2: end of the floor. Just in general for the Pacers,
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City has shown a little bit of like a
Speaker 2: ricketiness on offense in this postseason, where they can get
Speaker 2: knocked off of their foundation, and so in terms of
Speaker 2: their ability to take the two games at home, it
Speaker 2: does come down to their defense in the sense that
Speaker 2: if they get enough stops, if they force enough long
Speaker 2: jumpers and long rebounds, and they can play in transition,
Speaker 2: they're gonna score enough points, especially at home. But the
Speaker 2: defense is the job. If they can slow down Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City's offense enough in these two games, that is their
Speaker 2: best pathway forward in the series. By knocking Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: off of their offensive foundation, getting out in transition, in
Speaker 2: getting the easy ones avoiding the loaded up thunder defence.
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Speaker 2: All right, We've got five more questions today that kind
Speaker 2: of center around the rest of the league. First question,
Speaker 2: what is Lebron's best shot out of fifth ring? So
Speaker 2: this has been something that I've thought quite a bit
Speaker 2: about since the disappointing exit for my Lakers in the
Speaker 2: first round again the Minnesota Timberwolves. But this idea of like, Okay,
Speaker 2: the Lakers have some realities in terms of the future
Speaker 2: surrounding Luca and Lebron being a very very expensive old
Speaker 2: player that still plays at a level that's deserving of
Speaker 2: the money, but comes with some realities in terms of
Speaker 2: when he does hail off, he'll present a barrier between,
Speaker 2: you know, in terms of roster allocation, between what the
Speaker 2: Lakers are going to be and what they are now.
Speaker 2: Right Similarly, he's you know, going to be forty one
Speaker 2: next year by the time they make it to the postseason,
Speaker 2: and it's just going to be really difficult for uh.
Speaker 2: It's going to be really difficult for him to you know,
Speaker 2: find an extended runway to try to make something happen.
Speaker 2: So if he goes anywhere, it have to be a
Speaker 2: win now type of situation. Seen lots of things thrown around,
Speaker 2: and when I start to dig into it, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: let's say let's say he got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 2: I've seen versions of aids thrown around with like Darius
Speaker 2: Garland and Jared Allen for instance, for Lebron. So let's
Speaker 2: say it's Lebron and Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell and
Speaker 2: you know, obviously that deep core of good role players
Speaker 2: in Cleveland, Like that's a good team, right, How much
Speaker 2: better is that than him? Next to Luka Doncic in
Speaker 2: a revenge campaign. Right, Let's say he goes to Golden State.
Speaker 2: If they if they were to pull some sort of
Speaker 2: magic along those lines, like Lebron, Stephan Draymond, it's a
Speaker 2: really good team. I think Lebron would be such an
Speaker 2: amazing natural basketball fit in the Golden State system. But
Speaker 2: do I think that, you know, old Lebron and old
Speaker 2: Steph with Draymond is a better chance to win the
Speaker 2: title than Lebron James and Luka Doncic in a revenge campaign.
Speaker 2: You start to like poke around to different options. Oh
Speaker 2: what if he goes to the Knicks. Okay, So it's
Speaker 2: Lebron and Ogn and Obi and McHale Bridges and Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 2: It's a really good team, really fun team, open Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of like kind of elements involving the
Speaker 2: East that make that somewhat interesting. But is it better
Speaker 2: than Lebron with a Luka Doncic on a revenge campaign?
Speaker 2: Is what I keep coming back to. I talked about
Speaker 2: this a little bit last night. Luca did not have
Speaker 2: a good postseason, never really got fully back into rhythm
Speaker 2: after his injury. This year looked in pretty poor condition
Speaker 2: in that first round series. But I really do think
Speaker 2: we're going to get a very very engaged version of
Speaker 2: Luca next year, and a very well conditioned version of
Speaker 2: Luca next year. And when Luka Doncic is healthy and
Speaker 2: in rhythm, he's one of the very best players in
Speaker 2: this league last year. If you guys remember in our
Speaker 2: like Who's got the Belt video after the season, I
Speaker 2: literally said that it was Luca after beating the guy
Speaker 2: that beat the guy and being more or less the
Speaker 2: most impressive player in the postseason last year. So as
Speaker 2: I look at it, I keep coming back to this
Speaker 2: idea that like, give me Luka Doncicic in a season
Speaker 2: where he's supremely motivated next to you know, this deep
Speaker 2: roster of well, not as deep as it needs to be,
Speaker 2: and they'll need to make some changes this year, but
Speaker 2: they've got some high level players. Ruy Hachimura is a
Speaker 2: high level player. Austin Reeves is a high level player.
Speaker 2: Dorian Phinney Smith is a good role player. Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 2: is capable of being a good role player, right Like,
Speaker 2: they've got you know, they've got guys, and so they've
Speaker 2: got to make some changes. They gotta find a center,
Speaker 2: they might have to seriously consider moving a guy like
Speaker 2: a Austin Reeves or Ruyatamura. That is a redundancy, but
Speaker 2: that's a vehicle with which to bring in additional talent.
Speaker 2: And I keep coming down to if you give me
Speaker 2: a group of athletes that can do that are versatile
Speaker 2: enough to do the dribble, shoot, pass, defend stuff that
Speaker 2: they'll need to do off of Lebron and Luca. Give
Speaker 2: me Luca and Lebron, and I think he got a
Speaker 2: better chance than some of these other situations that have
Speaker 2: been pitched around the league. So I've thought through a lot,
Speaker 2: and I've seen a bunch of stuff get pitched, And
Speaker 2: I keep coming back to if Lebron gets a fifth ring,
Speaker 2: which obviously is a supreme long shot at this point,
Speaker 2: I think it happens alongside Luca. And so with that
Speaker 2: being the case, I think that in all likelihood, Lebron
Speaker 2: sees that too, and I think Lebron will be a
Speaker 2: Laker when it's all said and done. Do you believe
Speaker 2: trading a guard from the Calves will unlock mobily? So
Speaker 2: this is complicated because obviously Evan Mobley, I think has
Speaker 2: developed as an offensive player we saw a lot of
Speaker 2: like the inverted ball screen action with guys like Sam Marilyn,
Speaker 2: Darius Garland slipping out of action with him this year,
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell slipping out of action with him this year
Speaker 2: becoming a kind of like a worthwhile action for the Calves.
Speaker 2: We saw him in general just become a better driving
Speaker 2: kick player when he gets downhill. He's developed a three
Speaker 2: point shot that is semi reliable. Like Evan Mobley, He's
Speaker 2: developed a lot, But I don't think Evan Mobley is
Speaker 2: about to go, you know, pull a Palo Bancaro and
Speaker 2: become this like super high volume on ballplayer, at least
Speaker 2: not anytime soon. I think he's years away from developing
Speaker 2: that sort of game. To me, trading a guard for
Speaker 2: the Cavs is about resource allocation. If you're going to
Speaker 2: have two high volume on ball guards, then you need
Speaker 2: to reap the rewards of having two high volume on
Speaker 2: ball guards. And every year Darius Garland has been banged
Speaker 2: up and lacking a little bit of that quickness, and
Speaker 2: even when he's been healthy, he's struggled to be super
Speaker 2: effective in the postseason setting. It just hasn't really materialized.
Speaker 2: And it comes with the downsides of like when he's
Speaker 2: injured all of a sudden, you're just down a like
Speaker 2: a very expensive contract slot that you're not getting anything
Speaker 2: out of, or when he's being attacked on defense because
Speaker 2: of his size limitations, Like there's a certain amount of
Speaker 2: like when Darius Garland is not at his peak, it
Speaker 2: doesn't look like a championship roster. And so if you
Speaker 2: believe that Darius is going to like come together and
Speaker 2: put it all together and be healthy and be the
Speaker 2: best version of himself when it matters, then yeah, it's
Speaker 2: we're sticking with it. But like at a certain point,
Speaker 2: you've got to read the room and be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this guy's just kind of struggled to hold up physically,
Speaker 2: and maybe this doesn't ever come to fruition, right, And
Speaker 2: so what trading a guard would do is not so
Speaker 2: much to me about unlocking Evan Mobley as like some
Speaker 2: sort of super high powered offensive weapon. It would be
Speaker 2: about trading Darius Garland for just a much more reliable
Speaker 2: fifth guy. Right when you started to dig into it
Speaker 2: this year, it was like, oh man, Jared Allen didn't
Speaker 2: really materialize into a reliable playoff player this year. Neither
Speaker 2: did DeAndre Hunter, neither did Ty Jerome like, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden you zoomed out from that playoff run
Speaker 2: and it was like man, Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus
Speaker 2: and Evan Mobley were like the only three calves that
Speaker 2: you felt really good about throughout that postseason run. And
Speaker 2: so bringing in another wing, a guy that is basically
Speaker 2: like a really really high level starting version of a
Speaker 2: DeAndre Hunter that can slot Max Strus at the two
Speaker 2: and give yourself a little bit more, you know, just
Speaker 2: reliable ceiling when you get to the postseason would be
Speaker 2: something worth exploring. But again it's all about that doesn't
Speaker 2: mean you just trade Darius Garland for the sake of
Speaker 2: trading Darius Garland. It's just something that I would consider
Speaker 2: if the right opportunity came up for a really really
Speaker 2: high level player at the small forward position. What would
Speaker 2: be your ideal play style for a relatively small ish
Speaker 2: point guard to be one of your StarMax players on
Speaker 2: a championship team. What play style would you choose as
Speaker 2: a building block? Not Curry obviously, because he's one of one.
Speaker 2: This is an interesting question, and I think the Pacers
Speaker 2: are honestly a really, really smart kind of like like
Speaker 2: like model for how to do this. So, first of all,
Speaker 2: I don't think the Thunder count because all their guards
Speaker 2: are great defenders. But when you've got a smallest point
Speaker 2: guard who's not an elite defender, what kind of play
Speaker 2: style do you need to play? I think it's all
Speaker 2: about being fast. You got to lean into the strength. Right,
Speaker 2: what is that smallest point guard going to be great at?
Speaker 2: He's going to be great at being fast. How has
Speaker 2: Indiana's defense managed to be still serviceable despite having Tyre
Speaker 2: Saliburton out there? Well, he throws really aggressive hedges, and
Speaker 2: he recovers fast in rotation, and as a team, they're
Speaker 2: just great in rotation. They run and sprint around and
Speaker 2: they cover ground. I don't think you could have a
Speaker 2: small guard and then also be a slow team. I
Speaker 2: think you have to be fast, and so Indiana, to me,
Speaker 2: is the model of how you would build around a
Speaker 2: like Let's say that you're the Heat and you've got
Speaker 2: Tyler Harrow, or you're you know, the Hornets and you've
Speaker 2: got LaMelo Ball, or you're the Wizards and you've got
Speaker 2: Jordan Poole, like just a small but fast like skill
Speaker 2: guard who's like the foundational player for your offense. I
Speaker 2: think you've got to surround that dude with a lot
Speaker 2: of athletics, like a let it like, kind of versatile,
Speaker 2: do everything. Guys that can play fast exist in rotation
Speaker 2: and just cover ground behind what that player does, and
Speaker 2: then it also accentuates what they do offensively, because most
Speaker 2: fast guards like to play fast. Two more questions, what
Speaker 2: are some of the top traits you look for in
Speaker 2: a non big role player. Things like perimeter speed you've
Speaker 2: mentioned in the past look to be dead on. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I think perimeter speed is a big one, just because
Speaker 2: inevitably you've got to do a certain amount of existing
Speaker 2: in rotation. In the NBA, I also think in general,
Speaker 2: the game has existed more in transition. So as the
Speaker 2: game exists more in transition, you got to have guys
Speaker 2: that can get up and down the floor, not just
Speaker 2: running the floor on offense for buckets, but also getting
Speaker 2: back in your transition defense. Right, I think from there
Speaker 2: it's the Big four. It's dribble, shoot, pass, and defend. Right,
Speaker 2: What that means is you've got a star somewhere on
Speaker 2: the roster. It doesn't matter where that is. It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter if it's a point guard, two guard, three, four
Speaker 2: five right. Wherever that star is, he's going to create advantages.
Speaker 2: Once you have that advantage, if you're wide open, you
Speaker 2: need a guy who can knock down the three if
Speaker 2: he's got to, he's got to be able to attack
Speaker 2: the close out. Once he attacks that close out, he's
Speaker 2: got to be able to make the reads. Right, So
Speaker 2: that's the dribble in pass element. There's the shooting element,
Speaker 2: there's the dribble in pass element, the defend. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: tie all of these things up into athleticism, right, So
Speaker 2: like the athleticism to drive a close out and finish
Speaker 2: at the rim, the athleticism to fly up and down
Speaker 2: the floor in transition, the athleticism to guard the ball.
Speaker 2: All of that SEMs around that defense concept. So like,
Speaker 2: if you have a role player that's playing off of
Speaker 2: a star, you need him to be able to play
Speaker 2: with an advantage, which means knock down shots, drive closeouts,
Speaker 2: make reads, and then you need to be able to
Speaker 2: have him exist within what you're trying to do defensively.
Speaker 2: The only other thing that I would add there is
Speaker 2: just overall competitiveness and motor. I think this is one
Speaker 2: of the most underrated things in the league right now.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna build out a real championship character in
Speaker 2: your team, where guys are always in the right spots
Speaker 2: and they always do the right thing, and you pay
Speaker 2: attention to detail and just be more like the Pacers
Speaker 2: for lack of a better way, you gotta have some
Speaker 2: competitive dudes that hate losing and that are willing to
Speaker 2: do the things that suck to win basketball games. And
Speaker 2: so I think the personality trade is a big part
Speaker 2: of it as well. Last question, saw your baseball tweet
Speaker 2: the other day. Any secret baseball fandom you're willing to share? So,
Speaker 2: Like most kids, I grew up watching all sports, and
Speaker 2: I've always been a fan of all sports. I grew
Speaker 2: up watching a ton of hockey. My dad's from Detroit,
Speaker 2: right I grew up playing litle league baseball. I used
Speaker 2: to watch every single Arizona Diamondbacks game growing up. I
Speaker 2: am a huge football fan. I used to watch the
Speaker 2: NFL very closely and consume a lot of NFL content.
Speaker 2: I haven't done nearly as much of that obviously since
Speaker 2: I started doing this for a living, just because this
Speaker 2: takes so much of my time and attention but I
Speaker 2: still love the NFL, and every year in September, I
Speaker 2: pretend I'm going to follow it more closely, and then
Speaker 2: by like week seven or eight, I'm just completely invested
Speaker 2: in the NBA. But I I have always loved sports,
Speaker 2: all sports. I love watching golf. I still put golf
Speaker 2: on a lot on the weekends, and I love to
Speaker 2: play golf, and I just, you know, it's the way
Speaker 2: that my job is currently structured. I'm very basketball focused.
Speaker 2: I can't promise that I'll always be the case, but
Speaker 2: maybe it will. Maybe I'll always just do basketball stuff.
Speaker 2: But I do have a love for all sports, baseball
Speaker 2: in particular. I grew up in a family that was
Speaker 2: very baseball oriented. We all played baseball growing up, and
Speaker 2: I when the d Backs made their World Series run
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, that was when I kind
Speaker 2: of had that love reinvigorated for me, where I was
Speaker 2: like watching every single postseason game and getting super super
Speaker 2: invested just because that was something that was such a
Speaker 2: big part of my life when I was younger. But yeah,
Speaker 2: like basketball is the thing that has given me everything
Speaker 2: that I have in my life and the thing that
Speaker 2: I love the most. But I have always had a
Speaker 2: love and appreciation for other sports and it just isn't
Speaker 2: something that we get to talk too much about on
Speaker 2: the show. But who knows, maybe some point in the
Speaker 2: future that'll be something we explore more. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: that's all we have for today. As always, a sincerely
Speaker 2: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2: We will be back on Wednesday night after the final
Speaker 2: buzzer of Game three. Colin Coward should be there this time.
Speaker 2: He had a flight get delayed last night. That's where
Speaker 2: on Sunday night. That's why we didn't get him for
Speaker 2: game two, but we should have him for Game three.
Speaker 2: We'll be breaking down everything after that game. We will
Speaker 2: see you guys then. So guys, as always, I appreciate
Speaker 2: you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would
Speaker 2: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 2: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 2: you could take a minute to do that, I really
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The volume