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Speaker 1: to hoop tonight here at the vall you have he
Speaker 1: was to everybody of ball. If you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great week, we have a jam pack show for
Speaker 1: you today, we're gonna be covering our bragging rights champ
Speaker 1: of the year, the individual NBA player that had the
Speaker 1: best season, the guy that should feel as though he's
Speaker 1: on the mountaintop based on what he accomplished last year.
Speaker 1: After that, he got a bunch of good mail, bad
Speaker 1: questions from you. Guys are gonna be bouncing all around
Speaker 1: the league talking about a bunch of interesting stuff, tweaking
Speaker 1: the end of the week schedule. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I was hallucinating or what the deal was, but I
Speaker 1: had mentioned that we might be covering the GM survey
Speaker 1: on Friday, and that doesn't come out till October, So
Speaker 1: clearly I don't know what I had seen. I could
Speaker 1: have sworn I like was scrolling and i'd seen something
Speaker 1: talking about it, and clearly I didn't actually see that.
Speaker 1: So obviously I can't cover the GM survey on Friday
Speaker 1: because there is no GM survey, not for another month.
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do at the tail end of
Speaker 1: this week before we head into our series our season
Speaker 1: previews next year or next week? I should say, Tonight,
Speaker 1: Wednesday night, we're gonna be covering the WNBA matchup between
Speaker 1: the Las Vegas aces in the Indiana Fever, so Asia
Speaker 1: Wilson versus Caitlin Clark gonna be a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: big time game. We're gonna be breaking it down on
Speaker 1: YouTube right after the game later this week. I wanted
Speaker 1: to take some time to do a video breakdown on
Speaker 1: the specific things that has made Caitlin Clark such a
Speaker 1: devastating offensive player. She now leads the WNBA in total
Speaker 1: assists by a pretty wide margin. She is leading the
Speaker 1: best offense in the WNBA over the last ten games.
Speaker 1: A lot of really really exciting stuff coming out of Indiana,
Speaker 1: So I want to spend some time talking about the
Speaker 1: basketball of what has made Caitlin so good. So that's
Speaker 1: going to be what we're doing at the tail end
Speaker 1: of this week and then starting next week on Monday,
Speaker 1: that's where we're going to kick it into high gear
Speaker 1: with our season previews power ranking style, kind of working
Speaker 1: our way through the NBA hierarchy while also taking some
Speaker 1: time to get into the weeds and see how those
Speaker 1: teams are going to play this season. You guys are
Speaker 1: the Joe before we get started, and subscribe to Oops
Speaker 1: Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys,
Speaker 1: don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about O podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: you eatch podcast on Hoops tonight, don't forget it is
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you leave your rating and review
Speaker 1: on that front. And last, not least, keep dropping mail
Speaker 1: back questions in those YouTube comments and we can keep
Speaker 1: hitting them throughout the rest of the fall. And then
Speaker 1: really quickly before we get started, I want to talk
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Speaker 1: of all time. And I've always enjoyed their music. But
Speaker 1: then like going to see them at the Sphere was
Speaker 1: quite possibly the coolest single night experience of my life.
Speaker 1: It was such a great time. There's nothing quite like it.
Speaker 1: Then there's like the Arizona Diamondbacks. It looks like they're
Speaker 1: gonna get in the playoffs again this year. They're in
Speaker 1: a little bit of a race. There are two games
Speaker 1: up of the being out of the Wildcard. They're in
Speaker 1: a little bit of a race at the Atlanta Braves
Speaker 1: and the New York Mets if I remember correctly. But
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed that playoff ron last year, and so
Speaker 1: I might try to hop up to Phoenix to see
Speaker 1: a playoff game, but there's just nothing quite like being
Speaker 1: actually in the arena and this is where game time
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Speaker 1: time is it? Game Time? All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So obviously I take the player ranking side of things
Speaker 1: very seriously. It's interesting because I don't think it matters
Speaker 1: quite as much as it used to. Basketball is a
Speaker 1: sport that, compared to other professional sports, team sports, is
Speaker 1: very dependent on your best player. There's more impact on
Speaker 1: the win and loss from that best player than you
Speaker 1: see in other sports. But I actually think that's starting
Speaker 1: to not cease to be the case, but it's being
Speaker 1: the case less so than it used to. And the
Speaker 1: main reason why I think that is is just defenses
Speaker 1: are so much better than they used to be. They're
Speaker 1: so athletic, they cover so much ground that it's easier
Speaker 1: than ever to get the ball out of your star's hands.
Speaker 1: And then it becomes so much more important for you
Speaker 1: have guys off the ball that can capitalize on that
Speaker 1: attention and specifically dribble shooting pass, which is something that
Speaker 1: off ball players in NBA history have been less talented with,
Speaker 1: and I think it's been really interesting. I think the
Speaker 1: Tatum with the Celtics is a great example of this. Like,
Speaker 1: if you go back through NBA history, it's like the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three Championship, Jokic, Best player in the World,
Speaker 1: T two, Steph first or second best player in the world,
Speaker 1: Giannis and twenty twenty one best player in the world, right,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty Lebron best player in the world, twenty nineteen Kwhi,
Speaker 1: you know, second, third best player in the world kd
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen second best player in the world second
Speaker 1: or third seventeen Kdi second or third Lebron and sixteen
Speaker 1: best player in the world Steph and fifteen you know,
Speaker 1: second best player in the world. Like it's usually like
Speaker 1: one of the absolute top tier guys that leads his
Speaker 1: team to the title. And I think it was really
Speaker 1: fascinating to watch the Celtics not just win, but win
Speaker 1: convincingly while having a legitimate top ten player, but not
Speaker 1: a guy that we think is on the same level
Speaker 1: as the guys at the very top of the league, right,
Speaker 1: And I think that's really fascinating. And it's because of
Speaker 1: that more team oriented path to success in modern NBA basketball,
Speaker 1: with spacing and driving and kicking and capitalizing on attention
Speaker 1: that is drawn by the primary action at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the possession, right. And so obviously it's not as
Speaker 1: big of a deal as it used to be. That said,
Speaker 1: having the best player still matters a great deal. I
Speaker 1: thought Ka in particular, at least in the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: flex those muscles to help push his team from series
Speaker 1: to series, and so we and he made it to
Speaker 1: the finals, got about as close as you can get
Speaker 1: to winning, right, three wins away from getting the actual
Speaker 1: AREO B. And so even though the league is trending
Speaker 1: a little bit away from the idea of like the
Speaker 1: best player mattering that much, I still think it matters
Speaker 1: quite a bit. And so player rankings are a fun
Speaker 1: way for us to kind of discuss that over the summer,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I've always cared about quite a bit,
Speaker 1: especially going back to when I was a kid. I
Speaker 1: used to argue about this stuff all the time with
Speaker 1: my teammates when I was in college, you know, just
Speaker 1: shooting the shit on the sidelines while we're taking our
Speaker 1: shoes off, or while we're on the bus or on
Speaker 1: the way to dinner or something like that, you know
Speaker 1: how it goes like. It's always been something that I've
Speaker 1: been a fan of, and so I take it very seriously.
Speaker 1: And my criteria this year was a little different, and
Speaker 1: as I was trying to find a criteria that made
Speaker 1: the most sense within the context of what the NBA
Speaker 1: actually demands from its superstars, right, and so what I
Speaker 1: settled on was the idea of like a draft that
Speaker 1: would take place in a kind of like in a vacuum.
Speaker 1: Everyone's starting from scratch, but you need players to lead
Speaker 1: you from October to June. That was the best way
Speaker 1: that I thought I could quantify what we would actually
Speaker 1: need from a player for this coming NBA season. But
Speaker 1: as we know, there are other ways to look at it. Right.
Speaker 1: There's the what if we had a game tomorrow, Like,
Speaker 1: who are you picking to lead you in that sort
Speaker 1: of situation. I still the same top two in that
Speaker 1: situation with Jokic and then with Luca. But like all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm gonna have guys like Lebron shoot
Speaker 1: up that list. Guys like Steph are going to shoot
Speaker 1: up that list. Guys A KD You're going to shoot
Speaker 1: up that list, right, Guys A Kawi are gonna shoot
Speaker 1: up that list. You know, guys that aren't necessarily work
Speaker 1: courses for the regular season the way they used to,
Speaker 1: but guys that are still you know, alpha dog type
Speaker 1: of talents in a smaller sample size. Right. But I
Speaker 1: actually last year used a different criteria than either of those.
Speaker 1: I used the bragging rights method, essentially the idea that
Speaker 1: this is a list to demonstrate what actually happened on
Speaker 1: the court, like how these players actually performed when all
Speaker 1: the stakes were, you know, what they were in that
Speaker 1: specific season. And I got a lot of pushback, right,
Speaker 1: Like I had Luca way down at ten because he
Speaker 1: missed the playoffs. You know, the way that that list
Speaker 1: kind of worked out, I ended up having a whole
Speaker 1: other list of complaints, right, And so we went away
Speaker 1: from that method this year. That's it. I still think
Speaker 1: it matters, right, Like, why do we play the games.
Speaker 1: We play the games because you're trying to win. You're
Speaker 1: trying to hoist Larry O'Brien trophy, right, And the best
Speaker 1: player in the league doesn't always win, but he usually
Speaker 1: gets pretty close. And so what I wanted to do
Speaker 1: is just shout out the player that I thought had
Speaker 1: the bragging rights for this particular season. So basically what
Speaker 1: this means, this is the singular NBA player that I
Speaker 1: think had the best season this last year, from start
Speaker 1: to finish, including the postseason, including the quality of competition,
Speaker 1: who you played against, all the different things that are
Speaker 1: wrapped up into that specific context. Now, last year, I
Speaker 1: thought it was the same guy who would have been
Speaker 1: the best in all the lists, which was Nikola Jokic, right,
Speaker 1: But Nicola Jokic got eliminated in the second round. This year,
Speaker 1: struggled to knock down jump shots, had a pretty rough
Speaker 1: defensive series, not his best moment. I didn't think he
Speaker 1: had the best season from start to finish. The player
Speaker 1: that I picked as the bragging rights champ for this
Speaker 1: season was Luka Doncic. Here's a list of his accomplishments
Speaker 1: just from this season. He won the scoring title, averaging
Speaker 1: thirty three point nine points per game. He was the
Speaker 1: most efficient high volume pull up jump shooter last year
Speaker 1: in the NBA among players who attempted at least five
Speaker 1: hundred pull up jump shots. He made First Team All NBA.
Speaker 1: He was third in MVP voting, made the All Star Team.
Speaker 1: He had a seventy three point game, he had another
Speaker 1: fifty point game. He had thirteen to forty point games.
Speaker 1: He had eight games with at least fifteen assists, and
Speaker 1: as we know, in the postseason, he ended up taking
Speaker 1: his team all the way to the NBA Finals. And
Speaker 1: I thought he had the biggest moment, like the coolest
Speaker 1: individual singular moment of any NBA player this season. I
Speaker 1: thought was Luka Doncics' game winner over Rudy Gobert in
Speaker 1: Game two of the Western Conference Finals. Nasty series of
Speaker 1: dribble combinations that baited Rudy into over playing a drive
Speaker 1: to Luca's right hand side, so that Luca was able
Speaker 1: to get some separation on a step back going to
Speaker 1: his right knock down the shot. And it was crazy
Speaker 1: because in the wild part was in the moment. Every
Speaker 1: one of us who was watching that game knew that
Speaker 1: that was going in the minute Luca got the switch.
Speaker 1: It just kind of felt inevitable. It was kind of
Speaker 1: like the pathway of that series too, Like Minnesota was
Speaker 1: keeping the games close, but it just felt like Dallas
Speaker 1: was the better team, and Luca really stamped that with
Speaker 1: that game winner. But there's here's like that still just
Speaker 1: barely scratches the surface. I just wanted to shout out
Speaker 1: another I've got another half dozen crazy stats for you
Speaker 1: guys to demonstrate just how good Luka Doncic was. This year,
Speaker 1: the MAVs were eleven point nine points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions better with him on the floor versus off the floor.
Speaker 1: That number went up to seventeen point four points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions in the postseason. Lucas scored one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty eight more points than any other player in
Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs. The second place on the list was
Speaker 1: actually Kyrie Irving. Interestingly enough, Luca had twenty four more
Speaker 1: rebounds than any other player in the NBA playoffs. Luke
Speaker 1: had fifty five more assists than any other player in
Speaker 1: the NBA playoffs. He had by far more points, rebounds,
Speaker 1: and assists than any player in the NBA Playoffs. He
Speaker 1: had seventeen more steals than any player in the NBA Playoffs.
Speaker 1: Some really good off ball work from him last year
Speaker 1: in the postseason. He scored in pick and roll thirty
Speaker 1: four more times than any other player in the NBA Playoffs.
Speaker 1: He scored in ISO four more times than any other
Speaker 1: player in the NBA Playoffs. Once again, Kyrie Irving was
Speaker 1: second place in that list. Just an unbelievable year from
Speaker 1: an unbelievable player in Luka Doncic. It was really cool
Speaker 1: to watch him lift a defensive minded roster with some
Speaker 1: limited offensive players aside from Kyrie Irving obviously, to all
Speaker 1: the way through that brutal Western Conference. Just ran into
Speaker 1: a really bad matchup against the Boston Celtics in the finals.
Speaker 1: And Boston, by the way, like I thought, they were
Speaker 1: better than everyone in the league except for Denver, and
Speaker 1: so it just was a really tough matchup. I actually
Speaker 1: predicted that Boston would blow them out multiple times in
Speaker 1: that series and ended up being what happened. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of a tough matchup. It's it's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: how that works, Like, like Minnesota, all these centers, they
Speaker 1: give Jokic all these issues, right, then they run into
Speaker 1: Dallas and it's like Minnesota's pimeter defenders are too thin,
Speaker 1: so Luca just bullies them and they easily dispatch of Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Then you go to the finals and it's like Boston
Speaker 1: is a roster that's thin on the front line, but
Speaker 1: really strong in perimeter defense. And so it's like, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, all these big bodied perimeter defenders that
Speaker 1: can deal with kind of Luca's bullyball attack and ended
Speaker 1: up being a tough matchup for Luca, and that would
Speaker 1: have been a better matchup for Jokic, right, And that's
Speaker 1: kind of the interesting part of the way basketball works,
Speaker 1: Like we always think about who's the best team and
Speaker 1: who's going to win, but more often than not, it
Speaker 1: comes down to matchups. It kind of goes back to
Speaker 1: my rant at the beginning of the show, Like I
Speaker 1: just as I've learned more about the game and learned
Speaker 1: more about the way NBA offenses and defenses work, I've
Speaker 1: just become more and more aware of the fact that,
Speaker 1: like it's not as straightforward as just add up your
Speaker 1: parts and seeing whether or not that can carry you
Speaker 1: all the way to mid June. It's really about like
Speaker 1: matchup versatility. How vulnerable are you to certain types of teams,
Speaker 1: Because if you've got to beat four of them, inevitably
Speaker 1: you're going to run into a team that can attack
Speaker 1: your specific weakness and you've got to have the ability
Speaker 1: to overcome it. And so it was a really fascinating
Speaker 1: type of postseason. But in spite of that, I thought
Speaker 1: that Luca was by far the best individual performer of
Speaker 1: last season, and I think he deserves the bragging rights
Speaker 1: title for this particular NBA offseason. Let's get to our mailbank.
Speaker 1: So our first question from my guy NMZ, who does
Speaker 1: really great work covering the league on Twitter. If you
Speaker 1: guys haven't followed him, I recommend you do. With two
Speaker 1: thirds of the league qualifying for some form of postseason play,
Speaker 1: is it also time to abolish conferences for seeding Some
Speaker 1: playoffs series will be tougher logistically, but one could argue
Speaker 1: that thirteen of the best twenty teams are out West,
Speaker 1: and as fans, we want to see more of the
Speaker 1: best teams complete compete. Yeah. I was looking at the
Speaker 1: standings earlier today and as I was looking at it.
Speaker 1: It's crazy because there's legitimately thirteen teams that are going
Speaker 1: to be trying to make the playoffs out West, and
Speaker 1: the one team that's kind of weird in there is
Speaker 1: San Antonio. But like, and do I think San Antonio
Speaker 1: is going to be like a top four seed or anything. No,
Speaker 1: absolutely not, but like I think they are going to
Speaker 1: be kind of in the mix and the play in
Speaker 1: just simply because Victor wemen Yama is one of the
Speaker 1: most profoundly impactful young basketball players that we have in
Speaker 1: the league, and you finally gave him a really high
Speaker 1: level ball handler in a role that's primarily going to
Speaker 1: serve to set Victor up. And when you come find
Speaker 1: that with probably an increase in his minutes and just
Speaker 1: the sheer frequency that he plays. And I shared a
Speaker 1: stat with you guys when we were talking about player rankings,
Speaker 1: and I don't have it off the top of my head,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to butcher it. But over the
Speaker 1: final portion of the season, I can't remember exactly the
Speaker 1: number of games, but like, it was crazy. They were
Speaker 1: getting their butts kicked with Wemby off the floor, and
Speaker 1: they were positive with Wemby on the floor over a
Speaker 1: pretty substantial sample size towards the tail end of the season,
Speaker 1: which just goes to show you what he's capable of overcoming.
Speaker 1: And he's going to be surrounded by even more talent
Speaker 1: in this particular season. Don't forget Harrison Barnes is just
Speaker 1: a really good veteran player that they've added to the mix.
Speaker 1: That's going to be a really really interesting team. And so, honestly, like,
Speaker 1: if you think about it, that's thirteen teams, and three
Speaker 1: of them are just going to miss the playoffs entirely.
Speaker 1: Five of them are going to miss the eight team field,
Speaker 1: and that kind of sucks when we go over to
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference and in all likelihood we're going to
Speaker 1: have multiple play in teams that are just bad and
Speaker 1: very likely a bad team that gets into the late
Speaker 1: And so I absolutely do think that it would be
Speaker 1: better for the league in the long run if they
Speaker 1: just got rid of the conferences and found some way
Speaker 1: to do. You could figure out a way with the schedule.
Speaker 1: You could read configured divisions and have it so that
Speaker 1: you play, you know, four times each against these divisions,
Speaker 1: but then three times in your division, but then three
Speaker 1: times against everyone else or whatever the specific workings of
Speaker 1: it would be. But if you did something like that,
Speaker 1: I'm not concerned about the travel. The increase in the
Speaker 1: quality of care that these players get in terms of
Speaker 1: private jets and the type of physical training that they get,
Speaker 1: I don't think the flights would be an issue. I
Speaker 1: think it'd be really fun to see more cross conference matchups.
Speaker 1: Like I think it'd be great to have three or
Speaker 1: four Celtics Lakers games a year instead of just two, right,
Speaker 1: you know, like that sort of thing. Like I think
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of really good basketball that can
Speaker 1: be brought out of that, And then I think it
Speaker 1: just be better for seeding. Like it really sucked last
Speaker 1: year that when we went into the playoffs, it was
Speaker 1: like four blood bats series in the Western Conference and
Speaker 1: then like like a bunch of dog shit in the
Speaker 1: first round in the Eastern Conference, as every team was
Speaker 1: you know, with exception of that Calves Magic series. It
Speaker 1: just was a lot of like like kind of funky matchups.
Speaker 1: So like even the Indiana Milwaukee series, which would have
Speaker 1: been entertaining, was bad because of Gianni's being out. But
Speaker 1: like in that case, you have multiple you had two
Speaker 1: really bad first round series out in the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: and that's just that's just that's not that's not a
Speaker 1: good television product, right, And so I think it'd be
Speaker 1: better and there'd be more parody if you had it
Speaker 1: set up with more of a uh more of a
Speaker 1: balanced approach to the bracketing in the postseason. That said,
Speaker 1: I just don't think it's going to happen. I don't
Speaker 1: think the league is going to make that change. I
Speaker 1: think it's logistically pretty tough. Beyond even the travel, it's
Speaker 1: just a reorganization of the league that can be extremely complicated,
Speaker 1: and there's I would imagine people in the league office
Speaker 1: just think that over time, with the talent influx, that
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference will balance out, the Western Conference will
Speaker 1: balance out. I would disagree with that just simply because
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw this chart the other day on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Was kind of crazy. It was like showing all like
Speaker 1: the total number of like good weather days around the
Speaker 1: United States. Some of you guys might have seen this
Speaker 1: on Instagram, but like it was like they were like
Speaker 1: kind of a darker blue purple when they had like
Speaker 1: lesser days that were good weather. And then it was
Speaker 1: like the orange and red color when it was like
Speaker 1: more days with good weather and it was like between
Speaker 1: sixty degrees and eighty five degrees with like within a
Speaker 1: certain range of humidity, and like, by the way, Tucson
Speaker 1: was one of the where I live here in Tucson
Speaker 1: was one of a few places outside of California that
Speaker 1: had two hundred plus days of good weather. I've always
Speaker 1: been a big Tucson fan. I thought that was a
Speaker 1: cool moment. But California is where all the good weather is.
Speaker 1: It was crazy to see the map. It literally looked
Speaker 1: like a bunch of red and orange along the California
Speaker 1: coast and then just a bunch of purple and blue
Speaker 1: everywhere else, because it's either hot as shit here, cold
Speaker 1: at shit there, rains all the time here, you know,
Speaker 1: human as hell there. Like it's like all these people
Speaker 1: that play in the NBA, they start making money. I
Speaker 1: don't blame them for wanting to move to California. I
Speaker 1: don't blame them for wanting to get out to the
Speaker 1: West coast where the weather's just better and a little
Speaker 1: bit more consistently good. And so I don't see a
Speaker 1: universe where like the Eastern Conference balances with the West
Speaker 1: my entire lifetime. It's been like this the entire time
Speaker 1: I've been following the NBA, It's been like this. The
Speaker 1: East will have phases where the top of the East
Speaker 1: is good, but it's never been able to balance out
Speaker 1: in terms of depth with the Western Conference. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's like necessarily a franchise competence thing. I think
Speaker 1: I think the talent just kind of naturally funnels its
Speaker 1: way to the better weather on the West coast. So
Speaker 1: I don't think it'll ever actually happen, but I think
Speaker 1: it should, and I think it would be good for
Speaker 1: the league. How do you feel overall about Joe Mizula.
Speaker 1: I know you disliked him since he did think he
Speaker 1: valued the possession, but I'm curious if that changed after
Speaker 1: the title. He was in some ways the most important
Speaker 1: part of the run in him being the first coach
Speaker 1: in a while to go for back to back. So
Speaker 1: learning about coaches takes time. It's been one of the
Speaker 1: more interesting things that I've come across as as I've
Speaker 1: worked in this industry, simply because like what it takes
Speaker 1: to really learn about a coach, there's a beat writing
Speaker 1: element to it, Like these guys that are in the
Speaker 1: locker rooms, that are asking questions to the coach, that
Speaker 1: are going to shoot around, that are going to practice,
Speaker 1: that are deeply involved with the process. It's easier to
Speaker 1: pick up on that stuff. But like here in Tucson,
Speaker 1: is I'm just watching a lot of film, like and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like there are times when I try to watch postgame pressers,
Speaker 1: but like in terms of like the amount of film
Speaker 1: that I need to watch, a lot of times I
Speaker 1: just prioritize the games, and so I try to pick
Speaker 1: up what the coaches are doing from the way their
Speaker 1: teams play, right, And what got frustrating for me with
Speaker 1: Joe Miszula is I just hated the way the Celtics
Speaker 1: were playing for large portions of the last couple of
Speaker 1: years and just the sheer number of bad possessions that
Speaker 1: they were putting together on offense. And it was during
Speaker 1: this postseason run in particular, not just this postseason, really
Speaker 1: in the springtime. I started to kind of like get
Speaker 1: more aware of it in like that Marchy late February
Speaker 1: March timeframe. But as I started to listen to Joe
Speaker 1: talk more and I tried to find more people that
Speaker 1: cover the Celtics on a really intimate level so that
Speaker 1: I can learn more from them, because they are the
Speaker 1: guys that are paying to every single little thing that
Speaker 1: their program does. Over the course of the year, it
Speaker 1: became clear to me that those were possessions that Joe
Speaker 1: Mizula didn't approve of. Joe Miszoula does believe in the
Speaker 1: high volume of three point shooting, but he believes in
Speaker 1: the deliberate process of offense. They're learning more about the
Speaker 1: way that they prioritize spacing and like little things like
Speaker 1: for instance, like if you have a guard in the
Speaker 1: corner and a big on the wing, then when I
Speaker 1: beat my man off the dribble from the opposite wing,
Speaker 1: I'm more likely to run into a guard in help
Speaker 1: rather than a big in help. Whereas if the big
Speaker 1: is in the corner and the guard is on the wing,
Speaker 1: I'm more likely to run into a big in help
Speaker 1: rather than the guard. And so even though I'm looking
Speaker 1: for driving kick opportunities, if I'm a freaky athlete, if
Speaker 1: I'm Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum and i can get
Speaker 1: downhill and I've got a six ' three guard that's
Speaker 1: stepping over in help on the weak side. I might
Speaker 1: not even have to kick out for three. I might
Speaker 1: be able to go all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: and finish. That's a little basic spacing detail, like take
Speaker 1: the time in your possessions to get guys in the
Speaker 1: right spots, to make it sure that when you're running action,
Speaker 1: you're running it in a way that flows into your
Speaker 1: player's strengths versus your player's weaknesses. This guy's great from
Speaker 1: the corner, but weak above the break. Okay, let's make
Speaker 1: sure that he's consistently in the corner as opposed to
Speaker 1: above the break. Like this guy's really good on the
Speaker 1: short roll, this guy's not. Okay, then we want to
Speaker 1: make sure we're running screening actions with this guy in particular,
Speaker 1: who's good at short rolling catching the ball. These are
Speaker 1: like little deliberate things that Joe Mazula was preaching behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, and it just took a little while for
Speaker 1: the Celtics to like really figure it out right, And honestly, like,
Speaker 1: I think that there is something to be said about
Speaker 1: the large sample and the sense that like the way
Speaker 1: that you have to play basketball in a meticulous sense
Speaker 1: in the small sample is different than the large sample.
Speaker 1: But we just didn't have to run into that with
Speaker 1: Boston because they kicked the shit out of everybody. They
Speaker 1: didn't really end up being an issue where they were
Speaker 1: having to out execute teams in the small sample. And
Speaker 1: so for for Joe, and like, part of that too
Speaker 1: is not even Joe's fault. Part of that's like Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum has never been particularly great at like the really slow,
Speaker 1: methodical half court choc creation in crunch time situations, right,
Speaker 1: So like at the end of the day that some
Speaker 1: of the struggles that Boston has had in those areas
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily Joe Mizzula's fault. And they've been so good
Speaker 1: defensively in the clutch and they're so damn hard to
Speaker 1: guard with their five out guys that their clutch numbers
Speaker 1: have been really damn good. And so like, honestly, like
Speaker 1: whatever you want to criticize that, a lot of people
Speaker 1: like are putting Joe Mazula more in like that Budenholzer category,
Speaker 1: more of like a system type of coach. But like,
Speaker 1: I think over time he'll get even better at the
Speaker 1: at all of the little details, all the little things
Speaker 1: that that he hasn't really had to show with the Celtics,
Speaker 1: and I think that it's a case of his philosophy
Speaker 1: working because I told you, guys, like the Celtics were
Speaker 1: a team I used to hate watching, and I actually
Speaker 1: genuinely enjoyed watching them play in this postseason because they
Speaker 1: did play with a lot of deliberate offensive process, and
Speaker 1: they were particular about getting their spacing right and they
Speaker 1: got a lot of really good shots and it made
Speaker 1: them really, really difficult to beat. Did they play any
Speaker 1: of the super super good teams in the league that
Speaker 1: I wanted to see them play now, But like, we'll
Speaker 1: get to see that this year and it'll be just
Speaker 1: another challenge for these guys, and I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: how they react. But I Joe Mizula was a play
Speaker 1: was a coach that I became more fond of over
Speaker 1: the course of this season, and in general, the Celtics
Speaker 1: and the way they play is something that I've become
Speaker 1: more fond of over the course of this season. One
Speaker 1: of the three most important things the Chicago Bulls can
Speaker 1: Slash should do in order to pull themselves out of
Speaker 1: the hole they created. Love the show, Ben a fan
Speaker 1: for years, Keep killing it, Bro, Thanks so the support.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. You know, it's interesting because I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer in the process of rebuilding centering around
Speaker 1: finding the top tier talent, right, Like step one is like,
Speaker 1: who's going to be your guy, Like the guy that
Speaker 1: you build the entire system around, right, especially on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the four. From there, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: what's that guy's strengths and weaknesses. Let's find a number
Speaker 1: two that compliments him well. And then from there we
Speaker 1: want to find role players that fit within the way
Speaker 1: that those players like to play. So if it's Luca,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for play finishers. If it's more of a
Speaker 1: five out kind of guy, I'm looking for guys that
Speaker 1: contriberle shooting pass in a system. Right, So, like it
Speaker 1: all depends on what your your framework is. Now, the
Speaker 1: Cruso for Josh Giddy trade it like, there's always going
Speaker 1: to be a part of me that wonders if you
Speaker 1: could have gotten a little bit more for Cruso. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, like, it doesn't make sense to
Speaker 1: hold a really high level role player when you don't
Speaker 1: have the actual top end talent to make it work.
Speaker 1: And so that's actually an example of a deal and
Speaker 1: what they're giving themselves an opportunity to see is like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's cash in this asset in Alex Cruso. That doesn't
Speaker 1: really help us in the short term because he's a
Speaker 1: ceiling razor among supreme talent, right, Like, we know what
Speaker 1: he can do alongside the best players in the world,
Speaker 1: because we saw it with Lebron and ad in the
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, where he can like almost reach you
Speaker 1: to another height because of all of those little things
Speaker 1: that he does, right, But that benefit just doesn't matter
Speaker 1: to the Bulls because they right. And this was an
Speaker 1: extended period with the DeRozan with that core, with Derozen
Speaker 1: and Vucevich and zach Levine where they just weren't able
Speaker 1: to even keep their heads above water, let alone be
Speaker 1: even into a some sort of deep playoff run where
Speaker 1: you could see what those guys are like in that setting.
Speaker 1: And so as you pivot, it's like, okay, well, let's
Speaker 1: see what Josh Gitty can do. And then from there
Speaker 1: you start to give more high volume ball handling responsibilities
Speaker 1: to guys at Kobe White, to guys like Josh Gitty,
Speaker 1: and you find out what they're capable of with the
Speaker 1: ball in their hands. Let's say you find out that
Speaker 1: Josh Gitty is actually like a legitimate offensive engine to
Speaker 1: start around. Well, it's like, okay, well now we feel
Speaker 1: like Josh Gitty might actually be good enough, but we're
Speaker 1: going to give ourselves a number two that's more of
Speaker 1: like a role man because we know we need Josh
Speaker 1: Gitty on the ball. So like maybe it's more of
Speaker 1: like a player that's in like the Shane Goon kind
Speaker 1: of archetype, the Anthony Davis type of archetype, like a
Speaker 1: power forward center that is a guy that can compliment
Speaker 1: Josh Gitty with these supreme gifts on both the floor,
Speaker 1: but doesn't necessarily need to dominate the basketball where Giddy's
Speaker 1: standing in the corner where teams are gonna put their
Speaker 1: center on him and not have to worry about guarding him. Right,
Speaker 1: And so this is essentially a waiver. You're trying Giddy,
Speaker 1: trying Giddy to just see how it looks giving Kobe
Speaker 1: White more ball handling responsibility. Let's just see how it looks,
Speaker 1: and then from there it's either gonna make some sense
Speaker 1: or it might be one of those things where we
Speaker 1: end up flipping Giddy. You could revitalize Giddy's value, like
Speaker 1: that's where this Caruso tray could end up working out
Speaker 1: in a big way. What if Giddy goes for you know,
Speaker 1: nineteen ten to nine over the first half of the season,
Speaker 1: and a team out there that like desperately needs ball
Speaker 1: handling ends up making some kind of move for him,
Speaker 1: and then you get draft compensation back, right, That is
Speaker 1: what could potentially open the door for you to potentially
Speaker 1: find that top end piece. But you're basically starting from scratch.
Speaker 1: There's no use in finding useful role players at this
Speaker 1: point because it doesn't fit your timeline. It's more important
Speaker 1: for you to cash in those guys for draft assets
Speaker 1: if you have them, like what you did with Caruso.
Speaker 1: From there, you're giving reps to guys that haven't had
Speaker 1: high volume ball handling reps, and you're just continuing to
Speaker 1: look for talent in the draft. It's like step one
Speaker 1: is admitting that you know that you have an issue,
Speaker 1: and it took a little too long, but for them
Speaker 1: to finally admit that the Vucevich, Levine and derozencore wasn't
Speaker 1: enough was a good step in the right direction. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he'll be able to find a Levine
Speaker 1: trade partner. But eventually he'll be an expiring contract, and
Speaker 1: at that point he will be someone who carries some
Speaker 1: value and so you can cash him in at that point. Again,
Speaker 1: it's far away, but at this point it's like making
Speaker 1: sure that you're taking in assets as much as possible
Speaker 1: by getting rid of anything that has any sort of
Speaker 1: value around the league, trusting in your scouting department to
Speaker 1: find talent, and you're seeking those foundational pieces the guys
Speaker 1: that you can build the rest of the roster. I've
Speaker 1: been meaning to ask you about your experience of the
Speaker 1: Golden State CAZ days, given that Lebron and Steph are
Speaker 1: your one and two favorite players, But you recently said
Speaker 1: that you hated Steph back then. Which moment slash event
Speaker 1: made you fall in love or out of hate with
Speaker 1: Steph and earlier with Lebron. So I've told everybody the
Speaker 1: story about Lebron. It was that's how I fell in
Speaker 1: love with the game of basketball. I was raised in
Speaker 1: a household that was very much baseball and football focused.
Speaker 1: My little brother played football West Point, my older brother
Speaker 1: played junior college football, was a very good high school player.
Speaker 1: They were big baseball guys too. That's just what they did, right,
Speaker 1: and that's what my family did. And I just randomly
Speaker 1: got tall. Nobody in my family is over six to one,
Speaker 1: and I'm six to six. So like it just was
Speaker 1: kind of one of those things where I kind of
Speaker 1: was just naturally inclined to the game, but I randomly
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, and it was game seven too.
Speaker 1: It was Game seven of the two thousand and six
Speaker 1: second round series between the Cavs and the Pistons when
Speaker 1: the Pistons, it was Game seven and Pistons beat that
Speaker 1: shit out of him, like it won't even close. But
Speaker 1: that was actually my first like real time sitting down
Speaker 1: and watching NBA basketball and kind of falling in love
Speaker 1: with it. And so then I just started like following
Speaker 1: Lebron's career and obviously you guys all remember what happened
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven when he took him all
Speaker 1: the way to the finals, and so just immediately fell
Speaker 1: in love with the game. And Lebron just became like
Speaker 1: my sentimental attachment to the game because he was the
Speaker 1: player that got me to fall in love with it.
Speaker 1: And so as you can imagine a kid that never
Speaker 1: did anything with basketball as a kid to like picking
Speaker 1: it up as a teenager and then getting my school
Speaker 1: paid for for it, and now that's what I do
Speaker 1: for a living. Like the game of basketball is so
Speaker 1: important to me, and so like Lebron is like always
Speaker 1: going to be like my emotional weak spot in terms
Speaker 1: of analysis, in the sense that like I love other
Speaker 1: NBA players, but not the same way, just because Lebron
Speaker 1: will always have an attachment to like my childhood love
Speaker 1: for the game, right, if that makes sense. Now, as
Speaker 1: far as the hate thing with Steph hates the wrong word, obviously,
Speaker 1: I hated having to compete against him, not individually but
Speaker 1: as a fan, having to watch my favorite team compete
Speaker 1: against him, and I just was He's so damn good.
Speaker 1: And as a roster they were so damn good, especially
Speaker 1: when they added Kevin Urant. Like it just was annoying, right,
Speaker 1: But it's you know how it is, Like it like
Speaker 1: as time passes, you start to grow up and you
Speaker 1: start to like twenty sixteen, twenty fifteen, that would have
Speaker 1: been I graduated high school and own nine, so I
Speaker 1: would have been like, what twenty four something like that.
Speaker 1: I still kind of a kid, right, Like I was
Speaker 1: still handling it the way a twenty four year old
Speaker 1: would as a fan, you know, And so like, as
Speaker 1: I got older, and as I dove deeper into the game,
Speaker 1: and as I started to coach, and as I started
Speaker 1: to cover the league, It's like you grow to appreciate
Speaker 1: these guys in a different way, right, especially now that
Speaker 1: I'm where we are not rooting for them to compete
Speaker 1: against each other as much anymore. And so at that point, like, uh,
Speaker 1: there's several key things that really drove me to like Steph.
Speaker 1: One his competitiveness. I like I am. I've always been
Speaker 1: just like super annoyed with people that don't show the
Speaker 1: requisite amount of fight in sporting events. And what I've
Speaker 1: always loved about Steph is like I never felt for
Speaker 1: a second like he wasn't giving everything he had in
Speaker 1: a big moment just simply because the dude hated losing
Speaker 1: more than anything else. I had a conversation with Ethan
Speaker 1: Strauss on his podcast a few months ago, and we
Speaker 1: were talking about Steph, and he was pointing out like
Speaker 1: that Steph's favorite sport might be golf, and how like
Speaker 1: a lot of the all time greats are guys that
Speaker 1: like are more competitive than they are lovers of the
Speaker 1: game right, like Michael Jordan's another example that Lebron famously
Speaker 1: loves football, Like I've found that to be very fascinating,
Speaker 1: But it was like it was the first the overall
Speaker 1: just sheer competitiveness to the making the most out of
Speaker 1: his specific set of gifts, like I was always super
Speaker 1: impressed by, like the weight training regimen from Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't realize this, but that was
Speaker 1: the main drivers of his success. Famously, after twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: he went to twenty sixteen and he raised his scoring
Speaker 1: average about like six points a game when he had
Speaker 1: already won MVP, and then got six points a game better.
Speaker 1: And he attributed most of it to lower body weightlifting
Speaker 1: and the fact that it just made it so that
Speaker 1: he could get lift in separation better. And like obviously
Speaker 1: we've seen what he's done with his upper body, we've
Speaker 1: seen what he's done to become a useful defender over
Speaker 1: the course of his prime, and that's just a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of work. And it's a testament because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of guys that have similar physical gifts
Speaker 1: that just didn't do that and didn't reach their potential
Speaker 1: and Steph's going to go down as one of the
Speaker 1: ten best players of all time in my opinion, as
Speaker 1: the only guy in that list that's below sixty five
Speaker 1: and certainly the only guy that doesn't have supreme athletic gifts.
Speaker 1: And so it just that was what drew me to Steph.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of skill stuff too, Like
Speaker 1: I've always been really impressed by STEP's ability to quickly
Speaker 1: reset his base off the dribble. There are some footwork
Speaker 1: things that I've stolen from him, specifically like outside foot
Speaker 1: when you're moving lateral, Steph will like hit a dribble
Speaker 1: combination into a step back and cover a shit ton
Speaker 1: of ground, but then like go straight up and down
Speaker 1: at the end. But if you watch, like if he's
Speaker 1: going to the left, like he'll stick his left foot
Speaker 1: way out and he'll catch his body and reset his
Speaker 1: base to go straight up and down, which is a
Speaker 1: footwork element but also strength element. But there are elements
Speaker 1: of that that I've tried to steal with the way
Speaker 1: that I played the game, and over time, I just
Speaker 1: found out pretty quickly that as I looked around at
Speaker 1: the other players around the league, like there wasn't anybody
Speaker 1: that was doing the kind of stuff that Steph was doing,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden he became one of my
Speaker 1: favorite players, and I really, really really enjoyed rooting for
Speaker 1: him over the tail end of his career. It's been
Speaker 1: a much better experience than rooting against him the way
Speaker 1: I did with Lebron when he was or with Steph
Speaker 1: when he was younger. One of the best ways for
Speaker 1: offensively limited rosters to squeeze the most juice out of
Speaker 1: their personnel. Teams like the Heat or the Wolves are
Speaker 1: clearly great defensively, but lack some offensive firepower to push
Speaker 1: them over the edge. So you know, it's interesting because
Speaker 1: there's the half court element, and then there's the total
Speaker 1: game element. Right So, like any team that has offensively
Speaker 1: limited personnel but as defensively minded personnel, there are ways
Speaker 1: to elevate your offensive performance on the margins. So for instance,
Speaker 1: getting out in transition as much as possible. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you're freaky athletic and good at defense, Well, don't play
Speaker 1: in the half court if you don't have to, right Like,
Speaker 1: that was a big thing with the twenty twenty Lakers.
Speaker 1: They were a little bit limited in half court because
Speaker 1: they had a bunch of big, strong dudes, and some
Speaker 1: of them couldn't shoot very well, but like they were
Speaker 1: just so damn good defensively, and they were so damn
Speaker 1: good in transition that it just didn't matter. And then
Speaker 1: in the half court, Lebron and ad were able to
Speaker 1: make enough shots right Like with teams like Minnesota. Minnesota
Speaker 1: is a great example of this, Like they need to
Speaker 1: get stops and get out in transition. Like it was
Speaker 1: so funny to watch that Denver series, Like whenever they
Speaker 1: were getting stops and forcing turnovers and getting out in transition,
Speaker 1: they were killing Denver. But then every time the game
Speaker 1: slowed down into the half court, Denver was killing them.
Speaker 1: It was like a super interesting dynamic. So first is
Speaker 1: like exploit the margins as much as possible. That's not
Speaker 1: just transition. That's also like attacking the offensive class bigger
Speaker 1: and more athletic, you can do damage on the offensive glass. Right.
Speaker 1: There are different ways to squeeze those things out in
Speaker 1: the margins in the half court. It's schematics, it's ball
Speaker 1: and player movement. If you have a player that's limited
Speaker 1: as a shooter, don't let him stand at the three
Speaker 1: point line, let him function more as a cutter and
Speaker 1: as a screener. Right, if you have two non shooters
Speaker 1: on the floor, you can actually run five out. This
Speaker 1: is one of the most common things that I see
Speaker 1: people get wrong in the YouTube comments. I see people
Speaker 1: be like they do run five out. They have this
Speaker 1: guy that can shoot at center, and it's like, running
Speaker 1: five out has nothing to do with how many players
Speaker 1: can shoot. Five out is entirely about where players are
Speaker 1: while the action is being run. The simplest way to
Speaker 1: put it is like in five out, you never have
Speaker 1: a player just chilling in the dunker spot or like
Speaker 1: a big man that's just just like permanently perched around
Speaker 1: the basket. In five out, your big guys are up
Speaker 1: around the elbows and they're working as dribble handoff fulcrumbs.
Speaker 1: Guys still go to the basket, They cut to the basket,
Speaker 1: they screen and roll to the basket, they drive to
Speaker 1: the basket, but they're not permanently occupying that space. There
Speaker 1: are lots of different ways. Five out offense manifests in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different ways. Right, Like we see Golden State,
Speaker 1: it's like two non shooters, a lot of guys coming
Speaker 1: off of screens looking to shoot right Boston, it's more
Speaker 1: individual two man game to try to get a defense
Speaker 1: in rotation. You'll see guys end up in the dunker spot.
Speaker 1: You'll see guards end up in the dunker spot, just
Speaker 1: because as they're kind of going through the action, they'll
Speaker 1: briefly make themselves available. If it's there, they'll catch and finish.
Speaker 1: If not, they'll quickly get the fuck out of there. Right,
Speaker 1: Like it's guys aren't just like perched around the basket.
Speaker 1: That's all five out is Five out is ball and
Speaker 1: player movement with your non shooters functioning as full crumbs
Speaker 1: away from the baskets, cutting and rolling into the paint
Speaker 1: rather than standing in the paint. That's the main difference, right.
Speaker 1: But like within that, you can craft roles that make sense.
Speaker 1: It's just different from team to team. Right, So, like
Speaker 1: Golden State with their non shooters and guys setting screens
Speaker 1: and guys flying off a screen shooting, they can't play
Speaker 1: the way Boston does because they can't get to dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: But Boston can't play the way Golden State does because
Speaker 1: they don't have guys like Stephan Clay used to be
Speaker 1: Clay that could fly off of a screen and rise
Speaker 1: up and shoot a jump shot. Right Like there Boston
Speaker 1: has a bunch of go catch and shoot guys, not
Speaker 1: a bunch of great movement shooters. Right. So two different
Speaker 1: forms of five out offense that that that essentially center
Speaker 1: around the same concept of the paint being something that
Speaker 1: you temporarily occupy, you don't permanently occupy. Right. But like
Speaker 1: with your team, so like with with the Minnesota for instance,
Speaker 1: right like they do their best to try to have
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert screen and roll into space, and they try
Speaker 1: their best to have Jada McDaniels occasionally come off of
Speaker 1: a dribble handoff. But there are just certain limitations in
Speaker 1: terms of ball handling and shooting from the non Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 1: non Mike Conley, non cat Karl Anthony Towns players that
Speaker 1: they just have a certain ceiling in the half court.
Speaker 1: That's where you try to maximize it as much on
Speaker 1: the margins by getting out in transition, by attacking the
Speaker 1: offensive class. But in the half court, it's just like,
Speaker 1: don't like it's like Jared Vanderbilt with the Lakers. You
Speaker 1: don't have him standing in the corner. That's a waste
Speaker 1: of what Jared Vanderbilt is is good and bad at
Speaker 1: like You're better off having him screen and roll into space.
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt was a bad offensive player with the Lakers
Speaker 1: two years ago. He actually was pretty solid before he
Speaker 1: got hurt in January because he was functioning more as
Speaker 1: a screener and as a cutter. What is a successful
Speaker 1: season for San Antonio play in and smashed by Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City Denver wenby establishing himself in the top ten, I'd
Speaker 1: say the big thing is getting big game experience. Like you,
Speaker 1: it's hard to learn about what a player is good
Speaker 1: and bad at until there's real, real high leverage situations.
Speaker 1: Physicality ramps up, scouting ramps up. It's easier to free
Speaker 1: you to identify weaknesses. If you get let's say you
Speaker 1: get a play in matchup and you squeak into the
Speaker 1: play and you play first round series, but you get
Speaker 1: your butt kicked, You're gonna learn a lot more about
Speaker 1: Devin Vessel and Victor wimin yam and what their strengths
Speaker 1: and weaknesses are. From there, you can learn more about
Speaker 1: how to accentuate their strengths and how to fight against
Speaker 1: and limit their flaws. But you got to have high
Speaker 1: leverage moments for you to see that. I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in like san Antonio is at the point where,
Speaker 1: like you need to find out whether or not Devin
Speaker 1: Vassell can be the go to perimeter guy next to
Speaker 1: Victor Wimenyama. That's what you gotta find out. If he is,
Speaker 1: then your entire focus shifts to finding high quality two
Speaker 1: way role players to fit their offense. Right. But if
Speaker 1: Devin Vessel is not good enough, then your attention has
Speaker 1: to turn more towards We got to find a number
Speaker 1: two for Victor women Yama, right. The only way to
Speaker 1: find that is to get into high leverage moments and
Speaker 1: see what these guys look like when the shit hits
Speaker 1: the fan. With Vando and Christian Wood seeming to both
Speaker 1: be out of the start of the regular season, even
Speaker 1: though nothing officials come out yet. With Vando, how effect
Speaker 1: excuse me, how effectively do you think the Lakers will
Speaker 1: stay afloat? They lost key players like Spencer and Torrian
Speaker 1: Prince and seem to be doomed defensively. I think they're
Speaker 1: going to be fine in the regular season. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're going to be a top four seed or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but I think they'll be in that
Speaker 1: five to eight range most of the year. Again, they
Speaker 1: won thirty of their last forty five games. They were
Speaker 1: the fourth best record in the league after January seventh
Speaker 1: with this group of guys. That was with Vanderbilt hurt.
Speaker 1: That was with Christian Wood hurt, that was with Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent barely playing until the very end of the year.
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent being back and healthy will go a long
Speaker 1: way because that gives them a guard that can guard
Speaker 1: at the point of attack and kind of like level
Speaker 1: some things out in terms of distribution of resources, Like
Speaker 1: it'd be great if Austin Reeves didn't have to guard
Speaker 1: the other team's best guard every single night. Right that said, like,
Speaker 1: even with all the flaws that we've talked about, Lebron
Speaker 1: and eighty are still two the top ten players in
Speaker 1: the league, playing damn near at the top of their
Speaker 1: games at this point in time. Austin Reeves still a baller.
Speaker 1: Daniel Russell said, what you want about him, He is
Speaker 1: a good regular season player. Ruey Hatchamura, I still don't
Speaker 1: know really what he is because he had an awesome
Speaker 1: playoff run two years ago and then an awful playoff
Speaker 1: run last year, but they're good enough to be a
Speaker 1: good regular season team. I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: are off the Lakers sent as a standings kind of
Speaker 1: team because they went three to ten in December and
Speaker 1: it nuked their situation. But they were really good most
Speaker 1: of the year last year, and so as long as
Speaker 1: they continue to play like that, I expect them to
Speaker 1: be really good most of the year this year. Now
Speaker 1: whether or not they can enter into that top tier
Speaker 1: of championship contenders, that is all going to come down
Speaker 1: to whatever big trade they end up making at some
Speaker 1: point this season. Do you think the Lakers would be
Speaker 1: better off if Lebron was more off the ball, averaging
Speaker 1: around twenty instead of his twenty five, letting dlo and
Speaker 1: Austin create, especially Givendlo's that del grades out well and
Speaker 1: playmaking talent, but became a top tier low man in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Stay blessed. I actually am the opposite
Speaker 1: with Lebron. Lebron, in my opinion, is still a devastating
Speaker 1: offensive player when he's devoting his resources there and his
Speaker 1: jump shots going in. Obviously, two years ago he had
Speaker 1: that weird bad jump shooting season, but last year's great
Speaker 1: jumphooter and was one of the best half court shot
Speaker 1: Craaders in the league. So what I want to do
Speaker 1: is I want to alleviate Lebron's defensive job. If I
Speaker 1: can actually go to Lebron and be like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: like you can chill on defense for the most part,
Speaker 1: I just need you to create shots. That's actually I
Speaker 1: think the best way to use Lebron at this age.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to use him for his brain.
Speaker 1: At this point, I want the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: I want him making decisions. It's specifically when he has
Speaker 1: to do most of the defensive work while Austin and
Speaker 1: Di lo are off doing everything with the ball, where
Speaker 1: I can see some diminishing returns because Lebron still won't
Speaker 1: try on defense in the regular season. So like, that's
Speaker 1: my main thing. Is the main thing I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers need to do is create an easier defensive job
Speaker 1: for Lebron in the regular season. Maybe that's a too
Speaker 1: big look, that's Christian Wood is somebody who would help
Speaker 1: with that, so hopefully he's not out for too long.
Speaker 1: Getting Jared Vanderbilt back would be a huge boost in
Speaker 1: that specific regard, But just making Lebron's defensive job easier
Speaker 1: is the best thing you can do for the regular season,
Speaker 1: because Lebron still is one of the best offensive players
Speaker 1: in the league. In my opinion, what's Brandon Ingram's future
Speaker 1: in the league? What team makes sense to give him
Speaker 1: the best chance to fulfill his potential. Brandon's in my opinion,
Speaker 1: one of the like kind of underrated on ball forwards
Speaker 1: in the league. He just kind of has to be
Speaker 1: on the ball. He's not a player that like really
Speaker 1: functions well off the ball in like ball and player movement,
Speaker 1: and so I think about teams that have really good
Speaker 1: defenses that would benefit from him pull up jump shooting
Speaker 1: in some of his more surgical shot creation in the
Speaker 1: half court, but also kind of need talent. So a
Speaker 1: team the team two teams that I put up here
Speaker 1: were like teams like Cleveland or Miami. Now with Cleveland,
Speaker 1: I think that also would come hand in hand with
Speaker 1: trading one of the guards, probably Darius Garland, but I
Speaker 1: think that would give them a little bit more firepower,
Speaker 1: and that would also kind of fit their system in
Speaker 1: a way that I think would struggle elsewhere. And in
Speaker 1: Miami it's just you're you're at a point where you're
Speaker 1: a little bit desperate and you got to make a
Speaker 1: talent play, and I think brandon Ing would be an
Speaker 1: interesting fit there. But I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 1: where he's gonna end up. This is gonna be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see because I think his value is in
Speaker 1: the gutter right now. But he obviously was playing hurt
Speaker 1: or coming back from an injury last year, so I
Speaker 1: don't think that was necessarily the best way to evaluate him.
Speaker 1: So I'm I think it'll start with him in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: hopefully revamping his value a little bit, and then from there,
Speaker 1: I think there will be a team that's a little
Speaker 1: bit desperate looking for some talent that'll jump on him.
Speaker 1: Let's see here, we've got i Helpi at his peak
Speaker 1: versus Curry. Who would you take in a playoff situation
Speaker 1: and who would be easier to build a contender around Curry?
Speaker 1: No question. Kawhi, for as good as he is, is
Speaker 1: not the type of guy that you can count on
Speaker 1: to consistently generate quality shots over a large sample. He's
Speaker 1: a better small sample guy because no one can stop
Speaker 1: him from getting to his spots, and he's one of
Speaker 1: the best individual shot makers that we have in the
Speaker 1: league when he's healthy. But like, if I get Curry,
Speaker 1: I know that just off the jump, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: get a bunch of really good shots all year long.
Speaker 1: I also know that with Curry I can get away
Speaker 1: with playing a lot of defensive minded personnel, as Golden
Speaker 1: State has done over the years. I don't think that
Speaker 1: one's particularly close. I would go with Curry. Who's your
Speaker 1: dark horse NBA Champion contender? Based on the moves that
Speaker 1: were made this offseason. So we have a couple of
Speaker 1: new top tier contenders, right. I think the Knicks after
Speaker 1: they got McHale Bridges, I think that puts them in
Speaker 1: the top tier. You just Brunson, Bridges, og Randall, Robinson,
Speaker 1: that's just a really damn good top five with a
Speaker 1: lot of size and athleticism, rank and shot making, and
Speaker 1: that's just a really good team. In Oklahoma City getting
Speaker 1: Hart and Stein, I think that puts them in their group.
Speaker 1: But there's a bunch of different teams that are that
Speaker 1: are in the mix there. Obviously the obvious ones like
Speaker 1: Dallas and Minnesota are two teams that I think could
Speaker 1: be right back in the mixes here Milwaukee if those
Speaker 1: two guards that they brought in end up working out
Speaker 1: for them on the defensive end of the floor to
Speaker 1: kind of make things easier. And if Jannis and Dame
Speaker 1: have a better season. Obviously, the Philly I don't think
Speaker 1: you can ride out because of the MB factor. What
Speaker 1: if Embid just has healthy knees all year, and then
Speaker 1: what if he just kicks everyone's ass in the postseason?
Speaker 1: And they also have Paul George and Tyres Maxi right,
Speaker 1: So that's one. And then the Lakers if they landed
Speaker 1: a big trade because Lebron and n d are still
Speaker 1: the two of the top ten players in the league,
Speaker 1: and if you get them good two way players around them,
Speaker 1: I think that's a devastating combo. Let's see, what's your
Speaker 1: favorite shot to make when you play basketball? Not your
Speaker 1: most efficient, but your most enjoyable shot to put in
Speaker 1: the basket. That's an interesting question. I would say the
Speaker 1: shot that I feel the best about when I make
Speaker 1: is probably a left shoulder fade, particularly from the right
Speaker 1: block when I'm facing over my right shoulder. The left
Speaker 1: shoulder fade is one of the toughest shots that I've
Speaker 1: ever worked on. The right shoulder fade as a right
Speaker 1: handed shooter is easier because you don't have to square
Speaker 1: up in mid air. But when you're turning over your
Speaker 1: left shoulder, you actually have to swing your right leg
Speaker 1: all the way around. And one of the things I
Speaker 1: learned from Kobe is you deliberately swing that leg around
Speaker 1: and the momentum of your leg will naturally turn your
Speaker 1: body for you as you're turning, and it just alleviates
Speaker 1: some of the workload of actually getting squared up. But
Speaker 1: when I pivot over my left shoulder and hit a
Speaker 1: fade away, it's such a great feeling because it's such
Speaker 1: a tough shot. It's all about legs too. Like it's
Speaker 1: interesting like when I make it or miss it, it
Speaker 1: almost always comes down to did I get enough lift?
Speaker 1: Like if I spin over that left shoulder and I
Speaker 1: get really good lift, it to me, it just feels
Speaker 1: like a jump shot at the end. But like that's
Speaker 1: the fascinating part about that specific shot. It's just all
Speaker 1: lower body work to get you to where you can
Speaker 1: knock down a shot. It's definitely a satisfying feeling for me. Easily,
Speaker 1: my most efficient go to move those that right shoulder faith.
Speaker 1: If I need a bucket and a pickup game and
Speaker 1: it's game point. I'm calling for the ball on the
Speaker 1: right block and I'm bumping with my right shoulder and
Speaker 1: trying to get to my right shouder face because that's
Speaker 1: a shot that I feel like I can make a
Speaker 1: good half the time in a big spot. Like that
Speaker 1: last question, the Warriors team closely resembles the twenty two team.
Speaker 1: Would you be surprised if they made a run like
Speaker 1: twenty two? That's an interesting question because they do resemble
Speaker 1: the twenty two teams, specifically, just swapping out rule players
Speaker 1: for a couple of guys that are a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a better fit, right, like getting a d
Speaker 1: Anthony Melton, who I think is like it's interesting. I've
Speaker 1: always looked at him as like KCP is more of
Speaker 1: a movement shooter. D Anthony Melton's more of an off
Speaker 1: the dribble shooter or off the dribble player. But both
Speaker 1: of them are like two guys that are considered to
Speaker 1: be rock solid NBA starters. I think KCP at his
Speaker 1: peak was better, but I think d Anthony Melton is
Speaker 1: really really damn good. I think d Anthony Melton is
Speaker 1: the kind of guy that's gonna be a two guard.
Speaker 1: If you can say healthy, He's going to be a
Speaker 1: two guard and a really damn good team one day.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's been on some good Philly teams. But
Speaker 1: what I specifically like about that is his ability to
Speaker 1: put the ball on the floor kind of makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense within Golden State's offense coming off of screens.
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson, in addition to being one of the most
Speaker 1: versatile defensive forwards in the league, is a guy that
Speaker 1: has a bunch of offensive limitations, but if you put him
Speaker 1: in dribble handoffs with Steph I think he could actually
Speaker 1: be a pretty impactful offensive player. And we talked about
Speaker 1: earlier Golden State's offense and how they can usually work
Speaker 1: with two non shooters as dribble hand off full crumbs.
Speaker 1: They did it with Looney and Draymond, right, they did
Speaker 1: it with Bogett and Draymond right like we've seen that
Speaker 1: a bunch of times. They did it JaVale McGee and
Speaker 1: Raymond sometimes right like that dual fulcrumb kind of concept.
Speaker 1: I think Kyle Anderson fits that really nicely. So in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, it resembles the twenty two team
Speaker 1: because they went from the twenty twenty one team, which
Speaker 1: was clunky and weird, to a couple of role player tweaks,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden it comes together. The main
Speaker 1: difference is Steph isn't the same player. Steph was, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, the best or second best player in the
Speaker 1: league in twenty twenty one twenty two, and he just
Speaker 1: isn't at that level right now. So if Steph can
Speaker 1: get back to that top five player type of form,
Speaker 1: then I think we could be looking at a Warriors
Speaker 1: team that's one deal away from real championship contention. It's
Speaker 1: just a question of whether or not Steph can get
Speaker 1: it back to that point. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting the show. I will see you
Speaker 1: guys on YouTube after the final buzzer of Aces Fear
Speaker 1: the volume whats So, guys, As always, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually
Speaker 1: be really helpful for us if you guys would take
Speaker 1: a second and leave a rating and a review. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys supporting us, But if you could
Speaker 1: take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.