Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Jason Simp Podcast. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for taking time out of your day.
Speaker 1: It's come talk some basketball with me. It has been
Speaker 1: over two weeks since I have done one of these podcasts,
Speaker 1: thanks to me coming down with COVID nineteen and uh,
Speaker 1: I am happy to announce that even though statistically speaking,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, always likely to be fine, I'm
Speaker 1: happy to announce that it was mostly okay. Um. My
Speaker 1: wife did end up coming down positive a few days
Speaker 1: after me, and she was completely asymptomatic, which is wild
Speaker 1: because she would have had no idea had it not
Speaker 1: been for the fact that I got symptoms. Um. You know, uh,
Speaker 1: I know most of you have had someone that you
Speaker 1: know has had it, so I'm not bringing you any
Speaker 1: new information here, but I I just came down with
Speaker 1: some basic cold like symptoms last week on Tuesday. Um,
Speaker 1: it really wasn't that bad. Usually when I get very sick,
Speaker 1: I'm down and out for two or three days, and
Speaker 1: then I'm back on my feet and everything's fine. This
Speaker 1: was kind of like half as intense as that, not
Speaker 1: quite as bad, but at the same time, it just
Speaker 1: dragged on. I was I had a fever for two
Speaker 1: or three days, and then I had this like lingering
Speaker 1: fatigue that was crazy. If I got off the couch
Speaker 1: for more than like, you know, five minutes or so,
Speaker 1: I just had to go sit down. I slept more
Speaker 1: than I ever have in my life. I'm usually the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that sleeps maybe seven hours in a
Speaker 1: day maybe, and instead I was sleeping you know, eight
Speaker 1: or nine hours at night and then taking a two
Speaker 1: or three hour nap every single um, every single afternoon.
Speaker 1: And I just like I was just completely exhausted. It
Speaker 1: was crazy how long it lasted. Um, But just about
Speaker 1: um late in the day on Tuesday this week, and
Speaker 1: then all day yesterday and then all day today. So
Speaker 1: far I felt pretty much back to myself, which is
Speaker 1: which is good news. And like I said, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: It's easy to see how this stuff spreads around because
Speaker 1: of the fact that, you know, my wife had it
Speaker 1: and she's just completely fine. Um. And like I said,
Speaker 1: never would have been a million years guests that she
Speaker 1: had it if it wasn't for the fact that I
Speaker 1: came down with it. Um. But anyway, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: dwell on that for too long. I'm really really excited
Speaker 1: to talk some basketball. There's so much to talk about.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the Laker off season so far,
Speaker 1: what we know, especially the Dennis Shrewder acquisition. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about my thoughts on what it
Speaker 1: would be like if Harden went to Brooklyn. Then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit about CP three to Phoenix,
Speaker 1: and then what I think about the Milwaukee Bucks moving forward.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk about Warriors too much today. Um,
Speaker 1: there will be a conversation to have about what this
Speaker 1: team looks like this year with Steph's uh you know,
Speaker 1: Steph obviously taking on a much bigger workload with the
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson injury. I just don't think today is the
Speaker 1: day to have that conversation. I'm super bummed from my
Speaker 1: friends who are Warriors fans. I'm super bummed for all
Speaker 1: basketball fans. I personally was really really excited to see
Speaker 1: them back and to see uh, you know what I
Speaker 1: thought was gonna be an amazing showdown between Steph and
Speaker 1: Lebron in the Western Conference finals, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen anymore. Um, But like today, like I said,
Speaker 1: today is not the day to talk about that. I
Speaker 1: feel really really bad for for Warriors fans, just because
Speaker 1: they deserved after what they went through last year, to have,
Speaker 1: you know, something to root for again. And most importantly,
Speaker 1: and this is the biggest bummer to me, I was
Speaker 1: always really bummed for Lebron in two thousand eighteen when
Speaker 1: Kyrie went Kyrie on everybody and left. And I was
Speaker 1: super bummed in twenty nineteen because I thought that Laker
Speaker 1: team could have been good and they were so bogged
Speaker 1: down with injuries, and I was very I thought it
Speaker 1: was sad that a player who was an all time
Speaker 1: great like Lebron had to miss out on two seasons
Speaker 1: of his prime, you know, on teams that couldn't win.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, it was fun watching him,
Speaker 1: and he had his moments last year, and he certainly
Speaker 1: had his moments in two thousand eighteen. But you know,
Speaker 1: for a guy who's wired the way he's wired, who
Speaker 1: all he cares about his winning championships, it sucks that
Speaker 1: his age thirty three and his age thirty four seasons
Speaker 1: were basically wasted and and it's it's just unfortunate, and
Speaker 1: that's basically what's happening to Steph here because of the
Speaker 1: hand injury and the Clay Thompson injury last year, and
Speaker 1: then because of the Clay Thompson injury again this year,
Speaker 1: a small guard who's likely to age out of the
Speaker 1: league faster than a normal superstar level player is going
Speaker 1: to miss two full years of his prime. And I
Speaker 1: just think that that's really really unfortunate. And and as
Speaker 1: basketball fans, I think we should all be, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty bummed out about that. But you don't have to
Speaker 1: hear that for me. I know you guys already feel
Speaker 1: that way. But let's start with the Lakers. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start with Dennis Shrewder because you know it, personally,
Speaker 1: it wasn't the exact player that I wanted with that
Speaker 1: type of trade I was. I was higher on Spencer
Speaker 1: din Witty than most people. Um. I know that the
Speaker 1: three names that got tossed around the most were Shrewder,
Speaker 1: Spencer din Witty, and Victor Oladipo. And Victor Oladipo was
Speaker 1: concerned about his health, and then with Shrewder, I was
Speaker 1: more just concerned about the way his style of play
Speaker 1: would fit with the Lakers. And I'll explain what I
Speaker 1: mean by that in just a second as a good thing.
Speaker 1: It was. It didn't cost the Lakers anything. They lost
Speaker 1: that draft pick, which was a late first round draft pick,
Speaker 1: which if if you follow anything that I believe about basketball,
Speaker 1: I don't believe that young players can really contribute to
Speaker 1: winning at this age. And I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever they get out of Shure is going to be
Speaker 1: ten times greater than what they would get out of
Speaker 1: any player that was available at that point in the draft.
Speaker 1: So the draft pick wasn't really worth that much. And
Speaker 1: then Danny Green was way under performing his contracts. So
Speaker 1: from that standpoint, giving up Danny Green and the what
Speaker 1: was it the overall pick that was never ever going
Speaker 1: to be a uh you know, it's it's easy to
Speaker 1: win that trade, so to speak, because the Lakers weren't
Speaker 1: giving up much of value. Um that said, you know,
Speaker 1: I preferred Din Witty just because of the way that
Speaker 1: the Lakers are structured. The Lakers are structured as a
Speaker 1: team that plays a lot of average to below average shooters. Now,
Speaker 1: they had games in the postseason where they shot really well,
Speaker 1: but if you had to actually describe the Lakers as
Speaker 1: a shooting team, you would describe them as like average
Speaker 1: to below average, like somewhere in that fifteen to twenty
Speaker 1: group in the NBA, And then they always played two bigs,
Speaker 1: especially in the regular season, and even when they would
Speaker 1: go smaller in the in the postseason, they were playing
Speaker 1: Mark Keith Morris, who was basically a big anyway. So
Speaker 1: from that standpoint, they weren't a great spacing team. They
Speaker 1: made up for that spacing with their physicality, but they
Speaker 1: were never a great team for driving lanes. And Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrewder's game is predicated on driving to the basket with
Speaker 1: his speed. And that's not to say that he won't
Speaker 1: still have success with the Lakers, and I believe he will.
Speaker 1: But the reason why I personally was higher on din
Speaker 1: Witty was because din Witty is more of like a C. J.
Speaker 1: McCollum esque super skilled player who his expertise is operating
Speaker 1: in situations that there's not much space. And so that's
Speaker 1: why I personally preferred that move. That said shrewders who
Speaker 1: they got. So let's talk about what that looks like.
Speaker 1: He's he's got great length at the guard position and athleticism.
Speaker 1: He's not super tall, but he's tall enough. And uh,
Speaker 1: he just flat out as a good defensive player and
Speaker 1: he was in Oklahoma City. So that's great news in
Speaker 1: the sense that it fits into the Lakers scheme, even
Speaker 1: more so than either of the other two guards Oladipo
Speaker 1: and and Din Witty. He's a great defensive player. He
Speaker 1: will fit into the Lakers defensive scheme and their defensive brand,
Speaker 1: which is everybody on this team who goes onto the
Speaker 1: court works their ass off on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, as we saw with uh With Dion Waiters,
Speaker 1: he just flat out fell out of the rotation in
Speaker 1: the postseason because Frank Vogel didn't trust him on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. So that is where you know,
Speaker 1: Schroeder is a natural fit. And then as far as
Speaker 1: shot creation goes, I talked a lot last year and
Speaker 1: it was my biggest concern with Rondo. The biggest thing
Speaker 1: that they needed was somebody who can bring the ball
Speaker 1: up the floor when Lebron was off the floor or
Speaker 1: when Lebron was taking his on court rest. You know,
Speaker 1: Lebron loves those stretches of the game where he's not
Speaker 1: necessarily doing as much even though he's on the court
Speaker 1: because he's trying to get his rest while he's playing.
Speaker 1: You need a backup creator, and we all know that
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is not quite that guy yet. He's not
Speaker 1: a good enough passer out of double teams in the
Speaker 1: post to really kill teams um consistently as a primary initiator,
Speaker 1: so that we always knew that the Lakers needed that
Speaker 1: backup guard. Now they kind of did it by committee
Speaker 1: when Rondo was out with injury, and Avery Bradley did
Speaker 1: really good in that role. You know, Crusoe was up
Speaker 1: and down, but he had his moments and uh, what
Speaker 1: really came together for the Lakers in the postseason was
Speaker 1: Rondo had some big games in that role. So Truder
Speaker 1: slides right into that role as a guy who is
Speaker 1: a natural, uh who's used to that specific role to
Speaker 1: as a sixth man, a guy who comes in, you know,
Speaker 1: off the bench, you know, and is used to not
Speaker 1: starting the game in a rhythm and trying to get
Speaker 1: his rhythm in short order as he checks into the game.
Speaker 1: So that's a natural fit. Like I said, my only
Speaker 1: concerns are just that the Lakers are not a great
Speaker 1: spacing team, so it's not going to be as easy
Speaker 1: for him to find driving lanes as it was when
Speaker 1: he was in Oklahoma City, But then again, Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: wasn't the greatest spacing team either, and he had a
Speaker 1: great season. And then the other thing is just his
Speaker 1: jump shooting. So he shot great last year in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: but for the rest of his career he's been a
Speaker 1: below average jump shooter and a pretty bad one at
Speaker 1: some points. So the question becomes at this point, as
Speaker 1: a twenty seven year old NBA player, was last year
Speaker 1: an outlier or is that what the new Dennis shooter
Speaker 1: is as a jump shooter, and that that totally remains
Speaker 1: to be seen. So because I think it's what's going
Speaker 1: to be important is in the minutes where Lebron is
Speaker 1: on the court and he is engaged in the offense,
Speaker 1: Dennis is gonna have to knock down corner threes. Dennis
Speaker 1: is gonna have to uh command enough respect as a
Speaker 1: spot up jump shooter that he can attack close outs
Speaker 1: and do things along those lines. So it's it's very
Speaker 1: important for him to replicate his jump shooting from last season.
Speaker 1: And and and then my last concern is that Denis Trier
Speaker 1: is what I would call a you know, uh, he's
Speaker 1: a tunnel vision score as a sixth man. And from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, what I mean is he will pass, but
Speaker 1: only when he needs to, and he will pass only
Speaker 1: when the defense essentially forces him to. He does not
Speaker 1: get a lot of assists for the amount of usage
Speaker 1: that he has in the minutes that he's playing. He
Speaker 1: is a put my head down, go to the rim.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to score, and if I absolutely have to
Speaker 1: give it up, I will. The only thing that's kind
Speaker 1: of unfortunate about that is his bench minutes are likely
Speaker 1: going to be played with Anthony Davis, who's, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: the fourth best player in the world. So you'd like
Speaker 1: to ideally have a player who's a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a natural facilitator in that role, someone who can
Speaker 1: keep Anthony Davis engaged and get him quality looks. So again,
Speaker 1: those are my pros and cons there. It was a
Speaker 1: super low risk move because the Lakers did not give
Speaker 1: up Kyle Kuzma, they did not give up Alex Caruso,
Speaker 1: they did not empty their trade asset trove. They gave
Speaker 1: up like two They gave up a basically salary filler
Speaker 1: in Danny Green, and one UH one draft pick that
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't help them much anyway, so it's it's a
Speaker 1: low risk move. It could still work out. I'm just
Speaker 1: sharing with you guys why I'm a little skeptical and
Speaker 1: why I'll be with the kinds of things that I'll
Speaker 1: be paying attention to when he actually starts playing. So
Speaker 1: a couple other Lakers things. JaVale McGee opted into his
Speaker 1: contract at just over four million, which is a pretty
Speaker 1: big number for what he brings to the table. I
Speaker 1: think he has to be traded. I thought that one
Speaker 1: of my biggest concerns with the Lakers last year was
Speaker 1: that they didn't seem to have the stomach to tell
Speaker 1: JaVale McGhee to sit, and more often than not they
Speaker 1: ended up and key playoff moments trying to go to
Speaker 1: him and then finally relenting as he was getting eaten
Speaker 1: alive by Nicola Yoki or whoever it was that he
Speaker 1: was going against. He's just not a very good NBA player,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers were always better off going small or
Speaker 1: playing a small center than they were playing JaVale McGee.
Speaker 1: So having him on the roster, given his ego, given
Speaker 1: how much he cares about playing time, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's good for them to keep him around the locker
Speaker 1: room too much. You're heading into a season where you're
Speaker 1: trying to defend the title. You're dealing with egos, you're
Speaker 1: dealing with the disease of more, You're you're dealing with
Speaker 1: all the classic things that teams that just won the
Speaker 1: championship deal with if ideally you'd like to not have
Speaker 1: a guy like that around, and so I hope that
Speaker 1: they can find some way to move him, and I
Speaker 1: think it would probably be attached to Kuzma and some
Speaker 1: type of deal for a wing because I kind of
Speaker 1: had similar feelings about Kuzma in the sense that you're
Speaker 1: gonna probably lose him for nothing because he doesn't bring
Speaker 1: enough to the table to justify the kind of contract
Speaker 1: he's going to get. So why not just get off
Speaker 1: of those guys for guys who will be natural fits,
Speaker 1: who will you know, be good contributions to the locker room,
Speaker 1: who will be, you know, veteran pieces that can at
Speaker 1: least provide some positive role when they do play, but
Speaker 1: at the same time be professionals when they don't play.
Speaker 1: The Lakers were literally just giving JaVale McGee minutes on
Speaker 1: the idea that he was going to get grouchy if
Speaker 1: they didn't play him, and that's that, to me, is
Speaker 1: just not something that a team that has championship aspirations
Speaker 1: should be dealing with. Um. There's been some talk about
Speaker 1: whether or not Avery Bradley really fits into the rotation
Speaker 1: moving forward, because the Laker fans are excited about potentially
Speaker 1: getting Wesley Matthews, which I'm extremely excited about. I think
Speaker 1: he's a much better version of Danny Green. He's a
Speaker 1: much better on ball defender. He's very laterally quick, he's
Speaker 1: very good in the ball pressure role that the Lakers
Speaker 1: use so much as the the baseline scheme in their defense.
Speaker 1: And so if Wesley Matthews comes in and Dennis Shrewder's
Speaker 1: coming in, and Alex Crusoe is going to play and
Speaker 1: uh and contagious call while Pope is going to play,
Speaker 1: you've got four guards there. So the natural, you know, Inclintion,
Speaker 1: is to think that Avery Bradley is not as important anymore.
Speaker 1: But I entirely disagree. I think that he's one of
Speaker 1: the few guards on that Laker roster who's every bit
Speaker 1: as good offensively as he is defensively. And the Lakers
Speaker 1: are always the type of team that at any given
Speaker 1: moment can shift down and play small. They can put
Speaker 1: Lebron James at the four and Anthony Davis at the five,
Speaker 1: and now it's not two guards, it's three guards. And
Speaker 1: so from that standpoint, having Avery Bradley as a fifth
Speaker 1: guard is super important in their death. And then above
Speaker 1: and beyond that, just injuries. Just over the course of
Speaker 1: the season, guys are gonna go down with injuries. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have load manage from the Lakers as they're trying
Speaker 1: to watch minutes because of just how quick the turnaround is.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's so important for them to
Speaker 1: have that fifth card. Depth is going to be especially
Speaker 1: important for the Lakers. Yes, well their rotations. Will their
Speaker 1: rotation shrink in the playoffs, Sure, but they're about to
Speaker 1: play seventy two games in short order after just taking
Speaker 1: two months off from a championship runs. So you're gonna
Speaker 1: have guys like Contavio's called baal Pope when he has
Speaker 1: n tendonitis need to sit out for three or four
Speaker 1: games in a row. Same thing. Alex Crusoe has had
Speaker 1: some back issues in the past. So, like it's so
Speaker 1: important to have that guard depth that I think you
Speaker 1: have to at least try within reason to bring Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley back. The only case where you wouldn't do so
Speaker 1: is if he ends up getting some crazy offer in
Speaker 1: free agency that just takes you out of the mid
Speaker 1: level exception type range. UH for a guy like Serge PoCA,
Speaker 1: that would be the one time that I would not
Speaker 1: be okay with with overpaying for Avery Bradley. But if
Speaker 1: you can get them, if you can bring it back,
Speaker 1: even if you got to give them a little bit
Speaker 1: of a raise, I think you gotta do that. So
Speaker 1: the last Laker thing I want to talk about is
Speaker 1: this uh mid level exception and Sergebaca as a potential signing.
Speaker 1: So for those of you who don't understand the hard cap,
Speaker 1: and I only barely understand it, But when you have
Speaker 1: these these exceptions, which are essentially loopholes in the c
Speaker 1: b A that allow you to sign a player going
Speaker 1: over the salary cap as long as you stay within
Speaker 1: certain parameters, and then there are a bunch of additional
Speaker 1: rules that come into play, and one of them is
Speaker 1: the hard cap. So if they use enough of their
Speaker 1: mid level exception, if they cross a certain threshold, it
Speaker 1: triggers a hard cap, I think at like a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty two million or a hundred and thirty six million,
Speaker 1: where you literally cannot sign anybody, even if it's a
Speaker 1: veteran minimum contract, which severely limits your flexibility later in
Speaker 1: the season when a situation like what happened last year
Speaker 1: with the r Keith Morris, where a player comes down
Speaker 1: the pipeline who gets waived by another team and is
Speaker 1: available to join the Lakers on a veteran minimum contract
Speaker 1: and he ends up playing a big role, plays huge
Speaker 1: postseason minutes like closing lineups in the NBA Finals, and
Speaker 1: that's a player that they signed with the veteran minimum.
Speaker 1: So if you dip into the hard cap, if you
Speaker 1: dip into the exception so far that it triggers the
Speaker 1: hard cap, you limit your flexibility later in the season
Speaker 1: when these buyout guys come down the pipeline. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, the only player that I think is worth
Speaker 1: triggering the hardcap for is Serge Baca, because Serge Ibaka
Speaker 1: is such a ceiling razor for this team because he
Speaker 1: is every bit as good defensively as a as a
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard or as a JaVale McGee was for the
Speaker 1: Lakers last year, but he can also shoot the ball
Speaker 1: and he's far more competent as an offensive player. Plus
Speaker 1: he's had huge moments in huge playoff series. He was
Speaker 1: amazing for the Raptors when they won the title in
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen. Surge Baca is an excellent back of
Speaker 1: NBA player. He instantly gives the Lakers by far the
Speaker 1: best starting lineup in the n b A. He is
Speaker 1: a he is a can't miss opportunities. So if Sergebaka
Speaker 1: comes to the Lakers, and I believe, if I believe,
Speaker 1: the way that it would work is is the Lakers
Speaker 1: would be able to offer him like three years, twenty
Speaker 1: seven million or something along those lines. Again, don't quote
Speaker 1: me on that. I am not a cap expert. I'm
Speaker 1: very average in my knowledge of the cat. But if
Speaker 1: they signed him for three years and twenty seven million
Speaker 1: and he comes to the table, it triggers your hard cap. However,
Speaker 1: at that point your depth cerns. Later on in the season,
Speaker 1: you're basically saying to yourself that you would rather have
Speaker 1: Serge Baca and what he brings to the table. Then
Speaker 1: whoever could potentially come down the pipeline in the future.
Speaker 1: And so he's the one guy that I think that's
Speaker 1: worth it. If if if search Abaca is off the table,
Speaker 1: then you dip into that exception to bring back to
Speaker 1: White and to bring back Avery Bradley or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And you stop right at that five million number or
Speaker 1: whatever it is that doesn't trigger the hardcap, and you
Speaker 1: just play it safe and you hope that something comes
Speaker 1: down the pipeline in the future when the when the
Speaker 1: buyout candidates start coming to the surface. But the surge
Speaker 1: Ibaka is the only guy that I would trigger that
Speaker 1: four you can get. You guys can only imagine all
Speaker 1: of the basketball things they could do with the Baka
Speaker 1: and with Anthony Davis together. Anthony Davis is on the bench.
Speaker 1: Now they can go five out and Lebron can have
Speaker 1: all of his driving lanes, Dennis Schroeder can have all
Speaker 1: of his driving lanes. Anthony Davis is on the floor.
Speaker 1: There two bigs there shot blocking all over the floor,
Speaker 1: and you can do high low actions with Ibaka and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. You can have Anthony Davis spot up. You
Speaker 1: can have Sergebaka spot up and have Anthony Davis work
Speaker 1: on the low block. As you guys remember last year,
Speaker 1: there were all of these plays or Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: trying to work from the post and Dwight Howard is
Speaker 1: just camping in the dunker spot and his man's just
Speaker 1: not even guarding him. And Anthony Davis wasn't a gifted
Speaker 1: enough passer to really, you know, draw that guy a
Speaker 1: little closer, to throw lobs to Dwight or any of
Speaker 1: that stuff. So it kind of hampered the ability of
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis to be a post up player. Sergebaca completely
Speaker 1: solves that problem. In addition to just depth, at that point,
Speaker 1: you're talking about between Lebron, Kyle Kuzma, Sergebaka, Dwight Howard,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, you're talking about just a bunch of front
Speaker 1: court depth of really good NBA players. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: uh Ibaka is the only player that I would trigger
Speaker 1: the hardcap for. Alright, let's move on to this potential
Speaker 1: James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets trade that has been discussed,
Speaker 1: And first and foremost, if I was Houston, I would
Speaker 1: just bring Harden and Westbrook back to camp because they
Speaker 1: don't really have anything that they can gain here. The
Speaker 1: amount of talent that would be on that Brooklyn team,
Speaker 1: Especially for as good of a regular season player as
Speaker 1: James Harden is, It's hard to imagine them conveying really
Speaker 1: high quality picks anyway over the over the next few years.
Speaker 1: I don't like it at all. UH And if for Houston,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, Harden has to guaranteed years on his contract,
Speaker 1: and the third the third year guarante UH player option
Speaker 1: is like almost fifty millions, So why in the world
Speaker 1: would he turn that down anyway? So realistically, you've got
Speaker 1: three years of control of James Harden anyway. The same
Speaker 1: thing goes for Russell Westbrook. You hold the cards. I
Speaker 1: do believe in player empowerment. I understand the arguments for why.
Speaker 1: I understand the arguments for why. You know, like the
Speaker 1: NBA owners can ship players off in the middle of
Speaker 1: their contracts all the time. I agree with all of that.
Speaker 1: I just also believe that the team has the right
Speaker 1: to flex their muscles within the scope of what the
Speaker 1: cb A allows. So you know, James Harden absolutely is
Speaker 1: within his rights to demand a trade to UH to Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: but he has to understand that his leverage is less
Speaker 1: than that of a player. In his final year, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis tried to force his way out of out of
Speaker 1: New Orleans, but they didn't trade him until he had
Speaker 1: one year left because at that point the leverage shifted
Speaker 1: in the sense that the Pelicans could have lost him
Speaker 1: for nothing. That's not the situation Houston is in that
Speaker 1: there there's there's always an understanding that leverage is a
Speaker 1: moving scale, and in this case, the leverage is in
Speaker 1: the hands of Houston. So if they want to look
Speaker 1: these guys in the face and say, hey, come to
Speaker 1: training camp like we're not just gonna uh, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna do this right now, then they have every right
Speaker 1: to do that. And and then Harden and Westbrook are
Speaker 1: in the situation where if they choose not to play,
Speaker 1: they could be in you know, they could be in
Speaker 1: a situation where they don't get paid, and they could
Speaker 1: be in a situation where the contract is automatically voided.
Speaker 1: I know, you guys remember some of this from the
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard fiasco when he threatened not to play if
Speaker 1: he got traded to certain teams when he was with
Speaker 1: the Spurs. So like from a player empowerment standpoint, I
Speaker 1: would just I I understand and give them the right.
Speaker 1: I just if I was Houston, I'd bring them back. Now,
Speaker 1: let's pretend that Brooklyn and Houston have come to some
Speaker 1: sort of agreement and they're going to make this trade.
Speaker 1: I am one of the few people out there who
Speaker 1: doesn't really understand why everybody would be that intimidated by
Speaker 1: that particular Brooklyn Nets team, and that UH that for me,
Speaker 1: UH comes down to just the way that I believe
Speaker 1: teams win NBA championships. You guys have heard me talk
Speaker 1: about this literally million times, but the UH, I believe
Speaker 1: that there is a there are certain pillars that a
Speaker 1: team needs to win an NBA championship. You need elite,
Speaker 1: high end offensive creation that can create offense against elite
Speaker 1: defenses that you will inevitably face as you get to
Speaker 1: later playoff rounds. That's one, and then two, you need
Speaker 1: elite defensive versatility, so you need the ability to guard
Speaker 1: those high end offensive teams to the best of your ability.
Speaker 1: And then third and finally, you need I talked about
Speaker 1: this all the time, you need an alpha, somebody that
Speaker 1: can go head to head with the other stars in
Speaker 1: the league, look them in the face, understand in their
Speaker 1: head that they can beat them, go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with them and win that matchup in any given head
Speaker 1: to head matchup. A great example of that is Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler versus Janis Antenna Coumbo. Jimmy Butler is not as
Speaker 1: good of a basketball player as Janice Antenna Cumbo, but
Speaker 1: Jimmy is an Alpha and Jimmy was able to go
Speaker 1: head to head against the Honest in close playoff games
Speaker 1: at the end when everything was up in the air,
Speaker 1: and he was able to take the Honest down in
Speaker 1: that head to head matchup. So as long as you
Speaker 1: have those three basses covered, I believe you can win
Speaker 1: a championship. And when it comes to that Brooklyn Nets
Speaker 1: team as currently constructed, they have two of those boxes
Speaker 1: checked really well. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are are
Speaker 1: two of the very best playoff elite offensive creators that
Speaker 1: we have in the game today, and they are two
Speaker 1: of the very best alpha's. I have seen Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: look Steph Curry in the face and be better than
Speaker 1: him in an NBA Finals playoff series. I have seen
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant look Lebron James in the face and be
Speaker 1: every bit as good as Lebron James in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: in an NBA Finals series. So from that standpoint, they
Speaker 1: already of the alpha's and they already have the elite
Speaker 1: offensive creation. Harden is a redundancy in that regard. They don't.
Speaker 1: He's not even as much of an Alpha as the
Speaker 1: other two. And then more offensive creation isn't what they
Speaker 1: need where they are where they are coming up short
Speaker 1: in these matchups. Right in my head, as I'm envisioning
Speaker 1: a Brooklyn Nets run to the title, They're going to
Speaker 1: eventually run into Miami. They're gonna run into Philadelphia, They're
Speaker 1: gonna run into Milwaukee. All of these teams that can
Speaker 1: defend the hell out of the basketball, and if they
Speaker 1: don't have the ability to do that, they won't be
Speaker 1: able to outscore them over the course of a series
Speaker 1: because those teams also have elite offensive talent. Those teams
Speaker 1: have the things that they need to create enough offense
Speaker 1: that if they get into a rock fight with Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: they can win. But Brooklyn has absolutely nothing in the
Speaker 1: way of elite defensive versatility. Kevin Durant is an average
Speaker 1: deep pensive player who has never shown the ability to
Speaker 1: really take command to that end of the floor. He
Speaker 1: did it in two thousand seventeen with Golden State, but
Speaker 1: he was on a team that was already a top
Speaker 1: tier first or second best defensive team in the league,
Speaker 1: and he was sliding into a role. Now he's the
Speaker 1: best defensive player on his team, and now he has
Speaker 1: to set the tone on that end, and now the
Speaker 1: entire team is going to go as he goes. That's
Speaker 1: an entirely different role than what he was doing in
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen in Golden State. And now you're bringing
Speaker 1: in James Harden, who is probably like one of the
Speaker 1: worst defensive superstars that we've seen in the history of
Speaker 1: the league. He's there there. There was a little bit
Speaker 1: of a of a a reputation repair that they did
Speaker 1: trying to say he was a good post up defender,
Speaker 1: but his overall focus and effort on that end has
Speaker 1: never been there. And then Kyrie Irving same thing. He
Speaker 1: had some he had some moments in two thousand sixteen
Speaker 1: with the Calves, but for the most part has been
Speaker 1: a bad defensive player. So, in my opinion, the Nets
Speaker 1: are much better off letting James Harden go. Let him
Speaker 1: be miserable in Houston, let Philly trade for them or
Speaker 1: trade for them or something along those lines, and find
Speaker 1: a way to leverage your assets into versatile defensive players.
Speaker 1: Try to trade for p J. Tucker, try to like
Speaker 1: sign every conceivable wing that you can so that you
Speaker 1: can have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving focus on what
Speaker 1: they're best at, which is scoring the basketball and staring
Speaker 1: these other alpha's in the face and potentially being better
Speaker 1: than them. That is the pathway to a Brooklyn Nets title.
Speaker 1: Not foregoing all of your depth and flexibility for another
Speaker 1: star that is redundant, That doesn't that doesn't bring anything
Speaker 1: different to the table that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: already bring to the table. So I think they're on
Speaker 1: the verge of potentially making a catastrophic mistake. Now, who
Speaker 1: knows it's I've been wrong before. I'd be the first
Speaker 1: person to admit it if it ends up in a
Speaker 1: different direction. But the the and when I'm laying these
Speaker 1: scenarios out in my head, it seems far more likely
Speaker 1: that they'll have success if they follow a proven method
Speaker 1: of winning titles, which is find a way to defend,
Speaker 1: find a way to create shots against teams that defend
Speaker 1: and have a guy that can look the other team's
Speaker 1: guy in the face and be better than him. That's
Speaker 1: the way you win, alright. Moving on to UM, this
Speaker 1: U two quick ones, this CP three to Phoenix and
Speaker 1: then the Milwaukee Bucks. So with CP three in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: UM I, I love this trade, and I was really
Speaker 1: disappointed in Milwaukee for not going after CP three, especially
Speaker 1: given what they did decided to give up for Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday because, like I said when I did my podcast
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, of the top ten players
Speaker 1: in the NBA, our top fIF team players, I think
Speaker 1: Chris Paul is in that you know, third or fourth
Speaker 1: tier of stars and is one of the best players
Speaker 1: in the league. Still the second team All NBA this year.
Speaker 1: He's an automatic, massive talent infusion into any roster, and
Speaker 1: he only has two years left on his contract, so
Speaker 1: there was no reason in the world to be scared
Speaker 1: of that contract and not be scared of a Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday contract or any of these other contracts that are
Speaker 1: out there. He at this point, he's one year away
Speaker 1: from being an expiring deal that can be flipped for
Speaker 1: cap space, and so so Phoenix gets him. They give
Speaker 1: up Ricky Rubio, who would have been a redundancy next
Speaker 1: to CP three. Anyway, they give up Kelly Ubre, which
Speaker 1: I like Kelly Ubre. He's a player that I hope
Speaker 1: ends up in l A. He's a great player. But
Speaker 1: with the rise of Cam Johnson as a three D
Speaker 1: player and with Michael Bridges, they didn't need Kelly Hubre
Speaker 1: as much and uh uh, and then then they can
Speaker 1: build around DeAndre and Devin Booker too. So I think
Speaker 1: this automatically puts them right beneath the two l A teams. Now,
Speaker 1: given that Golden State has been essentially you know, if
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about them in another day, but they've
Speaker 1: been essentially taken out of the mix here. I think
Speaker 1: CP three, even Booker and DeAndre Ayton, is that that's
Speaker 1: the third most talent in the Western Conference behind the
Speaker 1: two l A teams. So it's a no brainer. You're
Speaker 1: automatically putting yourself right there in the mix. CP three
Speaker 1: is an alpha that can go toe to toe with
Speaker 1: any of these stars. You've got lots of defensive versatility
Speaker 1: with Cam Johnson, Michail Bridges, DeAndre eight and Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker, is gonna have to learn how to defend.
Speaker 1: That's the best That's the best part about this particular
Speaker 1: move is we're now finally going to get to see
Speaker 1: what Devin Booker looks like in a winning role on
Speaker 1: a winning team. We're gonna get to see how much
Speaker 1: he can impact winning, you know, on a night tonight
Speaker 1: basis in the regular season and then and then again
Speaker 1: in the postseason. This is where we find out if
Speaker 1: Devin Bookers the seventeenth best player in the league or
Speaker 1: the seventh best player in the league. So that's the
Speaker 1: exciting part as a basketball fan, is getting to see
Speaker 1: what he can bring to the table, last of not
Speaker 1: least the Milwaukee Bucks. So there's a lot up in
Speaker 1: the air here because, as you guys have heard, there
Speaker 1: have been some reports coming out from uh some a
Speaker 1: lot of NBA writers that the a bunch of executives
Speaker 1: around the league are upset that this was a potential
Speaker 1: tampering incident involving bog Down Bogdanovich. And you know, let's
Speaker 1: just I I have heard that this is a cover
Speaker 1: up from somebody who works at the athletic and so
Speaker 1: I'm under the impression that this is gonna eventually get done.
Speaker 1: And there's been a lot of talk Sham Sherannia called
Speaker 1: it a super team. There's been a lot of talk
Speaker 1: from you know, Bucks fans of of this being you know, uh,
Speaker 1: this being a monumental success. And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: it is a monumental success in the sense that reports
Speaker 1: are showing that Janice is planning on resigning. So that's awesome,
Speaker 1: And on behalf of all of NBA fans, I'm happy
Speaker 1: for Milwaukee fans that they're going to get to hopefully
Speaker 1: keep your honest now as a result of all of this.
Speaker 1: And if that if it costs all those X, who cares.
Speaker 1: You're not trading those picks for Drew Holiday. You're trading
Speaker 1: those picks for uh, for Jhannice, Antenna Coompo, Andrew Holiday.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like what happened with the Clippers. Everybody's like, oh,
Speaker 1: they paid all this stuff for Paul George. No they didn't.
Speaker 1: They paid all that stuff for Paul George and for
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard because he wasn't coming unless they got all
Speaker 1: of George. So you gotta look at the total package
Speaker 1: of what they were able to put together by making
Speaker 1: these deals. But let's go back to what I talked
Speaker 1: about earlier in the proven ways to win a championship,
Speaker 1: the three pillars that you have to build a team around.
Speaker 1: Milwaukee was already an elite offensive team or defensive team.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. They were the best defensive team in the
Speaker 1: league last year by defensive rating, although I would argue
Speaker 1: that l A was The Lakers were a better team
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, but they had that that that
Speaker 1: base is covered. Then from the from the standpoint of
Speaker 1: an alpha dog, you know, Janice has been outplayed in
Speaker 1: his last two playoff by other Alpha Dogs, but theoretically
Speaker 1: Janice can fill that role. But their biggest problem was
Speaker 1: elite high end offensive creation. A guy that can when
Speaker 1: things really bogged down in the half court of a
Speaker 1: late round playoff series against the Lakers against a Clippers,
Speaker 1: against the Philadelphia, against the Boston, against the Miami, against
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn. Who if they've managed to figure out the
Speaker 1: defensive end. A guy that can in those half court
Speaker 1: settings consistently generate quality offense. And that's what got them
Speaker 1: killed against Miami, and that's what got them killed against Toronto.
Speaker 1: So the question I have for you guys is how
Speaker 1: does Drew Holiday instead of George Hill and Bogdan Bogdanovich
Speaker 1: instead of Eric Bledsoe solve that problem? It doesn't. They
Speaker 1: have the exact same flaw today that they had last season.
Speaker 1: They just have marginally better versions of the players that
Speaker 1: were already feeling those roles. If anything, Eric Bledsoe wasn't
Speaker 1: as good as an offensive player as bog Don, but
Speaker 1: he's a much better defensive player. So there's a give
Speaker 1: and take to all of this stuff. So my worry
Speaker 1: for Bucks fans is they're going to find themselves in
Speaker 1: the exact same situation in this next playoff run that
Speaker 1: they were in the previous two, even if this Bogdan
Speaker 1: Bogdanovitch deal goes through. And that's why it was so
Speaker 1: much smarter for them just to give a little fewer
Speaker 1: assets for Chris Paul, You're you have the same issue
Speaker 1: with a long contract, You have the same issue with
Speaker 1: having to give up some form of assets to get
Speaker 1: the deal done, but you get a much better player
Speaker 1: who actually fills that role of a lead offensive creation
Speaker 1: and a better alpha and another option at an alpha
Speaker 1: who could go ahead to head to head with these
Speaker 1: guys in these playoffs series, So I thought it was
Speaker 1: a catastrophic mistake from Milwaukee going that route. Now there's
Speaker 1: one scenario where this could all be pointless and the
Speaker 1: Bucks could be absolutely fine, and that is the scenario
Speaker 1: where Chris Paul excuse me, where Jannis Antenna Kumpo finally
Speaker 1: takes that leap and becomes that guy. If Johannas Antenna
Speaker 1: Cumpo becomes an elite, high end offensive creator, and if
Speaker 1: he becomes the alpha that can go head to head
Speaker 1: with a Lebron or with a Kauai, or with the
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler or with the Ben Simmons or whoever it
Speaker 1: is and and beat them, then he then that solves
Speaker 1: both of those problems and all of a sudden, Milwaukee
Speaker 1: becomes a bona fide contender. But my question is when
Speaker 1: in NBA history have we seen that big of a
Speaker 1: leap in one summer, a shortened summer at that, Because
Speaker 1: not only was you, honest, not that guy last year,
Speaker 1: he's not even close to that guy in his last
Speaker 1: two playoff series, is that he's been eliminated. He averaged
Speaker 1: twenty three points against Toronto, twenty two points against Miami.
Speaker 1: That's not a, Uh, that's not even like you know,
Speaker 1: look at Jayson Tatum, who was considered a middle of
Speaker 1: the pack superstar in this playoff run. Even he was
Speaker 1: getting twenty six points a game, you know, he was
Speaker 1: performing at a much higher level as an offensive creator
Speaker 1: than Janice was. So my worry would be, how in
Speaker 1: the world is that going to change over the span
Speaker 1: of three months or whatever it's been since Johanna's last
Speaker 1: played basketball, And how is that not just going to
Speaker 1: be the exact same problem in this next postseason run.
Speaker 1: So that's why I thought they should have gone after
Speaker 1: CP three. I thought it was a big mistake already.
Speaker 1: That's all I have for today, So I have uh,
Speaker 1: two other podcasts on the schedule as of right now.
Speaker 1: I have uh probably next week Roger is gonna come
Speaker 1: on and we're gonna do basically just a reaction to
Speaker 1: all of the Laker postseason moves, assuming at that point
Speaker 1: by the end of next week or so, that um,
Speaker 1: that all of the the dust will have settled on
Speaker 1: this off season. Uh. And then I was supposed to
Speaker 1: last week on Thursday, but covid gotten the way. I
Speaker 1: was planning on doing a special, little just for fun
Speaker 1: Star Wars Pod with my buddy Jackson. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: working on rescheduling him that with him probably early next week.
Speaker 1: But as usual, thank you guys so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1: The numbers that have come from these things have been
Speaker 1: amazing and I'm so uh you know, shocked and honestly
Speaker 1: just thankful that you guys care enough to take time
Speaker 1: to listen. Um, but enjoy the next couple of days.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we're gonna have lots of news pop up
Speaker 1: and like I said, until next time. Thanks guys,