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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the volume eppy Thursday. Everybody,
Speaker 2: oh ball, If you guys are having a great week.
Speaker 2: We're going to get into listening a little different today
Speaker 2: since we had no games on Wednesday night, this kind
Speaker 2: of weird break here in the middle of the season.
Speaker 2: I wanted to do something for fun. So what I
Speaker 2: did is I kind of went through the NBA standings
Speaker 2: and through the NBA current statistical leaders, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to just kind of find some toss ups, a couple
Speaker 2: of different comparisons between teams or players that I've view
Speaker 2: pretty closely ranked to each other so that we can
Speaker 2: just have a little bit of fun here in this
Speaker 2: little first tent poll, this first one third of the
Speaker 2: season that we've got through. But before we get into that, though,
Speaker 2: we're having the guys from Nerd Sash, Carson, and Logan
Speaker 2: on today. I want to give you guys a chance
Speaker 2: to give your initial impressions off of the n Season
Speaker 2: Tournament Championship game. I personally we're recording this on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I have not had a chance to watch it yet.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be watching it right after we finished this recording,
Speaker 2: But I wanted to give you guys a chance to
Speaker 2: give me your take on last night's game. So, as
Speaker 2: I saw from the box score, looks like the Thunder
Speaker 2: offense shut down. I've had some concerns surrounding the Thunders
Speaker 2: offense all season as it pertains to their decision making
Speaker 2: and just their willingness to really like work for.
Speaker 4: The best shot.
Speaker 2: Let's start with you, Carson, what was your impression of
Speaker 2: last night's game? Talk a little bit about what Milwaukee
Speaker 2: did well and what you're concerned about with the Thunder
Speaker 2: moving forward.
Speaker 5: I thought it very much was a two sided deal
Speaker 5: where I was both very impressed by Milwaukee and it
Speaker 5: felt like this was sort of the crystallization of everything
Speaker 5: that they've been doing well for this stretch in which
Speaker 5: they've turned their season around. They've won thirteen of their
Speaker 5: last sixteen games now after their two and eight start.
Speaker 5: And at the same time, it was the worst case
Speaker 5: scenario for the Thunder offensively, like if you take every
Speaker 5: concern that you have about them and dial it up
Speaker 5: to ten, that's what this game was. So you mentioned
Speaker 5: the decision making. I did think that that was an issue.
Speaker 5: I thought that it started with Shay. I thought that
Speaker 5: he was taking too many pull up threes for me
Speaker 5: in a game when those shots were not falling, and
Speaker 5: specifically because.
Speaker 4: The Thunder were in a slump.
Speaker 5: I would have liked to see him try to work
Speaker 5: his way to some higher percentage shots.
Speaker 4: But Audrey Jackson also did a.
Speaker 5: Phenomenal job on him and was consistently cutting off his
Speaker 5: driving angle. So he was just living on this very
Speaker 5: very difficult shot diet. He wasn't getting downhill to create
Speaker 5: for other teammate it's very much as well, So he's
Speaker 5: not only super inefficient in this game, he only has
Speaker 5: two assists. They were basically relying on him to create everything,
Speaker 5: as they often do, but he just was not creating
Speaker 5: the shot quality for himself or others that you're accustomed to,
Speaker 5: and Jadub was just okay, and the spot up shooting
Speaker 5: around them was horrible. I mean, Okase went five of
Speaker 5: thirty two from three in this game. So when you're
Speaker 5: relying on Shay to create everything and he's off and
Speaker 5: he's living off a shot diet and nobody around him
Speaker 5: can make a shot, obviously you're going to have a really.
Speaker 4: Bad offensive performance.
Speaker 5: And that's not what you ever expect to see from
Speaker 5: OKC because this is a good offense, but you know
Speaker 5: that that's in there, and this was the extreme version
Speaker 5: of that. So in terms of like actual concerns, I
Speaker 5: think this team desperately needs chet Holmgren back because I
Speaker 5: thought he was playing at such a high level offensively
Speaker 5: early in the year and was doing more as a driver,
Speaker 5: was doing more with the ball in his hands, was
Speaker 5: more aggressive. If you get back in another super efficient,
Speaker 5: twenty point per game versatile score like him, I think
Speaker 5: that helps this offense in a whole lot of ways.
Speaker 5: I do wonder though, when we hold them up to
Speaker 5: the standard of a Boston if they do need another
Speaker 5: actual ball handler with some juice, just because right now
Speaker 5: it is shay Jada check. When he gets back, everything
Speaker 5: is on you, and nobody around you is any sort
Speaker 5: of advantage creator. Everybody is basically a pure spot up shooter,
Speaker 5: or some of these guys are high IQ cutters, but
Speaker 5: they're also very inconsistent spot up shooters. Right Cason Wallace
Speaker 5: has had a bad shooting season. Lou Dord has had
Speaker 5: a very good shooting season, but he had a bad
Speaker 5: shooting game, and I thought that he also forced up
Speaker 5: some threes that I didn't love. Caruso has had a
Speaker 5: horrible shooting season. So you just look around and it's
Speaker 5: like the job of these guys is to be reliable
Speaker 5: spot up shooters, and that's not what all of them are.
Speaker 5: So those are really the problems with Okasee offense. But
Speaker 5: like I said, I thought that Milwaukee did a great
Speaker 5: job defensively. I thought that Andre Jackson was awesome. I
Speaker 5: thought that Jannis was really good defensively in this game,
Speaker 5: and he has just been playing at such an unbelievably
Speaker 5: high level as of late, and I think that's not
Speaker 5: just because he's better than he's ever been offensively, which
Speaker 5: he onequivocally is. I think also as Milwaukee's turned around
Speaker 5: their season defensively, Giannis is playing at a level that
Speaker 5: we didn't see from him early in the year, we
Speaker 5: didn't see really last year. On the defensive end, He's
Speaker 5: got four straight games with three or more blocks, so
Speaker 5: holding opposing players ten percent below their typical field goal
Speaker 5: percentage at the rim over these last fifteen games. And
Speaker 5: I just think that they found the right two way
Speaker 5: players because my concerns with Milwaukee early in the year
Speaker 5: and last year, we're always just about how do they
Speaker 5: turn around this perimeter defense which had been an absolute disaster,
Speaker 5: and Andre Jackson is phenomenal there.
Speaker 4: I do worry just a bit about his playability.
Speaker 5: As a key piece offensively in the playoffs, because they
Speaker 5: need him so much for this point of attack defense.
Speaker 5: Last night was rough for him offensively because he only
Speaker 5: goes one of six and basically, okay see wasn't guarding
Speaker 5: him and teams are gonna dare him to make shots.
Speaker 4: But he's been so good for their defense.
Speaker 5: J Green is a good perimeter defender and is like
Speaker 5: the most efficient spot up shooter and the most efficient
Speaker 5: jump shooter in basketball, I think you tweeted out. So
Speaker 5: he's a weapon. He's a really good two way player
Speaker 5: and that's just what they haven't had. And then Jannis
Speaker 5: was just incredible as he has been for this season,
Speaker 5: but especially this last fifteen game stretch. But there isn't
Speaker 5: a tougher matchup for ok See defensively than Yannis because
Speaker 5: this Oka See defense is so incredible. But they're small
Speaker 5: and Giannis just goes through them. And especially when you
Speaker 5: don't have a chet for some additional rim protection. At
Speaker 5: the very least, you don't have a Jay Will who's
Speaker 5: a six eight two point fifty.
Speaker 4: Body you can throw at.
Speaker 5: Jannison is the king of taking charges, right, just another
Speaker 5: big duty you could put.
Speaker 4: In front of him.
Speaker 5: They didn't have that, and so they're trying to put
Speaker 5: Lou on him. They have Hartenstein on him in stretches,
Speaker 5: who I thought did the best job. There are stretches
Speaker 5: where Caruso ends up on him and he just goes
Speaker 5: through him.
Speaker 4: Like tissue paper.
Speaker 5: I actually thought okay See did a pretty good job
Speaker 5: of loading up the paint and forcing Giannis to beat them.
Speaker 5: As a playmaker, and forcing dudes around him to beat
Speaker 5: okay See with their shooting. But Giannis was great as
Speaker 5: a playmaker, and the Bucks had a really good three
Speaker 5: point shooting day and Giannis was still able to get
Speaker 5: his pretty efficiently. So I think the Bucks are really good,
Speaker 5: and I think that they've proven that, and I think
Speaker 5: that this game was a big moment for them because
Speaker 5: they did beat such a good opponent so convincingly. I'm
Speaker 5: probably not as concerned about Okasee as some other people
Speaker 5: are from just this game. I just thought it was
Speaker 5: like their nightmare scenario. But it did show you concerns
Speaker 5: that are real for them, especially when Chet isn't on
Speaker 5: the floor.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially when you think back to how they
Speaker 1: lost in the playoffs last year, and that was basically
Speaker 1: the Mavericks formula. Right, they load up on Sga, they
Speaker 1: throw a ton of double teams at him, force him
Speaker 1: to be a playmaker, and the thunder ran cold.
Speaker 3: From behind the arc.
Speaker 1: Right they shoot thirty three point five percent in that
Speaker 1: series and just can't muster anything up. I agree with
Speaker 1: a lot of what you said. I don't have a
Speaker 1: ton to add. I thought Giannis was by far the
Speaker 1: best player on the court last night on All Fast.
Speaker 1: It's rebound bounding, defensively, offensively. And I do think this
Speaker 1: is a really bad matchup for Oklahoma City too, because
Speaker 1: it's not only just Yanna specifically in this matchup too,
Speaker 1: You're dealing with big bodies like Brook Lopez, with like
Speaker 1: Bobby Portis, where you know, in some matchups those guys
Speaker 1: may be relatively ineffective because Oklahoma City is so small,
Speaker 1: it just made everything a little bit harder on the
Speaker 1: glass and stuff like that. But I do think people
Speaker 1: are going to probably run with this a little farther
Speaker 1: than they need to because this is on a national stage,
Speaker 1: because it was the only national game that a lot
Speaker 1: of Ohs were on the NBA Cup. And I do
Speaker 1: think it shows you Okay sees flaws, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: see it.
Speaker 3: On the broadcast.
Speaker 1: They mentioned this, I think a million times, Jason, the
Speaker 1: fact that Oklahoma City was hanging around in this game
Speaker 1: despite their shooting flaws, like because they're consistently only down
Speaker 1: eight to ten in this game and they are hitting
Speaker 1: nothing from behind the arc. So while everybody may go
Speaker 1: negative with Oklahoma City's offense, I do think there is
Speaker 1: a positive in there in Oklahoma City's defense. They have
Speaker 1: been person did a video breakdown on them unfortunately yesterday
Speaker 1: at the Oklahoma City defense, and then they lay a
Speaker 1: stinker on offense in this game. But they have been
Speaker 1: historically great, Like I mean historically great. You laid out
Speaker 1: a bunch of numbers on our show last night, Carson.
Speaker 1: They're number one in stocks per game all time, mi
Speaker 1: Ani team. I think there's third and steels per game.
Speaker 1: They're so good defensive playmaking wise, and that is just
Speaker 1: what I want to hammer home about this team when
Speaker 1: everybody's going negative, is they have elite perimeter personnel, they
Speaker 1: have an elite defensive system. This team plays so connected
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, and they've been great without Chet Holmgren,
Speaker 1: and I think that's really important to contextualize.
Speaker 3: About this team.
Speaker 1: And that's ultimately why Oklahoma City is great is because
Speaker 1: of their defense. But when we are holding them up
Speaker 1: to that championship, you know, contender level, the offense wasn't
Speaker 1: there at that level last night.
Speaker 2: You know, My biggest concerns with OKC through this early
Speaker 2: chunk of the season centered around two things, and it
Speaker 2: was one, what if a team just SAgs way off
Speaker 2: of all their mediocre shooters and they go cold. And
Speaker 2: the reason why I was concerned about that is I've
Speaker 2: just seen it on a few occasions this season, and
Speaker 2: it's exactly what Dallas did last year. They were like,
Speaker 2: beat us case on walls, beat us chet Holmegrin, beat
Speaker 2: us lou door, Like you're not gonna make enough of
Speaker 2: these wide open, you know, moderately contested catch and shoot
Speaker 2: threes to beat us. And like the second piece of it,
Speaker 2: the second piece that I was concerned about, was just
Speaker 2: your number two behind Shay is like some combination of
Speaker 2: Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, which are just very very
Speaker 2: young players. And you know, I've heard a lot of
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City fans in my mentions or in YouTube comments
Speaker 2: say things like these are good shooters, and I don't
Speaker 2: disagree necessarily, Like I think that Oklahoma City has a
Speaker 2: good skill development program. I think a lot of these
Speaker 2: guys are capable of knocking down shots at a better
Speaker 2: rate than they've shown. The thing is, though, is like
Speaker 2: there's something to be said about being comfortable and confident,
Speaker 2: and it's just really hard to be comfortable and confident
Speaker 2: in big spots when you're in your early twenties and
Speaker 2: you're going against grown ass men. It's a real thing,
Speaker 2: and it's a real reason why. Like you know, Logan,
Speaker 2: you talked a lot about going negative on OKAC, and
Speaker 2: I tend to agree with you in general about like
Speaker 2: overreacting to any sort of singular moment in a situation
Speaker 2: like this. That said, like the it's not so much
Speaker 2: to me about whether or not okay See is the
Speaker 2: favorite to win the Western Conference, or whether or not
Speaker 2: they're deserving one seed, or whether or not they're a
Speaker 2: threat to win the title. To me, it's about like
Speaker 2: I'm looking at these two teams that have a clear
Speaker 2: talent advantage over the rest of the league in Boston
Speaker 2: and Oklahoma City, and Boston just looks like a better
Speaker 2: basketball team beyond the aggregation of talent, and it stems
Speaker 2: from just like I think, I think their shock creators
Speaker 2: are just older and wiser and more experienced. I think
Speaker 2: that their role players are more comfortable and more experienced.
Speaker 2: And I think that in terms of personnel strengths, I
Speaker 2: think Oklahoma City has a higher defensive ceiling, but I
Speaker 2: think Boston clearly has a substantially higher offensive ceiling, And
Speaker 2: so like for me, and again, like I'll get into
Speaker 2: more details that those of you guys that are watching this,
Speaker 2: you will have watched my instant reaction already, so like
Speaker 2: you'll get a more detailed version of what I thought
Speaker 2: about the game. But like when I saw that score
Speaker 2: last night, my first impression was another big game where
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City's offense kind of like ran out of steam.
Speaker 2: And it's something that concerns me a little bit. We're
Speaker 2: gonna get back into that in just a second because
Speaker 2: I'm going to go right back into Oklahoma City with
Speaker 2: their next question. But the one thing I wanted to
Speaker 2: say on the Bucks front, the aj Green Andre Jackson
Speaker 2: piece is so huge in this regard because if you
Speaker 2: actually start to look down the down, the down, the
Speaker 2: depth chart, so to speak, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2: If you look at the lineup, it's like you trust
Speaker 2: Brooke us Giannis. Chris I think has been great since
Speaker 2: he's come back, even beyond the box court stuff. He
Speaker 2: just has been such an additional ball handling force to
Speaker 2: help just kind of grease the wheels for them on offense.
Speaker 2: You have Dame, It's like this one piece here, this
Speaker 2: point of attack guy that can knock down a shot
Speaker 2: is like the number one thing that Milwaukee's been struggling
Speaker 2: with over the last couple of years. And Andre Jackson
Speaker 2: and AJ Green just give them two really great options.
Speaker 2: And Andre Jackson, like I saw some of the highlights
Speaker 2: of him guarding Shay last night and his lateral quickness
Speaker 2: and strength and his ability to be kind of physical
Speaker 2: without picking up fouls, although he has a tendency to
Speaker 2: pick up fowls from time to time. But like his
Speaker 2: that is a look that they have that is very
Speaker 2: physically imposing, but they'll inevitably run into issues like for instance,
Speaker 2: I saw Sam Vessini tweet out that that Dagenal never
Speaker 2: tried to actually put Hartenstein ont Andre Jackson, to use
Speaker 2: him more as a helper to kind of put another
Speaker 2: layer behind the the Yannis attack, And there will be
Speaker 2: teams that do that and they might have to change
Speaker 2: their look. But Aj Green obviously not the type of
Speaker 2: perimeter defender than Andre Jackson is. He is a credible
Speaker 2: perimeter defender. I actually have been really impressed by him
Speaker 2: on that end of the floor this year, and he's
Speaker 2: a look they can go to that has a certain
Speaker 2: amount of offensive upside as a guy that can like legitimate,
Speaker 2: legitimately come flying off of screens and shoot, and on
Speaker 2: many occasions has been a real release valve for them
Speaker 2: on the offensive end of the floor this year. And
Speaker 2: then then you have Gary Trent Junior as an alternative.
Speaker 2: Look in that sense as well, they have more good
Speaker 2: basketball players than I think we realize, in large part
Speaker 2: because a couple of guys finding roles. That Again, when
Speaker 2: you find a basketball player that slots into a role
Speaker 2: that makes sense, it always makes them look better, and
Speaker 2: if you find them in a role that doesn't make sense,
Speaker 2: they can look worse from time to time. It's just
Speaker 2: like kind of one of those basketball dynamics. But in general,
Speaker 2: I think, and we're gonna talk about this when we
Speaker 2: get to the MVP stuff, but like, yeah, I think
Speaker 2: just instilled this team with the necessary amount of fight
Speaker 2: that they needed to actually find out what this team
Speaker 2: is capable of. And like that, at that first stretch
Speaker 2: of the season, they just weren't really competing. But when
Speaker 2: Brooke and Giannis really turned up the defensive intensity there
Speaker 2: after that ugly start, everyone else kind of fell in line.
Speaker 2: Then the rotation kind of fell in line. Doc Rivers
Speaker 2: has done a wonderful job kind of getting guys to
Speaker 2: buy into their roles. And here we're looking at a
Speaker 2: serious basketball team that's been on an extended stretch of dominance.
Speaker 2: So let's get into our toss up questions. First one,
Speaker 2: I want to stay on Oklahoma City for a minute.
Speaker 2: Who would you take to win the Western Conference right now?
Speaker 2: The Dallas Mavericks or the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 4: Let's start with you.
Speaker 3: That's so tough, man.
Speaker 1: I like both of these teams, and I think at
Speaker 1: full strength, I will take Oklahoma City. But it really
Speaker 1: is what you just said, Jason, it's hard not to
Speaker 1: feel burnt by Oklahoma City in these big moments with
Speaker 1: these young basketball players consistently. And you know what, I'll
Speaker 1: cut Shay Gildess Alexander some slack because I think last
Speaker 1: year against Dallas, I'd only Guessga got enough credit for
Speaker 1: how well he dealt with double teams and how well
Speaker 1: he playmated out of those double teams, and the.
Speaker 3: Shot quality that he consistently generated.
Speaker 1: Like the reality of that series was Oklahoma City's guys
Speaker 1: just couldn't hit shots. But it is proven, and I
Speaker 1: think Dallas matches up with a lot of teams out west.
Speaker 1: They definitely have two offensive guys that I trust more
Speaker 1: than Oklahoma City's top two. They're shooting is comparable or
Speaker 1: better when you factor in like Klay Thompson, and you
Speaker 1: know that those guys are going to generate a high
Speaker 1: shot quality around them. I trust Dallas's offense at a
Speaker 1: different level because they have Kyrie and Luca.
Speaker 3: I know that even if one of those guys run.
Speaker 1: Runs cold, that Kyrie can go hot in serve buckets
Speaker 1: for a quarter or two, or Luca can turn it
Speaker 1: on in the fourth quarter and step on somebody's neck.
Speaker 3: And their defense is solid too.
Speaker 1: It's really close, and Oklahoma City I thought would have this.
Speaker 1: We'll see what they fully look like when chet Holmer
Speaker 1: gets back. I expected that we would see them building
Speaker 1: real distance between them and the number two team out west,
Speaker 1: and I don't really feel like there's a huge gap
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 3: Again, We'll see what they look like when Check gets back.
Speaker 3: But I'll lean.
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City because I know what I'm getting in this defense,
Speaker 1: and I do trust Shay, and I think Jalen will
Speaker 1: look better and all those things will progress to the means.
Speaker 1: I think their supporting cast is a lot of good shooters.
Speaker 1: I think they'll shoot better, so I'll go Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna act like it's not close. I
Speaker 1: think Dallas is a real threat out West.
Speaker 2: Before you go, Carson, I'm gonna put you both on
Speaker 2: the spot real quick. Do you guys agree with me
Speaker 2: that Dallas is the clear number two in the West?
Speaker 2: You first, Logan, No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I actually would have Dallas, And it's really close between
Speaker 1: my top three.
Speaker 3: We just had this on our show.
Speaker 1: I still had Denver number two, and I'm still holding
Speaker 1: out hope that we get Superstar Jamal Murray because it
Speaker 1: really is the final component. It's Denver's just been so
Speaker 1: damn inconsistent and then nine on Jokic minutes continue to
Speaker 1: kill them. But the best player in the world factor
Speaker 1: factors in for me there, and that's why Denver's number two.
Speaker 1: But it's close between all three of these teams.
Speaker 5: I have Dallas number two. I would have Denver number three.
Speaker 5: I think that that ceiling is absolutely free within Denver.
Speaker 5: It's just Logan mentioned Superstar Jamal Murray. Man, how about
Speaker 5: we get to good Jamal Murray because it's been so
Speaker 5: bad and that is so key to them being the
Speaker 5: basketball team that I expected them to be that we've
Speaker 5: seen them be before. And Dallas just has such good depth,
Speaker 5: they have such quality role players. They're a better defensive team.
Speaker 5: I think again, Denver has that ceiling because when Jamal
Speaker 5: is right, that's starting five is a buzzsaw.
Speaker 4: And I think the bench has probably been better than
Speaker 4: you would have expected.
Speaker 5: And they can make a couple moves on the margins too,
Speaker 5: But right now I would go Dallas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I'm I think Dallas's roster is just better.
Speaker 2: I like to put it simply. I just think they
Speaker 2: have more good basketball players. Luca too, like is just
Speaker 2: starting to start playing like Luca, And I think there's
Speaker 2: a version of this where they rip off a bunch
Speaker 2: of wins and start to look like one of the
Speaker 2: top teams. I do think that the like when the
Speaker 2: debate that the Janis Jokic debate is gonna come up,
Speaker 2: I'm sure at some point here over the course of
Speaker 2: the of the next couple of days, and and I
Speaker 2: think that that's a debate that's worth having. Although I
Speaker 2: think I still lean Jokich. We may even do that
Speaker 2: on this show, but like to me, Luca was like
Speaker 2: kind of lagging behind that group, and I still believe that,
Speaker 2: like he's got to demonstrate for a longer period of
Speaker 2: time that he's at that level. But like to me,
Speaker 2: the Dallas, when you factor in Luca the upside for him,
Speaker 2: I think he probably will be a little better in
Speaker 2: this playoff run. I do think that they are the
Speaker 2: clear Number Two. Let's go to Carson about a potential
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City versus Dallas watching conference finals. Who would you
Speaker 2: take at this point in time?
Speaker 5: I do prefer the Thunder, And I thought that the
Speaker 5: head to head matchup that we saw between these teams
Speaker 5: was kind of illuminating and interesting, and I thought it
Speaker 5: provided a contrast to last year. Because I do think
Speaker 5: there are several areas in which Okac is better.
Speaker 4: I trust them more. Number one, just the fact.
Speaker 5: That Okac was able to actually dominate the offensive glass
Speaker 5: with Isaiah Hartenstein was big. And they've been almost an
Speaker 5: average rebounding team since iHeart came into the lineup, which
Speaker 5: doesn't sound super impressive on its face, but eighteenth and
Speaker 5: rebound rate for the Thunder considering what they've been. They
Speaker 5: were thirtieth before he debuted this season, that's big because
Speaker 5: Dallas convincingly won the offensive glass in their series last year.
Speaker 5: I think okay See is much better equipped to be
Speaker 5: on even ground there. Oka See shot the ball really
Speaker 5: well in that NBA Cup game, and as we just
Speaker 5: saw against the Bucks, right, they're not going to be
Speaker 5: consistent there. I had to guess I would think they
Speaker 5: shoot better than they did against Dallas in the playoffs
Speaker 5: last year if we were to see a series rematch,
Speaker 5: because everybody outside of Shaye was thirty percent from deep
Speaker 5: in that series. Like, we can talk about these guys
Speaker 5: being questionable shooters, but that's pretty bad. So I don't
Speaker 5: think you can consider that a home run improvement. But
Speaker 5: I probably expect, on average, some improvement from the shooting.
Speaker 5: And I do think Jada is better and I do
Speaker 5: think chet is significantly better. And that's where we have
Speaker 5: to see check back out there on the floor, and
Speaker 5: we have to see that he's healthy when he comes
Speaker 5: back from this injury, presuming that he does come back
Speaker 5: from this injury like that is definitely a big swing
Speaker 5: factor in this. But I do think the supporting cast
Speaker 5: around Shae has improved, and I thought that Shay was
Speaker 5: excellent in that environment. And I also think we can
Speaker 5: talk about having questions about Okacs spot up shooting their
Speaker 5: role players. Dallas's dudes are going to be tested in
Speaker 5: the same way, man, because we can talk about Dallas
Speaker 5: roaming off of questionable shooters with their bigs and loading
Speaker 5: up the paint and helping hard on Shay's drives. Okay, See,
Speaker 5: he is just gonna blitz Luke and Kyrie outright, and
Speaker 5: they're gonna test a PJ. Washington making shots. They're gonna
Speaker 5: test a Nause Marshall making shots. And either they executed
Speaker 5: that formula a good bit better in the NBA Cup
Speaker 5: game than they did last year.
Speaker 4: Now, they actually held Dallas to their.
Speaker 5: Lowest offensive rating of any Western Conference playoff series that
Speaker 5: Dallas played, And I think that gets a little bit lost.
Speaker 5: And that was with PJ. Washington shooting way above his means.
Speaker 5: That was with Derek Jones Junior shooting above his means.
Speaker 5: Like they have this ability to just take the ball
Speaker 5: out of Dallas's best players hands, force other people to
Speaker 5: make decisions and make shots. And they are the fastest
Speaker 5: and the most aggressive defense maybe that I've ever seen.
Speaker 4: Like some of the rotations.
Speaker 5: There were a couple plays where Luca literally made a
Speaker 5: perfect play. Right they're blitzing him, he's under pressure, he
Speaker 5: jumps up, fires a skip pass fifty feet cross court.
Speaker 5: I mean when you consider the diagonal of it on
Speaker 5: a line right into the show shooter's pocket and lou
Speaker 5: Dord is just flying in from thirty feet away, and
Speaker 5: he's there when the shooter catches the ball, and he's
Speaker 5: either gonna contest it really well or he's gonna run
Speaker 5: them off the line. Like they're so fast, they're so aggressive,
Speaker 5: they're so locked in defensively, like Logan said, that's what
Speaker 5: makes Okase special. They're number one right now in terms
Speaker 5: of relative defensive rating. They're defensive rating compared to the
Speaker 5: league average that we've.
Speaker 4: Seen since the nineteen sixties. Celtics.
Speaker 5: They're number one this century in steals per game, number
Speaker 5: one in turnovers force per game. They're number one this
Speaker 5: year in loose balls recovered per game. They're the best
Speaker 5: rim defense this year statistically without Chet, because they have
Speaker 5: so much collective improtection. They're so good in terms of
Speaker 5: helping like they're number one in field goals made at
Speaker 5: the rim allowed and field goal percentage at the rim allowed.
Speaker 5: So I just think that gives them such a special floor,
Speaker 5: and I have more faith in their key offensive components,
Speaker 5: more faith in Jada, more faith in Chet, more faith
Speaker 5: marginally in this shooting, and I think that's what swings it.
Speaker 5: And Hartenstein is so good. I don't want to sell
Speaker 5: short that he does make them more serious on the glass,
Speaker 5: just makes them a better basketball team all around. I mean,
Speaker 5: in the Bucks game, Hartenstein was basically their best source
Speaker 5: of offense because he was efficient with his push shots
Speaker 5: and he was really good on the offensive glass. I
Speaker 5: do think this OKC team is more grown up. I
Speaker 5: know that this isn't the best time to say it
Speaker 5: after that Bucks performance, but maybe that is because I'll
Speaker 5: get in low on the stock, relatively low. They're twenty
Speaker 5: to five with the best net rating in basketball without
Speaker 5: their second best player, and people are acting like the
Speaker 5: sky is falling. I'm still going to bet on that
Speaker 5: team in the West. I think they're too immensely talented,
Speaker 5: too great defensively specifically, So I.
Speaker 2: Don't want this to come off as like Oklahoma City pessimism,
Speaker 2: because it's not. I think that they still have an
Speaker 2: extremely good chance to win the conference. I think they
Speaker 2: have a pretty solid chance to win the title. Although
Speaker 2: I wouldn't pick them over Boston. I do think that
Speaker 2: a Western Conference Final series between Dallas and Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: would be very long and very close. I think it
Speaker 2: would be like a determined and clutch time of Game
Speaker 2: six or Game seven, just like last year's. Was that said,
Speaker 2: I think, and again I've reserved the right to change
Speaker 2: my mind as we get closer to the postseason and
Speaker 2: we get more opportunity to see both of these teams
Speaker 2: in the big picture, but I lean very slightly towards
Speaker 2: Dallas at this point, and it really just comes down to,
Speaker 2: like they Dallas got exposed in the Boston series for
Speaker 2: the exact same kind of problem that Oklahoma City got
Speaker 2: exposed for in the Western Conference Finals, in the sense
Speaker 2: that they I should say, the Western Conference semi finals,
Speaker 2: just in the sense that like Boston basically started Darren
Speaker 2: guys to knock down shots, specifically above the break, and
Speaker 2: there were kind of like two material changes in Dallas's
Speaker 2: roster this offseason. And I talked about it right after
Speaker 2: the Boston series. I was like, I was like, I
Speaker 2: bet you PJ. Washington just spends the entire summer just
Speaker 2: working on kind of like pick and pop or movement
Speaker 2: threes that are above the break, just like kind of
Speaker 2: quickly getting his feet set and knocking down threes above
Speaker 2: the break because it was such a big problem the
Speaker 2: Boston series. He's shooting damn near fifty percent on above
Speaker 2: the break threes this year. Like he's really really stroking
Speaker 2: that ball from outside of the corners in a different
Speaker 2: way than he was last year. Whereas with the additions
Speaker 2: of Quinton Grimes and Klay Thompson, they have additional options
Speaker 2: that they can go to at the point of attack
Speaker 2: depending on the matchup, where they can get even more
Speaker 2: quality above the break shooting. So like Dallas's shooting is
Speaker 2: a lot more resilient this year than it was last year.
Speaker 2: In fact, as a team, as a team, they're about
Speaker 2: a one point five percent ish better above the break
Speaker 2: than they were last year, which is actually fourth in
Speaker 2: the entire NBA. They're shooting the ball really, really well
Speaker 2: from out there. Luca was a little bulky and a
Speaker 2: little knocked up when he was when he was in
Speaker 2: the postseason last year. I think that there's a version
Speaker 2: of this where they get there a little bit healthier.
Speaker 2: There's a continuity factor. Derek Lively, I think is a
Speaker 2: better player this year than he was last year. I
Speaker 2: think Oklahoma City as a unit has gotten better compared
Speaker 2: to last year for obvious reasons, skill additions, also some
Speaker 2: internal improvement. But I also think that the Mavericks have
Speaker 2: gotten a little bit better. And then, you know, when
Speaker 2: I just start to think about like potentially a really intense,
Speaker 2: you know, six seven game series in the conference finals,
Speaker 2: I do tend to lean a little bit more towards
Speaker 2: the experience, and so again razor thin margin, but I
Speaker 2: would I would take Dallas just barely over Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: at this point, and again I reserved the right to
Speaker 2: change my mind when we get closer. It's just, dude, like,
Speaker 2: I've just seen too many examples of this. This was Boston,
Speaker 2: this was Boston in twenty twenty two, where it's like
Speaker 2: all year long, you're like, I'm just not sure they
Speaker 2: have the offensive process that they need to get this
Speaker 2: thing done. And then you know, maybe it shines through because,
Speaker 2: by the way, what was amazing about that twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two Boston team. How did they beat everybody? Their defense?
Speaker 2: It was their defense. They killed everybody with their defense.
Speaker 2: And then what ended up happening is they got into
Speaker 2: a big spot and their offense completely crumbled and ended
Speaker 2: up becoming a problem. Uh and so like again, I
Speaker 2: just it's just where I'm at at this specific point
Speaker 2: in time. But let's let's look at some of the
Speaker 2: the players here for a second. There's two different angles
Speaker 2: that I want to go at this from, So let's talk.
Speaker 4: Let's start.
Speaker 2: I think the best Player in the World debate right
Speaker 2: now is coming down to Jannis and Jokic. I think
Speaker 2: the MVP debate is more of like a three horse
Speaker 2: race at this point between Shay, Yannis, and Jokic. Let's
Speaker 2: start with Let's start with the MVP and go from there.
Speaker 2: I think Yannis has a clear leg over SGA at
Speaker 2: this point after what happened last night. That's just too
Speaker 2: much of a burned memory in everybody's brain, big game,
Speaker 2: you know, big spot. Yanis just looks better right that.
Speaker 2: That's gonna that's gonna sit with everybody for a while.
Speaker 2: But between that, between Shay, Janis and Jokic, and we'll
Speaker 2: start with you, Carson, who would you get the MVP
Speaker 2: two at this point? If the season ended today.
Speaker 4: Right now, I would give it to Jokic.
Speaker 5: It is incredibly close with the level that Jannis is
Speaker 5: playing at, and Yokic actually the last couple of games
Speaker 5: has had two of his worst games of the season,
Speaker 5: so that makes the margin a little bit more narrow.
Speaker 5: He's still having, I would say, really beyond a shadow
Speaker 5: of a doubt, the greatest offensive regular season that we've
Speaker 5: ever seen. He's giving you thirty one thirteen to ten.
Speaker 5: He's doing it on unfathomable efficiency, almost sixty five percent
Speaker 5: through shooting. He's taken a leap compared to where he
Speaker 5: was at last year as a jump shooter. And I
Speaker 5: actually think his overall efficiency, even as his jump shooting
Speaker 5: regresses to something of a mean very well could go
Speaker 5: up because his touch around the rim and in the
Speaker 5: paint hasn't been as insane as normal. And you just
Speaker 5: look at the load that he's carrying every night, and
Speaker 5: you look at the impact because the Denver Nuggets, like
Speaker 5: all year have been statistically literally the best offense in
Speaker 5: NBA history when he's on the floor, in the worst
Speaker 5: offense that we've seen in the modern era this century
Speaker 5: when he's off the floor, and that completely matches the
Speaker 5: eye test and that's not just a product of rotations, right.
Speaker 5: The Nuggets have actually been more willing to mix in
Speaker 5: match lineups this year than ever before because things were
Speaker 5: looking so dire with the bench early in the year,
Speaker 5: and we've seen Yokic carry these teams to great offensive
Speaker 5: results without Jamal Murray, without Aaron Gordon, both those guys
Speaker 5: who have missed decent portions of this season. I just
Speaker 5: think he creates such a consistently incredibly high shot quality
Speaker 5: for this offense in spite of everything that has been
Speaker 5: going on around him, where he has been down some
Speaker 5: key guys and Jamal has been really bad for most
Speaker 5: of this year.
Speaker 4: What's tough is.
Speaker 5: The Nuggets haven't been a good team defense, and I
Speaker 5: think that Jokic has responsibility in that.
Speaker 4: And you can talk about his physical limitations.
Speaker 5: I think also, though he's playing so many minutes, he
Speaker 5: has such a crazy offensive I don't think that his
Speaker 5: effort has been their night to night defensively. I don't
Speaker 5: think the Nuggets team effort has been their night tonight defensively,
Speaker 5: Whereas Yannis is leading this team that has really turned
Speaker 5: things around defensively, and he has been so good there
Speaker 5: as of late. While he's the best he's ever been offensively.
Speaker 5: While he's forty five plus percent from the mid range,
Speaker 5: he's got better touch inside the paint. He's not taking threes,
Speaker 5: which have always brought his efficiency down. He's getting to
Speaker 5: the rim for a higher percentage of his shots than
Speaker 5: we've seen in years and years. He's a better playmaker.
Speaker 5: His scoring volume is higher. Yannis, to me, is the
Speaker 5: best he's ever been. I'm going to slightly lean Jokic
Speaker 5: because I just think that literal goat offense, which is
Speaker 5: what he's doing. He's having again the best offensive season
Speaker 5: we've seen, and he's the best offensive.
Speaker 4: Player we've seen.
Speaker 5: To me, that is still even more valuable than Yannis's
Speaker 5: incredible two way impact. And I think you see that
Speaker 5: with how the Nuggets look every second the Yokic isn't
Speaker 5: on the floor, and just how the Nuggets around Yokic
Speaker 5: have looked without him. But I would be zero percent
Speaker 5: mad if anybody had Giannis as their MVP. I think
Speaker 5: he has been incredible. I think these are two dudes
Speaker 5: at all time great peaks, both of whom got better
Speaker 5: this year, which is incredible because they were already the
Speaker 5: two best players in the world, and they both clearly
Speaker 5: have improved.
Speaker 1: Well, Carson, you know, the Nuggets intentionally played bad basketball
Speaker 1: players so they can juice that on off Jokic.
Speaker 3: Numbers right, right, that's right.
Speaker 4: I forgot about the syop.
Speaker 5: I forgot about the government operation headed by Michael Malone.
Speaker 1: That's all it's about. It's about so we can get
Speaker 1: Jokic every MVP award. It's intentionally done.
Speaker 2: Have you have you guys heard the Jokic does too
Speaker 2: much and it's disrupting everybody else's rhythm. That's another one.
Speaker 4: That's a phenomenal. Take.
Speaker 5: The crazy thing is he's number one in touches and
Speaker 5: I think he's like thirty something in total time of possession.
Speaker 4: Right, like people holding onto the ball never holds onto
Speaker 4: the ball. They need him to create every advantage.
Speaker 5: But like he's still selfless and he makes such quick
Speaker 5: decisions with the basketball. Like just watch the Nuggets, man.
Speaker 5: Anybody who says these things about I'm begging you, actually
Speaker 5: watch what the dudes around him have been doing.
Speaker 4: Offensively.
Speaker 2: All he does is perpetually set up his offensive players
Speaker 2: with advantages. Is because they can't make shots. It's Jokic's fault.
Speaker 2: It makes no, damn.
Speaker 1: It's funny when people can make that logical leap, and
Speaker 1: not the one about Russ and his MVP season.
Speaker 3: But but I digress.
Speaker 4: I will say, well, they're doing the same thing.
Speaker 3: They're doing the same thing exactly.
Speaker 1: You didn't give Russ this credit log and for real, man,
Speaker 1: I will give Russell Westbrook credit. I think Russ has
Speaker 1: played really, really well off the bench for the Nuggets
Speaker 1: this year, and he has been a pleasant surprise for
Speaker 1: Denver and this could be even one of the better
Speaker 1: Nuggets benches of this you know era, like like they've
Speaker 1: had nobody and now you know, Peyton Watson's giving you
Speaker 1: good looks and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: I agree with a lot.
Speaker 3: Of what you said, Carson.
Speaker 1: I do prefer the offensive advantage, but I wouldn't push
Speaker 1: back a whole lot if you wanted to have Giannis,
Speaker 1: because I agree with you it's powered by the defense.
Speaker 1: And while Jannis can't give you this, you know, defensive
Speaker 1: you know, just consistent persistence every single night, like last night,
Speaker 1: when Giannis needs to and this turnaround has been powered
Speaker 1: by the defense. Giannis can lock in and give you
Speaker 1: that in an impact that Jokic can't. But both with
Speaker 1: this thought exercise versus a guy like SGA, and I
Speaker 1: think all of these teams plummet without those guys, and
Speaker 1: only the Bucks are remotely competitive without Giannis. I don't
Speaker 1: think the Nuggets are anywhere close to competition without Jokic,
Speaker 1: and that's why they're head and shoulders. But the Nuggets
Speaker 1: are so comically bad without Jokic, and that is where
Speaker 1: I come down on it, like they are clueless.
Speaker 3: They are lost even in minutes.
Speaker 1: Like you said, Carson, we will get lineups without Jamal
Speaker 1: or without MPG, and Jokic can produce with anybody out there.
Speaker 1: You'll get bench minutes with Jamal Murray and the offense
Speaker 1: grinds to a standstill where they don't score for three minutes,
Speaker 1: like it's comical. And uh, I just think he is
Speaker 1: so by so far, the best offensive player on the planet,
Speaker 1: and that's why the Nuggets are still a real deal.
Speaker 3: Title can tender to me.
Speaker 1: So it's close between these two guys, and I understand
Speaker 1: the defensive gap. It's not outweighed by what Jokic does offensively,
Speaker 1: but not. I want to hear your take too. If
Speaker 1: there's a large if there's a huge record, discrepancy. Does
Speaker 1: that make a meaningful difference to you, guys, Like, if
Speaker 1: it's by maybe five plus games at the end of
Speaker 1: this year, does that make a big enough difference or
Speaker 1: would that need to be larger?
Speaker 2: I don't think it makes a lot of sense, Like
Speaker 2: because this is the same thing that happened in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: where it's like where it's like Lebron is clearly just
Speaker 2: a better basketball player than Yannis and Yah and Giannis
Speaker 2: and the Bucks are clearly just beating up on inferior
Speaker 2: competition and juicing up their their advanced metrics and stuff.
Speaker 2: And it's like everyone who watches the two of them
Speaker 2: knows Lebron is better. Lebron's clearly better. He clearly demonstrates
Speaker 2: he's better when they get to the postseason. But Giannis
Speaker 2: gets the MVP because he's in the Eastern Conference and
Speaker 2: they finished what two games better in the standings or whatever.
Speaker 2: It was, Like the gap between the East and West
Speaker 2: is so giant at this point that like record between
Speaker 2: the two conference is like, to me, you got to
Speaker 2: kind of look at it in a little bit more detail. Again,
Speaker 2: to your guys' point, I think this is important, Like
Speaker 2: this is every time I see this in that I
Speaker 2: see this in my YouTube comments all the time. But
Speaker 2: it terms of this like it's like, fuck you, how
Speaker 2: dare you say that that that you know Giannis is
Speaker 2: not the better best player in the league or whatever
Speaker 2: if you clearly don't know what you're watching, And it's like, look,
Speaker 2: these are two players that are playing at the highest
Speaker 2: level they've ever played in their entire lives. Both of
Speaker 2: them are playing like very very different basketball players that
Speaker 2: do very very different things, which means it's like purely
Speaker 2: subjective and to your point, like if someone came up
Speaker 2: to me and they're like, I think Giannis is better
Speaker 2: than Jokich, I'd be like, interesting, like let's talk about it,
Speaker 2: you know, like I don't, I don't disagree with you
Speaker 2: in that regard, and like to me again, it just
Speaker 2: comes down to the simple fact that, like Nicole, Jokich
Speaker 2: is notching a one twenty three offensive rating this year
Speaker 2: with not a single teammate who's consistently producing on the
Speaker 2: offensive end of the four like consistently producing. It is
Speaker 2: a shmortgish board of guys any given night making plays.
Speaker 2: Because of his ability to set people up with advantages,
Speaker 2: I think Milwaukee's roster is better than Denver's roster right
Speaker 2: now because of the decline of Jamal Murray and because
Speaker 2: of several key guys for Milwaukee playing better this year,
Speaker 2: like the way, like that doesn't doesn't discount what Yiannis
Speaker 2: is doing. But to me again, if I'm building a team,
Speaker 2: Nicole Jokic's ability to just make me completely dominant on
Speaker 2: the offensive end, regardless of surrounding talent, buys me so
Speaker 2: much leeway elsewhere on the roster, Like, for instance, like
Speaker 2: I don't know that you could march out too many
Speaker 2: of the Christian Braun, Christian Brown, Peyton Watson, you know,
Speaker 2: Aaron Gordon types next to Gianni's. It would be a
Speaker 2: disaster if you tried to do that. Next to Giannis,
Speaker 2: You've literally tried to go through four bodies every single
Speaker 2: time at the rim. Nikole Jokic buys you the lee
Speaker 2: way to surround him with defensive spects that have very
Speaker 2: easy offensive roles as cutters and slashers and dudes who
Speaker 2: occasionally have to knock down a completely wide open shot
Speaker 2: because of what he does on the offensive end of
Speaker 2: the floor, Which goes back to like like kind of
Speaker 2: my basketball kind of like worldview in the sense that
Speaker 2: it is easier to construct a good team defense around
Speaker 2: an elite offensive player than it is to construct a
Speaker 2: good team a good team offense around an elite defensive player. Now,
Speaker 2: to your point, Yannis is playing the best offensive basketball
Speaker 2: of his career this year. Yiannis has been unbelievable in offense,
Speaker 2: the ability to pretty consistently knock down mid range shots,
Speaker 2: not just in like face up situations, but he's kind
Speaker 2: of hitting some turnarounds this year too, which is crazy,
Speaker 2: and his passing and playmaking, which has been at such
Speaker 2: a high level this year. He is dramatically improved. I
Speaker 2: still think there is a chasm between Jannis and Jokica's
Speaker 2: offensive players. I still think there's a chasm between the
Speaker 2: two of them like that, like Nikola Jokic makes it
Speaker 2: look so damn easy while he just methodically walks down
Speaker 2: your defense every single possession. Still looks a little clunky
Speaker 2: and a little difficult with Yiannis at times. So like
Speaker 2: to me, the right, the rightful point that Jannis's defense
Speaker 2: is a huge advantage over Jokic. I still view Jokic's
Speaker 2: offense as a huge advantage over Jannis, even though the
Speaker 2: box score production is there for Yiannis. So to me,
Speaker 2: like I still think Nikola Jokic is the best player
Speaker 2: in the league, I still think I still think the
Speaker 2: MVP gets a little bit a little bit more complicated
Speaker 2: once you start to look at MVP. There is something
Speaker 2: to be said about Giannis like straight up rescuing this
Speaker 2: team with the way that he's kind of pulled them
Speaker 2: out of the ugly start that they've had. But again,
Speaker 2: I think you could make the exact same case for
Speaker 2: Nikola Jokic and what he's done, Like with that team
Speaker 2: was dead to start the year, with Jamal Murray struggling
Speaker 2: the way he was struggling, all of a sudden, Aaron
Speaker 2: Gordon gets hurt, it could have gone very far south
Speaker 2: from there as well. So I think at that point,
Speaker 2: I still look at it from the standpoint of like
Speaker 2: Nicole Jokic has been playing better basketball and doing more
Speaker 2: with less this year, which gives me the slight edge
Speaker 2: for him in MVP. I do think that's Shay is
Speaker 2: a pretty distant third at this point, And like one
Speaker 2: of the things with Shaye, because I've seen a lot
Speaker 2: of Shaye MVP bus he's playing with the most talent,
Speaker 2: like the second most talented roster in the league, and
Speaker 2: I think that that just makes life easier. Like there's
Speaker 2: a lot of Celtics fans, why isn't Tatum getting MVP?
Speaker 2: Bus Like Tatum's playing the best basketball of his career.
Speaker 2: I'm a huge believer in what Tatum is capable of doing.
Speaker 2: It's easier for him than it is for other people.
Speaker 2: It's okay for us to acknowledge that with the way
Speaker 2: that that team is set up, And so yeah, I
Speaker 2: lean slightly towards Jokichen both MVP and in best player
Speaker 2: in the world really quickly, just a quick round robin
Speaker 2: for you guys, Let's go a Carson first, Like, do
Speaker 2: you how would you describe the gap between Jokich and
Speaker 2: Giannis in terms of just in evacuum best player in
Speaker 2: the world right now?
Speaker 5: I don't necessarily think that the gap is that big,
Speaker 5: but the offensive leap that we've taken from Yannis. But
Speaker 5: I think that you made a lot of great points, Jason,
Speaker 5: And if I could just bring up a couple more
Speaker 5: numbers when we're talking about the MVP conversation, like when
Speaker 5: you talk about that completely unmatched offensive value, the shot
Speaker 5: quality Yo Becaus was able to create no matter if
Speaker 5: it is a Peyton Watson and Christian Brown lineup right,
Speaker 5: which we've seen starting in russ Right, all of these
Speaker 5: dudes who are non shooters and who have obvious offensive limitations,
Speaker 5: and Jamal, even his number two, has been brutally inefficient,
Speaker 5: can't create an advantage.
Speaker 4: With Jokic on the floor and Aaron.
Speaker 5: Gordon off who's missed a lot of the year, they're
Speaker 5: not going to have a one twenty nine offensive rating. Okay,
Speaker 5: that would be by far the best offensive all time,
Speaker 5: and that's been an important piece of this offense. They
Speaker 5: don't miss a single beat from being the best offense ever.
Speaker 4: With Jokic on, Jamal Murray.
Speaker 5: Off who's missed an extented strikes, they have a one
Speaker 5: twenty two offensive rating, So that would still be like
Speaker 5: the best offense in basketball today. And here's the incredible thing,
Speaker 5: because you talk about Joannis saving the Bucks season, and
Speaker 5: he absolutely has, but Jokic has just done that even
Speaker 5: more so. If you just look at best raw plus
Speaker 5: minus this season, here's the top ten number one Shaye
Speaker 5: Thunder numbers two and three Celtics players four calv five
Speaker 5: Celtic six ' seven calves nine calve ten thunder eight
Speaker 5: is Niko Jokic, Like, that's just such an incredibly monumental
Speaker 5: feat if you've watched the Nuggets this year and seen
Speaker 5: what's been around him. So when you talk about like
Speaker 5: the win total logan, is that going to be a
Speaker 5: difference maker? It's always really really hard for me, and
Speaker 5: I just don't think we should hold what happens when
Speaker 5: a guy isn't on the floor against him, And when
Speaker 5: the Nuggets with Jokic on the floor are as good
Speaker 5: as any team in basketball statistically, that tells you that he's.
Speaker 4: The most valuable player in basketball.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't have a ton to add.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Jokic is the best scorer, playmaker,
Speaker 1: and arguably rebounder in basketball too.
Speaker 3: Like when you can do all that.
Speaker 1: And just the it doesn't matter who's on the court,
Speaker 1: Jokic can serve you a bucket from anywhere inside the arc,
Speaker 1: from outside the arc?
Speaker 3: Is he still over fifty percent from from deep two?
Speaker 5: Like I think he's just under But I think on
Speaker 5: actual threes he's over fifty percent because he takes heaves
Speaker 5: that bring us percentage downs, like on half court threes,
Speaker 5: I think he's over here.
Speaker 3: There's just no holes in his offensive game.
Speaker 1: And like you said, Jason, like you're putting defensive specialists
Speaker 1: around him and he's still trotting out the best offense
Speaker 1: in basketball.
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, man, Like.
Speaker 2: He's getting the best out of Russ ever has happened
Speaker 2: since left Washington. And like I like, and here's the thing,
Speaker 2: Like Russ shares a ton of the blame for what
Speaker 2: went and south for him when he went to the Lakers.
Speaker 2: But there's no doubt that playing alongside the clear cut
Speaker 2: best player in the league is a little different than
Speaker 2: playing alongside thirty eight year old Lebron James.
Speaker 4: Like there's no doubt that played a role.
Speaker 5: And also, I think just the stylistic versatility that you
Speaker 5: do have from Jokics right where their two man game
Speaker 5: is actually really good. And I think that he can
Speaker 5: free up Russ as a dry out of pick and
Speaker 5: roll because teams are worried about Yokic's float or touch
Speaker 5: or I mean Russ hits him with the pocket passes
Speaker 5: because of how he empowers Russ as a cutter. Like
Speaker 5: we've always talked about Okay, we can see Russ cutting
Speaker 5: in this new offense, and like it was only ever
Speaker 5: marginal differences and now Russ is like actually a really
Speaker 5: willing cutter and in transition, right, I mean, he's the
Speaker 5: best outlet pass we've ever seen. And he's totally by
Speaker 5: the way up to Denver's pace of play this year.
Speaker 5: Like you can't overstate that enough. We've always thought of
Speaker 5: Denver as the methodical half court offense. They went from
Speaker 5: twenty sixth in pace last year to fifth and pace
Speaker 5: this year because they're playing Russ, because they're playing Brown more,
Speaker 5: they're playing Watson more, like more these dudes who are
Speaker 5: super limited in the half court good athletes in the
Speaker 5: full court. And so Jokic has adjusted and the results
Speaker 5: have been incredible.
Speaker 2: I'm pulling up his cuts real quick because he's averaging
Speaker 2: over a cut per game this year. And it was
Speaker 2: something that stood out to me. It was something that
Speaker 2: stood out to me when I was watching that Sacramento game. Yeah,
Speaker 2: his last season in Los Angeles, let's see bulling up
Speaker 2: his cuts real quick. But yeah, like that's the thing,
Speaker 2: Like I think it's always a more complicated conversation than
Speaker 2: just Okay, So his last season in Los Angeles, he
Speaker 2: averaged zero point six cuts per game, So he's cutting
Speaker 2: about twice as frequently as he did when he was
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles, And it was just something that we
Speaker 2: were all constantly, just like literally constantly begging for him
Speaker 2: to do. His entire twenty twenty two season, the first
Speaker 2: the full season that he played in Los Angeles, he
Speaker 2: scored on a cut just thirty nine times all season. Wow,
Speaker 2: And it just yeah, it's just it's just one of
Speaker 2: those things where like, like again his Nicole Jokic, he
Speaker 2: crafts such tiny offensive roles and his ability to attract
Speaker 2: attention is so consistent and so dramatic that like it's
Speaker 2: possible to really like game plan the TikTok toe off
Speaker 2: of it to the point where like Denver just you know,
Speaker 2: I remember Mike Malone and Jamal Murray and used to
Speaker 2: talk a lot about this in the Lakers sweep, the
Speaker 2: one in the Western Conference Finals, where it's like, we've
Speaker 2: just seen all this before. Oh you put Ruy on Dijokicz,
Speaker 2: We've seen this before. And it's like and it's the
Speaker 2: truth in the sense that like they just have like
Speaker 2: they kind of have like a systemic way of attacking
Speaker 2: any specific type of coverage with any specific type of player.
Speaker 2: Like think about how Christian Brown has immediately just kind
Speaker 2: of been better than Kntavious called the Pope, even though
Speaker 2: he's like a very very different type of player, because
Speaker 2: of their ability to craft like a very simple like cutting, slashing,
Speaker 2: spot up type of role with him. Before we move on,
Speaker 2: I want to just put a very basic qualifier on this.
Speaker 2: Giannis is amazing. This is not a Yannis problem. Nikolea
Speaker 2: Jokic is just playing at potentially the highest level we
Speaker 2: have problem. I believe the highest level we have ever
Speaker 2: seen on the offensive end of the four.
Speaker 4: Like it is it is it is.
Speaker 2: It's like when we're talking about Stephan kd and the
Speaker 2: Lebron James era. It is not Stephan kty Saw. There
Speaker 2: are all these people where it's like, well Steph does
Speaker 2: this and Kad does that, and like, well look they're
Speaker 2: winning titles together, and it's like it's it's not anything
Speaker 2: that they're doing wrong or something that they're incapable of.
Speaker 2: It's just Lebron James is the greatest basketball player to
Speaker 2: ever pick up a ball, and he's out there doing
Speaker 2: his thing. Like, it's just it just it's just it's
Speaker 2: just different when you're when you're getting into that level
Speaker 2: of player. I do have one more Milwaukee one before
Speaker 2: we get at it, before we move on to our
Speaker 2: next top. We're going to move a little more rapid
Speaker 2: fire here down the stretch. Who's more likely to win
Speaker 2: the title this year? Milwaukee or Denver? Let's go with
Speaker 2: you first, Logan.
Speaker 1: I'm conflicted here because Jamal Murray really scares me when
Speaker 1: we're thinking about the level that he's been at and
Speaker 1: in terms of a playoff setting. And the thing with
Speaker 1: Jamal that's concerning to me is it's not just the
Speaker 1: fact that he's missing tough shots, right, Jamal Murray is
Speaker 1: a guy who inherently lives off tough shots because he's
Speaker 1: not one hell of an athlete, right. He struggles to
Speaker 1: really get downhill and to create advantages by himself even
Speaker 1: out of the pick and roll. Right, Like, he's a
Speaker 1: guy that's easy to recover on when he's driving, So
Speaker 1: he's gonna live off tough floaters and tough jumpers and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. The thing that's been most frustrating to
Speaker 1: me about watching Jamal Murray as his decision making, like
Speaker 1: there will be guys wide open in the half court
Speaker 1: on possessions, or I'm like, Jamal, swing the ball, like
Speaker 1: there's a wide open look and you're ballhogging right now,
Speaker 1: Like the Nuggets will create an initial advantage there's an
Speaker 1: open shooter on the wing, and Jamal will choose to
Speaker 1: re dribble and dribble the ball right outside the top
Speaker 1: of the key and reset or even negated everything that
Speaker 1: you've ran with that action. And so it is really
Speaker 1: concerning to me the level that Jamal's at and all
Speaker 1: the little things that have to go right for den
Speaker 1: for in the playoffs, because I look back at their
Speaker 1: run and I do like the Nuggets formula a lot.
Speaker 1: But it's like what we were just saying about Jokic,
Speaker 1: with all these guys and defined roles, it works because
Speaker 1: Jokic is so great and enhances all of these guys,
Speaker 1: but they're not as multifaceted as some of the other
Speaker 1: supporting pieces, and they're just not as good overall players. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: I just trust Damian Lillard so much more as my
Speaker 1: number two in a playoff setting, right Like, I know
Speaker 1: that Dame can create for himself and even when Jannis
Speaker 1: hasn't been out there. Dame has been capable of getting
Speaker 1: his own and carrying this offense when Yiannis is out.
Speaker 1: And then when you look at a guy like Chris Middleton,
Speaker 1: it's like, this is no shade at Michael Porter Junior, right,
Speaker 1: MPJ is in a very defined role. He's gonna play defense,
Speaker 1: he's gonna rebound, and he's gonna shoot open shots.
Speaker 3: Milwaukee just has more offensive.
Speaker 1: Creation, and they've also got guys and really defined roles.
Speaker 1: I would probably say, even though Denver is my second
Speaker 1: out West, I'd probably say mill Wakee just because of the.
Speaker 3: Strength of competition in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: Right, Like, there's a defined four, but there's only four
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference. To me, it's Boston, it's Cleveland,
Speaker 1: it's Milwaukee, and then who am I spacing on Who's four?
Speaker 1: It's New York in New York's right, So I don't
Speaker 1: really look at any other team out East and I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they could maybe give this team a run
Speaker 1: for their money. I think those four teams are stamped
Speaker 1: to get to the semifinals and then they'll duke it
Speaker 1: out from there. The West is so freaking deep that
Speaker 1: it's just gonna be hard.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a bit of a cop
Speaker 1: out answer because it's not apples to apples, but it's
Speaker 1: not Denver could run into a really tough matchup in
Speaker 1: round one. Denver's gonna have to scratch and claw through
Speaker 1: round one, through round two through round three to just
Speaker 1: get there, when Milwaukee might be able to coast round
Speaker 1: one and maybe round two. Like there's such a discrepancy,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned earlier, Jason, between talent and in the
Speaker 1: East and West, it would just be easier, I think
Speaker 1: for Milwaukee, and they have a top two that I
Speaker 1: trust more than Denver, right, like Jokic more than Yo, honest,
Speaker 1: but I certainly like Jannis and Dame more than I
Speaker 1: like Jokic and Jamal at the level that he's been at.
Speaker 1: So I like Denver a lot, But I think it's
Speaker 1: probably easy for me to envision some things breaking Milwaukee's
Speaker 1: way and in them figuring out the West is just
Speaker 1: they're super top heavy right now, and they're pretty deep too.
Speaker 4: That's interesting. I think it's very close between these two teams.
Speaker 5: I think that right now Milwaukee is the more complete
Speaker 5: team with the strides that they've taken defensively with the
Speaker 5: value they have found from some of these role players.
Speaker 5: When we talk about AJ Green and Andre Jackson, I
Speaker 5: still very slightly lean Denver. And the reason I say
Speaker 5: that is right now, the gap in Milwaukee's favorite between
Speaker 5: these two teams is defensive, and that's probably not as
Speaker 5: big as the offensive gap when you get to a
Speaker 5: playoff environment, and I think that Denver can play better
Speaker 5: defensively than they have because we've seen them do it before.
Speaker 5: We've seen them turn out a really good playoff defense
Speaker 5: in a top ten regular season defense last year.
Speaker 4: And when it comes down to.
Speaker 5: Beating these teams that are just subjectively more talented, like
Speaker 5: an OKC, even a Dallas right is clearly more talented
Speaker 5: right now than Denver, the greatest advantage you can have
Speaker 5: is an unsolvable problem offensively, and to me, that's what
Speaker 5: Jokic provides.
Speaker 4: So I struggle to.
Speaker 5: See how Milwaukee could overcome a team like a Boston
Speaker 5: right who's just so monumentally talented. And while I also
Speaker 5: think Denver would be major underdogs in that matchup, they
Speaker 5: have the unsolvable problem. I don't think that Boston can
Speaker 5: do anything with Jokic defensively, right, you double he destroys you.
Speaker 5: You try to deal with him in single coverage, he
Speaker 5: destroys you as long as Jamal Murray. And this is
Speaker 5: a legitimate If plays at a close to star level offensively,
Speaker 5: well then this is just a machine that is exceedingly
Speaker 5: difficult to So for that reason, I lean Denver. I
Speaker 5: think having that punch of hey, we have not just
Speaker 5: the best player in the world, we have the greatest
Speaker 5: offensive player of all time, gives you a better chance
Speaker 5: because you're so specifically great in that one area, on
Speaker 5: that one side of the ball. And I think Denver
Speaker 5: can improve enough defensively, so I.
Speaker 3: Not to cut you off real quick.
Speaker 1: If Porzingis wasn't healthy, does that make enough of a
Speaker 1: difference to you between Milwaukee and Boston?
Speaker 3: Would you give Milwaukee a chance in that series?
Speaker 4: Real long shot? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think it's a long shot, no matter what, for
Speaker 2: pretty much everybody over Boston.
Speaker 4: Carson.
Speaker 2: What you're talking about involving like the unsolvable problem is
Speaker 2: the main thing for me that makes it close.
Speaker 4: But I agree.
Speaker 2: I agree with what you said at the beginning, which
Speaker 2: is like, I think Milwaukee's a better team and I
Speaker 2: think they have an easier path, Like I would like,
Speaker 2: let's get a little bit deeper here, like who Like
Speaker 2: I would argue that a team like I would argue
Speaker 2: that teams like Cleveland in New York, even though they're
Speaker 2: tough playoff matchups, I think that they fall more in
Speaker 2: line with like the rest of the Western Conference than
Speaker 2: they do with some of these Yeah. Yeah, the Cleveland piece.
Speaker 2: For me, I think they're being optimized right now. I'm
Speaker 2: really really excited to watch them at the end of
Speaker 2: this month. I've seen this road trip they're about to
Speaker 2: go on. They play like Golden State, Lakers, Denver, Dallas
Speaker 2: all on the road, like back to back to back
Speaker 2: to back, and I think maybe I'll change my opinion
Speaker 2: on Cleveland after that stretch. But like, to me, like
Speaker 2: still I steal am concerned about some offensive issues. Their
Speaker 2: offense has slowed down a little bit up until they
Speaker 2: just beat the living shit out of Brooklyn the other night.
Speaker 2: But like, their offense is slowed down a little bit
Speaker 2: over the last couple of weeks, and they still have
Speaker 2: these entry points that I'm concerned about in their defense.
Speaker 2: But like the bottom line is, if you look at
Speaker 2: the Western Conference, Let's say my comporter Junior goes down
Speaker 2: for two weeks or Jamal Murray goes down for another
Speaker 2: two weeks, they could be in the plan. Not even
Speaker 2: because not even because of anything Jokic is doing or
Speaker 2: anything the rest of the team is doing. It's just
Speaker 2: the West is so damn good that you drop a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks of bad basketball, you could slip down
Speaker 2: to seven, eight nine in the standings. There's a version
Speaker 2: of this where Denver has to win a play in
Speaker 2: then go on the road to beat someone like Denver Dallas,
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City, then have to beat like a Phoenix Minnesota
Speaker 2: type of team in the Houston and then have to
Speaker 2: go beat another top seed in the Western Conference finals,
Speaker 2: and then have to meet whoever comes out of the East. Whereas,
Speaker 2: like you feel pretty good about Milwaukee effectively getting a
Speaker 2: first round by through them eventually working their way up
Speaker 2: to the top four in the standings and just getting
Speaker 2: one of those lesser Eastern Conference teams and then like
Speaker 2: Milwaukee with home court over New York or with home
Speaker 2: court over any of those teams that just feel like
Speaker 2: they have like a little bit more of a realistic
Speaker 2: path to get to the Conference Finals against Boston, where
Speaker 2: if they win that series, you like their chances against
Speaker 2: anybody coming out of the West, right, Whereas with Denver
Speaker 2: it just seems like the types of hurdles they would
Speaker 2: have to pass to get to a Western Conference finals,
Speaker 2: to get to the finals, it just feels more complicated. Again,
Speaker 2: to your point, Carson, the offensive unsolvability of Jokic is
Speaker 2: the big variable there. January seventh, We finally get to
Speaker 2: watch Denver play Boston this year, and it's like, you
Speaker 2: just feel like they have a chance to win that
Speaker 2: game because of the Jokic problem, and it's just a
Speaker 2: unique presentation for any of these teams to deal with. Again,
Speaker 2: Like if you were to ask, and this to me
Speaker 2: is like if I really had to get into one
Speaker 2: single case for why I do find Jokic to be
Speaker 2: better than the honest it's if you were to ask,
Speaker 2: what single trait from either of those players is the best.
Speaker 2: Jokic's offense is better than anything that Jannis does. And
Speaker 2: like that seeing it to your point that one single
Speaker 2: piece of unsolvability has so many trickle down effects for
Speaker 2: all the other elements of the basketball game. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I lean I would say that I lean Milwaukee slightly
Speaker 2: more likely to win the title just because of their
Speaker 2: path coming up through the East, even separate from anything
Speaker 2: we talked about with Jokic and Yanna. Sorry, so we
Speaker 2: only have five more minutes, so I want to go
Speaker 2: really rapid fire through these next two. So each of
Speaker 2: you guys just give me about like sixty seconds.
Speaker 4: Let's go.
Speaker 2: Which team is more likely to blow up and trade
Speaker 2: a superstar, the Lakers or the Heat. We'll start with you, Carson.
Speaker 5: I think it's the Heat because I think that Jimmy
Speaker 5: is going to be probably the easiest to move of
Speaker 5: any of these dudes who we could talk about now.
Speaker 5: I still think that Jimmy is kind of a difficult
Speaker 5: fit and is a difficult proposition to sell some teams
Speaker 5: on when you consider aging questionable health can be something
Speaker 5: of a ball stop or like I wouldn't it.
Speaker 2: Could be a dick sometimes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true as well.
Speaker 5: I probably would be backing up to bring Struck, setting
Speaker 5: a bunch of assets to go and get Jimmy. I
Speaker 5: just still think it's more likely, and I don't know,
Speaker 5: like the Lakers can't trade Lebron in my opinion, Like,
Speaker 5: I just think he would say no, no, thank you.
Speaker 5: So I think it's the Heat. And I also think
Speaker 5: the Heat are definitely not where they want to be.
Speaker 5: They're far away and they should pick a clear timeline.
Speaker 5: And I think that that involves getting younger and build
Speaker 5: thing from that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with that logic.
Speaker 1: I also just don't think the Lakers could ever trade Lebron. Also,
Speaker 1: if Lebron got traded, apparently you would have to attach
Speaker 1: Bronni with him, which is kind of crazy to think.
Speaker 4: And that's an asset you just can't lose, which.
Speaker 1: I think it makes it all the more reason to
Speaker 1: back it up yet thirty. But I think the Heat
Speaker 1: should trade Jimmy, and I think some teams should be
Speaker 1: interested in Jimmy. I agree it's kind of a hard
Speaker 1: sale with his availability and consistent effort night to night,
Speaker 1: along with his contract scenario. Like, I don't think Jimmy
Speaker 1: is a super easy guy to trade for, especially just
Speaker 1: making the money work, like you have to match his
Speaker 1: fifty mil basically this year. But I would be surprised
Speaker 1: if by the trade deadline, if Jimmy is still a
Speaker 1: member of the Miami Heat. I think he'll probably get
Speaker 1: moved by then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, extends beyond the tradeability of Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 2: I just I think Miami is more self aware and
Speaker 2: more well run, so like I think they are the
Speaker 2: ones who are more willing to look in the mirror
Speaker 2: and be like, hey, it's time, whereas like Genie Buss
Speaker 2: and Rob Polinka are happy to ring out the sponge
Speaker 2: for every drop of fame and recognition from having Lebron
Speaker 2: in a d and the roster, even as they just
Speaker 2: piss away the end of the greatest basketball player ever's career.
Speaker 2: So that like I would, I personally would love to
Speaker 2: see Lebron in a place like Golden State. I think
Speaker 2: it'd be a ton of fun. I think that this
Speaker 2: Lakers team is broken on a deep level. I think
Speaker 2: they're about to get even worse here in this next
Speaker 2: stretch where they go on the road to Sacramento and
Speaker 2: Golden State. I think I think they might lose all
Speaker 2: three of those games. Like, I think it could get
Speaker 2: it uglier and uglier and uglier, and I wish that
Speaker 2: they would just just accept reality at this point. But
Speaker 2: I just again think that Miami is more self aware,
Speaker 2: more willing to to to make that kind of change.
Speaker 2: All right, quick, last one? Which team is more likely
Speaker 2: to turn their season around? The Indiana Pacers or the
Speaker 2: Sacramento Kings.
Speaker 1: Monological we used earlier about Denver and Milwaukee. I just
Speaker 1: the West is so comically deep right now. And I
Speaker 1: said this on our show a while back, the Kings
Speaker 1: of the Kings. Man, Like, I don't know what this is.
Speaker 1: The Kings are definitely not in the cellar the where
Speaker 1: they were a few years ago. They have risen up
Speaker 1: to competitive level. Congrats, it's just not good enough, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I even I put them down, like maybe even down
Speaker 1: past Houston.
Speaker 3: And that's not a.
Speaker 1: Dig at Houston, but like Houston's really limited offensively, I only.
Speaker 3: And I think Sacramentos.
Speaker 5: I think people are going to be pissed that you
Speaker 5: said that, like it was a revelation Rockets.
Speaker 3: I think it's a revelation. I'm just saying that, like
Speaker 3: I don't have you.
Speaker 1: Houston is a real contender, and I think the Kings
Speaker 1: are below them. And it's the inverse obviously, right, because
Speaker 1: the Kings can't play defense. But with Indiana, right, Indiana's
Speaker 1: got two really good rotation guys out right now in
Speaker 1: aaron Ne Smith and Ben Shephard. You get those guys back.
Speaker 1: They're really important three in D guys, and again these.
Speaker 4: Just isn't as deep.
Speaker 3: Indiana went to the Eastern Conference finals last year.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, some things had to break their way,
Speaker 1: but they've got a rock solid identity. Halliburton's played way
Speaker 1: better over the last ten games. I'm hoping he's turning
Speaker 1: a really positive corner there. And I just believe in
Speaker 1: their identity and their formula. And the East sucks so
Speaker 1: like right like Indiana at their bottom maybe I mean,
Speaker 1: what like the sixth seed or something like, they're a
Speaker 1: shoe in to make the playoffs. In my opinion, I
Speaker 1: think they figure it out. And I just can't see
Speaker 1: them missing the playoffs in the East that is so
Speaker 1: limited and so bad. And I think it's probably more
Speaker 1: likely that the Kings are at the bottom of the
Speaker 1: play in or they just do outright miss the playoffs.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the thirty seconds where the conference difference is going
Speaker 5: to be the tiebreaker for me. I think Sacramento was better.
Speaker 5: The Kings are eleventh th net rating right now, the
Speaker 5: Pacers are twenty second, and the Pacers to have unsolvable
Speaker 5: problems defensively, I think they're broken there and their offense
Speaker 5: has been very average this year, but I think their
Speaker 5: offense has been average because of some of Halley's early
Speaker 5: season struggles. In their wins, he's actually been awesome. He
Speaker 5: gives them twenty four and ten on sixty three percent
Speaker 5: through shooting, and.
Speaker 4: Their offense looks awesome, so he is trending up.
Speaker 5: I think if you get good Halle enough, they just
Speaker 5: have more of a chance to actually do something because
Speaker 5: the West is so much deeper, and with the Buckstenver conversation,
Speaker 5: it wasn't as much of a difference maker to me
Speaker 5: because I'm like, you have to beat the best teams
Speaker 5: no matter what these teams were talking about a different
Speaker 5: standard of getting too the playoffs be competitive in series.
Speaker 4: That's a lot easier in the East.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And also I just I think Sacramento's issues they
Speaker 2: don't have any players, or that they don't have many
Speaker 2: players who play both ends of the floor, so they
Speaker 2: can construct lineups that can defend and they construct lineups
Speaker 2: that can score, but they can't really do both. I
Speaker 2: think Indiana, just based on the Siakam Turner front court,
Speaker 2: it just has more potential to eventually establish more of
Speaker 2: a baseline defensive level of competence. But anyway, guys, I
Speaker 2: was hoping for this nice little morning show. I was
Speaker 2: hoping for something that would be really informal and fun
Speaker 2: as we kill some time here in this slow week.
Speaker 4: That is perfect.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys for coming on really quickly. Can Carson,
Speaker 2: can you just shout out what you guys are working
Speaker 2: on over at nerd sash.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've got tons of NBA stuff, We've got all
Speaker 5: our full shows, we've got some film breakdowns. Check us
Speaker 5: out on YouTube, listen to the full show across audio platforms,
Speaker 5: and if you are an NFL fan too, then you
Speaker 5: can check that out.
Speaker 4: We cover football too.
Speaker 2: Make sure you guys get over and follow and subscribe
Speaker 2: to the nerd ssh YouTube channel. As always be sincerely
Speaker 2: appreciate you guys for supporting us, for supporting the show.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys on Friday for the mailbag.
Speaker 5: The volume