Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had
Speaker 1: an incredible weekend. We are also live on AMP, so
Speaker 1: if you're listening on YouTube or on the podcast feeds,
Speaker 1: don't forget that AMP is the very first place that
Speaker 1: you guys can get these shows. Getting to the top
Speaker 1: five of our top twenty five players of the last
Speaker 1: twenty five years today with number five Shaquille O'Neil. And
Speaker 1: then we also have a little game that we're gonna
Speaker 1: play off the top of the show that we stole
Speaker 1: from Uncle Colin, who runs the company here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: json lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements.
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason you guys miss one of these
Speaker 1: videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish,
Speaker 1: don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Under Hoops tonight to be doing some mail bag questions
Speaker 1: the rest of this week and potentially into the future,
Speaker 1: so don't forget to drop some mail bag questions in
Speaker 1: the comments on YouTube as well. All Right, one other things,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about the delay starting Tuesday this week. I
Speaker 1: have not gotten sick since I caught COVID back in
Speaker 1: late twenty twenty. I was one of the early people
Speaker 1: that got it, and I've been on this crazy hot
Speaker 1: streak of somehow avoiding getting like legitimately sick, like I'll
Speaker 1: feel under the weather here and there, but like never
Speaker 1: like truly be dead to rights like sick. And I
Speaker 1: got hit like a truck on Thursday night and so
Speaker 1: that kind of messed up the whole weekend and that
Speaker 1: was why we ended up delaying to start this week.
Speaker 1: So bear with me a little bit as well. With
Speaker 1: my voice. I've had a pretty bad cough, so that
Speaker 1: will be something I had to deal with a little
Speaker 1: bit today. But glad to be here. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: be going Tuesday through Saturday instead of Monday through Friday.
Speaker 1: But same kind of cadence like we've been doing. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a game called fake Questions, real Answers.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna do it regularly. I'm just stealing it
Speaker 1: today because I think it's perfect for this particular theme,
Speaker 1: it's going to be centered around the FOBA World Cup
Speaker 1: basketball tournament. The way this works Colin Coward does this
Speaker 1: on his show all the time. But basically, you just
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a fake question that kind of centers
Speaker 1: around a topic with Team USA or with Foeba, and
Speaker 1: then I'll give you guys an answer from there. So
Speaker 1: fake question number one, Does Team USA losing to Lithuania
Speaker 1: mean anything for that USA World Champion debate that was
Speaker 1: going around a couple weeks ago. As you can probably guess,
Speaker 1: the answer is no. There are three reasons why. One.
Speaker 1: Basketball is very high variant sport. There's a reason why
Speaker 1: even the greatest basketball team of all time, the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six Bowls, lost thirteen basketball games. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of basketball games for the greatest team ever to lose. Right,
Speaker 1: how does it happen any of you guys who've ever
Speaker 1: played pick up basketball or play in your men's league
Speaker 1: or anything along those lines. You get into a game
Speaker 1: where you're the better team, right, but you come out
Speaker 1: and you're a little acadeiical that other team really wants
Speaker 1: to beat you, so they're bringing a ton of effort
Speaker 1: and energy. Maybe they get really hot from three and
Speaker 1: make some shots early. Suddenly you look up you're down
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty points and you're like, oh shit, guys,
Speaker 1: we better get it together and start playing hard. And
Speaker 1: so then you start playing hard and you make a
Speaker 1: run and you get back into the game. But by
Speaker 1: the time you get back into the game, now you're
Speaker 1: exhausted because it takes a ton of energy to get
Speaker 1: back into the game. And then maybe they hit a
Speaker 1: couple more shots because they're feeling good because they've been
Speaker 1: shooting well all game, and then suddenly you look up
Speaker 1: at the scoreboard and you're down by eight with four
Speaker 1: minutes left, and you're like, holy shit, we're about to
Speaker 1: lose this thing. It's a very common thing that happens
Speaker 1: in the game of basketball, right, and that's literally what
Speaker 1: happened against Lithuania. USA came out really slow, especially on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. Lithuania is playing with
Speaker 1: a shit ton of force, like they were cutting hard,
Speaker 1: they were screening hard, they're running hard in transition. Everything
Speaker 1: they were doing with the basketball or without the basketball
Speaker 1: was done with a ton of physical force. They really
Speaker 1: wanted to beat the US team and US wasn't playing
Speaker 1: The US guards in particular, weren't playing any damn defense
Speaker 1: to start this particular game. I was tracking it this
Speaker 1: morning because I've rewatched the entire game, and the sheer
Speaker 1: amount of wide open threes they gave up in the
Speaker 1: first quarter was ridiculous. Like there was a little pick
Speaker 1: and roll off the right wing, and Josh Hard is
Speaker 1: guarding a shooter on the left wing, right on the
Speaker 1: left wing, and instead of like staying in a position
Speaker 1: where he can close out, he just sits down at
Speaker 1: the foul line and the guy just makes a simple
Speaker 1: swing pass over to a wide open shooter. It's too
Speaker 1: much help at the nail. You got to find a
Speaker 1: sweet spot there. It's one thing that the dude's getting toasted,
Speaker 1: but you can't just completely ignore a shooter without really
Speaker 1: serving any purpose, right, And there was possession after that
Speaker 1: where Jonas Valanchuniz hit a pick and pop three on
Speaker 1: the right wing. Anthony Edwards was literally jogging around the screen.
Speaker 1: So as a result, I think it was Pala Boncaro
Speaker 1: that was in the BA screen. Pallevankara had no choice
Speaker 1: but to step up and help and ignore Jonas Valentunis,
Speaker 1: who popped back and hit the three possession. After that,
Speaker 1: there was a Yonas post up on the right block.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards runs over in double teams along the baseline.
Speaker 1: This was his double team. Just kind of went over
Speaker 1: like this and was standing under the basket, didn't actually
Speaker 1: get close to Yonas, didn't disrupt the pass, literally did
Speaker 1: nothing but stand there like this, and Yonas threw a
Speaker 1: skip pass. Jalen Brunson made the rotation, but Josh Hart
Speaker 1: didn't make the rotation to the next guy. Swing swing,
Speaker 1: wide open three on the left wing, like wide open,
Speaker 1: like practice threes that these guys were making. By the way,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards had a really, really nice offensive game against Lithuania,
Speaker 1: but he was terrible on the defensive end, especially in
Speaker 1: the first half. Just wasn't trying and legitimately was a
Speaker 1: big problem in their defense. The last one I put
Speaker 1: down was there's a they ran a Spain pick and roll,
Speaker 1: which again that's where you have a shooter underneath the basket,
Speaker 1: you run your pick and roll and then they change
Speaker 1: right and Anthony Edwards was guarding the shooter underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and just ignored his man and was kind of
Speaker 1: like just floating around in the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: I think Walker Kessler was in the game at this point.
Speaker 1: Walker Kessler's in a drop coverage on the pick and
Speaker 1: roll and he's in position to handle everything at the rim,
Speaker 1: and Ant's just overhelp it, just floating around doing nothing.
Speaker 1: Swing pass once again, Jalen Brunson makes the rotation to
Speaker 1: the wing of Anthony Edwards, misses the rotation to the corner.
Speaker 1: Wide open, stand still practice, wide open three. He knocks
Speaker 1: it down, right, I mean, that's that's four just in
Speaker 1: the first quarter, completely uncontested threes, and they made all
Speaker 1: four of them. And like, you know, it's funny we
Speaker 1: talk about we talk a lot about hot shooting, right,
Speaker 1: what do I always say on the show, Like when
Speaker 1: a guy makes a lot of tough shots later in
Speaker 1: the game, usually if you go back, you can find
Speaker 1: early portions of the game where those guys got wide
Speaker 1: open shots. Because once you know all these professional basketball players,
Speaker 1: they're professional basketball players, like they do this shit every
Speaker 1: single day, and so when they feel good about themselves
Speaker 1: and they feel confident, they can make shots, contested shots.
Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the day, a basketball
Speaker 1: player as a basketball player, contested a contest as a contest,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter if it's brandon Ingram contesting you
Speaker 1: or whoever the hell it is. If you're a great shooter,
Speaker 1: because you're a professional basketball player and you made three
Speaker 1: wide open threes in the first quarter and you get
Speaker 1: a late clock situation and you're getting smothered and you
Speaker 1: just throw some shit up. You're feeling good about yourself.
Speaker 1: You're gonna make those sometimes, And so I think those
Speaker 1: things are always intricately connected, right, And this is just
Speaker 1: part of the way that the game of basketball works.
Speaker 1: And that's why you've seen your favorite NBA team lose
Speaker 1: to a lesser team in the regular season. You've probably
Speaker 1: seen that flow happen before. That's why we call it
Speaker 1: March Madness in the NCAA tournament when it's single elimination,
Speaker 1: because good teams lose to bad teams all the time
Speaker 1: in single game sample sizes, Right, That's why the NBA
Speaker 1: uses a seven game series so that we can truly
Speaker 1: determine who the better basketball team was, because in any
Speaker 1: one game sample, a team can get hot, a team
Speaker 1: can bring better effort, an executional era, or all those
Speaker 1: sorts of things can be a wrinkle in a one
Speaker 1: game sample size. So does the USA losing to Lithuania
Speaker 1: mean anything about Team USA and the world champion debate? No,
Speaker 1: it doesn't. Reason number two international teams experience much better
Speaker 1: continuity than Team USA does. A gold medal for Team
Speaker 1: USA is expected rather than respected, and so as a result,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a low reward, high risk proposition for
Speaker 1: most NBA players. Also, the NBA season is an extremely
Speaker 1: long season, and so a lot of guys just want
Speaker 1: to take a break. So Team USA has a wildly
Speaker 1: different roster for every tournament. Why does that matter? Think
Speaker 1: about how much we talked about continuity this last year,
Speaker 1: the last two years with Denver and Golden State. Right,
Speaker 1: continuity matters. Players figure out their hierarchy. Your stars figure
Speaker 1: out who's kind of like where they're at in the
Speaker 1: pecking order. Right, all your role players get deeply familiar
Speaker 1: with their roles and they learn how to excel in
Speaker 1: those roles. The coaches get a really good pulse for
Speaker 1: the team and understand the highs and lows and how
Speaker 1: to kind of like navigate that. Right, It's really difficult,
Speaker 1: and it's difficult in a large sample size, like we
Speaker 1: were talking about continuity with other teams that had significantly
Speaker 1: more time to get together. Right now, we're talking about FEBA,
Speaker 1: and it's like you get a couple of weeks of practice,
Speaker 1: and you get like a couple of exhibition games, then
Speaker 1: you get five pool play games or three pool play games,
Speaker 1: and two second round games, and then you go right
Speaker 1: into single elimination. And so it's a significant disadvantage for
Speaker 1: Team USA in particular that they have just different groups
Speaker 1: of people in every single tournament, whereas for these international teams,
Speaker 1: because literally winning a World Cup or winning an Olympic
Speaker 1: tournament is a gigantic achievement. I would argue, if you
Speaker 1: asked Luka Doncic, what would you rather win in your
Speaker 1: career an Olympic medal gold medal with Slovenia or a
Speaker 1: Foebo World Cup gold medal with Slovenia or winning a
Speaker 1: title with the Dallas Mavericks. I bet you, he says Slovenia,
Speaker 1: because these for these guys, it matters so much more
Speaker 1: because if you win one of those tournaments, it's such
Speaker 1: a remarkable achievement. There's a different level of pride playing
Speaker 1: for your country that exists outside of that because of
Speaker 1: that risk reward element. I don't think it's a lack
Speaker 1: of pride for Team USA. I think it's literally just
Speaker 1: like it's hard for them to feel the urgency that
Speaker 1: a lot of these other teams feel, and so they
Speaker 1: have better continuity in their roster from tournament to tournament.
Speaker 1: It's a huge it's a significant advantage when we get
Speaker 1: to these tournaments. I mean honestly, like guys, like even
Speaker 1: the Team USA basketball teams that get gold medals typically
Speaker 1: like underperform, right, I mean, like they win and then
Speaker 1: you're like, man, but I mean it was kind of
Speaker 1: close there with Spain for a minute, you know, or like, man,
Speaker 1: it was close against this other team for a minute,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, they should have won all these games by thirty, right,
Speaker 1: And it's because of that continuity. And I would argue,
Speaker 1: if you give one of those teams all, you know,
Speaker 1: nine months together to build that continuity and understanding, our
Speaker 1: Team USA teams would kick the shit out of these
Speaker 1: these international teams. But it's it's just kind of the
Speaker 1: nature of the beast. Right. Reason number three why Team
Speaker 1: USA losing to Lithuania does not mean anything for the
Speaker 1: World Championship debate a real Team USA would kick the
Speaker 1: living shit out of the rest of the world teams.
Speaker 1: Our starters would be Steph Curry, Jason Tatum, Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis. Not only is that a ridiculously
Speaker 1: talented starting lineup, but every single one of those players
Speaker 1: in that group compliments the others extremely well. All of
Speaker 1: them know how to play off the ball and on
Speaker 1: the ball, all of them know how to play defense.
Speaker 1: All of them have a consistent reputation as guys who
Speaker 1: are willing to do the dirty work to win basketball games.
Speaker 1: Your bench would be Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard, bam Adebayo, Anthony Edwards, and Jalen Brown. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: These are players and by the way, I just based
Speaker 1: that off my top twenty five players list this summer.
Speaker 1: Here are players who would get cut from Team USA's
Speaker 1: twelve man roster. Paul George Brandon, Ingram Kyrie Irving, Jalen Brunson,
Speaker 1: Darreon Fox, Donovan Mitchell, Trey Young, James Harden. I can
Speaker 1: go on, in, on and on. I'm sorry, but it's
Speaker 1: just not close like the world is catching up. Yes,
Speaker 1: like three of the top five players in the world,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, are not Americans. Right, in the global sense,
Speaker 1: the game is growing significantly. I don't think it'll be
Speaker 1: long before you could make a Team World that would
Speaker 1: beat Team USA. And arguably with the top end guys
Speaker 1: like Yo Kitchen Jannis, Like, arguably Team World beats Team USA.
Speaker 1: But there is no Team World, right, There's just these
Speaker 1: other countries, right, and each of those countries are improving
Speaker 1: little by little, but Team USA still has everybody lapped
Speaker 1: in this department. We just don't send our best players.
Speaker 1: So like again, like when we have these discussions, like
Speaker 1: I think it's important to differentiate between the health of
Speaker 1: the rest of the world when it comes to basketball.
Speaker 1: The game of basketball is growing, and I think it's
Speaker 1: so good. But that's not the same as the NBA
Speaker 1: not being the best professional league in the world. It's
Speaker 1: still the team. It's like the NBA basketball gigantic chasm.
Speaker 1: And then you're gonna get to your euro leagues and
Speaker 1: your you know, uh, the NBL and Australia and leagues
Speaker 1: like that, right, Like that's where there's a gigantic chasm.
Speaker 1: It's not the same. And that's why, Like, I'm okay
Speaker 1: with NBA players calling themselves the best in the world
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. I think that's a reputation
Speaker 1: that the league has earned. All Right, our second FEBA
Speaker 1: related fake question, Jason Austin Reeves got barbecued by Lithuania yesterday.
Speaker 1: He gave up twelve points and five post ups. Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr had to pull him from the game. Does that
Speaker 1: mean the hype has gotten out of control and that
Speaker 1: Austin isn't that good? No, doesn't mean anything. First of all,
Speaker 1: tam USA is a unit got their ass kicked in
Speaker 1: that game, especially on the defensive end. I just broke
Speaker 1: down for you guys in the last segment all the
Speaker 1: little ways that Team USA wasn't sharp defensively and was
Speaker 1: giving up wide open shots. Just the four possessions I
Speaker 1: broke down where as many points as Austin gave up
Speaker 1: in post ups in that game. Right, Also, we have
Speaker 1: a large sample size that Austin is a very good
Speaker 1: post defender. Austin played sixteen playoff games this this year
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. He got posted up six times and
Speaker 1: got five stops. That's right, he gave up one bucket
Speaker 1: in six attempts that teams tried to post him up.
Speaker 1: Austin got posted up by the opponent thirty three times
Speaker 1: in the regular season this year, about once every other
Speaker 1: game and allowed just eighteen points. That zero point five
Speaker 1: to five points per possession, when you try to post
Speaker 1: up Austin Reeves, that's outstanding. Before the Lithuania game for
Speaker 1: Team USA, other countries tried to post up Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: nine times and he allowed just six points, forcing four turnovers.
Speaker 1: He had a bad game. He got absolutely flambayed, barbecue destroyed,
Speaker 1: cooked in the post against Lithuania. That's a fact. Sorry guys.
Speaker 1: But again, like that was, like I said, a part
Speaker 1: of that confidence, like right, Like Lithuania makes a bunch
Speaker 1: of shots in the first half, they're feeling themselves. I
Speaker 1: mean Instagram yesterday was just a NonStop barrage of like
Speaker 1: screenshots of Lithuanian players like smirking and making faces at
Speaker 1: different American players while they were busting their ass. They
Speaker 1: didn't lose that game because of Austin Reeves. Austin Rey's
Speaker 1: played like shit. He played like shit. He got his
Speaker 1: ass kicked. But you don't erase an entire year's worth
Speaker 1: of sample size over one basketball game. It Posting up
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves has been a bad idea for professional basketball
Speaker 1: players all year, and Lithuania having a great night does
Speaker 1: and change that. Here's the thing with Austin Reeves, and
Speaker 1: there's a reason why I brought him up today because
Speaker 1: he's getting a lot of attention this summer off of
Speaker 1: a great playoff run and off of this Tmosa experience. Right, Yes,
Speaker 1: he's been getting a ton of attention. Yeah, he's a Laker,
Speaker 1: and Laker fans are a lot. They're a lot, right,
Speaker 1: They're loud, they're obnoxious. Like, you guys know, I'm not
Speaker 1: necessarily a Lakers fan. I just root for the Lakers
Speaker 1: because I'm a Lebron James fan. But I have a
Speaker 1: lot of interactions with Lakers fans. I understand it, like,
Speaker 1: I get it. I get what the frustration is for
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Like they get a lot of attention,
Speaker 1: they get all the coverage. You guys got to understand
Speaker 1: the business side of it, right, Like, nobody does this
Speaker 1: for free, like except for people that are trying to
Speaker 1: get paid to do this, right, And all of the
Speaker 1: companies out there are getting paid to do this, and
Speaker 1: so they're gonna do what's in the best interest of
Speaker 1: their company. And so they're gonna talk Lakers, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna talk Warriors, and they're gonna talk Celtics, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna talk Nicks, and they're gonna talk big markets because
Speaker 1: that's what drives revenue. And all these people got families
Speaker 1: to pay to feed, right, So, like it's just the reality.
Speaker 1: You guys see it on this show, Like we do
Speaker 1: a lot of Lakers Warriors content. We cover the rest
Speaker 1: of the league, but we do a lot of Lakers
Speaker 1: Warriors content, right because I got bills to pay, man, Like,
Speaker 1: we gotta, we gotta, you know, acknowledge the realities of that,
Speaker 1: right And so I get it. I get all the hype,
Speaker 1: and I get that that's been frustrating. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Austin's also really damn good at basketball. He scored twenty
Speaker 1: plus point ins twenty plus points in the playoffs eight
Speaker 1: times this year. He averaged seventeen points, four rebounds, and
Speaker 1: five assists on sixty two percent true shooting while sharing
Speaker 1: the court. That was all in the playoffs, by the way,
Speaker 1: while sharing the court with Lebron, James, Anthony Davis, Dennis Roder,
Speaker 1: and DiAngelo Russell. Splitting touches with all those guys seventeen
Speaker 1: four and five on sixty two percent true shooting. Think
Speaker 1: about how you guys view Desmond Bayane as a player.
Speaker 1: He has nine twenty point playoff games in his career
Speaker 1: in three playoff runs, and his career playoff averages seventeen points,
Speaker 1: the same as Austin Reeves. Think about how you think
Speaker 1: of Karl Anthony Towns. He has just seven twenty point
Speaker 1: playoff games in three playoff runs. Think about Jordan Poole.
Speaker 1: I bet every Warriors fan listens to the show thinks
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole is a better player than Austin Reeves. I'd
Speaker 1: argue Austin Reeves is better right this second, but that
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool is going to be better because he is
Speaker 1: all this upside. He's such a freak athlete, right, Like
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole in the long run is going to be
Speaker 1: a better player than Austin. But like most Warriors fans
Speaker 1: would argue that Jordan Pool's better than Austin Right, thirty
Speaker 1: five career playoff games, He's only scored twenty plus nine
Speaker 1: times in those thirty five playoff games, and his career
Speaker 1: playoff average is fourteen and a half. Austin did it
Speaker 1: eight times in one season. Guys in half as many games.
Speaker 1: Like Austin's legit. He's outrageously efficient. He can do it
Speaker 1: as a primary initiator. He literally closed out the Memphis
Speaker 1: Grizzlies in Game one in the playoffs this year, just
Speaker 1: spamming high picking and roll. Lebron standing in the damn
Speaker 1: corner while Austin runs the offense, like that's how freaking
Speaker 1: good this kid is. He can do it off the ball.
Speaker 1: He shot forty six percent on catching shoot threes in
Speaker 1: the playoffs this year, forty percent for the regular season.
Speaker 1: He's a very good defensive player. He broke down the
Speaker 1: post up stuff earlier, but he always does his job.
Speaker 1: He's not an outstanding defensive player. You're not gonna put
Speaker 1: him on someone and shut them down. But if you
Speaker 1: put him in a five man unit defensively, he's going
Speaker 1: to do his job and he's gonna make plays. He's
Speaker 1: not gonna hurt you on that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Is he an All Star? No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: Is he a future All Star? Probably not. I don't
Speaker 1: think he has the athletic upside, and the guard position
Speaker 1: is too stacked in the NBA. But he's firmly in
Speaker 1: that tier right below All Star and he has proven
Speaker 1: himself on the biggest stage, or at least just shy
Speaker 1: of the biggest. The biggest stage you can play in
Speaker 1: as a basketball player is the is the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: and the dude was a reliable third option for a
Speaker 1: conference finalists team this year. So, like, I get the
Speaker 1: Lakers hate, I do, but don't be on the wrong
Speaker 1: side of history with the Austin Reeves stuff. The kid
Speaker 1: is legit, uh, And like if you if you really
Speaker 1: watch him and just try to appreciate for him for
Speaker 1: what he is, and just stop thinking about the Lakers
Speaker 1: for a second and just envision him as a basketball player.
Speaker 1: He's just a kid who's trying to grind out a
Speaker 1: spot in the NBA and he's doing a damn good
Speaker 1: job of it. And if you're a fan of the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, I think you guys will enjoy watching
Speaker 1: him in the long run. All right, Last one, Jason,
Speaker 1: does Team USA losing to Lithuania signify that Team USA
Speaker 1: will not win the World Cup this year. So first
Speaker 1: of all, I said before the tournament that USA should
Speaker 1: be the favorite. They still are, but that if I
Speaker 1: had to pick between the USA team and the field,
Speaker 1: that I would pick the field. Why because I had
Speaker 1: a feeling they'd be in close games. Right, we just
Speaker 1: got one here against Lithuania. But close games can go
Speaker 1: either way. And this is not a juggernaut type of roster. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: if you send that, if you sent that team that
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, the actual team USA over there, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd pick them over the field nine times out of ten, right,
Speaker 1: Like they're gonna they're barring in absolute freakish performance from
Speaker 1: a you know, a Yo Kitch or a Yannis or
Speaker 1: a Luca and just a heroic defensive effort from everybody.
Speaker 1: Like it would require the most perfect set of circumstances
Speaker 1: for that team to lose a game. Right, But aside
Speaker 1: from that circumstance, you know, the time, the types of
Speaker 1: team usas that we send over there not Juggernauts. All
Speaker 1: it takes is one close game or a couple guys
Speaker 1: miss a couple of shots for your team and a
Speaker 1: couple guys make a couple shots on the other team.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I picked the field over Team USA. That said,
Speaker 1: I still think the USA has Team USA is the
Speaker 1: best remaining team, and I still think they deserve to
Speaker 1: be the favorite, which they still are. The quarterfinals are
Speaker 1: said at USA versus Italy. I think, if I'm reading
Speaker 1: the bracket correctly, that if they win, they'll play the
Speaker 1: winner of Germany vers. Latvia and then potentially have to
Speaker 1: play either Canada or Lithuania, Serbia or Slovenia in the finals.
Speaker 1: I think Canada should Canada should beat Slovenia is my guess.
Speaker 1: They have just a long line of perimeter defenders to
Speaker 1: throw out Luca, to fatigue him. I think that over
Speaker 1: the course of that game it's gonna benefit them. And
Speaker 1: then also just SGA's really starting to find his groove.
Speaker 1: Sga hit basically the game winner the other day versus Spain,
Speaker 1: really impressive down the stretch defense. Dylan Brooks had a
Speaker 1: huge three on the left wing that tied it, and
Speaker 1: then Sga just textbook hard dribble, right pullback dribble knocks
Speaker 1: down basically the game winner. I think Canada is probably
Speaker 1: the second most likely team to win it, behind the USA.
Speaker 1: That's what I said earlier and I still feel that
Speaker 1: way again, single elimination can go either way, but for
Speaker 1: right now, I still lean towards the USA. But I
Speaker 1: would take the field over the USA, meaning I do
Speaker 1: expect the bet. The more likely outcome is that US
Speaker 1: that Team USA loses at some point in the elimination round.
Speaker 1: All right, twenty two minutes later, Let's get into number
Speaker 1: five on our top twenty five players the last twenty
Speaker 1: five years. Shaquille O'Neil accolades. Four time NBA champion, best
Speaker 1: player on three championship team, second best player on one
Speaker 1: championship team, eight time first Team All NBA, fourteen time
Speaker 1: All NBA overall. Technically, five of those selections were before
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, when this list is supposed to start.
Speaker 1: Seven of his first team selections were all in the
Speaker 1: last twenty five years. Three time All Defense and two
Speaker 1: times score champion as champion nineteen ninety five in two thousand,
Speaker 1: won the regular season MVP in two thousand and he's
Speaker 1: a three time NBA Finals MVP. His claim to fame
Speaker 1: is he's the most physically dominant player in NBA history.
Speaker 1: This is how crazy this is. We talk a lot
Speaker 1: about MJ right the other day when we did our
Speaker 1: MJ Lebron kind of mail back question and we talked
Speaker 1: about dominance, right, and had the fact that what MJ
Speaker 1: did in the nineties is kind of like unprecedented. And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously Bill Russell and the Celtics won eight
Speaker 1: consecutive championships, but that was an forever ago. The league
Speaker 1: was incredibly tiny. That Celtics team was freaking stacked. Like
Speaker 1: there was debate over whether or not Wilter Bill Russell
Speaker 1: was better. I mean, most people would agree Bill was
Speaker 1: slightly better, but it's not It wasn't the same type
Speaker 1: of thing as what MJ did in the nineties. Right, Well,
Speaker 1: there's one other player in NBA history who has won
Speaker 1: three consecutive NBA Finals MVP Awards, and that's Shaquille O'Neill.
Speaker 1: Seven foot one, was well over three hundred pounds. Everything
Speaker 1: that shaq did came down to footwork. You talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot with Yokics, but like, being big is
Speaker 1: only half the battle, right, There are a lot of
Speaker 1: big human beings in the world. All you have to
Speaker 1: do is look at these FEBA games and look at
Speaker 1: how many non NBA players are between six ten and
Speaker 1: seven to two that having good jump hook and can
Speaker 1: make free throws and do all that kind of stuff. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of big dudes in the world. But
Speaker 1: that coordination, especially as it pertains the footwork, is everything,
Speaker 1: because your footwork is what allows you to inflict your
Speaker 1: physicality on your opponent, right cause your base is constantly moving.
Speaker 1: Right If you guys ever had that have done that
Speaker 1: test where like you stand with your feet together and
Speaker 1: then someone like pushes you on the shoulder and you
Speaker 1: like fall down or like you lose your balance. But
Speaker 1: then if you stand in like an athletic stance, like
Speaker 1: with your feet spread out to your shoulders, if someone
Speaker 1: pushes you on the shoulder, like you won't move because
Speaker 1: when you have your base wide and established, it's much
Speaker 1: harder to move you off your base. Well, that same
Speaker 1: principle applies in every facet of basketball, but especially in
Speaker 1: post defense. Why because there's a a lot more contact
Speaker 1: in post offense defense matchups. Right, So on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: sometimes you can be off balance and a dude can
Speaker 1: nudge you, but they might call a handcheck, or they
Speaker 1: might call you for hipchecking or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I think the league calls
Speaker 1: that too much these days. Right, But in the post,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of contact that's allowed. So guys are
Speaker 1: constantly pushing on each other, and it's a two way battle, right,
Speaker 1: like the post players trying to back down and the
Speaker 1: post defenders trying to like Chuck with his forearm and
Speaker 1: hold his ground on the backside, right, And so who
Speaker 1: has the best leverage ends up winning that battle most
Speaker 1: of the time. And so as the post player, you're
Speaker 1: constantly feeling on your shoulder blades where the defender is,
Speaker 1: and you're trying to change your footwork either by taking
Speaker 1: a drop step or a pivot of some kind to
Speaker 1: get to a position where then you can get separation
Speaker 1: from the post defender for a shot. And so having
Speaker 1: really sharp footwork and being really polished with your coordination
Speaker 1: with your feet in that particular element of offense is
Speaker 1: the difference between a player being able to physically dominate
Speaker 1: a place or get pushed off of his spot. I talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot with Yokis, But Yo Kic sometimes
Speaker 1: you'll watch him and he'll chop his feet a lot.
Speaker 1: He's really good at resetting his base. He's in that
Speaker 1: post backup position. As he's dribbling, he's constantly shuffling his
Speaker 1: feet and resetting his base. Why because he doesn't just
Speaker 1: hit you once. He's hitting you once twice, three times,
Speaker 1: four times, maybe even five times before he takes a shot,
Speaker 1: and he needs to constantly reset his base so that
Speaker 1: when he bumps you, he moves you, Whereas if he
Speaker 1: doesn't have his base set that second contact, maybe he
Speaker 1: loses that battle and he loses ground away from the basket. Right,
Speaker 1: Shack had really really sharp footwork. His drop step was immaculate.
Speaker 1: We've all seen tons of videos of Shaq getting that
Speaker 1: drop step foot past the defender's foot and then pivoting
Speaker 1: and as he pivoting, just throwing the defender out of
Speaker 1: the way as he goes up and dunks it right like.
Speaker 1: He added a couple of basic simple post moves as well.
Speaker 1: Everything starts with the bullyball right, the footwork, the drop steps,
Speaker 1: trying to get dunks at the basket. But when he
Speaker 1: did get stood up or when there was a defender
Speaker 1: waiting on the back line that he wanted to avoid,
Speaker 1: Shaq had two moves that he basically went to consistently
Speaker 1: from both blocks and that was a right handed hook
Speaker 1: over his left shoulder, and like Shaq would call it
Speaker 1: like a turnaround fade away, but it was kind of
Speaker 1: like a one handed push shot over his right shoulder,
Speaker 1: So he'd turn over the shoulder and instead of shooting
Speaker 1: like a post player with two hands, he would just
Speaker 1: kind of reach up with one hand and shoot essentially
Speaker 1: like a turnaround jumper with one hand. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what you want to call it, push shot, a
Speaker 1: kind of like a turnaround floater or whatever it was.
Speaker 1: But he was pretty good with those two particular shots,
Speaker 1: and that was enough with his physical frame to just
Speaker 1: utterly obliterate every front line in the NBA over that
Speaker 1: late nineties early two thousand stretch right and essentially, like
Speaker 1: he was so dominant over that time that like every
Speaker 1: single team had to load up with three or four
Speaker 1: centers just to commit fouls on him. The strategy around
Speaker 1: the league basically be came the same. If you were
Speaker 1: guarding Shack and he went for a hook shot or
Speaker 1: a turnaround, you would try to contest without fouling. But
Speaker 1: if he made any sort of physically aggressive move towards
Speaker 1: the basket, it was wrap his ass up you had
Speaker 1: to because he was a career fifty I think he
Speaker 1: was like fifty three percent career free throw shooter, and
Speaker 1: so that ended up being your best opportunity to get stops.
Speaker 1: But that was what you did. You tried when he did.
Speaker 1: When he did bless you with a crazier shot that
Speaker 1: was further away from the basket, you would sit there
Speaker 1: and pray that he'd miss, and then when he was
Speaker 1: physically aggressive, you'd foul. And then that led to his
Speaker 1: crowning achievement, which was his three peat. In the early
Speaker 1: two thousands with the Lakers, he averaged twenty nine to
Speaker 1: fourteen to four with three blocks per game over that
Speaker 1: three year span one MVP in two thousand, finished third
Speaker 1: place in the MVP voting. The next two years averaged
Speaker 1: thirty to fifteen and three in the playoff runs they
Speaker 1: lost just that Lakers team lost just thirteen playoff games
Speaker 1: in three years. They were forty five and thirteen in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Think about how insane that is. In fifteen
Speaker 1: NBA Finals games, he averaged thirty six points, fifteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: and four assists per game with three blocks on sixty
Speaker 1: percent shooting. In won all three finals MVPs. It was
Speaker 1: one of the most dominant stretches of basketball by any
Speaker 1: single player in NBA history. Biggest one if of Shack's career.
Speaker 1: What if Shack had taken better care of his body.
Speaker 1: The decline for Shack came very quickly when he got
Speaker 1: to his thirties. Two thousand and three was his fourth
Speaker 1: consecutive season averaging at least twenty seven points per game.
Speaker 1: For the rest of his career after that, he never
Speaker 1: averaged over twenty three points per game. It was like
Speaker 1: an immediate fall off of the cliff. He had this
Speaker 1: like toe issue, this like arthritis toe thing. You guys
Speaker 1: probably remember Shaq going to training camp and getting surgery
Speaker 1: in season because he got injured on company time, so
Speaker 1: he was going to recover on company time, right Like
Speaker 1: that was kind of the beginning of the end for him. Athletically.
Speaker 1: He did win an the championship with the Heat in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, but it was more of as
Speaker 1: more of a supporting player. He scored twenty plus points
Speaker 1: just nine times in their twenty three game playoff run,
Speaker 1: and Dallas held him to single digits twice in the finals,
Speaker 1: So it's much more of a supporting type of player.
Speaker 1: He just he was. He was a supremely gifted athlete
Speaker 1: when he was younger, and once that faded and he
Speaker 1: put on the weight, it just he just wasn't the
Speaker 1: same type of dominant force that he was when he
Speaker 1: was younger. We didn't even talk about the Orlando years.
Speaker 1: Like I watched, I went back and watched this morning,
Speaker 1: the nineteen ninety five series with Chicago, and I watched
Speaker 1: game one of that series, and I was watching Shack
Speaker 1: and literally Chicago had to go to their third string
Speaker 1: center in the first quarter, and he was making all
Speaker 1: of his free throws in that game too, which which
Speaker 1: was which was causing problems at least at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the game. But like you watch the way he
Speaker 1: moved up and down the floor. He's moving like a wing,
Speaker 1: and so it's just it's, you know, it's crazy because
Speaker 1: like it's you start to think about how good he
Speaker 1: could have been, because he's easily, you know, top fifteen,
Speaker 1: top ten in NBA history, regardless of position, depending on
Speaker 1: who you ask. A lot of people have him higher
Speaker 1: than that. I have him fifth in the last twenty
Speaker 1: five years. Imagine how good he could have been if
Speaker 1: he had taken better care of his body. Very very
Speaker 1: interesting career shack and very difficult to rank him compared
Speaker 1: to his peers. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for today. We will be back tomorrow with number four.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to drop some mailback questions in the comments.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys. Then the volume