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Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody.
Speaker 2: Hope all of you guys had a great week as
Speaker 2: promise from last night, we're gonna do a mail bag today.
Speaker 2: I'm actually recording three completely separate mail bags. We had
Speaker 2: like one hundred mail bag questions in the YouTube video
Speaker 2: last night, and so I divided them into three segments.
Speaker 2: Today's mail bag is just going to focus on the
Speaker 2: Western Conference Finals and fallout from that series for both teams,
Speaker 2: some big picture topics about the Mavericks in a vacuum,
Speaker 2: and some stuff about Minnesota heading into their offseason. Tomorrow,
Speaker 2: the entire mail bag is going to be centered around
Speaker 2: the NBA Finals, so a lot of Dallas Boston type
Speaker 2: of topics, right, and then Sunday morning's mail bag is
Speaker 2: going to be focused on the NBA at Large. So
Speaker 2: I just kind of took all your guys's mail bags
Speaker 2: question for all your mail bag questions from last night,
Speaker 2: and just kind of filtered them into those three categories.
Speaker 2: So Western Conference Finals today, NBA Finals tomorrow, NBA at
Speaker 2: Large on Sunday. You guys know the drill before we
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Speaker 2: don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 2: podcast under hoops Tonite, and then keep dropping mail back
Speaker 2: questions in those YouTube comments, and we keep hitting them
Speaker 2: throughout the rest of the postseason and the last but
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Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball. So, first mail back question centering
Speaker 2: around the end of the Western Conference Finals last night,
Speaker 2: in which quarter did you start recording this episode? It
Speaker 2: came out like five minutes after the buzzer. In reference
Speaker 2: to the fact that our instant reaction came out pretty
Speaker 2: quickly last night, it's funny. I had a conversation with
Speaker 2: our producers last night and I went I started working
Speaker 2: on the show right at halftime.
Speaker 1: I knew that game was over.
Speaker 2: And what's interesting, and there's a specific question about this
Speaker 2: later on in the mailbag, but they were, you know,
Speaker 2: a team that had come back from a large deficit before.
Speaker 2: They were down twenty in the Western in the second
Speaker 2: round series against Denver on the road, and they came
Speaker 2: back to win that game. But I just I had
Speaker 2: a feeling that game was just completely over. I thought
Speaker 2: Luca had mentally dominated Minnesota, sat them of their confidence.
Speaker 1: I thought it was over.
Speaker 2: And so we just got started working on the pod
Speaker 2: nice and early, and my wife was very appreciative as
Speaker 2: we got to have a little night cap last night.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you're making the points that you are. People
Speaker 2: are going to talk about what happened to Minnesota, what
Speaker 2: happened to their scheme, why they did not perform, et cetera.
Speaker 2: But in my opinion, there's only one thing that happened tonight.
Speaker 2: Greatness by Luka Doncic happened tonight.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: Game summary done. The ninety eight Jazz were a championship
Speaker 2: caliber team. The twenty sixteen Warriors were a championship team,
Speaker 2: but they both just lost a greatness playing and simple.
Speaker 2: We throw around the title of great way too much
Speaker 2: in this league, but this is what it actually looks like,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't happen often. I completely agree. You know,
Speaker 2: I think that there's a desire. I've noticed this a lot,
Speaker 2: especially from the analytics community. There's a desire to try
Speaker 2: to like have a very clear answer, like a solution
Speaker 2: to the problem, which I totally understand. That's the way
Speaker 2: people like that are wired. And I'm wired like that
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways too. Before I got into
Speaker 2: playing basketball in college, I was an engineering student, so
Speaker 2: I thought very much from a math perspective with things,
Speaker 2: and like that was kind of that is kind of
Speaker 2: the just the goal of everybody when they're looking at
Speaker 2: a game, It's like, how can we solve this problem?
Speaker 2: Where's the where's the simple and detailed explanation of why
Speaker 2: this happened. And you guys know, like I love to
Speaker 2: get into that sort of thing, and we do when
Speaker 2: I think it matters, like whenever there we talk a
Speaker 2: lot about adjustments, we talk a lot about the tactics
Speaker 2: that are taking place on the basketball court, but at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, there are sometimes there are
Speaker 2: some situations where intangible things can have a greater impact.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I one hundred percent agree. I didn't.
Speaker 2: I saw a lot of Mavericks fans in the comments
Speaker 2: last night, like, oh, Lively was back, That's why we won.
Speaker 2: And it's like, I know Lively is super valuable to
Speaker 2: you guys. I'm not trying to minimize that. But no,
Speaker 2: that's not why you won last night, and it's not
Speaker 2: why you lost Game four. You lost Game four because
Speaker 2: the Timberwolves went into your arena and they outplayed you.
Speaker 2: And then in Game six or five, in particular, Luca
Speaker 2: was so aggressive earlier scored. Luca personally scored on four
Speaker 2: of the first six possessions of the game. He had
Speaker 2: that run towards the end of the first quarter that
Speaker 2: turned what an eighteen eighteen tie into thirty one eighteen
Speaker 2: or something like that. If I remember correctly, that Luca
Speaker 2: snatched their confidence at the start of that game, and
Speaker 2: then Minnesota stopped executing. They started kicking the ball all
Speaker 2: over the floor where they have nine turnovers in the
Speaker 2: first half. None of them can make a shot. I
Speaker 2: literally thought that was the game last night. There was
Speaker 2: no tactical adjustment, There was no fancy explanation for what
Speaker 2: happened other than Luca went into that arena and he
Speaker 2: destroyed the Minnesota Timberwolves and they never had any chance
Speaker 2: to regain their footing. How does Luca no wan to
Speaker 2: effectively rest during an offensive possession every once in a while.
Speaker 2: I feel like this has never talked about enough and
Speaker 2: is so important to his game management given he is
Speaker 2: in the top tier athlete one hundred percent agree. Rinds
Speaker 2: me a lot of the dynamic he had that Kyrie
Speaker 2: had with Lebron James. And there's two phases to this.
Speaker 2: First shout out to Kyrie Irving because Kyrie Irving's ability
Speaker 2: to kind of operate on an island by himself is
Speaker 2: a very unique trait to him that I think makes
Speaker 2: him super valuable to these do everything forwards like Luca
Speaker 2: like Lebron James, even like in Nikola Yoki, Right, I
Speaker 2: think Jamal Murray kind of plays that role for Denver
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: And to me, what it is is like this is
Speaker 2: where Luca's ability to shoot the catch and shoot three,
Speaker 2: which he really broke out over what game three in
Speaker 2: Game five of this series in a big way. But
Speaker 2: like him being able to just stand on the wing
Speaker 2: twenty six twenty seven feet from the basket and hit
Speaker 2: catch and shoot threes, that is an important part of
Speaker 2: his ability to rest while having Kyrie go to work
Speaker 2: because obviously, if you throw extra defenders at him, Kyrie's
Speaker 2: got to make reads. But the unique thing with Kyrie
Speaker 2: is he can dribble the ball out the floor against
Speaker 2: ball pressure. He can use a ball screen or use
Speaker 2: a guard guard screen to get a mismatch, and he
Speaker 2: can go to work on an island, dribble twenty five
Speaker 2: times in a possession and get a good shot for himself.
Speaker 2: And it's a unique value for Kyrie. But again, the
Speaker 2: important Piet is you got to the importantieces. You got
Speaker 2: to be able to play off the ball, and that
Speaker 2: requires you to be able to knock down, catch and
Speaker 2: shoot jump shots, which Luca has been using a little
Speaker 2: bit more frequently towards the end of this playoff run. Hey, Jason,
Speaker 2: love the show our Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively examples
Speaker 2: of what future of what the future of the center
Speaker 2: position will look like, athletic bigs, solid defenders but with
Speaker 2: low volume scoring. Love to hear your thoughts. So there's
Speaker 2: multiple different constructs of NBA offense at this point, and
Speaker 2: you know there's I'm not going to sit here and
Speaker 2: pretend like Dallas doesn't have complications. They certainly do. We
Speaker 2: talked about in Game four. Those you guys who watched
Speaker 2: the film session are half of the film session because
Speaker 2: YouTube picked us to pieces on that one was so annoying.
Speaker 2: I was so frustrated. I spent like four hours on
Speaker 2: that video. It was like fifty minutes long, and we
Speaker 2: had to cut almost half of the video out. That
Speaker 2: was really frustrating for me. But in that video, I
Speaker 2: think we got to I never went back to watch
Speaker 2: the edited portion, but I think we were able to
Speaker 2: keep some of the stuff in the second half, and
Speaker 2: I showed some of the examples of stack pick and
Speaker 2: roll that Dallas was running, which is basically where you
Speaker 2: have a shooter underneath the basket backscreen for the role
Speaker 2: man as he's coming downhill, and they were doing some
Speaker 2: damage to go Baar in that respect. So Dallas does
Speaker 2: run some complications in their offense, but they are more
Speaker 2: of what I would call a four out one in offense.
Speaker 2: So there the two primary forms of offense that I
Speaker 2: see around the NBA right now are four out one
Speaker 2: in offense and five out offense. And the four out
Speaker 2: one in offense is very simple, and it's play finishing
Speaker 2: and play initiation.
Speaker 1: So it's like.
Speaker 2: Shooter in the corner, he's not moving, he's standing there.
Speaker 2: He's taking a corner three. Shooter in the other corner,
Speaker 2: he's not standing, he's staying there. He's taking a corner three,
Speaker 2: or he's driving the clothes out right. Same thing for
Speaker 2: the guy on the right wing, although that guy's usually
Speaker 2: a secondary shot creator in case Luca needs to bail
Speaker 2: out from a possession, right and then it's the guy
Speaker 2: comes up and he sets a ball screen and Luca
Speaker 2: just works in that ball screen right like that is
Speaker 2: that to me is like the four out type of offense.
Speaker 2: It's very like guys are set up to finish plays
Speaker 2: a vertical spacer. The vertical spacer is your one in right,
Speaker 2: and then you've got your shooters in the corners and
Speaker 2: a shooter on the wing.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Another team who runs a lot of that kind of
Speaker 2: stuff is like the Atlanta Hawks, for instance, They'll do
Speaker 2: that with Trey Young, right. So, like, that's to me,
Speaker 2: the four out kind of construct. Five out construct is
Speaker 2: where the big man operates more as a dribble handoff
Speaker 2: folkrum out on the perimeter. This is like Demonas Bonus
Speaker 2: with the Sacramento Kings. This is Draymond Green with the
Speaker 2: Golden State Warriors. This is Anthony Davis with the Los
Speaker 2: Angeles Lakers this year, right Like, this is Nikola Jokic
Speaker 2: with the Denver Nuggets, right Like, this is much more
Speaker 2: of an offensive decision making role for the big man.
Speaker 2: So like, Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively to me, are
Speaker 2: two very different types of centers. Daniel Gafford to me,
Speaker 2: is a four out, one in type of center. He's
Speaker 2: a guy that just wants to set ball screen or
Speaker 2: is at his best when he's setting ball screens and
Speaker 2: rolling hard to the rim. And as we know, he
Speaker 2: can struggle a little bit dealing with making decisions in
Speaker 2: the short role. Derek Lively can do both. Derek Lively
Speaker 2: can operate as a four out one in center. He's
Speaker 2: a good screen and roll big who can vertically space
Speaker 2: the floor. He also can make decisions in a blitz
Speaker 2: situations where he has to kind of operate as the
Speaker 2: decision maker in the four on three. But I also
Speaker 2: think if I picked up Derek Lively and dropped him
Speaker 2: onto the Golden State Warriors, I think that he'd be
Speaker 2: really effective in that five out system because his ability
Speaker 2: to make read and react decisions with the ball in
Speaker 2: his hands. But those, to me are the two very
Speaker 2: different forms of offensive centers. As far as like the
Speaker 2: future of the center position, it's all about what your
Speaker 2: offense is, right, Like, there's a case to be made
Speaker 2: that the Jokic Sabonis type of group, Nurkic type of group,
Speaker 2: that that is the future of the center position for
Speaker 2: five out offenses. Like a really good screener that can
Speaker 2: knock down the occasional jump shot, that is a decision
Speaker 2: maker in dribblehandoff situations out on the perimeter. So like,
Speaker 2: I don't think that those guys are the future of
Speaker 2: the center position. I think they're just an example of
Speaker 2: what four out one in centers look like. And even then,
Speaker 2: I think that's an oversimplification because I think Derek Lively
Speaker 2: could operate in a five out system. Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 2: the classic guy everyone falls in love with because of
Speaker 2: his athleticism, but I agree, I don't know if the
Speaker 2: decision making will ever develop to the level of Jokic
Speaker 2: or Luka Doncic. So I want to have Anthony Edwards's
Speaker 2: back here for a minute, because it's not just it's
Speaker 2: not just the it's not just the athleticism. Obviously that's
Speaker 2: an important part of it. I'm not gonna sit here
Speaker 2: and pretend like Ann's athleticism isn't appealing to people, or
Speaker 2: that that's not part of like kind of the the
Speaker 2: energy that surrounds him around the league. I just think
Speaker 2: that we're undertelling how good he was in this postseason. Again,
Speaker 2: even after that nightmarish Conference Final series, he was twenty
Speaker 2: eight points per game, seven rebounds and seven assists. Okay,
Speaker 2: twenty eight, seven and seven. He was forty eight percent
Speaker 2: from the field, forty percent from three in, eighty one
Speaker 2: percent from the line. That in true shooting percentage is
Speaker 2: sixty percent, So he was literally twenty eight seven and
Speaker 2: seven on sixty percent true shooting. That's not just we're
Speaker 2: buying the hype. That's not just Anthony Edwards is a
Speaker 2: media darling. That's fucking awesome basketball. That's awesome basketball for
Speaker 2: six weeks against Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker
Speaker 2: and against the defending champs with the best player in
Speaker 2: the world in Nikole Jokic. And while he was inconsistent
Speaker 2: defensively in this postseason run, a big part of how
Speaker 2: they won Game seven was his defense in the second
Speaker 2: half against Jamal Murray during the entirety of the Minnesota
Speaker 2: run in the second half where they went from down
Speaker 2: twenty to up five, he held Jamal Murray scoreless. So again,
Speaker 2: like there, obviously we're in love with his athleticism, but
Speaker 2: there's more to it than that. The dude showed real
Speaker 2: jump shot making ability once again. This is the three
Speaker 2: third straight postseason where his jump shot has been resilient
Speaker 2: into the Throughout the playoffs, he's been a really big
Speaker 2: personality in his ability to kind of like just be
Speaker 2: fun to watch on television to invigorate his teammates and
Speaker 2: be a leader like I think I had it. I
Speaker 2: was annoyed last night because this is something that happens
Speaker 2: every year, by the way, every year there's like a
Speaker 2: new team that kind of starts to have some success.
Speaker 2: Like this year it's Dallas. Last year it was Denver.
Speaker 2: The year before that, it was gold State, the year
Speaker 2: before that was Milwaukee, the year before that, it's the Lakers.
Speaker 2: Right In every single year, their fan base goes, actually,
Speaker 2: we're the next great team and everyone else sucks and
Speaker 2: we're amazing. And then we get to the next year
Speaker 2: and then something happens, they lose, and a new team
Speaker 2: takes that spot. And in that kind of energy from
Speaker 2: that fan base, whoever that fan base is, there's this
Speaker 2: desire to like put everybody else down, Right, Like every
Speaker 2: Denver fan like just had victory laps on the on
Speaker 2: the Suns and the Lakers for an entire offseason, right
Speaker 2: and then it's like then they end up losing in
Speaker 2: the second round this year. You know, Warriors fans lots
Speaker 2: of victory laps after the twenty twenty two season, and
Speaker 2: then the Lakers beat them in twenty twenty two, right,
Speaker 2: Like at the end of the day, like this stuff
Speaker 2: tends to be fleeting as a result of the fact
Speaker 2: that the league is very, very deep. There are certain
Speaker 2: teams that I think are resilient, Like I do think
Speaker 2: Denver will be back, right, Like I think Dallas in
Speaker 2: particular is built for some sustained success over the next
Speaker 2: few years, so I think they'll be back. But like
Speaker 2: the idea that these teams are just gonna rip off
Speaker 2: three four championships in a row, that's just not how
Speaker 2: this works. And like, for whatever reason, Dallas fans can't
Speaker 2: just appreciate that they're having success and that they're gonna
Speaker 2: get praise in the media. It has to be no.
Speaker 2: But also, Anthony Edwards is a bum and that's just stupid.
Speaker 2: He averaged twenty eight seven and seven on sixty percent
Speaker 2: for shooting at twenty two years old in the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 2: That kid deserves flowers too. As far as Anthony Edwards
Speaker 2: in the big picture, I pointed this out on Twitter
Speaker 2: last night. But in Lebron James's age twenty two season,
Speaker 2: the Spurs embarrassed him. He shot like something crazy like
Speaker 2: thirty six percent from the field in that series. He
Speaker 2: shot twenty percent from three, he averaged six turnovers a game.
Speaker 2: He was nightmarishly bad in that Spurs series. And guess
Speaker 2: what now? Lebron is like unanimously regarded as at least
Speaker 2: the second best player of all time, if not the best.
Speaker 2: So like Anthony Edwards, is he as good as Luka Dancic?
Speaker 2: Yet no, Luca badly outplayed him in the series and
Speaker 2: clearly demonstrated a gap between the two of them. Specifically,
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that this playoff run
Speaker 2: emphasizes that Anthony Edwards lacks matchup versatility at this point.
Speaker 2: If he's going against teams without athleticism on the perimeter
Speaker 2: and rim protection, he's going to demolish you. But as
Speaker 2: soon as he runs into matchups like that, it gets
Speaker 2: a little bit more difficult. That's something he's going to
Speaker 2: have to confront in the future. We're actually going to
Speaker 2: get to that later on in this show. But don't
Speaker 2: use this playoff run to bury Anthony Edwards. That's silly.
Speaker 2: He's going to be back. If you're under the impression
Speaker 2: that the twenty two year old that average twenty eight,
Speaker 2: seven and seven in the conference finals to eliminate the
Speaker 2: defending champs and that super team Sons team. If you're
Speaker 2: under the impression that he's not going to be back
Speaker 2: on this stage, you're fooling yourself. He's going to be back,
Speaker 2: and he's going to be better, and that kid has
Speaker 2: so much room to grow because of his supreme athletic tools.
Speaker 2: I do think he's going to be by the time
Speaker 2: he's Luca's age, by the time he's in that twenty five,
Speaker 2: twenty six, twenty seven, I think he's going to be
Speaker 2: on that tier with Jokic, with Luca, with Gianness. He's
Speaker 2: not there yet, but I think he's going to get there.
Speaker 2: This is a little context for this question. I ranted
Speaker 2: at the end of the show last night about how
Speaker 2: if you look back through NBA history, center like you
Speaker 2: can't win a championship unless you're center is some kind
Speaker 2: of offensive threat, either a legitimate like catching finish threat
Speaker 2: or a perimeter threat, something along those lines, like the
Speaker 2: last year, obviously Jokic, the year before that, Draymond Green.
Speaker 2: He's an offensive folkrum in the five out system for
Speaker 2: Golden State. Even though he has some limitations, he's a
Speaker 2: much much better offensive player than Rudy Gobert. Twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: Brook Lopez twenty twenty two, Anthony Davis right, even in
Speaker 2: their big looks, like Dwight Howard was like a much
Speaker 2: better catch and finish player around the rim than Rudy
Speaker 2: Gobert was twenty nineteen. You know, we had Serge Ibaka
Speaker 2: and Mark Gasol, right, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green in
Speaker 2: the seventeen eighteen, Kevin Love in twenty sixteen, Tim Duncan
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen. That we can go on and on on,
Speaker 2: Chris bosh in two thousand, on the heat teams, Derk Novisky,
Speaker 2: although that team with Tyson Chandler. Tyson Chandler was more
Speaker 2: like Derek Lively, a much better type of a vertical
Speaker 2: spacer and decision maker on the role.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So like in NBA history, you need a center that
Speaker 2: has at least some offensive capability to win the title.
Speaker 2: Mail bad question. The other difference between the Rudy build
Speaker 2: and the Dallas build is that Dallas can win if
Speaker 2: Lively is making decisions, They're gonna lose if Rudy is
Speaker 2: getting a lot of offensive touches. Totally agree. Derek Lively
Speaker 2: to me, is a substantially better offensive player than Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 2: But the other piece of that too is like some
Speaker 2: of his spacing limitations, like Lively not being a shooter
Speaker 2: is not a problem because one Lively can make those decisions.
Speaker 2: Two Lively is great hands and catches and finishes everything
Speaker 2: around the basket. And then lastly, Luka Doncic is a
Speaker 2: deeply manipulative passer that can get really high quality opportunities
Speaker 2: around the basket. The problem for Rudy is he's not
Speaker 2: playing with that level of playmaker and he has stone hands,
Speaker 2: Andy can't make decisions on the role. It's like the
Speaker 2: trifecta disaster for trying to score in the half court
Speaker 2: against an elite defense. Minnesota clearly disintegrated under Luca's barrage
Speaker 2: of points, but they were also down against Denver by
Speaker 2: twenty and still found a way to come back. What
Speaker 2: was different between Minnesota versus Denver Game seven and this
Speaker 2: game and why wasn't Mina Minnesota able to compose themselves
Speaker 2: like they did against Denver. Love your videos, by the way,
Speaker 2: really simple to me. In the Denver series, Anthony Edwards
Speaker 2: and this kind of you know, I was talking with
Speaker 2: Adamatos about this last night because he pointed out fairly
Speaker 2: Dallas or that Denver actually had a better defensive rating
Speaker 2: against Minnesota than Dallas did. But some of the data
Speaker 2: there is a little tricky because that was like two
Speaker 2: different series, Like Minnesota dominated Denver outside of the middle
Speaker 2: portion of the series. Like Minnesota in the four wins
Speaker 2: whooped the shit out of Denver, right, and then you
Speaker 2: look at the middle three games in Minnesota or in
Speaker 2: Denver beat the shit out of Minnesota in those three games, right,
Speaker 2: So the data is all wonky. And if you looked
Speaker 2: at it, Denver had a one sixteen defensive rating against
Speaker 2: Minnesota in their losses, but they had a one oh
Speaker 2: six defensive rating in the wins. So like, if you
Speaker 2: look at it, it's like in those three wins, in
Speaker 2: game three, four, and five, Denver locked down Minnesota's offense.
Speaker 2: That's great, but you got destroyed in the other four games.
Speaker 2: The Dallas series was very different. In every single game
Speaker 2: of the series, Dallas guarded Minnesota well, they held him.
Speaker 2: It was like one twelve defensive rating in their wins
Speaker 2: in one thirteen in the one loss. So in terms
Speaker 2: of like consistently holding down Minnesota's offense, Dallas was way
Speaker 2: better than Denver in the four losses. Denver just couldn't
Speaker 2: get stops against Minnesota. Specifically, what stood out to me
Speaker 2: on film, Anthony Edwards in the Denver series averaged seven
Speaker 2: point one attempts in the restricted area per game. In
Speaker 2: this series against Dallas, he averaged just five point eight
Speaker 2: restricted area attempts per game, so that's one point three
Speaker 2: few were attempts. He also shot nineteen percent worse in
Speaker 2: the restricted area against Dallas than he did against Denver.
Speaker 2: He shot fifty five percent in the restricted area against
Speaker 2: Dallas seventy four percent against Denver. And so for me,
Speaker 2: what stood out was every time there was a half
Speaker 2: court situation, Anthony Edwards didn't really know what to do
Speaker 2: against Dallas, whereas against Denver, he just felt like he
Speaker 2: could get to his spots more easily at the rim
Speaker 2: and debt. That's why Denver had to just start hard
Speaker 2: doubling all over the place. Now, Dallas also did some
Speaker 2: doubling against against Minnesota as well, but they have more
Speaker 2: rim protection and athleticism on the back line, which allowed
Speaker 2: them to rotate out of it better than Denver did.
Speaker 2: Like they would load up the side against Ant and
Speaker 2: then he'd swing, swing, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: nas Reed would be slashing a close out and Dallas.
Speaker 2: Denver just didn't have the athleticism to hang on that backside, right,
Speaker 2: And so like the Denver series, by the way, I'm
Speaker 2: only talking about one side of the floor. The offensive
Speaker 2: side was the same. Like in the Denver series, Minnesota
Speaker 2: held them to something crazy like one hundred and six
Speaker 2: points per one hundred possessions for the entire series, whereas
Speaker 2: Dallas averaged like one hundred and eighteen points per one
Speaker 2: hundred possessions. So Dallas's offense was way better against Minnesota's
Speaker 2: defense than Denver's offense was. And so really in the
Speaker 2: Denver series, it was like Minnesota actually was capable of
Speaker 2: slowing down Denver's offense and they were actually able to score,
Speaker 2: whereas against Dallas they couldn't do either. And so that's why,
Speaker 2: even though there was another large deficit, I just never
Speaker 2: felt like Minnesota had a shot to come back in
Speaker 2: that game. My jaw dropped watching Lively at the level
Speaker 2: of the screen stick with Ant as he tried to
Speaker 2: string Lively out to attack the rim. He literally had
Speaker 2: to reset the offense with his defense in space at
Speaker 2: seven feet, his rim protection and a short roll passing.
Speaker 2: What are we watching some horrifying fusion of Draymond and AD.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't go that far. I feel like that's a
Speaker 2: little early and a little bit hyperbolic. But I am
Speaker 2: really really excited to see the tie of player that
Speaker 2: Derek Lively becomes. I imagine him being like a Tyson
Speaker 2: Chandler two point zero, like an evolutionary vertical spacer that
Speaker 2: has the ability to run five out to operate more
Speaker 2: in space. I actually think he's got good touch, so
Speaker 2: I'm really curious to see over the years if he
Speaker 2: adds a pick and pop element to his game. Like
Speaker 2: I think Derek Lively can be very very good. But
Speaker 2: like you're fusing Draymond and Ad is fusing the two
Speaker 2: best defensive players of this era.
Speaker 1: I would slow down a little bit on that.
Speaker 2: I think we need to see him actually anchor a
Speaker 2: defense for eighty two games, playing thirty two to thirty
Speaker 2: four minutes a night before we start throwing him in
Speaker 2: those conversations. But that certainly is potential that Derek Lively has,
Speaker 2: and I'm really really excited to see if he can
Speaker 2: meet that over the course of his career. The issue
Speaker 2: with the idea of Minnesota moving away from their amazing
Speaker 2: inside defense and focusing mostly on perimeter defense is that
Speaker 2: you do not beat Denver in a seven game series
Speaker 2: if you value perimeter D more than inside D and
Speaker 2: without the double big man setup you cannot slow down
Speaker 2: yolkis the te Wolves do not beat Denver if they
Speaker 2: do not have Gobert at the five.
Speaker 1: I actually disagree about this.
Speaker 2: As good as go Beart was in this playoff run
Speaker 2: on the defensive end of the floor, and I do
Speaker 2: think his defensive effort in this postseason was underrated based
Speaker 2: on some of the low lights of him getting hunted
Speaker 2: and just some of the narrative stuff surrounding him. I
Speaker 2: thought the bigger factor in Denver struggling against Minnesota was
Speaker 2: Naz reading Karl Anthony Towns, and it's because those guys
Speaker 2: could hold up under the bully ball attack of Jokic
Speaker 2: because of their bigger frames, right, Like I actually thought
Speaker 2: Gobert got mostly fried by Jokic in that series, and
Speaker 2: then by the end of the series, Jokic kind of
Speaker 2: had figured out the stunting that Gobert was doing and
Speaker 2: that was a big part of how Denver got back
Speaker 2: into it because Jokic was just killing him in that
Speaker 2: middle portion of the series. That like, obviously it's gonna
Speaker 2: be tougher to beat Denver if you don't have Gobert,
Speaker 2: but I still think they can because they'll have a
Speaker 2: two big look with Naz reading Karl Anthony Towns. And
Speaker 2: this is in this scenario that I've discussed, if they
Speaker 2: pivot off of Go Bear, they would upgrade that power
Speaker 2: forward spot to a really high level offensive player. And
Speaker 2: let's not forget that during the stretches were Denver dominated
Speaker 2: in that series, they really slowed down Minnesota's offense. And
Speaker 2: so again, I think you can still build a team
Speaker 2: that can beat Denver without Rudy Gobert. And it doesn't
Speaker 2: matter if the Go Bear lineup can beat Denver, but
Speaker 2: you get your ass kicked by Dallas because Go Bear's
Speaker 2: stonehands and his inability to make decisions on the role,
Speaker 2: then you're not in any sort of better position anyway.
Speaker 2: It's not about beating Denver to win the title. You
Speaker 2: got to be four teams to win the title, so
Speaker 2: you might have to sacrifice a little bit of your
Speaker 2: capability to beat Denver to make yourself more versatile to
Speaker 2: beat the other teams around the league. Hey, Jason, love
Speaker 2: your show. Such an enjoyment. To hear your breakdowns after
Speaker 2: each playoff game helps appreciate the game at a whole
Speaker 2: new level. Thank you for the kind words. Want to
Speaker 2: hear your thoughts on the Wolves. People say defense wins championships. However,
Speaker 2: when I look at the Timberwolves, it seems like they
Speaker 2: really lack an offensive identity. How could it be fair
Speaker 2: to expect the cat to play well when he could
Speaker 2: get benched when Reid plays a bit better one night,
Speaker 2: or his defense simply that much more important than knowing
Speaker 2: how many shots or reps are going to get each night.
Speaker 2: For example, Kat having dumbfouls versus getting consistent shots each game.
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 2: So? I don't think that specifically has anything to do
Speaker 2: with it. I think it's just about team construct. So Karl,
Speaker 2: Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, what types of offensive players
Speaker 2: are they? They are shooters and drivers. That's what they
Speaker 2: do best, right, Neither of them are elite playmakers. They're capable,
Speaker 2: and it's just averaged seven assists in a playoff run.
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to act like they can't make plays,
Speaker 2: but they are not Luka Doncz, Chris Paul Nikola, Jokic,
Speaker 2: Lebron James level playmakers. That's not their game. Those guys are.
Speaker 2: They're the entirety of their game is predicated on downhill
Speaker 2: rim pressure and pull up shooting over the top. Right,
Speaker 2: That's what they're built on, and so you need to
Speaker 2: build the you need to build the roster around their
Speaker 2: skill set. Let's not forget this team was seventeenth in
Speaker 2: offensive rating all season. This team was had a one
Speaker 2: hundred in four offensive rating in crunch time, they were
Speaker 2: a god awful crunch time offense. This was a consistent
Speaker 2: issue all year that two favorable matchups against Denver and
Speaker 2: Phoenix made it look like their offense was better than
Speaker 2: it actually was. Then they ran into a team with
Speaker 2: rim protection and got strangled. So the reality is is
Speaker 2: this team has a flawed offensive construct and they will
Speaker 2: eventually run into teams. We talked last night about the
Speaker 2: standings and looking at the different teams with rim protection,
Speaker 2: and I mentioned OKC, and I mentioned the Lakers, and
Speaker 2: I mentioned Dallas another big team I missed, and there's
Speaker 2: Memphis Memphis could rejoin the picture next year. They will
Speaker 2: rejoin the picture next year, and it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: lot of Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark on that frontline,
Speaker 2: and they have guys that can guard on the perimeter,
Speaker 2: Like it's going to be similar challenges if you run
Speaker 2: into a Memphis. So like half of the playoff field
Speaker 2: next year is going to be elite rim protectors again,
Speaker 2: and so this is gonna be a problem that they
Speaker 2: have to deal with in the future. And so to me,
Speaker 2: they have to build a construct in this roster that
Speaker 2: is less reliant on Cat and Anthony Edwards's ability to
Speaker 2: pick apart the defense because it's not just the Rudy piece.
Speaker 2: Like Rudy obviously is a problem because he can't catch
Speaker 2: and finish consistently, but Dallas was throwing a lot of
Speaker 2: late help and Cat meaning like Ant would drive and
Speaker 2: then the low man would just bail out of the
Speaker 2: corner and come over a wall up on Ant like
Speaker 2: as he's getting into the lane. So he's not just
Speaker 2: challenging Gafford or just challenging Lively, He's challenging multiple bodies
Speaker 2: in there. And Ant is not the kind of player
Speaker 2: like Luca or like those other playmakers I mentioned, who's
Speaker 2: just gonna pick you apart by making those last second
Speaker 2: reads really effectively. So you have to make things easier
Speaker 2: on your stars. If you're gonna be built around Cat
Speaker 2: and Anthony Edwards, you have to generate natural spacing so
Speaker 2: they can have really simple shoot drive pass reads. You
Speaker 2: have to make it very simple for them. That to
Speaker 2: me is the direction that they have to go in
Speaker 2: terms of their roster construction as the Wolves fan and
Speaker 2: I find your argument about Edwards and Gobert's fit very coaching.
Speaker 2: Something Ant can never seem to figure out is lobs
Speaker 2: to Rudy, he has shown flashes, but can never put
Speaker 2: it together when he needs it. I do wonder what
Speaker 2: five would work best for him, maybe at Goberart For
Speaker 2: Miles Turner trade, great analysis as always, thanks again for
Speaker 2: the kind words. That's an example like go Behar and
Speaker 2: Miles Turner, that trade probably won't ever happen, especially with
Speaker 2: the dollar amounts. Gobert makes a ton of money and
Speaker 2: that's going to make the trade difficult. As I said
Speaker 2: last night, I actually think Gobert probably ends up staying
Speaker 2: in Minnesota just by virtue of the realities of the contract,
Speaker 2: and he's got a player option that he's almost certainly
Speaker 2: going to accept. So Gobert basically has two years left
Speaker 2: on his current deal, and it's very possible that he's
Speaker 2: in Minnesota for both of those. But that is the
Speaker 2: type of swap that would make some sense for me
Speaker 2: in the sense that Miles Turner is a pick and
Speaker 2: pop big, that would make for easy because like again
Speaker 2: drop coverage like Dallas is running with Gafford and Lively.
Speaker 1: The perfect counter for that.
Speaker 2: Is a pick and pop because that puts that big
Speaker 2: in a really tough position where if he drops and
Speaker 2: and just throws simple kickback passes, it's wide open threes
Speaker 2: all night for Miles turn If he doesn't drop and
Speaker 2: he stays home with the role man, then with the
Speaker 2: popping big, then Ant can turn the corner and get
Speaker 2: in the lane and there's no rim protection in there. So,
Speaker 2: like a shooting center is ideal. But I think their
Speaker 2: best bet there is to try to flip Rudy to
Speaker 2: a team that is actually willing to aggregate the salaries
Speaker 2: if they can, and target something more along the lines
Speaker 2: of a power forward, and I have Kat be that
Speaker 2: shooting big. I really do think that Kat if you
Speaker 2: simplify his role as well, because again he's driving and
Speaker 2: dealing with the Gobert problem just as much as Ant is.
Speaker 2: And so for me, like if you if you could
Speaker 2: get a Portland to trade you a Jeremy Grant for
Speaker 2: a Rudy Gobert or something along those lines, if you
Speaker 2: could are a three team deal that sends eight and
Speaker 2: r Gobert to a different destination. If you could do
Speaker 2: something like that, that to me is where I view
Speaker 2: the ultimate version of this team is Ant and Kat
Speaker 2: playing in a space floor surrounded by shooting guys that
Speaker 2: can defend guys like Jada McDaniels, guys like Jeremy Grant.
Speaker 2: If it ends up being Mike Conley different player in
Speaker 2: the future, that to me is the direction I would
Speaker 2: eventually go as far as go Bear though, yeah, like
Speaker 2: I think he has to play on a team that
Speaker 2: has an elite playmaker. I think that's the only type
Speaker 2: of team that he would be able to actually win
Speaker 2: at the highest levels with. With Dallas advancing to the finals,
Speaker 2: there's a debate going around on who are the best backcourt?
Speaker 2: Who is the best backcourt in NBA history? Growing watching
Speaker 2: Golden State when I was in high school. I don't
Speaker 2: think there's a better backcourt than Stephan Clay. I want
Speaker 2: to know what rank do you have for them? If
Speaker 2: there is one better backcourt than them, who would it be.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your ANALYSI has been a huge fan
Speaker 2: of you so far this year and a half that
Speaker 2: I've been following you on YouTube. Thanks again for the
Speaker 2: kind words and.
Speaker 1: For the support.
Speaker 2: This question is frustrating to me because I really don't
Speaker 2: look at it as like backcourt. To me, it's like
Speaker 2: permitter players, interior players. It's really that simple. Like, for instance,
Speaker 2: Luca functions kind of like a point guard offensively, but
Speaker 2: on defense, he's not guarding guards like Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 2: is and Kyrie Irving is and so like to me,
Speaker 2: like focusing on who the backcourt is is silly. It's
Speaker 2: like Steph Curry. Like Steph Curry for the most part
Speaker 2: is being hidden defensively as much possibly as he can
Speaker 2: because he's got such a big offensive role, right, So
Speaker 2: like to me, it's more like duos. And when you're
Speaker 2: ranking duos, ranking Luca and Kyrie is a much more
Speaker 2: complicated topic because you're looking against you know, hundreds of
Speaker 2: duos over the course of the last few decades, right,
Speaker 2: So like that's something that's more of something that we
Speaker 2: get into in the offseason. But to me, I don't
Speaker 2: really find the conversation around best backcourt even a relevant
Speaker 2: here because I don't look at Luca as a traditional
Speaker 2: backcourt player. To me, Luca represents where the game has changed,
Speaker 2: which is and your best player has the ball in
Speaker 2: his hands, you know, Like Lebron James plays power forward
Speaker 2: for the Lakers, and he ran the point a lot
Speaker 2: in this postseason run for the Lakers, right, but he's
Speaker 2: not guarding point guards, right, So Like to me, I
Speaker 2: don't look at them as a backcourt. I just look
Speaker 2: at them as a star duo, the way I'd look
Speaker 2: at Paul George and Kawhi Leonard for instance. Hi Jason,
Speaker 2: I agree with your Gobert assessment, but Kat has more
Speaker 2: trade value, So I think he'll be the one that
Speaker 2: gets moved and Nas shifts to a starting power forward role.
Speaker 2: If that happens, where do you think is the best
Speaker 2: landing spot for Kat? Detroit has the cap space to
Speaker 2: absorb him as the starting center. They immediately get a
Speaker 2: go to score and a floor spacer to help Caden
Speaker 2: Ivy a sar Can mimic the McDaniels role as well
Speaker 2: as anyone. New Orleans is another option. The Pels get
Speaker 2: their center, they could space the floor for Zion to
Speaker 2: attack the rim and Ingram McDaniel's Gobar front court has
Speaker 2: plenty of length. Any other spots that come to mind,
Speaker 2: All those make sense to me. Another couple that I
Speaker 2: looked at Milwaukee, like Carl Anthony Towns next to Giannis
Speaker 2: would be a really interesting type of build Miami. I
Speaker 2: think a huge lineup with bam Adebayo and Karl Anthony
Speaker 2: Towns could be interesting. Oklahoma City was another one I
Speaker 2: thought of, Like imagine Chet Holmgren as more of the
Speaker 2: role Rim protector, basically just putting Kat next to a
Speaker 2: shooting version of Go Bear, And that's the type of
Speaker 2: situation you could have there. But like again, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: trade Karl Anthony town simply because I think Gobar is
Speaker 2: a much bigger issue and anytime you start flipping a
Speaker 2: player like Cats really hard to replace his value, especially
Speaker 2: considering like in a lot of postseason situations this year,
Speaker 2: he was one of their more reliable scorers, and I
Speaker 2: say that as he was still inconsistent, but in terms
Speaker 2: of guys next to Aunt, he was probably the most
Speaker 2: consistent scorer, certainly was the most consistent scorer of that group.
Speaker 2: Three more questions. Dallas is playing out of their minds,
Speaker 2: can't miss a shot? Fun to watch, looks like the
Speaker 2: Serbian Slovenian Balkan brothers of Joki chu Luka will dominate
Speaker 2: two years in a row. But overall, as a very
Speaker 2: long term NBA fan, this year's playoffs have been disappointing.
Speaker 2: I thought this was going to be one of the
Speaker 2: most competitive playoffs ever, and it's been one blowout after another.
Speaker 2: Even the Nuggets Wolves series that went seven didn't have
Speaker 2: a single game that was really competitive or interesting. One
Speaker 2: of the most boring playoff stretches I've ever seen. Hoping
Speaker 2: the Dallas Boston series will actually be interesting and worth watching,
Speaker 2: so I'm actually more optimistic about it. I think there's
Speaker 2: an important piece of context that kind of throw all.
Speaker 1: Of this in a mix.
Speaker 2: Every year in the playoffs, there are competitive matchups and
Speaker 2: there are bad matchups, right for instance, like even this
Speaker 2: Western Conference final series that was five games, I thought
Speaker 2: it was a highly entertaining five games because every game
Speaker 2: was super competitive, right, Whereas like Minnesota, Denver goes seven,
Speaker 2: but every game's a blowout. Right, that's normal. In the playoffs,
Speaker 2: there are a series where teams where the games or
Speaker 2: blowouts are. A series where every game is close like
Speaker 2: that is typical. The problem is is we didn't get
Speaker 2: as much of the competitive series because the Eastern Excuse me,
Speaker 2: because of what happened in the Eastern Conference. And there's
Speaker 2: two things that happened in the Eastern Conference. I thought
Speaker 2: there were five good teams in the East this year.
Speaker 2: I thought it was Boston, Milwaukee, Indiana, New York, and Philly.
Speaker 2: Those to me were the good teams. Orlando, Cleveland, Miami
Speaker 2: without Jimmy Butler after the injury, just not legitimate competitive
Speaker 2: basketball teams.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: First of all, all three of those teams ended up
Speaker 2: in Boston side of the bracket.
Speaker 1: Problem number one.
Speaker 2: Now Boston doesn't even have to play a real team
Speaker 2: for four weeks, right. Second side of it, everyone got
Speaker 2: hurt and Bee's playing on a bad knee at the
Speaker 2: Knicks literally had like seventeen different injuries. Tyres Halliburton falls
Speaker 2: apart at the end of the Pacer series in the
Speaker 2: Conference finals, the one I'm missing, Oh Milwaukee, Giannis misses
Speaker 2: the entire series, and Dame misses part of it. Right,
Speaker 2: So like all, like if that had balanced better, Like
Speaker 2: if two of the good teams were on the same
Speaker 2: side with Boston and the other two were on the
Speaker 2: other side and Boston had to play a real team
Speaker 2: in the second round and everyone was healthy, I think
Speaker 2: we would have had more competitive basketball games to kind
Speaker 2: of balance everything out. But because the East was a
Speaker 2: basically a shit show, the only real good series there
Speaker 2: was like New York Philly, Right, the Indiana New York
Speaker 2: series wasn't very entertaining because they were all blowouts after
Speaker 2: the first three games. But like that, the East being
Speaker 2: a shit show kind of made it so that we
Speaker 2: didn't have as much competitive basketball. But I still thought
Speaker 2: there were a lot of really inner retaining games that
Speaker 2: Lakers Nuggets series. For a five game series, every game
Speaker 2: was super entertaining, and we had two buzzer beating game winners.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I thought that Dallas first the Clippers was pretty entertaining.
Speaker 2: I thought Dallas first Oklahoma City was a highly entertaining series.
Speaker 2: Dallas versus Minnesota. A lot of that has to do
Speaker 2: with Dallas there. We talked so much about Dallas and
Speaker 2: Luca and Kyrie. Their defense is one of the primary
Speaker 2: drivers of their success. That's a big part about how
Speaker 2: all those games are close, right, I thought there were
Speaker 2: plenty of entertaining basketball games. And also I think Dallas
Speaker 2: vers Boston is going to be an awesome NBA final.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited for it. Hi, Jason, big fan of
Speaker 2: the show. I know it's a bit irrelevant, but I'm
Speaker 2: just curious. If Denver had beaten the Minnesota Timberwolves in
Speaker 2: Game seven and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, who
Speaker 2: do you think would have won? Between Denver and Dallas.
Speaker 2: I would have picked Denver over Dallas. There are a
Speaker 2: couple of key specific matchups there that would have picked
Speaker 2: that would have skewed towards Denver. First, Dallas's defensive personnel
Speaker 2: is very much set up to handle a guy like
Speaker 2: ant It's not very set up to handle a guy
Speaker 2: like Nicole Jokis. Both Gafford and Lively struggle to handle him.
Speaker 2: On an island, they would have been in double teams
Speaker 2: the entire series. It would have been a problem. And
Speaker 2: then on the other end of the floor, the problem
Speaker 2: that Minnesota had is they never had a big, strong
Speaker 2: enough perimeter defender to handle Luca. And that's literally what
Speaker 2: Aaron Gordon's specialty is. I've seen him do it against Lebron,
Speaker 2: I've seen him do it against Jimmy Butler. I've seen
Speaker 2: him do it against Kevin Durrant. Aaron Gordon's one of
Speaker 2: the best big foward defenders in the league. That would
Speaker 2: have been a much better matchup for Denver in that series,
Speaker 2: and so again it would have been close. I would
Speaker 2: have probably picked Denver in six or seven games, but
Speaker 2: I would have picked Denver, And as you mentioned, it's
Speaker 2: irrelevant because Denver couldn't beat Minnesota. And that's just how
Speaker 2: these Dallas fans are all super sensitive about this, similar
Speaker 2: to what I talked about earlier, where it's like the
Speaker 2: sensitivity surrounding like just needing to trash Anthony Edwards. The
Speaker 2: other piece of it is like Dallas fans are super
Speaker 2: sensitive about you saying that they got a good matchup,
Speaker 2: and it's like no one ever won a title without
Speaker 2: getting some good matchups along the way, Like there is
Speaker 2: no such thing in this field as the ultimate dominant team.
Speaker 2: I love this Dallas Mavericks team. They're a bona fide
Speaker 2: championship contender. I had them third in my contender rankings
Speaker 2: coming into this postseason run. Makes sense that if Denver lost,
Speaker 2: they'd be the team that would get in. Right, one
Speaker 2: hundred percent on the Dallas bandwagon, they were a five seed.
Speaker 2: This is not this is not the seventy three win Warriors.
Speaker 2: This is not the Kadie Steph Warriors. They're not just
Speaker 2: gonna obliterate everyone who comes in front of them. They're
Speaker 2: a Boston is a minus two to twenty favorite in
Speaker 2: the finals according to DraftKings right now. So like, again,
Speaker 2: everybody has to benefit from matchups unless you're one of
Speaker 2: the all time great teams in NBA history. And as
Speaker 2: good as this Dallas team is, they are not one
Speaker 2: of the all time great teams in NBA history. And
Speaker 2: so again, like it doesn't matter. Dallas is a deserving
Speaker 2: NBA finalist. But like, yeah, if I personally would have
Speaker 2: picked Denver if they made it to the Western Conference finals,
Speaker 2: would have been close, but I would have picked Denver.
Speaker 2: I don't understand the Gobert hate. My numbers could be
Speaker 2: a bit fuzzy, but in this playoff run, the Timberwolves
Speaker 2: allowed one hundred and ten points per one hundred possesions
Speaker 2: with him on the court one thirty three with him off.
Speaker 2: Why is this fringe player that is going to come
Speaker 2: in and essentially make a plus twenty swing. The issue
Speaker 2: is at not being good enough with the mediocre offensive
Speaker 2: talent on the roster to overcome good defense. If you
Speaker 2: actually think that Anthony Edwards is a bigger problem for
Speaker 2: this Timberwolves team than Gobert, I don't know what.
Speaker 1: To tell you.
Speaker 2: The reality is is that you got your ass kicked
Speaker 2: in the conference finals. So forget about the plus minus numbers.
Speaker 2: When Rudy was on the floor, you couldn't beat Dallas.
Speaker 2: That's the issue. It doesn't matter if you were worse
Speaker 2: when he was off the floor. The problem isn't whether
Speaker 2: or not Gobert is the best player to play on
Speaker 2: this roster. That's not the issue, of course, that that's
Speaker 2: the best option for this roster with this group of players,
Speaker 2: you needed to play Gobert to give yourself the best chance.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying is this is not a championship roster.
Speaker 2: I said this last night. To me, this Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 2: team is closer to the Lakers from last year than
Speaker 2: they are to a real championship contender in the sense
Speaker 2: that the Lakers got a couple of favorable matchups in
Speaker 2: the first two rounds. Right, they faced a downhill threat
Speaker 2: and John Moran in the first round so they could
Speaker 2: protect the rim cause a bunch of problems. And then
Speaker 2: they faced a Golden State Warriors team that has consistently
Speaker 2: struggled with Anthony Davis over the last few years. They
Speaker 2: got two favorable matchups. They beat the defending champs, and
Speaker 2: then they ran into a real championship contender and got
Speaker 2: their ass kicked. That's what happened to Minnesota. They got
Speaker 2: a really favorable matchup in the first round. They played Phoenix,
Speaker 2: a pull up jump shooting team that likes to attack
Speaker 2: from the perimeter on an island, and they have all
Speaker 2: the perimeter defenders to match up with those guys. They
Speaker 2: locked them up. They kicked their ass. Right then they
Speaker 2: ran into the defending champs. It was a bad matchup
Speaker 2: because they have all this perimeter size they have to
Speaker 2: throw at Jamal Murray. They have all this interior size
Speaker 2: that throwt Nicole Jokic. They beat the defending champs. Now
Speaker 2: that Denver team is way better than last year's Golden
Speaker 2: State team. I want to be clear, so I do
Speaker 2: think that they're better. I think this Minnesota team was
Speaker 2: better than last year's Lakers. I'm just saying they're closer
Speaker 2: to that than they are to a real champion. Then
Speaker 2: they ran into a real championship contender, this Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 2: team that actually could attack some of Minnesota's weaknesses, and
Speaker 2: Minnesota got their ass kicked. So like again, like defend,
Speaker 2: go bear all you want. You're not a championship team.
Speaker 1: So like you weren't.
Speaker 2: Close, you weren't actually close this year. By the way,
Speaker 2: I said the same thing about the Lakers last year.
Speaker 2: I didn't come out of that run going Okay, next
Speaker 2: year it's Denver, Boston in LA. No, that's not what
Speaker 2: I said. I said that there's Denver and Boston and
Speaker 2: then there's a gap. I think I put Milwaukee in there,
Speaker 2: but I was like Denver, Milwaukee, Boston, and then there
Speaker 2: was a gap before we got to the rest of
Speaker 2: the teams, and I said, the Lakers have to make
Speaker 2: a trade to get better. And I feel exactly the
Speaker 2: same way about this Minnesota Timberwolves team. They are going
Speaker 2: to run into Memphis, the Lakers, Oklahoma City, or Dallas
Speaker 2: next year in the playoffs and lose again if they
Speaker 2: everready go bear on the floor, because the issue is
Speaker 2: their offensive players are slashers and pull up shooters, not
Speaker 2: high level playmakers, and they can't handle the fact that
Speaker 2: teams can really pack the paint when Rudy Gobert is
Speaker 2: on the floor, and Rudy's not the kind of guy
Speaker 2: that can easily catch and finish everything to kind of
Speaker 2: make up for that type of flaw. So again, I
Speaker 2: think that focusing on on off numbers from this series
Speaker 2: is missing the plot. You got your ass kicked. You're
Speaker 2: not a championship team, so that is the major issue.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, that is all I have for today's
Speaker 2: mail bag. I'm gonna be back to again. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: record it right now, but uploading tomorrow morning. Will have
Speaker 2: a mailbag focus on the NBA Finals, and then on
Speaker 2: Sunday morning, we'll have a mailbag focus on the rest
Speaker 2: of the NBA.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys. Then the volume