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Speaker 1: well coon to HOOPSINAI here at the volume. It is
Speaker 1: time for our mail bag. Not on Friday like it
Speaker 1: usually is, because I've headed out of town. I'm not
Speaker 1: even sure which day this is going to post, but
Speaker 1: a bunch of you guys dropped a bunch of good
Speaker 1: mail bag questions and our YouTube comments over the course
Speaker 1: of the last week. Remember, if you want to get
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments, I go to our full
Speaker 1: episodes over the course of the previous week, and I
Speaker 1: just look for anybody who writes Colon, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to read what that says, and I'm going to accumulate
Speaker 1: a bunch of them together and put together a mail
Speaker 1: bag for our shows on Friday throughout the season. So
Speaker 1: make sure you keep dropping those mail bag questions. You
Speaker 1: guys are the jope before we started. Subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys,
Speaker 1: don't miss show announcements. I forget about our podcast feed
Speaker 1: where we get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. It's also
Speaker 1: super helpful if you leviate rating and a review.
Speaker 2: On that front.
Speaker 1: We also have new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Facebook. Follow the Hoops Tonight channel there so you
Speaker 1: can see you guys can see more of our content
Speaker 1: throughout the season. And like I mentioned off the top,
Speaker 1: keep dropping those mail bag questions in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So this first question
Speaker 1: is not even a question, it's just a comment, but
Speaker 1: it captured a feeling that I had last night. This
Speaker 1: I'm recording this on Saturday, but on Friday night when
Speaker 1: I was watching all of the great Hoops around the league.
Speaker 1: This comment said, dude, screw the media. The NBA is sick.
Speaker 1: So many good teams, real juggernauts in both conferences and
Speaker 1: real threats to the juggernauts right behind them. It's such
Speaker 1: good drama. I totally agree. I thought the same thing
Speaker 1: when I was watching last night. I sent out a
Speaker 1: tweet somewhere along the same effect where I said, you know,
Speaker 1: the Boston kind of like, at least try to trick
Speaker 1: us into thinking that they're relaxing a bit this season,
Speaker 1: as they've been, you know, pretty far behind Cleveland throughout
Speaker 1: the regular season in the standings. Boston trying to trick
Speaker 1: us on that front. Again, I say trick because I
Speaker 1: still feel like Boston is a decent chunk ahead of
Speaker 1: everybody in the league in terms of two way versatility
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, meaning the different things that they can
Speaker 1: do to account for different types of matchups on offense
Speaker 1: and on defense to give them the best chance of
Speaker 1: weathering the storm through four playoff rounds. So like, I
Speaker 1: still view Boston as the best team in the league,
Speaker 1: but they're at least trying to trick us into thinking
Speaker 1: that they're not as sharp as they were last year.
Speaker 1: One of the weird things about this recent stretch for
Speaker 1: Boston is they'll have incredibly dominant performances mixed in as
Speaker 1: they decide on that particular night to really push their
Speaker 1: foot their foot down on the gas pedal, and they
Speaker 1: can do some real damage to these teams.
Speaker 2: But anyway, we've seen a bunch of peaks, right.
Speaker 1: Like Milwaukee bouncing back from their bad start, going on
Speaker 1: that massive win streak, and then winning the N Season Tournament,
Speaker 1: including a pretty dominant, impressive effort against the Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: Thunder in the N Season Tournament championship game. I know
Speaker 1: Bucks fans are pretty down on themselves right now. I
Speaker 1: would tell you from experience having rooted for a Lakers
Speaker 1: team that experienced a similar lull after winning the N
Speaker 1: Season Tournament last year. Every team in the league has lulls.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about this a lot, especially in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference, but it seems to be a recurring theme
Speaker 1: that the team that gets to hoist the trophy kind
Speaker 1: of in the middle of the first third of the
Speaker 1: regular season has a hard time getting up for games
Speaker 1: in the few weeks after that. The Lakers did snap
Speaker 1: out of it about a month later and played really
Speaker 1: good basketball the rest of the season. That's what I
Speaker 1: expect the Bucks to do. I view them as, as
Speaker 1: you put in the comment, as a real threat to
Speaker 1: the Juggernaut. To me, there's the three Juggernauts, right, It's
Speaker 1: like Boston, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2: But then there are like a bunch of real threats. Right.
Speaker 1: We know Oklahoma City is a threat. Cleveland's winning at
Speaker 1: a seventy two win pace. Boston is the defending champion
Speaker 1: and the deserved favorite to win the title. Milwaukee feels
Speaker 1: like a threat to me as I'm watching New York
Speaker 1: before they run out of gas at the end of
Speaker 1: that game against Oklahoma City. They've played some really good
Speaker 1: basketball this year. I've viewed them as a legitimate threat.
Speaker 1: They have some really impressive wins. Dallas is a team
Speaker 1: even though they've been injured. I find them to be
Speaker 1: a team that's a legitimate threat. There's all these teams
Speaker 1: that could make a deal and make things interesting. A
Speaker 1: team like the Lakers, a team like Golden State, even
Speaker 1: teams like Houston and Memphis, to me feel like if
Speaker 1: they get an upgrade at a certain spot, could go
Speaker 1: further in the postseason. Memphis may be able to do
Speaker 1: it without even making a deal. Memphis feels like a
Speaker 1: legitimate threat to the Juggernauts to me, so I agree.
Speaker 1: It feels open in the Eastern Conference. Knowing that there
Speaker 1: are like four legitimately very good teams between milwauk Ucky,
Speaker 1: New York, Boston, and Cleveland. That makes me feel like
Speaker 1: there's a good chance we have a really nice end of.
Speaker 2: That playoff run.
Speaker 1: Hopefully they don't all end up on the other side
Speaker 1: of the bracket than Boston like they did last year.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we see them a little bit more dispersed through
Speaker 1: throughout that bracket. But that's gonna be highly entertaining, and
Speaker 1: like you could talk me into any one of those
Speaker 1: four teams getting out of the conference, even though I
Speaker 1: will be picking Boston. And then same thing goes for
Speaker 1: the West. It's just like any given week a team
Speaker 1: gets hot, they can move up the standings and look
Speaker 1: like a legitimate threat. There's a bunch of teams that
Speaker 1: are trade candidates in there. I agree. I think the
Speaker 1: NBA is sick. It feels wide open to me, especially
Speaker 1: in that Western Conference, because Oklahoma City can't can't go
Speaker 1: through these like really bad shooting stretches like they view
Speaker 1: like it they I view them as a team that
Speaker 1: could get upset, so like it just feels wide open.
Speaker 1: I agree that it's really good drama. What I'm secretly
Speaker 1: hoping for those we had really rough conference finals and
Speaker 1: finals each of the last two seasons, not counting the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat coming back to beat the Boston Celtic or excuse me,
Speaker 1: the Celtics almost coming back to beat the Miami Heat
Speaker 1: two years ago in that series that went seven when
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatums brained his ankle. But like other than that,
Speaker 1: there was very little drama in the second half of
Speaker 1: the postseason in the last two years. I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: this is the year that we finally get a couple
Speaker 1: of really good conference final series in a really good
Speaker 1: NBA Final series. Next question, thoughts on Jimmy Quiet quitting
Speaker 1: on the Heat. So there's a bunch of different fronts
Speaker 1: to go at this. From one is like what Jimmy's
Speaker 1: doing to Miami And it's kind of sad to me
Speaker 1: because Jimmy was just such a good player for the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat for a long time and had kind of
Speaker 1: become a fan favorite. One of the scariest playoff players
Speaker 1: that anybody would run into in this league. Some real
Speaker 1: moments like upsetting Yiannis in the twenty twenty the Bucks
Speaker 1: upsetting or the Heat upsetting Yiannis in the twenty twenty season,
Speaker 1: or like in the twenty twenty three season when he's
Speaker 1: going on that like mjesque run to eliminate them in
Speaker 1: the first round, the trip to the finals. He had
Speaker 1: even had to pull up three against the Celtics in
Speaker 1: Game seven in twenty twenty two that if he would
Speaker 1: have made, would have sent the Mimy Heat to the finals.
Speaker 1: He just had a lot of big moments, right, and
Speaker 1: this just feels dirty. You know. I have another question
Speaker 1: right after this, kind of looking back to the Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving debate, and I'm not going to get into it
Speaker 1: right now, but I think Kyrie Irving has been kind
Speaker 1: of like given this type of reputation in a way
Speaker 1: that I don't think he necessarily deserves. And we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about that about that in a minute, Like
Speaker 1: this is way worse. Jimmy's done this so many times
Speaker 1: now where like he's just decided he's unhappy and his
Speaker 1: response is like I'm just going to be a dick
Speaker 1: to everybody. Kyrie Irving made decisions for his career, and
Speaker 1: we're going to get into that in a minute. But like,
Speaker 1: this is not the first time that Jimmy Butler's been
Speaker 1: like I'm unhappy. I'm just going to be mean to
Speaker 1: everybody until until I at what I want. It's literally
Speaker 1: like a toddler. It's like dealing with the toddler. And
Speaker 1: it's just upsetting because you know, I sympathize where he's
Speaker 1: coming from for to a certain extent in the sense that, Okay,
Speaker 1: so Tyler Harrow gets going this year, and Tyler Harrow
Speaker 1: is now becoming their primary ball handler option instead of
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler. But you should have known coming into this
Speaker 1: situation as a forward with a bunch of miles on
Speaker 1: his body, with an injury history that's getting into his
Speaker 1: late thirties while you're playing on a team with younger talent,
Speaker 1: that you might be kind of like transitioning to passing
Speaker 1: the baton a little bit. And part of aging gracefully
Speaker 1: in this league is identifying that and making the adjustment
Speaker 1: a big part of what has made Lebron still so
Speaker 1: good as he is forty damn years old is he's
Speaker 1: reinvented himself with the like he is a screen and
Speaker 1: role partner now in a lot of ways. He's doing
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff on the ball still, but like
Speaker 1: Lebrono just sets screens for Rosser Reeves all night if
Speaker 1: if that's what the game plan calls, and like instead
Speaker 1: of transitioning into this like, Okay, Tyler Harrow is stepping up,
Speaker 1: this is good for our team. Let me lean into
Speaker 1: weaponizing my traits to help the team in every way
Speaker 1: that I can elsewhere And no, damn well that if
Speaker 1: the shit hits the fan and Tyler's not the right guy,
Speaker 1: if he doesn't have the right matchup, that they're gonna
Speaker 1: lean on me. But instead it's been quiet quitting. It's
Speaker 1: been pouting, it's been refusing to shoot the basketball or
Speaker 1: to be aggressive. It's been a bunch of stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And again we don't know exactly what's transpired behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: but a seven game suspension, the word conduct detrimental to
Speaker 1: the team. You're burning bridges on the way out, and
Speaker 1: it just is really sad because again, this should have
Speaker 1: been an era of basketball Jimmy Butler with the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: this should have been an era of basketball that we
Speaker 1: looked back on in a positive light, and instead it's
Speaker 1: gonna be something negative. The second piece of this is
Speaker 1: like trying to find a place for Jimmy to go,
Speaker 1: and it's really difficult because money makes fifty million dollars,
Speaker 1: so you have to aggregate a bunch of salaries to
Speaker 1: go get him to. Most of the teams that are
Speaker 1: in a position where they're desperate enough to get him
Speaker 1: have to be pretty deliberate about their trading process because
Speaker 1: they're usually a first apron team and they're not as
Speaker 1: flexible in their ability to to bring in additional salary
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Right, and he's a huge risk
Speaker 1: to chemistry because if it's not what he wants, who's
Speaker 1: to say he won't do what he did again? And
Speaker 1: just in general, we just have so many examples of
Speaker 1: him blowing things up when he's not happy. And so
Speaker 1: there are a couple teams I look at. Golden State's
Speaker 1: a team that you have to at least consider, right. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: to put that sort of thing together, you have to
Speaker 1: include Andrew Wiggins. And Andrew Wiggins is playing really good basketball,
Speaker 1: So it's a tough call. I think that there's a
Speaker 1: case to be made that it would actually make them
Speaker 1: a little bit more volatile in the regular season potentially,
Speaker 1: which is why you want to wait until the deadline
Speaker 1: to make that deal with you can. But I like
Speaker 1: the idea of Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry, Raymond Green is
Speaker 1: in a playoff series when things slow down and it's
Speaker 1: a rock fight and you just have three really damn
Speaker 1: good basketball players out there. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: different machinations there you have to get through to get
Speaker 1: Miami too, Like why would Miami want to take on
Speaker 1: the money of Andrew Wiggins, for instance, when they could
Speaker 1: get off of Jimmy Butler's money potentially, Although there's a
Speaker 1: case to be made that Jimmy might even opt in
Speaker 1: this summer because of just how big that player option is.
Speaker 1: So like Golden State kind of feels like a flawed
Speaker 1: option to me, and like there's a case to be
Speaker 1: made that Golden State should just go after a guy
Speaker 1: like Cam Johnson instead. I'd like Cam Johnson I think
Speaker 1: is certainly the better regular season option, but I think
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler is certainly the better playoff option. So that's
Speaker 1: not a great fit. I've heard Houston get mentioned. I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily disagree that that's a move that would instantly
Speaker 1: turn Houston into a truly dangerous team in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: The problem that I'd have is, like, you got something
Speaker 1: special bruin down in Houston, you want to bring in
Speaker 1: that old, you know, angry like late thirties, just kind
Speaker 1: of malcontent in there, and just see if he's gonna
Speaker 1: just mess up everything you're trying to build. Like it's
Speaker 1: a risk. Same goes for Memphis. I've heard Memphis get
Speaker 1: mentioned as an option too. Memphis and Houston are two
Speaker 1: teams that, like, yeah, in theory, if they were able
Speaker 1: to get Jimmy Butler and add them to everything that
Speaker 1: they're doing, it makes them much more serious teams. But
Speaker 1: they just come it just comes with a lot of risk.
Speaker 1: And so my guess is that this is a deal
Speaker 1: that gets done at the deadline, if it gets done
Speaker 1: at all, And if it gets done, my guess is
Speaker 1: it'll be done by a desperate team that is in
Speaker 1: a position where they have to take on some risk.
Speaker 1: And I don't know who that's gonna be, and we'll see,
Speaker 1: but like it just my initial impression on it is
Speaker 1: like I had some some people complaining in the comments
Speaker 1: that I haven't talked about it yet. A big part
Speaker 1: is like I can't even come up with the destination
Speaker 1: that really makes sense right now, and I don't think
Speaker 1: anything's gonna happen until February, because why would you If
Speaker 1: you're Memphis or Houston, You're already winning regular season games,
Speaker 1: So why would you make that deal now. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna make that deal, you're gonna make it in February
Speaker 1: in all likelihood, right, and you're going to base it
Speaker 1: on how things look at that point in time.
Speaker 2: And Golden State as well.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna want to gut their depth when they've got,
Speaker 1: you know, twenty games before the deadline, so not quite twenty,
Speaker 1: probably fifteen, but you get the point. So, like, I
Speaker 1: just don't see a ton of urgency around it. My
Speaker 1: real impression on the Jimmy thing is it's just sad.
Speaker 1: It's just sad that this era of what was kind
Speaker 1: of a fun era of Miami Heat basketball is ending
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 1: Jason Love your show Man two part mail bag for you.
Speaker 1: We can all remember the narrative around Kyrie Irving before
Speaker 1: and after he got traded to the MAVs, many people
Speaker 1: were low on his ability to be serious and impact winning.
Speaker 1: He's obviously displayed otherwise in the year and a half
Speaker 1: since can you speak to why you think it's worked
Speaker 1: so well with the MAVs when it didn't necessarily with
Speaker 1: the Celtics nets?
Speaker 2: What changed?
Speaker 1: Secondly, hypothetically, what sort of position with the Lakers be
Speaker 1: in and be in right now if they had pulled
Speaker 1: the trigger on Kyrie like many people thought they would.
Speaker 1: Can you play out that hypothetical as you do? Thanks man? Okay,
Speaker 1: So with Kyrie, what bothered me about the Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: trade saga to Dallas was the fact that that trade
Speaker 1: request was so obviously very different than everything else that
Speaker 1: had happened, like him wanting to leave Cleveland in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Was it didn't make any sense to me. It was
Speaker 1: based out of like this weird vanity, like, oh, I
Speaker 1: want to go have my own team kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And I think Kyrie have found out pretty quickly that
Speaker 1: he's not good enough to have his own team and
Speaker 1: that he needs to play alongside a co star. But
Speaker 1: that was something he needed to work through with the Calves,
Speaker 1: and I think that there was some frustration with the team,
Speaker 1: with the way the team was covered, but that's stupid.
Speaker 1: He should have been able to see through that and
Speaker 1: know that, Like, just because people talk a certain way
Speaker 1: about Lebron doesn't mean that that's the way Lebron's treating you,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like it was silly, but
Speaker 1: it is what it is. The thing with Boston, I
Speaker 1: think he just wanted to be able to choose his destination.
Speaker 1: Every I think every NBA player reaches a point eventually
Speaker 1: where they're like, I want to have some agency here,
Speaker 1: Like I want to have the ability to choose where
Speaker 1: I want to go. And so wasn't a place he chose.
Speaker 1: And Boston fans can be very grating at times. Trust me,
Speaker 1: I deal with it in my comments all the time.
Speaker 1: Like Boston fans they like I think. I think Kyrie
Speaker 1: was just wanted to fresh start somewhere away from Boston,
Speaker 1: somewhere he could pick. So he goes to Brooklyn, right,
Speaker 1: And then in the Brooklyn situation, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of really questionable stuff that he did in terms of
Speaker 1: like no call, no showing from work, like leaving his
Speaker 1: team without communicating with the coaching staff, the stuff surrounding
Speaker 1: the COVID vaccinations, Like, there was a bunch of stuff
Speaker 1: that he did during that time that just left his
Speaker 1: team hanging. And he deserved criticism for that and all
Speaker 1: of the things that happened over that era made Kyrie
Speaker 1: seem like a flake. And for the record, that was
Speaker 1: an earned reputation at the time.
Speaker 2: But what have you.
Speaker 1: When he wanted to leave, to go to Dallas or
Speaker 1: to anywhere that ended up being Dallas.
Speaker 2: Was so straightforward.
Speaker 1: He wanted an extension, Brooklyn wasn't going to give it
Speaker 1: to him. If he went to free agency, his options
Speaker 1: were more limited. The trademarket was the best opportunity for
Speaker 1: him to get to a good team where it can
Speaker 1: go to a fresh start and have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: sign an extension with the franchise that actually wanted him. Now,
Speaker 1: he deserved some blame for Brooklyn not wanting him anymore,
Speaker 1: that's completely fair. But Dallas I thought made a smart gamble.
Speaker 1: I said it at the time. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is Kyrie just wanting to find his next new deal,
Speaker 1: and I thought that through exploring the Boston thing and
Speaker 1: through exploring the Brooklyn thing, I thought it was a
Speaker 1: pretty worthwhile risk considering the things that Kyrie was hunting
Speaker 1: and trying to learn about himself. He had learned and
Speaker 1: I thought he was ready to kind of settle down
Speaker 1: and be in one place for a little while and
Speaker 1: figure things out. And it was a brilliant gamble for Dallas,
Speaker 1: and they made it to the NBA Finals, and I
Speaker 1: viewed them once again as a top five championship contender
Speaker 1: this year. I thought it was the right move, very
Speaker 1: very different circumstances than the Jimmy Butler thing. Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: is like, straight up has financial security. He's got another
Speaker 1: few f ten million dollars on the books for next
Speaker 1: year if he wants it, or he can opt out
Speaker 1: and renegotiate a new deal. That opt in contract could
Speaker 1: be traded to in the future. If he doesn't get
Speaker 1: moved at this deadline, he becomes an automatic expiring the
Speaker 1: following year if he opts in, so like you could
Speaker 1: have that be traded and then he could sign a
Speaker 1: new deal. Jimmy wasn't under the urgency that Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: was under to find a new destination for him to
Speaker 1: sign a new deal, especially when you factor in his
Speaker 1: age the Jimmy situation is very different in my opinion,
Speaker 1: than Kyrie's last trade request from Brooklyn. The second piece hypothetically,
Speaker 1: what sort of position with the Lakers be in right
Speaker 1: now if they had pulled the trigger on Kyrie like
Speaker 1: many people thought they would. Can you play out that
Speaker 1: hypothetical as you do? I think they'd be in a
Speaker 1: better position. The thing that it would have been tricky
Speaker 1: because you would have had to send out Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: And I really really like Austin Reeves for the record,
Speaker 1: and I think he's a really good player. But I
Speaker 1: think Kyrie's better than Austin. I don't think that that's
Speaker 1: necessarily a hot take. And you can imagine a scenario
Speaker 1: where you have a Kyrie Irving, you have a Christy
Speaker 1: that you get in the draft, You draft well, you
Speaker 1: find some discounted pieces, and you really really emphasize defense
Speaker 1: and motor. With the players that you surround those guys with,
Speaker 1: they could be pretty good. They'd have their own shortcomings
Speaker 1: because you have three max contracts, and anytime you build
Speaker 1: a anytime you build a payroll around three max salaries,
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up with some shortcomings elsewhere. But like
Speaker 1: there are times where I think the Lakers could really
Speaker 1: use a more advanced perimeter score that said, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just it's all hypothetical. We don't know how it
Speaker 1: would have gone with Kyrie with the Lakers, and Kyrie's
Speaker 1: been hurt a lot over the course of the two
Speaker 1: years too, and with the payroll like that, and Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ad without a lot of support around them, it
Speaker 1: could have been ugly during those stretches too. So it's
Speaker 1: hard to say. But like, I don't remember exactly what
Speaker 1: I said around that time. I vaguely remember being optimistic
Speaker 1: about the Lakers, or not optimistic but pro the Lakers
Speaker 1: making a Kyrie Irving trade, But I can't really remember
Speaker 1: my exact stance around that time. I have a Calves
Speaker 1: question here. A lot of Cavs fans were asking me
Speaker 1: why I thought they hadn't played the Celtics yet. I
Speaker 1: obviously know they've played the Celtics. I've done video breakdowns.
Speaker 1: I did a full film breakdown on the last Celtics
Speaker 1: Calves game, So I don't know where they're getting that from.
Speaker 1: All I was saying was is that in the eight
Speaker 1: game winning streak, which I think is now nine in
Speaker 1: the winning streak where they had won every game by
Speaker 1: double figures, they had they had not played Boston Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City in that streak. That was literally all I was
Speaker 1: trying to say. But point being in that streak though,
Speaker 1: they had played a lot of good teams. So what
Speaker 1: I was saying is like, this is a streak where
Speaker 1: they're playing a lot of good teams and winning every
Speaker 1: game by double figures. Maybe not the great teams, but
Speaker 1: they're playing all the good teams and they're winning by
Speaker 1: double figures. That was all I was trying to say. Anyway,
Speaker 1: here's our Calves question. If the Calves beat the Thunder
Speaker 1: one of two times, dare I say both? Are we
Speaker 1: the top team now? So I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: guys miss this, Cavs fans, but in the video that
Speaker 1: we did earlier this week, I think on Thursday, I
Speaker 1: already view the Calves as ahead of the Thunder right now.
Speaker 1: I think that their perimeter shooting is just so much
Speaker 1: more reliable than Oklahoma City's. I think when you look
Speaker 1: at shot creation, like going from Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland,
Speaker 1: and Evan Mobley as your primary shot creators to shake
Speaker 1: Gilgis Alexander j dub Chat Holmgren, I actually based on
Speaker 1: the depth there, Like Shay is obviously better than Donovan,
Speaker 1: but I think Darius is a more reliable shot creator
Speaker 1: with more experience, Like I think Evan Mobley and his
Speaker 1: growth is every bit is good of a third option
Speaker 1: right now in terms of creating offenses guys. As a
Speaker 1: guy like Chat, I think Chet's a better player because
Speaker 1: he's got a little bit higher defensive ceiling with his
Speaker 1: rim protection ability. But like I think the shot creation
Speaker 1: is relatively even between the two teams, maybe a slight
Speaker 1: edge to Cleveland, and then Cleveland just has way more
Speaker 1: reliable shooting off of that, I uh. And then on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, like they're different types
Speaker 1: of teams, Like Oklahoma City has more good perimeter defense,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, Cleveland's been defending really really
Speaker 1: well this year and they've got that interior size piece
Speaker 1: and that's what they're gonna do if they were to
Speaker 1: face each other, Like if we got a Calves Thunder Finals,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna see a lot of Jared Allen and
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley in the plant in the paint as the
Speaker 1: Calves basically, dare some of these Oklahoma City role players
Speaker 1: to shoot? So it's a small gap. I want to
Speaker 1: be clear, like I have Cleveland above the Thunder by
Speaker 1: just a very small gap, but I do have them
Speaker 1: above them right now, and for the record, like if
Speaker 1: I believe the Calves will beat the Thunder next week,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens they're at home. I think it's
Speaker 1: a good matchup for them too, but we'll see how
Speaker 1: it goes, Hey Jason. In one of his recent podcasts,
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connor was discussing the improvements Cade has made this season,
Speaker 1: but question whether or not he could develop into another
Speaker 1: number one scoring option, and if he can't, what does
Speaker 1: that mean for the Pistons. I believe Caid can become
Speaker 1: the best overall player on a championship level team, but
Speaker 1: not as the number one scorer. Instead, I see him
Speaker 1: as an overqualified number two who's more focused on setting
Speaker 1: teammates up, punishing mismatches, and being that switchable plus defender.
Speaker 1: My question is is it essential in today's NBA for
Speaker 1: a franchise player to also be the number one score?
Speaker 1: The recent finals MVPs have all been number one scores. However,
Speaker 1: I'd argue Lebron and Jokic didn't want to be that guy.
Speaker 1: It's just that they had to assume that role to
Speaker 1: win the title. Haliburton is another case study that I
Speaker 1: think this would apply to. Thanks as always for your content.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. I don't think Caid has to
Speaker 1: be a number one scoring option to even be the
Speaker 1: best player on his team. I think that every basketball
Speaker 1: player brings a list of traits to the table, and
Speaker 1: ideally you want your supporting stars to compliment each other. Right, So,
Speaker 1: for instance, like I would want to put a really
Speaker 1: dominant scorer next to Kaid just because that's the best
Speaker 1: way to compliment a big, playmaking forward. What has made
Speaker 1: Lebron the best in his life? A guy like Kyrie
Speaker 1: irving next to him that can create his own shot,
Speaker 1: guy like a Dwayne Wade next to him who's a
Speaker 1: scoring guard. Right is what has been the best LUCA
Speaker 1: season this year? Kyrie iv or this in his career,
Speaker 1: Kyrie irving next to him the time he made it
Speaker 1: a Western Conference Finals, Jalen Brunson next to him, scoring
Speaker 1: guards that can help him Like that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: Lebron couldn't score that doesn't mean that Luca couldn't score.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean that kid can't score. It's just a good
Speaker 1: complimentary fit to have a scoring guard next to your big,
Speaker 1: playmaking Ford. It depends on how fast Jade and Ivy's
Speaker 1: going to develop. Can Jade and Ivy develop into that
Speaker 1: type of player that can be that kind of support
Speaker 1: for kid, And that's the kind of stuff like as
Speaker 1: I keep saying, like with the Pistons right now, it's
Speaker 1: a combination of experience, and then through the draft, I'd
Speaker 1: be looking at drafting off ball talent, meaning like guys
Speaker 1: that can really score the basketball without needing plays run
Speaker 1: for them. Those are the kind like I'd be looking
Speaker 1: for older wings that are like three four year college
Speaker 1: guys and guys that are ready to play right away
Speaker 1: that are in that like six seven to six y
Speaker 1: nine phase that can shoot th rais and drive closeouts.
Speaker 1: Those are the kinds of guys upgrades of Malik Beasley,
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway junior that are younger and cheaper.
Speaker 1: Those are the kinds of guys that I'd be looking at,
Speaker 1: Like right now, you have all these guys on rookie contracts,
Speaker 1: so you can afford to pay expensive vets, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to extend all these dudes and put them
Speaker 1: on max extensions. When they're all on maxes, you're gonna
Speaker 1: need to have discounted talent off of them. The way
Speaker 1: you get that discounted talent is through the draft. But
Speaker 1: it's again you have to figure out whether or not
Speaker 1: Jade and Ivy is capable of being that number two,
Speaker 1: and we're only going to find that out through time
Speaker 1: and hopefully he gets healthy relatively soon. Can you please
Speaker 1: revisit your stance that the West is way better than
Speaker 1: the East. Do you still feel that same way considering
Speaker 1: that the East has now won fifty one percent of
Speaker 1: the games versus West teams, and the NBA Cup has
Speaker 1: reorganized the schedule so that teams play a lot of
Speaker 1: in conference games early early on during group play. That
Speaker 1: means we're looking at an even smaller sample of East
Speaker 1: versus West games than we usually see this early in
Speaker 1: the year. So I don't know where you're getting that
Speaker 1: fifty one percent number from. I pulled it up. In
Speaker 1: the West is they've played one hundred and forty two
Speaker 1: games intercom it's play, and the West is seventy seven
Speaker 1: and sixty five, so twelve games over five hundred, it's
Speaker 1: a fifty four point two percent win percentage, not quite
Speaker 1: as high as last year, but still pretty high. And
Speaker 1: that number has dropped a little bit since the start
Speaker 1: of the season as some teams in the middle of
Speaker 1: the East, teams like Atlanta and Milwaukee and Philly have
Speaker 1: started to win some games, but like for the most part,
Speaker 1: the West has continued to be dominant throughout the year.
Speaker 1: That said, I do think Boston and Cleveland are the
Speaker 1: two best teams in the league right now, So for
Speaker 1: whatever that's worth, the top of the East is stronger
Speaker 1: than the top of the West. But I do think
Speaker 1: that the Western Conference is pretty clearly stronger and they
Speaker 1: continue to demonstrate demonstrate that throughout the season. Jason, you
Speaker 1: keep staying on this Kaminga trade train, even when Jonathan
Speaker 1: does exactly what is needed twenty points, five assists, five
Speaker 1: boards in a plus twenty five game that his coach
Speaker 1: went out of his way to give props for props four. Dude,
Speaker 1: what is your problem with Kaminga. If you get Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson without getting Kminga, that might work. This is a
Speaker 1: question that or this is an issue that I have
Speaker 1: that a lot of people I think missed just because
Speaker 1: I produce a lot of content. Like I'm gonna skip
Speaker 1: ahead for another question real quick, Jason, you make great,
Speaker 1: thoughtful content. I learned a lot from watching your videos.
Speaker 1: Some of your videos play some watch your videos to
Speaker 1: play contrarian, and you seem to take it as such. However,
Speaker 1: some things you do actually show unmistakable bias. Please speak
Speaker 1: on the year Westbrook is having, because you've been extremely
Speaker 1: critical of him. This is the same type of example
Speaker 1: I have multiple times this year talked about how great
Speaker 1: of a fit Russell Westbrook has been with Jokic. I
Speaker 1: specifically talked about how his ability to attack off of
Speaker 1: the two man game and actually draw Yokic's defender into
Speaker 1: the paint further allowing for those drop off passes has
Speaker 1: weaponized the two man game again, especially during the phase
Speaker 1: when Jamal Murray was struggling. I've talked about Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: positively many times this year. The thing is is I do, guys,
Speaker 1: I do like four to five hours a week of
Speaker 1: brand new content. I had a whole segment earlier this
Speaker 1: week where I clarified I'm not saying trade Kaminga just
Speaker 1: to trade Kaminga. I'm just saying, if push comes to
Speaker 1: shove and you have an opportunity to upgrade the roster
Speaker 1: with a more reliable player, player that has a higher floor,
Speaker 1: then yeah, you should probably include Kaminga. That's all I
Speaker 1: was saying. If you can go get Cam Johnson without
Speaker 1: trading Jonathan Kaminga, by all means do it. If you
Speaker 1: can go get Jimmy Butler without trading Jonathan Kaminga, by
Speaker 1: all means, go do it. All I was saying is
Speaker 1: what ends up happening. And this is something that I've
Speaker 1: been riding this train with Warriors fans for the last
Speaker 1: two years now. Every time Jonathan Kanminga has a good game,
Speaker 1: everyone comes to me and talks about how amazing Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kminga is and how he should never be traded. I
Speaker 1: have never disputed Jonathan Kaminga's ceiling. He's a freakishly talented
Speaker 1: young basketball player. He's one of the most athletically gifted
Speaker 1: players that we have in the league. Of course, he's
Speaker 1: gonna have really good games. He also has a really
Speaker 1: low floor because he's a young player who is very inconsistent,
Speaker 1: who struggles to replicate successes and struggles to get rid
Speaker 1: of mistakes that he makes. Very typical for a twenty
Speaker 1: two year old raw athletic forward, and I don't blame
Speaker 1: him for that at all. Most people his age get
Speaker 1: to go somewhere else and make mistakes and learn how
Speaker 1: to play basketball slowly. That's not the case. He's on
Speaker 1: a team with Steph Curry and Draymond Green. And despite
Speaker 1: some of the statistical performance like the Warriors throughout the
Speaker 1: season have, like the on off numbers, the metrics that
Speaker 1: track how the team performs when Kaminga is on versus
Speaker 1: Kaminga is off, they're not good. Ideally, you don't want
Speaker 1: to rely on him. That's the point. You just don't
Speaker 1: want to rely on him. If you can keep him
Speaker 1: in house and allow him to continue to grow while
Speaker 1: not needing him to be on the floor as one
Speaker 1: of your final five in a big playoff game, that's good.
Speaker 1: But if you're going to rely on him to be
Speaker 1: on the floor in a big playoff game, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get lost off ball, lose track of his shooter, fail
Speaker 1: to help when he's supposed to, lose game plan discipline,
Speaker 1: and teams are going to Saguway the hell off of
Speaker 1: him and dare him to shoot, and he might not
Speaker 1: be able to make shots. So yeah, if you have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to bring in a Jimmy Butler or a
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson and the Nets or the heat go, we
Speaker 1: need Jonathan Kaminga to make this deal work or we're
Speaker 1: not doing it. I would make the deal. Why because
Speaker 1: even though Jonathan Kminga has a lot of potential, I
Speaker 1: do not see him as a foundational star, meaning I
Speaker 1: don't think he's the guy that you rebuild around. He's
Speaker 1: the guy that if you could have him for your rebuild, great,
Speaker 1: But if not, then it's not the end of the world. Like,
Speaker 1: I think this team is destined for tanking and being
Speaker 1: really bad for a few years no matter what when
Speaker 1: Steph retires. So like, I just think by virtue of
Speaker 1: the fact that you're not gonna have a player as
Speaker 1: good as Steph for a very long time. If you
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to give these guys a chance, maybe
Speaker 1: not even for this year, but for next year, like
Speaker 1: to bring in an asset that helps them rebuild around
Speaker 1: this court next year, then I think you gotta do it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like if you can make those sorts of
Speaker 1: up grades without trading Minga by all means do it.
Speaker 1: I think that's the right move. I'm not a big
Speaker 1: believer in just throwing assets away for nothing. It's just
Speaker 1: about the reality of their predicament. But again, as I
Speaker 1: said with the Westbrook thing, as I'm saying with this
Speaker 1: cominga thing, these are all things that I've set on
Speaker 1: the channel before. I don't blame you, guys, I'm not.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I produce too much content to just expect that all
Speaker 1: of you watch every single minute. I know that there's
Speaker 1: probably a very small percentage of you that actually watch
Speaker 1: every single show that I make. I'm sure most of
Speaker 1: you are like they're talking about my favorite team today,
Speaker 1: like I'll listen right, or like, oh maybe I like
Speaker 1: Power Rankings days, or maybe I like mail bag days.
Speaker 2: I get that.
Speaker 1: But I just have to let you guys know that
Speaker 1: these are things that I have said on the show before.
Speaker 1: What would it take for the Nicks to beat the
Speaker 1: Celtics the two ended up in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaker 1: I'd have to not be scared about Jalen Brunson and
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns being so easily attacked in the half
Speaker 1: court offensively once again in the Oklahoma City game, every
Speaker 1: slow down half corp is turned into Shae Gil just
Speaker 1: as Alexander attacking cat and drop or cat and hedges
Speaker 1: and bruntson and hedges and just getting really good stuff
Speaker 1: out of it.
Speaker 2: Every time when.
Speaker 1: They'd hedged, they'd slip and get a four on three.
Speaker 1: When they'd switch, then Shae would just attack Jalen and
Speaker 1: get right downhill and get to the rim. Carl Anthony
Speaker 1: Town's in a drop shase hitting another mid range jump shot,
Speaker 1: like they just attacking that too easily, And like, I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Michale Bridges is playing better. The Knicks
Speaker 1: offense is better. A lot of things are better about
Speaker 1: the Knicks since the opening night catastrophe in Boston. A
Speaker 1: lot of things are better, but one thing is the same,
Speaker 1: and that is they have this Jalen Brunson Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Town's half court defense thing. And like, I think there's
Speaker 1: a couple of different things they can look at. One
Speaker 1: like blitzing instead of hedging, because they're just giving up
Speaker 1: four on threes too easily anyway, so they need to
Speaker 1: be a little bit more aggressive to maybe get more deflections,
Speaker 1: maybe force more turnovers, and then trusting the switch with
Speaker 1: more help, like on the play where Jalen Brunson got
Speaker 1: switched on to Shae. Shay just went right around him
Speaker 1: and we didn't get into any traffic. And so they
Speaker 1: just need to have a better plan as a team
Speaker 1: for how to deal with teams that want to attack
Speaker 1: Jalen in kat and space. All right, three more questions,
Speaker 1: big believer in Golden State. Okay, Yet you gave up
Speaker 1: on the Lakers so fast and asked for their rebuild
Speaker 1: after two bad games, and you went on to keep
Speaker 1: repeating that you're skeptical about the Lakers only no other
Speaker 1: team to be skeptical about, God forbid the Warriors.
Speaker 2: It's still all good.
Speaker 1: I just hope you stay on that side for the
Speaker 1: time being, But unfortunately you will come around and get
Speaker 1: back on to the Lakers when they have proved that
Speaker 1: they are a serious team.
Speaker 2: Too bad.
Speaker 1: If you didn't believe in someone when it was hard
Speaker 1: and you didn't come back when it's all good, you
Speaker 1: should declare yourself a Warriors fan, or at least a
Speaker 1: step fan, or you can go for an Anthony Edwards fan.
Speaker 1: You've shown more faith in each one of them than
Speaker 1: the Lakers. You should at least stay the course and
Speaker 1: not revert to the Lakers at some point. I mentioned
Speaker 1: this in yesterday's show, But there's a huge difference in
Speaker 1: the Lakers and the Warriors. The Lakers are playing good
Speaker 1: basketball right now, but they probably like they're twenty and
Speaker 1: four team. I'd argue they've underachieved a little bit. I
Speaker 1: said before the season, I viewed them as a fifty
Speaker 1: win team if Lebron in ad state healthy and they've
Speaker 1: stayed healthy. There have been a lot of games this
Speaker 1: year that they should have won that they lost because
Speaker 1: of poor execution, poor effort, straight up quitting on some cases.
Speaker 1: They're twenty and fourteen because they have a pretty solid roster.
Speaker 1: It's not a top tier roster, but it's a solid,
Speaker 1: yet flawed roster Golden State. That roster is devoid of
Speaker 1: top end talent other than Steph Curry. They have attacked
Speaker 1: this regular season. They have been diligent. They have overachieved
Speaker 1: relative to coming into the season. Most of us viewed
Speaker 1: Golden State as a fringe playing team, like as a
Speaker 1: complete non threat, and then they came out the gates
Speaker 1: twelve and three before some of their talent realities and
Speaker 1: some of their guys broke down and they started to
Speaker 1: get worn down. My frustration with the Lakers was in
Speaker 1: order for the Lakers to win the title, they have
Speaker 1: to be incredibly sharp for day one to the end
Speaker 1: of the season. I talked about it all summer. It
Speaker 1: was the entire reason why I supported the Darbnham firing
Speaker 1: and the JJ Reddick hiring. I was like, these guys
Speaker 1: need a psycho that will hold them accountable, that will
Speaker 1: help them attack the regular season every day so that
Speaker 1: they can get to April sharp enough to be the
Speaker 1: best version of themselves. Because they're not talented enough to
Speaker 1: win on the strength of their talent. They have to
Speaker 1: be the best possible basketball team that they can be.
Speaker 1: And then when I watched them go two and five
Speaker 1: and then roll up into Miami and quit in the
Speaker 1: first quarter of a game, I was like, these guys
Speaker 1: aren't serious about the work. Very different than Golden State.
Speaker 1: Golden State has been serious about the work all season.
Speaker 1: That is a rock solid organization with great leaders that
Speaker 1: has been attacking things through and through. They have a
Speaker 1: talent issue. So I'm excited about the Warriors as a
Speaker 1: long shot championship contender if they make a talent upgrade,
Speaker 1: because I know they're about the right stuff.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: For the record, the Lakers have been a very serious
Speaker 1: team since that devastating loss and overtime against Atlanta. I
Speaker 1: said this on the show yesterday. This stretch, this what
Speaker 1: is it a A what.
Speaker 2: Are they like?
Speaker 1: I think nine and three in eight and three in
Speaker 1: their last eleven games, something like that, seven and two
Speaker 1: in their last nine in this stretch, they have been
Speaker 1: playing very serious basketball. Whatever embarrassment they ran into in
Speaker 1: that Miami Heat situation, they've responded to it to their credit.
Speaker 1: And like, as I look at the Lakers moving forward,
Speaker 1: I'm skeptical still because it's only been a few weeks,
Speaker 1: but like, yeah, if they maintain this throughout the season,
Speaker 1: they will clearly demonstrate like, hey, that group of guys
Speaker 1: that we looked like back in late November early December,
Speaker 1: that's not us. This is us. Why here's fifty games
Speaker 1: showing you why not eleven? Right? Like, that's that's what
Speaker 1: I want to see before I get back into really
Speaker 1: believing in what the Lakers can do. That plus an
Speaker 1: upgrade up the deadline through the trade market, particularly of
Speaker 1: the two spot. That sort of thing happens, then I
Speaker 1: will believe in the Lakers again as a team that
Speaker 1: can win. Everything is relative. We're always talking about these
Speaker 1: things relative. So for instance, like why are you like
Speaker 1: you have this like optimism surrounding the Warriors. I think
Speaker 1: the Warriors are a long shot. I've never once said
Speaker 1: this year that the Lakers are or the Warriors are
Speaker 1: a top tier championship contender. I don't view them as
Speaker 1: a top tier championship contender. Everyone's getting discussed relative to
Speaker 1: their expectations. The Warriors have overachieved at many points this year.
Speaker 1: The Warriors seem to me like a team that if
Speaker 1: you bring an offensive firepower, it could slot a lot
Speaker 1: of things to make things easier. Maybe they could go
Speaker 1: from being a team that we all thought was like
Speaker 1: a complete non thread at the bottom of the West
Speaker 1: to a team that's in the middle tier in the West.
Speaker 1: Who who knows, Maybe they can win a couple playoffs series,
Speaker 1: find themselves in the Western Conference finals.
Speaker 2: Now you have Steph Curry. Anything can happen.
Speaker 1: That's the way I'm discussing them, Just like if I
Speaker 1: discuss Cleveland, Boston, Oklahoma City, We know they're going to
Speaker 1: be top seeds. We know they're gonna win at least
Speaker 1: one playoff round. They're probably gonna win two playoff rounds.
Speaker 1: These are teams that now I'm discussing them through the
Speaker 1: context of, like, this team has an extremely high likelihood
Speaker 1: of playing very high leverage games at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. Let's talk about their pros and cons. It's
Speaker 1: boring for me to just sit here and say Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: Boston and Cleveland are great all day long. We gotta
Speaker 1: talk about, like those dudes are going to be in
Speaker 1: some high leverage games. We got to talk about their
Speaker 1: strengths and weaknesses. These long shot teams, you just are
Speaker 1: trying to put yourself in a position where maybe something
Speaker 1: can happen. The Lakers are somewhere in between them, right,
Speaker 1: They're closer from a talent standpoint, but they've been more
Speaker 1: inconsistent in their execution and so much hinges on what
Speaker 1: kind of deal they make, and they're more likely to
Speaker 1: make a deal because they just they're just in a
Speaker 1: position where they're like, they don't need to go get
Speaker 1: a star necessarily, they just are looking for a good
Speaker 1: role player or two. The Warriors are looking for a
Speaker 1: high level offensive player, so it's a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a precarious type of situation. But again, there's the
Speaker 1: fundamental difference between the Lakers and the Warriors. The way
Speaker 1: I've discussed him this year, the Warriors have a talent issue,
Speaker 1: not a championship character issue, like a basketball character issue.
Speaker 1: The Lakers had a basketball character issue earlier in the season.
Speaker 1: I hated watching them. After the first three games of
Speaker 1: the year, they relaxed. Now I am very encouraged by
Speaker 1: this recent couple of weeks. And Okay, so this is
Speaker 1: the inevitable question that's going to come. Okay, Jason, you
Speaker 1: said that you were out on the Lakers and you
Speaker 1: said that they should blow things up. Had Lebron and
Speaker 1: ad maintained the bullshit level of focus they had during
Speaker 1: that stretch, they should have blown it up. They responded
Speaker 1: to their credit. Like a lot of times, we don't
Speaker 1: account for new information in the way that can change it.
Speaker 2: Take.
Speaker 1: I was talking about this with Tatum yesterday. It's like
Speaker 1: Tatum wasn't the same player last year. So yeah, even
Speaker 1: if you disagreed with me about my player rankings, you
Speaker 1: have to at least admit he's a different player this
Speaker 1: year than he was last year. I talked about this yesterday,
Speaker 1: having the best jump shooting season he's had in five years.
Speaker 1: He's combining the Swiss Army nine four that he has
Speaker 1: been in recent years with the elite jump shooter that
Speaker 1: he was in the early part of his career. I
Speaker 1: had someone in the comments goal like, you shot this
Speaker 1: well last year.
Speaker 2: No, he did it.
Speaker 1: Statistically he did not, and he was awful in the postseason.
Speaker 1: So like again, it's one of those things where we
Speaker 1: have new information here. The Lakers looked like they were
Speaker 1: literally crumbling and falling apart at the seams less than
Speaker 1: a quarter of the way through the season, quitting. And
Speaker 1: I they quit in the first shift against Miami, right
Speaker 1: after they quit in the second half against Phoenix, right
Speaker 1: after they quit in the second half against Denver, like
Speaker 1: straight up, let go of the rope, let them run
Speaker 1: us out of the gym. So when I'm watching in
Speaker 1: the Miami game and they're two and five in their
Speaker 1: last seven games and they desperately need one, and this
Speaker 1: is a bad Miami team that just lost two in
Speaker 1: a row, and you're in a spot where you can
Speaker 1: rectify things and like ads, just like letting Bam drive
Speaker 1: right around him. And that was like the first game
Speaker 1: where Lebron started to play better. But other than Lebron,
Speaker 1: everybody just looked dead that night, like they just didn't care.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here like, Okay, you're not good enough to
Speaker 1: win the title from a talent standpoint, you have to
Speaker 1: be the best possible version of yourselves as a basketball team,
Speaker 1: and these guys don't look like they want.
Speaker 2: To do the work.
Speaker 1: Now for an eleven game span or whatever it's been,
Speaker 1: they look like they want to do the work. Let's
Speaker 1: say that stretches through the end of the season. Okay,
Speaker 1: they do win fifty something games, they do make some
Speaker 1: sort of upgrade at the deadline, they do stay focused
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the year.
Speaker 2: I'll just say I was.
Speaker 1: Wrong, but I won't stay wrong in the terms of
Speaker 1: like how I felt in the moment, how I felt
Speaker 1: in that moment. It's the way all Lakers fans felt,
Speaker 1: maybe not being done with the team necessarily, but all
Speaker 1: of us were like, what the hell, guys, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? Why are you quitting in the first half
Speaker 1: against a bad team? So like, again, I will admit
Speaker 1: that I just gave up on them too early. If
Speaker 1: that was the case, I'll really do you guys think
Speaker 1: I care about being wrong? I'm a I have opinions
Speaker 1: for a living. It's like the Tatum thing. I've been
Speaker 1: wrong many times on this show. I talk four to
Speaker 1: five hours a week. There are plenty of opportunities where
Speaker 1: I'm going to be like, I have this strong opinion. Oh,
Speaker 1: it turns out I was wrong. If it turns out
Speaker 1: I was wrong about the Lakers, I'll say I was
Speaker 1: wrong about the Lakers. I will tell you, guys, though,
Speaker 1: I need more than just a few good weeks before
Speaker 1: I buy back in on this team with how scarred
Speaker 1: I am from the way that they treated that early
Speaker 1: part of the season where it just seemed like they
Speaker 1: didn't care about being the best version of themselves.
Speaker 2: Hey, Jason, love the show.
Speaker 1: What do you think of Josh Green and Nick Richards
Speaker 1: from the Hornets to the Lakers? For Vincent, Jalen hu
Speaker 1: Chafino and Christian Wood. I'd like to know your thoughts
Speaker 1: on the fit slash potential of that roster after the trade.
Speaker 2: Appreciate your work on the show and hope you keep
Speaker 2: it up.
Speaker 1: Josh Green is actually a really interesting option is like
Speaker 1: a you know, there's a lot of Lakers fans that
Speaker 1: are anti benching Max Christie, right, So like when I say, like,
Speaker 1: let's go get Bruce Brown, there's a lot of Lakers
Speaker 1: fans who are like, oh, well, Max Christy's a better shooter.
Speaker 1: Max Christy just had twenty something points in a game,
Speaker 1: like we should go with Max Christy. And like, my
Speaker 1: thing with that is like, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: relying on a very young guard who doesn't have any
Speaker 1: playoff experience when we get into a big spot, and
Speaker 1: I'd rather rely on Bruce Brown, who's a champion, who's
Speaker 1: literally played a substantial role at the same position for
Speaker 1: a championship team and done it for four rounds. Right,
Speaker 1: So like I that's why I was like talking about
Speaker 1: that type of upgrade. But let's say you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we need to come up with an option where maybe
Speaker 1: we don't depend on Max in a big spot, but
Speaker 1: we also keep Max in the starting lineup so he
Speaker 1: gets tons of reps and we can ride out Max's
Speaker 1: good games. Because ideally that's what you want if you're
Speaker 1: saying that Max's shooting is upside and you think Max's
Speaker 1: ceiling is higher than some of these other guys, then okay.
Speaker 1: Another option would be Max keeps starting. Max plays every time,
Speaker 1: every time he's in a big game. But he's playing well,
Speaker 1: you just ride it out and let him play. But hey,
Speaker 1: I would like to have a veteran option at the
Speaker 1: same position that's not as small as Gabe Vincent, not
Speaker 1: as bad of a shooter as Cam Reddish, but like
Speaker 1: a guy that you can put into that spot that's
Speaker 1: like a really high floor option. A guy that's like
Speaker 1: a good defender, good shooter, good closeout attacker, good size.
Speaker 1: Maybe not the guy who's gonna go for twenty five
Speaker 1: on any given night, but the guy that's not gonna
Speaker 1: have the absolute nightmare game that you can count on
Speaker 1: doing your job. Josh Green is a great example of that.
Speaker 1: He's got good size, he's a forty three point shooter,
Speaker 1: He's played in big playoff games. He's a good athlete.
Speaker 1: He's got like kind of a trunky, like fire hydrant
Speaker 1: kind of build to him, which is my favorite type
Speaker 1: of guard archetype. If you have him, you can play
Speaker 1: him in a ben roll. You can basically get the
Speaker 1: deal done for Gabe Vincent in one of the minimum contracts. Right,
Speaker 1: So you sent out gave Vincent and instead you have
Speaker 1: Josh Green. And then basically the idea there is is
Speaker 1: Josh Green is your bench guard, and on the nights
Speaker 1: when Max isn't a better option, or Max isn't as
Speaker 1: focused as he needs to be, or he's losing his confidence,
Speaker 1: let's go with Josh Green. You know that's really my
Speaker 1: thing is like I just don't want to depend on
Speaker 1: Ruey and I don't want to depend on Max. Dorian
Speaker 1: Phinney Smith is the higher floor, lower ceiling version of
Speaker 1: version of Ruey Hachimura. A guy like Josh Green would
Speaker 1: be the higher floor, lower ceiling version of Max. There
Speaker 1: might be games where it's like, dude, Rui's bullying everybody
Speaker 1: under the basket and he's hitting all his threes. We
Speaker 1: don't need to use Dorian Phinney Smith much. We can
Speaker 1: play Ruey thirty five minutes tonight, right, Or the same
Speaker 1: thing goes for Max Christy. But then you have those
Speaker 1: options Dorian and a guy like Josh Green. Hey, Ruy's
Speaker 1: losing shooters and not paying attention and just not hitting shots,
Speaker 1: and he just looks like he's this is not the
Speaker 1: right game for him. Okay, well here comes Dorian Finny Smith.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes from Max. Here comes a guy like
Speaker 1: Josh Green. I really like that option, the backup center piece. Again,
Speaker 1: I just when I look at how well Christian Kaloko
Speaker 1: has been playing, I just don't believe in using assets
Speaker 1: on a backup center. So yeah, if you can get
Speaker 1: a guy that is discounted, sure whatever. But like I,
Speaker 1: I you know how I am with backup centers. I've
Speaker 1: been talking about this forever. I just don't necessarily see
Speaker 1: it as a big enough deal. Like I we just
Speaker 1: watched the Lakers get a win without Anthony Davis, So
Speaker 1: like I I am not as intent on tracking down
Speaker 1: a backup center as everyone else is. That's not to
Speaker 1: say you don't do it if it's an easy like
Speaker 1: I've seen some people talk about, like well, what if
Speaker 1: you just go get Kessler Edwards without any like, like
Speaker 1: you can get Kesler Edwards with like I think it's
Speaker 1: like Jalen Houchafino and you know, one first round pick. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: if you want to do something like that and you
Speaker 1: don't want to use that first round pick on something else,
Speaker 1: that's one thing but like, like I don't I don't
Speaker 1: want to be like sending out good wings for for
Speaker 1: a backup center that that to me just feels like
Speaker 1: robbing Peter to pay Paul. Last question, what is your
Speaker 1: note taking process while watching games to prepare for the videos?
Speaker 1: Interested to see your thought process and mindset, especially compared
Speaker 1: to how a casual fan would think about certain plays.
Speaker 1: So basically, I, you know, it's so funny. I remember
Speaker 1: talking to Ethan Strauss about this the first time I
Speaker 1: went on his show. But like the way that I've
Speaker 1: always looked at my show is like I've always been
Speaker 1: obsessed with like the story of basketball games. That's why
Speaker 1: I do more like instant reaction content than big picture
Speaker 1: content compared to some other people who are in this space.
Speaker 1: I love instant reaction content because I think basketball games
Speaker 1: are very fascinating, like the journey of games, the way
Speaker 1: things start, the runs that are made, the way things
Speaker 1: close right, and you know, one of the originating things
Speaker 1: for you know, how I kind of started doing this
Speaker 1: for a living is like I used to sit with
Speaker 1: my buddies after a pickup game or after a men's
Speaker 1: league game, or after watching a game, and we just
Speaker 1: talk about how the game went. Now, we did this
Speaker 1: really well. Yeah, I remember when we remember when you
Speaker 1: and like there was a game we played the Air
Speaker 1: Force Base team. We scrimmaged. I played with a group
Speaker 1: of guys that are just all kind of like mid
Speaker 1: thirties type of dudes that all played in college or
Speaker 1: played professionally overseas stuff like that. And we scrimmage against
Speaker 1: Juco's Air Force based teams, other club teams, things along
Speaker 1: those lines, just for fun. It's just a way for
Speaker 1: us to stay attached to the game, right, And like
Speaker 1: there was a game where we played an air Force
Speaker 1: Base team and like me and one of my buddies
Speaker 1: like spammed this two man game like over and over
Speaker 1: again in the second half and just cooked them with
Speaker 1: this exact same action basically like a kind of like
Speaker 1: a ghost screen action with another wing player. And it's
Speaker 1: like we sat on the sideline after the game and
Speaker 1: it was like hell yeah, like like we we were
Speaker 1: killing them with that, you know, or like you know,
Speaker 1: you discuss a defensive thing that you did, like oh
Speaker 1: when we switched that matchup and we got way better. Liked,
Speaker 1: we had a money tournament where we ended up in
Speaker 1: the double elimination round, and we lost the first game,
Speaker 1: and so we had to go back and we had
Speaker 1: to beat them twice to win the money. And we
Speaker 1: made an adjustment where like I was guarding this like
Speaker 1: big six ' ten like forward who could really shoot
Speaker 1: the ball, and he was hitting some shots over the
Speaker 1: top of me. Like I was playing like perfect defense
Speaker 1: and getting good contests, and the dude was just hitting shots.
Speaker 1: And then my buddy Kaylan was guarding a kind of
Speaker 1: a bully ball wing and he's Kaylan's really lanky, is
Speaker 1: about an inch taller than me, and he's a better athlete,
Speaker 1: but he's about twenty five thirty pounds later, and he
Speaker 1: was guarding this big bullyball forward and that dude was
Speaker 1: just going through him all game long, and so both
Speaker 1: of us were struggling with our defensive matchups. When we
Speaker 1: got back to play them again to have our chance
Speaker 1: to beat them twice to win the money, we switched.
Speaker 1: I guarded the bigger forward, he guarded the lankier wing.
Speaker 1: He locked his ass up. I locked the other dude's
Speaker 1: ass up, and we won the money, you know, Like,
Speaker 1: and we spent a bunch of time after the game,
Speaker 1: just like sitting on the sidelines while we can barely walk.
Speaker 1: Who played six games in one day, and we're talking
Speaker 1: about how he did this thing that helped us get
Speaker 1: regain control of a situation that was going out of control.
Speaker 1: I've always been obsessed with the individual basketball games, in
Speaker 1: the way that they are won, in the way that
Speaker 1: they are lost. And so what I inevitably end up
Speaker 1: doing when I'm watching these NBA games is I just
Speaker 1: have my notes open and.
Speaker 2: I just watch.
Speaker 1: And as I'm watching, if I see a trend like, hey,
Speaker 1: they're doing damage because of this matchup. They're doing damage
Speaker 1: because of that matchup. They're doing damage because of this
Speaker 1: schematic thing. They're doing damage because of this schematic adjustment,
Speaker 1: I'll just make a note of it. And so I
Speaker 1: kind of just have bullet points, and I do it
Speaker 1: by player and team. So I'll have like the team,
Speaker 1: and I'll have the players, and I'll just list bullet points.
Speaker 1: So like, for instance, I'll put like, oh, mchal Bridges
Speaker 1: is doing some damage to Shake Kills with Alexander in
Speaker 1: the post, and then he just did it to Isaiah
Speaker 1: Joe too, So like mckail Bridges is punishing some of
Speaker 1: these Oklahoma City Guards in the post. I'll just like
Speaker 1: put that in the notes, and then it'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, the Knicks are running a pretty deep drop
Speaker 1: with Cat, so there's gonna be quite a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, Jalen and Shay needing to hit mid range
Speaker 1: jump shots. And I'll just kind of like make that
Speaker 1: a note, you know. And then I'll basically just make
Speaker 1: notes throughout the game and it's kind of like a
Speaker 1: shit show. And then when I'm done watching the game,
Speaker 1: I go back to my notes and I try to
Speaker 1: organize it in a way that helps me kind of
Speaker 1: tell the story of the game, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: But basically that's the point. So like like I do
Speaker 1: like rough notes, and then I refine my notes and
Speaker 1: then I go from there. But essentially, I'm always just
Speaker 1: obsessed with like the story of basketball games. That to
Speaker 1: me is one of my favorite things to talk about
Speaker 1: on the show, and that's why we do the instant
Speaker 1: reaction content that we do. All right, guys, It's all
Speaker 1: I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: for supporting me and supporting the show. Again, I may
Speaker 1: do a show depending on how things go. As I'm
Speaker 1: packing for the ski trip tomorrow morning. But I will
Speaker 1: absolutely be back to work next week in the middle
Speaker 1: of the week, either on Tuesday night or Wednesday, depending
Speaker 1: on when I get back from my ski trip. But
Speaker 1: we have a jam pack slate on that Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: We have Lakers MAVs and we have our first Nuggets
Speaker 1: Celtics matchup of the season, so like we'll be getting
Speaker 1: into that as well as some power inankings and stuff
Speaker 1: either on I'll probably do the power inkings for sure
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, but we may or may not do an
Speaker 1: instant reaction on Tuesday, depending on when I get back.
Speaker 1: I'll let you guys know. Just keep keep tabs on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed and I'll let you guys know how
Speaker 1: things go. Again, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
Speaker 1: me and supporting the show. If I don't see you tomorrow,
Speaker 1: then I will see you in the middle of next week.
Speaker 2: See you guys then.
Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: What's up guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.