Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. Here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, Happy Friday, everybody, Rounds two. Coverage of the
Speaker 1: NBA Playoffs. Here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you
Speaker 1: by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers went in dominating fashion over the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors in Game six to end that series. I
Speaker 1: have so many thoughts of vintage Lebron James performance, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis magnificent defensively once again, Laker guards carrying the offense
Speaker 1: for various stretches. Just an all around really impressive performance
Speaker 1: from the Lakers. We're gonna dive into that. We're gonna
Speaker 1: dive into a little bit of a look ahead for
Speaker 1: the Lakers into the next round. I'm not gonna do
Speaker 1: a full series preview yet, but we're gonna look ahead
Speaker 1: a little bit and then talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: this Steph Lebron rivalry and a brief look ahead for
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors, which just got a little bit
Speaker 1: more interesting because of a report that just dropped from
Speaker 1: Sean Sharania. So lots to get into. You guys know
Speaker 1: the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you
Speaker 1: guys don't miss any show announcements. And last but not least,
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Speaker 1: don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Under Hoops tonight, All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: the reason why I picked the Lakers to win in
Speaker 1: six and didn't go off of that pick is I've
Speaker 1: grown very familiar with this team covering them over the
Speaker 1: course of the season, and they have a tendency to
Speaker 1: conserve energy for these like big defensive bursts. And Game
Speaker 1: four in particular, was kind of concerning at first when
Speaker 1: I was watching it live, felt like their offense really
Speaker 1: got bogged down. They were really struggling and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: But I'm a big believer in trusting film. The film
Speaker 1: is where you learn more about the game because you
Speaker 1: can stop and watch the same possession three or four
Speaker 1: times in a row and pick up on all the
Speaker 1: little rotations and all the little details that take place
Speaker 1: on a possession. And when I went back and watched
Speaker 1: Game four or again, I was super encouraged on the
Speaker 1: Lakers front, because I did not think they brought a
Speaker 1: great defensive effort. As a matter of fact, as we
Speaker 1: look back through the series, they'd have these like weird
Speaker 1: quarters and halves where they'd give up a ton of points,
Speaker 1: but then they'd have these halves at a time where
Speaker 1: they would lock in and over the course of the series,
Speaker 1: after the first half of Game six, they ended up
Speaker 1: holding the Warriors under fifty points and a half five
Speaker 1: times in a series, and so in the series. So
Speaker 1: when I looked at Game five and just kind of
Speaker 1: the way they were defending in that first half, I
Speaker 1: felt pretty good about them in there in front of
Speaker 1: their home crowd, bringing the requisite defensive effort and closing
Speaker 1: the deal that set they made it a Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: had a very interesting adjustment. He moved Dennis Schroeder into
Speaker 1: the starting lineup for Jared Vanderbilt in large part because
Speaker 1: that was their best lineup in this series. The three
Speaker 1: guard lineup has been an issue for the Lakers a
Speaker 1: lot over the course the last couple of years because
Speaker 1: of Lebron and Anthony Davis kind of coasting through games
Speaker 1: and not really engaging themselves physically to cover for the
Speaker 1: lack of size. But in this series that's actually been
Speaker 1: one of the best lineups coming into the night. They
Speaker 1: were plus five not net, but plus five total on
Speaker 1: the scoreboard in eighteen minutes. And so he leaned on
Speaker 1: his best lineup and that lineup absolutely dominated the Warriors
Speaker 1: in the first shift to start this game, and then
Speaker 1: again towards the end of the first half, and then
Speaker 1: again to start the second half before Dennis Schroeder got ejected.
Speaker 1: So it was smart for Darvin Ham to lean on
Speaker 1: his best guys that set. It only works if you
Speaker 1: get a vintage effort out of Lebron James to go
Speaker 1: with the consistent effort you've been getting out of Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: And you know what's funny, And like, we don't talk
Speaker 1: a ton about my kind of history of being a
Speaker 1: fan of Lebron on the show. We kind of just
Speaker 1: focused on the basketball, right, But like, Lebron is the
Speaker 1: player that got me to fall in love with the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, as I've told you guys before, and
Speaker 1: for me personally, what's been so interesting about rooting for him?
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you Warriors fans have felt a little
Speaker 1: bit like this with Steph over the years, but I
Speaker 1: always felt like going into a big game that Lebron
Speaker 1: James was gonna play great. And it's been, like I said,
Speaker 1: a super interesting experience as a fan because it's kind
Speaker 1: of it kind of gives you like a little bit
Speaker 1: less anxiety heading into these bigger types of games. Right,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about a postseason run where Lebron James
Speaker 1: is averaging under under twenty three points per game for
Speaker 1: the first time in his playoff career. He's shooting a
Speaker 1: percentage nine points below what he shot in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty playoff run. He's going through an uncharacteristic jump shooting slump.
Speaker 1: So many things not going well for Lebron. The only
Speaker 1: thing I really noticed on tape is he's definitely trying
Speaker 1: to conserve energy as much as possible. I think that
Speaker 1: stems from the foot injury and him just realizing that
Speaker 1: he's going to have to do so much down the
Speaker 1: line and his team is talented enough to carry him
Speaker 1: through these certain stretches of the game, so he holds
Speaker 1: it in reserve. You saw that a lot in this game, right,
Speaker 1: first shift to set the tone of the game. Atacking
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins in the post. He's getting downhill, he's scoring
Speaker 1: at the Rami's creating shots for his teammates. Super aggressive,
Speaker 1: twenty seven to ten lead. Rest of the first half,
Speaker 1: he kind of just chills. And I've grown to notice
Speaker 1: with him that that's how he kind of conserves energy.
Speaker 1: Second half, all half, just attacking in the post, attacking
Speaker 1: by bringing Steph up into high pick and roll, by
Speaker 1: bringing Jordan Poole up into high pick and roll, pushing
Speaker 1: at every single transition opportunity. He had absolutely dominating the
Speaker 1: defensive glass and flying around just in general in his
Speaker 1: rotations to make plays, closing out to shooters on the
Speaker 1: weak side, offering help at the rim. It was just
Speaker 1: an unbelievably dominant Lebron James performance. Thirty points, nine rebounds,
Speaker 1: and nine assists on fourteen shots, his first thirty point
Speaker 1: game of the postseason. You don't think this game mattered
Speaker 1: to Lebron James a lot. First thirty point game in
Speaker 1: this postseason when his team needed it most, wasn't settling
Speaker 1: for stupid. I thought he took two tough fadeaways in
Speaker 1: the first half. Other than that, I loved every single
Speaker 1: shot he took in this game. And the craziest part
Speaker 1: is that I just believed going into the game that
Speaker 1: that's what he was going to do. How insane is
Speaker 1: that that, in twenty seasons, with all of this mileage
Speaker 1: and undergoing the type of circumstances he's been dealing with
Speaker 1: in this playoff run, that I just knew Lebron was
Speaker 1: gonna play great. And to me, that's a testament to
Speaker 1: Lebron's greatness and what he's been able to accomplish in
Speaker 1: this league. The most dependably great playoff player in the
Speaker 1: history of the NBA. He's less reliant on shot variants
Speaker 1: than anybody else in the NBA, And the most interesting
Speaker 1: thing with this particular team is he's been able to
Speaker 1: evolve into whatever the team needs him to be. He can,
Speaker 1: for twenty minutes at a time just be a screener
Speaker 1: and roll to the rim, did a ton of that
Speaker 1: in Game four, But then when his team needs him
Speaker 1: to take on on ball responsibilities, he can. He's done
Speaker 1: it a lot out of the post in this series.
Speaker 1: But there at the end, and you saw it a
Speaker 1: little bit at the end of Game four when he
Speaker 1: kind of setting up Lonnie Walker on Steph Curry, but
Speaker 1: just at the top of the key, calling the guy
Speaker 1: that he thinks is the worst defender on the floor
Speaker 1: into the screen and just either getting downhill or getting
Speaker 1: the little hedge. There was a three pointer that Lonnie
Speaker 1: hit in the fourth quarter where he brings Steph into
Speaker 1: the screen and Steph is literally begging for Klay Thompson
Speaker 1: to come over. As Steph is hedging and trying to recoverage,
Speaker 1: throws it behind the back pass to Lonnie knocks down
Speaker 1: the three. Those are little surgical things in the half
Speaker 1: court to generate good shots against an elite defense that
Speaker 1: make him the type of reliably great player that he
Speaker 1: can be. And then on the defensive end, he can
Speaker 1: switch out on to Steph Curry on the perimeter, he
Speaker 1: can rotate on the back end of shooters, he can
Speaker 1: control the defensive glass. He's the ultimate Swiss army knife,
Speaker 1: and it's just insane to me that he's still He
Speaker 1: was by far the best player on the floor tonight.
Speaker 1: It wasn't close, and he didn't need to be that
Speaker 1: for the first five games, but when he needed to
Speaker 1: be that tonight, he was able to tap into that.
Speaker 1: And I just can't believe it. And again, like I've
Speaker 1: been critical of Lebron a lot over the course of
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, just by nature of the
Speaker 1: way that the show works, right, Like we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about the basketball. Lebron is my one big blind spot
Speaker 1: with the NBA. Grew up a Tucson I'm not a
Speaker 1: fan of any particular team. I root for the Lakers
Speaker 1: because I'm a fan of Lebron. And so when we're
Speaker 1: on the show, and what do I do with everybody,
Speaker 1: Like every player, regardless of who they are, what team
Speaker 1: they're on, they're playing well, gonna point it out, playing poorly,
Speaker 1: gonna point it out. And there have been long stretches
Speaker 1: over the course of the last few years where Lebron
Speaker 1: is coasted or left meat on the bone. And I
Speaker 1: think we can look back in retrospect and say that
Speaker 1: it's just all about conserving energy for when he thinks
Speaker 1: he absolutely needs it, because that was one of the
Speaker 1: most dominant two way performances I've ever seen, and he's
Speaker 1: just has not been at that level at all in
Speaker 1: this playoff run. Before that, just unbelievable stuff from Lebron
Speaker 1: were gonn get into him a lot more as we
Speaker 1: get into the series preview for Lakers Nuggets that I
Speaker 1: just wanted to give him a shout out tonight again.
Speaker 1: You knew he was gonna be great tonight and that's
Speaker 1: what sets him apart from really anybody else in NBA history,
Speaker 1: and he's got a chance to gain even more ground
Speaker 1: as time goes on. Anthony Davis I thought was the
Speaker 1: best player in the series overall. Obviously, Lebron James demonstrated
Speaker 1: that he can tap into that for any brief stint
Speaker 1: that they need for one game here, one quarter like
Speaker 1: he did in the fourth quarter against Memphis in Game four.
Speaker 1: He's shown the ability to tap in when he needs to,
Speaker 1: but in terms of the night in and night out,
Speaker 1: dependently great. Like I said on a game to game basis,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was the best player in the series. I
Speaker 1: told you guys after Giannis lost in the first round
Speaker 1: that that best player in the world title is up
Speaker 1: for grabs. To me, Anthony Davis is in the pole position.
Speaker 1: I know Nikola Jokic has been great, but I have
Speaker 1: a rule, don't call a guy best player in the
Speaker 1: world until he has the Larry O'Brian Trophy. End of
Speaker 1: story for me. And Anthony Davis has a Lario O'Brian trophy.
Speaker 1: He did it for sixteen wins in the twenty twenty bubble,
Speaker 1: including against Nikola Jokic, So for me, I'd be happy
Speaker 1: to give Yokic that recognition once he has the Lario
Speaker 1: b he does not. Anthony Davis just took the title
Speaker 1: away from Steph Curry. In my opinion, I think you
Speaker 1: have to call set Anthony Davis the best player in
Speaker 1: the world right now, which is crazy, crazy redemption from
Speaker 1: being so down on his luck with injuries, where we
Speaker 1: were on pace for three consecutive seasons, where he probably
Speaker 1: was like where you were as a Laker fan, you
Speaker 1: were sitting there like he's this, dude's not going to
Speaker 1: be available again. Going from there to being, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. What a turnaround and
Speaker 1: every again. And Colin Coward and I talked about this,
Speaker 1: I think a week and a half ago or so,
Speaker 1: but I think it's a super interesting concept. Every adjustment
Speaker 1: in this series had to do with Anthony Davis. Every
Speaker 1: Warrior adjustment was to try to pull Anthony Davis away
Speaker 1: from the paint. Every Laker adjustment was to try to
Speaker 1: keep Anthony Davis in the paint as much as possible.
Speaker 1: That was the chess match of this series. Every move
Speaker 1: had to do with Anthony Davis, and that's what made
Speaker 1: him the best player in the series. And we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about Steph here in a minute. I thought Steph
Speaker 1: had an extremely difficult task throughout this entire series, and
Speaker 1: we'll get to that. But you know what, Like, I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer in rewarding guys for winning, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis I think deserves a recognition for now. Laker guards
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, great defense all night, timely scoring, timely playmaking
Speaker 1: an incredible half court heave that completely changed the tone
Speaker 1: and tenor of the first half of this game. The
Speaker 1: Warriors are like, just I will say this Warriors fans. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I've never rooted against Lebron, so I don't know what
Speaker 1: that's like. But I have never feared a basketball player
Speaker 1: or team as with rooting interest the way I feared
Speaker 1: that Golden State team. I was joking with my wife,
Speaker 1: I was like the nineteen in the fourth quarter and
Speaker 1: I'm still nervous, Like it's crazy, and I just I
Speaker 1: have so much respect for that franchise, the number of
Speaker 1: punches that they were down twenty seven to ten and
Speaker 1: got it back to five. Like everything was going the
Speaker 1: Lakers way. They dominated the offensive glass, They forced the
Speaker 1: Lakers into turnovers, They packed a paint, forced them into
Speaker 1: bad shots, got out, got going in transition. Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 1: had a run. I am just so blown away by
Speaker 1: how good and how well run and coached that Warriors
Speaker 1: team is. And we're gonna talk about them a little
Speaker 1: bit more in a minute as it pertains to their future,
Speaker 1: but I can just say definitively, I'm so glad that
Speaker 1: that series is over because that was that was a
Speaker 1: hell experience for the one team that I have a
Speaker 1: rooting interest in in the NBA, which is the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers. Man. But Austin Reeves was awesome that he
Speaker 1: I thought changed the tone from that first half. D'Angelo
Speaker 1: Russell up and down as he usually is, but he
Speaker 1: made some big shots. Dennis Schroeder again one of the
Speaker 1: worst ejections I've ever seen in the history of sports,
Speaker 1: with him talking a little bit of trash to Draymond
Speaker 1: Green and getting kicked out of an elimination game as
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's primary defender, but I thought he did a
Speaker 1: great job defensively on Steph Curry for two and a
Speaker 1: half quarters, and then Lonnie Walker some timely three point
Speaker 1: shots during that run after Dennis went out. Obviously not
Speaker 1: the same defensive player that Dennis is, struggled a lot
Speaker 1: defensively over the course of the last two games, but
Speaker 1: made enough shots to make sure that the game kept
Speaker 1: that tone of being kind of like stiff armed distance
Speaker 1: rather than being really really competitive. One of the underrated
Speaker 1: things about the Laker guards is, for instance, Lebron James
Speaker 1: and we saw this was Steph Curry. So Steph Curry
Speaker 1: gets targeted on defense the entire game, right, and in
Speaker 1: that those stretches, it's easy to be like, oh, Steph,
Speaker 1: weak defender getting targeted, you know, And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: like when you're attacking the Warriors and the other guys
Speaker 1: on the court are Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: like it really is your best bet, you know, to
Speaker 1: target Steph Curry just because he's the smaller guy that's
Speaker 1: not as good of an athlete, right, even though he
Speaker 1: has turned himself into an average too above average defender.
Speaker 1: He's just your best option. But the bigger part of
Speaker 1: it has to do with his workload. The only chance
Speaker 1: the Warriors ever had to generate a quality shot against
Speaker 1: that Laker defense was through Steph Curry. That's an incredible
Speaker 1: amount of pressure offensively and an incredibly large workload offensively,
Speaker 1: and so he needs to save energy and he's doing
Speaker 1: that on the defensive end. I mean, a lot of
Speaker 1: people have been critical of Lebrono with that over the years,
Speaker 1: but I've said the same thing with Lebron, Like on
Speaker 1: some of these teams where you know, Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: hurt and Lebron's out there playing like he has to
Speaker 1: conserve energy defensively because he's their only hope to score
Speaker 1: on the other end. So I'm not going to be
Speaker 1: critical of Steph in that specific situation, but Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Lebron that's the opposite form of that dynamic. Austin,
Speaker 1: Dilo Dennis and Lonnie bring enough offensive punch that Anthony
Speaker 1: Davison Lebro James can literally focus on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. Anthony Davis was pretty much not involved
Speaker 1: in that game offensively, so he was able to save
Speaker 1: all of his energy for the defensive end. That's a
Speaker 1: luxury brought on by a really talented guard corps from
Speaker 1: the Lakers looking forward. For the Lakers, like I talked
Speaker 1: about with Denver, they just check a lot of boxes
Speaker 1: that I look for in championship contenders. I'm going to
Speaker 1: pick them over the Nuggets probably in six games. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do a deeper dive into the film before I
Speaker 1: finalize that, but that's where I'm leaning, and the main
Speaker 1: reason why is they literally check all the boxes. They
Speaker 1: have an outstanding perimeter defender and Dennis Schroeder, an outstanding
Speaker 1: wing defender in Ruy hatch In Jared Vanderbilt, a power
Speaker 1: wing defender in Ruy hatcha Murray that you can throw
Speaker 1: a bigger, stronger guys, and they have the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the league and Anthony Davis in a Swiss
Speaker 1: army knife in Lebron James alongside him and the other
Speaker 1: guards just do good enough right, kind of like what
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray does for the Nuggets. They just do good
Speaker 1: enough defensively. On the offensive end of the floor, they
Speaker 1: generate high quality shots through rim pressure, which is consistent
Speaker 1: in something you can generate from game to game, and
Speaker 1: they have two different types of complimentary superstars. They can
Speaker 1: run action together similar to Murray and Jokic. They both
Speaker 1: can operate out of the post to get shots close
Speaker 1: to the rim, and as Lebron James is demonstrated, when
Speaker 1: the chips are down, he is able to go to
Speaker 1: a level offensively that allows him to run the offense
Speaker 1: almost entirely. And so they check a ton of boxes
Speaker 1: and they have every bit as good a chance to
Speaker 1: win the title as anybody else does remaining in this field.
Speaker 1: Looking at the Steph Lebron thing. So I tweeted before
Speaker 1: the game, I joked that this was the talking Head Bowl.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I said that is this game tonight.
Speaker 1: This series is inevitably going to be used as fodder
Speaker 1: by you know, debate shows, everybody in your social media feeds,
Speaker 1: just when you're talking sports at the bar, at the
Speaker 1: water cooler. This is going to be the series that
Speaker 1: colors the way that this rivalry is discussed. Now. For me,
Speaker 1: it was already said in stunt I thought Lebron James
Speaker 1: was a better basketball player than Steph Curry in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, like I, the only time I ever thought
Speaker 1: Steph surpassed Lebron was in that brief window there from
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one forward, after Lebron started to decline a
Speaker 1: little bit physically, right, I just thought Lebron was better,
Speaker 1: and I thought that the Warriors won because they had
Speaker 1: better teams, and then Lebron obviously got twenty sixteen from
Speaker 1: them before Kevin Durant joined the town. I thought that
Speaker 1: was pretty clear. I think most people outside of the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors fan base agree with that, but Steph
Speaker 1: fans feel differently. I know most Steph fans think that
Speaker 1: Steph was better than Lebron in twenty fifteen, as good
Speaker 1: as Lebron in twenty sixteen, as good as Lebron in
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen eighteen, better than Lebron in twenty nineteen. Better.
Speaker 1: Since I know and look like everyone, this is not
Speaker 1: something that's just really easy to measure. Every Everyone's got
Speaker 1: their own beliefs, right, But for me, it was already
Speaker 1: set in stone. So the way I was always going
Speaker 1: to remember this Steph Lebron rivalry is that Lebron was
Speaker 1: the better player in the era and during those years.
Speaker 1: But at this phase, now that Steph is thirty five,
Speaker 1: I think he is the better player. And you know,
Speaker 1: like when you actually look at the schemes and what
Speaker 1: was taking place in that series, Steph played better basketball
Speaker 1: in this series and Lebron did for six games. Now
Speaker 1: in game six, Lebron is best player in the four
Speaker 1: by mile, and he deserves all that recognition. But to me,
Speaker 1: whatever happened in this series was not going to change
Speaker 1: that dynamic. But on those debate shows, it was going
Speaker 1: to change everything. If Steph wins this series, it's he's
Speaker 1: four and one against Lebron. You know, that's your talking
Speaker 1: point for the end till the end of time. Right.
Speaker 1: Whereas Lebron wins the series, it's Lebron's two to one
Speaker 1: against Steph without Kevin Durant and his one loss was
Speaker 1: when Kevin lov and Kyrie Irving both got hurt. Right,
Speaker 1: So that stupid low brown analysis. You guys know how
Speaker 1: much I hate that stuff, But that's how this game
Speaker 1: was always going to color that rivalry. Inevitably, whoever won
Speaker 1: was going to have those bragging rights. So what really
Speaker 1: happened here. Like I said, I believe Lebron James, the
Speaker 1: second best player of all time, was better than Steph
Speaker 1: throughout the Warriors dynasty in the late two thousands tens.
Speaker 1: Right since then, Lebron has aged a lot, he's injured,
Speaker 1: not the same player. I think Steph's a better player
Speaker 1: than Lebron now. But now Lebron has a better team,
Speaker 1: and you saw that the better team won the series.
Speaker 1: And that's why it's so stupid to make those arguments
Speaker 1: during those years when Steph has Kevin freaking Durant and
Speaker 1: Andre Gudala and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and all
Speaker 1: those guys on the team. It just doesn't make sense
Speaker 1: to make those arguments because you put yourself in a
Speaker 1: situation where now those arguments come back to bite you
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three when Lebron James, when he's oldest shit,
Speaker 1: has a better team and he beats you. That's why
Speaker 1: I hate talking about this stuff on the show. That's
Speaker 1: why we don't do that. What do we do on
Speaker 1: the show? We talked about the past catball, the better
Speaker 1: basketball team won this series, just like the better basketball
Speaker 1: team won in twenty fifteen, seventeen eighteen, and I thought
Speaker 1: the better team won in twenty sixteen when all the
Speaker 1: Cavs players were healthy. It's a team sport. Lebron and
Speaker 1: Steph have both contributed to those teams a great extent.
Speaker 1: I think Lebron's a better player, brings a great deal
Speaker 1: of offensive manipulation and scoring, and he can dominate games defensively.
Speaker 1: He was just a level above what Steph could do.
Speaker 1: I think Steph is my second favorite player ever. He's
Speaker 1: been the second best player in this era. I think
Speaker 1: he's clearly better than Kevin Durant, for instance. So it's
Speaker 1: not an insult to Steph. He's just up against the
Speaker 1: dude who's in the same conversation with Michael Jordan. How
Speaker 1: many guys are in conversations with Michael Jordan's zero except
Speaker 1: for Lebron. So there's no shame in the way this
Speaker 1: all went down. But I'm not going to be making
Speaker 1: sweeping declarations about this rivalry because to me, the rivalry
Speaker 1: already was what it was. Lebron's a better player of Steph.
Speaker 1: I've had better teams like that. To me, that was
Speaker 1: the rivalry. And here's the thing too, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to convince you, guys. I've never had a conversation with
Speaker 1: a Steph Curry fan. I talked with the half dozen
Speaker 1: Warrior fans or so on Twitter that I've met over
Speaker 1: the years and never had a single one of them
Speaker 1: have a conversation with me and then go, oh, you
Speaker 1: know what, You're right, Jason, Lebron's better. I'm not changing
Speaker 1: your mind. You guys feel the way you feel you
Speaker 1: should rooting for Steph. Rooting against Steph was freaking terrifying. Like,
Speaker 1: I get it. I understand why so many people are
Speaker 1: a big fan of him. I'm a huge fan of him,
Speaker 1: but no one's changing anybody's minds. I'm just glad for
Speaker 1: Lebron's sake that he won this series, because I do
Speaker 1: think it would have provided fodder for people to try
Speaker 1: to misrepresent what happened over the course of this era.
Speaker 1: All right, looking forward to for the Warriors. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I was terrified the whole game. Steph Curry's ridiculous. I've
Speaker 1: never seen a player of Warp of Defense the way
Speaker 1: that he does. But they need some help. I know
Speaker 1: that's the random word that we throw out a lot
Speaker 1: in this debate, but It's just the truth. You couldn't
Speaker 1: get anything out of Clay Thompson down the stretch of
Speaker 1: the series, couldn't get anything out of Jordan Pool in
Speaker 1: the entire series, and too often the Warriors were stuck
Speaker 1: in a predicament where they had to play defensive personnel
Speaker 1: at the expense of their spacing. We also know, beyond
Speaker 1: a shadow of a doubt that if you give Steph space,
Speaker 1: no one can keep him in front without throwing multiple
Speaker 1: defenders at him, and no one can take away threes
Speaker 1: from him without throwing multiple defenders at him. So moving forward,
Speaker 1: for the Warriors, you have to understand the value of
Speaker 1: what you have there. Like Anthony Davis is the best
Speaker 1: player in the world, now, Steph is right there next
Speaker 1: to him. So if you have that guy and you
Speaker 1: have the pieces with which to build a roster around
Speaker 1: him that makes him a championship contender, you were obligated
Speaker 1: to do so in my opinion. Now, Shamsherrannie reported immediately
Speaker 1: after the game that the Warriors are leaning towards bringing
Speaker 1: back Draymond. Great news. Guess what you did, Straymon? You
Speaker 1: immediately lose your championship contention. Been talking about that all season.
Speaker 1: You cannot win a title without legitimate rim protection. Draymond's
Speaker 1: that guy. He's done it four times. It's not his
Speaker 1: fault that this series went the way it did. It's
Speaker 1: the rest of the roster. So you got to bring
Speaker 1: Draymond Green. Draymond Green back, and I'm glad the Warriors
Speaker 1: have noticed that Klay Thompson apparently is considering taking a
Speaker 1: pay cut to stay on board. That's great news. I
Speaker 1: still think Klay Thompson can help. I just don't think
Speaker 1: you can run your offense through him against higher tier
Speaker 1: defenses as you saw like you wouldn't really get in
Speaker 1: good looks in this game. But you know, if you
Speaker 1: can get him to stay on at a discount, and
Speaker 1: makes sense to keep him there. Andrew Wiggins obviously still
Speaker 1: a vitally important piece. So who are the odd men
Speaker 1: out there? As we look at the young guys. I
Speaker 1: think Moses Moody demonstrated that he can be an impact
Speaker 1: role player in the NBA playoffs. Defends at high level
Speaker 1: play super physical was just dead eye with his corner threes.
Speaker 1: Moses Moody I think is worth keeping. But Jonathan Kamina
Speaker 1: and Jordan Poole are the two guys that I come
Speaker 1: back to. Look, Jordan Poole was amazing Lastro's postseason run.
Speaker 1: As Klay Thompson said, you don't win the title without Geordan.
Speaker 1: I want to give those guys, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that he's remembered properly as a champion.
Speaker 1: That said, he's declined, especially on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, and by virtue of the way his salary
Speaker 1: is structured, he's your best bet to try to bring
Speaker 1: in higher quality role players. So I think the move
Speaker 1: is you got to package any draft compensation that you
Speaker 1: have and Jordan Poole and Jonathan Kaminga and bring back
Speaker 1: two way role players, players that can both shoot and
Speaker 1: defend at their position, so that you can give Steph
Speaker 1: the space to operate. If you this tiered system where
Speaker 1: you always have one big on the floor, either Looney
Speaker 1: or Draymond, that works. It's when they have multiple non
Speaker 1: shooters on the floor that the Lakers were really able
Speaker 1: to stagnate them offensively. There were possessions in this game
Speaker 1: where like Ad would end up on Moses Moody and
Speaker 1: Steph is getting a Jordan Poole's beating dudes off the
Speaker 1: dribble and making layups. You can space good defenses out.
Speaker 1: You just need the right personnel. So I'm glad to
Speaker 1: hear that they're prioritizing the right guys. But it's time
Speaker 1: to go all in. We talked about after last year
Speaker 1: they held some chips back because they thought they had enough.
Speaker 1: At the time, I didn't think they had enough. I
Speaker 1: was wrong. Joe Lacob is right. They won the title,
Speaker 1: but this year it has been become clear that they
Speaker 1: don't have enough. So if you've got one of the
Speaker 1: best players in the world and you've got assets at
Speaker 1: your disposal, you're obligated to surround them with the talent
Speaker 1: he needs to compete for a title, and so I
Speaker 1: hope that they do so this summer. You know what,
Speaker 1: I'd love to see Lakers Warriors again in the playoffs
Speaker 1: next year, and then maybe we can have one more
Speaker 1: giant legacy debate on all the talking head shows for
Speaker 1: a full day. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for right now. After I record this, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be recording a video on Nick's heat that'll be up
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning when you guys wake up, So keep an
Speaker 1: eye on that. And your feeds. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys. Sunday, we're going with Colin after Game seven
Speaker 1: of Celtics Sixers, and then probably sometime on Monday morning,
Speaker 1: I'll have your first series preview in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: and for the Conference Finals involving the Nuggets and the Lakers.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, guys, and I'll see you tomorrow. The
Speaker 1: Volume