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Speaker 1: gambler dot net in West Virginia. Welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel Here at the volume. This is Monday, right,
Speaker 1: Happy Monday everyone. The days are running together, as is
Speaker 1: always the case during the NBA Playoffs, yet another massive blowout.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna get too far into the xs and
Speaker 1: ohs of this game, because it just doesn't warrant that.
Speaker 1: But later we're gonna spend a good portion of tonight's
Speaker 1: show talking about Golden State Dallas last night, really getting
Speaker 1: into the weeds. Um. As you guys know, I didn't
Speaker 1: really have an opportunity to get into my normal breakdown
Speaker 1: last night because I went on with Colin cowherd Uh.
Speaker 1: Funny story actually that I wanted to tell you guys.
Speaker 1: I was managing a sales team at Verizon Wireless back
Speaker 1: in Gosh. It was two thousand fifteen in the fall,
Speaker 1: so seven years ago, and I I was good at it,
Speaker 1: but I hated it, like I was just I was
Speaker 1: just miserable, you know. And I used to drive down
Speaker 1: this long road to get to where I was going.
Speaker 1: I had about a forty five minute commute every day.
Speaker 1: I was working six days a week. I was working
Speaker 1: crazy hours, and in the car I used to listen
Speaker 1: to Colin Cowhard every single day on my way to work,
Speaker 1: just like many of you did growing up. Obviously kind
Speaker 1: of a staple in the industry. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: one day as I was driving, I was listening to
Speaker 1: Colin introduced Nick Wright. Many of you guys also listened
Speaker 1: to Big Basketball Guy. Uh definitely has it takes that
Speaker 1: are interesting, you know. And uh, I I sat there
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, like, I really want to
Speaker 1: do this. And on that day, I I went in
Speaker 1: and I called my district manager and I asked to
Speaker 1: go back to being a sales rep and to go
Speaker 1: back to part time and I told my wife that
Speaker 1: I wanted to do this, and a lot has changed
Speaker 1: and a lot has happened over the course of the
Speaker 1: next seven years. It definitely wasn't a straight line path.
Speaker 1: I took a detour to try to play for I
Speaker 1: Strow Basketball for a while too. Like it was very complicated, um,
Speaker 1: but it was an absolutely surreal moment last night to
Speaker 1: get to be on his show. And you know, I,
Speaker 1: I obviously had ambitions of getting into this industry, but
Speaker 1: for my first opportunity to get to work for this
Speaker 1: company and to work for Colin and for all of
Speaker 1: you guys listening like he's he's just as great of
Speaker 1: a person as you would expect. And the way he's
Speaker 1: treated me, the way his company has treated me, has
Speaker 1: been incredible. And I'm loving every minute of it. And
Speaker 1: obviously it's just a little non basketball kind of detour,
Speaker 1: but I just wanted to give you guys a little
Speaker 1: bit of a peek into a very brief window into
Speaker 1: how I made the decision to try to get into
Speaker 1: this industry and and how I started down this path,
Speaker 1: and it was it was kind of a cool moment
Speaker 1: last night, And obviously I hope to be there several
Speaker 1: times in the future. If you guys haven't seen that,
Speaker 1: go to the Volumes YouTube channel and scroll down. We
Speaker 1: talked a good almost half hour Colin and I about
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff, including the Golden State Warriors and
Speaker 1: the Celtics and a bunch of good stuff. But really
Speaker 1: quickly before we get started, make sure you liked this
Speaker 1: video and subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel, um so
Speaker 1: that you don't miss any more of our videos. Don't
Speaker 1: forget to follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt
Speaker 1: so you guys can see all the video content that
Speaker 1: I release and breakdowns and things along those things along
Speaker 1: those lines. And for whatever reason you can't catch one
Speaker 1: of these shows and you're you know, too busy to
Speaker 1: sit on YouTube for a little while. Check out our
Speaker 1: podcast feed. It's under Leakers Tonight right now. But you know,
Speaker 1: obviously we call ourselves Soups Tonight. But that's where you'll
Speaker 1: find that feed on the on the podcast front. But
Speaker 1: let's get started. So with Boston, you know, they've they've
Speaker 1: been the most frustrating team that I can see in
Speaker 1: this field in terms of their inconsistent effort, frustrating for
Speaker 1: betting purposes, I've made money and lost money on them
Speaker 1: and on so many different occasions, and this playoff run
Speaker 1: is funny. I I bet an alternate spread tonight. I
Speaker 1: got him at minus two minus twelve and a half
Speaker 1: at plus two hundred on fan duel, and it was
Speaker 1: I felt. I felt like that was a comfortable number
Speaker 1: I had to feel. And they went by twenty or thirty,
Speaker 1: but I thought that it was a comfortable number that
Speaker 1: they'd be able to cover. That gave some good odds,
Speaker 1: and you know, with their inconsistent effort. Obviously they burned
Speaker 1: me in game three, but here in game four, it
Speaker 1: was absolutely predictable and a slam dunk home run to
Speaker 1: think that Emil Udoka would rip these guys a new
Speaker 1: one and they'd come out and they'd play with force
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. And when they play
Speaker 1: with force on both ends of the floor, they are
Speaker 1: so much more talented on both ends of the floor
Speaker 1: that even a team that's as good as Miami. And
Speaker 1: remind you, like reminder, this is this is bam out
Speaker 1: of Bio and Jimmy Butler. These are all star caliber players.
Speaker 1: Are these superstars? No, these are two all stars and
Speaker 1: a bunch of really solid role players, all of which
Speaker 1: can shoot, most of which at least compete on the
Speaker 1: defensive end, and they are completely outclassed by this Boston
Speaker 1: team when they're playing with Force. And you know what's
Speaker 1: so interesting is playing with Forrest goes on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor on the defensive end, like we saw.
Speaker 1: We saw Boston completely mail in the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor in Game three. It was absolutely embarrassing. It
Speaker 1: was the low point of this playoff run for them
Speaker 1: because even with their inconsistent effort on on offense that
Speaker 1: has taken place throughout this playoff run, it seemed mostly
Speaker 1: associated with decision making, and for the most part, their
Speaker 1: defense has been really, really good until they got into
Speaker 1: this series. I think I think it's a combination of
Speaker 1: a couple of different things. I think this is this
Speaker 1: is an issue for them. I don't think they respect
Speaker 1: the Miami heat. I don't think they you know, I
Speaker 1: think that I think Boston had the appropriate fear of
Speaker 1: Milwaukee and of Brooklyn, and I think as a result,
Speaker 1: they approached the game seriously on the defensive end in
Speaker 1: both of those series. Obviously, they did a great job
Speaker 1: against Brooklyn. They held Milwaukee to eighty two points, prone
Speaker 1: hunter possessions and half court sets, which is just a
Speaker 1: ridiculous defensive marker for an all time great player like
Speaker 1: Janice and Drew Holiday and all the shooting that Milwaukee
Speaker 1: had right but for whatever reason, that same defensive intensity
Speaker 1: just didn't translate over into this series in a consistent basis.
Speaker 1: They held massive leads in all of the games except
Speaker 1: for one. They were up thirteen in Game one. They
Speaker 1: had thirty plus point leads in both Game two and
Speaker 1: Game four. They were within one late in Game three.
Speaker 1: I told you guys, Boston was good enough to sweep
Speaker 1: this series. They're just have had inconsistent effort, you know.
Speaker 1: And again on offense with force, it's about getting into
Speaker 1: the paint. And a lot of people don't understand this,
Speaker 1: like when it comes to driving to the basket, when
Speaker 1: you go play pick up at a men's league or
Speaker 1: in your y m c A or a you know,
Speaker 1: an l A fitness or something. You know, beating people
Speaker 1: to the basket is not exactly overly complicated. No one's
Speaker 1: really playing all that hard, No one's in great shape.
Speaker 1: When you're playing a really good athlete on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: you're you're never gonna get like a clear, straight line drive.
Speaker 1: More than often you're just trying to get an inch
Speaker 1: of leverage, just a tiny bit of space, and then
Speaker 1: you're trying to shoot that gap. You're almost trying to
Speaker 1: go through their shoulder. It's a physicality game, like driving
Speaker 1: to the basket requires a great deal of physicality. And
Speaker 1: so when Boston comes out without force and they aren't
Speaker 1: deliberately trying to plow through those tiny gaps in the
Speaker 1: defense to get into the paint so that they can
Speaker 1: get their driving kick game going, and then on the
Speaker 1: defensive end, when they're not playing with force, they're unrecognizable.
Speaker 1: And what's particularly dangerous with that is this is we're
Speaker 1: entering into a phase of the playoffs. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: already been there, but we're entering into a phase of
Speaker 1: the playoffs where the margin for error is extraordinarily small.
Speaker 1: Like let's just look back at last year's NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: We're talking about, you know, one insane Hoannice defensive play
Speaker 1: where he plays in drop coverage and dissuades Devin Booker
Speaker 1: from taking a pull up, forces him to throw a lob,
Speaker 1: and then turns around and makes an absurd defensive play
Speaker 1: at the rim on DeAndre Ayton, and then you know,
Speaker 1: and then other game where uh, Devin Booker drove into
Speaker 1: the lane, picked up his dribble on p J. Tucker
Speaker 1: and Drew Holiday comes in, it takes the ball away
Speaker 1: and we get to run out alley. Youop for Janice.
Speaker 1: That's two plays that swung a playoff series. I go
Speaker 1: back two rounds prior. I'm looking at Kevin Durant taking
Speaker 1: a spinning fade away from the three point line where
Speaker 1: his toes are on the line, and if they're two
Speaker 1: inches further back, Brooklyn advances. And that's just two series
Speaker 1: from a very recent playoff run. I could take a
Speaker 1: half hour here for you guys and lay out time
Speaker 1: and time again where these things end up getting determined
Speaker 1: by the slightest of margins and the slightest of factors.
Speaker 1: You and again, some of this is a lack of
Speaker 1: respect for Miami, a lack of that fear. But look
Speaker 1: at how even against a team that is so inferior
Speaker 1: from a talent perspective like Miami, how they're too too.
Speaker 1: This series is tied, Like how wild is that this
Speaker 1: series Boston has utterly and completely dominated Miami in this series.
Speaker 1: Is tied because of the fact that they've let go
Speaker 1: of the rope a handful of times in the third
Speaker 1: quarter of Game one and to start Game three, and
Speaker 1: it costs them what should have been a sweep. Here's
Speaker 1: the problem. Golden State's most likely going to advance or
Speaker 1: up three. Oh, obviously we're gonna talk a lot about
Speaker 1: them here in a little bit. Golden State is not
Speaker 1: gonna mail it in. Golden State is not going to
Speaker 1: make those mistakes. You know why, because they know what
Speaker 1: it's like to step Steph has lost an NBA championship
Speaker 1: in a game where in the fourth quarter he threw
Speaker 1: a wild behind the back pass out of bounce to
Speaker 1: to a wide open Clay Thompson in the corner, like sloppy.
Speaker 1: He lost a game on little mistakes like that. There's
Speaker 1: scar tissue that forms there. You the pain of loss
Speaker 1: builds an understanding of how easily how easy it is
Speaker 1: to lose, and then you take you take an extra
Speaker 1: attention to detail to make sure that that doesn't happen again.
Speaker 1: That scar tissue that Golden State has is such a
Speaker 1: huge advantage for them going into this finals. Boston has
Speaker 1: not learned, like I probably won't even bet on them
Speaker 1: in Game five because who the hell knows what they're
Speaker 1: gonna do every time they every time they come out
Speaker 1: and show because in terms of their two way talent,
Speaker 1: they're better than everybody in in two way talent. I
Speaker 1: think Golden State has more offensive talent, but they rely
Speaker 1: on some guys that are competing defensively without the appropriate
Speaker 1: physical tools. Boston has guys that are amazing physical specimens
Speaker 1: playing defense at an extremely high level, and they have
Speaker 1: a lot of offensive talent. But I would right now
Speaker 1: pick Golden State to beat them. They have a they
Speaker 1: have the appropriate understanding of what is going to happen
Speaker 1: in the next round. You know, there's a You remember
Speaker 1: in two thousand fifteen when the Warriors came into the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals and they ran into Lebron and Lebron you know,
Speaker 1: the Calves aren't a dynasty, but Lebron in and of
Speaker 1: himself was a dynasty. At that point. Lebron understood what
Speaker 1: that stage was, he understood everything that it entailed. And
Speaker 1: Steph and Clay were there new they were new to
Speaker 1: the environment. Draymon was new to the environment, and they
Speaker 1: kind of eased their way into that series, and Lebron
Speaker 1: attacked it and took a two one lead and had
Speaker 1: Steph not gone wild in Game five in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter while Lebron was having a monster game, then maybe
Speaker 1: they go down three too, maybe the Calves close him
Speaker 1: out at home. That was another slim margin. The point
Speaker 1: is is like, that's a huge advantage for Golden State
Speaker 1: going into that next round. Regardless of how you feel,
Speaker 1: Golden State fans probably feel like you're better, and you might.
Speaker 1: In terms of talent, it's very close between Boston and
Speaker 1: Golden State. I give Boston a slight edge and overall
Speaker 1: talent both ways, but I want to pick Golden State
Speaker 1: because I know that they understand what it takes and
Speaker 1: right now with Boston, they have proven time and time
Speaker 1: again that even though they understand the job, even though
Speaker 1: they know what they have to do to win, too
Speaker 1: often they check into the game and they don't do it.
Speaker 1: And maybe it's because they haven't experienced enough loss. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's because they haven't experienced enough pain. Who knows, Maybe
Speaker 1: I'll be wrong, We'll I'll be interested to see. We're
Speaker 1: gonna bring my guy car Carson on We're going to
Speaker 1: dive into a whole bunch of additional stuff. It's good
Speaker 1: to see your face again, Carson. Oh, Jason, say m
Speaker 1: to you. Of course. All right, so we got five
Speaker 1: big questions here for the Western Conference Finals, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna start with this one. It's pretty straightforward. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: picked the maps ahead of the series. They are now
Speaker 1: sitting down three. Oh, it seems that all hope is
Speaker 1: nearly lost given the historical president in the NBA. So, Jason,
Speaker 1: how would you say that Dallas lost this series? So
Speaker 1: obviously I was wrong about this series if I Golden
Speaker 1: State fans nonstopping my mentions, talking reckless, sending me d
Speaker 1: m s and things like that, even though I clearly
Speaker 1: stated at the beginning that uh that I wasn't confident
Speaker 1: in this series at all, Like I didn't have a
Speaker 1: good feel for this series at all. I was just
Speaker 1: basically taking a shot in the dark. And like I
Speaker 1: felt very confident in Boston because there was some clear
Speaker 1: basketball things I could follow to that conclusion, I just
Speaker 1: clearly didn't appropriately factor in their inexperience and there you know,
Speaker 1: undisciplined nature in terms of their night to night approach. Um,
Speaker 1: it is so let's talk the basketball, because forget, regardless
Speaker 1: of what you think I was wrong. I picked Dallas
Speaker 1: to win the series in six and they're probably gonna
Speaker 1: get swept maybe in five. So where I think this
Speaker 1: series went wrong for Dallas is a super interesting dynamic
Speaker 1: that I've seen a handful of times in NBA history.
Speaker 1: It's actually happened to Stephan Claite. It's actually a great
Speaker 1: example of what I was just talking about. You know,
Speaker 1: Dallas got really good shots through three games. They actually
Speaker 1: won the shot quality score in game one and two,
Speaker 1: which again I can't take that to the bank. It's
Speaker 1: not worth anything, it's not worth points on the scoreboard.
Speaker 1: But what it is is it's just an indicator of
Speaker 1: your process, you know, Dallas. We knew coming into this
Speaker 1: series that Dallas was going to pick on mismatches and
Speaker 1: space the floor, and they were gonna get either wide
Speaker 1: open threes or great matchups for their players to try
Speaker 1: to score. Golden State clearly went with the strategy of
Speaker 1: attempting to um of attempting to send multiple defenders to
Speaker 1: the isolation guys, and they were willing to give up
Speaker 1: the threes and pretty consistently throughout the series, Dallas just
Speaker 1: hasn't been able knocked them down after for two rounds,
Speaker 1: they did knock them down. And what was strangely appalling
Speaker 1: to me, especially in game three, the only guys on
Speaker 1: the roster that were rising up into shots with confidence.
Speaker 1: And you can tell, you could tell by how close
Speaker 1: the shots are. You could tell by the way they elevate,
Speaker 1: you can tell by the follow through, and you can
Speaker 1: tell by their body language. The only two guys that
Speaker 1: were rising rising up confidently was Luke Chi and Spencer Dinwood.
Speaker 1: Everyone else was terrified. And it reminded me once again
Speaker 1: of the effect that Lebron had on the Warriors in
Speaker 1: two thousand fift and the effect that the Celtics had
Speaker 1: on Lebron in the late two thousand tents. You know,
Speaker 1: this is a persistent pathway, the comfort of having been
Speaker 1: there many times and understanding everything and having established success
Speaker 1: versus being the new guy on the stage. And just
Speaker 1: like Lebron, and like a sixty win Calves team lost
Speaker 1: to an inferiors talented Boston Celtics team in two thousand ten,
Speaker 1: and Lebron wasn't great either. Lebron's deserves a ton of
Speaker 1: criticism for that. Series, but his role players all fell
Speaker 1: apart two and a big part of that was there's
Speaker 1: an aura that comes with the defending champion, someone that's
Speaker 1: been their time and time again that's loaded with veteran players,
Speaker 1: they bring a they bring like a psychological impact to
Speaker 1: the arena because you know they're comfortable, and you know
Speaker 1: they're confident, and it can get in your head if
Speaker 1: you haven't been there before, and if you haven't you know,
Speaker 1: been on that stage and you're not comfortable there, and
Speaker 1: so again that happened. I thought Lebron had that same
Speaker 1: psychological impact on Dallas or on Golden State in two
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen in that series. I thought that was the
Speaker 1: only reason it dragged out as long as it did.
Speaker 1: And I thought a huge part of this was the
Speaker 1: gold the Golden State dynasty and the aura that it's
Speaker 1: that surrounds it, and the psychological impact that had on
Speaker 1: wide open shooters to be terrified. You know, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised that there's a little bit of trash talk
Speaker 1: from Golden State in there, Draymond telling guys like, you're
Speaker 1: scared to shoot. I wouldn't be surprised if there was
Speaker 1: a bunch of that stuff going on. That is all
Speaker 1: the psychological impact of being a champion. And then the
Speaker 1: second biggest thing, and that where this series went off
Speaker 1: the rails. We talked a lot about how Dallas doesn't
Speaker 1: have a great defensive personnel. We don't have to get
Speaker 1: into it again. During Phinney Smith and Reggie Bullock are
Speaker 1: really the only two guys that are high end defensive
Speaker 1: players in terms of their athleticism and build. Everyone else
Speaker 1: was just competing, which is great, but there's a physical
Speaker 1: limitation there. They played two very traditional basketball teams in
Speaker 1: the first two rounds, the Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1: High pick and roll, traditional spacing, not great personnel, right
Speaker 1: in terms of drible creation, you know, the the Jazz
Speaker 1: lacked the guys that could consistently get into the paint
Speaker 1: outside of Donovan Mitchell. Right, and then we go to
Speaker 1: Phoenix and with Chris Paul losing his aggression and Devin
Speaker 1: Booker happening to get cold as a jump shooter, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, their offensive talent went down off a cliff.
Speaker 1: You know. I blame that on Chris Paul's injury, but
Speaker 1: as a result, they were able to set themselves up
Speaker 1: in pretty traditional defensive coverages and nail those things down.
Speaker 1: We did a whole thing about this when they won
Speaker 1: Game seven. Like Dallas wasn't doing anything spectacular on defense,
Speaker 1: they were just always in the right spots. They were
Speaker 1: very disciplined, and they did the right thing and they
Speaker 1: were able to shut down a good offense. Here's the problem.
Speaker 1: Golden State was the first team that Dallas played in
Speaker 1: this playoff run that truly spaced them out, that truly
Speaker 1: made them cover a ton of ground on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: It almost immediately they got exposed as a team that
Speaker 1: had limited defensive personnel, particularly Luca, who were going to
Speaker 1: get into in a little bit, but they had they
Speaker 1: they had no ability to guard. And there one opportunity
Speaker 1: to to win a game in this series, which was
Speaker 1: Game two, and they had a huge lead. They came
Speaker 1: out in the second half and gave up sixty eight points,
Speaker 1: and if you watch the tape, their point of attack
Speaker 1: defense was awful, their defensive rotations were awful. They were
Speaker 1: exposed as a team that could defend when everything was
Speaker 1: in structure, but as soon as they aproach to face
Speaker 1: the team that took them out of structure, and put
Speaker 1: them in a spaced out dribble drive attack environment. They
Speaker 1: couldn't contain every anybody, so they completely fell apart on defense,
Speaker 1: and then I thought psychologically they crumbled under the weight
Speaker 1: of Golden State as open three point shooters. Next thing
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta sweep and again Golden State is.
Speaker 1: Golden State is on the verge of sweeping a team
Speaker 1: that had the second best record in basketball since January one.
Speaker 1: They're on the verge of sweeping a team that just
Speaker 1: literally one uh four the last five games of the
Speaker 1: series against the team that dominated the NBA regular season
Speaker 1: this year. This was a very good Dallas Mavericks team
Speaker 1: that Golden State dismantled. And I think those are the
Speaker 1: reasons why I think the psychological point is a really
Speaker 1: interesting and one and one that you don't often hear
Speaker 1: people make. But when you talk about sort of the
Speaker 1: basketball happenings, it feels to me like a theme of
Speaker 1: what you're touching on with a lot of this is
Speaker 1: versatility to an extent, when you talk about Dallas not
Speaker 1: being able to guard in specific matchups and ABBO see
Speaker 1: they're really limited in some ways by the fact they
Speaker 1: don't have that true five when you're always playing small
Speaker 1: ball with Powell or Cleb in that spot. They don't
Speaker 1: have the same depth of shot creation. And when you
Speaker 1: talk about a shot making laps like they've had in
Speaker 1: this series where they're sub thirty from deep, they're creating
Speaker 1: those good looks from three, but they don't really have
Speaker 1: counters if those shots aren't falling, because they don't have
Speaker 1: those guys who can attack off the bounce and get
Speaker 1: their own shots and facilitate. Whereas the Warriors, it seems
Speaker 1: like they have a plethora of options on any given night.
Speaker 1: They do have more of that versatility in terms of
Speaker 1: lineups and personnel. So I mean, how much of a
Speaker 1: deciding factor is just that in the series that maybe
Speaker 1: the Warriors you know, aren't necessarily the better team point blank,
Speaker 1: but they're the more versatile team. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: that was a big factor. Absolutely. I mean, this Warrior's
Speaker 1: team has been damn good this year with Steph Curry
Speaker 1: being kind of a shell of himself in terms of
Speaker 1: his efficiency on his pull up three point shooting and
Speaker 1: all the all of those little elements of his game.
Speaker 1: You know, when Dallas is wide up in three point
Speaker 1: shots started missing they didn't have another angle. And part
Speaker 1: of this is like Dinwoodie and Brunson and some of
Speaker 1: their limitations. Like so one of the I thought one
Speaker 1: of the biggest problems in this series was the lack
Speaker 1: of comfort that Jalen Brunson and Spencer didn't what he
Speaker 1: have As pull up jump shooters, they both can and
Speaker 1: when they have it going, they'll hunt that shot and
Speaker 1: they'll knock it down when they have it going. But
Speaker 1: you could tell both of them, for the most part
Speaker 1: in this series, Golden State was playing off of them
Speaker 1: and playing the drive and trying to bait them into
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, and they you could tell they
Speaker 1: just didn't want to take them, whereas Luca absolutely does.
Speaker 1: And so some of it is like some of it
Speaker 1: is like for instance, it's because this model that Dallas built,
Speaker 1: I think is super interesting and something that more teams
Speaker 1: should try to replicate, which is you can maximize your
Speaker 1: talent on your roster by organizing yourself in a way
Speaker 1: that succeeds in the playoff environment. So for instance, like Dallas,
Speaker 1: like Spencer didn't, Winni and Jalen Brunson or not all stars,
Speaker 1: but you know what they are They're guys that have
Speaker 1: one great skill, which is the ability to create their
Speaker 1: own shot, right they can. They feel comfortable attacking mismatches.
Speaker 1: So if you put them in a system or you
Speaker 1: space the floor of the ton of shooting, which again
Speaker 1: Dallas has shot like absolute crap in this series. But
Speaker 1: they shot amazingly well through two rounds and that's been
Speaker 1: the Lion's share of the way this team was constructed.
Speaker 1: Everyone around them can shoot. Even the two guys that
Speaker 1: didn't shoot well, that can't shoot, that we know can't shoot,
Speaker 1: like Frank Nilkina and Josh Green, they're only playing because
Speaker 1: Tim Hardwood juniors hurt. Like those minutes minutes are all
Speaker 1: going to Tim Hardaway Jr. In the future, right, So
Speaker 1: like they space the floor and they pick on mismatches.
Speaker 1: That's proven to work. So there, there's there's some good
Speaker 1: stuff there. The differences is like when you go back
Speaker 1: to previous iterations of this team and where it failed,
Speaker 1: it came down to shock creation talent. Last year the
Speaker 1: l A Clippers Paul George was amazing, but it just
Speaker 1: wasn't enough without Kauai for that whole thing to be
Speaker 1: enough to get to the finals, right, go back two
Speaker 1: years before that or three years before that to the
Speaker 1: Rockets in two thousand eighteen. James Harden is not Luca
Speaker 1: don Chech. He doesn't have versatility to the way he attacks.
Speaker 1: So Golden States solved him. He was forced to just
Speaker 1: basically take step back three towards and that series, and
Speaker 1: I think you went like two for a third pain
Speaker 1: in game seven, so like there was and then Chris
Speaker 1: and then Chris Paul was out right. But there's in theory,
Speaker 1: there's a version of this Dallas construct where you actually
Speaker 1: get two really good shot creators, you know, basically a
Speaker 1: healthy Chris Paul and a and a Luca type of archetype, right,
Speaker 1: or even just in this arc, this Luca just bringing
Speaker 1: another star of some kind. There's a version of this
Speaker 1: dynamic that can work. I think it's just the three
Speaker 1: the three previous times that we've tried this, it's been
Speaker 1: inferior secondary creators next to Luca. It's been an injury
Speaker 1: to Chris Paul, it's been an injury to Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: that ended up derailing it. So as you touch on
Speaker 1: just the structure and the identities of these teams, it
Speaker 1: feels like a good opportunity to get to another key
Speaker 1: factor in this series, and that is coaching, and specifically
Speaker 1: it feels like Steve Kerr has kind of had a
Speaker 1: chance to shine in this series. So just what have
Speaker 1: you thought about how he's performed throughout the series and
Speaker 1: how important has that been to the Warriors being where
Speaker 1: they are right now. So I think Steve Kerr and
Speaker 1: Eric Spoelstra have both clearly demonstrated that they are on
Speaker 1: a tear by themselves above all the other coaches that
Speaker 1: we've seen in this playoff run. You know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: focus on Steve Kerr because for unfortunately for Erik Spoelstra,
Speaker 1: he just doesn't have enough talent for it to really matter.
Speaker 1: But both Spoelstra and Kerr have put on a clinic
Speaker 1: in this playoff run of mixing up coverages. And I
Speaker 1: thought this move from Golden State was a huge part
Speaker 1: of why Dallas never got comfortable. When you see the
Speaker 1: same look every single time, you get accustomed to how
Speaker 1: to attack it. I think this is one of the
Speaker 1: you know, this is is one of those things that
Speaker 1: you'll see sometimes when you're watching Lebron when he's really
Speaker 1: in a flow, he'll work his way down the floor
Speaker 1: every time and just do the exact same thing and
Speaker 1: just start picking you apart because he's just he's trying
Speaker 1: to bait you into one thing or another. He's so
Speaker 1: familiar with your look that he's just one step ahead
Speaker 1: of you all the time. One of the easiest ways
Speaker 1: to counter that is to make it so that you're
Speaker 1: never facing the same look more than a handful of
Speaker 1: times in a row. D Steve Kerr not just mixing
Speaker 1: in zone, but mixing in different kinds of zone. Like
Speaker 1: imagine you're a man, you're going against some man to
Speaker 1: man coverage and Luca breaks you down, gets into lane,
Speaker 1: makes a tough floater, comes down. The next time they
Speaker 1: help out of the corner, he kicks to Max clib
Speaker 1: makes the three scored two times in a row. You
Speaker 1: got and then you come down and it's a two
Speaker 1: three zone and you're like, okay, well what do we get? Okay,
Speaker 1: everyone get to your right spots. Okay, at the time
Speaker 1: we've identified it's a two three zone and got to
Speaker 1: our spacing, it's already twelve seconds on the shot clock.
Speaker 1: Now we're throwing two or three swing passes and jacking
Speaker 1: up a three right, Like, it's just it. It changes
Speaker 1: the way you have to attack on a possession by
Speaker 1: possession basis. And then it's like, okay, we go against
Speaker 1: the zone twice. We got a two decent three point.
Speaker 1: Looks Luca is doing it by screening the top man
Speaker 1: of the zone and getting to the elbow and making kickouts.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, now it's a box in one. So even
Speaker 1: if you screen the guy that's guarding Luca, the other
Speaker 1: guy in the zones right there. So it's like, what
Speaker 1: do you do? Like the the the the way that
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr consistently mixed up coverages in this series to
Speaker 1: constantly keep Dallas off balance. That is all also part
Speaker 1: of how a team. That's how guys are not confident
Speaker 1: when they're pulling up for shots. That's how guys get
Speaker 1: out of a rhythm and flow. That's how you get
Speaker 1: players to play beneath their personal ceiling is by keeping
Speaker 1: them off balance and keeping them uncomfortable. And I think
Speaker 1: you know again, it's you. It's are to factor in
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases because there aren't enough coaches
Speaker 1: like this that are this good. But I think I
Speaker 1: think Eric Spoilstra and Steve Kerr both of them have
Speaker 1: just been putting on clinics in terms of defensive scheming
Speaker 1: and keeping teams off balance. But with Steve Kerr in
Speaker 1: this case, I think he took a series that I
Speaker 1: thought was a coin flip. And again, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of elements to this, but one of the big elements
Speaker 1: with Steve Kerr and him doing that as a huge
Speaker 1: part of why the series is gonna be over fast?
Speaker 1: Do you think Kerr might be the most underappreciated coach ever? Dare?
Speaker 1: I say that's super interesting because the amount of talent.
Speaker 1: I mean, look when you when we look at all
Speaker 1: these coaches to NBA history, it's easy to underappreciate them
Speaker 1: when we factor in the talent, right, like Greg Popovich,
Speaker 1: It's like, oh yeah, Tim duncan Tony Parker manage nobly
Speaker 1: at Kawhi Leonard, You had David Robinson, all this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, Right, you got to Steve Kerr and all
Speaker 1: the talent he's played with. We go to Phil Jackson
Speaker 1: and all the talent he's coached, all the talent that
Speaker 1: pat Riley is co and it's easy to get dissuaded
Speaker 1: by the talent. But you know, for me, personally, I
Speaker 1: feel like he's underappreciated. But a huge part of that
Speaker 1: is I follow a lot of Warriors fans, and Warriors
Speaker 1: fans complain about Steve Kerr NonStop. Now, the people that
Speaker 1: I trust that cover the Warriors, the people that really
Speaker 1: cover them from an unbiased perspective, will tell you that
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr has evolved a lot. So there was some
Speaker 1: stubbornness in the past that he's gone past that he's
Speaker 1: gotten past, particularly with line up structure and being more
Speaker 1: willing to embrace offensive creation over defensive talent. You know,
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr. Their rotations have been the biggest thing that
Speaker 1: that UH that Golden State Warriors fans have complained about
Speaker 1: with Kurr over the years, but he has gotten better
Speaker 1: and most importantly, like we the it's an interesting mix
Speaker 1: of a really smart basketball coach and guys that are
Speaker 1: willing to buy in because, like you know, we're looking
Speaker 1: at a Lakers head coaching situation here where they're choosing
Speaker 1: between Terry Stotts and Darvin Ham and UH and Kenny Atkinson.
Speaker 1: And like I like Kenny Atkinson a lot in terms
Speaker 1: of like his offensive organization and his ability to to
Speaker 1: coach a team on offense. But like, I just think
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are gonna roll their eyes at
Speaker 1: that guy. So like for a guy like for guys
Speaker 1: like Lebron and na D, I think they need someone
Speaker 1: like Darvin Hamm who's more of like a former player
Speaker 1: recently in the league, tough guy, so at least they
Speaker 1: can convince him to play hard on defense. Right, But like,
Speaker 1: what helps so much is you've got Steve Kerr or
Speaker 1: excuse me, Steve Stephan Curry, who's arguably the most coachable
Speaker 1: star that we have in this league. Draymond Green, very coachable.
Speaker 1: They're all so bought in, and they have such a
Speaker 1: respect for cur that it gives him an opportunity to
Speaker 1: actually weaponize what he's good at, which is the excess
Speaker 1: and knows. And there are so many teams around the
Speaker 1: league that don't even have that opportunity because it egos,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I I like, literally, Lebron tuned out
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel and he's the championship winning coach. Lebron tuned
Speaker 1: out David Blatt, and he obviously David Black came up.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff with David Blatt, but Lebron
Speaker 1: tuned him out too, and it's just one of those
Speaker 1: things where, like I think it's an interesting mix of
Speaker 1: super coachable superstar and really smart coach and the their
Speaker 1: ability to lean on each other and the way that
Speaker 1: that can lead to success. Yeah, I think that from
Speaker 1: my perspective, Kurr does feel underappreciate, and you make a
Speaker 1: good point about the coach ability with Steph. I do
Speaker 1: wonder though further down. Obviously step so important to establishing
Speaker 1: a culture, but how would Draymond respond to a coach
Speaker 1: that he thinks is kind of a dunce. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know that he would be as fully committed and trusting,
Speaker 1: and you know, there might be some issues that I
Speaker 1: can imagine that, but I think Kerr really does blend
Speaker 1: that schematic intelligence on both ends. Right. You talked about
Speaker 1: the defensive ingenuity in this series, but I think broadly,
Speaker 1: you know, people would point to just the sort of
Speaker 1: motion offense the Warriors of often run and emphasizing off
Speaker 1: ball movement and empowering Steph, putting him off ball more
Speaker 1: instead of having him be like the volume, pick and
Speaker 1: roll guy that he was with Mark Jackson. He's just
Speaker 1: done so many things in terms of basketball schematics, he
Speaker 1: has I think been a really impressive leader of men
Speaker 1: and communicator, and there really isn't a flaw on his resume.
Speaker 1: I mean, they had a down year when everybody on
Speaker 1: the team was hurt. Other than that, they've won at
Speaker 1: the highest level. Last year they were still a playoff
Speaker 1: caliber team obviously was such a decimated roster. So he
Speaker 1: doesn't have the decades of winning that you know, like
Speaker 1: most top five coaches of all time or what have
Speaker 1: you do. But his winning in the time that he
Speaker 1: has been there and everything he's done has been so
Speaker 1: immensely impressive. And I just feel like people are so
Speaker 1: quick to say, oh, well, the dynasty was inevitable, the
Speaker 1: talent was so overwhelming, but you know, they took a
Speaker 1: jump from a fifty one win team to a sixty
Speaker 1: seven win team and then a seventy three win team,
Speaker 1: and they did all that without obviously adding Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: I think Steve Kerr is a huge part of that.
Speaker 1: So I think my answer to the question that I
Speaker 1: posed might very well be yes. I think ker is
Speaker 1: a brilliant, brilliant coach, and sometimes people are a bit
Speaker 1: quick to forget that. The managing of personalities is something
Speaker 1: people constantly gloss over, like when you look at you know,
Speaker 1: having to bench David Lee. It was very successful offensive
Speaker 1: forward to bring in a guy like Draymond Green. Empowering
Speaker 1: Draymond Green to be what he is, which is a
Speaker 1: volatile basketball player, but understanding that that volatility is a
Speaker 1: part of what makes him great, and understanding that if
Speaker 1: you take that away from him, you take away part
Speaker 1: of his greatness. The whole k D saga and all
Speaker 1: the drama there and the blow up with Draymond, the
Speaker 1: navigating of the egos with andre I Guadala and and helping,
Speaker 1: you know, partnering with him to come off the bench
Speaker 1: to empower Harrison Barnes and you know, working with the
Speaker 1: ascent of Jordan's pool and navigating that with a backcourt
Speaker 1: that's loaded, and easing him into a bench role in
Speaker 1: a playoff run. But because your star is willing to
Speaker 1: do something like it's it's never as easy as it looks,
Speaker 1: and the personalities are always so much more complicated than
Speaker 1: you think. You know, I I played on a team
Speaker 1: when I was at Arizona Christian University that was unbelievably
Speaker 1: stacked with talent. Beat a Division one school, but it
Speaker 1: was an n A school. But we beat a Division
Speaker 1: one school. While I was there, we started thirteen and oh,
Speaker 1: we were top five in the nation. We were one
Speaker 1: of the best teams in all of an ai A
Speaker 1: basketball And like, we had eleven dudes that all deserved
Speaker 1: to play, and in the Golden State has that same issue.
Speaker 1: Juantas Kono Anderson is a rotation level NBA player, Damian
Speaker 1: Lee is a rotation level NBA player. These are all
Speaker 1: guys that deserve to play. Garry Payton Jr. When he
Speaker 1: comes back into this mix, these are all very good
Speaker 1: basketball players that deserve to play, and he's navigating that
Speaker 1: get has them all bought in it. It's always so
Speaker 1: much more complicated than people think. That team that I referenced,
Speaker 1: you know, we we didn't have any major catastrophes, but
Speaker 1: there was It was a weird culture throughout the whole
Speaker 1: year because I guess what, the guys in that eleven
Speaker 1: that didn't get to play, they had issues, you know,
Speaker 1: they had issues with the whole dynamic, date, issues with
Speaker 1: the coaching staff, and it's just it's so much more
Speaker 1: complicated than people think. And and when you see when
Speaker 1: from the outside it looks smooth, that's that's the indicator
Speaker 1: that they're handling things well in house. Whereas you look
Speaker 1: at you look at some of these other teams like
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and you're having you know, Russell Westbrook go
Speaker 1: into the press conference talking about how he deserves to start,
Speaker 1: he deserves to close games like it's it's it's interesting
Speaker 1: to see the juxtaposition there. Absolutely, let's pivot here to
Speaker 1: the MAVs because it does feel like they're sort of
Speaker 1: entering how do we improve going forward mode? Obviously Shirley
Speaker 1: still committed to the series, but like they're kinda knocking
Speaker 1: on Deaktor at this point. And Luca came out and
Speaker 1: had a quote after Game three just talking about how
Speaker 1: he says something along the lines of, I'm twenty three,
Speaker 1: I'm still learning. You know, there's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that I'm still figuring out and needs get better at.
Speaker 1: So as remarkable as he has been throughout a majority
Speaker 1: of this postseason run, where does he need to go
Speaker 1: from here? So subplot of this series was one of
Speaker 1: the big reasons why I thought Dallas would win. You know,
Speaker 1: in my again, it was his coin flip. The one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I leaned slightly towards Dallas was
Speaker 1: I thought Dallas was a better player than Stuff based
Speaker 1: on what had happened during this regular season Steph massive
Speaker 1: shooting decline in terms of his percentages, and you know
Speaker 1: Luca's dominant playoff run up to this point, Steph was
Speaker 1: way better than him through three games. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't give a damn about the forty point nights. Watch
Speaker 1: the tape, just unbelievably horrific on defense, like horrific. He
Speaker 1: is the lead cause of their defensive issues right now. Now,
Speaker 1: step is Steph some all defense player now, but he
Speaker 1: is a very good defensive player who competes like crazy,
Speaker 1: who sets the tone for the rest of his team.
Speaker 1: And there wasn't nearly enough of a chasm offensively between
Speaker 1: those two guys in order to justify any like I
Speaker 1: don't think there's any case for Luca being the best
Speaker 1: player in this series. Steph dusted him. Steph resoundingly demonstrated
Speaker 1: that he is very much better than Luca right now,
Speaker 1: and so so where does Luca need to go from here?
Speaker 1: Like a couple of things, when we've been. We've been
Speaker 1: down this stroad before. He has to find a way too,
Speaker 1: at the very least, not be a liability defensively. His
Speaker 1: foot speed will never be great, He'll never be a
Speaker 1: dominant defensive player. But what he makes up what he
Speaker 1: lacks in foot speed he does have in size and strength. Right, So,
Speaker 1: in theory, if he got into his peak physical condition,
Speaker 1: there's a version of Luca that can be a very
Speaker 1: good positional defender, meaning he can guard bigger wings that
Speaker 1: play with power, he can make the average defensive rotations,
Speaker 1: he can help as a back line defender at the rim.
Speaker 1: There's no reason why he can do those things. Is
Speaker 1: he gonna be able to contain quick guards, No, that's
Speaker 1: never gonna happen. But Steff's also never gonna be able
Speaker 1: to guard big wings. Like that's the bottom line is
Speaker 1: is like there there's a certain limitation that that those
Speaker 1: guys have. But Steff is the example of reaching his
Speaker 1: own personal ceiling defensively, and Luca is an example of
Speaker 1: a guy who hasn't even attempted to do that yet
Speaker 1: on the offensive end. You know, do I think Luca
Speaker 1: could stand to polish some things up. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: mean those are He's already arguably the best offensive engine
Speaker 1: in the NBA right now. So I I I think
Speaker 1: that the number one thing that Luca has to figure
Speaker 1: out is figuring out how to be a more of
Speaker 1: an impact player on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He just simply has to. And then the just the
Speaker 1: the other benefits that come from physical conditioning and and
Speaker 1: fighting off a fatigue in a playoff series, and you know,
Speaker 1: he he I thought that quote was really interesting. It
Speaker 1: was it wasn't excuses, but it kind of felt like
Speaker 1: back off, guys, I'm twenty two, like the that's the
Speaker 1: vibe I got from that quote, and and I get that.
Speaker 1: But you know what I like to have heard is
Speaker 1: I like, I'm gonna go into this season and get
Speaker 1: in the best shape of my life and I plan
Speaker 1: on competing on the defensive end of the level I didn't,
Speaker 1: you know, I'd love to hear that. If that makes sense.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. I also do think you could kind of
Speaker 1: go either way with it in the sense that I mean,
Speaker 1: he is four years deep into his experience in the
Speaker 1: league right like, theoretically he's not all that close to
Speaker 1: his peak, and in this time, you know, he's carried
Speaker 1: the team to three playoff appearances. Out of the years
Speaker 1: that he's been in the playoffs, he's been number two,
Speaker 1: number one, and number one in points per game. And
Speaker 1: we know what he does as a playmaker too, So
Speaker 1: I'm with you, he has no excuse for not getting
Speaker 1: into peak condition Like that is so glaringly the thing
Speaker 1: in terms of basketball skill as a score or playmaker offensively,
Speaker 1: what do you really point to, right? I mean, he's
Speaker 1: added the post game that was kind of missing earlier.
Speaker 1: The step back is so refined, like his intermediate game
Speaker 1: overall is improved. It's like he's done so much much.
Speaker 1: There's no excuse. But he is also twenty three, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure that there is still stuff that he's learning.
Speaker 1: But you're right, when there's a glaring thing you can
Speaker 1: point to and say, well, Luca, you can learn, how
Speaker 1: do you know, maybe put down the doughnuts a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe hit the condition a little bit harder.
Speaker 1: Then that's also beer. Yeah, I mean, you know, maybe,
Speaker 1: as we talked about, you don't need to go out
Speaker 1: for the pregame beers as much. I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's there's did you know, there's a beer that's
Speaker 1: brooding the Rocky Mountain stream. It's a little bit lighter.
Speaker 1: I think he might be worth trying. I'm curious. I'm curious, Carson.
Speaker 1: Do you did you think that Steph was the best
Speaker 1: player in this series? Yes, I'm with you, But let
Speaker 1: me ask you this. I agree with you. In the
Speaker 1: vacuum that is this series, are you now like convinced
Speaker 1: that Steph is the better basketball player overall? If he wasn't,
Speaker 1: Luca would have played better. Like, I mean, I'm with you,
Speaker 1: I'm with you on everything. He's twenty two, he's not
Speaker 1: even in his prime yet. Yeah, all that's true. What
Speaker 1: that just means that steps better right now? You know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like, do I want Steph or Luca
Speaker 1: for the next five years? Yeah, of course I want Luca.
Speaker 1: But my point is is, like, right now, which is
Speaker 1: all that matters? Because the trophy is four five wins
Speaker 1: away for Golden State, you know, like the right now,
Speaker 1: in this current predicament, Steph is clearly better. I I
Speaker 1: actually think like, and again we're gonna talk to snow
Speaker 1: Globe later. The snow Globe, I just mean all the
Speaker 1: top players in the league being shook up. I think
Speaker 1: Steph has I think I don't think Steph is even
Speaker 1: remotely capable of the impact that jan has had in
Speaker 1: that Boston series. I've never seen anything like that, Like
Speaker 1: a team literally sending three guys at him every possession
Speaker 1: and he's averaged thirty four Like that was insane. So
Speaker 1: I think Janice is the best player in the league
Speaker 1: on a tier by himself. But I think Steph has
Speaker 1: a pretty clear case right now to be number two.
Speaker 1: And and that is wild considering where he was during
Speaker 1: the regular season. But tell me one player Carson that
Speaker 1: you think has made a better case to be the
Speaker 1: second best player in the world right now. Nicole here
Speaker 1: would be my honest pick, because here's the thing. I
Speaker 1: completely agree the level step has been at in this
Speaker 1: series where his shot making has been blazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's been forty eight percent from deep right. It's been
Speaker 1: like vintage Steph in that respect. But I just don't
Speaker 1: know that the totality of his production this year is
Speaker 1: quite there. So I don't know that I would say
Speaker 1: I think he's a better basketball player than Luca right now, because,
Speaker 1: as we talked about, I mean, Luca's control of the game,
Speaker 1: his direct imposition of his will as a score and playmaker,
Speaker 1: his volume there, it's just so overwhelming. And there have
Speaker 1: been times with step this year where it's just he
Speaker 1: simply doesn't dominate the game offensively and will always have
Speaker 1: the gravity impact and whatnot, but there was a drop
Speaker 1: in production in that respect. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: I want to totally flip my position on that based
Speaker 1: on the fact that in his head to head matchup,
Speaker 1: yes at the highest stakes and yes, and actual playoff
Speaker 1: basketball where it matters most and it tells you the
Speaker 1: most about a guy, also only a few games sample,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm ready to flip on that.
Speaker 1: I think Steph does have a case for second best player.
Speaker 1: I think last year he made that abundantly clear, and
Speaker 1: I don't know that we had enough evidence this year
Speaker 1: to say like, oh, he can't be that player again.
Speaker 1: But he wasn't that player for a lot of this year.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if I'm as decisive as you
Speaker 1: are in that respect, And I honestly might still be
Speaker 1: Team Luca. The defense is brutal. There are stretches where
Speaker 1: he's more engaged and it's like, Okay, it's sort of
Speaker 1: passable and when he's doing that, But I just think
Speaker 1: that the effort hasn't been consistent enough and there's probably
Speaker 1: an element of fatigue with the offensive load there. But
Speaker 1: I think Steff does certainly make a case. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: with you there, but I don't think it's as clear
Speaker 1: in my opinion. So you mentioned the small sample size thing.
Speaker 1: I think that's a huge part of this. Like Steph
Speaker 1: understands the stakes. He understands that, Hey, like if I
Speaker 1: have a if I have a fourteen point lead in
Speaker 1: the middle of the third quarter on the road in
Speaker 1: Game two of a playoff series, I can't afford to
Speaker 1: mail it in on defense because I might blow it
Speaker 1: and now I'm down two oh in the series. That's
Speaker 1: what happened to Luca. Luca. I shared all the tape.
Speaker 1: You guys can see. It's on my Twitter feed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like literally, Luca was a traffic cone in that second
Speaker 1: half against the Warriors in Game two and blew their
Speaker 1: one opportunity to win one of these three games. It's
Speaker 1: just so my thing is, like, I so to be
Speaker 1: clear when I value this stuff. I think you. I
Speaker 1: think you, Carson, And I'm not saying you're wrong. It's
Speaker 1: just different between the way you and I look at this.
Speaker 1: You you place more value value in that regular season engine,
Speaker 1: and there there's a good case for that seeding is important.
Speaker 1: This playoff run has been a great demonstration of the
Speaker 1: importance of seatings. Just ask Milwaukee, you know, but the
Speaker 1: reality is is like the uh when it when it
Speaker 1: comes down to it, it's usually a handful of aimes
Speaker 1: that determines these outcomes. And having that that, I think
Speaker 1: that is one of Steph's legs up is experience understanding
Speaker 1: the stakes and being at his very best when he
Speaker 1: needs to be at his very best. But I agree,
Speaker 1: I agree to disagree with Carson. I'm cool with that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think also I might have a bit more of
Speaker 1: an offensive slant in terms of evaluating guys, and you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, prioritizing that singular offensive engine and letting
Speaker 1: some of the defensive possible roots for exploitation pass a
Speaker 1: little bit more, which you know, maybe I shouldn't. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'll sit down this office. I can't really
Speaker 1: think about some stuff. Okay, we've got a donation here.
Speaker 1: Shout out Jeremiah. He's got a question in the chat
Speaker 1: Jason is Andrew Wiggins going to Harrison Barnes the finals.
Speaker 1: He says, no disrespect intended, but Warrior fans feel a
Speaker 1: certain way about Barnes going cold in sixteen. What do
Speaker 1: you think? So it certainly possible the you know, but
Speaker 1: Austin is I'm leaning Golden State right now in a
Speaker 1: potential Golden State Boston matchup. I'll save my pick until
Speaker 1: we actually get to the point where both of the
Speaker 1: conference final serieses are over. But I do think we're
Speaker 1: more We're extremely likely to get that matchup, which is
Speaker 1: I think a super interesting matchup between two of the
Speaker 1: biggest franchises in the NBA. We shouldn't be I mean,
Speaker 1: we're we're static about that around here, so I'm very
Speaker 1: stoked for it. But I think defense that Boston's defense
Speaker 1: is gonna put Golden State in some interesting nds um
Speaker 1: I would imagine because Luca Luca was guarding Wiggins, and
Speaker 1: it was clearly a strategy with Golden State from the
Speaker 1: start of this series to have Andrew be super aggressive
Speaker 1: whenever he saw an opportunity to attack Luca. Boston just
Speaker 1: doesn't provide you that type of matchup flexibility, So I
Speaker 1: think some of the aggression will be taken away, which
Speaker 1: means will turn Andrew into a guy that's almost strictly
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts and spotting up. And I mean the Harrison
Speaker 1: Barnes thing, Like, I get it. He he wasn't making
Speaker 1: his open shots, and that could be problematic, but I
Speaker 1: mean they were all good looks and and some sometimes
Speaker 1: they just don't go in. I mean talk about small
Speaker 1: sample size, like that's how it goes. Like in a
Speaker 1: small sample size, like sometimes you get five wide open
Speaker 1: corner threason, maybe you only make one of them, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's just how it goes. But as long as
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins brings what he brings on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, as long as he picks up Tatum
Speaker 1: full court and bothers him as much as humanly possible,
Speaker 1: then you know, honestly, I think that his impact and
Speaker 1: in that role is pretty dependable, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And Golden State, you know, the other interesting the other
Speaker 1: interesting thing to Carson is this Golden State team is
Speaker 1: less reliant on three point shooting then the two thousand
Speaker 1: and sixteen Warriors. This is a Golden State team that
Speaker 1: weaponizes the threat of their three point shooting to get
Speaker 1: into the paint. And I think I think Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: like you demonstrated with his vicious dunk on Luca last night,
Speaker 1: like you don't if you're not making your threes, just
Speaker 1: a further attack the close out, you know, like keep
Speaker 1: There's there's nothing wrong with catching when you're wide open
Speaker 1: and just barreling into the lane and kicking out to
Speaker 1: the next shooters. So I think there's I think they
Speaker 1: have a little bit. I think Golden State in general
Speaker 1: just says a little bit more of an understanding of
Speaker 1: how to use guys that go cold from the perimeter.
Speaker 1: But I mean Andrew Wiggins could also just be dead
Speaker 1: eye knocking down wide open shots. So is he gonna
Speaker 1: be Harris and Barnes? I don't know, my guests, Is
Speaker 1: he'll be more impactful? Yeah? I do think you make
Speaker 1: a very astute point about the specific matchup, because it
Speaker 1: does feel like a lot of the swing element with
Speaker 1: Wiggins is okay, Well, is he just going to be
Speaker 1: knocking down open looks, attack and closeouts? Is he going
Speaker 1: to be more assertive and like taking some of the
Speaker 1: tough midrange pull up stuff that you don't love from him,
Speaker 1: or is he going to be assertive and actually attacking
Speaker 1: mismatches and weaponizing his size and athleticism and all that,
Speaker 1: And those are kind of the different versions you get. Regardless,
Speaker 1: his floor, you know, because of his defensive impact, I
Speaker 1: think is just higher than what Barnes was at that time,
Speaker 1: and certainly higher than I think we expected from Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins before he got to Golden State. But there is
Speaker 1: always that swing element with him because his mindset changes
Speaker 1: as much as anything. It feels like. But I will say,
Speaker 1: I mean Harrison Barnes was as bad in that series
Speaker 1: as like any significant player has been in a series
Speaker 1: that I can remember my life. Nine in a game,
Speaker 1: thirty five percent from the field, every big spot, just clanging.
Speaker 1: So if Wiggins does that, I don't think his NBA
Speaker 1: legacy will ever be redeemed like that unfortunately, will stick
Speaker 1: with him forever, I think Andrew. I think Andrews also
Speaker 1: like a lot more athletic than Harrison Barnes was. Harrison
Speaker 1: Barnes was a great vertical athlete that had great link,
Speaker 1: but Harrison Barnes did not have that twitchy like quick
Speaker 1: first step, dynamic explosiveness that that Andrew Wiggins has, which
Speaker 1: I think makes him more impactful attacking closeouts and things
Speaker 1: along those lines. But yeah, I mean, it's an interesting question.
Speaker 1: That's a super interesting series and I can't wait to
Speaker 1: take a deep dive into it once we get to
Speaker 1: that point. All right, Well, before we do that, let's
Speaker 1: do one last question here about the MAVs. Because we
Speaker 1: talked about what Luca can do individually. When it comes
Speaker 1: to the broader scope of their team building. Do you
Speaker 1: think Dallas needs another star? Jason Absolutely. And it's gonna
Speaker 1: be the issue here with the Brunson thing, is I
Speaker 1: think you have to resign him because of the asset
Speaker 1: like Jalen Is would be valuable to somebody else in
Speaker 1: a way. I mean, and he was great. I thought
Speaker 1: he was pretty damn good in this playoff run. But
Speaker 1: to me, it's a question of talent. And when you
Speaker 1: look at Lebron and Anthony Davis coming back with the
Speaker 1: Lakers next year, Kauai and Paul George coming back with
Speaker 1: the Clippers next year, Nicola Yokich with Jamal Murray and
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Jr. Coming back with the Nuggets next year,
Speaker 1: and you really piece all of this together, not to
Speaker 1: mention the Eastern Conference, Like, you have to think the
Speaker 1: Sixers are gonna be a lot more organized next year,
Speaker 1: just with a full training camp to really implement their system.
Speaker 1: You have to think that the Milwaukee Bucks understand now
Speaker 1: that they don't have enough talent, They're gonna make a move.
Speaker 1: The top of the league is just going to continue
Speaker 1: to get I mean, Luca is gonna get better as
Speaker 1: a basketball player, you know, like Janice could get better
Speaker 1: as a basketball player. Like the teams you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to go through to get to this point, the league
Speaker 1: is so stacked. I think at this point, wheeling Luca
Speaker 1: out there to be the solo star is is akin
Speaker 1: to basketball playoffs suicide. Like you're just you're you're you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have the firepower, you know. And again like
Speaker 1: I see, I see the big debate taking place right
Speaker 1: now between Warriors fans and and all these people on
Speaker 1: Twitter about like does Luca have enough help? Does Luca
Speaker 1: have enough help? Look, Steph outplayed Luca, to be clear,
Speaker 1: but also Luca was on the less talented team. The
Speaker 1: reason why I thought that they might win is I
Speaker 1: thought Dallas's system, which I think is very smartly put together.
Speaker 1: We just talked about that earlier, in conjunction with Luca
Speaker 1: being better than Stuff would be enough to swing it.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. It turns out that all those
Speaker 1: guys that shot really well suddenly didn't shoot well, which
Speaker 1: we talked about, and Luca was proven to be not
Speaker 1: as good at basketball as Stuff was. Right, So at
Speaker 1: a certain point, firepower did become an issue in this series.
Speaker 1: So if your Dallas, you have to understand that and
Speaker 1: recognize that, you know, probably the most realistic outcome there
Speaker 1: as you resigned Jalen Brunson, you find some way to
Speaker 1: accumulate as many draft picks as possible, and you'd find
Speaker 1: a way to flip Bronson and picks or Bronson din
Speaker 1: what he picks, or you know, some combination of assets
Speaker 1: to a disgruntled star and bring someone in and then
Speaker 1: basically continue the same system. Because the system for Dallas
Speaker 1: is perfect. They just need one more big forward that
Speaker 1: can consistently create his own shot in space before it's
Speaker 1: really that simple. Al Right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for you tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support. As always.
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