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Speaker 1: for CENTA by Fandel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having an incredible
Speaker 1: week so far. We have a jam packed show tonight.
Speaker 1: The Phoenix Suns beat the crap out of the Warriors
Speaker 1: despite Steph Curry hanging a fifty piece on them. We're
Speaker 1: gonna break down that game, all the angles at play.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk a little bit about that very bizarre
Speaker 1: interview that Mr Kevin Durant gave where he burned his
Speaker 1: own starting lineup to the ground in a very interesting move,
Speaker 1: but just the inevitable progression of this wild saga that's
Speaker 1: taking place in Brooklyn. And never're gonna break down four
Speaker 1: additional games from tonight, rapid fire style, the Celtics and
Speaker 1: the Hawks, the Calves in the Buck, the Heat and
Speaker 1: the Raptors, and then Shay Gil just Alexander went ahead
Speaker 1: and and and try to make me look good after
Speaker 1: I sung his praises for a solid ten minutes yesterday,
Speaker 1: um by going out and dropping forty two in a
Speaker 1: game winner in Washington to beat the Wizards. You guys
Speaker 1: know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt
Speaker 1: so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss
Speaker 1: one of these shows and you can't get back over
Speaker 1: to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. So the Sun's they
Speaker 1: had lost two in a row coming into tonight, and
Speaker 1: three out of four they were down two starters. Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson tours Miniscus, so he's been out, Chris Paul has
Speaker 1: been dealing with some hell stuff, and then I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously Jay Crowder has been out all season. But when
Speaker 1: you kind of put all that together, you think like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe there's the depth issue there. But this continues to be,
Speaker 1: in a very underrated way, one of the most talented
Speaker 1: rosters in the league because Damian Lee just kind of
Speaker 1: slotted right into one of those wings spots after Jake
Speaker 1: Crowder has been gone and he's been fantastic. He was
Speaker 1: fantastic again tonight. You know, Chris Paul comes out and
Speaker 1: incomes Campaign. You know, Cam Johnson comes out, incomes Tory Craig,
Speaker 1: and it's all just seamless. The roster is insanely talented.
Speaker 1: Tori Craig played really well tonight, rebound in the basketball,
Speaker 1: knocking down threes on the back end of those Suns
Speaker 1: pick and rolls, and you know, Campaign is kind of
Speaker 1: like the fastball to Chris Paul's change up. He's one
Speaker 1: of the quickest players in the league and he gets
Speaker 1: a ton of dribble penetration, which is another way to
Speaker 1: get to what the Suns are trying to get to.
Speaker 1: If you guys think about what the Sun's offense is
Speaker 1: and we talked about it a lot over the summer
Speaker 1: when we did our season preview for them, But they
Speaker 1: are a high pick and roll, spamming offense. They're gonna
Speaker 1: spam Spain pick and roll where they have one of
Speaker 1: their shooters relocate to the top while booker Paul run,
Speaker 1: you know, screen and roll with aighton. Sometimes they do
Speaker 1: it with a cleared side with just two players. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they do it as a dribble handoff. Sometimes they do
Speaker 1: it as a wide screen with a passer at the
Speaker 1: top of the key. They do it a bunch of
Speaker 1: different ways, but it's all functionally the same concept. It's
Speaker 1: a ball handler trying to get downhill while DeAndre Aden
Speaker 1: is rolling to the rim after setting a screen. And
Speaker 1: they'll sometimes they have a shooter relocating, other times they're
Speaker 1: just spacing the floor. But they're trying to make you
Speaker 1: make a decision. And that decision is are you going
Speaker 1: to guard it two on two in the case of
Speaker 1: their normal pick and roll or three on three in
Speaker 1: the case of their spain pick and roll, or are
Speaker 1: you going to send additional help? And if you guard
Speaker 1: it two on two, you turn them into shot makers,
Speaker 1: right and you're gonna force DeAndre Aton to beat switches
Speaker 1: or to finish lobs around the rim, or you're gonna
Speaker 1: force Devin Booker Chris Paul to make tough contested twos,
Speaker 1: or you can send additional defenders, and then you're giving
Speaker 1: advance inage situations. Two really good players on the bank
Speaker 1: end and on their best night, that's Michael Bridges or
Speaker 1: that's Cam Johnson, right, and those guys are incredible. But
Speaker 1: with Cam Johnson out, it's like Tory Craig stepped right
Speaker 1: in and did the exact same thing. Micael Bridge has
Speaker 1: made five more threes tonight and looked fantastic. He's one
Speaker 1: of the underrated close out attackers in the league. Is
Speaker 1: it's not just spot up shooting, it's high level close
Speaker 1: out attacking. He can make multiple counter moves on his
Speaker 1: way to the basket to knock down tougher shots. You know,
Speaker 1: kind of that are in the margins of the of
Speaker 1: the offense. But you know that in this entire game, Uh,
Speaker 1: they just stuck to what they were good at. It
Speaker 1: was just Campaign and Devin Booker operating at a high
Speaker 1: pick and roll, making passes, not forcing shots. I don't
Speaker 1: think either of them took over twenty shots in this game.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the most underrated parts of
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's development has been what he's done as a
Speaker 1: passer in this league. You know, Devin Booker um is
Speaker 1: being considered by a lot of players, a lot of
Speaker 1: people as a top ten player in the league right now.
Speaker 1: He's unquestionably been one of the top ten players to
Speaker 1: start this season. But it's not because he's Devin Booker
Speaker 1: making Kobe shots. It's because of the improvements he's made
Speaker 1: as a passer and as a defender. And in this game,
Speaker 1: Campaign and Devin Booker both did an incredible job of
Speaker 1: of just making those reads as Golden State was sending
Speaker 1: multiple defenders towards that pick and roll. They both had
Speaker 1: sixteen assists or the combined for sixteen assists in this game.
Speaker 1: So the point being, as we're talking about this Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns offense, if you do not bring your best defensive effort,
Speaker 1: you'll get cut to pieces. And the Sun's absolutely cut
Speaker 1: them to pieces tonight. A really nice win for Phoenix
Speaker 1: with how sure, with how shorthanded they are. Now let's
Speaker 1: move on to the Warriors. The Warriors have a lot
Speaker 1: of issues. Um, when you're six and nine, when you're
Speaker 1: at three games below five hundred, is the defending champion.
Speaker 1: It's not in all your guys are healthy like this
Speaker 1: Isn't you know Steph has missed a bunch of games
Speaker 1: or Draymond's missed a bunch of games. When you're healthy
Speaker 1: and your three games below five hundred is the defending champions,
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff has to go wrong. It's like
Speaker 1: I was talking about with the Lakers last year. Everyone's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's Russ's falter. Oh, it's Frank Vogel's falter. Oh it's
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. No, no no, no, no. When you have Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis on your roster and you're losing
Speaker 1: a bunch of games, it means everything is going wrong.
Speaker 1: And there are definitely a lot of issues with the
Speaker 1: Warriors right now. We've talked a lot about their bench
Speaker 1: and the issues that they're having. Jordan Pool can't seem
Speaker 1: to put a string of more than a couple of
Speaker 1: games where he plays well together in a row. Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson hasn't been making shots, and we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson here in a little bit. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is, I don't care about any of that. If
Speaker 1: Steph scores fifty, you should win. That's If Steph scores fifty,
Speaker 1: you should win. That should cover for for Jordan's pool
Speaker 1: missing some shots, that should cover for Clay Thompson missing
Speaker 1: some shots. That should cover for your bench blowing a
Speaker 1: lead here or they're right, But it wasn't. And it's
Speaker 1: because one of the bigger issues that's gone kind of
Speaker 1: under the surface during the season is after the start
Speaker 1: of the season when the Golden State starters defended extremely well,
Speaker 1: that group has not defended well ever since they went
Speaker 1: on that five game road trip to the East Coast.
Speaker 1: They've had a handful of good defensive performance before performances
Speaker 1: in there, but it has not been consistent. I remember
Speaker 1: at the start of the season when we were really
Speaker 1: diving into those bench issues, I'd pull up the lineup data,
Speaker 1: and the line of data on the Warrior starters was
Speaker 1: pretty good. They were scoring around a hundred twenty five
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions, you know, and I'm talking Steph, Clay,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Kevan lud And then on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, they were only given up about points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions. And and I checked on the
Speaker 1: numbers earlier and before tonight, that numbers climbed all the
Speaker 1: way up from to one oh five, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be considerably higher tomorrow morning when that data updates. The
Speaker 1: starting lineup for the Warriors is not defending the way
Speaker 1: they used to. And I get it, you know, with
Speaker 1: that championship malaise. It's one thing to to take a
Speaker 1: little bit off, you know, in terms of effort when
Speaker 1: you're trying to get through a season, especially when you
Speaker 1: know that your eye is on the bigger prize. But
Speaker 1: the unfortunate reality of the Warrior situation right now is
Speaker 1: their bench isn't good enough and the non Steph offensive
Speaker 1: players on this team aren't shooting well enough for them
Speaker 1: to not defend. That's the one thing they can control.
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool is a young basketball player. He's going to
Speaker 1: have stretches where he is inconsistent offensively. Clay Thompson is
Speaker 1: coming back from two very severe injuries. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a while but where he really gets back consistently into
Speaker 1: a rythm. We're gonna talk more about Clay here in
Speaker 1: a minute. But there you can't control that. I you
Speaker 1: can't will Clay shots into the basket. You can't will
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool shots into the basket. And right now you
Speaker 1: don't have the personnel to be a great bench team.
Speaker 1: But you absolutely can control Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green and come on lonely playing better defense, and
Speaker 1: they just have it against that Phoenix Suns team. If
Speaker 1: your point of attack defenders do a better job fighting
Speaker 1: over the top of screens so that Booker and Payne
Speaker 1: aren't getting downhill as easily, you don't have to help
Speaker 1: as much. If you don't have to help as much,
Speaker 1: those kickout opportunities aren't as good. The advantage situations for
Speaker 1: Tory Craig and for Michael Bridges aren't as good. They
Speaker 1: don't have as good as a night and maybe you
Speaker 1: give yourself a fighting chance. Look like things are gonna
Speaker 1: turn around. I really do think Clay is gonna get
Speaker 1: it together. I really do think Jordan Pool will get
Speaker 1: it together. I think that they'll figure out a way
Speaker 1: to piece together a better bench than what they have.
Speaker 1: But right now those things are on the horizon still,
Speaker 1: but you can control your defensive effort. And right now,
Speaker 1: those the Warrior starters, their core guys are not defending
Speaker 1: well enough, and and you know, and it it kind
Speaker 1: of is just degrading into a um an ugly brand
Speaker 1: of basketball. And some stretches, like there was a stretch
Speaker 1: there in that third quarter two where it felt like
Speaker 1: they were trying to hit home runs to get back
Speaker 1: into the game instead of understanding that their advantages. They
Speaker 1: are the more experienced team, they are the team that
Speaker 1: can execute, they are the smarter team. Not only were
Speaker 1: they having defensive issues, but they're in that third quarter
Speaker 1: they were taking countless bad transition shots. You know, they
Speaker 1: get a stop finally and they throw one or two
Speaker 1: passes and jack something up in transition. Some of that
Speaker 1: was Clay Thompson, but like there was a there was
Speaker 1: a quick Andrew Wiggins three on the left wing that
Speaker 1: he actually made that I thought was a quick shot.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of players were Steph him self,
Speaker 1: I thought, forced the action a little bit in transition
Speaker 1: against one or two defenders and end up getting blocked
Speaker 1: because he was trying to force it a little bit.
Speaker 1: Like you are the disciplined, experienced team, get stops, go
Speaker 1: down and run your stuff. Unless you have a wide
Speaker 1: open look in transition, they're kind of losing their identity
Speaker 1: a little bit. So they gotta they gotta rein that
Speaker 1: in because it may be a little while before the
Speaker 1: before the front office decides to do anything. So on
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson and I talked about him last night for
Speaker 1: a little while. Um, you know, I'm not worried about
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson, nor should you be if you're a Warriors fan.
Speaker 1: There Uh, he's still being guarded like he's Klay Thompson,
Speaker 1: meaning functionally in the spacing of the offense and the
Speaker 1: way he warps the defense. There's a ton of value
Speaker 1: that comes from that that goes beyond shot result just
Speaker 1: for Clay himself. So that's that's the first part. Two.
Speaker 1: He's not shooting as poorly as it looks coming into tonight.
Speaker 1: He was around thirty one pcent and catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: You could do some basic apt and realize that's over
Speaker 1: nine tenths of a point for per possession. So even
Speaker 1: as disastrous as it's been, it's not as bad as
Speaker 1: it could be. Right and specifically he's shooting below thirty
Speaker 1: on wide open threes. Do you guys think Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: will eventually start making wide open threes? I do? Okay, Now,
Speaker 1: Clay hasn't defended as well as he should, neither has
Speaker 1: that entire starting unit, so I'm not going to really
Speaker 1: get on him specifically about that. But we saw him
Speaker 1: in the postseason last year lockdown Jalen Brown in a
Speaker 1: pivotal playoff moment, down to one in a series to
Speaker 1: get a trophy. So in the long run, you need
Speaker 1: Clay starting games. You need Clay out there. This is
Speaker 1: not a Clay issue as it pertains to what you
Speaker 1: do with him. However, what do I always say about
Speaker 1: shooting slumps in general? Shooting is a total it's screws
Speaker 1: with your head because on your best night, you're gonna
Speaker 1: miss more than half of them. When it comes to
Speaker 1: jump shooting, I shouldn't say on your best right, but
Speaker 1: on average you're gonna miss more than half of them,
Speaker 1: and on most nights you'll miss more than half of them.
Speaker 1: So it can get in your head and you can
Speaker 1: get squirrelly, and it can get frustrating, you can lose
Speaker 1: your confidence. So one of the best ways to get
Speaker 1: through a slump is not to stop shooting, but to
Speaker 1: hunt out, seek and search for and work hard for
Speaker 1: good shots. You know, it's funny because the first couple
Speaker 1: of shots that Clay gott in this game where good looks.
Speaker 1: You got a good little fifteen footer right at the
Speaker 1: free throw line. He had a wide open corner three
Speaker 1: that he missed. But then that third one that he
Speaker 1: took on the left wing was like, oh, that's a
Speaker 1: little tough, that's a little bit contested there in that
Speaker 1: third quarter when he's trying to get going, he took
Speaker 1: you know, there was a wide open three that he
Speaker 1: took on I believe it was on a baseline out
Speaker 1: of bounds that one he made. Those tough transition threes
Speaker 1: that he took, those didn't go in. And it's a
Speaker 1: very delicate balance because his audacity, his freakish confidence is
Speaker 1: part of what has made Thompson Clay Thompson over the years.
Speaker 1: So you don't want to go so far in this
Speaker 1: direction that you dissuade him from from having that kind
Speaker 1: of audacity. But there needs to be a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a balance, Like I'll give you an example
Speaker 1: there was a transition three, and that third quarter they
Speaker 1: get to stop Andrew Wiggins is running ahead of Clay.
Speaker 1: Clay has it on the right wing. I think it
Speaker 1: was Damian Lee that was playing transition defense, but I'm
Speaker 1: not percent sure about that. But whoever that Son's defender
Speaker 1: was kind of positioned himself in between Clay and Andrew,
Speaker 1: and Clay kind of hesitated and ended up just rising
Speaker 1: up and shooting the shot. Because he hesitated, he didn't
Speaker 1: go up with good rhythm. Damian or whoever it was,
Speaker 1: was able to get a late contestant. He ended up
Speaker 1: missing the shot, and it was a really deflating shot.
Speaker 1: That was when step ended up punching the basketball and
Speaker 1: getting the technical in the next possession. That's one of
Speaker 1: those plays where it's like, hey, you were in a slump,
Speaker 1: just pass it to Andrew. He one of two things
Speaker 1: is going to happen. That Son's defender is going to
Speaker 1: stay with you, and Andrew is gonna get a wide
Speaker 1: open shot in rhythm catching and shooting, or whoever that
Speaker 1: Son's defender is is going to close out and it's
Speaker 1: gonna come right back to you for a wide open
Speaker 1: three on the right wing. That's that kind of play
Speaker 1: where it's like, when you're in the slump, the best
Speaker 1: way to get out of it is to make the
Speaker 1: extra pass a couple of times, knowing that in the
Speaker 1: Warrior system it's gonna get back to you. And then
Speaker 1: you make a couple of the open ones and you
Speaker 1: make it clear to Clay, hey, I want you take
Speaker 1: in the tough ones after you get your rhythm making
Speaker 1: some of the easy ones. But right now he's kind
Speaker 1: of doing that trying to pound your head through the
Speaker 1: brick wall kind of thing, and it's just not working
Speaker 1: for it. Um. There was a little a clip during
Speaker 1: the time out that ESPN air where Steve Kerr was
Speaker 1: just saying, Hey, trust your teammates. All of you guys
Speaker 1: are trying to do this by yourself right now, And
Speaker 1: for the record, it really was everybody. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't like some of the shots Steph took in
Speaker 1: the third quarter. I didn't like some of the shots
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins took in the third quarter. And I didn't
Speaker 1: like some of the shots Clay Thompson took in the
Speaker 1: third quarter. So it's it's a team wide thing, but
Speaker 1: specifically for Clay, I think that's the easiest way for
Speaker 1: him to get back on tracks, targeting some easier shots,
Speaker 1: get his rhythm going. Dude, Like when you're missing your
Speaker 1: wide open shots, it might have a lot to do
Speaker 1: with the lack of confidence, which can stem from you
Speaker 1: missing three or four tough shots in a row. So
Speaker 1: one last note on Steph Curry before we move on.
Speaker 1: So obviously I've said several times that he's been playing
Speaker 1: the best basketball of his career. I think this is
Speaker 1: the best version of Steph that we've ever seen. Uh
Speaker 1: In his unanimous m v P year, he averaged thirty
Speaker 1: points on sixty seven percent true shooting. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: what the average is after tonight, but I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: he's close to thirty three thirty four points per game,
Speaker 1: and he was at sixty nine percent true shooting coming
Speaker 1: into tonight. That's probably closer closer to seventy were set now,
Speaker 1: Steph is playing as good as any basketball player has
Speaker 1: ever played. That's the type of peak that we're seeing
Speaker 1: from him right now. That that is precisely why I
Speaker 1: think it's so important for the Warriors to look hard
Speaker 1: and think hard about investing more in this group rather
Speaker 1: than staying married to this two timeline idea. As we've
Speaker 1: seen throughout NBA history, you just don't win an NBA
Speaker 1: title unless you got one of those guys. I've gone
Speaker 1: over this before. Steph wanted last year, Johannest wanted the
Speaker 1: year before, Lebron wanted the year before that, Kauai wanted
Speaker 1: the year before that, Stephen Katie wanted to two years
Speaker 1: before that. Then it was Lebron, then it was Steph.
Speaker 1: You guys get the point. You need one of those guys.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga, Moses Moody, James Wiseman, hell, even Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: who I don't think the Warriors would ever trade. But
Speaker 1: those none of those guys are one of those guys
Speaker 1: I just listed. None of them are. So the reality
Speaker 1: of this situation is you don't have two timelines. You've
Speaker 1: got one super duper duper all time great star timeline
Speaker 1: and you've got interesting young player timeline. That those two
Speaker 1: things are not the same. Don't murder the super duper
Speaker 1: star timeline for the sake of the I've got some
Speaker 1: interesting young players timeline. You're a very smart organization that
Speaker 1: drafts well, that develops players well, and is extremely well coached.
Speaker 1: You you will find other interesting young players, those opportunities
Speaker 1: will come about. It will come around. I haven't even
Speaker 1: seen necessarily all star flare from any of those young
Speaker 1: players yet, except for Jordan Pool. So like Steph is
Speaker 1: demonstrating to us all time stuff here last year he
Speaker 1: was he didn't play nearly this well in the regular
Speaker 1: season and still put together enough good games to win
Speaker 1: an NBA championship. This is the best version of Steph. Ever,
Speaker 1: it's worth investing in. And I'm sure a wait to
Speaker 1: the deadline, but when it comes to that point, if
Speaker 1: they're still struggling in the same ways that we've seen,
Speaker 1: I hope, for the sake of Steph and for the
Speaker 1: sake of NBA history, that they invest in it. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on to this, uh, this Kevin Durant thing.
Speaker 1: So there were three articles that came out today that
Speaker 1: I saw. Ben Simmons did, one for Sham Sharrania u
Speaker 1: k D had two separate ones, one with Marcus Spears
Speaker 1: and one with Chris Haynes from Yahoo Sports. And there's
Speaker 1: a there's a bunch of stuff in there, and we're
Speaker 1: not going to get to all of it because there's
Speaker 1: really only one thing I want to talk about Ben Simmons.
Speaker 1: Spent a lot of time explaining his injuries and kind
Speaker 1: of asking people to understand that he's a competitor and
Speaker 1: that he's doing the best that he can. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I don't I don't even know what to say
Speaker 1: there with the Ben Simmons thing. It's like I I
Speaker 1: have a hard time believing it. Jip based on his
Speaker 1: actions that he genuinely wants to be on the basketball court,
Speaker 1: but I'm not going to dive any further into that. Um.
Speaker 1: In the k D stuff, he talked about why he
Speaker 1: requested a trade because of his frustrations with the lack
Speaker 1: of hard work at practice and he wanted to do
Speaker 1: more close out drills and more shell drills and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. He said that Jack Van has them doing
Speaker 1: that stuff now. He told us about how happy he is,
Speaker 1: how happy he is playing the game, how happy he
Speaker 1: is being rich, how happy he is mentoring the younger players.
Speaker 1: He talked about how he doesn't care about his legacy
Speaker 1: and that his legacy is being a mentor two guys
Speaker 1: like Cam Thomas so teaching him how to be a
Speaker 1: great pro ten years from now and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: He said he didn't stand up to Kyrie because he's
Speaker 1: not about to tell a grown ass man what he
Speaker 1: can do and can't do with his own life. But
Speaker 1: this is where it went completely off the rails. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys saw these, uh these quotes going
Speaker 1: around on social media today. He said, quote, look at
Speaker 1: our starting lineup, Edmund Sumner, Royce, O'Neil, Joe Harris, Nick
Speaker 1: Claxton and me. It's not disrespect, but what are you
Speaker 1: expecting from that group? You expect us to win? Because
Speaker 1: I'm out there now. For the record, nothing he said
Speaker 1: was false on its head. I do believe he's happy.
Speaker 1: I believe he's happy playing basketball. I believe he's happy
Speaker 1: in his personal life, and actually do think he's happy
Speaker 1: with his legacy. I think Lebron, I think Katie kind
Speaker 1: of has like almost like a defeatist attitude on that front,
Speaker 1: where he just realizes he can't win with the public
Speaker 1: and he can't win with the media. So I don't
Speaker 1: I think he's just kind of numb to it all.
Speaker 1: I disagreed to with his approach to Kyrie. I think
Speaker 1: it's okay to ask your friend, Hey, dude, you're my buddy.
Speaker 1: We partnered on this together. We agreed to come to
Speaker 1: Brooklyn together on a basketball mission, and your behavior is
Speaker 1: sabotaging that. I think it's okay to sit down with
Speaker 1: Kyrie and be like, what the heck, dude, can you
Speaker 1: please just come in here and help me do what
Speaker 1: we promised to do when we embarks down this path. Originally,
Speaker 1: I think that's fair, but Katie disagrees, and I genuinely
Speaker 1: believe that he believes he did the right thing. Even
Speaker 1: with the roster. He's right, Yeah, they're great on paper,
Speaker 1: but Seth Curry has only played in six of their
Speaker 1: fifteen games. Kyrie has only played in eight of their
Speaker 1: fifteen games. Ben Simmons is only played in ten games
Speaker 1: and hasn't looked like Ben Simmons, and then t J.
Speaker 1: Warren is what scrimmaging against the coaches right now. God
Speaker 1: knows how far he is away from playing. So there's
Speaker 1: some legitimate roster limitations right now because of injuries. The
Speaker 1: on paper roster, the dunder Mifflin roster, Zach Low calls
Speaker 1: it has not panned out, that's for sure. But despite
Speaker 1: all of that, you can't, under any circumstances ever publicly
Speaker 1: diminish your teammates like that, even if it's true, it
Speaker 1: undercuts their confidence, which directly affects their performance. It puts
Speaker 1: them in the awkward position of having to face questioning.
Speaker 1: There will probably be a reporter that sits down and goes, hey,
Speaker 1: what was it like hearing Kevin Durant say that about you?
Speaker 1: And then it's just a bad look in general. It's
Speaker 1: m Even though I'm sure there are lots of stars
Speaker 1: around the league that privately complained about their teammates, when
Speaker 1: you do it in public, it's objectively unlikable and it's
Speaker 1: going to turn a lot of people off from you.
Speaker 1: But Katie knows that he's a hundred percent aware of
Speaker 1: the ramifications that come with what he said. He knows
Speaker 1: he's too smart, and he did it anyway. So what
Speaker 1: does that mean? That to me means that this was
Speaker 1: effectively passive, aggressively a trade request. Katie may be very
Speaker 1: happy in life in general, and he may be happy
Speaker 1: playing basketball, but he's obviously not happy with his current
Speaker 1: basketball situation playing with the Brooklyn Nets. And I don't
Speaker 1: blame him. He's way too damn good to waste prime
Speaker 1: years of his career playing on a team that doesn't
Speaker 1: really have a chance. I don't blame him. I feel
Speaker 1: the same way about Lebron as a fan of the game,
Speaker 1: as a fan of NBA history, you should hate that.
Speaker 1: I hated it when it happened to Step for a
Speaker 1: couple of years there after the Clay Thompson injury and
Speaker 1: after Katie left. I hated watching him put up massive
Speaker 1: numbers and floundering on a team that had no chance
Speaker 1: when he missed the playoffs twice in a row. And
Speaker 1: I hate seeing it with Lebron now, and I hate
Speaker 1: seeing it with Kad now. I hate it. I do.
Speaker 1: But this should be the thing that finally convinces Joe
Speaker 1: Sigh to pull the plug on all of this. I
Speaker 1: say that, but they should have done it after all
Speaker 1: the Kyrie stuff this summer and then they did it.
Speaker 1: They should have done it after the Katie trade request
Speaker 1: and then they did it. They should have done it
Speaker 1: after Katie threw the coach and the GM under the bus,
Speaker 1: and then they did it. They should have done it
Speaker 1: after the team came out and didn't defend a rebound
Speaker 1: for the first eight games of the season, and they
Speaker 1: did it. They should have done it when all this
Speaker 1: Kyrie stuff went down and then they did it. So
Speaker 1: conventional wisdom tells us that Katie burning the starting lineup
Speaker 1: to the ground should be the time that they finally
Speaker 1: do it. But I just I can't make that prediction anymore.
Speaker 1: My guess is that what they're looking at it is
Speaker 1: they're they're thinking, Hey, Kyrie's coming back this Sunday. We
Speaker 1: got t J. Warren coming back. Ben Simmons is gonna
Speaker 1: get it together, you know, Seth Curry is gonna start
Speaker 1: playing every night when he gets a hundred back back
Speaker 1: into shape, and then they're all just gonna compete with
Speaker 1: Jacque Vaughan and then they're just gonna rip off a
Speaker 1: bunch of wins and we're gonna go compete for a title.
Speaker 1: That's my guess as to what they're thinking internally. That
Speaker 1: would be completely insane, obviously, But like I said, conventional
Speaker 1: wisdom has to go out the window. There's been a
Speaker 1: half dozen reasons, significant real reasons to blow this thing
Speaker 1: up over the course of the last six months, and
Speaker 1: they just have refused to do so. So I don't
Speaker 1: know what to make of it. But that's bizarre. I
Speaker 1: I mean, k d In the last few months has
Speaker 1: publicly called out the coach, publicly called out the GM,
Speaker 1: and publicly called out the roster. This is the most
Speaker 1: transparent attempt to get out of a basketball team that
Speaker 1: I can remember seeing. So for the sake of k D,
Speaker 1: for the sake of all of us basketball fans, just
Speaker 1: pull the plug already, Joe. Send k D somewhere to
Speaker 1: play meaningful basketball. It'll be more fun for us watching him,
Speaker 1: and then we don't have to worry about all this
Speaker 1: drama anymore. I think that's what we all want, and I,
Speaker 1: for some reason, Joe's the only one who doesn't get it. Alright,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna head into this rapid fire segment. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hit on four games really quickly, and then we'll
Speaker 1: get out of here for the night. So the Celtics
Speaker 1: beat the Hawks. One Grant Williams was falling. He had
Speaker 1: a nasty step back three on the left wing. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because he kind of bet on
Speaker 1: himself this summer, hoping to get a bigger deal, and
Speaker 1: with how well he shot the ball, how well he's
Speaker 1: defended in some of the higher level shop making that
Speaker 1: he showed this year, he might be one of the
Speaker 1: guys where that pays off for It's gonna be the
Speaker 1: opposite of the Dennis Schroder type of situation. How about
Speaker 1: Luke Cornett fifteen points and eight rebounds with four blocks.
Speaker 1: With the Rob Williams injury, they desperately needed somebody to
Speaker 1: kind of pick things up for them as a bench big,
Speaker 1: and he's done a really nice job. He's also got
Speaker 1: a knack for these like reverse dunks, which is sneaky,
Speaker 1: one of my favorite ways to try to dunk because
Speaker 1: your back actually acts as like a battering ram and
Speaker 1: people can't actually get through you. Um. I did a
Speaker 1: whole thing on the Celtics yesterday if you guys want
Speaker 1: to see a deeper dive. But they came into tonight
Speaker 1: nineteen and defense. But I had seen plenty of examples
Speaker 1: of them hitting the switch right. They hit the switch
Speaker 1: for a few minutes, Beat the Grizzlies, hit the switch
Speaker 1: for a few minutes, beat the Nuggets, hit the switch
Speaker 1: for a few minutes, beat the thunder Right. This game
Speaker 1: was just one giant switch flipping. They had defensive rating
Speaker 1: in this game. They dominated from the start that held
Speaker 1: the Hawks to twenty five or fewer and three of
Speaker 1: the four quarters all Right Bucks, Calves, Bucks Win Bucks
Speaker 1: were down three starters because Drew Holidays dealing with an
Speaker 1: ankle thing. The Caves were down Jared Allen, and this
Speaker 1: was Donovan Mitchell's first game back from his ankle injury,
Speaker 1: so he kind of looked out of rhythm, to be honest, Um,
Speaker 1: Janice had eight assists. Brook Lopez made seven threes and
Speaker 1: at three blocks. He's been by far the best spacing
Speaker 1: rim protecting big in the league, an archetype that doesn't
Speaker 1: have a lot of players in it. And uh, there's
Speaker 1: a certain Mr Victor women Yama who I think will
Speaker 1: very quickly become the best player who does that when
Speaker 1: he gets into the league. And then Jordan Wara finally
Speaker 1: got going. He made five threes, scored twenty one points. Um,
Speaker 1: talking a little bit of Calves. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: overly concerned about this specific game, because you're gonna need
Speaker 1: Jared Allen to pack the paint to beat a Janice
Speaker 1: led team, and obviously you're gonna need Donovan Mitchell at
Speaker 1: the top of his game, which he was not. But
Speaker 1: I went on to local radio in Cleveland on Monday night,
Speaker 1: and I just talked a little bit about how I
Speaker 1: had some concerns about the idea of potentially playing two
Speaker 1: small guards that can't defend, just because fundamentally, throughout NBA history,
Speaker 1: we know that that's a flawed concept and that they
Speaker 1: usually will get you beat, not just because of the
Speaker 1: defensive mistakes that they make, but also matchup attacking and
Speaker 1: the way that that kind of that court can just
Speaker 1: be victimized, especially by bigger teams that have lots of
Speaker 1: wings that can punish you, teams like the Celtics, right
Speaker 1: and I all I said to the guys on the
Speaker 1: on the on the radio, there was like, wait till
Speaker 1: the deadline, but we've seen lots of examples of how
Speaker 1: the Garland thing isn't quite working. Alongside Donovan Mitchell, give him,
Speaker 1: you know, a few more months to try to figure
Speaker 1: it out, but don't be prideful about it, like you've
Speaker 1: got a ton of talent here. Donovan Mitchell has been
Speaker 1: one of the best five or six players in the
Speaker 1: league to start the season. Evan Mobile and Jared Allen
Speaker 1: make this incredible defensive front court. You need another wing, really, right,
Speaker 1: Harris Lavert's playing pretty damn well maybe maybe it's it'd
Speaker 1: be worthwhile to send a Darius Garland to a someone
Speaker 1: like Toronto and exchange for like an O g and
Speaker 1: Obi and the guys on the local radio. We're like,
Speaker 1: we don't even want to consider of that until we
Speaker 1: see them in the playoffs. And you know what came
Speaker 1: to my mind there is like I get it. I do.
Speaker 1: He's homegrown, he's super likable, the fans love him, he
Speaker 1: is super talented. But you've gotta learn from NBA history
Speaker 1: a little bit. Like I mean, when you when you don't,
Speaker 1: when you have two undersized guards that can't defend in
Speaker 1: your back court, it's damn near impossible to win in
Speaker 1: the playoffs against the best teams. That's just a fact.
Speaker 1: It's like trying to win in the NFL when you
Speaker 1: have two bad tackles. Like we all saw what happened
Speaker 1: to Patrick Mahomes two Super Bowls ago when he couldn't
Speaker 1: when they couldn't block for it. Right, it's just a
Speaker 1: it's like a trenches thing with football that makes it,
Speaker 1: you know, impractical. Same thing goes with basketball, Like it's
Speaker 1: a trenches thing in basketball. Physically, you're just going to
Speaker 1: have way too many problems that you can't fix personnel wise.
Speaker 1: When you have two small guards that can't defend on
Speaker 1: the floor. Again, you give him to the deadline. You
Speaker 1: try to get Darius Garland and maybe front the post
Speaker 1: a little bit. You work on Donovan Mitchell's off ball defense.
Speaker 1: You put scheme in place like pre switching and bracketing
Speaker 1: in the post and things like that to try to
Speaker 1: cover for them, but don't be probably ful about it.
Speaker 1: If it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work. If
Speaker 1: if if February comes and they're still having issues with
Speaker 1: two small defensive guards, they need to consider moving that
Speaker 1: moving moving on from Darius, Speaking of o G Nnobe,
Speaker 1: the Raptors beat the Heat one twelve to one of four.
Speaker 1: O G had thirty two and ten and close this
Speaker 1: game by just abusing Gabe Vincent, driving to the basket,
Speaker 1: drawing doubles in the post, things along those lines. The
Speaker 1: Raptors also did a really great job on Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: in this game, holding him to just eight shot attempts.
Speaker 1: Good win for the Raptors. Last, but not least, the
Speaker 1: Thunder beat the Wizards one to one twenty. Brad Beal
Speaker 1: had a really nice step back jump shot on lu
Speaker 1: Dort in the in the short corner on the right
Speaker 1: side with about seven seconds left, pushed him off. Lu
Speaker 1: Dort kind of fell over and brad just rose up
Speaker 1: and knocked it down. And as I was watching it live,
Speaker 1: I was I was sitting there thinking like, hmm, I
Speaker 1: wonder if s G. A is crazy enough to go
Speaker 1: for the kill here as the Wizards were up by
Speaker 1: two and he was. I started on Bradley Beal and
Speaker 1: got switched on to Monty Morris and and took a
Speaker 1: really nice step back three and won the game. And
Speaker 1: he's been shooting like forty seven percent and like ten
Speaker 1: pull of jump shots per game, So you know that's
Speaker 1: a shot that that that's not a fluke. That's something
Speaker 1: he's been knocking down all season. He had forty two,
Speaker 1: six and seven on only twenty one shots. I love
Speaker 1: it when I go out of my way to talk
Speaker 1: about something and then then somebody goes out makes me
Speaker 1: look right because I'm wrong plenty, and it's it's good
Speaker 1: for my confidence when I occasionally hit the bell on something.
Speaker 1: I spent about ten minutes talking about how I thought
Speaker 1: s G. A was a top ten player in the
Speaker 1: world yesterday, talked about all the things that he does
Speaker 1: well defensively, getting to the rim, pull up, jump shooting,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot, jump shooting, you know, passing the basketball,
Speaker 1: the change of pace, the shiftiness, the start and stop,
Speaker 1: the the the ability to place the old man game
Speaker 1: but also hit the jets and make freak athletic plays.
Speaker 1: He's one of my favorite young players in the league.
Speaker 1: And I got roasted last night for saying that I
Speaker 1: thought he was better than John Morant on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: Grizzlies fans got on me to a great extent. But man,
Speaker 1: like that was just that. That might have been the
Speaker 1: best game that s g A ever played. And if
Speaker 1: you have not checked out The Thunder yet this year,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend that you do. Um. They're they're really
Speaker 1: fun watch. They spaced the floor really well because their
Speaker 1: biggs can shoot and um, and they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of young interesting wings and guys that can defend. And
Speaker 1: just wait till chat Holmegren gets in there and maybe
Speaker 1: they get one more draft pick as well. But s
Speaker 1: g A, you know, one last note on the s
Speaker 1: c A thing. There's a lot of stuff going around like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, this was the worst trade ever when the
Speaker 1: Thunder sent s g A two, or when the Clippers
Speaker 1: sent SGA to the Thunder for Paul George. That's where
Speaker 1: I draw the line, because you can't operate based on
Speaker 1: information in two that wasn't available in Sorry, like that's
Speaker 1: just that's just not how it works. Or I guess
Speaker 1: it was the summer of nineteen right, like in you
Speaker 1: had to get Paul George to get Kauai, so really
Speaker 1: you were trading s g A and all those picks
Speaker 1: for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Also at the time,
Speaker 1: that overnight made then the championship favorite, right and it
Speaker 1: didn't payan out in the Clippers era has been a disaster.
Speaker 1: But if that same scenario plays out multiple times, they
Speaker 1: probably get one. Like they've had some bad luck, They've
Speaker 1: had injury luck. They had a nightmare performance in the
Speaker 1: Bubble when they lost to the Nuggets with they which
Speaker 1: they had no business losing that series. Even in the
Speaker 1: three games they lost at the end, they had big
Speaker 1: leads late in each of them, Like you make that
Speaker 1: deal every single time to try to win the title.
Speaker 1: S g A over this same span is only now
Speaker 1: really blossoming into the superstar that he is, and that's
Speaker 1: just kind of how it goes. Sometimes you send brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram off with Kyle Kuzma or brandon Ingram off with
Speaker 1: Josh Hard and Lonzo Ball and you win a title
Speaker 1: like the Lakers did with the A d. And sometimes
Speaker 1: you send him off and you don't win the title.
Speaker 1: But in both cases, brandon Ingram's a superstar and s
Speaker 1: g A is a superstar. That's just the name of
Speaker 1: the game. You gotta push your chips and sometimes to win,
Speaker 1: and when you do so, sometimes you're gonna send off
Speaker 1: a great prospect. You might thrive somewhere else. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like you can't win unless
Speaker 1: you do, you can't win unless you play. You have
Speaker 1: you have to push your chips in the middle um
Speaker 1: to put a roster together that's capable of winning an
Speaker 1: NBA title. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. Here's the game plan for the rest of
Speaker 1: the week. Tomorrow, we're gonna do our bi weekly power rankings,
Speaker 1: so we'll be diving into the ten best teams in
Speaker 1: the league as of right now, and then Friday, we'll
Speaker 1: do one last film breakdown before we get into the
Speaker 1: weekend and then we'll be done until Monday. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your support and I will see you
Speaker 1: guys tomorrow. The volume