Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason Tip Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your Wednesday to come
Speaker 1: hang out with Tommy and I as we talked some basketball. Tommy,
Speaker 1: how you doing today, man, fantastic, Excited to talk. NBA
Speaker 1: is always a lot of stuff happening. Um. It feels
Speaker 1: like I say that every week, but it's the truth.
Speaker 1: The NBA's probably the most active day to day league
Speaker 1: out of all the professional sports, so it always give
Speaker 1: us something to talk about. Man. Yeah, And you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny because I feel like one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why I'm excited for our topic today is I feel like,
Speaker 1: for the first time this season, I feel like I
Speaker 1: have a decent grasp on all of the of the teams.
Speaker 1: I've been super lucky because my wife, you know, I've
Speaker 1: talked with you before about how like I try very
Speaker 1: carefully to balance like you know, diving too hard into
Speaker 1: my hobbies and then also kind of make I'm sure
Speaker 1: that I spend time with my wife and and she
Speaker 1: right now is going to school in addition to work.
Speaker 1: And it's ironically been kind of a blessing for me
Speaker 1: because I've just been diving into basketball. Uh and watching
Speaker 1: a lot more games than I usually do. You know,
Speaker 1: I've always been able to watch like every Laker game
Speaker 1: and a handful of Marquee games, But now I can
Speaker 1: like really dive into a lot of the teams, and
Speaker 1: it's been nice because I've been able to get like
Speaker 1: a much better feel for a lot of the teams. Today,
Speaker 1: we are going to discuss, uh, basically, as a result
Speaker 1: of the Anthony Davis injury and the fact that he's
Speaker 1: going to be out for probably a month and then
Speaker 1: who knows what it might look like for him the
Speaker 1: rest of the season, We're going to talk about how
Speaker 1: that has kind of cracked the door open for a
Speaker 1: lot of different teams to potentially win a championship this year.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you guys know what I think are
Speaker 1: the list of contenders. Tommy's gonna let us know if
Speaker 1: he disagrees, and then we're gonna go one by one
Speaker 1: and kind of just talk about what it would look
Speaker 1: like for that team to get the job done and
Speaker 1: to to hoist the trophy at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: But before we get to that point, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about a couple of current events stuff. Um, The
Speaker 1: first thing I wanted to touch on, was this Draymond
Speaker 1: Green quote that he had in this post game the
Speaker 1: other night, uh, involving the Andre German situation, in the
Speaker 1: Black Griffin situation, and some of the you know, the
Speaker 1: hypocrisies that he pushed, UH pointed out about, like the
Speaker 1: way that uh, you know, activity in business, Uh, it
Speaker 1: takes place in the league. And so I want to
Speaker 1: start there. I want to let you go first time
Speaker 1: to give you your idea. But I do think it's
Speaker 1: I do think it's important right off the top to
Speaker 1: talk about it's just very complicated. It's always a lot
Speaker 1: more complicated than people are willing to to originally kind
Speaker 1: of admit. So I want to kind of dive into that. So,
Speaker 1: for starters, what was your first impression when you heard
Speaker 1: that quote? Like you're noting it is complicated. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's any one correct answer here in terms of
Speaker 1: how to analyze the situation. But I think what we're
Speaker 1: seeing here, and we see this increasingly with with more
Speaker 1: players basically having access to fans and to media just
Speaker 1: through their own ability being able to use things like
Speaker 1: Uninterrupted or just things like Twitter or Instagram where they
Speaker 1: can just contact bans directly. It's more, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of consumer to consumer. Everybody wants credit and nobody really
Speaker 1: wants to take responsibility for their own actions, right Like
Speaker 1: he Drman pointed to the Hardened situation, and every every
Speaker 1: bit of criticism that Hardened got was deserved. Houston bent
Speaker 1: over backwards for that guy for four or five years,
Speaker 1: and then he got all of his money, and then
Speaker 1: he turned around and wanted to be traded. And at
Speaker 1: the end of the end of the day he wont like.
Speaker 1: He got what he wanted and he got all of
Speaker 1: his money. So if he had to take a bit
Speaker 1: of bad public publicity, who cares, Like, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, he still wins because he might win
Speaker 1: a championship. Now, Broolyn looks amazing, Um. But I think
Speaker 1: the important distinction is to make between superstars. Like superstars,
Speaker 1: I think to have a ton of power in the
Speaker 1: week because they can single handedly determined championships, right And
Speaker 1: I think if you are that good and you're that
Speaker 1: talented at what you do, you should be able to
Speaker 1: determine kind of where you go and where you play.
Speaker 1: But I I don't think the Andre Drummond types do
Speaker 1: have the same type of power. So I do understand
Speaker 1: what Draymond is saying, but I also think a lot
Speaker 1: of his ire is directed maybe at the wrong people.
Speaker 1: So I'm interested to hear what you think, because I
Speaker 1: think he's he's trying to direct ir at the league
Speaker 1: instead of looking why a guy like Andre Drummond would
Speaker 1: be perceived as a cancer. I don't think it's the
Speaker 1: league's fault. I think there's something else that play here,
Speaker 1: But I'll let you go. Yeah, So the same as
Speaker 1: Fontiero talks about this all time and about how like
Speaker 1: the Players Association cares too much about the top of
Speaker 1: the league and the and the middle class kind of
Speaker 1: gets snubbed out of that. And you know, there's been
Speaker 1: some improvements recently with them attempting to help the bottom
Speaker 1: of the league, you know, through you know, raising the
Speaker 1: veteran minimum to you know, raising G League salaries, to
Speaker 1: creating that G League Select Team or what I can't
Speaker 1: remember what it's called, but the team that they have
Speaker 1: that's got all the guys fresh out of college, ge
Speaker 1: leaue Ignite, that's right. So, like there's been some improvement,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of truth to the fact that
Speaker 1: like a lot of the power in the league. You know,
Speaker 1: this player empowerment era is really just about a handful
Speaker 1: of guys. It's very concentrated. It's a very concentrated bit
Speaker 1: of power. And and I'm kind of okay with that,
Speaker 1: Like I think, like you know, I'm I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in, like you know, understanding the harsh reality that
Speaker 1: the guys in the middle of the league don't really
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to get this wealthy if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for the fact that the very, very best players in
Speaker 1: the league drive such great viewership. So that's why we
Speaker 1: talk about how, uh, you know, Lebron or Staff might
Speaker 1: be worth a hundred million dollars a year if you
Speaker 1: really get down to brass tacks, like I I do
Speaker 1: understand that. I think the interesting thing about the Draymond
Speaker 1: Green quote is agree with you. I thought it was
Speaker 1: kind of directed in the wrong in the at the
Speaker 1: wrong people. Because if you're worried about the impression that
Speaker 1: that a certain move gives to a player or to
Speaker 1: an organization, you have to look at the media and
Speaker 1: you know, and and quite frankly, I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: of a defeatist when it comes to the media. I
Speaker 1: just think it's I think we're in like the whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, like a Golden age, were like the opposite
Speaker 1: of a Golden age with media because the there's too
Speaker 1: many cooks in the kitchen. There's too many cooks in
Speaker 1: the kitchen. There's almost no accountability. Like even the people
Speaker 1: that had tried to hold themselves accountable are in the
Speaker 1: political world, they're like painted is like fake news and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Like it's been one of the most
Speaker 1: frustrating eras to to try to, you know, lean on
Speaker 1: any sort of journalism pretty much in the history of mankind,
Speaker 1: you know, And and we live in a free country.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's way worse obviously in other
Speaker 1: countries where you know, the government controls the media. But
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's just not it's not perfect. And
Speaker 1: you know what's frustrating is like you know, if you're
Speaker 1: uh if if if James Harden does something, you know
Speaker 1: what ends up happening is there's a large cool of
Speaker 1: media and all of them kind of form their opinions
Speaker 1: about it. And you had people come out caping for
Speaker 1: James Harden, and you had people coming out that we're
Speaker 1: ripping him ripping him too, shreds and and but the
Speaker 1: same thing happens to the teams. And that's the funny
Speaker 1: part I think. I think like the Draymond Green speech
Speaker 1: kind of like took the focus off of the much
Speaker 1: bigger problem, which is a collective bargaining issue between the
Speaker 1: league and its players, between the owners and the players,
Speaker 1: because the truth of the matter is, for decades and
Speaker 1: decades and decades, the owners took advantage of the players.
Speaker 1: That's true. There's if you read any that book about
Speaker 1: basketball history, it was pretty bad. And and and credit
Speaker 1: to the player, especially like the early players like Bill
Speaker 1: Russell who and Will Chamberlain who were willing to put
Speaker 1: their foot down on certain issues with the owners and
Speaker 1: leverage some more rights for the players. But if you
Speaker 1: look at this current situation, in recent years, the players
Speaker 1: have regained some of that power, but now it's almost
Speaker 1: like an even playing field where they're kind of both
Speaker 1: screwing over each other. Because for every situation like a
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond, which may be ugly, or that Harrison Barnes
Speaker 1: situation in Sacramento, there's also a situation like Anthony Davison
Speaker 1: New Orleans or James Harden in Houston, where it's just
Speaker 1: as ugly the other way around. So, like, the big
Speaker 1: thing that I thought when I saw that quote was like,
Speaker 1: We're headed to a nasty collective bargaining agreement the next
Speaker 1: time that they get into a negotiation. Because if I'm
Speaker 1: the owners, I'm like, I'm sick of these guys. And
Speaker 1: if I'm the players, I'm like, I'm sick of these guys.
Speaker 1: And I don't know where. I don't know where it
Speaker 1: settles from there. I mean, it could get ugly. I
Speaker 1: don't think a strike is out of the question. I
Speaker 1: really don't, especially considering that the league is losing money
Speaker 1: relative to where they thought they would be because of COVID.
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's still no fans in most of
Speaker 1: the arenas, and the ones that do have fans there
Speaker 1: at like capacity. So I do not think strike is
Speaker 1: out of the question at all. Like it it can
Speaker 1: get very very ugly. But what I'd say, just in
Speaker 1: regards to this situation is it just felt like weird timing.
Speaker 1: It felt like Draymond had this thought in his mind
Speaker 1: for a while and he was just waiting for a
Speaker 1: moment to go off about it, and he picked a
Speaker 1: weird moment because who was saying anything bad about Andre Drummond.
Speaker 1: Who was saying anything bad about him? The Calves are
Speaker 1: sitting him out to recoup value for him and make
Speaker 1: sure he doesn't get injured so they can actually trade
Speaker 1: him and both sides can get probably the best of
Speaker 1: both situations. Drummond doesn't want to be there anymore because
Speaker 1: they're losing games, and the Calves don't want him there
Speaker 1: because he's not playing hard. Like nobody was saying terrible
Speaker 1: things about Andre Drummond in the first place. And if
Speaker 1: if people are saying bad things about him, it's going
Speaker 1: to be media members, like you're noting, It's gonna be
Speaker 1: the people in the media, and they're doing so maybe
Speaker 1: at the behest of an organization, right, which is something
Speaker 1: that you have to look at. Maybe the organization is
Speaker 1: backchandling bad messages about a player. But Draymond sitting there
Speaker 1: yelling at you know, about all that the league is
Speaker 1: and trading the players, right, It's and media members are
Speaker 1: sitting there like nodding their head. Wow, Draymond so brave.
Speaker 1: He's right. It's like, dude, media members, you guys are
Speaker 1: the ones that talk about about the players in the situation,
Speaker 1: in these situations, and I realized the irony of this
Speaker 1: because we're sitting here doing a podcast essentially acting like
Speaker 1: media members and like yelling into the void about this stuff.
Speaker 1: But like, yeah, it just doesn't make sense. His comments, well,
Speaker 1: I understood kind of the broad overarching theme of everything
Speaker 1: he was trying to say. It just it didn't hit
Speaker 1: quite as well as it could. Because Draymond is one
Speaker 1: of the smartest dudes in the league. Like, by all accounts,
Speaker 1: he's an incredibly smart guy. And I'm one of Draymond's
Speaker 1: biggest fans, so I'm kind of apprehensive to criticize him
Speaker 1: in any manner. But it just felt like weird timing
Speaker 1: and weird messaging. I got the point, but he didn't
Speaker 1: connect it as well as I thought he could have. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I agree, and like, and that's the thing, like, like
Speaker 1: Draymond has, uh, he has a motive. He's he's got
Speaker 1: a bias in this case, and that that that's always
Speaker 1: going to be the case, like when you're when you're
Speaker 1: asking a player to talk about players rights. I think
Speaker 1: he made good points. He pointed out some hypocrisies and
Speaker 1: media coverage, but then he like seemingly like passive aggressively
Speaker 1: put it on the owners and again, like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm a media defeatist, Like, good luck changing that situation.
Speaker 1: If your hope is a utopia where the media treats
Speaker 1: every situation a hundred per sent fair from both sides,
Speaker 1: that is never going to happen. And I would even
Speaker 1: go a step further to say it's going to continue
Speaker 1: to get worse, especially as more people get voices and
Speaker 1: and at the flip side of that is like, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of uh, like acknowledging the realities of
Speaker 1: the way that the media treats these situations, you have
Speaker 1: to understand that, Like you're all you can do is
Speaker 1: try to control the narrative yourself. And so it's it's
Speaker 1: it's the onus is on you to try to make
Speaker 1: sure you're ultra transparent in your press conferences. Like Andre
Speaker 1: Drummond needs to come out and say this is what happened.
Speaker 1: I told him I wanted to play. I wanted a trade,
Speaker 1: but I also wanted to play. They said they wanted
Speaker 1: to bench me. I think that's bullshit. They should have
Speaker 1: to put me out there on the floor when I asked, like,
Speaker 1: that's one thing, you know. James Harden said the same thing,
Speaker 1: Like what ends up happening is they leak some stuff
Speaker 1: and it's very vague, and then the media can run
Speaker 1: with it with whatever interpretation they want as opposed to
Speaker 1: like really really going out of your way to tell
Speaker 1: the story. But I mean, again, you're it's a losing battle,
Speaker 1: and it's the onus is on us as people as
Speaker 1: fans to try to like seek out the media that
Speaker 1: is doing the job right, Like that that's the reality
Speaker 1: of the media problem being fixed. It's not you can't
Speaker 1: fix the media. You can just fix the way you
Speaker 1: consume it and that and that responsibility is on you.
Speaker 1: Gotta amplify the right voices. And then trying to compare
Speaker 1: any two situations I think is just misguided because all
Speaker 1: these things are case by case. Right, We're dealing with
Speaker 1: human beings, beings who are actively like changing emotions and
Speaker 1: thoughts and and what they want to do. You can't
Speaker 1: compare any two cases, like as many parallels we may
Speaker 1: want to draw, Like even the Anthony Davis and James
Speaker 1: Harden situations are like very very different, right, even though
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's a lot of similarities kind
Speaker 1: of just from a thirty ft view, they're not the
Speaker 1: same situation when you get down to it. So I
Speaker 1: think trying to compare any of these situations, you're just
Speaker 1: it's always gonna feel kind of hollow and just like
Speaker 1: like you're saying, Draymon is bias. He's always gonna side
Speaker 1: with the players, and then when he gets on the
Speaker 1: other side, he's probably always gonna side with management. We've
Speaker 1: seen this with Michael Jordan. Jordan was like a huge
Speaker 1: kind of players rights guy when he's playing, and now
Speaker 1: he's like all about doing everything that's best for the owners.
Speaker 1: End of the day, people are always going to fight
Speaker 1: for their their own personal gain. They're always fighting for
Speaker 1: their own personal game, and that's what That's how we
Speaker 1: as fans have to approach these situations. I think we
Speaker 1: just have to understand that from the outset and then
Speaker 1: we can have more honest conversations about this stuff. And
Speaker 1: then there was the classic thing that I always complained
Speaker 1: to you about, where like the someone takes an obvious
Speaker 1: stance on on Twitter and then everyone jumps behind them
Speaker 1: and gives them a raw rab hat on the back
Speaker 1: and round of applause, and it's like and and then
Speaker 1: like the guy who stands up and he's like, actually,
Speaker 1: we'll complicate into that, and that guy gets shredded, like
Speaker 1: it's it's it's the textbook, it's the textbook case. And
Speaker 1: which is actually a good segue to this next situation
Speaker 1: because I think, you know, uh, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: this report that came out today with Adrian war Zanowski
Speaker 1: having to do with the player vaccinations, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's extremely important like coming into this and
Speaker 1: this is something that you and I have talked about
Speaker 1: another podcast that like there is a long, dark history
Speaker 1: as it comes to the treatment of African Americans in
Speaker 1: the medical medical community. That's important. But but I also think, like,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes we have a tendency to draw false
Speaker 1: equivalen seas in those cases, like I remember there was
Speaker 1: a big thing that came out during the UH during
Speaker 1: the Disney bubble, or they're like they're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't like the optics of having you know, police officers,
Speaker 1: off duty cops that are guarding the entrances to the bubble,
Speaker 1: and you're like, well, like actually, like they're not there
Speaker 1: to guard the players they're there to guard the people
Speaker 1: that are maybe trying to break the bubble to get
Speaker 1: in the bubble. Okay, Like that's like, I get the
Speaker 1: point you're trying to make, but I feel like this
Speaker 1: isn't the hill to die on. And I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of the the opinion that I have on this,
Speaker 1: Like I understand the idea of of not wanting to
Speaker 1: do a p s A for all of the reasons
Speaker 1: that we discussed in the past, but I do think
Speaker 1: it's okay to tell the players or to ask to
Speaker 1: play years to be realistic about taking the vaccine, just
Speaker 1: individually for themselves, like when in the report it says
Speaker 1: that that the NBA sending out like an education doctor
Speaker 1: to go around to all these teams and sit down
Speaker 1: with him. And I do think, like, again, at the
Speaker 1: p s A thing totally different debate that can get
Speaker 1: ugly and optics are great, but I do think it's
Speaker 1: okay for the players to pressure the or for the
Speaker 1: owners to pressure the players into taking the vaccine because
Speaker 1: it's literally like in their best interests. It's in their
Speaker 1: best interests no matter how you look at it, especially
Speaker 1: when you factor in all of the bad things that
Speaker 1: We've seen even young athletes experience post COVID or during
Speaker 1: COVID when they get the real illness, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Yeah, I mean Jayson Tatum is talking about
Speaker 1: it right now. How he's still he's still getting fatigued
Speaker 1: more quickly than he ever really has in his life.
Speaker 1: And he's twenty three years old, twenty two years old,
Speaker 1: something like that, and you know, probably as fit as
Speaker 1: basically anybody in the world that is twenty three years old,
Speaker 1: and he got a bad case of COVID and he's
Speaker 1: still struggling to to breathe times from it, right, And
Speaker 1: I think you said you went through something similar when
Speaker 1: you got it right, and you're in your late twenties.
Speaker 1: I'm still experiencing some lingering fatigue. But I can't tell
Speaker 1: if it's literally the same lingering fatigue that every human
Speaker 1: has been experiencing around two pm every day their entire life,
Speaker 1: or if it's post COVID stuff. But I can tell
Speaker 1: you that it was real, like it was a real
Speaker 1: It kicked my but worse than any illness have ever had.
Speaker 1: And and and I I'm you know, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of young people who've had it worse We've even
Speaker 1: heard about the kid from Florida who had the heart
Speaker 1: inflammation that caused his heart to I think I can't
Speaker 1: remember the exact details, but the yeah, Kyante Johnson Johnson
Speaker 1: if family, the family did come out and say recently
Speaker 1: that that wasn't COVID related. I don't know, probably did.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that. That happened like maybe a week ago.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing then the news break, and then I
Speaker 1: read a little bit of the article. Um, they did
Speaker 1: say it wasn't COVID related. I don't I mean, maybe
Speaker 1: they made the wrong determination. I don't want to speculates
Speaker 1: my point. That's classic. That's classic, like the way scarier
Speaker 1: version of the story everybody sees, but then like the
Speaker 1: the like the real version of the story comes out
Speaker 1: that's way less scary and like no one sees it.
Speaker 1: That's exactly exactly. UM. As far as the All Star
Speaker 1: Game goes and players getting vaccinated, it's just a really
Speaker 1: tough topic, man, for all the things that you said
Speaker 1: at the outset, just kind of the dark history with
Speaker 1: UM Black Americans in the medical medical community here, UM especially,
Speaker 1: it really becomes how concerned do we want to be
Speaker 1: about the optic because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you're probably getting white owners telling black players to take
Speaker 1: a vaccine, and that still doesn't look great. Like I
Speaker 1: I still that still makes me like a little bit queasy,
Speaker 1: And you know that. I agree. I think though, Like again,
Speaker 1: it's like I think there's there's a difference between empathy
Speaker 1: and like uh and like kind of like letting your
Speaker 1: emotions dictate your dictate your decisions, because like it's IM sure,
Speaker 1: this is not we're asking the black players to take
Speaker 1: the vaccines first. This is not we're asking the black
Speaker 1: players toticipating in a clinical trial. This is tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of people have been tested by this with this
Speaker 1: vaccine and clinical trial that it has been approved by
Speaker 1: the CDC, it's been approved by the federal government, it's
Speaker 1: been approved by the FDA. It's been already given to
Speaker 1: almost every emergency worker in the United States of America
Speaker 1: right now in terms of people who have for seen
Speaker 1: these pine. I think it's okay to be like, we
Speaker 1: have a checkered history with this stuff, and these are
Speaker 1: the facts about this individual case, and so like, where
Speaker 1: where I do agree with the people that are pushing
Speaker 1: back is the the the p s A. It's like
Speaker 1: that's weird, like like, hey, can you guys go and
Speaker 1: do this on television to try and talk to your
Speaker 1: communities so that they're not scared like that I think
Speaker 1: can get ugly really fast. Uh, And I agree with
Speaker 1: but the simple act of saying, hey, guys, it is
Speaker 1: in the best interests of our league for you guys
Speaker 1: to be vaccinated so that you don't have some awful
Speaker 1: health issue with the actual virus itself, and so that
Speaker 1: we can stop having suspensions and get to get get
Speaker 1: through our schedule. Also, here's all the medical facts that
Speaker 1: show that it's safe. I think that's okay. I don't
Speaker 1: have an issue with that totally. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: frame it as the same way that when you go
Speaker 1: off the college, you're supposed to get vaccinations, right, and
Speaker 1: it is a little bit different. And I do understand
Speaker 1: the apprehension because this is a vaccine that was basically
Speaker 1: produced in twelve months, and it did not have the
Speaker 1: normal clinical trials that any other vaccine would have, and
Speaker 1: they did some different things. It's m r NA versus
Speaker 1: kind of your classic vaccine. Like there are I think
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons for apprehension just relative to getting
Speaker 1: a a normal vaccine quote unquote, but it is definitely
Speaker 1: in the best interest of the league to do this
Speaker 1: and for like this season to continue at the pace
Speaker 1: they wanted to and for the playoffs to start in May,
Speaker 1: and for there it will be less COVID delays and
Speaker 1: COVID postponements. And I mean Charlotte and San Antonio going
Speaker 1: through one right now, they've each missed their last two
Speaker 1: games and they might miss their games this weekend. That's
Speaker 1: gonna continue to happen if you know that we don't
Speaker 1: have more players or any players get the vaccine, right. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is it is definitely in the best interest of
Speaker 1: the league to do it. It's just the optics are
Speaker 1: are really really shaky. And I do understand the stands
Speaker 1: of the players too. This is one of those things
Speaker 1: where I'm probably not gonna come down hard on either
Speaker 1: side because I I truly do understand both sides here.
Speaker 1: Whereas like the last situation we talked about, the Draymond thing,
Speaker 1: I was probably a little bit more opinionated about it.
Speaker 1: This is just this is one of those things where
Speaker 1: it's like, look, man, if you want to get it, great,
Speaker 1: get it if not, I totally understand where you're coming from,
Speaker 1: because I think the apprehensions that a lot of them
Speaker 1: have are the same apprehensions that a lot of Americans
Speaker 1: have about getting the vaccine right now. And that's not
Speaker 1: to say I'm an anti vaxx or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but point being like, this is something that we we
Speaker 1: really don't have a lot of data on and and
Speaker 1: for somebody like me who relies on being analytical and
Speaker 1: data for a lot of my approach to life, that
Speaker 1: is something that is a little bit scary. But pointing,
Speaker 1: if the league wants to continue at the correct pace,
Speaker 1: then yeah, they should absolutely push the players to do this.
Speaker 1: The p s A stuff is weird, but definitely they
Speaker 1: should have as many players are that are willing to
Speaker 1: get the vaccine to get it. Yeah, I agree, And uh,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see because like this, this was
Speaker 1: something I tweeted about earlier. But I don't think that
Speaker 1: there's actually a large number of players afraid to take
Speaker 1: the vaccine. I don't think that that's the case. I
Speaker 1: think that it didn't want to say I didn't watch
Speaker 1: say that there was a good amount of resistance from
Speaker 1: the players. Do you think that's I think thing. I
Speaker 1: think that I think the resistance was more directed towards
Speaker 1: the P S A S, which I get and and
Speaker 1: he specifically said in his piece basically that their tentative,
Speaker 1: especially in light of them being forced to go to
Speaker 1: the All Star Game in Atlanta. So now I don't
Speaker 1: have data on this, but my guests would be that
Speaker 1: the majority of the pushback in this piece is more
Speaker 1: directed towards leverage in hopes of getting the All Star
Speaker 1: Game canceled so that they can have more time off
Speaker 1: in the middle of the season. That's just my guess,
Speaker 1: like there, because everything in life is about leverage, especially
Speaker 1: when you look at these these pieces, which is are
Speaker 1: are basically reporting, right, So like somebody's going to WOJ
Speaker 1: and saying, I need you to write this piece, And
Speaker 1: my guess is that in this case it's the owners
Speaker 1: and WOES probably went to Michelle Roberts and was like,
Speaker 1: what do you guys want to say in this piece?
Speaker 1: And I'm sure Michelle Roberts was like, we don't love
Speaker 1: the way this looks in light of what uh they're
Speaker 1: trying to get us to do in Atlanta, And then
Speaker 1: here come you can kind of like try to draw
Speaker 1: the picture from the from the reporting, and and I
Speaker 1: think that's I think that's probably where where this is going.
Speaker 1: But uh, like I said, I think there's probably an
Speaker 1: agreement to be had, Like get sit down at the
Speaker 1: table with these guys, be like, you know, uh, do
Speaker 1: you are you interested in in uh making a deal?
Speaker 1: Do you guys want to maybe consider giving up the
Speaker 1: All Star Game? But in return we get you all
Speaker 1: vaccinated in in early March? Is part of an ad
Speaker 1: campaign because I think the important part of the ad
Speaker 1: campaign is, you know, as is usually the case, there's
Speaker 1: an ulterior motive to every charitable contribution that that most
Speaker 1: big businesses do you know like and in this case,
Speaker 1: like the the I think the NBA is saying like,
Speaker 1: if we have to wait for the public to get it,
Speaker 1: then we have to wait potentially Fauci was saying, potentially
Speaker 1: the late April early May, which which might be too
Speaker 1: late to necessarily help the regular season and be in
Speaker 1: time for the playoffs, but not much else. So I
Speaker 1: guarantee the league was like, what if we use these
Speaker 1: p s A s as an excuse to do it
Speaker 1: in March? And basically now we're working with the state
Speaker 1: governments and it's like, a we can skip the line
Speaker 1: a little bit as part of these p s. A.
Speaker 1: So that'll be the the interesting thing to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out what they're working on behind the scenes, because
Speaker 1: that would be my guest, because they're never in a
Speaker 1: million years with the players agree to do those p
Speaker 1: s as just for poops and giggles, like it's got
Speaker 1: to be for has to be for something having to
Speaker 1: do with beating the line. And they did mention easing
Speaker 1: COVID restrictions on teams that do our players that do
Speaker 1: get they the vaccinations. How I mean, yeah, it's all
Speaker 1: leverage play and we'll see where it goes. Man, it's
Speaker 1: a weird situation just the fact that we're even here
Speaker 1: to begin with, where we're talking about whether players need
Speaker 1: need to get vaccinated for an NBA season to continue.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's all unforeseen and it's it's nothing
Speaker 1: that anybody has really experienced before. So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think the best thing would be for Silver just
Speaker 1: to actually have a conversation with the guys in the
Speaker 1: players Association, which is that even happening. It seems like
Speaker 1: he's always just trying to like channel messages through Michelle
Speaker 1: Roberts instead of just actually sitting down at a table
Speaker 1: with the people who matter and trying to make decisions.
Speaker 1: At least if I'm just reading the between the lines
Speaker 1: and the articles, I could be totally wrong. But it
Speaker 1: just always yeah, it just always seems like he's pushing
Speaker 1: the message to somebody else and then hoping it gets
Speaker 1: relayed correctly. Well you, and it's like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: it's just the it's the classic case of of people
Speaker 1: letting to leaving too much to the imagination when they
Speaker 1: when they when they release any sort of snippet of information,
Speaker 1: rather than just coming out and saying what you think.
Speaker 1: You know that that was the ironic part about the
Speaker 1: Kyrie decision earlier in the years, like Okay, well I'm
Speaker 1: not going to talk to the media. It was like, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's that's gonna make things worse, actually, because now
Speaker 1: everything they say about you is gonna be some sort
Speaker 1: of pontification having to do with you know, what they
Speaker 1: think you're thinking. You know, it's a referendum on him
Speaker 1: as a human being instead of just him saying what
Speaker 1: he thinks exactly. But let's talk some basketball. So, uh, basically,
Speaker 1: you and I talked about before the season that we
Speaker 1: thought that the Lakers were in their own team, um,
Speaker 1: that no one was going to be able to beat
Speaker 1: them if they were healthy because of the offseason acquisitions
Speaker 1: that they made that improved their offense, and just because
Speaker 1: Lebron Peeking and Anthony Davis making some strides in the bubble.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the the the reasoning behind all
Speaker 1: of that. So then we get into the season and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis doesn't really look like himself and there was
Speaker 1: a lot of guessing as to what was causing that,
Speaker 1: and uh, then we kind of figure out that it's
Speaker 1: it was related to a lower leg injury that he's
Speaker 1: been dealing with most of the year, Which makes sense
Speaker 1: because you know, they had just started playing stopped playing
Speaker 1: two months ago before the start of the season, so
Speaker 1: theoretically it should have been that hard for Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: to get back in shape. And so we got twenty
Speaker 1: three games of him, and in those twenty three games,
Speaker 1: he looked like a shell of himself. And so now
Speaker 1: he's gonna be managing this injury. He's gonna be out
Speaker 1: for at least a month, but There's basically a couple
Speaker 1: of different ways that this could go south for the Lakers. One,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis could come back and he could not look
Speaker 1: like himself and still kind of just be a shell,
Speaker 1: a certain percent shell of himself for the entire season,
Speaker 1: including the playoffs. Or it could become one of those
Speaker 1: things where he never actually comes back and he ends
Speaker 1: up missing the playoff runs. So this to this completely
Speaker 1: changes the whole UH contender situation, and what was, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, a one the two or three team field
Speaker 1: is now kind of like a six team field in
Speaker 1: my opinion. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you the teams that I think now have a
Speaker 1: chance to win the title, and then I want you
Speaker 1: to let me know if there's anybody that I left off.
Speaker 1: But so I Brooklyn and Philly out East as teams
Speaker 1: that now have a definitive, clear cut path to potentially
Speaker 1: win a championship. Then I have the Lakers and Clippers,
Speaker 1: and I have the Jazz and the Suns. Is there
Speaker 1: anybody that I didn't mention that you would add to
Speaker 1: that list as a team that in the vacancy created
Speaker 1: by the Lakers dominance, that you think could win a
Speaker 1: title this year at this to at this exact moment. No,
Speaker 1: But I think now a lot of teams are one
Speaker 1: move away, maybe one big move and one small move
Speaker 1: away from jumping into contention. Um. And this has been
Speaker 1: something that I have talked about with some Warriors Twitter
Speaker 1: people and in some discords, some Warriors discords. If Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is out for an extended period of time, you've
Speaker 1: got to push your chips. And if you're the Warriors,
Speaker 1: now if you get steps some actual help, but the
Speaker 1: way he's playing, you can you have a puncher's chance
Speaker 1: at winning the title without that Lakers kind of domination
Speaker 1: hanging over your head. And which goes into a point
Speaker 1: of I think there's now a lot of teams in
Speaker 1: that situation, or at least more than there was. I
Speaker 1: think the Blazers could even be in that situation if
Speaker 1: Dame continues to play well and CJ comes back and
Speaker 1: Nerk comes back. Um. I think Boston, if they make
Speaker 1: the right move, could maybe be in that situation. It
Speaker 1: would probably be a little bit more complicated for them,
Speaker 1: but they do have a massive trade exception. They have
Speaker 1: a million dollar trade exception. What they which they can use.
Speaker 1: So there now maybe a mover too away, um, maybe
Speaker 1: the Bucks. Even if the Bucks make a mover too
Speaker 1: to improve their roster, and you honest starts to play
Speaker 1: a little bit better than then he has, honestly, then
Speaker 1: there there they have a chance. But point being, I
Speaker 1: agree with those six, but I also think there's other
Speaker 1: teams that are now very very close that weren't even
Speaker 1: close to having a chance before this injury, for sure,
Speaker 1: and it may cause them to be more aggressive, especially
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. Come. I'm not sure when the trade deadline is,
Speaker 1: but I would assume it's short after It's it's March
Speaker 1: this year, Okay, So so theoreticly there will be maybe
Speaker 1: a week or two of games after the All Star break,
Speaker 1: and theoretically I would like to see them be extra
Speaker 1: careful with a D and wait till the end of
Speaker 1: March to bring him back. But he might be back
Speaker 1: and people might get to have a look at how
Speaker 1: good he looks. But so let's let's go down through
Speaker 1: the Lakers have. Yeah, the Lakers have no reason to
Speaker 1: rush him back. In my opinion, they already know what.
Speaker 1: They already know what Lebron and a D look like
Speaker 1: as a playoff tandem. They've obviously changed the roster a
Speaker 1: little bit on the margins, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: same important pieces are still there. Um, I don't think
Speaker 1: chemistry will will really be an issue for them, especially
Speaker 1: because when Lebron and a D are back, most of
Speaker 1: the possessions are going to run through them anyway, especially
Speaker 1: in a playoff series, So rushing him back in any
Speaker 1: manner would be the wrong move for them. Yeah, I agree,
Speaker 1: and we already know that with Anthony Davis in there,
Speaker 1: they are an extremely dominant basketball team. But like we
Speaker 1: we've talked about that version of the Lakers at length,
Speaker 1: so really quickly, let's go over what it would look like,
Speaker 1: you know, without a D in this case. And so
Speaker 1: this is something that I talked a lot about over
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks. Um. You know, the Lakers
Speaker 1: have a lot of depth, and they're actually kind of
Speaker 1: constructed in a way that can win without Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: And I always pointed to their defense, like everyone was
Speaker 1: so obsessed with Anthony Davis's impact on their defense because
Speaker 1: of his shop blocking ability, because of how mobile he
Speaker 1: is if he switches onto a guard to be able
Speaker 1: to defend and things along those lines. Well, if you
Speaker 1: look at the roster now, they basically slide slide Kuzma
Speaker 1: into the Anthony Davis spot. So now you're playing Marcus
Speaker 1: al at center, who finally started making some shots last night.
Speaker 1: You have Dennis Shrewder who finally broke out of his
Speaker 1: slump last night. You've got Contavious call Well, Pope, You've
Speaker 1: got Lebron and Kyle Kuzma. That's a pretty good starting lineup.
Speaker 1: I would put them behind the Clippers starting lineup. I
Speaker 1: put them. I put them kind of in the same
Speaker 1: tier as the Suns and the Jazz in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference as a starting lineup. Their depth is actually, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, a bit better than what than what you're
Speaker 1: seeing from some of these other teams. Like Wesley Matthews
Speaker 1: as an NBA starter, he started for the Buck flash year.
Speaker 1: He's a really good NBA player who can defend and
Speaker 1: knockdown shots. Montrez Harold has been playing really well lately. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's something clicking for him on defense. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: it's ball pressure he's just doing. He's doing a lot
Speaker 1: better job of using his quickness in length instead of
Speaker 1: trying to be bigger than guys around the basket, which
Speaker 1: is just always gonna end up putting him on the
Speaker 1: losing side. But that's a starter caliber player. Markie Moore's
Speaker 1: not so much. Alex Cruzo is a starting caliber player
Speaker 1: coming off your bench. So you literally have in talent
Speaker 1: Horton Tucker borderline, I don't think yet, but will be
Speaker 1: a starter lever player potentially come playoff time or by
Speaker 1: next year. Really good defensively at this point in the season,
Speaker 1: and he's one of those guys, one of those young
Speaker 1: players where when you watch him, it's like every week
Speaker 1: you're like, holy sh it, he's getting better, Like he's
Speaker 1: better than he was last week. And to me that
Speaker 1: that is just something that tells me a guy has
Speaker 1: really good feeling, really good basketball i Q. And those
Speaker 1: are the type of guys that tend to farewell in
Speaker 1: the playoffs anyway, because they can make basketball reads and
Speaker 1: basketball plays instead of just being in a super defined
Speaker 1: I just shoot threes and I can't dribble, you know,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how to do something when defenses
Speaker 1: are a little bit discombobulated. Um So point being, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's an amazing player. They do have a ton of
Speaker 1: starter level talent on that roster. Yeah, he's dynamic, like
Speaker 1: he's got almost like borderline Kawhi Leonard Kawhi Leonard light
Speaker 1: level defensive ability. And he what was funny is his
Speaker 1: defensive focus was trash to start the year. It actually
Speaker 1: cost him a game against Portland because he kept losing
Speaker 1: the little shooting guard they have him blinking but the
Speaker 1: literally trend trend. Yeah, but since then, he's come miles
Speaker 1: in terms of his defensive focus. He's got incredible length,
Speaker 1: he's super super strong. Offensively, he's a little touch and go,
Speaker 1: but you don't mean much from him offensively on that roster.
Speaker 1: So when he has a great offensive game, it's kind
Speaker 1: of just like gold. It's kind of like the Crusoe thing,
Speaker 1: you know, like if Crusoe is making threes, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this is a fifteen million dollar year
Speaker 1: level player now. So like there's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of depth on that raw and I talked
Speaker 1: about this. You know, he had another crazy dunk last
Speaker 1: night where he spun baseline and a play that he
Speaker 1: used to just go up and lay up over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, and he just went up with
Speaker 1: two hands and dunked it over Malik Beasley. He's a
Speaker 1: pretty strong perimeter defensive player and uh, for about three
Speaker 1: games now, Lebron is starting to look vaguely two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen esque in terms of his athleticism, just in his
Speaker 1: ability to jump and move laterally. Uh, he's ironically he's
Speaker 1: kind of cooling off a little bit as a jump shooter,
Speaker 1: a little bit back, more to too normal. But his athleticism,
Speaker 1: to me is the bigger thing, because I know two
Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen, Lebron is is one of the best
Speaker 1: basketball players I've ever laid eyes on. So I like
Speaker 1: how good Lebron looks. They defend extremely well at the
Speaker 1: point of attack. They're not as good around the rim,
Speaker 1: but they would go a lot more in on shooting
Speaker 1: with guys like marcosol And and Mark Mark Keith Morris
Speaker 1: as as a stretch fives, so you could kind of
Speaker 1: see like a spacing thing open up for the for
Speaker 1: the for the Lakers. I feel about that team similar
Speaker 1: to how you kind of feel about the War years,
Speaker 1: but a little bit better. And what I mean by
Speaker 1: that is like that's one of those teams that against
Speaker 1: like the Jazz and against like the Sons or against
Speaker 1: Philly like I could see Lebron just being too much
Speaker 1: and putting them over the top. But if Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can't play, they're not beating the Clippers, and they're definitely
Speaker 1: not beating Brooklyn. In my opinion, I just think I
Speaker 1: just think they that is the talent differential that would
Speaker 1: be kind of too much of a chasm if Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis could not come back well Brooklyn just specifically on
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn match up. Brooklyn shoots a lot of jump shots,
Speaker 1: but James Harden is probably also the one one of
Speaker 1: the best room attackers in the league. Kyrie is when
Speaker 1: he wants to be, Kevin Durant can when he wants
Speaker 1: to be. Not having Anthony Davis his presence inside would
Speaker 1: really really hurt them in that series. Even though they
Speaker 1: do have phenomenal guys to guard the ball, if you
Speaker 1: don't have that back end to be that super elite
Speaker 1: defense against an offense like Brooklyn, you're gonna have trouble
Speaker 1: because you need you need elite defenders at every position
Speaker 1: on the floor to beat that Brooklyn team. And that's
Speaker 1: why I like the Lakers and matchup. If everybody's healthy.
Speaker 1: But if they don't have a D, that changes the
Speaker 1: entire calculus of the series. It becomes something entirely different.
Speaker 1: But overall, I do agree with your point on the Lakers.
Speaker 1: They're They're a team that has just a bunch of
Speaker 1: really good players and then you have Lebron on top
Speaker 1: of it. So as long as Lebron is healthy with
Speaker 1: this roster, they're still one of the top three teams
Speaker 1: in the West at the absolute worst, and they're probably
Speaker 1: better than the Jazz because Lebron is Lebron and Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz don't have Lebron, so and I would pick the
Speaker 1: Clippers in in a theoretical series if a D isn't healthy,
Speaker 1: but it's still gonna go probably six maybe seven games,
Speaker 1: and you know late game situations. I probably trust Lebron
Speaker 1: more more than CHOIRPG. So he's having a crazy clutch season,
Speaker 1: like I I. As of the other day, he was
Speaker 1: in first, but I'll have to check, but I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure he's still first. And crunch time field goals made
Speaker 1: again last night, Like after Anthony Edwards made a couple
Speaker 1: of huge threes to get it close, Lebron made a
Speaker 1: couple of huge plays down the stretch two where he
Speaker 1: drove and kicked to uh one where he drove and
Speaker 1: kicked to a wide open marcusol for three that he
Speaker 1: made one where he drove and click kicked to Kuzma.
Speaker 1: The close out was sloppy, so Kuzma just drove in
Speaker 1: for a layoup like two plays created by Lebron, and
Speaker 1: then he hit another like crazy tough step back jump
Speaker 1: shot that I used the game at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, and like it's almost like he always was
Speaker 1: a good closer because he had the combination of decision
Speaker 1: making to go with his offensive ability like as a score,
Speaker 1: but now it's like combined with this like unbelievable confidence
Speaker 1: that reminds me of Kobe Bryant in the late two thousands,
Speaker 1: where it just felt like every time the game was close,
Speaker 1: it just felt like he was going to make the
Speaker 1: shots to win the game. And and I really, I
Speaker 1: really think it's just like the the ultimate culmination of
Speaker 1: like all of the things that he does extremely well
Speaker 1: with supreme confidence lating games, and and that's something that
Speaker 1: can flat out swing playoffs series. So I it's if
Speaker 1: I was a Laker fan, obviously I'm a Lebron fan,
Speaker 1: but if I was a Laker fan, like I would
Speaker 1: be extremely excited about how well Lebron is playing at
Speaker 1: the end of these games. Yeah, I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: the same thing I watched a lot of late career
Speaker 1: MJ growing up that that was my guy. Jordan's my guy,
Speaker 1: I mean, with the same last name, so he was
Speaker 1: obviously my favorite player. But I watched a lot of
Speaker 1: his you know, second three Pete Bulls runs growing up
Speaker 1: because a lot of those games are actually accessible on
Speaker 1: tape or you know, on ESPN Classic or whatever. It's
Speaker 1: that same kind of thing where it's like, I know,
Speaker 1: I'm one of the greatest players ever. I have the
Speaker 1: confidence that I am, everybody else knows that I am,
Speaker 1: and on top of that, I have all the accomplishments.
Speaker 1: There's nothing left for me to do, so there really
Speaker 1: is no pressure. It's on the broad at this point.
Speaker 1: It's all just kind of cherry on top. Whatever he does,
Speaker 1: it's just extending his own legacy. So I think the
Speaker 1: confidence and then combined with kind of just that no
Speaker 1: pressure situation, he's going to be the best clutch player
Speaker 1: in the league probably. Yeah. And the best example of
Speaker 1: it was his game tying three that he made against
Speaker 1: okay See in the second matchup, he shot like ship
Speaker 1: that whole game from the perimeter and like for him
Speaker 1: to all of a sudden like trust his shot enough
Speaker 1: to make the most important three of the game to
Speaker 1: send it to ot after he was like I think,
Speaker 1: I think he was one for nine from three up
Speaker 1: to that point was just to me, it was just
Speaker 1: like the ultimate sign of like how far he's come
Speaker 1: in terms of his confidence in his shot. Like a
Speaker 1: Laton games there there is a post championship glow like that.
Speaker 1: The same thing happened with the Warriors in fifteen sixteen.
Speaker 1: That's I mean, partly they went seventy three and nine
Speaker 1: because they were motivated by all the people saying their
Speaker 1: year before it was fake. But Steph was like unequivocally
Speaker 1: a way more confident player the next year in clutch
Speaker 1: situations because he had done it on the biggest stage.
Speaker 1: When you've done it on the biggest stage, and like recently,
Speaker 1: there is no bigger confidence given than that. We see
Speaker 1: it time and time again, like, yeah, he's gonna be
Speaker 1: the best player in any series they probably are in.
Speaker 1: So that's with that roster that might be enough, especially
Speaker 1: the defense. And like I said, look, going small. We
Speaker 1: see this with Stephan the Warriors, Like going small is
Speaker 1: just gonna open things up for their spacing. But like,
Speaker 1: let's sake way to Brooklyn because you had you had
Speaker 1: mentioned Brooklyn. So in the event of Anthony Davis not
Speaker 1: being we I think we both agree that Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis would kind of physically dominate Brooklyn if they
Speaker 1: got into a playoff series. But let's say Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is out of the picture. Now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: all you have to do is outscore Philly, who's a
Speaker 1: limited offensive team, and then you've got to outscore the Lakers,
Speaker 1: who are gonna be limited offensively on a fact as
Speaker 1: a result of the fact that they're down to basically
Speaker 1: one and a half dribble creators with Lebron and Dennis Shruder.
Speaker 1: So how would you feel about Brooklyn. Let's let's talk
Speaker 1: about the whole thing, like how would Brooklyn get through
Speaker 1: Philly and how would Brooklyn get through the Lakers. So
Speaker 1: this is a big if. But at this moment, if
Speaker 1: the setors are fully healthy, and if the Nets are
Speaker 1: fully healthy, I think I would still puck pick Philly.
Speaker 1: Then we wright preseason pick. I've kind of stood with
Speaker 1: them so far throughout this season, and beat has still
Speaker 1: been incredible when healthy. He is starting to miss more games,
Speaker 1: so that's maybe knocking his name out of the m
Speaker 1: v P conversation a little bit, but he still unbelievable
Speaker 1: and healthy. So I still would side Philly in the
Speaker 1: potential matchup, but Brooklyn is closing that gap. Um. They
Speaker 1: are incredible offensively. Obviously we all knew that was going
Speaker 1: to be the case, but I think some of the
Speaker 1: things that they've done I've been really good for even
Speaker 1: being better than I might have imagined offensively, Like Harden
Speaker 1: is basically their point guard, and Kyrie talked about this.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm basically going to be the shooting guard,
Speaker 1: and I think that's the right move. Harden is the
Speaker 1: best passer on that team. He is the best decision maker,
Speaker 1: He's the best pick and roll guy. That is the
Speaker 1: guy who you want to have the balls in his
Speaker 1: hands and Employemaking has always been a weakness for Kyrie.
Speaker 1: We learned this from Lebron, so absolutely at an emplay
Speaker 1: like the Kyrie to Lebron, but in this case to
Speaker 1: James harden is a proven method to absolutely and I
Speaker 1: think what we're seeing from harden Um is that his
Speaker 1: best role was never to be a volume score. Houston
Speaker 1: just kind of did that. But he in the modern NBA,
Speaker 1: he actually wasn't efficient for what he was doing. You know,
Speaker 1: he was shooting mid to low forties from the field
Speaker 1: and mid thirties from three. Sure in in two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: that's efficient because the defensive rules were different, spacing was different,
Speaker 1: it was toffer to get shots at the rim, so
Speaker 1: shooting percentages. Shooting percentage is always super inflated by the amount,
Speaker 1: but the free drops exactly and and that that ability
Speaker 1: goes away in the playoffs. Right. So, but he's but
Speaker 1: point being he was going up against players in not
Speaker 1: players in two thousand seven. So the guys he going
Speaker 1: up against, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Lebron James, those are
Speaker 1: all guys who shoot high forties, low fifties, maybe even
Speaker 1: mid fifties. In the playoffs from the field, they're all
Speaker 1: shooting thirty five plus from three In stats case, he's
Speaker 1: shooting low forties from three and hardens like way paling
Speaker 1: in comparison to them. So all the talk about him
Speaker 1: being the greatest score ever was maybe the most ridiculous
Speaker 1: conversation of all time. That's the one thing I'll always
Speaker 1: hold over darry Darryl Moore's head. That was the dumbest
Speaker 1: conversation ever. But Harden has been incredible since he's been there.
Speaker 1: He's only averaging three points a game, only it's still
Speaker 1: a lot. He's averaging eleven assist per game and I
Speaker 1: want to say around eight or nine rebounds. Late he's
Speaker 1: been scoring more too. I think, yeah. I mean he
Speaker 1: scored a bunch against Phoenix last night because you know,
Speaker 1: Harden and excuse me, Kyrie and Katie were built out.
Speaker 1: But he's take taking less shots and his splits right
Speaker 1: now are like, I want to say, forty eighty something. Right.
Speaker 1: He's more efficient because he's not shooting bad shots and
Speaker 1: he's playing in a role that actually suits his abilities
Speaker 1: instead of just taking trying to be a volume score
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, that's all he was
Speaker 1: trying to be. He wasn't actually trying to do things
Speaker 1: efficiently in Houston. He was just trying to get up
Speaker 1: as many shots as possible. Um, they look really good.
Speaker 1: I'm still he's had a couple of quotes, by the way,
Speaker 1: over the last week where he's made kind of passive
Speaker 1: aggressive comments about the way things were in Houston, and
Speaker 1: I want to be like, dude, it was your fault,
Speaker 1: Like it was you, Like he said something about how
Speaker 1: like we're a true team over here something. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: every one of those guys that Houston hated you, because
Speaker 1: like they literally they came. They came, just shot I
Speaker 1: have saying we're so glad James is gone, like and
Speaker 1: then there was another one where he said something stilar
Speaker 1: but like he just I'm like, dude, look, I'm happy,
Speaker 1: you're happy now, but shut up about it. Everybody that
Speaker 1: went there basically hated it, or not even not hated it,
Speaker 1: but I mean role guys, stars, nobody really enjoyed their
Speaker 1: experience playing there. And it all started from the top down.
Speaker 1: It started from him point being I'm gonna give him
Speaker 1: some credit because I have been very harsh on Harden.
Speaker 1: I said he wasn't a top ten player in the league.
Speaker 1: He's obviously a top ten talent, but I thought he
Speaker 1: hadn't been a top ten player because he had leaned
Speaker 1: so far into Mori Bowl that he had screwed over
Speaker 1: a lot of his own effectiveness by being a guy
Speaker 1: who was just basically super inefficient because of the volume
Speaker 1: of shots he was taking. He's been amazing since he's
Speaker 1: been broken, been in Brooklyn. He's playing in the correct role.
Speaker 1: And I think if if they do continue to do this,
Speaker 1: if they continue to play in this manner, especially when
Speaker 1: all three guys are healthy, they're beating almost every over
Speaker 1: five team that they play. Kevin Durant is taking less shots,
Speaker 1: he's taking less of an offensive role. He's one of
Speaker 1: the best on ball guys in the league right now
Speaker 1: in terms of field goal percentage defended. Um. I want
Speaker 1: to say he's holding his opponents under fort from the
Speaker 1: field when he's the one on one matchup. So he's
Speaker 1: doing a very good job defensively. Um. They still do,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, need more defensive help. They're gonna need
Speaker 1: actual rim protection at some point because Joel Embides still
Speaker 1: will absolutely destroy them in a series if they do
Speaker 1: match up. But I am much more optimistic on them
Speaker 1: than I was even two or three weeks ago when
Speaker 1: the trade was initially made, because I think we were
Speaker 1: both very low on it. I hope they signed Andrew Drummond,
Speaker 1: that would be that would be my dream scenario as
Speaker 1: for them to sign Andre Drummond, because I think it
Speaker 1: would be the ultimate like catastrophic mistake, just because like
Speaker 1: I really do think that, uh, that there are going
Speaker 1: to be like obvious decisions that that aren't the right decision,
Speaker 1: while there are some like some other kind of like
Speaker 1: lower profile guys that they could find, like a Dwayne
Speaker 1: Deadman or somebody like that, that that I think would
Speaker 1: be much better for what they're actually asking that player
Speaker 1: to do. You think you think I'm gonna just command
Speaker 1: too many minutes, even if it's on a buyout, I
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think Drummond plays a winning brand
Speaker 1: of basketball for a for a contender like I think.
Speaker 1: I think here's the thing with Andre Drummond. Once every
Speaker 1: couple of weeks he decides to get twenty rebounds and
Speaker 1: twenty points off offensive rebound putbacks. But he's very much
Speaker 1: like Dwight Howard and the fact that he demands the
Speaker 1: ball in the low block when he has no business
Speaker 1: having it down there. As far as his defense goes,
Speaker 1: he's a little bit of a shot block chaser in
Speaker 1: the sense that like any decent high i Q team,
Speaker 1: like as on White side, like as on White side,
Speaker 1: where he's just jumping in everything and now you're giving
Speaker 1: up like eight offensive rebounds because he's jumping at shots
Speaker 1: he shouldn't be jumping at. This is all you need
Speaker 1: to know, Like, uh, Cleveland is not going to be
Speaker 1: able to get any asset for him. In fact, they
Speaker 1: may have to pay to get rid of him or
Speaker 1: buy him out. And so there's no incentive for them
Speaker 1: to get rid of him other than the fact that
Speaker 1: they know Jared Allen is way better. And and what
Speaker 1: does Jared Allen do, Like Jared Allen is on a
Speaker 1: post up player, Jared Allen is not taking threes Jared.
Speaker 1: All they do is they can rely on Jared Allen
Speaker 1: to be a like a a presence around the basket
Speaker 1: defensively who's smart with his length instead of like aggressive
Speaker 1: with his length. And then on the offensive end, he's
Speaker 1: got a bunch of vertical gravity as as a lob catcher.
Speaker 1: Like the center position, unless you're using them like a
Speaker 1: d as a primary scoring option. The center position is
Speaker 1: all about doing dirty work. And I don't think that
Speaker 1: that's necessarily something that Andrew gumand would accomplish for them.
Speaker 1: I still can't believe Brooklyn gave Allen up. You know, Okay,
Speaker 1: I was really confused about this, and you and I
Speaker 1: were both really confused about this. But I heard that
Speaker 1: you make the trade work the day that Cleveland through
Speaker 1: another first round pick to Houston in that trade, and
Speaker 1: I'll have to look into that. But like, if Cleveland
Speaker 1: through a first round pick to Houston, you can safely
Speaker 1: assume that that was in payment for Jared out. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I think we're I think we're in
Speaker 1: agreement about Brooklyn as far as like what their path
Speaker 1: looks like, which is like Kevin Ran defending better, getting
Speaker 1: a decent buyout guy, you know, James Harden, embracing the
Speaker 1: playmaking girl, Kyrie Irving basically becoming two thousand sixteen Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving in his role in the offense. Um. As far
Speaker 1: as Philly goes, though, I agree with you. I think
Speaker 1: that I think that Joe l Embiad is such a
Speaker 1: like unbelievable mismatch for them, uh, And I think they
Speaker 1: have so much length, And I think Ben Simmons is
Speaker 1: probably the best defender in the league right now. And
Speaker 1: for guarding. For guarding Kevin Durant and the Matistabel is
Speaker 1: a problem they've got. They've got such a Tobias if
Speaker 1: they've got so much length defensively, ironically, the guy that
Speaker 1: would worry me for them is Kyrie Irving, because I
Speaker 1: don't think they have someone who can stay in front
Speaker 1: of Kyrie. But that I I do think that they
Speaker 1: have the two way play mixed with the physical offensive
Speaker 1: dominance to cause them a lot of problems. I just
Speaker 1: think they would rip muck that series up. I think
Speaker 1: they would just ugly, just really ugly. And I think
Speaker 1: they have enough shooting around him Bead and Simmons now
Speaker 1: to make it work if if both Seth Curry and
Speaker 1: Tobias are healthy, I think they have just enough shooting
Speaker 1: to get it done. If one of those two guys
Speaker 1: goes down, then they're screwed, even if it's just Seth
Speaker 1: who's a role player, but they need the shooting that
Speaker 1: both m and Tobias provide. No, I agree, and they
Speaker 1: the big thing is going to be the Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: situation because I think, I think, I literally think that
Speaker 1: the Lakers are the much better version of the Sixers.
Speaker 1: They they have very similar things that they bring to
Speaker 1: the table, and this like big playmaking forward going with
Speaker 1: this like dominant mismatch big man in a great defense
Speaker 1: full of a bunch of There's a little bit of
Speaker 1: difference in the way they defend. The Lakers are more
Speaker 1: ball pressure oriented with less size, and the Sixers are
Speaker 1: more length oriented and just kind of swallowing up distance
Speaker 1: with long arms. But but I think the Lakers are
Speaker 1: a better version of them. So they would, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: depend on a injury to Anthony Davis in order to
Speaker 1: actually come out on top in the in the finals. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you think about Uh, what do you think
Speaker 1: about Utah right now? I mean my position on Utahs
Speaker 1: and change. They still look amazing that they're just they're,
Speaker 1: like I said a couple of weeks ago, they're playing
Speaker 1: a brand of basketball that I've never seen, just in
Speaker 1: terms of the actual efficiency that they're making three point
Speaker 1: shots with across the roster. Right, even even a team
Speaker 1: like the Warriors, who you obviously had Stephan Clay and Katie,
Speaker 1: it was really concentrated their shooting abilities, right. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like this team wide thing where you have six, seven,
Speaker 1: eight guys that can make three pointers. It's a different
Speaker 1: type of stress on your defense, right. The Warriors version
Speaker 1: was like more star centric, where it's like you had
Speaker 1: these three guys you really had to worry about, and
Speaker 1: everybody else on the team was basically just trying to
Speaker 1: get them shots at all times, whereas with the Jazz,
Speaker 1: it's like six, seven, eight guys who are all able
Speaker 1: to shoot and all able to make decisions. So one
Speaker 1: bad step by a defensive player, one wrong assignment, one miscommunication,
Speaker 1: it starts kind of that cavalcade of events where that
Speaker 1: ends in an open three or a dunk for Golbert basically,
Speaker 1: or a wide open lay up for one of their
Speaker 1: their perimeter guys attacking the rim. So, I mean, my
Speaker 1: concerns remain the same about their playoffs ceiling, but in
Speaker 1: the case that Anthony Davis is not a factor, and
Speaker 1: maybe Paul George two because he's kind of sort of
Speaker 1: injured right now, he has the bona demon thing in
Speaker 1: his foot, nobody's really sure what's going on there. I
Speaker 1: think I think it's a perfect comp to the Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis injury, Like, yeah, he don't know, so it's almost
Speaker 1: exactly pretend like it might not be great, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Paul George also has a history of
Speaker 1: coming back from his injuries with no rhythm and not
Speaker 1: playing particularly well. That was one of those things this
Speaker 1: offseason is like, oh I was healthy, I got to
Speaker 1: train with my guy. Well it's like, okay, well now
Speaker 1: you're just taking a month off. We'll see how that
Speaker 1: disrupts your rhythm. Yep, exactly. So Utah, it definitely has
Speaker 1: more of a chance if neither one of those guys
Speaker 1: are a factor, meaning Anthony Davis or Paul George. I mean,
Speaker 1: I could see I could see Donovan Mitchell getting hot
Speaker 1: enough to beat anybody in a playoff series because we
Speaker 1: actually have seen it before, right, It's not something that's
Speaker 1: what We've seen it against Russell Westbrook, and we've seen
Speaker 1: it against Paul George. We've seen it against Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: although not enough to actually win the series. Sure, right,
Speaker 1: we haven't seen it against Lebron James. That's not what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, But we know that he is capable of
Speaker 1: getting hot for a long period of time, especially in
Speaker 1: you know, in big moments like that. That is not
Speaker 1: something he he is unable to do, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: just one series. He's done at multiple times now, So
Speaker 1: it looks better now than he did in the past.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, he's a better player. Um, But yeah, they
Speaker 1: definitely have more of a chance if Anthony Davison Paul
Speaker 1: George aren't playing. This is this is their window to
Speaker 1: a title, right, This is a team like the Jazz.
Speaker 1: You're probably never gonna win and every if everybody is healthy,
Speaker 1: but you get some injury, Look now you've got a chance.
Speaker 1: Now you can rely on your system and you hope
Speaker 1: that that your star is good enough to get the
Speaker 1: job done against other rosters that are depleted to what
Speaker 1: they normally are. So yeah, I haven't moved on them
Speaker 1: at all. They're just an outstanding basketball team and I
Speaker 1: love watching them. So I think I think it's important
Speaker 1: to understand and respect the fact that they're winning a
Speaker 1: lot like I don't think that's easy to do. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's a coincidence. I think it's worth acknowledging that.
Speaker 1: I think there's a clear reason why they're the best
Speaker 1: three point shooting team in the league on offense, and
Speaker 1: they literally lead the league and opponents three pointers made.
Speaker 1: So they're doing a great job of kind of doing
Speaker 1: the reverse analytics thing, like we're gonna we're going to
Speaker 1: take advantage of it on this end and take it
Speaker 1: away on the other end. However, you know, I do
Speaker 1: think that they have like there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a gap between what their actual outcomes have been versus
Speaker 1: what their roster would tell you about them as a team.
Speaker 1: You know, for instance, like they're not the only team
Speaker 1: in the league that has guys that can knock down
Speaker 1: shots and defend. But yet somehow Joe Ingles and and
Speaker 1: Bogdanovich and and O'Neil are kind of exceeding expectations in
Speaker 1: that regard. They're not the old guys, are they Those
Speaker 1: guys will not O'Neil. O'Neil is not like a career
Speaker 1: three point guy, but Bogdanovitch and Angles basically are those
Speaker 1: are guys who shoot basically every year. No, I I agree,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, like there are other teams
Speaker 1: in the league that that have good three point shooters
Speaker 1: who can defend what I'm sure what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: talk about as matchups here, So I'm going somewhere with this,
Speaker 1: but basically with the with the matchups, the way I
Speaker 1: look at it is like they also have like a
Speaker 1: good playmaking guard mixed with a good scoring guard, and
Speaker 1: then they have a guy who can protect the rim,
Speaker 1: and then they have a really aggressive score off the bench.
Speaker 1: That's like the really quick like breakdown of the way
Speaker 1: their team works. They do not have a crazy mismatch
Speaker 1: problem that they can make in a series now other
Speaker 1: than Donovan Mitchell, who is more or less the same
Speaker 1: archetype of player that you see and and on a
Speaker 1: half dozen different good teams in the league, which is
Speaker 1: this really good scoring guard that if you go under
Speaker 1: screens he can shoot from three and if you go
Speaker 1: over the top he's really athletic and get to the
Speaker 1: room and score. So like it's not like he presents
Speaker 1: you know, some sort of monstrous playmaking or uh mismatch.
Speaker 1: And on the nights where he's not making shots, he's
Speaker 1: just not as effective, like he doesn't find other ways
Speaker 1: to affect the game really exactly. And and and he's
Speaker 1: not a great playmaker, like he's an average he's an
Speaker 1: average playmaker. So what I what I what I kind
Speaker 1: of take away from that is like I try to
Speaker 1: like you have to look at like the Atlanta Hawks
Speaker 1: from two thousand fifteen, or like the Rafters from two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen as examples, Like when you looked at the
Speaker 1: success that they were having on the court, being a
Speaker 1: lot of teams winning a lot of games, so much
Speaker 1: of it had to do with effort and making shots
Speaker 1: and and just a really good coaching and all of
Speaker 1: this stuff. But then when it came down at the
Speaker 1: playoff time, there were obvious deficiencies in the way that
Speaker 1: their roster was constructed. Okay, So that's that's what I
Speaker 1: think is okay to point out with this Jazz team,
Speaker 1: and it's simply put, like, I don't think Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: is as good at what he does as the other
Speaker 1: guys he's going to run into around the league. I
Speaker 1: don't think Mike Connolly is as good at what he
Speaker 1: does as the other guys he's gonna run into. Gobert
Speaker 1: is fine, but you and I both are kind of
Speaker 1: I think I think we both respect what he does,
Speaker 1: but I think he's like John Hollinger was at the
Speaker 1: other day. Put I was just about to say that,
Speaker 1: did you hear him? He put him top three in
Speaker 1: m v P. He said that him and Lebron had
Speaker 1: the same case, his media his media passion be revoked.
Speaker 1: That's the most ridiculous fucking are you kidding me? It was.
Speaker 1: It was bad, and like basically this is his whole thing.
Speaker 1: Was like, he's the best player on the best team
Speaker 1: in the league. And I'm like, first of all, I
Speaker 1: don't think he's the best player on the best team
Speaker 1: in the league. But regardless, like you get what I'm
Speaker 1: we're going with this, Like I don't think that I
Speaker 1: don't think that they do a thing that is going
Speaker 1: to scare the best teams in the league when they
Speaker 1: can face them seven times, and most importantly, I don't
Speaker 1: think they've faced the two teams that I'm really interested
Speaker 1: in seeing them play, our Phoenix and the Lakers. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna see the Lakers play them here in a
Speaker 1: couple in a couple of weeks, which is gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting because even though Anthony Davis is not playing, I
Speaker 1: think the the Lakers are I think second or third,
Speaker 1: I think third in the league and taking away opponents
Speaker 1: three point shots. So they're a team that's gonna force
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz off the line, and it'll be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see how they audible to that and then
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is so good at coming up with defensive
Speaker 1: game plans. And then the Lake. You're gonna get a
Speaker 1: great effort from the Lakers in that game because they're
Speaker 1: gonna have something to prove. That'll be a really interesting one.
Speaker 1: And then Phoenix is the other one because Phoenix is
Speaker 1: one of the best teams that chasing teams off the
Speaker 1: three point line as well. Chris Paul is great at
Speaker 1: the point attack. Defensively, they've got all their their wings
Speaker 1: on the perimeter are actually every bit is good defensively
Speaker 1: as the kind of wings that uh that Utah is
Speaker 1: gonna throw at them. So those are that those are
Speaker 1: the matchups I would just I would like to see
Speaker 1: a team try to make Utah do something different, kind
Speaker 1: of like the Milwaukee Bucks last year. It's like, what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do when Rudy Gobert gets consistently pulled
Speaker 1: out of the paint. What are you gonna do when
Speaker 1: all of a sudden all your catch and shoot threes
Speaker 1: aren't there? What are you gonna do? Like the that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the thing to see, Like they beat Milwaukee
Speaker 1: the other day. Milwaukee famously just lets you shoot three.
Speaker 1: So that was a recipe for disaster from the beginning,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So that'll be the the
Speaker 1: I just want to see how they adapt because in theory,
Speaker 1: if you actually look at the way they're constructed, they're
Speaker 1: not really constructed to be a team that succeeds in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. If that makes sense. Yeah, to be clear,
Speaker 1: like I said, I still doubt their playoffs ceiling, right,
Speaker 1: they can actually be in the playoffs, I would still
Speaker 1: put the Lakers and the Clippers over them in a series,
Speaker 1: And if the Warriors make a couple of MOVs to
Speaker 1: improve their roster, I'm picking the Warriors over them too.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Steph Curry so much better than anybody on
Speaker 1: that team. I think they would beat that team. Point
Speaker 1: being there are a tremendous team, and we in the
Speaker 1: same way that we owe the two fifteen Hawks, you know,
Speaker 1: a certain amount of um credence for playing as well
Speaker 1: as they were, we owe the same to the Jazz,
Speaker 1: And I think the Jazz is best player in terms
Speaker 1: of just being a pure score is better than that
Speaker 1: two Hawks team had. Right, So, just going off of
Speaker 1: that model, they have more of a puncher's chance in
Speaker 1: a series against an actually really really Donovan Mitchell is
Speaker 1: always like a one in four chance of looking like
Speaker 1: Dwyane Wade on any given nights. So exactly undercutting that.
Speaker 1: I'm not undercutting that at all. Um. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: Phoenix though, So uh well, I'll let you go first
Speaker 1: on this or what what would it look like for
Speaker 1: Phoenix to to make it all the way, because this
Speaker 1: is a team I'm extremely high on. Yeah, they keep
Speaker 1: looking better, man, they look better almost all the time
Speaker 1: a game. And that that was bad? That was that
Speaker 1: was really bad last night. It's Chris Paul has a
Speaker 1: few too many of those on his he does, he
Speaker 1: has way too many of those on his record. And
Speaker 1: there Phoenix is starting to grow restless about DeAndre Ayton.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of he's a he's a nice player,
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna be a nice NBA player
Speaker 1: for a long time. But you picked him over Luca
Speaker 1: don Chrich like that at some point, like the the
Speaker 1: frustration is gonna boil over and like it's gonna get
Speaker 1: I think it might get a little bit ugly there,
Speaker 1: just because of the pressure that fans almost put on
Speaker 1: the organization. Um, even though I wouldn't say the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns fan base is a huge one, but point being
Speaker 1: like it could have turned into an ugly situation. But
Speaker 1: I think, do you think Devin Booker is better than
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell? Yes, I do. I think I think he's
Speaker 1: significantly better. Yeah, I don't even think it's close. Really,
Speaker 1: I think he's I think he's the type of score
Speaker 1: that can be the best score in any playoff series
Speaker 1: against any player in the league besides like maybe three
Speaker 1: guys an actual mismatch, like one that's three other teams out. Oh,
Speaker 1: because because he can get a bucket and like legitimately anyway,
Speaker 1: like he can pull, he can do threes off the dribble,
Speaker 1: off of off ball movement, he can go into the
Speaker 1: midpost and post smaller guys up and get buckets. He
Speaker 1: can go to the rim, like he keeps getting better
Speaker 1: at finishing around the rim every year. And he's one
Speaker 1: of those like classic examples this year specifically, where like
Speaker 1: his numbers are actually down compared to other years. But
Speaker 1: he's a better player because he's yeah, it's in a
Speaker 1: winning context and he's taking a step back and he's
Speaker 1: giving Chris Paul more playmaking responsibilities and he's like letting
Speaker 1: other guys take more shots. And I mean he shouldn't
Speaker 1: have done that in years, part because the roster sucked,
Speaker 1: But point being, his numbers are worse. But he's, you know,
Speaker 1: he's learning how to be a better player because he's
Speaker 1: taking on less responsibility in a good way. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean better than Conley, Yes, absolutely, I mean not
Speaker 1: even a question that And their wings are probably on
Speaker 1: pars with the Jazz, So I see the point that
Speaker 1: you're making. You're saying the Sons would probably beat the
Speaker 1: Jazz in a series. If you were the Warriors, would
Speaker 1: you be more scared of the Sons or the of
Speaker 1: the Jazz? I think I think it's a clear difference,
Speaker 1: don't you probably These Sons, yeah say the Sun's Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: they just I think they're They're best two players are
Speaker 1: just better than the Jazz's best two players. And that's
Speaker 1: what playoff series come down to a lot of the time,
Speaker 1: especially if your best two guys are better than their
Speaker 1: best two guys, which would be the case with Phoenix
Speaker 1: and Utah for sure. And even though Chris Paul does
Speaker 1: have his history of of playoff blunders, and just like
Speaker 1: last night. I still think there's like the outside chance
Speaker 1: he does. Like the two thousand eleven Dirk thing were,
Speaker 1: like Dirk before two thousand eleven was this guy who
Speaker 1: always choked in the big moment right and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it was like a switch flipped and
Speaker 1: he he had like a three series run where he
Speaker 1: was one of the best closures that we've ever seen
Speaker 1: in that in the I mean, they they beat the
Speaker 1: Spurs in round one and then they kicked the crap
Speaker 1: out of the Lakers the Thunder. He had like four
Speaker 1: late game situations where he was just making impossible shot
Speaker 1: after impossible shot to close out those games. And same
Speaker 1: thing against the heat. Like and I'm not saying Chris
Speaker 1: Paul would do something as crazy as Dirk did in
Speaker 1: those playoffs, but just I think he might. Really just
Speaker 1: a question. It isn't out of the question, because he
Speaker 1: is that great. He's one of the five six greatest
Speaker 1: point guards of all time. And when he's on, because
Speaker 1: he was on for a lot of the game that
Speaker 1: last night, he's just incredible to watch. He's such a
Speaker 1: good basketball player. He understands the game. I think he's
Speaker 1: up over like twenty and seven over his last games,
Speaker 1: and he's basically like like something in something some crazy
Speaker 1: like he is peaking again right now. Somehow. He's the
Speaker 1: only guy like he The only guy I would say
Speaker 1: that controls the flow of a game better than him
Speaker 1: in the league right now is Lebron. I agree, that's it,
Speaker 1: and the only guy Ron. That's what he is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a six ft version of Lebron. And he was
Speaker 1: always going to play himself into shape this season. I
Speaker 1: thought like he wasn't gonna come and I think that's
Speaker 1: probably why his numbers were low to start the year. Um,
Speaker 1: he just wasn't gonna be in shape coming into the year,
Speaker 1: just because of how weird it is. Like he's very
Speaker 1: involved with the Players Association obviously, like the dudes, got
Speaker 1: a lot on his plate. So he's probably like, I'll
Speaker 1: work my way into shape at the beginning of the season.
Speaker 1: I'll be good by game twenty or thirty. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're seeing. He looks awesome. Devin Booker, like you said,
Speaker 1: is better than anybody that you taw as for sure,
Speaker 1: So they might I really hadn't thought about it in
Speaker 1: this manner, but they really might have more of a
Speaker 1: chance than you try to go to the finals. They're
Speaker 1: just they have a lot of guys who have never
Speaker 1: been there. Eight is really young, Bookers really young still.
Speaker 1: Um obviously Cam Johnson, who was playing a lot of minutes,
Speaker 1: is very young. U Michail Bridges is very young. And
Speaker 1: those guys are all really good players, but they're still
Speaker 1: just really young. They're all like it under And that's
Speaker 1: just if you're lying on that many guys that are
Speaker 1: that young, it's just gonna be tough to make a
Speaker 1: deep playoff run. It always is like if you just
Speaker 1: look through the history of the league, that doesn't really happen.
Speaker 1: I agree. I think Chris Paul and Jay crowder at
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a veteran presence. That's because
Speaker 1: the Lakers, for the record, have the same problem. I mean,
Speaker 1: they have a lot of young guys that they depend on. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Anthony Davis is still in his twenties. Dennis
Speaker 1: shooters in his twenties, like Crusoe and th h t
Speaker 1: are super young. There are a lot of young guys
Speaker 1: kind of mixed in that they're that there were a
Speaker 1: lot I think k cps only like twenty seven or
Speaker 1: something like that too. Yeah. One of those guys who's
Speaker 1: been in the League three you feel like fifteen years
Speaker 1: but he's years old. Oh yeah, well yeah, that that's
Speaker 1: just it's like the Brad Beal thing. And ever since they,
Speaker 1: you know, we ever since these guys have been especially
Speaker 1: the guys in the Eastern Conference that we're playing in
Speaker 1: like big Marquee playoff games when they were like twenty
Speaker 1: two years old. It's just they're burned in your memory
Speaker 1: from a young age. Um. Anyway, like, I'm super high
Speaker 1: on the Sun's because they check all of these boxes
Speaker 1: that that that I believe in the championship contenters and
Speaker 1: I've talked to you about it a million times, so
Speaker 1: I don't dive into it. But it's just that can
Speaker 1: do you have alpha's that can go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with the best players in league? Can you defend an
Speaker 1: extremely high level? And can you uh, are you versatile offensively?
Speaker 1: Like can you attack offensively? In different ways? They're touching
Speaker 1: top five and defense, now, aren't they They're right around
Speaker 1: like top five. I'll check, but I think they're I
Speaker 1: think they're already in the top five. But anyway, the
Speaker 1: I've always kinda used those landmarks as the things that
Speaker 1: I used to evaluate regular season success. The Suns are
Speaker 1: sixth and defense right now, yea um, but I use
Speaker 1: those as as the lens to to kind of evaluate
Speaker 1: that because you know, you and I talk all the
Speaker 1: time about how the regular season doesn't matter. And there
Speaker 1: are million, literally a million examples in NBA history of
Speaker 1: a team that had great success in the regular season
Speaker 1: and for whatever reason, it didn't translate the playoffs success,
Speaker 1: and and there are a lot of reasons for that.
Speaker 1: We're not going to get into it, but I think
Speaker 1: that's why that's why we're having this conversation. If it
Speaker 1: was who had the best team in the regular season
Speaker 1: just always won the title, then we would, uh, then
Speaker 1: these debates would be meaningless because it would just be like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's look at the standings. Okay, the standings say the
Speaker 1: Bucks are the best team in the league. They were
Speaker 1: on pace for sixty seven wins. Oh wait, they lose
Speaker 1: in the second round and kind of get boat race
Speaker 1: because they're actually not built for for that type of
Speaker 1: of matchup. And you know, when I look at the Suns,
Speaker 1: it's like I know that Devin Booker, like there's only
Speaker 1: a handful of players that can make him really work
Speaker 1: in the entire league. You know, like maybe a Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: maybe a Lebron maybe someone like that. But like the
Speaker 1: the if he ends up on any smaller guard, he's
Speaker 1: taken him into the post, anybody who tries to you know,
Speaker 1: if he gets some in ball screen situations, he can
Speaker 1: get him on his hip and get into the mid
Speaker 1: range to take a little like side step and step
Speaker 1: back jump shots. You you went over that earlier. He's
Speaker 1: got such a versatile scoring ability. And then Chris Paul
Speaker 1: all of the things that he brings to the table
Speaker 1: that we just talked about. They have tons of length
Speaker 1: and shooting on the wing. Michail Bridges and Cam Johnson
Speaker 1: are both shooting the ball really well. Jake Crowder has
Speaker 1: been hot, hot and hot and cold. But you know
Speaker 1: he's he's a more He's as good of a playoff
Speaker 1: wing as you'll you'll see in the league. As far
Speaker 1: as role players go. They've got Uh and then Deandreton.
Speaker 1: You know, the thing with him is he's he's hot
Speaker 1: and cold. It will be interesting to see how a
Speaker 1: player like him UH performs when there's a little bit
Speaker 1: more steaks because I remember this, like I watched him
Speaker 1: very closely at Arizona. He's got a love with an ego.
Speaker 1: He's got like in a good way, Like he's confident
Speaker 1: in himself. He believes that he's one of those guys,
Speaker 1: you know, And in Arizona he played well in the
Speaker 1: biggest games, Like I remember that just from being a
Speaker 1: fan of the Wildcats and watching them play, Like I
Speaker 1: always felt more confident in him in a bigger game
Speaker 1: than I did in others. And that's just a textbook.
Speaker 1: Like some guys, it's like the Rondo thing. It's like
Speaker 1: some guys are just wired in a way that they
Speaker 1: have hard they have a hard time getting up for
Speaker 1: for meaningless games. And physically, like he's about as good
Speaker 1: as you can do against Anthony Davis. He's a little
Speaker 1: bit young, obviously, but just in terms of like the
Speaker 1: lateral quickness, the length, the athleticism, kind of the whole
Speaker 1: encompassing package. He's got it. Like it is there. It's
Speaker 1: just Kenny tap into it consistently. And is he good
Speaker 1: enough mentally to kind of go through the slog of
Speaker 1: a seven game series. And we've all we've already seen
Speaker 1: that when they stagger Chris Paul and Devin Booker. It
Speaker 1: leads to success because both of them can kind of
Speaker 1: just run the show while they're on the floor. And
Speaker 1: as of late, although they started terribly, as of late,
Speaker 1: they're playing well and both of them are on the court,
Speaker 1: so it just they check all of the boxes. And like,
Speaker 1: you know, if I got into a playoff series watching
Speaker 1: a playoff series and I was worried about, like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're we're all these two teams are relatively evenly matched,
Speaker 1: so every game's coming down to the final ten minutes, okay,
Speaker 1: And uh, you know in every fourth quarter there, you know,
Speaker 1: the scores are within five points going into the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and it really comes down to who do I trust
Speaker 1: to to win four times out of seven Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul or Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell. I'm
Speaker 1: going with, uh, Chris Paul and Devin Booker. And I
Speaker 1: think we saw that from Yo Kitchen Murray last year,
Speaker 1: Like they just even when they were blowing the three
Speaker 1: one lead, the Jazz blew some late leads again in
Speaker 1: that and and I think I and it's not because
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell is bad. It's just that when you're going
Speaker 1: into into the playoffs, especially in the Western Conference, it's
Speaker 1: like everybody's good, you know, like everybody's good. The Lakers
Speaker 1: might be rewarded with Steph Curry for getting the one
Speaker 1: seed if they happen to get the one seed, or
Speaker 1: the Jazz might might be rewarded with Steph Curry, Congratulations,
Speaker 1: you get Steph Curry for seven games like that. That's
Speaker 1: the nature of the Western Conference. And and I think, like,
Speaker 1: I think it's okay to point out the fact that,
Speaker 1: like there's a reason why we're surprised about how well
Speaker 1: the Jazz are playing. It's because it doesn't really make
Speaker 1: sense for them to be as good as as they
Speaker 1: have appeared to be here and here in the early going. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the regular somebody on the Ringer Road an article the
Speaker 1: other day I want to give credit words due um.
Speaker 1: It was Zach Cram, who does who's a really big
Speaker 1: analytics guy, super into the numbers. He basically the thesis
Speaker 1: of the article was, the NBA is a maker misleague
Speaker 1: more than ever. It's just dependent on variants and are
Speaker 1: you making your shots or not? Because teams are shooting
Speaker 1: a lot of threes, and most teams don't know how
Speaker 1: to defend threes, and I think his overall conclusion is
Speaker 1: somewhat correct. But in the playoffs, teams do know how
Speaker 1: to defend the three. They just take it away, right,
Speaker 1: They just take away threes from your good shooters and
Speaker 1: they make you do something else. We see it every
Speaker 1: single year, So the probably looks there are no open looks.
Speaker 1: Defenses just lock in more right there. Night to night.
Speaker 1: In the regular season, it is hard to chase guys
Speaker 1: around for forty eight minutes and defend forty three point attempts.
Speaker 1: But when you actually get into the weeds of it
Speaker 1: and game plan for it and say, okay, we're taking
Speaker 1: away this guy's this guy likes to do this, and
Speaker 1: this guy likes to do that to get his shots,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna leave these guys. We're not going to
Speaker 1: leave these other guys, it just becomes harder to create
Speaker 1: those open look consistently so that that would be what
Speaker 1: Utah is gonna run into and then to piggyback off
Speaker 1: of that. Phoenix. All the things you've pointed to with
Speaker 1: Phoenix are correct. And Booker is like the best young
Speaker 1: scorer in the league, Like not counting Lebron James or
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Since like Kobe, if you look at just
Speaker 1: the numbers, like the true shooting, that the points per game,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, like it's those three, it's Kobe, Durant,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Devin Booker over like the last twenty five
Speaker 1: years in the post MJ era, Like he's that good
Speaker 1: as a score he's incredible. And Monty Williams is a
Speaker 1: phenomenal coach, Like he doesn't get enough credit that that
Speaker 1: franchise is still kind of like an organizational mess, but
Speaker 1: they made the right higher at the top. They hired
Speaker 1: the right guy. Like the culture has absolutely shifted there
Speaker 1: and basically an eighteen month period to where they went
Speaker 1: from one of the worst situations in the league to
Speaker 1: where in the bubble they were like the most fun
Speaker 1: team to watch. And now they've come into this season
Speaker 1: and they're they're one of the best teams in the West.
Speaker 1: So I don't think it can be understated. With a
Speaker 1: phenomenal job he's done um and that, and that also
Speaker 1: obviously matters in a playoff series, you know how, being
Speaker 1: a really good coach who was willing to make adjustments,
Speaker 1: And it seems like He's the type of guy that
Speaker 1: would definitely do that. In a regular season where not
Speaker 1: many teams have been able to separate from the pack,
Speaker 1: the Sons have managed to put a little bit of
Speaker 1: separation from the pack. And I'm talking about all those
Speaker 1: teams that are hovering within a few games of five
Speaker 1: hundred and and so I think I think it is
Speaker 1: their credit. And like I'm just saying, like when we're
Speaker 1: splitting hairs, because all this is splitting hairs, Like the Jazz, Lakers,
Speaker 1: and Clippers are all within a few games of each other.
Speaker 1: The Suns are only a few games behind that, Like
Speaker 1: the if you look out East, like you know, Brooklyn's
Speaker 1: like actually kind of in the middle of the pack
Speaker 1: with their records. So all of these teams have flaws.
Speaker 1: We're splitting hairs. And all I'm saying is like when
Speaker 1: I when I'm splitting hair, because you know, and again
Speaker 1: we're not hating on the Jazz, like the this is
Speaker 1: this is a proven thing in NBA history that every
Speaker 1: year there's that team that just wins a lot of
Speaker 1: games in the regular season, and for whatever reason, it
Speaker 1: doesn't translate. And usually there's a reason. It's like last
Speaker 1: year you know, the Bucks won a million games and
Speaker 1: you know, uh, and it didn't trans to the playoffs
Speaker 1: and there was a clear reason. Oh wait, their elite
Speaker 1: high end shot creation is not there. You know. Two
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen, you know, the Toronto Raptors win fifty
Speaker 1: nine games and get swept by a bad Calves team,
Speaker 1: you know, by a bad Calves team, and and like
Speaker 1: literally that that that you look at that team and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh wait, they're alpha dogs. Can't go toe
Speaker 1: to toe with the biggest stars in the league. Like
Speaker 1: like de Marta Rosen is like way too passive in
Speaker 1: those types of moments, Like he just he kind of
Speaker 1: plays worse than he Like anybody could have seen that
Speaker 1: writing on the wall, and it's not hard to kind
Speaker 1: of interpret those kinds of things. And so I think
Speaker 1: we have evidence of this being the case. You know,
Speaker 1: we gave some other examples earlier. We have as evidence
Speaker 1: of this being the case. There there are a ton
Speaker 1: of examples. We're just trying to find out if the
Speaker 1: Jazz are that team this year. And I think it's
Speaker 1: okay to to guess that. Yep, totally in agreement, so
Speaker 1: real quickly before you go, because I know you gotta
Speaker 1: go the uh. We didn't talk much about the war years,
Speaker 1: but I I made this point and I wanted to
Speaker 1: hear your response to it. So, you know, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Lebron was unbelievable in two thousand eighteen. Like,
Speaker 1: make no mistake, I'm not trying to undercut that at all.
Speaker 1: But there's the obvious backstory that they beat a pretty
Speaker 1: flawed Indiana Pacers team and then they beat that pretty
Speaker 1: flaws Celtics team. The real, the reird, weird outlier was
Speaker 1: the fifty nine win Raptors that they just literally destroyed
Speaker 1: and by the end of that series like that mentally
Speaker 1: just put them into like oblivion. But you know, I
Speaker 1: would say that that Indiana Pacers team and that Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics team would be somewhat equivalent to what you're going
Speaker 1: to see at the bottom of the West this year,
Speaker 1: teams in that seven to ten range. And so I
Speaker 1: think it's important understand that they almost lost both of
Speaker 1: those series. They trailed in the fourth quarter of the
Speaker 1: Game seven against the Celtics and then against the Pacers,
Speaker 1: they were basically like a crazy fourth quarter from Lebron
Speaker 1: and Kyle Korver from going down three one in Game
Speaker 1: four in Indiana. So what I think is going to
Speaker 1: be interesting to see is like I think, I think
Speaker 1: the two thousand eighteen lebron thing has made people think
Speaker 1: that it is possible for Steff to maybe overcome some
Speaker 1: of this. But I think that it's very possible that
Speaker 1: Steph ends up in the play in and and that
Speaker 1: it's going to be a couple of dog fights, especially
Speaker 1: if he ends up in like a nine seed and
Speaker 1: he has to win twice. And I think like people
Speaker 1: are gonna think, oh, eight seed, like this will be easy,
Speaker 1: but that's not the way it is in the West,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be an extremely tough matchup. And I'm
Speaker 1: wondering what you kind of at this point are thinking
Speaker 1: about what it could potentially look like for the Warriors
Speaker 1: in a in a short playoff run. They would have
Speaker 1: to be the sixth seed for me to feel really comfortable, right, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're in that play in, it's just a crapshoot, man.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, if they're the seven or eight, I
Speaker 1: would feel confident that they're going to be one of
Speaker 1: the nine or ten seeds. Once. Um, I think I
Speaker 1: don't think they are done adjusting the roster. I do
Speaker 1: think there are moves, not big necessarily, but I do
Speaker 1: think they will make up probably a couple moves near
Speaker 1: the deadline, especially if they continue to win over the
Speaker 1: next two to three weeks. Right, Like, they keep showing
Speaker 1: signs that this is a team that's improving. They just
Speaker 1: needed some time to gel together. It was a very
Speaker 1: new roster with a bunch of guys who have really
Speaker 1: never played basketball together, with a shortened training camp and
Speaker 1: a shortened preseason, and they really just needed some time
Speaker 1: to figure things out. And they are showing time I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. That was the worst offense and worst defense
Speaker 1: in the league through two weeks and then suddenly became,
Speaker 1: you know, the middle of the pack type of team,
Speaker 1: Like that's crazy to me. Correct and they still, I
Speaker 1: mean they still really struggle against good teams, like really
Speaker 1: struggle there. They're like five and eleven against good teams
Speaker 1: and ten and two against bad teams, essentially the dividing
Speaker 1: marker being over N think part of that, I I
Speaker 1: saw that said the other day. I think part of
Speaker 1: that is they haven't closed games particularly well, which I
Speaker 1: think because stef is a good closer, yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's a lot of things. I think it's also
Speaker 1: they just they get down big too good teams because
Speaker 1: they'll be kind of within Viking distance and the bench
Speaker 1: comes in and then all of a sudden, it's like
Speaker 1: a fifteen point game. That that happened with Brooklyn on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Like it was maybe like a five six point game
Speaker 1: at the end of the first quarter by the time
Speaker 1: Steph got back and it's like fifteen or twelve. And
Speaker 1: now Brokelym makes a couple of shots when you get
Speaker 1: back in and the wheels come off right. Um. So
Speaker 1: I don't think they're done making moves. Um. I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna try to improve this roster, especially because they
Speaker 1: have four fairly easy games over the next week two weeks.
Speaker 1: They should be able to win at least three of those.
Speaker 1: They get four or five games above five hundred, if
Speaker 1: you know, the front office gets more optimistic, they actually
Speaker 1: get healthy again. Um. And I just think Stephen Draymond
Speaker 1: in a playoff series against any of these like mediocre teams,
Speaker 1: I'm still picking them, especially if they can get like
Speaker 1: another shooter and maybe somebody to help the second unit
Speaker 1: a little because the defense has been really good. It's
Speaker 1: just that offense is so bad when Steph sits there.
Speaker 1: I want to say, their offensive rating when he's on
Speaker 1: the floor even it's like one fifteen, And they started
Speaker 1: this season it was like, you know, one oh three
Speaker 1: overall because they were playing Ubray and Wiseman together there
Speaker 1: a lot and those guys just don't function well on
Speaker 1: like a very complex reads heavy system. Um. But it's
Speaker 1: like one fifteen when he's on the floor, and when
Speaker 1: he's off the floor, I want to say their offensive
Speaker 1: rating is like one point three, like it would be
Speaker 1: by far the worst in the week. So they still
Speaker 1: do have a really good offense when he's on the floor,
Speaker 1: even though they're eighteenth or ninething and offensive rating. If
Speaker 1: they can do a couple of things on the margins,
Speaker 1: I really don't think they're that far from being They're
Speaker 1: not in the top tier of the West, but they
Speaker 1: would scare any team outside of the l A t
Speaker 1: l A teams. I still think that if they make
Speaker 1: a couple moves, I would be a couple of moves
Speaker 1: aren't necessary, Like a couple moves are necessary. They if
Speaker 1: they just stand pat with the current roster, I'm basically
Speaker 1: out on this team because there just isn't enough there.
Speaker 1: The bench is too bad. They have too many guys
Speaker 1: playing in the wrong role to actually scare any good team. Interesting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like to be clear, I would be scared. I'm literally
Speaker 1: just saying, like, you know, just under scrutiny, Like when
Speaker 1: I really look back at you know, the camp, the
Speaker 1: comp would be two thousand eighteen because it's like similar
Speaker 1: different it's it is differently of the cop A tition
Speaker 1: the competition. But that's what I'm saying. But if they
Speaker 1: get into the play and that's the type of team
Speaker 1: they're gonna be playing, And that's my point is like
Speaker 1: you would have thought going into that Pacer series, like, dude,
Speaker 1: there's no way Lebron and Kevin Love are losing this series,
Speaker 1: and especially with Lebron being at that version of himself,
Speaker 1: which was I I like, you know, arguably the best
Speaker 1: version of themselves. Now Draymond I think is better than
Speaker 1: Kevin Love. But but you get the point though, And
Speaker 1: and yeah, I mean the teams. The teams in those
Speaker 1: play ins Sacramento, UM, Memphis, Dallas, Dallas they man handled
Speaker 1: once and then the next night they the next game
Speaker 1: they didn't play as well because they only had eight
Speaker 1: guys on the roster and they ended up losing. They've
Speaker 1: kicked Sacramentos ass uh. They've beaten San Antonio like they've
Speaker 1: They've been san Antonio twice badly and they lost to
Speaker 1: him once. Like the teams in that kind of tear
Speaker 1: right near five under five hundred, they're beating them soundly.
Speaker 1: It's the teams that are like a couple, like the
Speaker 1: Phoenix is, the brook Wins, the Phillies, the Lakers, the Jazz,
Speaker 1: the Clippers. Those are the teams that are beating the
Speaker 1: crap out of them. I really wouldn't worry about them
Speaker 1: against the play end teams on That's an interesting difference
Speaker 1: because the two thousand eighteen Calves were very mediocre against
Speaker 1: bad teams because they had trouble getting up. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: then they had a bunch of really impressive wins. So
Speaker 1: so you're you might be onto something there. I just, well,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see. The thing about step is
Speaker 1: like against the bad teams, they always end up losing
Speaker 1: him and if you give him enough open looks, he's
Speaker 1: eventually going to break the game open. That's just how
Speaker 1: he works, right, Like With Lebron, it's different because he
Speaker 1: has to be locked and he has to have his
Speaker 1: energy because he's more of just a rim attacker like
Speaker 1: that requires a certain amount of like mental energy and
Speaker 1: physical want to. With Steth, it's just, oh, he's he
Speaker 1: has eight open threes a night, six of those are
Speaker 1: going down. That's that's why he's scoring forty against the Magic.
Speaker 1: That's why, like, that's why they're just crushing the team.
Speaker 1: It's magic. They kept losing him in transition. I couldn't believe.
Speaker 1: It was ridiculous, Like it's like, you're you just gonna
Speaker 1: keep giving him wide open three. So they're going to
Speaker 1: continue to beat the crap out of the bad teams.
Speaker 1: It's more so, can they make enough improvements to where
Speaker 1: they just don't have these spells where they they can't
Speaker 1: score for like in six minutes in a row because
Speaker 1: their bench is so bad. The game is funny because
Speaker 1: I just I just watched the fourth quarter and like
Speaker 1: I I turned turned it on like ten minutes left
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, and Sacramento had taken the lead
Speaker 1: back in the non staff minutes. Uh, but Steff hadn't
Speaker 1: come back in yet. And over the course of the
Speaker 1: next few minutes. Like now, there there's a lot of
Speaker 1: talk about how Orlando is so destroyed by injuries that
Speaker 1: it's basically Nicolas Vosovic and four non NBA players, But
Speaker 1: like Ubra and Wiggins just put this relentless ball pressure
Speaker 1: on the ball handler coming up the court. They can
Speaker 1: do that, and you could literally see you could literally
Speaker 1: see Orlando just completely get out of pace, completely get scared,
Speaker 1: start rushing to and it was just like turnover run out, dunk,
Speaker 1: turnover runout shot, turnover run And I was like, holy
Speaker 1: cal like and that's the interesting thing with that team
Speaker 1: is that they're starting to make sense in the sense
Speaker 1: that it's like Ubray and Wiggins are just like these
Speaker 1: ridiculously athletic, like ball pressure wings, and then Steff is
Speaker 1: Steph and Draymond is Draymond. And that's why I agree
Speaker 1: with you, Like, if they make a couple of moves
Speaker 1: that they were willing to move Wiseman and that stupid
Speaker 1: pick from next year and just dive into this era
Speaker 1: and and commit um Man, like, it could be scary
Speaker 1: because there's some stuff on that team that makes legitimate
Speaker 1: basketball sense as dangerous that's totally being out potential that
Speaker 1: that and I've been trying to make that point toward
Speaker 1: to people who don't want to go all in for
Speaker 1: right now, there is no other choice in my mind.
Speaker 1: You have one of the best three players in the
Speaker 1: league playing at his absolute peak, and he's also one
Speaker 1: of the twenty fifteen greatest players of all time, Like
Speaker 1: there is no other time there might not be a
Speaker 1: player as good as this on the Warriors for the
Speaker 1: next fifty years. Like betting that James Wiseman might be
Speaker 1: a really good player one day, which he might be,
Speaker 1: he very well might be. That's not the bet you
Speaker 1: want to make. You want to make the bet on
Speaker 1: the guy who's the best player that this franchise is
Speaker 1: ever gonna see for probably either of our life times.
Speaker 1: By the time somebody as good as step Currey plays
Speaker 1: on the Warriors again, it will probably be probably be
Speaker 1: the year. Like that's how good this dude is. You
Speaker 1: have to go all the right now is no other
Speaker 1: choice in the Minnesota pick combined being as good as
Speaker 1: staff are like one in fifty Like it's that I
Speaker 1: agree that. I mean, they ask yourself, like you know,
Speaker 1: given the uh, the fact that Houston almost beat Golden
Speaker 1: State in two thousand eighteen without Chris Paul. Like imagine,
Speaker 1: I literally sit there sometimes and I'll be like, that's
Speaker 1: why you trade the Collin Sexton pick, like you you
Speaker 1: trade the calling Sexton pick because now you have Collin Sexton,
Speaker 1: a guy who is a very middle of the pack
Speaker 1: guard in a league where that position is unbelievably stacked.
Speaker 1: Or you could have traded him, and then a couple
Speaker 1: of things break your way and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you're playing against the wounded Houston Rock Paul George. Maybe
Speaker 1: could have I could have a chance won the title.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, is like you have it's gambling,
Speaker 1: but it's like, to me, it's a better gamble than
Speaker 1: kind of towing that line either way and never committing.
Speaker 1: You know, the Lakers did the Lebron experiment with experiment
Speaker 1: with the young guys. They tried it for like three
Speaker 1: months and then they were all just like, screw this,
Speaker 1: let's go get Anthony Davis. And Anthony Davis, to be clear,
Speaker 1: isn't on the market right now. There isn't a level
Speaker 1: that level of guy out there for them to go get.
Speaker 1: But there are like really good players who are available
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal, Zach Lavine, like guys who would I don't
Speaker 1: know what it would look like moving forward. Right, the
Speaker 1: the fickets a little bit clunky. If play is still
Speaker 1: really good and you have Levine and or Bal on
Speaker 1: that roster, it's three guards. It's not great defensively, but
Speaker 1: those guys still have value moving forward. Those guys are
Speaker 1: incredible scores. Other teams would want to take those guys,
Speaker 1: you know, other teams with scoring deficiencies. Like let's say
Speaker 1: you get Beal and then you turn around, you want
Speaker 1: to trade them for like Miles Turner and a couple
Speaker 1: of Indiana's wings. I think Indiana would be into that right,
Speaker 1: same thing with Levine, Like the Warriors have to be
Speaker 1: thinking not just the one move. It's like, what's the
Speaker 1: move and where can that get us in the future?
Speaker 1: If Clay is still Clay right, so I would point
Speaker 1: being step looks so good. He looks so good, better
Speaker 1: than ever, which is something you and I talked about
Speaker 1: last week. If you give him zach Lavine or Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal and you don't absolutely have to gut the roster
Speaker 1: for it, like the guys who are currently helping, Like
Speaker 1: if you only have to move Hooper a Um and Wiseman,
Speaker 1: and you bring in Deal and then you have Bal
Speaker 1: Wiggins staff Draymond and then who's ever at the five,
Speaker 1: who's better than that team in the West besides of
Speaker 1: a healthy Lakers team. I'm dead serious. Yeah, So, like
Speaker 1: I just I think it's it's foolish not to go
Speaker 1: all in with as good as step In it is
Speaker 1: right now. No, I agree. It's just like you have
Speaker 1: the second best player in the world in my opinion,
Speaker 1: playing at the very top of his game, and you've
Speaker 1: got two super young assets, one of which you literally
Speaker 1: don't know what it's going to be. Yet it has
Speaker 1: the highest value it will ever have right now because
Speaker 1: they might not even get the pick this year. That's
Speaker 1: the kicker. It's top three protected. And I know Steps
Speaker 1: not washed yet, But like, I wouldn't count on him
Speaker 1: being like a Lebron or he's super effective in his
Speaker 1: late thirties. I would plan on being like two three
Speaker 1: years here where you have a real chance. That's the
Speaker 1: windows three years. But dude, I've taken enough of your time.
Speaker 1: I know you've got plans tonight, so I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you get out of here. And get the rest of
Speaker 1: your work done. Everybody listened in, I really sincere, really
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys as always. UM, I'm going to release
Speaker 1: the podcast version probably here in about twenty minutes, but
Speaker 1: everybody enjoyed the rest of your week and your weekend,
Speaker 1: and Tommy and I will see you probably next Tuesday
Speaker 1: or Wednesday. Thanks everybody,