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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented five dat here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody, although I'm recording this at Friday night
Speaker 1: like usual, We're gonna be breaking down four games rapid
Speaker 1: fire style tonight, and then I have four quick hitter topics.
Speaker 1: After that, we're gonna be hitting the Lakers and their
Speaker 1: massive comeback win against the Grizzlies, the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 1: getting a win in Cleveland against them mostly at full
Speaker 1: strength without any of their top guys, the Atlanta Hawks,
Speaker 1: who are red hot, getting a win against the New
Speaker 1: York Knicks, and then Kyrie Irving with a twenty one
Speaker 1: point fourth quarter masterpiece to beat the Utah Jazz. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna be hitting on all that, and then I've
Speaker 1: got a bunch of like little NBA topics that have
Speaker 1: been going on around the league over the last couple
Speaker 1: of days that we'll be hitting whether or not steff
Speaker 1: Is the m v P of the last decade, John
Speaker 1: Wall and everyone else loading up on the Houston Rockets,
Speaker 1: the debate about whether or not rest is an issue
Speaker 1: in the NBA. Right now, we're gonna be hitting on
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. You guys know the drill. Before
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Lakers give up twenty four offensive rebounds, get out rebounded
Speaker 1: sixty to forty seven overall, get mauled in the paint
Speaker 1: to the tune of sixty four to forty four and
Speaker 1: points in the paint, and come back from down six
Speaker 1: with two minutes left to beat the Memphis Grizzlies twenty one.
Speaker 1: They just never stopped attacking in transition every time they
Speaker 1: had a chance, no matter how discouraging it got, no
Speaker 1: matter how many big plays job made, no matter how
Speaker 1: many offensive rebounds they gave up, no matter how many
Speaker 1: times someone hit a big three and built the deficit larger,
Speaker 1: they just kept going at them. I thought Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: and Dennis Schroeder in particular did a really nice job
Speaker 1: of manufacturing transition opportunities just by going fast. There's kind
Speaker 1: of an involuntary thing that happens defensively when a guy
Speaker 1: has a real head of steam going towards the rim.
Speaker 1: Everybody just involuntarily collapses, and you can generate a lot
Speaker 1: of high quality shots by doing that. Obviously, we think
Speaker 1: of transition the you know, rudimentary definition of transition is like, oh,
Speaker 1: we get a miss. We have a numbers advantage, like
Speaker 1: it's a three on two or four on three or
Speaker 1: two on one or maybe even a one on oh,
Speaker 1: and you're just running down the floor to try to
Speaker 1: get a quick easy shot. But transition extends to that.
Speaker 1: Outside of that, I look at transition as everything outside
Speaker 1: of the static have court environment. There's runouts, there's your
Speaker 1: two on ones, three on two, four on three, call
Speaker 1: those advantage situations. But then there's like a semi transition phase.
Speaker 1: That's where the defense isn't actually all the way back yet,
Speaker 1: or maybe they're back, but they're not really in their
Speaker 1: defensive stances and ready to go. That semi transition phase
Speaker 1: is a great time to get ahead of steam because
Speaker 1: if you do, the defense just won't quite be ready
Speaker 1: to handle that. And like you know, I've been very
Speaker 1: critical of Rob Polinka for this roster, and I believe
Speaker 1: that's fair. Over the last two years, they took the biggest,
Speaker 1: strongest and most physically imposing team in the NBA and
Speaker 1: made them pitifully undersized. And I thought that was went
Speaker 1: right in the face of everyone. Everyone else in the
Speaker 1: league that was doing that was smart. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a really bad decision. But one of the ancillary
Speaker 1: fall back like trip and fall into success types of
Speaker 1: things that Rob Polinka did is that by being small,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are super super fast. Between Dennis Schroder, Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: Lebron James, you know, two of those guys, Russe and
Speaker 1: Lebron are two of the greatest freight trains in NBA history.
Speaker 1: Dennis is a downhill speed guard. Thomas Bryant, for all
Speaker 1: of his shortcomings defensively, is a big that runs the
Speaker 1: floor extremely well. When you in Gabriel runs the floor
Speaker 1: extremely well. So one of their few advantages from a
Speaker 1: personnel standpoint that they have is speed and them just
Speaker 1: leaning into that speed in the fourth quarter of this game,
Speaker 1: really throughout this game, really throughout this entire stretch since
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis went down, has allowed them to manufacture a
Speaker 1: fac similarly of coherent basketball. And then from the end
Speaker 1: of these games, it's coin flips that can go either way,
Speaker 1: and they've lost those coin flips a lot. But you know,
Speaker 1: credit the Lakers. They are now ten and nine since
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis went down in that Denver Nuggets games game
Speaker 1: with a win over the Nuggets, win over the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat without Lebron, win over the Sacramento Kings, and now
Speaker 1: win over the Memphis Grizzlies, who are on a double
Speaker 1: digit win streak. So I don't think you can possibly
Speaker 1: look at this situation with Anthony Davis going down and
Speaker 1: think anything less than this has been an absolute home
Speaker 1: run from the standpoint of the way the guys in
Speaker 1: that locker room have fought. I talk a lot on
Speaker 1: this show about basketball character. To me, basketball character is
Speaker 1: what you're made up, made up, made up of is
Speaker 1: as it pertains to your commitment to the details and
Speaker 1: your willingness to fight, your resiliency. It's all of those
Speaker 1: intangible things that make a basketball player and a basketball team.
Speaker 1: And you know, getting rid of a lot of the
Speaker 1: older veteran players on last year's roster and leaning into
Speaker 1: youth has given this team a a relentless energy that
Speaker 1: has never really stopped. And you know, there's been so
Speaker 1: many heartbreaking losses this season, just absolute gut wrenching victory
Speaker 1: snatched away at the last minute type of losses this year,
Speaker 1: whether it's Portland earlier in the season, or whether you
Speaker 1: know it's that Boston Celtics collapse. But there's I could
Speaker 1: literally go on there, the Dallas Mavericks double overtime game,
Speaker 1: you have multiple three point leads late. There's just been
Speaker 1: dozens dozens of of collapses. Are probably roughly around a
Speaker 1: dozen collapses this year, and all of them were a
Speaker 1: great reason for that team to give up hope, especially
Speaker 1: given the personnel shortcomings they have, especially considering the Anthony
Speaker 1: dave S injury. They had a million reasons to let
Speaker 1: go with a rope and they just haven't done so.
Speaker 1: And so when I really look at the Lakers kind
Speaker 1: of zooming out really quick before we move on, they
Speaker 1: have outstanding basketball character. They are a team that fights
Speaker 1: and competes, which is an important part of what makes
Speaker 1: a championship contender. And they have to top ten players.
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis when they are healthy, are
Speaker 1: top ten players in this NBA. No other team in
Speaker 1: the league can say that, not even Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum. I think Jaylen Brown's closer to eleven or
Speaker 1: twelve right now. So the reality is they have a
Speaker 1: lot of the things that you need to compete for
Speaker 1: a title. They just need some pieces on the fringes
Speaker 1: to round out their role players so that they're slotted
Speaker 1: properly for size. That's why I think they need to
Speaker 1: be doing everything they can to get Kyle Kuzma or
Speaker 1: Boy and Macdonovich at the deadline. A real shooting forward
Speaker 1: like that just fixes so many issues for this team.
Speaker 1: Slot so many guys properly gets guys competing with guys
Speaker 1: with similar size instead of trying to battle way above
Speaker 1: their size. Anthony Davis coming back, well, aligne thing is
Speaker 1: in the front court better. Everything is kind of coming together.
Speaker 1: Robin Genie just have to do their part at the deadline. Now.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be tough because they didn't do it in
Speaker 1: the off season. They're gonna be competing against everybody now.
Speaker 1: It's a seller's market. The values are through the roof
Speaker 1: for these players. It's going to be difficult and they
Speaker 1: might not even be able to get anything done now
Speaker 1: at this point, just because of how competitive the bidding
Speaker 1: war is going to be. But Robin Genie have to
Speaker 1: do everything they can in February to try to bring
Speaker 1: some support to this team. They're just they compete too hard.
Speaker 1: The top end talent is too good, the roster is
Speaker 1: too fast. Um. I think there's a case to keep
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, provided that when they're fully healthy, they don't
Speaker 1: use him in the closing group. As long as they
Speaker 1: don't do that. I actually like him in the middle
Speaker 1: portions of the game because he's play this is I mean,
Speaker 1: we're going on you know, a ten game stretch here
Speaker 1: now where he's been pretty good, and that's the best
Speaker 1: little stretch of of long term successful basketball we've seen
Speaker 1: from Russ since he got on a Lakers jersey. So
Speaker 1: if he's gonna play like that, and if you can
Speaker 1: keep him out of the bunchtime groups, he helps this
Speaker 1: team a ton and he supplements that speed and all
Speaker 1: those things that we were talking about. So you make
Speaker 1: ancillary moves on the perimeter, target a guy like mcdonovitch, Tart,
Speaker 1: targeted guy like Kuzma, get that guy on the wing.
Speaker 1: All the guards and wings are playing their proper position.
Speaker 1: You've got the top end talent, you've got all the speed,
Speaker 1: you've got a good basketball character. You've got everything you
Speaker 1: need there. Um of definitely an encouraging win for the
Speaker 1: Lakers tonight. Memphis obviously, I I still think they're the
Speaker 1: third best team in the West. I go Golden State
Speaker 1: Denver then Memphis. Um. I have Golden State in Denver
Speaker 1: really close to each other, and I have Memphis a
Speaker 1: solid level below that. And it's still just comes down
Speaker 1: to half court defense. In this particular game, when the
Speaker 1: Lakers were able to keep them in the half court
Speaker 1: and get stops and run out the other way. That
Speaker 1: was when they had their moments of success. And if
Speaker 1: you go one of the best ways to see this
Speaker 1: sort of thing is go to the ESPN app or
Speaker 1: the ESPN website and like you know, see to see
Speaker 1: where they do the line graph of the team scoring,
Speaker 1: and you just see too many flat stretches for the Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: and those are typically stretches where they're stuck in the
Speaker 1: half court and it's a lot of John Morant high
Speaker 1: and high pick and roll. And if he's not making
Speaker 1: his jump shot and the teams are packing the paint properly,
Speaker 1: they're not going to score. This is a bad half
Speaker 1: court offense. That is a big part of why I
Speaker 1: have them below Denver and Golden State. Denver and Golden
Speaker 1: State when they get into the postseason, they have the
Speaker 1: requisite ball handling and shooting down the roster to generate
Speaker 1: quality shots in a way that Memphis cannot. So that's
Speaker 1: why I have a gap between those top two teams
Speaker 1: in Memphis right now, moving on to the Knicks and
Speaker 1: the Hawks, dejont Murray just took over this game in
Speaker 1: the early fourth quarter. Hit a couple of really nice
Speaker 1: little short pop shots and and fadeaways in the lane.
Speaker 1: Uh Dejont Murray this year shooting forty eight percent on
Speaker 1: jump shots that are inside of fifteen or excuse me,
Speaker 1: inside of seventeen feet. I went on with swipe a
Speaker 1: Cam big time UH, Denver Nuggets fan today to face
Speaker 1: the music about Yo kisen Us to talk a lot
Speaker 1: about the Nuggets, and we ended up talking about a
Speaker 1: lot of NBA stuff. I tweeted a link to it
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feeds. You guys can find that there. Um.
Speaker 1: But I ended up talking to him a lot, and
Speaker 1: uh we about stuff around the league, and we talked
Speaker 1: about s g A with the Thunder, and we talked
Speaker 1: a lot about his short range jump shot. And there's
Speaker 1: there's a ton of value in short range jump shooting
Speaker 1: for guys that can take more complicated shots in that range.
Speaker 1: The reason why is there actually very high percentage. If
Speaker 1: you have to touch a fade away or a pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot at ten feet is a much much
Speaker 1: easier shot than a fade away or a tough shot
Speaker 1: at seventeen eighteen feet. When you're off balance and having
Speaker 1: to get extra lift from that far away, it's really
Speaker 1: hard to get enough power behind the shot to get
Speaker 1: it to the rim. But there's a I've been talking
Speaker 1: about this on this show for the last six months
Speaker 1: or so. I think that short range, that short that
Speaker 1: like inside a fifteen feet range, is one of the
Speaker 1: most underutilized areas in the game of basketball right now.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of threes, it's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: at the basket, it's a lot of mid range pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots. But that short range is an area
Speaker 1: of opportunity for players to get higher percentage shots there.
Speaker 1: Luca Donte is incredible at it, shake Gil Just Alexander
Speaker 1: is incredible at it, and uh de Jonte Murray is
Speaker 1: incredible at it. And that's where I think. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot to learn there for young basketball players,
Speaker 1: especially if you have physical tools. Dejon Murray is a
Speaker 1: big athletic guard, you know, at least relative to um
Speaker 1: the other players that play his position. You know, Luca
Speaker 1: Done a big athletic forward, Gila Alexander six six, good athlete.
Speaker 1: That's if you have physical tools and you're looking for
Speaker 1: go to moves that can help you in slow down environments,
Speaker 1: that inside ten fifteen feet those kinds of little short
Speaker 1: jump shots and pop shots are a great way to
Speaker 1: find scoring. The Hawks have now won seven of their
Speaker 1: last nine games. They had apparently had some sort of
Speaker 1: meeting that or they hashed things out and suddenly they
Speaker 1: bought in again. This has been a very hot and
Speaker 1: cold team. And when they're bought in, they're very good.
Speaker 1: But they just have these stretches where they're not bought
Speaker 1: in and then they're atrocious. But during this nine games stretch,
Speaker 1: Trey Young points nine assist true shooting. I saw stat
Speaker 1: today that the three most frequent alley you combos in
Speaker 1: the league are all Trey Young. It's like Trey Young
Speaker 1: and and uh clickapella, Tray Young and John Collins. Trey
Speaker 1: Young ka Congo like the best lob thrower in the
Speaker 1: league by far, Dogon Murray five and six on fifty
Speaker 1: seven percent true shooting. But they are just outscoring teams.
Speaker 1: They're just seventeenth and defense during this span. But glass
Speaker 1: half full wins trigger buying. Buying triggers better effort and
Speaker 1: focus on the details that could in turn trigger them
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor, which could be
Speaker 1: what triggers them forward the rest of the season. So
Speaker 1: this is either gonna be the thing that springs a
Speaker 1: positive end to the season, or it's just gonna be
Speaker 1: a blip in the larger trend of the season. We're
Speaker 1: gonna find out here in the next few weeks. As
Speaker 1: for the Knicks after tonight, they are now just six
Speaker 1: and fourteen against teams that are five or better. Classic
Speaker 1: example of a team that competes in battles and plays defense,
Speaker 1: but just does not have the top end talent to
Speaker 1: create enough shots against the better teams that are in
Speaker 1: this league, which makes it impossible to take them seriously.
Speaker 1: I continue to be very depressed for Knicks fans that
Speaker 1: they didn't properly go after Donovan Mitchell. All Right, Warriors
Speaker 1: calves So the Warriors win four team wasn't actually that close.
Speaker 1: Golden State really controlled this game throughout. Jordan Pool went
Speaker 1: for thirty two points on twenty three shots. I actually
Speaker 1: thought Jordan Pool played really good defense in this game.
Speaker 1: He did really nice work on on Darius Garland when
Speaker 1: he got switched on to him, even a few times
Speaker 1: he was on Carris Lavert. In this back to back
Speaker 1: against Boston and against Cleveland. He played excellent defense in
Speaker 1: both games, and that's gotta be super encouraging for Warriors fans,
Speaker 1: in particular playing with physicality. You know, um so many guards,
Speaker 1: particularly smaller guards. There's not even just guards. Smaller thinner
Speaker 1: basketball players are way too willing to of up ground
Speaker 1: because they know they're not as strong and they don't
Speaker 1: want to commit fouls. So like when they have their
Speaker 1: shoulder there and a guy hits them in the shoulder,
Speaker 1: they're just kind of give ground and let him go around.
Speaker 1: And really that's not what you should do. You need
Speaker 1: to play with a certain amount of physicality. One, because
Speaker 1: the game of baskball is a lot more physical than
Speaker 1: people realize. Hand checking is technically legal, but refs let
Speaker 1: it go all the time. You can defend with physicality, well,
Speaker 1: you pick up three or four fouls during the game, sure,
Speaker 1: but there might be ten or eleven other possessions where
Speaker 1: you don't get the foul call and you stop a
Speaker 1: guy from driving to the rim, or you forced to
Speaker 1: turn over or disrupt the other team's offense. And Jordan
Speaker 1: pull did a really nice job of defending with physicality
Speaker 1: without overfouling during this back to back. They also got
Speaker 1: thirty nine points from Ty Jerome and Dante DiVincenzo, tied
Speaker 1: Drome hit the dagger three, kind of leaning to his
Speaker 1: right on the right wing. Kind of like I was
Speaker 1: talking about the Lakers with their speed. You know, all
Speaker 1: these roster flaws, but hey, they've got a ton of speed.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the way I feel with the Warriors
Speaker 1: in their back court. They clearly need size and athleticism
Speaker 1: off of the bench. Although it was nice to see
Speaker 1: Jonathan coming back out there tonight, but they need size
Speaker 1: and athleticism off the bench. But for all of those shortcomings,
Speaker 1: they have the best guard depth chart in the league
Speaker 1: between Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, tie Drome, Donte DiVincenzo on
Speaker 1: Jordan's pool. You're not gonna find five better guards on
Speaker 1: a roster in the NBA than that group. So that
Speaker 1: that gives you all the more reason for why Joe
Speaker 1: lake Up and Bob Meyers should invest in this group
Speaker 1: and a good win for this Warriors group who needed it,
Speaker 1: because that completely erased the field and the damage of
Speaker 1: that blown late lead in Boston last night. The Calves
Speaker 1: they started eight and one since then twenty and eighteen,
Speaker 1: they are just fifteen and offense during that span, and
Speaker 1: they are below five hundred against teams that are five
Speaker 1: are better. Uh if you look at cleaning the glass
Speaker 1: and they're in their lineup data. Uh. Once again, just
Speaker 1: like I've been talking about all season, they're better with
Speaker 1: just Darius Garland or better with just Donovan Mitchell than
Speaker 1: they are with both of them together. Kind of lends
Speaker 1: credence to my can't play with two small guards problem.
Speaker 1: Still not getting enough out of the forward position, which
Speaker 1: is really hurting them offensively. Just in general, a pretty
Speaker 1: mediocre season from them. I still think that this ends
Speaker 1: with them trading one of the guards for a better wing.
Speaker 1: Probably not this season because they're gonna want to go
Speaker 1: down with the ship, but I think that's something that
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to start looking at next year and beyond. Alright,
Speaker 1: last game before we get to our quick hitters, Uh,
Speaker 1: the Nets beat the Jazz one seventeen t one oh six.
Speaker 1: Kyrie irving twenty one points in the fourth quarter, finished
Speaker 1: with forty eight hit two massive pull up three is
Speaker 1: one at the top of the key and then a
Speaker 1: ridiculous uh like drifting three on the right wing. He
Speaker 1: also made a really nice driving kick to Seth Curry
Speaker 1: in the right corner. Really, the Jazz came back and
Speaker 1: tied this game, and Kyrie just made every single big
Speaker 1: play down the stretch for a huge win. You know.
Speaker 1: I then it started what oh and three, oh and
Speaker 1: four or whatever after Kevin Durant got hurt, and everyone
Speaker 1: was like talking about like how shocked they were that
Speaker 1: they were bad. And I used that as an angle
Speaker 1: to go positive on KD, meaning just like, hey, let's
Speaker 1: remember how good KD is. But one of the things
Speaker 1: that I've seen way too often this year, whether it's
Speaker 1: with Kyrie after Kevin Durant went down, whether it's with
Speaker 1: Lebron James after Anthony Davis went down, whether it's with
Speaker 1: these you know, with any of these teams that have
Speaker 1: dealt with injuries in the past, it is extremely difficult
Speaker 1: to win in the NBA when your best player goes down.
Speaker 1: That's just that's just a fact. Like it's the the
Speaker 1: league is too talented. Every team has, you know, two
Speaker 1: or three guys that think of themselves as stars. You
Speaker 1: drop one of those guys, especially when they're one of
Speaker 1: the top band guys, it's just impossible to replace their production.
Speaker 1: So like, okay, what's my opinion of Kyrie. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think Kyrie is a superstar. I don't think that, um,
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is a guy that's going to carry a
Speaker 1: team as a number one. But you know what he
Speaker 1: is is he's a perfectly fine number two if everything
Speaker 1: else around him is good. If you give him a
Speaker 1: good defense, and you give him a good number one
Speaker 1: that can create shots more consistently on a possession by
Speaker 1: possession basis, his top end ability as an isolation player
Speaker 1: or as a shot creator is a massive ceiling razor
Speaker 1: for any team. So yeah, if you see him as
Speaker 1: a number one, you're gonna be disappointed sometimes because he's
Speaker 1: not very good defensively and as an overall shot creator.
Speaker 1: If you need him to create sixty shots in a
Speaker 1: game as as you know, start sixty possessions in a
Speaker 1: game as opposed to, yeah, his efficiency is gonna go down.
Speaker 1: His reliability is going to go down. But I could
Speaker 1: say that about everybody in the league other than the
Speaker 1: top like seven or eight guys. That's just the reality.
Speaker 1: So I mean, let's shout out to Kyrie Irving pulled
Speaker 1: out a win again. Kevin Durant is gonna be out
Speaker 1: here for eight to ten games. You get three or
Speaker 1: four of them, then you're in great shape, especially with
Speaker 1: where they were in at in the standing. So shout
Speaker 1: out to Kyrie Irving. All right, let's get to our
Speaker 1: quick hitters. So Jeff Van Gundy and Stephen A. Smith
Speaker 1: both said that they think Steph Curry was the m
Speaker 1: v P of the NBA over the last ten years. Uh.
Speaker 1: Further record upfront, I don't think either of them actually
Speaker 1: believe that as far as the NBA goes, January is
Speaker 1: the most boring month. Yeah, for us hoop nerds, we
Speaker 1: enjoy it, but for the vast majority of casual fans,
Speaker 1: they're just entirely tuned out and playing paying attention to
Speaker 1: football right now. You're seeing all sorts of weird results
Speaker 1: around the league. That effort is really inconsistent. This is
Speaker 1: the time of the year where a lot of teams
Speaker 1: are dealing with injuries or guys being out of the lineup. Um,
Speaker 1: so really this was just textbook engagement bait. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: I don't think stan or Jeff Van Gundy and Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith actually believe this, but hey, it makes for good television.
Speaker 1: But I do think that this topic is a great
Speaker 1: example or a great opportunity I should say for me
Speaker 1: to make a point about Lebron James career. Now, before
Speaker 1: I say this, disclaimer to Steph fans. You guys know
Speaker 1: I think Steph is the fifth best perimeter player of
Speaker 1: all time. He's my second favorite player. Ever, this has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with negativity and Steph. This is just
Speaker 1: what happens when you stack anybody up with a top
Speaker 1: two basketball player of all time. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: demonstrate Lebron's insane resume. So even if we arbitrarily just
Speaker 1: cut off ten years like hey, nothing counts before the
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen NBA season, that means we're racing all
Speaker 1: four of Lebron's MVPs and two of his championships. Even
Speaker 1: if we do that, I still think Lebron is the
Speaker 1: m v P of the last ten seasons. And here's
Speaker 1: some stats to demonstrate that for you. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: since the two thousand, two thousand fourteen campaign, that would
Speaker 1: be this season as year ten, Okay, Lebron five top
Speaker 1: three m VP finishes, Steph Curry three top three m
Speaker 1: VP finishes, first team All MBA's Lebron six, Steph Curry
Speaker 1: four Finals MVPs Lebron to Step one. Now, I would
Speaker 1: give him too, because I think he deserves in two
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen, So yeah, if you zoom in on that,
Speaker 1: you could say, yeah, the Warriors have four titles, Lebron
Speaker 1: has two. Now, I would argue that has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that they had one of
Speaker 1: the most talented rosters in NBA history in two thousand
Speaker 1: seventeen and two thousand eighteen. It's close. If you told
Speaker 1: me you thought it was Steph just because of the titles,
Speaker 1: I'd be with you there. I would, or at least
Speaker 1: I would respect the opinion. However, as we look at
Speaker 1: that in terms of year in and year out dominance,
Speaker 1: year in and year out contributions to winning six first
Speaker 1: Team All nbas for Lebron, four for Step Steph five
Speaker 1: top three m VP finishes for Lebron, three for Step.
Speaker 1: In terms of year in and year out value to
Speaker 1: the to an NBA team, Lebron has been better than
Speaker 1: Step in the last decade. And that's even if we
Speaker 1: arbitrarily just cut off almost all of Lebron's resume by
Speaker 1: randomly choosing ten years spanning from two thousand fourteen to
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty three, Like, it doesn't actually make sense
Speaker 1: to do it that way, But if we're gonna play
Speaker 1: that game, I still think it goes to Lebron. The
Speaker 1: point is, that's why Lebron is the second best player
Speaker 1: of all time in my opinion, and why so many
Speaker 1: Lebron fans think he's the best player of all time.
Speaker 1: His resume defies any conventional wisdom, Like, how shocked are
Speaker 1: you guys that Steph has only made four first team
Speaker 1: All nbas in the last ten years? That that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty wild stat right. That's because they're in term is
Speaker 1: of year in and year how dominance It just quite
Speaker 1: has hasn't quite been the same as what Lebron James
Speaker 1: has done. And I think over the years, we've taken
Speaker 1: him for granted in a lot of ways, and we've
Speaker 1: taken step for granted too. I mean, I think, I think,
Speaker 1: and I think step is kind of one of the
Speaker 1: most underrated players in NBA history because of how much
Speaker 1: the other twenty nine fan bases hate him for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: because your favorite team lost to him so many times,
Speaker 1: and and I understand that, but like you know, let's
Speaker 1: like generally speaking. If there's a consensus opinion, there's a
Speaker 1: reason behind it, and I would venture to guess that
Speaker 1: about of NBA fans believe that Lebron is a top
Speaker 1: two player of all time, and that's not a coincidence.
Speaker 1: It's because his resume is absurd. And I understand the
Speaker 1: engagement bade, I understand all those angles, but I hope
Speaker 1: we pay the proper respect to Lebron. He's getting He's
Speaker 1: near in the end of the road here and and
Speaker 1: I hope people appreciate what he provided to the league
Speaker 1: while he was in it. All right. Bob Meyers, in
Speaker 1: his first episode of his podcast for OMHA Production, said
Speaker 1: that he was in a doing an interview with Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and he said, quote, I said to Steve Kurt,
Speaker 1: we're going to the finals, and he said, I'm nervous.
Speaker 1: I said why. He goes because we gotta do this
Speaker 1: for staff And I said why And he goes because
Speaker 1: he deserves it. Now, the reason why I added this
Speaker 1: as a quick hitter is because I felt this way
Speaker 1: about all three of my three favorite players since I've
Speaker 1: been following the league. Steph, Lebron, and k D are
Speaker 1: my three favorite players. And I have felt this way
Speaker 1: about all three of them at various points in their careers.
Speaker 1: In when Lebron was competing for an NBA title, I
Speaker 1: wanted it so bad for him, And the main reason
Speaker 1: why was during two thousand, nineteen eighteen two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: when he literally lost twice because the Warriors were just
Speaker 1: two damn good and had the most talented roster in
Speaker 1: NBA history. A lot of people kicked Lebron while he
Speaker 1: was down during that time, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: tried to rewrite the history of Lebron's career because he
Speaker 1: was losing to Stephen k D. Steph Katie, and Lebron
Speaker 1: were the three best players in the league. Two of
Speaker 1: them played on the same team. The deck was stacked
Speaker 1: against Lebron. He was very much, uh not incapable, but
Speaker 1: nearly incapable of even having a chance to win those series,
Speaker 1: and people were rewriting his legacy. So I was rooting
Speaker 1: for him in because I thought it was a great
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to remind everybody of what he's capable of.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to two, same thing with Steph. I was
Speaker 1: rooting for Steph two because I thought when he'd missed
Speaker 1: the playoffs two years in a row, which had everything
Speaker 1: to do with injuries and nothing to do with Steph.
Speaker 1: Season was one of the best individual regular seasons I've
Speaker 1: ever seen from a player in Steph Curry, and they
Speaker 1: still missed the playoffs. And if he didn't land on
Speaker 1: his tailbone, they would have made the playoffs. That's like
Speaker 1: I thought, Steph, Steph and his greatness was assailable. But
Speaker 1: here's what happened. He won two titles with Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: and he won them at Lebron's expense. So Lebron fans
Speaker 1: just tried to slander the hell out of Steph Curry
Speaker 1: and rewrite the story of his career because he missed
Speaker 1: the playoffs the first two years about Kevin Durant, when
Speaker 1: it had nothing to do with Kevin Durant and everything
Speaker 1: to do with injuries. So I saw two as an
Speaker 1: opportunity for step to remind everybody of just how damn
Speaker 1: good he was or is, and he did, and I
Speaker 1: was very very happy for him. That's where I'm at
Speaker 1: with Katie this year. What happened with Katie went to
Speaker 1: Brooklyn is when he was healthy, he played absolutely absurdly
Speaker 1: incredible basketball every single time, except for a week against
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics, who were the most talented team in
Speaker 1: the league, a terrible matchup for the Nets, and Katie
Speaker 1: just didn't shoot well in a very small sample size
Speaker 1: four games in one week, and we and everyone rewrote
Speaker 1: the story of Kevin Durant. Lebron fans did, Steph Curry
Speaker 1: fans did. Everyone wanted to pretend he was terrible. And
Speaker 1: I didn't like that. I didn't think that was fair
Speaker 1: to him, and I thought he was becoming massively underrated.
Speaker 1: So I'm rooting for Kevin Durant this year to get
Speaker 1: one because because if he gets one in Brooklyn, nobody
Speaker 1: can say anything anymore. And that's what I want for Lebron,
Speaker 1: That's what I want for Steph, That's what I want
Speaker 1: for Kevin Durant. I want all of the stupid, nonsensical
Speaker 1: narratives to get thrown in the trash so that those
Speaker 1: guys can be appreciated for what they've provided to this
Speaker 1: league here at the end, here in their last few years.
Speaker 1: I hope we get to that point. And so I'm
Speaker 1: rooting for k d Um, Kevin Durant, Stayman Gundy in
Speaker 1: their little engaged engagement on Twitter over basically Stave Van
Speaker 1: Gundy said that he thought the uh um, it was
Speaker 1: strange that if we went back to the nineties, when
Speaker 1: they didn't have nearly the medical staffs or the benefits
Speaker 1: that that the treatment capabilities and any of those things
Speaker 1: available to them, they were playing every night and not
Speaker 1: skipping back to backs and not load managing. And now
Speaker 1: they're doing all the load managing and they're skipping all
Speaker 1: the games despite having better medical staffs and better equipment
Speaker 1: available to them, and injuries are happening more frequently, and
Speaker 1: Samon Gundy is like, hey, maybe we should be playing
Speaker 1: more and Kevin Durant responded underneath it, like, hey, you're spitting,
Speaker 1: and then you know Sam and Gundy didn't understand what
Speaker 1: he was saying. That was the joke. But I want
Speaker 1: I wanted to hop on this because I am like,
Speaker 1: I think there's two very interesting angles to take care
Speaker 1: once again. Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: four Warrior starters, all missed a game in Cleveland tonight,
Speaker 1: a game that many Cavs fans paid good money to
Speaker 1: go watch potentially their favorite player and Steph Curry play,
Speaker 1: you know, to watch the Warriors play, and they showed
Speaker 1: up and they didn't get to watch their guy and
Speaker 1: that really sucks. And for the record, I want to
Speaker 1: throw some criticism at Steve Kerr here. They had two
Speaker 1: days off before the Boston game. Send him out there
Speaker 1: to play against the Calves. Come on, man, you know
Speaker 1: if you like it makes I didn't like that personally,
Speaker 1: but there's a couple of different angles to go out here.
Speaker 1: I agree with stan Van Gundhi that that I think
Speaker 1: we overdoe rest. Now there is some data. I don't
Speaker 1: have it in front of me, so I can't read
Speaker 1: it to you, but there has been some data in
Speaker 1: the last few years that load management has not led
Speaker 1: to any sort of improvement and injuries, and I do
Speaker 1: think that that's not I do think that there's some
Speaker 1: legitimacy to that because I think that conditioning is an
Speaker 1: important part of the athletic experience. I think that conditioning
Speaker 1: your body to grind it out on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: even through minor discomfort and pain, prepares you for that
Speaker 1: exact process. And if you can break through that initial
Speaker 1: wall for that first month or whatever, you're bout do
Speaker 1: you will be capable of handling it, and then you
Speaker 1: won't deal with the nagging stuff that these guys are
Speaker 1: dealing with. I think if you rest every time you
Speaker 1: have every little bit of discomfort, you never actually pushed
Speaker 1: through that wall and get to the point where you're
Speaker 1: conditioned enough to handle it. So I do think load
Speaker 1: management is overdone around the league. However, the one other side,
Speaker 1: I want to say, it's just it's not. It doesn't
Speaker 1: change my opinion, but it's a little footnote on this topic.
Speaker 1: Basketball is not the same now as it was in
Speaker 1: the nineties. Sorry, the amount of ground that gets covered
Speaker 1: by perimeter players in this league in transition in rotation,
Speaker 1: as the game has become spaced out beyond the three
Speaker 1: point line as opposed to congest it around the basket people.
Speaker 1: I bet you if you put on trackers on players
Speaker 1: and tracked how many linear feet they move in a game,
Speaker 1: that it's double what it was in the nineties. That's
Speaker 1: what that I would That's my guess, and I don't
Speaker 1: have that data in front of me, But I believe
Speaker 1: eve that the game is so different now that that
Speaker 1: also contributes to the increase in injuries so thirty seven
Speaker 1: minutes a night in the nineties, I don't think is
Speaker 1: nearly as hard on your hamstrings and on your groin
Speaker 1: and on your ankles and on your knees and on
Speaker 1: your feet as it is now when you have to
Speaker 1: run so much more and cover so much more ground.
Speaker 1: So I do think teams need to chill out on
Speaker 1: the load management and have guys actually condition themselves for
Speaker 1: the grind. But I do think we should acknowledge, at
Speaker 1: least as it pertains to the increase in injuries, that
Speaker 1: it probably has more to do with how much the
Speaker 1: players are running and less to do with load management
Speaker 1: one way or the other. That makes sense, all right,
Speaker 1: last one, John Wall and everyone else piling on on
Speaker 1: the Rockets. So everyone in the world has been making
Speaker 1: points about the Rockets and how they don't play the
Speaker 1: right way, and how their young guards need someone to
Speaker 1: come in and teach them how to play basketball, all
Speaker 1: these different things. Um, I do think it's overdone a
Speaker 1: little bit because I think too much blame is put
Speaker 1: directly on Jalen Green or on Kevin Porter Jr. When
Speaker 1: really I think it's an organizational thing all the way
Speaker 1: down through the coaching staff. But as it pertains to accountability,
Speaker 1: I do think it matters though, Um, what does it
Speaker 1: mean to play the right way? To me, like, that's
Speaker 1: just building good habits, something I've talked about NonStop on
Speaker 1: this show. Um, you know that means committing to defense,
Speaker 1: committing to rebounding, committing to execution on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, committing to running and transition, all those
Speaker 1: different things. But it also goes beyond that to a
Speaker 1: play style from your offensive initiators. And you know, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a time and a place for a pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot, there's a time and a place for
Speaker 1: an isolation possession, and they are primarily counters to coverages.
Speaker 1: You should is so when you have a good matchup
Speaker 1: because of the switch and the spacing, it lends creatence
Speaker 1: to it. You should take a pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: because you ran a pick and roll and they stayed
Speaker 1: with the role man and they stayed elsewhere, and it's
Speaker 1: the only shot that's available on the floor. There's definitely
Speaker 1: a balance and a flow to primary ball handling that
Speaker 1: those guards need a are, but that's not on them
Speaker 1: if the coaching staff or the front office isn't providing
Speaker 1: them with the leadership they need to do so. So
Speaker 1: I I think it's a delicate thing, like we need
Speaker 1: to talk about the Rockets in the way they're playing,
Speaker 1: but not play so much blame on Kevin Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: And Jalen Green. They're just young basketball players that aren't
Speaker 1: being held accountable. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like to me, it's it's more has to do with
Speaker 1: those commitment to those other details. Those are more important
Speaker 1: to me right now because for there's no real stakes
Speaker 1: here and and really the guards are just working on
Speaker 1: their games. They're just getting NBA reps. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like you don't have to be
Speaker 1: a good defense, you don't have to be a good
Speaker 1: rebounding team, but you have to at least try those things.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is it's important to portray competence
Speaker 1: even when you're bad. The Thunder are rebuilding, the Rockets
Speaker 1: are rebuilding. The Thunder have a young star guard. The
Speaker 1: Rockets have a young star guard now they're earlier in
Speaker 1: their development. The Thunder are a few a few more
Speaker 1: years ahead. But organizationally, from the top down, they are
Speaker 1: teaching those guys that to play basketball the right way.
Speaker 1: It's not. They're not winning every night. They're not the
Speaker 1: best defense in the league. They're not the best rebounding
Speaker 1: team in the league. But what they are is they
Speaker 1: are trying to do those things. Ironically, the Rockets are
Speaker 1: actually a very good rebounding team because they're so athletic,
Speaker 1: and rebounding is just one small area in the grand
Speaker 1: schemes of a grand scheme of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: But the point is you build that competence so that
Speaker 1: over the years, guys are more willing to sign with
Speaker 1: that group. You know, the thunder are gonna need a
Speaker 1: veteran wing soon, and you know that guy when Sam
Speaker 1: Prescy sits down with them and he goes like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: here's the deal. This is what we built. This is
Speaker 1: what I got for with s g A, this is
Speaker 1: what I got with CHET. This is kind of where
Speaker 1: imagine you fitting in with this group. You know, I
Speaker 1: think Jalen Williams can kind of spell you off the bench,
Speaker 1: might even play you guys together sometimes. Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Like if I'm sitting there and you're gonna pay me
Speaker 1: seven million or ten million or whatever to come play
Speaker 1: with that group, I'm not in my head. I'm like, hell, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: let's do this. I like these young guys, let's try
Speaker 1: to win this thing. I mean, but now to imagine
Speaker 1: the Rockets sit down and have that same meeting, and
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this group and I'm like, well, okay,
Speaker 1: no one's teaching these guards how to play. So they're
Speaker 1: just running down jacket up shots and not playing real basketball. Um,
Speaker 1: no one's boxing out, no one's defending, no one's doing
Speaker 1: all these things whatever it is. And uh, and you know,
Speaker 1: this just doesn't seem like a good idea for me.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be you know what Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon is right now, you know the veteran that's
Speaker 1: just buried on this team and in basketball purgatory, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So that's why I think it's
Speaker 1: important for the Rockets to portrait competency. It's about the future,
Speaker 1: it's about that baby steps in the right direction. And
Speaker 1: you know that it all starts with accountability. And I
Speaker 1: think it starts with the front office works all the
Speaker 1: way down to the coaching staff. They just have to
Speaker 1: do a better job to keeping those guys accountable. All right,
Speaker 1: guys that is all I have for tonight. Wow, that
Speaker 1: was a whirlwind. Um. We're taking the rest of the
Speaker 1: weekend off, but I will see you guys on Monday.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and I'll see
Speaker 1: you guys then. The volume