Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day to come
Speaker 1: and talk some hoops with Tommy and I. I am
Speaker 1: fresh off of a weekend of skiing in Colorado Staff.
Speaker 1: Tommy's got his stepth better hoodie here's here. On this
Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon, I was just complaining to Tommy because I
Speaker 1: have put on just an absurd amount of weight on
Speaker 1: these stupid ski trips that I that I've been going
Speaker 1: on drinking too much and eating too much. And meanwhile
Speaker 1: Tommy's on a cleanse. He was just telling me about
Speaker 1: his weekend on the beach where he was completely soberly
Speaker 1: looking off into the distance and contemplating life. Basically, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm doing I usually do a sober month
Speaker 1: every year. Um, happen to do it January this year. Um, Yes,
Speaker 1: a good way to reset the body after the holidays,
Speaker 1: especially a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, a
Speaker 1: lot of being lazy. Um, I probably need to cut
Speaker 1: off a few pounds. So yeah, man, just trying to
Speaker 1: live a healthy lifestyle. That's definitely the way to do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, like I I have. So this year one
Speaker 1: is the year that I will turn thirty years old,
Speaker 1: and I've always been blessed to have a really good metabolism,
Speaker 1: and I think that that has played a significant role
Speaker 1: in the fact that even though I eat like absolute dogshit,
Speaker 1: I've been able to stay at a reasonable wait. But
Speaker 1: when I waited in last night at two thirty six pounds,
Speaker 1: I realized that because I've been I've been on this
Speaker 1: crazy workout routine for like six weeks now where I've
Speaker 1: been working out like seven to eight times a week.
Speaker 1: I've been in the weight room four times, and then
Speaker 1: I'm playing basketball Monday, Wednesday, Friday at five am. So
Speaker 1: I've been burning like, on average, like several thousands of
Speaker 1: calories a day. But my eating habits haven't changed at all,
Speaker 1: and I think my metabolism is starting to slow down
Speaker 1: because I'm not seeing any progress there. So I need
Speaker 1: to get that all ordered out. But that said, I'm
Speaker 1: back in town now. Um didn't miss too much aside.
Speaker 1: We did manage to get to the Harden trade before
Speaker 1: I got out of town, which is good. But we
Speaker 1: are going to talk about that crazy Laker Warrior game
Speaker 1: last night. We're gonna talk about the first couple of
Speaker 1: games of the James Harden and Brooklyn experience. We are
Speaker 1: going to talk about the Milwaukee Bucks, and then if
Speaker 1: we have time, we're going to touch on the Indiana
Speaker 1: Pacers as well as like I said, we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna touch on a lot of like big league wide stuff,
Speaker 1: and then each each week we're gonna try to touch
Speaker 1: on a couple of teams with really nerdy stuff, more
Speaker 1: in depth analysis that that is going to be more
Speaker 1: cater to specific teams. And this week we're gonna be
Speaker 1: doing Milwaukee and Indie. Um. But so last night was
Speaker 1: the latest example in one of my long standing theories
Speaker 1: about basketball, which is that it is way way better
Speaker 1: to get off to a bad start and try to
Speaker 1: kick it back into gear and wake up than it
Speaker 1: is to h than it is to start great and
Speaker 1: to let your foot off the gas. And the analogy
Speaker 1: I'd use, ironically is alcohol related because like when I
Speaker 1: was younger and a lot more energy, but as I'm
Speaker 1: older now, like it's funny like if I if I'm
Speaker 1: with some people were playing some golf and I have
Speaker 1: a couple of drinks on the golf course, It's impossible
Speaker 1: for me later in the day to try to have
Speaker 1: fun again, because like once I kick it into that
Speaker 1: gear once and I shut it down, like it's over
Speaker 1: for me, Like I'm tired, I'm napping, I'm going to bed,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And it's just just kind of funny
Speaker 1: because it's the same thing with these with these older
Speaker 1: kind of veteran basketball teams, which the Lakers aren't overly old,
Speaker 1: but they do have a lot of veteran players. They
Speaker 1: when when they really kick it into gear, it's really
Speaker 1: hard for them to kind of let their foot off
Speaker 1: the gas and then kick it into gear again. And
Speaker 1: I see that so often, particularly with this team, where
Speaker 1: they get off to a really good start. The first
Speaker 1: time now gets called, it's like twenty seven to twelve,
Speaker 1: you know, with three or four minutes left in the
Speaker 1: first quarter, and then they just immediately relax because they
Speaker 1: just expect these teams to quit, and then they don't,
Speaker 1: and then they find themselves in a dog fight and
Speaker 1: they have to kind of kick it back into gear
Speaker 1: and there's just nothing there because they've already kind of
Speaker 1: they've already just let that slip that that mode that
Speaker 1: they can get into. So that was my original take.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more we're gonna talk about with this game,
Speaker 1: but that was my original takeaway. What were your thoughts
Speaker 1: on last night's game? Uh, number one, I know exactly
Speaker 1: what you're talking about, drinking related Like at this point,
Speaker 1: if I'll start drinking and I don't know, one or
Speaker 1: two in the afternoon, I'm done by six o'clock. That's
Speaker 1: all I got. Man, I'm gonna pass out by six
Speaker 1: or seven o'clock and I'm gonna go to sleep. I'm
Speaker 1: too old for all that going out. And it's it's
Speaker 1: it's tough, like it's like, it's just it's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a ride that you have to be on. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing like when you're when you're playing basketball
Speaker 1: and you're dialed in and you stay on like and
Speaker 1: you stay on a string. Let's you see this a
Speaker 1: lot of the Lakers in the in the last year's postseason,
Speaker 1: when they would be really dialed in defensively, it's like
Speaker 1: when they ride the wave and they stay with it
Speaker 1: all game long, they're great, but as soon as they
Speaker 1: kind of flip off, it's really hard for them to
Speaker 1: get going again. And you're right, it's just like it's
Speaker 1: just it's just human nature. It's just a natural human
Speaker 1: nature thing. Absolutely, And I I mean I tweeted during
Speaker 1: the first half like that was like, honestly an embarrassing
Speaker 1: performance by the Warriors. There was a layup drill for
Speaker 1: much of that first half, and it was like, all right,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a fifteen or twenty point game. Um,
Speaker 1: But this Warrior's team is scrappy. Um. They they have
Speaker 1: a lot of younger guys who are kind of trying
Speaker 1: to make their way in the league. Wiggins Uber who
Speaker 1: have bounced around a little bit now that Wanta Maker
Speaker 1: and bays Moore, a really good veterans. Damian Lee is
Speaker 1: a guy who's bounces around the league little bit and
Speaker 1: is now making a little bit of a name for
Speaker 1: himself with the Warriors. And then obviously have Stephan Draymond
Speaker 1: to cap it off and kind of lead the way.
Speaker 1: But this game also showed one of my long standing
Speaker 1: points on basketball, and I tweeted about this last week. Typically,
Speaker 1: if you have a superstar on your team, or two
Speaker 1: superstars like the Lakers do, if you get blown out,
Speaker 1: which the Lakers really don't but the Warriors have a
Speaker 1: couple of times. A blowout is typically on the role players.
Speaker 1: That typically means the role players did and show up
Speaker 1: and do their job, and the game gets out of
Speaker 1: hand early and it just kind of ends up being
Speaker 1: a double digit loss. Close games typically come down to
Speaker 1: how your superstars performed, and last night, down the stretch,
Speaker 1: Step and Draymond were better than le Bron and a
Speaker 1: d And that's basically what it came down to. The
Speaker 1: role players on both teams did a good enough job
Speaker 1: to keep that game close. The Warriors second unit I
Speaker 1: thought was outstanding all night. Those past Coal lead lineups
Speaker 1: are are really something for teams to deal with. For
Speaker 1: whatever reason, they're able to space the floor a little
Speaker 1: bit and they basically just give him a runway to
Speaker 1: the rim, and he's really tough to stop going to
Speaker 1: the rim. He kind of gets tunnelvision sometimes, but he
Speaker 1: is a monster finishing at the rim. And then as
Speaker 1: bad as I thought Step was and Draymond for parts
Speaker 1: of the game too, they did a great job down
Speaker 1: the stretch. D rey wonted a couple of drives and
Speaker 1: finishes Step at that end one and then obviously the
Speaker 1: Step back over a d um and they came out
Speaker 1: with the win. Somehow, I don't know how it happened.
Speaker 1: They they were losing forty six of the forty eight minutes. Basically,
Speaker 1: they didn't take the lead until that Draymond right handed
Speaker 1: lay up going down the lane off the step pick
Speaker 1: and roll with about two and a half minutes left.
Speaker 1: So weird, weird game. But the fact from a Warrior standpoint,
Speaker 1: the fact that there's seven and six at this point,
Speaker 1: I'm almost ecstatic with with that outcome. They've stolen a
Speaker 1: couple of wins. In Chicago, they stole one and they
Speaker 1: still went against the Clippers, and they've now stolen one
Speaker 1: to get on one against the Lakers. Um and I
Speaker 1: tweeted that I was shocked that this team is two
Speaker 1: and three against the l A teams at this point.
Speaker 1: They really could be three and three if they would
Speaker 1: have beat the Clippers in that first game. So from
Speaker 1: a purely warrior standpoint, I'm pretty excited about where this
Speaker 1: team is, considering how much room I still think they
Speaker 1: have to grow. Um and Kelly Huber has just started
Speaker 1: playing well recently. If you can can kind of continue
Speaker 1: how he's been playing, this team is going to be
Speaker 1: a lot better. But there's there's still a long, long
Speaker 1: way to go with this team. So yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 1: let's let's start with the Lakers because we we are
Speaker 1: are excuse me, the Warriors, because we are we are
Speaker 1: going to get to the Lakers at some point. But
Speaker 1: I do think it's important, especially with regular season basketball.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can you can look at specific matchups
Speaker 1: about what that playoff series might look like, but it's
Speaker 1: easier to kind of look at each team and what
Speaker 1: they're going through in their specific circumstances. So the Warriors
Speaker 1: obviously had a lot more to play for last night,
Speaker 1: and the Warriors, obviously, uh are in a different phase
Speaker 1: of their developmental timeline, you know, Like the Lakers know
Speaker 1: who they are. They they even with these guys they've
Speaker 1: been bringing in, they're more or less filling in roles
Speaker 1: that already existed in previous iterations of the team. Like
Speaker 1: Schroeder's just a way better version of Rondo, but his
Speaker 1: role in the offense, he's doing what Rondo did on
Speaker 1: that team, just a more aggressive, better version of that,
Speaker 1: you know. But the team is constructed more or less
Speaker 1: the same, so their their their night tonight process is different.
Speaker 1: This Warrior team is building something right now. They don't
Speaker 1: really know what they're gonna be yet, but they're building
Speaker 1: something right now. And there are a couple of things,
Speaker 1: like I always talk about a championship identity. It's it's
Speaker 1: like the it's the the two or three things that
Speaker 1: really define who you are and how that will inevitably
Speaker 1: be what you lean on when the ship hits the
Speaker 1: fan later on in the playoffs. And you can kind
Speaker 1: of see the identity building with that Warrior Team. And
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting last night, Like with Kelly
Speaker 1: u Bray and with Andrew Wiggins, and with Camp bays
Speaker 1: More and with brad Wanamaker. They have a really really
Speaker 1: quick team that is a lot more athletic than previous
Speaker 1: iterations of of of this Warrior Team dynasty from years past.
Speaker 1: And that's the funny part, because like it's almost weird
Speaker 1: watching them because they don't even look similar in the
Speaker 1: sense that they're just faster, and they're just they're younger
Speaker 1: and their leaner and and and you can see them
Speaker 1: becoming this like high effort team that is extremely persistent
Speaker 1: that plays into the ebbs and flows of the game.
Speaker 1: That's why they've had so many comebacks, like they had
Speaker 1: to come back against the Pistons, they had to come
Speaker 1: back against the Clippers, they had to come back against
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They're finding themselves down in these games, and
Speaker 1: they're just they're sticking to their identity and understanding that
Speaker 1: inevitably we're going to break through on the strength of
Speaker 1: the Steph and UH and Draymond pick and roll and
Speaker 1: just our effort. Guys from their bench. Their their bench
Speaker 1: did their job of of carrying them for stretches of
Speaker 1: that game when the Lakers starters were engaged and when
Speaker 1: they were bullying the Warrior starters, and it allowed them
Speaker 1: to linger around long enough so that Stephan and Draymond
Speaker 1: could outplay Lebron and a d at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. But you can see the identity building. It's
Speaker 1: high effort, it's running a lot in transition, it's flying
Speaker 1: around wings with Ubraen Wiggins, and it's Steph making basketball
Speaker 1: decisions at the end of these games, which is getting
Speaker 1: them high quality shots. And that's you could see that
Speaker 1: that's forming their identity and that's the stuff you can
Speaker 1: build on. Because I don't think that their championship contender
Speaker 1: at this point. The reality is as they lost to
Speaker 1: the Pacers and then they lost to the Nuggets, and
Speaker 1: then they were getting their ass kicked by the Lakers
Speaker 1: and they managed to come back and win. But the
Speaker 1: truth is they've got a long way to go. But
Speaker 1: you can see the identity forming and you can start
Speaker 1: to talk yourself into like, Okay, Wiseman doesn't really necessarily
Speaker 1: makes sense, but he's this asset that we've built because
Speaker 1: he has shown flashes. Maybe we can move him for
Speaker 1: another backup all handler, or maybe for another wing or
Speaker 1: a more veteran, savvy big who's a little bit more usable.
Speaker 1: In the short term. You can see it building, and
Speaker 1: I think that's exciting for Warrior fans because even though
Speaker 1: you're out of your freaking mind if you think you're
Speaker 1: gonna beat the Lakers in the playoff series right now,
Speaker 1: you can see from stuff from last night that that
Speaker 1: just gives you a positive outlook on what how this
Speaker 1: could inevitably end up working in the future, especially when
Speaker 1: Clay gets back. Yeah, so I think a couple of
Speaker 1: things are interesting. This team is pretty far from their
Speaker 1: ceiling even this year. You know, Clay is not coming
Speaker 1: back this year, we all know that, but I think
Speaker 1: this team is still pretty far from their ceiling. From
Speaker 1: the standpoint of they've basically played thirteen games together, this
Speaker 1: roster is almost entirely new, especially when you consider that
Speaker 1: Stephan Draymond didn't really play with any of these guys
Speaker 1: last year. Draymond played with a couple of them, but
Speaker 1: he was so mentally checked out for most of the
Speaker 1: year that you can't even really count those games. So
Speaker 1: it's an entirely new roster around these guys. And I
Speaker 1: think you're correct, and you're in kind of your analysis
Speaker 1: of who they are at this point. They are a
Speaker 1: plucky team. I mean, they are really annoying to play against,
Speaker 1: I think, and that's only going to get more annoying
Speaker 1: as they get to know each other better and the
Speaker 1: effort becomes more consistent from the role guys that they
Speaker 1: understand their roles better. I think they really do have
Speaker 1: a chance to be one of the final four teams
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference. I'm not sure that Western Conference
Speaker 1: finals would be I think an incredible outcome for this team,
Speaker 1: but I really do think they have a chance to
Speaker 1: be one of those final four teams in the West
Speaker 1: simply on their effort and then having two of kind
Speaker 1: of the better closers in the game in terms of
Speaker 1: how they working at tandem right that Steph Draymond pick
Speaker 1: and roll is something they're gonna be able to go
Speaker 1: to against everybody. And even against Anthony Davis last night
Speaker 1: and Schroeder, who has been really good defensively this year,
Speaker 1: they were giving them issues. Steph got a couple of
Speaker 1: open shots, Draymond got some open layups, and if they
Speaker 1: get the right lineups around those guys, they're still gonna
Speaker 1: be tough to stop offensively as long as they can
Speaker 1: get to the point where the games are close at
Speaker 1: the end. Um. So I think, like I said, they
Speaker 1: have a long way to go before they reach their ceiling,
Speaker 1: but they're going to continue building, and I think there's
Speaker 1: probably a couple of roster moves they'll they'll make, especially
Speaker 1: if Markue's Chris doesn't seem like he's gonna come back
Speaker 1: this year, which is up in the air. Um. He
Speaker 1: would help this team a lot right now, because, like
Speaker 1: you've alluded to, Wiseman is talented, but he is really
Speaker 1: young and really green and really lost a lot of
Speaker 1: the time. And last night was one of those games
Speaker 1: where it's like, look the talent as a parent on
Speaker 1: some plays, but this kid's also still night team, and
Speaker 1: he's still a long way from where he needs to
Speaker 1: be to help this team contend within I would think
Speaker 1: the next two to three years. I could be wrong.
Speaker 1: Maybe he develops quicker than I'm thinking, but um, I
Speaker 1: don't see it at this point. But Marquis Chris would
Speaker 1: be a huge upgrade if they get him back. If not,
Speaker 1: they're probably gonna pick up a big man off the
Speaker 1: waiver wire. I would hope they try to get some
Speaker 1: more shooting um at this point because a lot of
Speaker 1: these starts that where they're down twenty points, or because
Speaker 1: you have two guys in Uber and Wiseman who don't
Speaker 1: really understand what Steve Kerr wants. They don't really have
Speaker 1: the basketball like you to play in his system. So
Speaker 1: the solution would really be just go to more spread,
Speaker 1: prick and roll with that early group, just so it's simple,
Speaker 1: will fight, it's easier, and the roles are very very defined.
Speaker 1: But I don't think he's going to do that. So
Speaker 1: the other solution would be start somebody in place of
Speaker 1: Ubre and let him just crush second units, because that's
Speaker 1: what he did last night. It was probably his most
Speaker 1: competent game because he got to play twelve or fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes against the Lakers second unit, and he had a
Speaker 1: couple of really nice moves to the rim, and then
Speaker 1: he puts feeling confidence, so his three balls started going,
Speaker 1: and then he felt confident enough to make a drive
Speaker 1: and finish over a d with like three minutes left
Speaker 1: in the game. So this team is still working out
Speaker 1: a lot of the kinks, and I think they're still
Speaker 1: We're still going to get inconsistent performances for probably the
Speaker 1: next fifteen to twenty games, but I think around the
Speaker 1: middle of the season they will really start to figure
Speaker 1: things out as the rotation becomes more solidified. And I think,
Speaker 1: like I said, I still maintain that this will probably
Speaker 1: one of the final four teams in the West, unless
Speaker 1: they get a weird first round matchup, Like if they
Speaker 1: match up against the Lakers in the first round, probably
Speaker 1: not gonna happen, Clippers, probably not gonna happen. But anybody
Speaker 1: else in a seven game playoff series, I still think
Speaker 1: they'll be good enough to be in most of those
Speaker 1: games within that seven game series. And then it comes
Speaker 1: down to do you trust anybody besides Lebron or Hawaii
Speaker 1: over step in the final seven minutes of you know,
Speaker 1: the final six minutes of a game, and I wouldn't. Right,
Speaker 1: So anybody else in the Western Conferences, great as Yokich is,
Speaker 1: I would still want Step in the last six minutes
Speaker 1: the game over him. So this team has a long
Speaker 1: way to go. But I'm I was expecting them to be,
Speaker 1: like to have maybe five wins at this point of
Speaker 1: this easy you know, fifteen games, and I was expecting
Speaker 1: them to be four or five games under five hundred.
Speaker 1: So I'm really pumped about where they're at. Yeah, I think. Uh.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest things that's been a pleasant surprise
Speaker 1: to me has been their defense. Um. I was a
Speaker 1: pessimist as it related to their defense because of the
Speaker 1: fact that I thought Clay Thompson was a huge part
Speaker 1: of what they were able to do defensively. Uh, And
Speaker 1: what has been what has been a a pleasant surprise
Speaker 1: is Wiggins has been flat out good for a defense.
Speaker 1: First event, let's started right now. First very well, maybe
Speaker 1: it may end up happening here. The truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is is like that that's what's making this work.
Speaker 1: Like the Warrior defense was always built on and full
Speaker 1: of things. You know, Draymond Green just being an absolute
Speaker 1: unicorn on the defensive end of the floor as a
Speaker 1: as a small ball five. You know, a guy that
Speaker 1: you couldn't post up, but at the same time was
Speaker 1: like flying around and moving around enough that it made
Speaker 1: up for some of his shot his size shortcomings. And
Speaker 1: then it was always built on a couple of really
Speaker 1: really good perimeter wing defensive players, which used to be
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson and Andrea Gudala and and now in this
Speaker 1: case it's Ubra who was flying around last night too,
Speaker 1: and and Andrew Wiggins, and you know, Steph. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pay him another compliment here. Like Steph is not a
Speaker 1: great defender, He's an average to slightly above average defender.
Speaker 1: But what he does is he commits himself on that
Speaker 1: end of the floor, which is more than just It
Speaker 1: takes him from being a blow average defensive player to
Speaker 1: an average defensive player because that commitment and focus matters.
Speaker 1: But most importantly, it trickles down his his His commitment
Speaker 1: to being an impacts defensive player, even though he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the physical tools, just trickles down in effort to
Speaker 1: everyone else on the roster, like making no mistake, if
Speaker 1: you know. One of the biggest reasons why, uh, the
Speaker 1: Laker defense is inconsistent, even though I think when they're
Speaker 1: dialed in, they're the best defense in the league. The
Speaker 1: reason why they've been inconsistent is sometimes their best two players,
Speaker 1: Lebron and na d come out and they're like, you know, tonight,
Speaker 1: we're gonna see if we can win without defending. And
Speaker 1: then it's like KCP is losing guys on screens or
Speaker 1: are taking uh sloppy close outs and and all these
Speaker 1: guys are kind of bs and around. The next thing
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're giving up seventy seven points in
Speaker 1: the second half like they did last night. Like the
Speaker 1: Steph Curry deserves credit, you know, as a leader for
Speaker 1: for being one of the lynch pins of this defense,
Speaker 1: even though he technically isn't that great of a defensive player,
Speaker 1: you know, with with what he brings to the table physically,
Speaker 1: So that that that I've been really impressed with. That's
Speaker 1: something you can build on. And you know, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't pick them over you know, four or five
Speaker 1: teams in the West, but if they're if they're in
Speaker 1: a series against anybody, that's not one of the l
Speaker 1: A teams. They've got a real chance because they can
Speaker 1: guard and because they have a really, really good alpha
Speaker 1: that's gonna go toe to toe, if not be better
Speaker 1: than any player in the league. And so that that's
Speaker 1: what what what you can build on. But the key
Speaker 1: there is, like you know with Wiseman, your your brother
Speaker 1: in the comments is asking about Wiseman. The thing I
Speaker 1: would say about Wiseman is like, I I try to
Speaker 1: be consistent with this stuff, Like you're tempted to hold
Speaker 1: on because of potential, but you don't want to pull
Speaker 1: a Danny Ainge, you know, Like, and what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is like, like, for instance, Kyrie, Kawhi, Leonard
Speaker 1: and Al and Al Horford probably wins an NBA championship.
Speaker 1: They probably do okay, But Danny Ainge was tantalized by
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum. Now, Jayson Tatum is one of the best
Speaker 1: ten to twelve players in the league, so that's fantastic,
Speaker 1: but he's a top ten player in the league or
Speaker 1: fringe top ten player in the league that was on
Speaker 1: a different timeline than Kyrie and Al Horford at the time.
Speaker 1: And so the problem that you have here is Wiseman
Speaker 1: very well may end up being some freaky crisp bosh
Speaker 1: mixed with LaMarcus Aldridge hybrid beast of a big man
Speaker 1: he or who knows what he's gonna be, but he
Speaker 1: could be something like that, but he's not going to
Speaker 1: be that for several years. And so you have this
Speaker 1: this predicament here, or you have to decide whether or
Speaker 1: not you want to commit to this timeline or kind
Speaker 1: of have one foot in, one foot out. And maybe
Speaker 1: you have fun with Staff his last few years, but
Speaker 1: you don't win any titles, and then you go into
Speaker 1: the Wiseman years and now he's the best player in
Speaker 1: the team, but maybe things don't work out with some
Speaker 1: injuries or some poor draft picks, or you know, some
Speaker 1: things don't work out in free agency. And you're pretty
Speaker 1: good with Wiseman too, but he you can't win a
Speaker 1: title there, Like you gotta commit to something. And to me,
Speaker 1: the Wiseman move here actually has kind of worked out
Speaker 1: well for the Warriors because he's shown these crazy flashes
Speaker 1: that will inevitably lead him to have some value around
Speaker 1: the league. But you've also learned that he can't help
Speaker 1: you right now, and so I think it's time for
Speaker 1: them to to at least consider the idea, uh that
Speaker 1: you've got this elite defense he didn't think you were
Speaker 1: going to have. You've got Steph Curry, who clearly is
Speaker 1: one of the two best players in the league. Still
Speaker 1: like you need to push your chips in, especially if
Speaker 1: you can get a player that's under contract next year
Speaker 1: and Clay Thompson's coming back, because then you can make
Speaker 1: a real run at things next year. Especially yep, and
Speaker 1: I think the thing is hunting the rest of the
Speaker 1: prime of one of the twenty greatest players of all time,
Speaker 1: and if we're not including Will Chamberlain, the greatest player
Speaker 1: in Warriors history, is one of the dumbest things in
Speaker 1: NBA history. If you're gonna say, well, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: one foot in, one foot out, and we're gonna try
Speaker 1: to develop the center, who's clearly talented, as you've alluded to,
Speaker 1: but as a bit of a project, like there was
Speaker 1: a long way to go before he reaches this, youing,
Speaker 1: and if he ever does so, it would be irresponsible
Speaker 1: I think for the Warriors to billy dally around and say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we can try to develop Wiseman and also
Speaker 1: try to, you know, try to win championship at the
Speaker 1: same time. I don't think that's possible. If you're trying
Speaker 1: to play the thirty minutes a game, It's not gonna
Speaker 1: be possible in the next couple of years. Because of
Speaker 1: the hardest things in the NBA to learn is big
Speaker 1: man defense. It is so complex and complicated because you
Speaker 1: are accountable for basically everything and almost every possession. At
Speaker 1: some point, he looks lost, and this isn't his fault.
Speaker 1: He's only played like fifteen games after he graduated from
Speaker 1: my school, Like a lot of this isn't his fault.
Speaker 1: He's just not ready. Like it's just the fact of
Speaker 1: the matter is he he isn't ready. And we know
Speaker 1: what the way the NBA works now, somebody's going to
Speaker 1: be available in the next twelve months. You know. It
Speaker 1: might be Bradley Beal, it might be somebody else, but
Speaker 1: somebody will be available. And with Wiseman, with the Minnesota pick,
Speaker 1: you have the assets to go get basically whoever you want.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to deal probably one of those big
Speaker 1: contracts that they have on the books that might be Wiggins,
Speaker 1: which I wouldn't be super keen on. But if it
Speaker 1: means they're getting another top fifteen player, you probably do
Speaker 1: it right, Like you probably don't even think twice about it, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I'd love that Wiggins has done for
Speaker 1: this team so far, He's been basically everything I could
Speaker 1: have expected it more um, And it's funny. Wiggins isn't
Speaker 1: a role player, but he's also not a star. He's
Speaker 1: kind of in that weird middle ground where he's better
Speaker 1: than most role players, but he's not quite you know,
Speaker 1: a top thirty level player. Situation matters so much for
Speaker 1: those type of guys. Right in Minnesota, he was basically
Speaker 1: just wasting away. He never gave consistent ever, and everybody
Speaker 1: kind of just labeled him as a bus. And first
Speaker 1: I means for number one pick, he's still kind of
Speaker 1: as a bus no matter what he does with the Warriors,
Speaker 1: but his effort level and his consistent approach mentally has
Speaker 1: been super impressive this year. This is a guy who
Speaker 1: if they do keep him around, I think he can
Speaker 1: help them win a championship. Right if Clay comes back
Speaker 1: relatively healthy who he was and step is still in
Speaker 1: his prime, and same with Draymond, I think Wiggins is
Speaker 1: absolutely a guy who can be one of the five
Speaker 1: best players on a championship team. But the overall point
Speaker 1: is circumstance matters so much for for guys around the
Speaker 1: league who are not top thirty. I mean, we see
Speaker 1: it every single year where guys go to a new
Speaker 1: situation it's like, oh my god, where was this player at?
Speaker 1: And that that's Andrew Wiggins this year, and he has
Speaker 1: I don't know if he has a legitimate case for
Speaker 1: Most Improved Player, but I think he's gonna get some
Speaker 1: votes this year. Um, and I've been all in on
Speaker 1: him since the trade happens, so yeah, I've just been
Speaker 1: super super I just want to get a Q Wiggins
Speaker 1: point because he's been super impresent. He gave you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron wasn't fully engaged last night. I think anybody who
Speaker 1: watched that games knows that. But Wiggins gave him some
Speaker 1: problems on the stretch defensively, like he he was legitimately
Speaker 1: bothering Lebron and not letting him get to his spots,
Speaker 1: and he caused a couple of turnovers. And that's really
Speaker 1: all you can ask of him. Because this year they're
Speaker 1: not a title contender, but coming back next year, you're
Speaker 1: gonna need that guy who can be consistent at point
Speaker 1: of attack defensively forty five minutes a night. And Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins absolutely is that guy. And that's really all you
Speaker 1: can ask. Wiggins is definitely deserving of roses at this point.
Speaker 1: He simplified his game. There was a couple of things
Speaker 1: that I didn't like. He took a really bizarre step
Speaker 1: back three in the fourth quarter that was kind of
Speaker 1: three times a game. He still done that. Again, you
Speaker 1: just gotta live with it if he's gonna give you
Speaker 1: the defensive effort exactly. And that's the thing like that,
Speaker 1: you have to you have to live with that, you know,
Speaker 1: Like like Lebron is one of the two best players
Speaker 1: of all time, and I literally he still occasionally settles
Speaker 1: for stupid three over the top of the center or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. But you know, you have to live
Speaker 1: with it. But for the most part, it's he's simple,
Speaker 1: had his game. He his shot chart is basically now simplified,
Speaker 1: down to wide open threes, the occasional pull up three,
Speaker 1: and shots in and around the basket. He's actually really
Speaker 1: good at contorting his body around the shop, blockers and
Speaker 1: finishing um. He had a big play in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter where he attacked to close out on KCP and
Speaker 1: drew a foul on Anthony Davis by going into his body.
Speaker 1: He uh, but yeah, yeah, he missed both. But but
Speaker 1: point being like overall, like I've I was really really
Speaker 1: impressed with him, and again like we're gonna move on
Speaker 1: to the Lakers here in just a second. But like
Speaker 1: the bottom line is, you know, Steph, you and I
Speaker 1: talked before the season that there were basically two scenarios
Speaker 1: that this season could go. It could go the two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen Calves, where you know, Lebron just went on
Speaker 1: a freaking like like destruction tour individually and the team
Speaker 1: was really flawed that they were able to beat all
Speaker 1: the mediocre playoff teams and make it to the finals. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then there was the two thousand nineteen Lakers, you know,
Speaker 1: where you know, injury plays a role. Lebron's good, but
Speaker 1: he's not as good as he usually is because you
Speaker 1: can tell he's pouting and and and the team has
Speaker 1: you know, some real structural flaws and they fall apart
Speaker 1: and they missed the playoffs. Those were the two scenarios
Speaker 1: for this Warrior's team. Now from an injury standpoint, we
Speaker 1: still don't know because he's got to get through the
Speaker 1: whole season, but it's very clear here early on that
Speaker 1: stuff is going to two thousand eighteen Lebron route. He
Speaker 1: has been unbelievable, you know, for the most part, including
Speaker 1: the even some of these games where he hasn't shot
Speaker 1: the ball particularly well, he's still doing all the little things.
Speaker 1: He's defending, he's leading the team from by example, and
Speaker 1: he's creating quality shots for his teammates. And I have
Speaker 1: been super impressed by him. And the bottom line is
Speaker 1: is like, for what this team was supposed to be
Speaker 1: and for the ship hand that they've been dealt by
Speaker 1: virtue of injuries and just you know them, uh Kevin
Speaker 1: Durrant leaving and all of these things, they have managed
Speaker 1: to retool this team into a competitive basketball team. And
Speaker 1: it's I think gets a lot of credit to Steve Kerr,
Speaker 1: and a lot of credit to to Stephen Curry, and
Speaker 1: a lot of credit to Draymond Green. And I think
Speaker 1: that I think that this is the problem that happens
Speaker 1: when we undercut winning on a team level. You can say,
Speaker 1: oh you want about how talented Steph's rosters were and
Speaker 1: he's absolutely been on very talented rosters. But you don't
Speaker 1: just win basketball games like and we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: this more with the nets here shortly, but like, you
Speaker 1: don't just walk out onto the floor and win basketball games.
Speaker 1: Ask the Lakers last night that you you have to
Speaker 1: do all of the things that actually lead to winning.
Speaker 1: And and Steph, Stephen Curry, Steve Kerr, and Draymond Green
Speaker 1: have been winning for a long time. They know how
Speaker 1: to do it. And they're gonna catch his slipping when
Speaker 1: you when you bring an effort like what the Lakers do. Uh,
Speaker 1: And I think that that that was my I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just paying a compliment to those guys, and I'm
Speaker 1: paying a compliment to the Warriors as a unit. Yep.
Speaker 1: And quick point to kind of wrap up here on
Speaker 1: the Warriors, I inc one thing that Stephan Draymond have
Speaker 1: learned how to do. And they didn't know how to
Speaker 1: do this maybe four or five years ago. And we
Speaker 1: saw this last in the playoffs as well against Portlands
Speaker 1: and even Toronto. They know how to win ugly now, right,
Speaker 1: They even when things aren't going great. They didn't used
Speaker 1: to win a lot of games like this. They just
Speaker 1: kind of used to overpower you by sheer offensive course,
Speaker 1: and then obviously you know, creating turnovers and getting out
Speaker 1: in transition when it doesn't look right. Now, they figured
Speaker 1: out how to win games right like that was not
Speaker 1: pretty last night at all, but down the stretch they
Speaker 1: figured out how to get it done. And that's just
Speaker 1: that's championship medal, right, It's all that cliche stuff about
Speaker 1: figuring out how to win as you game more experience.
Speaker 1: And last point I'll make on Steph is I think
Speaker 1: it's clear that his ceiling is still a top two
Speaker 1: or three guy. The key is going to be how
Speaker 1: consistently can he get there. Is he at the point
Speaker 1: of his career where it's more like kind of Lake
Speaker 1: career Lebron or the regular season is a bit more
Speaker 1: up and down and he's not really giving full effort
Speaker 1: every night, but come playoffs he can really turn it
Speaker 1: on and be that consistent guy for six to seven
Speaker 1: games of a series. Or is it just the ceiling
Speaker 1: is still the same but he can't quite get they're
Speaker 1: on the same consistent basis that he could four or
Speaker 1: five years ago. That's what That's my only question left
Speaker 1: with step at this point, we've seen the ceiling. I mean,
Speaker 1: the ceiling is still incredible. At sixty two points against Portland,
Speaker 1: it's a twenty point out person the third quarter against
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Like that ceiling is still clearly there. It's
Speaker 1: can you do it consistently enough to make this roster
Speaker 1: eventually when Lake comes back to the championship roster. M agree. Um,
Speaker 1: So with the Lakers. This is you know, for all
Speaker 1: of us who do not work full time in the business,
Speaker 1: we have our teams that we watch all the games,
Speaker 1: and then we have other teams where we watch when
Speaker 1: we can, and we do the best we can to
Speaker 1: stay on top of them with our busier schedules. And
Speaker 1: you know, for me, obviously I've run a local business
Speaker 1: here in town my wife. I have to devote a
Speaker 1: certain amount of attention to that. Otherwise you can lose
Speaker 1: the life. And uh and I I the team that
Speaker 1: I primarily watch, in addition to supplementing with other teams
Speaker 1: around the league, is the Lakers. And I've watched every
Speaker 1: single game that this team is played for the last
Speaker 1: two years. And I have consistently talked about how they're
Speaker 1: kind of a jackal and high defensive team, And uh,
Speaker 1: I get crap for it sometimes because people assume that
Speaker 1: I'm undercutting the other teams when I talk about it,
Speaker 1: and I'm not. I'm just I'm just being realistic about
Speaker 1: the team that I know really, really well. So for instance,
Speaker 1: like I'm I'm gonna say a lot about how the
Speaker 1: Lakers weren't taking the Warriors seriously, and that's why I'm
Speaker 1: glad we talked about the Warriors first. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: I'm I'm undercutting what the Warriors did last night, which
Speaker 1: was an impressive win. I'm just saying that I know
Speaker 1: what this team is, this Laker team, and I know
Speaker 1: what they can be, and I know the difference between
Speaker 1: the real version of them, you know, and the and
Speaker 1: the ugly version of them. And you know, the same
Speaker 1: thing happened in the finals last year. Everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're talking bad about Jimmy Butler. No, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, I know the Lakers usually don't let
Speaker 1: a wing player play one on one all night. Like
Speaker 1: there's a difference between this team when they're trying and
Speaker 1: when they're not. The you know, I I a lot
Speaker 1: of times I have to go back and rewatch the
Speaker 1: film to really get a few for it. But as
Speaker 1: I was watching, I rewatched most of the of the
Speaker 1: second half shortly before this pod, and I was truly
Speaker 1: blown away by how lackadaisical their defensive effort was, and
Speaker 1: there was there was no communicating with cross matches and transition.
Speaker 1: Their entire pick and roll coverage was was butcher. The
Speaker 1: Lakers completely shift that shifted their pick and roll coverage
Speaker 1: to what's called a catch heads this year. Basically they're
Speaker 1: they're soft trapping pick and rolls as opposed to using
Speaker 1: a drop coverage. Last year with Javal and Dwight, they
Speaker 1: used to drop coverage. In this year, they're basically trapping
Speaker 1: pick and rolls. They would trap pick and rolls and
Speaker 1: nobody would rotate on the backside like it was it was,
Speaker 1: you know, like guys would miss shots and jog back
Speaker 1: in transition. You know, Anthony Davis is good at shutting
Speaker 1: off the paint. Anthony Davis was consistently out of position
Speaker 1: as a paint defender last night. It was one of
Speaker 1: the worst defensive performances I've seen from them, and they
Speaker 1: gave up seventy seven points in that second half, Like
Speaker 1: it's not just it's not just what I'm scene with
Speaker 1: my eyes. It's a result that's happening on the scoreboard.
Speaker 1: And so you know, for me, like it doesn't matter necessarily,
Speaker 1: like I've said all all year long, I'm more concerned
Speaker 1: with just the overall habits of that team, and going
Speaker 1: into last night, they were the number one defense in
Speaker 1: the league literally even though they've been b s NG.
Speaker 1: So as long as they stay up there, I'll be
Speaker 1: fine with it, because not up a one, but somewhere
Speaker 1: between one and seven or eight, because at least it'll
Speaker 1: tell me that they're occasionally able to turn that on
Speaker 1: and still get to that level. But all I'm saying
Speaker 1: is it's hard for me to take too much away
Speaker 1: from that individual matchup last night between the Warriors and
Speaker 1: Lakers because the Lakers completely mailed in the defensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball. Yeah I wouldn't. I mean, if I'm
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan, I'm not worried about last night at all,
Speaker 1: like I've seen it before, Like this team, to me
Speaker 1: is still clearly the best team in the n b A.
Speaker 1: Even after the the hard trade which we're gonna get to,
Speaker 1: I still think the Lakers are the best team in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Their defensive seeling is probably one of the
Speaker 1: better defensive ceilings of the last twenty or so years.
Speaker 1: Just the groups that they can put on the floor
Speaker 1: together to not only be physical like guarded point of attack,
Speaker 1: obviously protect the rim. They are a spectacular defensive team
Speaker 1: when they want to be. But I thought basically they
Speaker 1: were focused on stopping Step last night, but they weren't.
Speaker 1: Like they would trap Steff or they could throw a
Speaker 1: couple of bodies at him, and like you're alluding to,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't rotate out of it. It resulted in a
Speaker 1: ton of open catch and shoot open looks for for Wiggins,
Speaker 1: he got a couple but naked open looks O Gray.
Speaker 1: Same thing, bays Moore, same thing. Lazy rebounding where like
Speaker 1: they tip a ball and they think they'd have it
Speaker 1: and the Warriors would strip and kick it out for
Speaker 1: a three year gonna lay up. That hapen a couple
Speaker 1: of times the fourth quarter actually where the Lakers and
Speaker 1: the ball got popped out. Baysmore got a three off
Speaker 1: of one of them. Pascal got a lay up to
Speaker 1: cut it to seven. This game, it was a fourteen
Speaker 1: point game with like nine minutes. Um. I was sitting
Speaker 1: there just kind of watching out of the quarter of
Speaker 1: my eye almost because I was like, this thing is
Speaker 1: basically over. And then it was twelve, then it was nine,
Speaker 1: then it was seven, and responds like, oh my got
Speaker 1: we got a game, And it was basically a porter
Speaker 1: has made some plays. Like I said before that their
Speaker 1: second you know, looked amazing last night, and it has
Speaker 1: for much of the season. But it was really to
Speaker 1: me more of the Lakers just being lazy and not
Speaker 1: and it being game thirteen or fourteen in the regular season,
Speaker 1: and them not caring too much about a team that
Speaker 1: they didn't think is on the level, which I mean
Speaker 1: the Warriors aren't on the level, so you can't blame
Speaker 1: them in a way. But what I'd ask you is,
Speaker 1: are you worried about their ability to flip the switch
Speaker 1: come playoff time? Like if they're gonna be this lacks
Speaker 1: of daisical most of the season, it doesn't become a
Speaker 1: concern at some point. No. I mean that that's where
Speaker 1: I like to track the defensive ratings because like it's
Speaker 1: you know, to me, the defensive rating isn't about you know,
Speaker 1: what you're ceiling is as a defense. To me, it's
Speaker 1: about what your what your effort and focus looks like
Speaker 1: night in and night out in the regular season to me,
Speaker 1: like there, for instance, the uh the two thousand and
Speaker 1: eighteen Warriors ended up as a as the eleventh ranked
Speaker 1: defense in the league. That tells me pretty flat out
Speaker 1: that they were a really, really good defensive team when
Speaker 1: they were trying, but that they mailed in a lot
Speaker 1: of nights in the regular season. That's what that That
Speaker 1: means to me that I watched almost every game they
Speaker 1: mailed in basically every game they had. They actually had
Speaker 1: a lot of games like the Lakers did last night,
Speaker 1: where they'd be up like fifteen going into a fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and then all of a sudden, it's a two
Speaker 1: point game with two minutes left and they're looking to
Speaker 1: Stephan Katie to save them, or they end up blowing
Speaker 1: the game happened against like Phoenix when when they were terrible,
Speaker 1: it happened against the Pistons. I remember from that year.
Speaker 1: There was like four or five games or it's like,
Speaker 1: how did they end up losing this game? But and
Speaker 1: then it almost came back to bite. What I'll say
Speaker 1: is it almost came back to bite them because they
Speaker 1: went down three two to the Rockets because partly because
Speaker 1: they were being lazy and they weren't coming out ready
Speaker 1: to play. And you can see in the finals that
Speaker 1: their defense wasn't really all that great. That like the
Speaker 1: lebron fifty one point finals game, which was a great game,
Speaker 1: it was also a terrible defensive performance from the Warriors.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a dirty little secret about that night.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I agree. But and so that's where the
Speaker 1: line is, like, to me, I'd like to see them
Speaker 1: stay closer to top five because that tells me that
Speaker 1: they did a better job of maintaining their habits throughout
Speaker 1: the regular season than the two thousand eighteen Warriors did,
Speaker 1: for example. But I'm not particularly concerned about that. And
Speaker 1: then still, so the one of the most interesting things
Speaker 1: that stood out to me at the end of that game,
Speaker 1: as I went back and rewatched the film, and you
Speaker 1: can actually find this on my Twitter feed if you
Speaker 1: scroll through and look through the videos. I took a
Speaker 1: bunch of clips and and uh and labeled them. But
Speaker 1: they scored seven points in the last six minutes. The
Speaker 1: Lakers didn't, and they were running pretty high quality offense.
Speaker 1: That was the bizarre part to me. Going back and rewatching,
Speaker 1: there were three crazy plays. There was the two Lebron
Speaker 1: travels where he just shuffled his his plant foot as
Speaker 1: he was going by, which was weird because he complained
Speaker 1: after that he does that all the time. He actually doesn't.
Speaker 1: He's actually better at keeping that foot planted on on
Speaker 1: rip through drives. He just slid his foot on each
Speaker 1: of those. And then there was the play where him
Speaker 1: and Shrewder got lazy on the inbound. But aside from that,
Speaker 1: it was like it was like Lebron post up wide
Speaker 1: open three for Alex Cruso, Lebron post up wide open
Speaker 1: three for KCP in the corner that he misses, you know,
Speaker 1: like Lebron pick and roll with Anthony Davis, wide open
Speaker 1: jump shot from from sixteen ft from the basket, Lebron
Speaker 1: post up, Andrew Wiggins spins baseline, draws a foul, gets
Speaker 1: to the free throw line. Like they actually ran pretty
Speaker 1: high quality offense. Just every single one of the wide
Speaker 1: open shots they had there was like a Crusoe one,
Speaker 1: a Kuzma one, a KCP one, and Anthony Davis one.
Speaker 1: They went over four on, you know, and then Shrewderman
Speaker 1: was a bad shot though. He thought that with like
Speaker 1: eighteen seconds on the shot clock in transition when I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about that when he missed one in the Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know which one you're talking about, the pump b sidestep.
Speaker 1: Another one that was a catch and shoot off of
Speaker 1: a Lebron post up. It was a Lebron dry like
Speaker 1: he drove kicked it to Kuzma in the corner and
Speaker 1: he just missed it. But like again, all those clips
Speaker 1: are on my fety you can watch them. But like, anyway,
Speaker 1: my point is is like it's funny to me, and
Speaker 1: it's one of my favorite things about the Lebron James
Speaker 1: experience is like, you know, he wasn't putting his head
Speaker 1: down and getting to the room and getting layups. He
Speaker 1: wasn't being more of a bully around the basket as
Speaker 1: a post up player because he was being lazy and
Speaker 1: he wasn't playing great on the defensive end. The whole
Speaker 1: team wasn't playing great on the defensive end. But it's
Speaker 1: just funny how like the bad Lebron game is like
Speaker 1: somehow him still generating just super high quality shots every
Speaker 1: trip down the floor, and it's my favorite thing about
Speaker 1: the Lebron Stepp experience because Steph similarly had a bad
Speaker 1: game last night, although he did make a couple of
Speaker 1: huge plays down the stretch of the game, Like but
Speaker 1: Stephan Lebron, even though they both were giving you like
Speaker 1: C minus level performances, we're still just generating offense. And
Speaker 1: it's funny because, like you'll see a clip of Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant doing a series of wicked crossovers over Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: into like a crazy leaning floater that he makes, and
Speaker 1: it's like all over house of highlights and they're like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, look at this move from Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, it's awesome, and as a
Speaker 1: basketball fan, I love it. But it's just funny to
Speaker 1: me because like love Ron and Steph. Aside from step
Speaker 1: step back, they did not have a bunch of highlights
Speaker 1: last night. That was not a highlight written performance from
Speaker 1: either of them, but they just made so many fundamental,
Speaker 1: basic basketball plays that helped their teams. And it's just
Speaker 1: crazy to me that like people don't see that. It's
Speaker 1: it's mind blowing to me because I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but I've seen all sorts of chatter abou how Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant the best player in the world again on Twitter
Speaker 1: over the last couple of days. And it's like, because
Speaker 1: people are just so mesmerized by the aesthetically appealing things
Speaker 1: in basketball, and the and the little things that actually
Speaker 1: helped teams win, the little things that are equally as
Speaker 1: impactful as a seventeen crossover pull up floater, those things
Speaker 1: just kind of slide under the radar and no one
Speaker 1: seems to see them. Yeah, not to go too much
Speaker 1: on a tangent about this, but I think it's still
Speaker 1: pretty clearly the two best offensive engines in the NBA
Speaker 1: are right. Well, we talked about this before. Katie might
Speaker 1: be more talented at specific skills, he's not better at
Speaker 1: running an offense or creating offense for an entire team.
Speaker 1: Both both those teams last night got consistent open looks
Speaker 1: when it matt the Lakers and the Warriors. Right, it didn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't dependent on one guy issuing and making a
Speaker 1: ridiculously difficult jump shot or you know, finding a lob
Speaker 1: somehow after dribbling through three people. It was like, No,
Speaker 1: he attracted a bunch of attention and now we've got
Speaker 1: a wide open corner three, or we gotta lay up that.
Speaker 1: That's literally what it was, and those are those are
Speaker 1: the best shots in basketball and they always will be.
Speaker 1: If you can generate wide open threes and you can
Speaker 1: generate layups, you're gonna have one of the best offenses
Speaker 1: in the league. Um and the Worrior. It's weird. The
Speaker 1: Warriors offensive rating is like twenty right now. A lot
Speaker 1: of that is related to the first couple of games
Speaker 1: where they looked awful, but I think also a lot
Speaker 1: of it is playing too much Wiseman and having line
Speaker 1: ups with really bad spacing. Point being, they're still, when
Speaker 1: it comes down to it, the best that generating looks
Speaker 1: for a team late in the game. Maybe not necessarily
Speaker 1: for themselves, but for a team of players, they're still
Speaker 1: the two best that in the league. I want to
Speaker 1: touch on a couple more Lakers things, Um, just to
Speaker 1: get your perspective on it and see how you feel
Speaker 1: about this team fifteen or so games in. How do
Speaker 1: you feel about most of the free agent signings Tread's
Speaker 1: Gasol Wes Matthews better than expect about what expected? Do
Speaker 1: you think those guys are gonna matter in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: because that's what it really comes down to at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. That Lakers roster was a little
Speaker 1: bit flawed last year, but they had guys who helped
Speaker 1: them win playoff games consistently. Do you think the new
Speaker 1: guys are gonna help them be able to do that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I have complicated feelings because first of all, I
Speaker 1: think Tres has been pretty bad, um I, especially in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter defensively. Again, he just I I'm low
Speaker 1: on Tres. However, I don't view him as a necessity
Speaker 1: of you him as a luxury. So like it's very
Speaker 1: easy for them to move off of him if they
Speaker 1: need to. Uh. In terms of the rotation, Uh, Dennis
Speaker 1: is kind of going exactly as I expected. He is
Speaker 1: pretty good. He's been really really helping them on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, but he's been super aggressive
Speaker 1: on the offensive end, which has come as good. Come
Speaker 1: with good, but it has also come with limitations on
Speaker 1: the rhythm of Anthony Davis and Lebron, which is something
Speaker 1: I've talked to you about a lot. Just the simple
Speaker 1: fact that you know, the simplification of having Lebron and
Speaker 1: a d dictate everything led to them having more good nights,
Speaker 1: and they're good nights were just better than everybody else's
Speaker 1: good nights, and it was a lot it helped them
Speaker 1: to win, whereas with Dennis shrewder, Like last night, each
Speaker 1: Lebron and they d each only took sixteen shots in
Speaker 1: a pretty high paced game, and part of that had
Speaker 1: to do with, like, there's this other guy on the
Speaker 1: floor that's being really aggressive and and actually shooting as
Speaker 1: much as Lebron and they d are And while it
Speaker 1: comes with good nights, like Dennis was actually making shots
Speaker 1: last night and actually had a pretty good game. He
Speaker 1: was telling the Warriors in the first half, just absolutely
Speaker 1: prying them. He was doing whatever he wants, destroying the
Speaker 1: big men on switches. He was playing really really well.
Speaker 1: But the problem is is like I can't ever prove this,
Speaker 1: Like I'm I'm this is just my opinion. But I've
Speaker 1: always felt like having that third guy on the floor
Speaker 1: is super aggressive kind the messes with the give and
Speaker 1: take of the other two and it'll actually be something
Speaker 1: interesting to watch with the nets moving forward. But like
Speaker 1: I I like, my thing is like Anthony Davis missed
Speaker 1: a wide open eighteen footer or at the end of
Speaker 1: that game that I kind of feel like if he
Speaker 1: had taken twenty shots instead of sixteen shots, he's got
Speaker 1: a better chance of making that shot, just because he's
Speaker 1: a little bit more in a rhythm and a flow
Speaker 1: within the offense. And so that's the give and take
Speaker 1: I I feel like, I feel like that's just an
Speaker 1: ideology that some people will probably disagree with me on,
Speaker 1: but I kind of would prefer to see Dennis tone
Speaker 1: it back a little bit and flow a little bit
Speaker 1: more through uh, through Lebron in a d That's just
Speaker 1: that those are my early takeaways. But I am. I
Speaker 1: still remain more optimistic about this Laker team now than
Speaker 1: I did last year, and I was extremely optimistic about
Speaker 1: them last year. It's just I think this is textbook
Speaker 1: defending champion inconsistent effort. Like you're gonna see these flashes
Speaker 1: where they just, like even early in last night's game,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see these flashes where they just look physically
Speaker 1: impossible to hang with, and like, like, for instance, a
Speaker 1: playoff series between the Lakers and yours is going to
Speaker 1: end in a relentless amount of post ups of Lebron,
Speaker 1: Like it's just because they can't post up Lebron against
Speaker 1: against Draymond Green, as he proved last night again. Uh,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green is just unbelievable. But he's the best defender
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. Yeah, he made Anthony Davis look physically
Speaker 1: uncomfortable taking like step backs like it was crazy. But
Speaker 1: Lebron James is going to destroy Kelly Bray and Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins in a playoff series. He's just going to destroy them.
Speaker 1: There are only like three or four post offenders in
Speaker 1: the league that are on the wing that can force
Speaker 1: Lebron into consistently taking fadeaways down there. It's just and
Speaker 1: for the record, the handful of post ups that Lebron
Speaker 1: went to last night, he mostly was getting double teamed. Uh.
Speaker 1: There was a couple where he was left on an island,
Speaker 1: and namely that one where Andrew Wiggins had to foul him.
Speaker 1: And the one time they left him on an island,
Speaker 1: he went baseline and would have had a layup if
Speaker 1: he didn't get found. So it's like the what what
Speaker 1: makes the Lakers so impossible to beat is the physicality
Speaker 1: Because Kevin Durant has everal eyes on make or miss mentality,
Speaker 1: you know, make or miss result you know, Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: depends on makes some misrs. Steph Curry and individually offensively
Speaker 1: depends on makes some mrs. Sometimes Lebron James can literally
Speaker 1: generate easy shots that go in every single night, and
Speaker 1: and and then inevitably leads to a double team, which
Speaker 1: inevitably leads to wide open shots first teammates. And it's
Speaker 1: just that whole that whole dynamic of that team is
Speaker 1: what is what makes them so scary. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: they just can physically bully you in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: That's that's too much to handle for the vast majority
Speaker 1: of the teams in the league. Totally agree. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's how they won the championship last year. They just
Speaker 1: they showed that still with all of the the emphasis
Speaker 1: around three pointers, the best right in basketball being able
Speaker 1: to generate shots in the paint right at the front
Speaker 1: of the ring, and they have the best guys in
Speaker 1: the league at that. I would assume that as we
Speaker 1: get closer to the playoffs, and as we get into
Speaker 1: the playoffs, Lebron's starts to take some of those Shroder
Speaker 1: possessions away. I would just assume that's what happens. I
Speaker 1: would hope so, I mean, yeah, yeah, as a Lakers fan,
Speaker 1: you would, you would probably hope. So it happens every year.
Speaker 1: I think they're probably trying to keep Shrewder engaged in
Speaker 1: happy during the regular season game possessions. They know they're
Speaker 1: going to be one of the top two or three
Speaker 1: season in the West no matter what happens, unless they
Speaker 1: get a bunch of guys out with COVID for three
Speaker 1: or four weeks. Um. So I wouldn't be concerned about
Speaker 1: that at all. I think it will naturally happen as
Speaker 1: the season goes on, and they're gonna be the best
Speaker 1: team in the league come playoff time. I don't I
Speaker 1: still don't have any doubts about that. They're still the
Speaker 1: best team in the league. You what was the team
Speaker 1: where Anthony that Anthony Davis sat out against the other night.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember. Um, yeah, I'm blanking on that too.
Speaker 1: I can't remember. But anyways, Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis sat
Speaker 1: out of game the other day and uh and Lebron
Speaker 1: at the end of the game was more demonstrative with
Speaker 1: Schroder to get the ball, and Schroder just immediately just
Speaker 1: gave it to him down the stretch of the game,
Speaker 1: and they repeatedly went to him down the stretch. So
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I think I think as things
Speaker 1: kind of get to winning time him, you're gonna see
Speaker 1: a lot better. Uh, You're gonna see just a lot
Speaker 1: more like forceful nature from Lebron to kind of control
Speaker 1: the offense, which is a good thing. People. You'll see
Speaker 1: a lot of people get upset that Lebron is a
Speaker 1: little two ball dominant in the regular season from time
Speaker 1: to time as he's I don't know, patting, his stats
Speaker 1: are doing whatever he usually does. But the truth is
Speaker 1: is like Lebron dominating the basketball, especially in a playoff setting,
Speaker 1: because of his physicality and because of his unending energy reservoir,
Speaker 1: it actually it actually is a good offense for them
Speaker 1: when it comes to that point. All right, So let's
Speaker 1: move on to the nets. So, Uh, it's going about
Speaker 1: as exactly. It's going about exactly as I would have predicted,
Speaker 1: at least through two games. The it's important understand that,
Speaker 1: like you can't, I don't want to undersell winning here.
Speaker 1: There's a quality win against the Bucks, although it did
Speaker 1: depend on a misshot at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: But as we expected, last two games there, they have
Speaker 1: a defensive rating up over a hundred and thirteen points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions allowed, which ranks twenty three in
Speaker 1: the league over that span. They're not guarding in buddy,
Speaker 1: They're basically just running up and down the floor, generating
Speaker 1: insanely high quality shots on one end and giving little
Speaker 1: to no resistance on the other. I A lot of
Speaker 1: people are getting very excited about it, and I and
Speaker 1: I understand, Like I understand, like you're watching Milwaukee was
Speaker 1: a very good defensive team. Try to get stops against
Speaker 1: this uh, this high powered Milwaukee New Jersey Brooklyn Nets
Speaker 1: offense and they literally can't. Like they're just getting whatever
Speaker 1: they want on the other end of the floor. I
Speaker 1: see that part, but I mean that's a when things
Speaker 1: really slow down. That's a rudimentary UH Milwaukee offense, and
Speaker 1: they're just getting shots right at the front of the rim.
Speaker 1: Like there were a couple of plays where uh where
Speaker 1: Middleton is just going off a pick and roll and
Speaker 1: getting into that fifteen foot line, like completely uncontested for
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, or there's literally no one within
Speaker 1: ten feet of him. There's just there. It's It's very
Speaker 1: clear to me that there are gonna be games in
Speaker 1: this regular season where they just look unbelievable, but that
Speaker 1: inevitably they're gonna find themselves in a fight at some point,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that they can match the physicality
Speaker 1: that they would need to to win that type of
Speaker 1: rock fight. Oh, you're early takeaways from last night's game.
Speaker 1: I should say from the two games that they played together,
Speaker 1: basically in agreement with what you said, But I think
Speaker 1: it's important to note right now that Kyrie hasn't been playing,
Speaker 1: and like you touched on earlier, having that third guy
Speaker 1: always complicates things no matter how talented that third guy is,
Speaker 1: Right like, Eyrie essentially in this situation, is just gonna
Speaker 1: end up being like the way more talented version of
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder, where it's like he's pulling Katie in and
Speaker 1: Harden out of rhythm because he's taking touches away from
Speaker 1: those guys, and it all looks more discombabulated towards the
Speaker 1: end of the game. So I think it looks good
Speaker 1: right now because they only had two of the guys,
Speaker 1: So they're gonna be amazing offensively no matter what. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying they won't when Kyrie comes back, but I
Speaker 1: thought they would probably look pretty good these first couple
Speaker 1: of games because they only have the two superstars, and
Speaker 1: if those two are basically just training possessions, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have one of the greatest offenses of all time. It
Speaker 1: doesn't I mean, it doesn't matter. They're basically is a players.
Speaker 1: There's still too the greatest size of players of all time,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna end in a quality look no matter
Speaker 1: what happens every time down the floor. I just what
Speaker 1: I'd worry about from a Milwaukee standpoint is their ability
Speaker 1: to score in the half court in an eventual playoff matchup.
Speaker 1: Their ability to score in the half court, and if
Speaker 1: if it's still kind of average, that means the Nets
Speaker 1: are gonna get high quality looks a lot of the time.
Speaker 1: On the other end, because their cross match or they're
Speaker 1: getting back in transition and things are a little bit
Speaker 1: discombobulated in the eventual playoff matchup. Last night might have
Speaker 1: made me lean Nets a little bit more than I
Speaker 1: would have a week ago, but we still haven't seen
Speaker 1: what things look like with Kyrie, so I think the
Speaker 1: Nets are obviously gonna be a problem in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But if their defensive rating is gonna be twenty three,
Speaker 1: they still can't win an NBA championship. Maybe they can
Speaker 1: get through the East. Maybe, but I still would I
Speaker 1: would still bank on the Sixers probably taking them down
Speaker 1: a series and maybe Milwaukee as well. But the last
Speaker 1: night you do a little bit just way my opinion,
Speaker 1: I can't lie about it. Hard looks amazing. Um, which
Speaker 1: shouldn't be a surprise anybody knew. Change of scenery. He's
Speaker 1: feeling better about where he's at now. Um. I saw
Speaker 1: a tweet last night ardon like has his background now
Speaker 1: on Twitter is like him and like seven different Brooklyn
Speaker 1: next Jersey's somebody tweeted, this is the most first week
Speaker 1: of work energy I've ever seen in my life. Like
Speaker 1: he's just so happy to be a different called this
Speaker 1: for the record, literally, like we literally said, like I
Speaker 1: would not be the least bit concerned that he looks
Speaker 1: like a fat, unhappy man right now, Like because because
Speaker 1: it was it was so obvious that he was going
Speaker 1: to get into Brooklyn and just be Mr Giddy again,
Speaker 1: Like it was it was just it was gonna happen,
Speaker 1: Like it was the most praticable thing in sports. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a long season. We're going to see how
Speaker 1: this team. Obviously with all the Kyrie stuff going on
Speaker 1: that there's already issues, you know, a month into the
Speaker 1: season that those probably aren't going to get much better.
Speaker 1: Maybe they will, maybe the iron things out And reports
Speaker 1: are that Katie and Kyrie are not happy with each
Speaker 1: other right now. And that's not just me saying that.
Speaker 1: That's some pretty well sourced people alluding to that. So
Speaker 1: who anybody I would know? Who? People on Twitter? And
Speaker 1: then Andrew Sharpe mentioned it on his latest podcast with
Speaker 1: Ben Golver, which is great listen by the way, it's
Speaker 1: a subscription one, but it's a really good listen. Those
Speaker 1: two are two of the best in the business. So
Speaker 1: it's I mean, it's basically sourced at this point by
Speaker 1: some pretty high level people. Who knows if it's true. Um,
Speaker 1: but point being that they're super talented. But I'm still
Speaker 1: my concerns would still be about kind of fit when
Speaker 1: all three of those guys are on the floor at
Speaker 1: the same time, and whether all three of them are
Speaker 1: going to be happy. Um, the last thing I'll say
Speaker 1: is hard. It's definitely gonna make me regret uh calling
Speaker 1: him not a top ten player because he looks amazing.
Speaker 1: But it's always been situational with him, right, if you
Speaker 1: can get him in a situation where he feels comfortable.
Speaker 1: The talents obviously there, it's just about you don't want
Speaker 1: him to be the face of the corner stone of
Speaker 1: your franchise because things are always going to implode within
Speaker 1: eighteen months if if he's that guy. But he looks incredible,
Speaker 1: so so he's in a setting where a lot of
Speaker 1: his flaws are getting covered. I think that really helped me. Um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I still think like, I mean,
Speaker 1: you made a great point at the beginning, Like it's
Speaker 1: very clear you know when people this was this has
Speaker 1: been a popular opinion throughout basketball history, like oh, Lebron
Speaker 1: and and Dwyane Wade are pairing up in Miami, like
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do? There's only one ball? Or
Speaker 1: Chris Paul goes to I mean, the Chris Paul to
Speaker 1: to Houston was the best example in NBA history because
Speaker 1: it's like, this is James Harden, like the craziest high
Speaker 1: usage guy ever. And then the point god, like how
Speaker 1: are they going to make it work? And it's like, oh, actually,
Speaker 1: it turns out in an NBA offense over forty eight minutes,
Speaker 1: it's actually very easy to run a give and take
Speaker 1: with two guys you need to, But it gets way
Speaker 1: different when you add that third and um. From a
Speaker 1: rhythm standpoint, you're basically turning one of the guys into
Speaker 1: an overcomp overqualified spot up shooter. It works out great
Speaker 1: during the regular season when you can stagger everybody and
Speaker 1: play everybody thirty three minutes, but once you get into
Speaker 1: the playoffs and you're playing all the guys forty minutes,
Speaker 1: it gets a little bit different. And uh, I just
Speaker 1: think at the end of the day, you know, like
Speaker 1: jump shooting is contagious, It really is. I mean last
Speaker 1: night was a great example with the Lakers. It's like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, we can't hit an open shot, like
Speaker 1: kcp's missing, Anthony Davis is missing, Kyle Kuzma is missing,
Speaker 1: Lebron this is an open shot. It's like you can
Speaker 1: the team starts to feel it and and it becomes
Speaker 1: this contagious thing and all of a sudden everyone's missing. Well,
Speaker 1: the same thing happens with those isolation scores, Like you know,
Speaker 1: Katie in a It'll be game three of a playoff
Speaker 1: series and they're gonna the series is gonna be tied
Speaker 1: at one, and it's gonna be in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and Katie's gonna miss back to back pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots and then all of a sudden, Kyrie is gonna
Speaker 1: get the ball and he's gonna feel like an added
Speaker 1: pressure because Katie basically just gave him the ball and
Speaker 1: said like, Okay, now it's your turn, like I need
Speaker 1: you to create something. And he's gonna get to his
Speaker 1: spot and take a pull up jump shot, but like
Speaker 1: he's gonna be thinking in the back of his head
Speaker 1: about how they've been missing, and you know, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you've missed three in a row, and the
Speaker 1: other teams like running it down your throat on the
Speaker 1: other end with some big freak, you know, transition presence
Speaker 1: like janis antonea Kumbo or or or Lebron, and they're
Speaker 1: scoring on the other end, and they're getting an easy
Speaker 1: shot like right at the rim, and you're leaning on
Speaker 1: these like heavy skill guys taking these crazy shots. It's
Speaker 1: just contagious. It turns into this and and so inevitably
Speaker 1: you have to be able to weather those storms. You know,
Speaker 1: we talked about this all the time with Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: like uh Samus Fandi was talking about this this morning,
Speaker 1: this idea that that Steph will have a high variance
Speaker 1: playoff series. But it goes both ways, and so you know, uh,
Speaker 1: they they learn to live with the cold streaks because
Speaker 1: they know the hot streaks are coming, or they can
Speaker 1: win in these other ways in the meantime. That's the
Speaker 1: way that a real contender like the Lakers is going
Speaker 1: to go at you. It's like if Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: missing all of his jump shots and Kyle Kuzma is
Speaker 1: missing all of his jump shots, They're still just gonna
Speaker 1: generate shots at the room with their physicality. They're gonna
Speaker 1: lock you up on the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: They're gonna lean heavily on transition a lot of like
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron getting rebounds and outletting to Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: right under the basket, or Marcus all getting rebounds and
Speaker 1: outletting to Lebron. They're gonna find other ways to score this.
Speaker 1: This Brooklyn Nets team is so dependent on winning on
Speaker 1: the strength of those three guys and their ability to
Speaker 1: create things for themselves. It's gonna be like, even even
Speaker 1: with like Joe Harris spotting up on the back end,
Speaker 1: it's like that's one small wrinkle that they have, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can't double off of Joe Harris. But the truth
Speaker 1: is that like they're gonna they're gonna completely abandon Jeff
Speaker 1: Green and help wherever they can off the floor. They're
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna stagnate you somehow. All of these NBA defenses,
Speaker 1: the ones that are actually in it to win it,
Speaker 1: the ones that are actually competing for a title, they're
Speaker 1: gonna stagnate you somehow. And all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be those three guys looking at each other like, dude,
Speaker 1: you gotta go create something we can't like run a screen,
Speaker 1: you know. And then they're just gonna lean heavily on that.
Speaker 1: They're gonna miss some shots and they're not gonna be
Speaker 1: getting stops on the other end. And I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna lose. And I remain confident that they're more susceptible
Speaker 1: to losing in the Eastern Conference now than they were
Speaker 1: before the James Harden acquisition. On the overall, I agree. Overall,
Speaker 1: I agree with the premise that they're definitely more susceptible
Speaker 1: with the point, which would go against you know, common sense.
Speaker 1: Since they're more talented, like you're saying, you know that
Speaker 1: diasois and scoring thing is contagious, those shoulders get a
Speaker 1: little bit tighter. When Katie's missed two or three shots
Speaker 1: in a row and Kyrie gets open or James Harden,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, ship, now it's on me. We've got
Speaker 1: the other team that scored three straight possessions were down
Speaker 1: five all of a sudden if I missed this when
Speaker 1: it could be seven or eight. That stuff really is contagious,
Speaker 1: especially in a pressurized vacuum like a playoff series. So
Speaker 1: they're totally dependent on isolation scoring at this point and
Speaker 1: end of the day. It can only take you so far,
Speaker 1: it really can. Right there, there's no other way that
Speaker 1: they're really going to create offense besides Joe Harris running
Speaker 1: off some screens. So unless Kyrie, Hardened, and Katie all
Speaker 1: have like nuclear games within one series against one of
Speaker 1: these great teams, they probably are going to lose at
Speaker 1: some point just on the strength of or well the
Speaker 1: weakness of not having a great defense. The defense is
Speaker 1: probably gonna be bottom ten, bottom fifteen in the league
Speaker 1: at absolute best, so they're they're just in a weird position.
Speaker 1: The move made no sense at the time. It still
Speaker 1: makes no sense. I am slightly more confident because the
Speaker 1: last night's game, but we're still only fifteen games into
Speaker 1: the season in Milwaukee, still figuring out some stuff too.
Speaker 1: I think they have a fairly new roster. Their bench
Speaker 1: isn't great, but their their top five or six guys
Speaker 1: are pretty good. Um so over the course of the
Speaker 1: playoff series, I would I would hope they can figure
Speaker 1: out how to get enough stop defensively to stagnate the
Speaker 1: nets and then get enough easy looks on the other end,
Speaker 1: because they are generating easy looks, it's just about knocking
Speaker 1: them down. And also, I think they have absolutely no
Speaker 1: one that can guard Joel Embiid, which is gonna end
Speaker 1: up being a huge problem in a in a playoff seriod.
Speaker 1: I think this is a I think we're I think
Speaker 1: we're on the same page with Brooklyn. I It's still early,
Speaker 1: we'll see, but I think it's very clear to me
Speaker 1: that they that they do not have what it takes
Speaker 1: to defend at the same level as their peers are
Speaker 1: going to defend. This isn't a NBA season where it's
Speaker 1: up for grabs and and there's no real great team
Speaker 1: out there, kind of like two thousand nineteen after Kevin
Speaker 1: Durank got hurt. It's not like there's like there's there's
Speaker 1: It's not like there's a void at the top of
Speaker 1: the league and some funky team can rise to the top.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, the Lakers are really really good. You know,
Speaker 1: Philly is really really good, Milwaukee is really good. You know,
Speaker 1: the Clippers maybe better than all of them. Like, all
Speaker 1: of these teams are really really really good, and so
Speaker 1: you're not going to win by outscoring. That's just the
Speaker 1: reality of the way that this the league is set
Speaker 1: up right now. But let's transition to Milwaukee. So, um,
Speaker 1: the uh we all saw last night as they kind
Speaker 1: of degenerated into their typical oh my gosh, we can't
Speaker 1: use the honest at the end of these games, Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton has to run everything offense. Um, it's very clear
Speaker 1: that Drew Holiday right now is being very passive. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, he's uh, he's kind of like deferring a
Speaker 1: little bit, a little bit more than than I would
Speaker 1: have expected him to given the given him what they
Speaker 1: brought him in to do. Um that said, like we
Speaker 1: had another honest, crazy airball at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: you know we have They're guarding him with DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: and literally staying at the at the semi circle just
Speaker 1: waiting for Jannice to make a move. And uh, they're
Speaker 1: still doing this funky stuff where they're not having the
Speaker 1: honest guard Kevin Durant or using him as a help defender.
Speaker 1: And I saw somebody I think his name is Jackson. Uh,
Speaker 1: this was saying on Twitter like oh if you if
Speaker 1: you think that Johanna should be guarding on the ball,
Speaker 1: it's you don't know who he is as a defender,
Speaker 1: that he's better as a help defender. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but now you're doing the same thing that Mike Budenholder
Speaker 1: Budenholzer does. You're you're refusing to adapt like Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: two minutes Like for the first forty two minutes or so, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I use him as a help defender, but down the
Speaker 1: stretch he's a really good one on one defender. Put
Speaker 1: him on KD Like it doesn't the entire game makes
Speaker 1: some type of adjustment to where honest isn't standing off
Speaker 1: ball will coming to rant just generates easy look after,
Speaker 1: easy look after, easy look exactly, And that that was
Speaker 1: the part that bothered me about it. I'm like, yeah, Dode,
Speaker 1: we get it. Like thet is, they're basically they're they're
Speaker 1: five man and their defensive scheme and he's helping off
Speaker 1: the ball. That's great, But also there is a seven
Speaker 1: foot guy who's dribbling and shooting pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: all over the court, and your six eight small forward
Speaker 1: is barbecue chicken right now. So you need to find
Speaker 1: some way to get your best physical matchup for Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant on Kevin Durant and and and again it's it's
Speaker 1: about adjustments. There's no doubt that you want to try
Speaker 1: to mix it up and maintain some reliance on your
Speaker 1: original scheme because you practice it so much. But throwing
Speaker 1: different looks at guys is one of the best ways
Speaker 1: to throw them at a rhythm. Literally it's it's like
Speaker 1: its alternating between trapping and hedging, or alternating between trapping
Speaker 1: and doing a drop coverage or whatever. It is like
Speaker 1: finding some way to mix things up is one of
Speaker 1: the easiest ways to throw a guy at a rhythm
Speaker 1: because he's not coming down and attacking the same coverage
Speaker 1: every time that Urry. That's what team you're starting to
Speaker 1: have Curry. They throw different looks at him all game long,
Speaker 1: and but it's not willing to do that to other
Speaker 1: great players. It does not make sense to me. I mean,
Speaker 1: if this is the team that they're going to be
Speaker 1: the No, they're probably not going to bring Brooklyn in
Speaker 1: the series. If they refused to adapt. I would think
Speaker 1: only Billy has a chance to be Brookelyn, at least
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, no, I agree, and so
Speaker 1: like I mean, my I've watched like three Bucks games
Speaker 1: in the last ten days, and more or less I
Speaker 1: feel the same way about them that I did last year.
Speaker 1: Janice is no better than he was. Um uh. Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton is very very good, but we've already seen on
Speaker 1: so many different occasions that he can cool off significantly
Speaker 1: for long stretches and apply. It's very similar to Paul
Speaker 1: George in that regard, Like when he's got to go
Speaker 1: in and when he's in the flow, he's one of
Speaker 1: the best players on the floor, but he's very capable
Speaker 1: of just kind of going slipping into a funk and
Speaker 1: kind of disappearing from the game for long stretches. Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday is what Drew Holiday is a good defensive guard
Speaker 1: who is a very very average offensive guard. That like,
Speaker 1: that's that's just the reality of the situation. And uh,
Speaker 1: And on the defensive end of the floor, it's very
Speaker 1: clear that Mike Budenholzer is still all in on sticking
Speaker 1: to his his base schemes and and making no attempt
Speaker 1: to adjust to whatever the other team is bringing. And like,
Speaker 1: you know, there are a handful of possessions at the
Speaker 1: end of that game where Kevin Durant, you know, got
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton on his hip using a ball screen or
Speaker 1: using a pin down screen, and he would get into
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor and make a shot in
Speaker 1: that ten to fifteen foot range off the dribble. If
Speaker 1: Janice is on the ball there, he can bother Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant from behind. He can reach over the top and
Speaker 1: grab the ball away from him as he's going up.
Speaker 1: And he's stronger than Katie, He's much stronger than Katie.
Speaker 1: Can be physical with him and fight his way through
Speaker 1: those screens or bump him off his spot a little
Speaker 1: bit better than Middleton can. That's exactly Middleton can't. Like
Speaker 1: Middleton is a below average athlete at that position. So
Speaker 1: that that's just the that that is the reality of
Speaker 1: that circumstance, and like, you know, I it bothers me
Speaker 1: because like I feel like it's this Twitter conundrum that
Speaker 1: constantly happens, and you're not talking about this all the time.
Speaker 1: Like you know, really really good basketball player does something,
Speaker 1: whether it's on the court or off the court, and
Speaker 1: like we levy some fair criticism and my opinion, and
Speaker 1: then all these people come out of the woodwork and
Speaker 1: it's like, no, Janice is great, He's a Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year as a help defender. You you you don't understand.
Speaker 1: And it's like, look, man, like we get that, Like
Speaker 1: we understand that. We've all seen what Janice can do
Speaker 1: as a shop blocker helping off the ball. But again,
Speaker 1: like watch the whole floor, because while Janice is excelling
Speaker 1: at shutting off the paint, Chris Middleton is struggling at
Speaker 1: stopping his man. And you have a better option there.
Speaker 1: So like like acknowledge the the the whole totality of
Speaker 1: what the five guys are trying to do. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Basketball isn't paint by numbers, right, And
Speaker 1: I think this is what annoys me with the analytics movement.
Speaker 1: And obviously analytics has helped the game advance to a
Speaker 1: point that it never would have got to without it.
Speaker 1: But basketball is a very fluid, creative, adaptable game. And
Speaker 1: if you're so dogmatic like like but is, you're never
Speaker 1: gonna win playoff series. Playoff series inevitably end up being
Speaker 1: about adjustments. Almost every time that the talent is so
Speaker 1: mudy equal, it ends up being about the adjustments that
Speaker 1: the coaches can make to levy their talent and their
Speaker 1: scheme to win a series. And if this is who
Speaker 1: the Bucks are gonna be, they have no chance of
Speaker 1: winning a championship. Again, I wouldn't even point to Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday being passive. I think it's like we've talked about
Speaker 1: a couple of times, he's the third guy. He's the
Speaker 1: third wheel, right, so just by nature, he's not going
Speaker 1: to get as many possessions as he should. And then
Speaker 1: on the honest point, he's almost regressing in some ways
Speaker 1: in terms of his willingness to like shoot jump shots
Speaker 1: or be able to make jump shots. It is incredible
Speaker 1: to me to watch what he was coming into the
Speaker 1: league in terms of like a fluid basketball player who
Speaker 1: can make decisions in the flow and shoot like a
Speaker 1: regular rhythm jump shot to what he is now. And
Speaker 1: I've talked about this a couple of times on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it is just kind of
Speaker 1: the teaching that goes on in America with basketball. It
Speaker 1: the emphasis a lot of times isn't on field or
Speaker 1: playing rhythm. It's like this, very like dogmatic structure. No,
Speaker 1: you need to shoot a basketball exactly like this, when
Speaker 1: we know everybody has different kind of biomechanical um differences
Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, that make a jump
Speaker 1: shot unique to each person. There's been great jumps throughout history.
Speaker 1: The three best jump shooters of all time, Ray Allen,
Speaker 1: Reggie Miller, and Steph Curry, their jump shots could not
Speaker 1: look more different. Right. The steps is incredibly smooth and rhythmic,
Speaker 1: like no spin on his jump shot over his head
Speaker 1: and Reggie's arms crossed as he releases the ball. Right,
Speaker 1: There's no yeah, there's no one way to shoot a basketball.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the honest Jumpshoute early on,
Speaker 1: it was rhythmic, it had a dip, it was a
Speaker 1: little bit slingshot. He but he could make it, and
Speaker 1: he could shoot it off the dribble. He'd get to
Speaker 1: it off the dribble every time. And now he's doing
Speaker 1: this thing where it's super rigid and he's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, he's holding on the ball so tight at
Speaker 1: the end that he can barely even get the ball
Speaker 1: to the rim at the time. He I mean, he
Speaker 1: can't make free throws at this point many nights. So yeah,
Speaker 1: they they've got to do a better job with honestly,
Speaker 1: just developing your honest because he's obviously improved in parts
Speaker 1: of his game that helped may make him an m
Speaker 1: v P, but he's regrets in other parts that matter
Speaker 1: come playoff time and until he improves on those parts,
Speaker 1: unless he gets like, you know, a top three on
Speaker 1: bull creator, a guy like James Harden or Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: You know, a guard who can kind of attract defenses
Speaker 1: and pull bodies away from him so you can just
Speaker 1: have a runway to the rim. I don't see how
Speaker 1: they ever become NBA champions. But even if they make
Speaker 1: coaching changes, because the end of the day, when the
Speaker 1: game is close at the end, it's gonna come down
Speaker 1: to whether how quality of looks are superstars can create.
Speaker 1: And right now, you honest can't do that. He still can't.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen any difference in his ability to do
Speaker 1: that late in games. Like you said, they had to
Speaker 1: depend on Middleton last night to create shots, and that's
Speaker 1: it's gonna go like it does with Paul George. Some
Speaker 1: night's gonna work. So i'm n's not going to do
Speaker 1: And so now you're asking Chris Middleton to out execute
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Joe Ollen, you know, Jimmy Hardon, you know
Speaker 1: better better like better players than him. And so you're
Speaker 1: and that's the problem because it will be like when
Speaker 1: it degenerates into that, you know, clutch, physical, slowdown half
Speaker 1: court basketball. At the end of these games, they're not
Speaker 1: going to be honest. Like literally, end of that game,
Speaker 1: they could not go to honest and and and so
Speaker 1: they went to Middleton and he made some shots, and
Speaker 1: he missed some shots, and guess what, James Harden and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durrant were better on the other end. And so
Speaker 1: I don't really see how that's going to improve this season,
Speaker 1: like it would just it would require be Honese making
Speaker 1: some leap in the middle of the season, which is
Speaker 1: kind of unprecedented. So we don't have time. I don't
Speaker 1: think to get to the Pacers today because I do
Speaker 1: wanna spend a little more time on them. Lastly, for today, um,
Speaker 1: one of my friends Ben hopped in and asked a question.
Speaker 1: He said, do y'all think you can be the best
Speaker 1: player in the world without being an engine like a
Speaker 1: guy that just gets buckets or a guy that's an
Speaker 1: engine like? And so my question for you just to
Speaker 1: end today ideologically about basketball, I thought it'd be fun
Speaker 1: for us to touch on really quick. Do you think
Speaker 1: you can be the best player in the world without
Speaker 1: being an engine? I mean, because of what the game
Speaker 1: has become and how um, offensive focused basketball has become.
Speaker 1: Probably not right. I think we've seen over the last
Speaker 1: five or six years that when Steph career, Lebron James
Speaker 1: is healthy and they have at least enough parts around them,
Speaker 1: their teams end up being the best every single year.
Speaker 1: Every single year it's been the case. And what the
Speaker 1: years it hasn't happened. The Raptors want because the Warriors
Speaker 1: second third best players got injured right, and and that's
Speaker 1: basically what it's come down to. And then last year,
Speaker 1: when the problem was healthy, they won the championship going away,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that was on the strength of
Speaker 1: their defense, but a lot of it, too, was on
Speaker 1: Lebron James creating more quality looks than anybody else in
Speaker 1: the league, possession after possession after possession after possession. So
Speaker 1: I think if you put Katie in the perfect situation,
Speaker 1: you are Kauai. We've seen that they can be the
Speaker 1: best player in the world if everything around them is
Speaker 1: absolutely perfect, right. But if it's not, then I think
Speaker 1: it is much more difficult, right, Whereas it seems like
Speaker 1: with Stephan Lebron you can kind of construct a winning
Speaker 1: roster in multiple ways. Um, probably Lebron more so, but
Speaker 1: Steph same thing. Like like I like I'm saying, I
Speaker 1: think this team eventually has a chance to be one
Speaker 1: of the last four teams in the NBA. This Warrior's team,
Speaker 1: as deficient as they are in many areas, I still
Speaker 1: think they can be that on the strength of Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: and you know, Katie's incredible. This is not to take
Speaker 1: anything away from the fact that he's doing what he's
Speaker 1: doing coming off an Achilles injury. It can't be mentioned enough.
Speaker 1: He looks basically like the same player. Maybe his rim
Speaker 1: and tents are down a little bit, but he's easily
Speaker 1: one of the most talented offensive players of all time,
Speaker 1: like very, very easily, and he continues to be that guy.
Speaker 1: But if he's not fully willing to buy into get
Speaker 1: looks for his teammates in other ways besides his own
Speaker 1: isolation scoring or his own distributing, then he probably will
Speaker 1: never be the best player in the NBA, at least
Speaker 1: not in my opinion. Yeah, so I kind have similar
Speaker 1: feelings like that. The graphic that they kept throwing up
Speaker 1: on the on the screen yesterday of basically how Stephan
Speaker 1: Lebron are the are the people that take home the
Speaker 1: jewelry every year are a great example of results to
Speaker 1: back up this ideology, because I would agree, like do
Speaker 1: I think that the a traditional bucket getter type of
Speaker 1: dude can be the best player on a championship team. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and we've seen lots of examples of that, whether it's
Speaker 1: Kauai or Michael Jordan's or things along those lines. But
Speaker 1: the reality to me is that the key point with
Speaker 1: like Jordan though he was willing to use his off
Speaker 1: ball gravity more than like Kauai or or Duran or
Speaker 1: if you watch old m J stuff, He's constantly moving
Speaker 1: and cutting and screening and getting his teammates open looks
Speaker 1: just through his gravity, kind of similar to like step
Speaker 1: in a way, but obviously not not the same level,
Speaker 1: but like he was constantly creating looks for his teammates
Speaker 1: by like running triangle actions even when it didn't result
Speaker 1: in him getting a shot, and guys like Kawai and
Speaker 1: Katie they just aren't as willing to do that. They're
Speaker 1: going to their spots to get their shots and buried
Speaker 1: end point, like that's what they do. But we also
Speaker 1: MJ is just so so so so good at those
Speaker 1: two things. Like, for instance, like Kevin Durant is this
Speaker 1: unbelievable basket getter, but he's not a great defensive player.
Speaker 1: So people think HY is similarly a similarly talented player,
Speaker 1: because Kauai is a really good offensive player and an
Speaker 1: amazing defensive player, at least he used to be at
Speaker 1: some point in the past. So you know, MJ was
Speaker 1: the both like he would like MJ was Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: offensively with Kauai on the defensive end in the floor
Speaker 1: all combined into one player. So that that's the difference
Speaker 1: between MJ and these other guys. But the point to
Speaker 1: what that I'm trying to make though, is that from
Speaker 1: a value perspective, it's the reason why Lebron even though
Speaker 1: he's a less polished skill player than a lot of
Speaker 1: these other guys, and the reason why Steph even though
Speaker 1: he's less physically imposing than a lot of these other players.
Speaker 1: That it's the reason why those two are so impactful.
Speaker 1: It's just to me, you know, running a style of
Speaker 1: offense that involves you seeking out looks for your teammates
Speaker 1: primarily and then attacking offensively when you can fit that
Speaker 1: around that, to me, that will always be a more
Speaker 1: impactful kind of basketball because it keeps your teammates engaged
Speaker 1: and and and it feeds their confidence. And like, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence when you look back
Speaker 1: the NBA history that there are huge role player performances
Speaker 1: from these guys, whether it's Andrea Gudala making a bunch
Speaker 1: of shots in the two thousand fifteen finals, or if
Speaker 1: it's Draymond Green scoring thirty five in Game seven or
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, or if it's literally like JR. Smith,
Speaker 1: like lighting up other teams, or if it's another great
Speaker 1: example last year it's like, oh, Mark Keith Morris went
Speaker 1: five for five from three in the first half of
Speaker 1: this game against Denver, or whatever it is. It's like there,
Speaker 1: that's all a product of consistently depending on those guys
Speaker 1: throughout the season, consistently making them feel comfortable, consistently uh
Speaker 1: keeping them involved in the offense so that the inevitably
Speaker 1: are going to have these breakout games, and and it
Speaker 1: just it just it just to me. I don't want
Speaker 1: to I think you gotta be careful this stuff because
Speaker 1: you don't and give them all of the credit. Like
Speaker 1: I don't want to say Lebron is the reason why
Speaker 1: MARKI Morris made a bunch of threes. But the truth
Speaker 1: is is I do think that he helped him get
Speaker 1: to that point where he was able to maximize what
Speaker 1: he does in his role, and I I just think
Speaker 1: that that brings more value to the table. You know,
Speaker 1: within a vacuum, you know, you might take an MJ
Speaker 1: over a Lebron because MJ was so great as a
Speaker 1: defensive player and as a score, and you're right, like
Speaker 1: he did, he was more willing to buy into the system.
Speaker 1: But inevitably, I think, like like an average superstar score
Speaker 1: versus an average superstar engines, so to speak, I'm always
Speaker 1: going to pick the engine in the sense that I
Speaker 1: just believe that style of basketball is more conducive to winning.
Speaker 1: For instance, I would take a I would take a
Speaker 1: step over a Kyrie. There's a great example because, like,
Speaker 1: Kyrie is a more skilled basketball player than Steph and
Speaker 1: everything but shooting, you know, like he's got more gifted
Speaker 1: finishing room, moves around the basket, he's got a more
Speaker 1: diverse a pull up I'm shooting game, and he's got
Speaker 1: a much better handle in my not much better, but
Speaker 1: he's got better handle in my opinion. But Steph is
Speaker 1: a much better player because organically what he does for
Speaker 1: his team is so much is so much better. And Kyrie,
Speaker 1: ironically is is the best example to use because Kyrie,
Speaker 1: and my opinion, is one of his biggest weaknesses. It
Speaker 1: is his inability to to feel the flow of a
Speaker 1: basketball game. And that's the reason why those Calves teams
Speaker 1: never won, and why those Celtics teams underachieved is. It
Speaker 1: was like, you know, one game in Milwaukee, Kyrie's going
Speaker 1: off and and the Bucks can't do anything about it,
Speaker 1: and he puts up a massive scoring number and they win.
Speaker 1: But then the next four games, it's like, oh, he's
Speaker 1: shooting more towards a traditional shooting percentage, but he's not
Speaker 1: keeping his teammates involved. Jason Tatum's literally like off the
Speaker 1: reservation mentally doesn't even know what to do. Jalen Brown's
Speaker 1: hiding in the corner like they just don't know what
Speaker 1: to do because it's it's not a style of basketball
Speaker 1: that is conducive to consistent winning, if that makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's it's funny. We as bad is Lebron and
Speaker 1: Step played last night. Both their teams got quality looks
Speaker 1: the entire time down the stretch. There was a couple
Speaker 1: of possessions late where Brad Wannamaker got a driving lay
Speaker 1: up kind of like finished around a d on a
Speaker 1: driving way up, and then got a transition lay up
Speaker 1: off a Draymond Green bounce pass. Both times, if you
Speaker 1: watch the first one, that driving way up, it's Step
Speaker 1: was like kind of near the play. Then he vacated
Speaker 1: to the corner Dennis Shorder was in his position to help,
Speaker 1: and then he ran out to step because he you know,
Speaker 1: he had to cover him. The same thing in transition,
Speaker 1: Wanta Maker's cutting, Shorter's caught between two. Shorter runs that
Speaker 1: step at the three point line, and I want to
Speaker 1: Maker gets a wide open lay up. And I don't
Speaker 1: think there's any two other guys in the NBA who
Speaker 1: generate looks like that for their teammates consistently, and that's
Speaker 1: why their teams always end up winning games because they
Speaker 1: get the best looks night in the night out. And
Speaker 1: I get it. It's it's about aesthetics. Like like, you know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people that watch Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: play basketball and they're like, my god, this guy is
Speaker 1: the best basketball player I've ever seen. You know, there
Speaker 1: are people there are people that feel that way when
Speaker 1: they watch him, And I can't argue with you about
Speaker 1: the way you feel about that kind of thing. You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's no different than the fact that the Steph
Speaker 1: fan base in the Lebron fan base are literally at
Speaker 1: each other's throats when the reality is that they should
Speaker 1: be on the same side because they champion the same ideals.
Speaker 1: Which is like, you know, leadership, uh, caring more about
Speaker 1: winning than anything else, doing all of these little things
Speaker 1: that impact winning, that go beyond the stat sheet and
Speaker 1: and and beyond their own individual highlights. Like those two
Speaker 1: those two players are are so similar even though they
Speaker 1: look so different. It's so ironic that their fan bases
Speaker 1: are are at each other's throats. But the reality is
Speaker 1: is like, like some people watch Kevin Durant and they're
Speaker 1: blown away by what he does, and you can't argue
Speaker 1: with them esthetically. And I can't tell I can't argue
Speaker 1: with you about that either. Like when I when I
Speaker 1: go to the to the park or to the gym
Speaker 1: and I work on my game, I'm not mimicking Lebron.
Speaker 1: He's not a skill player to emulate, Like I get
Speaker 1: that I do. But what I love about Lebron is,
Speaker 1: you know, I can simplify what he does down to
Speaker 1: results that are that are strictly based on the on
Speaker 1: winning and all of these things. And that's what's so
Speaker 1: cool about having him as potentially the greatest basketball player ever,
Speaker 1: is like that's a guy that you should emulate as
Speaker 1: a playing style, not as a skill style. Like ideally,
Speaker 1: if you could combine the two, you'd have this like
Speaker 1: superhuman basketball player that would never lose a game. But
Speaker 1: it's like, you, guys like Stephan and Lebron, they're the
Speaker 1: guys that people should be watching, not these Trey Young
Speaker 1: and James Harden types that lead me to go play
Speaker 1: pickup games that you know, at the local park before
Speaker 1: the virus, and I'm seeing some kid takes seventeen dribbles
Speaker 1: into step back jump shot. I'm like, what are you doing, man, Like,
Speaker 1: you're not that guy, Like I don't know what I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're doing, and then inevitably that team
Speaker 1: ends up losing, Like it's just the I I feel
Speaker 1: very passionately about this because, like I I think it's
Speaker 1: important for the health of the league to, you know,
Speaker 1: like you want to to champion guys that do the
Speaker 1: things that lead to winning. But yeah, I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna be able to convince you that Lebron is
Speaker 1: a better player than Kevin Durant by using anything other
Speaker 1: than the fact that he's won, Like that's literally all
Speaker 1: I can do, because he doesn't he doesn't tangibly do
Speaker 1: anything better than Kevin Durant other than pass the basketball
Speaker 1: and defend. You know, like, but he but he just
Speaker 1: he understands how to win basketball games at such a
Speaker 1: high level. And there's no real way to quantify that
Speaker 1: other than, hey, he's literally won four championships and ben
Speaker 1: to the finals ten of the last four team years.
Speaker 1: That's all I can tell you, you know, and I
Speaker 1: think you can you can boil a lot of the
Speaker 1: honest's issues down to like being told to lean into
Speaker 1: like a more hardened type of style, right where like
Speaker 1: you gotta be the guy that creates everything. It's like, no, dude,
Speaker 1: you could be like the best screener in the league
Speaker 1: if you want to be, if it could be one
Speaker 1: of the best cutters in the league. You could, Like
Speaker 1: Janice has so many things that he's not tapping into
Speaker 1: currently because he's been told, oh, you've got to be
Speaker 1: this on ball creator. Oh just bully everybody in dunked
Speaker 1: the ball. It's like, no, you have so much more
Speaker 1: in your skill set. They're gonna cut, They're not to screen,
Speaker 1: They're how to like pass quickly and make quick decisions.
Speaker 1: So you know, instead of your teammate getting a half
Speaker 1: contested book, now he's getting a wide open look like
Speaker 1: it's all these little things that both like you're alluding
Speaker 1: to Stephan Lebron do that it's stuff that you really
Speaker 1: can't quantify. Right, It's as good as like tracking stuff
Speaker 1: and analytics have got. You still can't quantify the things
Speaker 1: that they do on a night to night basis. Besides,
Speaker 1: you know, every time the p I p M numbers
Speaker 1: come out or like this new Lebron metric, those two
Speaker 1: are always near the top, right there, always at the
Speaker 1: top because they consistently affect winning more than anybody else
Speaker 1: every single year. Agree. Well, I've taken your time for
Speaker 1: an hour and twenty minutes, um, and we still didn't
Speaker 1: get to everything we were supposed to talk about. But
Speaker 1: we got a long season and plenty of time to
Speaker 1: cover everything. Um, everyone who hung out and watched. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you guys and appreciate your support. Tommy, I
Speaker 1: hope to I'm out of town from Saturday. I'm going
Speaker 1: to Park City for one last ski trip this year.
Speaker 1: Although I may do a couple of day trips. I'm
Speaker 1: like completely hooked on skiing here, but I plan on.
Speaker 1: I think I get back Tuesday night, so we'll probably
Speaker 1: shoot Wednesday or Thursday. At that point perfect. Let's do
Speaker 1: it all right man, I will talk to you next week.
Speaker 1: Everybody else, enjoy the rest of your night and we
Speaker 1: will see soon