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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoop Tonight. Here as the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Monday. Everybody. Hope all of you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great start to your week. Got a jam pack
Speaker 1: show for you today. We're gonna do what we usually
Speaker 1: do on Mondays. I have five big questions from the
Speaker 1: weekend of hoops and then at the tail end of
Speaker 1: the show our weekly power rankings as we go through
Speaker 1: the top ten teams in the league. You guys know
Speaker 1: the job before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops
Speaker 1: Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason LTC.
Speaker 1: You guysn't mis show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast
Speaker 1: feed wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: Don't forget it's also helpful if you leave a rating
Speaker 1: and a review on that front. We also have brand
Speaker 1: new social media feeds on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for
Speaker 1: the Hoops Tonight channel where we're releasing content throughout the year.
Speaker 1: Make sure you guys follow us there, and the last
Speaker 1: not least, keep dropping mailback questions and the YouTube comments
Speaker 1: so that we can get to them on our Friday
Speaker 1: shows throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So first question, Jason, what would you
Speaker 1: need to see from the Cleveland Cavaliers to take them
Speaker 1: seriously as contenders? So we're in this weird spot with
Speaker 1: the Calves where they had the best record in the
Speaker 1: league and their record is not just exceptional, it's above
Speaker 1: a seventy win pace. So like some really special stuff there, right,
Speaker 1: there's some context. Obviously, the Calves have played literally the
Speaker 1: easiest schedule in the NBA to this point in the season.
Speaker 1: Their opponents have only won I think like forty six
Speaker 1: and a half percent of their games. But even if
Speaker 1: you want to find that somehow, they're still kicking ass
Speaker 1: and performing really well against great teams. Started their West
Speaker 1: Coast road trip with a dominant win over the Cleveland Cavaliers,
Speaker 1: a game where it's kind of back and forth for
Speaker 1: the first quarter and a half and then they just
Speaker 1: exploded in the second quarter the same way they usually do,
Speaker 1: just really really good defense getting out in transition, that
Speaker 1: team is legitimately one of the funnest basketball teams I've
Speaker 1: ever watched. In transition, they remind me of the early Warriors,
Speaker 1: the way they weaponize that chaos to generate high quality threes.
Speaker 1: They're shooting the ball extremely well as a team, they're
Speaker 1: defending at a super high level. They're playing a very
Speaker 1: smart brand of basketball. It's awesome. It's beautiful what we're
Speaker 1: seeing right So, first and foremost, I do take them
Speaker 1: seriously as championship contenders. The question is how seriously. And
Speaker 1: before we get into that, we got to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about NBA history. Since Kevin Durant left the Warriors,
Speaker 1: in those five seasons, been ten teams that finished with
Speaker 1: a top two net rating in the league. So the
Speaker 1: team that outscored their opponents by the most points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possession is the top two, right They're with
Speaker 1: those five seasons, two from each season. Boston in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two and in twenty twenty four is the only
Speaker 1: team out of those ten teams that actually won their
Speaker 1: conference that won three playoff rounds, let alone four, And
Speaker 1: obviously the twenty twenty four Celtics are the only team
Speaker 1: that won the title. Point being, we've had eight teams
Speaker 1: in the last five years who kicked dass all regular
Speaker 1: season long and then didn't win three playoff rounds. So okay,
Speaker 1: the question becomes, if it's not just about net rating,
Speaker 1: what do you look for in those types of teams
Speaker 1: in terms of ranking them as contenders? Well, first and foremost,
Speaker 1: I do think it's important to acknowledge that dominating the
Speaker 1: regular season is an important indicator for championship contention. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of teams who dominated the regular
Speaker 1: season and still lost, But the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is the team that wins is almost always a high
Speaker 1: net rating team. In fact, you have to go all
Speaker 1: the way back to the twenty eleven Dallas Mavericks to
Speaker 1: find a team that won the title without at least
Speaker 1: a top six net rating, and we all view that
Speaker 1: MAVs team from twenty eleven is kind of like a
Speaker 1: massive upset, right, we view that as like a choke job,
Speaker 1: if anything on the part of the Miami Heat. So
Speaker 1: then the next question becomes, well, we're not just a
Speaker 1: trans We're not just a great team. We're a transcendently
Speaker 1: great team. We're not just a great net rating team.
Speaker 1: They're outscoring opponents by like eleven points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: They're a historically dominant team. Statistically, well, the Cavs have
Speaker 1: an opponent win percentage of forty six point six percent.
Speaker 1: That's dead last in the NBA. So yeah, they're still dominant.
Speaker 1: But there's no doubt that the easy schedule has helped
Speaker 1: them pad their record a little bit. For example, the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns, who are currently sitting at eleventh in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference, have the same number of wins against five
Speaker 1: hundred or better teams as the Cleveland Cavil. So, like,
Speaker 1: I look at them as definitely a very very good
Speaker 1: regular season team, but like it's difficult to say just
Speaker 1: how good. Yet they're in the middle of this really
Speaker 1: tough road trip. They have the ninth toughest remaining schedule,
Speaker 1: So the Chips are gonna fall where they may where
Speaker 1: they may over the course of the eighty two What
Speaker 1: I look at when I start evaluating beyond that first part.
Speaker 1: That first part is, in order to win the title,
Speaker 1: you gotta be a good, a very good regular season team.
Speaker 1: We just don't have an example in recent NBA history
Speaker 1: of a team who coasted and chilled and then won
Speaker 1: the title. It doesn't happen. You have to dominate the
Speaker 1: regular season. So step one for the Cavs. Check what's
Speaker 1: step two for me? In terms of evaluating a team
Speaker 1: as a playoff Right, I look at what are your weaknesses?
Speaker 1: The playoffs are about vetting weaknesses. When you have to
Speaker 1: play four rounds against elite teams, inevitably one of them
Speaker 1: is going to have the means with which to attack
Speaker 1: your weaknesses. Let's say Boston for example. So they had
Speaker 1: eight rotation players last year, an eight man rotation where
Speaker 1: every single player was a good shooter, a good passer
Speaker 1: like a guy who's good at making reads, a good
Speaker 1: ball handler, and a good defender, all eight of them,
Speaker 1: some in different ways than others right, Like, maybe Peyton
Speaker 1: Pritchard could be shot over the top a little bit,
Speaker 1: maybe Chrisops Porzingis could be exploited a little bit in space,
Speaker 1: but as the totality of the lineup, because they were
Speaker 1: able to put Chrisops on guys who couldn't shoot above
Speaker 1: the break three so that he can run a drop coverage.
Speaker 1: Because Peyton Pritchard was primarily working against bench groups and
Speaker 1: smaller doses, it just didn't matter. The point is is
Speaker 1: they didn't really have a weakness. They didn't have a
Speaker 1: weak point you could attack in their defense. They had
Speaker 1: so much offensive firepower that they could withstand bad games
Speaker 1: from their stars. They were a good rebounding team, they
Speaker 1: were a good transition defense. They didn't turn the ball over.
Speaker 1: So like, why did the Celtics win the title? One
Speaker 1: because they attacked the regular season to a stab, the
Speaker 1: associated the necessary habits and details, right, But two because
Speaker 1: they were very well built basketball team for the playoff setting.
Speaker 1: We have to look at the calves through that type
Speaker 1: of lens. So like, for instance, why did a dominant
Speaker 1: regular season team like the twenty twenty two Phoenix Suns
Speaker 1: get upset in the second rom Actually this to me
Speaker 1: in recent NBA history, is the best corollary for this
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers team. Like everyone thinks Donovan Mitchell is a
Speaker 1: star player, I agree, so is Devin Booker. But Devin
Speaker 1: Booker is not the kind of guy that you'd view
Speaker 1: on the same level as the top top guys in
Speaker 1: the league. Same goes for Donovan Mitchell. Darius Garland a very,
Speaker 1: very very good guard alongside Donovan Mitchell. Same could be
Speaker 1: said about Chris Paul with that Phoenix Suns group, having
Speaker 1: a guy like Michal Bridges, having a guy like deandreton
Speaker 1: that was a very talented roster. Cam Johnson too, right
Speaker 1: as a very talented roster. But what happened They ran
Speaker 1: into a Luka Doncic led MAVs team and they couldn't
Speaker 1: guard Luca and CP three and Devin Booker weren't able
Speaker 1: to meet with star power to meet the level that
Speaker 1: Luca was at and they got upset. So again, like
Speaker 1: it's it didn't really matter necessarily that they were dominant
Speaker 1: in the regular season because they had specific weaknesses. Their
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders couldn't make Luca uncomfortable, their stars couldn't produce
Speaker 1: consistently enough to match the level that the Stars for
Speaker 1: Dallas were producing it. As we look at the Calves
Speaker 1: in particular, there are three main things that I'm concerned
Speaker 1: about for them in a playoff context. One is shooting.
Speaker 1: Not that they can't shoot, but are they gonna shoot this? Well?
Speaker 1: They're shooting two percent better from three than anyone else
Speaker 1: in the league. They're shooting damn near forty five percent
Speaker 1: on transition threes. I was watching that Nuggets game that
Speaker 1: onslaught in that second quarter. It's like packing the paint,
Speaker 1: getting stops running down int transition. It's another three for
Speaker 1: Darius Garland, another sea for three for Sam Merrill, another
Speaker 1: three for Sam Meryl. They're just going in and they're
Speaker 1: going in, and they're going in, and they're all going in.
Speaker 1: Forty five percent on running threes, like running up the
Speaker 1: floor in transition, that's a sky high number. So I
Speaker 1: do have a little bit of a concern in the
Speaker 1: sense that, like what happens if they get into a
Speaker 1: tough playoff series where the shots don't fall at the
Speaker 1: same level that they've been shooting. Two is regular season margins.
Speaker 1: Kenny Atkinson has brought into the Cavs an incredibly smart
Speaker 1: approach to the regular season. They are incredibly locked in
Speaker 1: on the details. They're dominating on the margins. They're forcing turnovers,
Speaker 1: they're getting out in transition. They're sharing the ball more
Speaker 1: and splitting the load offensively so that you're not becoming
Speaker 1: heliocentric and predictable in the half court. They've been the
Speaker 1: best half court offense in the league this year. They
Speaker 1: are playing a very, very smart regular season brand of basketball.
Speaker 1: But because such a huge part of their success is
Speaker 1: forcing turnovers and getting out in transition, what happens if
Speaker 1: you do run into a team that has elite ball handling,
Speaker 1: that takes good care of the basketball, that manages to
Speaker 1: strangle the pace, And then what if you also have
Speaker 1: some shooting some shooting woes in a situation like that,
Speaker 1: then it turns into more of a rock fight, an
Speaker 1: ugly half court basketball game. From there, that brings me
Speaker 1: to my third concern, which is entry points. I still
Speaker 1: see an opportunity for a good team to get the
Speaker 1: calves into rotation through attacking some of their lesser defenders
Speaker 1: like Darius Garland and George's Niean and so on and
Speaker 1: so forth. So like again, if I'm talking about winning
Speaker 1: the title, it's not about beating Indiana in the first round.
Speaker 1: Cleveland's gonna beat whoever it is they face in the
Speaker 1: first round in all likelihood. But what if you do
Speaker 1: face Milwaukee in the second round. What if you do
Speaker 1: play face Boston in the conference finals? What if you
Speaker 1: do have Oklahoma City waiting for you or Dallas waiting
Speaker 1: for you in the championship round. You have to go
Speaker 1: through those teams back to back to back, and some
Speaker 1: of those teams have the ability to attack your specific weaknesses.
Speaker 1: If I had to do it right now, if I
Speaker 1: had to rank, I would still keep Boston number one. Okay,
Speaker 1: see in Dallas first. I would have Cleveland kind of
Speaker 1: like with New York in that like four or five
Speaker 1: kind of competition at this point. But I'm not saying
Speaker 1: they can't do it. I'm just saying we're less than
Speaker 1: halfway through the season. You have played the easiest schedule
Speaker 1: in the league. I would like to see more before
Speaker 1: I finally decide where to place this team in the
Speaker 1: contender's list. When we get closer to the the end
Speaker 1: of the year and the schedule is getting tougher, we
Speaker 1: are going to learn more. They're about to play Golden
Speaker 1: State tonight, turn around to play the Lakers. Tomorrow, they
Speaker 1: have to play Dallas. I'llbe it without Luka Dancic. They're
Speaker 1: gonna come home and they're gonna have to play Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City next week. We're gonna get more opportunity to learn
Speaker 1: from this team and see them against some of these
Speaker 1: matchups and have a little bit better read of what
Speaker 1: their weaknesses are so that we can make that sort
Speaker 1: of judgment call when we get there. All I'm saying is,
Speaker 1: you can't take high net rating and really good regular
Speaker 1: season record to the bank for a championship, asked the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one Utah Jazz, asked the twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns. There are tons of examples in NBA history
Speaker 1: of that sort of thing not working. It's just something
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on as we progress through this season. Again,
Speaker 1: I am intrigued by Cleveland. I want to see where
Speaker 1: I like. I could see them being above Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: and Dallas. I could see that by the end of
Speaker 1: the season. I view Cleveland as the second best championship
Speaker 1: favorite behind Boston. I'm just not there yet, and I
Speaker 1: want to see more Number two. Jason, what do you
Speaker 1: make of Jonathan Kminga's dominant performance performance against the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns the other night? So this was inevitable and this
Speaker 1: is something that happens that a lot of times when
Speaker 1: you're having discussions around a young basketball player. Jonathan Cominga
Speaker 1: was great against the Phoenix Suns. He was left on
Speaker 1: an island a lot against Mason Plumley and was just
Speaker 1: hitting really good aggressive moves against him where he was
Speaker 1: drawing fouls and getting baskets, hit several big jump shots.
Speaker 1: We talked about the Draymond Green defense on Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: on that one of those late possessions that forced KD
Speaker 1: and that really bad miss. Johnathan Kamingo did an awesome
Speaker 1: job on KD throughout the fourth quarter, got a couple
Speaker 1: of strips on him. It was just back pressure, chasing
Speaker 1: from behind and swiping down at the basketball. Johnny Cominga
Speaker 1: had a really damn good game. And this is what
Speaker 1: always ends up happening when we have these sorts of discussions.
Speaker 1: We always look at it through the lens of what
Speaker 1: just happened and taking a victory lap or you know
Speaker 1: the other side, taking a victory lap if the opposite
Speaker 1: thing happens. When the reality is we're talking about a
Speaker 1: big picture issue that extends beyond what just happened. Why
Speaker 1: do I believe in trading in young talent for useful
Speaker 1: veteran talent when you're in a win now circumstance. So
Speaker 1: stop thinking about like these younger teams that are on
Speaker 1: a championship trajectory. I'm talking about like these Lakers and
Speaker 1: Warriors types of teams where it's like your star is
Speaker 1: in his late thirties and you gotta get it done
Speaker 1: like this year. Okay, there's a reason why I'm anti
Speaker 1: relying on young players in that situation. Young players come
Speaker 1: hand in hand with volatility. I am not concerned about
Speaker 1: whether or not Jonathan Kaminga can drop thirty something points
Speaker 1: in a game, can be a dominant defensive force down
Speaker 1: the crunch time of a game, can make play after
Speaker 1: play to help his team win. I'm not debating whether
Speaker 1: or not he can't. I think Jonathan Kminga has the
Speaker 1: potential to be a star in this league. Not a superstar,
Speaker 1: not a foundational superstar. But I think he can be
Speaker 1: a top twenty five, top twenty player in this league.
Speaker 1: Within the next five to ten years, five to seven years.
Speaker 1: I think he can get there. But the difference between
Speaker 1: this version of Jonathan Kaminga in that version of Jonathan Minga,
Speaker 1: the twenty seven year old Jonathan Kamina is the twenty
Speaker 1: seven year old Jonathan Minga through pain and suffering of loss,
Speaker 1: through the joy and the the you know, confirmation of wins,
Speaker 1: through the practice, through the experience, through everything that will
Speaker 1: happen between now and when he turns twenty seven. We'll
Speaker 1: figure out how to replicate what works and to cut
Speaker 1: out what doesn't work for him so that he's more consistent.
Speaker 1: The issue is whether or not Jonathan Kminga can have
Speaker 1: a game like he did against the Suns. It's a
Speaker 1: question of whether or not he will. And the truth
Speaker 1: of the matter is this season, when the Warriors have
Speaker 1: leaned more on Jonathan Minga, they have not played as well.
Speaker 1: A couple of basic stats. When Jonathan Kminga takes fourteen
Speaker 1: or more shots this year, the Warriors are four and
Speaker 1: eight When Jonathan Kminga plays twenty seven minutes and thirty
Speaker 1: seven seconds or more. This year, the Warriors are four
Speaker 1: and ten when he plays fewer than twenty seven minutes
Speaker 1: and thirty six seconds. The Warriors are twelve and three.
Speaker 1: The reason why is when you divert those minutes towards
Speaker 1: players that have a higher floor, albeit a lower ceiling,
Speaker 1: there's a more steady production within the confines of what
Speaker 1: the group is trying to do, and the Warriors are
Speaker 1: better idea guys. If I thought Jonathan Kaminga would be
Speaker 1: that guy every game, I would never ask for him
Speaker 1: to be dealt. But we've seen sometimes five six game
Speaker 1: stretches where he does it, but he's never been able
Speaker 1: to sustain that type of impact on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. And the bigger issue is do you trust
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga to knock down big jump shots in high
Speaker 1: leverage situations in the postseason? I don't do. I trust
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga to be a functional off ball defender. Like
Speaker 1: we know Jonathan Minga can be good on the ball, defensively,
Speaker 1: he's a very bad off ball defender. Literally, just two
Speaker 1: games ago cost them a game. Not paying attention in
Speaker 1: off ball defense, like one mistake in a big spot
Speaker 1: cost the Warriors a game, And that's okay. Young basketball
Speaker 1: players make mistakes. I expect an athletic forward in his
Speaker 1: young in his early twenties to get lost off the ball.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I expect forward in his early twenties to be
Speaker 1: hot and cold as a jump shooter. I expect those
Speaker 1: sorts of things. That's what we've always gotten from young
Speaker 1: basketball players in this league. And so then the question
Speaker 1: becomes about the reality of the situation. Will Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: become the consistent two way winning force before Steph Curry
Speaker 1: loses the ability to bring the top end talent necessary
Speaker 1: for this team to win. I don't think so. After
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is gone, is Jonathan Kaminga good enough to
Speaker 1: be the foundational star to lead you to success in
Speaker 1: this stacked Western Conference. I tweeted this out the other day.
Speaker 1: I had a mail back question where someone was kind
Speaker 1: of upset about it. But the stats for the offense
Speaker 1: when kamina is on the floor and Steph is off
Speaker 1: are insane. Pulling it up right now. With Steph Curry
Speaker 1: on the floor this year and Jonathan Kaminga off, the
Speaker 1: Warriors have a one to twenty one offensive rating that's
Speaker 1: in the ninetieth percentile. When Jonathan Kaminga is on the
Speaker 1: floor and Steph is off. The Warriors have a one
Speaker 1: h three point five offensive rating that's in the sixth percentile.
Speaker 1: Jonathan kming is not good enough to be the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that anchors you as a Western Conference team,
Speaker 1: of of me like a respectable Western Conference team in
Speaker 1: the future. He's not that guy. So if he's not
Speaker 1: good enough to help Steph now, and he's not good
Speaker 1: enough to really lead to success in the future, and
Speaker 1: you don't have something else in the hopper that it's
Speaker 1: not like Pods can become the kind of guy that'll
Speaker 1: slot Kaminga Properly, you don't have that guy. Frankly, you
Speaker 1: don't have that guy. You do not have a guy
Speaker 1: in house that is good enough to lead the next
Speaker 1: era of Warriors basketball. You do not have it. So
Speaker 1: the only way you're gonna get that is by tanking
Speaker 1: and taking on as much draft compensation as possible for
Speaker 1: bad money and being bad for a few years while
Speaker 1: you try to get yourself an opportunity to bring in
Speaker 1: a great player. And so the way I look at it,
Speaker 1: if Johnathan Kaminga is on the roster post deadline, then
Speaker 1: you're just hurting both eras you're hurting this era, and
Speaker 1: you're hurting that era now. I had a lot of
Speaker 1: people talking about, like, well, who are they gonna go after.
Speaker 1: I don't want to lose John Andan kaminga for Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson or for a role player or Nikolavusovich. I get that.
Speaker 1: For the record, I said this from the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season, and I still feel this way. There's no rush.
Speaker 1: Don't make a deal now. Don't make a deal now
Speaker 1: unless it's exactly what you want. I've heard that the
Speaker 1: Warriors are waiting potentially to see if they can get
Speaker 1: a big name like a Kevin Durant or a Lebron
Speaker 1: James or Jimmy Butler. I don't think you're getting those
Speaker 1: guys personally, but I'm okay with waiting for it. The
Speaker 1: problem is is if February comes and goes and you
Speaker 1: don't get KD, Jimmy or Lebron, but you also don't
Speaker 1: get something else to help this team on offense. Now
Speaker 1: you're hurting both eras. I know the bottom feels like
Speaker 1: it's falling out, but like, here's the thing. You're not
Speaker 1: the twelve and three team that started the season, but
Speaker 1: you're not the three to twelve team that brought you
Speaker 1: back to five hundred After that, either things will stabilize.
Speaker 1: A lot of guys are playing poorly. Buddy Heel's playing poorly,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is playing porter the Dennis Schroeder's playing poorly.
Speaker 1: Although Denis Schroder by the way a couple huge plays
Speaker 1: at the end of that Sun's game, that driving layup
Speaker 1: that he had and then that huge three that he
Speaker 1: hit that gave you guys a lead, A couple of
Speaker 1: big buckets there from Dennis Schroeder. But like Dennis will
Speaker 1: play better, Buddy will play better, Andrew Wiggins will play better.
Speaker 1: Steph will play better. Andrew Wiggins or Steph and Raimond
Speaker 1: are both a little banged up right now. They will
Speaker 1: be better. You'll stay afloat. Yeah, you might not be
Speaker 1: above like the seven or eight seed when you get
Speaker 1: to early February, but maybe you will be. And at
Speaker 1: that point you can make that call. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that you owe it to Steph Curry to turn Jonathan
Speaker 1: Kaminga and whatever salary filler necessary into a more dependable
Speaker 1: veteran player that gives them a better chance to win
Speaker 1: this year. Yeah, that player is not going to have
Speaker 1: the high ceiling that Jonathan Kaminga does, but his floor
Speaker 1: is going to be significantly higher, which is going to
Speaker 1: give you a better chance to win in the short term. Again,
Speaker 1: the numbers are there, guys. When the Warriors lean a
Speaker 1: lot on Jonathan Minga as a, as a shooter and
Speaker 1: in a large minute's role, they're not winning. That's just
Speaker 1: what the numbers are saying. Number three, Jason can Kwhi
Speaker 1: Leonard bring the Los Angeles Clippers to the level necessary
Speaker 1: to contend for an NBA championship. So they've won four
Speaker 1: of their last five games to beat, albeit with some
Speaker 1: injury luck. No Luca when they beat Dallas, no job
Speaker 1: when they beat Memphis, no step when they beat Golden State.
Speaker 1: But they've won four of their last five. They're eighteen
Speaker 1: and thirteen. James Harden and Norman Powell are averaging fifty
Speaker 1: three points per game over the course of this five
Speaker 1: game span. And now we have reports that Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: is close to returning, and so all these people are asking,
Speaker 1: what can this team accomplish now that Kawhi Leonard is
Speaker 1: coming back into the fold. And the answer to me
Speaker 1: is very simple. If he comes back and he plays
Speaker 1: like Kawhi Leonard, and he can stay healthy for the
Speaker 1: entirety of a playoff run, then they absolutely can win
Speaker 1: the title, no question. I believe in this roster. Zubach
Speaker 1: is a legitimately very good center who is very nice
Speaker 1: to have for some specific matchups in the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: guys like Anthony Davis and Nicol Jokisch. James Harden is
Speaker 1: a secondary shot creator. Norman Powell is a tertiary shot creator.
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, if you get Robot Kawhi, if you get
Speaker 1: fifty five forty five ninety Kawhi, then you're absolutely a
Speaker 1: championship contender. With the perimeter defense and athleticism and hard
Speaker 1: working talent on the perimeter that they have, they are
Speaker 1: a rock solid team that is built to thrive in
Speaker 1: the modern NBA. I mean, I talked about the Clippers
Speaker 1: without Kawhi staying afloat in the standings before the season
Speaker 1: simply because I believe in this type of roster build.
Speaker 1: Give me a floor raiser and James Harden, give me
Speaker 1: a pick and roll partner that can anchor a defense.
Speaker 1: And if you Kazubas and give me a bunch of
Speaker 1: dudes who fucking guard on the perimeter. We're gonna win
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball games. That's what the Clippers have
Speaker 1: been doing. Plug Kawhi entered into that, into that situation
Speaker 1: up the offensive ceiling, you absolutely can go on a
Speaker 1: run and win for playoff rounds. Obviously. The only question
Speaker 1: is will he be able to stay healthy? And you
Speaker 1: guys know how that goes, and we would all be
Speaker 1: stupid to count on it, But we'd also be stupid
Speaker 1: to pretend it can't happen either. He's thirty three years old. Now,
Speaker 1: that's thirty three with a bunch of knee injuries. But
Speaker 1: if he can put together six months here, guys, six months,
Speaker 1: that's all. If he can stay healthy for six months,
Speaker 1: they absolutely have a shot. I think we'd be foolish
Speaker 1: to count them out. Two more, Jason, you mentioned during
Speaker 1: your player rankings that Victor wimen Yama had potential to
Speaker 1: jump from your current ranking into the top ten players
Speaker 1: by the middle of the season. I know he had
Speaker 1: a slow start, but in December it seemed like he
Speaker 1: had really taken that second year elite. Would you say
Speaker 1: that based on what you've seen recently, that he's jumped
Speaker 1: into that top ten and possibly top five players in
Speaker 1: the World. Thanks for the content. As a diehard Spurs fan,
Speaker 1: I can't stand that you've rooted so hard for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but I appreciate your perspective on the sport and coverage
Speaker 1: in the NBA. I look forward to your reaction videos
Speaker 1: after big games. Thank you so much for the kind words.
Speaker 1: And as I always tell you, guys, like as soon
Speaker 1: as Lebron retires, he's my only real emotional fanhood attachment
Speaker 1: and when that goes, then I won't have any attachment
Speaker 1: to any team or player in the league. But in
Speaker 1: the meantime, I appreciate you. Know, it's so funny. I
Speaker 1: had somebody in a male back question the other day
Speaker 1: go like, wasn't even a mail back question, it was
Speaker 1: just like a comment. They were like, they're like, aren't
Speaker 1: you an analyst? You're not supposed to be a fan
Speaker 1: and you're an analyst. And I've always thought that's so
Speaker 1: funny to me because like, first of all, I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily view myself as an analyst. I think it's just
Speaker 1: a show. This is just the show, and the show
Speaker 1: is what the show is. The show is the way
Speaker 1: that I like to talk about basketball. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: like I'm a basketball fan, so I am a fan.
Speaker 1: Why would I sit here and pretend like I'm not
Speaker 1: a fan. I just am a fan that happens to
Speaker 1: have a show where I talk about basketball. I've always
Speaker 1: thought that's interesting, Like why don't I talk about the Lakers.
Speaker 1: I watch all the Laker games because I'm a big
Speaker 1: Lakers fan, so like, obviously I want to talk about it,
Speaker 1: like it's not really hard to figure out, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And then what I do is I
Speaker 1: just put in the extra work to be able to
Speaker 1: cover the rest of the league, and obviously I take
Speaker 1: pride in that work, but like I also am just
Speaker 1: I've never it's weird. I've never felt like a need
Speaker 1: or a responsibility to not be a fan. I think
Speaker 1: I have the responsibility to tell you guys, I'm a fan,
Speaker 1: and to sit here and bullshit you to the face
Speaker 1: and say that I'm not a fan when I obviously am.
Speaker 1: But I think that that's just I've always been a
Speaker 1: believer in like just be authentic and just kind of
Speaker 1: let the chips fall where they may. That's how I've
Speaker 1: you know, kind of run the show over the years,
Speaker 1: and I don't intend on changing that anytime soon anyway,
Speaker 1: to your question, So I don't think he's top five.
Speaker 1: I think jokichianis, SGA, Luca, and Jason Tatum are all
Speaker 1: clearly the top five. Obviously, Luke has been hurt this year,
Speaker 1: but when Luca's healthy, we all know that he's in
Speaker 1: that group. He's definitely in that next tier of guys
Speaker 1: for me, and you know, it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where when I have him right there at six, probably not.
Speaker 1: The reason why is like, there are guys that are
Speaker 1: not going to have the high ceiling that a Victor
Speaker 1: women Yama has. Guys like Anthony Davis, Guys like Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of guys kind of in that that group.
Speaker 1: But there's a bunch of them. I'm leaving a bunch
Speaker 1: of names out. The reason why I would have Wenby's
Speaker 1: still behind those guys is there is a difference between like,
Speaker 1: I'm a hyper talented wrecking that is just completely filling
Speaker 1: up the box score and I'm an incredibly experienced, good
Speaker 1: basketball player that knows exactly what to do on every
Speaker 1: single possession to maximize my chances to win. That's the
Speaker 1: biggest difference between now and where Wemby will be well,
Speaker 1: Wemby improve as a shooter, yeah, will we improve as
Speaker 1: a ball handler? Yeah? Will he improve his muscle masses,
Speaker 1: defensive instincts and all these different things. Sure, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get better at all that stuff. But the main thing
Speaker 1: that's gonna drive Victor wembin Yama's success into the future
Speaker 1: is going to be him understanding how to manage basketball games.
Speaker 1: What that means is like, hey, like, maybe this is
Speaker 1: not the time to take this jump shot. Maybe this
Speaker 1: is not the time to go to one of my
Speaker 1: higher variants sequences. Maybe this is the time to go
Speaker 1: to one of my lower variance sequences, like something closer
Speaker 1: to the basket. He's got a whole repertoire of stuff
Speaker 1: around the basket that he's not even close to unlocking yet.
Speaker 1: He had to play against ant in the post in
Speaker 1: clutch time yesterday against the Timberwolves, where he just stepped
Speaker 1: over his right shoulder and was at the rim and
Speaker 1: just dunked on everybody. Wait till he realizes that if
Speaker 1: he catches at five feet he can just turn over
Speaker 1: his left shoulder and shoot a hook shot, Like and
Speaker 1: if he can get that hook shot, up to sixty
Speaker 1: five seventy percent. He can have a lack of variance
Speaker 1: play that he can go to or my jump SHOT's going,
Speaker 1: I'm leaning on the jump shot, right, Like, those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that separate, and so like it's like, oh, Jason,
Speaker 1: he's averaging thirty ten and five and four blocks a game, Like,
Speaker 1: how could you possibly say that he's not better than
Speaker 1: you know, Jason Tatum or something like that. And again,
Speaker 1: that's the thing is there's two steps to it. It's
Speaker 1: no different than Yannis. Right, Like Yiannis early on it
Speaker 1: was like this dude's getting thirty and twelve or twenty
Speaker 1: eight and twelve every day inn game. This is insane,
Speaker 1: Like this is a this is one of the best
Speaker 1: basketball players in the world. And it's like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: the Yiannis from twenty nineteen had no idea how to
Speaker 1: manage basketball games. Compared to the Yannis of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: The Honess of twenty twenty four has just so much
Speaker 1: more command of each possession. That's the big difference. And
Speaker 1: so like, again, to me, Wenby's in that six to
Speaker 1: ten right now, he's playing at that level. But in
Speaker 1: order to get to that top five range. There's a
Speaker 1: certain level of just like basketball surgery, he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to get better at and that will come in time
Speaker 1: and with experience. Last one, I just wanted to give
Speaker 1: a couple of follow up thoughts on the Lakers trade yesterday,
Speaker 1: the trade for Dori Infinity Smith. I spent a good
Speaker 1: amount of time last night messing around on the trade
Speaker 1: machine because now that I wanted to come away from
Speaker 1: my efforts. Last night, my wife had a friend, a
Speaker 1: friend of hers that was in town, of childhood friend
Speaker 1: of hers that was in town, and they ended up
Speaker 1: hanging out last night. So I had a Sunday night
Speaker 1: to work and I literally just watched a bunch of
Speaker 1: basketball and spent like an hour and a half on
Speaker 1: the trade machine messing around with a bunch of different
Speaker 1: Lakers stuff. And what I kept coming around to was
Speaker 1: a simple conundrum, and it's a conundrum that I know
Speaker 1: a lot of Lakers fans disagree with me about, which
Speaker 1: is what do you do next? And is Max Christie
Speaker 1: good enough to be the two guard? Okay, so first
Speaker 1: of all, start focusing on Max Christie. It's the exact
Speaker 1: same thing I was talking about earlier with Jonathan KAMINGA,
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about Max Christie's ceiling. I had people
Speaker 1: in my comments on Twitter going like, Max Christy's playing
Speaker 1: so well right now. You're right. What happens with young
Speaker 1: talented players. Sometimes they play well, sometimes they don't. He's
Speaker 1: in a phase right now where he's playing well. You
Speaker 1: guys saw from earlier in the season what it looks
Speaker 1: like when he doesn't. And like, here's the thing, Max
Speaker 1: Christy against the Cavs on Tuesday Night. He might play
Speaker 1: really well, but I can't really like count on him
Speaker 1: in a game like that, Like he might also struggle
Speaker 1: because he's young and he's gonna be playing against a really,
Speaker 1: really good team. Ideally, I want Max Christy as the
Speaker 1: bench guy in that role, the guy who comes in
Speaker 1: and guards the best player on the floor with the
Speaker 1: bench group. Ideally, that's what I want. Then there's this
Speaker 1: second issue, which is where does Ruey Hotchimura fit into
Speaker 1: all of this? Dorian Finney Smith to me, he's got
Speaker 1: a similar kind of build to Ruy, but he's got
Speaker 1: much better instincts and foot speed on the perimeter as
Speaker 1: a defender, meaning defensively, he's better at playing the role
Speaker 1: of the three than a guy like Ruey Hachimura is now. Ideally,
Speaker 1: I'd love to have Ruy too. There's small ball potential.
Speaker 1: You can imagine a lineup that has Ruiy, Lebron and
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith all on the floor at the same time,
Speaker 1: the ability to switch. There's a lot of upside there.
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is Ruy's playing thirty
Speaker 1: four minutes a game guys and Dorrian Phiney Smith more
Speaker 1: or less plays his position, so it might substantially cut
Speaker 1: into Rui's minutes. And if it does, what's a better
Speaker 1: use of Ruey's salary as a bench forward or call
Speaker 1: it a starting forward with Dorian coming off the bench,
Speaker 1: but with those guys splitting minutes or using his salary
Speaker 1: as a means with which to upgrade the one week
Speaker 1: spot in your starting lineup, which is the two guard spot.
Speaker 1: And that's what I see it as. I want to
Speaker 1: turn Ruey into a guy at the two that is
Speaker 1: a veteran professional defender with experience, And that's why I
Speaker 1: keep coming around to Bruce Brown. A deal with Toronto
Speaker 1: centered around Ruey and Bruce Brown, they'd have to include
Speaker 1: a couple of minimum contracts. There would have to be
Speaker 1: potentially a third team to take on one of the
Speaker 1: spots for the roster spots for Toronto, Like there are
Speaker 1: complications there, but a deal centered around Ruey for Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown turns Ruey, which would then become basically like a
Speaker 1: kind of like a specialist for certain types of situations
Speaker 1: like oh, with this lineup, we want him next to
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ad, or oh with this lineup there with
Speaker 1: this matchup, we want Dorian Finney Smith next to Lebron
Speaker 1: and AD, and we want Ruey coming off the bench
Speaker 1: or anchoring small ball groups. I think that would be
Speaker 1: better served as like what if we just had like
Speaker 1: a rock solid starting two guard, Like he's the guy
Speaker 1: who plays thirty minutes a night now and he's always
Speaker 1: on the floor with Lebron and Ad and with Dorian
Speaker 1: Phinney Smith and they can share the floor together. And
Speaker 1: now I have Austin Bruce, Dorian Lebron, Ad. Every guy
Speaker 1: in that lineup is a good defender. Austin's the weakest
Speaker 1: defender in that lineup, and he's a good defender. Bruce
Speaker 1: is a legitimate guy who can guard opposing starting guards.
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith can guard the second best perimeter player,
Speaker 1: Austin can guard the third best perimeter player, Lebron and
Speaker 1: Ad on the back line, they'd be elite defensively. Dorian
Speaker 1: Finney Smith is a knockdown, catch and shoot guy. Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown is not the best shooter in the world, but
Speaker 1: he is a very good connective off ball player. He's
Speaker 1: Liken Alex Caruso. He's a guy who screens really well,
Speaker 1: cuts really well, offensive rebounds really well. Bruce is really
Speaker 1: good with transition rim pressure, meaning like he'll get the
Speaker 1: ball and just attack the rim and transition, kind of
Speaker 1: like what Josh Hart does for the New York Knicks.
Speaker 1: I think that line up is really damn good. So
Speaker 1: that's the direction I think they should go. Now that
Speaker 1: opens up a second hole. Okay, Jason, you're losing d
Speaker 1: Lo and you're losing Ruie and you're replacing him with
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith and Bruce Brown. Where's the offense? And
Speaker 1: I tend to agree with that, and that's why I
Speaker 1: would make two separate deals. I put together this deal yesterday,
Speaker 1: and again, this is obligatory. This is all Fantasyland trades
Speaker 1: are very difficult to make. There are a million things
Speaker 1: that have to line up, including the interests of the Lakers'
Speaker 1: front office to spend first round picks on role players.
Speaker 1: But all things considered, these are the two deals that
Speaker 1: I would make. So with the Raptors, it would be
Speaker 1: Ruy Jalen Huchafino, and Jackson Hayes, because I don't think
Speaker 1: you would need Jackson Hayes if you got a backup center,
Speaker 1: which is going to be what the second deal is. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's the situation where you would potentially have to do
Speaker 1: something to clear up roster spots for Toronto, but you
Speaker 1: find a way to figure that out. The second deal
Speaker 1: would be you call up Utah. And one of the
Speaker 1: advantages for the Lakers is they already have a first
Speaker 1: round pick that Utah owns that is protected, so if
Speaker 1: they needed to negotiate, they could even further sweeten the
Speaker 1: pot by just removing protections on a deal like that.
Speaker 1: But I would trade Gabe Vincent and Jared Vanderbilt for
Speaker 1: Colin Sexton and Walker Kessler. So in that case, now,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I have plenty of ball handling.
Speaker 1: I've replaced the del Rui offense issue by bringing in
Speaker 1: Colin Sexton, a guy that can help run offense for US. Right,
Speaker 1: I've got Colin, I've got Austin, I've got Shake Milton.
Speaker 1: Those are like my three ball handling guards. But then
Speaker 1: I've got a slew of perimeter defenders, Max, Christy King,
Speaker 1: Garden shoot Right, Dorianfinny Smith, kN Garden shoot, Bruce Brown,
Speaker 1: Can Garden be a functional offensive player? Cam Reddish probably
Speaker 1: outside of the rotation at that point, but that King guard.
Speaker 1: But then I also have Dalton connect as a guy
Speaker 1: that can help on the offensive end. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, I have the ability to have really good,
Speaker 1: strong bench groups led by a good center and Walker
Speaker 1: Kessler who also can fill in on the nights when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis can't play. I can have a group centered
Speaker 1: around Walker Kessler and Lebron at the four five. I
Speaker 1: can have a group centered around Ad and Dorian Finney
Speaker 1: Smith at the four or five. When Lebron's off the floor,
Speaker 1: I can bring in Christian Wood when I need extra
Speaker 1: forward depth. There's just a lot of different flexibility there
Speaker 1: with a lot of good basketball players, plenty of offense.
Speaker 1: And then just think about this, Austin, Colin, Max, Bruce,
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Cam Reddish. Those
Speaker 1: are all good defenders and a bunch of guys with
Speaker 1: like Bruce, and we talked about like resetting the Lakers
Speaker 1: culture so that they just naturally play harder. Well, having
Speaker 1: a guy like Bruce, having a guy like Dorian, having Austin,
Speaker 1: having all those guys that naturally play hard. That does
Speaker 1: support your natural motor throughout the season, as Lebron and
Speaker 1: ad can eb and flow with their energy. So again,
Speaker 1: that's just like, that's like my if I had to
Speaker 1: give you guys my dream scenario, those would be the
Speaker 1: two deals, and it would probably be like a lightly
Speaker 1: protected first to Toronto and and then like a lightly
Speaker 1: protected first and maybe removing the protections on the other
Speaker 1: pick for Utah. Yeah, you've given up everything. You're all
Speaker 1: in now, but you're all in with a team that
Speaker 1: has a lot of really good basketball players around Lebron, James,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, and Austin Reeves. Then if it doesn't work out,
Speaker 1: you blow it up and you trade Anthony Davis, and
Speaker 1: you trade Austin Reeves, and you load up on first
Speaker 1: round draft picks and you go about the process of
Speaker 1: trying to rebuild from there. But that is the direction
Speaker 1: that I would look to go, and at a minimum,
Speaker 1: I think the move here is trying to turn Ruie
Speaker 1: into a guy that you think is a starting caliber,
Speaker 1: experienced player at the two, that you trust in a
Speaker 1: playoff set. All right, guys, let's work through our power
Speaker 1: rankings and then we'll be out of here for the day.
Speaker 1: All odds again are provided by our partner Draft Kings.
Speaker 1: So number ten the Minnesota Timberwolves. The caped off a
Speaker 1: three to one week with a win last night at
Speaker 1: home against the Spurs. Another really strong defensive performance. Victor
Speaker 1: hit several tough shots in that game, but I thought
Speaker 1: Julius Randall really made him work hard. He took thirty
Speaker 1: shots to get to his thirty four points. I thought
Speaker 1: he did a really nice job defensively there. Go Bart
Speaker 1: made several huge plays down the stretch. Manhandled Victor wemen
Speaker 1: Yama on an offensive rebound put back. He set a
Speaker 1: monster off ball screen that got Dante DiVincenzo open on
Speaker 1: the left wing for three. He drew a foul on
Speaker 1: the offensive glass and made both free throws. His typical
Speaker 1: excellent defense switching onto guards in ball screens got a
Speaker 1: big contest as Wenby was coming into a movement three.
Speaker 1: I just thought he was really good and Ant had
Speaker 1: a bad game where he couldn't really make a shot
Speaker 1: to save his life, and they got to win. Anyway,
Speaker 1: A big one for the Wolves. They're nine and four
Speaker 1: in their last thirteen games, and all nine of their
Speaker 1: wins were against winning teams. They beat the Clippers twice,
Speaker 1: the Lakers twice, the Warriors, the Spurs twice, the MAVs,
Speaker 1: and the Rockets. They've had a good stretch of health.
Speaker 1: All of their top eight rotation players have played in
Speaker 1: every single game in this stretch. In this span, they're
Speaker 1: twenty third in offense. Thing is still a chore on
Speaker 1: that end of the floor. Spacing is terrible. They go
Speaker 1: through extended stretches every game where the offense just grinds
Speaker 1: to a halt. A lot of really interesting stuff coming
Speaker 1: out of the lineup dead data, like the bench groups
Speaker 1: are just consistently playing better, like staggered bench starter groups
Speaker 1: that have more shooting are consistently playing better than the starters.
Speaker 1: When you make basketball easier for your players, like when
Speaker 1: you make things function on offense by providing them space,
Speaker 1: they start to believe in what they're doing more, which
Speaker 1: gets them to defend better. That's the dead giveaway. The
Speaker 1: starting lineup has their best defensive talent. In three hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy nine minutes, they have a one to eleven
Speaker 1: defensive rating. That's not very good. I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: very good, but it's not as good as Minnesota is
Speaker 1: capable of, right, and it's because they don't believe in
Speaker 1: what they're doing on offense. When you're getting buckets, you
Speaker 1: feel good about yourself. You believe more in what you're
Speaker 1: trying to do on both ends of the floor. You
Speaker 1: do a better job on defense. The best example of
Speaker 1: this is their bench group. They have this bench group
Speaker 1: with Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall flanked by Dante DiVincenzo Nikhil,
Speaker 1: Alexander Walker and nas Reed, all three good three point shooters.
Speaker 1: They have a one to twenty two offensive rating a
Speaker 1: one hundred defensive rating, ten points better than the starting
Speaker 1: group in over one hundred minutes this year. That's not
Speaker 1: a small sample. Plus twenty two points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: That is proof of concept of this kind of this
Speaker 1: idea that I've been talking about forever. Two concepts, right. One,
Speaker 1: do we need rim protection if we can defend on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. No. If you defend on the perimeter well,
Speaker 1: in that group, Aunt, Julius Dante and Nikhil Alexander Walker,
Speaker 1: they all can guard. You guard on the perimeter, you
Speaker 1: create an easier job on the back line, and you
Speaker 1: can defend well even without having rim protection on the floor.
Speaker 1: And then, most importantly, Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall are
Speaker 1: downhill players, and if you're asking downhill players to play
Speaker 1: in a crowd, you're making their life more difficult. With
Speaker 1: those groups, Julius Randall's doing a wonderful job pressuring the
Speaker 1: rim and spraying out to shooters. Life is easier for everybody,
Speaker 1: and they look better as a team. They have been
Speaker 1: defending really well in this nine zer four stretch. Their
Speaker 1: second and d are shutting down the paint. They're second
Speaker 1: in points per game allowed in that span. They're defending
Speaker 1: the three point line well, they're seventh, and opponents three's
Speaker 1: made doing well on the margins too, like keeping opponents
Speaker 1: out of fast break situations, keeping them off the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: Really balanced scoring two ant is only averaging twenty point
Speaker 1: five points per game in the span, Julius is only
Speaker 1: averaging eighteen point two. Like again, the pace is really low.
Speaker 1: It's a chore, but they're shooting the three like. They're
Speaker 1: shooting the three well enough to kind of make up. Specifically,
Speaker 1: Julius and ant are shooting the three well enough to
Speaker 1: try to get some shots in over the top of
Speaker 1: their poor spacing situations. Dante DiVincenzo is coming on strong.
Speaker 1: He's shooting forty two percent from three in this span.
Speaker 1: He's averaging eleven points per game. He had a monster
Speaker 1: game against the Spurs. He had twenty six points and
Speaker 1: hit five to threes. But they have an identity. They
Speaker 1: grind games down to a halt with their defense. They
Speaker 1: play super slow, and then they rely on Julius, Raandel
Speaker 1: and Anthony Edwards' ability to get to their spots, even
Speaker 1: though they can be inefficient from time to time. I'm
Speaker 1: still super concerned about this offense in the big picture,
Speaker 1: but at the very least they've managed to float in
Speaker 1: the regular season by recapturing their defensive identity. Right now,
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves are plus three thousand to win the NBA title,
Speaker 1: plus thirteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number nine
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Clippers. We talked about them in the
Speaker 1: earlier segment of the show, so I'm not going to
Speaker 1: get any further into them right now. If you want
Speaker 1: to hear more Clippers talk, just go to the full episode.
Speaker 1: But right now, the Clippers are plus four thousand to
Speaker 1: win the title, plus nineteen hundred to win the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: Number eight, the Los Angeles Lakers. We also talked about
Speaker 1: them a lot in the opening segment, so I'm not
Speaker 1: going to get any further into them right now. But
Speaker 1: backpack wins against the Warriors and Kings. They've now won
Speaker 1: six out of eight. Austin Reeves is hooping his ass
Speaker 1: off in this stretch, twenty points, six rebounds and seven
Speaker 1: assists on sixty percent thro shooting, just two point nine
Speaker 1: turnovers per game, hit, a game winner in the Golden
Speaker 1: State game, had the insane passing clinic that he put
Speaker 1: on against the Sacramento Kings the other night. The Lakers
Speaker 1: right now plus thirty five hundred to win the NBA title,
Speaker 1: plus seventeen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number seven
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies two and two week lost of the
Speaker 1: Clippers in thunder. They beat the Pelicans as well as
Speaker 1: the Raptors. John Morant went down with a sprain of
Speaker 1: his ac joint in the win against the Pelicans on Friday.
Speaker 1: Really struggled to score during this massive landslide of a
Speaker 1: run that Oklahoma City put on them in the second quarter.
Speaker 1: It was like it was just one of those situations
Speaker 1: where in Oklahoma City has been doing this to everybody
Speaker 1: at this point, but like Okahoma City can really strangle
Speaker 1: the life out of you. I think they gave up
Speaker 1: only nineteen points in the second quarter during that run.
Speaker 1: Tough timing for the Grizzlies because their schedule is really
Speaker 1: tough right now. They're at the Suns, next at the Kings,
Speaker 1: at the Warriors, home for Dallas and Houston, then at Minnesota,
Speaker 1: at Houston, at San Antonio, at San Antonio and then
Speaker 1: home for Minnesota, and as of right now, try to
Speaker 1: dig into it. There's no timetable on John Morant's return
Speaker 1: right now, so hopefully he can come back soon because
Speaker 1: that schedule is pretty tough. The Grizzlies plus twenty two
Speaker 1: hundred to win the title, plus one thousand and to
Speaker 1: win the Western Conference number six, the Houston Rockets. We're
Speaker 1: seeing our first little bit of sustained shakiness from the
Speaker 1: Houston Rockets. After starting fifteen and six, they are six
Speaker 1: and five in their last eleven games. They've lost two
Speaker 1: in a row. Basically comes down to defensive slippage. Their
Speaker 1: offense has been bad most of the year, but they
Speaker 1: only have a one oh nine defensive rating in this stretch. Ironically,
Speaker 1: the groups with a men Thompson in for Dylan Brooks
Speaker 1: with the starters have a defensive rating over one twenty.
Speaker 1: It's pretty weird. The main starting group also has a
Speaker 1: negative net rating. So this is with Dylan Brooks, So
Speaker 1: this is with Jalen Green, Fred Van Vliet, Dilan Brooks,
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith, and Shan Gun. That group has a negative
Speaker 1: net rating in the last eleven games. Just can't score.
Speaker 1: They have a one toh three offensive rating with that group.
Speaker 1: There's been a recurring theme too in the last couple
Speaker 1: of games with Houston blowing leads. They blew a seven
Speaker 1: point lead with seven minutes left against Miami, and then
Speaker 1: they blew a sixteen point lead with five minutes left
Speaker 1: against Minnesota. In this eleven game stretch, they've dropped three
Speaker 1: games in clutch situations, scoring just sixty five points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions on offense in those clutch situations. They've
Speaker 1: been bad all season in clutch situations on offense, but
Speaker 1: especially bad as of late. Right now, the Rockets are
Speaker 1: plus eight thousand to win the NBA title, plus twenty
Speaker 1: five hundred to win the Western Conference. Number five the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks two and two weeks. They beat Portland and Phoenix.
Speaker 1: They lost to Portland and Minnesota. Really tough defensive game
Speaker 1: against Portland, like Kyrie goes Off, he had forty something,
Speaker 1: their role players were hitting shots. They just allowed five
Speaker 1: Blazers to score at least nineteen points. Didn't get enough stops.
Speaker 1: But as I said at the time of the Luca injury,
Speaker 1: I still think this is one of the best rosters
Speaker 1: in the league, and they still have a lot of
Speaker 1: talent when Luca's out. Beating the Suns without Luca is
Speaker 1: a great example of that. They just have a really
Speaker 1: strong floor every night because they have great rim protection,
Speaker 1: a variety of different perimeter talent that they could go
Speaker 1: to depending on the matchup, plenty of ball handling to
Speaker 1: cover when stars are out if they can just hang
Speaker 1: in that five to eight range over this next four
Speaker 1: to six weeks while Luca's out, I think they'll be
Speaker 1: fine right now. Dallas plus eleven hundred to win the title,
Speaker 1: plus five point fifty to win the Western Conference. Number
Speaker 1: four the Boston Celtics, who are very much asleep at
Speaker 1: the wheel right now. Everything is about them just giving
Speaker 1: a shit. From what I can tell, You drop a
Speaker 1: game at home to Chicago, and then you get pissed
Speaker 1: off and go into Chicago and just absolutely dominate them.
Speaker 1: To send a message. You drop a game to Orlando
Speaker 1: without Tatum, whatever, You lose a weird game to Philly
Speaker 1: where your game plan that you've been using against everybody,
Speaker 1: that's been working against everybody doesn't work because Caleb Martin
Speaker 1: hit seven threes. And so then you bounce back by
Speaker 1: beating the living shit out of the Indiana Pacers, again
Speaker 1: sending a clear message. But then you let the same
Speaker 1: Pacers team come in on Sunday and punch you in
Speaker 1: the mouth. They really got bullied physically in that game.
Speaker 1: The Celtics have lost five out of nine. The defense
Speaker 1: has been bad. They have a one to seventeen defensive
Speaker 1: rating in these last five games, or in the five losses,
Speaker 1: I should say over that nine game stretch, they're not
Speaker 1: hitting shots. They're just thirty percent from three. I would
Speaker 1: caution against just call at variance because they're still shooting
Speaker 1: really well when they're wide open. They're shooting thirty eight
Speaker 1: percent on wide open threes, which is more or less
Speaker 1: what they've shot all season. It's the moderately contested threes
Speaker 1: they're not shooting as well on. They were thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent before this stretch to thirty percent in this nine
Speaker 1: game stretch, and that's been the big different difference. Derek
Speaker 1: White had some interesting comments after the Pacers loss about
Speaker 1: how this has been the hardest stretch that he's played
Speaker 1: on since he came over to the Celtics, and like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go positive here. I think that adversity
Speaker 1: is good. I think it's good to get punched in
Speaker 1: the mouth every once in a while, especially when you're
Speaker 1: so good that you're kicking everybody's butt and you start
Speaker 1: to get a little bit full of yourself, right, Humility
Speaker 1: is a good thing in that regard, and adversity, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, has always brought out the best in basketball players.
Speaker 1: So frankly like, I'm kind of excited to see Boston
Speaker 1: face some more adversity this year, not just in the
Speaker 1: regular season. They're going to face better playoff teams this year,
Speaker 1: and I'm just curious to see how they respond. I
Speaker 1: expect a positive response. That's why I'm still picking them
Speaker 1: to win the title. But I thought Derek white'smments were
Speaker 1: interesting because that's really the thing that we're going to
Speaker 1: be keeping an eye on moving forward, how they how
Speaker 1: to handle their first real stretch of adversity in the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. Number three is the New York
Speaker 1: Knicks four to o. Week they beat the Raptors, the Spurs,
Speaker 1: the Magic and the Wizards. The Wizards put a little
Speaker 1: bit of a scare into them on Saturday night. Just
Speaker 1: in Champagne, he hit a million threes, and Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: just pulled them back from the brink with an offensive masterclass.
Speaker 1: He scored or assistant on every single bucket in the
Speaker 1: final six minutes of regulation. He hit bla coolabally with
Speaker 1: this nasty hesitation move to hit a floater that sent
Speaker 1: the game to ot. Then he scored nine more points
Speaker 1: in overtime and they put the Wizards away. Brunson finished
Speaker 1: with fifty five points and nine assists on thirty one
Speaker 1: shots with only three turnovers. That's preposterously high usage to
Speaker 1: not have a single turnover. Excuse me to only have
Speaker 1: three turnovers. Jalen Brunson has done a really nice job
Speaker 1: all year of feeling out when the team needs him
Speaker 1: to do everything on offense versus when they need him
Speaker 1: to just take a step back. They're eight and one
Speaker 1: this year when he scores twenty or fewer points, but
Speaker 1: they're also five in one when he scores thirty five
Speaker 1: or more. I thought that was a really interesting stat
Speaker 1: demonstrate that like touch from Brunson in terms of like
Speaker 1: understanding how when to like really put his imprint on
Speaker 1: the game, versus to play more as a cognist system.
Speaker 1: Since November fifteenth, the Knicks are seventeen and four It's
Speaker 1: the second best record in the league Olkloma City sixteen
Speaker 1: and thirteen, but they're technically sixteen and fourteen because they
Speaker 1: lost an nd season tournament game. The Knicks are second
Speaker 1: in offense in that span, fourteenth in defense, third and
Speaker 1: net rating sixth and rebounding doing some more damage on
Speaker 1: the offensive glass two, looking more like last year's team,
Speaker 1: sixty fifth and assist percentage. Remember this team last year
Speaker 1: was fifty nine percent and assist percentage, which ranked second
Speaker 1: to last in the entire league, So a lot more
Speaker 1: equal opportunity offense. The formula's coming together. They're really defending
Speaker 1: on the perimeter and using it as a weapon to
Speaker 1: get out in transition. They're sixth in points off of
Speaker 1: turnovers in the SPAN and fifth in fast break points.
Speaker 1: They're also playing really good driving kickball, getting a lot
Speaker 1: of really good use out of their offensive talent, and
Speaker 1: then Brunson is able to provide that apex shot creation
Speaker 1: that they need when things bogged down. They're battling on
Speaker 1: the offensive glass again, capturing some of that identity from
Speaker 1: last year. The Knicks right now plus eight fifty to
Speaker 1: win the NBA title, plus three to ninety to win
Speaker 1: the conference. Number two, the Oylahoma City Thunder. They're going
Speaker 1: through an absolutely dominant stretch of defense. They've held six
Speaker 1: of their last seven opponents to one hundred and six
Speaker 1: points or fewer for their last seven opponents to fewer
Speaker 1: than one hundred points. Their offense has still been super
Speaker 1: up and down, but they've been winning even when they
Speaker 1: don't shoot well because of the strength of their defense,
Speaker 1: and then when they shoot well, they just beat the
Speaker 1: hell out of you. That's really the thing. When Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City makes shots, you lose by twenty five to thirty points.
Speaker 1: Since the inn season tournament lost to Milwaukee, since that
Speaker 1: tournament loss doesn't technically count in the regular season, the
Speaker 1: Thunder have won eleven in a row and fifteen out
Speaker 1: of sixteen. The offense is getting better. They're seventh in
Speaker 1: that sixteen game span, obviously the clunker against Milwaukee, notwithstanding
Speaker 1: by far the best defense in the league. Over that span,
Speaker 1: they're four points better than the second place Clippers. Shay
Speaker 1: has been gaining ground on the MVP race and very
Speaker 1: well might be the leader right now. He's averaging thirty
Speaker 1: three points, six rebounds, and six assists on sixty five
Speaker 1: percent true shooting with just two point seven turnovers per game.
Speaker 1: He's playing some super special basketball right now. Isaiah Hartenstein's
Speaker 1: been great thirteen thirteen and four assists with a two
Speaker 1: to one assist to turnover ratio. The Thunder kicking ass
Speaker 1: If you believe in them. Right now, they're plus three
Speaker 1: hundred to win the NBA title, plus one fifty to
Speaker 1: win the conference. And the Calves. We're not gonna go
Speaker 1: too deep into them. They're two to oh this week,
Speaker 1: beat the Jazz and beat the Nuggets. We talked about
Speaker 1: them in the top of today's show, so make sure
Speaker 1: you get over to the full episode for that. The
Speaker 1: Calves right now plus sixteen hundred to win the NBA title,
Speaker 1: plus five point fifty to win the Western Conference. All
Speaker 1: a lod It's provided by a partner, Draft Kings. Again, guys,
Speaker 1: it's all I have for today. We're taking there's a chance.
Speaker 1: It depends on how some stuff go. I have some
Speaker 1: family in town, so it depends on how that goes.
Speaker 1: But if things break right, I might do an episode
Speaker 1: tonight after Calves Warriors. I'll let you guys know. If not,
Speaker 1: We're taking Tuesday and Wednesday off for the holiday and
Speaker 1: I'll be back Thursday. I'll see you guys the volume.
Speaker 1: What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us but if you could take
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.