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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Best of Hoops Tonight, featuring my top
Speaker 1: takes from recent shows. Damian Lillard is out indefinitely due
Speaker 1: to a blood clot in his calf muscle. First of all,
Speaker 1: this is just a huge bummer, and let's all just
Speaker 1: hope that he can be back in time for the playoffs, because,
Speaker 1: regardless of how we all feel about the Bucks, I
Speaker 1: would certainly like to see them get their chance to
Speaker 1: show what they can do in the postseason at full strength.
Speaker 1: But this situation has me thinking because things look more
Speaker 1: than bleak for Milwaukee right now, even healthy, I have
Speaker 1: the Bucks firmly outside of my top tier of championship contenders.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're close to good enough on either
Speaker 1: end of the floor to actually win for playoff series.
Speaker 1: And now you add this wrinkle with Dame's condition, which
Speaker 1: is going to have at the best case scenario, him
Speaker 1: just barely stepping on the floor before they start playing
Speaker 1: real playoff games. So to me, it's just becoming increasingly
Speaker 1: likely that the Bucks have a disappointing playoff performance, and
Speaker 1: that Giannis in the trade buzz surrounding him starts to
Speaker 1: get really loud this summer because again, I don't think
Speaker 1: the Bucks are close. I like, there's to me if
Speaker 1: I look at the top tier of contenders, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be you know, five, six, seven teams when
Speaker 1: it's all said and done, we'll see. But you know,
Speaker 1: I look at Boston and Okasee as kind of like
Speaker 1: clearly above the rest of the teams in that tier,
Speaker 1: and the team's below there, the teams like Cleveland, Denver,
Speaker 1: the Lakers, whether it ends up being the Knicks or
Speaker 1: the Warriors teams like that, I view those teams as
Speaker 1: substantially less likely than Boston and Oksee to win the title.
Speaker 1: And so when you get to the following tier after that,
Speaker 1: I mean we're talking it's pipe dream territory for most
Speaker 1: of these guys. And like that's with Gianni's playing as
Speaker 1: well as he's been he's been playing this year, it
Speaker 1: just doesn't feel like they're close. Jannis will have two
Speaker 1: guaranteed years left as well as a player option. Obviously
Speaker 1: I would view that player option as something that he
Speaker 1: would end up opting out of or extending out of.
Speaker 1: And and so realistically, you've got these two guaranteed years
Speaker 1: left this summer, and so if you wait an additional summer,
Speaker 1: now you have the whole like, well, what if he
Speaker 1: doesn't resign problem that's affecting his trade value. And so
Speaker 1: I think it's possible that we end up seeing a
Speaker 1: Jannis and TenneT compo trade this summer. And so we've
Speaker 1: talked about a lot of different teams in a different
Speaker 1: places that he could potentially go. But I've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the thunder going out after a guy like
Speaker 1: a Kevin Durant or a Lori Marknen or something. What
Speaker 1: if Yannis is the guy that the Thunder end up
Speaker 1: going after. They obviously can afford him. He's thirty years old.
Speaker 1: He is a perfect compliment to Chet Holmgren. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, you could argue that the Hartenstein salary
Speaker 1: is the best vehicle with which to facilitate that sort
Speaker 1: of trade. Hartenstein and then throwing in some of the
Speaker 1: younger talent, maybe someone like a case On Wallace and
Speaker 1: maybe one other player with a bunch of draft compensation.
Speaker 1: You can visualize a scenario where the team is built
Speaker 1: around a core of Shay and j Dubb and Chet
Speaker 1: with Giannis, and like Giannis would immediately make them a
Speaker 1: good rebounding team when they've been a terrible rebounding team
Speaker 1: In the Shake Gibs Alexander Era, I think he's just
Speaker 1: a shoe in basketball fit. In general, with all of
Speaker 1: those guys, he immediately changes the physical profiles of the
Speaker 1: team and makes them that much more bruising on the frontline,
Speaker 1: especially if the Thunder end up struggling this year in
Speaker 1: the postseason and they end up like loose in the
Speaker 1: second round. Despite someone like Shae having a great series.
Speaker 1: I think it could end up putting more pressure on
Speaker 1: OKC to make a more aggressive type of deal, and
Speaker 1: you could see a trade partnership kind of forming there,
Speaker 1: and like, like it's like the Wemby problem we talked
Speaker 1: about with San Antonio. If your star is ready to
Speaker 1: go and like ready to win the title, but your guys,
Speaker 1: like your young players around them that are progressing at
Speaker 1: the same time but maybe not at the same rate,
Speaker 1: and it looks like they're not ready, then you end
Speaker 1: up in a situation where it's like, we can't just
Speaker 1: wait around while you know, Victor wemin Yama becomes one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the league and we can't
Speaker 1: support him properly. And that's the thing, Like you don't
Speaker 1: want to run into a situation with Shae where he
Speaker 1: feels like the Thunder are just processing a bunch of
Speaker 1: young talent and they're not really going for it. And
Speaker 1: so if that ends up being the case, you could
Speaker 1: see that pressure start to build and you could see
Speaker 1: a trade partnership start to form, and if they end
Speaker 1: up making a deal for some like Giannis, they would
Speaker 1: immediately solve all of their weaknesses and I think that
Speaker 1: would make them the most talented team since the twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen Warriors. So that's a dynamic that I see kind
Speaker 1: of sort of taking some shape, and man, that would
Speaker 1: be a crazy, league altering type of deal. Lebron goes
Speaker 1: on Pat McAfee show and he starts pontificating about Jannis
Speaker 1: and what he would average in the seventies, and he
Speaker 1: says Yiannis would average two hundred and fifty points if
Speaker 1: he played back in that era. And like, Frankly, I
Speaker 1: just don't see the point in this. For the same
Speaker 1: reason why it's lame when the older players start disrespecting
Speaker 1: this era, I think it's lame for today's players to
Speaker 1: do the same thing with the past. Now, for the record,
Speaker 1: there's a reason why they're doing this. There's a reason
Speaker 1: why JJ Reddick said those guys played against plumbers. There's
Speaker 1: a reason why Lebron James is talking this shit, and
Speaker 1: it's because they're sick and tired of the old guys
Speaker 1: talking shit. I just think it's pointless to stoop down
Speaker 1: to that level. Frankly, it's just not productive. It doesn't
Speaker 1: actually solve anything. And here's the thing. Would Yannis score
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty points a game if you played
Speaker 1: in the seventies, No, but yeah, he kill those guys.
Speaker 1: He'd averaged forty probably maybe even closer to fifty. But
Speaker 1: who cares. Comparing eras is completely pointless. Jalen Green basically
Speaker 1: has the same career true shooting percentage as Kobe Bryant.
Speaker 1: Does that mean Jalen Green was just as efficient putting
Speaker 1: the ball in the basket as Kobe Bryant. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: a literal sense, but not in a realistic sense, because
Speaker 1: the game of basketball is very, very different now. Dudes
Speaker 1: in the seventies had bad shoes, they had shitty flights
Speaker 1: that they took to their road games, They played brutal schedules.
Speaker 1: They had nowhere near the knowledge and understanding we have
Speaker 1: today to make our professional athletes the best they can be.
Speaker 1: Schematics have involved over the years as just more smart
Speaker 1: minds have gotten involved in the game and made their
Speaker 1: imprint strategically. I think it makes absolutely no sense to
Speaker 1: compare basketball from fifty years ago to today, And again,
Speaker 1: even if you justify it with the way that those
Speaker 1: guys have been treated by the older generations, I just
Speaker 1: think stooping to that level, all it does is further
Speaker 1: detegrate the game. And now we're in this weird war
Speaker 1: where like the younger players are shit talking the old days,
Speaker 1: and the older dudes are shit talking the young guys,
Speaker 1: and everyone's just being disrespectful to the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: And so I hope that that stops you. And I
Speaker 1: disagreed with Lebron's approach there. Last night, Brodny hits five
Speaker 1: more threes, finished with seventeen points, nine rebounds, and six
Speaker 1: assists in a win. This is on the heels of
Speaker 1: him dropping a career high thirty nine points in a
Speaker 1: previous G League game a couple days prior, and that
Speaker 1: was on the heels of him dropping seventeen points in
Speaker 1: a real deal NBA game against the Bucks, where he
Speaker 1: made a lot of moves that looked very much like
Speaker 1: a well rounded professional basketball player. I thought this was
Speaker 1: a great time for us to just remind everybody that
Speaker 1: Bronnie James was the twentieth ranked prospect in the nation
Speaker 1: in his high school class. He was a McDonald's All American.
Speaker 1: He was absolutely, unquestionably on an NBA trajectory before he
Speaker 1: experienced cardiac arrest at USC But then he got his
Speaker 1: NBA opportunity despite struggling for a while after the cardiac
Speaker 1: arrest incident, and as a result, he became one of
Speaker 1: the biggest stories in all of media, not just in
Speaker 1: sports media, but the whole thing got picked up by
Speaker 1: political media because Lebron has ventured into that arena a
Speaker 1: few times and obviously has made enemies in there. That
Speaker 1: is one hell of a cesspool in political media, and
Speaker 1: it is as contentious as it can be, and there's
Speaker 1: an entire side there that will jump on every little
Speaker 1: thing that Lebron does, and so it became absolutely nasty.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine being Bronni And again I want you
Speaker 1: to disconnect from Lebron for a second. Funny James is
Speaker 1: an entirely different human being than Lebron, an entirely different person.
Speaker 1: Anything that he gets as an association from Lebron. Imagine
Speaker 1: being in his shoes and dealing with that. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine getting on his phone and scrolling Instagram and seeing
Speaker 1: content creators making highlight reels of his mistakes in summer
Speaker 1: League or in garbage time in an NBA game, or
Speaker 1: in the early G league days, And can you imagine
Speaker 1: the comments underneath those videos and the direct messages that
Speaker 1: he receives. And again, as we've talked about, like when
Speaker 1: you venture into this world, there are perks that greatly
Speaker 1: outweigh the negativity you face online. That doesn't make the
Speaker 1: negativity like just go away, or that it's just super
Speaker 1: easy to handle or anything like that. It sucks. I
Speaker 1: on a much much smaller level, just as a content
Speaker 1: creator in the NBA media, face a certain amunt of
Speaker 1: negation activity, Like you don't wake up one day and
Speaker 1: like read the comment that's talking shit about the way
Speaker 1: you look or the way you sound, and then suddenly
Speaker 1: just be like, oh that's fine, No, no wherries will
Speaker 1: go about our day. It still sucks. And this kid
Speaker 1: was getting it at a preposterous volume every single day
Speaker 1: because he suffered an injury and a condition that dramatically
Speaker 1: affected his basketball development. I was thinking about I was
Speaker 1: actually talking about this with my buddy Richmond Weaver on
Speaker 1: the radio a little bit earlier this morning. I remember
Speaker 1: when I broke my foot in between my first two
Speaker 1: seasons playing in college. I had a really rough first
Speaker 1: semester in non conference play because I was struggling with
Speaker 1: like confidence in my foot, like my ability to plant
Speaker 1: that foot I play at about back in college, I
Speaker 1: was playing at two hundred and twenty five pounds, Like,
Speaker 1: it's just a lot of weight to be planting really
Speaker 1: heavy on a foot that I was nervous was gonna
Speaker 1: give way, and it affected my play for months. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine cardiac arrest. Can you imagine like playing hard
Speaker 1: after cardiac arrest? Can you imagine pushing yourself and like
Speaker 1: feeling your body like start to like really get into
Speaker 1: high heart rates and how that could potentially scare you,
Speaker 1: How that could affect your willingness or ability to compete
Speaker 1: to a certain extent. Like, I just have so much
Speaker 1: sympathy for what Bronni has been through over the course
Speaker 1: of this last year, in the sense that he's been
Speaker 1: put through hell because of his dad in his persona,
Speaker 1: and look, has Lebron done some things that has accentuated
Speaker 1: the amount of attention on his son. Yes, he's made
Speaker 1: some comments, He's done some things. I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and pretend that that hasn't happened. But he's Lebron James,
Speaker 1: So we're not also going to pretend that if Lebron
Speaker 1: shut up that Bronni wouldn't be a public figure. He
Speaker 1: still would lebron could have said nothing, and Bronni would
Speaker 1: have faced ninety nine percent of the exact same circumstance
Speaker 1: is that he's faced over the last year, and the
Speaker 1: fact that his entire basketball pedigree and everything he accomplished
Speaker 1: up until the cardiac arrest was just crumpled up and
Speaker 1: thrown in the trash as part of the way that
Speaker 1: whole thing was discussed. It just was nasty, and I
Speaker 1: just feel really bad for him, and I'm just excited
Speaker 1: for him that he's starting to break through on the
Speaker 1: other side of this and show some of that pedigree
Speaker 1: that he demonstrated when he was in high school. Now,
Speaker 1: for the record, this won't be linear. The development of
Speaker 1: young players is not something that just goes up and
Speaker 1: up and up. He'll have stretches where he has bad
Speaker 1: games in the NBA, He'll have bad stretches of games
Speaker 1: in the G League. He'll make mistakes. There will be
Speaker 1: more content creators that have more opportunities to slander him
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. But what you're starting to see is
Speaker 1: the upside. You're starting to see that he can shoot.
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick talked the other day about how he expects
Speaker 1: Brownie in the big picture to be a great shooter.
Speaker 1: You've seen some of the upside with him as a
Speaker 1: defensive playmate, or you've seen some of the upside with
Speaker 1: him as a downhill threat towards the rim as a
Speaker 1: playmaking talent. He's got ability in there now. I still
Speaker 1: maintain that I think it'll be at least a year
Speaker 1: or two before he can be a guy that plays
Speaker 1: real rotational minutes at the NBA level as a guard
Speaker 1: off the bench for somebody in the NBA. I still
Speaker 1: think he needs quite a bit of time to get there.
Speaker 1: But the potential has always been there. It was missing
Speaker 1: in terms of the production for a little while as
Speaker 1: a result of what happened to him at USC, and
Speaker 1: I'm happy that we're all starting to see some of
Speaker 1: that potential start to come to fruition right now because
Speaker 1: it's just a reminder and quite frankly, a resounding statement
Speaker 1: that most of the stuff that was set about Bronnie
Speaker 1: and set about lebron over the course of the year
Speaker 1: with Bronnie in his journey to where he has in
Speaker 1: the NBA was just complete and utter bullshit. And Bronnie's
Speaker 1: just rubbing that in everybody's face right now, and I'm
Speaker 1: happy for him. Kind of a fun question. What with
Speaker 1: Boston and OKC looking like the clear two best teams,
Speaker 1: it's very likely they could end up facing each other
Speaker 1: in the finals. I'm curious to hear your take on
Speaker 1: how they match up. I would imagine Porzingis would defend Sheet,
Speaker 1: Tatum would defend Hartenstein, Brown would defend she Holiday would
Speaker 1: defend Dort, Derek White would defend Jalen Williams. Is this
Speaker 1: close to what you'd expect or do you disagree with me? Also,
Speaker 1: if possible, could you maybe list what you think would
Speaker 1: be the key factors for each team to win a
Speaker 1: seven game series. Love the show, keep up the great work.
Speaker 1: I hope your skiing trip was tons of fun. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the kind words and for the support. I
Speaker 1: agree with you that Boston and OKAC are looking to
Speaker 1: me like the clear two best teams. I don't think
Speaker 1: they're separated enough to be on completely different tier than
Speaker 1: the teams that I have below them, being right now Cleveland,
Speaker 1: Denver and the Lakers, but teams like the Knicks or
Speaker 1: the Warriors could potentially join that tier for me as well.
Speaker 1: Before the end of the season, But I do think
Speaker 1: that there's a slight gap between those two teams and
Speaker 1: the other teams. I think it's more likely that Okay
Speaker 1: gets upset in the Western Conference then Boston gets upset
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference. That said, if I had to
Speaker 1: pick what I would expect to see in the finals
Speaker 1: at this point, I do believe it will be Boston
Speaker 1: versus Oklahoma City. Now, with the matchups that you talked about,
Speaker 1: there's an interesting dynamic that you're referencing that I think
Speaker 1: gets a little bit more complicated because of the way
Speaker 1: that Oklahoma City can play their two bigs together. So
Speaker 1: we've seen the Celtics put Jason Tatum on centers before
Speaker 1: with the intention of being able to switch ball screens
Speaker 1: right and shut down the team's primary ball screen attack. Now,
Speaker 1: so much of this depends on what direction the thunder
Speaker 1: go with their starters, Like is this gonna be a
Speaker 1: situation where they play Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein together with
Speaker 1: the starters, or is this gonna be a situation where
Speaker 1: they choose to start and Alex Caruso instead and go
Speaker 1: with Chet at center. Like those are the different dynamics
Speaker 1: that could change this. But I think it's actually far
Speaker 1: more likely that they put Tatum on Chet then on Hartenstein.
Speaker 1: The main reason why is because Hartenstein is not a
Speaker 1: pick and pop threat, and he's not really much of
Speaker 1: a vertical spacing threat. So it's not like the Dallas
Speaker 1: Mavericks problem where you could open up a bunch of
Speaker 1: easy lob dunks, because while Hartenstein does have some finishing
Speaker 1: ability on the role and some really good short role
Speaker 1: finishing ability with this floater, he's not the vertical spacing
Speaker 1: threat that you see from some of the other vertical
Speaker 1: centers in the league, right, and so Chet's ability to
Speaker 1: pick and pop on Porzingis would be a problem because
Speaker 1: you're not gonna want to switch with Porzingis as much.
Speaker 1: And if you put Porzingis on Chet, they're just gonna spam,
Speaker 1: pick and pop and get Chet into space at the
Speaker 1: top of the key with an opportunity to shoot a
Speaker 1: three or drive a close out. So if you put
Speaker 1: Tatum on Chet, then you can switch the Shay Chet
Speaker 1: ball screen or the j dub Chet ball screen, and
Speaker 1: with Porzingis you can at least force Hartenstein to make
Speaker 1: his little floater that he has to make as he
Speaker 1: he attacks porzingis helping in those ball screen situations. I
Speaker 1: think that's more likely. How they'd match up the j
Speaker 1: Dub and Shay thing gets really tricky because conventional wisdom
Speaker 1: would tell you putting Jalen Brown on Shae, he's your
Speaker 1: best perimeter defender. When he's locked in and engaged, he's
Speaker 1: your best opportunity to slow Shade down, so to speak.
Speaker 1: But I would argue that that creates a complicated matchup
Speaker 1: with a guy like a Jalen Williams like I don't.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't put Derek White on Jalen Williams because I
Speaker 1: think you're giving up a little bit too much strength there.
Speaker 1: Derek White is such a good off ball defender, such
Speaker 1: a good rim protector as a guard, I would slide
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday onto Jalen Williams and put Derek White on
Speaker 1: Lou Dort and have him as the roamer, the guy
Speaker 1: who's helping but still offering contests in those situations. I
Speaker 1: think you could go either way with Drew on Jalen
Speaker 1: or excuse me, with yeah, with Drew on Jalen and
Speaker 1: Jalen on Shay. Or you could go with Drew on
Speaker 1: Shay or jayal on Jalen. But either way, I think
Speaker 1: it's most important to keep Porzingis out of the pick
Speaker 1: and pop and to keep Derek White out of a
Speaker 1: situation where he's guarding somebody that's too strong for him,
Speaker 1: and I think that gives them their best chance. On
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, I think it's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get dort On Tatum. I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: get j dub On. You're gonna get Jay dub On
Speaker 1: on Jalen Brown, right, I think you're gonna end up
Speaker 1: getting Hartenstein on Porzingis because he's more of a post
Speaker 1: up threat. And again with Boston, it also depends like
Speaker 1: are they you know, how often are you gonna see
Speaker 1: two big looks? How are you gonna match up when
Speaker 1: they do go to two big looks. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: situations where that gets complicated. But I look at the
Speaker 1: Thunder as more of a switch and contained type of
Speaker 1: team with trying to guard Boston, and so I think
Speaker 1: we will see some small ball looks, we will see
Speaker 1: some chat at center, a lot of switching everything and
Speaker 1: trying to contain the ball, And to me, the biggest
Speaker 1: swing factor of the series is gonna be decision making
Speaker 1: for both teams. To me, the Thunder actually remind me
Speaker 1: a lot of the Celtics back in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: where they just have this sky high potential based on
Speaker 1: what they do on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and they have all this offensive talent, but they just
Speaker 1: make some sketchy decisions a lot in big spots. And
Speaker 1: Boston has outgrown a lot of that over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years in their growth into becoming a champion.
Speaker 1: And that's my number one concern with Oklahoma City is
Speaker 1: when they get into high leverage situations, they're decision making.
Speaker 1: That said, as we saw, we can see Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: do similar things to Boston that Boston struggled with in
Speaker 1: the past in terms of decision making, handling perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: that contain the ball and force them into tough, contested
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots instead of the wide open catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots that make their offense so unguardable.
Speaker 1: And so I think decision making on offense is going
Speaker 1: to be the biggest key for both teams in that series. Again,
Speaker 1: I'll go much deeper into that. If we get to
Speaker 1: that point, we're gonna do season. We're gonna do series
Speaker 1: previews for every single playoff series like we do every
Speaker 1: single year, and so no matter who ends up playing
Speaker 1: in the finals, we will do deep breakdowns before the
Speaker 1: series when the time comes. Hey Jason commenting from all
Speaker 1: the way across the Pond and not so sunny England.
Speaker 1: Love the show and I've been watching for years. How
Speaker 1: much of a realistic shot do you think Draymond has
Speaker 1: a defensive Player of the Year this year? With Wemby
Speaker 1: unfortunately getting hurt, it opened up for someone else to
Speaker 1: sneak in and grabble this year. The Warriors went say
Speaker 1: ten and three in their last games this year, and
Speaker 1: dray plays excellent defense as he did against Milwaukee. Is
Speaker 1: he in with a real shot? Again? Love the show
Speaker 1: and hope all as well. Thanks again for support, and
Speaker 1: hopefully you get some better weather over there here in
Speaker 1: a Tucson. It's going to be like yesterday it was
Speaker 1: ninety six degrees, so we're already heading into the summertime.
Speaker 1: I think Draymond would be my pick for defensive player
Speaker 1: of the year if the season ended today. I think
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley's had a great defensive season. I just think
Speaker 1: Draymond Green's a better and more disruptive defensive player. I
Speaker 1: think Draymond suffers a little bit from the reputation in
Speaker 1: the sense that, like, he's just been such a good
Speaker 1: defender for so long that people just don't think about
Speaker 1: it as often and mobile even though he's been a
Speaker 1: defensive prospect his whole life. This season has just been
Speaker 1: a lot of narrative weight behind him and what the
Speaker 1: Cavs have accomplished this year. But like, I don't think
Speaker 1: you have to do much more than just watch some
Speaker 1: some of these two teams play and just watch how
Speaker 1: important Draymond is to what they do defensively and his
Speaker 1: ability to show up at the level but get back
Speaker 1: and he's one of the best defenders in the league
Speaker 1: at being two places at once, having a foot in
Speaker 1: the paint disrupting things, but being able to close out
Speaker 1: and get excellent contests on three point shots on the
Speaker 1: weak side. He's such a great defensive playmaker. To me,
Speaker 1: he's the best defensive player that I've watched this season.
Speaker 1: On DraftKings, Draymond right now is the favorite at minus
Speaker 1: one p thirty, Evan Mobley at plus one ten, and
Speaker 1: then Dyson Daniels at plus thirteen hundred in third place.
Speaker 1: I like that value for Draymond simply because Golden State
Speaker 1: has a lot more to play for over the course
Speaker 1: of this final stretch of the season. Cleveland has nothing
Speaker 1: to play for but get to mid April healthy, and
Speaker 1: so you're just gonna see a higher level of intensity
Speaker 1: out of the Warriors over the course of these final
Speaker 1: few weeks of the season, and I think that just
Speaker 1: bodes well for Draymond's capability to lock up that award.
Speaker 1: Is an interesting one. Who's a bigger liability on defense?
Speaker 1: Between Jokic and Luca, This one's tough. I think they're close,
Speaker 1: but I would give a slight edge in terms of
Speaker 1: who's that bigger liability to Luca, And ultimately it just
Speaker 1: comes down to size. They both really struggle. Neither of
Speaker 1: them can guard one on one on the perimeter very
Speaker 1: well in space. They're both elite defensive rebounders, which I
Speaker 1: think is an asset on the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor that is under discussed. Like Luca has helped make
Speaker 1: the Lakers a service rebounding team despite a lack of
Speaker 1: size at the center position because he's an excellent defensive rebounder,
Speaker 1: not as an athlete, but he just has a nose
Speaker 1: for the ball, meaning he's just good at anticipating where
Speaker 1: the ball is going to come off the rim, and
Speaker 1: he's got a good pursuit of the ball that allows
Speaker 1: him to get a lot of defensive rebounders rebounds. That said,
Speaker 1: two things, Jokic is a little bit better defensive rebounder
Speaker 1: than Luca, and two Jokic is big, which allows you
Speaker 1: to set up potential defensive schemes that keep him around
Speaker 1: the rim or put him in situations where he can
Speaker 1: be successful. It's harder to do with Luca. Point being,
Speaker 1: if you're building an elite defense from scratch, I think
Speaker 1: it's a little bit easier to build one around Jokic
Speaker 1: than it is to build one around Luca. That said,
Speaker 1: they're both defensive liabilities. Jokic has been a substantial defensive
Speaker 1: liability since he won the title. I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on there. He just hasn't really committed to that
Speaker 1: end of the floor as well as he used to.
Speaker 1: They're both bad on that end, but I would give
Speaker 1: Yokic a slight edge as a better defender than Luca.
Speaker 1: Do you think that, but this is Lebron's last chance
Speaker 1: to win a title. Next year, even they improve the team,
Speaker 1: he will be on the same level and get the
Speaker 1: Lakers to come back into contention. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is Lebron's last chance. I think the next year will
Speaker 1: certainly be his last chance in terms of like at
Speaker 1: a star level, there's an offseason here where the Lakers
Speaker 1: immediately become a buyout destination or not a biot gestation,
Speaker 1: a veteran minimum destination. The Lakers are going to get
Speaker 1: some discounted talent this summer because you want to go
Speaker 1: play in La for Luka Doncic and Lebron James and
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to contend for a title Like that's
Speaker 1: going to be really appealing to people, especially players that
Speaker 1: are play finishers that would benefit from what Luka Doncic does.
Speaker 1: The next year. Next year's Lakers I expect to be
Speaker 1: a top tier contender right out the gates. I think
Speaker 1: they're going to be a really, really good team with
Speaker 1: a summer to rebuild around Luca and Lebron. That said,
Speaker 1: right before Lebron tour or not tour, but strained his
Speaker 1: groin against the Celtics, he was playing at a top
Speaker 1: five level. You combine that with Luka Doncic, who has
Speaker 1: been playing at a top five level since then, the
Speaker 1: two of them together with Austin Reeves, with Ruby Hotchi Murau,
Speaker 1: with Jackson Hayes as the vertical spacer, with Dorian Finney,
Speaker 1: Smith gave Vincent, Jared Vanderbilt. This is as this is
Speaker 1: certainly the best chance he's had since twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and I certainly consider this to be a real chance.
Speaker 1: I just think he'll probably have a slightly better chance
Speaker 1: next year. Now to your point, Lebron will be forty
Speaker 1: one next year when they get to the postseason, He'll
Speaker 1: be older, probably won't be as good. There will be
Speaker 1: some small amount of decline barring a severe injury. If
Speaker 1: that's the case. Though, with better supporting talent, and now
Speaker 1: that Luca's in the picture, they don't need Lebron's top
Speaker 1: end as much anymore. They need a consistent floor with him,
Speaker 1: which I still think will be there next year, and
Speaker 1: I think that that's something that they will be able
Speaker 1: to leverage into competing again for a title one more
Speaker 1: time next season. What's up, guys, As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us US if you guys
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Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting US, but if
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