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Speaker 1: to Hoops Tonight, presented by fan Duel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great start to your weeks. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: doing two videos today this morning. We're gonna be covering
Speaker 1: Warriors Media Day, and then this evening we're gonna be
Speaker 1: continuing with our power rankings. We are moving into the
Speaker 1: top tier of contenders. We have four teams left, the Clippers,
Speaker 1: the Bucks, the Warriors, and the Celtics, not in that order.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be doing deep dives into all four of
Speaker 1: those teams, everything they did this offseason, everything they do
Speaker 1: offensively and defensively. Uns of Basketball analysis today through Friday
Speaker 1: in the evening, so keep an eye on your feeds
Speaker 1: for that. One other quick note, I was looking at
Speaker 1: the comments from yesterday's media day video and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of like anti Lakers stuff, not so much anti Lakers,
Speaker 1: but just people complaining that we talked about the Lakers.
Speaker 1: I want to do address that really quick because it's
Speaker 1: really pretty simple. First of all, we we talked about
Speaker 1: the Lakers for three reasons. Okay, First of all, you
Speaker 1: guys care about the Lakers. Guests which one of our
Speaker 1: power rankings videos has done the most views? The Lakers one.
Speaker 1: That's just smart business too. I used to cover the Lakers,
Speaker 1: so I know a ton about them. I have a
Speaker 1: lot of friends who are big fans of the team
Speaker 1: and who cover the team. Their team that I'm invested in,
Speaker 1: so I like to talk about them. And then, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, they have Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Yes,
Speaker 1: last year was a dumpster fire. There's also a chance
Speaker 1: that this year could be a dumpster fire. But the
Speaker 1: reality of the situation is they have a high ceiling.
Speaker 1: Yes they do. They are involved in the landscape of
Speaker 1: the league. But make no mistake, as this year progresses,
Speaker 1: we are going to focus on the good teams that
Speaker 1: play good basketball. So if the Lakers start a flounder
Speaker 1: and they start ten and twenty, we're not going to
Speaker 1: talk about them anymore. We're talking about them now because
Speaker 1: they are relevant. If you're pretending like they're not relevant,
Speaker 1: you're not being honest. They have Lebron James and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: If they are healthy, they are at least a threat.
Speaker 1: Even if they are a lower level threat, there at
Speaker 1: the very least a threat. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, we're gonna follow what you guys want and
Speaker 1: where the good basketball is and then usually they're correlated.
Speaker 1: Guess what our Lakers videos in March and April last
Speaker 1: year did not do well. You know why because the
Speaker 1: Lakers sucked in the entire Laker fan base spot out
Speaker 1: of the team. But this year, the Lakers optimism is
Speaker 1: back and it's just good business. It's the same reason
Speaker 1: we're doing Warriors right now. We have a lot of
Speaker 1: Warriors fans who are fans of the show, so we're
Speaker 1: going to be doing a media day video about the Warriors.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to explain that really quick so people understand.
Speaker 1: And then just to set the expectation that, look, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna over the Lakers if they turn out to
Speaker 1: be a dumpster fire. We're gonna follow the good basketball
Speaker 1: around the league. You guys know the drill before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss
Speaker 1: any show announcements. Plus, once we get into the season,
Speaker 1: that's where I put all my film breakdown. Since we
Speaker 1: have some rules with YouTube that don't allow us to
Speaker 1: use NBA footage, I put the NBA footage stuff on Twitter,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna want to follow me there. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, if you miss one of these
Speaker 1: shows for whatever reason, and you can't get back over
Speaker 1: to YouTube to finish them. You can find them wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight. And on that note,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So there are three things that
Speaker 1: I found interesting in Warriors Media Day that I wanted
Speaker 1: to touch on, and we're gonna start with Janice and
Speaker 1: a quote that he had from his media day in
Speaker 1: a response that Steph had so, Janice said, quote two
Speaker 1: years ago when we did that, Yeah, when I was
Speaker 1: sleeping in my bed, I was like, yeah, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: the best player in the world, you know, But now no.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, the way I view at the winner
Speaker 1: is the best. The guy who wins is the best.
Speaker 1: I believe that the best player in the world is
Speaker 1: Steph Curry until the next player end quote. Steph responded
Speaker 1: at his media day quote, I would say the same
Speaker 1: thing when you're facing the champions that's part of the
Speaker 1: nature of the league. We all want to win the
Speaker 1: championship and when you look at the team, that's the
Speaker 1: last team standing. I was thinking the same thing about
Speaker 1: him last year coming off their run. So first of all,
Speaker 1: when it comes to player rankings, everyone's got different criteria.
Speaker 1: For instance, like people who weigh the regular season heavily.
Speaker 1: Most of those people have yokis either near the top
Speaker 1: or at the top, right. You know, player teams that
Speaker 1: are people that value playoff basketball more have some the
Speaker 1: traditional guys up there like I did, like Janice k D,
Speaker 1: Steph Lebron, guys who have actually won NBA championships, led
Speaker 1: teams to NBA championships, and then there's everything in between,
Speaker 1: the entire gamut of different approaches to ranking players. Now,
Speaker 1: what's funny is I used to deal with this particular
Speaker 1: problem by having like two separate conversations and since then
Speaker 1: I've kind of merged them into what I used for
Speaker 1: our player rankings during the summer, which is a combination
Speaker 1: of both philosophies. But those two philosophies are who is
Speaker 1: the best basketball player alive and who deserves to be
Speaker 1: called the best? And the main difference there is the
Speaker 1: appropriate respect that we pay towards the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Speaker 1: You know, I talked about this a lot when ESPN
Speaker 1: came out with Steph at five in their player rankings,
Speaker 1: which I thought was outrageous, especially coming off of what
Speaker 1: he did in that playoff run. But When that ranking
Speaker 1: came out that day, I was complaining that I don't
Speaker 1: think enough respect is paid these days to how difficult
Speaker 1: it is to get the Larity O'Brien Trophy. Like I've
Speaker 1: seen c J. McCollum, Who's a player that I really
Speaker 1: like and a player that I think is great for
Speaker 1: young basketball players to emulate because of how skilled he
Speaker 1: is despite not being that great of an athlete. I
Speaker 1: saw c J. McCollum single handedly destroy the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: in a playoff series, including going off in Game seven
Speaker 1: on their home floor to steal a game that they
Speaker 1: should have lost. That's a playoff success from a player.
Speaker 1: Why don't we all think c J. McCollum is a
Speaker 1: top ten player because he struggled in the first round
Speaker 1: series that year and then he struggled in the conference
Speaker 1: finals that year. Dominating a regular season is one thing.
Speaker 1: Dominating a playoff series is one thing. Dominating two playoff
Speaker 1: series is one thing. I saw Nicola Yokitch, I'll play
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard in the conference semifinals after a great first
Speaker 1: round series, after a great regular season, But then what happened?
Speaker 1: He ran into a different matchup. Anthony Davis one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive players the league. He got out played
Speaker 1: by Anthony Davis. They lost the series. That's it's hard
Speaker 1: to lead a team through a regular season, to lead
Speaker 1: a team through a first round series, a second round series,
Speaker 1: a third round series on the NBA Final stage, different matchups,
Speaker 1: encountering better defenses, maybe a specific defensive matchup that's gonna
Speaker 1: give you problems facing real adversity. You know, this was
Speaker 1: a relatively low adversity a season or playoff run for
Speaker 1: the Warriors, and still they were down to one in
Speaker 1: the finals to the Celtics against the team that I
Speaker 1: thought was actually a little bit more talented. Steph Curry
Speaker 1: sprained his foot in the regular season and came off
Speaker 1: the bench to start the playoffs, you know, Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: coming back from his injury, Draymond Grain's back injury. This
Speaker 1: was a season filled adversity that ended with them finally
Speaker 1: getting the Larry O'Brien Trophy. That process and that result
Speaker 1: is nowhere near valued enough by people, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: by people who evaluate basketball players. There it is not
Speaker 1: it is. Anybody can have one good game or one
Speaker 1: good series, maybe even two good series, or a great
Speaker 1: regular season. It is an entirely different animal to do
Speaker 1: the whole thing. And when you see that adversity come through,
Speaker 1: come to fruition, when they hoist the trophy, it's a
Speaker 1: special moment, and I think we have to acknowledge that.
Speaker 1: So that's why I used to split those debates into
Speaker 1: two completely separate topics. Who's the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: Who's the guy who went through all the adversity and
Speaker 1: hoisted the trophy? Like I never actually thought Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: was the best player in the world in two thousand nineteen.
Speaker 1: I don't think any of you guys would agree with
Speaker 1: I would disagree with that. However, he hoisted the trophy
Speaker 1: at the end and went through the grind, did all
Speaker 1: of the things you know, uh In, lamented himself with
Speaker 1: an entirely new group of people, an entirely new situation,
Speaker 1: and made it to the finish line. I understood that
Speaker 1: people were willing to say Kauai was the best player
Speaker 1: in the world at that point, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: my thing, Like in my rankings, I have your honest
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Speaker 1: official sports betting partner of the NFL. I have your
Speaker 1: Honest number one because I think he's the best defensive
Speaker 1: player alive and a top five offensive player. I think
Speaker 1: physically he's completely incapable of being handled by any team
Speaker 1: in the league. That Boston Celtics team was the one
Speaker 1: team that should have been able to do it, and
Speaker 1: even they couldn't handle him. He's incredible. I have him
Speaker 1: at number one, But I totally understand why Janice would
Speaker 1: want to consider stuff the best I understand. I even
Speaker 1: would agree that if you're talking about like holding the crown,
Speaker 1: so to speak, the proverbial like theoretical crown that you
Speaker 1: give to the person who's last man standing, I would
Speaker 1: agree with give ing it to Steph. My rankings, my
Speaker 1: player rankings were a combination of the two, So I
Speaker 1: had johannest one and I had Steph two, but I
Speaker 1: didn't disagree with either. If you would have swapped those
Speaker 1: on my list, I would have been fine with it,
Speaker 1: because I do understand those two different ideologies, and I
Speaker 1: think it's cool that Steph and Janice kind of played
Speaker 1: off of each other there. Jr. Honest is saying, like, hey,
Speaker 1: Steph gets bragging rights this year. Cool. I agree he
Speaker 1: should get bragging rights. Now do I think Joannice is
Speaker 1: better at basketball than him right now? Yeah? Barely. I
Speaker 1: think Steph's the best offensive player in the world. I
Speaker 1: think Johannice is the best defensive player in the world
Speaker 1: and a bet in the top five offensive player. That
Speaker 1: gives him an edge to me, and I think a
Speaker 1: lot of Warriors fans would agree. I don't think that's disrespectful.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's like saying Katie's better than him
Speaker 1: or something like that. But the reality is is Steph
Speaker 1: gets bragging rights this year, and like Steph said, Janice
Speaker 1: had bragging rights last year. That's that proverbial crown. That's
Speaker 1: that level of respect. Who deserves to be called the
Speaker 1: best first? Who actually is the best? I thought that
Speaker 1: was an interesting little moment from media day yesterday. Um,
Speaker 1: the second little concept I wanted to talk about from
Speaker 1: media day was continuity. This is a big focus among
Speaker 1: the interviewer questions on media day. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: we've heard that in the first couple of days of
Speaker 1: practice for the Warriors that the starters have been absolutely
Speaker 1: destroying the second unit. And that's kind of what started
Speaker 1: the continuity discussion was he Steph Curry was asked about that,
Speaker 1: he said, quote, it's supposed to be like that. We
Speaker 1: know what we're doing, we have good chemistry. We are
Speaker 1: just coming off of playing in the finals three months
Speaker 1: ago and also setting the tone of what it means
Speaker 1: to play for this team the way that we do.
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr piggybacked on that and said, I think organizational
Speaker 1: stability is a huge factor in pro sports, but I
Speaker 1: think especially in the NBA, especially today, because of the
Speaker 1: player movement, we have a really stable, solid organization, a
Speaker 1: very successful one. We have worked together well, and when
Speaker 1: you throw all that together with this talented core, there's
Speaker 1: a end of an institutional knowledge that allows you to
Speaker 1: kind of push forward quicker then if everybody is brand new.
Speaker 1: We really look at that as one of our advantages. Now,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that continuity is a huge advantage. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to spend a couple of minutes today talking
Speaker 1: about the actual basketball and personality and locker room advantages
Speaker 1: that take place as a result of continuity, just so
Speaker 1: that we can kind of like understand it a little
Speaker 1: bit more on a on a kind of like a
Speaker 1: line by line basis, So I wanted to look at
Speaker 1: it first from the standpoint of non basketball. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, when you have continuity, the personalities that are
Speaker 1: in the locker room, they understand their fit, they understand
Speaker 1: the dynamic. Right, there's a clear power like hierarchy in
Speaker 1: the in the warrior's locker room. Like everyone knows step
Speaker 1: as the leader. Everyone knows Draymond is like the emotional leader, right.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody understands the role that Clay's personality has
Speaker 1: in that locker room, what Andrea Guadala's personality does in
Speaker 1: that locker room. It's an under standing of roles and
Speaker 1: the important detail there is. Then when you bring in
Speaker 1: new players, the new players know not to mess with that.
Speaker 1: You know, if there's lots of turnover every year, a
Speaker 1: free agent, whether it's a mid level exception or a
Speaker 1: decently paid role player or star, they can come in
Speaker 1: and they can be like, hey, I got just as
Speaker 1: much right to move and shaken here as anybody else does. Right,
Speaker 1: But no NBA player in their right mind is going
Speaker 1: to walk into a locker room that Steph Curry, Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: Steve Kirklay Thompson, and Andrea Gudala have ran for a
Speaker 1: decade and go like I'm here to stir the pot.
Speaker 1: They'll get you out of there so fast you wouldn't
Speaker 1: even dare try. Because of the established nature of that
Speaker 1: locker room. I think that's a big advantage when you
Speaker 1: are mixing in the occasional new players. A first round
Speaker 1: draft pick here, a guy like in Andrew Wiggins. You
Speaker 1: know when you bring in or like the James Wiseman,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga, you know, Moses mood types. They know what
Speaker 1: they know what they can and can't do in that
Speaker 1: locker room because of the established norms in there. Also,
Speaker 1: they that group has a lot of experience with the
Speaker 1: highs and lows of an NBA season. If they go
Speaker 1: out on Opening Night and they lose to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: you know, if the Lakers lose that game, even though
Speaker 1: they have some continuity with Lebron and n d if
Speaker 1: the Lakers lose that game, there's gonna be a little
Speaker 1: bit of a shaking confidence in that locker room, especially
Speaker 1: if they get dominated. If the Warriors lose that game,
Speaker 1: even if they get blown out by twenty, there's going
Speaker 1: to be an understanding in that locker room of the
Speaker 1: dynamic of the regular season. I think it was after
Speaker 1: the two thousand I can't remember what year it was,
Speaker 1: might have been after the two thousand seventeen season, but
Speaker 1: I think there was an early season game where the
Speaker 1: Spurs came in and just beat the ship out of
Speaker 1: the Warriors in an early season game. Those guys weren't worried.
Speaker 1: Those guys aren't scared about that. They understand that's a
Speaker 1: normal dynamic in the NBA regular season. The same thing
Speaker 1: goes in reverse. They started what fifteen in one last year,
Speaker 1: or fourteen in one or something like that. In their
Speaker 1: first fifteen games. They knew. Stephen, Draymond, and Clay knew
Speaker 1: even in that moment that there would be lulls. They
Speaker 1: had a stretch later in the season where Steph went
Speaker 1: really cold, Draymond got hurt, Clay Thompson took some time
Speaker 1: to get his legs underneath him. Steph missed a stretch
Speaker 1: of games before the playoffs. They understood before that season
Speaker 1: that that was the natural flow of a season. They
Speaker 1: will understand that even further now. Those are the emotional,
Speaker 1: non basketball advantages that come from continuity on the basketball court.
Speaker 1: It's about understanding your teammates basketball personalities, right like there
Speaker 1: are some I was always the kind of player when
Speaker 1: I was playing in college that I liked tough love.
Speaker 1: I liked when my coaches really got on me. I
Speaker 1: liked when my teammates would cuss me out or demand
Speaker 1: more out of me. But there were other types of
Speaker 1: players that if you did that too, they would shrink
Speaker 1: into themselves, lose confidence, and it would be a problem.
Speaker 1: When you have good continuity, everybody understands how they like
Speaker 1: to be communicated with. They understand boundaries. They understand where
Speaker 1: the line is and they can't cross it, or when
Speaker 1: they need to approach that line to get a point across.
Speaker 1: That's an advantage of understanding your personalities in your locker room.
Speaker 1: There's a another concept of rhythm. I think that Steph, Draymond,
Speaker 1: and Clay have a really good understanding of when the
Speaker 1: other needs the basketball. When we might need to run
Speaker 1: a fake dribble handoff for Draymond to get something at
Speaker 1: the basket to get his confidence going offensively, when Steph
Speaker 1: needs to hunt for Clay because he's feeling like he's
Speaker 1: not involved in the offense enough, or when Steph needs
Speaker 1: to go through a stretch in the third quarter, or
Speaker 1: he's shooting every time down the floor. That balance of touches,
Speaker 1: that power dynamic in controlling the basketball is something that
Speaker 1: the Warriors have great understanding of in their locker room.
Speaker 1: Through continuity, it also helps with natural basketball reads. I
Speaker 1: have the basketball, I dribble to the elbow, and I
Speaker 1: pick up my dribble and I'm looking at you in
Speaker 1: the corner. You might relocate, you might stay, you might
Speaker 1: cut back door. A lot of times with new basketball players,
Speaker 1: you'll misinterpret those situations. Either you'll think he's gonna cut
Speaker 1: and you'll throw it out of bounds, or he does
Speaker 1: cut and you miss him because you weren't expecting it.
Speaker 1: Or the player in the corner won't know when to cut,
Speaker 1: or when to relocate or when to stay put. There's
Speaker 1: a natural chemistry, kind of like a seeing things before
Speaker 1: they happen type of deal that happens with continuity. Any
Speaker 1: of you guys out there who have buddies that you
Speaker 1: go play pick up basketball with two or three times
Speaker 1: a week, I have guys. I've been running a men's
Speaker 1: league here in Tucson for half a decade now, for
Speaker 1: my in my team, I have guys on that team
Speaker 1: that I've been playing with literally for the better part
Speaker 1: of a decade. Those guys, like, when I go play
Speaker 1: basketball with them, it's just a natural fit because I've
Speaker 1: been doing the same thing with them for so long.
Speaker 1: That is a that is a huge benefit that comes
Speaker 1: from from continuity. And then, last, but not least, is
Speaker 1: understand ending the offense, especially complicated offenses like the Warriors,
Speaker 1: which we're gonna cover later this week in our Power rankings.
Speaker 1: The Warriors offense has so many different facets, there's so
Speaker 1: many sets, there's so much movement that it can take
Speaker 1: time to learn, not just learning the actual plays themselves
Speaker 1: in terms of the xs and ohs, but also the
Speaker 1: reads because the Warrior system is very read and react.
Speaker 1: It's very loose, and it allows you to freelance in
Speaker 1: various ways based on what the defense does. When you've
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time around an offense, you understand
Speaker 1: those things, but it does take time for new players
Speaker 1: that come into the Warrior system to learn that stuff.
Speaker 1: So it's very beneficial when your core players, your core
Speaker 1: five players Wiggins Iguadala, you know, six, even with Jordan Poole,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green. When those guys have
Speaker 1: a very firm understanding the offense, it gives them an
Speaker 1: advantage over other teams. As many of you guys know,
Speaker 1: we've been following the show for a while, I coach
Speaker 1: high school basket ball. I do it in an assistant
Speaker 1: capacity since I obviously don't have my evenings available with
Speaker 1: this job. But my primary role as I coached practices
Speaker 1: in the morning. We go every Monday and Friday morning,
Speaker 1: and when I'm working with those guys, you know, it's
Speaker 1: been really interesting. This is my second season doing this.
Speaker 1: It's been interesting to see the difference between these two
Speaker 1: seasons because of COVID. When COVID happened, they shut down
Speaker 1: the lower levels of the team for obvious reasons. It
Speaker 1: was really difficult to run the season. They didn't want
Speaker 1: to have as much exposure. They just ran varsity that year.
Speaker 1: That group won the state championship, but nine seniors left
Speaker 1: the program. Last year was a very challenging year because
Speaker 1: we had all of these new young players who were
Speaker 1: not involved with the previous season. Not only that they
Speaker 1: didn't even have a season because of freshman in JV
Speaker 1: basketball being canceled as a result of COVID. During that season,
Speaker 1: especially in the first few months, it was a slog
Speaker 1: trying to teach them our offense and get them to
Speaker 1: understand the way that we wanted to play the year.
Speaker 1: We're in our preseason practices, and like, for instance, yesterday,
Speaker 1: I was late for practice because I had another engagement,
Speaker 1: and I just texted the guys to get started without me.
Speaker 1: When I showed up, I walked in and they were
Speaker 1: already running our offense from last year, without me even
Speaker 1: having to tell them. They just walked in the gym.
Speaker 1: They knew what I wanted, They knew the kinds of
Speaker 1: sets that we were working on, and they were playing
Speaker 1: five on five working on their sets. And I remember
Speaker 1: sitting there thinking, like, man, we are at such a
Speaker 1: huge advantage this year, just compared to last year. In
Speaker 1: one year, because of continuity, we returned almost our entire
Speaker 1: starting lineup from last year, and because the kids already
Speaker 1: know the offense and we have, you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of different things we're working on, like red and react
Speaker 1: five out stuff, and then actual sets that involved running
Speaker 1: actions and they and just to see how much better
Speaker 1: they are in those two areas just compared to last
Speaker 1: year is monumental. So you can imagine at the NBA
Speaker 1: level over a decade, just how firm of an understanding
Speaker 1: a team like the Warriors had of their offense. And
Speaker 1: imagine the Lakers by comparison. They're sitting with Darvin Ham today,
Speaker 1: learning a brand new system from scratch with what three
Speaker 1: players that returned from last year that actually were in
Speaker 1: the rotation, you know, maybe four if you count when
Speaker 1: in Gabriel like, that team is at a disadvantage with
Speaker 1: their system and execution compared to a team like the Warriors,
Speaker 1: and almost every team in the NBA is in a
Speaker 1: similar predicament, at least in some to some extent compared
Speaker 1: to the Warriors, con duty is a legitimate basketball weapon.
Speaker 1: The Warriors were not the most talented team in the
Speaker 1: league last year, and they won't be the most talented
Speaker 1: team in the league this year. They actually lost a
Speaker 1: little bit of talent, losing Gary Payton second and losing
Speaker 1: out of Porter Jr. But they're every bit as big
Speaker 1: of a threat to win the title this year as
Speaker 1: they were last year when they actually want it, and
Speaker 1: a huge part of that is how smart they are
Speaker 1: as a team, but also how much conton nuwity they have.
Speaker 1: And I do think it's important that it's discussed. The
Speaker 1: last Warriors thing that I wanted to touch on was, uh,
Speaker 1: the extensions and free agency. So Andrew Wiggins his deal
Speaker 1: expires next summer um. I believe he might be a
Speaker 1: restricted free agent. I'm not certain about that. And then
Speaker 1: Draymond Green has a player option this summer. Now, ideally
Speaker 1: you keep both and then the issues, you know, goes away.
Speaker 1: But it gets even more complicated when you factor in
Speaker 1: the Jordan Pool is going to need to get paid.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day. We actually heard
Speaker 1: Joe Lake about after the season when he was addressing
Speaker 1: the Auto Port the second or Auto Porter Junior and
Speaker 1: Gary Payton the second UH leaving the team. He talked
Speaker 1: about how the it was just unrealistic for him to
Speaker 1: be able to pay everybody. So there's some difficult decisions
Speaker 1: coming up for the Warriors. And you know, in the past,
Speaker 1: it might have been the easiest decision in the world
Speaker 1: to prioritize Draymond over Andrew Wiggins, but now it's kind
Speaker 1: of a tough call. And I honestly don't know which
Speaker 1: one they should favor, because Andrew Wiggins has turned himself
Speaker 1: into a vitally important part of this team. He's what
Speaker 1: I would call a three in D star because he
Speaker 1: fills the role of three and D right spotting up
Speaker 1: and knocking down three point shots, you know, defending on
Speaker 1: the wing on the other end of the floor, but
Speaker 1: he's unbelievably good at both. So, for instance, defensively, Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins is on the short list of players in the
Speaker 1: running for best perimeter defender Alive, which is an insane
Speaker 1: bit of progress from a player and Andrew Wiggins, who
Speaker 1: was a bad defensive player in Minnesota. The job he
Speaker 1: did on Luca don Chich, the job he did on
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum was a job that only a handful of
Speaker 1: players in the league are capable of. Guys like Jayson Tatum,
Speaker 1: maybe a Ben Simmons, maybe a Michaal Bridges. There's only
Speaker 1: a small handful of players who can do what Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins did in those two series. That's how much of
Speaker 1: a star he is defensively, and then on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. It's not just shooting spot up
Speaker 1: three's or attacking closeouts. He has legitimate scoring punch. He
Speaker 1: draws weaker matchups because of the other other players on
Speaker 1: the floor for Golden State, and you can toss him
Speaker 1: the basketball and he can go create his own shot. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he's a little bit more inconsistent in that role. You
Speaker 1: don't want to rely on him as a lead scorer.
Speaker 1: But that capability to provide real scoring punch, in combination
Speaker 1: with him being a defensive star, like an impact defensive player,
Speaker 1: that makes him a three and D star. You could
Speaker 1: make the case he was the second best player on
Speaker 1: the Warriors last year. It's a tough call. Some of
Speaker 1: that is Clay Thompson was coming, excuse me, trying to
Speaker 1: get his rhythm back, coming back from injury, and Draymond
Speaker 1: Green didn't have a great playoff run, although he had
Speaker 1: a lot of really big games, and he helps you
Speaker 1: a lot in specific matchups like the Denver Nuggets game.
Speaker 1: And then I'm really glad he had that good moment
Speaker 1: there in Game six of the NBA Finals to just
Speaker 1: kind of remind everybody what he's capable of. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's always been the joint effort in Golden State,
Speaker 1: and when the ESPN came out with their player ranks.
Speaker 1: You know, Jordan Pool, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins.
Speaker 1: They were all in that like I think Dyed a
Speaker 1: fifty right or thirty to sixty range or whatever, And
Speaker 1: that was kind of the best way to describe that roster.
Speaker 1: They were not top heavy. They were not a you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron James Anthony Davis type of team. They were not
Speaker 1: a you know, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving type of team.
Speaker 1: It's Steph the bona fide star, and then four players
Speaker 1: who might not be stars, but are very close to
Speaker 1: that and are absolutely stars in their roles. And when
Speaker 1: you have four guys who are stars in their roles
Speaker 1: next to a guy who's in conversation to be the
Speaker 1: best basketball player alive, that is enough talent to contend
Speaker 1: for a title. It's a very interesting dynamic on that team.
Speaker 1: But I'm really curious to see what they decided to
Speaker 1: do next summer. And I would not be surprised if
Speaker 1: they prioritized Andrew Wiggins due to his age and the
Speaker 1: impact he has on this team. And it's gonna be
Speaker 1: unfortunate if the Warriors end up losing Draymond and it
Speaker 1: will change. It will fundamentally change the dynamic of that
Speaker 1: entire team. But it's just the reality of the predicament.
Speaker 1: He's getting older, Jordan Pool needs to get paid, he's younger.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins needs get paid, he's younger. Obviously, you've got
Speaker 1: other rookies in the pipeline. It's just eventually going to
Speaker 1: become untenable to pay all these guys. It'll be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see who ends up taking the first hint. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for right now. Like I said,
Speaker 1: later this evening, we'll be continuing with their power rankings
Speaker 1: with number four. I will see you guys later tonight.
Speaker 1: The volume