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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so

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Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day to come

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Speaker 1: out and talk some hoops with me and Tommy. Tommy,

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Speaker 1: how you doing man? Thanks for joining me today. Doing

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Speaker 1: good man. Just recovering from the holidays a little bit. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: excited to talk some basketball. I'm glad the NBA's back

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Speaker 1: and full swing. Um. Been an interesting start to the season,

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Speaker 1: so I'm ready to talk about all of it. Yeah. Man,

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Speaker 1: I had to recover from the holidays too. I had

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Speaker 1: a disappointing moment when I got on the scale. I

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Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit of my last podcast.

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Speaker 1: My mom's a really good cook, and I went completely

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Speaker 1: out of control and got up to two thirty one,

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Speaker 1: which is about eleven pounds more than I would like

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Speaker 1: to be. Um. But I think that's that's why New

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Speaker 1: Year's resolutions are there. She can get over it. I

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Speaker 1: haven't even weighed myself. I haven't even stepped on the scale.

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna give myself a

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks to work out and say we're on Matt.

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Speaker 1: So Uh. First of all, as you guys have probably noticed,

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Speaker 1: Tommy has been on often and uh My, my format

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Speaker 1: that I'm hoping to shoot for here at least for

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Speaker 1: the first part of the season is I'll have my

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Speaker 1: more Lakers focused podcasts well where I'll have my Laker

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Speaker 1: guys come on you you guys have met some of them,

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Speaker 1: Venet and Raj and I'm hoping to have Jason Maples

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Speaker 1: on here in the next couple of weeks, and then

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Speaker 1: I have hope to have some podcasts more in this

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Speaker 1: format where we talked about the rest of the league

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Speaker 1: and and Tommy for the meantime is going to be

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Speaker 1: joining me for those. Um. I really appreciate his perspective

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Speaker 1: and he's fun and he's entertaining and he's not afraid

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Speaker 1: to say anything, uh the crazy, but at the same time,

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Speaker 1: he believes it, which is all that really matters. And

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Speaker 1: uh and it gives it gives us some good content.

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Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk about the Warriors to start, obviously

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Speaker 1: on account of everything that's happened the last couple of days.

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Speaker 1: Um Uh that said, before we get started, I do

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Speaker 1: want to say something that just in defense of Tommy

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Speaker 1: and I for a second, because you know, both of

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Speaker 1: us have caught some crap over the last couple of

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Speaker 1: days for observations that we've made. And I want to

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Speaker 1: put emphasis on the word observations, because these weren't predictions

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Speaker 1: or hoping on someone's downfall or slander or anything along

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Speaker 1: those lines. Tommy made an observation that over the last

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Speaker 1: three seasons and a time spanning about twenty games or so,

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Speaker 1: that Steph hadn't been shooting well, and he was also

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Speaker 1: observing that he's a shorter guard who is in his

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Speaker 1: that he's thirty two years old, and all he was

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Speaker 1: saying was I hope this isn't a sign that he's

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Speaker 1: slowing down. There was no uh, there was no hope

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Speaker 1: for his downfall. There wasn't anything negative there. And then

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Speaker 1: for me, the same exact thing. I'm not a Steph

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Speaker 1: fan or a Warriors fan, but I do want them

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Speaker 1: to be good. I want them if it were up

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Speaker 1: to me, they'd play in the Western Conference Finals against

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Speaker 1: the Lakers. Would be rooting for the Lakers. Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: I want them to be good because it's better for

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Speaker 1: the league, and I'm a basketball fan. All I pointed

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Speaker 1: out after five games was that they were the worst

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Speaker 1: team in the league. And that wasn't Again, that wasn't

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Speaker 1: a you know, Warriors are trash, you know they suck.

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Speaker 1: It was it was a It was it was based

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Speaker 1: on evidence. Statistically speaking, they had been outscored more than

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Speaker 1: any team in the entire league. Literally they were at

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Speaker 1: the bottom. And I was just saying, this isn't a oh,

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Speaker 1: we need step to get better. Oh we need you know,

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Speaker 1: Steve Kurt to be better, we need Draymond back. It

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Speaker 1: was we need everything to change. We literally need every

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Speaker 1: single thing on the roster, every single player, every single

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Speaker 1: person on the staff, to be better. And because they

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Speaker 1: were that bad, and that was all I was pointing out.

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Speaker 1: And as it turned out, the last couple of games,

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Speaker 1: everything has been better. Um, and so we're gonna talk

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Speaker 1: about today today, and we're gonna talk about you know

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Speaker 1: what from that, it projects to continue to be better

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Speaker 1: for the rest of the season and what they're realistic

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Speaker 1: goals are for the year. But I just think it's

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Speaker 1: important understand that, you know, Tommy and I were not

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Speaker 1: We're not out here just trolling people. We're we're we're

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Speaker 1: talking about basketball, And the right way to talk about basketball,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, is to respond to information, and these

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Speaker 1: were pieces of Infra nation that we got and we've

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Speaker 1: made observations and some people got upset, some people rubbed

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Speaker 1: it in our face, and you know what, we're actually

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Speaker 1: stoked and happy that this is going the way that

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Speaker 1: it's going. And I hope that people can kind of

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Speaker 1: see past that and understand where we're coming from. On

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Speaker 1: that note, Tommy, tell me what you think about what

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Speaker 1: Steph did over the last couple of days. So to

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Speaker 1: start to kind of piggyback off your your general point,

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Speaker 1: I'm a fan of the game of basketball before anything else, right.

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Speaker 1: I I fell in love with the game of basketball.

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Speaker 1: I didn't fall in love with the game because of

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Speaker 1: anyone player or anyone thing. I love that. I love

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Speaker 1: basketball as long as I can remember. So when I

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Speaker 1: see new information like you're pointing at, I try to

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Speaker 1: analyze that as honestly as possible. And the way Twitter operates,

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Speaker 1: some people aren't gonna like that, right, especially because I'm

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Speaker 1: part of Warriors Twitter and I am a huge step

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Speaker 1: Curry fan. I'm wearing it Steph Curry. David's in Jersey

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Speaker 1: right now. I own tons of Warriors World gear. I

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Speaker 1: buy stuff from him all the time. I bought new

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Speaker 1: stuff from sheet yesterday, but I was trying to be

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Speaker 1: honest with what I was seeing, and look, I was wrong.

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Speaker 1: I was wrong. My point the whole time was to

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Speaker 1: hold step Curry to the standard of Steph Curry, which

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Speaker 1: is one of the three best players in the league

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Speaker 1: since two thousand fourteen. And some of the stuff I

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Speaker 1: had seen was telling you, telling me, Okay, he still

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Speaker 1: might be a top ten guy. He still might be

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Speaker 1: top eight, but I don't know if he's top three anymore.

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Speaker 1: And if he isn't top three, then they probably don't

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Speaker 1: have a title in their future unless they make some

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Speaker 1: big trade. Now. If he plays like he did in

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Speaker 1: the second half against Chicago, if he plays like he

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Speaker 1: did against the Pistons, and then not in the first

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Speaker 1: Portland's game, but the obviously the sixty two point explosion,

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Speaker 1: and then how he played last night, he's still a

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Speaker 1: top three player in the league. If he can get

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Speaker 1: to that level consistently against the best competition, he is

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Speaker 1: still one of the best three players in the league. Um,

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Speaker 1: and I think what we've seen is um a shift

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Speaker 1: not only in in Cerve's scheme where he is trying

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Speaker 1: to get step going downhill more off pick and roll.

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Speaker 1: He's simplifying their actions. He's doing some simple horn stuff,

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Speaker 1: or they're getting a guy coming off step and now

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Speaker 1: steps getting a down screen. He's working up a dribble

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Speaker 1: handoff or a curl, really simple stuff to just get

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Speaker 1: him the ball and spot where he likes it. But

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Speaker 1: it's also been a shift in mentality from steph Um.

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Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connor wrote an article. I believe it was right

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Speaker 1: after his sixty two point game. Before that sixty two

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Speaker 1: point games, step had been touching the ball thirty one

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Speaker 1: times per thirty six minutes in the half court, which

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Speaker 1: was the lowest rate since Mark Jackson was the head

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Speaker 1: coach UM and then in his sixty two point game

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Speaker 1: he touched it eighty eight times in total, forty four

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Speaker 1: times in the half court and possess the ball for

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Speaker 1: six and a half minutes um total, which is about

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Speaker 1: in line with his two thousand and fifteen sixteen Unionitis

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Speaker 1: m B MVP season. And the biggest difference that I

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Speaker 1: saw was, instead of when he would get a switch

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Speaker 1: against kind of a bigger wing or a big man

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Speaker 1: or a guy who can basically take off the dribble,

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Speaker 1: Robert Covington and Marvin Bagley, guys like that. Early in

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Speaker 1: the season, when he was getting those switches against the

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Speaker 1: bucks of the nets, he was getting off the ball,

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Speaker 1: and he's trying to do all of his off ball stuff. Cut, find,

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Speaker 1: find a curl, find a fade, and it just wasn't

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Speaker 1: working because he didn't have the teammates to find find

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Speaker 1: him in those spots. But what he started doing is, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I have these guys on an island. I'm just gonna

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Speaker 1: go at him. I'm gonna go to my step back,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to get to the rim. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: to my floater game, I'm gonna get to the mid

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Speaker 1: range a little bit. And he's really it's been a

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Speaker 1: shift in his mentality too. And I think my biggest

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Speaker 1: reason for concerned was I didn't see him doing that enough,

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Speaker 1: and this team needs that um and he's been much

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Speaker 1: much more willing to do that, and he's gonna have

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Speaker 1: to keep that mentality all year. The biggest thing in

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Speaker 1: sam a spending our reports this all the time, it's health.

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Speaker 1: If he can stay healthy and do this for the

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Speaker 1: entire year, they're gonna be I still think one of

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Speaker 1: the better teams in the West come playoff time, and

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Speaker 1: to go into more general warrior stuff, a lot of

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Speaker 1: that comes down to Draymond Green. I was I was

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Speaker 1: a little bit worried about Step to start the year,

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Speaker 1: and I still thought he was a top ten guy.

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Speaker 1: I was, like I said, I was worried about him

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Speaker 1: being top three, but I knew once Draymond came back,

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Speaker 1: everything was going to be basically fine. But I've said

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Speaker 1: this a couple of times now. When teams in the

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Speaker 1: NBA don't have their second best player, they generally look

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Speaker 1: like crap. If you're the Lakers, that might not be

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Speaker 1: true if you're the Bucks, if you're the Nets, maybe,

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Speaker 1: But for the most part, if you don't have your

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Speaker 1: second best guy, you're gonna look like a bad team

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Speaker 1: most of the time. Draymond Green, for all of his warts,

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Speaker 1: is their second best player. He's shooting thirteen percent from

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Speaker 1: the field right now, and he is still their second

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Speaker 1: best player. He is one of the most impactful players

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Speaker 1: without scoring that I've ever seen in my entire life.

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Speaker 1: And what he does is he relieves step of playmaking

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Speaker 1: duties and he is I still think probably the best

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Speaker 1: defender in the NBA, and the only other guy that

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Speaker 1: would have an argument is Anthony Davis. Everything makes more

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Speaker 1: sense from Draymon is on the floor, Kelly Ubrey is

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Speaker 1: now just a play finisher, Andrew Wiggins has less on

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Speaker 1: his plate um. Any of the other secondary or tertiary

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Speaker 1: guys have less on their point. I thought this team

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Speaker 1: would be under five hundred for the first fifteen to

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Speaker 1: twenty games. With how good they've looked the last two games,

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Speaker 1: they might be better than that. Fifteen to twenty games in.

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Speaker 1: They have a tough seven game stretch coming up, and

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Speaker 1: I do want to see how step looks against some

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Speaker 1: of the better defenses in the league, because for as

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Speaker 1: great as he was, those teams are bad defenses. Portland's

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Speaker 1: and sacrament or two of the worst defenses in the league.

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Speaker 1: If you and I have similar feelings about how bad

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Speaker 1: Portland is, Portland's, like I said a couple of weeks ago,

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Speaker 1: they had one of the most overrated off seasons in

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Speaker 1: recent memory. It's That's still does look really really good

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Speaker 1: against the Clippers and the Lakers for the most part.

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Speaker 1: Then I'm all in on this team. I don't think

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Speaker 1: no one would really scare me in a playoff series

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Speaker 1: besides the Lakers and the Clippers, and that would be it.

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Speaker 1: Um Denver. We'll talk about them later, but they have

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Speaker 1: their own wards. Phoenix is a really good team. I

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Speaker 1: do really like Phoenix, But in terms of a playoff series,

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Speaker 1: they the Warriors would still have the best player on

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Speaker 1: the floor and Draymond is still one of the most

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Speaker 1: impactful guys in the league. So moving forward, as long

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Speaker 1: as step keeps being the guy that we've seen the

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Speaker 1: last week and a half, they're gonna be a damn

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Speaker 1: good team. They're gonna be one of the better teams

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Speaker 1: in the West as long as Raymond and him stay healthy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So when it comes to the Warriors, so we'll start,

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Speaker 1: let's start with the team in general here. So when

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Speaker 1: it when it comes to the Warriors and what I

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Speaker 1: project for them for the rest of the year, which

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Speaker 1: again again is just an observation based you know, prediction.

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Speaker 1: It's not me, you know, making some sweeping declaration. And

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Speaker 1: one of the other crazy things is like being in

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Speaker 1: the business of trying to make predictions and sports is

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Speaker 1: just insanity. Like sports, If sports were were more predictable

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Speaker 1: than they are, they'd be less entertaining. There's a professional

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Speaker 1: sports gamblers. Colin Coward always says a professional sports gambler

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Speaker 1: is only right fifty percent of the time. So the

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Speaker 1: point being like, we were making guesses, but we could

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Speaker 1: very well be wrong, and we'll just respond as information comes.

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Speaker 1: I'm okay with being wrong. What's hard to do it.

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Speaker 1: Once I started tweeting more about basketball, I accepted the

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Speaker 1: fact that I'm gonna be wrong a lot of the times.

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Speaker 1: It's just it's a reality of the situation. And I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna sit here and be hard at it and

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Speaker 1: double down when I'm wrong. I'm more than willing to

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Speaker 1: admit it, exactly. And that's what bothers me, because the

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Speaker 1: people that are in your mentions always being you know,

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Speaker 1: super uh, you know, crazy in your face about the

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Speaker 1: mistakes you've made. They've made just as many the stupid

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Speaker 1: you know, fan based predictions in their own time. But anyway, so,

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Speaker 1: you know, but coming into that two game, Coming into

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Speaker 1: that second game against Portland was when they had dropped

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Speaker 1: to thirty in the league and net rating. All I

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Speaker 1: pointed out was, hey, you know, in the Western Conference,

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Speaker 1: given the amount of talent you have to go through

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Speaker 1: on a daily basis, it's gonna be extremely difficult for

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Speaker 1: you to to win enough games to to to really compete,

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Speaker 1: and especially with the way that the playoff structure is,

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, essentially, like even if you fall

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Speaker 1: into that eleven to fourteen range, the guys that are

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Speaker 1: on the fringe of the playoffs trying to fight into

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Speaker 1: that tent spot for the play and you're still dealing

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Speaker 1: with teams like like New Orleans and Sacramento and San Antonio,

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Speaker 1: teams that you know aren't great teams, but they're teams

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Speaker 1: that have a decent amount of talent and if you

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Speaker 1: don't bring a winning formula to against them, you're you're

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Speaker 1: gonna get beat. And all of those teams have impressive

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Speaker 1: wins so far this season, you know, like the New

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Speaker 1: Orleans has beat you know, Toronto a few times, and

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Speaker 1: and Sacramento has had a couple of impressive wins. So

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Speaker 1: the point being, like, I think Sacareno was the only

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Speaker 1: team to beat Phoenix in the first five games of

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Speaker 1: the season. So the point being is like it's it's

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Speaker 1: it's really hard to win games in the NBA, and

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Speaker 1: the Warriors looked like they were the worst team in

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Speaker 1: the league. Now after what happened in the last two

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Speaker 1: games where they you know that the first game was

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Speaker 1: a little sketchy against Portland because it required this unbelievable

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Speaker 1: performance by Steph Curry and they didn't defend particularly well.

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Speaker 1: Their offensive rating in their defensive writing in that game

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Speaker 1: was about a one fift team, which is pretty bad.

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Speaker 1: Writing was like, but that's not gonna happen. And then

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Speaker 1: last night against Sacramento, they played a team that you know,

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Speaker 1: there's a little bit of a backstory. They're they're kind

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Speaker 1: of unraveling behind the scenes and they're kind of there's

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Speaker 1: some sort of weird like high school esque mutiny going

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Speaker 1: on where all the parents are getting involved. It's really

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Speaker 1: happening with Marvin Bagley. Does anybody even really know? I

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Speaker 1: don't know, but it's a weird thing. It's a weird thing.

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Speaker 1: It's a weird thing going on there. And quite frankly,

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Speaker 1: like like, it was an impressive win because they defended

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Speaker 1: extremely well that game and they scored at will. On

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Speaker 1: the other end, they were able to rest their starters

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Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. That was all great. They in

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Speaker 1: the last two games they have solutely flipped the script.

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Speaker 1: But it was it's important to acknowledge that two nights

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Speaker 1: prior against Portlands they got killed and there is some

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Speaker 1: data that has come out. Mark Stein was talking about

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Speaker 1: that this morning, that teams in these baseball series that

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Speaker 1: have performed really poorly in that second night. And then uh,

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Speaker 1: and then also, you know, we just talked about Sacramentos issue.

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Speaker 1: So here's the question. You know, if you if you

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Speaker 1: ask me right now what I'm thinking. I'm thinking, well,

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Speaker 1: there's no question now that they can at very at

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Speaker 1: the very least be in that play in stretch and

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Speaker 1: that's seven to ten seed area. They have proven that

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Speaker 1: there's enough talent on the roster and that Steph and

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Speaker 1: Draymond and Kerr are good enough, the three of them,

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Speaker 1: with their winning pedigree and what they bring to the

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Speaker 1: table to get into that zone. However, they have two

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Speaker 1: games against Clippers coming up, they play the Lakers, they

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Speaker 1: play Sons, they play the Nuggets, they play the Pacers.

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Speaker 1: It is very possible, not not entirely unlikely, that they

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Speaker 1: could go one in six in the next seven games.

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Speaker 1: They could go like if they went oh in seven,

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Speaker 1: it would be shocking, but it would just mean that,

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Speaker 1: like like the Warriors, right now have the twenty four

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Speaker 1: net rating in the league. Vegas is probably going to

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Speaker 1: have them as an underdog and a lot of these

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Speaker 1: games they might they might have a one They might

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Speaker 1: be a one point favorite against the Pacers, maybe maybe

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Speaker 1: against the Nuggets. They had to rout out to. Toronto

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Speaker 1: is really struggled to start the year. So they'll probably

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Speaker 1: be a favorite against Toronto. Yeah, and they'll be a

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Speaker 1: favorite against Toronto. But like you're talking about, you're literally

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Speaker 1: talking about a stretch here where they could very easily

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Speaker 1: at the end of it be what you know, five

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Speaker 1: and ten or six and nine or whatever it is

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Speaker 1: they could be. So the point is is, like with

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Speaker 1: the that's the nature of this schedule, and that is

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Speaker 1: why you know, when Vegas put out their win totals

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Speaker 1: to start the season, all of these teams, like even

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Speaker 1: the best teams in the league, were predicted to be

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Speaker 1: at like a fifty five win pace and not a

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Speaker 1: sixty win pace because Vegas just understood the night in

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Speaker 1: and night out schedule in this year's NBA season is

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Speaker 1: going to be insane, and the same goes for the

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Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. There's just a lot of talent in the

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Speaker 1: league right now and none of the really good teams

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Speaker 1: are really all that good. And and so from from

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Speaker 1: from that same point, what I would say is, like

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Speaker 1: I have, I always say, be careful of regular season

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Speaker 1: victory laps because you can be humbled extremely fast. And

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Speaker 1: the example I'd give you is last year or two

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Speaker 1: years ago when region Rondo made that game winning buzzer

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Speaker 1: beater in Boston for the Lakers, and everybody was talking

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Speaker 1: about how I think it was their first game back

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Speaker 1: after the All Star break or it was right before

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Speaker 1: the All Star break or something like that, and everyone

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Speaker 1: was talking about how this was what was going to

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Speaker 1: turn things around. Lebron is back. You know, they just

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Speaker 1: made this game winner. Everything's good, but people forgot that, like,

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Speaker 1: you know, Okay, Lonzo balls out, so they actually have

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Speaker 1: like almost no talent in the backcourt and no non

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Speaker 1: Lebron basket creation, and they're still got awful at the

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Speaker 1: center position. So there's still just a bad basketball team.

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Speaker 1: And then what do you know, for the next month

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Speaker 1: and a half, they just sucked. And then as soon

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Speaker 1: as Brandon Ingram went down, they became literally one of

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Speaker 1: the least talented teams in league, and they just got

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Speaker 1: killed every night. So the point is is like, like,

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Speaker 1: this is a long road ahead. Steph has to stay healthy.

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Speaker 1: All these guys gotta keep playing better. You know, Draymond's

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Speaker 1: at an age where he's not exactly the most reliable

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Speaker 1: I physically in the world. It could go south quickly,

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Speaker 1: and so like for the people that are talking reckless,

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Speaker 1: understand it's a marathon, not a sprint. This is good news.

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Speaker 1: It shows what they can be, but there's a long

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Speaker 1: way to go, absolutely, and I'm with you on all

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Speaker 1: of those things. I'm assuming let's assume relatively good health,

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Speaker 1: we get sixty five Stepan Draymond games or so. These

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Speaker 1: guys are gonna keep improving. They have one of the

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Speaker 1: newest rosters in the league in terms of the talent

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Speaker 1: they're integrating with Stephan Draymond and guys they've had in

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Speaker 1: the past. But Stephen Draymond have basically played with none

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Speaker 1: of these guys before, at least not in important games.

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Speaker 1: So this team is going to continue to get better.

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Speaker 1: There is talent on the roster, and they were shooting

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Speaker 1: historically bad to start this season, not just Kelly Huber,

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Speaker 1: who literally has the worst three point shooting start, considering

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Speaker 1: a minimum number of attempts in NBA history. UM, by

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Speaker 1: the numbers, the worst start ever and that's a guy

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Speaker 1: who shot on five to six attempts a game last season.

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Speaker 1: So it's there where he can shoot. Midoun was predictable

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Speaker 1: and in the last podcast, I shared a personal story

379
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Speaker 1: like was a text bookcase of a role player shoved

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Speaker 1: into a new role. That kind of psyched him out

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Speaker 1: a little bit. And he was inevitably in the start

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Speaker 1: making shots, contract contract year. He knows he's on a

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Speaker 1: kind of a national stage for maybe really the first

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Speaker 1: time in his career. He knows there's being a lot

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Speaker 1: expected of him, especially because they paid eighty million dollars

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Speaker 1: in luxury tax to bring him in. UM, so he

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Speaker 1: knew there was a lot on his plate. But the

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Speaker 1: regression to the mean was expected. The first four games.

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Speaker 1: I want to say, and uh my guy Bald has

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Speaker 1: put this out on Twitter. UM a couple days ago,

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Speaker 1: the Warriors were underperforming. There their shot expectation based on

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Speaker 1: you know, the shots. They were getting a twenty five

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Speaker 1: points a game, literally twenty five points games, so it

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Speaker 1: things couldn't have gotten worse. UM, we're seeing really good.

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Speaker 1: I think they're up to around two or three below

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Speaker 1: points below their shot expectation now, so that they're coming back,

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Speaker 1: they're regressing to the mean. Basically, Um Wiggins has been

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Speaker 1: secretly really good the last five games. He still has

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Speaker 1: his Andrew Wiggins moments where he's taking terrible eighteen footers

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Speaker 1: with eighteen seconds on the shop cloth, but that's just

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Speaker 1: kind of the expectation. At this point. His playmaking has

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Speaker 1: release started a flashlight like I expected it too before

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Speaker 1: the year. Um getting Draymond back, He's defend. He's defending

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Speaker 1: probably more consistently than I've ever seen him defend, at

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Speaker 1: least in terms of effort. He still makes some bone

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Speaker 1: headed mistakes, um or he will be lack some possessions,

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Speaker 1: but he's made more chase down plays where he's you know,

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Speaker 1: getting a steal from behind or getting a block from

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Speaker 1: behind that I think I've ever seen for like a

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Speaker 1: full season in his entire career. Just through these first

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Speaker 1: seven or eight games, Um, he's defending with energy, He's

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Speaker 1: playing with energy. He's actually finding people. He's finding three

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Speaker 1: point shooters all over the floor. It's just a matter

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Speaker 1: of whether they can start making more of those. Um

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Speaker 1: Ubre obviously has had a terrible start offensively, but I've

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Speaker 1: really liked his point of attack defense and with Draymond back,

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Speaker 1: he's actually a really good week side rim protector. Um.

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Speaker 1: He's been coming over and contesting shots, changing shots, getting

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Speaker 1: blocks from the weak side. UM, and those guys really

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Speaker 1: really thrived with Draymond this It's similar to Iguadala or

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Speaker 1: Durant in years past, those long athletic wings. If you

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Speaker 1: put those guys around Draymond, He's going to cover up

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Speaker 1: so many mistakes that they can just kind of come

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Speaker 1: over and be difference makers and get deplections. Wiseman is

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Speaker 1: obviously a rookie and he still has a lot of

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Speaker 1: rookie moments. But if I was putting a big man

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Speaker 1: next to any person in the NBA, I would want

428
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:15,920
Speaker 1: it to be Draymond Green. Right, If you're putting a

429
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:17,800
Speaker 1: young big man who has a lot to learn about

430
00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,879
Speaker 1: the game, just in terms of feel and positioning and

431
00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:23,760
Speaker 1: everything of that nature, there is no better person than

432
00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,160
Speaker 1: Draymond Green. He's the best teacher at that. So I'm still,

433
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:30,800
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm still very optimistic on this team ceiling

434
00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:32,720
Speaker 1: and and it will take a lot to go right.

435
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:34,800
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, They still need more shooting. They

436
00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,160
Speaker 1: probably with Marquis Chris up for three months, they will

437
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,080
Speaker 1: probably need another big body at some point because Cavon

438
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:43,159
Speaker 1: Looney has been not great to start this season. He

439
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:44,880
Speaker 1: looks even slower than he has in the past, which

440
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:47,359
Speaker 1: I didn't think was physically possible, but he actually is

441
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,600
Speaker 1: slower now than he was in twenty nine. So they're

442
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:51,480
Speaker 1: probably going to be at least one more big man body.

443
00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:53,320
Speaker 1: I hope they can get some shooting near the deadline

444
00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:55,520
Speaker 1: or on the buy out market, because both those things

445
00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:57,720
Speaker 1: are needed. If they can do that, Like I said,

446
00:19:57,760 --> 00:19:59,600
Speaker 1: I I still think this team has a chance to

447
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:01,399
Speaker 1: be really, really good, but it will take a lot

448
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:02,880
Speaker 1: of things going right, and it will take the health

449
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:04,880
Speaker 1: of obviously step In Draymon. Either one of those guys

450
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:07,119
Speaker 1: goes down, it all goes in the tank. Yeah, we

451
00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:09,119
Speaker 1: talked about that a lot before the season. Health is

452
00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:10,720
Speaker 1: going to be such an important thing for them because

453
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:12,680
Speaker 1: they just they literally won't be able to survive it.

454
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:14,679
Speaker 1: And it's it comes down to their two biggest weaknesses

455
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 1: in my opinion, which is because I actually do think

456
00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:18,680
Speaker 1: that Ubra and Wiggans are gonna be fine. Wings. They're

457
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,040
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be you know, Paul George and Kawhi

458
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,280
Speaker 1: Leonard or Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown. But they don't

459
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:26,000
Speaker 1: need them to be because of what you know Draymond

460
00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:28,560
Speaker 1: and Steph bring to the table. But they're good, serviceable wings.

461
00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:31,680
Speaker 1: They won't be they won't be hemorrhaging points on both

462
00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:33,800
Speaker 1: ends and those matchups, they'll be able to hold their own.

463
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,119
Speaker 1: So where where I worry about them is, you know,

464
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:39,760
Speaker 1: like I really don't think like as I am super

465
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 1: stoked about Wiseman, and you should be if you're a

466
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:44,080
Speaker 1: Warrior's fan too, that dudes, that dude's an All Star

467
00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:48,760
Speaker 1: in the making. That be excited, yes, but we're years

468
00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:52,040
Speaker 1: away from that, and he's gonna get absolutely eaten alive

469
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:54,720
Speaker 1: by Anthony Davis and by Nicola Yo Kitchen all of

470
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:56,399
Speaker 1: the centers in the league. He's not a he's not

471
00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:58,760
Speaker 1: a winning NBA player right now. He'll help you in

472
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:02,120
Speaker 1: this regular season and matchups, but he's not that guy yet.

473
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,480
Speaker 1: So there, they have a legitimate weakness in the front

474
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:08,040
Speaker 1: court after Draymond Green, and they have a legitimate weakness

475
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 1: in overall playmaking after Steph Curry. And Draymond Green, And

476
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,320
Speaker 1: so as a result of that, if either of them

477
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:16,439
Speaker 1: go down for any extensive stretch of the season, it's

478
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:18,200
Speaker 1: just gonna be really hard for them to win games.

479
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,640
Speaker 1: And and also it also worries me in the case

480
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:23,239
Speaker 1: of like back to backs in three games and four

481
00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:25,040
Speaker 1: nights and things along those lines, if they ever have

482
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:27,480
Speaker 1: to rest either of them, it's hard to imagine a

483
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:31,320
Speaker 1: scenario where they can realistically compete replacing what they have

484
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,160
Speaker 1: to do night tonight to win. It's very very similar,

485
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:37,520
Speaker 1: but it's very very similar to the two thousand eighteen calves.

486
00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:39,920
Speaker 1: The beauty of it was is Lebron played eighty two games,

487
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:43,119
Speaker 1: and so that's that's kind of what you need, um

488
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:44,720
Speaker 1: out of these two guys is for that. I was

489
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:46,320
Speaker 1: literally thinking about that as we were going into the

490
00:21:46,359 --> 00:21:50,240
Speaker 1: game last night, Like, okay, Step drops sixty two. He's fatigued,

491
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,160
Speaker 1: it's a back to back, and he's got a guard

492
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,440
Speaker 1: Deer and Fox and and all of these other really quick.

493
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:58,760
Speaker 1: You know, Buddy hill All, I think Buddy hild it out,

494
00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,080
Speaker 1: but Flight Haliburton was out. He did Blight Haliburt was

495
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 1: out the trade. So anyway, like like I remember sitting

496
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,720
Speaker 1: there thinking like, I wonder if the step will rest

497
00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:10,399
Speaker 1: and it's like they can't rest him, Like if they

498
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 1: rest him, they might as well forfeit the game. They

499
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 1: literally can't win without him as a result of the

500
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 1: way that this roster came, And I think I think

501
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 1: that's the reason for him putting on the size. As

502
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:21,320
Speaker 1: much as I kind of criticized that, I think some

503
00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 1: of the added size is to take the pound because

504
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 1: he knew he knew he's gonna get beat up this

505
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:28,560
Speaker 1: year basically, and he actually I was surprised by how

506
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:30,800
Speaker 1: spry he looked last night because it was the second

507
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:32,680
Speaker 1: night of a back to back and he scored sixty

508
00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: two points and had a ton of output. He shot

509
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,160
Speaker 1: nineteen three throws in that first game of the back

510
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: to back, and that's the most he's ever shot in

511
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 1: his career. So I was actually expecting him to maybe

512
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 1: look a little bit tired, but he looked more spry

513
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,000
Speaker 1: than he than I thought he would. So hopefully that

514
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,200
Speaker 1: added size does help him stay a little bit healthier

515
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:49,679
Speaker 1: through the regular season, because they're gonna need they need

516
00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:51,480
Speaker 1: at least sixty five games from him, because if he

517
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 1: misses seven games they're winning one or two at absolute most,

518
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,440
Speaker 1: and they're probably losing all seven. And so the last

519
00:22:57,440 --> 00:22:59,080
Speaker 1: thing I want to talking about with the Warriors is

520
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 1: is Steph Curry himself in the way that he's been playing,

521
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:05,040
Speaker 1: because I want to make a point that I think

522
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:07,040
Speaker 1: is important because there's a lot of talk about, you know,

523
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 1: Steph Curry losing a step and you and I have

524
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about this, uh directly with each other,

525
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,920
Speaker 1: and you know, this is the example that I want

526
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,480
Speaker 1: to give because I think Lebron actually is is a

527
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,639
Speaker 1: perfect example of how of a point that I have

528
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,160
Speaker 1: constantly made about the NBA, which is that about basketball

529
00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 1: in general, which is that you know, as you get

530
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 1: into your thirties, there's like a transition that takes place

531
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,960
Speaker 1: mentally in your game. And so, for instance, I'm a

532
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: huge Lebron James fan. I absolutely think Lebron James is

533
00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:41,000
Speaker 1: the best player in the world right now. That said,

534
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: Lebron has literally his effective field goal percentage has literally

535
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,399
Speaker 1: dropped every single season since two thousand, seventeen, two thousand,

536
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: seen eighteen nine. So five consecutive is the fifth consecutive

537
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: season where his efficiency is dropping, and that doesn't mean

538
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:02,160
Speaker 1: he's becoming a worse basketball player necessarily. I would argue

539
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,320
Speaker 1: he's as good now as he was in two thousand,

540
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen, but there's a transition taking place. He is

541
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 1: becoming less effective as a scorer necessarily, and specific matchups,

542
00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,880
Speaker 1: he's not getting the same separation. He's not the same

543
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: you know, physical freak that he was. But he's so

544
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:20,680
Speaker 1: much smarter than he used to be in his ability

545
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: to win basketball games, which is a combination of all

546
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 1: these different factors involving leadership and and like controlling the

547
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: flow of a game, passing ability, like all of these

548
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,160
Speaker 1: different little intricacies of basketball. He's so much better at

549
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:35,160
Speaker 1: now that even though he's not scoring at the same

550
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:39,080
Speaker 1: efficient clip, he's actually as effective, if not more effective,

551
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:41,359
Speaker 1: as a winner now than he was in the past.

552
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:43,640
Speaker 1: And so I feel the same way about Steph Curry.

553
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: When I watched him play, I don't feel like he's

554
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 1: getting the same separation that he did in two thousand sixteen.

555
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 1: That's just my opinion. That said, I think Steph is

556
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 1: every bit as good now, if not better than he

557
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:56,760
Speaker 1: was in two thousand sixteen, because I don't think two

558
00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 1: thousand twenty Steph Curry lets the two thousand and sixteen

559
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 1: finals slip away. I think he's just a better winner.

560
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 1: I think he understands different possessions that are pivotal in

561
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: different games, and how it can swing a series, and

562
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 1: and I and and just in general, how to build

563
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 1: a winning culture and all those different things like that.

564
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:14,879
Speaker 1: Like he is every bit as good now as he

565
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: ever has been. Now there will be a point where

566
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,160
Speaker 1: the physical slips too far and he actually does begin

567
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:21,920
Speaker 1: to slip. And the same goes for Lebron. I don't

568
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: think we're there with either guy. But like here's I

569
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: told you in the in the direct message yesterday that

570
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 1: I thought that Steph Curry might finish the season around

571
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 1: thirty seven thirty eight percent from three And I really

572
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:35,720
Speaker 1: do think that, just by virtue of the fact that

573
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,080
Speaker 1: his shot quality this year is going to be lower

574
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 1: than it has been because he doesn't have Clay taking

575
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 1: as much attention off of him. And then I also

576
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: think that he's slowing down a little bit. And then

577
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:46,639
Speaker 1: then there's a high volume thing. Just by virtue of

578
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 1: the way the team is built, he's going to have

579
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: to be more aggressive. But if Steph Curry drops to

580
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:54,880
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent from three. I don't think that means

581
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:56,879
Speaker 1: he's he's on the back end of the slope. I

582
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: think that's just a product of circumstance. And I would

583
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:02,199
Speaker 1: leave that the makes that are in that thirty eight

584
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: percent would be more impactful because he would be aggressive

585
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:06,960
Speaker 1: at different moments of the game than he used to be,

586
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:09,120
Speaker 1: and he would pick his spots a little bit better,

587
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,440
Speaker 1: and and and all of these different factors that lead

588
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: to winning basketball games. So I do I do think that, like, uh,

589
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: it's important to monitor as we're as we're looking at

590
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:20,600
Speaker 1: like highlight tapes of of what Steph looks like as

591
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,159
Speaker 1: a player, that that's not the only thing he's that

592
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 1: that that's not the only thing to track in terms

593
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 1: of how good he is as a player right now. Yeah,

594
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,879
Speaker 1: And I mean that was the reason for a lot

595
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,440
Speaker 1: of my skepticism, right is less space on particularly dribble moves,

596
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,120
Speaker 1: drible sequences where he's freeing himself for his step back

597
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: or his crossover into his threes. Now it has looked

598
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: better than it has probably in a long time, um

599
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 1: these last three or four games, and a lot of

600
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:46,119
Speaker 1: this might have been virtue of not having to do

601
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,119
Speaker 1: it anymore. But a lot of my concern was based on, Okay,

602
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: his his shot profile has actually flipped on his head

603
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: compared to fifteen sixteen, Right, fifteen sixteen, like sixty percent

604
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:57,960
Speaker 1: of his threes or so, we're unassisted versus present being

605
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:02,120
Speaker 1: assisted by eighteen nineteen that had flipped exactly now assistant

606
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: were now unassisted. Now. Was that a product of playing

607
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:07,440
Speaker 1: next to Kevin Durant and having to share more possessions

608
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 1: and working more off ball so Katie can have the

609
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:12,159
Speaker 1: ball more? Yeah? Absolutely, But I also thought that was

610
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,240
Speaker 1: a product of him losing a half step as as

611
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 1: a guy with the ball, and maybe his release being

612
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 1: slightly slower because he's not twenty seven and his apt

613
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,680
Speaker 1: at his absolute physical peak anymore. Now, what he's shown

614
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,399
Speaker 1: the last four games have made me very hopeful for

615
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he still is that guy off the

616
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 1: dribble um, but he does seem a lot of this

617
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: stuff you're pointing to, with winning basketball and him not

618
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:38,040
Speaker 1: letting the finals slip away, and just being in general

619
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: a better decision maker, a more conscious decision maker. Part

620
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 1: of what made Steph Curry so special was his recklessness,

621
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,359
Speaker 1: Right early in his career, it was how reckless his

622
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: shot selection was and how scared defenses were any time

623
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:51,479
Speaker 1: he had the ball. And they still are, don't get

624
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,359
Speaker 1: me wrong, they absolutely still are. But there are moments

625
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 1: where he'll step back and I think, oh, he has

626
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 1: space for a shot, and he doesn't quite shoot it. Now.

627
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 1: Is that him just searching for a better shot. Is

628
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:03,679
Speaker 1: that him not trusting his step back quite as much

629
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 1: because he hasn't done it as much, or because his

630
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 1: release isn't quite as quick, meaning he's going from the

631
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: absolute quickest release of all time to maybe just one

632
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 1: of the quicker releases of all time. Once again, people

633
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 1: aren't understanding what I'm saying. On the margins. It's all

634
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 1: about who he was as his former self, not you know,

635
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: compared to Damian Lillard. He's still a better player than

636
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard. I think everybody knows that after the last

637
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 1: four quour or five games, point being, I think a

638
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 1: lot of the stuff you're staying is correct. He definitely

639
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 1: manages a game better now, um, and that is the

640
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 1: reason to be optimistic. But he also can't lose the

641
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 1: recklessness that he once played with. It's a very very

642
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: fine line to walk between saying hey, I'm gonna take

643
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: I'm gonna constantly hunt for shots, and you know what,

644
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 1: there's times where I gotta manage the game a little

645
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 1: bit better. And I think he absolutely has improved it

646
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: that and I think we've seen it the last four

647
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: to five games. Now, what does it look like against

648
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: the Clippers and Lakers? Another big test? And no, I'm

649
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 1: not saying his legacy is on the line, That's not

650
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: what I'm saying at all. I want to see how

651
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: it looks this year against some of the best defenses

652
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:03,000
Speaker 1: in the league. And what that will tell me is

653
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 1: is this team actually ready to be a Western Conference

654
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: playoff semi contender where they can have a puncher's chance

655
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,200
Speaker 1: against anybody, but they're not favored against the best teams

656
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 1: in the league. That's what this next week and a

657
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 1: half will tell me of games, these next seven games,

658
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:17,720
Speaker 1: That's what I'm looking for. How good is this team

659
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 1: against some of the better teams in the league, because

660
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: to start the year they looked like an absolute train wreck.

661
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:26,040
Speaker 1: M That's an interesting point you brought up about his recklessness.

662
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: I haven't really thought about that because he he doesn't

663
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 1: like sometimes him being a little too tempered could be

664
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 1: a bad thing. And see what you're saying. One last

665
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: thing I want to touch on with Steff before we

666
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: that you just reminded me of before we move on

667
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: to the nets. So, like this became a big thing

668
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: when Ben bend Trick or Detrick or ever you pronounced

669
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: his last name, was tweeting about Steff the other day

670
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 1: and he said a bunch of stuff that I didn't

671
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 1: agree with, but I did think he brought up one

672
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: thing that I thought that I think is interesting and

673
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 1: I wish people were a little bit more open minded

674
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 1: on because, uh, like a great example would be like

675
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: like Michael Vick. You know, Michael v was. It was

676
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: a market inefficiency in the sense that teams had no

677
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: idea how to deal with the mobile quarterback like him.

678
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: He was. He would never be as effective right now

679
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:11,960
Speaker 1: because teams are so much more set up. They've they've

680
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 1: downsized their linebackers, they've they've built defensive schemes where you know,

681
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: a linebacker is completely keyed in on the quarterback the

682
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 1: entire time, and they they found ways. They grew into

683
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: a league that had learned how to better deal with

684
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 1: someone like Mike Vick, and that doesn't mean that Mike

685
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 1: Vick is a lesser quarterback. And to me, it's a

686
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:32,480
Speaker 1: compliment to Mike, it's a it's a sign that he

687
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 1: was ahead of his time and in many ways a genius.

688
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 1: And I feel the same way about Steph, like I

689
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: think it's okay to admit that the way that teams

690
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: guard step now is different than the way team's guarded

691
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: Steff in two thousand fifteen and two thousand sixteen, and

692
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: the fact that they had no idea how to guard

693
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 1: him helped him win basketball games. It's a fact you

694
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: can't like. There's no point in lying about it. In

695
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,480
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, he was crossing half court against the

696
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder on a clutch possession with the game

697
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: on the line, unguarded and stepping into a thirty ft three.

698
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,239
Speaker 1: Now they're literally like last night, Sacramento was trapping him

699
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,480
Speaker 1: in the back court. Okay, teams are guarding Steff different

700
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: now than they used to, and many other guards have

701
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 1: copied him. Now, Dame and try Young are taking a

702
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 1: lot of long threes off to dribble over over ball screens.

703
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 1: That's something that you never used to see in the

704
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 1: league except for when step did it, and now other

705
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,479
Speaker 1: guards around the league are doing it and as a result,

706
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 1: defenses have adapted and learned how to better guard them.

707
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,960
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that Steff is a lesser player. It

708
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: just means that he took advantage of a little bit

709
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 1: of a market inefficiency there during that time period, and

710
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: that's what allowed a six three guard who does not

711
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 1: defend at the same level as as the super elite

712
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:43,840
Speaker 1: wings in the league to be maybe the best player

713
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 1: in the league. I don't think he was. I think

714
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 1: he's the second best player, But to be in that conversation,

715
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 1: he he was a genius who was ahead of his time,

716
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 1: who found a hole in the NBA and exploited it

717
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 1: to literally win a championship and then to win two

718
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: more with Kevin Durant. It is a compliment to him.

719
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: But I also think that, like Steph fans and Warrior

720
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: fans are a little bit unrealistic about the realities of

721
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: this staff experience, which has been that he's guarded differently

722
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: now than he used to be. And I think that

723
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 1: that's okay to admit, and I don't think that that's

724
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 1: an insult to Steph. Yeah, I mean, it's it's not

725
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 1: an insult. I think that the pushback that I have

726
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 1: with stuff like that is like, oh, he didn't revolutionize

727
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: the game at all. It's like, no, he absolutely did,

728
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 1: because whether three point or the three point rate was

729
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 1: already going up in the league before STEPH really became stephteen.

730
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:32,920
Speaker 1: Teams are starting to take more threes, but it was

731
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 1: accelerated because of Steff. Revolutions are never one thing, right,

732
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 1: It's a multitude of factors. So does the revolution still

733
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: happen where teams are eventually taken you know again? Yeah? Probably,

734
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: But does it happen within a three year period where

735
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 1: the Warriors are shooting thirty threes a game and then

736
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,480
Speaker 1: the number one in attempts and then they're still shooting

737
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 1: thirty threes a game three years later and they're like

738
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:56,200
Speaker 1: twelfth in attempts. No, probably not. He accelerated everything. He

739
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:57,800
Speaker 1: made it happen a lot quicker than it was going

740
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: to because what him and playoff these sleep proved is

741
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: that you can be a jump shooting team and win

742
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 1: a title. Now. I still think some of that stuff

743
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:08,360
Speaker 1: is misguided because good luck getting two of the five

744
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: best shooters of all time right, and so our fund

745
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: Bobby on Twitter always says this, the two thousand fifteen

746
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: Warriors taught us the wrong list and jacking up a

747
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: bunch of threes isn't necessarily the way to go. You

748
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: do have to shoot threes and volume now, because it's

749
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: simple math. You have to shoot enough of them to

750
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 1: be competitive. But at the same time, I don't think

751
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: it's necessarily the way to go. Like I said, my

752
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 1: push back to Ben would be, if you're gonna sit

753
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 1: here and say that Steve Curry didn't revolutionize basketball, It's

754
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 1: not just a three pointers. It's like you're talking about

755
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:36,320
Speaker 1: with Michael Vick. Now, teams have linebackers who are speedy

756
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 1: and can chase down speedy quarterbacks. Teams have gone to

757
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:42,960
Speaker 1: more switch oriented schemes because and guys who are switchable,

758
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: because that's an easy way to stamp out threes. You're not.

759
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: You can just show high on pick and rolls, you

760
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:51,480
Speaker 1: can switch curls, you can switch flares because we don't

761
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:55,480
Speaker 1: want this our opponent to get open threes. So I'm

762
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: I'm fine with saying Steff has guarded different. He absolutely is.

763
00:33:57,760 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: Teams have changed the way they've guarded him and it's

764
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:01,600
Speaker 1: made his life harder. Right, that's what you're supposed to

765
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: do with the best players in the week. But to

766
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 1: sit here and act like the guy didn't revolutionize the

767
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: game of basketball, I think it's a load of crap. Well,

768
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:09,919
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing that I think. That's where teach

769
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 1: a cross the line. If I remember correctly, is I

770
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: think he said that Alan Iverson had revolutionize of the

771
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 1: game more than Steph did, or something like that. I

772
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 1: remember me, like we're talking like corporal if we're talking

773
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: cultural impact, sure I'll hear that argumentation. Yeah, but if

774
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 1: we're talking on court, it's not even close. Steph Curry.

775
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: Steph Curry literally shaped the way that uh that all

776
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,319
Speaker 1: of these guards play basketball now, like literal generation of guards. Yeah,

777
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: Like guys like Bradley Beale and Kemba Walker and Dame

778
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,960
Speaker 1: Lillard used to never take threes out of pick and roll,

779
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:43,480
Speaker 1: like against drop coverage. They would attack in and take

780
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: midrange shots. They would like that. There there's an entire

781
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: element to the way that guards developed their skills now

782
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: that is one based on what Steph Curry did. The

783
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 1: idea that that that didn't revolutionize the game is insanity

784
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: to me, and I think, but again, like that's the thing, like,

785
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:00,200
Speaker 1: you know, Steph's gonna go down at the end of

786
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:02,400
Speaker 1: the day as a top ten player all time. In

787
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: my opinion, I think he's going to unless he suffers

788
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 1: a catastrophic injury right now, in which case he's still

789
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:11,399
Speaker 1: twelve at the lowest four like statistical production. Yeah, he'll

790
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 1: be there exactly. And so he's gonna be up there,

791
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be the only short guy up there literally,

792
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 1: So that that requires to me some crazy circumstances. And

793
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 1: the crazy circumstance here is that he had to use

794
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: his brain because he didn't have the physical uh you know,

795
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 1: the physical part of it. And in his his he

796
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,480
Speaker 1: saw a hole in the game. Oh wait, no one

797
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:37,200
Speaker 1: guards anybody out here, like like if you watch the

798
00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: two thirteen playoffs, you could see it coming. That's how

799
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 1: he kind of started to do it. It was like, Okay,

800
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:44,879
Speaker 1: David Lee's out. I'm gonna shoot eight or nine threes

801
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 1: a game, and six of them are gonna be off

802
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 1: the dribble. The Spurs one of the greatest defensive teams

803
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:50,880
Speaker 1: of all time from you know, the year two thousand

804
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:53,239
Speaker 1: through through thousand sixteen had no idea what to do

805
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 1: with him. Their responses, Okay, we're just gonna run him

806
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:57,360
Speaker 1: up a bunch of screens. We're gonna bang them up,

807
00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 1: and and that's part of the reason why you had

808
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 1: to get stronger. But he absolutely torched them in Game

809
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:03,800
Speaker 1: one of that series, and they came within a possession

810
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 1: of winning the NBA Finals that year. You know, he

811
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: dropped forty four and eleven on one of the best

812
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,360
Speaker 1: defensive teams of all time, maybe, and it's because he

813
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:15,040
Speaker 1: found a market inefficiency. Yeah. Literally, coaches teach you growing

814
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: up as you're playing basketball, like before staff what they

815
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: would teach you like that it used to be part

816
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 1: of like a drill that you would do where if

817
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 1: it was a live dribble, you'd give space and if

818
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 1: it was and if it was if it was a

819
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:29,120
Speaker 1: catch and shoot, you'd start in the shooting pocket like

820
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 1: like on the catch. You'd be right up in his business.

821
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,520
Speaker 1: As soon as he began any sort of dribble dribbling,

822
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:36,800
Speaker 1: you to meet space and you put hanging out like

823
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,399
Speaker 1: like you can't guard people like that anymore because guys

824
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:40,800
Speaker 1: will just shoot over the top of you. Like the

825
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 1: game has literally changed the result of him, and I

826
00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:45,360
Speaker 1: think it's it's foolish to to gloss over that. But

827
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:47,160
Speaker 1: you did bring up something interesting that I think is

828
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:51,080
Speaker 1: a perfect segue into the Nets. So, um, the Brooklyn

829
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:54,800
Speaker 1: Nets right now are tenth in offense, fourteenth and defense

830
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 1: eighth and net rating. Um, they're coming off of a

831
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 1: couple of bad losses. Uh, there's there's this thing going

832
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:02,920
Speaker 1: on with Katie and Covid that we're not going to

833
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 1: talk about. But he's going to be out for a

834
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:07,719
Speaker 1: little while, but he should be back. Yeah, he'll be

835
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:11,960
Speaker 1: he'll be back eventually. Um. Uh. They just had this

836
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 1: game where Katie and uh and Kyrie both missed a

837
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 1: crunch time jump shot, which we're gonna get to in

838
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:19,880
Speaker 1: a second. But the big thing that I want to

839
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:21,920
Speaker 1: point to is is, like what you were talking about

840
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 1: from Bobby, the comment that the two thousand fifteen Warriors

841
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: taught us the wrong lesson, Because again, it's it's important

842
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 1: to understand that, you know, the two thousand fifteen Warriors

843
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,360
Speaker 1: were not a finesse team. They had the best defensive

844
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,759
Speaker 1: team in the league, defensive writing, the best defensive team

845
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:41,880
Speaker 1: in the league, and they had big physical defensive players

846
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 1: like Draymond Green was a it was a physical player,

847
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:47,880
Speaker 1: and Andre Guadala was a very physical player. Clay Thompson

848
00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 1: was an extremely gifted perimeter defender who was physical, and

849
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:53,479
Speaker 1: the way that he used his body to bump people

850
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:55,360
Speaker 1: off of their driving lines and forced them to shoot

851
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: over the top, like literally, that was a incredible physical,

852
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,320
Speaker 1: incredible physical rim protector. Really off the bench, Harrison Barnes

853
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:05,600
Speaker 1: played the reason part of the reason why the deadline

854
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 1: up initially works because Harrison Barnes could guard format. He

855
00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: arted back Randall for a lot of that Memphis series

856
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:12,720
Speaker 1: and did just find against them they were a super

857
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:16,399
Speaker 1: super physical, hard nosed, tough team. And this is something

858
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:18,479
Speaker 1: we talked about before the season in our preview about

859
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:20,800
Speaker 1: about the Brooklyn in the sense that we thought that

860
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: they were missing a lot of those dirty work type

861
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:26,359
Speaker 1: of guys. And this is and I think, like ironically,

862
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:30,759
Speaker 1: this crunch time situation with Kyrie and Katie is such

863
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,400
Speaker 1: a great, uh microcosm of everything that I've been preaching

864
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: for years, which is that basketball is about so much

865
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 1: more than just elite isolation creation. That doesn't mean that

866
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:42,919
Speaker 1: it's not a very valuable skill it's right up there

867
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,759
Speaker 1: with all of with the skills that I always preach about,

868
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:49,120
Speaker 1: you know, defensive versatility and elite offensive creation for your

869
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:52,479
Speaker 1: teammates and things along those lines. But it's funny because

870
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 1: you know, everyone will boil it down to, oh, the

871
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets lost that game because Kyrie and Katie missed

872
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:00,400
Speaker 1: open jump shots that they were able to create out

873
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: the dribble, and I and I completely disagree. You know,

874
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 1: if you actually pull up you know, clutch numbers for

875
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:10,799
Speaker 1: superstar players in NBA history, they all shoot low percentages

876
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:15,319
Speaker 1: in runch Lebron's like high thirty. None of them, none

877
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 1: of them are None of them areket always shots. They're

878
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:21,280
Speaker 1: always have shots. And so that's why it's important to understand,

879
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,480
Speaker 1: like these basketball games are one in crunch time through

880
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:28,160
Speaker 1: like like good old fashioned rock fight basketball. That's literally

881
00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:30,799
Speaker 1: how they're won. And if you allow yourself to get

882
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,440
Speaker 1: bullied physically on the other end of the floor, you're

883
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to get Katie enough looks for

884
00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: him to win on the other end. You've got to

885
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 1: be able to do all of those things. And that's

886
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 1: what I loved about that Lakers team last year was

887
00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 1: like it was they they they were able to thrive

888
00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:49,000
Speaker 1: in that environment when the game's really got into that uh,

889
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 1: into that like absolute you know, ship show of a

890
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: rock fight type of the reason they were like fifty

891
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 1: six and oh or whatever when leading going into the

892
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,360
Speaker 1: fourth quarter exactly one game all year when they were

893
00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:00,120
Speaker 1: leading going into the fourth quarters because they were an

894
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 1: absolutely elite defensive team exactly. And so what we're seeing

895
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,120
Speaker 1: with Brooklyn that I think is interesting is, you know, uh,

896
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:11,320
Speaker 1: their offense is gonna be fine. I have absolutely no

897
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: doubt about that. The only thing that would concern me

898
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: about them on the offensive end of the floor is

899
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: they are a little bit reliant on jump shot making.

900
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 1: And it's it's something, uh, you know, the Warriors were

901
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:25,799
Speaker 1: reliant on jump shot making in a lot of ways,

902
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 1: but they were so good defensively that it was it

903
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: wasn't a problem. And my and that's my thing, is

904
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:33,839
Speaker 1: you need your defense to carry you during stretches when

905
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:37,320
Speaker 1: you're not making shots. And what's whereas you know, that's

906
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:39,480
Speaker 1: what makes the Lakers so scary is that they rely

907
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: on a brand of offense that also involves some shot making.

908
00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: But they're gonna get a great deal of shots right

909
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 1: at the rim because of Lebron's physical ability to just

910
00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:52,240
Speaker 1: bully people under the basket, and Anthony Davis who against

911
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,399
Speaker 1: like look against the my the Miami Heat double teamed

912
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 1: amount of the post and he was unable to to

913
00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:58,840
Speaker 1: post up. But he was so good at like just

914
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,520
Speaker 1: bullying people on the offensive glass and just getting tippins

915
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff. Like they were able to

916
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:07,240
Speaker 1: generate this easy stuff that Brooklyn Nets team. Every basket

917
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 1: they get is gonna be hard, especially when they get

918
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: into the half court of the court of these playoffs series.

919
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they can't win. I still think they

920
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:16,240
Speaker 1: have a really good chance to come out of the East,

921
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,360
Speaker 1: but that that those are the kinds of flaws that

922
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 1: you and I pointed to you before the season. They

923
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 1: don't defend well enough to carry them during stretches when

924
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 1: they're not making jump shots, and they're really bad at

925
00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 1: generating easy shots. They're really good at making difficult shots,

926
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 1: but they're really bad at generating easy shots. So they

927
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:36,920
Speaker 1: have a tendency to be able to go cold. And

928
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,200
Speaker 1: the reality is is like like those two shots that

929
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:40,960
Speaker 1: Kyrie and Katie took at the end of that game,

930
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 1: those are what we would consider high percentage shots for

931
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: jump shots, but they aren't high percentage shots when you

932
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:51,080
Speaker 1: factor in historically how difficult it is in a really

933
00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:54,839
Speaker 1: like slow down, bogged down, crunch time game to make

934
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:57,520
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot. Like all stars in NBA

935
00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:00,080
Speaker 1: history have shot low percentages there because your legs are

936
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: tired and you've got to use a lot of energy

937
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:04,720
Speaker 1: to get that separation, and it's just it's just difficult

938
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,200
Speaker 1: to win games that way. It'll win your when you

939
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 1: some games, but that there's a reason why that the

940
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:13,000
Speaker 1: nets have fallen off and have dipped below five hundred,

941
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:16,799
Speaker 1: and it's because they're relying too much on difficult shot

942
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 1: making and not the bona fide proven ways to win

943
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:24,560
Speaker 1: games involving defense and being physical and generating easy shots.

944
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:28,160
Speaker 1: So I think everything you pointed to there is correct,

945
00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:31,919
Speaker 1: and how all I add onto it is we don't

946
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:34,919
Speaker 1: spend enough time I think when discussing the NBA talking

947
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,600
Speaker 1: about the relation between offensive and defensive rating. One of

948
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 1: the reasons the Warriors were so good, kind of as

949
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 1: you're pointing to, is they had this elite defense, and

950
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,920
Speaker 1: not only was it elite, it created turnovers and easy

951
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 1: looks for a team that sometimes struggled to get easy looks.

952
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:50,840
Speaker 1: They were a team that relied on jump shooting, and

953
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: there were a team that sometimes in the half court

954
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 1: struggled to get easy looks because their primary creator is

955
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:57,800
Speaker 1: a sixth three guard, right, so they're not creating a

956
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 1: ton of rim attempts like a team like with Lebron

957
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:04,239
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis. Is you said Brooklyn was seventh and

958
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:08,759
Speaker 1: offensive rating. I believe seventh or eighth right now offensive rating,

959
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:11,960
Speaker 1: And to me, that is directly related to them being

960
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:15,239
Speaker 1: fourteen in defensive rating. You know why, because they're taking

961
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:17,280
Speaker 1: the ball out of the net a lot. The easiest

962
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 1: way to get good looks is to either create a

963
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:22,239
Speaker 1: turnover or get the ball off a miss and run

964
00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:24,960
Speaker 1: and create either wide open threes, wide open jump shots,

965
00:43:25,160 --> 00:43:27,759
Speaker 1: or get to the rim in transition. They're not able

966
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:29,359
Speaker 1: to do that right now because they can't get enough

967
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:32,239
Speaker 1: stops so quick. One quick note on on Brooklyn that

968
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:36,840
Speaker 1: I think you can piggyback onto is they actually Bobby

969
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 1: Marks pointed this out on the wind Horse wind Horse

970
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:41,560
Speaker 1: podcast the other day, and then I started digging to

971
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:44,920
Speaker 1: look at it. They they played a really bad Golden

972
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:47,399
Speaker 1: State Warriors team on opening night that couldn't score because

973
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:50,120
Speaker 1: they hadn't figured out their offense yet, and they played

974
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,120
Speaker 1: a Boston Celtics team that had lost their point guard,

975
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,160
Speaker 1: and and they're in their best perimeter playmaker and Gordon

976
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: Hayward and literally we're relying on two really young wings

977
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:02,040
Speaker 1: who are scoring players and not creation players in their

978
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,720
Speaker 1: offense was really in shambles at that point in the season,

979
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 1: and and it bolstered their defensive rating. And I tweeted

980
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:11,239
Speaker 1: yesterday in their last five games they were twenty nine

981
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 1: and defense in the league. The only team that was

982
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:17,160
Speaker 1: worse was Minnesota. So like they're they're they're not just bad.

983
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:19,880
Speaker 1: I know that that fourteen is a little bit misleading

984
00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: in the sense that they have really really let go

985
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 1: of the rope on that end of the floor as

986
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:27,200
Speaker 1: of late. And if it's happened this early in the season,

987
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 1: that is a bad, bad, bad sign. If they're already

988
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 1: twenty If you know, you said last five games or

989
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:36,000
Speaker 1: twenty nine and defensive rating, yeah, I'll find my make sure,

990
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure that's what it was that I mean.

991
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:40,359
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean that that adds on to the point.

992
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 1: That's why they've dropped a tenth and offensive rating because

993
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:44,239
Speaker 1: they are taking the ball out of the net so much.

994
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 1: I don't care how talented talented you are offensively, if

995
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 1: you are always taking the ball out of the rim,

996
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,080
Speaker 1: you're gonna struggle to score, especially if you're relying on

997
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:53,759
Speaker 1: jump shots, because those are just it's just they're just

998
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:55,759
Speaker 1: tougher shots than getting to the rim. You know, the

999
00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 1: formula for winning is still getting as many rim attempts

1000
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:02,080
Speaker 1: as possible. You the reason for spacing out to the

1001
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: three point line and shooting more threes is to get

1002
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:06,000
Speaker 1: more room attemps. That's the entire point. It's to give

1003
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:08,920
Speaker 1: your superstar players more space to create more room attempts.

1004
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 1: Right there, looking at the Warriors model and saying this

1005
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 1: is the way to do it, shoot a bunch of threes.

1006
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:17,520
Speaker 1: Like I pointed out earlier, I don't think it's necessarily

1007
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 1: the way to go now. To not go that route,

1008
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:21,799
Speaker 1: you do have to get lucky and get Lebron James

1009
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis on the same team, and that's the

1010
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:25,800
Speaker 1: way you can get a ton of rim attempts. But

1011
00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:29,279
Speaker 1: that is still the best formula formula for winning a championship,

1012
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:33,600
Speaker 1: playing high level defensive basketball, top five, top ten level,

1013
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:36,400
Speaker 1: and then getting as many possible attempts at at the

1014
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,800
Speaker 1: rim as possible. So, if this Brooklyn team is that

1015
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 1: going to be that bad defensively, there's no way they're

1016
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 1: winning the Eastern Conference because they'll be taking the ball

1017
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:46,719
Speaker 1: out of it too much. It doesn't matter. I know

1018
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,600
Speaker 1: there probably are some concerns with Philadelphia against some of

1019
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,120
Speaker 1: the better teams in the league scoring consistently in the

1020
00:45:52,160 --> 00:45:54,359
Speaker 1: half court. But if Brooklyn is that bad defensively, they're

1021
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:55,640
Speaker 1: gonna be able to score enough, and then they're a

1022
00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:58,080
Speaker 1: really good defensive team, a really good defensive team. That's

1023
00:45:58,080 --> 00:45:59,279
Speaker 1: part of the reason why I picked them to win

1024
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: the East, because I thought Brokelym was gonna be too

1025
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,480
Speaker 1: deficient defensively to win a series, and I thought the

1026
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:06,919
Speaker 1: Bucks would be too deficient offensively to win a series

1027
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:09,200
Speaker 1: against Philly. It is more of a matchup thing more

1028
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,960
Speaker 1: than anything else. So, yeah, if Brooklyn is gonna be

1029
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 1: that terrible, they have literally no chance of winning the

1030
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:17,520
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference if they're gonna be one of the worst

1031
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: defensive teams in the league. Now, what we could point

1032
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:22,359
Speaker 1: to is um I think the twenty eighteen Calves were,

1033
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:26,640
Speaker 1: um twenty you could probably you probably first, I think,

1034
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,400
Speaker 1: but again they weren't. They weren't dealing with teams like

1035
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:32,000
Speaker 1: Philly and Milwaukee out East. They just exactly then they

1036
00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: were playing Victorialadipot and Ricky Jayson Tatum and and the

1037
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 1: Raptors right before they blew it up with the Rose

1038
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 1: In like teams that were really kind of either really

1039
00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:41,719
Speaker 1: young or towards the end of the rope in terms

1040
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:44,960
Speaker 1: of where they were at in their trajectory. So um

1041
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:48,680
Speaker 1: that I was not optimistic on Brooklyn coming into this season.

1042
00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:50,919
Speaker 1: I think people could probably guess that from me picking

1043
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:53,319
Speaker 1: Philly to win the East. I am less optimistic now,

1044
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:56,239
Speaker 1: especially if Katie's gonna go down for a week, maybe

1045
00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: it's even more than a week. Um with COVID protocol stuff.

1046
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:00,680
Speaker 1: What are they gonna be when he comes back for

1047
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:02,800
Speaker 1: at eight four nine, So now they're already trying to

1048
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:04,839
Speaker 1: dig out of a hole. They'll be on the road

1049
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,000
Speaker 1: for a playoff series. Maybe fans will be back by

1050
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:08,960
Speaker 1: that time, who knows. So if they've got to go

1051
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: on the road to Philly and Billy gets to have

1052
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:13,759
Speaker 1: present capacity that's gonna be a crazy Philly crowd even

1053
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:19,800
Speaker 1: with that few people being Brooklyn to me is in

1054
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 1: a much more spot than I expected earlier in the season.

1055
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:23,800
Speaker 1: I thought they'd at least play with effort early on,

1056
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:26,319
Speaker 1: but it doesn't even seem like they're doing that well.

1057
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,759
Speaker 1: They're the Kyrie, and and and Katie are both you

1058
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:32,960
Speaker 1: know a little bit uh what's the word I'm looking,

1059
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 1: But they're just flaky in terms of their like personalities

1060
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:36,520
Speaker 1: and the way they can kind of add in and

1061
00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: out focus wise during the season. And this this last

1062
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 1: thing I want to touch on with Brooklyn before we

1063
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:43,520
Speaker 1: move on, you know, And we talked a little bit

1064
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:45,800
Speaker 1: about this before the season, but I think it's I

1065
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:50,680
Speaker 1: think it's so ridiculous to me that, you know, for instance,

1066
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 1: with Steph, you know, we look at stef and we

1067
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:55,520
Speaker 1: talked about where he ranks with the other players in

1068
00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 1: the league, and we talked about how his you know,

1069
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:02,479
Speaker 1: on bull creation and his off ball creation, his own

1070
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:05,680
Speaker 1: personal scoring, what he does for his teammates and how

1071
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 1: that adds value, you know, uh, how that impacts winning.

1072
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:13,040
Speaker 1: And then we also talk about how like you know,

1073
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:15,400
Speaker 1: he doesn't you know, give away points on the defensive

1074
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 1: and he's not an elite defensive player, but he's not.

1075
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:18,759
Speaker 1: He's kind of like the middle of the pack, hold

1076
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:20,440
Speaker 1: his own type of guy. And he's been really good

1077
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 1: this year so far. He's been really good. Best I've

1078
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:26,840
Speaker 1: seen him since probably, But what really what really bothers me?

1079
00:48:27,239 --> 00:48:29,600
Speaker 1: And and it's and it's it's doesn't it doesn't take

1080
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 1: away from you know, how fun it is to watch

1081
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:33,239
Speaker 1: Katie or the fact that you know, I'm really happy

1082
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,080
Speaker 1: that he's coming back from his injury and he looks healthy.

1083
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 1: He had a dunk early against against the I think

1084
00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:40,480
Speaker 1: it was against the Pistons that was just ridiculous, or

1085
00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:42,319
Speaker 1: did where he did a double crossover and then took

1086
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:43,920
Speaker 1: off of his right leg and just threw it down

1087
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:46,800
Speaker 1: with two hands like the He looks great. I'm super

1088
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,560
Speaker 1: happy for him. I'm rooting for him. Here's the thing.

1089
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:54,239
Speaker 1: If you want to be considered on Lebron James level,

1090
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 1: or on Kawhi Leonards level or better than those guys,

1091
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 1: why in the world are we letting him off the

1092
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:03,280
Speaker 1: hook and what we expect from him on the defensive

1093
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 1: end of the floor. And and it really really bothers

1094
00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:09,279
Speaker 1: me that that that no one ever brings this up.

1095
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:13,520
Speaker 1: He he somehow, somewhere along the line, gained this reputation

1096
00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:16,480
Speaker 1: as someone who was a good defensive player, and no

1097
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:18,720
Speaker 1: one ever watches him anymore. It pays any close attention.

1098
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,360
Speaker 1: You and I talked before the season that the only

1099
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 1: way this team would be an elite defensive team was

1100
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:26,880
Speaker 1: if Katie cared enough to make that one of his goals.

1101
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:30,760
Speaker 1: And because we talked about how he has Anthony Davis's

1102
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:34,279
Speaker 1: defensive gifts, He's equally mobile, if not more. He's got

1103
00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: the same heightened length He's got. He's not quite as

1104
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,239
Speaker 1: as strong, but he's got he's got the ability to

1105
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:43,160
Speaker 1: be that type of impact defensive player. He just literally

1106
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 1: doesn't care and and I don't that does. That's not

1107
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:49,160
Speaker 1: a problem necessarily, and you could still win with him,

1108
00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:52,080
Speaker 1: as we know we've seen him do it. But to me,

1109
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:54,879
Speaker 1: it's worth bringing up that as one of the most

1110
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,319
Speaker 1: physically gifted players in the league at a position where

1111
00:49:58,400 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 1: every single one of his peers and including Paul George

1112
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:03,840
Speaker 1: and Kawhi Leonard and Janis Antenna Coompo and Lebron who's

1113
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:05,759
Speaker 1: faded in and out at times, but for the most

1114
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 1: part of his career has been one of the best

1115
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 1: defensive players in the league. Katie just doesn't care enough

1116
00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:15,560
Speaker 1: to even devote the time and focus it requires to

1117
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:19,279
Speaker 1: build that to build that identity on this team, which

1118
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:22,800
Speaker 1: could literally be the difference between him winning and losing

1119
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:25,440
Speaker 1: this year is whether or not he can be effects

1120
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:28,040
Speaker 1: similar of Anthony Davis or if he continues to be

1121
00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:30,440
Speaker 1: the turn style that he can be at times, that's

1122
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: gonna be the difference between them winning and losing. And

1123
00:50:33,040 --> 00:50:36,279
Speaker 1: I think it's I'm not saying it's like this is

1124
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:38,840
Speaker 1: not slander because he's been like this his whole career.

1125
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:41,359
Speaker 1: I just think it's worth pointing out that when you're

1126
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:44,840
Speaker 1: comparing him to his peers, he's got all the athletic

1127
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 1: gifts in the world and has gotten almost He's got

1128
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:50,520
Speaker 1: not almost nothing, but he's he's an average too slightly

1129
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:53,040
Speaker 1: above average defensive player when he should be a first

1130
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 1: team All defense guy. And and I think that's worth

1131
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:58,600
Speaker 1: pointing out. You know what's funny about it, too, um

1132
00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:00,319
Speaker 1: a lot of those Lebron years where he was bad

1133
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:02,040
Speaker 1: and he shouldn't get an excuse for those, was because

1134
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:04,920
Speaker 1: he was carrying such a heavy offensive load. He doesn't

1135
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:07,160
Speaker 1: need to do that. This year. He had one of

1136
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:09,440
Speaker 1: the better on ball creators in the league with Kyrie

1137
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:11,359
Speaker 1: next to him, and they also have Carriss Lefort, who

1138
00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:13,239
Speaker 1: has been up and down this year, but he's a

1139
00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:15,280
Speaker 1: guy who can create on the ball. The Spencer Dimity

1140
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:18,400
Speaker 1: injury does hurt, but they have enough offensive talent on

1141
00:51:18,440 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 1: that roster to where he can maybe take five to

1142
00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:23,520
Speaker 1: ten percent of his energy and focus it on defense

1143
00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:26,479
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, every night or nine percent

1144
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:28,800
Speaker 1: of the time, I'm shutting off the rim tonight and

1145
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:31,520
Speaker 1: teams aren't scoring, just like Anthony Davis does. And a

1146
00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:33,360
Speaker 1: D hasn't looked that great early in the year just

1147
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:36,680
Speaker 1: because short off season, whatever, but we know when it

1148
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 1: when it comes to nutcrunching time, a D is going

1149
00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:41,160
Speaker 1: to shut off the rim every single time and teams

1150
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,759
Speaker 1: aren't going to score. Durin has that ability. He truly does.

1151
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:46,759
Speaker 1: Saw We saw him do it in Golden State. We

1152
00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:48,399
Speaker 1: saw him do it in the two thousand sixteen Western

1153
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:50,319
Speaker 1: Conference Finals. It through the whole series out of wack.

1154
00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:52,960
Speaker 1: Raymond Green didn't know what to do. Draymond Green looked

1155
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:55,759
Speaker 1: absolutely lost after having the best season of his career

1156
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:59,400
Speaker 1: because Katie was everywhere and his arms were everywhere, and

1157
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:02,240
Speaker 1: Draymond could barely make passes at some point of the series.

1158
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:05,759
Speaker 1: It befuddles me that he is just not willing to

1159
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 1: do this because, like you're saying, it is the difference

1160
00:52:07,640 --> 00:52:10,160
Speaker 1: between them like losing in the second round and maybe

1161
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 1: winning a title like that. That's how big of a

1162
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:16,080
Speaker 1: swing skill his defenses this year. As pascalbron the years

1163
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:20,360
Speaker 1: that he didn't defend, he lost okolutely. In two thousand twenty,

1164
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:22,719
Speaker 1: he engaged himself on the defensive end. I I thought

1165
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:24,440
Speaker 1: he should have been second team All Defense. So he

1166
00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:26,719
Speaker 1: ended up not getting it, but he was pretty unanimously,

1167
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 1: unanimously referred to as one of the better defensive players

1168
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:32,520
Speaker 1: in the league. And again literally they want again, and

1169
00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:35,520
Speaker 1: it's just it's there will be a time, and you know,

1170
00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:38,680
Speaker 1: like it's just it's one of those things where in

1171
00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:41,800
Speaker 1: a margin in a year like this too, where the

1172
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 1: title is there for the taking. You know, the Laker

1173
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 1: team is the best team in the league, I think,

1174
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:49,759
Speaker 1: but they are not unbeatable and and it's there for

1175
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:52,800
Speaker 1: the taking, and and and you have a roster I've

1176
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,520
Speaker 1: been pleasantly surprised with with uh, with a lot from

1177
00:52:56,560 --> 00:52:58,759
Speaker 1: this Brooklyn team. You have what it takes to win.

1178
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:02,320
Speaker 1: They just need you to do what the other guys

1179
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:05,200
Speaker 1: at the top of the league do, which is maximize

1180
00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:08,040
Speaker 1: their defensive talent. Steph isn't the same defensive player as

1181
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,880
Speaker 1: those other guys, but he damn sure is getting every

1182
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:14,279
Speaker 1: single drop of defensive potential out of his body. And

1183
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:17,320
Speaker 1: so is Anthony Davis, and so is uh you know,

1184
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:19,880
Speaker 1: Jani Santana Kumpo, and and so is Kawhi Leonard, and

1185
00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:22,560
Speaker 1: so is Lebron and you and you are leaving something

1186
00:53:22,680 --> 00:53:25,040
Speaker 1: on the table, leaving a lot on the table there,

1187
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:27,439
Speaker 1: and it could be the difference between winning and losing.

1188
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:30,440
Speaker 1: And I think that's worth All I'm saying is it's

1189
00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:32,960
Speaker 1: worth pointing out when you're telling me about who the

1190
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 1: best players in the league are. And it's the reason

1191
00:53:35,239 --> 00:53:37,799
Speaker 1: why I didn't have him as high as other people

1192
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:40,080
Speaker 1: did coming into the season. You know, It's just it's

1193
00:53:40,120 --> 00:53:41,800
Speaker 1: just I think it's I think it's part of winning

1194
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:44,239
Speaker 1: basketball games, which if that's not the ultimate gold and

1195
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:46,279
Speaker 1: what are we even talking about here? Defense is such

1196
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:48,120
Speaker 1: a top down thing, man, If your best players do

1197
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:49,920
Speaker 1: it and commit to what everybody else will. They have

1198
00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:53,319
Speaker 1: to They have no choice, absolutely zero choice. Because if

1199
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:54,600
Speaker 1: you can point to the best guy and say, hey,

1200
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:57,120
Speaker 1: he's he's kicking ass every night on the defensive end,

1201
00:53:57,600 --> 00:53:59,120
Speaker 1: what what is Joe Harris going to say to that?

1202
00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:00,759
Speaker 1: What is Carris LeVert going to say to that? What

1203
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 1: is DeAndre Jordan going to say to that? Because he's

1204
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:04,839
Speaker 1: an absolute statue at this point. The fact that he's

1205
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:06,680
Speaker 1: playing more than Jared all and that that kind of

1206
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:09,279
Speaker 1: personifies all their issues as a whole. The fact that

1207
00:54:09,320 --> 00:54:11,239
Speaker 1: he's getting more minutes than Jared Allen just because I

1208
00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 1: guess he's friends with k D. Point being, their whole

1209
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:18,440
Speaker 1: season is basically into Rand's hands. If he decides to

1210
00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:20,400
Speaker 1: commit to that end, everybody else will and if he doesn't,

1211
00:54:20,400 --> 00:54:22,080
Speaker 1: then they're going to lose in the second round. And

1212
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:24,200
Speaker 1: that's I think that's basically what I said before the season.

1213
00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:27,480
Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens, but I am I'm out

1214
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:30,440
Speaker 1: for the time being. That's yeah, and it will be

1215
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:31,920
Speaker 1: when we won't We won't be able to get anything

1216
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:35,600
Speaker 1: new from them for four games anyway. With the um okay,

1217
00:54:35,719 --> 00:54:39,240
Speaker 1: so with the Lakers second in offense, fifth, and defense

1218
00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:43,040
Speaker 1: second in net rating. Big things standing out to me

1219
00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:46,280
Speaker 1: is that Lebron and a d are basically barely trying.

1220
00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:49,560
Speaker 1: They're both underneath twenty four points per game. They're both

1221
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:52,320
Speaker 1: playing pretty low minutes compared to what they had been playing.

1222
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:56,799
Speaker 1: The team has had multiple games and quarters and halves

1223
00:54:56,920 --> 00:54:59,680
Speaker 1: this season where they basically coasted and then just tried

1224
00:54:59,719 --> 00:55:02,120
Speaker 1: to have the game at the end and win. Um,

1225
00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:04,280
Speaker 1: their half came out of first place in the league

1226
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:08,480
Speaker 1: in terms of the standings. Tell me why I shouldn't

1227
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:10,440
Speaker 1: be more confident than ever that this team is going

1228
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:15,440
Speaker 1: to win the title. Um injuries the Lebron or Anthony Davis,

1229
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:17,520
Speaker 1: but he got their short off season. I mean, I

1230
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:20,320
Speaker 1: don't really have any good answers. Uh. Like I said,

1231
00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:23,480
Speaker 1: I think on our previous when we did kind of

1232
00:55:23,520 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 1: our season Western Conference season preview. The reason for the

1233
00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:30,120
Speaker 1: Schroder and Treads signings, in my opinion, they were regular

1234
00:55:30,160 --> 00:55:32,080
Speaker 1: season sign signings, and I think Shorter will help in

1235
00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:35,120
Speaker 1: the playoffs. He's looked really good this year. Well, he's

1236
00:55:35,120 --> 00:55:36,600
Speaker 1: depending really well, and that's going to be a key

1237
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:38,880
Speaker 1: for him to stay on the floor, especially when uh,

1238
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:41,520
Speaker 1: you know, Cruiso feels a little bit better and he's

1239
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:44,239
Speaker 1: back in the rotation. But those guys are going to

1240
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:47,239
Speaker 1: help them float, you know, float wins on the on

1241
00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: the nights where Lebron Ladie just don't have it because

1242
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:51,640
Speaker 1: they're coming off a season where they did do everything

1243
00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 1: for that Lakers team they had. They both had a

1244
00:55:54,640 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 1: huge load to carry on both ends every single night, um,

1245
00:55:57,760 --> 00:56:01,000
Speaker 1: and they did it for you sixty plus games, and

1246
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:02,120
Speaker 1: they went to the bubble and they did it for

1247
00:56:02,320 --> 00:56:03,960
Speaker 1: two and a half months, and then they got seventy

1248
00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:05,880
Speaker 1: days of an off season, short of off season in

1249
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:09,920
Speaker 1: NBA history basically, So if you're a Lakers fan, you

1250
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:11,440
Speaker 1: have a lots of reasons to be optimistic right now.

1251
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:14,399
Speaker 1: This team is deep, they're good, they can defend, they're

1252
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:17,400
Speaker 1: they're everything you want in a title contender, and they

1253
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:20,160
Speaker 1: still have You know, whatever you think of Lebron, whenever

1254
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:22,399
Speaker 1: you think of a d probably two of the five

1255
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:24,600
Speaker 1: or six best players in the world at the absolute worst,

1256
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:27,479
Speaker 1: and more so than anything, that's a formula for winning

1257
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 1: a title. If you have two of the six best

1258
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:31,880
Speaker 1: players in the world, you're probably at least gonna be

1259
00:56:32,520 --> 00:56:35,799
Speaker 1: in the conversation, if not right at the top and then,

1260
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:38,400
Speaker 1: and they have the supporting players to do it. Um.

1261
00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:40,719
Speaker 1: I know, I saw some weird stuff with West West

1262
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,080
Speaker 1: Matthew's net rating and him being actually the worst net

1263
00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:45,520
Speaker 1: rating guy through six or seven games, which was confusing

1264
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:47,160
Speaker 1: to me. But I've actually really liked the way he's

1265
00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:49,839
Speaker 1: looked for them so far. Like I said, shorters look good.

1266
00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:53,560
Speaker 1: Treads is treads. I don't think. I think he's not

1267
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: gonna be munch time. He's he can't depend on if

1268
00:56:56,080 --> 00:56:59,719
Speaker 1: we need coming into the season, but it's been It

1269
00:56:59,880 --> 00:57:01,920
Speaker 1: was very evident because I watched that Clippers team a lot.

1270
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:03,279
Speaker 1: He was one of the reasons that I didn't think

1271
00:57:03,280 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 1: they had a chance to win the title last year.

1272
00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:06,920
Speaker 1: He was playing too many minutes tim him. They were

1273
00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:09,120
Speaker 1: relying on thirty minutes minutes from him and Lou Williams.

1274
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:11,120
Speaker 1: You're not winning a title like that ever. I'm sorry,

1275
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:14,399
Speaker 1: but he's a good guy to get twelve and six

1276
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:16,640
Speaker 1: off the bench in the regular season or even in

1277
00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:19,480
Speaker 1: the playoffs and only play and you know, the smallest

1278
00:57:19,520 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 1: parts in the first and second quarters and then the

1279
00:57:21,440 --> 00:57:24,000
Speaker 1: third and fourth quarters. He's never playing closing minutes. Um,

1280
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:27,640
Speaker 1: they're a really good team. I mean, I really don't

1281
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:29,360
Speaker 1: have much else to add. They they look just as

1282
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:31,960
Speaker 1: good as last last year, if not better. The only

1283
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,600
Speaker 1: thing I worry about is they are with the loss

1284
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,040
Speaker 1: of Dwighton Devail compared to the Soul, they are a

1285
00:57:37,080 --> 00:57:39,400
Speaker 1: little bit less athletic on the front line. If they

1286
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 1: do come across the team that can exploit that and

1287
00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:43,560
Speaker 1: will put a lot on a D. But I think

1288
00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:45,200
Speaker 1: we've seen that he's more than willing to play the

1289
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:49,000
Speaker 1: five when it actually gets down to, you know, second

1290
00:57:49,040 --> 00:57:51,000
Speaker 1: third round of the playoffs and they need him to

1291
00:57:51,040 --> 00:57:53,600
Speaker 1: play minutes to night there. So that would be my

1292
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:56,800
Speaker 1: only concern at this point. But besides that, they look

1293
00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 1: they're coasting two wins, like absolutely coasting their bare even

1294
00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:01,760
Speaker 1: trying most nights, and then they're turning it on for

1295
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:03,880
Speaker 1: six or seven minutes and they're winning the game. They

1296
00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: very clearly have another level they can get to, if

1297
00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:11,360
Speaker 1: not a couple of levels. Um. The biggest thing that

1298
00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:13,040
Speaker 1: I think if I was a fan of one of

1299
00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:14,880
Speaker 1: the other twenty nine teams, the biggest thing that would

1300
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:18,160
Speaker 1: concern me is that they look a lot like uh

1301
00:58:18,400 --> 00:58:21,920
Speaker 1: last year's Milwaukee team without the same fatal flaws. For instance,

1302
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:24,439
Speaker 1: last year's Milwaukee team that everybody we always talked about

1303
00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:27,680
Speaker 1: this going into the uh the m VP debate, but

1304
00:58:28,120 --> 00:58:31,080
Speaker 1: the with Jannie on the floor, they were murdering teams,

1305
00:58:31,800 --> 00:58:34,000
Speaker 1: and then with Janice off the floor, they were still

1306
00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:36,000
Speaker 1: outscoring teams by like, you know, I think it was

1307
00:58:36,040 --> 00:58:40,360
Speaker 1: five or six points per possession, by what four points

1308
00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:42,680
Speaker 1: possession with Lebron off the floor right now? Yeah, like

1309
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:47,080
Speaker 1: literally they are. They are destroying teams with Lebron on

1310
00:58:47,120 --> 00:58:49,640
Speaker 1: the floor right now, and when Lebron is off the floor,

1311
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:52,760
Speaker 1: they're still outscoring teams by just under five points per

1312
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 1: one hundred possession. So it's it's shaping up. Now. Again,

1313
00:58:56,080 --> 00:58:58,720
Speaker 1: this is really early that a lot of those numbers

1314
00:58:58,760 --> 00:59:00,840
Speaker 1: are likely to to call down a little bit. But

1315
00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 1: here in the early going, they are absolutely dominating basketball

1316
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:08,680
Speaker 1: teams without having to really put their foot on the gas.

1317
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:11,200
Speaker 1: Look that last game against Memphis, now Memphis was without

1318
00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:14,919
Speaker 1: John Morantz, was pretty bad team, and Jared Jackson, Yeah, yeah,

1319
00:59:16,680 --> 00:59:19,960
Speaker 1: Lebron literally was b s ng for three quarters and

1320
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:21,840
Speaker 1: then came in the fourth quarter and was like, we'll try,

1321
00:59:21,880 --> 00:59:23,320
Speaker 1: we'll win, and we'll get out of here. And they

1322
00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:25,560
Speaker 1: ended up winning by double digits. And and helped all

1323
00:59:25,560 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 1: their advanced metrics, like it's the craziest thing. They they

1324
00:59:28,280 --> 00:59:30,720
Speaker 1: just and and this is where the Tread's and the

1325
00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:33,760
Speaker 1: mantras Harrold's or the mantres Harold and Dennis Schroeder and

1326
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:36,080
Speaker 1: westling At these types of signings really help. And we

1327
00:59:36,160 --> 00:59:38,640
Speaker 1: talked about this before the season, But the new bodies

1328
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:42,520
Speaker 1: in that locker room have allowed the Lakers to to

1329
00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:46,240
Speaker 1: lose some of the lethargy and so Lebron and a

1330
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:48,240
Speaker 1: d can kind of b s their way through games,

1331
00:59:48,280 --> 00:59:50,720
Speaker 1: but the other guys on the roster aren't, and it's

1332
00:59:50,760 --> 00:59:52,800
Speaker 1: allowing them to get to the end of the game

1333
00:59:52,800 --> 00:59:55,400
Speaker 1: when they can really dial it up and put these

1334
00:59:55,400 --> 00:59:59,920
Speaker 1: teams away. I I I am of the opinion that

1335
01:00:00,080 --> 01:00:02,840
Speaker 1: the gap has grown because I don't like what I've

1336
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:06,720
Speaker 1: seen from Brooklyn. The Clippers actually look pretty good, but

1337
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:09,640
Speaker 1: it's hard to say because they have Yeah, they have

1338
01:00:10,080 --> 01:00:11,760
Speaker 1: well and they but they also got destroyed by the

1339
01:00:11,840 --> 01:00:14,400
Speaker 1: Jazz with Kauai, so there they have a couple of

1340
01:00:14,480 --> 01:00:17,360
Speaker 1: really bad losses. But um with the Clippers, I just

1341
01:00:17,480 --> 01:00:19,400
Speaker 1: have the same problems with them that I've always had.

1342
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:24,360
Speaker 1: Um Uh, Let's move on to Philly, So Philly fourteen

1343
01:00:24,480 --> 01:00:27,800
Speaker 1: and offense, but number one in defense. Uh, third in

1344
01:00:27,880 --> 01:00:29,880
Speaker 1: net rating. Their for number one in defense by a

1345
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:31,960
Speaker 1: wide margin. They're the only team in the league under

1346
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:36,240
Speaker 1: one hundred points per possession. And yeah, and number two

1347
01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:38,960
Speaker 1: is like one up over a hundred two points per possession.

1348
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:43,320
Speaker 1: Umu Seth Curry is having a career best year. Tobias

1349
01:00:43,360 --> 01:00:46,800
Speaker 1: Harris has been absolutely killing it lately. Ben Simmons has

1350
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:48,920
Speaker 1: been playing really well. He's only made one three to

1351
01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:50,440
Speaker 1: this point in the season, but he looks pretty good.

1352
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:53,600
Speaker 1: And Joel Embid is looking like an MVP candidate. So, uh,

1353
01:00:53,800 --> 01:00:55,680
Speaker 1: you were high on this team coming into the season,

1354
01:00:56,520 --> 01:00:58,600
Speaker 1: um is there anything from them that you've seen that

1355
01:00:58,640 --> 01:01:00,440
Speaker 1: would change your mind or make you get reckless and

1356
01:01:00,480 --> 01:01:02,920
Speaker 1: making any prediction or anything along those lines. No, I

1357
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:06,040
Speaker 1: mean I still think they they have I think al

1358
01:01:06,040 --> 01:01:08,959
Speaker 1: ways to improve offensively, Like you said, fourteenth in offensive rating,

1359
01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:10,720
Speaker 1: but I think some of that was early on that

1360
01:01:10,920 --> 01:01:13,760
Speaker 1: they had some bad games, and we'll see if that's

1361
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:15,760
Speaker 1: common for them, or they have these games where they

1362
01:01:15,800 --> 01:01:18,400
Speaker 1: really struggle or is more of an outlier early in

1363
01:01:18,440 --> 01:01:20,520
Speaker 1: the season. They're getting used to some things. I've noticed

1364
01:01:20,520 --> 01:01:22,520
Speaker 1: that they are adding some wrinkles offensively, some good stuff

1365
01:01:22,520 --> 01:01:24,600
Speaker 1: to get Simmons downhill, a bunch of stuff to get

1366
01:01:24,640 --> 01:01:26,400
Speaker 1: curry shots. Like you said, he's shooting, I mean he's

1367
01:01:26,560 --> 01:01:29,160
Speaker 1: he's shooting like fifty fifty one right now, I think

1368
01:01:29,200 --> 01:01:31,320
Speaker 1: from the field. So that's obviously not gonna last. But

1369
01:01:31,600 --> 01:01:33,480
Speaker 1: one of the better shooters in the league. Um, And

1370
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:35,520
Speaker 1: there's a reason I really love that pairing of him

1371
01:01:35,560 --> 01:01:38,960
Speaker 1: and Simmons because I mean, it has like some like

1372
01:01:39,600 --> 01:01:43,040
Speaker 1: poor Man Steph Draymond vibes, right, Like the skill sets

1373
01:01:43,040 --> 01:01:46,200
Speaker 1: are somewhat similar. Seth obviously isn't Staff and Simmons obviously

1374
01:01:46,240 --> 01:01:48,080
Speaker 1: isn't Draymond. But the skill sets are similar, right, so

1375
01:01:48,120 --> 01:01:50,280
Speaker 1: they can do some of the things that those two

1376
01:01:50,320 --> 01:01:52,400
Speaker 1: can do together. A lot of drible handoff stuff. Set

1377
01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:54,800
Speaker 1: isn't a bad passer. You can create a little bit

1378
01:01:54,840 --> 01:01:56,920
Speaker 1: out of you know, pick and roll d chose situations,

1379
01:01:57,240 --> 01:01:59,640
Speaker 1: get Simmons downhill, get him into situations where he's playing

1380
01:01:59,640 --> 01:02:02,200
Speaker 1: for on three like you said, and beat is looked amazing. Um,

1381
01:02:02,280 --> 01:02:04,160
Speaker 1: he's looked like maybe the best defender in the NBA.

1382
01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:05,880
Speaker 1: He could easily win the Defensive Player of the Year

1383
01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:08,880
Speaker 1: this year. The key for them is just gonna be okay,

1384
01:02:08,960 --> 01:02:11,640
Speaker 1: can we get our offense to top ten level and

1385
01:02:11,800 --> 01:02:14,320
Speaker 1: do we trust him beat enough Layton games to actually

1386
01:02:14,360 --> 01:02:16,800
Speaker 1: win playoff series? Right that That's what it's really gonna

1387
01:02:16,800 --> 01:02:18,920
Speaker 1: come down to. Ken Joe l EmpId be good enough

1388
01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:22,000
Speaker 1: late in the game against Kevin Durant, against Kyrie Irving,

1389
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:24,840
Speaker 1: against the honest to actually win win the game because

1390
01:02:24,840 --> 01:02:26,680
Speaker 1: they're gonna be there. Defensively, I think they're gonna be

1391
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:29,360
Speaker 1: able to get enough stops. They have the correct They

1392
01:02:29,440 --> 01:02:31,720
Speaker 1: have so much defensive versatility on that roster they can

1393
01:02:31,760 --> 01:02:33,320
Speaker 1: really I think they can basically guard any type of

1394
01:02:33,520 --> 01:02:35,880
Speaker 1: superstar just looking at it. Um kind of from a

1395
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:38,640
Speaker 1: broad spectrum. They can throw South Kurry isn't a bad defender.

1396
01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:40,760
Speaker 1: He's pretty solid. He's really handsy on ball. He's more

1397
01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:43,360
Speaker 1: physical than you'd expect. You can throw him on um

1398
01:02:43,480 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 1: a Kyrie type. Fatiste. Ty Bow is obviously a really

1399
01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:47,720
Speaker 1: good guy to throw on any type of garter wing

1400
01:02:48,200 --> 01:02:50,320
Speaker 1: to whys Harris Ben Simmons really big bodies on the wing.

1401
01:02:50,400 --> 01:02:51,920
Speaker 1: They can defend and beats one of the best room

1402
01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:55,520
Speaker 1: protectors in the league. There. Like I said, I I

1403
01:02:55,640 --> 01:02:57,440
Speaker 1: thought before the year. Getting a fresh voice in that

1404
01:02:57,520 --> 01:02:59,400
Speaker 1: locker room with Doc Rivers is really gonna help them.

1405
01:02:59,400 --> 01:03:00,880
Speaker 1: And then they get to get some new guys too,

1406
01:03:00,920 --> 01:03:02,720
Speaker 1: so it didn't feel so stagnant. They brought in Curry,

1407
01:03:02,720 --> 01:03:05,840
Speaker 1: they brought in Green, they got rid of Al Horford. Um. Yeah,

1408
01:03:05,960 --> 01:03:07,880
Speaker 1: I really like this team. My opinion on them has

1409
01:03:07,880 --> 01:03:09,680
Speaker 1: not changed at all. I still think they're probably going

1410
01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:12,840
Speaker 1: to win the East. UM, and you know, it's a

1411
01:03:12,840 --> 01:03:14,560
Speaker 1: piggyback on the Lakers stuff. I still think the Lakers

1412
01:03:14,600 --> 01:03:15,880
Speaker 1: would be favored in that series, and I think they

1413
01:03:15,920 --> 01:03:19,360
Speaker 1: should be. UM. But I'm really optimistic about this filly team,

1414
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:21,640
Speaker 1: which is gonna be Can they figure out how to

1415
01:03:21,720 --> 01:03:24,439
Speaker 1: get manufacture a few more easy buckets in the half

1416
01:03:24,480 --> 01:03:27,560
Speaker 1: court because the defense is going to be ridiculously elite

1417
01:03:27,600 --> 01:03:31,200
Speaker 1: all year, and that stuff about the half court comes

1418
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:35,560
Speaker 1: down to embide um. One quick note on the Lakers

1419
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:37,720
Speaker 1: has been better this year, by the way, he is

1420
01:03:38,080 --> 01:03:40,520
Speaker 1: actually looking for cutters again. He's looking for shooters, which

1421
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:42,400
Speaker 1: he wasn't doing as much in year's past. I think

1422
01:03:42,400 --> 01:03:44,360
Speaker 1: because he was maybe frustrated with the way with the

1423
01:03:44,480 --> 01:03:46,640
Speaker 1: roster and the coaching and a bunch of things. So

1424
01:03:46,960 --> 01:03:49,360
Speaker 1: but he's he seems to have a renewed energy, and

1425
01:03:49,400 --> 01:03:50,520
Speaker 1: I think that was a lot of the reason for

1426
01:03:50,560 --> 01:03:52,479
Speaker 1: getting rid of bet Round and bringing in Doc Rivers.

1427
01:03:53,160 --> 01:03:55,680
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and I mean Darryl Moorey managed to completely

1428
01:03:55,720 --> 01:03:58,160
Speaker 1: fix this roster in one offseason just by making basic

1429
01:03:58,240 --> 01:04:01,720
Speaker 1: basketball decisions that were related shooting around Joel Embiad and

1430
01:04:01,760 --> 01:04:05,760
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. What a novel concept. Hum, But I do

1431
01:04:05,880 --> 01:04:07,800
Speaker 1: think this is one of the biggest reasons why I

1432
01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:13,760
Speaker 1: was pro the Marcusol signing is you know, Dwight Howard

1433
01:04:14,760 --> 01:04:17,640
Speaker 1: was a good option to throw at yokich In, a

1434
01:04:17,720 --> 01:04:20,520
Speaker 1: good option to throw at a guy like Embiid, but

1435
01:04:20,680 --> 01:04:23,040
Speaker 1: not a great option because he commits a lot of fouls,

1436
01:04:23,080 --> 01:04:25,480
Speaker 1: easily gets into foul trouble, can get kind of riled up,

1437
01:04:25,520 --> 01:04:29,000
Speaker 1: and very easily can mentally check out of a game. Marcusol,

1438
01:04:29,120 --> 01:04:32,120
Speaker 1: to me, is such a huge addition for the Lakers

1439
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:36,120
Speaker 1: as a spot guy to have for specific playoff matchups.

1440
01:04:36,600 --> 01:04:39,400
Speaker 1: If i'm because of the because you know, Marcusol is

1441
01:04:39,480 --> 01:04:41,920
Speaker 1: a is a the The game has kind of passed

1442
01:04:42,000 --> 01:04:44,520
Speaker 1: him by as a defensive center in the open court,

1443
01:04:45,480 --> 01:04:48,800
Speaker 1: but he is still probably the best post offender in

1444
01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:52,760
Speaker 1: the league, and I need hell everything he gives him

1445
01:04:52,760 --> 01:04:55,920
Speaker 1: be hell every single time. And he's built for a

1446
01:04:56,040 --> 01:04:58,760
Speaker 1: Yoki's matchup as well. And so from that standpoint, like

1447
01:04:58,960 --> 01:05:01,560
Speaker 1: I love having him on that Laker roster for those

1448
01:05:01,600 --> 01:05:05,440
Speaker 1: specific matchups and because you know, when it comes to

1449
01:05:06,800 --> 01:05:09,840
Speaker 1: beating a team that is more talented, you usually need

1450
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:11,680
Speaker 1: an ace in the whole, a matchup that you just

1451
01:05:11,800 --> 01:05:14,000
Speaker 1: can't deal with. For instance, the Clippers and the Nuggets

1452
01:05:14,120 --> 01:05:16,440
Speaker 1: last year. The Nuggets did not have the top to

1453
01:05:16,520 --> 01:05:19,320
Speaker 1: bottom talent that the Clippers did, but they didn't have

1454
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:21,680
Speaker 1: anybody that could guard your kitch, and it completely threw

1455
01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:23,520
Speaker 1: off the tenor of the series and it made it

1456
01:05:23,640 --> 01:05:27,360
Speaker 1: so that, you know, the Clippers found themselves into late

1457
01:05:27,400 --> 01:05:29,080
Speaker 1: game scenarios and then a couple of things didn't go

1458
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:31,160
Speaker 1: their way and then they lost. And so having that

1459
01:05:31,320 --> 01:05:33,560
Speaker 1: kind of matchup could have been a problem for a

1460
01:05:33,640 --> 01:05:35,880
Speaker 1: lot of teams in the league, and having someone like

1461
01:05:35,960 --> 01:05:38,240
Speaker 1: marcusol on the roster is huge. But I again like

1462
01:05:38,480 --> 01:05:40,640
Speaker 1: the this is this would be my question for Philly,

1463
01:05:40,720 --> 01:05:42,160
Speaker 1: and it's something that I think will be interesting to

1464
01:05:42,200 --> 01:05:45,240
Speaker 1: watch as the season progresses. If you think m Beat

1465
01:05:45,320 --> 01:05:47,680
Speaker 1: is that guy and you think that this is the

1466
01:05:47,760 --> 01:05:50,720
Speaker 1: season that when he gets toe to toe, eye to

1467
01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:52,440
Speaker 1: eye with the best players in the league in the

1468
01:05:52,520 --> 01:05:54,320
Speaker 1: late round playoff series, that he's gonna be able to

1469
01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:56,800
Speaker 1: come out on top. Then I think you keep the

1470
01:05:56,840 --> 01:05:59,400
Speaker 1: status quo and you ride this out. You build on

1471
01:05:59,560 --> 01:06:02,120
Speaker 1: your number one defense in the league, and the goal

1472
01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:03,960
Speaker 1: is just keep the game closer. You can ride and

1473
01:06:04,040 --> 01:06:06,880
Speaker 1: be late. Uh. If you don't think him be can

1474
01:06:06,960 --> 01:06:09,400
Speaker 1: do that, then I think you gotta go after Harden

1475
01:06:10,160 --> 01:06:12,520
Speaker 1: and I and I and I tweeted this last night.

1476
01:06:12,600 --> 01:06:15,560
Speaker 1: I'm I told you before the season that I thought

1477
01:06:15,560 --> 01:06:18,000
Speaker 1: they needed to go after Hardened, and I'm worried that

1478
01:06:18,080 --> 01:06:20,520
Speaker 1: they're playing too well now that that is off off

1479
01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:25,200
Speaker 1: the table. They're hoping that. I'm hoping that Darryl Morey,

1480
01:06:26,200 --> 01:06:29,880
Speaker 1: you know, has been around long enough to see that

1481
01:06:30,440 --> 01:06:33,360
Speaker 1: winning in those late round playoffs series is all about

1482
01:06:33,800 --> 01:06:36,320
Speaker 1: your alpha dog and what he can do against the

1483
01:06:36,360 --> 01:06:38,440
Speaker 1: other alpha dogs in the league. He literally has been

1484
01:06:38,440 --> 01:06:41,640
Speaker 1: assassinated by Steph Curry before he knows what he knows

1485
01:06:41,720 --> 01:06:44,960
Speaker 1: what it takes. And so from that standpoint, you know,

1486
01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:47,520
Speaker 1: if if they if they come into a rough patch

1487
01:06:47,640 --> 01:06:49,520
Speaker 1: or if they lose to a couple of really good teams,

1488
01:06:49,560 --> 01:06:51,840
Speaker 1: Like if they drop a game in Milwaukee, they drop

1489
01:06:51,920 --> 01:06:54,760
Speaker 1: a game against one of the big Western Conference teams,

1490
01:06:55,080 --> 01:06:57,720
Speaker 1: or they lose a game in Boston, because suddenly when

1491
01:06:57,760 --> 01:07:01,040
Speaker 1: Boston and and and in Toron though and and you know,

1492
01:07:01,120 --> 01:07:03,920
Speaker 1: Milwaukee get into a switching scheme and the half court

1493
01:07:04,280 --> 01:07:06,880
Speaker 1: that leaves you know, uh and beat on an island,

1494
01:07:06,920 --> 01:07:08,560
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you can't handle double teams

1495
01:07:08,600 --> 01:07:10,840
Speaker 1: and Ben Simmons is back to being a guy in

1496
01:07:10,880 --> 01:07:13,520
Speaker 1: the dunker spot. That kind of thing happens. I hope

1497
01:07:13,880 --> 01:07:15,960
Speaker 1: they're smart enough to audible and realize that they've got

1498
01:07:16,000 --> 01:07:18,520
Speaker 1: an option on the table that makes them unbeatable. And

1499
01:07:18,680 --> 01:07:19,920
Speaker 1: if a lot of people are like, oh, you have

1500
01:07:20,000 --> 01:07:22,000
Speaker 1: to ditch tyble or you've got you know, Ben Simmons

1501
01:07:22,040 --> 01:07:23,480
Speaker 1: could be the defense player the year, why would you

1502
01:07:23,480 --> 01:07:26,720
Speaker 1: do that? It's like it's like, yeah, if you can

1503
01:07:26,800 --> 01:07:31,480
Speaker 1: build a team around James Harden, Seth Curry, Tobias Harris

1504
01:07:31,640 --> 01:07:34,640
Speaker 1: and Joel Embiid, you do that a million times out

1505
01:07:34,680 --> 01:07:36,960
Speaker 1: of a million, because that's the best top four in

1506
01:07:37,040 --> 01:07:40,360
Speaker 1: the league probably, you know, I mean, and Beads looking

1507
01:07:40,440 --> 01:07:42,720
Speaker 1: like the sixth or seventh best player in the league

1508
01:07:43,000 --> 01:07:45,320
Speaker 1: in Harden's right there. I think he's around seventh or eighth.

1509
01:07:45,320 --> 01:07:47,120
Speaker 1: Do you think he's eleventh? But the point is is

1510
01:07:47,200 --> 01:07:50,680
Speaker 1: like that that's the line up there, that that that

1511
01:07:50,880 --> 01:07:52,400
Speaker 1: other teams in the league will not be able to

1512
01:07:52,440 --> 01:07:54,720
Speaker 1: match up with and and and it's something, It's an

1513
01:07:54,720 --> 01:07:57,320
Speaker 1: opportunity that's right there for the taking. And I feel

1514
01:07:57,360 --> 01:07:59,520
Speaker 1: like they're playing so damn well that that Daryl Morey

1515
01:07:59,560 --> 01:08:01,840
Speaker 1: is gonna be emptied into not doing it, and Harden's

1516
01:08:01,880 --> 01:08:04,120
Speaker 1: gonna end up going somewhere like Toronto where they're still

1517
01:08:04,160 --> 01:08:06,120
Speaker 1: not going to be good enough. And I don't know

1518
01:08:06,200 --> 01:08:07,760
Speaker 1: I did that that that was just something that's been

1519
01:08:07,800 --> 01:08:10,480
Speaker 1: on my mind. Yeah, I don't think about mori is.

1520
01:08:10,560 --> 01:08:13,200
Speaker 1: I don't think he ever takes any option really off

1521
01:08:13,240 --> 01:08:16,120
Speaker 1: the table, right. I mean, my guests would be he's

1522
01:08:16,160 --> 01:08:18,320
Speaker 1: waiting close to the deadline. He's waiting for more leverage

1523
01:08:18,680 --> 01:08:20,760
Speaker 1: so they can give up less to get James Harden,

1524
01:08:21,320 --> 01:08:23,479
Speaker 1: because if they I don't see how they get it

1525
01:08:23,520 --> 01:08:26,400
Speaker 1: done without Simmons. But if they somehow can, and now

1526
01:08:26,479 --> 01:08:30,479
Speaker 1: you have hardened Simmons and embiid, you can be pretty special.

1527
01:08:30,600 --> 01:08:32,559
Speaker 1: I mean that might be too many guys who need

1528
01:08:32,560 --> 01:08:34,120
Speaker 1: too many touches. That is an issue from time to

1529
01:08:34,160 --> 01:08:35,680
Speaker 1: time where you've got three guys who need the ball

1530
01:08:35,720 --> 01:08:37,760
Speaker 1: a lot um, you'd have to sell Simmons on really

1531
01:08:37,840 --> 01:08:40,040
Speaker 1: just being kind of an off ball playmaker in a

1532
01:08:40,080 --> 01:08:42,280
Speaker 1: way and and just being an absolute defensive menace to

1533
01:08:42,280 --> 01:08:45,880
Speaker 1: basically to sell them one being Draymond Green. But if

1534
01:08:45,920 --> 01:08:48,600
Speaker 1: they can either way, if they can't get hardened, that

1535
01:08:48,920 --> 01:08:52,519
Speaker 1: there they go from, in my opinion, that slight favorites

1536
01:08:52,560 --> 01:08:55,320
Speaker 1: in the East two being the prohibitive favorites in the East.

1537
01:08:55,320 --> 01:08:57,040
Speaker 1: If they could sum out playing a Harden trade and

1538
01:08:57,160 --> 01:08:59,280
Speaker 1: keep Simmons or not keep Simmons because Harden is that

1539
01:08:59,320 --> 01:09:02,360
Speaker 1: special off or that is that special offensively. For all

1540
01:09:02,360 --> 01:09:03,960
Speaker 1: the crap that I give him a lot of, it

1541
01:09:04,080 --> 01:09:05,960
Speaker 1: is contact space and what he's done to that Rockets

1542
01:09:06,000 --> 01:09:09,479
Speaker 1: franchise in terms of just every eighteen months they're turning

1543
01:09:09,520 --> 01:09:11,599
Speaker 1: over the roster because he's never happy. If you get

1544
01:09:11,640 --> 01:09:13,320
Speaker 1: him in a situation where you can you have some

1545
01:09:13,439 --> 01:09:15,519
Speaker 1: leadership around him, you have some veterans, and you can

1546
01:09:15,640 --> 01:09:17,320
Speaker 1: kind of just tell him to do what he's really

1547
01:09:17,360 --> 01:09:19,200
Speaker 1: good at and not do much else, then yeah, I

1548
01:09:19,280 --> 01:09:21,240
Speaker 1: think he's like I've said, one of the most talented

1549
01:09:21,280 --> 01:09:24,360
Speaker 1: offensive players of all time. So if if it's on

1550
01:09:24,400 --> 01:09:26,240
Speaker 1: the table and they can get a better deal because

1551
01:09:26,240 --> 01:09:28,439
Speaker 1: they wait towards the trade deadline, then do it. And

1552
01:09:28,520 --> 01:09:30,639
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons just missed a postseason with a knee injury,

1553
01:09:30,720 --> 01:09:32,560
Speaker 1: and he missed his season with a foot injury. Like

1554
01:09:32,680 --> 01:09:36,720
Speaker 1: he's not the same physical guy that that Harden is.

1555
01:09:37,520 --> 01:09:42,000
Speaker 1: Um Okay, so uh, just because we've been going for

1556
01:09:42,080 --> 01:09:45,840
Speaker 1: so long, let's go rapid fire through these um, what

1557
01:09:45,920 --> 01:09:48,759
Speaker 1: are your quick thoughts in Toronto? There and offense thirteenth

1558
01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:51,120
Speaker 1: and defense twenty one and net ratings. Siakam has been

1559
01:09:51,120 --> 01:09:55,519
Speaker 1: absolutely terrible again, offense is ridiculous for a team like that.

1560
01:09:55,800 --> 01:09:57,400
Speaker 1: The only reason I wanted to talk about them is

1561
01:09:57,479 --> 01:09:59,400
Speaker 1: do they just punt? I mean, do they do they

1562
01:09:59,600 --> 01:10:02,479
Speaker 1: decide this is the year that we move Lowry and

1563
01:10:02,720 --> 01:10:04,240
Speaker 1: and maybe move a couple of guys and just kind

1564
01:10:04,240 --> 01:10:06,200
Speaker 1: of punt the year. Um. I know, they just signed

1565
01:10:06,320 --> 01:10:08,519
Speaker 1: resigned Van Bleet. They gave Sam a ton of money,

1566
01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:10,800
Speaker 1: so that doesn't really make sense to do in a

1567
01:10:10,920 --> 01:10:14,519
Speaker 1: lot of ways. But this draft is also one of

1568
01:10:14,560 --> 01:10:17,200
Speaker 1: the most special drafts in in the in recent memory.

1569
01:10:17,439 --> 01:10:19,400
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm following it because the Warriors have the

1570
01:10:19,439 --> 01:10:22,000
Speaker 1: Wolves pick Um, so they're gonna get probably a pick

1571
01:10:22,040 --> 01:10:24,560
Speaker 1: in the four to ten range. There's like five or

1572
01:10:24,600 --> 01:10:26,360
Speaker 1: six guys in this class who probably would have went

1573
01:10:26,439 --> 01:10:28,960
Speaker 1: number one in the last class. That's how good this

1574
01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:31,680
Speaker 1: draft classes. So if you're Toronto in your Massai who

1575
01:10:31,760 --> 01:10:34,200
Speaker 1: is not scared to take a risk and make a move,

1576
01:10:34,280 --> 01:10:36,880
Speaker 1: we know that for sure, do you consider maybe moving

1577
01:10:36,920 --> 01:10:40,560
Speaker 1: Lowry and maybe moving even siakum Um and kind of

1578
01:10:40,600 --> 01:10:42,960
Speaker 1: punting it and saying, let's let's try to get a

1579
01:10:43,479 --> 01:10:47,040
Speaker 1: future superstar and start to rebuild a little bit here. Well,

1580
01:10:48,400 --> 01:10:51,080
Speaker 1: And the other thing there too is I think they're

1581
01:10:51,160 --> 01:10:53,439
Speaker 1: wired in a way kind of similar to the San

1582
01:10:53,479 --> 01:10:56,400
Speaker 1: Antonio Spurs, where I don't think, I don't think we're

1583
01:10:56,400 --> 01:10:59,120
Speaker 1: not getting in their vocabulary, but I do think that,

1584
01:10:59,320 --> 01:11:01,920
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it's nearly as good of

1585
01:11:02,000 --> 01:11:05,400
Speaker 1: an opportunity for James Harden as Philly is, but they

1586
01:11:05,439 --> 01:11:07,800
Speaker 1: are an interesting opportunity because so theoretically you end up

1587
01:11:07,800 --> 01:11:10,160
Speaker 1: having to give up Sam, and you have to give

1588
01:11:10,240 --> 01:11:12,600
Speaker 1: up um god, what's his name, the guy towards the

1589
01:11:12,680 --> 01:11:16,200
Speaker 1: cel when he was a Yeah, so you have to

1590
01:11:16,240 --> 01:11:18,080
Speaker 1: give up o G and Sam and messes with your

1591
01:11:18,120 --> 01:11:19,599
Speaker 1: defense a little bit, But they still have a lot

1592
01:11:19,640 --> 01:11:23,640
Speaker 1: of athleticism on that team, a lot of bigger wings. Theoretically,

1593
01:11:23,880 --> 01:11:27,120
Speaker 1: Lowry and and and VanVleet are two really really good

1594
01:11:27,240 --> 01:11:31,280
Speaker 1: shooters that give James Harden space. You go all in

1595
01:11:31,479 --> 01:11:33,280
Speaker 1: on kind of a small ball team with a lot

1596
01:11:33,320 --> 01:11:37,400
Speaker 1: of athleticism, um and having three guards that can create

1597
01:11:37,400 --> 01:11:40,200
Speaker 1: a lot on the perimeter. Again, you have some matchup

1598
01:11:40,240 --> 01:11:42,639
Speaker 1: issues potentially when you get to the late round playoff series.

1599
01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:45,880
Speaker 1: I mean, Baines isn't a terrible option, but he's someone

1600
01:11:45,920 --> 01:11:50,000
Speaker 1: you can throw um. I do wonder if if that's

1601
01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:53,840
Speaker 1: the move there for them, just understanding that they're not

1602
01:11:54,080 --> 01:11:56,400
Speaker 1: wired in a way that they would punt. You know,

1603
01:11:56,560 --> 01:12:00,360
Speaker 1: Trading Kyle Lowry is effectively just selling I Like there's

1604
01:12:00,360 --> 01:12:03,080
Speaker 1: a lot Trading Kyle Lowry makes a lot sense, a

1605
01:12:03,160 --> 01:12:05,040
Speaker 1: lot more sense for the other teams in the league

1606
01:12:05,040 --> 01:12:08,080
Speaker 1: than it does for the Raptors, meaning like of course,

1607
01:12:08,280 --> 01:12:11,439
Speaker 1: like yeah, of course, Like he would make anybody better.

1608
01:12:11,640 --> 01:12:13,920
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry is an absolute winner. If he's the second

1609
01:12:14,000 --> 01:12:15,519
Speaker 1: or third best player on your team, like you're just

1610
01:12:15,640 --> 01:12:18,960
Speaker 1: you're a lot better team but again, what if I'm Toronto,

1611
01:12:19,600 --> 01:12:22,600
Speaker 1: if the what like, there's so much talent on the

1612
01:12:22,640 --> 01:12:24,760
Speaker 1: team too, you'd have to sell everything in order to tank.

1613
01:12:24,840 --> 01:12:26,840
Speaker 1: And I just don't don't think they're wired that way.

1614
01:12:26,920 --> 01:12:29,360
Speaker 1: And then the lottery is never sure thing for getting

1615
01:12:29,360 --> 01:12:32,000
Speaker 1: a top five guy anyway, with the way that it

1616
01:12:32,120 --> 01:12:35,320
Speaker 1: shakes out, So I they to me are a sleeper

1617
01:12:35,960 --> 01:12:38,519
Speaker 1: heart and destination or not even one of the top

1618
01:12:38,680 --> 01:12:41,200
Speaker 1: two or three destinations. And then we also know we

1619
01:12:41,320 --> 01:12:45,400
Speaker 1: we we we know uh um from the Kauai situation,

1620
01:12:45,479 --> 01:12:47,240
Speaker 1: that that's something that they're willing to do. You know,

1621
01:12:47,320 --> 01:12:50,439
Speaker 1: miss miss i is is not scared to take a

1622
01:12:50,479 --> 01:12:55,400
Speaker 1: big risk. UM Denver twenty ninth in defense, fourth in offense,

1623
01:12:55,520 --> 01:12:59,679
Speaker 1: four teenth and net rating um uh. We talked about

1624
01:12:59,720 --> 01:13:03,360
Speaker 1: before the season that giving up Tory Craig and uh

1625
01:13:04,360 --> 01:13:06,360
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant could have been a problem for them in

1626
01:13:06,479 --> 01:13:08,360
Speaker 1: terms of their overall wing defense and the way that

1627
01:13:08,400 --> 01:13:10,720
Speaker 1: it might make them a less athletic team. And and

1628
01:13:11,320 --> 01:13:13,400
Speaker 1: we talked about how Michael Porter Jr. While he's a

1629
01:13:13,400 --> 01:13:15,920
Speaker 1: great offensive player, was not the team defensive player in

1630
01:13:16,000 --> 01:13:19,040
Speaker 1: that role. And early on it looks like we hit

1631
01:13:19,080 --> 01:13:20,080
Speaker 1: that one out of the Park. They're one of the

1632
01:13:20,120 --> 01:13:22,599
Speaker 1: best offensive teams in the league, and they're not winning games, right,

1633
01:13:22,840 --> 01:13:24,720
Speaker 1: And that's basically why I wanted to talk about them.

1634
01:13:24,840 --> 01:13:27,320
Speaker 1: I think, but we do a lot of the times

1635
01:13:27,400 --> 01:13:30,960
Speaker 1: is we don't realize how important point of attack defense

1636
01:13:31,080 --> 01:13:33,479
Speaker 1: is for raising a defensive floor. I think your health

1637
01:13:33,560 --> 01:13:36,760
Speaker 1: defenders a Draymond Green, a you know, Joel and beat

1638
01:13:36,800 --> 01:13:38,840
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, they can raise your defensive seeing a lot.

1639
01:13:38,880 --> 01:13:40,880
Speaker 1: And they obviously can raise the floor too, right becau

1640
01:13:40,880 --> 01:13:43,880
Speaker 1: they're really special at stopping rim attacks. But if you're

1641
01:13:44,000 --> 01:13:45,920
Speaker 1: if your guards and wings are constantly getting beat off

1642
01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:48,479
Speaker 1: the dribble, those type of guys can only do so much, right.

1643
01:13:48,560 --> 01:13:51,840
Speaker 1: You need those guys who can at least be passible

1644
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:54,880
Speaker 1: to good on the ball, so your health defenders aren't

1645
01:13:54,920 --> 01:13:58,200
Speaker 1: constantly in rotation and constantly playing one or two steps behind.

1646
01:13:58,720 --> 01:14:01,120
Speaker 1: So there, I think their biggest issue is they really

1647
01:14:01,160 --> 01:14:04,080
Speaker 1: only have one one guy who's even average too above

1648
01:14:04,160 --> 01:14:07,000
Speaker 1: average as a point of attack defender, and that's Gary Harris,

1649
01:14:07,320 --> 01:14:09,800
Speaker 1: and he has not looked good this year either. He's

1650
01:14:09,840 --> 01:14:11,640
Speaker 1: had a lot of injuries at this point, and he

1651
01:14:11,800 --> 01:14:13,519
Speaker 1: might never be the same guy they gave him. You know,

1652
01:14:13,560 --> 01:14:15,400
Speaker 1: four years, eighty four million, which looked like a great

1653
01:14:15,439 --> 01:14:16,960
Speaker 1: deal at the time. I thought that was a really

1654
01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:18,400
Speaker 1: good deal for him, but when he first signed it,

1655
01:14:18,479 --> 01:14:22,519
Speaker 1: but he's a hit. At the time, Yeah, he was.

1656
01:14:22,560 --> 01:14:24,920
Speaker 1: He was shooting from three, he was able to attack

1657
01:14:24,960 --> 01:14:26,040
Speaker 1: the rim. He looked like he was going to be

1658
01:14:26,120 --> 01:14:27,760
Speaker 1: one of the best young shooting guards in the league.

1659
01:14:28,160 --> 01:14:31,960
Speaker 1: But injuries, man that they ruined. They ruined tons of

1660
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:34,240
Speaker 1: guys careers, So who knows if he's ever going to

1661
01:14:34,280 --> 01:14:36,120
Speaker 1: be the same guy doesn't really look like it. And

1662
01:14:36,600 --> 01:14:40,040
Speaker 1: hunting your other two best wing defenders turns out that's

1663
01:14:40,080 --> 01:14:43,040
Speaker 1: not a good idea, especially when Tory Craig he didn't

1664
01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:45,479
Speaker 1: really even go for that much like it's a lot

1665
01:14:45,560 --> 01:14:48,400
Speaker 1: of their off sense offseason moves made no sense to me. Um,

1666
01:14:48,439 --> 01:14:50,639
Speaker 1: I guess I wanted to see if Michael Porter Jr.

1667
01:14:50,720 --> 01:14:53,760
Speaker 1: Was ready to be that guy, but pretty clearly he isn't. Um,

1668
01:14:54,040 --> 01:14:57,320
Speaker 1: maybe things change, But if your kich has been amazing offensively,

1669
01:14:57,360 --> 01:14:58,880
Speaker 1: but if they can't get stops out of that matters.

1670
01:14:58,880 --> 01:15:01,960
Speaker 1: There two and four for a reason, they cannot get stopped.

1671
01:15:02,080 --> 01:15:06,519
Speaker 1: Like I said, having point of attack defenders raises your

1672
01:15:06,560 --> 01:15:08,640
Speaker 1: defensive floor. That was the issue with the Worris last year.

1673
01:15:08,680 --> 01:15:10,800
Speaker 1: Draymond Green was still Draymond Green defensively, but they were

1674
01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:13,639
Speaker 1: twenty seven and defensive rating because they didn't have anybody

1675
01:15:13,640 --> 01:15:16,040
Speaker 1: who could guard the ball. As you can guard the ball,

1676
01:15:16,200 --> 01:15:18,200
Speaker 1: you will not get stops, period, end of story. You

1677
01:15:18,280 --> 01:15:19,800
Speaker 1: gotta have at least two or three of those guys.

1678
01:15:20,000 --> 01:15:22,240
Speaker 1: Denver has one at most right now. Well, you and

1679
01:15:22,320 --> 01:15:24,599
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about this as it pertains to Portland,

1680
01:15:24,720 --> 01:15:27,519
Speaker 1: like there's so much emphasis on this big, switchy wing

1681
01:15:27,640 --> 01:15:31,120
Speaker 1: defender and what ironically, because of how talented the point

1682
01:15:31,160 --> 01:15:33,360
Speaker 1: guard position is in the league, the one of the

1683
01:15:33,439 --> 01:15:36,840
Speaker 1: most important parts of a defense is guard defense. And

1684
01:15:37,080 --> 01:15:40,439
Speaker 1: and and you know it's funny because I, uh, it was.

1685
01:15:40,560 --> 01:15:42,479
Speaker 1: It was one of the biggest you know, refreshing things

1686
01:15:42,560 --> 01:15:46,080
Speaker 1: that I saw about the Lakers last year. Um was

1687
01:15:46,280 --> 01:15:49,080
Speaker 1: you know, these were these were guys that were considered

1688
01:15:49,200 --> 01:15:51,720
Speaker 1: under size, you know, below average defenders. But what they

1689
01:15:51,760 --> 01:15:54,400
Speaker 1: were good at was they were good at moving their

1690
01:15:54,479 --> 01:15:58,120
Speaker 1: feet against smaller guards. And so yeah, like Alex Crusoe

1691
01:15:58,160 --> 01:16:01,280
Speaker 1: and Contagious called a hope couldn't guard. Why but against

1692
01:16:01,320 --> 01:16:02,880
Speaker 1: all of these other teams in the league that we're

1693
01:16:02,920 --> 01:16:05,800
Speaker 1: relying on your Jamal Murray, you know, Bradley Beal or

1694
01:16:05,960 --> 01:16:09,439
Speaker 1: Kemba Walker, any of these quick, you know, initiation guys

1695
01:16:09,520 --> 01:16:11,840
Speaker 1: up top. They were able to keep them in front

1696
01:16:12,120 --> 01:16:15,240
Speaker 1: and and just do a better than usual job of

1697
01:16:15,360 --> 01:16:18,040
Speaker 1: making things difficult at the beginning of a possession for

1698
01:16:18,120 --> 01:16:21,160
Speaker 1: these guys. And and you know, it's not exactly a

1699
01:16:21,240 --> 01:16:24,200
Speaker 1: big shock that that Steph Curry was able to break

1700
01:16:24,320 --> 01:16:26,920
Speaker 1: things open against Dame and c J because they're just

1701
01:16:27,000 --> 01:16:29,080
Speaker 1: not a really they're just not a really good point

1702
01:16:29,120 --> 01:16:30,800
Speaker 1: of attack defensive team in the back court. And they

1703
01:16:30,840 --> 01:16:32,960
Speaker 1: were like, oh, we got Robert Covington, all of our

1704
01:16:33,000 --> 01:16:35,840
Speaker 1: defensive problems are solved. And it's like, well, unless you

1705
01:16:35,880 --> 01:16:38,240
Speaker 1: plan on having Robert Covington guard the other team's point guard,

1706
01:16:38,320 --> 01:16:40,919
Speaker 1: it's not really going to fix your problems. Every possession

1707
01:16:40,960 --> 01:16:43,160
Speaker 1: starts with a straight line drive. And yeah, and that's

1708
01:16:43,200 --> 01:16:45,559
Speaker 1: not his strength either. He's a really good help side defender.

1709
01:16:45,840 --> 01:16:47,519
Speaker 1: He's the type of guy that if you have good

1710
01:16:47,560 --> 01:16:49,679
Speaker 1: point of attack defenders, he can help raise your defensive

1711
01:16:49,720 --> 01:16:52,320
Speaker 1: ceiling because he's gonna raise a lot of problems, right,

1712
01:16:52,680 --> 01:16:54,160
Speaker 1: But if you don't have guys that can get a

1713
01:16:54,200 --> 01:16:57,040
Speaker 1: stop at all. Then there is are gonna be blow

1714
01:16:57,080 --> 01:16:59,360
Speaker 1: by after blow by after blowby, and now he's always

1715
01:16:59,360 --> 01:17:00,680
Speaker 1: a step or two by one, and now we're either

1716
01:17:00,760 --> 01:17:04,200
Speaker 1: shooting layups, were getting wide open threes, and yeah, just

1717
01:17:04,280 --> 01:17:06,840
Speaker 1: point about that defense. Man. It's become underrated because there's

1718
01:17:06,840 --> 01:17:09,040
Speaker 1: all this focus on getting a Draymond Green, getting an

1719
01:17:09,040 --> 01:17:11,280
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, getting this guy or that guy. First of all,

1720
01:17:11,320 --> 01:17:12,840
Speaker 1: good luck getting one of those guys. Second of all,

1721
01:17:12,840 --> 01:17:14,160
Speaker 1: if you do get them, you're still gotta be able

1722
01:17:14,160 --> 01:17:16,200
Speaker 1: to stop the ball. Nothing matters if you can't guard

1723
01:17:16,200 --> 01:17:18,880
Speaker 1: the ball exactly. Um. And the last thing Ile'll say

1724
01:17:18,880 --> 01:17:20,840
Speaker 1: about Denver is that they're a team that I would

1725
01:17:20,840 --> 01:17:23,040
Speaker 1: project to eventually end up in the middle of the

1726
01:17:23,080 --> 01:17:25,679
Speaker 1: Western Conference playoff race, if not better, because they can score.

1727
01:17:26,160 --> 01:17:28,320
Speaker 1: And like I always say, it's a lot easier to

1728
01:17:28,360 --> 01:17:30,400
Speaker 1: take bad defensive players and get them to play some

1729
01:17:30,520 --> 01:17:33,439
Speaker 1: form of cohesive defensive basketball where they are rotating and

1730
01:17:33,560 --> 01:17:35,599
Speaker 1: being in the right spot at the right time. Um.

1731
01:17:35,720 --> 01:17:38,519
Speaker 1: And Mike Malone's a really, really good coach. I don't

1732
01:17:38,560 --> 01:17:40,719
Speaker 1: they'll never be a top ten defense with this personnel,

1733
01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:42,800
Speaker 1: but if they can get into that fifteen fourteen range

1734
01:17:42,880 --> 01:17:45,320
Speaker 1: just by virtue of effort and focused. They will very

1735
01:17:45,400 --> 01:17:47,679
Speaker 1: easily be a four or five seed in the West

1736
01:17:47,720 --> 01:17:49,439
Speaker 1: just because of how good they are scoring the ball.

1737
01:17:50,120 --> 01:17:53,800
Speaker 1: Um last nut offense while being twenty nine and defense

1738
01:17:53,840 --> 01:17:56,320
Speaker 1: that's insane. Yeah, it's insane. They're taking the ball and

1739
01:17:56,360 --> 01:17:58,000
Speaker 1: then they're still one of the best offenses in the

1740
01:17:58,080 --> 01:18:01,560
Speaker 1: league exactly, uh. And and their offense makes sense, and

1741
01:18:01,640 --> 01:18:03,200
Speaker 1: they've got a lot of chemistry with the guys and

1742
01:18:03,280 --> 01:18:05,040
Speaker 1: and maybe that's why they've kind of bowed out of

1743
01:18:05,080 --> 01:18:07,040
Speaker 1: this James Harden thing is they're not worried about their

1744
01:18:07,080 --> 01:18:11,439
Speaker 1: offensive end of the ball defense here Atlanta, there are.

1745
01:18:11,600 --> 01:18:14,960
Speaker 1: They are third in offense seventeenth and defense UH sixth

1746
01:18:14,960 --> 01:18:18,360
Speaker 1: and net rated rating. UH. Gallantari has been hurt for

1747
01:18:18,400 --> 01:18:22,360
Speaker 1: the most part. UH. Bogdan Bogdanovich has been really bad,

1748
01:18:22,640 --> 01:18:24,599
Speaker 1: like really bad, especially in the last couple of games

1749
01:18:24,600 --> 01:18:27,200
Speaker 1: they started. They started undefeated and then went into Brooklyn

1750
01:18:27,280 --> 01:18:29,960
Speaker 1: and lost a really crazy game where Kyrie made a

1751
01:18:30,000 --> 01:18:32,280
Speaker 1: bunch of clutch shots. Then they came back and beat

1752
01:18:32,320 --> 01:18:34,519
Speaker 1: the pants off of Brooklyn. Looked really, really good. So

1753
01:18:34,840 --> 01:18:36,320
Speaker 1: they got off to this amazing start and then they

1754
01:18:36,360 --> 01:18:39,120
Speaker 1: lose to the Knicks and the Calves, so so I

1755
01:18:39,200 --> 01:18:40,599
Speaker 1: don't I don't really know what to make of them.

1756
01:18:40,640 --> 01:18:43,240
Speaker 1: Early in the two in the Knicks and Calves game, Uh,

1757
01:18:43,600 --> 01:18:45,600
Speaker 1: Trey Young was really bad against the Calves. He was

1758
01:18:45,640 --> 01:18:47,920
Speaker 1: okay against the Knicks. Pagdanovitch was really really bad. Like

1759
01:18:48,000 --> 01:18:50,840
Speaker 1: I said, Gallinari has been out. Um. But to me,

1760
01:18:50,960 --> 01:18:53,360
Speaker 1: those are just, you know, inexcusable losses for a team

1761
01:18:53,439 --> 01:18:56,120
Speaker 1: that's that has the type of aspirations that they have. Yep.

1762
01:18:56,560 --> 01:18:59,040
Speaker 1: So part of the reason why, well, the main reason

1763
01:18:59,040 --> 01:19:02,240
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about them is do we think

1764
01:19:02,280 --> 01:19:04,760
Speaker 1: they're a playoff team? Because we talked about this in

1765
01:19:04,760 --> 01:19:06,519
Speaker 1: our season preview. It seems like there's a mandate for

1766
01:19:06,560 --> 01:19:08,920
Speaker 1: them to make the playoffs, especially on that front office.

1767
01:19:09,600 --> 01:19:12,599
Speaker 1: They obviously started really well, but I think a lot

1768
01:19:12,680 --> 01:19:14,280
Speaker 1: of the same issues that were there are still there.

1769
01:19:14,320 --> 01:19:16,479
Speaker 1: And if Trey Young isn't gonna shoot seventeen free throws

1770
01:19:16,520 --> 01:19:18,240
Speaker 1: a game like he was early in the season, then

1771
01:19:18,240 --> 01:19:20,360
Speaker 1: they're going to start to struggle a little bit more offensively.

1772
01:19:21,240 --> 01:19:23,200
Speaker 1: I don't think he's gonna keep shooting seventeen free throws

1773
01:19:23,200 --> 01:19:25,200
Speaker 1: a game unless he's the greatest foul jarwer in the

1774
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:27,720
Speaker 1: history of the week. Right, They obviously do have a

1775
01:19:27,840 --> 01:19:30,479
Speaker 1: historically great or not historically great right now, but one

1776
01:19:30,520 --> 01:19:31,960
Speaker 1: of the better offenses in the league. And I think

1777
01:19:32,000 --> 01:19:34,120
Speaker 1: Trey is the type of guy that can lead that. Um.

1778
01:19:34,720 --> 01:19:36,479
Speaker 1: But as soon as those free throw numbers come down,

1779
01:19:36,520 --> 01:19:37,960
Speaker 1: they'll drop back to the pack a little bit. And

1780
01:19:38,040 --> 01:19:40,360
Speaker 1: I still don't think very much of them defensively. They

1781
01:19:40,400 --> 01:19:42,960
Speaker 1: played some really bad teams and they're still seventeenth in defense.

1782
01:19:43,040 --> 01:19:45,639
Speaker 1: Breading Like, they played some bad teams to start the season,

1783
01:19:45,920 --> 01:19:47,120
Speaker 1: and I think that was a lot of the reason

1784
01:19:47,200 --> 01:19:49,160
Speaker 1: they look good. Um, So, I mean, do we think

1785
01:19:49,160 --> 01:19:51,200
Speaker 1: they're a playoff team at this point? Well, it's the

1786
01:19:51,439 --> 01:19:53,360
Speaker 1: trouble for Atlanta is that all the other teams in

1787
01:19:53,360 --> 01:19:56,120
Speaker 1: the East look really good. I mean people were hoping

1788
01:19:56,200 --> 01:19:58,559
Speaker 1: that if people were hoping that India would fall out,

1789
01:19:58,600 --> 01:20:02,040
Speaker 1: and he looks really good. Gas, Yeah, Like, you know,

1790
01:20:02,120 --> 01:20:04,240
Speaker 1: Philly looks really good. Boston has kind of got it

1791
01:20:04,280 --> 01:20:06,400
Speaker 1: together in the last few games. Toronto has fallen out,

1792
01:20:06,479 --> 01:20:08,360
Speaker 1: but it's like you've gotta figure they're going to figure

1793
01:20:08,400 --> 01:20:12,160
Speaker 1: something out or make a move or something. They're yeah, yeah, So,

1794
01:20:12,320 --> 01:20:14,600
Speaker 1: like the problem there is is everyone else is so

1795
01:20:14,760 --> 01:20:17,960
Speaker 1: good and I my gut tells me that they'll get

1796
01:20:18,000 --> 01:20:20,800
Speaker 1: in just because they have enough good basketball players on

1797
01:20:20,840 --> 01:20:22,760
Speaker 1: the roster that I think they'll get in. And and

1798
01:20:23,040 --> 01:20:26,439
Speaker 1: it's it's clear that they're the organizational goal is there,

1799
01:20:26,920 --> 01:20:29,639
Speaker 1: you know, And right now all these teams are trying.

1800
01:20:30,760 --> 01:20:33,120
Speaker 1: But because of the depth at the top of next

1801
01:20:33,240 --> 01:20:36,800
Speaker 1: year's draft, there's gonna be a point sometime thirty games

1802
01:20:36,840 --> 01:20:38,680
Speaker 1: into the season or so or a bunch of these

1803
01:20:38,720 --> 01:20:41,640
Speaker 1: teams that are at the bottom of the East in particular,

1804
01:20:42,040 --> 01:20:43,320
Speaker 1: and a couple of teams in the bottom of the

1805
01:20:43,360 --> 01:20:44,840
Speaker 1: West are going to kind of let your foot off

1806
01:20:44,880 --> 01:20:47,200
Speaker 1: the gas and let this thing slip away. And when

1807
01:20:47,240 --> 01:20:49,760
Speaker 1: they do, you know, guess what's gonna happen. Like you're

1808
01:20:49,760 --> 01:20:51,960
Speaker 1: you're just gonna start getting some easy wins on that

1809
01:20:52,080 --> 01:20:54,960
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference schedule, And teams like Atlanta just have so

1810
01:20:55,080 --> 01:20:56,880
Speaker 1: much talent and they're young enough that they're just gonna

1811
01:20:56,960 --> 01:20:59,720
Speaker 1: clean house in those games. I mean, you think they

1812
01:20:59,760 --> 01:21:03,400
Speaker 1: did dropped a couple of really winnable ones. Um uh,

1813
01:21:04,080 --> 01:21:06,439
Speaker 1: But yeah, I I you know, I tend to think

1814
01:21:06,560 --> 01:21:10,120
Speaker 1: that there's enough talent offensively on that team to carry

1815
01:21:10,160 --> 01:21:12,519
Speaker 1: them in a week Eastern Conference at the bottom and

1816
01:21:12,760 --> 01:21:15,040
Speaker 1: and and find a way in. But yeah, like I

1817
01:21:15,840 --> 01:21:19,800
Speaker 1: think I think I explicitly said, uh in my last

1818
01:21:19,880 --> 01:21:22,519
Speaker 1: podcast that you know I had, I had a hard

1819
01:21:22,560 --> 01:21:24,759
Speaker 1: time believing that the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers

1820
01:21:24,800 --> 01:21:26,439
Speaker 1: are gonna be the best team, best teams in the

1821
01:21:26,479 --> 01:21:28,840
Speaker 1: league by the end. So this, some of this was

1822
01:21:28,920 --> 01:21:31,560
Speaker 1: kind of to be expected. Yeah, I mean, where do so.

1823
01:21:33,320 --> 01:21:35,120
Speaker 1: I'm still Luca over Trey guy, but I think that

1824
01:21:35,160 --> 01:21:36,680
Speaker 1: conversation is a lot closer than it has been in

1825
01:21:36,720 --> 01:21:38,519
Speaker 1: the past. Like, Trey has looked amazing this year, and

1826
01:21:38,560 --> 01:21:40,880
Speaker 1: Luca obviously hasn't. I think Lucas probably out of shape.

1827
01:21:41,240 --> 01:21:43,280
Speaker 1: Luke's playing himself in the shape. Yeah, and he had

1828
01:21:43,280 --> 01:21:45,360
Speaker 1: to play in the bubble trade, didn't There's some other

1829
01:21:45,439 --> 01:21:47,400
Speaker 1: stuff going on there, that's true. I didn't even think

1830
01:21:47,400 --> 01:21:49,240
Speaker 1: about that. But I don't know. Man, As a guy

1831
01:21:49,280 --> 01:21:51,840
Speaker 1: who's been pretty low on Trey, I'm starry to think

1832
01:21:51,880 --> 01:21:54,519
Speaker 1: he might prove me wrong because he he is just

1833
01:21:54,640 --> 01:21:57,479
Speaker 1: a ridiculously talented offensive player. He can literally do whatever

1834
01:21:57,560 --> 01:21:59,439
Speaker 1: he wants with the ball. He draws like I'm saying

1835
01:21:59,439 --> 01:22:01,519
Speaker 1: he dropped I'll an historic right. He's an incredible shooter

1836
01:22:01,640 --> 01:22:03,760
Speaker 1: from deep even though the percentages aren't there. You have

1837
01:22:03,840 --> 01:22:05,360
Speaker 1: to guard him out the thirty peak because he will

1838
01:22:05,360 --> 01:22:08,600
Speaker 1: shoot it. He's an incredible passer. Uh. It really is

1839
01:22:08,640 --> 01:22:10,439
Speaker 1: going to come down to does he ever learn how

1840
01:22:10,439 --> 01:22:11,840
Speaker 1: to play defense? Because if he does, that guy is

1841
01:22:11,880 --> 01:22:16,120
Speaker 1: gonna lead top five offenses for fifteen years. Um. So

1842
01:22:17,040 --> 01:22:20,000
Speaker 1: the last thing will end with today is a comment

1843
01:22:20,439 --> 01:22:26,240
Speaker 1: from uh from Matt John brother it's your brother. Okay,

1844
01:22:26,320 --> 01:22:29,840
Speaker 1: So Tommy's brother says that Tommy's a fake Steph fan

1845
01:22:30,040 --> 01:22:32,599
Speaker 1: and that world peace is not attainable while he's still

1846
01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:41,679
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Thanks Matt, I love you too, brother. Anyway,

1847
01:22:42,120 --> 01:22:43,960
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for joining us. Like I

1848
01:22:44,040 --> 01:22:47,080
Speaker 1: said UH at the beginning of the show, the idea

1849
01:22:47,200 --> 01:22:49,720
Speaker 1: here is that at least once a week we'll have

1850
01:22:49,800 --> 01:22:53,439
Speaker 1: Tommy on. We'll talk about all this NBA stuff. Um.

1851
01:22:53,760 --> 01:22:55,880
Speaker 1: God knows that we're gonna have plenty of interesting things

1852
01:22:55,920 --> 01:22:57,920
Speaker 1: to talk about over the course of the year. And

1853
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:00,240
Speaker 1: then I'll mix that in with some lakers of big

1854
01:23:00,320 --> 01:23:02,360
Speaker 1: stuff with some other guys. But tell me, I really

1855
01:23:02,400 --> 01:23:05,360
Speaker 1: appreciate your time, and I really appreciate you uh committing

1856
01:23:05,400 --> 01:23:07,160
Speaker 1: to do this with me. I'm really looking forward to it.

1857
01:23:07,160 --> 01:23:09,360
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. Always fun, man,

1858
01:23:09,479 --> 01:23:11,519
Speaker 1: always fun. Thanks for having me on, all right, man,

1859
01:23:11,560 --> 01:23:13,599
Speaker 1: I'll see you next week, all right. Let it by