Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day to come
Speaker 1: out and talk some hoops with me and Tommy. Tommy,
Speaker 1: how you doing man? Thanks for joining me today. Doing
Speaker 1: good man. Just recovering from the holidays a little bit. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: excited to talk some basketball. I'm glad the NBA's back
Speaker 1: and full swing. Um. Been an interesting start to the season,
Speaker 1: so I'm ready to talk about all of it. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: I had to recover from the holidays too. I had
Speaker 1: a disappointing moment when I got on the scale. I
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit of my last podcast.
Speaker 1: My mom's a really good cook, and I went completely
Speaker 1: out of control and got up to two thirty one,
Speaker 1: which is about eleven pounds more than I would like
Speaker 1: to be. Um. But I think that's that's why New
Speaker 1: Year's resolutions are there. She can get over it. I
Speaker 1: haven't even weighed myself. I haven't even stepped on the scale.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna give myself a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks to work out and say we're on Matt.
Speaker 1: So Uh. First of all, as you guys have probably noticed,
Speaker 1: Tommy has been on often and uh My, my format
Speaker 1: that I'm hoping to shoot for here at least for
Speaker 1: the first part of the season is I'll have my
Speaker 1: more Lakers focused podcasts well where I'll have my Laker
Speaker 1: guys come on you you guys have met some of them,
Speaker 1: Venet and Raj and I'm hoping to have Jason Maples
Speaker 1: on here in the next couple of weeks, and then
Speaker 1: I have hope to have some podcasts more in this
Speaker 1: format where we talked about the rest of the league
Speaker 1: and and Tommy for the meantime is going to be
Speaker 1: joining me for those. Um. I really appreciate his perspective
Speaker 1: and he's fun and he's entertaining and he's not afraid
Speaker 1: to say anything, uh the crazy, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: he believes it, which is all that really matters. And
Speaker 1: uh and it gives it gives us some good content.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk about the Warriors to start, obviously
Speaker 1: on account of everything that's happened the last couple of days.
Speaker 1: Um Uh that said, before we get started, I do
Speaker 1: want to say something that just in defense of Tommy
Speaker 1: and I for a second, because you know, both of
Speaker 1: us have caught some crap over the last couple of
Speaker 1: days for observations that we've made. And I want to
Speaker 1: put emphasis on the word observations, because these weren't predictions
Speaker 1: or hoping on someone's downfall or slander or anything along
Speaker 1: those lines. Tommy made an observation that over the last
Speaker 1: three seasons and a time spanning about twenty games or so,
Speaker 1: that Steph hadn't been shooting well, and he was also
Speaker 1: observing that he's a shorter guard who is in his
Speaker 1: that he's thirty two years old, and all he was
Speaker 1: saying was I hope this isn't a sign that he's
Speaker 1: slowing down. There was no uh, there was no hope
Speaker 1: for his downfall. There wasn't anything negative there. And then
Speaker 1: for me, the same exact thing. I'm not a Steph
Speaker 1: fan or a Warriors fan, but I do want them
Speaker 1: to be good. I want them if it were up
Speaker 1: to me, they'd play in the Western Conference Finals against
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Would be rooting for the Lakers. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I want them to be good because it's better for
Speaker 1: the league, and I'm a basketball fan. All I pointed
Speaker 1: out after five games was that they were the worst
Speaker 1: team in the league. And that wasn't Again, that wasn't
Speaker 1: a you know, Warriors are trash, you know they suck.
Speaker 1: It was it was a It was it was based
Speaker 1: on evidence. Statistically speaking, they had been outscored more than
Speaker 1: any team in the entire league. Literally they were at
Speaker 1: the bottom. And I was just saying, this isn't a oh,
Speaker 1: we need step to get better. Oh we need you know,
Speaker 1: Steve Kurt to be better, we need Draymond back. It
Speaker 1: was we need everything to change. We literally need every
Speaker 1: single thing on the roster, every single player, every single
Speaker 1: person on the staff, to be better. And because they
Speaker 1: were that bad, and that was all I was pointing out.
Speaker 1: And as it turned out, the last couple of games,
Speaker 1: everything has been better. Um, and so we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about today today, and we're gonna talk about you know
Speaker 1: what from that, it projects to continue to be better
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season and what they're realistic
Speaker 1: goals are for the year. But I just think it's
Speaker 1: important understand that, you know, Tommy and I were not
Speaker 1: We're not out here just trolling people. We're we're we're
Speaker 1: talking about basketball, And the right way to talk about basketball,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is to respond to information, and these
Speaker 1: were pieces of Infra nation that we got and we've
Speaker 1: made observations and some people got upset, some people rubbed
Speaker 1: it in our face, and you know what, we're actually
Speaker 1: stoked and happy that this is going the way that
Speaker 1: it's going. And I hope that people can kind of
Speaker 1: see past that and understand where we're coming from. On
Speaker 1: that note, Tommy, tell me what you think about what
Speaker 1: Steph did over the last couple of days. So to
Speaker 1: start to kind of piggyback off your your general point,
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of the game of basketball before anything else, right.
Speaker 1: I I fell in love with the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: I didn't fall in love with the game because of
Speaker 1: anyone player or anyone thing. I love that. I love
Speaker 1: basketball as long as I can remember. So when I
Speaker 1: see new information like you're pointing at, I try to
Speaker 1: analyze that as honestly as possible. And the way Twitter operates,
Speaker 1: some people aren't gonna like that, right, especially because I'm
Speaker 1: part of Warriors Twitter and I am a huge step
Speaker 1: Curry fan. I'm wearing it Steph Curry. David's in Jersey
Speaker 1: right now. I own tons of Warriors World gear. I
Speaker 1: buy stuff from him all the time. I bought new
Speaker 1: stuff from sheet yesterday, but I was trying to be
Speaker 1: honest with what I was seeing, and look, I was wrong.
Speaker 1: I was wrong. My point the whole time was to
Speaker 1: hold step Curry to the standard of Steph Curry, which
Speaker 1: is one of the three best players in the league
Speaker 1: since two thousand fourteen. And some of the stuff I
Speaker 1: had seen was telling you, telling me, Okay, he still
Speaker 1: might be a top ten guy. He still might be
Speaker 1: top eight, but I don't know if he's top three anymore.
Speaker 1: And if he isn't top three, then they probably don't
Speaker 1: have a title in their future unless they make some
Speaker 1: big trade. Now. If he plays like he did in
Speaker 1: the second half against Chicago, if he plays like he
Speaker 1: did against the Pistons, and then not in the first
Speaker 1: Portland's game, but the obviously the sixty two point explosion,
Speaker 1: and then how he played last night, he's still a
Speaker 1: top three player in the league. If he can get
Speaker 1: to that level consistently against the best competition, he is
Speaker 1: still one of the best three players in the league. Um,
Speaker 1: and I think what we've seen is um a shift
Speaker 1: not only in in Cerve's scheme where he is trying
Speaker 1: to get step going downhill more off pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He's simplifying their actions. He's doing some simple horn stuff,
Speaker 1: or they're getting a guy coming off step and now
Speaker 1: steps getting a down screen. He's working up a dribble
Speaker 1: handoff or a curl, really simple stuff to just get
Speaker 1: him the ball and spot where he likes it. But
Speaker 1: it's also been a shift in mentality from steph Um.
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connor wrote an article. I believe it was right
Speaker 1: after his sixty two point game. Before that sixty two
Speaker 1: point games, step had been touching the ball thirty one
Speaker 1: times per thirty six minutes in the half court, which
Speaker 1: was the lowest rate since Mark Jackson was the head
Speaker 1: coach UM and then in his sixty two point game
Speaker 1: he touched it eighty eight times in total, forty four
Speaker 1: times in the half court and possess the ball for
Speaker 1: six and a half minutes um total, which is about
Speaker 1: in line with his two thousand and fifteen sixteen Unionitis
Speaker 1: m B MVP season. And the biggest difference that I
Speaker 1: saw was, instead of when he would get a switch
Speaker 1: against kind of a bigger wing or a big man
Speaker 1: or a guy who can basically take off the dribble,
Speaker 1: Robert Covington and Marvin Bagley, guys like that. Early in
Speaker 1: the season, when he was getting those switches against the
Speaker 1: bucks of the nets, he was getting off the ball,
Speaker 1: and he's trying to do all of his off ball stuff. Cut, find,
Speaker 1: find a curl, find a fade, and it just wasn't
Speaker 1: working because he didn't have the teammates to find find
Speaker 1: him in those spots. But what he started doing is, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have these guys on an island. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: go at him. I'm gonna go to my step back,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to get to the rim. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: to my floater game, I'm gonna get to the mid
Speaker 1: range a little bit. And he's really it's been a
Speaker 1: shift in his mentality too. And I think my biggest
Speaker 1: reason for concerned was I didn't see him doing that enough,
Speaker 1: and this team needs that um and he's been much
Speaker 1: much more willing to do that, and he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to keep that mentality all year. The biggest thing in
Speaker 1: sam a spending our reports this all the time, it's health.
Speaker 1: If he can stay healthy and do this for the
Speaker 1: entire year, they're gonna be I still think one of
Speaker 1: the better teams in the West come playoff time, and
Speaker 1: to go into more general warrior stuff, a lot of
Speaker 1: that comes down to Draymond Green. I was I was
Speaker 1: a little bit worried about Step to start the year,
Speaker 1: and I still thought he was a top ten guy.
Speaker 1: I was, like I said, I was worried about him
Speaker 1: being top three, but I knew once Draymond came back,
Speaker 1: everything was going to be basically fine. But I've said
Speaker 1: this a couple of times now. When teams in the
Speaker 1: NBA don't have their second best player, they generally look
Speaker 1: like crap. If you're the Lakers, that might not be
Speaker 1: true if you're the Bucks, if you're the Nets, maybe,
Speaker 1: But for the most part, if you don't have your
Speaker 1: second best guy, you're gonna look like a bad team
Speaker 1: most of the time. Draymond Green, for all of his warts,
Speaker 1: is their second best player. He's shooting thirteen percent from
Speaker 1: the field right now, and he is still their second
Speaker 1: best player. He is one of the most impactful players
Speaker 1: without scoring that I've ever seen in my entire life.
Speaker 1: And what he does is he relieves step of playmaking
Speaker 1: duties and he is I still think probably the best
Speaker 1: defender in the NBA, and the only other guy that
Speaker 1: would have an argument is Anthony Davis. Everything makes more
Speaker 1: sense from Draymon is on the floor, Kelly Ubrey is
Speaker 1: now just a play finisher, Andrew Wiggins has less on
Speaker 1: his plate um. Any of the other secondary or tertiary
Speaker 1: guys have less on their point. I thought this team
Speaker 1: would be under five hundred for the first fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty games. With how good they've looked the last two games,
Speaker 1: they might be better than that. Fifteen to twenty games in.
Speaker 1: They have a tough seven game stretch coming up, and
Speaker 1: I do want to see how step looks against some
Speaker 1: of the better defenses in the league, because for as
Speaker 1: great as he was, those teams are bad defenses. Portland's
Speaker 1: and sacrament or two of the worst defenses in the league.
Speaker 1: If you and I have similar feelings about how bad
Speaker 1: Portland is, Portland's, like I said a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: they had one of the most overrated off seasons in
Speaker 1: recent memory. It's That's still does look really really good
Speaker 1: against the Clippers and the Lakers for the most part.
Speaker 1: Then I'm all in on this team. I don't think
Speaker 1: no one would really scare me in a playoff series
Speaker 1: besides the Lakers and the Clippers, and that would be it.
Speaker 1: Um Denver. We'll talk about them later, but they have
Speaker 1: their own wards. Phoenix is a really good team. I
Speaker 1: do really like Phoenix, But in terms of a playoff series,
Speaker 1: they the Warriors would still have the best player on
Speaker 1: the floor and Draymond is still one of the most
Speaker 1: impactful guys in the league. So moving forward, as long
Speaker 1: as step keeps being the guy that we've seen the
Speaker 1: last week and a half, they're gonna be a damn
Speaker 1: good team. They're gonna be one of the better teams
Speaker 1: in the West as long as Raymond and him stay healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So when it comes to the Warriors, so we'll start,
Speaker 1: let's start with the team in general here. So when
Speaker 1: it when it comes to the Warriors and what I
Speaker 1: project for them for the rest of the year, which
Speaker 1: again again is just an observation based you know, prediction.
Speaker 1: It's not me, you know, making some sweeping declaration. And
Speaker 1: one of the other crazy things is like being in
Speaker 1: the business of trying to make predictions and sports is
Speaker 1: just insanity. Like sports, If sports were were more predictable
Speaker 1: than they are, they'd be less entertaining. There's a professional
Speaker 1: sports gamblers. Colin Coward always says a professional sports gambler
Speaker 1: is only right fifty percent of the time. So the
Speaker 1: point being like, we were making guesses, but we could
Speaker 1: very well be wrong, and we'll just respond as information comes.
Speaker 1: I'm okay with being wrong. What's hard to do it.
Speaker 1: Once I started tweeting more about basketball, I accepted the
Speaker 1: fact that I'm gonna be wrong a lot of the times.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a reality of the situation. And I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna sit here and be hard at it and
Speaker 1: double down when I'm wrong. I'm more than willing to
Speaker 1: admit it, exactly. And that's what bothers me, because the
Speaker 1: people that are in your mentions always being you know,
Speaker 1: super uh, you know, crazy in your face about the
Speaker 1: mistakes you've made. They've made just as many the stupid
Speaker 1: you know, fan based predictions in their own time. But anyway, so,
Speaker 1: you know, but coming into that two game, Coming into
Speaker 1: that second game against Portland was when they had dropped
Speaker 1: to thirty in the league and net rating. All I
Speaker 1: pointed out was, hey, you know, in the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: given the amount of talent you have to go through
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, it's gonna be extremely difficult for
Speaker 1: you to to win enough games to to to really compete,
Speaker 1: and especially with the way that the playoff structure is,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, essentially, like even if you fall
Speaker 1: into that eleven to fourteen range, the guys that are
Speaker 1: on the fringe of the playoffs trying to fight into
Speaker 1: that tent spot for the play and you're still dealing
Speaker 1: with teams like like New Orleans and Sacramento and San Antonio,
Speaker 1: teams that you know aren't great teams, but they're teams
Speaker 1: that have a decent amount of talent and if you
Speaker 1: don't bring a winning formula to against them, you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna get beat. And all of those teams have impressive
Speaker 1: wins so far this season, you know, like the New
Speaker 1: Orleans has beat you know, Toronto a few times, and
Speaker 1: and Sacramento has had a couple of impressive wins. So
Speaker 1: the point being, like, I think Sacareno was the only
Speaker 1: team to beat Phoenix in the first five games of
Speaker 1: the season. So the point being is like it's it's
Speaker 1: it's really hard to win games in the NBA, and
Speaker 1: the Warriors looked like they were the worst team in
Speaker 1: the league. Now after what happened in the last two
Speaker 1: games where they you know that the first game was
Speaker 1: a little sketchy against Portland because it required this unbelievable
Speaker 1: performance by Steph Curry and they didn't defend particularly well.
Speaker 1: Their offensive rating in their defensive writing in that game
Speaker 1: was about a one fift team, which is pretty bad.
Speaker 1: Writing was like, but that's not gonna happen. And then
Speaker 1: last night against Sacramento, they played a team that you know,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of a backstory. They're they're kind
Speaker 1: of unraveling behind the scenes and they're kind of there's
Speaker 1: some sort of weird like high school esque mutiny going
Speaker 1: on where all the parents are getting involved. It's really
Speaker 1: happening with Marvin Bagley. Does anybody even really know? I
Speaker 1: don't know, but it's a weird thing. It's a weird thing.
Speaker 1: It's a weird thing going on there. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: like like, it was an impressive win because they defended
Speaker 1: extremely well that game and they scored at will. On
Speaker 1: the other end, they were able to rest their starters
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. That was all great. They in
Speaker 1: the last two games they have solutely flipped the script.
Speaker 1: But it was it's important to acknowledge that two nights
Speaker 1: prior against Portlands they got killed and there is some
Speaker 1: data that has come out. Mark Stein was talking about
Speaker 1: that this morning, that teams in these baseball series that
Speaker 1: have performed really poorly in that second night. And then uh,
Speaker 1: and then also, you know, we just talked about Sacramentos issue.
Speaker 1: So here's the question. You know, if you if you
Speaker 1: ask me right now what I'm thinking. I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 1: there's no question now that they can at very at
Speaker 1: the very least be in that play in stretch and
Speaker 1: that's seven to ten seed area. They have proven that
Speaker 1: there's enough talent on the roster and that Steph and
Speaker 1: Draymond and Kerr are good enough, the three of them,
Speaker 1: with their winning pedigree and what they bring to the
Speaker 1: table to get into that zone. However, they have two
Speaker 1: games against Clippers coming up, they play the Lakers, they
Speaker 1: play Sons, they play the Nuggets, they play the Pacers.
Speaker 1: It is very possible, not not entirely unlikely, that they
Speaker 1: could go one in six in the next seven games.
Speaker 1: They could go like if they went oh in seven,
Speaker 1: it would be shocking, but it would just mean that,
Speaker 1: like like the Warriors, right now have the twenty four
Speaker 1: net rating in the league. Vegas is probably going to
Speaker 1: have them as an underdog and a lot of these
Speaker 1: games they might they might have a one They might
Speaker 1: be a one point favorite against the Pacers, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: against the Nuggets. They had to rout out to. Toronto
Speaker 1: is really struggled to start the year. So they'll probably
Speaker 1: be a favorite against Toronto. Yeah, and they'll be a
Speaker 1: favorite against Toronto. But like you're talking about, you're literally
Speaker 1: talking about a stretch here where they could very easily
Speaker 1: at the end of it be what you know, five
Speaker 1: and ten or six and nine or whatever it is
Speaker 1: they could be. So the point is is, like with
Speaker 1: the that's the nature of this schedule, and that is
Speaker 1: why you know, when Vegas put out their win totals
Speaker 1: to start the season, all of these teams, like even
Speaker 1: the best teams in the league, were predicted to be
Speaker 1: at like a fifty five win pace and not a
Speaker 1: sixty win pace because Vegas just understood the night in
Speaker 1: and night out schedule in this year's NBA season is
Speaker 1: going to be insane, and the same goes for the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. There's just a lot of talent in the
Speaker 1: league right now and none of the really good teams
Speaker 1: are really all that good. And and so from from
Speaker 1: from that same point, what I would say is, like
Speaker 1: I have, I always say, be careful of regular season
Speaker 1: victory laps because you can be humbled extremely fast. And
Speaker 1: the example I'd give you is last year or two
Speaker 1: years ago when region Rondo made that game winning buzzer
Speaker 1: beater in Boston for the Lakers, and everybody was talking
Speaker 1: about how I think it was their first game back
Speaker 1: after the All Star break or it was right before
Speaker 1: the All Star break or something like that, and everyone
Speaker 1: was talking about how this was what was going to
Speaker 1: turn things around. Lebron is back. You know, they just
Speaker 1: made this game winner. Everything's good, but people forgot that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Okay, Lonzo balls out, so they actually have
Speaker 1: like almost no talent in the backcourt and no non
Speaker 1: Lebron basket creation, and they're still got awful at the
Speaker 1: center position. So there's still just a bad basketball team.
Speaker 1: And then what do you know, for the next month
Speaker 1: and a half, they just sucked. And then as soon
Speaker 1: as Brandon Ingram went down, they became literally one of
Speaker 1: the least talented teams in league, and they just got
Speaker 1: killed every night. So the point is is like, like,
Speaker 1: this is a long road ahead. Steph has to stay healthy.
Speaker 1: All these guys gotta keep playing better. You know, Draymond's
Speaker 1: at an age where he's not exactly the most reliable
Speaker 1: I physically in the world. It could go south quickly,
Speaker 1: and so like for the people that are talking reckless,
Speaker 1: understand it's a marathon, not a sprint. This is good news.
Speaker 1: It shows what they can be, but there's a long
Speaker 1: way to go, absolutely, and I'm with you on all
Speaker 1: of those things. I'm assuming let's assume relatively good health,
Speaker 1: we get sixty five Stepan Draymond games or so. These
Speaker 1: guys are gonna keep improving. They have one of the
Speaker 1: newest rosters in the league in terms of the talent
Speaker 1: they're integrating with Stephan Draymond and guys they've had in
Speaker 1: the past. But Stephen Draymond have basically played with none
Speaker 1: of these guys before, at least not in important games.
Speaker 1: So this team is going to continue to get better.
Speaker 1: There is talent on the roster, and they were shooting
Speaker 1: historically bad to start this season, not just Kelly Huber,
Speaker 1: who literally has the worst three point shooting start, considering
Speaker 1: a minimum number of attempts in NBA history. UM, by
Speaker 1: the numbers, the worst start ever and that's a guy
Speaker 1: who shot on five to six attempts a game last season.
Speaker 1: So it's there where he can shoot. Midoun was predictable
Speaker 1: and in the last podcast, I shared a personal story
Speaker 1: like was a text bookcase of a role player shoved
Speaker 1: into a new role. That kind of psyched him out
Speaker 1: a little bit. And he was inevitably in the start
Speaker 1: making shots, contract contract year. He knows he's on a
Speaker 1: kind of a national stage for maybe really the first
Speaker 1: time in his career. He knows there's being a lot
Speaker 1: expected of him, especially because they paid eighty million dollars
Speaker 1: in luxury tax to bring him in. UM, so he
Speaker 1: knew there was a lot on his plate. But the
Speaker 1: regression to the mean was expected. The first four games.
Speaker 1: I want to say, and uh my guy Bald has
Speaker 1: put this out on Twitter. UM a couple days ago,
Speaker 1: the Warriors were underperforming. There their shot expectation based on
Speaker 1: you know, the shots. They were getting a twenty five
Speaker 1: points a game, literally twenty five points games, so it
Speaker 1: things couldn't have gotten worse. UM, we're seeing really good.
Speaker 1: I think they're up to around two or three below
Speaker 1: points below their shot expectation now, so that they're coming back,
Speaker 1: they're regressing to the mean. Basically, Um Wiggins has been
Speaker 1: secretly really good the last five games. He still has
Speaker 1: his Andrew Wiggins moments where he's taking terrible eighteen footers
Speaker 1: with eighteen seconds on the shop cloth, but that's just
Speaker 1: kind of the expectation. At this point. His playmaking has
Speaker 1: release started a flashlight like I expected it too before
Speaker 1: the year. Um getting Draymond back, He's defend. He's defending
Speaker 1: probably more consistently than I've ever seen him defend, at
Speaker 1: least in terms of effort. He still makes some bone
Speaker 1: headed mistakes, um or he will be lack some possessions,
Speaker 1: but he's made more chase down plays where he's you know,
Speaker 1: getting a steal from behind or getting a block from
Speaker 1: behind that I think I've ever seen for like a
Speaker 1: full season in his entire career. Just through these first
Speaker 1: seven or eight games, Um, he's defending with energy, He's
Speaker 1: playing with energy. He's actually finding people. He's finding three
Speaker 1: point shooters all over the floor. It's just a matter
Speaker 1: of whether they can start making more of those. Um
Speaker 1: Ubre obviously has had a terrible start offensively, but I've
Speaker 1: really liked his point of attack defense and with Draymond back,
Speaker 1: he's actually a really good week side rim protector. Um.
Speaker 1: He's been coming over and contesting shots, changing shots, getting
Speaker 1: blocks from the weak side. UM, and those guys really
Speaker 1: really thrived with Draymond this It's similar to Iguadala or
Speaker 1: Durant in years past, those long athletic wings. If you
Speaker 1: put those guys around Draymond, He's going to cover up
Speaker 1: so many mistakes that they can just kind of come
Speaker 1: over and be difference makers and get deplections. Wiseman is
Speaker 1: obviously a rookie and he still has a lot of
Speaker 1: rookie moments. But if I was putting a big man
Speaker 1: next to any person in the NBA, I would want
Speaker 1: it to be Draymond Green. Right, If you're putting a
Speaker 1: young big man who has a lot to learn about
Speaker 1: the game, just in terms of feel and positioning and
Speaker 1: everything of that nature, there is no better person than
Speaker 1: Draymond Green. He's the best teacher at that. So I'm still,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm still very optimistic on this team ceiling
Speaker 1: and and it will take a lot to go right.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, They still need more shooting. They
Speaker 1: probably with Marquis Chris up for three months, they will
Speaker 1: probably need another big body at some point because Cavon
Speaker 1: Looney has been not great to start this season. He
Speaker 1: looks even slower than he has in the past, which
Speaker 1: I didn't think was physically possible, but he actually is
Speaker 1: slower now than he was in twenty nine. So they're
Speaker 1: probably going to be at least one more big man body.
Speaker 1: I hope they can get some shooting near the deadline
Speaker 1: or on the buy out market, because both those things
Speaker 1: are needed. If they can do that, Like I said,
Speaker 1: I I still think this team has a chance to
Speaker 1: be really, really good, but it will take a lot
Speaker 1: of things going right, and it will take the health
Speaker 1: of obviously step In Draymon. Either one of those guys
Speaker 1: goes down, it all goes in the tank. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: talked about that a lot before the season. Health is
Speaker 1: going to be such an important thing for them because
Speaker 1: they just they literally won't be able to survive it.
Speaker 1: And it's it comes down to their two biggest weaknesses
Speaker 1: in my opinion, which is because I actually do think
Speaker 1: that Ubra and Wiggans are gonna be fine. Wings. They're
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be you know, Paul George and Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard or Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown. But they don't
Speaker 1: need them to be because of what you know Draymond
Speaker 1: and Steph bring to the table. But they're good, serviceable wings.
Speaker 1: They won't be they won't be hemorrhaging points on both
Speaker 1: ends and those matchups, they'll be able to hold their own.
Speaker 1: So where where I worry about them is, you know,
Speaker 1: like I really don't think like as I am super
Speaker 1: stoked about Wiseman, and you should be if you're a
Speaker 1: Warrior's fan too, that dudes, that dude's an All Star
Speaker 1: in the making. That be excited, yes, but we're years
Speaker 1: away from that, and he's gonna get absolutely eaten alive
Speaker 1: by Anthony Davis and by Nicola Yo Kitchen all of
Speaker 1: the centers in the league. He's not a he's not
Speaker 1: a winning NBA player right now. He'll help you in
Speaker 1: this regular season and matchups, but he's not that guy yet.
Speaker 1: So there, they have a legitimate weakness in the front
Speaker 1: court after Draymond Green, and they have a legitimate weakness
Speaker 1: in overall playmaking after Steph Curry. And Draymond Green, And
Speaker 1: so as a result of that, if either of them
Speaker 1: go down for any extensive stretch of the season, it's
Speaker 1: just gonna be really hard for them to win games.
Speaker 1: And and also it also worries me in the case
Speaker 1: of like back to backs in three games and four
Speaker 1: nights and things along those lines, if they ever have
Speaker 1: to rest either of them, it's hard to imagine a
Speaker 1: scenario where they can realistically compete replacing what they have
Speaker 1: to do night tonight to win. It's very very similar,
Speaker 1: but it's very very similar to the two thousand eighteen calves.
Speaker 1: The beauty of it was is Lebron played eighty two games,
Speaker 1: and so that's that's kind of what you need, um
Speaker 1: out of these two guys is for that. I was
Speaker 1: literally thinking about that as we were going into the
Speaker 1: game last night, Like, okay, Step drops sixty two. He's fatigued,
Speaker 1: it's a back to back, and he's got a guard
Speaker 1: Deer and Fox and and all of these other really quick.
Speaker 1: You know, Buddy hill All, I think Buddy hild it out,
Speaker 1: but Flight Haliburton was out. He did Blight Haliburt was
Speaker 1: out the trade. So anyway, like like I remember sitting
Speaker 1: there thinking like, I wonder if the step will rest
Speaker 1: and it's like they can't rest him, Like if they
Speaker 1: rest him, they might as well forfeit the game. They
Speaker 1: literally can't win without him as a result of the
Speaker 1: way that this roster came, And I think I think
Speaker 1: that's the reason for him putting on the size. As
Speaker 1: much as I kind of criticized that, I think some
Speaker 1: of the added size is to take the pound because
Speaker 1: he knew he knew he's gonna get beat up this
Speaker 1: year basically, and he actually I was surprised by how
Speaker 1: spry he looked last night because it was the second
Speaker 1: night of a back to back and he scored sixty
Speaker 1: two points and had a ton of output. He shot
Speaker 1: nineteen three throws in that first game of the back
Speaker 1: to back, and that's the most he's ever shot in
Speaker 1: his career. So I was actually expecting him to maybe
Speaker 1: look a little bit tired, but he looked more spry
Speaker 1: than he than I thought he would. So hopefully that
Speaker 1: added size does help him stay a little bit healthier
Speaker 1: through the regular season, because they're gonna need they need
Speaker 1: at least sixty five games from him, because if he
Speaker 1: misses seven games they're winning one or two at absolute most,
Speaker 1: and they're probably losing all seven. And so the last
Speaker 1: thing I want to talking about with the Warriors is
Speaker 1: is Steph Curry himself in the way that he's been playing,
Speaker 1: because I want to make a point that I think
Speaker 1: is important because there's a lot of talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry losing a step and you and I have
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about this, uh directly with each other,
Speaker 1: and you know, this is the example that I want
Speaker 1: to give because I think Lebron actually is is a
Speaker 1: perfect example of how of a point that I have
Speaker 1: constantly made about the NBA, which is that about basketball
Speaker 1: in general, which is that you know, as you get
Speaker 1: into your thirties, there's like a transition that takes place
Speaker 1: mentally in your game. And so, for instance, I'm a
Speaker 1: huge Lebron James fan. I absolutely think Lebron James is
Speaker 1: the best player in the world right now. That said,
Speaker 1: Lebron has literally his effective field goal percentage has literally
Speaker 1: dropped every single season since two thousand, seventeen, two thousand,
Speaker 1: seen eighteen nine. So five consecutive is the fifth consecutive
Speaker 1: season where his efficiency is dropping, and that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: he's becoming a worse basketball player necessarily. I would argue
Speaker 1: he's as good now as he was in two thousand,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen, but there's a transition taking place. He is
Speaker 1: becoming less effective as a scorer necessarily, and specific matchups,
Speaker 1: he's not getting the same separation. He's not the same
Speaker 1: you know, physical freak that he was. But he's so
Speaker 1: much smarter than he used to be in his ability
Speaker 1: to win basketball games, which is a combination of all
Speaker 1: these different factors involving leadership and and like controlling the
Speaker 1: flow of a game, passing ability, like all of these
Speaker 1: different little intricacies of basketball. He's so much better at
Speaker 1: now that even though he's not scoring at the same
Speaker 1: efficient clip, he's actually as effective, if not more effective,
Speaker 1: as a winner now than he was in the past.
Speaker 1: And so I feel the same way about Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: When I watched him play, I don't feel like he's
Speaker 1: getting the same separation that he did in two thousand sixteen.
Speaker 1: That's just my opinion. That said, I think Steph is
Speaker 1: every bit as good now, if not better than he
Speaker 1: was in two thousand sixteen, because I don't think two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty Steph Curry lets the two thousand and sixteen
Speaker 1: finals slip away. I think he's just a better winner.
Speaker 1: I think he understands different possessions that are pivotal in
Speaker 1: different games, and how it can swing a series, and
Speaker 1: and I and and just in general, how to build
Speaker 1: a winning culture and all those different things like that.
Speaker 1: Like he is every bit as good now as he
Speaker 1: ever has been. Now there will be a point where
Speaker 1: the physical slips too far and he actually does begin
Speaker 1: to slip. And the same goes for Lebron. I don't
Speaker 1: think we're there with either guy. But like here's I
Speaker 1: told you in the in the direct message yesterday that
Speaker 1: I thought that Steph Curry might finish the season around
Speaker 1: thirty seven thirty eight percent from three And I really
Speaker 1: do think that, just by virtue of the fact that
Speaker 1: his shot quality this year is going to be lower
Speaker 1: than it has been because he doesn't have Clay taking
Speaker 1: as much attention off of him. And then I also
Speaker 1: think that he's slowing down a little bit. And then
Speaker 1: then there's a high volume thing. Just by virtue of
Speaker 1: the way the team is built, he's going to have
Speaker 1: to be more aggressive. But if Steph Curry drops to
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent from three. I don't think that means
Speaker 1: he's he's on the back end of the slope. I
Speaker 1: think that's just a product of circumstance. And I would
Speaker 1: leave that the makes that are in that thirty eight
Speaker 1: percent would be more impactful because he would be aggressive
Speaker 1: at different moments of the game than he used to be,
Speaker 1: and he would pick his spots a little bit better,
Speaker 1: and and and all of these different factors that lead
Speaker 1: to winning basketball games. So I do I do think that, like, uh,
Speaker 1: it's important to monitor as we're as we're looking at
Speaker 1: like highlight tapes of of what Steph looks like as
Speaker 1: a player, that that's not the only thing he's that
Speaker 1: that that's not the only thing to track in terms
Speaker 1: of how good he is as a player right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I mean that was the reason for a lot
Speaker 1: of my skepticism, right is less space on particularly dribble moves,
Speaker 1: drible sequences where he's freeing himself for his step back
Speaker 1: or his crossover into his threes. Now it has looked
Speaker 1: better than it has probably in a long time, um
Speaker 1: these last three or four games, and a lot of
Speaker 1: this might have been virtue of not having to do
Speaker 1: it anymore. But a lot of my concern was based on, Okay,
Speaker 1: his his shot profile has actually flipped on his head
Speaker 1: compared to fifteen sixteen, Right, fifteen sixteen, like sixty percent
Speaker 1: of his threes or so, we're unassisted versus present being
Speaker 1: assisted by eighteen nineteen that had flipped exactly now assistant
Speaker 1: were now unassisted. Now. Was that a product of playing
Speaker 1: next to Kevin Durant and having to share more possessions
Speaker 1: and working more off ball so Katie can have the
Speaker 1: ball more? Yeah? Absolutely, But I also thought that was
Speaker 1: a product of him losing a half step as as
Speaker 1: a guy with the ball, and maybe his release being
Speaker 1: slightly slower because he's not twenty seven and his apt
Speaker 1: at his absolute physical peak anymore. Now, what he's shown
Speaker 1: the last four games have made me very hopeful for
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he still is that guy off the
Speaker 1: dribble um, but he does seem a lot of this
Speaker 1: stuff you're pointing to, with winning basketball and him not
Speaker 1: letting the finals slip away, and just being in general
Speaker 1: a better decision maker, a more conscious decision maker. Part
Speaker 1: of what made Steph Curry so special was his recklessness,
Speaker 1: Right early in his career, it was how reckless his
Speaker 1: shot selection was and how scared defenses were any time
Speaker 1: he had the ball. And they still are, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, they absolutely still are. But there are moments
Speaker 1: where he'll step back and I think, oh, he has
Speaker 1: space for a shot, and he doesn't quite shoot it. Now.
Speaker 1: Is that him just searching for a better shot. Is
Speaker 1: that him not trusting his step back quite as much
Speaker 1: because he hasn't done it as much, or because his
Speaker 1: release isn't quite as quick, meaning he's going from the
Speaker 1: absolute quickest release of all time to maybe just one
Speaker 1: of the quicker releases of all time. Once again, people
Speaker 1: aren't understanding what I'm saying. On the margins. It's all
Speaker 1: about who he was as his former self, not you know,
Speaker 1: compared to Damian Lillard. He's still a better player than
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard. I think everybody knows that after the last
Speaker 1: four quour or five games, point being, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of the stuff you're staying is correct. He definitely
Speaker 1: manages a game better now, um, and that is the
Speaker 1: reason to be optimistic. But he also can't lose the
Speaker 1: recklessness that he once played with. It's a very very
Speaker 1: fine line to walk between saying hey, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: I'm gonna constantly hunt for shots, and you know what,
Speaker 1: there's times where I gotta manage the game a little
Speaker 1: bit better. And I think he absolutely has improved it
Speaker 1: that and I think we've seen it the last four
Speaker 1: to five games. Now, what does it look like against
Speaker 1: the Clippers and Lakers? Another big test? And no, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying his legacy is on the line, That's not
Speaker 1: what I'm saying at all. I want to see how
Speaker 1: it looks this year against some of the best defenses
Speaker 1: in the league. And what that will tell me is
Speaker 1: is this team actually ready to be a Western Conference
Speaker 1: playoff semi contender where they can have a puncher's chance
Speaker 1: against anybody, but they're not favored against the best teams
Speaker 1: in the league. That's what this next week and a
Speaker 1: half will tell me of games, these next seven games,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm looking for. How good is this team
Speaker 1: against some of the better teams in the league, because
Speaker 1: to start the year they looked like an absolute train wreck.
Speaker 1: M That's an interesting point you brought up about his recklessness.
Speaker 1: I haven't really thought about that because he he doesn't
Speaker 1: like sometimes him being a little too tempered could be
Speaker 1: a bad thing. And see what you're saying. One last
Speaker 1: thing I want to touch on with Steff before we
Speaker 1: that you just reminded me of before we move on
Speaker 1: to the nets. So, like this became a big thing
Speaker 1: when Ben bend Trick or Detrick or ever you pronounced
Speaker 1: his last name, was tweeting about Steff the other day
Speaker 1: and he said a bunch of stuff that I didn't
Speaker 1: agree with, but I did think he brought up one
Speaker 1: thing that I thought that I think is interesting and
Speaker 1: I wish people were a little bit more open minded
Speaker 1: on because, uh, like a great example would be like
Speaker 1: like Michael Vick. You know, Michael v was. It was
Speaker 1: a market inefficiency in the sense that teams had no
Speaker 1: idea how to deal with the mobile quarterback like him.
Speaker 1: He was. He would never be as effective right now
Speaker 1: because teams are so much more set up. They've they've
Speaker 1: downsized their linebackers, they've they've built defensive schemes where you know,
Speaker 1: a linebacker is completely keyed in on the quarterback the
Speaker 1: entire time, and they they found ways. They grew into
Speaker 1: a league that had learned how to better deal with
Speaker 1: someone like Mike Vick, and that doesn't mean that Mike
Speaker 1: Vick is a lesser quarterback. And to me, it's a
Speaker 1: compliment to Mike, it's a it's a sign that he
Speaker 1: was ahead of his time and in many ways a genius.
Speaker 1: And I feel the same way about Steph, like I
Speaker 1: think it's okay to admit that the way that teams
Speaker 1: guard step now is different than the way team's guarded
Speaker 1: Steff in two thousand fifteen and two thousand sixteen, and
Speaker 1: the fact that they had no idea how to guard
Speaker 1: him helped him win basketball games. It's a fact you
Speaker 1: can't like. There's no point in lying about it. In
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, he was crossing half court against the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder on a clutch possession with the game
Speaker 1: on the line, unguarded and stepping into a thirty ft three.
Speaker 1: Now they're literally like last night, Sacramento was trapping him
Speaker 1: in the back court. Okay, teams are guarding Steff different
Speaker 1: now than they used to, and many other guards have
Speaker 1: copied him. Now, Dame and try Young are taking a
Speaker 1: lot of long threes off to dribble over over ball screens.
Speaker 1: That's something that you never used to see in the
Speaker 1: league except for when step did it, and now other
Speaker 1: guards around the league are doing it and as a result,
Speaker 1: defenses have adapted and learned how to better guard them.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that Steff is a lesser player. It
Speaker 1: just means that he took advantage of a little bit
Speaker 1: of a market inefficiency there during that time period, and
Speaker 1: that's what allowed a six three guard who does not
Speaker 1: defend at the same level as as the super elite
Speaker 1: wings in the league to be maybe the best player
Speaker 1: in the league. I don't think he was. I think
Speaker 1: he's the second best player, But to be in that conversation,
Speaker 1: he he was a genius who was ahead of his time,
Speaker 1: who found a hole in the NBA and exploited it
Speaker 1: to literally win a championship and then to win two
Speaker 1: more with Kevin Durant. It is a compliment to him.
Speaker 1: But I also think that, like Steph fans and Warrior
Speaker 1: fans are a little bit unrealistic about the realities of
Speaker 1: this staff experience, which has been that he's guarded differently
Speaker 1: now than he used to be. And I think that
Speaker 1: that's okay to admit, and I don't think that that's
Speaker 1: an insult to Steph. Yeah, I mean, it's it's not
Speaker 1: an insult. I think that the pushback that I have
Speaker 1: with stuff like that is like, oh, he didn't revolutionize
Speaker 1: the game at all. It's like, no, he absolutely did,
Speaker 1: because whether three point or the three point rate was
Speaker 1: already going up in the league before STEPH really became stephteen.
Speaker 1: Teams are starting to take more threes, but it was
Speaker 1: accelerated because of Steff. Revolutions are never one thing, right,
Speaker 1: It's a multitude of factors. So does the revolution still
Speaker 1: happen where teams are eventually taken you know again? Yeah? Probably,
Speaker 1: But does it happen within a three year period where
Speaker 1: the Warriors are shooting thirty threes a game and then
Speaker 1: the number one in attempts and then they're still shooting
Speaker 1: thirty threes a game three years later and they're like
Speaker 1: twelfth in attempts. No, probably not. He accelerated everything. He
Speaker 1: made it happen a lot quicker than it was going
Speaker 1: to because what him and playoff these sleep proved is
Speaker 1: that you can be a jump shooting team and win
Speaker 1: a title. Now. I still think some of that stuff
Speaker 1: is misguided because good luck getting two of the five
Speaker 1: best shooters of all time right, and so our fund
Speaker 1: Bobby on Twitter always says this, the two thousand fifteen
Speaker 1: Warriors taught us the wrong list and jacking up a
Speaker 1: bunch of threes isn't necessarily the way to go. You
Speaker 1: do have to shoot threes and volume now, because it's
Speaker 1: simple math. You have to shoot enough of them to
Speaker 1: be competitive. But at the same time, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's necessarily the way to go. Like I said, my
Speaker 1: push back to Ben would be, if you're gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and say that Steve Curry didn't revolutionize basketball, It's
Speaker 1: not just a three pointers. It's like you're talking about
Speaker 1: with Michael Vick. Now, teams have linebackers who are speedy
Speaker 1: and can chase down speedy quarterbacks. Teams have gone to
Speaker 1: more switch oriented schemes because and guys who are switchable,
Speaker 1: because that's an easy way to stamp out threes. You're not.
Speaker 1: You can just show high on pick and rolls, you
Speaker 1: can switch curls, you can switch flares because we don't
Speaker 1: want this our opponent to get open threes. So I'm
Speaker 1: I'm fine with saying Steff has guarded different. He absolutely is.
Speaker 1: Teams have changed the way they've guarded him and it's
Speaker 1: made his life harder. Right, that's what you're supposed to
Speaker 1: do with the best players in the week. But to
Speaker 1: sit here and act like the guy didn't revolutionize the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, I think it's a load of crap. Well,
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing that I think. That's where teach
Speaker 1: a cross the line. If I remember correctly, is I
Speaker 1: think he said that Alan Iverson had revolutionize of the
Speaker 1: game more than Steph did, or something like that. I
Speaker 1: remember me, like we're talking like corporal if we're talking
Speaker 1: cultural impact, sure I'll hear that argumentation. Yeah, but if
Speaker 1: we're talking on court, it's not even close. Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry literally shaped the way that uh that all
Speaker 1: of these guards play basketball now, like literal generation of guards. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like guys like Bradley Beale and Kemba Walker and Dame
Speaker 1: Lillard used to never take threes out of pick and roll,
Speaker 1: like against drop coverage. They would attack in and take
Speaker 1: midrange shots. They would like that. There there's an entire
Speaker 1: element to the way that guards developed their skills now
Speaker 1: that is one based on what Steph Curry did. The
Speaker 1: idea that that that didn't revolutionize the game is insanity
Speaker 1: to me, and I think, but again, like that's the thing, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Steph's gonna go down at the end of
Speaker 1: the day as a top ten player all time. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, I think he's going to unless he suffers
Speaker 1: a catastrophic injury right now, in which case he's still
Speaker 1: twelve at the lowest four like statistical production. Yeah, he'll
Speaker 1: be there exactly. And so he's gonna be up there,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be the only short guy up there literally,
Speaker 1: So that that requires to me some crazy circumstances. And
Speaker 1: the crazy circumstance here is that he had to use
Speaker 1: his brain because he didn't have the physical uh you know,
Speaker 1: the physical part of it. And in his his he
Speaker 1: saw a hole in the game. Oh wait, no one
Speaker 1: guards anybody out here, like like if you watch the
Speaker 1: two thirteen playoffs, you could see it coming. That's how
Speaker 1: he kind of started to do it. It was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: David Lee's out. I'm gonna shoot eight or nine threes
Speaker 1: a game, and six of them are gonna be off
Speaker 1: the dribble. The Spurs one of the greatest defensive teams
Speaker 1: of all time from you know, the year two thousand
Speaker 1: through through thousand sixteen had no idea what to do
Speaker 1: with him. Their responses, Okay, we're just gonna run him
Speaker 1: up a bunch of screens. We're gonna bang them up,
Speaker 1: and and that's part of the reason why you had
Speaker 1: to get stronger. But he absolutely torched them in Game
Speaker 1: one of that series, and they came within a possession
Speaker 1: of winning the NBA Finals that year. You know, he
Speaker 1: dropped forty four and eleven on one of the best
Speaker 1: defensive teams of all time, maybe, and it's because he
Speaker 1: found a market inefficiency. Yeah. Literally, coaches teach you growing
Speaker 1: up as you're playing basketball, like before staff what they
Speaker 1: would teach you like that it used to be part
Speaker 1: of like a drill that you would do where if
Speaker 1: it was a live dribble, you'd give space and if
Speaker 1: it was and if it was if it was a
Speaker 1: catch and shoot, you'd start in the shooting pocket like
Speaker 1: like on the catch. You'd be right up in his business.
Speaker 1: As soon as he began any sort of dribble dribbling,
Speaker 1: you to meet space and you put hanging out like
Speaker 1: like you can't guard people like that anymore because guys
Speaker 1: will just shoot over the top of you. Like the
Speaker 1: game has literally changed the result of him, and I
Speaker 1: think it's it's foolish to to gloss over that. But
Speaker 1: you did bring up something interesting that I think is
Speaker 1: a perfect segue into the Nets. So, um, the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets right now are tenth in offense, fourteenth and defense
Speaker 1: eighth and net rating. Um, they're coming off of a
Speaker 1: couple of bad losses. Uh, there's there's this thing going
Speaker 1: on with Katie and Covid that we're not going to
Speaker 1: talk about. But he's going to be out for a
Speaker 1: little while, but he should be back. Yeah, he'll be
Speaker 1: he'll be back eventually. Um. Uh. They just had this
Speaker 1: game where Katie and uh and Kyrie both missed a
Speaker 1: crunch time jump shot, which we're gonna get to in
Speaker 1: a second. But the big thing that I want to
Speaker 1: point to is is, like what you were talking about
Speaker 1: from Bobby, the comment that the two thousand fifteen Warriors
Speaker 1: taught us the wrong lesson, Because again, it's it's important
Speaker 1: to understand that, you know, the two thousand fifteen Warriors
Speaker 1: were not a finesse team. They had the best defensive
Speaker 1: team in the league, defensive writing, the best defensive team
Speaker 1: in the league, and they had big physical defensive players
Speaker 1: like Draymond Green was a it was a physical player,
Speaker 1: and Andre Guadala was a very physical player. Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: was an extremely gifted perimeter defender who was physical, and
Speaker 1: the way that he used his body to bump people
Speaker 1: off of their driving lines and forced them to shoot
Speaker 1: over the top, like literally, that was a incredible physical,
Speaker 1: incredible physical rim protector. Really off the bench, Harrison Barnes
Speaker 1: played the reason part of the reason why the deadline
Speaker 1: up initially works because Harrison Barnes could guard format. He
Speaker 1: arted back Randall for a lot of that Memphis series
Speaker 1: and did just find against them they were a super
Speaker 1: super physical, hard nosed, tough team. And this is something
Speaker 1: we talked about before the season in our preview about
Speaker 1: about the Brooklyn in the sense that we thought that
Speaker 1: they were missing a lot of those dirty work type
Speaker 1: of guys. And this is and I think, like ironically,
Speaker 1: this crunch time situation with Kyrie and Katie is such
Speaker 1: a great, uh microcosm of everything that I've been preaching
Speaker 1: for years, which is that basketball is about so much
Speaker 1: more than just elite isolation creation. That doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: it's not a very valuable skill it's right up there
Speaker 1: with all of with the skills that I always preach about,
Speaker 1: you know, defensive versatility and elite offensive creation for your
Speaker 1: teammates and things along those lines. But it's funny because
Speaker 1: you know, everyone will boil it down to, oh, the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets lost that game because Kyrie and Katie missed
Speaker 1: open jump shots that they were able to create out
Speaker 1: the dribble, and I and I completely disagree. You know,
Speaker 1: if you actually pull up you know, clutch numbers for
Speaker 1: superstar players in NBA history, they all shoot low percentages
Speaker 1: in runch Lebron's like high thirty. None of them, none
Speaker 1: of them are None of them areket always shots. They're
Speaker 1: always have shots. And so that's why it's important to understand,
Speaker 1: like these basketball games are one in crunch time through
Speaker 1: like like good old fashioned rock fight basketball. That's literally
Speaker 1: how they're won. And if you allow yourself to get
Speaker 1: bullied physically on the other end of the floor, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to get Katie enough looks for
Speaker 1: him to win on the other end. You've got to
Speaker 1: be able to do all of those things. And that's
Speaker 1: what I loved about that Lakers team last year was
Speaker 1: like it was they they they were able to thrive
Speaker 1: in that environment when the game's really got into that uh,
Speaker 1: into that like absolute you know, ship show of a
Speaker 1: rock fight type of the reason they were like fifty
Speaker 1: six and oh or whatever when leading going into the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter exactly one game all year when they were
Speaker 1: leading going into the fourth quarters because they were an
Speaker 1: absolutely elite defensive team exactly. And so what we're seeing
Speaker 1: with Brooklyn that I think is interesting is, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: their offense is gonna be fine. I have absolutely no
Speaker 1: doubt about that. The only thing that would concern me
Speaker 1: about them on the offensive end of the floor is
Speaker 1: they are a little bit reliant on jump shot making.
Speaker 1: And it's it's something, uh, you know, the Warriors were
Speaker 1: reliant on jump shot making in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: but they were so good defensively that it was it
Speaker 1: wasn't a problem. And my and that's my thing, is
Speaker 1: you need your defense to carry you during stretches when
Speaker 1: you're not making shots. And what's whereas you know, that's
Speaker 1: what makes the Lakers so scary is that they rely
Speaker 1: on a brand of offense that also involves some shot making.
Speaker 1: But they're gonna get a great deal of shots right
Speaker 1: at the rim because of Lebron's physical ability to just
Speaker 1: bully people under the basket, and Anthony Davis who against
Speaker 1: like look against the my the Miami Heat double teamed
Speaker 1: amount of the post and he was unable to to
Speaker 1: post up. But he was so good at like just
Speaker 1: bullying people on the offensive glass and just getting tippins
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff. Like they were able to
Speaker 1: generate this easy stuff that Brooklyn Nets team. Every basket
Speaker 1: they get is gonna be hard, especially when they get
Speaker 1: into the half court of the court of these playoffs series.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they can't win. I still think they
Speaker 1: have a really good chance to come out of the East,
Speaker 1: but that that those are the kinds of flaws that
Speaker 1: you and I pointed to you before the season. They
Speaker 1: don't defend well enough to carry them during stretches when
Speaker 1: they're not making jump shots, and they're really bad at
Speaker 1: generating easy shots. They're really good at making difficult shots,
Speaker 1: but they're really bad at generating easy shots. So they
Speaker 1: have a tendency to be able to go cold. And
Speaker 1: the reality is is like like those two shots that
Speaker 1: Kyrie and Katie took at the end of that game,
Speaker 1: those are what we would consider high percentage shots for
Speaker 1: jump shots, but they aren't high percentage shots when you
Speaker 1: factor in historically how difficult it is in a really
Speaker 1: like slow down, bogged down, crunch time game to make
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot. Like all stars in NBA
Speaker 1: history have shot low percentages there because your legs are
Speaker 1: tired and you've got to use a lot of energy
Speaker 1: to get that separation, and it's just it's just difficult
Speaker 1: to win games that way. It'll win your when you
Speaker 1: some games, but that there's a reason why that the
Speaker 1: nets have fallen off and have dipped below five hundred,
Speaker 1: and it's because they're relying too much on difficult shot
Speaker 1: making and not the bona fide proven ways to win
Speaker 1: games involving defense and being physical and generating easy shots.
Speaker 1: So I think everything you pointed to there is correct,
Speaker 1: and how all I add onto it is we don't
Speaker 1: spend enough time I think when discussing the NBA talking
Speaker 1: about the relation between offensive and defensive rating. One of
Speaker 1: the reasons the Warriors were so good, kind of as
Speaker 1: you're pointing to, is they had this elite defense, and
Speaker 1: not only was it elite, it created turnovers and easy
Speaker 1: looks for a team that sometimes struggled to get easy looks.
Speaker 1: They were a team that relied on jump shooting, and
Speaker 1: there were a team that sometimes in the half court
Speaker 1: struggled to get easy looks because their primary creator is
Speaker 1: a sixth three guard, right, so they're not creating a
Speaker 1: ton of rim attempts like a team like with Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis. Is you said Brooklyn was seventh and
Speaker 1: offensive rating. I believe seventh or eighth right now offensive rating,
Speaker 1: And to me, that is directly related to them being
Speaker 1: fourteen in defensive rating. You know why, because they're taking
Speaker 1: the ball out of the net a lot. The easiest
Speaker 1: way to get good looks is to either create a
Speaker 1: turnover or get the ball off a miss and run
Speaker 1: and create either wide open threes, wide open jump shots,
Speaker 1: or get to the rim in transition. They're not able
Speaker 1: to do that right now because they can't get enough
Speaker 1: stops so quick. One quick note on on Brooklyn that
Speaker 1: I think you can piggyback onto is they actually Bobby
Speaker 1: Marks pointed this out on the wind Horse wind Horse
Speaker 1: podcast the other day, and then I started digging to
Speaker 1: look at it. They they played a really bad Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors team on opening night that couldn't score because
Speaker 1: they hadn't figured out their offense yet, and they played
Speaker 1: a Boston Celtics team that had lost their point guard,
Speaker 1: and and they're in their best perimeter playmaker and Gordon
Speaker 1: Hayward and literally we're relying on two really young wings
Speaker 1: who are scoring players and not creation players in their
Speaker 1: offense was really in shambles at that point in the season,
Speaker 1: and and it bolstered their defensive rating. And I tweeted
Speaker 1: yesterday in their last five games they were twenty nine
Speaker 1: and defense in the league. The only team that was
Speaker 1: worse was Minnesota. So like they're they're they're not just bad.
Speaker 1: I know that that fourteen is a little bit misleading
Speaker 1: in the sense that they have really really let go
Speaker 1: of the rope on that end of the floor as
Speaker 1: of late. And if it's happened this early in the season,
Speaker 1: that is a bad, bad, bad sign. If they're already
Speaker 1: twenty If you know, you said last five games or
Speaker 1: twenty nine and defensive rating, yeah, I'll find my make sure,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure that's what it was that I mean.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean that that adds on to the point.
Speaker 1: That's why they've dropped a tenth and offensive rating because
Speaker 1: they are taking the ball out of the net so much.
Speaker 1: I don't care how talented talented you are offensively, if
Speaker 1: you are always taking the ball out of the rim,
Speaker 1: you're gonna struggle to score, especially if you're relying on
Speaker 1: jump shots, because those are just it's just they're just
Speaker 1: tougher shots than getting to the rim. You know, the
Speaker 1: formula for winning is still getting as many rim attempts
Speaker 1: as possible. You the reason for spacing out to the
Speaker 1: three point line and shooting more threes is to get
Speaker 1: more room attemps. That's the entire point. It's to give
Speaker 1: your superstar players more space to create more room attempts.
Speaker 1: Right there, looking at the Warriors model and saying this
Speaker 1: is the way to do it, shoot a bunch of threes.
Speaker 1: Like I pointed out earlier, I don't think it's necessarily
Speaker 1: the way to go now. To not go that route,
Speaker 1: you do have to get lucky and get Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis on the same team, and that's the
Speaker 1: way you can get a ton of rim attempts. But
Speaker 1: that is still the best formula formula for winning a championship,
Speaker 1: playing high level defensive basketball, top five, top ten level,
Speaker 1: and then getting as many possible attempts at at the
Speaker 1: rim as possible. So, if this Brooklyn team is that
Speaker 1: going to be that bad defensively, there's no way they're
Speaker 1: winning the Eastern Conference because they'll be taking the ball
Speaker 1: out of it too much. It doesn't matter. I know
Speaker 1: there probably are some concerns with Philadelphia against some of
Speaker 1: the better teams in the league scoring consistently in the
Speaker 1: half court. But if Brooklyn is that bad defensively, they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to score enough, and then they're a
Speaker 1: really good defensive team, a really good defensive team. That's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why I picked them to win
Speaker 1: the East, because I thought Brokelym was gonna be too
Speaker 1: deficient defensively to win a series, and I thought the
Speaker 1: Bucks would be too deficient offensively to win a series
Speaker 1: against Philly. It is more of a matchup thing more
Speaker 1: than anything else. So, yeah, if Brooklyn is gonna be
Speaker 1: that terrible, they have literally no chance of winning the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference if they're gonna be one of the worst
Speaker 1: defensive teams in the league. Now, what we could point
Speaker 1: to is um I think the twenty eighteen Calves were,
Speaker 1: um twenty you could probably you probably first, I think,
Speaker 1: but again they weren't. They weren't dealing with teams like
Speaker 1: Philly and Milwaukee out East. They just exactly then they
Speaker 1: were playing Victorialadipot and Ricky Jayson Tatum and and the
Speaker 1: Raptors right before they blew it up with the Rose
Speaker 1: In like teams that were really kind of either really
Speaker 1: young or towards the end of the rope in terms
Speaker 1: of where they were at in their trajectory. So um
Speaker 1: that I was not optimistic on Brooklyn coming into this season.
Speaker 1: I think people could probably guess that from me picking
Speaker 1: Philly to win the East. I am less optimistic now,
Speaker 1: especially if Katie's gonna go down for a week, maybe
Speaker 1: it's even more than a week. Um with COVID protocol stuff.
Speaker 1: What are they gonna be when he comes back for
Speaker 1: at eight four nine, So now they're already trying to
Speaker 1: dig out of a hole. They'll be on the road
Speaker 1: for a playoff series. Maybe fans will be back by
Speaker 1: that time, who knows. So if they've got to go
Speaker 1: on the road to Philly and Billy gets to have
Speaker 1: present capacity that's gonna be a crazy Philly crowd even
Speaker 1: with that few people being Brooklyn to me is in
Speaker 1: a much more spot than I expected earlier in the season.
Speaker 1: I thought they'd at least play with effort early on,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't even seem like they're doing that well.
Speaker 1: They're the Kyrie, and and and Katie are both you
Speaker 1: know a little bit uh what's the word I'm looking,
Speaker 1: But they're just flaky in terms of their like personalities
Speaker 1: and the way they can kind of add in and
Speaker 1: out focus wise during the season. And this this last
Speaker 1: thing I want to touch on with Brooklyn before we
Speaker 1: move on, you know, And we talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about this before the season, but I think it's I
Speaker 1: think it's so ridiculous to me that, you know, for instance,
Speaker 1: with Steph, you know, we look at stef and we
Speaker 1: talked about where he ranks with the other players in
Speaker 1: the league, and we talked about how his you know,
Speaker 1: on bull creation and his off ball creation, his own
Speaker 1: personal scoring, what he does for his teammates and how
Speaker 1: that adds value, you know, uh, how that impacts winning.
Speaker 1: And then we also talk about how like you know,
Speaker 1: he doesn't you know, give away points on the defensive
Speaker 1: and he's not an elite defensive player, but he's not.
Speaker 1: He's kind of like the middle of the pack, hold
Speaker 1: his own type of guy. And he's been really good
Speaker 1: this year so far. He's been really good. Best I've
Speaker 1: seen him since probably, But what really what really bothers me?
Speaker 1: And and it's and it's it's doesn't it doesn't take
Speaker 1: away from you know, how fun it is to watch
Speaker 1: Katie or the fact that you know, I'm really happy
Speaker 1: that he's coming back from his injury and he looks healthy.
Speaker 1: He had a dunk early against against the I think
Speaker 1: it was against the Pistons that was just ridiculous, or
Speaker 1: did where he did a double crossover and then took
Speaker 1: off of his right leg and just threw it down
Speaker 1: with two hands like the He looks great. I'm super
Speaker 1: happy for him. I'm rooting for him. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If you want to be considered on Lebron James level,
Speaker 1: or on Kawhi Leonards level or better than those guys,
Speaker 1: why in the world are we letting him off the
Speaker 1: hook and what we expect from him on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. And and it really really bothers
Speaker 1: me that that that no one ever brings this up.
Speaker 1: He he somehow, somewhere along the line, gained this reputation
Speaker 1: as someone who was a good defensive player, and no
Speaker 1: one ever watches him anymore. It pays any close attention.
Speaker 1: You and I talked before the season that the only
Speaker 1: way this team would be an elite defensive team was
Speaker 1: if Katie cared enough to make that one of his goals.
Speaker 1: And because we talked about how he has Anthony Davis's
Speaker 1: defensive gifts, He's equally mobile, if not more. He's got
Speaker 1: the same heightened length He's got. He's not quite as
Speaker 1: as strong, but he's got he's got the ability to
Speaker 1: be that type of impact defensive player. He just literally
Speaker 1: doesn't care and and I don't that does. That's not
Speaker 1: a problem necessarily, and you could still win with him,
Speaker 1: as we know we've seen him do it. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's worth bringing up that as one of the most
Speaker 1: physically gifted players in the league at a position where
Speaker 1: every single one of his peers and including Paul George
Speaker 1: and Kawhi Leonard and Janis Antenna Coompo and Lebron who's
Speaker 1: faded in and out at times, but for the most
Speaker 1: part of his career has been one of the best
Speaker 1: defensive players in the league. Katie just doesn't care enough
Speaker 1: to even devote the time and focus it requires to
Speaker 1: build that to build that identity on this team, which
Speaker 1: could literally be the difference between him winning and losing
Speaker 1: this year is whether or not he can be effects
Speaker 1: similar of Anthony Davis or if he continues to be
Speaker 1: the turn style that he can be at times, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the difference between them winning and losing. And
Speaker 1: I think it's I'm not saying it's like this is
Speaker 1: not slander because he's been like this his whole career.
Speaker 1: I just think it's worth pointing out that when you're
Speaker 1: comparing him to his peers, he's got all the athletic
Speaker 1: gifts in the world and has gotten almost He's got
Speaker 1: not almost nothing, but he's he's an average too slightly
Speaker 1: above average defensive player when he should be a first
Speaker 1: team All defense guy. And and I think that's worth
Speaker 1: pointing out. You know what's funny about it, too, um
Speaker 1: a lot of those Lebron years where he was bad
Speaker 1: and he shouldn't get an excuse for those, was because
Speaker 1: he was carrying such a heavy offensive load. He doesn't
Speaker 1: need to do that. This year. He had one of
Speaker 1: the better on ball creators in the league with Kyrie
Speaker 1: next to him, and they also have Carriss Lefort, who
Speaker 1: has been up and down this year, but he's a
Speaker 1: guy who can create on the ball. The Spencer Dimity
Speaker 1: injury does hurt, but they have enough offensive talent on
Speaker 1: that roster to where he can maybe take five to
Speaker 1: ten percent of his energy and focus it on defense
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, every night or nine percent
Speaker 1: of the time, I'm shutting off the rim tonight and
Speaker 1: teams aren't scoring, just like Anthony Davis does. And a
Speaker 1: D hasn't looked that great early in the year just
Speaker 1: because short off season, whatever, but we know when it
Speaker 1: when it comes to nutcrunching time, a D is going
Speaker 1: to shut off the rim every single time and teams
Speaker 1: aren't going to score. Durin has that ability. He truly does.
Speaker 1: Saw We saw him do it in Golden State. We
Speaker 1: saw him do it in the two thousand sixteen Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals. It through the whole series out of wack.
Speaker 1: Raymond Green didn't know what to do. Draymond Green looked
Speaker 1: absolutely lost after having the best season of his career
Speaker 1: because Katie was everywhere and his arms were everywhere, and
Speaker 1: Draymond could barely make passes at some point of the series.
Speaker 1: It befuddles me that he is just not willing to
Speaker 1: do this because, like you're saying, it is the difference
Speaker 1: between them like losing in the second round and maybe
Speaker 1: winning a title like that. That's how big of a
Speaker 1: swing skill his defenses this year. As pascalbron the years
Speaker 1: that he didn't defend, he lost okolutely. In two thousand twenty,
Speaker 1: he engaged himself on the defensive end. I I thought
Speaker 1: he should have been second team All Defense. So he
Speaker 1: ended up not getting it, but he was pretty unanimously,
Speaker 1: unanimously referred to as one of the better defensive players
Speaker 1: in the league. And again literally they want again, and
Speaker 1: it's just it's there will be a time, and you know,
Speaker 1: like it's just it's one of those things where in
Speaker 1: a margin in a year like this too, where the
Speaker 1: title is there for the taking. You know, the Laker
Speaker 1: team is the best team in the league, I think,
Speaker 1: but they are not unbeatable and and it's there for
Speaker 1: the taking, and and and you have a roster I've
Speaker 1: been pleasantly surprised with with uh, with a lot from
Speaker 1: this Brooklyn team. You have what it takes to win.
Speaker 1: They just need you to do what the other guys
Speaker 1: at the top of the league do, which is maximize
Speaker 1: their defensive talent. Steph isn't the same defensive player as
Speaker 1: those other guys, but he damn sure is getting every
Speaker 1: single drop of defensive potential out of his body. And
Speaker 1: so is Anthony Davis, and so is uh you know,
Speaker 1: Jani Santana Kumpo, and and so is Kawhi Leonard, and
Speaker 1: so is Lebron and you and you are leaving something
Speaker 1: on the table, leaving a lot on the table there,
Speaker 1: and it could be the difference between winning and losing.
Speaker 1: And I think that's worth All I'm saying is it's
Speaker 1: worth pointing out when you're telling me about who the
Speaker 1: best players in the league are. And it's the reason
Speaker 1: why I didn't have him as high as other people
Speaker 1: did coming into the season. You know, It's just it's
Speaker 1: just I think it's I think it's part of winning
Speaker 1: basketball games, which if that's not the ultimate gold and
Speaker 1: what are we even talking about here? Defense is such
Speaker 1: a top down thing, man, If your best players do
Speaker 1: it and commit to what everybody else will. They have
Speaker 1: to They have no choice, absolutely zero choice. Because if
Speaker 1: you can point to the best guy and say, hey,
Speaker 1: he's he's kicking ass every night on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: what what is Joe Harris going to say to that?
Speaker 1: What is Carris LeVert going to say to that? What
Speaker 1: is DeAndre Jordan going to say to that? Because he's
Speaker 1: an absolute statue at this point. The fact that he's
Speaker 1: playing more than Jared all and that that kind of
Speaker 1: personifies all their issues as a whole. The fact that
Speaker 1: he's getting more minutes than Jared Allen just because I
Speaker 1: guess he's friends with k D. Point being, their whole
Speaker 1: season is basically into Rand's hands. If he decides to
Speaker 1: commit to that end, everybody else will and if he doesn't,
Speaker 1: then they're going to lose in the second round. And
Speaker 1: that's I think that's basically what I said before the season.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens, but I am I'm out
Speaker 1: for the time being. That's yeah, and it will be
Speaker 1: when we won't We won't be able to get anything
Speaker 1: new from them for four games anyway. With the um okay,
Speaker 1: so with the Lakers second in offense, fifth, and defense
Speaker 1: second in net rating. Big things standing out to me
Speaker 1: is that Lebron and a d are basically barely trying.
Speaker 1: They're both underneath twenty four points per game. They're both
Speaker 1: playing pretty low minutes compared to what they had been playing.
Speaker 1: The team has had multiple games and quarters and halves
Speaker 1: this season where they basically coasted and then just tried
Speaker 1: to have the game at the end and win. Um,
Speaker 1: their half came out of first place in the league
Speaker 1: in terms of the standings. Tell me why I shouldn't
Speaker 1: be more confident than ever that this team is going
Speaker 1: to win the title. Um injuries the Lebron or Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: but he got their short off season. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't really have any good answers. Uh. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I think on our previous when we did kind of
Speaker 1: our season Western Conference season preview. The reason for the
Speaker 1: Schroder and Treads signings, in my opinion, they were regular
Speaker 1: season sign signings, and I think Shorter will help in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. He's looked really good this year. Well, he's
Speaker 1: depending really well, and that's going to be a key
Speaker 1: for him to stay on the floor, especially when uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Cruiso feels a little bit better and he's
Speaker 1: back in the rotation. But those guys are going to
Speaker 1: help them float, you know, float wins on the on
Speaker 1: the nights where Lebron Ladie just don't have it because
Speaker 1: they're coming off a season where they did do everything
Speaker 1: for that Lakers team they had. They both had a
Speaker 1: huge load to carry on both ends every single night, um,
Speaker 1: and they did it for you sixty plus games, and
Speaker 1: they went to the bubble and they did it for
Speaker 1: two and a half months, and then they got seventy
Speaker 1: days of an off season, short of off season in
Speaker 1: NBA history basically, So if you're a Lakers fan, you
Speaker 1: have a lots of reasons to be optimistic right now.
Speaker 1: This team is deep, they're good, they can defend, they're
Speaker 1: they're everything you want in a title contender, and they
Speaker 1: still have You know, whatever you think of Lebron, whenever
Speaker 1: you think of a d probably two of the five
Speaker 1: or six best players in the world at the absolute worst,
Speaker 1: and more so than anything, that's a formula for winning
Speaker 1: a title. If you have two of the six best
Speaker 1: players in the world, you're probably at least gonna be
Speaker 1: in the conversation, if not right at the top and then,
Speaker 1: and they have the supporting players to do it. Um.
Speaker 1: I know, I saw some weird stuff with West West
Speaker 1: Matthew's net rating and him being actually the worst net
Speaker 1: rating guy through six or seven games, which was confusing
Speaker 1: to me. But I've actually really liked the way he's
Speaker 1: looked for them so far. Like I said, shorters look good.
Speaker 1: Treads is treads. I don't think. I think he's not
Speaker 1: gonna be munch time. He's he can't depend on if
Speaker 1: we need coming into the season, but it's been It
Speaker 1: was very evident because I watched that Clippers team a lot.
Speaker 1: He was one of the reasons that I didn't think
Speaker 1: they had a chance to win the title last year.
Speaker 1: He was playing too many minutes tim him. They were
Speaker 1: relying on thirty minutes minutes from him and Lou Williams.
Speaker 1: You're not winning a title like that ever. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but he's a good guy to get twelve and six
Speaker 1: off the bench in the regular season or even in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and only play and you know, the smallest
Speaker 1: parts in the first and second quarters and then the
Speaker 1: third and fourth quarters. He's never playing closing minutes. Um,
Speaker 1: they're a really good team. I mean, I really don't
Speaker 1: have much else to add. They they look just as
Speaker 1: good as last last year, if not better. The only
Speaker 1: thing I worry about is they are with the loss
Speaker 1: of Dwighton Devail compared to the Soul, they are a
Speaker 1: little bit less athletic on the front line. If they
Speaker 1: do come across the team that can exploit that and
Speaker 1: will put a lot on a D. But I think
Speaker 1: we've seen that he's more than willing to play the
Speaker 1: five when it actually gets down to, you know, second
Speaker 1: third round of the playoffs and they need him to
Speaker 1: play minutes to night there. So that would be my
Speaker 1: only concern at this point. But besides that, they look
Speaker 1: they're coasting two wins, like absolutely coasting their bare even
Speaker 1: trying most nights, and then they're turning it on for
Speaker 1: six or seven minutes and they're winning the game. They
Speaker 1: very clearly have another level they can get to, if
Speaker 1: not a couple of levels. Um. The biggest thing that
Speaker 1: I think if I was a fan of one of
Speaker 1: the other twenty nine teams, the biggest thing that would
Speaker 1: concern me is that they look a lot like uh
Speaker 1: last year's Milwaukee team without the same fatal flaws. For instance,
Speaker 1: last year's Milwaukee team that everybody we always talked about
Speaker 1: this going into the uh the m VP debate, but
Speaker 1: the with Jannie on the floor, they were murdering teams,
Speaker 1: and then with Janice off the floor, they were still
Speaker 1: outscoring teams by like, you know, I think it was
Speaker 1: five or six points per possession, by what four points
Speaker 1: possession with Lebron off the floor right now? Yeah, like
Speaker 1: literally they are. They are destroying teams with Lebron on
Speaker 1: the floor right now, and when Lebron is off the floor,
Speaker 1: they're still outscoring teams by just under five points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possession. So it's it's shaping up. Now. Again,
Speaker 1: this is really early that a lot of those numbers
Speaker 1: are likely to to call down a little bit. But
Speaker 1: here in the early going, they are absolutely dominating basketball
Speaker 1: teams without having to really put their foot on the gas.
Speaker 1: Look that last game against Memphis, now Memphis was without
Speaker 1: John Morantz, was pretty bad team, and Jared Jackson, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Lebron literally was b s ng for three quarters and
Speaker 1: then came in the fourth quarter and was like, we'll try,
Speaker 1: we'll win, and we'll get out of here. And they
Speaker 1: ended up winning by double digits. And and helped all
Speaker 1: their advanced metrics, like it's the craziest thing. They they
Speaker 1: just and and this is where the Tread's and the
Speaker 1: mantras Harrold's or the mantres Harold and Dennis Schroeder and
Speaker 1: westling At these types of signings really help. And we
Speaker 1: talked about this before the season, But the new bodies
Speaker 1: in that locker room have allowed the Lakers to to
Speaker 1: lose some of the lethargy and so Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d can kind of b s their way through games,
Speaker 1: but the other guys on the roster aren't, and it's
Speaker 1: allowing them to get to the end of the game
Speaker 1: when they can really dial it up and put these
Speaker 1: teams away. I I I am of the opinion that
Speaker 1: the gap has grown because I don't like what I've
Speaker 1: seen from Brooklyn. The Clippers actually look pretty good, but
Speaker 1: it's hard to say because they have Yeah, they have
Speaker 1: well and they but they also got destroyed by the
Speaker 1: Jazz with Kauai, so there they have a couple of
Speaker 1: really bad losses. But um with the Clippers, I just
Speaker 1: have the same problems with them that I've always had.
Speaker 1: Um Uh, Let's move on to Philly, So Philly fourteen
Speaker 1: and offense, but number one in defense. Uh, third in
Speaker 1: net rating. Their for number one in defense by a
Speaker 1: wide margin. They're the only team in the league under
Speaker 1: one hundred points per possession. And yeah, and number two
Speaker 1: is like one up over a hundred two points per possession.
Speaker 1: Umu Seth Curry is having a career best year. Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris has been absolutely killing it lately. Ben Simmons has
Speaker 1: been playing really well. He's only made one three to
Speaker 1: this point in the season, but he looks pretty good.
Speaker 1: And Joel Embid is looking like an MVP candidate. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you were high on this team coming into the season,
Speaker 1: um is there anything from them that you've seen that
Speaker 1: would change your mind or make you get reckless and
Speaker 1: making any prediction or anything along those lines. No, I
Speaker 1: mean I still think they they have I think al
Speaker 1: ways to improve offensively, Like you said, fourteenth in offensive rating,
Speaker 1: but I think some of that was early on that
Speaker 1: they had some bad games, and we'll see if that's
Speaker 1: common for them, or they have these games where they
Speaker 1: really struggle or is more of an outlier early in
Speaker 1: the season. They're getting used to some things. I've noticed
Speaker 1: that they are adding some wrinkles offensively, some good stuff
Speaker 1: to get Simmons downhill, a bunch of stuff to get
Speaker 1: curry shots. Like you said, he's shooting, I mean he's
Speaker 1: he's shooting like fifty fifty one right now, I think
Speaker 1: from the field. So that's obviously not gonna last. But
Speaker 1: one of the better shooters in the league. Um, And
Speaker 1: there's a reason I really love that pairing of him
Speaker 1: and Simmons because I mean, it has like some like
Speaker 1: poor Man Steph Draymond vibes, right, Like the skill sets
Speaker 1: are somewhat similar. Seth obviously isn't Staff and Simmons obviously
Speaker 1: isn't Draymond. But the skill sets are similar, right, so
Speaker 1: they can do some of the things that those two
Speaker 1: can do together. A lot of drible handoff stuff. Set
Speaker 1: isn't a bad passer. You can create a little bit
Speaker 1: out of you know, pick and roll d chose situations,
Speaker 1: get Simmons downhill, get him into situations where he's playing
Speaker 1: for on three like you said, and beat is looked amazing. Um,
Speaker 1: he's looked like maybe the best defender in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He could easily win the Defensive Player of the Year
Speaker 1: this year. The key for them is just gonna be okay,
Speaker 1: can we get our offense to top ten level and
Speaker 1: do we trust him beat enough Layton games to actually
Speaker 1: win playoff series? Right that That's what it's really gonna
Speaker 1: come down to. Ken Joe l EmpId be good enough
Speaker 1: late in the game against Kevin Durant, against Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: against the honest to actually win win the game because
Speaker 1: they're gonna be there. Defensively, I think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to get enough stops. They have the correct They
Speaker 1: have so much defensive versatility on that roster they can
Speaker 1: really I think they can basically guard any type of
Speaker 1: superstar just looking at it. Um kind of from a
Speaker 1: broad spectrum. They can throw South Kurry isn't a bad defender.
Speaker 1: He's pretty solid. He's really handsy on ball. He's more
Speaker 1: physical than you'd expect. You can throw him on um
Speaker 1: a Kyrie type. Fatiste. Ty Bow is obviously a really
Speaker 1: good guy to throw on any type of garter wing
Speaker 1: to whys Harris Ben Simmons really big bodies on the wing.
Speaker 1: They can defend and beats one of the best room
Speaker 1: protectors in the league. There. Like I said, I I
Speaker 1: thought before the year. Getting a fresh voice in that
Speaker 1: locker room with Doc Rivers is really gonna help them.
Speaker 1: And then they get to get some new guys too,
Speaker 1: so it didn't feel so stagnant. They brought in Curry,
Speaker 1: they brought in Green, they got rid of Al Horford. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really like this team. My opinion on them has
Speaker 1: not changed at all. I still think they're probably going
Speaker 1: to win the East. UM, and you know, it's a
Speaker 1: piggyback on the Lakers stuff. I still think the Lakers
Speaker 1: would be favored in that series, and I think they
Speaker 1: should be. UM. But I'm really optimistic about this filly team,
Speaker 1: which is gonna be Can they figure out how to
Speaker 1: get manufacture a few more easy buckets in the half
Speaker 1: court because the defense is going to be ridiculously elite
Speaker 1: all year, and that stuff about the half court comes
Speaker 1: down to embide um. One quick note on the Lakers
Speaker 1: has been better this year, by the way, he is
Speaker 1: actually looking for cutters again. He's looking for shooters, which
Speaker 1: he wasn't doing as much in year's past. I think
Speaker 1: because he was maybe frustrated with the way with the
Speaker 1: roster and the coaching and a bunch of things. So
Speaker 1: but he's he seems to have a renewed energy, and
Speaker 1: I think that was a lot of the reason for
Speaker 1: getting rid of bet Round and bringing in Doc Rivers.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and I mean Darryl Moorey managed to completely
Speaker 1: fix this roster in one offseason just by making basic
Speaker 1: basketball decisions that were related shooting around Joel Embiad and
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. What a novel concept. Hum, But I do
Speaker 1: think this is one of the biggest reasons why I
Speaker 1: was pro the Marcusol signing is you know, Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: was a good option to throw at yokich In, a
Speaker 1: good option to throw at a guy like Embiid, but
Speaker 1: not a great option because he commits a lot of fouls,
Speaker 1: easily gets into foul trouble, can get kind of riled up,
Speaker 1: and very easily can mentally check out of a game. Marcusol,
Speaker 1: to me, is such a huge addition for the Lakers
Speaker 1: as a spot guy to have for specific playoff matchups.
Speaker 1: If i'm because of the because you know, Marcusol is
Speaker 1: a is a the The game has kind of passed
Speaker 1: him by as a defensive center in the open court,
Speaker 1: but he is still probably the best post offender in
Speaker 1: the league, and I need hell everything he gives him
Speaker 1: be hell every single time. And he's built for a
Speaker 1: Yoki's matchup as well. And so from that standpoint, like
Speaker 1: I love having him on that Laker roster for those
Speaker 1: specific matchups and because you know, when it comes to
Speaker 1: beating a team that is more talented, you usually need
Speaker 1: an ace in the whole, a matchup that you just
Speaker 1: can't deal with. For instance, the Clippers and the Nuggets
Speaker 1: last year. The Nuggets did not have the top to
Speaker 1: bottom talent that the Clippers did, but they didn't have
Speaker 1: anybody that could guard your kitch, and it completely threw
Speaker 1: off the tenor of the series and it made it
Speaker 1: so that, you know, the Clippers found themselves into late
Speaker 1: game scenarios and then a couple of things didn't go
Speaker 1: their way and then they lost. And so having that
Speaker 1: kind of matchup could have been a problem for a
Speaker 1: lot of teams in the league, and having someone like
Speaker 1: marcusol on the roster is huge. But I again like
Speaker 1: the this is this would be my question for Philly,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I think will be interesting to
Speaker 1: watch as the season progresses. If you think m Beat
Speaker 1: is that guy and you think that this is the
Speaker 1: season that when he gets toe to toe, eye to
Speaker 1: eye with the best players in the league in the
Speaker 1: late round playoff series, that he's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: come out on top. Then I think you keep the
Speaker 1: status quo and you ride this out. You build on
Speaker 1: your number one defense in the league, and the goal
Speaker 1: is just keep the game closer. You can ride and
Speaker 1: be late. Uh. If you don't think him be can
Speaker 1: do that, then I think you gotta go after Harden
Speaker 1: and I and I and I tweeted this last night.
Speaker 1: I'm I told you before the season that I thought
Speaker 1: they needed to go after Hardened, and I'm worried that
Speaker 1: they're playing too well now that that is off off
Speaker 1: the table. They're hoping that. I'm hoping that Darryl Morey,
Speaker 1: you know, has been around long enough to see that
Speaker 1: winning in those late round playoffs series is all about
Speaker 1: your alpha dog and what he can do against the
Speaker 1: other alpha dogs in the league. He literally has been
Speaker 1: assassinated by Steph Curry before he knows what he knows
Speaker 1: what it takes. And so from that standpoint, you know,
Speaker 1: if if they if they come into a rough patch
Speaker 1: or if they lose to a couple of really good teams,
Speaker 1: Like if they drop a game in Milwaukee, they drop
Speaker 1: a game against one of the big Western Conference teams,
Speaker 1: or they lose a game in Boston, because suddenly when
Speaker 1: Boston and and and in Toron though and and you know,
Speaker 1: Milwaukee get into a switching scheme and the half court
Speaker 1: that leaves you know, uh and beat on an island,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you can't handle double teams
Speaker 1: and Ben Simmons is back to being a guy in
Speaker 1: the dunker spot. That kind of thing happens. I hope
Speaker 1: they're smart enough to audible and realize that they've got
Speaker 1: an option on the table that makes them unbeatable. And
Speaker 1: if a lot of people are like, oh, you have
Speaker 1: to ditch tyble or you've got you know, Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: could be the defense player the year, why would you
Speaker 1: do that? It's like it's like, yeah, if you can
Speaker 1: build a team around James Harden, Seth Curry, Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: and Joel Embiid, you do that a million times out
Speaker 1: of a million, because that's the best top four in
Speaker 1: the league probably, you know, I mean, and Beads looking
Speaker 1: like the sixth or seventh best player in the league
Speaker 1: in Harden's right there. I think he's around seventh or eighth.
Speaker 1: Do you think he's eleventh? But the point is is
Speaker 1: like that that's the line up there, that that that
Speaker 1: other teams in the league will not be able to
Speaker 1: match up with and and and it's something, It's an
Speaker 1: opportunity that's right there for the taking. And I feel
Speaker 1: like they're playing so damn well that that Daryl Morey
Speaker 1: is gonna be emptied into not doing it, and Harden's
Speaker 1: gonna end up going somewhere like Toronto where they're still
Speaker 1: not going to be good enough. And I don't know
Speaker 1: I did that that that was just something that's been
Speaker 1: on my mind. Yeah, I don't think about mori is.
Speaker 1: I don't think he ever takes any option really off
Speaker 1: the table, right. I mean, my guests would be he's
Speaker 1: waiting close to the deadline. He's waiting for more leverage
Speaker 1: so they can give up less to get James Harden,
Speaker 1: because if they I don't see how they get it
Speaker 1: done without Simmons. But if they somehow can, and now
Speaker 1: you have hardened Simmons and embiid, you can be pretty special.
Speaker 1: I mean that might be too many guys who need
Speaker 1: too many touches. That is an issue from time to
Speaker 1: time where you've got three guys who need the ball
Speaker 1: a lot um, you'd have to sell Simmons on really
Speaker 1: just being kind of an off ball playmaker in a
Speaker 1: way and and just being an absolute defensive menace to
Speaker 1: basically to sell them one being Draymond Green. But if
Speaker 1: they can either way, if they can't get hardened, that
Speaker 1: there they go from, in my opinion, that slight favorites
Speaker 1: in the East two being the prohibitive favorites in the East.
Speaker 1: If they could sum out playing a Harden trade and
Speaker 1: keep Simmons or not keep Simmons because Harden is that
Speaker 1: special off or that is that special offensively. For all
Speaker 1: the crap that I give him a lot of, it
Speaker 1: is contact space and what he's done to that Rockets
Speaker 1: franchise in terms of just every eighteen months they're turning
Speaker 1: over the roster because he's never happy. If you get
Speaker 1: him in a situation where you can you have some
Speaker 1: leadership around him, you have some veterans, and you can
Speaker 1: kind of just tell him to do what he's really
Speaker 1: good at and not do much else, then yeah, I
Speaker 1: think he's like I've said, one of the most talented
Speaker 1: offensive players of all time. So if if it's on
Speaker 1: the table and they can get a better deal because
Speaker 1: they wait towards the trade deadline, then do it. And
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons just missed a postseason with a knee injury,
Speaker 1: and he missed his season with a foot injury. Like
Speaker 1: he's not the same physical guy that that Harden is.
Speaker 1: Um Okay, so uh, just because we've been going for
Speaker 1: so long, let's go rapid fire through these um, what
Speaker 1: are your quick thoughts in Toronto? There and offense thirteenth
Speaker 1: and defense twenty one and net ratings. Siakam has been
Speaker 1: absolutely terrible again, offense is ridiculous for a team like that.
Speaker 1: The only reason I wanted to talk about them is
Speaker 1: do they just punt? I mean, do they do they
Speaker 1: decide this is the year that we move Lowry and
Speaker 1: and maybe move a couple of guys and just kind
Speaker 1: of punt the year. Um. I know, they just signed
Speaker 1: resigned Van Bleet. They gave Sam a ton of money,
Speaker 1: so that doesn't really make sense to do in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. But this draft is also one of
Speaker 1: the most special drafts in in the in recent memory.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm following it because the Warriors have the
Speaker 1: Wolves pick Um, so they're gonna get probably a pick
Speaker 1: in the four to ten range. There's like five or
Speaker 1: six guys in this class who probably would have went
Speaker 1: number one in the last class. That's how good this
Speaker 1: draft classes. So if you're Toronto in your Massai who
Speaker 1: is not scared to take a risk and make a move,
Speaker 1: we know that for sure, do you consider maybe moving
Speaker 1: Lowry and maybe moving even siakum Um and kind of
Speaker 1: punting it and saying, let's let's try to get a
Speaker 1: future superstar and start to rebuild a little bit here. Well,
Speaker 1: And the other thing there too is I think they're
Speaker 1: wired in a way kind of similar to the San
Speaker 1: Antonio Spurs, where I don't think, I don't think we're
Speaker 1: not getting in their vocabulary, but I do think that,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it's nearly as good of
Speaker 1: an opportunity for James Harden as Philly is, but they
Speaker 1: are an interesting opportunity because so theoretically you end up
Speaker 1: having to give up Sam, and you have to give
Speaker 1: up um god, what's his name, the guy towards the
Speaker 1: cel when he was a Yeah, so you have to
Speaker 1: give up o G and Sam and messes with your
Speaker 1: defense a little bit, But they still have a lot
Speaker 1: of athleticism on that team, a lot of bigger wings. Theoretically,
Speaker 1: Lowry and and and VanVleet are two really really good
Speaker 1: shooters that give James Harden space. You go all in
Speaker 1: on kind of a small ball team with a lot
Speaker 1: of athleticism, um and having three guards that can create
Speaker 1: a lot on the perimeter. Again, you have some matchup
Speaker 1: issues potentially when you get to the late round playoff series.
Speaker 1: I mean, Baines isn't a terrible option, but he's someone
Speaker 1: you can throw um. I do wonder if if that's
Speaker 1: the move there for them, just understanding that they're not
Speaker 1: wired in a way that they would punt. You know,
Speaker 1: Trading Kyle Lowry is effectively just selling I Like there's
Speaker 1: a lot Trading Kyle Lowry makes a lot sense, a
Speaker 1: lot more sense for the other teams in the league
Speaker 1: than it does for the Raptors, meaning like of course,
Speaker 1: like yeah, of course, Like he would make anybody better.
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry is an absolute winner. If he's the second
Speaker 1: or third best player on your team, like you're just
Speaker 1: you're a lot better team but again, what if I'm Toronto,
Speaker 1: if the what like, there's so much talent on the
Speaker 1: team too, you'd have to sell everything in order to tank.
Speaker 1: And I just don't don't think they're wired that way.
Speaker 1: And then the lottery is never sure thing for getting
Speaker 1: a top five guy anyway, with the way that it
Speaker 1: shakes out, So I they to me are a sleeper
Speaker 1: heart and destination or not even one of the top
Speaker 1: two or three destinations. And then we also know we
Speaker 1: we we we know uh um from the Kauai situation,
Speaker 1: that that's something that they're willing to do. You know,
Speaker 1: miss miss i is is not scared to take a
Speaker 1: big risk. UM Denver twenty ninth in defense, fourth in offense,
Speaker 1: four teenth and net rating um uh. We talked about
Speaker 1: before the season that giving up Tory Craig and uh
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant could have been a problem for them in
Speaker 1: terms of their overall wing defense and the way that
Speaker 1: it might make them a less athletic team. And and
Speaker 1: we talked about how Michael Porter Jr. While he's a
Speaker 1: great offensive player, was not the team defensive player in
Speaker 1: that role. And early on it looks like we hit
Speaker 1: that one out of the Park. They're one of the
Speaker 1: best offensive teams in the league, and they're not winning games, right,
Speaker 1: And that's basically why I wanted to talk about them.
Speaker 1: I think, but we do a lot of the times
Speaker 1: is we don't realize how important point of attack defense
Speaker 1: is for raising a defensive floor. I think your health
Speaker 1: defenders a Draymond Green, a you know, Joel and beat
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, they can raise your defensive seeing a lot.
Speaker 1: And they obviously can raise the floor too, right becau
Speaker 1: they're really special at stopping rim attacks. But if you're
Speaker 1: if your guards and wings are constantly getting beat off
Speaker 1: the dribble, those type of guys can only do so much, right.
Speaker 1: You need those guys who can at least be passible
Speaker 1: to good on the ball, so your health defenders aren't
Speaker 1: constantly in rotation and constantly playing one or two steps behind.
Speaker 1: So there, I think their biggest issue is they really
Speaker 1: only have one one guy who's even average too above
Speaker 1: average as a point of attack defender, and that's Gary Harris,
Speaker 1: and he has not looked good this year either. He's
Speaker 1: had a lot of injuries at this point, and he
Speaker 1: might never be the same guy they gave him. You know,
Speaker 1: four years, eighty four million, which looked like a great
Speaker 1: deal at the time. I thought that was a really
Speaker 1: good deal for him, but when he first signed it,
Speaker 1: but he's a hit. At the time, Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: He was shooting from three, he was able to attack
Speaker 1: the rim. He looked like he was going to be
Speaker 1: one of the best young shooting guards in the league.
Speaker 1: But injuries, man that they ruined. They ruined tons of
Speaker 1: guys careers, So who knows if he's ever going to
Speaker 1: be the same guy doesn't really look like it. And
Speaker 1: hunting your other two best wing defenders turns out that's
Speaker 1: not a good idea, especially when Tory Craig he didn't
Speaker 1: really even go for that much like it's a lot
Speaker 1: of their off sense offseason moves made no sense to me. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess I wanted to see if Michael Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: Was ready to be that guy, but pretty clearly he isn't. Um,
Speaker 1: maybe things change, But if your kich has been amazing offensively,
Speaker 1: but if they can't get stops out of that matters.
Speaker 1: There two and four for a reason, they cannot get stopped.
Speaker 1: Like I said, having point of attack defenders raises your
Speaker 1: defensive floor. That was the issue with the Worris last year.
Speaker 1: Draymond Green was still Draymond Green defensively, but they were
Speaker 1: twenty seven and defensive rating because they didn't have anybody
Speaker 1: who could guard the ball. As you can guard the ball,
Speaker 1: you will not get stops, period, end of story. You
Speaker 1: gotta have at least two or three of those guys.
Speaker 1: Denver has one at most right now. Well, you and
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about this as it pertains to Portland,
Speaker 1: like there's so much emphasis on this big, switchy wing
Speaker 1: defender and what ironically, because of how talented the point
Speaker 1: guard position is in the league, the one of the
Speaker 1: most important parts of a defense is guard defense. And
Speaker 1: and and you know it's funny because I, uh, it was.
Speaker 1: It was one of the biggest you know, refreshing things
Speaker 1: that I saw about the Lakers last year. Um was
Speaker 1: you know, these were these were guys that were considered
Speaker 1: under size, you know, below average defenders. But what they
Speaker 1: were good at was they were good at moving their
Speaker 1: feet against smaller guards. And so yeah, like Alex Crusoe
Speaker 1: and Contagious called a hope couldn't guard. Why but against
Speaker 1: all of these other teams in the league that we're
Speaker 1: relying on your Jamal Murray, you know, Bradley Beal or
Speaker 1: Kemba Walker, any of these quick, you know, initiation guys
Speaker 1: up top. They were able to keep them in front
Speaker 1: and and just do a better than usual job of
Speaker 1: making things difficult at the beginning of a possession for
Speaker 1: these guys. And and you know, it's not exactly a
Speaker 1: big shock that that Steph Curry was able to break
Speaker 1: things open against Dame and c J because they're just
Speaker 1: not a really they're just not a really good point
Speaker 1: of attack defensive team in the back court. And they
Speaker 1: were like, oh, we got Robert Covington, all of our
Speaker 1: defensive problems are solved. And it's like, well, unless you
Speaker 1: plan on having Robert Covington guard the other team's point guard,
Speaker 1: it's not really going to fix your problems. Every possession
Speaker 1: starts with a straight line drive. And yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: not his strength either. He's a really good help side defender.
Speaker 1: He's the type of guy that if you have good
Speaker 1: point of attack defenders, he can help raise your defensive
Speaker 1: ceiling because he's gonna raise a lot of problems, right,
Speaker 1: But if you don't have guys that can get a
Speaker 1: stop at all. Then there is are gonna be blow
Speaker 1: by after blow by after blowby, and now he's always
Speaker 1: a step or two by one, and now we're either
Speaker 1: shooting layups, were getting wide open threes, and yeah, just
Speaker 1: point about that defense. Man. It's become underrated because there's
Speaker 1: all this focus on getting a Draymond Green, getting an
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, getting this guy or that guy. First of all,
Speaker 1: good luck getting one of those guys. Second of all,
Speaker 1: if you do get them, you're still gotta be able
Speaker 1: to stop the ball. Nothing matters if you can't guard
Speaker 1: the ball exactly. Um. And the last thing Ile'll say
Speaker 1: about Denver is that they're a team that I would
Speaker 1: project to eventually end up in the middle of the
Speaker 1: Western Conference playoff race, if not better, because they can score.
Speaker 1: And like I always say, it's a lot easier to
Speaker 1: take bad defensive players and get them to play some
Speaker 1: form of cohesive defensive basketball where they are rotating and
Speaker 1: being in the right spot at the right time. Um.
Speaker 1: And Mike Malone's a really, really good coach. I don't
Speaker 1: they'll never be a top ten defense with this personnel,
Speaker 1: but if they can get into that fifteen fourteen range
Speaker 1: just by virtue of effort and focused. They will very
Speaker 1: easily be a four or five seed in the West
Speaker 1: just because of how good they are scoring the ball.
Speaker 1: Um last nut offense while being twenty nine and defense
Speaker 1: that's insane. Yeah, it's insane. They're taking the ball and
Speaker 1: then they're still one of the best offenses in the
Speaker 1: league exactly, uh. And and their offense makes sense, and
Speaker 1: they've got a lot of chemistry with the guys and
Speaker 1: and maybe that's why they've kind of bowed out of
Speaker 1: this James Harden thing is they're not worried about their
Speaker 1: offensive end of the ball defense here Atlanta, there are.
Speaker 1: They are third in offense seventeenth and defense UH sixth
Speaker 1: and net rated rating. UH. Gallantari has been hurt for
Speaker 1: the most part. UH. Bogdan Bogdanovich has been really bad,
Speaker 1: like really bad, especially in the last couple of games
Speaker 1: they started. They started undefeated and then went into Brooklyn
Speaker 1: and lost a really crazy game where Kyrie made a
Speaker 1: bunch of clutch shots. Then they came back and beat
Speaker 1: the pants off of Brooklyn. Looked really, really good. So
Speaker 1: they got off to this amazing start and then they
Speaker 1: lose to the Knicks and the Calves, so so I
Speaker 1: don't I don't really know what to make of them.
Speaker 1: Early in the two in the Knicks and Calves game, Uh,
Speaker 1: Trey Young was really bad against the Calves. He was
Speaker 1: okay against the Knicks. Pagdanovitch was really really bad. Like
Speaker 1: I said, Gallinari has been out. Um. But to me,
Speaker 1: those are just, you know, inexcusable losses for a team
Speaker 1: that's that has the type of aspirations that they have. Yep.
Speaker 1: So part of the reason why, well, the main reason
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about them is do we think
Speaker 1: they're a playoff team? Because we talked about this in
Speaker 1: our season preview. It seems like there's a mandate for
Speaker 1: them to make the playoffs, especially on that front office.
Speaker 1: They obviously started really well, but I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the same issues that were there are still there.
Speaker 1: And if Trey Young isn't gonna shoot seventeen free throws
Speaker 1: a game like he was early in the season, then
Speaker 1: they're going to start to struggle a little bit more offensively.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's gonna keep shooting seventeen free throws
Speaker 1: a game unless he's the greatest foul jarwer in the
Speaker 1: history of the week. Right, They obviously do have a
Speaker 1: historically great or not historically great right now, but one
Speaker 1: of the better offenses in the league. And I think
Speaker 1: Trey is the type of guy that can lead that. Um.
Speaker 1: But as soon as those free throw numbers come down,
Speaker 1: they'll drop back to the pack a little bit. And
Speaker 1: I still don't think very much of them defensively. They
Speaker 1: played some really bad teams and they're still seventeenth in defense.
Speaker 1: Breading Like, they played some bad teams to start the season,
Speaker 1: and I think that was a lot of the reason
Speaker 1: they look good. Um, So, I mean, do we think
Speaker 1: they're a playoff team at this point? Well, it's the
Speaker 1: trouble for Atlanta is that all the other teams in
Speaker 1: the East look really good. I mean people were hoping
Speaker 1: that if people were hoping that India would fall out,
Speaker 1: and he looks really good. Gas, Yeah, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: Philly looks really good. Boston has kind of got it
Speaker 1: together in the last few games. Toronto has fallen out,
Speaker 1: but it's like you've gotta figure they're going to figure
Speaker 1: something out or make a move or something. They're yeah, yeah, So,
Speaker 1: like the problem there is is everyone else is so
Speaker 1: good and I my gut tells me that they'll get
Speaker 1: in just because they have enough good basketball players on
Speaker 1: the roster that I think they'll get in. And and
Speaker 1: it's it's clear that they're the organizational goal is there,
Speaker 1: you know, And right now all these teams are trying.
Speaker 1: But because of the depth at the top of next
Speaker 1: year's draft, there's gonna be a point sometime thirty games
Speaker 1: into the season or so or a bunch of these
Speaker 1: teams that are at the bottom of the East in particular,
Speaker 1: and a couple of teams in the bottom of the
Speaker 1: West are going to kind of let your foot off
Speaker 1: the gas and let this thing slip away. And when
Speaker 1: they do, you know, guess what's gonna happen. Like you're
Speaker 1: you're just gonna start getting some easy wins on that
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference schedule, And teams like Atlanta just have so
Speaker 1: much talent and they're young enough that they're just gonna
Speaker 1: clean house in those games. I mean, you think they
Speaker 1: did dropped a couple of really winnable ones. Um uh,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I I you know, I tend to think
Speaker 1: that there's enough talent offensively on that team to carry
Speaker 1: them in a week Eastern Conference at the bottom and
Speaker 1: and and find a way in. But yeah, like I
Speaker 1: think I think I explicitly said, uh in my last
Speaker 1: podcast that you know I had, I had a hard
Speaker 1: time believing that the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers
Speaker 1: are gonna be the best team, best teams in the
Speaker 1: league by the end. So this, some of this was
Speaker 1: kind of to be expected. Yeah, I mean, where do so.
Speaker 1: I'm still Luca over Trey guy, but I think that
Speaker 1: conversation is a lot closer than it has been in
Speaker 1: the past. Like, Trey has looked amazing this year, and
Speaker 1: Luca obviously hasn't. I think Lucas probably out of shape.
Speaker 1: Luke's playing himself in the shape. Yeah, and he had
Speaker 1: to play in the bubble trade, didn't There's some other
Speaker 1: stuff going on there, that's true. I didn't even think
Speaker 1: about that. But I don't know. Man, As a guy
Speaker 1: who's been pretty low on Trey, I'm starry to think
Speaker 1: he might prove me wrong because he he is just
Speaker 1: a ridiculously talented offensive player. He can literally do whatever
Speaker 1: he wants with the ball. He draws like I'm saying
Speaker 1: he dropped I'll an historic right. He's an incredible shooter
Speaker 1: from deep even though the percentages aren't there. You have
Speaker 1: to guard him out the thirty peak because he will
Speaker 1: shoot it. He's an incredible passer. Uh. It really is
Speaker 1: going to come down to does he ever learn how
Speaker 1: to play defense? Because if he does, that guy is
Speaker 1: gonna lead top five offenses for fifteen years. Um. So
Speaker 1: the last thing will end with today is a comment
Speaker 1: from uh from Matt John brother it's your brother. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Tommy's brother says that Tommy's a fake Steph fan
Speaker 1: and that world peace is not attainable while he's still
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Thanks Matt, I love you too, brother. Anyway,
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for joining us. Like I
Speaker 1: said UH at the beginning of the show, the idea
Speaker 1: here is that at least once a week we'll have
Speaker 1: Tommy on. We'll talk about all this NBA stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: God knows that we're gonna have plenty of interesting things
Speaker 1: to talk about over the course of the year. And
Speaker 1: then I'll mix that in with some lakers of big
Speaker 1: stuff with some other guys. But tell me, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate your time, and I really appreciate you uh committing
Speaker 1: to do this with me. I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. Always fun, man,
Speaker 1: always fun. Thanks for having me on, all right, man,
Speaker 1: I'll see you next week, all right. Let it by