Speaker 1: The volume Lakers Tonight is presented by FanDuel Sports Book.
Speaker 1: There's no better place to make every moment more than
Speaker 1: with FanDuel. You get great odds in markets for the
Speaker 1: NBA and a gel college and so much more. It's
Speaker 1: America's number one sports book. It's super easy to use.
Speaker 1: Plus you can combine multiple bets from the same game
Speaker 1: into a same game parlay. If you are new, just
Speaker 1: download the FanDuel Sports Book app to get started. Now
Speaker 1: sign up with promo co Jason T so they know
Speaker 1: I sent you. Twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana,
Speaker 1: Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia
Speaker 1: or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund
Speaker 1: issued as non withdrawalable site credit that expires in fourteen days.
Speaker 1: Restrictions apply see terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com.
Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or text
Speaker 1: next step to five three three four two in Arizona
Speaker 1: one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 1: seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut
Speaker 1: one eight hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash
Speaker 1: RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, in Virginia one eight
Speaker 1: seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight
Speaker 1: hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential
Speaker 1: help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight hope and why,
Speaker 1: or text hope and Why to four six seven three
Speaker 1: six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one
Speaker 1: eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in
Speaker 1: Tennessee visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler dot
Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Fandel here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I am Jason timp. I hope all of you guys
Speaker 1: have your weeks off to a great start. Well, Tonight's
Speaker 1: outcome went about exactly as I expected. I told you
Speaker 1: guys right after Game two that I had seen something
Speaker 1: from Boston that I hadn't seen from any basketball team
Speaker 1: in recent NBA history. And I didn't I knew right
Speaker 1: there in that moment that Brooklyn didn't really have a chance.
Speaker 1: We are going to spend this entire show talking about
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Tonight's game. This series, the entire Brooklyn k d Era.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into all of that. For those of
Speaker 1: you guys who want a reaction to the Rafters Sixers
Speaker 1: game or the Mavericks Jazz game later tonight, I will
Speaker 1: be breaking that those games down in their entirety in
Speaker 1: tomorrow night's show. I will also be releasing some film
Speaker 1: content on those aims tomorrow morning, So follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Underscore Jason LT and you'll see some stuff
Speaker 1: about those games. But like I said, tonight is all
Speaker 1: about the nets I talked And for those of you
Speaker 1: guys who have followed my show over the course of
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, you guys know that I
Speaker 1: have a brand of basketball that I am drawn too.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a lot with coaches. Coaches have
Speaker 1: like a core philosophy and you have to be malleable
Speaker 1: around that philosophy. But everybody has a core philosophy the
Speaker 1: way if they could choose a way to play the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, this is the way that they would play.
Speaker 1: And for me, for those of you guys who have
Speaker 1: listened to the show long enough, you guys know how
Speaker 1: I feel about switching everything on defense, prioritizing wings over
Speaker 1: guards and bigs kind of going with positionless ultra modern basketball,
Speaker 1: five out on offense, lots of driving and kicking and
Speaker 1: everyone on the floor is an offensive threat, and then
Speaker 1: the ability to switch everything on defense. And there's a
Speaker 1: core reason why I believe in that philosophy, and it
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with the way the game
Speaker 1: is officiated, and also with the way that other teams
Speaker 1: around the league are playing and the way that that
Speaker 1: kind of gives you an advantage against those teams. You know,
Speaker 1: I believe Boston is the favor to win the championship
Speaker 1: at this point. Their defense is, in my opinion, like
Speaker 1: I've said, the best defense of this era. I think
Speaker 1: it's going to carry them health permitting to getting the
Speaker 1: trophy in mid June. But I'm not sure that they're
Speaker 1: as much better as the as much better than the
Speaker 1: good teams around the league, as they demonstrated against the Nets.
Speaker 1: I think this was a really bad matchup, and I
Speaker 1: think there are very some some very specific reasons why.
Speaker 1: What is the goal of a switching defense. What is
Speaker 1: the goal of having a ton of wings? What is
Speaker 1: the goal of playing that modern positionless style of basketball?
Speaker 1: The goal is to do what the Rockets did to
Speaker 1: the Warriors in two thousand eighteen, to stagnate you and
Speaker 1: to turn you into an isolation basketball team. The trick
Speaker 1: there is that's the way the Nets like to play,
Speaker 1: and so in a lot of ways, they walked headlong
Speaker 1: into Boston's trap. The difference is the way Katie and
Speaker 1: Kyrie play does work on most nights in most matchups.
Speaker 1: You guys have probably been told by a lot of
Speaker 1: talking heads and fans on Twitter or whoever it is
Speaker 1: that you consume the game. You've probably been told that
Speaker 1: the Nets were bad this year, and they were overall
Speaker 1: in the aggregate. But the truth is is that with
Speaker 1: Katie and Kyrie on the floor, they were really good.
Speaker 1: I pointed out this year that they average so I
Speaker 1: think it was like a hundred twenty three points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions when Katie and Kyrie were on the
Speaker 1: floor together. They went twelve and five in their last
Speaker 1: seventeen games. During that stretch, the last seventeen games of
Speaker 1: the regular season, so almost a order of the season.
Speaker 1: For that last quarter of the season, they had the
Speaker 1: third best offense and all of basketball. They had the
Speaker 1: eighth best defense in all of basketball. They had massive, impressive,
Speaker 1: dominant wins on the road in Miami and in Philly,
Speaker 1: making really good teams probably you know, two of the
Speaker 1: top four or five teams remaining, making them look helpless
Speaker 1: on their home floor. That's how good the Nets were.
Speaker 1: But those teams. Both of those teams play very different
Speaker 1: style the net. The Miami Heat play. They do a
Speaker 1: lot of switching, but they also rely on Bama to
Speaker 1: Bio a lot as a drop coverage big, so they're
Speaker 1: a little bit more traditional in their defensive approach. They
Speaker 1: play guys who are under sized defensively, They play guys
Speaker 1: like Duncan Robinson and Tyler Harrow or not great defensive players.
Speaker 1: And then the same goes for Philly. You can cause
Speaker 1: a lot of problems for and beating Hardened by running
Speaker 1: them and trains issue. They don't have a ton of
Speaker 1: foot speed within those two guys. Their foot speed is
Speaker 1: elsewhere on the floor. Hardens a really bad defensive player
Speaker 1: at this point in his career, and Beats a great
Speaker 1: defensive player when he can hang out around the rim,
Speaker 1: but he struggles a little bit against guys with speed
Speaker 1: on the perimeter that can also shoot. So both of
Speaker 1: those teams were more traditional NBA teams. Boston represents the
Speaker 1: perfect example of what I love about the way the
Speaker 1: game of basketball is changing. They have those that incredibly
Speaker 1: position list lineup. They have five, six, seven guys on
Speaker 1: the roster that you can't attack in isolation. I mean
Speaker 1: you can, but you're not gonna get great looks. Did
Speaker 1: you guys see the difference in shot quality in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter? Katie made a lot of shots in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, difficult shots. Did you see the shots Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum was getting? Did you see the stuff Marcus Smart,
Speaker 1: Al Horford and Jylen Brown were getting at the rim?
Speaker 1: Jason t Adam was consistently getting Katie off of his
Speaker 1: body through ball screens and hitting jump shots against guys
Speaker 1: that were dropping off in the switch attacking Seth Curry
Speaker 1: in switches. Jayson Tatum was getting great looks. K d
Speaker 1: was taking his pick between an arsenal of dominant defensive players.
Speaker 1: Kyrie was taking his pick from an arsenal of dominant
Speaker 1: defensive players. We got eight games total out of Katie
Speaker 1: and Kyrie in this series. Kyrie was amazing offensively. In
Speaker 1: Game one, Kadie was really really good offensively in Game four.
Speaker 1: Outside of those two games, those two guys struggled almost
Speaker 1: the entire rest of the series. Because that's the way
Speaker 1: this matchup worked out. Brooklyn is accustomed to playing a
Speaker 1: certain style of basketball, switch everything, try to attack off
Speaker 1: the dribble with isolation guys against specific matchups. Problem is,
Speaker 1: Boston is the evolved, better version of that team. They
Speaker 1: play the same brand of basketball as Brooklyn, except for
Speaker 1: they do it with five great defensive players that are
Speaker 1: committed to the job. They do it, but they don't
Speaker 1: have weak offensive links on the floor. Look at how
Speaker 1: good Grant Williams was spotting up and shooting in this series.
Speaker 1: Look at the success Peyton Pritchard had attacking off of
Speaker 1: some of that attention. Marcus Smart great offensive series. Al
Speaker 1: Horford made monster plays on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: but also on offense. That Boston team does everything Brooklyn
Speaker 1: does better than Brooklyn does it. It's a bad matchup
Speaker 1: for them, and so I'm still picking Boston to win
Speaker 1: the title. But I don't think that Boston was As
Speaker 1: you know, Brooklyn in a weird way, got a bad draw.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem with being the seven seed. That's
Speaker 1: the problem with having those issues in the regular season.
Speaker 1: That's the problem with having a mere curial star that
Speaker 1: doesn't like to show up to work unless the conditions
Speaker 1: are perfect. So that's kind of all part of that
Speaker 1: entire organism that caused those problems. I'm glad Kady had
Speaker 1: a great offensive game because one of the biggest talking
Speaker 1: points in this series has been Katie needs to do more.
Speaker 1: Katie needs to do more. In my response was, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, Katie wasn't good enough. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: really fair criticism that we have to throw to Kadi
Speaker 1: from this series. But what did I also say. I said,
Speaker 1: it's it wasn't gonna be enough anyway. I said, you
Speaker 1: could plug in prime Lebron into this series and he
Speaker 1: would fare better than Kady has. But I thought the
Speaker 1: gap in talent between the two teams was too much.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that k d threw such an amazing offensive
Speaker 1: punch in this game, and it still wasn't enough, so
Speaker 1: that at least you guys could see a little bit
Speaker 1: what I was talking about. Had Katie played to the
Speaker 1: absolute peak of his ability in this series, it probably
Speaker 1: goes five or six games, but Boston wins. They were
Speaker 1: the better team. So the question becomes, what did we
Speaker 1: learn from this series? I know that Jason Tatum is
Speaker 1: better at attacking Brooklyn's defense than k D was at
Speaker 1: attacking Boston's defense. It's not a simple matter of Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum was better at basketball in this series. He was,
Speaker 1: but there's context there. The To me, it is more
Speaker 1: of a question of did Katie hitch his wagon to
Speaker 1: to the right Did he hitch it to the right wagon,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, did Katie surround himself
Speaker 1: with the right group of guys. That's the more valid question,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get into that here just a little bit.
Speaker 1: But Tatum was incredible in this series. His shot making
Speaker 1: was at another level than Kadis was, but he was
Speaker 1: doing it in easier matchups, which is what I predicted
Speaker 1: before the series. I thought the matchups that Tatum could
Speaker 1: attack would be his opportunity to outplay k D, and
Speaker 1: he did. His shot quality was massively better then k
Speaker 1: D's in this series. The big takeaways that I learned
Speaker 1: in this series. One, the Celtics defense is all time
Speaker 1: great and I think they're gonna win the championship if
Speaker 1: they stay healthy. Two we learned that Katie is a
Speaker 1: bona fide excuse me, Jayson Tatum is a bona fide,
Speaker 1: real deal superstar. He is in the club. He is
Speaker 1: there with all of those guys at the top. Now
Speaker 1: he has to should continue to show that and win
Speaker 1: championships to get the same level of cash a in
Speaker 1: terms of his overall resume. But right now, as a
Speaker 1: basketball player, Tatum is in that group. He absolutely has
Speaker 1: to have that respect. That's the level of basketball he's playing.
Speaker 1: What I learned about k D. I learned that even
Speaker 1: in his fifteen season, even with all of his experience,
Speaker 1: it is possible to make him really, really truly struggle
Speaker 1: to look like a different player. You know, I said
Speaker 1: after Game two, I was like, I still think Katie's
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. I just think this
Speaker 1: is a bad matchup. I have to go back on
Speaker 1: that now. The standard I hold the best player in
Speaker 1: the world too is a very high standard as those
Speaker 1: I'll just ask all the lebron fans that are in
Speaker 1: my mentions every single day. So I can't in my
Speaker 1: right mind called Kevin Durant the best basketball player in
Speaker 1: the world anymore because a basketball team made him struggle
Speaker 1: in this series. I have to give a ton of
Speaker 1: that credit to Boston, but they're also has to be
Speaker 1: some culpability with k D so who takes his spot?
Speaker 1: I don't know that's a good question right now. I
Speaker 1: think Janice is by far the best player that's remaining
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, but he very well might run into
Speaker 1: this Boston team in the next round and lose. That's
Speaker 1: a very realistic outcome. But I think it's fair that
Speaker 1: we can say that Katie is no longer the best
Speaker 1: player in the NBA. And then last, Kyrie Irving, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a little bit more about him in
Speaker 1: a minute. Is there a player in the NBA that
Speaker 1: relies more on one single shot to define his legacy
Speaker 1: than Kyrie? Since that moment, with exception of the two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen playoff run, which he was good offensively in,
Speaker 1: he's then mostly underachieving compared to his own standard that
Speaker 1: he set for himself, mixed in with a bunch of unprofessionalism,
Speaker 1: nixed in with a bunch of, you know, really extremely
Speaker 1: flaky behavior, and now the Nets are in a weird
Speaker 1: predicament with what they need to do with Kyrie moving forward.
Speaker 1: But before we get into all of the little details
Speaker 1: surrounding this NET series. I'm gonna bring my guy Carson
Speaker 1: on and he's going to ask some specific questions surrounding
Speaker 1: the narrative of the series. What's up, Carson? Are we
Speaker 1: doing today? Jason? I'm good, buddy. All right. Well, we're
Speaker 1: playing a game called Tomorrow's Takes today. We're getting the
Speaker 1: reactions and thoughts out to you right now, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna start with a pretty big one, and that is
Speaker 1: what impact does this loss for the Nets have on
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's legacy? Oh man, that's a really interesting question.
Speaker 1: I have a hard time with legacy changing occurrences this
Speaker 1: late into someone's career, because I feel like at a
Speaker 1: certain point we have to adjust standards based on decline.
Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, guys like Lebron and Chris
Speaker 1: Paul have changed the way that we have to evaluate
Speaker 1: aging and stars because those two guys are so incredibly unusual.
Speaker 1: You know. The reality is is that k d ver
Speaker 1: since he left Oklahoma City, has been operating in most
Speaker 1: cases from a position of advantage. In two thousand seventeen
Speaker 1: and two thousand eighteen, he was on and two thousand nineteen,
Speaker 1: he was on by far the most talented team in
Speaker 1: the league. And then after that it goes to Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: And there's a reason why they were the title favorite
Speaker 1: this year because of how good they looked against Milwaukee
Speaker 1: last year. And the things that I said about Milwaukee
Speaker 1: coming into this playoff run were the same that those
Speaker 1: same things hold true for Boston, or excuse me for
Speaker 1: for Brooklyn. I told you guys, Milwaukee was gonna have
Speaker 1: a much harder path this year. The field is deeper,
Speaker 1: there are more talented teams overall, the league is better. Well,
Speaker 1: Brooklyn had the same issue, and you saw, in a
Speaker 1: situation of significantly more difficulty, you saw him struggle. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a there's an important understanding that we I don't
Speaker 1: like devaluing rings. I thought what Charles Barkley did on
Speaker 1: T and T was really lame, and we talked about
Speaker 1: that in last night's show. But it is true that
Speaker 1: no two rings are the same. Every basketball fan as
Speaker 1: a certain amount of you know, understanding of the circumstances.
Speaker 1: And let's just go to Lebron. Do you think any
Speaker 1: basketball fan gives Lebron more credit for his title with
Speaker 1: the Lakers than they do for I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I think every basketball fan would acknowledge that the degree
Speaker 1: of difficulty was much harder there in and Chris Bosh
Speaker 1: was hurt and he had to drag that team to
Speaker 1: the finals down three two to the Celtics. That's a
Speaker 1: different level of difficulty. Being an underdog in the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals against that Oklahoma City thunder team, there's that's a
Speaker 1: different level of difficulty. The issue that Katie has is
Speaker 1: even though the two thousand seventeen and two thousand eighteen
Speaker 1: titles were real championships, real deal jewelry championships, but the
Speaker 1: degree of difficulty was low, extremely low, compared to almost
Speaker 1: every championship in NBA history. The two thousand seventeen Warriors
Speaker 1: dog walked the entire league. They won fifteen playoff games
Speaker 1: before they lost one, and the one game they lost
Speaker 1: was Game four in Cleveland when the series was already
Speaker 1: over in Cleveland made like twenty one threes in the game.
Speaker 1: So then moving on to two thousand eighteen, same thing.
Speaker 1: You know, you benefit from Chris Paul's hamstring injury to
Speaker 1: get to the finals, and then you just run over
Speaker 1: that Cleveland Cavaliers team that looked helplessly outmatched. And so
Speaker 1: that's the issue for Katie in the court of public opinion,
Speaker 1: as he doesn't have the degree of difficulty attached to
Speaker 1: the championships, but at the same time, when the degree
Speaker 1: of difficulty has been higher, he's lost. And unfortunately, in
Speaker 1: the court of public opinion, that's gonna cost you. And
Speaker 1: I feel bad for him in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: because a lot of people forget that when Lebron signed
Speaker 1: with the Miami Heat in two thousand eleven, had Dwyane
Speaker 1: Wade stayed healthy, his two thousand twelve and two thousand
Speaker 1: thirteen titles also would have looked looked easy. It's been
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've I think has been
Speaker 1: an interesting subplot of Lebron's career, him struggling well, the
Speaker 1: team struggling in two thousand twelve and two thousand thirteen
Speaker 1: those championships, looking hard down three two to Boston, falling
Speaker 1: down one oh in the finals to the thunder as
Speaker 1: an underdog, going seven games with the Pacers in two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen, going seven games with the Spurs in two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen. All of that had to do with Tim
Speaker 1: Duncan massively outplaying Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade's knees giving
Speaker 1: up on it. Lebron was, in a weird way, fortunate
Speaker 1: that that Miami Heat team kind of fell apart with
Speaker 1: health because it made everything look hard. There's no debate
Speaker 1: that Lebron faced great adversity in pursuit of his championships. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: k D has had two incredibly easy championships compared to
Speaker 1: some of the other ones surrounding, and then when the
Speaker 1: difficulty has been higher, he's looked bad. So it's unfortunate,
Speaker 1: but it's just the reality of the way the court
Speaker 1: of public opinion works. I personally am crediting mostly Boston
Speaker 1: for the series, and I'm not gonna be super hard
Speaker 1: on a year fifteen player who's coming off of a
Speaker 1: torn achilles struggling against what I think is the best
Speaker 1: defense of this era. But the court of public opinion
Speaker 1: is gonna pile on him. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: evidence for those people, so I don't necessarily blame them
Speaker 1: for feeling that way. I totally agree with you on
Speaker 1: the point of it's tough to me for a guy
Speaker 1: like Katie when he's thirty three to have negative legacy
Speaker 1: altering single series of four games sample size. I do
Speaker 1: think another interesting point is to me two of his
Speaker 1: best postseason runs ever, whereas two post seasons before this
Speaker 1: that didn't result in titles, and so they're just not
Speaker 1: remembered in the same way. I mean, he averaged thirty
Speaker 1: five a game against the Clippers in I thought that
Speaker 1: was like maybe the best he's ever played period. He
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. And he was thirty two a game in
Speaker 1: that playoff run, with a couple of games in which
Speaker 1: he didn't play full minutes because of injury. And then
Speaker 1: last year he was thirty four a game and carried
Speaker 1: a completely outmatched Nets team toe to toe, no pun
Speaker 1: intended because of the placement of his tie on that
Speaker 1: last shot with the Bucks team that won the title.
Speaker 1: So I do think that's another interesting component, is there
Speaker 1: is such a title or bust mentality, but like sometimes
Speaker 1: a guy plays at an all time level and it
Speaker 1: doesn't result in the title, and that's really not his fault.
Speaker 1: We have from the really really quickly Lebron James was.
Speaker 1: I thought some people think he was the best player
Speaker 1: from two thousand seven to two thousand twenty. Do you
Speaker 1: guys know me, I'm a little bit I'm much more
Speaker 1: slow to make that change. I thought Lebron was undisputably
Speaker 1: the best basketball player on planet Earth from two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve to two thousand twenty. That's a what's at nine seasons,
Speaker 1: got four championships, So undisputed best player alive, four championships.
Speaker 1: So you're right, Carson, it's the title of bust mentality.
Speaker 1: It just simply isn't true. In a team sport, you
Speaker 1: absolutely have to have some things go your way. While
Speaker 1: speaking of the Tyler bust mentality, this would certainly be
Speaker 1: a title centric move. Dork says in the chat Katie
Speaker 1: about to join Boston, Jason, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1: You never know? You know, Katie knows what it is.
Speaker 1: If there's if there's one thing that I've really appreciated
Speaker 1: about Katie in the last couple of years, it's that
Speaker 1: ever since he got caught in the burner account incident,
Speaker 1: he's just laned into being exactly who he is. He
Speaker 1: will direct message strangers and get into arguments with people
Speaker 1: on Twitter and and that sort of thing. And so
Speaker 1: what's funny is like, I think Katie has a very
Speaker 1: firm understanding of the fact that fairness and context are
Speaker 1: not going to be rules that are abided by here.
Speaker 1: And you know what's funny is like, I'm okay with
Speaker 1: it from the faceless accounts. What I feel bad for,
Speaker 1: Katie is to have an all time great NBA player
Speaker 1: like Charles Barkley to call you a bus rider. Now,
Speaker 1: there's a valid way to make that criticism. Hey, k
Speaker 1: d your championships in two thousands seventeen and two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen are real championships, but they're less difficult than some
Speaker 1: of the ones your peers one. That's fair criticism. Hey Katie,
Speaker 1: you joined a team that already was a championship team
Speaker 1: and you elevated them. That's fair. That's a fair analysis
Speaker 1: of that situation. You're a bus rider. I don't value
Speaker 1: your championships. Blah blah blah. That's faceless accounts stuff. And
Speaker 1: I guarantee you Katie's fine with it from the faceless accounts.
Speaker 1: But it's a bummer when one of the all time
Speaker 1: great NBA players goes on national TV and basically takes
Speaker 1: a dump on your name in in that kind of matter,
Speaker 1: I do feel bad for him in that regard all right, well,
Speaker 1: obviously we had to start with Kadie there, but Kyrie
Speaker 1: is also inevitably super tied up in all of this
Speaker 1: because this was their vision. They built this together, and
Speaker 1: now here they are a few years in and they
Speaker 1: have one playoff series win Forton wins this year. So
Speaker 1: where they are now, what do the Nets do about
Speaker 1: Kyrie Jason? This is tough. Bossman. Colin Coward said on
Speaker 1: his pod earlier that he uh that he would not
Speaker 1: sign him, and I get that because I agree. I
Speaker 1: agree from the ideology standpoint that you can't pay Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving fifty million dollars in te or whatever it would
Speaker 1: be to to be the level of player that he is.
Speaker 1: I agree, but as is always the case, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's you have to wait against the alternative, and if
Speaker 1: you let Kyrie walk, you don't have the flexibility really
Speaker 1: to supply Kevin Durant with a necessary talent to be
Speaker 1: competitive next year. So the examples that I would use
Speaker 1: would be, for instance, what Golden State did when they
Speaker 1: lost kd you or what the Clippers did when they
Speaker 1: signed Blake Griffin. Even if you don't see a player
Speaker 1: in your long terms of plans. Golden State had no
Speaker 1: intention of having D'Angelo Russell as a cornerstone of their franchise.
Speaker 1: What they were doing was is they were taking back
Speaker 1: an asset, an overpaid asset, but an asset. Same thing
Speaker 1: with the Clippers and Blake Griffin. I guarantee you before
Speaker 1: they signed Blake, I guarantee you before they did that
Speaker 1: ridiculous presentation to him in Staples Center, I guarantee you
Speaker 1: they knew internally that they were planning on trading in,
Speaker 1: but they needed the asset. It's Kyrie will instantaneously, the
Speaker 1: minute he puts pen to paper be one of the
Speaker 1: worst contracts in the league. That's a fact. He is,
Speaker 1: you know, I I thought Nick Wright, who went on
Speaker 1: Cow Hurts Pod, I thought put it very succinctly, is
Speaker 1: like Kyrie. His top end is amazing, but he basically
Speaker 1: said he's nowhere near consistently enough. He's not consistent enough
Speaker 1: with it for to bring any real value. And that's true.
Speaker 1: It's a fact. Just like his last playoff series in
Speaker 1: Boston looks amazing. In Game one, shoots the Bucks just
Speaker 1: into oblivion to take a one zero lead, and then
Speaker 1: you didn't hear from him again the rest of the series.
Speaker 1: That's just kind of the nature of the Kyrie experience.
Speaker 1: So what you gotta do is you signed Kyrie to
Speaker 1: the full whatever max he wants, and then immediately during
Speaker 1: this time frame here in the next year or so,
Speaker 1: you trade it because as soon as his contract will
Speaker 1: allow you to trade him after he signs. Because I
Speaker 1: know there's like a little bit of a delay. I
Speaker 1: think you have to wait till like almost the trade
Speaker 1: deadline and first season. But you trade it because there
Speaker 1: will be a team out there, just like the Pistons
Speaker 1: David Blake Griffin, that will talk themselves into this is
Speaker 1: an available star you can be had for relatively cheap.
Speaker 1: So I think, as as awful as the Kyrie experiences,
Speaker 1: Ben And if I'm Brooklyn, if I'm a Brooklyn fan,
Speaker 1: if I'm a Brooklyn player, if I'm a Brooklyn coach,
Speaker 1: I want him out of here. But you got to
Speaker 1: bring him back simply for the asset. So let me
Speaker 1: ask you this, because I think obviously the dynamics with
Speaker 1: Kyrie are always going to be super weird. At the
Speaker 1: same time. This regular season, minutes Katie and Kyrie played together,
Speaker 1: they had an offensive rating of one two better than
Speaker 1: that even which would be you know, by far the
Speaker 1: best in the league. He has been these last three
Speaker 1: years in Brooklyn, scoring at career volume like a game
Speaker 1: on a lead efficiency. And of course you talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, the restrictions that you would have in terms
Speaker 1: of building out the roster if they just let Kyrie go.
Speaker 1: The Nets at fifty million dollars in cap it was
Speaker 1: not on the floor in this series between Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: and Joe Harris and two of their clearly top five
Speaker 1: five guys. So is there any part of you that
Speaker 1: looks in that and thinks, well, maybe with Pete Kyrie
Speaker 1: and with those healthy guys on the floor, it is
Speaker 1: worth sticking it out, just legitimately for another year or
Speaker 1: maybe even further than that through that contract. Carson, You're
Speaker 1: a very smart man, because this was this was the
Speaker 1: I had a very similar thought process last night. Um.
Speaker 1: The thing is is that k D and Kyrie we
Speaker 1: talked about this earlier in the show. For those of
Speaker 1: you who missed the beginning. The Nets were twelve and
Speaker 1: five in their last seventeen games this season, so almost
Speaker 1: a quarter of the season. They were pretty good during
Speaker 1: that stretch. They were the third best offense in the
Speaker 1: league in the eighth best defense in the league, so
Speaker 1: they have a decent ceiling. I thought we talked, We
Speaker 1: did a whole segment at the beginning about how this
Speaker 1: was just a really bad matchup in a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways. So yeah, with Ben Simmons coming back and
Speaker 1: with Joe Harris coming back, they are significantly better team
Speaker 1: next year, hopefully, if everyone's healthy, you make a better
Speaker 1: regular season effort that leads to a better seed, which
Speaker 1: gives you a better opportunity to avoid a bad matchup
Speaker 1: early in the playoffs and give you a better chance
Speaker 1: of being the beneficiary of some luck. Right, because like,
Speaker 1: for instance, this part of the reason why I think
Speaker 1: the Celtics are gonna win the title is because Devin
Speaker 1: Booker poled his hamstring and Chris Middleton sprained his MCL. Right,
Speaker 1: if you can avoid the more difficult matchups until later
Speaker 1: in the playoff run, that buys you time to be
Speaker 1: the beneficiary of some luck. And so I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Here's the here's the Devil's advocate argument. Because if I
Speaker 1: was running the Nets, I would bring Kyrie back, and
Speaker 1: I'd run it for probably one season but the case
Speaker 1: for trading him is each passing year, the contract gets
Speaker 1: worse because he will decline. He's a small guard. He
Speaker 1: will start to play a little bit worse each year
Speaker 1: as time goes on, and then it gets harder and
Speaker 1: harder to move the contract. Secondly, you have to start
Speaker 1: having conversations with yourself about Kyrie's value next to k d.
Speaker 1: Kyrie's value is his ability to create shots right in isolation.
Speaker 1: But that also happens to be Kevin Durant's best skill.
Speaker 1: If I was Brooklyn, I'd be looking at this. If
Speaker 1: I was Katie and Brooklyn, I'd be looking at this
Speaker 1: more like Boston. That formula works the one alpha dog superstar,
Speaker 1: the co star that obviously has scoring potential but is
Speaker 1: a defensive stalwart, and Jaylen Brown, and then role players
Speaker 1: that do all the dirty work so that Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: is bought a great deal of margin for error to
Speaker 1: do what he does best, which is score the basketball
Speaker 1: and to draw defensive attention so that the rest of
Speaker 1: your players can make plays. If you can find a
Speaker 1: package that sends Kyrie Irving out and brings back quality
Speaker 1: two way players, players that aren't the same offensive ceiling
Speaker 1: as Kyrie, but that would thrive in a driving kick
Speaker 1: basketball environment that would have the ability to capitalize in
Speaker 1: four on three scenarios and in bad against bad matchups,
Speaker 1: and provide a great deal of physicality and effort and
Speaker 1: ability to cover ground and everything that you need on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor to succeed in these environments.
Speaker 1: That's the movie you gotta make because I think, like
Speaker 1: I said at the beginning, teams like Boston, what makes
Speaker 1: Boston so dominant is they are the direction basketball was
Speaker 1: going in. We've all been talking about this modern basketball
Speaker 1: five six, eight guys that all can run and jump
Speaker 1: and shoot and dribble and pass. Well, Boston's kind of
Speaker 1: like the closest thing we've seen to that, and you're
Speaker 1: seeing how dominant it is. So I think rather than
Speaker 1: going with let's play you know, Bruce Brown and Andre
Speaker 1: Drummond and just count on Kyrie and Katie to ice
Speaker 1: late all game long, try to build a more modern
Speaker 1: basketball format. Move Kyrie for bigger athletes that can play
Speaker 1: two way basketball and count on Kde to carry you
Speaker 1: as a score. That's his best ability. That that would
Speaker 1: be what I would do if I was running the
Speaker 1: nets for what it's worth. Of people in the chat
Speaker 1: say that the Nets should just let Kyrie walk, which
Speaker 1: I think is a very big number, very big. You
Speaker 1: just lose the asset there, that's the issue. Like I
Speaker 1: get him, but like, again, there's enough. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Kyrie is not Russell Westbrook. He's not bad at basketball
Speaker 1: right now, Okay, Like he played poorly in this series.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want him for five years in the house.
Speaker 1: You have to not want him for five years because
Speaker 1: of his flakiness. But there's gonna be someone around the
Speaker 1: league that likes him. So I again, I agree, don't
Speaker 1: sign him for five years and keep him for five years,
Speaker 1: but don't let him walk because you lose the asset.
Speaker 1: You gotta sign him, either make a run for a
Speaker 1: year and then trade him or trade him as soon
Speaker 1: as you're able to at the deadline. That's what I
Speaker 1: would do. Yeah, No, I'm totally with you. They would
Speaker 1: be in a pretty bad basketball situation if they just
Speaker 1: let him walk, I think. Okay, so by the way,
Speaker 1: all the way through, so you like, that would be
Speaker 1: a really rough situation for him, right Yeah, there's no
Speaker 1: just reworking that from there. Okay, So we've touched on
Speaker 1: the two enigmatic NETS stars who were on the floor
Speaker 1: and let them down. Let's move on to the enigmatic
Speaker 1: NETS star supposedly who was not on the floor at all,
Speaker 1: and that is Ben Simmons. So obviously just an incredibly
Speaker 1: strange saga for him. We did not see him in
Speaker 1: this series. But what is his future? Yeah? I don't know, man.
Speaker 1: You know what's funny is last night I said, because
Speaker 1: the reporting yesterday was Ben Simmons experienced back soreness. That
Speaker 1: was the report, and so he wasn't gonna play in
Speaker 1: game four. I saw it pretty cut and dry, like,
Speaker 1: this isn't a sprained ankle, this is a herniated disc,
Speaker 1: a bulging disc in his back. So yes, if it's
Speaker 1: to one and you think he has a chance to
Speaker 1: come back and swing the series, maybe it's worth the risk.
Speaker 1: Obviously Ben thought it was. He was planning to play,
Speaker 1: but down three oh, with the series basically over, I
Speaker 1: didn't see the point and so I totally was Again
Speaker 1: I understand with Ben Simmons's resume in his backstory, it
Speaker 1: just seems like the latest flaky nous from an extremely
Speaker 1: flaky person. I get that. But in the vacuum. It
Speaker 1: was dude with hernia in his back, isn't gonna come
Speaker 1: back in a series down three oh to try to
Speaker 1: make something happen. I get that. But then we had
Speaker 1: the report today that Rich Paul met with the Nets
Speaker 1: Brass and now the mental health thing is popping up again.
Speaker 1: And it's confusing because and again, this is a very
Speaker 1: delicate area because we don't know what's going on with Ben,
Speaker 1: and the mental health stuff is a very very sensitive topic,
Speaker 1: and we can't we we can have our assumptions about
Speaker 1: what we think is going on, but those are dangerous assumptions.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's going on in Ben's head, and
Speaker 1: I certainly am am not going to comment on that.
Speaker 1: But what's weird is it seemed like the mental health
Speaker 1: stuff was associated with the way Doc Rivers treated him
Speaker 1: and the way Joel Embie treated him, and the way
Speaker 1: Darryl Morey treated him and the way Philly fans treated him.
Speaker 1: That's what it seemed like. And then we haven't heard
Speaker 1: much about the mental health stuff this entire last part
Speaker 1: of the season, so for it to like come back
Speaker 1: to the forefront of the conversation is strange. My theory
Speaker 1: is that the Nets brass is pissed that he didn't
Speaker 1: playing game for which I and they probably came to him,
Speaker 1: and then that's when it got brought back up again.
Speaker 1: But we don't know. We just don't know. It's a
Speaker 1: very very delicate situation. To make a long story short,
Speaker 1: I would approach Ben Simmons a summer and be like,
Speaker 1: are you gonna play next year? Man? Because if not,
Speaker 1: we need to know we need to move you. But like,
Speaker 1: this is turning into one of the strangest sagas. And
Speaker 1: if you have to trade Ben Simmons again this summer
Speaker 1: after he didn't play a single game for the Nets,
Speaker 1: his value is lower than it's ever been. So it's
Speaker 1: just a really really tough predicament. But I I don't
Speaker 1: know what you do. And you know, it's such a
Speaker 1: sensitive topic that you can't kind of it's hard to
Speaker 1: come out and be forthright about it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. If you were just down the NBA right now,
Speaker 1: about where do you think you would take Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: in a draft out of everybody, just if you're trying
Speaker 1: to build a winning team. Oh man, that's good question.
Speaker 1: Um Man. Here's the thing. Imagine Ben Simmons in his
Speaker 1: physical prime, think like last season before he got hurt
Speaker 1: or before this whole back thing came up, and imagine
Speaker 1: plugging him into like Boston system, you know, like as
Speaker 1: a guy that that can defend in an all switching
Speaker 1: system and can attack close outs and things like that.
Speaker 1: The the the inability to shoot is a massive problem.
Speaker 1: The lack of offensive confidence is a massive problem. But
Speaker 1: he is such a devastating weapon on the defensive end
Speaker 1: that I think if you put him in a situation
Speaker 1: because with the Sixers he was weirdly depended on offensively,
Speaker 1: so when he became a shell of himself that couldn't score,
Speaker 1: especially in fourth quarters in that series against the Hawks,
Speaker 1: it was devastating to the Philly offense. But in theory,
Speaker 1: if he's in a different role, there are lots of
Speaker 1: teams around the league that played nonshooters. So if he
Speaker 1: could be a Draymond Green, meaning like he's around other
Speaker 1: great offensive players and his job is to be a
Speaker 1: playmaker off of that attention and to be the best
Speaker 1: defensive player on his team. Ben Simmons was in the
Speaker 1: was in the defensive Player of the Year conversation last year,
Speaker 1: so I would argue that kind of like we had
Speaker 1: a debate the other day where would you rank Draymond
Speaker 1: in his value in the league, And we talked about
Speaker 1: remember Carson. We said he'd be top fifteen if he
Speaker 1: was on the Warriors because the value he brings to
Speaker 1: that specific system was worth so much. Well, the inverse
Speaker 1: of that here is if I could put Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: into the perfect scenario for him to cover for his weakness,
Speaker 1: he's a top player, but if if anything is out
Speaker 1: of line there, he suddenly does drop way, way, way,
Speaker 1: way way further down that list. And so I would
Speaker 1: say that inherently makes you further down that list because
Speaker 1: we can't always have perfect control over our circumstances. If
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Absolutely, And like you said, you don't
Speaker 1: know if the guys even gonna play basketball, But I
Speaker 1: totally agree with the general Draymond comp there. I feel
Speaker 1: like Ben Simmons at his best is a superstar role player,
Speaker 1: and that he does so many little things. He has
Speaker 1: such winning trades if you're talking about the playmaking, you know,
Speaker 1: not needing to dominate the ball, if he's willing to
Speaker 1: be that short roller and whatnot, and obviously everything defensively,
Speaker 1: just about right situation and embracing that role. Okay, so
Speaker 1: obviously we start with the players here, but inevitably, when
Speaker 1: there is a team that has accumulated this much talent
Speaker 1: and yet one of their stars won't get the vaccine,
Speaker 1: one of their stars doesn't even play basketball for them,
Speaker 1: and they're losing a disappointing fashion like this, a lot
Speaker 1: of eyes are going to turn to the coach. So
Speaker 1: do you think Steve Nash is coaching the next next year?
Speaker 1: And if not, who is Jason? I think you will be.
Speaker 1: And I've seen some reporting on that now. That can change.
Speaker 1: That can change just because Katie has a change of
Speaker 1: heart over the next two weeks, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Katie could literally go back and watch a bunch of
Speaker 1: tape from the series and feel like they weren't organized enough,
Speaker 1: and then approached Joe Sigh and be like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: want a new guy. So that can change. But the
Speaker 1: hoarding is that he's coming back. I've defended Steve Kurt
Speaker 1: to some extent on this show. He doesn't you you
Speaker 1: hit the nail and head Carson. He's had a bunch
Speaker 1: of external circumstances that were out of his control. A
Speaker 1: lot of the way that they play offensively has to
Speaker 1: do with the way Kyrie and Katie want to play.
Speaker 1: You know, they don't really have a ton of like
Speaker 1: big versatile wings to run awesome drive and kick offense,
Speaker 1: because the only way they can do that is by
Speaker 1: playing Patty Mills and Seth Curry and Gore and Drag
Speaker 1: all at the same time. And then they become so
Speaker 1: small that they get demolished. Even when they went small tonight,
Speaker 1: they were getting demolished on the offensive glass. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of just like a downside of roster construction in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, you know. I I think that
Speaker 1: in terms of, like, if they did make a coaching change,
Speaker 1: who you bring in, so much of that depends on
Speaker 1: what they do with the roster this summer. If they
Speaker 1: bring back all of the same guys, you need to
Speaker 1: find somebody that can coach them up in a similar
Speaker 1: manner to email Udoka and try to embrace some of
Speaker 1: that five basketball in that regard. But if there's a
Speaker 1: massive transition and roster over the summer, then so much
Speaker 1: depends on where they land with personnel, because you need
Speaker 1: to have a coach that fits the personnel that you have,
Speaker 1: and my guess is that Steve nashill be back all right, Well, Jason,
Speaker 1: this show for many nights this year was known as
Speaker 1: Lakers Tonight, and then something's changed. But we got to
Speaker 1: tie in a bit of a Lakers angle here because
Speaker 1: obviously felt like nothing could be worse than what happened
Speaker 1: with them. But do you think the Lakers had a
Speaker 1: more disappointing season this year or the Nets the Lakers? Man? Like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in
Speaker 1: a in a must win playoff game at home with
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. They got manhandled by the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Pelicans like this team, I look, I I
Speaker 1: get it that And this is what makes it so unfair.
Speaker 1: Hadi is gonna take a massive hit in the court
Speaker 1: of public opinion for what happened in this series. And
Speaker 1: I would argue now to be clear, with the k
Speaker 1: D situation and the Lebron situation, it has so much
Speaker 1: more to do with their decision making off the court.
Speaker 1: Like I said, who you hit your wagon too? What
Speaker 1: guys you decided to surround yourself with Lebron going after
Speaker 1: Russ was an all time basketball mistake from one of
Speaker 1: the smartest basketball minds that we have in the game,
Speaker 1: Katie Choosing Kyrie, Katie structuring this roster the way that
Speaker 1: he kind of decided to do. That's his fault here.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have anything to do with who he is
Speaker 1: as a basketball player, So to me, I like to
Speaker 1: keep those two topics separate. But to be clear, Lebron
Speaker 1: did a much more disastrous job the discombobulating the Lakers
Speaker 1: over the course of the last couple of years than
Speaker 1: Kadi did with the Nets, So I do think that
Speaker 1: that's more embarrassing. But like the flip side is is
Speaker 1: like I think if you plug Lebron into this series,
Speaker 1: he would have a better time trying to solve this
Speaker 1: Austin defense because he's much more of a chess player
Speaker 1: in terms of basketball. So like I would argue that
Speaker 1: like Lebron swapped for Katie probably pushes the series to
Speaker 1: five or six games, whereas Katie got swept because it's
Speaker 1: just a better matchup for Lebron. But make no mistake,
Speaker 1: at least the Nets were a respectable basketball team, like
Speaker 1: we talked about twelve and five in their last seventeen games,
Speaker 1: third best offense, eight best defense in the regular season
Speaker 1: over that seventeen game span, the Lakers didn't have anything
Speaker 1: resembling a stretch like that this year. Like there was
Speaker 1: a hilarious moment early in the season where Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was like, all we gotta do is win ten games
Speaker 1: in a row and the whole, the whole narrative will change.
Speaker 1: And I think the best they did the rest of
Speaker 1: the season was like four games in a row against
Speaker 1: bad teams, Like it's just the Lakers. Like as much
Speaker 1: as the Nets were a disaster in this playoff run,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were an all time dumpster fire. So I
Speaker 1: would definitely give them the trophy for that. I totally agree.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Nets were this regular season thirty six
Speaker 1: and nineteen when Katie played, and all four games in
Speaker 1: the series were decided by seven or less against a
Speaker 1: team that you said you think is the title favorite.
Speaker 1: I think certainly looks the best out East right now.
Speaker 1: So I think there are different levels. I think this
Speaker 1: Lakers team is genuinely the most disappointing ever, Like I've
Speaker 1: went back and thought about it, and I truly don't
Speaker 1: think there's ever been a under achieved the expectations to this.
Speaker 1: They were the second favorite in Vegas coming into the season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Lebron and a d together when the when those
Speaker 1: two play, But in the previous season's one like almost
Speaker 1: of their games and they were a five hundred team
Speaker 1: with those two guys. This year, it's an all time disaster.
Speaker 1: You Yeah, I mean, like I said, the nets with
Speaker 1: Katie were thirty six and nineteen. The Lakers did not
Speaker 1: win thirty six games all year, So totally regardless, though,
Speaker 1: this is definitely a rough moment for Katie, as we
Speaker 1: touched on earlier, and I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: have pointed to just how incredible his situation was in
Speaker 1: Golden State, and you know, it just seemed like guaranteed
Speaker 1: titles upon titles. At the same time, like you talked
Speaker 1: about with Barkley and whatnot, there is a devaluing of
Speaker 1: those titles. But do you think Katie is ever going
Speaker 1: to actually win a title without Steph and without being
Speaker 1: tied to him, and just the dominance of that Warriors
Speaker 1: team that you know was so great before he even
Speaker 1: got there. It's not out of the realm of possibility.
Speaker 1: Each year gets a little harder as you age. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm so bummed out about Lebron blowing this season
Speaker 1: with the Russell Westbrook experiment, because like, Lebron was an
Speaker 1: incredible basketball player this year, and it was totally wasted,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And and so obviously the
Speaker 1: opportunities are running out. All I would say is never
Speaker 1: count a guy out, just like Dirk in two thousand eleven,
Speaker 1: like all it takes is a few things breaking your way.
Speaker 1: A good match up here, a good match up there,
Speaker 1: an injury here, an injury there, a move that pans out.
Speaker 1: You know, they could make a Kyrie trade and get
Speaker 1: back a couple of pieces and capture some synergy there,
Speaker 1: and suddenly have you know, something that no one can stop.
Speaker 1: So I would say that I would put it at
Speaker 1: less than fift that he gets it done, so less
Speaker 1: than a coin flip. But it's certainly still in the
Speaker 1: realm of possibility, which is why I've been cautioning people
Speaker 1: against grave dancing. In two thousand nineteen. If you would
Speaker 1: have asked me if Lebron ever wins another championship again,
Speaker 1: I would have said less than a coin flip, And
Speaker 1: next thing, you know, they pull off an Anthony Davis trade,
Speaker 1: and they're the best team in the league next year,
Speaker 1: kick everyone's ass and they're holding the trophy, So things
Speaker 1: can change. It's just it's just a question of, you know,
Speaker 1: did Katie learn to value a lesson here, which I
Speaker 1: believe he did, and is he willing to even though
Speaker 1: because Kyrie is one of his best friends, man Like,
Speaker 1: Katie is fiercely loyal to Kyrie to the point where
Speaker 1: I think that he's even a little bit over defensive
Speaker 1: of some of Kyrie's quirks. And so the way that
Speaker 1: I see it, like, as long as he's willing to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that and willing to make the change that he
Speaker 1: needs to make, I think that he has he still
Speaker 1: has a good chance to get it done. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you're spot on with evoking the Lebron comparison there.
Speaker 1: You just don't know. As long as these guys are
Speaker 1: at peak in the conversation for best player in the
Speaker 1: world level, a lot of people want to come play
Speaker 1: with them. And obviously there is still a lot of
Speaker 1: basketball talent on this roster, and Katie has not fallen
Speaker 1: off at thirty three off of an achilles tear, so
Speaker 1: you know, I'd be hesitant to just presume that he's
Speaker 1: going to fall off too quickly anytime soon. Okay, last
Speaker 1: question here, for the first time, we'll touch on something
Speaker 1: non NETS related. Looks like the Raptors are about to
Speaker 1: beat the Sixers, So, Jason, obviously you picked Toronto before
Speaker 1: this series. Are you starting there? Okay, let me pull
Speaker 1: it up real quick, but regardless, I'll get it to
Speaker 1: you in a second. Do you think, though it's with
Speaker 1: a minute eighteen left, do you think we may see
Speaker 1: the Sixers from the first team ever? Yeah? To blow
Speaker 1: a three nothing lead, man, you can so so Okay,
Speaker 1: for everyone who's watching, I have not watched a single
Speaker 1: dribble of this game. I will watch the entire film
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning and I will break it down. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt. I'll break it down
Speaker 1: on Twitter, and then tomorrow night we will have a
Speaker 1: full segment devoted to this. So we will break this
Speaker 1: down eventually. But as I was watching that NETS game
Speaker 1: and I was peeking up in the corner and seeing
Speaker 1: the score, you could almost feel it, Carson. You could
Speaker 1: just feel you could feel the toxic energy coming from
Speaker 1: that scoreboard, like you could just tell, like I like,
Speaker 1: I could just see like palms getting sweaty, crowd getting annoyed,
Speaker 1: the potentially considering booing, all of that stuff. The Sixers
Speaker 1: are the better team and they have two opportunities to
Speaker 1: beat the Raptors. They should win. But there were a
Speaker 1: lot of things that went against the Raptors to start
Speaker 1: the series. Scottie Barnes getting hurt, Pascal Siakam and Fred
Speaker 1: van Viet Van Vleet getting out played by Tyrese Maxie.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of Gary Trent Jr. And his
Speaker 1: illness and his inability to basically be functional at all
Speaker 1: in games one, two, and three. So there are some
Speaker 1: things that are favor in Toronto now. Pascal Siakam again,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what happened tonight. He played great
Speaker 1: in Game four. Gary Trent Junior played great in Game four.
Speaker 1: They finally got out in transition after getting destroyed in
Speaker 1: transition in all of the earlier games of the series.
Speaker 1: So there are some things that are headed their way.
Speaker 1: And again for the help I said this last week,
Speaker 1: for the health of the game of basketball, we need
Speaker 1: Philly to lose because the approach, even though I love
Speaker 1: Joel and DS game his approach to foul hunting I
Speaker 1: have a huge problem with in terms of the watch ability,
Speaker 1: the product, and the health of the league in the
Speaker 1: long run. Same thing goes with James Harden. So, like
Speaker 1: I think it's important for Philly to lose, and I
Speaker 1: could not think of a more magnificent fashion than them
Speaker 1: blowing a three oh lead. I'd be lying if I
Speaker 1: told you I wasn't rooting for it. It's absolutely what
Speaker 1: I'm rooting for. But I would Again, there's a reason
Speaker 1: this has never been done before. It's absolutely been pushed
Speaker 1: to game six before, It's happened a couple of times.
Speaker 1: The team always just figures it out in Game seven
Speaker 1: at home almost always goes to the home team. Their
Speaker 1: stats on that that are crazy. So I still would
Speaker 1: pick Philly, But man, I want it. I want it
Speaker 1: bad Carson. It's hilarious too, because Nick Nurse said when
Speaker 1: they were down three oh, we just got to get
Speaker 1: into three one, and then that's been done before. Would
Speaker 1: it be more on brand for Doc Rivers or James
Speaker 1: Harden to be the first ever to blow a three
Speaker 1: nothing lead. That's like the poetic justice of it, Although
Speaker 1: right Carson, Like, yeah, like think of it like this,
Speaker 1: for something never to have been that's never been done before,
Speaker 1: to be accomplished, you need a force. You need forces
Speaker 1: to come into conjunction together. And it was gonna require
Speaker 1: the all time choka tude of James Harden with the
Speaker 1: all time choka tude of Doc Rivers coming together to
Speaker 1: pull off this magnificent achievement. So I guess I guess
Speaker 1: that that's just it's it's poetic. That's the way it's
Speaker 1: supposed to go down. Real quick. You want to guess
Speaker 1: hardened stat line in this game, well, as history would
Speaker 1: tell us, two for eleven? Was he two for eleven?
Speaker 1: Please tell me he was two for eleven? Close, close,
Speaker 1: four of eleven, four of eleven. Okay, that's not that's
Speaker 1: but hey, here's the thing. Four made field goals in
Speaker 1: a chance to close out a team at home to
Speaker 1: prevent having to go to Toronto. But I mean, we've
Speaker 1: talked about that to death. We'll get more and we
Speaker 1: will get more into this series. Um tomorrow night, and
Speaker 1: like I said, tomorrow on my Twitter feed in the morning.
Speaker 1: But I oh, man, I I hope so, I hope
Speaker 1: so Carson, Yeah, man, fifteen and seven with five turnovers
Speaker 1: on four of eleven shooting. Not exactly a big game
Speaker 1: from Big Game James. Alright, alright, we do have more
Speaker 1: thing here coming back to the Nets because we have
Speaker 1: some Kyrie news. He says he plans to resign with
Speaker 1: the Nets. Quote when I say I'm here with keV,
Speaker 1: I think that really entails us managing this franchise together
Speaker 1: alongside Joe and Sean. So what do you what's your
Speaker 1: action to that? So not a big surprise we've talked
Speaker 1: about on the show. Kyrie and Katie's friendship is a
Speaker 1: lot stronger than I think people realize. Um. I will
Speaker 1: say this though, kind of like when do you guys
Speaker 1: remember after the Lakers lost to the Pelicans and Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D were sitting on the bench after the game,
Speaker 1: him exasperated, and Russ came up to him. It was
Speaker 1: like it was like slapping him on the knee and
Speaker 1: like trying to cheer him up and like like getting
Speaker 1: mad at Frank Vogel for not playing him enough and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and there was like this, there was
Speaker 1: this weird expression on Lebron and A D's face, like
Speaker 1: this awkward, like I can't believe this guy's talking to
Speaker 1: me right now type of energy. Like that's the thing is,
Speaker 1: like there will be a point with every friendship. Because
Speaker 1: Lebron and Russ were friends, there will be a point
Speaker 1: in every friendship where eventually it becomes too much to
Speaker 1: deal with. And I do wonder if k D looks
Speaker 1: at this and goes, hey, man, this is the one
Speaker 1: thing I need from you. Like I'm the seven footer,
Speaker 1: I can be a defensive full crum, I can be
Speaker 1: this great playmaker that I can be from time to time.
Speaker 1: You're the guy who's supposed to be able to create
Speaker 1: his own shot against any defense. And he was like
Speaker 1: completely chopped off at the knees after game one, and
Speaker 1: so you know, from the standpoint of Kevin Durant, I
Speaker 1: would just be watching out for Katie eventually just being
Speaker 1: sick of him. All Right, guys, that is all we
Speaker 1: have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support. As always,
Speaker 1: check out my Twitter feed tomorrow morning for some breakdowns
Speaker 1: of the games from tonight, and then tomorrow night, after
Speaker 1: the final buzzer of the final game, we will get
Speaker 1: into the weeds about the two games from tonight as well.
Speaker 1: As everything that was going on in tomorrow night's late.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate your guys support and we will
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow