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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by Fan Duel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: I am Jason Timp Happy Tuesday. Everybody. Hope all of
Speaker 1: your weeks are off to a good start. Day four
Speaker 1: of the NBA Playoffs in the books, lots of interesting
Speaker 1: stuff once again, we had two series. Is get evened up.
Speaker 1: We had, in my opinion, the most uninteresting and fraudulent
Speaker 1: basketball team in this playoff. Y'ell. The Atlanta Hawks catch
Speaker 1: another l on the road in Miami, and we just
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of injury potential impact that we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to deal with. We're gonna learn more about
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's hamstring as the days go along with that's
Speaker 1: a wrinkle that we're gonna talk about a little bit.
Speaker 1: And then I'm also gonna bring my guy Carson on
Speaker 1: later in the show. We're going to play some games,
Speaker 1: including going back and forth about whether or not Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum is a top five player in the NBA at
Speaker 1: this point. And then this is another important note for
Speaker 1: all of you guys that are listening on YouTube. We
Speaker 1: are going to be taking questions from the audience, so
Speaker 1: please feel free to drop them in the chat and
Speaker 1: they will get asked in the third segment of the
Speaker 1: show tonight. But let's start with the Pelicans and the
Speaker 1: Suns and so there there are some themes for this
Speaker 1: show tonight that I want to get to. The core
Speaker 1: theme is gonna involve traditional centers. But I would be
Speaker 1: remiss if I didn't start with the guy that I
Speaker 1: thought was the star of the night, at least in
Speaker 1: the Pelicans Sons game, and that's Brandon ingram I've always
Speaker 1: been a huge fan of Brandon ingram I. You know,
Speaker 1: it came into the league super young and rail finn
Speaker 1: and so in his first couple of seasons with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: You saw flashes, but it was a tough, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of entry into the NBA for him. And then
Speaker 1: I started following him very closely in that season that
Speaker 1: he played with Lebron in two thou and that season
Speaker 1: gets kind of blumped in with all of the horrible
Speaker 1: like everything surrounding the championship season in the Lakers was
Speaker 1: a disaster, and that season kids kind of lumped in,
Speaker 1: but in in the way that this season's Lakers team
Speaker 1: injuries are an excuse for what was actually really poor
Speaker 1: management and just a horrible effort from the roster. Lakers
Speaker 1: really were just horrible injury luck. That team. When Brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram was with Lebron and when they had their role
Speaker 1: players available, when they had you know, Alonzo Ball and
Speaker 1: Kyle Kusma available, they were pretty good. We just didn't
Speaker 1: get to see much of them. They defended extraordinarily well,
Speaker 1: obviously when Lebron was on the floor, they were able
Speaker 1: to score well enough in order to win games. That
Speaker 1: was a really good basketball team. And in that season
Speaker 1: I noticed several things about Brandon Ingram that I knew
Speaker 1: right away would make him a star in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He was as smooth and polished a three level score
Speaker 1: that he had in the league. He could knock down
Speaker 1: spot up threes, he could and he didn't really quite
Speaker 1: have the off the dribble three point game at that point.
Speaker 1: That's still not fully there for him. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: another thing for him to build out. But he had
Speaker 1: everything from the mid range, he had short range stuff,
Speaker 1: and he could finish around the rim extremely well. And
Speaker 1: for a guy who was pretty thin, he played big.
Speaker 1: You know that he's not afraid of contact. He's good
Speaker 1: at initiating contact and going through people's chest even though
Speaker 1: he's thin, and finishing over people. And then most importantly,
Speaker 1: he was an excellent defensive player in that Laker season,
Speaker 1: and then after the Anthony Davis trade, he kind of
Speaker 1: fell off defensively and the Pelicans were kind of a
Speaker 1: ship show and he kind of fell out of sight,
Speaker 1: out of mind for a while. That'll happen when you
Speaker 1: go from playing with Lebron to playing with New Orleans, right,
Speaker 1: But I always remained a brandon Ingram fan, and I
Speaker 1: was aware of the fact that that team was going
Speaker 1: through a kind of different phase of develop Admit, you know,
Speaker 1: they're they were in a rebuilding phase and watching him
Speaker 1: tonight and I've noticed this all season, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna shout it out based on what I saw tonight.
Speaker 1: He's added another huge element to his game as a playmaker.
Speaker 1: And this is valuable reps that he learned that he
Speaker 1: that he went through during these years with New Orleans
Speaker 1: while the team was rebuilding, tons of valuable on ball
Speaker 1: reps that he wasn't getting earlier on in his career
Speaker 1: when he was primarily being used kind of like Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 1: just the typical, you know, scoring wing who guards the
Speaker 1: other team's best player type of deal. But he built
Speaker 1: out that playmaking part of his game and now he's
Speaker 1: becoming just an unbelievable point forward, which and again this
Speaker 1: is where I'm gonna segue into the theme of the night,
Speaker 1: the theme of this particular show, which is I'm always
Speaker 1: going to value wing players, particularly stars, but that extends
Speaker 1: down to role players. I'm always gonna value wing players
Speaker 1: over traditional bigs because their ability from the perimeter to
Speaker 1: initiate action and with size to be able to see
Speaker 1: over the defense and make reads as a passer is
Speaker 1: invaluable in this setting. Usually in basketball it's the guards,
Speaker 1: the little guys who struggled to create their own shot,
Speaker 1: you know, and in in tight space situations, who over
Speaker 1: the course of their basketball development have become great passers.
Speaker 1: And this is an example of the way the game
Speaker 1: has changed over the years, and I think Lebron is
Speaker 1: the player that I've credited the most with this change.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot about guys like Steph Curry changing
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. The way Lebron changed the game
Speaker 1: of basketball was he normalized a forward being your decision maker,
Speaker 1: the guy who begins possessions from the top of the
Speaker 1: key with a live dribble and either going in isolation
Speaker 1: to compromise the defense or working out of pick and roll,
Speaker 1: and if he gets an opportunity to score, he'll score,
Speaker 1: and if the defense collapses on him, he'll make reads.
Speaker 1: Lebron literally bred that into the game of basketball. And
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram is yet another player that fits that archetype.
Speaker 1: And in that third quarter, there's a lot of context here.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker got hurt, and I think that kind of
Speaker 1: shell shock the son's a little bit. The sons in
Speaker 1: general didn't have their best effort in this game. I
Speaker 1: thought that came out lacks of days ago. They gave
Speaker 1: up six offensive rebounds in just the first quarter. This
Speaker 1: is not kind of an unserious start to this game,
Speaker 1: which typical you're one eight matchup, second game at home,
Speaker 1: after he had a convincing game one win. I get
Speaker 1: that all, But in that third quarter, when the game
Speaker 1: was very much in the balance the Sons had leads
Speaker 1: in the second half. In that third quarter, brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: top of the key isolation and pick and roll making decisions.
Speaker 1: He did a mix of a bunch of different things.
Speaker 1: He ran some pick and roll with with Larry Nance Jr.
Speaker 1: He ran some picking pop with Trey Murphy. He worked
Speaker 1: out of isolation for pticularly in transition, but just time
Speaker 1: after time after time down the floor, just brandon Ingram,
Speaker 1: breaking it down off the dribble and making decisions either
Speaker 1: hitting a player that's wide open on the wing or
Speaker 1: scoring the basketball. And and and then as the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter came along, he kind of the Sun's defense softened
Speaker 1: up a little bit on him because he had been
Speaker 1: making so many plays and he started scoring the basketball
Speaker 1: and guess what he can do that too, And that
Speaker 1: that that ability of that big perimeter initiating wing to
Speaker 1: control a basketball game the way that Brandon Ingram did
Speaker 1: in that third and fourth quarter is exactly why I'm
Speaker 1: always going to favor those guys. It's exactly why I
Speaker 1: put guys like Yo Kitchen and Bead below the Durance
Speaker 1: and the Honice is in the lebrons of the league,
Speaker 1: because those guys just struggle at that's very specific skill
Speaker 1: and I that's a more complicated conversation for another time,
Speaker 1: but that's why I always favor those guys. And so
Speaker 1: I wanted to give Brandon Ingram a special shout out.
Speaker 1: I thought he was thus star of the night, and
Speaker 1: he picked up a huge win on the road in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to look at this Jonas Valentiunis and
Speaker 1: Larry Nance conundrum. So Jonas Valentcunis was was plus five
Speaker 1: tonight and had a good run there in the in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter closing the game, mainly because c J.
Speaker 1: McCollum and Brandon Ingram just started making shots and Jose
Speaker 1: Alvarado made a couple of big shots, so a shot
Speaker 1: making kind of covered for it. But in general, in
Speaker 1: this series, they've played way way way better with Larry
Speaker 1: Nates Jr. On the floor then they have with Jonas Valentcuinis.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious after the stats update tonight, the the
Speaker 1: advanced stats to see, particularly on the defensive end, how
Speaker 1: much better they are without Jonas Valanciunas because they were
Speaker 1: just getting picked apart. With Valacunas in there and Larry
Speaker 1: and Ances, additional mobility just gives them more ability to
Speaker 1: cover ground. And it's not it's not a coincidence. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the series, with Jonas Valentcunas on the floor,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans are minus six and with Larry and Ants
Speaker 1: on the floor there plus three. They've been better with
Speaker 1: Larry Ants on the floor. We'll get more into the
Speaker 1: details of that as the days go by here later
Speaker 1: this week, but that's a consistent theme for me throughout
Speaker 1: this entire era of modern basketball. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: it more later tonight when we talk about Steven Adams,
Speaker 1: who has been disastrous for Memphis in their series and
Speaker 1: they've been amazing without him. It's just a simple matter
Speaker 1: of the way that the game of basketball is played
Speaker 1: today with overall foot speed and the fact that these big,
Speaker 1: slow guys struggle in that environment, and I get I
Speaker 1: get why coaches use these players in the regular season
Speaker 1: to eat innings. And there's a couple of reasons why. One,
Speaker 1: it's hard to play this style of basketball, this athletic
Speaker 1: covering a ton of ground basketball. It can be taxing
Speaker 1: on the body, just like Devin Booker pulling his hand
Speaker 1: or get having some hamstring tightness tonight. So I get
Speaker 1: that it'd be easier to have some of the flow
Speaker 1: regular season with these guys, And most importantly, most of
Speaker 1: the other coaches around the league will continue to use them.
Speaker 1: Like Golden State, They're not going to They're not gonna
Speaker 1: go down with Kevin Looney at center if they find
Speaker 1: their back against the wall. But whenever they're not threatened,
Speaker 1: like in this first round series against Denver, and throughout
Speaker 1: the regular season, they like to start Kevin Looney because
Speaker 1: it's just an innings eating option for them. And so
Speaker 1: on the night and night out basis of the regular season,
Speaker 1: you can get away with starting is Steven Adams. You
Speaker 1: can get away with starting a Jonas Valancinis, you can
Speaker 1: get away with starting that archetype of player. But it's
Speaker 1: only because of the circumstances in that setting, when push
Speaker 1: comes to shove, this is the game of basketball. What
Speaker 1: you saw there in that second half with the Pelicans
Speaker 1: and the Suns, and what you saw there for most
Speaker 1: of the night between Minnesota in Memphis. It's the big
Speaker 1: guy on the floor has to be a very versatile
Speaker 1: offensive player or be extremely fast. It's got to be
Speaker 1: someone like you know, JaVale McGee is a unique example
Speaker 1: of a big man who has enough foot speed and
Speaker 1: can cover so much ground relative to other bigs that
Speaker 1: he's actually somewhat functional. But even with JaVale McGee, it's like,
Speaker 1: when push comes to shove, you're not going down with
Speaker 1: that guy. There exceptions to the rule. DeAndre Ayton is
Speaker 1: a guy that you can play. Guys that are superstars,
Speaker 1: Guys like Joel Embiid and Nicola Yokich, Clint Capella, who's
Speaker 1: very good, very mobile big. There are guys that can play,
Speaker 1: but they're not traditional centers. They're not plotting slow centers.
Speaker 1: They're fast guys. And and and and you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what the deal is. I don't know how
Speaker 1: much evidence you have to put in these coaches faces
Speaker 1: to show them that this doesn't work for them to
Speaker 1: finally learn I I just don't get it. It's it's
Speaker 1: really really hard. It's hard for me to understand. But
Speaker 1: I the reason why they play so much better without
Speaker 1: Valanchunis is because this is a very very sneaky, athletic
Speaker 1: and fast team. This has been a theme from the
Speaker 1: Memphis in Minnesota series. Right, You've got all of these
Speaker 1: wings from Memphis in Minnesota for all this ground. Well,
Speaker 1: you've got Herb Jones, and you've got uh Trey Murphy
Speaker 1: and you've got Brandon Ingram. That's like your best lineup
Speaker 1: if you're the Pelicans. That's three guys that are taller
Speaker 1: than six eight with super long arms that cover a
Speaker 1: ton of ground. And so this is why I've enjoyed
Speaker 1: this Pelicans team as an eight seed so much more
Speaker 1: than the Atlanta Hawks. They're kind of like a very
Speaker 1: very interesting modern basketball team. I was talking with my
Speaker 1: producers before the show. There's a really really interesting conundrum,
Speaker 1: how do you fit Zion into this. Zion is kind
Speaker 1: of like a very very different archetype than this group.
Speaker 1: And I get mainly just because of the defensive versatility
Speaker 1: that the speed that these guys have to cover ground
Speaker 1: on defense. Like RB Jones and Trey Murphy and Brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram are awesome defensive players, Zion is not. And you
Speaker 1: kind of have to play c J McCollum. He's been
Speaker 1: kind of the perfect guard to plug into that spot
Speaker 1: because he's so, so so good as a perimeter initiator,
Speaker 1: so you're willing to live with some of CJ's defensive
Speaker 1: issue and he had a really hard time guarding Devin
Speaker 1: Booker earlier in that game. Is that it was a
Speaker 1: really really smart adjustment from Willie Green to go with
Speaker 1: Trey Murphy on Devin Booker to start the second half.
Speaker 1: I thought that was one of the reasons one of
Speaker 1: the things that kind of helped the Pelicans grab control
Speaker 1: of that game. But Zion kind of getting plugged in
Speaker 1: and you can't play him at the five because he's
Speaker 1: not a good rim protector. So it's like, what do
Speaker 1: you do with that specific that specific conundrum, And that's
Speaker 1: a conversation for another day, But that that athleticism gives
Speaker 1: the Sons a lot of problems. They had eleven offensive
Speaker 1: rebounds tonight. It's a lot of extra possessions that can
Speaker 1: make the difference in a game Chris Paul after, especially
Speaker 1: after Devin Booker went out. Chris Paul had a great
Speaker 1: floor game. He passed the ball extremely well throughout, but
Speaker 1: he struggled creating his own shot. Why because he's got
Speaker 1: Trey Murphy on him and he's got all these long,
Speaker 1: lanky wings around the floor that are taking away his
Speaker 1: spots that he likes to get to. And so just
Speaker 1: just in general, the Sons are gonna win series, make
Speaker 1: no mistake, even if Devin Booker is hurt, I think
Speaker 1: the Suns will win this series. The Suns had the
Speaker 1: Suns were really really sloppy in a lot of their details. Tonight,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be fine. That said, like this is if
Speaker 1: you're a Pelicans fan, you should be extremely excited. You
Speaker 1: have a lot of different directions you can go here,
Speaker 1: and if you can find a way to make things
Speaker 1: work with ion, you might be in fantastic shape moving forward. Again,
Speaker 1: some other time we might have to get into that,
Speaker 1: as I on Conunter, maybe after this series is over.
Speaker 1: One last note on this particular game, with this Devin
Speaker 1: Booker injury, and again we don't know anything, But what
Speaker 1: have I been telling you guys all year long? Especially
Speaker 1: as it became, especially as we were talking about the Lakers.
Speaker 1: I said, you gotta go for it because you don't
Speaker 1: know what's gonna happen. You don't know what's gonna break.
Speaker 1: You saw the two best teams in the league this year,
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics and the Phoenix Suns, get hit with
Speaker 1: late season injuries. You saw Robert Williams go down. He
Speaker 1: might he might miss the entire first round. He's probably
Speaker 1: gonna miss the entire first round. I think the intel
Speaker 1: is that he's coming back in a set a round.
Speaker 1: So what that tells us is that, you know, if
Speaker 1: if Boston gets knocked out in the first round, it
Speaker 1: might very well be because of an injury. And they
Speaker 1: were the best team in the East this year. If
Speaker 1: the Sun's losing the second round, it could very well
Speaker 1: be because of a Devin Booker hamstring issue. These kinds
Speaker 1: of things happen every single year, and I hate them.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. The player, the the injuries that
Speaker 1: are happening to these players in almost every playoff run.
Speaker 1: It it's really depressing, Don't get me wrong, I get that,
Speaker 1: But this is exactly why you have to go for it.
Speaker 1: If you're any team that's within just arms reach of
Speaker 1: a title because you just don't know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns were by far the most dominant team all
Speaker 1: season long. They look like world beaters. I picked them
Speaker 1: to win the title. If Devin Booker's hamstring can't go,
Speaker 1: they're gonna lose, and they very well might lose to
Speaker 1: a team like Dallas in the second round. That's a serious,
Speaker 1: serious issue. That's why you all like that, like teams
Speaker 1: like the Lakers, who the like Lakers sitting on your couch,
Speaker 1: you do an opportunity here because the Sons were literally
Speaker 1: the only team that I didn't think you had any
Speaker 1: chance to beat, and they look like they might be
Speaker 1: compromised potentially. Obviously we don't know for sure, but it's
Speaker 1: just the these We don't even have to get any
Speaker 1: further into that. So before we move on to the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies and the Wolves, I just wanted to remind everybody
Speaker 1: that's listening for the third segment tonight, we are going
Speaker 1: to be doing a mail bag of sorts. So in
Speaker 1: the chat, drop any questions that you have about literally
Speaker 1: any of the series or anything NBA related. We can
Speaker 1: get into that, so I want to move into the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies and the Wolves. I thought the story of this
Speaker 1: series so far has been Steven Adams on the floor
Speaker 1: and Steven Adams off the floor. I talked a lot
Speaker 1: about this after Game one. When Steven Adams was on
Speaker 1: the floor, he was utterly useless. Couldn't guard Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns on the perimeter, couldn't guard Carl Anthony Towns in
Speaker 1: the post, couldn't box Karl Anthony Towns out. He was
Speaker 1: just doing swim moves on him like a defensive end
Speaker 1: to grab every offensive rebound. And then in pick and
Speaker 1: roll coverages with Anthony Edwards, he's dropping back to the
Speaker 1: eighth throw line every time, and Anthony Edwards was just
Speaker 1: hitting pull up jump shot after pull off, pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot after pull up jump shot, and he was
Speaker 1: getting run off the floor and transition, all of those
Speaker 1: same things that I was talking about with big guys.
Speaker 1: In twenty seven minutes this series, with Steven Adams on
Speaker 1: the floor, the Grizzlies are minus fourteen in t excuse me.
Speaker 1: In sixty nine minutes with Steven Adams off the floor,
Speaker 1: there plus twenty eight utterly dominant without him and getting
Speaker 1: dominated with him. That's how big of a difference that
Speaker 1: kind of thing makes. And they literally started Steven Adams
Speaker 1: tonight and played him three minutes again, Like I was
Speaker 1: saying with these coaches, I just don't understand I they
Speaker 1: they they just in the face of every bit of
Speaker 1: analytical evidence, in the faces of everything we know about
Speaker 1: the way the game of basketball is changing, they continue
Speaker 1: to make these kinds of decisions. What was the point
Speaker 1: if you had to have known that the Steven Adams
Speaker 1: thing wasn't working, if you pulled him after three minutes
Speaker 1: and he was minus one in those minutes, It's not
Speaker 1: like they were getting completely and utterly run off the floor,
Speaker 1: so you knew the whole time, I can't play Steven
Speaker 1: Adams in this series. But instead of just making the adjustment,
Speaker 1: you started him for some reason, which kind of changed
Speaker 1: the complexion of the start of that game and gave
Speaker 1: Minnesota a little bit of life there. It's just it's
Speaker 1: just confusing. But that the big reason why that change,
Speaker 1: That that change opens everything up for the Grizzlies because
Speaker 1: Jaren Jackson Jr. Is so so so much better as
Speaker 1: a as a drop coverage big and he's he can
Speaker 1: be more active and up at the screen to disrupt
Speaker 1: those pull up jump shots. Anthony Edwards got I think
Speaker 1: he took one long two on the left wing, but
Speaker 1: he didn't get any midrange jump shots in this game,
Speaker 1: zero because those drop coverage opportunities that he had with
Speaker 1: Adams just weren't there. To Anthony Edwards his credit, he
Speaker 1: still made four threes in this game, but like that's
Speaker 1: just a huge change in the way that goes the overall.
Speaker 1: Let's be the lineup in that second half when Memphis
Speaker 1: blew the game open. It was all transition. It's all
Speaker 1: foot speed and and the start of the game from Memphis.
Speaker 1: And this is something that I told you guys after
Speaker 1: game one. After Game one, I told you it's John Moran.
Speaker 1: After game one, I told you guys that I thought
Speaker 1: John Moran played a really rough game. Primary just as
Speaker 1: a decision maker, there was Draymond Green did a podcast
Speaker 1: today where he was talking about Jordan Pool and he
Speaker 1: referred to something called Jordan's floor game. And there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of different words that you can use to describe
Speaker 1: this kind of thing. I call it perimeter initiation. Mainly,
Speaker 1: it's like controlling the pace and decision making, and those
Speaker 1: two specific things are so so, so so important in
Speaker 1: these playoff environments. We talked about that with brandon Ingram earlier.
Speaker 1: In game one, John Moran's decision making at the end
Speaker 1: of the game was really poor. He seemed obsessed with
Speaker 1: getting into the paint, even though it's not what the
Speaker 1: dfense was giving him. He was forcing the action and
Speaker 1: flying around and flailing and just trying to draw outs.
Speaker 1: He was missing open three point shooters all over the floor.
Speaker 1: It was a bad game from him. And what and
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards was the better perimeter initiator, He was the
Speaker 1: better decision maker, He had better control over the pace,
Speaker 1: And like I told Carson in the last night's show
Speaker 1: there two nights ago, you know I said, over the
Speaker 1: course of this series, I expect John Morant to eventually
Speaker 1: show that he's the best player in the series and
Speaker 1: to eventually get control of this. His floor game tonight
Speaker 1: was amazing. His ability to get into the deep, into
Speaker 1: the teeth of the defense and make smart decisions opened
Speaker 1: everything up for them. As a result, they were getting
Speaker 1: and taking and making the right threes, the threes on
Speaker 1: the back side of the defense that were there for
Speaker 1: the taking. The Grizzlies had twenty nine assists in the game.
Speaker 1: I think on like forty four field goals, that's awesome
Speaker 1: for two thirds year field goals to be assisted. That
Speaker 1: means you're moving the ball around and you're making the
Speaker 1: right decisions. It's not just on Jots on everybody, but
Speaker 1: it starts with Jaw And then there during that run,
Speaker 1: which again I think Minnesota kind of let go of
Speaker 1: the rope a little bit there. But during that run,
Speaker 1: when Minnesota like go with the rope, then John Moran
Speaker 1: got loose and started having fun as a score. But
Speaker 1: you have to loosen up the defense first, and the
Speaker 1: only way to do that is to make the right
Speaker 1: decisions as the quarterback of your offense. Then from there
Speaker 1: they have to stop playing jan kee basketball and they
Speaker 1: have to start guarding people, and that's when you have
Speaker 1: your opportunities to score. You know, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum a little bit later and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he's been double teamed a lot this year. Do you
Speaker 1: guys ever noticed that, like Lebron doesn't get double team
Speaker 1: very often? If you guys ever noticed that, like you
Speaker 1: don't see the crazy traps out at half court with
Speaker 1: Lebron or the you know, like he'll be isolating on
Speaker 1: the left wing and you won't just have like a
Speaker 1: dude just run over and hard double team, because Lebron
Speaker 1: makes you pay for that every single time. If you
Speaker 1: trap him to only from the basket and you make
Speaker 1: it clear that you're doubling him, on the very next possession,
Speaker 1: he'll have a counter. He'll probably give the ball up
Speaker 1: to a point guard, work to some specific position on
Speaker 1: the floor where if you double him it's a super
Speaker 1: super easy read. He'll make that easy read and then
Speaker 1: he'll run back. On defense. Lebron faces a bunch of
Speaker 1: different types of defenses, but you never see him get
Speaker 1: the crazy psychotic double teams that you see some of
Speaker 1: these other stars get because he's just always one step
Speaker 1: ahead of him. The easiest way to stop a Jankee
Speaker 1: defense that is loading up on you, just like Minnesota
Speaker 1: did packing the pain on John Morant, is to just
Speaker 1: make the right reads and make them pay for doing
Speaker 1: that to you. They were better just overall. I told
Speaker 1: you guys that Minnesota played like an underdog in Game one,
Speaker 1: and Memphis kind of looked like the team that had
Speaker 1: all the confidence in the world from their fantastic regular season.
Speaker 1: But they thought it would be easy, I think in
Speaker 1: Game one, and they got slapped in the face and
Speaker 1: as a result, they've got found themselves down one. Oh.
Speaker 1: But they tightened up so many of those details in
Speaker 1: this game. They gave up eleven offensive rebounds in Game one,
Speaker 1: only four tonight, so they did a much much better
Speaker 1: job boxing out. And those guys were still crashing the glass.
Speaker 1: Trust me watch the tape. Minnesota was still crashing every
Speaker 1: bit as they did in the first game. It was
Speaker 1: just little attention to detail for Memphis to take those away.
Speaker 1: The Wolves were only from three today. I think they
Speaker 1: were eleven for thirty nine. The rotations on the back
Speaker 1: end and guys flying around to contest shots. It was
Speaker 1: a completely different level of effort defensively than they gave
Speaker 1: in Game one, and that's why they won, and that's
Speaker 1: why they tied this series at one. I wanted to
Speaker 1: move on to the Wolves for just a quick second
Speaker 1: before we get to our mail bag, and again, if
Speaker 1: you guys have any questions about anything at all, dropped
Speaker 1: them in the chat. That will be our next segment.
Speaker 1: The Wolves, you know, in the same way that Memphis
Speaker 1: showed that they should win the series, and they demonstrated
Speaker 1: that tonight. They demonstrated tonight they are the better team
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different levels. But I still think
Speaker 1: Minnesota has an outside chance to win this series. And
Speaker 1: a huge part of that is that when they kept
Speaker 1: Memphis in the half court, they still had a lot
Speaker 1: of success tonight. I told you, guys, I was worried
Speaker 1: about Anthony Edwards cooling off as a jump shooter. That
Speaker 1: didn't happen. He was four for eleven on jump shots tonight,
Speaker 1: four for ten from three. That's a pretty good effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage twelve points on eleven shots. They absolutely
Speaker 1: can win this series. They have the pieces, They have
Speaker 1: home court advantage now. I think, ironically, one of the
Speaker 1: strangest wrinkles of the series is Carl Anthony Towns. I
Speaker 1: tweeted out earlier today that the only thing that they
Speaker 1: needed to have a fighting chance in the series was
Speaker 1: the ability to stop Memphis in the half court, which
Speaker 1: they've shown in Karl Anthony Towns being just the mismatched
Speaker 1: nightmare of the series, the guy that nobody can guard.
Speaker 1: Even Jaren Jackson had some problems with him in some
Speaker 1: situations tonight, and he's probably their best option there. But
Speaker 1: Carl Anthony Town has got himself into foul trouble again,
Speaker 1: and this is what happened in the playing game, and
Speaker 1: like some of this is just absolute ridiculous lack of
Speaker 1: awareness from Carl Town's that there. His second foul was
Speaker 1: on like a rebound play where he just was just
Speaker 1: shoving a guy in the back on a defensive rebound.
Speaker 1: His third foul there like middle second quarter. Again, he's
Speaker 1: got two fouls. He just went through a foul trouble
Speaker 1: situation in the playing game. The team desperately needs him,
Speaker 1: he's their biggest mismatch threat. And he shoots a wide
Speaker 1: open three and a pick and pop at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and literally kicks his leg out and
Speaker 1: trips Xavier, telling me why he's running by him, like like,
Speaker 1: what did you think was gonna happen? Like like, so
Speaker 1: he kicked his leg out, So he consciously made a
Speaker 1: decision too foul, knowing that he was in foul trouble.
Speaker 1: And that's a weird wrinkle in this series because Carltown,
Speaker 1: and this has been an issue with him throughout his
Speaker 1: entire career. When he he's on, he's on, and there's
Speaker 1: nothing anybody can do with him. But like he just
Speaker 1: gets he just becomes a space kid at sometimes and
Speaker 1: I don't know what the deal is. It's kind of
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis can be a little bit like that sometimes
Speaker 1: as well. But that's a that's a huge issue for
Speaker 1: Carl Towns and it's a huge issue for the Wolves
Speaker 1: in this series. But over the course of the rest
Speaker 1: of the series, if the Wolves can keep the game
Speaker 1: in the half court as much as possible at least Memphis,
Speaker 1: so they can keep Memphis in the half court. I
Speaker 1: love when Minnesota runs out and gets their threes, especially
Speaker 1: for guys like Malik Beasley. But if Carl Towns can't
Speaker 1: figure out this foul trouble thing, that could be something
Speaker 1: that that that shoots them in the foot and their
Speaker 1: chances to win this series. Alright, we're gonna bring my
Speaker 1: guy Carson on to ask some questions from the audience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Jason, We've got lots of good ones today,
Speaker 1: and the first one is related to something that you
Speaker 1: have actually touched on a good bit and you did
Speaker 1: a whole thing on it yesterday and some of Nicola
Speaker 1: Yokis defensive limitations and sort of how that may be
Speaker 1: inhibits him from being the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: We have a question from James Michael Santiago, which is,
Speaker 1: what can the Nuggets do when Yoki just drawn to
Speaker 1: a high pick and roll with Stephen Draymond? Do you
Speaker 1: just let Draymond attack on the short roll? How would
Speaker 1: you handle that match up with Yoga? That is a
Speaker 1: really interesting question. I was talking the gulp seems exactly.
Speaker 1: I was talking with Matt Matt Moore from the Action
Speaker 1: Network a little bit tonight about this specific conundrum because
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything you can do. There's no
Speaker 1: good option. If you have him sit back and drop, uh,
Speaker 1: steps just gonna come off of every screen and shoot.
Speaker 1: And Georgian Pool is gonna come off of every screen
Speaker 1: and shoot. If you have him come up to the
Speaker 1: level of the screen, he just gets dusted every single
Speaker 1: time off the dribble and guys, if you want to
Speaker 1: see very specific examples of this, just go to my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed and look at the little thread I did
Speaker 1: from the death lineup tonight. You can see very specific
Speaker 1: examples of each of these plays that I'm referencing. My
Speaker 1: Twitter handle is at underscore Jason lt and you can
Speaker 1: see all the video of the things that I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: When he's up at the level of the screen, Steph
Speaker 1: is just gonna beat him off the dribble every time
Speaker 1: and get a layup. And then most importantly, if you
Speaker 1: get him to trap, which is your last option there.
Speaker 1: If you get I guess there's one other. If you
Speaker 1: get him to trap, steps just gonna hit Draymond Green
Speaker 1: on the short roll. And that's literally Warriors basketball. Draymond
Speaker 1: Green starting a four on three barreling down the lane.
Speaker 1: They're gonna do fantastic in that situation. So your last
Speaker 1: your last option is a switch. So basically you do
Speaker 1: a trap. There's effectively a trap like Yoki does an
Speaker 1: aggressive switch on the on the ball screen, and then
Speaker 1: whoever's guarding the guard, whether it's Jordan Pull or Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: whoever is guarding the guard immediately just grabs Raymond and
Speaker 1: tries to take away the role. Right. But now you're
Speaker 1: having Nickela Yokes guard out on the perimeter, and all
Speaker 1: it takes is one dribble drive, one straight line drive
Speaker 1: around Yokich and now you're in rotation, and now Nicola
Speaker 1: Yokach needs to cover ground in rotation. And so I
Speaker 1: asked Matt More from the Action Network, I said what
Speaker 1: would you do? And his answer was kind of funny,
Speaker 1: he says, He basically said, you you have Yokis punished
Speaker 1: them on the other end of the floor, except for
Speaker 1: except for he's struggling with Draymond Green right now, you know.
Speaker 1: And and and we can get a little bit further
Speaker 1: into Yokis some other time. But like, he can't shoot
Speaker 1: threes anymore. He's nine percent from three over his last
Speaker 1: twenty one games of the regular season. He's over eight
Speaker 1: from three in this series. He's got gaping, gaping holes
Speaker 1: in his game right now. And and I agree, like
Speaker 1: the the ideas you it's kind of like I was
Speaker 1: talking about last night. Styles make fights, right, But it's
Speaker 1: not about the style that wins, it's which style plays
Speaker 1: well enough to win. And so yeah, Yokich has a
Speaker 1: style of of play where if he's dumb and in
Speaker 1: enough at the things that he's good at, then it
Speaker 1: balances out in your favor. But a lot of times
Speaker 1: it hasn't, and teams are and as is always the case,
Speaker 1: when a star comes up, it's kind of like with
Speaker 1: you honest, two m v p s right dominant regular
Speaker 1: seasons and in Miami completely neutered him in that playoff series.
Speaker 1: A lot of times after a team's teams and around
Speaker 1: the NBA get tons and tons of opportunity to watch
Speaker 1: tape and to see all the ways that Yoki can
Speaker 1: beat you. They come up with counters and they find
Speaker 1: ways to make things tough for you, and you're seeing
Speaker 1: that happen with Yokas right now. But to make a
Speaker 1: long story short, guys, there's no good solution with Yokis
Speaker 1: defensively against a good fast, dribble, dribble, drive and kick team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I totally agree. And I think even exacerbating that further
Speaker 1: is the Nuggets don't have good enough point of attack defenders.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like, it's enough to have to have
Speaker 1: plotting Yoki in the pick and roll start dudes who
Speaker 1: are elite pull up jump shooters and also super creative
Speaker 1: and quick getting downhill. It's another thing when you're trying
Speaker 1: to have Monte Morris and Bones Highland, you know, apply
Speaker 1: ball pressure and all that. It's just there's nothing working there.
Speaker 1: And Steph Draymond pick and roll in any matchup against
Speaker 1: any NBA team of the last half decade, I think
Speaker 1: is some of the toughest offense to guard, period. So
Speaker 1: I agree with you, I mean I would shrug. I
Speaker 1: don't think there is an answer, and even if Yokich does,
Speaker 1: you know, really punish them. On the other end, I
Speaker 1: think we've seen the talent deficit here is just too
Speaker 1: much to overcome. Like there's no way I don't think
Speaker 1: for the Nuggets to really make this a series at
Speaker 1: this point. That's the tough part because the the under
Speaker 1: the like the underling to all of this stuff that
Speaker 1: I've been saying about Yoki, which is all true. Everything
Speaker 1: I'm saying about Yoki is even even a separate from
Speaker 1: the roster issues. These are legit flaws. No matter what
Speaker 1: you put around Yokich, he's still gonna be slow, he's
Speaker 1: still gonna struggle to cover ground on the perimeter, and
Speaker 1: he's still gonna have, you know, the inability to shoot
Speaker 1: and struggle with length on on the offensive end. Right,
Speaker 1: But he does have a huge talent disadvantage here. So
Speaker 1: I was at another little thing I was talking about
Speaker 1: with Matt More. I said to him. I said, I
Speaker 1: would love to see like Yokich on a two thousand
Speaker 1: eleven Mavericks type of roster, you know, like a roster
Speaker 1: that covers so much ground defensively and almost puts him
Speaker 1: in a in a situation where he's where where his
Speaker 1: shortcomings are harder to exploit because the guys around him
Speaker 1: kind of fill those gaps. I absolutely think he could
Speaker 1: win a championship in that type of role, just like
Speaker 1: Dirk did. Yeah, I totally agree, And I mean we
Speaker 1: saw stretches this year where Yoga was really exerting effort defensively,
Speaker 1: and I think it, you know, regressed to bid as
Speaker 1: he probably just got fatigued from carrying the ridiculous offensive
Speaker 1: load every night. But I think you can put a
Speaker 1: top ten defense around Yogis and then you can have
Speaker 1: the best offense in league, and the Nuggets with their
Speaker 1: full personnel, I mean, wouldn't have been far off from
Speaker 1: that pace this year at all. I don't think, so
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I mean, it's gonna be interesting
Speaker 1: to see if they do prioritize trying to add quality
Speaker 1: three and D wings where they can cap as an issue,
Speaker 1: but maybe through the draft and whatnot, M L E
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Okay, so we mentioned the nightmare
Speaker 1: of guarding the Warriors and just how impressive they have
Speaker 1: been through two against the Nuggets. We have a question
Speaker 1: from Kyle's takes, which is, if the Warriors play the
Speaker 1: way they do on a more consistent basis, are they
Speaker 1: the favorites out of the West or are they your
Speaker 1: favorites to win it all? Even Jason, what do you think?
Speaker 1: Definitely not the favorites to win it all. They would
Speaker 1: become my favorites to win the West if Devin Booker
Speaker 1: could not play in a series against them. Um, but
Speaker 1: you know, I think you know, I watched the tape
Speaker 1: on that death lineup run there in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: and don't get me wrong, like it was there there.
Speaker 1: They're on offense in particular, they were magnificent. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: but Denver got a lot of wide open looks on
Speaker 1: the other end that they missed. It kind of felt
Speaker 1: like it almost felt like when that lineup checked in,
Speaker 1: like the crowd knew it, the Warriors knew it, and
Speaker 1: Denver knew it. Like Okay, here we go, like everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna be talking about here's the new Death lineup, and
Speaker 1: it was almost like that got in their heads and
Speaker 1: and particularly on like on their first two possessions, like
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon and Will bar And both forced, even though
Speaker 1: they were easy pocket passes to Yokis, they both forced
Speaker 1: like crazy wild floaters. There was a play where like
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon for whatever reason just decid like Yoka to
Speaker 1: the ball top of the key, going against someone other
Speaker 1: than Draymond. Draymond was sitting right under the basket, like
Speaker 1: at the charge circle, and Aaron Gordon was like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do a quick duck in on Draymond Okay, on
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, the best defensive player in the entire world.
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm gonna do a duck in on
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, and Draymond Green just took a charge and
Speaker 1: he fell over and we were going the other way.
Speaker 1: And then on a couple of the possessions in the run,
Speaker 1: they got wide open looks. I'm not trying to undercut
Speaker 1: what that lineup can do, but what I'm saying is
Speaker 1: they still have some issues, and they have big flaws
Speaker 1: on the interior that some teams are going to be
Speaker 1: able to exploit, and they still don't have that big, rim,
Speaker 1: pressuring wing, the guy that can kind of put his
Speaker 1: back to the basket when things really bogged down, kind
Speaker 1: of like a boy on Bogdanovitch like we talked about
Speaker 1: last night, that can kind of create shots for himself.
Speaker 1: I'm very high on the Warriors. I absolutely think they're
Speaker 1: capable of beating even the Suns at full strength. I
Speaker 1: just still wouldn't pick them over the Suns while they're
Speaker 1: hell THEE, and I certainly wouldn't pick them over a
Speaker 1: team like Boston coming out of the East, for instance,
Speaker 1: or even Milwaukee. Yeah. I think you're right, and that
Speaker 1: it would be premature to say, you know, based off
Speaker 1: the really impressive a couple of games, that they are
Speaker 1: the title favorites. To me, I think that, honestly, their
Speaker 1: ability to really contend for that claim is what level
Speaker 1: we continue to get out of Jordan Pool, because that
Speaker 1: was kind of always my biggest question about the Warriors,
Speaker 1: is as great as they were defensively with Draymond healthy,
Speaker 1: and as much as steps just sheer gravity offensively and
Speaker 1: ability could make things flow, and they're unselfishes and Draymond facilitating.
Speaker 1: Great teams need that second, real like star level creator right,
Speaker 1: and Pool was not that until the All Star break
Speaker 1: and then since then he's been twenty three and a
Speaker 1: half a game on sixty centry shooting and in the
Speaker 1: playoffs has been unbelievable. So I think that I really
Speaker 1: like their depth. I think their thirty woven when Draymond
Speaker 1: and Steph both play this year. So to me, it's
Speaker 1: about Pool. I mean, do you think, like, like, is
Speaker 1: he the key if this team is going to try
Speaker 1: to go out and actually win the title? Absolutely? And
Speaker 1: I thought Draymond and if you guys haven't seen this,
Speaker 1: that you gotta check it out. Draymond Green talked Broke
Speaker 1: Down the Nuggets series. You can find it on YouTube
Speaker 1: and on the Draymond Green podcast feed um, and he
Speaker 1: talked about Jordan Pool's floor game. But one of the
Speaker 1: specific things that he talked about, that's something that I've
Speaker 1: been preaching about a lot on this show, and I
Speaker 1: did a whole video about for Warriors fans about a
Speaker 1: month month and a half ago, when Jordan Pool was
Speaker 1: kind of starting to get this run going. I talked
Speaker 1: about how Jordan's Pool is starting to dictate similar coverages
Speaker 1: that Steph had and Draymond Green went and said exactly
Speaker 1: that on his show today, which I which I I
Speaker 1: appreciated because it's something that I've noticed. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: when Steph compromises a defense to such a dramatic extent
Speaker 1: and Jordan Pool's ability to do the same thing, it
Speaker 1: just gets it makes the team literally unguardable, and so
Speaker 1: many different ways. There was a play in the there
Speaker 1: was a play in that run that the death lineup
Speaker 1: run in the second quarter where Andrew Wiggins was on
Speaker 1: the left wing. And Andrew Wiggins remember shooting thirty from
Speaker 1: three over the course of this regular season, and Steph
Speaker 1: and Clay are steps kind of on the other side
Speaker 1: of the wing, are a little bit a little bit
Speaker 1: away from Wiggins and and Clay's in the corner and
Speaker 1: Draymond Green has the ball at the top of the
Speaker 1: key and Jordan Poole just does like a V cut
Speaker 1: out to the perimeter. I think Aaron Gordon was the
Speaker 1: one guarding him. Draymond throws the ball to Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon has to panic clothes out to Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool because that's the same thing you have to do
Speaker 1: with Steph. And as a result, Jordan Pool just does
Speaker 1: a basic rip through to the baseline, and nobody's home.
Speaker 1: Literally nobody's home, because who are you helping off of?
Speaker 1: You leaving Steph? Are you leaving Clay? Are you leaving
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins. It's like having another guy that compromised the
Speaker 1: defense to that extent it captures at least offensively, you're
Speaker 1: never gonna get the and not not and Kevin durant
Speaker 1: Is is so incredible when the game bogs down as
Speaker 1: like an isolation score that this is probably blasphemous to say,
Speaker 1: but at least in the open court, open flow like
Speaker 1: Steph brand of basketball, Jordan Pool brings some similar scoring
Speaker 1: punch that allows them to hit some offensive heights that
Speaker 1: are very similar to that that I'm a hundred percent
Speaker 1: with you that Jordan Pool does dictate the ceiling in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different ways. But even with to me,
Speaker 1: the Jordan Pool thing is more exciting for the Warriors
Speaker 1: in the long term because so much about this team
Speaker 1: in their fan base has been about the two eras, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you've got the existing era of Steph, Clay and Draymond,
Speaker 1: but then you've got Jonathan Cominga and James Wiseman is
Speaker 1: like the future, and you kind of get caught straddling
Speaker 1: that line, and in my opinion, you lose both eras
Speaker 1: when you do it that way. I've hated that approach
Speaker 1: from general management groups all the time. But Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: becoming like a legitimate All Star level player over the
Speaker 1: course of those last couple of months, that bridges that gap.
Speaker 1: That is an influx of outlet that allows you to
Speaker 1: accomplish what you would have accomplished, like, you know, like
Speaker 1: it had they traded Jonathan Comingo for C. J. McCollum
Speaker 1: or something like that, you would have had a similar vibe, right,
Speaker 1: So you get Now you've accomplished what you would have
Speaker 1: accomplished by trading away your young guys first star, and
Speaker 1: you still have the young guys. So it's it's it's
Speaker 1: It's obviously a huge ceiling razer for the long run,
Speaker 1: but within the confines of this specific postseason, I still
Speaker 1: think they're too thin on the wing and under the
Speaker 1: basket to be the favorite. That doesn't mean they can't win,
Speaker 1: It just means I don't have him as the favorite.
Speaker 1: All Right, We've got another question, this one from Connor Phillips.
Speaker 1: The Hawks fell down to nothing today, you know, they
Speaker 1: were able to make a bit of a push, but
Speaker 1: pretty consistently seemed to be outclassed by the Heat. So, Jason,
Speaker 1: are there any adjustments the Hawks could make to have
Speaker 1: a better shot in that series in your opinion? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they would need to find a time machine and
Speaker 1: they would need to go back to October, and then
Speaker 1: he would they would need to practice playing defense four
Speaker 1: six months and then they might have a better chance.
Speaker 1: They and in the first quarter they did a better
Speaker 1: job flying around on the wing, and then Trey Young
Speaker 1: played better, which we knew he would. That was just
Speaker 1: an utterly disastrous Game one, and you could argue fatigue
Speaker 1: played a role in that as well, after having to
Speaker 1: work their way through the through the playing tournament. But
Speaker 1: in general, I tend to think that like they are
Speaker 1: the odds, they are the sore thumb in this entire
Speaker 1: postseason run. All eight teams out West are legit. You know,
Speaker 1: even the Jazz who are fraudulent are not to the
Speaker 1: same extent as as as the Atlanta Hawks are. It's
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference. With uh, the Lanta Hawks are
Speaker 1: like the sword there, the sore thumb in this playoff run.
Speaker 1: They have no business. They are utterly they they are
Speaker 1: outclassed by all other fifty, every one of the other
Speaker 1: fifteen teams. I I I can't wait for that series
Speaker 1: to be over, just because it's like watching it. I
Speaker 1: just feel like it feels like watching regular season basketball
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different levels. I do. Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: looks fantastic, though, I will say that, and it's amaze
Speaker 1: seeing how well he thrives in this playoff environment. I
Speaker 1: I tend to think that he's a little bit more
Speaker 1: hot and cold than people realize. Like he tends to
Speaker 1: average twenty Like he's his averages are always like twenty
Speaker 1: one twenty two points, right, but it's like it usually
Speaker 1: comes in the form of like forty and then ten
Speaker 1: and then and then ten. Like that's kind of the
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler experience. Like if you catch Jimmy Butler on
Speaker 1: the right night, he looks like you could be one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the league. Well, Jason, that
Speaker 1: is just beautifully tied in with another question that we have,
Speaker 1: this one from PG in the chat, and it is
Speaker 1: can Jimmy Butler and the Heat get revenge versus the
Speaker 1: Sixers next round? Oh Man that's a good question that
Speaker 1: um I will certainly be rooting for them. Per my
Speaker 1: rant last night about how I want the Sixers to
Speaker 1: lose for so many different reasons, they present a bunch
Speaker 1: of different They present a much a bunch of better
Speaker 1: defensive options. The things that I've been talking about with
Speaker 1: the that I want Toronto to guard the Sixers, I
Speaker 1: think Miami will better be able to pull off. Also,
Speaker 1: bam At a bio gives you at least a half
Speaker 1: decent body to throw joe El embiad in single coverage,
Speaker 1: which Toronto has not had at all. I do think
Speaker 1: that this is the issue though, as we talked about
Speaker 1: with Toronto, they needed to get out in transition because
Speaker 1: Philly is a bad transition defense. But in the half
Speaker 1: court they're a great defense because if you can get
Speaker 1: if you can get their defense set Joel Embiat, it
Speaker 1: causes so many problems underneath the basket, and they have
Speaker 1: enough size on the wing to end mobility on the
Speaker 1: wing to cause teams problems. The issue is My issue
Speaker 1: with Miami all season has been their half court offense,
Speaker 1: specifically when they go with their guys that they have
Speaker 1: to play in the postseason, like yeah, they can play,
Speaker 1: you know, like they can play Max s Truce and
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson all at the same time
Speaker 1: and have a ton of shooting. And then yeah, like
Speaker 1: guys like Jimmy Butler are gonna feast and it's gonna
Speaker 1: look great, but they can't guard well enough with that lineup,
Speaker 1: Like they're gonna havel to go down with Bam and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler and and p J. Tucker. And with that lineup,
Speaker 1: they suddenly have two guys that you can flat out
Speaker 1: ignore in a third that you probably can't ignore as well,
Speaker 1: and that's Jimmy Butler, so at least as a perimeter
Speaker 1: jump shooter. So what ends up happening there is now
Speaker 1: you've got You've got Joel Embiide camping under the basket
Speaker 1: the entire time and the half court because it was
Speaker 1: just like Anthony Davis did to Bam out of Bio.
Speaker 1: So unfortunately, as much as I would love to see
Speaker 1: Philly lose the second round series, uh and the first
Speaker 1: round series isn't over, but it looks like it certainly
Speaker 1: could be. But as much as I'd like to see it,
Speaker 1: they just got they caught two really good draws. They
Speaker 1: got a Toronto team that combusted and got hurt, and
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse might have had a game plan that I
Speaker 1: just disagreed with. And then they're gonna catch a Miami
Speaker 1: team in the second round that can't score in the
Speaker 1: half court, so that might be enough to send the
Speaker 1: Sixers to the conference finals, were hopefully mercifully they will lose. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'm aligned with you there. I totally agree
Speaker 1: on what's been the issue at the Heat for so
Speaker 1: much of the year. And it's like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of days, a lot of days where Tyler here is
Speaker 1: their best offensive player, and that's a lot to ask
Speaker 1: to then go out and like contend for a title
Speaker 1: with that, you know, as improved and nasty as he is,
Speaker 1: you know, the efficiency isn't consistent enough. The ability to
Speaker 1: really dictate the flow of an offense isn't totally there
Speaker 1: with him. So I think I'm with you. There's just
Speaker 1: more easy offense with the Sixers. One interesting thing, though,
Speaker 1: I think you mentioned bam as an option with and Bead.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if there are many teams
Speaker 1: better equipped to handle Harden, and we have seen the
Speaker 1: Heat just swarm tray Young out of the pick and roll.
Speaker 1: We have seen how incredible Bam is switching there obviously
Speaker 1: many times over, but that to me feels like with
Speaker 1: the multiple guys that could throw at him on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: with obviously Bam switch ability, that could really be a
Speaker 1: nightmare for Hard and he's gonna have to work for
Speaker 1: buckets and as we've seen, I mean, you know, he's
Speaker 1: eighteen a game on thirty five percent shooting over his
Speaker 1: last ten, so that could definitely, I think, be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a drop offs lot for him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is gonna be the game plan because
Speaker 1: one of the big reasons why, Like I was listening
Speaker 1: to Zach Low earlier today and he was talking about
Speaker 1: how the Raptors need to jank things up even more
Speaker 1: and get even crazier with the way that they guard hardened,
Speaker 1: the heart, heartened and beat stuff, and I could not
Speaker 1: disagree more. Like, I just think, like, who have been
Speaker 1: the unsung heroes of the series for Philly. It's been
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris and Tyres Maxie. Maxie more flashy so, but
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris is having a really solid series as a
Speaker 1: as a catch and shoot guy and as a guy
Speaker 1: who's attacking mismatches in the post, he's doing a lot
Speaker 1: of like quick ducans, you know, like when he catches
Speaker 1: in transition, if he catches a small guy on him,
Speaker 1: like they'll just kind of send and beat out to
Speaker 1: the perimeter and Tobias will just duck in for a
Speaker 1: quick layup and stuff. And like, those two guys are
Speaker 1: really good players. Is Tobias overpaid, yes, but he's a
Speaker 1: really good player. Entires Maxie is a really good player.
Speaker 1: And so if you want to play, if you want
Speaker 1: to let them play four on three on the back
Speaker 1: end all day long, they're probably gonna beat you. And
Speaker 1: so I agree with you that the Heat are equipped
Speaker 1: way better than Toronto is to cause James Harden problems.
Speaker 1: The question is are they gonna are they going to
Speaker 1: are they gonna send multiple bodies at James Harden and
Speaker 1: all these actions or are they going to play real
Speaker 1: basketball in those environments and then throw the kitchen sink
Speaker 1: and emb like stupid stuff Like I talked I talked
Speaker 1: in the last night's show about that Tyrese MAXI uh
Speaker 1: pick and pop with with Harden. They're running a pick
Speaker 1: and pop with two guards okay, and the screener in
Speaker 1: this case, Maxi is the better of the two players
Speaker 1: in this series. You know, you James Harden, That's a
Speaker 1: whole other converence if you want to. Obviously, his playmaking
Speaker 1: probably makes him a better player than Naxie, But in
Speaker 1: terms of like scoring the basketball, Maxi is a better
Speaker 1: player right now because Harden doesn't have that burst and
Speaker 1: like you're seeing the Raptors like like panic about leaving
Speaker 1: Harden in a switch and get and giving uh Maxie
Speaker 1: straight line drives to the basket. It's just badged strategy.
Speaker 1: So I agree with you, But like I I want
Speaker 1: to see at least one team in this postseason run
Speaker 1: dare James Harden to do all the scoring. I just
Speaker 1: want to see it. I just want to see what
Speaker 1: it looks like. I mean, I think that you are
Speaker 1: totally justified in that, like you said, I mean, Maxie,
Speaker 1: I think you're shooting six in this series, Harris is shooting.
Speaker 1: Those guys are among the best third and fourth options
Speaker 1: in the league. And hardeness well actually scoring as like
Speaker 1: the fourth option. He's fourth among six doing still efficiently.
Speaker 1: So I think that'd be very interesting. All right, We're
Speaker 1: gonna switch gears here with a question from Mason are
Speaker 1: that I really really hope does not come from personal experience. Jason,
Speaker 1: what is the moral responsibility of a person to quote,
Speaker 1: save a stranger from a seemingly harmful cult? What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts, Oh my gosh, to save a stranger from
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's a really really weird question. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like what kind of cult are we
Speaker 1: talking about here? Is it like a religion thing or
Speaker 1: is it like like various behavior thing. Okay, religion is
Speaker 1: weird for me because I you could argue that every
Speaker 1: religion is a could to some level, you know, so like,
Speaker 1: and we don't want to get too much further into
Speaker 1: that detail. So I think if it was a religious thing,
Speaker 1: I'd probably just have private conversations with my wife about
Speaker 1: how crazy the person was. But if it was like
Speaker 1: if it was like, you know, like like if my
Speaker 1: buddy came to me tomorrow and decided that he was
Speaker 1: going to become a vegan, not as a health choice,
Speaker 1: but be because he decided that like animals shouldn't be
Speaker 1: eaten or something like that, I'd probably have a conversation
Speaker 1: with him. M Is that coldish behavior, veganism. Dude, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to come up with a graded way too. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to come up with a g readed way to
Speaker 1: talk about something like I mean, like, do you want
Speaker 1: me to come out and say he's joining a weird
Speaker 1: sex could the carson? Do you want me to say that?
Speaker 1: Because if you want me to, I will. First of all,
Speaker 1: not my question, Mason's question, but here's the key descriptor.
Speaker 1: I think seemingly harmful. But also, Mason says, a stranger,
Speaker 1: And I'm not even really sure how I would have
Speaker 1: an intimate enough experience with a stranger to say, hey, buddy,
Speaker 1: I don't really like your life choices. You know. So
Speaker 1: that's a good point. The stranger throws it off, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it does. So I'm thinking there's not that much of
Speaker 1: a moral responsibility. I mean, if I see somebody walking
Speaker 1: into like a go sacrifice ceremony of some kind, I'm
Speaker 1: probably just gonna assume that they're vibe and go on
Speaker 1: my mary way my day. Yeah. Okay, we've got another
Speaker 1: weird one here, not basketball related, but we had multiple
Speaker 1: people talking about the Kardashian curse in the chat. Obviously,
Speaker 1: with what happened to book with the hamstrings. So do
Speaker 1: you believe in curses? I don't believe in curses. I
Speaker 1: do believe in things like karma, so like I do
Speaker 1: believe in like the basketball gods, or like just the
Speaker 1: general philosophy of like what goes around comes around. But
Speaker 1: I do not believe in curses. I'm not a very
Speaker 1: superstitious guy. I'm not. Like even when I was playing
Speaker 1: in college, Like I was never superstitious about specific things
Speaker 1: that I would do, but I was always a very
Speaker 1: I was a man of my routine, though, and I
Speaker 1: have always felt weird about that routine. Like like, for instance,
Speaker 1: even with these late night shows. I've been doing late
Speaker 1: night shows now for probably've probably done over a hundred
Speaker 1: of them over the last year and a half or so.
Speaker 1: And like when I take a late afternoon nap, I
Speaker 1: just find that I'm more awake for those kinds of things,
Speaker 1: and so like if I don't get my late afternoon
Speaker 1: new nap, like today I did not get my late
Speaker 1: afternoon nap, and like I was paranoid all night. I'm like,
Speaker 1: am I gonna be exhausted when I'm what I'm doing
Speaker 1: the show, So like I'm a man of my routine,
Speaker 1: and I do believe in karma, but I am not
Speaker 1: a superstitious guy by any stretch of the imagination. I'm
Speaker 1: with you all the way there, but I will a
Speaker 1: I respect somebody who tries to curse another person. You know,
Speaker 1: you see people every once in a while in the
Speaker 1: stands of a game and they're doing some sort of
Speaker 1: weird voodoo motion, and I can appreciate that. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of the basketball gods, Jason, we have had a
Speaker 1: bit of a basketball god on the court in the
Speaker 1: making in Jason Tatum. So let me ask you, do
Speaker 1: you think he's a top five player on the planet
Speaker 1: right now? I do not. Now this is this is
Speaker 1: kind of falls in line perfectly with the conversation that
Speaker 1: we had yesterday surrounding Yokich and I talked a lot
Speaker 1: about how I hate the rush that people are in
Speaker 1: to crown these people when they're having a good stretch
Speaker 1: of basketball, and like, like, let's talk about Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: for a second. Do you think that last year after
Speaker 1: the Celtics went out with a whimper in the first round,
Speaker 1: again it's the Nets, do you guys think that Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum was a top five player at that point, because
Speaker 1: I don't and like the guys were trying to put
Speaker 1: him over have had a ton of success in the
Speaker 1: league for a long time, right, Like the reason why
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about this tonight was because it's
Speaker 1: been kind of a hot topic around the league. Tonight.
Speaker 1: Zach Lowe said that there were only four players that
Speaker 1: were definitively above him. You had Tim Bontemps say that
Speaker 1: he was the third best player in the league. I
Speaker 1: I saw, Um, you know, it's been it's been a bit.
Speaker 1: Bill Simmons was talking about how he's a top tier
Speaker 1: superstar on his show as well, and there's some Homerism
Speaker 1: going on. There is a couple of Boston guys in
Speaker 1: that group. But it's like, my thing is like he's
Speaker 1: been playing really well since January, like unbelievably well since January.
Speaker 1: And yeah, strictly, when I'm looking in that window of time,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing one of the best perimeter defenders in all
Speaker 1: of basketball, who's also very good off the ball as
Speaker 1: a defensive player, who also can grab contested re sounds
Speaker 1: when his team needs him to within their scheme. And
Speaker 1: then on the other end, of the floor. We have
Speaker 1: a dynamic three level score. He's improved massively with his
Speaker 1: handle and his ability to get into the paint, so
Speaker 1: we have an incredible three level score. Who in the
Speaker 1: last couple of months has done a great job accepting
Speaker 1: the double team and allowing in passing out of it
Speaker 1: and helping make plays for his teammates. So on the surface,
Speaker 1: that all looks amazing, But it's been a couple of months. Guys, Like, what, like,
Speaker 1: how ridiculous is it to literally put Jayson Tatum over
Speaker 1: Lebron James who won a Finals m v P literally
Speaker 1: like less than a year and a half ago or
Speaker 1: a And I think it's right around a year and
Speaker 1: a half ago. Now, like a finals MVP a year
Speaker 1: and a half ago, and we're gonna say that Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum is better than him now, Like, I just don't
Speaker 1: understand that. Like, do I think Jayson Tatum is going
Speaker 1: to continue to play this well and have a bunch
Speaker 1: of dominant playoff runs and be in the m VP
Speaker 1: conversation year and a year out. Yes, But I'm there's
Speaker 1: no race. There is no race to try to there
Speaker 1: there's I don't understand why people want to be the
Speaker 1: first guy to try to say that kind of stuff, like,
Speaker 1: let's let's be honest, guys. Even with how disastrous that
Speaker 1: Laker team was this year, remember what you saw from
Speaker 1: Lebron James when he was on the court as a
Speaker 1: scorer and as a playmaker and the things obviously didn't
Speaker 1: try on defense a lot this season. For we don't
Speaker 1: even have to get into it. But if tomorrow, if tomorrow,
Speaker 1: in Game two of that Brooklyn series, if it was
Speaker 1: Lebron James in place of Kevin Durant with that same
Speaker 1: NETS team, would you be sitting there more or less scared?
Speaker 1: I would argue you'd be the same amount of scared,
Speaker 1: if not a little bit more, because of Lebron's passing
Speaker 1: ability and how dangerous he can be in a one
Speaker 1: game playoff setting, like depending on how you've a stacked
Speaker 1: him up with k D. So, Like the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is is like as great as Tatum is,
Speaker 1: this league is freaking stacked. Man at the top of
Speaker 1: the league, got Janice, Katie and Lebron in my opinion,
Speaker 1: who are still at like the three of the best
Speaker 1: big wings that we've ever seen in NBA history. You've
Speaker 1: got Kawhi Leonard coming back next year. You've got two
Speaker 1: centers that are unbelievable. Now, the that's where it gets interesting,
Speaker 1: Like you do you think I would take Tatum over
Speaker 1: a guy like embad or Yokis. Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: I have to think more about that. I don't have
Speaker 1: to take on it right this second. But those are guys,
Speaker 1: like unproven guys that don't have a track record of
Speaker 1: postseason success at the highest level year after year after
Speaker 1: year after year. Yeah, we can have that conversation, but
Speaker 1: come on, guys, for the for the like, with enough
Speaker 1: of the disrespect of the guys that have proven it
Speaker 1: time and time again. I love Jayson Tatum. I love
Speaker 1: watching him play. I'm super proud of all the success
Speaker 1: that he's had over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of years for a Celtics team that's kind of seemed
Speaker 1: like they've been stuck in the mud a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna sit here and be like, up
Speaker 1: top five better than Lebron like that. That's that's jumping
Speaker 1: the gun and like, and you're seeing a little bit
Speaker 1: of it in this series. Like the Celtics only got
Speaker 1: nineteen points in the fourth order of Game one, and
Speaker 1: a huge problem there was Jayson Tatum. The Nets were
Speaker 1: successful at getting the ball out of Jason's Tatum, Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum's hands and not giving up baskets on the back
Speaker 1: end and a bit it almost reminded me of James Harden.
Speaker 1: Do you guys remember in the Bubble when the Lakers
Speaker 1: would double team James Harden and they would pre rotate
Speaker 1: out of it and James hardenman kind of drift out
Speaker 1: the half court. Tatum has been doing some of that.
Speaker 1: He had a really important cut on the final possession
Speaker 1: of the game when he got that layup for the win.
Speaker 1: But if you watched the tape from that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: against the Nets, Jayson Tatum only took four shots. He
Speaker 1: was one for four, He had zero assists with a turnover.
Speaker 1: He struggled in that quarter. The Nets successfully took him
Speaker 1: out of the game in a lot of ways. Now,
Speaker 1: he wasn't completely useless, to be clear, there was that
Speaker 1: play that I talked about, the play before the game winner,
Speaker 1: where the Nets, being so terrified of Jayson Tatum, allowed
Speaker 1: email Udoka to use Tatum as a decoy on the
Speaker 1: left wing with a little off ball screen between him
Speaker 1: and Al Horford that took Nick Claxton and Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: all the way out of the paint so that Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown had an open paint to go. Tatum is still
Speaker 1: a very effective basketball player even when he's getting double
Speaker 1: teams like that. But like I talked about earlier, you
Speaker 1: don't see that with Lebron. You're never gonna see Lebron
Speaker 1: get completely taken out of a game offensively in a
Speaker 1: fourth quarter like that, because of his ability to take
Speaker 1: those double teams in specific spots on the floor where
Speaker 1: they're very, very difficult to navigate out of, and because
Speaker 1: of his and because he doesn't drift out of the play.
Speaker 1: That's the thing that's been killing Tatum in these fourth
Speaker 1: quarters as of late towards the end of the regular season.
Speaker 1: And here is like he'll draw the double and then
Speaker 1: he'll kind of drift out to forty feet and he's
Speaker 1: not a threat there. You've got to stay a threat.
Speaker 1: Don't be James Harden once you get the double team,
Speaker 1: as soon as you make that past cut, because that's
Speaker 1: what makes it so that on the back end, they're
Speaker 1: playing four on five and not four on four. If
Speaker 1: you let them play four and four on the back end.
Speaker 1: Then your double team accomplished absolutely nothing. So that's just
Speaker 1: one little example. I' there if I'm just breaking down
Speaker 1: his skill set. It's not like I'm gonna sit there
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, he's not as good at this
Speaker 1: as this guy at this or this or this. He's
Speaker 1: got all the tools. I'm just saying, for the sake
Speaker 1: of the rankings, let's wait until he has a little
Speaker 1: bit more success. He's got a very very talented team
Speaker 1: this year. If he's a top five player and he's
Speaker 1: got this team, he should win the championship this year.
Speaker 1: Because that that's the other thing. It's like, it's like
Speaker 1: I tell the Lebron fans all the time that are like, oh,
Speaker 1: Lebron is the best player in the league. Okay, that's great.
Speaker 1: Can I hold him to the best player in the
Speaker 1: league standard? Because if he's on the best player in
Speaker 1: the league standard, now I gotta call him out for
Speaker 1: not running back on defense, now I gotta Now I
Speaker 1: gotta call him out for taking a game off here
Speaker 1: and there where his efforts not there. Now I've got
Speaker 1: to I've got to hold him to that standard. That's
Speaker 1: the thing. That goes with Jason tam If you guys
Speaker 1: want to say he's a top five player, then we
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta say that a top five player went
Speaker 1: one for four in the fourth quarter while his offense
Speaker 1: completely fell apart, only managed nineteen points and barely scraped
Speaker 1: away a win against a team that they controlled for
Speaker 1: most of the night. So it's a complicated. That's why
Speaker 1: I don't want to put on that list just yet.
Speaker 1: You've got to earn the right to be there over
Speaker 1: consistent success in multiple playoff runs. We're gonna bring Carson
Speaker 1: back on. He's gonna give his his take on this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I totally agree with you on a lot
Speaker 1: of fronts. I think that the premature crowning point is
Speaker 1: an excellent one. People just are, generally, I think, very
Speaker 1: overreactionary in sports. And I think that you're right about
Speaker 1: just the immense talent in the league right now. And
Speaker 1: there are unquestionably dudes who are just more complete offensive
Speaker 1: engines when you combine scoring and playmaking. And Tatum obviously
Speaker 1: has improved as a playmaker, but like still certainly not
Speaker 1: truly elite in that capacity. But if I were to
Speaker 1: play Devil's advocate, I would probably have to disregard the
Speaker 1: sort of cumulative resume point and just look at post
Speaker 1: All Star Break Jayson Tatum and say, is that guy
Speaker 1: a top five player alive? And you know, I mean
Speaker 1: he is right of what is right up there for
Speaker 1: the most valuable archetype in basketball. I think if you're
Speaker 1: talking about league leads, scoring, wing, versatile three level guy,
Speaker 1: solid to good playmaker, really high level defensive player. I
Speaker 1: mean we've heard the numbers before, but post All Star Break,
Speaker 1: he's over thirty a game on sixty through shooting. It's
Speaker 1: peak Katie Kauai raw production on better efficiency than like
Speaker 1: a Kauai has ever reached, and like we said, really
Speaker 1: really good defense. So I think it's a tough argument
Speaker 1: to make just because the town in the league is
Speaker 1: so insane right now, and there are you know, ten
Speaker 1: guys who I'm sure everybody would like to have in
Speaker 1: their top five. But if he were to sustain this level,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, that's a really really special basketball
Speaker 1: player with like all time potential. And I do think
Speaker 1: it's like you said, Tatum has always had the skill set.
Speaker 1: It's just been about making the game easier, you know,
Speaker 1: finding ways to create more of those high probability opportunities
Speaker 1: instead of just relying on the difficult shot making. And
Speaker 1: he's done it. He gets downhill more, he gets the
Speaker 1: line more, he is handling doubles better, He's just shooting
Speaker 1: the ball really, really well. So I think you're right,
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I had to play a little
Speaker 1: bit of Devil's Advocate there, and I do think obviously
Speaker 1: we can both agree Tatum is special, special basketball player.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. If he sustains it, then you you're
Speaker 1: you're right than he than he is that guy. He's
Speaker 1: already a better playmaker than Kauai ever has been. So like,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, if he sustains it. My thing is,
Speaker 1: like again, first round exit last year, some of that
Speaker 1: was talent, not I'm not trying to say he should
Speaker 1: have won that series or anything, but first round exit
Speaker 1: last year, one playoff game this year. Okay, in that
Speaker 1: playoff game, he took it to Kadi and he was
Speaker 1: a better player than Katie in that game. But counterpoint,
Speaker 1: what do you think Kevin Durand's been thinking about the
Speaker 1: last couple of days, how he needs to bounce back
Speaker 1: in Game two? Kevin Durant's coming back with a big
Speaker 1: punch in Game two. And here's the thing. If Tatum
Speaker 1: stands up to that punch too, and he closes out
Speaker 1: the nets, and then he goes into the next round
Speaker 1: and he beats you honest in the bucks, and then
Speaker 1: he goes into the next round and he beats whoever
Speaker 1: wins out of that the other side of the Brackett Like, now,
Speaker 1: now we're talking about a guy that absolutely is in
Speaker 1: that conversation. But like again, it's just, it's just and
Speaker 1: this is just my approach to it. Like there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people that look at it and more
Speaker 1: of like a you know, in the moment type of perspective.
Speaker 1: My thing is, like I talked about this a lot
Speaker 1: the other day when I was talking about like me
Speaker 1: as a basketball player, like I would never put my
Speaker 1: shoes and myself in the shoes of an NBA player.
Speaker 1: I hate it when people even do that under the
Speaker 1: videos I post, because I think that's disrespectful. I have
Speaker 1: too much respect for the guys that have worked so
Speaker 1: hard to either get their name called in the draft
Speaker 1: or have a phone call come in from a from
Speaker 1: a general manager offering them a contract to play professional
Speaker 1: basketball in the n b A. I would never ever
Speaker 1: ever try to put myself on that level. And I
Speaker 1: kind of have that same approach with the stars that
Speaker 1: are that are at the top of the league. Like
Speaker 1: I just I think it's disrespectful with Lebron James and
Speaker 1: everything that he's accomplished, not just in his whole career,
Speaker 1: but what he's done recently. Like he was really good
Speaker 1: this year, he's a bad GM and him and Clutch
Speaker 1: and with the help of Genie and Rob butchered the
Speaker 1: Acres and they missed the playoffs. But at basketball, Lebron
Speaker 1: is still really really really really really really good. And
Speaker 1: so I just don't think it's I don't think it's
Speaker 1: respectful to those guys to suddenly just be like Tatum
Speaker 1: is better, you know what I mean. But that's just
Speaker 1: my approach. No, I think you're right, and it generally
Speaker 1: pays to hold onto your stock. You know, nineteen, everybody
Speaker 1: declared Lebron could no longer be the best player alive,
Speaker 1: and then he came back and you know, title run
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Yeah it's ridiculous, And yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: you're on the right side here, Alright, Guys that is
Speaker 1: all we have for tonight. As always, I appreciate your support.
Speaker 1: We do have Game two of Net Celtics tomorrow, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure if I remember correctly from the schedule, so
Speaker 1: we will be back right after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: all the games yesterday as or tomorrow. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys support and we will see you then.
Speaker 1: The volume