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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to DOOPS.
Speaker 2: And I here at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope
Speaker 2: all of you guys had an incredible week. We're gonna
Speaker 2: be doing a mail bag today. Thank you all of
Speaker 2: you guys who left questions in the video on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I obviously can't get to all of them, but we're
Speaker 2: gonna get to a bunch of them today and then
Speaker 2: starting next Tuesday, we're going to get back into our routine,
Speaker 2: so these mail back questions should be getting released throughout
Speaker 2: the weekend. You guys are the jove forob get started.
Speaker 2: Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel mean a lot
Speaker 2: to me if you guys would scroll down hit that
Speaker 2: subscribe button. Don't forget about our our podcast feeds. Wherever
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts under oops tonight. Follow me on
Speaker 2: Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss
Speaker 2: any show announcements or the film threads that I do
Speaker 2: from time to time in the mornings. And then, last
Speaker 2: but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the
Speaker 2: YouTube comments so we can hit them throughout the rest
Speaker 2: of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 2: first question, Hey, Jason, do you think the Warriors bench
Speaker 2: will still be as great if they trade Chris Paul?
Speaker 2: I think CP has to stay because he is organizing
Speaker 2: the bench offense perfectly, and if he gets traded he
Speaker 2: I think the plus minus in the non step minutes
Speaker 2: will decrease drastically. My question is who would you rather
Speaker 2: trade next to Kaminga instead of CP? Is Moody enough
Speaker 2: or would you put someone else in that trade for
Speaker 2: Siakam love those by the way, best basketball show pod
Speaker 2: right now, just keep going. Thank you for the kind
Speaker 2: words and for the support. Here's the thing with Chris Paul,
Speaker 2: It's about his salary slot. It's just really difficult to
Speaker 2: reach that number without including him. I do think that
Speaker 2: there will be some loss of organization and potential consistency
Speaker 2: in bench groups as a result. That said, it's far
Speaker 2: more important for your starting lineup to have more firepower.
Speaker 2: The main reason why is when push comes to shove
Speaker 2: in the playoffs anyway, you're playing all those guys thirty eight,
Speaker 2: thirty nine, maybe even in the low forties four minutes
Speaker 2: at least your best guys. You need to have five
Speaker 2: guys that you're willing to go to war with Denver
Speaker 2: with for seven games over the course of two weeks.
Speaker 2: Right that said, like, I don't think it'll be that
Speaker 2: big of an issue for the bench because of the
Speaker 2: emergence of pods. Brandon Pitzemski, him being a hit as
Speaker 2: a draft pick undoes a lot of the damage from
Speaker 2: the James Wiseman trade. He's just flat out, really really good.
Speaker 2: And as a result, there's a lot of guys who
Speaker 2: need touches between Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Brandon Pitzemski,
Speaker 2: whoever comes back in that theoretical Chris Paul, Jonathan kaminga deal.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's gonna be an issue of ball handling.
Speaker 2: I think there will be less consistency just because there'll
Speaker 2: be young and Chris Paul is one of the most consistent,
Speaker 2: you know, decision makers that we have in the game.
Speaker 2: But I think it'd be worth it to have that
Speaker 2: upgrade in terms of what the starting lineup is capable of.
Speaker 2: And again I see Moody as an example here, you
Speaker 2: try to make a deal without Jonathan kaminga. But the
Speaker 2: reality is I just think this is gonna be a
Speaker 2: real I think this is gonna be a seller's market
Speaker 2: this year. I think there are a lot of teams
Speaker 2: that are gonna be looking to make a deal to
Speaker 2: upgrade there and improve their chances at winning a championship.
Speaker 2: I think Golden State is likely to make a trade.
Speaker 2: I think the Lakers are likely to make a trade.
Speaker 2: I think Minnesota could make a trade. I think teams
Speaker 2: like Indiana and Oklahoma City might make a trade. Sacramento,
Speaker 2: in terms of trying to upgrade a their four spot,
Speaker 2: they look like a team who could be making a trade.
Speaker 2: Milwaukee looks like a team that's gonna make a trade.
Speaker 2: Miami and Philly look like teams that are gonna make trades,
Speaker 2: and most of them are going to be hunting the
Speaker 2: big fish. Sacramento, Indie, Oklahoma City. I think they're all
Speaker 2: gonna be going after the forwards right Miami and in Philadelphia,
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna be looking for some sort of
Speaker 2: additional star level shot creator. I think the Warriors are
Speaker 2: looking for that type of forward. I think the Lakers
Speaker 2: could be involved in conversations like that, although I think
Speaker 2: they'll primarily be targeting role players. But the point is
Speaker 2: is it's going to be a bidding war in a
Speaker 2: lot of these cases. And the bottom line is is
Speaker 2: like there is no asset that the Warriors have that
Speaker 2: is valued as much as Jonathan Kaminga is around the league,
Speaker 2: and so that's where it puts you into these tough decisions,
Speaker 2: like you could keep Jonathan Kaminga and you could get
Speaker 2: out bid, and then you could be a good team
Speaker 2: this year that's not really capable of winning the championship.
Speaker 2: And with each passing year, Steph will Age and Jonathan
Speaker 2: Minga will be better, but he at this point he
Speaker 2: doesn't project to be a super duper star. He might
Speaker 2: it's not off the table, but it's at this point
Speaker 2: some of a long shot, right, And so it's one
Speaker 2: of those things where to me, everybody has different philosophies, right,
Speaker 2: Certain franchises are okay, with being really good for a
Speaker 2: long time, right, But the Warriors aren't one of those franchises.
Speaker 2: The Warriors, they're trying to hang banners. They're a four
Speaker 2: time NBA champion. Everybody who runs this franchise has a
Speaker 2: big ego for good reason, because they're good at what
Speaker 2: they do. I don't think mediocrity is the goal here
Speaker 2: for the Warriors, and so in my opinion, you either
Speaker 2: lean all in with Steph to try to win the
Speaker 2: damn Larry O'Brien trophy, or you punt on this era,
Speaker 2: you do a complete pivot rebuild, and in that case,
Speaker 2: you're not looking to trade Jonathan Kaminga. Maybe you convince
Speaker 2: Steph to stay on board, But for the record, as
Speaker 2: good as that would be for the community, as good
Speaker 2: as as important as he is to the franchise, I'm
Speaker 2: not sure Steph would be interested in some sort of
Speaker 2: soft rebuild. And most importantly, he's he's a guy that
Speaker 2: you could trade and bring back just a shit ton
Speaker 2: of assets to help spark that rebut build and so
Speaker 2: to me, given the type of franchise that the Warriors are,
Speaker 2: it's kind of a crossroads here, and I think we'll
Speaker 2: see what happens until when we get to the deadline.
Speaker 2: But when they get to the deadline, they're gonna have
Speaker 2: a decision to make on that front. Next question, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 2: what's next for the Dallas Mavericks. They clearly have nailed
Speaker 2: their offseason moves and Lively has been a grand slam.
Speaker 2: With Luca playing at this level, I'd love to hear
Speaker 2: your thoughts about the next steps for this team. All right, So,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, once you have the guy which is
Speaker 2: like a top tier superstar that is capable of being
Speaker 2: the best player on a championship, championship team, the next
Speaker 2: step to me is coming up with a like a
Speaker 2: a very obvious five, like five guys that like we're
Speaker 2: going down with, right. I think that's a really underrated
Speaker 2: element of the Denver Nuggets success last year is like
Speaker 2: they had their clear five. They knew who they were
Speaker 2: going down with, right. That to me is that sort
Speaker 2: of congruency, so to speak. It is just an important
Speaker 2: trait to a basketball team reaching their app salute potential ceiling.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So, first question is is Kyrie the right number two?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: I love the offensive fit, but there are some concerns
Speaker 2: about the idea of having two stars that aren't top
Speaker 2: tier athletes that deeply impact the game defensively, right, Like,
Speaker 2: if we go back, like you can do it. We
Speaker 2: saw Denver last year, right with Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic.
Speaker 2: But they had excellent defensive players at two of the
Speaker 2: positions and a guy with really good length in Michael
Speaker 2: Porter Junior at that other spot. And so if it's Kyrie,
Speaker 2: you have to be really really good defensively at the
Speaker 2: other position.
Speaker 1: So let's look at lineup construction. Now. Remember what I
Speaker 1: always talk about.
Speaker 2: Is ideally, and again this is just my ideal version
Speaker 2: of a basketball team. There are so many different ways
Speaker 2: to construct a basketball team. We actually did had a
Speaker 2: conversation with the Nerd Sash guys yesterday about this idea. Essentially,
Speaker 2: like you know what Kevin Durant views as the way
Speaker 2: to build a basketball team versus the way Lebron James
Speaker 2: views the way to build a basketball team, and so
Speaker 2: on and so forth. It's really easy to pick one
Speaker 2: side or the other, but you can succeed in different ways.
Speaker 2: That said, my preferred construction is I want a skill guard,
Speaker 2: and then I want an athlete guard. Then I want
Speaker 2: to slender, tall, like a slender like kind of perimeter
Speaker 2: oriented forward. And then I want a bigger, stronger like
Speaker 2: frontline forward, not like an old school power forward like
Speaker 2: Drew Gooden, but just like a big strong athlete, someone
Speaker 2: along the lines of like an Aaron Gordon ideally is
Speaker 2: what I want in that four spot. And then I
Speaker 2: want my center to be athletic and capable of working
Speaker 2: in different coverages because playoff series just they kind of
Speaker 2: forced you to have to be able to play multiple
Speaker 2: different ways depending on the matchup. And so having a
Speaker 2: center that can competently switch and competently run a deep
Speaker 2: drop and competently run a high drop where he has
Speaker 2: to get up to the level and back up to
Speaker 2: the level and back a guy who can blitz with
Speaker 2: active hands. You want lots of versatility from that position. Right,
Speaker 2: So going down the line to me, Kyrie is the
Speaker 2: skill guard, right, I think Josh Green is actually the
Speaker 2: guy that could be your athlete guard, and he's been
Speaker 2: unavailable as of late, but I actually think Josh Green
Speaker 2: is is a like a good NBA starter, a guy
Speaker 2: that can be in that spot. Right Next is that
Speaker 2: slender kind of point of attack forward, the perimeter oriented forward.
Speaker 2: That's the question mark right now, Right, I think lucas
Speaker 2: your big power forward. Now, I know he doesn't really
Speaker 2: fill that role on offense, he's more of like a
Speaker 2: point guard. Right that said, I'm more talking about defense.
Speaker 2: Your position is who you can guard in the NBA,
Speaker 2: because offense you can play. The geometry is kind of
Speaker 2: your own, whatever your skill set is, right, Like, like
Speaker 2: the Warriors play a really weird style, the Nuggets play
Speaker 2: a really different style. Like every team kind of has
Speaker 2: a different offensive style depending on their personnel.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: But defensively, it's about who you can guard. Right, So,
Speaker 2: I actually look at Luca defensively at his best as
Speaker 2: a low man, a guy who uses his size and
Speaker 2: basketball IQ to make plays on the weak side, either
Speaker 2: like attagging rollers, offering secondary help, cleaning up the defensive glass,
Speaker 2: so and so far. I also like him there just
Speaker 2: as a guy who can get the rebound and then
Speaker 2: start the break. Right, So I look at Luca as
Speaker 2: your your power forward there and then that center position.
Speaker 2: Derek Lively could be that guy.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 2: I think he's been a Grand Slam. It's amazing how
Speaker 2: a good draft pick or a good free agent signing
Speaker 2: can kind of change the fortunes of a franchise. Derek
Speaker 2: is a great athlete, obviously a clean fit offensively. Defensively,
Speaker 2: we'll see as the years go by. That usually takes
Speaker 2: some time, But I don't see any reason why he
Speaker 2: couldn't be similar to like a Nick Claxton in his
Speaker 2: ability as kind of a lanky center to defend in
Speaker 2: different coverages, right, and so that points us to the
Speaker 2: three spot as being their next most realistic target. The
Speaker 2: thing is is with Kyrie being kind of a skill guard,
Speaker 2: and with Josh Green being a good point of attack
Speaker 2: defender but not like an outstanding point of attack defender,
Speaker 2: and with Luca being a lesser athlete at that four spot,
Speaker 2: I think it's really important that whoever it is they
Speaker 2: get at the three is a top tier perimeter defender.
Speaker 2: If they want to contend for a championship, it needs
Speaker 2: to be a guy that at least defensively is capable
Speaker 2: of reaching that at lou Door, you know, Dylan Brooks,
Speaker 2: Jaden McDaniels. There are a bunch of different versions of those guys, right,
Speaker 2: But like a legitimate guy that can, like you, can
Speaker 2: stick on the other team's best player for seven games
Speaker 2: and make his life hell. They can find that type
Speaker 2: of guy, it starts to make a ton of sense
Speaker 2: from a lineup construction standpoint, to be like, if that
Speaker 2: guy is a big six ' eight athlete, then him
Speaker 2: and Lively provides so much athleticism him and at Josh
Speaker 2: Green and Lively provides so much athleticism in that lineup
Speaker 2: that Kyrie and Luca being somewhat lesser athletes is not
Speaker 2: a problem. And as long as those guys are bought
Speaker 2: in like the way they are this season, I think
Speaker 2: they can get enough stops while simultaneously being extremely difficult
Speaker 2: to guard. So that's the direction I'd be looking right now.
Speaker 2: Round out a clear number five, a clear five man
Speaker 2: group by finding a top tier perimeter defender to put
Speaker 2: at the three. Next question, what do you think Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum's peak is? In your opinion? Could he play into
Speaker 2: the top twenty five to twenty fifteen all time? I
Speaker 2: honestly kind of feel bad for Tatum because he's an
Speaker 2: amazing player, but he rarely gets the recognition he deserves because,
Speaker 2: like you said in this video or in the video,
Speaker 2: the league is just so stacked with talent. It's hard
Speaker 2: to separate yourself. So I was actually surprised to find
Speaker 2: out this morning that Jayson Tatum is still twenty five
Speaker 2: years old. Even though we've always known he was young,
Speaker 2: it just feels like he's been around forever. And he
Speaker 2: has a ton of playoff experience. Did you know that
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum has played in ninety four playoff games. That's
Speaker 2: more than Carmelo Anthony played in in his entire career.
Speaker 2: And he's twenty five years old. He plays for an
Speaker 2: excellent franchise that consistently surround him with talent. Only twenty
Speaker 2: five years old, he's played in the conference finals four times. Right,
Speaker 2: like as bad as he was in the NBA Finals
Speaker 2: against the Warriors a couple of years ago, it just
Speaker 2: turned twenty four, Like he's young, and as I've talked about,
Speaker 2: twenty five kind of feels like that threshold to where
Speaker 2: guys kind of starts figure it out. And so my
Speaker 2: thing is, like, when I really look at how good
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum already is and some of the things he's
Speaker 2: starting to learn this season, using his size and strength,
Speaker 2: more diversity of shot creation, working more uncleared sides, spamming
Speaker 2: actions that get him advantages. It hasn't been perfect, there
Speaker 2: have been downsides, still has a long way to go
Speaker 2: in my opinion. But there's a version of this that
Speaker 2: from twenty seven to thirty two, he's like a definitive
Speaker 2: top three to four player in the league. And if
Speaker 2: he is, and he's surrounded with the amount of talent
Speaker 2: that the Celtics I expect will surround him with, there's
Speaker 2: no reason why he can't win multiple champions championships and
Speaker 2: enter into those conversations like again, I'm never going to
Speaker 2: pick the Celtics to win because my fears with them
Speaker 2: center around what happens with them in the playoffs. But
Speaker 2: what ends up happening in these situations is like eventually
Speaker 2: they break through. It's like Denver. I said the same
Speaker 2: thing with Denver last year. All season long, I was like,
Speaker 2: they can win the championship, but I'm not going to
Speaker 2: pick them because of trends in recent NBA history that
Speaker 2: tell me that teams that aren't in the top ten
Speaker 2: defensively and aren't defending champions don't win the title. Right then,
Speaker 2: Denver broke the trend.
Speaker 1: That's the thing.
Speaker 2: The narrative in the trend surrounding the Celtics is going
Speaker 2: to be they can't execute at the end of games,
Speaker 2: rightfully so, because that's what they've demonstrated. But then one
Speaker 2: day they're just gonna do it, and they'll have the
Speaker 2: talent and Tatum will make enough plays, and they'll do
Speaker 2: enough on both ends of the floor, and they'll win
Speaker 2: a title. I'm not sure if it'll be this year,
Speaker 2: but like, given the amount of talent on that roster,
Speaker 2: the trajectory Tatum's on, his age, he feels like a
Speaker 2: multi time champion. To me, it's only a matter of when.
Speaker 2: Next question, what do you think Memphis needs to be
Speaker 2: able to contend? What do you think they should target?
Speaker 2: I should scroll down here because there was another Memphis
Speaker 2: Grizzlies question that I want to include here. Here we
Speaker 2: go with jaw Smart and Canard coming back? Is the
Speaker 2: sixth seed too far of a goal? And how legit
Speaker 2: is Memphis's big three of Jaw Bain and Jaron Jackson.
Speaker 2: So I actually think it's like, here's the thing. Desmond
Speaker 2: Bain has continued to make leaps from year to year,
Speaker 2: which above and beyond anything having to do with his
Speaker 2: potential as an indicator of what he's got up here.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny. I've talked a lot about the
Speaker 2: difference between him and Dylan Brooks's trash talkers, right, because
Speaker 2: like Desmond Bain is the guy that, like on the court,
Speaker 2: he's being an asshole because he just wants to win
Speaker 2: that game so damn bad, and that mental chess match
Speaker 2: piece is part of it for him, right. But Desmond
Speaker 2: Bain is not the guy that goes into the postgame
Speaker 2: press conference and is super super performative with his trash
Speaker 2: talk the way that Dylan Brooks was, right, And that's
Speaker 2: what I think. I think that's an upside thing with Bain.
Speaker 2: I think he's just a freak competitor, and I think
Speaker 2: that drives him in the gym to work harder and
Speaker 2: harder and harder every year at rounding out certain elements
Speaker 2: of his skill set. Continues to add, playmaking continues to add,
Speaker 2: the ability to score off of the dribble. Desmond Bain's awesome.
Speaker 2: We've seen as John Moran's come back and they've immediately
Speaker 2: ripped off a bunch of wins. That dude's just a
Speaker 2: bona fide superstar.
Speaker 1: In the making.
Speaker 2: It's a question of when, not if, right so like
Speaker 2: I love the backcourt piece there Jaren Jackson. The one
Speaker 2: thing that's tricky with him, as good as he is,
Speaker 2: is he gets out of position a lot. He has
Speaker 2: a hard time staying down on his feet and making
Speaker 2: good decisions about when to go for a block versus
Speaker 2: when to stay home and clean up the defensive glass.
Speaker 2: So he gets himself out of position a lot, and
Speaker 2: he can commit a lot of fouls right. One of
Speaker 2: the things I think that can make it a lot
Speaker 2: easier for him is putting a legitimate four.
Speaker 1: Next to him.
Speaker 2: And again, like Santel Damas a good player, Zira Williams
Speaker 2: is a good player. But neither of them look like
Speaker 2: the kind of guys that could be in that three
Speaker 2: and four spot and anchor all of this thing out.
Speaker 2: Marcus Smart, as good as he is, I don't think
Speaker 2: he's one of those guys. I think in the short
Speaker 2: term he's good. In the short term, he's a guy
Speaker 2: that will help them. But the ultimate version of this team,
Speaker 2: again going back to our original team construction concepts, it's John,
Speaker 2: it's Baine, it's Jaron Jackson slotted next to an Aaron
Speaker 2: Gordon esque defender that can help clean up the defensive
Speaker 2: glass when he gets out of position right, and then
Speaker 2: an excellent point of attack defender a la Dylon Brooks right,
Speaker 2: a guy along those lines, And I get why he
Speaker 2: wasn't a personality fit with this group. I think we've
Speaker 2: learned I was. You know, my issues with Dylan were
Speaker 2: more about his behavior. I've always thought he was very good.
Speaker 2: But like, whatever that player is that fills into that spot,
Speaker 2: that's what they need. They need a guy that can
Speaker 2: throw out the other team's best player for a seven
Speaker 2: game series and have success there. Hey, Jason, love the
Speaker 2: show and think you're doing an amazing job. Quick mail,
Speaker 2: bad question for you. The Pistons are obviously in a
Speaker 2: rut and seriously struggling. What would you do if you're
Speaker 2: a GM of the Pistons to fix this? What do
Speaker 2: you think they'll do come trade deadline offseason things? First
Speaker 2: of all, thank you so much for supporting the show
Speaker 2: and for the kind words. So I've done little flybys
Speaker 2: on the Pistons, but let's talk about him for a
Speaker 2: little bit longer today. So in my opinion, if you're
Speaker 2: going to be bad, you got to make it count,
Speaker 2: which means drafting in the next couple of years is
Speaker 2: going to be huge, And unfortunately, this is kind of
Speaker 2: a bad year to be bad because the top of
Speaker 2: this next year's draft is weaker, significantly weaker than last
Speaker 2: year's was. Now, there's significant upside here that I don't
Speaker 2: even think Pistons fans are aware of. Nningham is awesome.
Speaker 2: He's a star in the making. Jade and Ivy, in
Speaker 2: spite of having a really tough role, has actually been
Speaker 2: pretty good. Here's a crazy stat for you. During the
Speaker 2: first twenty games of the season, he played twenty five
Speaker 2: plus minutes just seven times, so very very fluctuating role.
Speaker 2: In the last six games, he's played twenty five plus
Speaker 2: minutes in every single game, and now he's started. In
Speaker 2: those six games, he's averaging sixteen points, five rebounds in
Speaker 2: five assists. And now for the season, he's put up
Speaker 2: some pretty interesting shot creation data. He's run one hundred
Speaker 2: and forty two pick and rolls in ISOs, including passes,
Speaker 2: leading to one hundred and sixty one points. That's one
Speaker 2: point one to three points per possession. I've always been
Speaker 2: a big believer in Jad and Ivy ever since the
Speaker 2: first time I saw him in Summer League. I think
Speaker 2: he has the unique combination of like star Moxie, but like,
Speaker 2: no one can keep him in front like I like,
Speaker 2: no one can keep the guy in front off the dribble,
Speaker 2: and so I think, especially when he gets into a
Speaker 2: more in situation and gets more reps, I think that's
Speaker 2: a superpower. I think that's the kind of thing like
Speaker 2: we've talked about with Darren Fox and Malik Monk, Like,
Speaker 2: when you have a guy who can consistently generate Gerbil penetration,
Speaker 2: it just makes the game easier for everybody else because
Speaker 2: the defense is constantly in rotation. So they got to
Speaker 2: lean into Jade and Ivy the rest of the way
Speaker 2: and get a better feel for whether or not he
Speaker 2: can be the guy next to Kate Cunningham. Right then,
Speaker 2: Jalen Duran, He's the ideal type of athletic and versatile
Speaker 2: center that I've been talking about in these mailbag videos, right,
Speaker 2: the guy that can potentially defend in multiple coverages in
Speaker 2: the future. Here's a crazy stat for you guys. According
Speaker 2: to Cleaning the Glass, which filters out garbage time, when
Speaker 2: Kate Cunningham, Jade and Ivy, and Jalen durn are on
Speaker 2: the floor together they are outscoring teams by three point
Speaker 2: three points per one hundred possessions in three hundred and
Speaker 2: thirteen possessions, roughly three games worth of data of those
Speaker 2: three guys on the floor together, and they've been positive.
Speaker 2: And again, that's not like something to write home about.
Speaker 2: But that's like, there's a lot of other stuff. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of other fluff in here that's kind of
Speaker 2: disrupting some of the other things going on with the Pistons.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Obviously, rotation, you know, stuff that I don't necessarily agree
Speaker 2: with in terms of the way the rotation is laid out. Obviously,
Speaker 2: injuries have played a role, and then the bench is
Speaker 2: like atrocious, it's so so, so bad, and it's something
Speaker 2: that's consistently hurting the team. And so there are some
Speaker 2: bright spots that are hidden deep underneath all that. So
Speaker 2: now let's look at that ideal lineup construction that I
Speaker 2: always talk about. Right to me, Jaden is the Jaden
Speaker 2: Ivy is the athlete guard, and he will have to
Speaker 2: become an excellent point of attack defender for this to
Speaker 2: pan out. The skill guard, in my opinion is Kate Cunningham.
Speaker 2: I know he's kind of six s eight. But like
Speaker 2: I look at him as the skill guard. Asar Thompson
Speaker 2: is your primary point of attacker and a point of
Speaker 2: attack defender and athlete wing and he's going to be
Speaker 2: able to take the primary, the higher leverage point of
Speaker 2: attack assignments. I actually think he's one of the better
Speaker 2: point of attack defenders I've ever scouted. As I've said
Speaker 2: on the show many times, right, power wing will get
Speaker 2: back there and then athletic center is You're is Jalen Duran, right,
Speaker 2: So it's that big forward spot and you need someone
Speaker 2: there that has real size because Asar Thompson is a
Speaker 2: little bit thin, right, you need someone there who can
Speaker 2: really shoot the ball. Because of sar Thompson is not
Speaker 2: an outstanding shooter. I think it's you could look for
Speaker 2: a kind of player there that's a little bit more
Speaker 2: flawed because he won't have to be as used on
Speaker 2: the ball. Because theoretically you want a guy like Jayden
Speaker 2: to guard other teams quick guards and because Usar Thompson is,
Speaker 2: you know, a guy that's going to take a high
Speaker 2: leverage point of attack assignment. You're more looking for a
Speaker 2: guy with size who can be a help side defender.
Speaker 2: So a guy who can play passing lanes, take the
Speaker 2: low man responsibilities, rotate on the weak side, clean up
Speaker 2: the defensive glass. I'll give you a random example of
Speaker 2: a type of player that's not a good point of
Speaker 2: attack defender that would be really useful in this system.
Speaker 2: Kyle Kuzma. I think a guy like Kyle Kuzma could
Speaker 2: be a really interesting player to put next to a
Speaker 2: Jaden Ivy and a Kid Cunningham if you could target
Speaker 2: him in a trade with the Washington Wizards. But that
Speaker 2: to me is where you start to put together a
Speaker 2: really complimentary lineup. From there, a couple of things. Empower
Speaker 2: them and allow them to fail. Give them long leashes,
Speaker 2: stop tinkering with the rotation. If you're gonna be bad,
Speaker 2: at least be bad while learning something. It's when you
Speaker 2: are bad without a sense of direction that it becomes
Speaker 2: a waste. And then from there you got to pivot
Speaker 2: quickly from the bad players on the bench. Bring in
Speaker 2: G League guys if you have to, are that are
Speaker 2: young and have potential. But like James Wiseman's not good
Speaker 2: and I don't think he's going to be Marvin Bagley
Speaker 2: is not good, and I don't think he's going to
Speaker 2: be so like that bench piece, at least round it
Speaker 2: out with guys that are going to fit the overall,
Speaker 2: you know, identity you're trying to build. Try something, but
Speaker 2: like whatever you do, don't put it yourself in a
Speaker 2: situation where you're giving a significant rotation minutes the guys
Speaker 2: that are just flat out bad basketball players. Hey, Jason,
Speaker 2: I want your opinion on the players that played for
Speaker 2: Team USA this year. It seems as if all the
Speaker 2: starters have made really good strides branding Gramas and Reeves,
Speaker 2: Tyres Haliburt and Jaylen Brunson, etc. Do you think playing
Speaker 2: some of the world's best with some of the world's
Speaker 2: best help them raise their ceilings in the NBA And
Speaker 2: if so, do you think it's sustainable or flucish. I
Speaker 2: absolutely think it helps raise their sailing and I absolutely
Speaker 2: think it's sustainable. It's a simple a topic that are lying.
Speaker 2: I should say that Ryan Brumley is one of the
Speaker 2: lead producers at the volume. As always said to me,
Speaker 2: it's a rising tide that lifts all boats. Surrounding yourself
Speaker 2: with other super successful people is a great way to
Speaker 2: find out things to emulate.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's funny because like The most fun that I have
Speaker 2: with the game of basketball now is in the summer.
Speaker 2: And over the summer, all of these young college players
Speaker 2: come back to town, and I've been fortunate enough to
Speaker 2: build connections with them over the years. And they're young,
Speaker 2: and they have a ton of energy, and they're all
Speaker 2: super competitive, and they're all desperate to get better. And
Speaker 2: so when I'm around them, it invigorates me to love
Speaker 2: the game more and to want to be even though
Speaker 2: I'm thirty two years old and I'm just playing for fun.
Speaker 2: It just brings the best out of me as a
Speaker 2: basketball player to surround myself around other really really good
Speaker 2: basketball players. And so that's kind of the way I
Speaker 2: look at it. It's like, imagine that same concept but
Speaker 2: translated to the highest level of the sport. Like even
Speaker 2: within the four hundred and fifty players in the NBA,
Speaker 2: there are players there that don't love the game. There
Speaker 2: are players there that have an enormous amount of natural ability,
Speaker 2: or I should at least say relative to the guys
Speaker 2: at the top of the league, right, And what ends
Speaker 2: up happening is you get in an environment like that
Speaker 2: team USA, and again you don't have the superstars there.
Speaker 2: You don't have the top, top, top tier guys that
Speaker 2: we are accustomed to seeing with Team USA. But all
Speaker 2: of these guys, especially for their age group, are highly
Speaker 2: motivated guys that you can pick up real quality traits
Speaker 2: from right and so I think in general, every single
Speaker 2: one of those guys gets around those guys, gets around
Speaker 2: the rest of that group, and they feel invigorated, they
Speaker 2: feel motivated. They there's obviously we've heard a lot about
Speaker 2: the famous one on one games right that take place
Speaker 2: at these things. I think in general it just serves
Speaker 2: as a springboard for any basketball player to reach a
Speaker 2: higher version of themselves. I've seen many fans occasionally call
Speaker 2: the current Celtics roster a super team because of their
Speaker 2: top end talent. This team is great when they are
Speaker 2: working hard together, but it doesn't feel like the KD
Speaker 2: Warriors era type of unfair. What's your definition of a
Speaker 2: super team and do you think the Celtics count is one.
Speaker 2: Are there any teams in the league currently that truly
Speaker 2: fit the description. I don't think we've had a team
Speaker 2: like that since the Golden State Warriors with KD. And
Speaker 2: most importantly, you could tell that just from championship odds,
Speaker 2: every single year, we've had championship odds that have positive odds,
Speaker 2: meaning like even if you bet for the favorite, you're
Speaker 2: going to make more money than you bet if they win, right,
Speaker 2: Whereas like those Warriors teams legitimately had negative odds, like
Speaker 2: you had to give extra money, like you had to bet.
Speaker 2: I can't remember exactly what the odds were, but I
Speaker 2: remember like twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen, it was like what
Speaker 2: one thirty or minus one forty that the Warriors would
Speaker 2: win the title, which is like insane like that that
Speaker 2: think about how crazy that is. The odds to pick
Speaker 2: one team to win the championship of the NBA at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the season was better odds than betting
Speaker 2: a point spread where you get minus one ten, right,
Speaker 2: Like it's crazy to think about. But like the reason
Speaker 2: why that was different was, you know, the Celtics team
Speaker 2: does have super team level talent in my opinion in
Speaker 2: terms of top to bottom total aggregate roster talent, but
Speaker 2: in terms of top end talent between Jason Tatum and
Speaker 2: Jaylen Brown, they're just there. Neither of them are on
Speaker 2: the same level as the Nikola Jokich is, the Luka
Speaker 2: Doncic the Jannis and Tenna Kumbo's like those kind of guys, right,
Speaker 2: And so when you get to the furthest levels of
Speaker 2: the NBA playoffs, the round three, round four, that is
Speaker 2: where the best players really shine through. And so as
Speaker 2: talented as the Celtics team is, I don't view them
Speaker 2: as a super team strictly from the standpoint of like
Speaker 2: their star talent. Like if they go, the Celtics, even
Speaker 2: if they win the title this year, will have to
Speaker 2: beat teams that have better star talent in order to
Speaker 2: get it done. They very well might, but I view
Speaker 2: them as just another one of the content. I view
Speaker 2: them as top tier. To me, it's them in Denver
Speaker 2: at the top of the list. But to me, in
Speaker 2: order to be like a true super team, you have
Speaker 2: to be a head and shoulders above the rest of
Speaker 2: the league. What made that Warriors team different was they
Speaker 2: were already an excellent team with a ton of talent,
Speaker 2: and a team that had superstar talent in Steph Curry,
Speaker 2: and then they added a top tier superstar like Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant at that point was a much better player than
Speaker 2: Jayson Tatum is now, and he was joining Steph Curry,
Speaker 2: who was a much better player than Jayson Tatum is.
Speaker 2: Now see the difference. That's why I kind of view
Speaker 2: them as a different tier. Is j dub On OKC underrated?
Speaker 2: This may sound stupid, but I can't think of many
Speaker 2: players who have looked this good in their second year
Speaker 2: as the second option on their team. His strength, his prowess,
Speaker 2: and transition and.
Speaker 1: Vision reminded me of a young Lebron.
Speaker 2: Obviously he's a less Obviously he's less of a physical anomaly,
Speaker 2: but he's certainly a better shooter in year two. I
Speaker 2: feel like he goes a bit under the radar because
Speaker 2: of how good shake Gildess Alexander is. I think the
Speaker 2: other reason he goes under the radar is he's still
Speaker 2: really young, right, Like we're talking about it in his
Speaker 2: second year, Like he just last night had his third
Speaker 2: consecutive twenty plus point game. That's only the third time
Speaker 2: in his career he's done that, And a big part
Speaker 2: of that is he's young. He's figuring some stuff out
Speaker 2: also playing alongside a ton of other ball handling so
Speaker 2: is excuse me, So his opportunities are a little bit
Speaker 2: more inconsistent, right, But I one hundred percent agree that
Speaker 2: he's underrated in the sense that I don't think people
Speaker 2: realize that this guy is a star in the making.
Speaker 1: Too.
Speaker 2: There's several key elements there, Like I, it starts with
Speaker 2: just the geometry, the floor, the flow of the game,
Speaker 2: decision making stuff. So for instance, like last night against
Speaker 2: the Knicks, it's j Dubb just picking on In He's
Speaker 2: bringing chet into ballscreen and he's just picking on Todge Gibson,
Speaker 2: and he's picking on Julius Randall, and he's making the
Speaker 2: right reads, and he's taking and making pull up jump shots.
Speaker 2: He's taking and making tough contested shots at the rim.
Speaker 2: It is like a surgical approach that you don't expect
Speaker 2: to see from a young player, and that's only going
Speaker 2: to get better and better as the years go by.
Speaker 2: From there, it's top tier athleticism, which, by the way,
Speaker 2: like I picked that up immediately at Summer League. You
Speaker 2: still go down in my Twitter feeded, I have a
Speaker 2: bunch of videos of Jaylen Williams dunking and me going like,
Speaker 2: holy shit, this guy, this guy's a ridiculous athlete, right,
Speaker 2: Like he was one of the standout guys in Summer
Speaker 2: League that year, and like, combine that with the high
Speaker 2: level passing ability, the ability to consistently beat people off
Speaker 2: the dribble, the shot making from all three levels, and
Speaker 2: then some of that like higher level flow of the
Speaker 2: game stuff. He's a star in the making. It's just
Speaker 2: a matter of when. Still super young, though, so there's
Speaker 2: gonna be some growing pains along the way. Next question,
Speaker 2: if handchecking were allowed again, who do you think would
Speaker 2: be the best defender in the league and who would
Speaker 2: be more effect who would be affected more by this
Speaker 2: change than most I dismissed this question entirely. I have
Speaker 2: a theory about hand checking. It was actually if you
Speaker 2: look in the NBA rule book, hand checking was out
Speaker 2: lowed in the seventies. And what has happened is is
Speaker 2: over the years there's been an ebb and flow in
Speaker 2: the amount of contact that officials have allowed, and there
Speaker 2: have been slight redefinitions of what it is. But still
Speaker 2: to this day, hand checking is a thing in basketball.
Speaker 2: Watch any NBA playoff game in particular, but it happens
Speaker 2: in regular season games as well. But watch any NBA
Speaker 2: playoff game. Guys have their hands on guys, they just do.
Speaker 2: One of the most common forms of hand checking that
Speaker 2: goes uncalled all the time, is it's actually what coaches teach.
Speaker 2: It's inside hand hand checking. So like let's say i'm
Speaker 2: guarding you. Your camera is the offensive player you're guarding.
Speaker 2: I'm guarding you. You're driving this way right past my
Speaker 2: right shoulder. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lift
Speaker 2: this arm up and I'm gonna take my inside arm
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna literally be hitting you like this in
Speaker 2: your stomach, trying to impede your progress while hold my
Speaker 2: right arm up, and they're probably gonna let me get
Speaker 2: away with it. That's one of the most common kinds
Speaker 2: of handchecking that you see, is that inside hand is
Speaker 2: being physical while the outside hand is out and for
Speaker 2: the most part, you can get away with that. And
Speaker 2: like just between fighting for jocking for position, fighting over
Speaker 2: the top of screens, the off arm stuff that offensive
Speaker 2: players are using, there's way more contact that takes place
Speaker 2: in basketball games than people realize. The hand checking thing
Speaker 2: is purely narrative, based almost entirely from the older generation
Speaker 2: to try to convince you that basketball's fake now in
Speaker 2: all honestly, it's just it's literally a load of bullshit,
Speaker 2: and like just go back and watch any nineteen eighties
Speaker 2: playoff game, and then watch any playoff game from this era,
Speaker 2: and you tell me which game was more physical. And
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about the hard fouls. I'm not talking
Speaker 2: about the dude getting thrown into the camera row and
Speaker 2: the brawl that happens. I'm talking about the possession by
Speaker 2: possession physicality. The game's actually more physical now than it
Speaker 2: was in the eighties. The one time it got a
Speaker 2: lot worse than it was now is in the late
Speaker 2: nineties early two thousands, which by the way, led to
Speaker 2: some of the redefinition that took place in two thousand
Speaker 2: and three. But like in that stretch, that was when
Speaker 2: it got to the point where it was too physical
Speaker 2: and the league literally had to step in because we
Speaker 2: had playoff games ending in the seventies and that's just
Speaker 2: not good television. Again, like it can go too far,
Speaker 2: And now the whistle's making a bad television product on
Speaker 2: the other side of things, And I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 2: if you see some of that legislated back into the game.
Speaker 2: Right But the actual concept of hand checking has been
Speaker 2: around for five decades at this point.
Speaker 1: Next question, my.
Speaker 2: Friends and I have started our own purely Warriors centered podcast,
Speaker 2: and we're wondering if you have any advice generally about
Speaker 2: starting a podcast and making it big. Love the stuff
Speaker 2: you do, keep it up. First of all, I think
Speaker 2: it's awesome for anybody to It's funny because it's podcasting
Speaker 2: has become a thing that kind of gets roasted on
Speaker 2: social media these days. But here's the thing, like, if
Speaker 2: are you having fun doing it? Because if you're having
Speaker 2: fun doing it, who gives a shit what anybody else thinks?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, I have a Star Wars podcast.
Speaker 2: No one pays me for that shit. I just have
Speaker 2: so much fun doing it that like, I'm not gonna stop.
Speaker 2: I don't care if I don't get paid for fu years.
Speaker 2: I'm still gonna keep doing it. Who cares what anybody
Speaker 2: else thinks. So, like, if you want to start a podcast,
Speaker 2: do it. Secondly, there's a lot.
Speaker 1: Of free tools at your disposal.
Speaker 2: You will have to buy some things, right, You're gonna
Speaker 2: need a computer to facilitate it. Like if your computer
Speaker 2: has a webcam, that's fine to start, but if you
Speaker 2: want to, you can spend one hundred bucks on an
Speaker 2: HD webcam, right, Or if you get to the point
Speaker 2: where you want to get a little bit more extravagant.
Speaker 2: You can buy a digital camera and use cam link,
Speaker 2: which is what we use here to get a better picture.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: You can use lighting, or you can record during the
Speaker 2: day if you have to, but you can go cheap
Speaker 2: on equipment if you need to. You can even find
Speaker 2: microphones that are not overly expensive. But on a daily basis,
Speaker 2: it's actually free. There are services that are straight up
Speaker 2: free to host a podcast, a lot of them that
Speaker 2: have built in algorithms that can help you grow your show.
Speaker 2: And so it's funny how over the years the methods
Speaker 2: with which you would get into this industry have changed,
Speaker 2: you know, Like it used to be you'd go knock
Speaker 2: on a radio station and be like, hey, can I
Speaker 2: work the boor or until finally one day you get
Speaker 2: to fill in for somebody on a Saturday night. Maybe
Speaker 2: you're good at it right, or maybe you go right
Speaker 2: for fan Sided or I wrote for fan Sided briefly
Speaker 2: when that when I thought that was a method to
Speaker 2: get into it, although right now I don't think it's
Speaker 2: a very good method. But like there were, there used
Speaker 2: to be all these different ways to get in and
Speaker 2: like now it's different, Like the these tools are available
Speaker 2: for you to promote your content at your house and
Speaker 2: from there, if you make quality content, people will find it.
Speaker 2: That's what the algorithms do. The algorithms are the ultimate
Speaker 2: meritocracy when it comes to this kind of stuff people watch,
Speaker 2: there's watch time. It just gets advertised to more people.
Speaker 2: And so starting record all your podcasts on video. So
Speaker 2: like if you're doing a podcast with your buddies, make
Speaker 2: sure everything's getting videotaped if you need to. Like like
Speaker 2: zoom calls have video recording built in. Stream Yard has
Speaker 2: video recording built in. It's easy enough to do that.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Once you record your podcast, release it on the podcast feeds.
Speaker 2: There's a completely free podcast service called Spotify for podcasters,
Speaker 2: completely free. That's where I host two sons podcasts, my
Speaker 2: Star Wars podcast.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Then you can put it on YouTube as well. Take
Speaker 2: the video, put it on YouTube. Don't overly if you
Speaker 2: have time to overly obsess with editing, sure, but don't
Speaker 2: overly obsessed with graphics and editing and stuff. It's your
Speaker 2: content that's gonna end up winning at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, right, but put it up on YouTube. YouTube
Speaker 2: is completely free and then from there, YouTube has a
Speaker 2: built in algorithm. YouTube as your subscriber base builds as
Speaker 2: your subscribers watch your videos, as they have high watch
Speaker 2: times on your videos, it continues to push your content
Speaker 2: out to other people. You can build thumbnails for free
Speaker 2: with apps like Canva. It's really easy to do. And
Speaker 2: then from there use social media to your advantage. TikTok
Speaker 2: excellent algorithm. I've gained my Star Wars podcast has like
Speaker 2: four thousand something TikTok TikTok's subscribers because I've consistently or
Speaker 2: followers I should say, because I've consistently put clips of
Speaker 2: the show on there, and then I just use that
Speaker 2: to direct people to YouTube or to the podcast. Instagram
Speaker 2: reels another great way to do it. Twitter is actually,
Speaker 2: ironically like the least powerful platform there is, but it
Speaker 2: is a useful platform in its own way. But like,
Speaker 2: that's all free. What I just said, other than the equipment,
Speaker 2: everything I just said is free. Record, get a video,
Speaker 2: put the recording on the Spotify podcasters, put the video
Speaker 2: on YouTube, advertise it on social media. And as long
Speaker 2: as you're having fun doing it and you're putting your
Speaker 2: heart and soul into it, you have a really good chance,
Speaker 2: especially with the tools that are at your disposal. From there,
Speaker 2: just have a base understanding that you are dealing with
Speaker 2: a flooded field. And what I mean by that is,
Speaker 2: as I've just described how easy it is to actually
Speaker 2: put podcast content out there, Understand that lots of people
Speaker 2: are doing it. And because lots of people are doing it,
Speaker 2: the people that will rise from the group into having
Speaker 2: success are the people that put their heart and soul
Speaker 2: into it. And so, like you, like, if you're gonna
Speaker 2: do it and do it half asked, just understand that
Speaker 2: it's probably more just for fun, right, but if you
Speaker 2: pour your heart and soul to it, you have a
Speaker 2: better chance. And then lastly, I would just say, lean
Speaker 2: into who you are. Don't try to pretend to be
Speaker 2: anybody else. Lean into who you are, because at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, the only way anyone's going to,
Speaker 2: you know, embrace your content is if it's authentic. And
Speaker 2: so again that's just like a little brief overview. But
Speaker 2: and you guys, I keep my direct messages open on
Speaker 2: social media. I can't get to all of them, but
Speaker 2: I do try. So, like, if you have a question
Speaker 2: anything specific along those lines, feel free to drop it
Speaker 2: into my direct messages and we can have a chat
Speaker 2: about it. Next question, two questions, actually, how do the
Speaker 2: Thunder win the NBA Finals with the lower market in trade?
Speaker 2: And what's your favorite Christmas New Year's traditions? So, first
Speaker 2: of all, with the Thunder, though I look at it
Speaker 2: pretty simply, but right now, there are two gaping flaws
Speaker 2: for the Oklahoma City Thunder in my opinion, a lack
Speaker 2: of agent experience and a lack of size. And so
Speaker 2: those two flaws end up being something that causes me
Speaker 2: to be reticent to take Oklahoma City seriously as a
Speaker 2: team that can hoist the trophy. They can be dangerous.
Speaker 2: I've said this with the Nerdsash guys yesterday. I expect
Speaker 2: them to be a championship contender for a long time.
Speaker 2: I just think this year it's a really long shot
Speaker 2: for them to actually hoist the trophy for those two reasons. So,
Speaker 2: Lourie Markinen doesn't necessarily give you any more experience, but
Speaker 2: what he does is it gives you more size, and
Speaker 2: so it addresses one of your primary concerns there, which
Speaker 2: would make them significantly better in my opinion. Secondly, what's
Speaker 2: your favorite Christmas New Year's tradition. So it's my family,
Speaker 2: my wife and I actually every Christmas Eve. We I'll
Speaker 2: give you us two examples. So every Christmas Eve, my
Speaker 2: wife and I host a party for her family. And
Speaker 2: that's always been a fun one because when I first
Speaker 2: started dating my wife, I got in, you know, I
Speaker 2: started coming to this party, and it was always such
Speaker 2: an important tradition for her family. And now we're in
Speaker 2: a position where we're the ones who actually host it,
Speaker 2: and so it's kind of cool because it's like an
Speaker 2: honor in the family, given how important this party is,
Speaker 2: that we get to be the one to host it.
Speaker 2: And so this year was actually our first year hosting it,
Speaker 2: and it went really smoothly, and I was just thankful
Speaker 2: and it was kind of cool to be on the
Speaker 2: other side of that after what it was like when
Speaker 2: I first met my wife. Secondly, my younger brother. You know,
Speaker 2: it's funny, I have two brothers and a sister, and
Speaker 2: my older brother and sister both live here in town,
Speaker 2: but my younger brother was actually closest to my age,
Speaker 2: and him and I were the two that spent the
Speaker 2: most time together when we were kids. And then when
Speaker 2: he went to college. My brother was a very good
Speaker 2: football player, and so he ended up going to West
Speaker 2: Point and was like a two time team captain, the
Speaker 2: one of their all time leaders and tacklers, like just
Speaker 2: a really good football player. And as a result, though,
Speaker 2: he went to New York and I barely get to
Speaker 2: see him, and I saw him very literally while he
Speaker 2: was in college and then immediately had to go into
Speaker 2: his five year military commitment. And now he lives in Austin,
Speaker 2: Texas working for Shell and like just a really busy guy, right,
Speaker 2: And so he comes home every year for Christmas. And
Speaker 2: one of the things I do is me and my
Speaker 2: two brothers get together and we just we're actually doing
Speaker 2: this tonight, and we did it again last Thursday. But
Speaker 2: like usually one or two nights while they're in town,
Speaker 2: while Jeremy's in town, we'll get together and we'll we'll
Speaker 2: just hang out like old school, like old times, and
Speaker 2: we'll play guitar. We'll have because my older brother also
Speaker 2: plays guitar, and we'll play guitar. We'll drink a couple
Speaker 2: of beers, we'll watch a Thursday night football game, we'll
Speaker 2: play some sports bets. We'll just kind of kick back
Speaker 2: and be brothers, and it's fun for me just because
Speaker 2: I don't get to see Jeremy very often, and it
Speaker 2: kind of is just something that I look forward to
Speaker 2: every year over Christmas. Next question, can you explain to
Speaker 2: me what power rankings refers to? Is it the team
Speaker 2: that has the highest chance to win the championship? Or
Speaker 2: is it the team with the best form? Is the
Speaker 2: team that is best on paper? Is the team that
Speaker 2: you like the most?
Speaker 1: Power?
Speaker 2: In the NBA's tricky business, it's an eight seed can
Speaker 2: reach the NBA Finals. To put it simply, for me,
Speaker 2: power rankings our representation of who the best team is
Speaker 2: within this regular season, with some emphasis on who's playing
Speaker 2: better as of late. So like, obviously for me to
Speaker 2: kick Minnesota or Boston off the top two, they would
Speaker 2: need to have a significant slide because I want to
Speaker 2: pay respect to how good they've been all season. But
Speaker 2: a lot of the jockeying around is like who's been
Speaker 2: playing better over the course of the last two weeks.
Speaker 2: But my power rankings are different from my contender rankings
Speaker 2: because I am a big playoff focused guy. You guys
Speaker 2: know that about me, and so I want to find
Speaker 2: a way to try to draw more attention to regular
Speaker 2: season teams, and so that's how I do. So why
Speaker 2: doesn't Steve Kerr play Kaminga and Wiggins to end the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter? Everyone keeps talking about their negative net ratings together,
Speaker 2: but that's because they don't play much together. So how
Speaker 2: can they get a feel for each other. I'm kind
Speaker 2: of ranting here, but I think their defense would reach
Speaker 2: an elite level if they can figure out a way
Speaker 2: to play them together. So I actually one hundred percent agree.
Speaker 2: I here's the thing. Whether or not Jonathan Kminga could
Speaker 2: be the three to four for a championship team totally
Speaker 2: different discussion no matter what, though, it's something that I
Speaker 2: think they should lean into more over the course of
Speaker 2: the stretch until the deadline, whenever they decide what they
Speaker 2: want to do. To put it simply, like, I think
Speaker 2: the reason why Steve Kerr doesn't play the two of
Speaker 2: them together is Andrew Wiggins is having a really bad
Speaker 2: offensive season and Jonathan Kminga is a young guy who's
Speaker 2: inconsistent in his decision making. And as we've seen with
Speaker 2: the wanting to play you know, Corey Joseph from time
Speaker 2: to time, wanting to play Brandon Pizamski big minutes, like
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr is huge on like the flow of their offense,
Speaker 2: and like in general, just the like the decision making
Speaker 2: piece of it, right, And and that's not a big
Speaker 2: part of that is the five out offense and the
Speaker 2: bit like Steph and Clay are giving up the basketball
Speaker 2: a lot, and so they wanted to get back to
Speaker 2: them at the end of the play right, preferably with
Speaker 2: an opening, And so I think that's the reason why.
Speaker 2: But I agree, I think I think leaning into your
Speaker 2: athleticism and to put it simply, like our Jonathan Caminga
Speaker 2: and Andrew Wiggins, two of your top five players, probably yeah,
Speaker 2: so they should probably play more right to at least
Speaker 2: two of your top six players, right, So like I
Speaker 2: would play, I would try to play them more together
Speaker 2: at this point. Like I understand too, why why why
Speaker 2: they're leaning so much into Poziemski. But like at a
Speaker 2: certain point against the top tier teams, especially in the
Speaker 2: Western Conference, size would become an issue with that group.
Speaker 2: Next question, weird male back question. Okay, Jason, you said,
Speaker 2: get weird with it. Since you're also a huge Star
Speaker 2: Wars fan. If you were to form your own basketball
Speaker 2: team using only Star Wars characters. Who would you be
Speaker 2: your who would be your five man lineup? So just
Speaker 2: for fun, I figured why not? We just we got
Speaker 2: to find tall guys, right, So Chew he's got to
Speaker 2: be the center. He's a seven footer. H I put
Speaker 2: Kylo Rennet power forward because Adam drivers big strong dude
Speaker 2: at the four, he's tall. I put Darth Plagis at
Speaker 2: the small ford because he's this tall slender Mune Darth
Speaker 2: Maul at the two is my athlete guard, and then
Speaker 2: Yoda at the point as my skill guard. There's a
Speaker 2: there's a fun one for you, Jason Nuggets and Celtics.
Speaker 2: What's your take on how they stack up against each other?
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny. We haven't really talked about this one.
Speaker 2: It's a really interesting matchup because one of the specific
Speaker 2: things I've talked about with Denver is you need a
Speaker 2: team that has a depth of shot creation so that
Speaker 2: you can attack their entry points. One of the things
Speaker 2: that Denver does is they try to hedge and recover
Speaker 2: with Jamal Murray, they keep Michael Porter Junior off the ball.
Speaker 1: They bring Nikola Jokic.
Speaker 2: Depending on the matchup, high end to his drop coverage,
Speaker 2: and they use Aaron Gordon to clean up messes on
Speaker 2: the backside, and so there's not a lot of opportunity
Speaker 2: to attack Jamal Murray and Nicole jokicch in space. What
Speaker 2: you need is a team that has enough offensive talent
Speaker 2: that you can just straight up attack those guys without
Speaker 2: having to get a switch. We saw this with Golden
Speaker 2: State on Christmas Day. They were just using Jonathan Camena
Speaker 2: and Andrew Wiggins a straight post up Jamal Murray and to
Speaker 2: generate quality shots there. Boston's an interesting team because they
Speaker 2: will have that ability. Like chances are you're putting Contavious
Speaker 2: called Pope on you know, probably Derek White, right, You're
Speaker 2: putting him most likely on Derek White. You're probably gonna
Speaker 2: put Aaron Gordon on Jason Tatum, right, So naturally there's
Speaker 2: a really good chance that you're gonna end up with
Speaker 2: someone like a Drew Holliday or Jalen Brown on Jamal Murray.
Speaker 2: And if that's the case, you can use those two
Speaker 2: guys to just literally bring them ball up the floor
Speaker 2: and attack Jamal and not have to worry about trying
Speaker 2: to bring him into the action. And so then from there,
Speaker 2: they have the ability to space teams out. I also
Speaker 2: think chrisops Porzingis could cause some problems for them.
Speaker 1: But the flip side is on the other side of
Speaker 1: the floor.
Speaker 2: Like we talk about the Celtics and their biggest flaw
Speaker 2: being late game decision making, you could not pick a
Speaker 2: better team at that than the Denver Nuggets. That's their superpower,
Speaker 2: and so like it's like weirdly, both teams have the
Speaker 2: ability to take advantage of the other team's weakness, and
Speaker 2: I think it makes it really interesting. Obviously, though you
Speaker 2: guys know, I'm gonna take Denver if I have to
Speaker 2: pick one of the two teams. But I do think
Speaker 2: it's very close, and I think those two teams are
Speaker 2: clearly the top tier contenders. Your thoughts on the state
Speaker 2: of the Star Wars cinematic universe. The sequel trilogies, in
Speaker 2: my opinion, were terrible, but I like what they've done
Speaker 2: with their live and animated shows since besides Obi I
Speaker 2: series and Boba Fett and then also any upcoming Star
Speaker 2: Wars projects that you're excited for. So one of the
Speaker 2: things that bothers me about the Star Wars cinematic universe
Speaker 2: is their obsession with staying within this timeline, and this
Speaker 2: timeline is already completely butchered anyway, Like the first six
Speaker 2: movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and his fall
Speaker 2: in his rise right as he essentially defeats Palpatine at
Speaker 2: the end, and like ask, if you ask George Lucas,
Speaker 2: he'll tell you it's not a Luke Skywalker story. It's
Speaker 2: an Anakin Skywalker story. That's the whole like point of this,
Speaker 2: that whole six movie stretch. But because Palpatine survives and
Speaker 2: transfers his consciousness into a clone, a flawed clone on exicle,
Speaker 2: and you know, Luke literally just stops being a Jedi
Speaker 2: and all this other shit. And then you get to
Speaker 2: the end and like, now Luke dies, Ben Solo dies,
Speaker 2: Han Solo dies, Lea dies, Like the Skywalker line is
Speaker 2: just gone, and so is the Solo line, and now
Speaker 2: you just have Ray Palpatine as this final remaining character.
Speaker 2: It's all butchered anyway because of how much they they
Speaker 2: screwed up the sequel trilogy. That said, like, even within
Speaker 2: that context, they keep trying to fill gaps within that series.
Speaker 2: And one of the problems there is even with what
Speaker 2: I just described your six episode arc is your Anakin storyline,
Speaker 2: but which turns into basically a Palpatine storyline, right, So
Speaker 2: that's your overarching story. Everything else you fit in there
Speaker 2: has to be subsidiary. And that's what's frustrating. Like the
Speaker 2: best movies out there have truly like powerful villains that
Speaker 2: are interesting and that kind of have a little bit
Speaker 2: of a good side to them, right, Like it's funny,
Speaker 2: as we talked about Marvel, part of the reason Marvel's
Speaker 2: gone down the shitter, in my opinion, is like you
Speaker 2: had this profound storyline centering around Thanos, and they just
Speaker 2: haven't been able to figure out like a real crisis
Speaker 2: that people care about in these movies, right and like,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of the issue Star Wars is happening.
Speaker 2: It is like even as you're going through, like as
Speaker 2: a Star Wars fan, I'm enjoying the Ahsoka series, right,
Speaker 2: or did enjoy the Ahsoka series, And I'm really interested
Speaker 2: to see what happens with Grand Admiral Thron. But even then,
Speaker 2: like whatever they do there is trapped within, Like whatever
Speaker 2: happens here comes the First Order in fifteen years, and
Speaker 2: they're just gonna undo all because they're trapped under that umbrella,
Speaker 2: and Star Wars just has so much cool stuff outside
Speaker 2: of that umbrella, between like the stuff leading into the
Speaker 2: Phantom Menace with like Darth Plagus and Darth Bain to
Speaker 2: like three thousand years before that, with like Darth Revin,
Speaker 2: and a lot of stuff with the Old Republic to
Speaker 2: wig in the future that they could do interesting things
Speaker 2: like if they go outside of that umbrella, then they
Speaker 2: could start to build an entirely a new and an
Speaker 2: enticing crisis or villain that they can construct a storyline around.
Speaker 2: And so I think that's where they've They've messed up
Speaker 2: an upcoming series that I'm excited for him, really excited
Speaker 2: for The Acolyte. Those of you guys who are Star
Speaker 2: Wars nerds will know that the Sith, one thousand years
Speaker 2: before the Phantom Menace went extinct, but they didn't really.
Speaker 2: Darth Baane basically faked their extinction and then went into hiding,
Speaker 2: and his plan was to overthrow the Republic through basically subterfuge, right,
Speaker 2: And so The Acolyte's really interesting to me because it
Speaker 2: takes place in the High Republic, which is like three
Speaker 2: to five hundred years before the Phantom Menace, and all
Speaker 2: the High Republic books have been mostly bad so far
Speaker 2: because they're trying this thing with the Nile, which is
Speaker 2: like basically a band of raiders just imagine like the
Speaker 2: raiders that you'd run into when you'd play Fallout, right,
Speaker 2: just just wearing weird clothes and doing drugs and stealing
Speaker 2: from people, and it's just like not as interesting as
Speaker 2: like a real motivated villain, right. So, like, some of
Speaker 2: the High Republic stuff has been shitty, But the Acolyte
Speaker 2: is allegedly supposed to center around a Dark Side Force user,
Speaker 2: and so I think it'd be really interesting if they
Speaker 2: use the Acolyte to try to kind of build out
Speaker 2: some of the Ancient Sith storyline, which I think would
Speaker 2: be really interesting. Obviously, I'm really excited to see what
Speaker 2: happens with Grand Admiral Thron as well, and just in general,
Speaker 2: I'm hoping that they get outside of that umbrella eventually.
Speaker 2: All Right, two more questions. Patrick Bett David posted the
Speaker 2: Christmas Day ratings for both the NFL and the NBA
Speaker 2: on Twitter, and the NFL has had five five x
Speaker 2: what the NBA has. He's a huge fan, has interviewed
Speaker 2: people like Kobe, Shack and Steven A but said he
Speaker 2: doesn't watch regular season anymore because it sucks. What do
Speaker 2: you think the NBA could do to compete? Even though
Speaker 2: the event the NBA is worldwide, in the NFL is
Speaker 2: just US based, and I understand that. So here's the
Speaker 2: thing I think the problem with this discussion is the
Speaker 2: NBA and the NFL are two fundamentally different sports. And
Speaker 2: what I mean by that is, like, I've actually seen
Speaker 2: this phrase thrown around online lately, but they refer to
Speaker 2: the NBA as an inventory sport in the NFL as
Speaker 2: an event sport, meaning like because there are eighty two
Speaker 2: regular season games, in n season tournament, a play in
Speaker 2: tournament for seven game series, playoff rounds, like two months
Speaker 2: of playoff basketball, there's just so much of it that
Speaker 2: you're never going to get any singular game, even a
Speaker 2: playoff game necessarily to be viewed as a like an event, right,
Speaker 2: which an event is what you get from NFL from
Speaker 2: the standpoint of like every game carries huge stakes. Every
Speaker 2: playoff game is like appointment television because it's single elimination.
Speaker 2: It's it's just fundamentally different, and so you're gonna get
Speaker 2: higher viewership From there. It's important to understand though, from
Speaker 2: a revenue standpoint, like, even though the NBA or the
Speaker 2: NFL crushes the NBA in revenue by five x or whatever,
Speaker 2: the gap in terms in ratings, I should say the
Speaker 2: gap in revenue is closer by proportion. And part of
Speaker 2: the reason for that is because the NBA has so
Speaker 2: much inventory, which is why they will never shorten the
Speaker 2: season even though I want them to. And a big
Speaker 2: part of it is they can continue to drive revenue
Speaker 2: through things like overseas, bringing the game more and more overseas,
Speaker 2: which I think will be the case. I would imagine
Speaker 2: that if we skip to the distant future, the NBA
Speaker 2: will probably have franchises overseas. I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 2: that was a thing. And so in general, like the
Speaker 2: way I look at it, like, yeah, if you want
Speaker 2: to compare the NBA, you're really based on television ratings
Speaker 2: to the NFL. They're gonna get their ass kicked constantly.
Speaker 2: But the NBA is very much a healthy sport. It
Speaker 2: has some flaws. I've talked about officiating. I think player movement,
Speaker 2: as much as it is the fair thing to do,
Speaker 2: it's also not necessarily the best thing for cultivating really
Speaker 2: committed local fan bases, and I think it can form
Speaker 2: a little bit of a detached feeling from fans as
Speaker 2: a result. But at the end of the day, that
Speaker 2: is the morally correct way to approach it from the
Speaker 2: standpoint of free agency.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So, like it's complicated, but I do think the NBA
Speaker 2: is in a healthy place and is going to be
Speaker 2: healthy for a very long time. I just I think
Speaker 2: it's stupid to compare the two from a rating standpoint
Speaker 2: when they're so fundamentally different. Last question, As a bald man,
Speaker 2: I'm always living vicariously through others. So with that said,
Speaker 2: what's the goal for your hair? We going pat riley,
Speaker 2: maybe even a mullet, So I h this is the
Speaker 2: I've got some hatthead right now. But I've never gon
Speaker 2: out my hair before. So the truth of the matter
Speaker 2: is is I don't know what we're gonna do because
Speaker 2: I don't even know what it's gonna look like. I
Speaker 2: did want to try. It is something my wife and
Speaker 2: I talked about for a while. I've been doing the
Speaker 2: short hair thing forever. Those of you guys have been
Speaker 2: following the show for a while, know it. I'll probably
Speaker 2: grow it out for another year or two and just
Speaker 2: get crazy and then never do it again. So that's
Speaker 2: kind of the plan. But honestly, it's been a pain
Speaker 2: in the ass. Like I like it, just like having
Speaker 2: a little bit of longer hair is pain because, like
Speaker 2: it's just it. My hair is super curly and frizzy,
Speaker 2: so it just constantly I'd like have crazy BedHead, like
Speaker 2: eighty percent of the time that I'm walking around my house.
Speaker 2: But like it for whatever it's worth. I don't know
Speaker 2: what I'm gonna do with it.
Speaker 1: We'll see.
Speaker 2: I'm kind of leaning on whatever my wife wants me
Speaker 2: to do just for some fun. But I will be
Speaker 2: keeping the long hair for at least another year or so.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you guys. Twenty twenty three has been
Speaker 2: a really, really great year for this show. It was
Speaker 2: the year I extended with the volume. We've hit crazy
Speaker 2: numbers once again last month over a million views. We're
Speaker 2: comfortably averaging over a million views a month.
Speaker 1: For the for the the year.
Speaker 2: It's just has been, to put it simply, it's been
Speaker 2: one of the great joys of my life to get
Speaker 2: to build this with you guys and I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 2: you rocking with me and supporting me, and and I like,
Speaker 2: I feel so fortunate, not just to be covering the
Speaker 2: NBA because of how healthy the league is and where
Speaker 2: it's going, but I also feel very fortunate to work
Speaker 2: for the Volume. I jumped on with this company at
Speaker 2: an earlier phase and between you know, adding Richard Sherman,
Speaker 2: between adding Daniel Cormier, between adding Darius Slay, between adding
Speaker 2: Shannon Sharp, between adding Chad Ocho Cinco, between adding like,
Speaker 2: I think I should be careful because I don't want
Speaker 2: to get in trouble, but I'm pretty sure Shannon Sharp
Speaker 2: is getting ready to launch a new NBA show with
Speaker 2: a big name, so I won't reveal it for that sake,
Speaker 2: but like, like literally now I feel like I'm I'm
Speaker 2: so lucky to be in this spot because the Volume
Speaker 2: is turned into this like significant sports media company, and
Speaker 2: the company trusts me to be their primary NBA day
Speaker 2: to day coverage. I just feel super blessed, and quite frankly,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be able to be in this position if
Speaker 2: you guys didn't support the show. Just to put it simply,
Speaker 2: and like I talked about earlier, when we were talking podcasts.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in being authentic and just leaning
Speaker 2: into exactly the way you want to do things and
Speaker 2: then letting the chips fall where they may. And you
Speaker 2: guys have embraced that from me, and I just am
Speaker 2: so thankful, and I hope you guys realize that I
Speaker 2: don't take it for granted.
Speaker 1: Ever.
Speaker 2: I'm so thankful to see the mailbag questions come in
Speaker 2: every single day. We don't talk about it much on
Speaker 2: the show, but almost every episode a few of you
Speaker 2: guys write extremely kind words about what the show means
Speaker 2: to you guys, and I read every single one of them,
Speaker 2: and I really sincerely appreciate them. I just hope you
Speaker 2: guys understand how much I appreciate you guys. Happy New Year.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty four is gonna be awesome. I'm excited to
Speaker 2: see who wins the championship this season. Hopefully my Lakers
Speaker 2: can get it together to make a run. We'll see
Speaker 2: what happens. I will see you guys on Tuesday for
Speaker 2: some power rankings and some game breakdowns.
Speaker 1: The volume