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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Speaker 1: We are almost to the weekend. I hope all of
Speaker 1: you have had a great week. Another jam packed night
Speaker 1: of playoff hoops. They just keep coming, don't they, one
Speaker 1: after the other. We're going to get into everything from
Speaker 1: this night of basketball, including getting into a little bit
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn netson Boston Celtics game again from last night,
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper, and then at the end, for
Speaker 1: you guys who stick around, we are going to get
Speaker 1: into an updated list of what I think are the
Speaker 1: top five contenders in this field. Obviously a lot has
Speaker 1: changed as a result of injuries, which is unfortunately just
Speaker 1: the way things go in the NBA playoffs, and it
Speaker 1: does have a significant impact on who ends up winning
Speaker 1: the title. And we will be getting into that list
Speaker 1: at the end, but let's start with the Warriors and
Speaker 1: the Nuggets. So if you guys remember after Game two,
Speaker 1: I talked about why I was never in a rush
Speaker 1: to elevate a player to the status of being considered.
Speaker 1: You know, those stamped guys at the top of the league,
Speaker 1: the Lebrons and the Kevin Durants and the Janice Is
Speaker 1: and the Steph Curries and those guys who have done
Speaker 1: it at the highest level time and time again, and
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, there's always a race to put people there.
Speaker 1: And the big reason why I am slow to put
Speaker 1: people on that list is because I understand the process
Speaker 1: of getting to that point. There's failure in that process.
Speaker 1: Janice lost embarrassingly in the bubble and in the year
Speaker 1: before he really really struggled against Toronto to create his
Speaker 1: own shot against that crazy defense, especially after Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: switched on dam There was pain and loss that led
Speaker 1: to him understanding the total sell out that it takes you.
Speaker 1: You have to be willing to give everything on every
Speaker 1: single possession in order to win a championship. And these
Speaker 1: guys have been through these moments so many times that
Speaker 1: they've earned a certain level of confidence in these environments.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry and Draymond Green have been playing playoff basketball
Speaker 1: for a really long time. You know what, They've done
Speaker 1: a lot done on the road to gain to UH
Speaker 1: underdog on the road game three up, two games to
Speaker 1: nothing with an opportunity to end the series, and they
Speaker 1: know how those games go. They know that sometimes you're
Speaker 1: a little you're a little bit behind in some of
Speaker 1: the effort areas of the game because you're not as desperate.
Speaker 1: That's just human nature. It's not something that you're going
Speaker 1: to blame them for, right you know that there's gonna
Speaker 1: be runs in the game. Golden State controlled that game throughout,
Speaker 1: and there were several moments where Denver got back into
Speaker 1: it by making plays on defense and getting out in
Speaker 1: transition the way that they do so well, and Stephan
Speaker 1: Draymond just knew that that was all part of the process,
Speaker 1: and they knew they would have a chance at the
Speaker 1: end to make a handful of plays and get out
Speaker 1: of there with the wind. You know, Steph Curry is
Speaker 1: not close to he Foot injuries are especially bad. I
Speaker 1: broke my foot the year before, the summer before my
Speaker 1: second season playing in college, and it was a nightmare
Speaker 1: for me coming back because that's your plant foot. You're
Speaker 1: planting on it to make every explosive move that you
Speaker 1: make as a basketball player. And even beyond the healing process,
Speaker 1: there's like a mental side of it. You have to
Speaker 1: rebuild confidence in that foot, the trusting it to hold
Speaker 1: when you take off right, and that process can be
Speaker 1: stressful and it and it does affect you on the court.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry came back fast. I guarantee you that if
Speaker 1: this was a regular season and he suffered that same
Speaker 1: injury in October November, he probably takes his sweet time
Speaker 1: to get back on the court. But he had to
Speaker 1: come back because of the playoffs, in the situation that
Speaker 1: was taking place. He had to do his minutes restriction
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. He had to build up his conditioning
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and you saw that affect him especially tonight.
Speaker 1: Nicola Yokich is really slow. We're gonna get into that
Speaker 1: here in just a second. There were a couple of
Speaker 1: plays and drop coverage there in the second quarter where
Speaker 1: he stayed with Steph stayed in front. It was just
Speaker 1: back pedaling and Steph didn't have that quickness yet to
Speaker 1: make that move to get by Yokich. But you know what,
Speaker 1: Steph knew that the game was still there for the taking,
Speaker 1: and he knew that if he could just do it once,
Speaker 1: the game would be over. And right there at the end,
Speaker 1: Warriors up by three, same exact play. They've been running
Speaker 1: all night long, ball screen with Draymond Green at the
Speaker 1: top of the key, and he just reached down and
Speaker 1: just once hit the gas and dusted Yokich for a layout.
Speaker 1: Now they're up by five. Time out Denver, we go
Speaker 1: the other way where another injured Warrior is up against it.
Speaker 1: I've been talking a lot with Draymond's back injury about
Speaker 1: how I told you guys, I thought it would be
Speaker 1: about the second round before Draymond really got his legs
Speaker 1: underneath them to the extent that he was at his
Speaker 1: peak when he was healthy. Right, and Draymond on a
Speaker 1: big possession where Yoki has had pretty good night. Yokis
Speaker 1: Doug deep himself because he's a very good player, and
Speaker 1: he made a lot of plays tonight, and he had
Speaker 1: a lot of things going. He had some crazy tough
Speaker 1: shots over the top of Draymond Green. But Draymond new,
Speaker 1: we're up five. I just need one stop. I just
Speaker 1: need to make one play. And He's had Yoki's number
Speaker 1: all series long. He's had Yok's number throughout that entire matchup.
Speaker 1: And yokis went to spin back and Draymond does does
Speaker 1: what he did has been doing to him all series,
Speaker 1: beats him to the spin and bumps him off balance.
Speaker 1: Yoki kind of juggles the ball a little bit, Draymond
Speaker 1: takes it away, and the game is over. And those
Speaker 1: two guys, even though they're hurt, even though they're working
Speaker 1: their way back from injuries, even though they're on the
Speaker 1: let's call it the other side of the hill, they
Speaker 1: had the savvy to make the necessary plays to win
Speaker 1: the game. I'm not saying that Yoki doesn't have that savvy,
Speaker 1: and he certainly will at some point in the next
Speaker 1: three or four or five years. The pain of all
Speaker 1: these losses will build up into Yoki as he rounds
Speaker 1: out and limits his weaknesses to the point where he
Speaker 1: can have a better impact in moments like that. But
Speaker 1: that's the that's why I've always have the utmost respect
Speaker 1: for these guys who have been there and done that
Speaker 1: so many times, because when things get close late, they
Speaker 1: can tap into that experience and that confidence that the
Speaker 1: guys beneath them don't have because they just haven't been
Speaker 1: there enough, even when they have physical limitations. Which takes
Speaker 1: me to the defensive end of the floor for the guards,
Speaker 1: because we watched another team tonight. We're gonna get into
Speaker 1: them later, a Utah Jazz team that has a really, really,
Speaker 1: really all world talent at guard and Van Mitchell, who's
Speaker 1: got good size and good strength, freakish athleticism, physical tools
Speaker 1: that vastly out you know, he's got a significantly better
Speaker 1: set of physical tools to use than Steph Curry does.
Speaker 1: But Steph Curry is a significantly significantly better defensive player. Tonight,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell was getting absolutely barbecued by Spencer Dinwiddie and
Speaker 1: just about every isolation situation could not keep him in front.
Speaker 1: It was embarrassing for an athlete of his ability. And
Speaker 1: Steph Curry has been one of the most underrated defensive
Speaker 1: guards in the history of the NBA and is consistently
Speaker 1: brought up as some sort of like detriment to his game,
Speaker 1: even though he's put in the work. And I want
Speaker 1: to take you guys back to two thousand fourteen in
Speaker 1: the summer for Team USA, and one of the subplots
Speaker 1: of that team was Stephen Clay's defense, and they struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit early in the tournament, and one of
Speaker 1: the lot points of that specific UH Team USA was
Speaker 1: would Steph and Clay be able to guard well enough
Speaker 1: to get minutes on that team? And over the course
Speaker 1: of that tournament they developed that that set of habits
Speaker 1: and that devotion to the work, and it's stuck and
Speaker 1: what happened the next season They won sixty seven games
Speaker 1: and won an NBA Championship, about as big a leap
Speaker 1: as you could possibly imagine. Now, there was a big
Speaker 1: part of that. Steve Kerr came in and really revolutionized
Speaker 1: the Warriors offense. Mark Jackson had Steph Curry and Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson on ball a lot more, particularly Steph on ball
Speaker 1: a lot more. UH. Steve Kerr was obsessed with passing
Speaker 1: total number of passes in the game, and he had
Speaker 1: them moving the ball a lot more and Warriors basketball
Speaker 1: was born. But a huge part of that was Stephen
Speaker 1: Clay and then embracing the defensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: like it was the most important part of their games.
Speaker 1: And I think you saw an interesting juxtaposition tonight between
Speaker 1: those guys who are not great athletes at their position
Speaker 1: and other guys around the league who are great athletes
Speaker 1: at their position who don't make that same commitment. And
Speaker 1: I hope that when this Warrior Warrior's era is over,
Speaker 1: which who knows when it's gonna end with all this
Speaker 1: young talent that they have, but when this Warrior's era
Speaker 1: is over, I hope that we look back and remember
Speaker 1: why they were as successful as they were, really really
Speaker 1: impressive when uh really important on a bunch of different levels.
Speaker 1: Because Steph Curry did look limited, and getting this series
Speaker 1: over quickly, buying Steph more time to build up his
Speaker 1: conditioning and get his legs underneath him before a second
Speaker 1: round matchup is going to be very important, and so
Speaker 1: they took care of business tonight, a huge win for
Speaker 1: the Warriors. We are going to bring my guy Carson
Speaker 1: on and he's gonna go over the biggest questions of
Speaker 1: the night, just like we did last night. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna bring Carson and we'll get started out well. Jason,
Speaker 1: you mentioned just the incredible run that the Warriors have
Speaker 1: had overall and how that will be remembered. It's obviously
Speaker 1: being extended here and they continue to kind of roll
Speaker 1: through the series. Tonight was obviously the tightest game, but
Speaker 1: they still come out with a win on the road
Speaker 1: and they're up three. Oh. Pool had another uber efficient seven,
Speaker 1: Clay had twenty six, Steph had seven, So Draymond was
Speaker 1: phenomenal defensively. With the level of the Warriors are playing
Speaker 1: right now, should they be the title favorites? So interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: I discovered today thanks to you guys, that the Warriors
Speaker 1: are actually the title favorite in Vegas amazingly enough, But
Speaker 1: that's the way injuries can change things. So I really
Speaker 1: start to look down the line at what they what
Speaker 1: they bring to the table as a basketball team, and
Speaker 1: whether or not they check all the necessary boxes. Now,
Speaker 1: there is no perfect basketball team in this yield for
Speaker 1: the record, even that uh, even that Phoenix Suns team
Speaker 1: when they're fully healthy, they don't have the rim, pressuring
Speaker 1: wing offensively that they can go to that gives them
Speaker 1: a little bit more reliable offense in late game situations.
Speaker 1: They check every single other box extremely well, but even
Speaker 1: they have some holes. The Warriors have holes, but they
Speaker 1: also have a ton of strengths. You know, we were
Speaker 1: gonna get the Utah Chats are gonna be uh get
Speaker 1: punching bags often tonight, as they should. That was an
Speaker 1: unbelievably embarrassing loss on their home floor. But to me,
Speaker 1: what happened to the Jazz kind of sets the tone
Speaker 1: for what the theme of this show is for me.
Speaker 1: And and like the way that you know, these these
Speaker 1: kinds of basketball ideologies kind of carry over from series
Speaker 1: to series around the league because they're just truths about
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. Just like we were talking about
Speaker 1: last night's show about how the theme was Biggs versus Wings, right,
Speaker 1: and how I'm always going to value wings over big players, right. Well,
Speaker 1: I you know, there's this obsession in NBA basketball with
Speaker 1: the stars. So what happens when you watch ESPN and
Speaker 1: you see on the bottom of the screen it doesn't
Speaker 1: say Jazz versus Mavericks coming up next on ESPN or
Speaker 1: t NT or whatever. It says Donovan Mitchell versus Luca
Speaker 1: don Chich. It's part of the way the league is marketed,
Speaker 1: and there's good reason for that. They're obsessed with the stars,
Speaker 1: but there are these responsibilities that have to be filled
Speaker 1: on the basketball court that when they aren't filled, it
Speaker 1: can be absolutely disastrous. It's like in football with the
Speaker 1: offensive line. I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan of the
Speaker 1: volume just actually brought on my guy Vatched Lombardi to
Speaker 1: do a Dallas Cowboys show, which I'm very, very excited about.
Speaker 1: But you know what would happened a lot with the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. They'd go play a big game in the
Speaker 1: regular season, maybe you know, at home against Green Bay
Speaker 1: or something, and they'd have Dak Prescott and they'd have
Speaker 1: Ezekiel Elliott, and they'd have a Marii Cooper and they'd
Speaker 1: have everybody healthy, and they lose, and a big part
Speaker 1: of it would be Tyrone Smith was unavailable, or Zack
Speaker 1: Martin was unavailable. Unavailable, these were all world offensive linemen
Speaker 1: for the Cowboys, and when two or three of their
Speaker 1: offensive linemen would be injured, almost everything they tried to
Speaker 1: do would fall apart. And it's because the unsung heroes
Speaker 1: of the game of football are the line players on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. You've seen unbelievably good quarterbacks
Speaker 1: look terrible because a defensive end that they can't block
Speaker 1: to the line play and who wins that battle in
Speaker 1: the trenches is a massive indicator of who's gonna win
Speaker 1: a football game in the NFL, and the same thing
Speaker 1: goes in the NBA with the guys who do the
Speaker 1: dirty work. It's like the Lakers this here. Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis played together in twenty one games this year,
Speaker 1: So I mean, again, that's disastrous compared to the eighty
Speaker 1: two that they should have been available. But in those
Speaker 1: twenty one games, they were bad. They were eleven and ten.
Speaker 1: That's I think they might have been ten and eleven
Speaker 1: is what they're right around five h I can't remember
Speaker 1: the number off top of my head. But the reason
Speaker 1: why is they didn't have an offensive line, and in
Speaker 1: this particular season, Lebron James and Anthony Davis didn't feel
Speaker 1: like being the offensive line themselves. They didn't feel like
Speaker 1: embracing that dirty work to the extent they did in
Speaker 1: the season, and a huge part of why I believe
Speaker 1: in this Warrior's team. So much is. Yes they have Steph,
Speaker 1: Yes they have Clay, Yes they have Jordan Pool, but
Speaker 1: they also have all these guys that are just devoted
Speaker 1: to that dirty work. Draymond Green, he might as well
Speaker 1: be an offensive line in and of himself. He's like
Speaker 1: five players wrapped into one. There's arguably never been a
Speaker 1: player in this era who brings as much to the
Speaker 1: table on the margins to help teams win games then
Speaker 1: Draymond Green does. And that value is look at how
Speaker 1: look at how Draymond Green and his ability to disrupt
Speaker 1: Yokich completely strangled any and all chances that Denver had
Speaker 1: to be competitive in this series. One matchup, one player. Now,
Speaker 1: if I replaced him with Kevan Looney, do Steph and
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool and Clay Thompson get the job done? Still? Maybe?
Speaker 1: Probably actually, because this Denver team is really limited. But
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, with the singular matchup, in his ability to
Speaker 1: disrupt Nikola Yokes turned this into what's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: a sweep. That's the type of value that Draymond brings
Speaker 1: the table. Then you go down the roster and there's
Speaker 1: a ton of guys like that. You've got You've got
Speaker 1: guys like Andrew Wiggins, who are devoted to the defensive
Speaker 1: and Gary Payton Jr. Has been kind of cool for
Speaker 1: me to see. Gary Payton Jr. And I played together
Speaker 1: a lot in college against each other. I played against
Speaker 1: him when he was at a prep school called Westmind Prep,
Speaker 1: and then we were both on the same All conference
Speaker 1: team and we played in Scenic West Athletic Conference up
Speaker 1: in Utah when we were both in junior college. And
Speaker 1: then the year after I left, he ended up being
Speaker 1: Player of the Year in that conference because he developed
Speaker 1: into a really really solid ball handler and passer. And
Speaker 1: but his original contribution, the reason why he made the
Speaker 1: All conference team when I was playing against him and
Speaker 1: Juco was what he did on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. He was on a team jam packed with
Speaker 1: talent at Salt Lake Community College, and his job was
Speaker 1: to guard the other team's best player. He picked me
Speaker 1: up full court all game long. Was just up in
Speaker 1: my airspace the entire game. His job was to take
Speaker 1: me out of the game. That was his value that
Speaker 1: he brought, and that value, that elite skill of his,
Speaker 1: he has now taken it into the n b A
Speaker 1: and carved a niche in this league. He's an offensive
Speaker 1: lineman just like I was talking about earlier, and I
Speaker 1: just have the utmost respect for those guys. But the
Speaker 1: steph In Pool thing, because the biggest weakness with this
Speaker 1: particular team is their lack of a rim pressuring wing.
Speaker 1: You know, well I'm not. You know, there's there's a
Speaker 1: defensive element of what a wing brings to the table,
Speaker 1: covering ground on defense, helping with rebounding, running the floor,
Speaker 1: and transition. But on offense, it's the ability to throw
Speaker 1: the ball to a guy with his back to the
Speaker 1: basket within ten or fifteen ft of the rim, and
Speaker 1: his ability to get a quality shot when it's a
Speaker 1: physical fist fight of a game and the stuff that
Speaker 1: the guards are doing aren't working or the jump shots
Speaker 1: aren't falling, and that is the weakness. But Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: in his rise into such a dominant offensive guard, adds
Speaker 1: a little bit extra firepower to that front that kind
Speaker 1: of compensates for that a little bit. So the question
Speaker 1: is do I think the Warriors can win the title?
Speaker 1: Should they be the favorite? I still say no because
Speaker 1: their biggest their biggest specific weakness right now is interior
Speaker 1: uh size, right, Draymond can handle yo kids. But what
Speaker 1: if they've run into a uh, you know, a different
Speaker 1: type of matchup where because yokis right now is too
Speaker 1: slow to take advantage of of a foot speed with Draymond,
Speaker 1: what if they run to someone like Joel embiad or
Speaker 1: if they run into someone like DeAndre at and there
Speaker 1: are other matchups down the line that could be a problem.
Speaker 1: I still lean towards Boston as a team that has
Speaker 1: a fewer weaknesses and fewer holes, but I would absolutely
Speaker 1: say Golden State in light of the Devin Booker injury,
Speaker 1: is the favorite in the West. Yeah. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: in terms of betting odds. I mean, right now on Fandel,
Speaker 1: it's not just the Warriors, it's the Warriors by a
Speaker 1: little bit there plus two seventy. Next is the Celtics
Speaker 1: at plus five hundred. I think it's really interesting when
Speaker 1: you talk about the offensive lineman concept and just the
Speaker 1: plethora of God as you do everything, and obviously Draymond
Speaker 1: is the epitome of that, not just on this Warrior's
Speaker 1: team but in the NBA and has been for more
Speaker 1: than half a decade. So just looking at sort of
Speaker 1: the scope of his career, what he's accomplished and who
Speaker 1: he is right now? How many names do you think
Speaker 1: you would take, let's just go in the league right now,
Speaker 1: with this version of Draymond before him, if you are
Speaker 1: trying to construct a title winning team. Oh man, so
Speaker 1: you're talking like not just ranking defensive players. You're talking
Speaker 1: about like ranking him as a player in the league
Speaker 1: just as like drafting, right, But if you have the
Speaker 1: specific goal of winning a title, right, because obviously there
Speaker 1: are guys who will have maybe more ceiling raising ability
Speaker 1: because we saw what Dramond looked like when he had
Speaker 1: to try to like initiate offense without staff a couple
Speaker 1: of years and ago. It wasn't very pretty. But if
Speaker 1: you're trying to build that ultimate winning basketball team, where
Speaker 1: does Draymond go? That's an interesting question because there's there
Speaker 1: are two factors that that kind of complicate that. One
Speaker 1: is just how many talented players there are in the
Speaker 1: league right now. Like I encourage you guys, if you're
Speaker 1: ever board, if you're like sitting on an airplane, you're
Speaker 1: waiting on the tarmac and you need to kill fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: just like take your notes out on your phone and
Speaker 1: try to jot down the top thirty players in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and you'll be amazed at the guys that won't make
Speaker 1: your top twenty or the guys that will make your
Speaker 1: top fifteen. That's how stacked the league is. That's the
Speaker 1: one thing that complicates it. The other thing that complicates
Speaker 1: it is fit. Draymond Green had nine assists in the
Speaker 1: first half tonight. He is there's an element that he
Speaker 1: brings to the game. He does something that I that
Speaker 1: I call hunting shooters, which is a very important concept
Speaker 1: within basketball because rhythm is a thing that that disrupts
Speaker 1: any offensive basketball player. And sometimes if you're playing with
Speaker 1: the wrong group of guys, guys can get out of rhythm.
Speaker 1: When there's not a player on the floor that's conscious
Speaker 1: about hunting shooters. For example, Donovan Mitchell, Donovan Mitchell is
Speaker 1: a very poor decision maker as a perimeter initiator. He
Speaker 1: is not aware of the psychology of the other shooters
Speaker 1: on the floor and the way his decisions and the
Speaker 1: decisions that he makes have an impact on those guys
Speaker 1: because if he gets hunting, if he gets to hunting
Speaker 1: his own shot, he can actually shoot other guys out
Speaker 1: of rhythm. What Draymond does is every second that he's
Speaker 1: on the floor, he's actively hunting shooters. Oh, I haven't
Speaker 1: gotten steff a shot in like four possessions. Let's try
Speaker 1: to get Steff a shot. Okay, STEP's been a rhythm,
Speaker 1: but Jordan Pools standing around. We need to find something
Speaker 1: for Jordan Poole, Clay Thompson, same kind of concept. He's
Speaker 1: he's the best player on that specific team at making
Speaker 1: sure that all of his shooters are always comfortable and
Speaker 1: in rhythm. So that's a huge value point. But again,
Speaker 1: the value that Draymond brings with those guards is different
Speaker 1: than if you dropped him with like Lebron James in
Speaker 1: like a healthy, centric top of the key type offense,
Speaker 1: or like the Luca Donchets. That's not to say that
Speaker 1: Draymond wouldn't be impactful in that system, but those two
Speaker 1: factors that the stacked talent in the league and Draymond's
Speaker 1: specific basketball fit with Golden State makes it complicated. But
Speaker 1: with the Warriors, you could argue his impact on specifically
Speaker 1: the ability to win a championship. His impact is easily
Speaker 1: top fifteen, top twenty in the league when you factor
Speaker 1: in all those things that he brings the table with
Speaker 1: that specific basketball fit. I think all Draymond discussions are
Speaker 1: really interesting just because it feels like he is so
Speaker 1: polarizing in the sense that there are people who attributes
Speaker 1: so much of his success to situation fit, and then
Speaker 1: there are people who just think, well, the guys of
Speaker 1: basketball genius. He makes ultimate winning players on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. I think, obviously there is a middle ground,
Speaker 1: like he is greatly enabled by the fact that he
Speaker 1: does have the kind of shooting and creation around him
Speaker 1: where he doesn't have to try to play any other role,
Speaker 1: because I mean, the guy you know scores seven points
Speaker 1: a game for a reason, peque Draymond. Draymond was a
Speaker 1: little bit different, but nevertheless the fundamental aspects of his
Speaker 1: skill set have always kind of been the same. I
Speaker 1: have to ask you just out of my own curiosity,
Speaker 1: because I love GP two and I think, like, even
Speaker 1: playing twenty minutes a game, I think he's like borderline
Speaker 1: all defense this year because his contributions in those minutes
Speaker 1: were that great. Is he the best defender who you've
Speaker 1: ever played against? Or if not, who is? Oh, that's
Speaker 1: a good question. He was absolutely, unquestionably the best defensive
Speaker 1: player that I ever played against things are complicated. Like I,
Speaker 1: I performed well in my games against him, but it
Speaker 1: was a team effort. Like I had and eleven in
Speaker 1: a game against him. I had another like eighteen and
Speaker 1: eleven in a game against him, But like it's always
Speaker 1: a team effort. It's like I in the in our
Speaker 1: offensive sets, they would do a lot of switching. Gary
Speaker 1: Payton would get off of me. I wasn't like a
Speaker 1: perimeter initiator. I wasn't a guy that was breaking people
Speaker 1: down off the dribble. I was like a face up
Speaker 1: big so it was more of like a turning face
Speaker 1: and jab step and I would shoot a lot of
Speaker 1: threes and things like that. So if it wasn't a
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It's never as complicated as like the way
Speaker 1: I played basketball now as like a guard who dribbles
Speaker 1: and and and initiates from the perimeter is very different
Speaker 1: from back then. So like nowadays, I wouldn't have a
Speaker 1: chance in hell at scoring against Gary Payton Jr. Like
Speaker 1: I just the'se it's just a whole other level. But um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, he was easily the best I ever went against.
Speaker 1: One other note really quick on on the Draymond thing.
Speaker 1: You're seeing a couple of different kind of defensive concepts
Speaker 1: that the that are happening around the league. Look at
Speaker 1: how spread out Dallas has uh Utah right now, and
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor is completely wide open, and
Speaker 1: as a result, you're seeing so much of like Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson and Spencer Dinwity operating with just a ship ton
Speaker 1: of space around the elbow, beating people off the dribble
Speaker 1: and getting to their little step back jump shots. Then
Speaker 1: you watched like Philly and Milwaukee and every when they're
Speaker 1: playing against Chicago and Toronto, the paint is completely clocked
Speaker 1: because that's the way that they have to be guarded.
Speaker 1: That's kind of specifically what I'm talking about. Like Draymond's
Speaker 1: playmaking and his ability in the short role adds a
Speaker 1: ton of value in this kind of five out system
Speaker 1: where when he's operating in the middle of the floor,
Speaker 1: he's so good at making those types of reads. It
Speaker 1: be and I I guarantee you, because Draymond so great,
Speaker 1: he would figure it out. But his impact in a
Speaker 1: system like Philly or or Milwaukee where the teams that
Speaker 1: are guarding them are packing the paint more would it
Speaker 1: would be interesting just to see the way Draymond would
Speaker 1: play in that kind of setting. Yeah. Absolutely, And I'm
Speaker 1: and again that is part of the kind of never
Speaker 1: ending question with him is how would he look in
Speaker 1: a variety of different situations. But I don't think that
Speaker 1: we're gonna see it. He seems pretty happy to be
Speaker 1: a warrior. I gotta say, Jason, I love the humility,
Speaker 1: but we don't need to talk about switching and j
Speaker 1: g P two getting off you. You You dropped twenty five
Speaker 1: on his head, that's the story. And they even inflate
Speaker 1: that number up to thirty. Why not, come on, it's
Speaker 1: an all defense caliber NBA guy. You had fifty on
Speaker 1: and it was. All I'm gonna say is as I
Speaker 1: my my one liner in all these situations, I have
Speaker 1: way too much respect for these guys to ever put
Speaker 1: myself on their level. He's a million times better than me.
Speaker 1: If he played me tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: get a shot off. I'm enhancing them then, I'm saying
Speaker 1: that you dunked all over him. If anybody ever asked me,
Speaker 1: all right, let's switch gears here, because we had really
Speaker 1: a pretty unbelievable night of NBA action overall and a
Speaker 1: shocking results between the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves. Heels are
Speaker 1: up twenty five with fifteen minutes left and they lost
Speaker 1: the basketball game. Grizzlies now up to one in the series.
Speaker 1: So what's the biggest story here? Is it an epic
Speaker 1: Memphis comeback or is it a Minnesota collapse. This was
Speaker 1: a really, really interesting game, and it absolutely was a
Speaker 1: Minnesota collapse. However, there were some very concerning things from Memphis.
Speaker 1: When we get to our top five contenders later in
Speaker 1: the show, you'll notice Memphis is conspicuously missing from that list.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is this is their first
Speaker 1: playoff run where they have some real expectations where they're
Speaker 1: expected to make the conference finals. When they play Golden
Speaker 1: State in the next round, Golden State will be favored,
Speaker 1: but you know, in theory, based on their regular season success,
Speaker 1: Memphis was a better team, and so it gets it's
Speaker 1: it's more complicated than that, right now. Um, the they
Speaker 1: played three games and this post season run so far
Speaker 1: as a team that is a favorite in the first round,
Speaker 1: and they've come out straight up flat in two of
Speaker 1: the three games. Then they came out flat in the
Speaker 1: second half after they battled all the way back to
Speaker 1: make it a game going into halftime. In Minnesota, they
Speaker 1: came out flat in the second half. So out of
Speaker 1: six halves they've played in this post season run, they've
Speaker 1: come out really flat and low effort, in low energy
Speaker 1: in three of those halves. And that's a huge problem
Speaker 1: because I've always talked to you guys about the margin
Speaker 1: for air and playoff series, how complicated and how difficult
Speaker 1: it is to win a playoff game, and you know,
Speaker 1: in the playoffs series, and to win multiple playoffs series
Speaker 1: and to win an NBA championship, and you cannot afford
Speaker 1: to be a sloppy team. We talked about this all
Speaker 1: the time with the defensive rating, right when we're tracking
Speaker 1: teams in their effort at night in the night out
Speaker 1: in the regular season, Memphis seems a little too loose
Speaker 1: to me. I talk earlier about the pain of losses
Speaker 1: and how it builds scar tissue that makes you fight
Speaker 1: and scratch and claw to an extra extent. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a huge swing factor in the two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve NBA Finals. The Thunder were favored in that series
Speaker 1: going into it. A lot of people were picking them
Speaker 1: they ran through the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference was
Speaker 1: considered weaker. Everyone saw the Heat struggle mightily as to
Speaker 1: get through the Boston Celtics. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: there was a lot of hype surrounding that Thunder team.
Speaker 1: There were like little details guys like, you know, miss
Speaker 1: free throw late in the game, and here comes Shane
Speaker 1: Battier just flying around a box out to get an
Speaker 1: offensive rebound. That makes a key difference in the game.
Speaker 1: You know, Lebron because of all the pain and suffering
Speaker 1: that he had had taken with the losses in the
Speaker 1: previous years, and the way that he fought through that series.
Speaker 1: That that scar tissue makes it so that you don't
Speaker 1: come out flat in three out of six halves in
Speaker 1: your first meaningful playoff run as a team with expect patians.
Speaker 1: And that's that's why these young teams usually don't get
Speaker 1: it done. And that's why I have Memphis outside of
Speaker 1: my top five. You can't come out flat like that.
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley, this is the star of the star of
Speaker 1: Memphis is John Morey. He's their best player by country mile.
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley went at his throat to start that game,
Speaker 1: and John wanted nothing to do with it. Was giving
Speaker 1: up drives to the basket, was fouling him. Patrick Beverley,
Speaker 1: come on, man, like I love Patrick Beverley's great role player,
Speaker 1: very very important player, a guy that I think has
Speaker 1: become undervalued around the league because of some slander throwing
Speaker 1: his way, because of all of his antics. But he
Speaker 1: has no business offensively attacking your superstar and just getting
Speaker 1: buckets on him in a meaningful playoff game. And so
Speaker 1: the memph the Memphis thing is a whole other that
Speaker 1: that that their time is coming. They have a lot
Speaker 1: of talent. They're gonna be fine, but there there there
Speaker 1: are issues there with their approach that they have to
Speaker 1: figure out. There's a there's almost like a you know,
Speaker 1: because they're very confident team. They talk a lot of trash, right,
Speaker 1: but you'll notice teams that lose and ugly fashion, teams
Speaker 1: that suffer that scar tissue. There's a lack of that.
Speaker 1: You noticed Milwaukee wasn't talking any trash during last year's
Speaker 1: playoff run. Why because they were humiliated the year before
Speaker 1: and they were humiliated the year before that they lost
Speaker 1: four games in a row to the Toronto Raptors team. Right,
Speaker 1: they don't. They don't have They have a a respect
Speaker 1: and a fear, a healthy fear of losing, and Memphis
Speaker 1: does not have that yet, and as a result, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna get them beat, probably by a team
Speaker 1: like Golden State. Now, the interesting thing in this game
Speaker 1: was Minnesota came out and played really, really good basketball.
Speaker 1: I've been talking a lot this year about their perimeter
Speaker 1: defense and how good they are at guarding teams and
Speaker 1: keeping them out of the paint with their perimeter players,
Speaker 1: and the fact that their interior presence, even though Carl
Speaker 1: Town's is not a great defender, they defend the paint
Speaker 1: really well because they defend on the perimeter. They only
Speaker 1: gave up four points in the paint in that first quarter.
Speaker 1: They had the game under control. And on nights like
Speaker 1: these where these games overlapped like this, like I have
Speaker 1: to do an instant reaction show after of the last
Speaker 1: game of the night, So like if a game's over,
Speaker 1: I'd like to turn it off so that I can
Speaker 1: get into the next game and try to figure the
Speaker 1: details out for that particular game. There were two times
Speaker 1: where I was like, oh, Minnesota, has this a couple
Speaker 1: more minutes, I'll be able to turn the game off,
Speaker 1: and then they immediately just gave up a fifteen run
Speaker 1: in the first half and then ah run spanning the
Speaker 1: third and fourth quarters, And I thought that the devastating
Speaker 1: factor there. What did I tell you guys in the
Speaker 1: play in the playoff preview and in in all of
Speaker 1: my Minnesota Timberwold stuff that I did during the regular season,
Speaker 1: I told you my biggest fear with them was their
Speaker 1: decision making. Can car can Anthony Edwards and Daniel Danigel Russell,
Speaker 1: can they can they execute in these environments? Can they
Speaker 1: make smart decisions? And they did extremely well in the
Speaker 1: playing game, and then they did extremely well in Game one.
Speaker 1: I thought Anthony Edwards out executed John Morant, but things
Speaker 1: kind of came off the rails in the second half
Speaker 1: of game too. And even though they played well to
Speaker 1: start Game three, at the end when these runs were
Speaker 1: happening at the late end second half or end of
Speaker 1: the second quarter and then end the third early fourth,
Speaker 1: it was Anthony Edwards and Ind'angelo Russell making poor offensive
Speaker 1: decisions and taking bad shots that led to Memphis getting
Speaker 1: out in transition and taking that game over. And so
Speaker 1: that's the issue that's the part that Anthony Edwards in
Speaker 1: D'angela Russell gotta figure out, like they've got to figure
Speaker 1: out that in these environments, it's it's less about feeding
Speaker 1: off the crowd. It's less about you know, it's less
Speaker 1: about looking out for what your rhythm is, and it's
Speaker 1: about making quality basketball decisions. Because this series, to me,
Speaker 1: is about who's got a hold of the rope. They're
Speaker 1: a lot closer than they than they look. Now. If
Speaker 1: both teams have a hold of the rope and they're
Speaker 1: both pulling, Memphis is better, so they're gonna win. That's
Speaker 1: why I picked them to win in five or six games.
Speaker 1: But what's happening throughout this series is at various points
Speaker 1: a team is letting go of the rope entirely. We
Speaker 1: talked about that with Memphis at the start of those
Speaker 1: three halves and then tonight twice with Minnesota, and then
Speaker 1: in the second half of Game two they at it.
Speaker 1: They can't. These are young teams that don't understand how
Speaker 1: hard it is to win these series, and they get
Speaker 1: unfocused and they let go of that rope. So the
Speaker 1: next step for for Minnesota has to be either because
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna lose this series, there's a devastating loss.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised of Memphis one in five. Now,
Speaker 1: that's how that's how disastrous that collapse was, and how
Speaker 1: that can impact the team mentally coming into this summer.
Speaker 1: Then one of the things for them is the ants
Speaker 1: growth as a decision maker. But it may be worthwhile
Speaker 1: trying to find somebody to come in that's a little
Speaker 1: bit more of an adult in the room, so to speak,
Speaker 1: that can help put them in positions. I don't know
Speaker 1: if there's somebody like Rudy, like Ricky Rubio that they
Speaker 1: could track down. He played in Minnesota in the past.
Speaker 1: Those are the kind of guys that I would be
Speaker 1: looking for. Last last note on this game from tonight.
Speaker 1: When Minnesota had Memphis in the half court, they really
Speaker 1: struggled to generate shots. John Murray had a rough night scoring.
Speaker 1: He did have tennis sis and a big part of
Speaker 1: that was his decision making down the stretch of the game.
Speaker 1: To his credit, in the two Memphis wins, he's been
Speaker 1: good making decisions. But Memphis has a problem creating shots
Speaker 1: in the half court against good defensive teams. As I've
Speaker 1: talked about, Desmond Bane is a slasher and a shooter,
Speaker 1: but he's not great at creating his own shot off
Speaker 1: the dribble. Jaren Jackson Jr. Can be a bull in
Speaker 1: a china shop. And John Murant the paint is packed
Speaker 1: on him right now, and so he's not getting easy
Speaker 1: layups that bolster his offense as well. His best thing
Speaker 1: that he can do right now is driving to the
Speaker 1: teeth of the defense and kick out two shooters, which
Speaker 1: he needs to do. But when you're looking at some
Speaker 1: of these other contenders on the list, when we're looking
Speaker 1: at Boston and Golden State in Phoenix and Dallas and Philly,
Speaker 1: they just have better options to go to in the
Speaker 1: half court. And so because of that, I think Memphis
Speaker 1: is almost like they still have a puncher's chance. But
Speaker 1: I'm just about off Memphis as a team that's capable
Speaker 1: of winning the title at this point. I can't hear
Speaker 1: Carson right now, so we're gonna move on to our
Speaker 1: next question. So the Carl Town's only attempted four shots tonight,
Speaker 1: it's three or four. Had some defensive moments as a
Speaker 1: back line help guy, blocking shots off the glass and
Speaker 1: things of the of that nature. But this is yet
Speaker 1: another really really weird Carl Town's playoff game. And when
Speaker 1: we look down the list of Carl Town's playoff performance,
Speaker 1: this kind of seems to happen more often than not.
Speaker 1: And so the next question we had was can Carl
Speaker 1: Town's be a franchise cornerstone? And you know there I
Speaker 1: even go a step further, can Carl Town's be one
Speaker 1: of your two best players on a championship team? Because
Speaker 1: look at the archetype of a big man as the
Speaker 1: second best player on a team. We're looking at Anthony Davis, right,
Speaker 1: textbookcase in the bubble. So in that playoff environment, there
Speaker 1: were moments where Anthony Davis struggled to create his own shot,
Speaker 1: particularly in the Miami Series. But he has this massive
Speaker 1: weapon that he can bring to the table and that's
Speaker 1: what he does. As a defensive player. Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: one of the top three or four defensive players in
Speaker 1: the entire world is about of basketball and so when
Speaker 1: things are not working for you, like tonight Carl Town's,
Speaker 1: his guards weren't looking for him enough. Jaren Jackson was
Speaker 1: stifling him in his isolations. The paint was packed, so
Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of great opportunities for him to
Speaker 1: go to work, and so his offense was kind of
Speaker 1: removed from the equation. And yes, he made some plays
Speaker 1: as a back line defender, but he doesn't he doesn't
Speaker 1: make enough impact in that area of the game in
Speaker 1: order to be effective. And then a huge problem tonight,
Speaker 1: especially in that second half run, is he's not fast
Speaker 1: enough to keep up with Memphis when they're going up
Speaker 1: and down the floor. And so the thing with Kat,
Speaker 1: unless he drops some weight and figures out how to
Speaker 1: be a more dominant defensive player, I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: he can even be the second best player on a
Speaker 1: championship team. Now. Thankful he's already in a number two
Speaker 1: position here behind aunt An. It's going to be developing,
Speaker 1: but that might have to be the way. If there's
Speaker 1: a pathway for Minnesota to win with Cat, or for
Speaker 1: a team to win with Cat, He's almost better served
Speaker 1: as like the big man on a team that has
Speaker 1: two perimeter stars on it, because I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: he brings enough to the table from a talent perspective
Speaker 1: when his offense isn't working to win a championship with
Speaker 1: some of the flaws that he has. One of the
Speaker 1: things that I think really stands out is if you
Speaker 1: just look at Cat's last few games. I mean today,
Speaker 1: it's eight points on four shots. As you mentioned, Game two,
Speaker 1: it was fifteen on seven shots in the plan. Obviously
Speaker 1: he had foul trouble, but it was eleven on three
Speaker 1: of eleven shooting. So it's not just the lack of production,
Speaker 1: it's the lack of assertiveness. And when I watched Cat,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think in terms of el said he's
Speaker 1: one of the most offensively gifted big men like dare
Speaker 1: I say ever, I mean, his versatility as a score
Speaker 1: his playmaking is incredibly distinct, I think. But do you
Speaker 1: look at that lack of a servedness and think like
Speaker 1: that's a major issue with him as a player at
Speaker 1: times because it seems to come and go a little bit.
Speaker 1: So you know, this is the difference between like a
Speaker 1: Janis and the Cat because the paint, the paint is packed.
Speaker 1: So like, there's two reasons why Carl Town's only took
Speaker 1: four shots tonight. It's the decision makers looking him off.
Speaker 1: Like there was some flat out atrocious shots from a
Speaker 1: and from Delo. Down the stretch of that game, there
Speaker 1: was there was a transition three that Delo took along
Speaker 1: the right wing that was contested from about thirty feet
Speaker 1: that like you know, pickup game, you'd get yelled at,
Speaker 1: let alone in in an NBA playoff game for a
Speaker 1: guy who wasn't having a great night, right, So like
Speaker 1: that's part of it. But I think Carl Town's was
Speaker 1: looking at the paint being packed, Jaren Jackson was pressing
Speaker 1: up on him a little bit and taking away that
Speaker 1: jump shot, right, and so I think it was just
Speaker 1: I think it was a classic passivity thing. It was
Speaker 1: like I don't think I can score here. There's too
Speaker 1: much stuff going on in the paint. I'm not getting
Speaker 1: to my jump shot, and I'm not a good enough
Speaker 1: passer to make people pay on the back end. What
Speaker 1: am I gonna do? Okay, well, I'm just gonna set
Speaker 1: ball screens and pop to the three point line. Right.
Speaker 1: That was kind of like his approach, like what does
Speaker 1: Janice do? The honest is like, oh, there's four bodies
Speaker 1: in the paint. I'm gonna try to run them all
Speaker 1: over and like chances are they won't call anything. If
Speaker 1: they do, it'll be a foul on them. Like you know,
Speaker 1: I might get one or two offensive fouls a game.
Speaker 1: But that's part like there's there is that it's like
Speaker 1: a it's almost like a like a a stubbornness, but
Speaker 1: in a good way, like I refuse to go down
Speaker 1: with I'm not attempting four shots in a must win
Speaker 1: playoff game at home, Like I have to find a
Speaker 1: way to impact this game offensively, even if I start
Speaker 1: to like muck things up running into all that traffic.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm with you, man, it's an aggression issue.
Speaker 1: But I think I think he's seeing the four and
Speaker 1: seeing that he's not having opportunities, and so he's just
Speaker 1: deciding he's just given up, rather than being like, Okay,
Speaker 1: how do I make myself an impact in this game offensively? Right?
Speaker 1: So you mentioned it with Kat and obviously you've talked
Speaker 1: about with Yoki. It's just sort of some of the
Speaker 1: defensive liabilities of these star offensive big men. So just philosophically,
Speaker 1: would you rather have a guy like Cat who obviously
Speaker 1: you know, can have these monster offensive nights, but like
Speaker 1: you said, if he isn't, then isn't positively impact in
Speaker 1: the game defensively in multiple other ways, or a guy
Speaker 1: like Bam who isn't that kind of lead offensive option.
Speaker 1: But it's such a weapon defensively, such a cerebral guy.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting question. I take that a step further.
Speaker 1: Would you rather have Cat or Rudy Gobert. There's another
Speaker 1: question that I would ask, now so, and that's that's
Speaker 1: that's really really interesting. So, uh, I would still take
Speaker 1: Cat over Rudy because Rudy is so so, so incredibly
Speaker 1: useless offensively. But Bam has shown enough of that flash
Speaker 1: offensively that I would absolutely argue that Bam is a
Speaker 1: better basketball player than Carl Towns and is a more
Speaker 1: valuable player in this type of setting. You know. A
Speaker 1: big part of that is, like I said, like Carl,
Speaker 1: like Bam. Bam is one of the worst midrange shooters
Speaker 1: by percentage in the league this year. I know he
Speaker 1: has that capability, but it's like, so Bam can go
Speaker 1: cold and become a lack of a threat on offense.
Speaker 1: He's more of like a guy that they almost they
Speaker 1: almost use him like Yokis right, Like they see they'll
Speaker 1: they'll do like a have him run to the elbow
Speaker 1: and do all these dribble handoff actions with like Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: with Duncan Robinson or Tyler Harre always kind of like
Speaker 1: in that yo control high post kind of ball handler.
Speaker 1: But and so that's the way he impacts the game offensively.
Speaker 1: But even if he did nothing else for you on
Speaker 1: on offense other than be basically a you know, a
Speaker 1: vertical spacing threat and a guy who can do dribble
Speaker 1: handoffs at the top of the key, he can be
Speaker 1: monstrously impactful on the defense. Event like like a huge problem.
Speaker 1: It's one of the biggest wrinkles of this upcoming series
Speaker 1: with embiid if they close out the Atlanta Hawks, right,
Speaker 1: So I I would I would absolutely go with a
Speaker 1: guy like Bam. He's he's like a star offensive tackle,
Speaker 1: kind of like what we were talking about earlier with
Speaker 1: with Draymond Green. Alright, well, you mentioned Gobert in this
Speaker 1: conversation and he and the Jazz did fall again tonight.
Speaker 1: They're down to one to the MAVs. Luca don Che
Speaker 1: has not seen the floor. Jalen Bronson has dropped more
Speaker 1: than thirty in consecutive games. So, I mean, we've explored
Speaker 1: this question in the past, but what's most to blame
Speaker 1: for the Jazz is failures. This is why I set
Speaker 1: this up as the theme of the show because it
Speaker 1: is that lack of that offensive line for basketball, it
Speaker 1: is that lack of the guys who are willing to
Speaker 1: do the dirty work. As is always the case, Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert becomes the punching bag on this stuff, and Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert is a deserving punching bag on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, the dirty The secret is. Yes, we
Speaker 1: talked about Dallas scoring at will, which they did, and
Speaker 1: we'll get into that in just a second. But another
Speaker 1: huge part of why doubt Utah is struggling so much
Speaker 1: in this series is they can't score against Dallas's defense.
Speaker 1: And Dallas's defense is pretty gimmicky. Now they they compete
Speaker 1: to an an alarming extent. Like I have so much
Speaker 1: respect for those guys in their devotion to defense. I
Speaker 1: talked about their earlier with Stephan Clay, like you've got
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson, Spencer Dinwoodie and Maxine Cleaber on the floor
Speaker 1: with two good defenders, and Reggie Bullock and and Dorrian
Speaker 1: Phinney Smith. But you've got three average too below average
Speaker 1: defensive players that are functionally running a very very very
Speaker 1: effective playoff defense because of them, just caring enough to
Speaker 1: sit in a stance and keep people in front. And
Speaker 1: one of the big problems is they're running these actions
Speaker 1: with Rudy Gobert and it'll be Donovan Mitchell and Mike
Speaker 1: Conley at the top of key. They're gonna switch and
Speaker 1: they'll get you know, Donovan Mitchell onto Max and Clarbert
Speaker 1: or something like that. But Rudy Gobert is utterly useless
Speaker 1: attacking that mismatch on the interior, and so you still
Speaker 1: have the spacing problem of him being on the floor
Speaker 1: but clogging things up around the basket, but he can't
Speaker 1: punish you for putting a smaller defender on him. So
Speaker 1: that's one of their biggest problems. That is then allowing
Speaker 1: uh Dallas to get out in transition and get easy stuff.
Speaker 1: But on the defensive end of the floor for Utah,
Speaker 1: it's literally, to a t, the exact same thing that
Speaker 1: the Clippers did to them last year. We talked earlier
Speaker 1: about the concept of the way these different teams are
Speaker 1: playing defense based on their opponent. Right, You've got teams
Speaker 1: like you know, Milwaukee and Philly where teams are really
Speaker 1: crowding the paint because they're more of a brute force,
Speaker 1: physicality offense. But these five out skilled offenses, teams like
Speaker 1: Golden State, teams like this Dallas Mavericks team, or teams
Speaker 1: like the Clippers last year, they put you in a
Speaker 1: really tough predicament because it's all the same defensive principles.
Speaker 1: Right Like, if I have a guy dribbling on the
Speaker 1: at the top of the key or on the left wing,
Speaker 1: and there's guys spacing to all the spots on the
Speaker 1: three point line, just a classic five out offense. Even
Speaker 1: if that happens, the principles are the same. The guy
Speaker 1: helps out of the week side corner and then you
Speaker 1: rotate around. Dallas is doing the same thing for the
Speaker 1: most part. Utah is running more of a four out,
Speaker 1: one in type of concept, but it's a similar it's
Speaker 1: the same defensive principles Dallas is do. Dallas is helping
Speaker 1: out of the week side corner and rotating around. There
Speaker 1: were a bunch of plays today where when Donovitch Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell got going, they would just double Donovan Mitchell. Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell would pass, and then you would just see all
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks defenders just kind of rotate over one
Speaker 1: spot and suddenly everyone's guarding somebody. Again, it's just basic
Speaker 1: defensive principles. But against Utah, when Jalen Brunson or Spencer
Speaker 1: Dinwoody has a straight line drive to the basket, you
Speaker 1: have Maxine Cleber in the weeks side corner, and you
Speaker 1: have Realdy Gobert step over to help in that same
Speaker 1: rotation doesn't happen. And so you literally saw in a
Speaker 1: must win game at home, you have to win that
Speaker 1: game because Lucas out and in a must win game
Speaker 1: at home, they the Dallas Mavericks made thirteen threes in
Speaker 1: the first half, I believe, on twenty five attempts, and
Speaker 1: guys like they were all wide open there. If you're
Speaker 1: a Utah Jazz fan, you should not be sitting at
Speaker 1: home tonight or driving home from that game thinking, man,
Speaker 1: I can't believe they shot so well. That's really unfortunate. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you gave professional basketball players wide open threes. Max and
Speaker 1: Cleber just made like seven or eight of them in
Speaker 1: game two. What did you think was gonna happen? If
Speaker 1: you let him sit butt naked at the three point
Speaker 1: line all night long, He's gonna make them all game
Speaker 1: and he did. I think he made three or four
Speaker 1: in a row before he finally missed one, and like
Speaker 1: like pivotal because it happened time and time again. Big run.
Speaker 1: They get it back to within eleven. Early second half,
Speaker 1: here comes Max and Cleber just runs up basic dribble
Speaker 1: handoff with with with Reggie Bullock. Rudy Gobert is the
Speaker 1: one guarding Reggie Bullock and he SAgs off of him
Speaker 1: and the guy I think it was Donovan Mitchell that
Speaker 1: was guarding Cleiber was lazy on the switch and Reggie
Speaker 1: Bullock got a wide open three and knocked it down.
Speaker 1: They went on a run in the fourth quarter and
Speaker 1: got it back within seven. Jalen Brunson just walked right
Speaker 1: down the floor beat somebody off the dribble. Remember who
Speaker 1: was I think it was Mike Conley, and then Rudy Gobert. Uh,
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert stepped over and as soon as he did,
Speaker 1: Josh Green just cut out of the week side corner.
Speaker 1: It was an easy drop off for a layup. They
Speaker 1: were getting easy baskets, good playoff defenses. You'll notice they
Speaker 1: usually only get scored on in two scenarios. They'll get
Speaker 1: scored on because a super duper star makes an incredibly
Speaker 1: tough shot over a contest, or they'll get scored on
Speaker 1: because they made three or four defensive rotations on the
Speaker 1: same possession and finally someone got an open shot after
Speaker 1: it was driving kick and swing and swing and driving
Speaker 1: kick and swing and swing like three or four times
Speaker 1: around the floor that before finally somebody misses the rotation.
Speaker 1: The Utah jazz. We're getting beat on the first action
Speaker 1: dribble drive. There's an easy kick out. And the guy
Speaker 1: that I have to be super critical of here is
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell. Talked about this earlier with Steph Curry. Steph
Speaker 1: Curry limited off a limited physical tools relative to the position.
Speaker 1: He's about six ft three, not overly quick, not overly
Speaker 1: vertically athletic. He's strong, but he's not like Jack's like
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell stronger right, Donovan Mitchell's taller, has like a
Speaker 1: forty vertical significantly quicker, significantly quicker laterally, he's got all
Speaker 1: of the tools to be a all defense player. And
Speaker 1: spencer Dinwoody, who is in terms of perimeter initiators in
Speaker 1: this playoff run, he's in the bottom set. He's shooting
Speaker 1: like crap in this series. Down the stretch of that game,
Speaker 1: Spencer didn't what he was just looking Donovan Mitchell in
Speaker 1: the face and just driving right around him to the basket.
Speaker 1: It almost every time down the floor. It's embarrassing and
Speaker 1: one of You know, the Jazz are an interesting predicament
Speaker 1: here because they have to rebuild, you know, series not
Speaker 1: entirely over, but like they're in trouble because Luca could
Speaker 1: theoretically sit out Game four now because you like your chances,
Speaker 1: there's absolutely no reason to rush Luca back. You're a
Speaker 1: better basketball team than the Jazz without Luca. That's the
Speaker 1: predicament for Utah and lucas a top five or six
Speaker 1: player in the entire world. So they're they're they're probably
Speaker 1: gonna lose, and when that happens, they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: decide how they move on from here. And yes, they
Speaker 1: have a Rudy Gobert probably makes too much money to
Speaker 1: be a player who's useless offensively. Again, his defensive criticism
Speaker 1: is completely unfair. He does He's one of the top
Speaker 1: three or four defensive players in the world any even
Speaker 1: in perimeter situations. I didn't like, guys are gonna make
Speaker 1: step back fade aways against every defensive player in the league,
Speaker 1: including Rudy Gobert, and a lot of the shots that
Speaker 1: they would make on Rudy would be like leaning one,
Speaker 1: like fade aways in the lane. That's just greatness from
Speaker 1: offensive players. But his limitations on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor put you in a tough predicament with how
Speaker 1: much space he takes up in your cap, and so
Speaker 1: that's an issue. But a big part of it is
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell. Now there's intel that he doesn't want to
Speaker 1: be in Utah long term, but Donovan Mitchell is never
Speaker 1: gonna be able to be a cornerstone of an NBA
Speaker 1: title contender until he embraces the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And hopefully going home early again this year will help
Speaker 1: build up some of that scar tissue to get Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell to start caring enough about that stuff to do
Speaker 1: the job. Because the dirty little secret is if Donovan
Speaker 1: cared about defense and they brought in one more good
Speaker 1: defensive guard and one more good defensive wing, they might
Speaker 1: be able to make this core work. But I mean,
Speaker 1: there's like a commitment from the top down, a cultural
Speaker 1: thing that they haven't embraced yet. That's really interesting that
Speaker 1: last coment that he made there, because I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask how complete does this roster overhaul knee to be?
Speaker 1: Because obviously people look at the Donnie Gobert element, but
Speaker 1: it's if you have guys who you're paying a combined
Speaker 1: forty plus million in, like bow Yon and Conley who
Speaker 1: aren't being willing defenders, who aren't being dirty work guys,
Speaker 1: and you lost really kind of their ultimate dirty work guy.
Speaker 1: And Joe Ingles. It's just kind of remarkable that here
Speaker 1: they are. They were the most efficient offense in basketball
Speaker 1: this year, and yet they're getting really embarrassed. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is an embarrassing performance to be down to one
Speaker 1: with the Mass without Luca. But do you still think
Speaker 1: then that it's more of an issue of identity and
Speaker 1: committing to playing both ends that it is, like really personnel,
Speaker 1: it's both. I mean, like, for instance, like who who's
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith on this roster for the Jazz? You know,
Speaker 1: like almost every really really good playoff team has that guy.
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's Andrew Wiggins for the Warriors, It's
Speaker 1: it's Dorian Finney Smith for the Mavericks, It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's Mikhail Bridges for the Sons. All of the really
Speaker 1: really good teams in this field have this do it
Speaker 1: all six eight to six ten forward that guards the
Speaker 1: other team's best player and does all this important stuff right,
Speaker 1: Like Donovan Mitchell is not having success against Dori and
Speaker 1: Phinney Smith. He has to get him switched off of him.
Speaker 1: So you could do a soft rebuild, target a guy
Speaker 1: like Dorian Phinney Smith and then just hope the hope
Speaker 1: that eventually Donovan Mitchell will will embrace that defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. But it gets a little deeper than that.
Speaker 1: Like Donovan Mitchell is also just a really bad decision maker.
Speaker 1: Like his he doesn't hunt shooters, he's not aware of
Speaker 1: the of the of the field, of everybody else on
Speaker 1: the floor, and it kind of seems more like he's
Speaker 1: just did I get some airspace? Okay? Time to rise up.
Speaker 1: He's got a little bit of the Russell Westbrook can
Speaker 1: under him where he's when he's when when russ was
Speaker 1: in his prime, I mean where like he's so incredibly
Speaker 1: athletic and teams are so paranoid about him getting downhill
Speaker 1: to the rim that he kind of can get to
Speaker 1: a jump shot whenever he wants, and that's a blessing
Speaker 1: in a curse. It's a talent, but the curses, it's
Speaker 1: not always a good time to pull up off the
Speaker 1: dribble to shoot a jump shot because it's not just
Speaker 1: about your This is the thing that used to always
Speaker 1: kill me with James Harden. When when when Darryl Moorey
Speaker 1: would be like, oh, he's averaging one point to two
Speaker 1: points per isolation possession, thus he is the greatest scorer
Speaker 1: of all time, and it's like, actually, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what James Harden scores per possession. It matters what your
Speaker 1: entire team scores per possession in a playoff setting. And
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell might be able to his analytics team might
Speaker 1: be able to tell him that his pull up threes
Speaker 1: off the dribble are generating one point something points per
Speaker 1: possession or whatever it is. But the reality is is
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz offense sucks right now. So it goes
Speaker 1: deeper than just what Donovan can get with his own shot.
Speaker 1: The entire organism is broken. I would say that there's
Speaker 1: enough bad juju surrounding this Jazz team that I would
Speaker 1: go with a total rebuild. It's kind of like with
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Like with the Lakers, there's a lot of intel, like, oh,
Speaker 1: Carmelo wants to come back. Oh Dwight wants to come back.
Speaker 1: It's like, if you bring them back, don't be surprised
Speaker 1: if there's a similar vibe in the locker room next year.
Speaker 1: There was clearly something toxic, not personnel related. Those guys
Speaker 1: all got along, but there was something toxic with the
Speaker 1: Lakers with their basketball this year. It just wasn't functioning
Speaker 1: in the only way to do to you gotta clean house.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of where I'm at with the Jazz,
Speaker 1: Like these guys an't like each other, except for maybe
Speaker 1: Rudy and and Donovan, right, But like there's the guys
Speaker 1: seem to have good chemistry aside from that. But it's
Speaker 1: just this is a fundamentally broken concoction of basketball players.
Speaker 1: And so from that standpoint, it's like the recipe is
Speaker 1: already so screwed up. Don't start adding other ingredients in
Speaker 1: it to fix it. Just throw out the whole batch
Speaker 1: and start from scratch. Al Right, Well, let's move on
Speaker 1: here to a team that is still kind of trying
Speaker 1: to figure out that makes of ingredients themselves. A little
Speaker 1: bit didn't play today, but we have some thoughts from
Speaker 1: Big boss Man Colin Cowherd on some of the fundamental
Speaker 1: issues with the Nets. Let's take a listen to what
Speaker 1: he had to say. Two years ago. These guys went
Speaker 1: on a podcast with each other and both were quoted saying,
Speaker 1: we don't really need a coach. Okay, that's delusional. Here's
Speaker 1: one thing. All dynasties football, basketball, and baseball. But let's
Speaker 1: stay to football basketball. All dynasties have had in common
Speaker 1: one thing. They've all had legendary coaches. Jason, what do
Speaker 1: you think of that? And what do you really think
Speaker 1: went wrong with the Nets? So the Nash thing is
Speaker 1: complicated because you know, we got into this a little
Speaker 1: bit last night, but there are legitimate shortcomings there, like
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be able to to disrupt this Brooklyn offense
Speaker 1: to the extent that they have, that to the extent
Speaker 1: that Boston has in these last two games and the
Speaker 1: chess match. Here is Nash has to figure that out.
Speaker 1: Part of me wants to withhold some of the Nash
Speaker 1: criticism until this series is over, because it isn't over,
Speaker 1: Like there's a pathway here, Like you win Game three
Speaker 1: at home starts there, that's one single achievable thing, beat
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics on your home floor. Then Game four
Speaker 1: here comes Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons gives you a significant
Speaker 1: defensive weapon, if nothing else. We talked earlier about the
Speaker 1: concept of the offensive line in basketball and these role
Speaker 1: players that fill all these dirty work positions. The Nets
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of that, and Katie and Kyrie
Speaker 1: aren't super super into that sort of thing. So having
Speaker 1: a guy like Ben Simmons who does that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: that's an influx of talent that that helps significantly on
Speaker 1: that front. If you're turning some of those some of
Speaker 1: those minutes that are going to a Kessler Edwards into
Speaker 1: a Ben Simmons, that's a massive, massive upgrade. So there's
Speaker 1: still a pathway here. So I don't want to get
Speaker 1: two ahead of. Like I talked about this last night,
Speaker 1: the conundrum with Steve Nash here is not it's not
Speaker 1: him running offense, it's more actions, specific actions like two
Speaker 1: player actions and three player actions and floor positioning to
Speaker 1: try to take advantage of Boston's over aggressiveness. That's the
Speaker 1: chess match that Steve Nash has to fix figure out
Speaker 1: over the next couple of days. As far as Katie
Speaker 1: and Kyrie go, they're not the first guys that are
Speaker 1: like this, Like there's a reason why Lebron wanted ty
Speaker 1: Lou when he was in Cleveland. It was before Tyler
Speaker 1: now is a proven successful coach that rightfully has an ego,
Speaker 1: he should feel the way that he does. But when
Speaker 1: he was coming up in Cleveland. I don't want to
Speaker 1: say he was under Lebron's thumb because he wasn't. But
Speaker 1: he wasn't the kind of guy like he did. He
Speaker 1: was someone who was critical of Lebron. That was something
Speaker 1: that was chronicled in detail, and that was something that
Speaker 1: Lebron needed. But it wasn't It wasn't a true like
Speaker 1: superior inferior type of relationship. It was very collaborative. And
Speaker 1: that's the kind of that's the kind of like trigger
Speaker 1: word here because the clip that Colin is referencing was
Speaker 1: I can't I can't remember if it was a podcast
Speaker 1: or an interview or what it was, but Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Katie were talking about the Nash Higher and Kyrie basically
Speaker 1: says something to the effect of, yeah, you know, like
Speaker 1: my relationship with Steve is really cool. It's going to
Speaker 1: get deeper as the years go by, but like we
Speaker 1: don't really need like I could be the head coach
Speaker 1: one night, Kevin could be the head coach one night,
Speaker 1: and then like Kevin steps up and he goes like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a collaborative effort, and it's like, that's the part
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous. It's the egos of the stars in the
Speaker 1: room and then thinking I don't need somebody on the
Speaker 1: sideline that could potentially help me here. And that's that's
Speaker 1: the issue. That's why I was talking about with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: It's so important for them to get a head coach
Speaker 1: this next year that has the cash a to be
Speaker 1: able to actually talk I don't say talk down to
Speaker 1: these guys, but to talk to them and actually have
Speaker 1: them listen, because they all have massive egos and they
Speaker 1: think they don't need to help. But I could also
Speaker 1: say that Kevin and Kyrie are massively undervaluing the importance
Speaker 1: of the role players, like guys. Guess what the the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics in the second half of this series, so
Speaker 1: the third and fourth quarters of Game one, third and
Speaker 1: fourth quarters of game too. In the second half of
Speaker 1: this series so far, the Celtics are scoring about a
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six points per one hundred possessions. That's
Speaker 1: an insane number. Brooklyn's defense is utterly falling apart in
Speaker 1: the second half of these games. That's on part of
Speaker 1: its coaching, but a big part of it is personnel.
Speaker 1: The Katie and Kyrie are under the impression that, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna We're just gonna score because that's what
Speaker 1: we do best, and we're gonna win, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that everything we've ever heard in NBA history tells us
Speaker 1: that you have to have the ability to lock in
Speaker 1: in the half court and get stops. They had one
Speaker 1: decent stretch in the fourth quarter of Game one that
Speaker 1: they lost because of a handful of important defensive breakdowns.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown had nine points in the last seven minutes
Speaker 1: of the game. So even they're good defensive, fourth quarter
Speaker 1: had some catastrophic failures in it. They can't sit down
Speaker 1: and get They can't get the stops they need to
Speaker 1: win this series. So clearly there's an ego thing with
Speaker 1: Katie and Kyrie. They don't think they need an elite defense.
Speaker 1: They don't think they need a guy sitting in the
Speaker 1: chair that can offer something that helps them, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna perpetually be something that holds back people with pride.
Speaker 1: It's said Lebron James is the second best basketball player
Speaker 1: ever in my position opinion, and has a realistic chance
Speaker 1: to pass MJ. One day, that dude literally looked at
Speaker 1: the Lakers and thought, we don't need these role guys.
Speaker 1: What I really need is another playmaker. And what he
Speaker 1: didn't realize was they won because they had all of
Speaker 1: these dudes like Alex Crusoe and Danny Green and Contagious
Speaker 1: Cobbo Pope and Kyle Kuzma who are dedicated to doing
Speaker 1: all the hard things so that Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: could focus on what they were great at. And that
Speaker 1: kind of like dissonance between those two concepts. It's pride
Speaker 1: is an issue and for everybody in the world, and
Speaker 1: this is the way it affects the star basketball players
Speaker 1: of the world. So given all those issues, you did
Speaker 1: still say that there is a path for the Nets
Speaker 1: to get out of this series, and it starts with
Speaker 1: winning Game three. What actually has to happen throughout this
Speaker 1: series in your opinion for the nets to still pull
Speaker 1: it off. So it's this is where it comes down
Speaker 1: to Nash because Boston is is really, really, really aggressive
Speaker 1: in defense right now against Katie and Kyrie. Broke this
Speaker 1: down in detail last night. The gist of it is,
Speaker 1: unless they're dribbling thirty ft from the basket, they're never alone.
Speaker 1: If they put the ball on the floor and try
Speaker 1: to beat somebody off the dribble, help is coming early,
Speaker 1: and it's coming aggressively. It's not someone stepping in and
Speaker 1: digging their straight up like aggressively helping. When they want
Speaker 1: to catch off the ball. As soon as the pass
Speaker 1: is thrown in, a second defender is coming over to
Speaker 1: try to disrupt on the catch. They are off the
Speaker 1: ball getting roughed up. There's Boston is throwing multiple bodies
Speaker 1: at Katie and Kyrie all the time, and as a
Speaker 1: result of that, there are openings somewhere on the floor.
Speaker 1: But there's two things that go into that. Part of
Speaker 1: it is the the the approach to the game. Like
Speaker 1: Katie and Kyrie are both wired as scores, and so
Speaker 1: there are times where they look off open people to
Speaker 1: try to get to their own shot. There was a
Speaker 1: big play that I tweeted out in the second half
Speaker 1: of last night's game. You find it on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed where Kyrie beat I can't remember who it was
Speaker 1: that he beat off the dribble, but he beat somebody
Speaker 1: off the dribble and got into the lane and Patty Mills,
Speaker 1: one of the most dead eye three point shooters in
Speaker 1: the league, was completely unguarded at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: and instead of swinging it out to Patty Mills, Kyrie
Speaker 1: tried to finish over three people and got blocked. So
Speaker 1: part of it is embracing and understanding that your role
Speaker 1: in this series is no longer to score, but rather
Speaker 1: to be a decoy. Essentially, take advantage of the ridiculous
Speaker 1: defensive attention that Boston is throwing your way and use
Speaker 1: that to get your really good offensive players wide open shots.
Speaker 1: Boston's defense will loosen. Then from there you can actually
Speaker 1: go back to being a score. And then the second
Speaker 1: part of it is the Steve Nashville little decoy actions
Speaker 1: to man action off the ball with Katie and Kyrie
Speaker 1: to occupy defenders floor positioning, making it so that Katie
Speaker 1: knows if I catch here in Boston doubles there then
Speaker 1: I know that so and so is open. Dallas is
Speaker 1: so incredibly good at this. They are the best in
Speaker 1: the league in my opinion. The Brunson, Dinwoodie and Luca.
Speaker 1: They don't throw to open guys. They throw to spots
Speaker 1: because baked into their offense they have release valves. They know,
Speaker 1: no matter what kind of hell trouble I get into,
Speaker 1: if I find myself in traffic, there's always someone in
Speaker 1: the left corner. Another big thing you saw it tonight,
Speaker 1: especially in that first half, they have a guy kind
Speaker 1: of like circle around to the top of the key,
Speaker 1: so they always have a relief so when they attack
Speaker 1: from the top, they always have a release valve right
Speaker 1: behind them. Kleiberg got a couple of threes out of
Speaker 1: that early in the game. Uh that they got a
Speaker 1: ton of open looks right at the right around the
Speaker 1: top of the key. So that's Steve Nash's job. And
Speaker 1: I don't know how the heck this happened. But the
Speaker 1: Nets don't play again tomorrow, so they had two days
Speaker 1: off between game one and two, and they have two
Speaker 1: games off again between two and three. They don't play
Speaker 1: until Saturday, so you've got a lot of time here.
Speaker 1: Or for Steve Nash to really study the tape and
Speaker 1: try to come up with really easy counters for each
Speaker 1: spot on the floor. When they double f Katie at
Speaker 1: the post, this is what we do when they double
Speaker 1: when they trap Katie on pick and rolls, This is
Speaker 1: what we do. When Katie attacks in isolation and they
Speaker 1: start throwing bodies, this is where people relocate. Those are
Speaker 1: those little details that Nash has to figure out. And
Speaker 1: for the record, guys, like if we go into game
Speaker 1: three and the same thing happens, that's when I buy
Speaker 1: into the the the the Steve Nash criticism, because that's
Speaker 1: his job. His job is not to have it figured
Speaker 1: out by game one. It's his job to make the adjustments.
Speaker 1: And they got utterly slapped in the face and completely
Speaker 1: fell apart offensively in the second half of game two,
Speaker 1: and it's on Steve Nash to come up with an
Speaker 1: adjustment to make things easier on Kyrie and Katie in
Speaker 1: game three. Al Right, Well, we've obviously explored a lot
Speaker 1: of different teams throughout this show, and we've dipped our
Speaker 1: toes a bit into the who are the top tier
Speaker 1: title contenders conversation right now? But I think we're ready
Speaker 1: Jason for the initial Timp's top five. So let's start
Speaker 1: with a five spot. Who are your top five contenders
Speaker 1: right now? Okay, So, like I mentioned earlier, I'm dropping
Speaker 1: Memphis out because I just don't think they're sharp enough
Speaker 1: and I don't think they're quite committed enough to just
Speaker 1: how hard this is gonna be. So I'm dropping them out.
Speaker 1: I've raised Philly up to number five because of and
Speaker 1: I was really low on Philly. I expected them to
Speaker 1: lose in the first round and I was wrong about that,
Speaker 1: and a big part of it was Joel Embiad's jump shooting.
Speaker 1: He seems to be hot in that specific department. That
Speaker 1: is a massive wrinkle because that is their release valve
Speaker 1: in late possession type situations. And then Tyrese Maxi Tyres
Speaker 1: Maxie was the second best player in this first round series.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's not entirely over yet, but he's better than
Speaker 1: James Harden, he was better than everybody on Toronto. Tyrese
Speaker 1: Maxi proving himself as an effective playoff player is an
Speaker 1: influx of talent that makes them more interesting. I don't
Speaker 1: have them at I don't think they're capable of beating Boston.
Speaker 1: I would still pick Boston, but they're more of a
Speaker 1: threat in my opinion than any of those other teams
Speaker 1: in the East. Because of Milwaukee and Chris Middleton getting hurt,
Speaker 1: that's devastating. If he's out for a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: they don't lose to Chicago, they absolutely will lose to Boston.
Speaker 1: They have no chance of beating Boston without Chris Middleton.
Speaker 1: That's a disastrous outcome there. So you guys know how
Speaker 1: I feel about Miami. I don't trust their half court
Speaker 1: offense enough. So I put Philly at five. Number four.
Speaker 1: I put Dallas, and this is something that people have
Speaker 1: to be prepared for. Dallas has a realistic chance to
Speaker 1: win the title. Phoenix is dealing with obviously the Devin
Speaker 1: Booker injury. Golden State has some specific flaws, particularly on
Speaker 1: the wing. Luca is a rim, pressuring wing. He has
Speaker 1: a size and strength advantage against everybody on the Warriors roster,
Speaker 1: except obviously he's not gonna get matched up with Draymond often.
Speaker 1: Draymond is gonna be in a different role. But the
Speaker 1: only guy would be Andre Guadala that I would feel
Speaker 1: comfortable really making Luca uncomfortable. And the issue there is
Speaker 1: his his neck is he's having neck spasms. He's having
Speaker 1: a bunch of issues there. So there's question as to
Speaker 1: whether or not Andre we will be dependable enough at
Speaker 1: this point, at the thirty eight years old to be
Speaker 1: able to do that, to accomplish that role. I one
Speaker 1: of my biggest concerns with Dallas all year was about that,
Speaker 1: was that their defense was kind of gimmicky. They were
Speaker 1: making up for a lack of personnel with effort and
Speaker 1: a scheme, and I was worried about whether or not
Speaker 1: that would transfer to the postseason, and it has. I
Speaker 1: show there's a there's a clip on my Twitter feed.
Speaker 1: You guys can see, uh there's a quote, tweet and
Speaker 1: tweet underneath it. There's a tweet of Donovan Mitchell getting
Speaker 1: barbecued by Spencer Dinwitty and then a clip of Mike
Speaker 1: Conley Jr. Trying to attack Jalen Brunson off the off
Speaker 1: the dribble and watch Jalen Brunson's commitment to sliding his
Speaker 1: feet and how he cuts Mike Calmley off on the
Speaker 1: drive three times in the same possession and forces to
Speaker 1: travel and like even though He's not the same athlete
Speaker 1: that Donovan mitch It was. It is clear that this
Speaker 1: specific defensive scheme, even with this limited personnel, is functional
Speaker 1: in the playoffs because of how hard they play and
Speaker 1: because of their commitment to that that job. And so
Speaker 1: Dallas is defense in conjunction with what Jalen Brunson is
Speaker 1: doing right now and Spencer din what he has a
Speaker 1: third release valve. He's had a disaster series in terms
Speaker 1: of his efficiency as a secondary creator. He will be
Speaker 1: more efficient in a third role. And Luca don Chitch
Speaker 1: has got has already shown that he can go toe
Speaker 1: to toe with Kawhi Leonard and be every bit as
Speaker 1: good as him. So I put that there a real threat.
Speaker 1: I have him at number four. I have Phoenix at
Speaker 1: number three. Obviously I had them as a clear number
Speaker 1: one before the Devin Booker injury. But without Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: there's just a new hole that has formed in a
Speaker 1: team that otherwise didn't have any holes. He is their
Speaker 1: only guy really that can consistently create his own shot.
Speaker 1: You've seen, just like in the finals last year with
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday, there is specific defensive matchups that can really
Speaker 1: really disrupt Chris Paul to the point where he's almost
Speaker 1: ineffective as a scorer and he becomes just a playmaker
Speaker 1: kind of allah James Harden right now at this phase
Speaker 1: of his career, right, and so without Devin Booker, that
Speaker 1: specific hole is something that teams can absolutely attack. Now,
Speaker 1: this is where Chris Paul the reason why I have
Speaker 1: them at number three and not lower is the intel
Speaker 1: that came out today that I saw was that Bookers
Speaker 1: out two to three weeks because the strain is considered
Speaker 1: to be mild. So the way I look at it,
Speaker 1: all Chris Paul has to do is keep this team
Speaker 1: alive for two to three weeks. If he can do that,
Speaker 1: if he can beat the Pelicans, even if they're down
Speaker 1: two oh in the next round, if they can just
Speaker 1: get to the point where Devin Booker comes back, then
Speaker 1: there's suddenly the best team in the league. Again, Obviously,
Speaker 1: there are still wrinkles there. There's no guarantee that can
Speaker 1: beat the Pelicans. I would pick the Sun still, but
Speaker 1: there's no guarantee that they can at the Pelicans. Obviously,
Speaker 1: when Devin Booker comes back, there's no guarantee he'll be
Speaker 1: a percent So that's why I have them down at three.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't write them off entirely, but I don't know
Speaker 1: that you could possibly consider them to be the favorites
Speaker 1: in the West anymore after that injury. Number two, I
Speaker 1: have Golden State. We talked about them in detail earlier,
Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna go too much further into it.
Speaker 1: The gist of it is, I'm specifically worried about them
Speaker 1: in specific matchups. Will they be able to handle the
Speaker 1: interior presence if a team like Philly comes out of
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, or if they end up running into
Speaker 1: a Phoenix team that's healthy, will they have some issues there?
Speaker 1: So I have Golden State at number two. I still
Speaker 1: Boston at number one. I talked about this last night.
Speaker 1: I was picking them for two reasons, one Phoenix falling
Speaker 1: apart with their injury. But the key is they're the
Speaker 1: best defensive team that I have seen. Again, that's just me, guys.
Speaker 1: Like in two thousand four, I was thirteen years old,
Speaker 1: so I don't have enough experience watching the Pistons to
Speaker 1: to understand whether or not that team was better. I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't have enough live experience. I've seen film,
Speaker 1: but I didn't have enough live experience watching teams before
Speaker 1: and my team in my time watching basketball over the
Speaker 1: course of the last a decade and a half or so,
Speaker 1: I this Boston Celtics team is the best defense I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. I've never ever seen a team that can
Speaker 1: cover as much ground and shrink space on stars the
Speaker 1: way that they can. They do not have a weakness
Speaker 1: that you can switch. Their best lineups do not have
Speaker 1: a defender that's easy to attack. One of the weird
Speaker 1: wrinkles of this series is Kevin Durant is not getting
Speaker 1: good looks in isolation defense against Tatum. They're a handful
Speaker 1: of possessions you'll see on the tape very rarely, but
Speaker 1: there were four or five possessions in that game where
Speaker 1: Tatum did have Durant and single coverage and he's really
Speaker 1: you can tell Durant's uncomfortable. He's crowding his space, he's
Speaker 1: applying physical pressure, and Katie can still get two shots,
Speaker 1: but he's usually just going to his jab step pull
Speaker 1: up and he's not making it right now. And that's
Speaker 1: a huge credit to Tatum and so Boston with their
Speaker 1: combination of being the best defense that I have seen
Speaker 1: in my time watching basketball, and Jalen Brown showing signs
Speaker 1: of confidence scoring in the playoffs, and Jayson Tatum embracing
Speaker 1: the double teams and making plays for his teammates. I
Speaker 1: think they are now the team that has the best
Speaker 1: chance to win the title, and I'm picking them at
Speaker 1: this point. Obviously, that could change significantly based on a
Speaker 1: couple of injuries or a couple of things changing. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Boston has has dealt with injuries with Robert Williams, there's
Speaker 1: no guarantee that they won't face something else. So this
Speaker 1: is kind of a sliding scale, But at this kind
Speaker 1: of snapshot moment in time, that's where I'm at all right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all we have for tonight. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support. We are taking the next two
Speaker 1: days off. I have gone six days in a row
Speaker 1: of this and I'm completely exhausted. I need a little
Speaker 1: bit of a break. My wife's been out of town
Speaker 1: for a week two and I'm looking forward to spending
Speaker 1: some time with her tomorrow. But if anything absolutely crazy happens,
Speaker 1: I will try to get some sort of instant reaction
Speaker 1: material out and no matter what, no matter how interesting,
Speaker 1: things get, over the next couple days. We will break
Speaker 1: it all down in its entirety on Sunday night, after
Speaker 1: the last game of the night. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting the show, and I'll see you
Speaker 1: in a couple of days. The volume